“I’ve had several in the last fifteen minutes or so.”
“They’re coming that quickly? We’d better get you to a hospital.”
She shook her head. “No hospital.”
“If you think I’m going to deliver your baby—”
“No hospital. The Ark.”
“A casino is no place to bring a baby into this world.”
“A hospital is the only place for mine not to be born. Having human doctors or nurses would be taking a big chance.”
“I thought you weren’t having a panther cub.”
“Not that I know of. But my blood work wouldn’t be normal, and I don’t know that Maeve’s would be, either.”
Not that she knew of? Great. “We have a blood thing between us since—”
“You kissed me. I know. That’s how you sensed I was in trouble.”
“I didn’t just sense it. I felt it. Literally.”
“Sorry.”
Ethan thought she appeared distressed. And embarrassed?
“That must have happened because I was thinking about you at the time,” she admitted, looking everywhere but at him. “I have to get to The Ark. Dr. Botis has a surgical suite in one of the cloaked decks.”
“Of course he does.” Nothing would surprise Ethan about that place. “My car is right outside.”
Nodding, she started back toward the door but stopped halfway there, and arms around her stomach, bent over. “Oh, no! My water…”
The floor around her was wet. Ethan didn’t wait for an invitation. He lifted her into his arms. “I hope you can hang on for twenty minutes.”
She clung to his neck and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ethan, but I need Dr. Botis now!”
Once again, his head whirled and his stomach clenched. The Lakeview flat suddenly morphed into a room that looked like a sterile surgical suite. Horrified by the unexpected supernatural transfer, Ethan stood frozen, Nuala clasped to his chest. A congenial looking man with a receding hairline and wearing a white lab coat turned to them.
“Ah, Nuala. Is it your time already?”
She nodded. “My water broke, Dr. Botis.”
“Then Maeve is on her way. Can you set them here?” he asked a numb Ethan while patting the surgical table.
Walking carefully to maintain his balance, Ethan set Nuala down just as she had another contraction. Her scream wrenched his gut. Thankfully, he didn’t feel it this time. He guessed she wasn’t thinking about him anymore.
“What can I do for her?” he asked the doctor.
The door opened and a woman wearing a uniform joined them as he said, “Nurse Leah and I will take care of Nuala and alert the family. You can wait outside. Or enjoy the casino. Or go home. This may take a while.”
Ethan looked to Nuala, who was getting her breath back. “Do you want me to leave?”
For a moment she was hesitant as if undecided. Then, she said, “I-I don’t want to keep you any longer if you’re not comfortable being here.”
He thought about saying he wanted to stay to support her, but what he really wanted was not to be here in the first place. “Okay.”
“But thank you for helping me, Ethan.”
Her words seared him with an unfamiliar emotion. He backed out of the room but didn’t go beyond the hallway. He didn’t want to be here at The Ark, but he wanted to be with her.
He could hardly believe what just happened to him—her sifting them both onto The Ark—and he didn’t want to think about what was happening in the surgical suite. He couldn’t just stand there, couldn’t leave, not even to go to the casino, so when her yowl shattered the quiet, he started pacing the length of the hallway.
That gave him time to consider how he’d come to her rescue. The blood connection he’d asked Skye to find a way to reverse. She’d said he’d felt her pain because she’d been thinking about him… If he hadn’t shown up at her place, would she have sifted herself here in time to have a safe delivery?
From the sound of it, her contractions were getting closer together. He was looking for a way to occupy his mind, so he latched onto the case, wondering if Diablo would get that information on Peterson setting up the gangs against each other from one of the Lords. He was so engrossed in his thoughts, he didn’t realize he wasn’t alone until he nearly rammed into Beatrix Lazare, who was taller than he in her five-inch heels. The way she was glaring at him…
“What are you doing here again?” she demanded.
“I brought your daughter in to have her baby.” Not exactly, since Nuala had sifted them here, but the explanation would have to do.
“Why were you with her in the first place?” Beatrix moved in on him. “Trying to get information on Kindred?”
“I promised the father of your grandchild that I would see to their welfare.”
She got in his face. “You don’t belong here, so just leave while you still can!”
He pushed back until they were practically nose to nose. “I’m not about to move from this hallway, not until I’m certain Nuala and Maeve are okay.”
“I can make you just disappear!” she shrilled.
“Beatrix, why are you even here?”
Ethan looked around the woman to see Cezar come from behind her.
“This human cares more about our daughter than you ever did,” he went on. “It’s you who should disappear!”
Gaping at her husband, Beatrix morphed her face into a twisted mask of fury as an elongated scream followed by an angry cry came from the surgical suite. And then she spun on her heel and left, bumping into Luc as he and Skye came down the corridor. They headed toward Ethan, no doubt wanting details just as the surgical suite door opened.
“Mother and child both came through fine.” The nurse waved them in. “Come meet Maeve!”
Cezar went first, followed by Luc and Skye.
Ethan caught a glimpse of a smiling Nuala propped up with the baby on her stomach—so beautiful together that his chest tightened, making it hard to breathe.
And then Nik blinked in from wherever he’d been keeping himself. He didn’t join the others, merely stood in the doorway to watch the fuss everyone else was making over the baby.
Ethan hung back. He wasn’t family. He had no real reason to stay, other than to question Nik about his whereabouts. “You know your family has been worried about you. Nuala, especially. She didn’t need the extra stress.”
When Nik glanced back at him, his glower penetrated Ethan, making him sweat. He stood his ground, though, and stared at Nuala’s brother like he expected an answer.
“I’ve been following someone who poses a threat to my family. I’ve been trying to figure out what he’s up to.”
“Max Haider.”
“You know about Haider?”
“Not enough. Like whether or not he and Alderman Alec Peterson have bonded.”
Nik looked back into the suite for a moment, then said, “I doubt Haider would bond with anyone, but I did see him and Peterson together at Persephone’s Den, a raw bar and seafood restaurant on Northerly Island not far from The Ark.”
Before Ethan could ask what common interest they might have had, Nik disappeared the same way he’d arrived.
Ethan took one last look at Nuala and Maeve surrounded by the people she loved and who loved her. He had no business being here, so he left the human way, using the elevator to bring him up to street level where he grabbed a taxi back to his double-parked vehicle.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Ethan walked into the Area North offices to face a shit storm aimed in his direction.
Before he could get to his desk, Jim Conti hustled over to him and latched onto his arm. “I need to talk to you, Grainger. Now!”
“What’s up?”
“Let’s take a little walk.” He gave Ethan’s arm a jerk as he started off.
“Yeah, sure.” Ethan gave Isabeau a questioning look, but she merely shrugged.
Pulling his arm free, he followed Conti to one of
the interview rooms. Though a murder book sat on the table, there was no one inside.
“Who are we going to question?”
“You.”
“About?”
Conti opened the spiral notebook to reveal a close-up of the victim’s face. “Joseph Vasquez.”
Diablo… dead?
Crap! His pulse surged as he remembered thinking he was being followed and Diablo saying that money wouldn’t do him any good if he was dead.
“I know who he is. What the hell happened?”
“You tell me. He was still warm when a jogger nearly ran into his body around ten last night near the lagoon in Humboldt Park.”
Barely an hour after they’d met. Diablo had been likely trying to get that information for him. Had one of the Lords made him? Or had whoever had been following Ethan done the job?
Trying to catch his breath, Ethan sat. “Shit, it’s my fault!”
“Is that an admission of guilt?”
“Hell, yeah. I gave him a new mission, and he was afraid he would be putting himself in a position to end up dead.”
“And so he did.”
The way Conti was drilling him with his stare made Ethan’s back stiffen. “Wait a minute… you’re not looking at me for this?”
Conti then pulled an envelope from the binder. “So why did he have this on him? We ran prints. Yours.”
No surprise. Every potential cop was fingerprinted before being accepted into the academy. Even so, knowing what Conti and undoubtedly others in the department were thinking about him put him on edge.
“Yeah, my prints because I had just paid him for information earlier that night. Diablo was my snitch.”
That should have ended it, but it didn’t. Conti continued to question Ethan, starting with how long he’d been using this snitch, what kind of information he’d received, whether or not anyone could corroborate his story.
“Yeah, someone could have corroborated it. Shade met him. Too bad he’s dead.”
“Convenient. What about DeClercq?”
“She never met Diablo, but she knows the name and the leads he gave me.”
“You mean with the Booker murder?” Conti asked.
“Well it had to be, didn’t it, since she’s only been part of the department for a week and that’s our case.” But what specifically he’d been after was information he wasn’t willing to share just yet, not when it all led to another alderman. “Go ahead and ask her.” And he would have to hope she kept what she knew about Peterson to herself until they had proof.
While Conti opened the door and called Isabeau in—she was standing just outside waiting to find out what was going on as Ethan had figured she would be—Ethan flipped the photo of Diablo to a page showing his throat torn out. His gut churned. Even though the snitch might have lived on the edge of the law, he’d liked Diablo. He’d been one of those guys with no penchant for violence who’d been forced to join a gang, a choice he didn’t really believe in, just to stay alive. And now he wasn’t.
Ethan went from feeling sick to being outraged at the kid’s death. “You didn’t say he was killed the same way Booker was.” No gang member had done this. Whoever controlled the wolf hybrid had. “What, you think I did the alderman, too?”
“You know the drill.”
“Yeah, but I thought you knew me better than that!”
“What’s going on?” Isabeau asked.
“Diablo’s dead,” Ethan told her. “The wolf hybrid has been busy.” He wondered if Peterson had done this himself.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“So you knew this Diablo?” Conti asked her.
“Of him,” Isabeau agreed. “We followed a couple of leads he gave Grainger.”
Ethan’s eyes locked on hers. Don’t tell him about Peterson! Her eyes widened, letting him know she’d heard him.
“What kind of leads?”
Isabeau was still eying Ethan when she said, “We looked into gang involvement.”
Conti demanded, “How about being more specific?”
Isabeau stood there, back poker straight, her stare going for Conti now. He unexpectedly backed off.
“Okay, your case. I get it. What about an alibi? Got one?” he asked Ethan.
“Luc Lazare. I was with him at The Ark.”
“Lazare, huh?” Conti shook his head. “You were gambling last night?”
“I didn’t say that. Remember a casino chip was found on Booker. Luc Lazare is head of security at The Ark. He agreed to get any information on the alderman’s activities that he could. I was just following up. He’ll vouch for me.”
Nuala had been having her baby when Diablo had been killed. Ironic, one life he’d helped come into the world while another he’d helped went out. There was no doubt in his mind that Diablo was dead because of their association.
Guilt was the bitch that kept on giving.
*
Feeling like hell that he’d been treated as a suspect added to the burden of guilt weighing him down over Diablo’s death, Ethan left the Area North offices saying he had some personal business to take care of.
He headed straight for The Ark to check on Nuala and Maeve.
And, on the way, he kept thinking about the black sedan he was now sure had been following him along Logan Boulevard. Would Peterson have done his own dirty work? Somehow Ethan didn’t think so. Whoever had been following must have watched his meeting with Diablo, then waited for an opportunity to get at him. Had it been to eliminate the snitch because he might reveal something Peterson had to do with the gangs or to put Ethan in the hot seat? Considering he’d instigated that possibility simply by visiting Peterson at the ward office earlier, Ethan would bet the alderman had orchestrated the kill in retaliation.
When he arrived at The Ark, he shook away his anger and guilt and put all thoughts of the case away for the moment. Knowing Nuala would pick up on any negativity, he didn’t want to ruin her mood. She deserved all the happiness in the world right now. The need to see her warred with his feeling of not being welcome, though he’d certainly been welcome enough the night before. He believed Nuala had actually been calling him for help. If she gave him a hard time now, though, he would leave once he was certain she was all right. Not his choice, but he would honor her wishes. For now.
Expecting to find her in the surgical suite, Ethan was shocked to find it empty of everyone but Nurse Leah who was rifling through one of the supply cabinets.
“Nuala… is she all right?”
Starting, the nurse whipped around to face him. “Of course.”
“She didn’t go home?”
“Not yet. She’s in our recovery suite.” The nurse pushed him back into the hallway and pointed to the next door. “You’ll find them right in there.”
“Alone?”
She smiled and shrugged. “You know how it is around here. People keep popping in and out whenever they get the urge.”
A reminder of the way they’d gone from the apartment to the surgical suite the night before.
He stood in front of the doorway for a moment, then knocked. No answer. Hmm. He didn’t want to disturb her, yet he didn’t want to leave without seeing her and Maeve for himself, so he carefully turned the doorknob and peeked in.
Nuala wasn’t sleeping but, sitting in a rocking chair, Maeve asleep in her arms, she was obviously distracted, in some other world. Rather than wearing an expression of joy, she wore one of worry. He opened the door wider and cleared his throat. Her head jerked around and her brow furrowed.
“I was just checking to make sure you were all right. You and Maeve.”
“Come in, then.”
He stepped in and let the door close behind him. “You look worried. The baby is all right, isn’t she?”
“She’s perfect. I was thinking about Nik again. I have no idea of where he is. He didn’t even stop by to meet his niece.”
“Yes, he did. You were surrounded by Cezar and Luc and Skye, and he stood in the doorway for a moment,
watching you both.”
“Why didn’t he come in?”
“You’d have to take that up with him.”
“If only I could,” she mourned. “What is going on with him?”
“He’s been following Max Haider, keeping an eye on him. Haider is the one who has had Nik brooding, trying to figure him out. Your brother is protecting his family, trying to learn what the lion shifter is up to.”
“What has he been up to?”
“You should know that Nik isn’t a spy and tell kind of guy.”
Nuala made a face. “He was born that way.”
Just then, Maeve woke and began to protest. Nuala immediately switched from worried sister to doting mother. Her beautiful face was wreathed in a genuine smile when she lifted the baby higher. Maeve had Shade’s mahogany hair—a lot of it for a little thing—but the rest of her was all Nuala.
“Good morning, Maeve.” She touched the baby’s palm and little fingers curled around hers.
Nuala’s smile widened, and so did Ethan’s heart.
He’d never much thought about having a family. As he’d told Skye, he wasn’t a candidate for love. But watching Nuala uncover herself to snuggle her daughter at her breast, love was exactly what Ethan was feeling.
Just then, his cell buzzed, alerting him to a text. Sighing, he slid it from his pocket. Did someone else want to question him about Diablo? But when he checked, he saw the message was from Kelly, the zoo security guard. “Have info about wolf hybrid.”
“What is it?” Nuala asked.
“Work. What else?” Not wanting to worry her by making her think of anything to do with her or her family, he was already backing toward the door. “I need to take care of this. Sorry if I disturbed you.”
“Ethan, you didn’t…”
But her voice faded off as he closed the door behind him.
Trying to forget about Nuala seemed to be an impossible task as he answered Kelly’s text.
*
“You want to leave your new baby?” Nurse Leah’s voice was properly horrified as she took the large basket from Nuala.
Maeve was sound asleep inside, and Nuala’s chest squeezed tight at the thought of even a short separation this soon. It couldn’t be helped. If she was going to do what she meant to, it had to be now, while the baby was asleep.
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