Page 48 of Deserving Cora
Cora rolled her eyes. “Of course. We’re best friends. I know everything about her. But she doesn’t care about the money. I mean, she’s grateful for it because it means she can have an apartment in a safe part of the city, and she can do what she loves rather than having to find something that pays better. But she’s not the kind of person who wants designer handbags and expensive jewelry. She’s generous to a fault, always giving money to the homeless, and she buys every one of the kids at the preschool a present during the holidays. She makes sure all the lower-income families have a turkey at Thanksgiving, and if any of her kids come to school with dirty clothes or looking rough, she personally reaches out to their families to check in. And she does it in a way that no one feels as if they’re accepting charity. She’s truly amazing. And to find out that Ridge only wanted hermoney?” She shook her head sadly.
“We’ll get her out of there,” Pipe reassured her.
“Which I’m grateful for…but you don’t understand. Finding out the truth about Ridge probably broke her,” Cora said, putting her forehead on her updrawn knees.
Pipe didn’t like seeing her so devastated. He stood, then leaned over and put his hand under her elbow. He gently helped Cora to her feet and led her back to the table, helping her sit. Then he pulled his chair right up against hers and put a hand on her thigh. He didn’t care if his friends saw his open affection toward her. He couldn’tnottouch her right now.
“We’ll leave in the morning,” Pipe said. “Fly to Phoenix, go to Michaels’s house, see if we get lucky and he lets us in. If not, we do surveillance on the house, then go to the Blue Moon. Depending on the intel we get, we’ll go from there. Yeah?”
“I’ll email the satellite pics of the property and the addresses of the places where Lara’s credit cards have been used. Maybe you can go to the stores with pictures of both Lara and Michaels and see if anyone recognizes them,” Tex said.
“Yeah, that’s a good plan,” Stone agreed.
“Can you get us the addresses of the employees who work at the estate? Maybe we can approach some of them away from the house. See if they’ll talk to us about what’s going on inside,” Owl added.
“Of course,” Tex said. “I’ll send you a list of names and see what I can find out about each of them on my end.”
“Thanks for the intel,” Brick told him.
“Don’t thank me,” Tex said grumpily.
“Sorry, forgot you hate that shit,” Brick said with a small laugh.
“I’ll be in touch. Cora?”
Her head came up. “Yeah?”
“If your friend is being held against her will, the men around that table will figure out how to get her out of there,” Tex reassured her.
“She is,” Cora said firmly. “And I hope you’re right.”
“I am. I’m out.”
Silence descended around the room for a moment. Then Owl said quietly, “I don’t like this.”
“Agreed,” Stone said. “This situation stinks to high heaven. Would Michaels really kidnap Lara simply to use her money because his dad essentially cut him off?”
“There’s no telling. But I’m sure Tex will do some more digging and figure it out,” Spike said.
“You guys will need to get to the airport a little early, so you can check your sidearms,” Tiny told Owl, Stone, and Pipe.
Cora’s gaze flicked to Pipe upon hearing that. “You’re bringing weapons?” she asked.
Pipe nodded. “Of course we are. That bother you?”
“No,” she replied. “I mean, I’m glad. I just…I read that weapons weren’t allowed here on The Refuge, and with all the uncertainties, with you guys not really thinking that Lara was kidnapped, I wasn’t sure…” Her voice trailed off.
“Stalker,” Pipe accused tenderly.
He was rewarded with a small smile. He couldn’t wait for the day he could make her smile wholeheartedly. When her friend was safe, and she wasn’t so stressed out and could let herself completely relax.
“While we don’t allow guests to bring weapons onto the property, for obvious reasons, that doesn’t mean we aren’t prepared to protect ourselves. And there’s no way I’m going to Arizona to try to figure out what happened to Lara without some way to protect you in the process,” Pipe told her.
“Were you…did you have a weapon on you when we were in DC? I mean, I don’t remember you doing anything special when we flew here,” Cora said.
“I never go anywhere unarmed,” Pipe told her.
Her head tilted as she studied him.
