Corinne (Book One of The Red Diamond Saga) (14 page)

When the medics arrived followed closely by Stanley and several other officers, Aaron reluctantly laid Kyle down on the ground. He stared down at the small boy, who was still not moving.

“Is he okay?” He whispered to Lisa. She frowned in return as she rubbed her hands together. “I am not sure. I thought I felt him breathe, but-”

One of the medics announced his pulse rate. Another slipped an oxygen mask over his face and together they hurried the boy out of the bunker. The other children were soon escorted out as well. Aaron pulled Lisa to the side away from the officers who were examining the scene.

“Was he dead?” He asked as Lisa avoided his gaze. She had never felt a life so weak, as Kyle's had been.

“He isn't now.” She replied evasively.

Aaron grimaced. He knew the implications of her skills. She had been tested to the extreme. Once Conner had even forced her to work on a body that had been dead for over ten hours. What happened was terrifying. The body began to live again, but the brain could not be healed. Conner was elated, but Lisa had been horrified as she watched the body die once more. When Conner examined her after the fact he found that there was damage to her organs and her blood pressure had sky rocketed. After that he no longer allowed her to work with dead bodies, he was too afraid of damaging his creation.

Aaron had been furious that he allowed it in the first place, but they were only children at the time.

Daniel walked up to them and looked furtively over his shoulder at the other officers present.

“Go up with Corinne.” He requested. When Aaron began to brush past him, Daniel grasped his arm lightly. The muscles beneath his palm flexed and throbbed at his touch.

“Don't try to leave; it will make things look worse.”

Aaron narrowed his eyes. “Am I under arrest?” He asked as he surveyed the men around him. They were at less daunting than a steel door.

“No.” Daniel said firmly. “Just follow my lead, and I will take care of it.” He whispered.

Aaron scrutinized Daniel for any hint of deceit. Daniel's expression was open and honest. He would do his best to shield the three from the suspicion of the lead detective and other officers. How he would explain their presence at a crime scene he was not sure yet, but he would think of something.

Aaron nodded and led Lisa out of the bunker. When they spotted Corinne still sitting in the grass, her face drained of all color they rushed over to her.

Lisa sank down into the grass beside her. She too was quite winded from the effort of healing so many children, and the last, which she was fairly certain, was as close to dead as he could have come. All three were relieved to see the children getting the medical attention they needed. The guards had already been arrested and taken from the scene.

As Corinne watched the ambulance doors close behind Kyle, the force of what had just happened finally struck her. Together they had saved nearly a dozen children from certain misery or death. From what she had gathered in snippets of conversations between the officers, the bunker had been a holding place for children who had been kidnapped and were to be sold in other countries.

When the lead investigator arrived on the scene, Corinne sighed. He had not liked her in the beginning, and now he certainly was going to suspect her. How else could they have found the bunker?

The older man walked up to Corinne, Aaron, and Lisa, with a wicked scowl.

“Okay, who has an explanation for this?”

Corinne parted her lips to speak, but before she could, Daniel stepped up behind the investigator.

“It's my fault really.” Daniel said as he lightly shifted a crow bar back and forth in his hands. He had retrieved it from the trunk of his patrol car.

“I told Corinne all about the case, and she well...” He lifted his chin with pride. “She's gifted. She can see things.”

The man rolled his eyes with disdain, but Daniel pushed forward with his words. “She found the kid, didn't she?” He asked with as much respect as he could muster.

“Yes, she did.” The investigator said with no less suspicion. “And next you're going to tell me that steel doors were pried off the wall with a crow bar?” He asked skeptically.

Aaron kept his gaze to the ground. He had an attitude, but when it came to people in positions of authority, he had been trained to act compliant.

“Yes sir.” He answered for Daniel. “They were not very well secured.”

The investigator shook his head, finding the whole story very difficult to believe. However he was willing to let it go for now. He was going to receive a promotion for this bust. His picture would be in all the papers as a hero. Why ruin it by asking too many questions?

“If I see any of you near one of my crime scenes again, I'll have you arrested.” He said sternly. “Gifts or no gifts, you leave the police work to the police.”

Corinne bit her tongue to keep from pointing out that if they had not interfered, Kyle would certainly be dead, and the other children would probably not have ever been found. Many of them were children of undocumented immigrants who were afraid to report them missing. Some had been stolen from other countries and stored in the bunker until a buyer was ready for them. The more she thought about it, the more proud of herself she became. When she met Daniel's eyes, she was pleasantly surprised to see that same pride reflected in his light blue eyes. They were shining with admiration, not fear.

Daniel had to remain at the crime scene while it was being investigated. He asked Stanley to drive Corinne, Aaron and Lisa home as they all looked too exhausted to drive. In the car Stanley could not stop looking through the rear view mirror at Lisa. She found it very disconcerting. When he looked through it for the thousandth time she frowned.

“What are you staring at?” She asked more out of curiosity than annoyance, as if she might be missing out on something very interesting.

Stanley returned his attention to the road as his ruddy cheeks became a darker crimson with blush. He had not been able to stop thinking about the way Lisa had held that little boy in her arms, and what was certainly a lifeless child, was handed off to the medics with a pulse. He knew enough to keep his mouth shut about it, but he could not shake the fascination he had with her. Lisa pursed her lips and crossed her arms across her chest. She could not figure out what Stanley's blush meant, or why she warranted his attention.

Corinne smiled faintly to herself as she sensed a budding affection within Stanley for Lisa. It amused her to think of what it would take to coax Lisa into a relationship. Aaron sat in stony silence in the back seat beside Lisa. His mind was lost in the past, specifically his childhood.

Seeing the way Kyle's mother had yearned for him, and how tenderly she treated her child, had made him aware of how much he had missed out on. He was raised by lab coats. He had no real emotional connection with anyone other than Lisa, and perhaps a twisted bond with Conner that he could not bring himself to let go of.

Corinne could sense his melancholy. She turned in her seat to meet his eyes and was reminded once more of how similar they looked. The hurt in his dark green eyes was identical to the hurt she had seen in her own eyes as a child every time she looked in the mirror. It was impossible to understand why some children were loved and cherished, and others were not.

The visual connection created when their eyes met allowed Corinne to predict his thoughts, perhaps not with her skills, but instead simply because she was his twin sister. He wanted to find her too.

Conner stood next to Corinne's apartment building and watched as the three disappeared inside. He was thrilled to see them, and eager to claim them as his own again. He could not move too quickly, as they had learned to utilize their skills, and were they to team up against him he would not stand a chance of over powering them.

He would have to be patient and wait for just the right time. The only way to keep his entire life from becoming pointless, from watching all of his research washed down the drain, was to get Corinne, Aaron, and Lisa back in his possession. It would take much more than charisma this time. He pulled a small leather case out of his pocket.

He unzipped it and checked one more time to be sure that all three needles were ready to go. They glistened in the sunlight. He smiled to himself and zippered the pouch shut again. He would not make the same mistakes he had in the past. He would teach them what it was to fear.

Daniel stood outside of the apartment door that night, contemplating whether he should go inside. He had worked the crime scene late into the night before finally being allowed to go home. Instead of going to his house, he went to Corinne's. To him, home was where she was. His mind was still swimming with what he had witnessed earlier in the day.

He found it very difficult to process not because he was a practical man, but because it was a whole new side of Corinne that he had never even known existed. It put her in more danger than he could ever protect her from. After the way he spoke to her earlier, he would not be surprised if she wanted nothing to do with him. He laid his hand against the surface of the door as he considered whether to knock, use his key, or simply go back to his house for the night. He heard the knob turning.

He stepped back, half expecting it to be Aaron asking him to leave. Instead it was Corinne. She was in a long white nightgown, and her golden blonde hair was flowing over her shoulders. As long as they had been together, there were still times when he looked at her, that he was stunned by her beauty.

“Can I come in?” He asked boyishly, his nerves frazzled by the entire day and the way her eyes settled upon him knowingly. Could she tell what he was feeling? Could she read his thoughts?

She stepped back from the door and opened it all the way so that he could step inside. When he had, she closed the door behind him.

Daniel noticed the absence of slumbering bodies on the couches in the living room. He raised his brows questioningly.

“I asked them to sleep in my room tonight.” She explained as she led him to the living room. She could not feel his emotions through her anxiety. She wondered whether he would still want anything to do with her, let alone marry her. “I was hoping you would come over.” When she sat down on the couch, Daniel remained standing. He could see her discomfort, but he could not figure out what it meant.

“Why wouldn't I?” He asked a little defensively. He was beginning to think she had spent her evening preparing a break up conversation.

“I just,” Corinne shrugged as she hung her hands over the tops of her knees and gazed up at him hesitantly. “I wasn't sure how you would feel.”

Daniel crouched down in front of Corinne and slipped his hands into hers. His touch was a wonderful sensation compared to what she had been feeling all day. “Corinne, I am sorry that you did not think you could tell me everything.” He watched her expression closely as he spoke in a soft tone. “I know when you tried to tell me before, I did not believe it. I am sorry I did not take it more seriously.”

Corinne squeezed his hands as she bit into her bottom lip.

“I feel like all I do is complicate your life.” She admitted as she studied him fearfully.

Daniel surprised her by laughing at her words. He crept closer to her and pulled his hands from hers so that he could slip them around her waist, nearly pulling her off of the couch as he did.

“How could you think you complicate my life?” He whispered just beside her ear as he drew her down on to the floor with him. “When will you get it, Corinne?” He met her eyes, and the honesty within his assuaged all of her concern that he might be lying. “You are my life.” He met her lips as the last of his words left his. The intimacy of the kiss that they shared was heightened by Corinne's ability to know with complete certainty that every tender caress was genuine.

That night she revealed everything to him that she knew, about herself, about Aaron and Lisa. She also confessed her desire to find out more about the woman who had abandoned her. Daniel promised that he would help and with that, they kissed goodnight and Daniel went home.

Daniel spent the next few days researching information on Corinne's mother. It was hard to come by much, considering that she had never signed a birth certificate or attempted to claim Corinne as her own. Daniel checked for deaths around the time of Corinne's birth.

There were a few that could have been Corinne's mother, but Daniel ruled them out with further investigation. The medical examiner would have noted if the woman had recently given birth, none of the women that matched her possible description had.

While he dug up information, Corinne, Aaron and Lisa had their own plans in mind. Lisa had become oddly curious about Stanley, who persistently called to check on her. He had invited her to lunch on his day off. Aaron was not happy about it, but Corinne convinced him. It was time Lisa had a chance to enjoy herself and begin to learn that there was more to life than just science and logic.

Aaron had made an excuse to go out a few minutes after Lisa left with Stanley. In truth, he was following them. Corinne was left to sort through the bills that had collected, and consider what job she might actually be able to tolerate. As each of them went about their day, they had no idea how drastically everything was about to change.