Healing Kiss, page 10
“We both know it was more than nothing,” Frank said, patting her back before turning to Tristan. “We’re grateful to both of you.”
“I wish I could say I had a hand in Hannah’s recovery,” Tristan said, nodding toward Zoey, “but it was all Zoey.”
She flashed a glance his way. Their eyes locked, his pulse sped up, and the universe seemed to take a giant pause. She looked away first, the expression in her wide eyes appearing almost guilty. She bent her head and checked her phone.
“I want to talk to the nurses. I’ll be right back.” She hurried from the room.
He wanted to follow and demand answers, but Frank was talking to him and to leave in the middle of their conversation would be rude.
“Please, grab a seat and tell us how you met Zoey.” Frank rubbed a hand over his chin and nodded, motioning to an empty chair next to Hannah’s bedside.
Tristan did as he asked. “We met last night in the patient’s room next door—a little girl with a severe case of pneumonia, who happens to be my accountant’s daughter.”
“How is the little girl?” Hannah asked, knitting needles flashing in and out of the blue yarn.
“She’s doing remarkably well. Her parents told me she was able to go home this morning. Zoey’s visit must have done her some good.” He might have missed the swift look father and daughter exchanged with one another if he hadn’t been looking for it. They knew something he didn’t, Tristan felt sure of it.
“Zoey is a fantastic nurse,” Hannah said, setting her knitting aside.
“After seeing your turnaround, I have no doubt.”
She wrinkled her nose and tilted her head, reminding him of Zoey. Heat seemed to radiate from her wide, amber eyes. “But you do doubt her skill, don’t you?”
“My mother is dying. The doctors and nurses haven’t been able to cure her. Why would Zoey be any different?” The words spilled out of him, as if she’d tugged on an invisible cord and opened a hidden corner in his heart.
Hannah held out a hand, and he got up and leaned over her bed to take it like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. A warm feeling moved through him. Contentment. He had trouble recognizing the sensation, it had been so long since he’d felt it.
“It breaks your heart to see your mom suffer.”
“I don’t want to lose her. It’s been the two of us for as long as I can remember.”
“Until now. I can see it when you look at Zoey. You feel a strong connection with her.”
Hannah understood his feelings for Zoey better than he did. He couldn’t take his gaze off her. “Yes, but it’s all one-sided. I don’t think she’s interested.”
She laughed, and the sound was both musical and jarring at the same time, as if by laughing, she harmonized the notes until they reached a flawless pitch. “You won’t let a small thing like that stand in your way, will you? You’re perfect for one another. You just don’t know it yet.”
She let go of his hand, and for a second, his vision wavered in and out before settling again. What had just happened?
“Are you okay?” Frank peered at him like he thought he would pass out, which was plain ridiculous. Tristan had never fainted a moment in his life.
He stood and was happy when he stayed on his feet. “I’d better check on Zoey.”
Now who was the one running away?
His cell phone buzzed as he left the room, and he checked it to see a text from Brian.
Have some information. Call me in twenty.
Lillian was on her way back to Hannah’s room when she almost plowed into Tristan coming from the opposite direction. He gripped her shoulders to keep her upright, the strength in his hands causing a ripple of excitement to slither down her sensitive skin and settle in her chest. Lillian’s heart fluttered like a frightened butterfly.
His energy was stronger than normal and flowing outward, his chakras wide open, which could only mean one thing: Hannah had used her talent on him.
The large white envelope Lillian held lay trapped between them.
He drew back. “What’s this?”
She handed him the envelope. “Hannah’s medical records. I don’t suppose you’ll need them now. The nurses tell me she may be released as early as tomorrow.”
“That’s great news.”
“It is.”
Tristan stilled; his blue eyes searched hers, a question in them. “You’re upset.”
She frowned and shook her head. “I’m just relieved, that’s all.” As if in protest, a tear trembled at the corner of her eye. Dammit. She couldn’t afford tears.
“Zoey, whatever this is, whatever sorrow you’re holding, please tell me.”
She didn’t answer, but he used the pad of his thumb to brush the wetness from her eye and then pulled her into his arms as if holding her was an everyday occurrence. She couldn’t resist resting her cheek against the reassuring strength in his hard chest and listening to the steady thump-thump-thump of his heart. His breath brushed the top of her head, heat exploding across her senses.
“Trust me,” he urged, his tone soothing.
Power flowed into every part of her. “I do trust you.” It was true. Despite the conversation she’d overheard, despite his association with Dominic, despite their short acquaintance, she trusted him. But it wasn’t fair to expose him to further danger.
She swallowed the dryness in her mouth. She couldn’t keep Tristan by her side, even though every particle of energy inside vibrated at their rightness together. “I’m leaving.”
He pulled far enough away so he could see her face, his intelligent eyes boring into hers. “When?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll uphold my end of our bargain tonight. But I’ve booked an early morning flight for tomorrow. Now I need to…to say goodbye to Hannah and her…her dad, and then if you’ll take me back to your house, I’ll change and get my rental. If you give me the address, I’ll meet you at the fundraiser…”
He placed two fingers on her lips, silencing her. “I’m not letting you drive by yourself in your condition. Besides, we need to get a few things straight between us.”
He was so handsome telling her the way it was going to be, he took her breath away. And the power emanating from his tall form could light a forest fire. An intense longing gripped her in its clutches, shaking her to her core. A longing for a dream she could never have. A longing so deep and wide and vast, her heart ached for her own little happily ever after.
He must have sensed her feelings because twin flames leaped in his eyes, setting her body on fire. He dropped his chin, and she tilted her face, and somehow their lips met in the middle.
She hadn’t known a kiss could be so soft and firm at the same time, not tentative at all, but not in a hurry, either. He brushed against her lips once, twice, three times until she opened her mouth and took him inside. And then his tongue and teeth were exploring her in a way she’d never experienced before, like he would learn every one of her secrets by kissing her.
And God help her, now that she’d started, she liked the sensation of kissing Tristan way too much to tell him to stop.
“Zoey,” he muttered when they came up for air. He framed her face with his large hands. “You’ve cast a spell on me.”
A stranger brushed by too close and bumped against them, startling her and bringing her to their surroundings faster than if he’d dumped a bucket of cold water on her head. I’m standing in the middle of a hospital kissing a man I only met yesterday. Have I lost my mind?
She took a step backward and dodged the guy dressed in a blue uniform, who was pushing a cart of cleaning supplies. She blew out a breath. Just an ordinary maintenance man, but it easily could have been someone who recognized her or a member of Kinetica in disguise.
“Someone you know?”
“No…it’s…I…this is unexpected. I didn’t mean…I’m sorry. It’s a mistake.” She curled her hands at her sides to keep from reaching for him. It was more than raw attraction she fought. She fought the need to protect him from her own selfish desire. She fought the need for someone to share her worries and fears and triumphs, for someone to care for and who cared for her.
For someone to love.
“It’s not a mistake. I’ve been wanting to kiss you since we first met.”
She took another step away from him. “Tristan…this can’t happen.”
He frowned, and she could almost see the tycoon walls go up. “It’s because of what I told you—that I could have Huntington’s.”
“No.” Tristan had not inherited Huntington’s—a burner’s extraordinary energy level made them virtually immune to most illness, even genetic ones. But if she told him he was safe from the disease, would he believe her?
“So, you do have someone in Denver. Which is it? An ex-boyfriend, or”—his frown deepened—“a husband?”
She couldn’t bring herself to lie outright, but she wouldn’t bother denying his accusation. It was easiest if he believed she was taken. “I’m not free to start a relationship.”
“I see.” His voice sounded clipped and cold. His expression chilled and then froze.
“I do appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
His demeanor didn’t lighten, but something changed in it—grew more intense, like his logical mind was analyzing the problem from all angles, determined to find a loophole. And the crazy thing was, she wanted him to discover the truth and convince her to stay, which was dangerous.
“Say your goodbyes, then, and I’ll take you back to the house. I have a call to make first. I’ll come back and get you in, say, twenty minutes? Is that enough time?”
She nodded, and without another word, he turned and left her, his long strides eating up the hallway. All she could do was stare after him, swallowing the hard knot in her throat, which felt a lot like heartache.
Chapter Thirteen
Tristan found a seat on a blue swivel chair in a private lounge he sometimes frequented when he accompanied his mom on one of her routine hospital visits. Tall glass windows let in the sun but were frosted to offer privacy. A thrill of nervous anticipation moved through his veins as he found Brian’s number in his favorites.
“What do you have for me?” he asked as soon as Brian answered.
“Hang onto your hat. Or in your case, your computer,” Brian joked, but there was a gritty edge to his voice. He’d been in the military before leaving to start his own security firm, and he was always calm, always in control, and always joking. Tristan suspected he used humor as a way of coping with a mighty stressful job. “You were right to be suspicious of the woman.”
Tristan straightened, pulse leaping. “Why? What have you discovered?”
“I can’t find a Zoey Mills who is a registered nurse working in Denver that fits your description.”
She’d lied to him. Hadn’t he known it? A doomed feeling settled in his stomach, and he rested his head in one hand, his other still clutching the phone by his ear. “She’s not a nurse?”
“We ran a computer program that matches Social Security Numbers with nurses in the United States who go by the name Zoey Mills and matched those with the photo you sent. Your girl is not among them.”
Tristan thought of Zoey as he’d last seen her—denying any attraction between them. Who was she? His instincts had been right. She was on the run, obviously desperate and alone, lying to him about her identity and occupation and yet…and yet, she’d come to Cleveland for her sick friend.
“Still there?” Brian interrupted his thoughts.
“Yes.”
“Good, because there’s more.”
Tristan waited. What more could there be? Was she an escaped felon dodging law enforcement? Perhaps she’d had a run of bad luck and ditched her name along with a pile of debt?
“I did some checking on the friend…Hannah Milano, you said.”
He gripped the phone tighter if that were possible. “What about her?”
“Don’t worry. She appears to be legitimate. But her family has had more than their share of tragedy. The mother was killed in a car crash a few years ago, and an older sister died in a freak boating accident shortly afterward.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“It is. But something told me it was a little too much of a coincidence, so I dug a little deeper.”
Tristan held the phone closer to his ear. This was what made Brian Townsend one of the best investigators in the country. And Tristan knew him well enough to know, when he got a certain ring in his voice, a bombshell was about to drop. “You found something.”
“Let’s call them odd coincidences. Hannah Milano’s mother was a nurse. She’d been away from home, volunteering on a mission trip in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia when she died. The older sister was also a nurse.”
“How old was the sister when she died?”
“Almost twenty-five. Just a few years into her career, when she took the family sailboat out on Lake Erie and got caught in a freak storm. The body was never recovered. The boat was later found washed up on shore. The death certificate lists drowning as the probable cause of death.”
“What’s this have to do with Zoey Mills?”
“I believe the woman you know as Zoey Mills is actually Lillian Abigail Milano.”
A rush of what…fear, excitement…thrummed in his veins. “Are you certain of this?”
“Yes. I’ve compared pictures I found online with the one you sent. It’s the same woman. She’s disguised her looks and eye color, but there’s no disguising the face.”
Tristan’s heart lurched like a broken engine before roaring to life. All the clues he’d been holding onto suddenly came together, like he’d plugged in the missing digit in a complicated computer code. Zoey and Hannah were sisters, which explained the facial resemblance between the two. And Zoey—or Lillian, as he needed to think of her—wore a wig and contacts, so her hair and eye color could be more like Hannah’s. “Why the alias?”
“We don’t know yet. From what we’ve uncovered, Lillian led a pretty normal life until she faked her death. No jail time, no record of criminal offenses, not even a traffic ticket. She had a student loan and was paying down a car loan, but no other large debts.”
“Where did she work?”
“In the emergency room at a major Cleveland hospital called the Pullman Clinic.”
“I’m familiar with the Pullman Clinic. My mother once participated in a study there.”
“We talked to someone who worked with Lillian. From all accounts, she showed up on time, did her job well, didn’t take time off. And the patients loved her.”
“Was she married?”
“No marriage license. No children…lived in a small apartment in North Royalton at the time of her supposed death. I’ll include the address in the report I send you.”
“Any threats on her life?”
“None that we’ve discovered.”
“What about miracle cures for her patients?”
“That I don’t know. No one we talked to mentioned it. But I’ve got staff checking into her mother’s death. Give me a little more time, and I’ll see what I can find.”
“Okay, great work, Brian. See if you can find any connection with the family and Dominic Raines, the CEO of a genetic research company called Kinetica. Lillian seemed frightened when she met him today. Perhaps there’s a link. I’ll pay double if you call me with new information within the next couple of hours. Send me your bill.”
Tristan ended the call and stuffed his cell phone in his pocket. Zoey was not Zoey at all but Hannah’s missing sister, Lillian. And Frank was their father.
He stood and crossed to the window, even though he couldn’t see through the frosted glass. It would take some getting used to thinking of Zoey as Lillian. He pictured her as he saw her earlier, sea-colored eyes filled with fear and sadness as she told him she had to leave, hinting there was someone else. A lie. She wasn’t married. And her eyes probably weren’t green—colored contacts were likely part of her disguise.
He pressed his fingertips against the cool glass, creating a fog handprint on the window. Lillian was a nurse—this, at least, she hadn’t lied about.
If he was smart, he’d let her leave and run like hell the other direction. But what if Lillian were in danger? He didn’t want to see her hurt. Whatever Lillian hid from was so terrifying she’d faked her own death and left her family.
He scrolled through his favorites until he found his housekeeper’s number. Before Lillian left, he needed to convince her to trust him with the truth of her situation. Once he understood the threat, he would find a way to protect her.
“Did you see Tristan? I think Hannah spooked him.” Her dad craned his neck the moment Lillian reentered Hannah’s hospital room, as if she hid Tristan behind her back.
“Yes, we ran into each other…literally. Said he needed to make a phone call, and he’d be back in a little while. You guys know who he is, don’t you?”
Hannah’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding? The Video Game King? Everyone in Cleveland knows him. He told us how you met. So romantic.” Hannah batted her eyelashes.
Lillian narrowed her gaze. “Hannah Milano. I’m not happy about what you did. You’re barely recovered from near death. Why would you attempt to read him?”
“He was growing suspicious of you, and I couldn’t stop myself. The heat is so high when you guys are together, it could melt steel. I needed to know how he felt about my sister.” She widened her eyes. “Did something happen between you just now?”
Lillian grimaced. “Quit the innocent act. He’s a burner. He gives off an extraordinary amount of energy, which is why I asked him to visit you in the hospital last night. I was desperate. It was the only thing I could think of to save your life. Imagine my surprise when he agreed.”
