Christmas Hearts: In the Company of Snipers Page 14

  She finished the job Justice had started and blew her nose. “Me, too.”

  Justice kept an eye on Alex’s friend. He’d expected an American doctor, maybe one from Germany. But a Hindu from India? He hadn’t seen that one coming.

  Dr. Rajeev Akar, Raj as he’d insisted on being called, was an older man, maybe in his sixties. He’d dressed in a simple black, hip-length jacket with upturned collar. When he’d first stepped out of the elevator, he’d addressed Alex with an almost courtly bow, his hands pressed together, his fingertips to his chin. They’d exchanged brief intros, then proceeded to Dempsey’s room where Sasha stayed. She’d refused to leave her daughter’s side.

  Raj handled Dempsey gently, lifting her arms, feeling along her sides and along each of her legs. Everything he did, he did with her still under her covers. Mr. Stewart had taken up watch at the door, his arms across his chest, his eyes alert. Justice joined him.

  At the end of the hands-on examination, if that’s what you wanted to call it, Raj cocked his head as if listening to Dempsey breathe. He spoke softly in his language, murmuring words no one understood, especially Justice. It sounded like a prayer. A chant. This olive-skinned man with the short-cropped hair reminded him of the voodoo priests from the Bayou. There wasn’t a traditional thing about this very cursory examination he was performing.

  At last, Raj stepped away from the bed, his steepled fingers to his lips. “She is dying,” he said softly, “but not tonight. Do you mind?”

  Sasha’s brows lifted. “Do I mind what?”

  “Do you mind if I spend a few moments alone with your daughter?”

  She had the good sense to tell him no. “Anything you’re going to do, you’ll do it while I’m here.”

  “Very well then…” He pressed his palm to Dempsey’s forehead and lifted his face to the ceiling, his eyes closed and still murmuring. Extracting a shiny black stone from his jacket pocket, he laid it in the hollow of Dempsey’s neck. She’d grown quieter, the rise and fall of her chest the only sign that she was sleeping deeply. At least, that was what Justice hoped.

  He took another step to the left of Alex, needing distance to see what was so special about this doctor. Whatever magic he’d brought with him, he needed to do it quick. Miss Dempsey didn’t have time to waste on a charlatan.

  “Miss Kennedy,” Raj murmured. “I can help your daughter, but she will need to stop all American medicines immediately. She is full of poison. Once she is cleansed, I will—”

  Justice could feel Sasha’s blood pressure spike. “I can’t suspend her meds just because you walk in and—”

  Dempsey took a deep, shuddering breath, and the world stopped turning. She coughed and Justice closed his eyes at the sound of a death rattle. So much for Hindu voodoo.

  “What have you done?” Sasha all but shrieked, her hands on her daughter’s cheeks. “Dempsey, can you hear me?”

  The girl nodded, still choking, her eyes closed and her throat muscles working to inhale even as she forced another difficult swallow.

  Raj leaned in to move the black stone an inch farther down her chest. “She needs a tissue,” he said, his arm extended as if somehow that tissue would magically appear. Justice made it happen. As if there was no hurry, as if Dempsey had all the time in the world, Raj wiped her mouth as she spit and choked into the tissue.

  Justice kept the man’s hand filled with one tissue after another, the soiled ones falling into a wastebasket Alex had jumped to provide.

  “What are you doing?” The desperate panic in Sasha’s tone stabbed Justice to his core. She’d been fighting alone too long. The woman didn’t know how to accept help—if this truly was help.

  Dempsey coughed so hard, her face turned red and her brow were sweaty.

  “I am not an American physician,” Raj said quietly.

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Sasha snapped, her nerves frayed at this sudden change in her daughter.

  Raj nodded, his countenance too damned humble for a murderer, his demeanor as calm as a summer day. Justice started to believe. Raj made sense. He hadn’t given Dempsey any meds or drugs like most doctors would have, none of the high priced pharmaceuticals flooding American television screens. All he’d done was—pray.

  “Do not fear what I am doing. The stone is simply obsidian, Miss Kennedy,” Raj said. “It is nothing but a natural tool to encourage Dempsey to let go of negative pathways, to seek a better way.”

  “What kind of quackery is that?” Poor Sasha was struggling to understand.

  Justice caught a glance of Alex out of the corner of his eye. The man looked—smug, like he knew something no one else did.

  Raj offered a serene smile instead of argument, his gaze drifting taking Justice in as if he knew what he was thinking. “You mistake me for something I am not. This medicine is neither Hindu, Buddhist, nor Sikh. It is simply a holistic way to approach the unapproachable. That is all. Tell me, Miss Kennedy, have your doctors relieved your daughter’s illness? Have the man-made medicines they’ve put into her fragile system not brought her to this point today, either by good intent or evil design?”

  With a barking cough, Dempsey arched her back and spit. Raj caught the last of the sticky phlegm at her lips in a tissue, and moved the stone another inch lower on her sternum. He never wavered, not once, just kept one hand on Dempsey’s shoulder as she cleared the toxins from her lungs. Damned amazing to behold was what it was.

  Sasha glared at Alex. “I don’t understand what’s happening.” Fear trembled in her voice.

  Alex nodded. “I don’t know how it works, I only know that Raj helped Kelsey get through some stuff that no one else could. He’s why we have Lexie today.”

  Sasha swallowed hard, glaring at Raj. “I don’t believe it. This is just a rock and you’re… you’re nothing but a charlatan, a—”

  Dempsey took a deep, clear breath. Her belly expanded. She held the air in her lungs for seconds before she released it slowly. When she did, her eyes scrolled up to Sasha. “Hi, Mama,” she said, her tone soft and as sweet as ever. “Did Santa come yet?”

  Sasha burst into tears, but Justice bowed his head and closed his eyes. “Praise the Lord,” he murmured to himself, certain he’d just witnessed a miracle.

  Chapter Five

  The clock struck 2 a.m. Jenna had stayed with Dempsey, sitting beside her bed while Justice remained faithfully at Sasha’s side in the sitting room. The desperate feeling to the night had changed to one of peace and calm.

  It was Christmas and Dempsey had eaten half of a turkey sandwich, a hand full of potato chips, and was sleeping peacefully. Better yet, her lungs were clear. But Sasha was emotionally and physically spent. She didn’t believe in miracles, not one bit. She’d been through too much and seen too much during her life to consider for one second, that a piece of rock and a freakishly calm gentleman from India could work the miracle she’d just witnessed—her baby breathing normally for the first time in her life.

  She pinned Alex with her own laser sharp stare. She wanted—no—needed answers. “What just happened?” Even she noticed the steel in her question. The demand for truth.

  Alex met her head on. “Alternative medicine just happened, Sasha, and if you’re willing, I’ve got a chiropractor I’d like to—”

  “Bullshit. I’ve taken Dempsey to the best doctors money can buy. She’s seen more specialists than the queen of England.” She nodded to Raj, her tone rapping into high gear “What’d he do?”

  Alex turned to his friend, the glimmer of a smile sliding over his lips. “Why don’t you ask him?”

  Raj took a deep breath, his palm on his knees, his brown eyes clear of subterfuge. “I did nothing, Miss Kennedy, nothing but plant a suggestion that you and your daughter very much needed to hear. There are different ways than the chemical cocktails that modern medicine relies on. Do they work?” He turned to Alex. “Sometimes. Are they good for a person’s soul? For her body? For her spirit? Are they free of side effects and long-term c
onsequences? I believe we all know that answer. Many times the chemicals we take into our bodies are the harbinger of more distress than relief. You yourself know this to be true. I see it in your eyes.”

  He had her there. One of Dempsey’s specialists had actually suggested a type of chemotherapy medicine for Dempsey’s blood disorder. Sasha had put her foot down and refused the very idea.

  “I have a gift for you,” Raj said as he extracted a small green stone from his side pocket.

  Jade. That’s all it was—a squared off one inch piece of jade that could’ve passed for a green ice cube. Sasha accepted it, turning it over in her palm. It was pretty enough, but it was just a rock. What good could it do?

  Alex cleared his throat. “When the last In vitro failed and Kelsey stopped taking all the fertility drugs, Ember suggested I call Raj.”

  Sasha folded her hands on her lap, willing to listen. Alex was not prone to self-disclosure. All along, she’d suspected he and Kelsey had struggled to get pregnant, but she’d never been crass enough to pry. This whole black rock gimmick was more like something Ember would believe in. She was the free thinker in the TEAM. She believed in people like Raj and color association and the gifts of the universe. She believed in karma.

  Alex swallowed as if it was difficult admitting that Ember’s suggestion had paid off. He stuck his chin out at Raj. “Then he showed up and told us we were trying too hard, to take a deep breath and let the universe do its thing. So we did. I took Kelsey on a safari in Kenya.” Alex scored the arm of the sofa with a fingernail. “We came home pregnant.”

  Sasha shuddered remembering. That safari had taken place just months before Alex had been gunned down in his parking garage. It nearly destroyed The TEAM, but Kelsey had suffered the most, and all the while she’d been pregnant.

  “What rock did he give you and Kelsey?” Sasha had to ask. The jade was slick and warm, smooth and somehow soothing in her palm, but… it was still a rock.

  Alex cocked an eyebrow. “Watermelon something or other. Heck, I can’t remember.”

  “Watermelon tourmaline,” Raj filled in the name of the—rock. “It stimulates other gemstones in its family. It heals—”

  “Hearts,” Alex murmured, his voice hoarse. “It promotes unconditional love.” His gaze lifted to Sasha’s. “I honestly don’t know if it was the rock or Kenya that did the trick. I only know that modern medicine didn’t work, and it was torture watching Kelsey get her hopes up every month. I—we—had to do something. It didn’t matter if we got pregnant or not. That she was good enough all by herself.”

  It was hard to miss the tender glow in Alex’s eyes when he talked about his wife.

  Sasha set the jade on the coffee table between her and Alex and his friend. The evidence was building, but she wasn’t ready to admit anything. Not just yet. “What’d you do with it?”

  Alex shrugged. “Mostly I stuck it in my pocket and forgot about it.”

  Raj eyed the jade. He tapped his temple. “The change in heart begins in the brain, Miss Kennedy. All things are possible if we choose to believe, even the impossible. That piece of jade is nothing in itself, but some people believe it draws peace and calm to the bearer, that it intensifies expressive attributes.”

  Alex rolled his eyes. “Great. That’s all she needs, more expressive attributes.”

  His poking fun at her eased the tightness in her shoulders. Sasha took a deep breath. “It could be a coincidence.”

  Raj nodded. “Oh yes. It could also be the result of all the medicine and drugs.”

  “But you don’t think so,” she baited him.

  Raj met her gaze without a shadow of guile in his deep brown eyes. “I think the power of the universe is sufficient for all, Miss Kennedy. Do you believe?”

  Her breath caught. He’d just posed the very same question she’d posed to Dempsey about Santa Claus. Do you believe? If only it were that easy.

  “Sasha!” Jenna squealed from Dempsey’s room. “Hurry! Come quick!”

  Justice couldn’t get to Dempsey fast enough. That little girl was not going to die. Not tonight! Not tomorrow!

  But Sasha got to her first.

  Well, I’ll be damned. Dempsey was sitting up in her bed, her back against the pillows and playing cards splayed in her hand. Her rosy cheeks were round as apples, her smile a thing of beauty. “I win,” she announced proudly. “I beat Grandma.”

  “What the…?” Sasha grabbed the cards and turned to Justice since he was right there at her side. “She’s got two threes and three jacks. Look it, Justice. She’s got…” Sasha choked up, her pretty fingertips to her mouth. “She’s got a full house.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, no, she doesn’t,” Jenna scolded. “We’re playing Go Fish, not poker, and she’s got to discard one and put that set down or it doesn’t count. Don’t you go helping her now. My baby’s no dummy. Let her play.”

  The sad smile on Sasha’s face about broke Justice’s heart. His granny always said that a parent was only as happy as their unhappiest child. It looked like Sasha might be the happiest she’d been in a long time.

  “But Mom,” Sasha murmured, the prettiest look of wonder on her face. “Dempsey’s never played cards before.”

  Jenna frowned. “You sure about that?”

  Dempsey giggled, the cards up to her face, hiding behind them. “It’s fun.”

  Sasha folded her little girl into her arms, holding her close while the spirit of the season surrounded her. She cried, combing her fingers through Dempsey’s chocolate curls, until the girl had enough. She wiggled out of Sasha’s grip. “You gotta let me go, Mama. I’m gonna win!”

  Chapter Six

  Months later

  They say it takes a village to raise a child. Sasha Kennedy had The TEAM.

  She sat ringside with Justice, watching Harley Mortimer dance across the hardwood roller skating rink with a little girl who had proved she could win. It did a mother’s heart good at the change in Dempsey. At the change in herself, too.

  She wasn’t about to credit that piece of obsidian with the change in Dempsey, though. Neither could she believe that jade held any healing properties. Like Alex, Sasha only knew that things had changed for the better last Christmas. Dempsey’s blood disorder was now under control and she was a different little girl with a thirst for life.

  The roller skating was Harley’s idea, so The TEAM had obliged. Mark and Libby Houston were in the corner teaching their two oldest girls to skate backwards while their littlest one, Taya, played in the toddler’s room with Lexie. Adam and Shannon Torrey couldn’t make it. Guess Squeaks, aka Jimmy Malone, their son, had a cold they didn’t want to share. Go figure.

  Rory and Ember Dennison were making a pizza run with their son, Tyler, while Taylor Armstrong spun his wife, Gracie, under his arm. Gabe Cartwright was still working on getting his prosthetic foot into a pair of skates while Shelby, his wife, tried to help him. They were funny that way. Gabe suffered through more unneeded help from his dearly beloved, just because she worried over his handicap more than he did.

  Alex and Kelsey skated loops around everyone else, the perfect couple, even on wheels. Just watching him shelter his five-foot-nothing wife against his hip and under his arm spelled S-E-X appeal in glowing neon. The guy might not look the romantic type in the office, but with Kelsey, Alex was breathtakingly devoted. He made everything look easy, even the twirl he’d just sent her into before he tugged her back into his arms. But the smile on her face? Priceless.

  People. Just when you thought all was lost, they—showed up.

  “Hot chocolate anyone?” Seth asked, his cardboard tray tipping precariously to one side as he balanced on shaky wheels beside Sasha. Still single and incredibly handsome, she felt the urge to dig in and find out why Seth had no significant other in his life yet. Her prying, motherly instincts on alert, she lifted a steaming cup from the holder.

  “Who-o-o-a. Not that one.” He tipped backward then over-corrected, gripping the flimsy, overloaded
cardboard contraption with both hands. He should’ve gripped the back of Sasha’s bench instead. His skates went one way, Seth went the other, and the chocolate flew.

  He ended up on his butt, dripping with sticky sweet surrender. Seth blinked, the cocoa running down his face. He should’ve been angry that he’d tossed everyone’s drinks, but instead, he tipped back his head and laughed. Harley skated by with his wife, Judy, in one hand, and Dempsey in the other. His boys, Alex and Georgie, trailed behind.

  “Way to go, Seth!” Harley hooted.

  “Hi Mama!” Dempsey called out, the biggest happiest smile on her face. “I’m flying!”

  Wasn’t that the truth?

  “You’re a lucky woman, Miss Kennedy,” Justice murmured, his voice laced with tenderness.

  Sasha looked up at him then. She saw him. Her lower lip quivered with unexpressed emotion for his steadfast allegiance to her and Dempsey. He didn’t have to show up, but he had. Faithfully.

  She tugged him down to her level. He obliged, his ear to her, waiting on her command. But she was done with secrets. Sasha Kennedy had finally stepped into the ring, determined to never let another chance for happiness slip by. Her favorite feather-weight champion, Dempsey, had taught her well.

  Sasha framed his handsome, surprised face in her hands, her thumbs under his chin. She leaned in, and there, in front of everyone she knew and loved, she planted one—just one—soft kiss on his lips.

  The world stopped moving right then and there. This was their first kiss and it was—divine. She licked her lips. He tasted like caramel and smoke. The moment his mouth touched hers, a happy child giggled somewhere close by.

  Sasha didn’t turn to see if that sound came from Dempsey or one of the other children. It could have come from an angel. All she knew was she was caught in the sweet beam of the deepest, darkest chocolate fudge eyes, the light of the stars caught in those wise, smiling depths. A woman could get lost in there. Better yet, she could get found.