Читать книгу Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby - BEVERLY BARTON, Beverly Barton - Страница 11

Frank wasn’t the type of man easily affected by a woman’s tears, swooning spells or temper tantrums. He’d seen it all as a kid—watching his mother, who’d been an expert in feminine wiles, manipulate his father time and again. And he’d learned from that very same father how to harden his heart and shut off his emotions. The only time he’d ever let his defenses down had been with Rita. Bad mistake. Not one he’d repeated. But damn it, catching Leenie in his arms when she fainted dead away had stirred up some unwanted emotions inside him. She wasn’t playing him, wasn’t putting on an act in an effort to control him. Her actions were real, brought on by true and honest feelings. All he’d wanted to do at that moment was hold and comfort her, protect her from the ugly truth and reassure her that she wasn’t alone. And here they were an hour later at the police morgue and still all he wanted to do was protect her, take care of her, shield her from more pain. Already this woman—the mother of his child—had somehow managed to sneak past his defenses and make him vulnerable. He hated feeling vulnerable; it was an alien concept to him.

“You shouldn’t have come down here.” Chief Bibb cleared his throat as his gaze dropped from Leenie’s pale face to the tile floor beneath his feet. “We can get an ID on the body without—”

Leenie gasped quietly. When he felt her stiffen, Frank tightened his grip on her waist. “Andrew’s pediatrician or even Haley Wilson could ID the child,” Frank said softly. “Why put yourself through this ordeal when it might not even be Andrew?”

“Either way, I have to do this,” Leenie said.

Frank studied her, noting the tension in her body and the grave expression on her face.

“No, you don’t have to do this.” If Frank had been given the chance to know his son, a chance to have been a father from the moment Andrew was born, then he could have come on his own to ID the infant’s body. He assumed that in most cases such as this, the father was the one who went to the morgue and put himself through hell in order to protect the child’s mother. If only he could do that for Leenie. But he couldn’t.

“Yes, Frank, I do have to do this,” Leenie told him. “If it isn’t Andrew, I need to see that for myself. And if it is…if it is, then I’ll know he’s dead. I won’t spend the rest of my life wondering.”

“But if it is Andrew, you’ll never be able to forget—”

Kate laid her hand on Frank’s back. “Don’t try to stop her. She has to do this.” Kate reached over and patted Leenie’s arm. “I understand how you feel. It’s worse not knowing one way or the other, holding on to hope when everyone tells you there is none, than it is having to face the certainty of your child’s death.”

Leenie clenched her teeth tightly, barely containing her overwrought emotions, then nodded agreement to Kate’s comment.

“We’re ready,” Frank told the coroner, a bald, middle-aged doctor named Huggins.

Securing his arm around her waist, Frank walked with Leenie into the cold, dimly lit room. Dr. Huggins, who had preceded them, walked over to the steel table where a white sheet covered the tiny body. Silence permeated every square inch of the area. Frank heard only his own breathing moments before Leenie sighed aloud. He tightened his grip on her hand. She looked at him, fear and uncertainty in her eyes.

“We’ll do this together,” he told her.

She nodded.

“All right,” Frank said to Dr. Huggins.

The coroner removed the sheet, revealing the small, lifeless body. Frank wanted to pull Leenie back, to rush her out of the room and away from the possible heartache facing her. But she forged ahead, then stopped abruptly to gaze down at the infant’s discolored corpse.

Leenie’s hand flew to her mouth as she gasped loudly. “Oh, God. God!”

Frank’s heart lurched to his throat. His pulse accelerated. No, please, no, he prayed silently, the plea a gut-level reaction. But he couldn’t bring himself to look at the infant.

Leenie gasped for air. “It’s not him. It’s not Andrew.”

Frank had never known such overwhelming relief. It was then—in that unparalleled moment of thankfulness—that he experienced a personal epiphany. Without ever having seen or held his child, he knew he loved Andrew. And he wanted a chance to be a father to his son.

Kate uttered a loud, gasping sigh. Frank blew out a deep breath. Leenie turned to Frank, a bittersweet smile on her face, and flung herself into his open arms. He held her, stroking her back, comforting her, as she clung to him for dear life. She wept. Only for a few moments. Quietly. But her body trembled uncontrollably long after she stopped crying.

Finally Frank managed to turn her around and head her toward the door. “Let’s go home.”

She allowed him to escort her from the room and into the outer office where Chief Bibb and Special Agent Moran waited.

“I’ll get the car and bring it around to the front door,” Kate said as she hurried away.

No one said another word as Frank led Leenie across the room. When they reached the door, she paused and spoke softly to the police chief. “Ryan, when you find out the child’s identity, would you please let us know. I—I want to send my condolences to the family.”

As long as she lived, she would never forget the image of that tiny infant lying on the cold, steel table. Somewhere out there another mother had lost a child. The only difference between that woman and Leenie was that this other woman had no hope. Her baby boy was dead.

Frank probably didn’t understand why she’d pulled away from him the moment they returned to her house or why she’d hurried into the bathroom and locked the door. He had called to her several times, asking her if she was all right and if there was anything he could do for her. But she hadn’t responded. Wouldn’t. Couldn’t. As much as she needed Frank, as desperately as she wanted him close, she had to be alone right now. Alone to cry. Alone to die a thousand deaths in her heart and soul. Alone to work through the wild, mixed emotions she could barely control.

Even before the unknown infant’s body had been found, Leenie had felt as if she were on the verge of losing her mind. Although Frank and Kate and Haley had forced her to go through the motions of living, she really didn’t feel alive. She felt numb one minute and on fire with terror the next. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. And at the same time she wanted to run and scream and beat her fists against the wall. It was as if she were dead and alive. Numb and oversensitive. Subdued and crazed. All simultaneously.

After closing the lid, Leenie sat down on the commode and crossed her arms over her chest. She sat there and cried. Soft sobs. A steady stream of tears cascaded down her face. There was an ache inside her that hurt so bad she could barely breathe.

“Oh, Andrew…Andrew.”

Frank lifted his hand to knock on the bathroom door again. He’d knocked several times half an hour ago and pleaded with Leenie to answer him, to let him help her. But when she hadn’t responded, he’d finally left her alone. He had talked to Kate for a few minutes, then spent the past twenty minutes alone in his son’s nursery. He had run his fingers over the hand-painted mural on the wall—a Noah’s Ark scene. The walls were a pale blue, the ceiling covered with fluffy clouds and a host of stuffed animals and infant toys lined the floor-to-ceiling shelves. A magic room for a much-loved baby boy.

“Leave her alone.” Kate stood in the doorway to Leenie’s bedroom.

Frank whirled around to face Kate. “What?”

“Leave Leenie alone. She’ll come out when she’s ready. You’ll have plenty of time to comfort her then, when she needs you. Right now, she needs to hide away.”

He didn’t know Kate all that well, but had heard the speculations about her that abounded around the Dundee office. “What makes you the expert?” he asked.

“I’m a woman.”

“Okay, if being a woman makes you an expert on all things female, then tell me this—why is it that Leenie pulls me to her with one hand and pushes me away with the other? She’s blowing hot and cold. I don’t know what she wants.”

“Believe me, you men are just as big a puzzle to us as we are to you.” Kate motioned for him to come toward her. “Let’s wait for Leenie in the living room. Eventually she’ll come out and that’s when you can play knight in shining armor again. Just wait for the signals. A smart man knows when to advance and when to retreat.”

“I’m not smart when it comes to women,” Frank admitted, following Kate down the hall and into the living room. “I’m bad at relationships.”

They sat down on the sofa. Kate curled up sideways, her waist and lower back supported by the sofa arm. Frank pressed his shoulders into the back of the couch, then crossed one leg over the other knee.

“Your personal life is none of my business. But if you care about Leenie, and I think you do, then ask yourself just how serious you are about a relationship with her. Don’t let her believe she can count on you for the long haul if you’re just in this until we find Andrew.”

Good advice. Hell, great advice. “What if I don’t know how I feel or what I want for the future? For now, I want to bring Andrew home. I want to protect Leenie and support her through this ordeal. But…” He shook his head. “I want to be a father to my son.”

Kate looked him right in the eye. “But not a husband to your son’s mother?”

“You’re not one for being subtle, are you?”

“No. I think there’s no use beating around the bush. Right? Let’s call a spade a spade. You no doubt have your reasons for being afraid of love, of committed relationships. And whatever those reasons are, I don’t want or need to know. But Leenie has a right to know why.”

“Maybe Leenie doesn’t care,” Frank said. “You’re assuming she wants something permanent with me. Just because we had a child together and right now she needs me doesn’t mean she wants a future with me.”

“Have you ever thought of just asking her?”

Frank shook his head. “Nope. I’ve found the direct approach seldom works with women.”

Kate made a face, then huffed. “What sort of women have you been dating? Or did one woman do a number on you years ago and now you paint us all with the same brush?”

The truth stung just a tad, but Frank managed to halfway smile at her comment.

Kate opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Frank’s cell phone rang. Grateful for the reprieve—he’d figured Kate was about to dish out some more feminine advice or dig deeper into his past personal life—Frank whipped the phone from his pocket and hit the on button.

“Latimer here.”

“Yeah, this is Special Agent Moran. We’ve got a possible break in the Andrew Patton case.”

Frank went stiff, his body tense, his breathing momentarily halted. “Have you found him?”

“Sorry, no,” Moran replied. “But the abduction ring we’ve infiltrated is putting up a new infant for adoption. In Tennessee. Memphis to be exact. The baby is male. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Approximately two to three months old. We’re making plans now to send in a couple of agents as prospective parents.”

“You can’t nab the kid right then and there can you?”

“You know we can’t. So maybe it’s better if you don’t share this info with Ms. Patton, unless you’re sure she can handle it.”

“I’ll talk things over with Kate before I decide whether or not to tell Leenie,” Frank said. “Keep us posted, will you?”

“Yeah, I will. I know he’s your kid and…well…I’ll keep you updated.”

“Thanks.”

Frank understood that these agents, disguised as hopeful, adoptive parents, would simply go in for a first meeting, but wouldn’t make any arrests or do anything to alert the top bananas in the abduction ring that the feds were on to them. From what Moran had told Frank, the bureau had been building this case for quite some time, working toward the moment when everything fell together just right. They wanted more than the peons in this dirty business—they wanted the kingpins. The only way to shut down the ring permanently was to destroy it from the top.

After returning his cell phone to his pocket, Frank turned to Kate. “Moran says there’s a new infant on the adoption block. Words out from the association the Feds have been investigating that they have a blond-haired, blue-eyed infant ready for adoption.”

Kate sucked in her breath. “And they’re sending in federal agents posing as a couple desperate to adopt a child, right?”

“Right.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Frank paced around the room. His paternal instincts warred with his logical, trained warrior mind. As a father, he didn’t give a damn about anything but rescuing his son. But the Dundee agent in him, as well as the Army Special Forces training that was such a fundamental part of him, acknowledged that the mission outweighed any personal needs. The FBI’s mission was not only to return Andrew Patton—unharmed—to his parents, but to destroy a malicious infant adoption ring that had been operating in the Southern states for over a decade.

“She won’t understand, will she?” Frank said, his back to Kate.

“No, she won’t understand.”

“Then I shouldn’t tell her. Moran thinks it best not to tell her.”

“Moran doesn’t have anything personal to lose by not telling Leenie.” Kate said. “You do.”

“Do I?”

“You tell me.”

“I’m willing to bet that once Andrew is back in her arms safe and sound, she’ll be willing to forgive me for just about anything.”

“Don’t count on it. If she ever finds out—”

“If I ever find out what?” Leenie’s voice rang out loud and clear from the other side of the room.

Frank snapped around to face her. A wide-eyed Kate glanced from Frank to Leenie and then back to Frank.

“Is it something about Andrew?” Leenie asked, hope in her voice.

Frank grimaced. “Nothing concrete.”

“What does that mean?”

Frank looked at Kate, wanting her to say something—anything—to defuse this ticking time bomb before it exploded. One of them had to give Leenie an explanation. Kate looked at him, her expression telling him that she thought it should be him.

Hell, now what was he supposed to do? “It means that the FBI have a lead in the case, but—”

“What sort of lead?” Leenie entered the living room, her face freshly washed, her eyes slightly swollen.

She’d been crying, Frank realized. And now she was approaching him, all but begging him with every look, every move, every word to give her a thread of hope to cling to. “A blue-eyed, blond infant has been put up for adoption in Memphis. His general description fits Andrew—”

“We have to go to Memphis right now,” Leenie said emphatically. “Where do they have him? Has Special Agent Moran sent someone to get him? Oh, Frank, this is wonderful news. Andrew is safe and—”

Frank grabbed her by the shoulders. She gasped as her startled gaze met his.

“We don’t know that it’s Andrew,” Frank said.

“But it might be.” She offered him a fragile smile. “It has to be.”

“We’ll know soon enough.” He squeezed her shoulders, then eased his hands down her arms, caressing and comforting.

“How soon? Tonight? First thing in the morning? How long do we have to wait?”

“It could be a while.” His gut instincts told him that this was not going to go well. Leenie was in no mood to listen to reason. Hell, who could blame her?

She jerked free of his hold and glared at him. “How long is a while? And why do we have to wait? If it’s Andrew—and I have to believe that it is—why won’t the FBI bring him home to me immediately?”

Frank let out a sigh of relief when Kate injected, “Things are never that simple with the feds. There are procedures to follow, agendas that have to be—”

“No, I don’t want you to explain.” Leenie held up her hand in a stop signal. “I want Frank to tell me why he isn’t moving heaven and earth to get his hands on Andrew and bring him home to me.” Narrowing her eyes to slits, she skewered Frank with her angry glare.

Frank cleared his throat, then took a step toward Leenie. Easing backward, she held both hands in front of her, a gesture that warned him not to come any closer.

“Dammit, Slim, don’t you think I want that baby to be Andrew? Don’t you think I want to drive to Memphis and be the one to go in there and tell those slimeballs that I want to adopt the baby and then get him away from them as quickly as possible?”

“Then why don’t you? Why can’t we pose as the people wanting to adopt Andrew, then—”

“Moran will send in a couple of federal agents,” Frank told her.

Leenie nodded. “All right. And if the baby is Andrew?”

“If these people supposedly representing the birth parents have the baby with them, they’re not going to release him immediately to the adoptive couple. A price will have to be agreed on and a second meeting set up to sign legal documents and exchange cash for the infant.”

“What are you not telling me?”

Frank swallowed. Damn! She wasn’t going to let this go until she knew everything. “It’s complicated. The feds have a major case going on, something they’ve been putting together for quite some time. In order to bring down the ringleaders of the infant abduction ring, they can’t do anything that might tip off these people and that includes grabbing this particular infant before the time is right. The entire procedure could take several days, maybe even several weeks.”

“I see.”

No, she didn’t. She didn’t see, didn’t understand. And she hated him. It was all there in her eyes, in the cold, distant expression.

“Leenie…”

“The FBI has its own agenda and if Andrew gets lost in the shuffle, too bad. He’s just one baby out of hundreds, right? What difference does it make if they lose him as long as they save all the others?”

“That’s not the way it is.” Frank held out his hands to her.

“Yes, it is. You don’t have a problem going along with Special Agent Moran’s plans, do you? You see the big picture, whereas I see only the little picture. Andrew. My son is all that matters to me. Call me selfish and uncaring of other people’s feelings, but all I want is my baby! And if Andrew meant a damn thing to you, he would be all that mattered to you.”

“Leenie, give Frank a break,” Kate said. “His hands are tied. Moran is in charge and no matter how much Frank and I would like to rush in and grab this baby—be he Andrew or not—we can’t. We won’t. If we did, we might not only jeopardize the child’s life, but we would definitely jeopardize the bureau’s operation that is on the verge of—”

“To hell with the bureau’s operation. I want my baby! And I’m going to get him.” She glowered at Frank. “With or without your help.”

Frank glanced at Kate. God help them, Leenie was irrational.

When Leenie ran into her bedroom, Frank turned to Kate. “What do I do now?”

“Be patient and understanding.”

“Should I go in there and—”

“No, leave her alone. Let her calm down. I’ll check on her in a little while.”

Two minutes later Leenie came barreling out of her bedroom. Wearing a black winter coat and carrying her black shoulder bag, she stormed past Kate and Frank on her mad dash to the front door.

“Where are you going?” Frank called to her.

“Where do you think? I’m going to Memphis!”

Frank groaned. Damn it! She’d completely lost it. She wasn’t thinking straight. She had no idea where Moran was or where the meeting tomorrow would take place.

“Leenie, come back,” he told her when she yanked open the front door.

Ignoring him completely, she rushed outside. Frank ran after her, catching up with her on the sidewalk. When he grabbed her arm, she turned on him, a snarl on her lips and maternal rage shining in her eyes.

“Don’t do this,” he said. “Slim, pull yourself together. You have no idea where to go in Memphis. And Moran is not going to tell you or me or Kate. Whether we like it or not, all we can do is wait.”

“No, dammit, no!” She hurled herself at him, her fists pounding against his chest. “I want my baby. I want Andrew.”

He allowed her to vent her anger, frustration and fear by pummeling him repeatedly. When her blows became nothing more than unsteady, weak strikes, he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. She sank into him. Exhausted. Soul weary. He held her with a fierce protective strength, wanting nothing more in life than to ease her pain.

“We’ll get him back,” Frank said.

Burrowing against him, her head on his shoulder, she clung to him. And after several minutes, she lifted her head just enough to gaze into his eyes. He hadn’t realized he’d gotten emotional until she reached up, caressed the side of his face and then wiped away a lone tear from his cheek.