Page 18 of Chaos Destiny
She sent me a tiny smile.
When she finally got a full view of Thandie’s face, she softened her voice and cooed with a gentle tenderness that I felt as if I needed myself.
“Hi, baby girl. Hi, sweetheart. Do you mind if I take a look at you? I’m Dr. D, and I’m so glad to see you, my love. You don’t know how happy I am to see you.”
I removed Thandie from the soaked baby wrap but didn’t hand her over. Tayler, her knees brushing the side of my leg, began her examination, and while she examined my niece, I studied her. At the clinic, I didn’t get the chance to fully take her in as I’d been primarily occupied with keeping Thandie hidden.
With the hood lowered, I cemented the image of those long locs framing her face, which moved with each turn of her head. I mentally sketched those stormy eyes that contrasted against her brown skin, both too lovely to belong to someone under the circumstances we were currently facing. For a split second, it made me feel as though the world had been restored at some point, and my dumb ass was the only person who hadn’t gotten the memo.
She was beautiful.
Damned beautiful.
But with the way she handled a gun, I didn’t know if “angel” was the appropriate term to use, even though she’d saved my life.
“Her name’s Thandie,” I said.
“So,” she flicked another look my way, “does Thandie’s daddy have a name? I mean, it’s only fair, right? You remembered mine.”
“Tayler’s an easy name to remember.”
“Tell me yours, and I promise I’ll remember it, easy or not.”
The door opened behind her.
A man, his dark hair plastered to his forehead, stood on the other side, his chest heaving. “Tayler, we found the camper, but we didn’t...” His gaze landed on me. “Who is this?”
“We came looking for a person with a baby,” Tayler said. “And I found a person with a baby.”
The man’s brows dipped. “Tayler, did you leave the truck?”
Two additional men entered the vehicle. One sat in the passenger seat while the other hopped behind the steering wheel. As if finally realizing a storm was raging outside, the dark-haired man groaned, slammed the door, and climbed into the third-row seat behind us.
“Tayler, did you leave?” he asked again.
Tayler pointedly ignored him and looked up at me. Her lips parted, and I heard when she inhaled as if getting ready to say something, but then her hand was on my face. Suddenly, her fingers were tangled between the damp strands of hair that the rain had glued to my forehead.
“You have a scratch here, friend.” She lightly passed her thumb along a scratch I’d picked up on the way back from the clinic. “I’ll take a look at that when we get back.”
I wanted to tell her it was fine, that the scratch was nothing, but if I talked, she would lower that hand. And I really needed her not to lower that hand. Had we more time, I would have spent hours sitting there, more than likely with my eyes closed, letting her touch linger on my skin. It was the first time in my life I’d ever been so starved for human affection that I would have preferred it over a substantial meal.
“So, you didn’t answer my question,” she said, her voice low.
“I forgot what it was.”
“Your name.”
“Oh. Gage.”
Her brows rose. “Gage? As in ‘gauge’? Wasthatwhat she meant? Gage, were you traveling with anybody? Say a Black woman with blond hair?”
My heart stopped in my chest. “Ari? You found Ari? Is she okay?”
“She’s with us. I’ve been taking care of her, and I promise to do everything I can to make sure she pulls through. She has to see this beautiful little girl grow up.”
She stroked Thandie’s cheek.
Thandie offered her a wispy, reluctant smile.
