Читать книгу A Baby Before Dawn - Linda Castillo - Страница 6

Chapter Two

If not for his military training, Chase would have surely walked into a bullet. It wasn’t the first time his instincts had saved his life. Maybe this time, they’d saved Lily’s life, too.

He almost didn’t see her. Not because of the darkness or the throngs of frightened people. When he’d entered the hospital ten minutes ago, he hadn’t been looking for a pregnant woman.

But a man never forgot certain things about a woman he’d once loved. Chase had spotted Lily from thirty feet away in near total darkness. Despite her bulging midsection, he’d known immediately it was her. He would know her if he were blind and deaf. He would know her by touch alone. By smell. By the way she breathed.

He couldn’t believe she was pregnant. Couldn’t believe she’d moved on to another man so quickly. He had to bank a quick rise of jealousy.

But there was no time for petty emotions now. From the balcony above the atrium lobby, he’d counted two shooters, possibly three. He didn’t like the odds, but he’d faced worse. For now, he had to focus on moving her out of there without either of them getting shot.

Lily struggled against him as he pulled her into the darkened hall. Terror and panic came off her in waves. She thought he was one of the gunmen, that he meant her harm, but there’d been no time to identify himself let alone talk her into letting him help her.

“It’s Chase,” he whispered. “Calm down. You know I won’t hurt you.”

She went still, but he could feel her trembling violently. Her breaths came in fast, short bursts from her nose. He’d approached her from behind and wrapped his right arm around her abdomen, placing his left hand over her mouth. Her body pressed flush against his. It was more lush than he remembered and so soft and warm that for a moment all he could think of was sinking into her and never letting her go. That the old attraction was still sharp after so many months shocked him almost as much as her pregnancy.

“I’m going to take my hand from your mouth,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t scream or those goons with guns are going to come calling. You got that?”

She nodded.

Slowly, he removed his hand.

She turned to face him. In the semidarkness her big green eyes looked black against her pale complexion. As always, she’d pulled her long curly red hair into a no-nonsense ponytail at her nape. She looked the same as last time he’d seen her. The same as in every dream he’d had about her in the months they’d been apart. Except for the soft roundness of her belly.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered.

Because he wasn’t quite sure how to answer, he eased her to arm’s length and looked her over. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m okay.” Her eyes flicked to the lobby. “There are two men out there with guns who want to kill me and I have no idea why.”

“I’m not going to let anyone hurt you,” he said.

She noticed the blood on his sleeve, and her eyes softened. But realization dawned and the softness quickly transformed into anger. “My God, you’re part of this.”

“That’s not how it is.”

She looked as if she wanted to hit him. “Things never change with you, do they, Chase?”

“This is no mission,” he said, hating that his tone was defensive. His work with Eclipse and his penchant for risk taking had been points of contention between them from the beginning of their relationship.

“Save it,” she said.

“We don’t have time for this now, Lily.” Taking her hand, he tugged her more deeply into the hall. She resisted, but her efforts were token and he easily muscled her to the alcove outside the rest¬ rooms. “We have to get out of here right now.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You don’t have a choice, damn it.” He glanced toward the lobby. “Those bastards mean business.”

“Who are they? Why are they doing this? Why do they want to hurt me?” Her questions came in a flurry.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll figure it out later. For now, I need to get you out of here.”

“Chase, damn it—”

He cut her off, ushering her to the farthest wall of the alcove. “For once in your life listen to me.” He glanced toward the lobby. “Stay put. I need to see where they are.”

Pressing his back flat against the wall, he sidled to the hall entrance and peered into the lobby. The two gunmen stood in the center of the atrium, looking around. Chase slipped back to the alcove.

Lily had ventured only a few feet, her hand placed protectively over her abdomen. She’d always been strong willed and capable, not the kind of woman who needed or wanted protecting. But standing there with fear in her eyes and a baby growing inside her, she looked incredibly vulnerable. The need to protect her rose inside him in a dangerous tide.

“Let’s go.”

She didn’t resist as he pulled her toward the emergency exit at the end of the hall. A sign above the push bar on the door told him an alarm would sound if the door was opened. Since it was the only exit they could reach without being seen, he didn’t have a choice but to take it and hope the alarm had been rendered inoperative because of the blackout.

“If that alarm is intact, all hell is going to break loose when we go through this door,” he said.

“In case you haven’t noticed, hell already has broken loose,” she shot back.

“Can you run?”

She glanced down at her belly. “What do you think?”

“I think you don’t have a choice.”

Chase hit the security bar and shoved open the door. A shrill alarm split the air. “Run!” he whispered.

The door opened to the sidewalk on Harrison Avenue. Abandoned cars that had run out of gas during the massive traffic jam that had followed the blackout littered the street. Flames flickered from a drum where someone burned garbage, but there was no one in sight. The street was pitch- black and eerily quiet.

“This way.”

Chase pulled her into a run, and they headed north on Harrison at a fast clip. She didn’t complain, but he could feel her struggling to keep up. She’d once been quite athletic, so he knew it was her pregnancy slowing her down.

“Come on,” he said. “You can do it.”

“I’m moving as fast as I can,” she said between pants.

Behind them, a shout echoed, telling him at least one of the gunmen had spotted them. “Faster!” Chase shouted. “Run!”

A volley of gunfire shattered the night. A yelp escaped Lily when a bullet ricocheted off the brick facade of a building inches from her head. Terror whipped through Chase. He glanced at her, saw blood on her cheek and his heart stopped dead in his chest.

Lily must have noticed his expression. “Piece of brick knicked me,” she said. “Keep moving, Vickers.”

“That a girl,” he said, and urged her faster.

Midway down the block, the yawning black mouth of an alley beckoned. Praying they didn’t encounter a dead end, Chase cut right and they traversed it at a reckless speed, their footfalls echoing off the brick walls on either side. Considering the advanced stage of her pregnancy, Lily was amazingly fast on her feet. But not fast enough. Twenty yards in, another gunshot rang out.

“They’re still shooting at us!” she cried.

“Keep running!”

“I’m spent, Chase. I can’t go much farther.”

Cursing, he pulled his pistol from the waistband of his slacks and returned fire blindly, hoping it would be enough to slow their pursuers. All the while the thought of her falling to a bullet tortured him with horrific images.

The alley opened to another side street. Chase headed right toward Chinatown, a bustling section of the city where foot traffic, greengrocers, fish markets and ethnic shops crowded the narrow streets. Left without a vehicle, he figured their best hope of eluding their pursuers was to get lost in the crowd.

“Chase, tell me what’s going on.” The words puffed out on each breath as they cut down Kneeland Street.

“I don’t know,” he said.

Digging in her heels, she stopped and jerked her hand from his. “Don’t lie to me, damn it. We’re not talking about just me. We’re talking about this baby.”

He didn’t need to be reminded of that. The fact hadn’t left his mind since the moment he’d spotted her. Setting his hands on her shoulders, he looked into her eyes and recapped everything that had happened back at Hancock Tower. “I checked the passenger’s ID and everything was cool.” Remembering, he gritted his teeth, incensed with himself for having let the man get the jump on him. “Until he pulled a gun.”

“And you have no idea why?”

“No.”

“Why did you come to the hospital?” she demanded. “Why involve me?”

Looking left and right, he guided her to an alley that would take them into the heart of Chinatown. “When the guy was in the limo, he said some things that made me think he was going to hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” She laughed, but it was a tense, humorless sound. “Why? What made you jump to that conclusion?”

“He told me I was about to lose everything that I—” Realizing what he’d almost said, Chase cut the words short. “He mentioned you by name.”

Even in the semidarkness he saw the color drain from her face. “I don’t understand. Why me? I don’t even know these people.”

“Evidently, they know me.”

“But we haven’t been together for…”

Something pinged in his brain. “Seven-and-a-half months,” he finished.

But Chase’s mind was already jumping ahead to something he’d been wondering about since the moment he’d spotted her in the hospital atrium. Until now he hadn’t had a chance to work out the timing of her pregnancy. Looking at her, on some primal level, he suddenly knew.

He knew.

His heart raced. Not because of the men with guns, but because he was remembering the last time he’d been with Lily. Seven-and-a-half months ago…

When he looked at her, he saw the answer in her eyes. He saw the truth and it shattered him as surely as any bullet. “Is the baby mine?” he asked hollowly.

His own words stunned him. He stared at her, feeling his world shift on its axis.

Lily stared back, her green eyes startled and slightly defiant. A lock of curly red hair had come loose from her ponytail. She’d always hated her hair, but he still dreamed of it. His fingers itched to tuck the errant strand behind her ear, but he didn’t dare touch her. Once he did, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop.

“No,” she said quickly. “I—I had an affair shortly after we parted ways. I was…careless.”

The denial rang false in every way. Chase knew better than anyone that Lily wasn’t the kind of woman to jump from one man’s bed to another. That could only mean one thing: The baby was his.

His.

Holy Moses. The supposition slammed into him like a Mack truck traveling at a high rate of speed. The scar above his eye, courtesy of shrapnel in Afghanistan, throbbed again.

“You’re lying,” he heard himself say.

That she didn’t deny it drove home the cold hard truth of it. He felt as if he’d just been punched between the eyes with a set of brass knuckles. “I deserved to know the truth.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “You did.”

“Then why—”

She gestured angrily toward the dangers behind them. “Look at what you’ve brought into my life. Men with guns. That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. This baby, my baby, deserves to be safe. I put her well-being above the truth. Above you. For that, I’m sorry. But your knowing changes nothing.”

“The hell it doesn’t.”

“You have no say in the matter.”

Chase wanted to talk about this. A thousand emotions churned inside him in a kaleidoscope of shock and regret and newfound optimism. But there was no time to voice any of them. They had to get out of this alley and to a safe place. “We can’t discuss this here.”

He reached for her hand, but she pulled away. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she repeated.

For the first time, Chase’s temper kicked in. He was tired of being blamed for all that was bad and wrong in the world. Even more tired of being kept in the dark and denied the things that mattered most. So what if he had a dangerous job? Someone had to keep the bad guys away. “If you care so much about that baby, you’ll be reasonable.”

“Don’t you dare try to manipulate me using this baby,” she hissed. “There’s nothing reasonable about any of what’s happened.”

“Maybe not. But you know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“How can you say that? It’s because of you that we’re in danger to begin with.”

The words stung, but he didn’t let himself react. There was no time for emotion or blame or the rehashing of ancient history. “I’m the only reason you’re alive right now. Like it or not, I’m your best hope of making it through the night.”

LILY COULD BARELY HEAR him over the hard thrum of her heart. She hadn’t wanted Chase to know about the baby, but she’d never been a good liar, especially when it came to him. There was no denying the timing of it. She and Chase had been together seven-and- a-half months ago. She knew lying was wrong. But for the first time in her life, she hadn’t cared. Since the instant she’d found out she was pregnant, the baby had come first. She’d done what she had to do and accepted the consequences of her actions.

She just hadn’t expected it to be so damn hard.

“These people want you, Chase, not me,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be safer if you walked away from us and left us alone?”

His jaw tightened. “They know they can get to me through you. If I cut you loose now, they’ll be on you like wolves on a lamb.” Stepping close, he set his hand against her cheek. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to let that happen.”

“Chase—”

“If I walk away, I may as well put the gun to your head and pull the trigger myself,” he cut in. “You’re a target now. I’m sorry it went down like this. I wish I could change things, but I can’t. Until I figure out who these bastards are, you need me to stay alive.”

Anger burst through the gnarly layers of fear. “That’s exactly why I didn’t—” She cut the words off abruptly, shocked that she’d nearly said them aloud.

But he finished for her. “Tell me about the baby?”

Lily couldn’t answer. Staring into his striking topaz eyes, she felt the old feelings begin to churn. A cauldron of anger and attraction and something deeper she would not acknowledge. But those feelings were tempered with the certainty that wherever Chase went, danger followed. With a child to think of, Lily could not let herself be drawn into the maelstrom of his life.

Shouting from a newspaper kiosk across the street saved her from having to answer. Chase glanced over his shoulder, his head cocked, his body going stone still.

“My God,” he said.

“What is it?”

“Vice President Davis has been kidnapped.”

“Is that what this blackout is all about?” she asked, shocked by the news. “Someone was after the vice president?”

“He was at the black-tie ball where I picked up the guy who ambushed me.”

“Do you think those gunmen back there are somehow involved in the kidnapping?”

“I’m going to find out.” He reached for his cell phone, hit a button with his thumb and cursed.

“What is it?” Lily asked.

“Battery’s dead.”

She might have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so dire. “What about Irma? Can you recharge the battery using the cigarette lighter?”

His eyes softened at her mention of the limo. “Too far away. I wrecked her not far from the Hancock Tower.”

She looked around the narrow, crowded streets of Chinatown, feeling uncomfortably exposed. “What do we do now?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “We need to get off the street and stay out of sight until I can figure out what’s going on.”

“You think they followed us?”

“Even if they didn’t, it’s only a matter of time until they start looking in this area.”

A chill swept over her at the thought of some unseen gunman hunting them down like animals. Already she loved her child more than her own life. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Chase was right. She needed him to stay alive.

Lily started when he took her hand. Her initial reaction was to pull away: she couldn’t risk getting too close to him. Chase Vickers was her one and only weakness, the one man in the world who could make her lose her head and forget about doing the right thing. With the baby to worry about, she couldn’t risk letting down her guard.

But she allowed him to lead her through a narrow courtyard, past a smattering of quaint shops, most of which were closed. A few of the die-hard shopkeepers who’d kept their stores open stood outside on the sidewalk, chatting in Chinese.

Lily and Chase reached a main thoroughfare. Cars jammed the intersection, engines rumbling, horns blaring. The smell of exhaust filled the still night air. Abruptly, Chase stopped. The next thing Lily knew he had grasped both her arms and ushered her quickly toward a narrow courtyard.

“What is it?” she whispered.

He pushed her against the brick of an old building and placed himself between her and the street. “We’ve got company.”

A deep chill passed through her body. She could almost feel the pistol sights leveled on her heart. Unnerved, Lily leaned against the brick and tried to catch her breath.

“Where?” she asked, resisting the urge to duck.

“Southwest corner. By the newsstand.”

She followed his gaze. Sure enough, the gunmen she’d encountered in the cafeteria stood at the corner, talking into a cell phone and gesturing angrily. She wished she could hear what he was saying because she was almost certain it had to do with Chase and her.

“What do we do now?” she whispered.

“I need to get my hands on a phone.”

Spinning, he urged her into a run. They sprinted through the courtyard, past a rusty fire escape and the darkened windows of a seafood shop where selections and prices were written in Chinese.

They ran for what seemed like forever. But Lily didn’t think about the discomfort or fatigue. All she could think about were the armed gunmen who obviously meant her harm. She’d always known something like this would happen. How could Chase do this to her and the baby? How could he place them in danger like this?

At the end of the block, she pulled her hand from his. Bending, she gulped deep breaths until the aching in her back subsided.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She wasn’t all right. Not by a long shot. She was frightened and angry and worried. Her physical stamina had long since run its course. “I can’t keep up this pace,” she said between pants.

“Are you in pain?”

“No, I’m just…exhausted.”

Setting his hand protectively on the small of her back, he looked around, his topaz eyes scanning the surrounding shops and fire escapes that laced the old buildings like steel spiderwebs. When his gaze met hers, Lily saw concern and a tenderness she didn’t want to acknowledge.

“There’s a homeless shelter a few blocks away,” he said. “We can rest there and try to come up with a game plan.”

“All right.”

Avoiding the more populated areas, they stuck to the shadows beneath colorful awnings and darkened neon signs. Lily usually loved Chinatown. She walked it often, buying fresh vegetables and fish when she had time to cook. But tonight, the narrow streets and alleys seemed ominous. Every stranger they passed seemed dangerous. At every corner, she found herself looking for men with guns.

Even coolheaded Chase appeared uneasy. He held her hand a little too tightly. At every intersection he made her stop so he could check both ways, even scanning the tops of the buildings and fire escapes before they crossed the street. All the while his eyes took in every detail, assessed every person they passed.

This wasn’t like Chase. He was usually the kind of man who jumped first and thought about consequences later. Tonight, his recklessness had been replaced with a caution she’d never before seen. She didn’t want to think about what that meant. Was he concerned for her and her child’s safety? Had he changed? Lily didn’t think so.

She knew he cared for her. That he would protect her with his life. But it was too little, too late. Their relationship had already been shattered beyond repair.

At the north end of Chinatown, they passed an Asian man walking a fat brown Labrador retriever. Chase surprised her by stopping him and speaking in fluent Chinese. But then she’d learned to expect the unexpected from him. He was so unpredictable, so complex and intense, Lily had always felt a little out of her element when she was with him.

Chase removed his wallet and dug out two twenty-dollar bills. The man shook his head. Chase dug out two more twenties. Smiling, the man handed him his cell phone and gave a slight bow of his head.

“Expensive phone,” she muttered.

“Worth its weight in gold if I can find out what’s going on and get us some help.” He motioned toward a dilapidated building at the end of the block. A hand-painted sign welcomed them to the Joy Family Shelter of Boston.

The homeless shelter was nestled in a brick structure that had once been a textile factory. Plywood splattered with graffiti covered the windows. A colorful mural depicting a Chinese parade replete with fire-breathing dragons graced the brick facade.

At the door a white-haired man with a tiny matching goatee smiled at them. “Welcome to Joy Family Shelter,” he said in broken English.

Chase dug another twenty from his wallet and handed it to the man. Despite her unhappiness with him, his generosity touched her.

They entered a darkened foyer that opened to a large, rectangular room. A single battery-powered lantern sat on a bookcase, casting shadows onto scarred plaster walls and illuminating a dozen or so cots. Several were occupied by sleeping figures, many of which were women and children.

Chase led Lily down another hall and into a second, smaller room. In the darkness he found two folded cots in the far corner and proceeded to unfold and set them up.

Lily knew they wouldn’t be safe here for long. But she’d never been so glad to see a cot in her life. Her back ached with increasing intensity, telling her she needed to get off her feet, at least for a little while.

“You look dead exhausted.”

Bad word choice, she thought. Chase had unfolded a single blanket and set a thin pillow on the cot. For her, she realized. “I’m pregnant, not sick.”

“You need to rest while you can.”

“It’s hard to relax knowing men with guns are out there wanting to kill me.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He patted the cot. “Come on, Lily. I’m worried about you. You’re pale. Lie down for a few minutes.”

Under any other circumstances Lily would have refused. She didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to be with him. She wanted to go home where she would be safe and the world was predictable. But she could no longer ignore the ache in her back. She’d been on her feet far too long. At this stage of her pregnancy, she didn’t want to push her luck.

“What about you?” she asked, her gaze flicking to the bloodstain on his shirt. In the darkness it appeared black.

“I’m fine.”

“It’s a bullet wound, isn’t it?”

“It’s a graze.”

She shook her head, disbelieving he could be so flippant about something as serious as a gunshot wound. “God, this is so you, Chase.”

“I’ll take care of it as soon as we’re safe.”

“And when will that be?”

Grimacing, he lowered his eyes, but only for a moment. “Have you eaten?”

Back at the hospital, she’d been famished, but the terror and adrenaline had stolen her appetite. “No, but I’m not hungry.”

“There’s a soup kitchen in the back,” he said. “Let me see if I can rouse a volunteer and get you something to eat.”

Too tired to argue, Lily sat on the cot.

Before she realized what he was going to do, Chase leaned close and lifted her feet onto the thin mattress. “Lie down.” One side of his mouth curved. “Might be your last chance for a while.”

She looked at him as he leaned his tall, sinewy frame over her, his long, unruly hair framing his face. She couldn’t see it in the dark, but she recalled the jagged white scar above his left eye. He looked even better than she remembered.

His voice sounded so sincere, so concerned, she did as he said. The moment she stretched out, all the adrenaline that had fueled her for the past seventeen hours ebbed. Her muscles went slack as exhaustion staked its claim on her body. She didn’t want Chase to leave her, but she’d rather cut off her right hand than admit he made her feel safe.

He must have noticed her uneasiness, because he hung back. “You’ll be all right here, Lily.”

The way he said it almost made her believe it. Almost. But almost wasn’t good enough. “It’s not just me I have to worry about now.”

She felt his gaze drill into her with an intensity that left her breathless. “At some point we’re going to have to talk about that.”

Not now, was all she could think. She was too exhausted to face his questions and the truth she’d hidden for seven-and-a-half months. It wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. Lily had decided the moment she’d found out she was pregnant that she would never let Chase Vickers know his child.