by Sommer Smith
“Oh, come on. You are being paid for this, so complaining is pretty pointless.”
“Sure. Well, I’d better get back to it.” Grayson ignored Cane’s renewed laughter as he disconnected.
Lauren read his expression too accurately. “It isn’t good news?”
“Not for me. Maybe you will like Oklahoma.” Grayson did little to hide his grimace.
“I’ve never been there. I wouldn’t know.” She glanced at Lily. “I’ve never been farther west than Tennessee. I’ve spent most of my life pretty close to DC.”
He didn’t know how to react to that. He really had completely upended her life. “Well, I guess this is your chance.”
She was so quiet he began to wonder what she was thinking. “You might like it. It’s a whole lot different than DC.”
“But you don’t like it.” She didn’t have to ask. Her tone implied she already knew his answer.
“I-it’s fine.” He wasn’t about to tell her about Oklahoma right now. If he had his preference, he would never talk to anyone about it. Ever. That was where he’d met Rebecca, the woman who had almost cost him his life and the lives of his men. He couldn’t tell her about the church ladies without mentioning Rebecca.
“Oh, it’s fine, huh? That sounds promising.” She probably would have crossed her arms over her chest if she hadn’t been holding Lily. He noticed her eyes were moving around the room, almost as if she was looking for danger in every corner.
He hoped she would forget it. He wasn’t at all ready to talk to her about something so personal.
He glanced around at the brightly colored tables and booths, thinking their surroundings were way too cheerful for the situation. It made him a little angry. The two females across the table from him didn’t deserve this.
“Look, I’ll try to get you out of there as soon as I possibly can. Besides, it isn’t like we’re going to be out seeing the sights.” It came out a little gruffer than he’d intended, and she blinked at him in surprise.
“Okay. Yeah, I guess that’s true. It doesn’t really matter if we like it there or not. What matters is keeping Lily safe.”
As if her words had renewed the danger somehow, a shadow beyond the huge pane of glass caught his attention. On the grass just past the parking lot, there was a man standing beside a tree, and he was trying not to be caught watching them. Grayson already knew, though.
“Lauren? I want you to slowly and casually gather all the baby’s things and act like you are heading to the women’s restroom.” He spoke in a calm, quiet voice.
“What? Why?” Lauren followed his gaze.
“Don’t look. You’ll give us away. Just do it. Calmly. I’ll be right there.” He kept his eyes on her face.
“In the ladies’ room?” Her voice squeaked and he laughed.
“No, but right outside. When it’s safe, we’re going to get out of here.” He nodded as if to acknowledge her intent to go to the ladies’ room, for the benefit of their observer.
Lauren only hesitated a moment before taking her cue, faintly trembling as she grasped the new diaper bag and slung it onto her shoulder. She strode purposefully toward the bathroom and he tried to watch the man’s reaction without being obvious. The lanky observer flicked a cigarette onto the grass at his feet before making his way to the restaurant.
Grayson waited until he knew the man could no longer see him and then he moved quickly. He muttered gruff apologies to a few people that he hurried past on his way to reach Lauren and Lily before the other man could. An elderly woman with a walker, however, proved to be a bigger obstacle than he’d expected. He held in a sigh, gently assisting her with her walker before practically sprinting to the ladies’ room. He had lost sight of the man who had been watching them.
He slowed and turned to look for the man again. He didn’t see him, even though there wasn’t much to impede his view, with the small number of patrons present. Deciding to continue on around the corner to get to Lauren and Lily, he turned and directly collided with the man he had been searching for.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going, man,” the guy growled at Grayson as he stumbled hard.
Grayson didn’t back down. He pulled out his badge. “US marshal. Official business.”
The man’s eyes bulged momentarily before he could hide his reaction. “Oh, right. Sorry to get in your way.”
Grayson moved on toward the ladies’ room to stand guard, pretending not to notice how the man slunk away in the other direction. Hadn’t he known what he was up against? Or had he just thought he was slick enough to pull off a kidnapping right under Grayson’s nose?
Since the man was just a hired kidnapper, it was likely no one had told him what he was getting into. Whoever had sent him had probably just told him he would be paid to bring them the baby.
“You okay?” Grayson cracked open the door to the ladies’ room, turned his face away and stuck his foot in to wait for a reply. He didn’t have to wait long.
“Yes. Can we come out?” Lauren sounded breathless and a little shaky.
“Stay put for just a minute. I want to make sure he’s really gone.”
Grayson let the door bump shut as he made his way along the small corridor to the closest window. The man was getting into an old, beaten-looking sedan. There was a middle-aged woman sitting in the front passenger seat. Grayson would need to be on his guard for her, as well, so he noted everything he could about the woman. She had stringy, dirty blond hair and was slightly overweight. He couldn’t distinguish much about her features behind the windshield’s glare, other than she had small, deep-set eyes and scabs on both cheeks, as if she suffered from acne or some other skin condition. She flicked a cigarette out the window and he immediately recalled the stench of the things. It filled him with nausea, even as he tried to suppress the memories.
He touched his chest absently. The raised scar was still there, but it was smaller. He would always have that horrible reminder of his failure.
“Is everything okay?” Lauren had appeared beside him, completely unnoticed, and stood holding Lily to her chest as naturally as any practiced mother. She was so close he could smell her unique exotic scent. How had he not noticed her presence sooner?
“I thought I told you to stay put.” He might have spoken too harshly, if her step back was any indication.
“You did. I’m sorry. Is he gone?” Her tone held nothing to betray any remorse. And she offered no explanation.
“Yeah. Yeah, he is.” He just stared at her for a moment. To his surprise, she returned the stare and never flinched. She didn’t ask for any answers. She didn’t demand. She didn’t offer any more apologies. She just waited.
It really messed with him. “Well, we’d better get moving.”
Without reply, she turned and did as he asked. It took him a moment to follow. She was so different from the girls—women—he was accustomed to being around.
She had Lily in the car seat by the time he reached the SUV and climbed in behind the wheel. She was sitting beside the baby in the back seat.
He frowned at her in the rearview mirror. “You’re sitting back there?”
“It’s almost time for her to have another feeding. I didn’t think you’d want to stop again.” She buckled her seat belt.
Oh. Right. “Well, thanks, but we can stop if we need to. Just let me know. How is she doing?” he asked as he briefly glanced away and then back.
“I have tried to monitor her vitals manually at regular intervals, taking her pulse by hand, and I did snatch a blood pressure cuff and thermometer, but there has been a lot going on. She seems healthy, though. Only an occasional cough.” Lauren pulled a notepad from her purse to show him. “I’m having to keep track by hand, though.”
Another dig at him about the cell phone. She just wasn’t going to let that go. “Is the cough cause for any concern?”
; “Not unless she develops other symptoms, such as fever, shortness of breath or wheezing. Any newborn is at a fairly high risk for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, but if she is premature, she is at an even greater risk, as well as at a high risk for pneumonia. The virus can cause inflammation of the airways in one so young. And bronchiolitis and severe cold-like symptoms. They usually lead to other complications in infants. It’s not easy to manage, sometimes requiring hospitalization and breathing treatments.” Lauren put the notepad in her handbag.
“That doesn’t sound good. But you know what to watch for.” He was stating the obvious again. Having a baby to protect was completely out of his realm of expertise.
“Yes, of course. An occasional cough could be just her clearing her lungs from the birth. It’s normal for all babies to cough once in a while. Just like adults, the problems have other symptoms, while a cough alone could just be a little tickle.” She was giving him the patient look a woman might give a child as she explained something.
He found he didn’t really want her to look at him like that. It was a blow to his ego.
“Right. Well, you do your thing and I’ll do mine. You keep her healthy and I’ll keep her safe.” He tried but couldn’t miss the expression on her face. What he really wished he could have missed was the hurt. He turned on the radio before she could reply.
He couldn’t tell her about the bad decisions he’d made in the past because he had caught feelings for someone.
He didn’t look away until she did. The hurt, however, didn’t leave her face even when she focused on Lily. The regret he felt surprised him. Shutting someone out was harder than he’d expected, even though he had little choice. He couldn’t let his past mistakes be repeated, even if Lauren seemed to be much different from Rebecca.
The SUV remained far too quiet for the next couple of hours. But Grayson could find no way to take back what he had said. Every time he thought he might have found the words, they got stuck in his throat. Yet thoughts of how he could fix it never completely left him.
His phone rang through the Bluetooth system, startling them both, apparently, because Lauren jumped. Lily began to fuss, aroused from her sleep, but Lauren’s soothing almost immediately calmed the infant.
Grayson tapped the answer button and said his name before the phone could ring again.
There was a long pause at the other end.
“Hello?” He repeated his name and waited, but only a brief silence ensued before a click indicated the caller was gone.
He growled his displeasure.
“Do you think it was the kidnapper? Trying to bargain for the baby?” Lauren asked hesitantly.
“He couldn’t possibly have gotten this number. Probably a mistake.” Grayson tried to blow it off. But he, too, wondered what was going on.
“I’m sure you’re right. I’m new at this. I might have watched too many scary movies as a teenager.” She laughed, but he didn’t. He was too busy picturing her as a teenager. Had her years been as serious as his own at that point, or had she been bubbly and full of life?
He dismissed the thoughts, wishing he had never consented to them.
“I don’t know why he would call and hang—”
At that moment, the phone rang again.
“Thorpe.”
“Marshal Thorpe, this is Senator Reid. I understand you have been assigned protective custody of my newly arrived granddaughter.”
The voice was authoritative, self-assured. Knowing him to be a no-nonsense, too-busy-to-waste-time type of man, Grayson figured the senator had probably been the one to hang up, likely because something more important had come along.
“You’ve been informed correctly, sir. What can I do for you?” Grayson did his best to keep his tone even and amicable. It wasn’t his first instinct. He tried not to allow what he had heard about the senator to color his response.
“You can keep her out of that despicable man’s grasp. If he gets his hands on her, he will do a terrible job of trying to make me pay. I’m in no mood to have my grandchild taken for ransom, and things could get ugly. I wouldn’t say I would take it out on you, exactly, but you might lose my support for your government-appointed position.” The man’s voice sounded much more conciliatory than his words implied.
“Of course, Senator. I will see to it that she is kept safe and out of harm’s way. You worry about finding her mother until this is over. I’m sure you’re terribly worried about her.” Grayson didn’t let on how offensive he found the man’s threats. He was a powerful man that Grayson wasn’t in a hurry to anger.
“My daughter?” Genuine confusion filled the senator’s tone. “What are you talking about?”
“Savannah? I assume there is no news about her kidnapping?” Grayson had hoped that somehow Senator Reid might know something about his daughter’s disappearance. But it seemed he wasn’t even aware that she was missing.
“I thought Savannah was with you and the baby. I haven’t heard anything.” There was an edge of anger in his voice now. “Who is taking care of the child? You surely aren’t alone with her.”
“Never mind that, sir. She is well taken care of. But we do need to locate her mother. There is another marshal on the case searching for her, but she disappeared from the hospital a little before I arrived. The security guard said there were signs of a struggle. It seems the marshal protecting her was attacked. Do you know of any reason someone might have taken her?” Grayson cut his gaze to Lauren in the rearview mirror. She was listening intently, her eyes wide and mouth slack. He couldn’t imagine what she must be feeling.
“There are any number of people who could have kidnapped her, I suppose. To attempt to get money from me or because of her own unfortunate decisions.” The senator’s tone conveyed little sympathy for his daughter. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
Grayson gave him the number of the marshal working on Savannah’s disappearance. The senator took it wordlessly without a mention of thanks. “Keep me updated on my granddaughter.”
The line disconnected.
“Wow.” Lauren’s statement echoed his thoughts.
He clenched his jaw. “This case keeps getting more complicated by the second.”
FIVE
Lauren would have declared relief far too mild a sentiment to name what she was feeling when they finally arrived at the safe house. It was one thing to spend hours caring for newborns in a hospital setting, but it was much different to try to do so while running from kidnappers.
Just as Grayson’s friend had promised, the house was beside a beautiful, tranquil lake and surrounded by huge trees and lush vegetation. Everything was green and smelled so fresh and clean she wanted to breathe more deeply each time.
“Careful. You’ll hyperventilate.” He didn’t even crack a grin, but she knew it was a joke. She was beginning to sense the humor behind his tough veneer.
“It smells almost as wonderful as it looks.” Lauren stepped around the SUV to get a better look at the house. “Oh, wow.”
It was a beautiful, two-story log cabin. It had dormer windows along the second-story roofline and a front porch that stretched the length of the home. Moss green shutters framed the windows and cedar-shake shingles finished off the natural look. A rolling green lawn disappeared into stately oak and pines. A glimpse of blue-green water shimmered in the distance through the trees.
“I might never want to leave.” Her words sounded breathy and awed, even to herself. She hoped he didn’t sense the turn her thoughts had taken without even trying. The three of them, as a family, coming to such a place for a vacation flitted into her mind before she could stop it. She pushed it away.
He seemed amused by her comment. “I wouldn’t have guessed you to be the outdoorsy type.”
“I’ve never really been given the chance.” She realized the truth of it when she said it.
His
expression was one of surprise. “You’ve never been camping?”
She gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. “My family was never big on vacations and outings. In fact, we didn’t spend a great deal of time together.”
He frowned, but she didn’t want his pity. Her dysfunctional family had made her who she was today. Her life was firmly rooted in her Christian faith. The church had become her family in ways her biological family never had been. She had been close to her father before he died, but she’d also been young at the time. She and her sister had only actually become close recently.
“I was an only child for a long time.” She blurted it out as if that explained everything. It didn’t, of course.
“Oh. Well, you should appreciate that. I grew up with four brothers.” His crooked grin said he was only half teasing.
“I would have loved to have had a brother.” She couldn’t keep the wistfulness from her tone.
He laughed. “Yeah, one, maybe. Four, no.”
She laughed, too. “I mean, I guess I see your point. But anything would be better than none.”
“I don’t know about that.” But he was smiling. She hoped he wasn’t feeling sorry for her anymore.
“Can we see the inside of this beauty?” She gestured toward the house, then turned to remove Lily’s infant carrier from its base.
“Cane said the key would be on the window ledge of the shop building behind the house. I’ll go get it.” He dashed around the side of the house.
Lauren gathered Lily’s carrier and all her things. The sweet child barely sighed as Lauren lifted her from the SUV, her pink-rosebud mouth puckered and relaxed in tiny kisses. A pang of affection mixed with longing hit Lauren unexpectedly. She had taken care of a whole lot of babies in the NICU, but this feeling was something entirely new. Where had it come from?
She had clearly been stuck alone in the car with these two for far too long.
Grayson returned to find her mulling it over in stunned silence. “You okay?”
He cocked his head and it made him look almost boyish. His frown was different, too. Or was that her imagination? What was wrong with her?