Bad Karma (33 page)

“
I wanted to make sure you got some solid protein. There’s fruit, too.”

She peeked in the bag and then curled her arms around his torso. “I can’t remember what I did before I had a Zach in my life.” She pressed a kiss to his lips.

He pulled her close and held her. “I don’t want you to ever even think about finding out.”

“
I’m hanging in,” she said.

Zach carried her down the steps to hasten her descent. Keeping her out in the open for any prolonged period of time was unwise. He chose a different route to reach the causeway, feeling somewhat foolish as the causeway was the only way on or off the island that didn’t involve watercraft.

At the hospital, he drove close to the entrance to let her out. He watched her walk inside as an electric eye opened the front doors.

She twirled and gave him an overly perky little wave before turning to the elevator, clutching the insulated bag to her chest.

Zach struck his palm to the steering wheel, feeling a sense of loss and helplessness.

~*~

Cassie groped her way to consciousness when she heard someone enter the house. She sprang out of bed in her bare feet and looked around for a weapon.
Oh crap! I have no possessions
.

She grabbed one of the sandals she’d worn last night, holding the spike heel as one would a hammer, ready to drive a nail.

Soundlessly, she opened her door and crept down the hall. She passed the room shared by Zach and Sky and saw that the rumpled bed was empty.
Zach must have taken her to work. And now the stalker is making another try for me
.

A little knot of anger gathered in the midst of her fear. If the stalker figured he could sneak up on her when she was sleeping again, he had another think coming.

Cassie peeked around the corner and then ducked back, catching some movement out of the corner of her eye.
He’s in the kitchen.

She advanced warily holding the shoe aloft. He was bending down. Now was her chance. Cassie leaped for the counter, bounding over the bar separating kitchen from dining room and reached for the intruder’s head. She landed on Zach who was rooting around in the store of plastic storage containers in the drawers below.

“
Oh my God!” she shrieked, rolling to her feet.

“
Cassie! What the hell?” Zach rose from his knees, holding his head which he’d managed to bump on a drawer in the scuffle.

Her pulses throbbed in her ears. “I’m so sorry! I thought you were the guy. I was going to grab his head and snap his neck.”

They looked at each other in shock.

“
Really? That would do it?

She blew out a long breath. “Yeppers. That would do you in.”

Suddenly, they were both laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

“
You were going to attack the stalker with a shoe?” Zach grabbed his sides, reeling with laughter.

“
Yeah, well...” She laughed too. “I really didn’t need the shoe.”

He sighed, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Do you want some breakfast? We’ve got granola and yogurt.”

“
No offense, Zach, but I’d rather eat glass. I’m in the mood for Coca-Cola and a Snowball.”

Zach folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the counter. “We’re fresh out, but I need to go shopping. I’ll put that on the list. Any other requests?”

“
Chips and French onion dip would be a refreshing treat.”

Zach shook his head. “How did you grow to be such a tall gorgeous specimen eating that kind of junk?”

“
It’s in my genes.”

Zach eyed her long bare legs beneath the sleep shirt. “Speaking of jeans, maybe you better put some on.”

~*~

CHAPTER TWENTY

Consideration

“
So she’s on her way?” Selena Rios spread the dish towel over the hook above the sink to dry.

Javier hung up the phone. “Yes, and I want you to be very nice to her.”

Selena Rios drew a breath. “Of course, I’ll be nice to her. I’m a nice person.”

Javier kissed his mother on the cheek. “Yes you are. And so is Cassie. I want you to make the effort to get to know her. She’s terrified of you.”

Selena smiled at that. “Well, she’s a very pretty girl. I can see why you’re attracted to her.”

Javier gritted his teeth, huffed out a deep breath. “It’s so much more than that. She’s really smart and she’s funny and sweet. But all the while she’s got this innocence that makes me want to protect her and build a life with her.”

“
Innocence, that’s important.” Selena’s brow furrowed. “A woman should be innocent before marriage.”

He groaned aloud, slapping his forehead with his palm. “Can you please forget that I ever told you about that? Her innocence is a private matter between her and me and it’s not the reason that I love her, but it does make her even more special to me.”

Selena smiled and patted his cheek.

Javier heard the roar of his truck turning into the driveway. “Remember, be nice. She’s going to help me take some of my clothes to my new apartment.”

Opening the kitchen door, he saw Cassie sitting inside his truck. He could read her fear from that distance. He thought about how she’d repelled Lita when she’d been attacked and yet his mother was so fearsome that Cassie would rather avoid her at all costs.

He walked out to the truck, grinning. “Come on inside, baby.”

“
Javi, where is your sling?”

Javier flexed his right wrist, making circles with it. “I’m getting better, see. And the stitches come out in a couple of days.”

Cassie looked at him, doubt written on her face.

“
My mother is a nurse. She changed the dressing this morning. Want to ask her?”

“
No, that’s all right.”

“
Come inside then. Help me.”

She looked scared, but she slid out of the truck.

He drew her into his arms and kissed her. Holding her was always so easy to do. It was the letting go part that was hard.

She licked her lips, her little pink tongue just flicking over them.

He recognized this now as a nervous mannerism. Nevertheless, every time she did it, he had the urge to kiss her, to invite that little tongue into his mouth.

It’s just after eight o’clock in the morning and I want to jump on her. I need to marry her quick.

He held her hand and took her into the house.

“
Hello, Cassie,” Selena greeted her. “Good to see you again.”

Cassie looked surprised. “You, too, Ma’am.”

“
Have you had breakfast?”

“
No, Ma’am.”

Selena made a face. “What? You should start the day with a hearty breakfast.”

Cassie made a strangled noise in the back of her throat. “Yes, Ma’am. I know, and I would if there was anything to eat in the house, but there’s granola and I don’t like granola. It’s gritty, like something you swept off the floor. Oh, and soy milk. Yuck! Who wants to put that in your mouth, much less swallow it?”

“
Ay, que lastima!
Poor baby. Let me fix you something. Do you like flour tortillas?”

Cassie’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, my God, Yes!”

“
Sit down right here. Let me fix you
un
poquito
desayuno
.”

Javier looked at his mother in wonder. This could not be the same woman who had become enraged when she’d learned that her youngest son was dating a twenty-year-old, non-Catholic not to mention, non-Hispanic.

He stood in the doorway, puzzled, as Cassie sat down at the kitchen table, accepting a glass of orange juice from the woman who frightened her. He met his mother’s gaze with a warning frown.

She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Go on, Javier. Get your things and I’ll make sure Cassie has something decent to eat. Soy milk! Who could drink that?”

~*~

“
Thank you, Mrs. Rios.” Cassie spooned scrambled eggs and potatoes into a warm tortilla and ladled salsa onto it before rolling it up and biting into it. She was aware that she made a little moaning sound as the taste of real food hit her palette.

Selena sat down across the table from her. “Have some bacon,
Mija
.”

“
Thank you so much. I’m being such a pig, but this is so good it makes me wish I could cook. I could eat this for breakfast every day.”

“
You need to eat to keep up your strength.” Selena leaned forward on her elbows. “You don’t cook?”

“
No, Ma’am. This is the first time I’ve ever lived on my own and now, since the fire, I’m not in my own place. Learning to cook was high on my list of priorities. I even bought a cook book, but it got burned up.”

“
Pobrecita
!”

Javier entered the kitchen with an armload of his clothes on hangers. “Mama, don’t speak Spanish to Cassie. She doesn’t understand.”

Cassie swallowed her bite.
“Yo estudio dos anos en la escuela.”

Javier’s mouth dropped open as he stared at her. “You studied two years in school? Cassie, why didn’t you tell me that you speak Spanish?”

She took a sip of orange juice. “You never asked me.”

He laughed. “I would think that you might have mentioned it.”

She looked up at him. “Javier, do you speak Spanish?”

“
Yes, of course.”

“
Okay, now we both know.”

He drew a breath and shook his head, grinning as he carried his garments to the truck.

Selena Rios sat across the table from Cassie with a great big grin on her face.

~*~

Sky’s assignment to the Emergency Room was always more exciting than the hospital in-patient unit or the nursing home wing. She never knew what might come rolling in the door, and she liked working with Doctor Rick Marcos.

She held the head of a squirming, sweaty four-old-boy as the doctor removed pennies from the child’s nose.

Rick spoke in a monotone as he concentrated on his task. “Now, son, It’s a good idea to put your money away for a rainy day, but I suggest you get a good, strong piggy bank and stick your coins in that from now on.”

The boy struggled and writhed against Sky’s hold, a red-faced, damp, unrepentant wrong-doer.

Rick stepped back, the last penny clutched in the prongs of a pair of elongated tweezers. “All done!”