“What?”Jiro glanced at his phone, tempted to open the Uber app.She could be bluffing.
“This isn’t New York or LA.You’re in a small Swedish northern town.So you see, you need my car, which means you need me.”
“Aurora.”Karl’s plaintive cry echoed down the hallway.
She said something in Swedish, which she assumed meant she would be there in a minute, but she didn’t take her gaze away from Jiro’s face.
“What if they see your uniform and… do something bad to Papa?”He couldn’t bring himself to saykill him.But then he had no idea what would be waiting for them where the little red pin sat amongst the forest on the map.
“I won’t wear my uniform if that’s what you want.I’ll go undercover.”
Shit, he couldn’t believe he was actually even thinking about this.Not only was he taking along a police officer against Taro’s strict instructions, but he was also putting a person he was fast coming to like in possible danger.
“I will find this place much quicker than you could,” she added.Which was true.Even if he asked Google Maps to take him to where the pin dropped on his phone, he could easily get lost.And he was unaccustomed to driving in these snowy conditions in the dark.She’d told him last night she hadn’t been born in Luleå, but had moved here a year ago to complete her six months field placement and then had been offered a permanent position.So her knowledge wouldn’t be exhaustive, but she was a native Swede and would definitely have a better grasp on the countryside than he did.
He sighed deeply, causing her palm to rasp against the hairs on his chest.“You can’t let anyone else know.You can’t even tell Viskten,” he said at last.Jiro knew it was a big ask.She was a rookie cop, so her first instinct would be to report to her supervisor, to call in the people she could trust, people who would have her back.
Aurora screwed up her nose, clearly hoping to do just that.He watched as various emotions flickered across her face before she finally came to a conclusion.
“All right then.We’ll do it your way.But Mårten won’t be pleased.”The last part was said almost under her breath.
“Aurora.”Her father’s call was louder this time, less plaintive and more demanding.He must be fully awake now and wondering what was going on.
Her hand was still plastered to the middle of his chest.
“Are you going to let me past?”
“What?”She was looking up into his face, dark eyes unfocused, her mind obviously racing with the details of what to do next.But it was as if she realized for the first time he was standing there half naked and she had her hand pressed against his bare chest as she stared up into his face.She pulled back quickly.“Oh, yes.Sorry.”A red flush spread up her neck as she turned away.It was cute.“Sorry,” she mumbled again, but he wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for.He hadn’t minded her holding him back with her hand; in fact, he’d quite liked the sensation.Had quite liked her taking charge, not afraid of him, not flinching away from him.But there was no time to analyze any of this.They had to get going.
“I need five minutes to sort out my father,” she said.
Oh, shit, of course she did.His mind was screaming that they needed to get going now, but she couldn’t very well leave her disabled father in bed alone.
“I can help,” he said.
She looked at him with a critical eye as she wavered.“Normally, I would ask Millie to come and help, but it’s so early.She’s my next-door neighbor,” she added as an afterthought.“But Fader hates it when I ask her to come in.He hates accepting help from anyone.She’s the most caring, most compassionate person I know, but Karl has taken it upon himself to dislike her intensely.Probably because she’s seen him at his worst, weak and incapacitated, and he can’t get over that.”
Jiro didn’t really care about the intricacies of her father’s character flaws right now; all he wanted to do was get moving.
“Right.”Aurora seemed to have come to a decision.“I’ll get him up and dressed if you could prepare breakfast for him.I’ll be as quick as I can, I promise.”She continued to give him directions as to what to prepare for the morning meal as she ducked into her father’s room and he hurried down the hallway.Impatience roiled in his stomach; the last thing he needed to do right now was prepare a breakfast.But he couldn’t do this without Aurora.And she couldn’t do this without caring for her father first.
He busied himself in the kitchen, hurriedly dragging out two slices of the dark rye bread Aurora had said he liked for breakfast and then finding the cheese and cold cuts in the fridge.Aurora’s complicated coffee maker was beyond him at the moment, but he found one of the old-fashioned percolators in a cupboard and set that up on the stove instead.The sound of conversation drifted down the hallway, and even though he couldn’t understand what was being said, it was clear that Karl was not happy with being forced out of bed this early in the morning.Three minutes later, the old man was still grumbling as Aurora pushed him in his wheelchair into the kitchen.
Karl said something to Aurora, a clear whining edge to his voice, and she answered him in English for Jiro’s sake in an exasperated tone that suggested she was only barely controlling her frustration.“I know it’s early for breakfast, but you can keep it in the fridge for later if you don’t want to eat now.It’s either that, or I ask Millie to come in.”
The look of distaste that flashed across Karl’s haggard face said it all.It also gave him an insight into the man’s true nature.He’d caught flashes of it last night, especially in the way he treated Aurora.While he’d been perfectly amiable when he spoke to Jiro, his tone changed when he talked to Aurora.Most of what he said to her was in Swedish, which of course he didn’t understand, but he got the gist of the old man’s intent from his body language.Karl had a temper, and it seemed he was perpetually unhappy with her.With everything she did and everything she said.Jiro had watched Aurora bite her tongue on more than one occasion and plaster on a friendly smile for his benefit.
Perhaps this was more like the true Karl that he was seeing this morning.The old man’s ungrateful attitude didn’t seem that much out of the ordinary for Aurora, and a flash of sympathy for her cramped his guts.She’d taken over the duty of being his carer, but it felt to Jiro as if Karl wasn’t the least bit appreciative of her help and compassion.Which must be hard for her.He knew what it was like to deal with a difficult father.But at least he lived in a separate city and was capable of looking after himself.Jiro didn’t know if he would be able to take on the task that she had committed to.It must certainly affect her life.Which was probably why she didn’t have anyone special in her life at the moment.
He found out that little gem of information last night when they’d been chatting.He’d casually dropped into the conversation the question of whether anyone else lived in the cottage with them, a sibling, or someone else who helped with Karl’s care.Technically, he’d been trying to find out if she had any sisters or brothers to help bear the burden, but there was also a small part of him that wanted to know if there was someone else.A boyfriend.Or girlfriend—he was pretty sure she wasn’t gay, but you could never rule anything out.It was actually Karl who had said with a snort of derision that his other daughter, Astrid, was too busy with her career down in Malmö to even come and visit, but Aurora was more than capable, and the last thing she needed was anyone else to help her, certainly not a boyfriend to distract her.
Aurora had merely shrugged, raising an expressive eyebrow as if to sayWhat was she to do?Then she had agreed with her father, saying, “Karl definitely keeps me busy.Much too busy to have any sort of social life, that’s for sure.”And Jiro read between the lines, understanding that a boyfriend would be too hard to juggle at the moment.Which was a little sad, because she was a beautiful woman, who seemed to have a lot to give, and for her not to have someone who loved her was a tragedy.She was one fascinating lady, who seemed to be doing it hard right now, and part of him wanted to find out more about her, wanted to help her in someway, although he didn’t exactly know how.
“I just need to get dressed,” Aurora said, talking over the top of whatever else Karl was complaining about.“If you could set him up at the table with his meal, I’ll be down in two minutes.”
“Sure,” Jiro answered, already taking charge of the wheelchair and shooing her towards the stairs.As he wheeled Karl to his spot at the table, however, Jiro’s gaze followed Aurora’s figure as she headed up to her room, not quiet able to stop himself from staring at her curvy shape and pert backside as she bounded up the stairs.Even wearing pink flannel pajamas, there was something about her he couldn’t deny.
But the last thing he needed at the moment was an entanglement with a woman, no matter how appealing she was to his senses.He had other priorities on his mind; top most was finding his father.Second was confronting Taro about what was going on.There was no room for a dalliance here, and he needed to stop thinking with his dick and start thinking with his head.
