Page 93 of Close Pursuit

“Any time we asked him about his bruises, Alex always claimed it was martial arts training or boxing lessons And maybe it was.” She added gently, “But maybe it wasn’t.”

Katie spoke with quiet desperation. “The thing Roman asked Alex to do last night isn’t strictly illegal, but it’s morally wrong, and Alex said he would do it. I lost him. I thought I was getting through to him, but I failed.”

“The Lord doesn’t give up on anyone the first time they fail, child. And that boy may do more immoral things before it’s all said and done. But I believe in my heart that he wants to be a good person and is doing everything in his power to become a good person.”

“You’re saying I’m giving up on him too easily?”

The nun shrugged. “I learned long ago never to tell people what to do. You have to look inside your own heart and listen to the urgings of that small, quiet voice in the back of your head. Do what’s best for you. And for Dawn.”

Katie exhaled hard. “I don’t approve of what Alex is doing.”

“That’s what you think of him. What do you feel about him?”

A tear splashed onto Dawn’s fuzzy blanket and trembled there delicately. “I think I’m falling in love with him.” She added in a rush, “But it’s not enough. I have to be able to trust him, to believe in him, to respect him, if we’re going to build a life together.”

“A family,” the nun murmured.

“Exactly. I need a good man to raise Dawn with me. Not someone with no moral compass and living under the control of a monster.”

The nun threw her a sympathetic look and closed her eyes, launching into silent prayer. Katie sat quietly beside the nun, absorbing the love and concern and compassion the elderly woman radiated.

Had she reacted rashly? Judged Alex too harshly? Given up on him too quickly? Remorse for that angry phone call last night to André Fortinay poured through her. What was done was done, though. She’d sabotaged Alex, and she couldn’t take it back. She had no idea if he would even let her try to make amends to him. He’d been so angry last night. So cold and hard after the call from his father.

Sister Mary Harris commented reflectively, “I never thought I’d see Alex feed a baby a bottle comfortably, but he did that. And I never thought I’d see him let a woman spend the night with him, either.”

Katie’s gaze whipped to the nun and her cheeks heated up. She blurted unwillingly, “You do know he’s been with lots of women, right?”

The nun guffawed. “Of course, I do. But he never lets them stay with him. He always makes them go as soon as he’s done with them.”

Katie’s jaw dropped. She could not believe she was having girl talk with an eighty-year-old nun.

“I’m not dead, you know. And just because I took a vow not to have sex doesn’t mean I’m not aware that it exists.”

“Umm. Wow. Okay,” Katie mumbled.

The nun chuckled and patted her knee. “You’re good for him. Better than any woman I’ve ever seen him with. Not that he has had any real relationships. You’re the only who’s ever stuck around long enough to catch a glimpse of the real man.”

“And then he agreed to do a bad thing and drove me away from him without batting an eyelash.”

“Mark my words. He’s batting an eyelash.”

If only. Dawn woke and started to fuss as the telltale odor of a diaper in need of a change became evident.

“Let me take her, child. But do me one favor, Katie, dear.”

“What’s that?”

“Think about it before you give up on Alex.”

Katie climbed in her little rental car and sat in the parking lot of the convent for several long minutes. Was Sister Mary Harris right? Had she overreacted? Not given Alex a break he deserved?

Hope fluttered in her breast like a baby bird trying to fly and it was nearly impossible to think clearly around the emotion. One thing was for sure. She’d fallen hard for him and was way more invested in him emotionally than she’d realized before she walked out on him.

In a thoughtful frame of mind, she typed the name of Ian’s hospital into the car’s GPS and drove out of the parking lot. She was maybe halfway there when she finally started to be aware of her surroundings again. Had that red sedan been behind her when she pulled out of the convent’s parking lot? She recalled seeing a car like that back in Chevy Chase. What were the odds it was going the exact same direction she was for so long?

Traffic thinned as she exited the Beltway onto surface streets. The red car exited behind her. She shot through a yellow light and was dismayed to see the car run the red light behind her, causing a flare of honking horns. She was being followed!

She was nowhere near the driver Alex was, and this sub-compact was no German sports car. She didn’t stand a chance of losing the tail.

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