He hoped. “Stay here.”
Nick prowled toward the front door.
Once he’d cleared Harper’s line of sight, he unholstered his gun, keeping it tucked against his side as he cautiously opened the door. He made a mental note to ask Xander why the hell the place didn’t have a damn peephole.
On the other side, he found a young female. The Asian woman looked petite and intelligent and not at all put off by his demeanor. “Mr. Navarro?”
“Dr. Minn?” At her nod, he holstered his weapon and threw the door wide. “Come in.”
“Where’s Harper?”
“Finishing breakfast.”
He led the doctor to the kitchen. She hugged London and brushed a fond caress on the top of baby Dulce’s head, then turned her attention to Harper. After a glance she frowned and looked across the table to Sasha. “Would you bring her to one of the bedrooms so I can examine her?”
Sasha rose, plucked her daughter from London’s lap with a whispered thanks, then disappeared down the hall. Nick stood awkwardly and watched them go. He wanted to know what was happening, had an irrational need to join Sasha. But Harper wasn’t his daughter. Her medical condition wasn’t his business.
London nudged his shoulder with her own. “Follow her.”
Nick shook his head. “She wouldn’t appreciate my intrusion.”
“You’re too smart to act this stupid. She’s afraid and she needs a shoulder to lean on.”
Like she’d ever allow the man who’d ordered her to put out to comfort her? “I’m sure she’d rather have a calming female presence.”
Before he finished speaking, London shook her head. “I know women. Sasha feels like her sky is falling. She needs a pillar to keep the roof over her head.”
He frowned. Another woman couldn’t do that for her?
London sighed as if she was losing patience. “She needs someone stoic who won’t bend under pressure. Someone she perceives as stronger than her to rely on.”
“She’s already strong. Given how underhanded and relentless Walter Clifford is, the fact that she’s kept herself and Harper alive since Mike’s murder is pretty much a miracle.”
“But it’s been a struggle. Can’t you see that?”
Hard to miss. He nodded.
“I can guarantee that, at times, she’s felt both very afraid and very alone. At the risk of sounding hopelessly unfeminist, she needs a man.” London grimaced. “She needs you.”
Nick doubted he could be what she needed but he owed Mike. He owed Sasha, too. “All right. I’ll take care of her.”
Letting out a nervous breath, he made his way down the hall and paused in the threshold of the bedroom. The doctor had her stethoscope pressed to Harper’s back as the child took rattled breaths. Sasha watched with worried eyes and a taut mouth.
Dr. Minn plucked the device from her ears and hung it around the back of her neck. “If I could X-ray her properly, I could tell you with absolute certainty what ails your daughter. Since that’s not possible, I’m going to say that given her high fever, wheezing, and productive cough, she has pneumonia.”
The air left Sasha’s body as she froze, stood unmoving, not even to draw her next breath.
Holy shit. Harper’s condition was far more serious than he’d imagined. Nick was damn glad Sasha had come to him when she had.
“Since it took her about four days to develop, it sounds viral, rather than bacterial, so giving her antibiotics won’t do any good,” the doctor went on. “But I don’t like the way your daughter is breathing. If you won’t admit her to the hospital, which is where she should be, she needs to stay home and rest a great deal, drink a lot of fluids, eat frequent but small meals, and be on oxygen.”
“That’s not possible.” Sasha’s voice trembled.
“Then your daughter won’t recover.” The doctor sounded clipped and disapproving.
The pediatrician didn’t know Sasha’s situation, but Nick still wanted to snap at her not to judge.
Instead, he focused on Sasha. Worry stamped itself all over her face. How would Harper ever get that kind of rest and care when their very survival depended on them relocating ASAP—and probably more than once? He could actually see her weighing the probability that Harper would die if they stayed on the run versus the likelihood Clifford would slaughter them all if they risked calling a place home even temporarily.
