Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [697]
Yes, and today had been the perfect example, she wanted to say. Making a deal with Keller, who murdered children, in order to catch a killer, who avenged children, certainly seemed to be one of those instances.
“That’s very true,” Maggie admitted. “There are times when I have to do things I don’t agree with. As I suppose you do, too?”
Sister Kate’s smile disappeared and Maggie thought she could see a sadness in her eyes. “Yes. And there are times when it’s necessary to break a rule or two.”
“Perhaps bend, not break,” Maggie clarified and managed to get Sister Kate to smile again.
“My grandfather used to say that sometimes the end justified the means. At the time I never understood what he meant.”
“Your grandfather in Michigan? The one who instilled your love of all things medieval, including knights in shining armor coming to the rescue?”
“You have a very good memory,” Sister Kate said. “He taught me so many wonderful things about justice, about life. He was one of a kind.”
“You were lucky to have him.”
“And what about you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Were you lucky enough to have anyone to come to your rescue?”
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” Maggie said.
“Maybe it’s a gift. Or a curse.” Sister Kate shrugged as her eyes wandered away to watch the summer tourists strolling across the street. “I can sense those of us who have suffered some sort of abuse as children. There’s always a tough outer shell, but for some reason I can see beyond that.”
She turned back to Maggie and met her eyes. “You were abused as a child, weren’t you?”
CHAPTER 82
The Embassy Suites
Omaha, Nebraska
Nick walked past the door to Maggie’s suite and found himself hesitating. Ever since last night he wanted to knock. He dared himself to knock, coming close a couple of times. His hands were filled this time with junk food he had loaded up on from the hotel-lobby gift shop. So he had an excuse.
“Coward,” he muttered to himself then remembered for the third or fourth time how ridiculous he was being. He hated that Maggie O’Dell still managed to push his buttons. After all this time he was so certain he was over her, that the only remaining feeling was anger. And he was still angry. But everything seemed to melt away when he looked into those dark brown eyes, everything including his knees. He was embarrassed to admit it, but no woman had ever knocked him so out of whack as Maggie O’Dell. And he hated that she seemed to be able to do that even without trying.
He knocked, instead, on the door to his own suite with his elbow since he had no free hand to knock, let alone dig out his key card.
Gibson opened the door so quickly it startled Nick, and he juggled the bags of chips and candy bars before everything became an avalanche.
“Here, let me get some of that,” Gibson said, reaching out to help.
As soon as he had a free hand, Nick punched the volume down a couple notches as he passed by the TV. The room-service menu was still on the bed. All the pillows had been pulled out from under the covers and were stacked for TV-viewing comfort.
“They’ve got a couple of cool movies on later,” Gibson said, unpacking the stash and lining it up neatly on the desk.
“Where’s Timmy?” Nick asked, glancing around and noticing that the bathroom door was open.
“Didn’t you meet him in the lobby?”
“No, I was down in the gift shop getting all this stuff.”
Gibson looked genuinely confused. “The desk clerk called just a few minutes ago. He said that you wanted Timmy to meet you in the lobby to help carry some stuff up.”
“I never asked the desk clerk to—” Suddenly Nick’s stomach took a nosedive. “Did you talk to the guy or did Timmy?”
“Timmy did. He just left. I thought he was with you.”
Nick could see Gibson getting worried now and he didn’t want him to see the panic that was beginning to crawl up the back of his neck.
“I’m going back down to the lobby to see if I missed him, okay?”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No,” Nick practically shouted and saw Gibson flinch. “You stay here in case he comes back.