Chapter 43 - South Beach - Running Away #3

Dodging and turning at high speed through every back alley and road he knew, Rayne clinging on behind him, Rafe tore out of the city, raced down the coast road, then pulled up in front of Stanfield's mansion. He swung off his bike and tried to compose himself. At least Rainie had some experience riding on the back of a big bike – Cooper had taken her out more than once.

Rafe parked the bike behind a cop car and an ambulance and stood there on the sidewalk, uncertain. Why was an ambulance here? Cooper and a man who probably was a detective of some kind both stood at the top of the flight of stairs, staring at him. “Uncle Rafe,” Raine was saying. Over and over again.

He drew a deep breath and looked down at her. “What is it?” “Are they going to take me to jail? Are they mad at me?” He smiled. Mad would come later…”No, they aren’t mad. But remember what I told you on the way here. Go on. Go see your daddy.”



Rafe slowly followed her, trying to let them have a moment. Cooper released his daughter from what was undoubtedly the biggest hug she’d ever received, turned and glared at him. “Rafe,” Cooper said flatly, his eyes narrowed in anger. “Why am I not surprised. Rayne, go inside the house. Now.”

The child never did do what she was told, and she didn’t now. “No Daddy, don’t be mad at Uncle Rafe. He got me when I was lost. And I rode on his bike and I didn’t fall off.”

Distracted, his attention torn between his daughter and the ambulance, Cooper hesitated, looked down, then came right back, visibly shaken but obviously enraged. Jumping to the wrong conclusion, Rafe knew, although this one looked bad. He couldn’t blame the man this time. “What the hell is going on? Has she been with you all this time?”

Rafe shook his head, shifted his weight, watching the man behind Cooper and fully expecting to be arrested no matter what Rayne said. “I found her less than an hour ago. I have kids of my own – no matter what I think of you, I wouldn’t keep your daughter away from you. Whatever’s going on here, and that’s between you and Beth, something scared her. Maybe you’d better take some time to deal with that. If you can fit it in.”

For a long, nerve-racking moment Cooper said nothing. The man behind him called out his name, sharply. “Mr. Taylor.” Rafe ignored him, tried to ignore him. Finally, in a deep quiet voice, Cooper responded, “We need to talk. But not now. Beth’s in labor. I have to go.”

Rafe started back toward his bike. In labor….that meant she was early. Rayne’s little prank and Gabe’s incredible failure to recognize the child probably pushed that up, but he couldn’t help wondering if there was more. Whatever it was, he’d bet Cooper had something to do with it. If the man was home more than 5 days a year, what he could spare from his tours, he'd be surprised. “Rafe,” he heard Cooper call out. He briefly considered not responding, then reluctantly turned and looked back.

"Thank you."

Late Evening...

Exhausted, ecstatic, relieved. Cooper stood in his daughter’s bedroom, knowing he needed to grab a few hours sleep before making arrangements to go back to the hospital – twin boys, he still had trouble believing it – but he had yet to really talk to Rayne about what had happened. Dealing with her reasons for running away…he’d have to wait until he could think clearly to tackle that. But where she had been, no, he wanted to know the truth about that now.

She’d had been wandering around the house, uncharacteristically quiet, since they’d driven back from the hospital. But then it had to have been a long difficult night and day for her, too much for a little girl. “You’ve got two little brothers now Raindrop, Eric and Nathan. You’ll have to help mommy out with them. Both of us need to go to bed, but I want to talk to you for a couple of minutes.”

She looked up at him, and Cooper was hit with another wave of relief. He’d tried to hide his worst fears from Beth, probably not too successfully. The fact that she’d gone into early labor after 12 solid hours of panic about their daughter said something about how successful he’d been. “Rainie,” he said carefully, “I need to know where you really were. Were you with Rafe all this time?” “No Daddy, I wasn’t. I runned to the cat lady’s house. It was really cold.”

He had no idea what or where that was. A cat lady? “Yeah I bet it was cold. Is that someplace close by? You were there the whole time right? You need to tell me the truth about this.”

She shrugged. “She had lots of cats. But she wasn’t there and I didn’t see any cats. Then I got rescued. Uncle Rafe brought me home on his bike.”

Cooper drew a deep, weary breath. She was evading him. Or was she? He was too drained to think about it. “All right, tomorrow you can show me the cat lady’s house, before we bring mommy and your brothers home. Can you do that?”

The corners of her mouth dropped down. In a very small voice, Rayne asked, "Are you mad? I'm sorry. I was scared."

Then she abruptly smiled and added, "Can I get a cat?"

“We’re not mad. We were scared too. Right now you’re going to bed. We’ll talk about getting you a cat later.” Much later, Cooper thought dryly, imagining Beth’s reaction to adding a cat to the household on top of the twins.

“Get some sleep babygirl,” Cooper told her quietly, hugged her, turned off the light and half staggered down the hall to his own bed.

He had too much going on, but his family was safe, the most important thing, the only thing that really mattered. The rest of it, and there was definitely more left undone, he could deal with. If not tomorrow, then soon. Very soon.






“I told you. I didn’t tell. And I won’t forget. I won't ever forget.”

-------------------------------

NEXT CHAPTER: South Beach Chapter 44