Haunted by Lisa Childs

Author:Lisa Childs [Childs, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2006-09-25T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

S he’d never seen David so furious. His body radiated tension, nearly crackling like lightning, as his feet pounded the stairs on his descent from the upper level of the penthouse. They’d driven separately to the Towers, him beating her from the hospital by several minutes. He’d had time to find an outlet for his anger—a wall to punch, a wastebasket to kick.

She’d figured he must have since he hadn’t had the guard stall her in the lobby this time. But his brow was as furrowed, his jaw as taut as it had been at her aunt’s house and at the hospital. Ariel followed in the wake of his stomp toward the living room. He already had a crystal decanter in his hand and was pouring a drink from the bar in the corner when she caught up with him.

“They think she’ll live, David,” she reminded him of the young doctor’s optimistic pronouncement, not certain she believed it even as she repeated it. “You found her in time. Now tell me how you found her and why you didn’t tell me you had.”

He took a deep swallow, then set the glass down with such force the crystal clinked against the glass-topped coffee table. “I pulled up a bunch of records on the Internet. Found birth certificates. Marriage licenses. This aunt of yours was married and divorced.”

“Her last name wasn’t Cooper?”

He shook his head as he picked up the glass again. “I didn’t tell you because I couldn’t reach you.”

Out of respect, Ariel had shut off her cell phone at the funeral home.

“So you know how I found her. How did you?”

“I went to the other woman’s funeral.” She couldn’t refer to them as her aunts; she didn’t know them. But then, she didn’t know her sisters either, not anymore. What were they to her? “I found out there was another Cooper left.” Besides her. Her sisters weren’t Coopers anymore. She only wished she knew what they were.

His fingers tightened around his glass until his knuckles turned white. “You put yourself in danger, Ariel, just like you did for Haylee.”

“That’s why you’re so mad.” She’d known it and guilt nagged at her. She would do nothing but disrupt his life, bring to it the media attention he abhorred. Undoubtedly someone from the hospital had already phoned a reporter—the story was too sensational not to repeat. When it was discovered that David Koster had been the first on the scene, it would be more newsworthy and the press would be camped out around the Towers again. With a fingertip she twirled his ring on her finger, thinking of slipping it off and giving it back.

“Of course it’s why I’m so mad!” he shouted, his deep voice vibrating.

Guilt flared again, over worrying him, not over what she’d done. “I am not going to apologize for trying to find my sisters.”

He turned toward her, his eyes full of anger. “How stupid do you think I am, Ariel?”

For the first time his anger alarmed her, had her heart beating fast with nerves.

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