by Hope White
“Yes, to prevent me from calling for help.”
“So she’s been playing us? Man, I’d started to actually believe in her.”
So had Whit. He’d believed in her, appreciated her and maybe even loved her.
“Harper,” one of his deputies called from the other side of the room. The detective went to confer on something, leaving Whit to consider Harper’s words.
Carly had been playing them, all of them. Especially Whit.
His gut burned with frustration. His blind trust in Carly had turned sour, eating away his insides.
Yet something felt off and he couldn’t see the whole picture because his perception was blurred by betrayal.
God, help me see this a different way.
He closed his eyes and Carly’s brilliant smile filled his mind, the sound of her singing to Mia, her voice infused with love. That was real. Her love for Mia was real.
This young woman, a gentle soul, had somehow managed to remain as Mia’s nanny, even though it meant working for a crime family.
She’d also managed to prevent Levi’s men from killing Whit.
Killing a cop will put a bull’s-eye on our back and make it impossible to get out of town.
Amazing.
He could see it clearly now, see past his bruised ego and emotional pain. “Harper, can I use your computer?”
Harper joined him and logged in. “What’ve you got?”
“I think I know why she took my phone.”
“To keep you from calling for help.”
“I called it in on the radio. Taking my phone did nothing to prevent that.”
“Then why’d she take it?”
“To help us find her.”
Whit signed into his account and searched for his phone.
“Where’s this?” Whit pointed to the screen.
“Small airport outside Denver. I’ll notify the feds.”
* * *
The SUV drove past a private airplane sitting outside a hangar and parked. Not good. Levi was no doubt planning to fly them away to parts unknown, never to be found again. Carly would be at the mercy of these criminals for who knows how long.
Find us, Whit, you have to find us.
As she exited the car, Levi was waiting for her, hands out, expecting to take Mia. Although Carly didn’t want to relinquish the child, she had to keep playing the part of new employee for a notorious crime family.
She handed Mia to Levi and grabbed her purse and diaper bag. Mia squealed, disliking how this stranger awkwardly held her. Levi cringed at the sound of her cries.
“Here, let me.” Carly took Mia. “I can teach you how she likes to be held, don’t worry.”
“Oh, I’m not worried.” Levi shot her a creepy smile. “Follow me.”
Girl, what have you gotten yourself into? She coached herself to stay strong as she considered strategy to stop from getting on that plane and vanishing forever.
Levi didn’t escort her onto the plane. He led her to a small office, opened the door and there, on the floor with his hands bound behind him, head tipped down, sat Harry Bremerton.
“There’s someone here to see you, Harry,” Levi said.
Mr. Bremerton slowly looked up, bruises coloring his face. “Mia,” he said, in a hoarse voice.
The little girl turned her head toward the sound of her father’s voice and squealed with delight when she saw him. Mia reached out for her papa.
“Let me hold her,” Mr. B. begged.
Carly automatically went toward him. Levi blocked her.
“You’re not wearing a mask,” Mr. B. said to his captor.
“I want you to remember my face.” Levi stepped closer. “The face of the man who took everything from you.”
“Please...please let me hold her,” Mr. B. pleaded.
“You’ve held her for the past seven months. Now it’s my turn. And I’ll get to hold her for the rest of her life.”
“Mia,” Mr. B. groaned.
“While you spend the rest of your life worrying about the little girl. Is she happy? Being well cared for? Has she joined the family business? You’ll always wonder, and it will eat away at you like acid devouring metal.”
Carly’s heart was breaking for Mr. B.
His eyes reddened with tears. “Mia.”
“That’s no longer her name. From now on we’ll call her—” Levi hesitated and glanced at Carly “—Greta.”
A chill raced down Carly’s spine. Oh, this guy had done his homework all right. He was not only messing with Mr. B.’s head, but Levi was playing mind games with Carly, as well.
Well, it was time for Carly to play some of her own games.
“I need to change the baby,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“The baby...?” Levi raised an eyebrow.
“Greta.” She played along. “I need to change her diaper or she’s going to stink up your plane.”
Levi opened the office door and motioned to one of his men.
Carly tried sharing a sympathetic look with Mr. B. but he was staring at the floor, totally lost.
“Escort the nanny to the bathroom and wait while she changes my daughter’s diaper, then get them on the plane,” Levi said to his thug. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“Yes, sir.”
Without looking at Levi, Carly stepped around him and followed the guy through the hangar. She didn’t see the other two men. They must already be on the plane.
Mia still cried for her daddy and Carly soothed her, while scanning the area for a good hiding place to keep them safe until help arrived.
If Whit figured out her plan.
Fleeing the hangar wasn’t an option. She and Mia wouldn’t get far, and it would expose her ultimate goal: stop Levi from taking this child away from her adoptive parents.
The thug, who carried a gun in his hand as if expecting trouble, opened the bathroom door, and she peered inside. “I need something to lay the baby down on.”
She noticed a horizontal storage container a few feet away. It was a big container, which gave her an idea. “This works.”
She went to the locker, laid Mia down and placed a pacifier in her mouth to ease her anxiety.
The thug was antsy, probably worried about being caught by the cops. He took a few steps away and scanned the area. Carly worked up the courage to make her next move.
With one hand on the baby, she grabbed the weapon out of her purse. This was her best chance...
“Hey!”
The guy turned and she fired the Taser, nailing him in the chest. His body jerked and hit the ground.
There was no going back now. She picked up Mia and snatched the guy’s gun off the floor. Opening the storage unit, she sighed with relief.
Praise God, it was empty.
She tossed the diaper bag around the corner, out of sight, and climbed into the storage unit holding Mia and the gun, although her finger was not on the trigger. Light shone through a crack in the lid. She adjusted the pacifier in Mia’s mouth.
Please stay quiet, sweet thing.
“Where’s my daughter?” Levi shouted. “Carter!”
“He’s over here on the floor!” another guy said.
Carly’s heart pounded up into her throat.
“Shh,” she whispered to Mia. If the child made any sounds, even the slightest whimper...
“Find them!” Levi ordered. “Kill the nanny!”
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
“We need to get on the plane!” one of the guys said.
“Not without my child!”
Mia suddenly squeaked.
Carly bit back a gasp.
“Over there!” Levi said.
They were close. Her heart pounded into her throat.
“Federal agents!”
Gunfire echoed throughout the hangar, making Mia burst into inconsolable sobs. Carly pinched her eyes shut, humming against the child’s soft hair.
The shooting stopped suddenly. Mia’s cries did not.
She clung to the baby, while holding the gun in her right hand. Could she use it to shoot and kill someone? Doubtful, although if she had to die it might as well be trying to save this little girl from a criminal monster.
Adrenaline blocked all sense of time. She could have been hiding there for minutes or hours, she wasn’t sure.
The storage locker cracked open. She couldn’t look, and she certainly wasn’t letting go of Mia.
“I got ’em!” It was Whit’s voice.
She gasped. Didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath. She opened her eyes to the most beautiful sight: Whit’s warm blue eyes and gentle expression.
“Nice hiding place,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“Ready to come out?”
“I think so.”
She offered him the gun and he tucked it away, then helped her up. As she stood, he pulled her and Mia into a group hug. Peace flowed through her body. This man had come for her. He’d saved them both.
And she loved him with all her heart.
“The baby, is Mia okay?” Mr. B. said, rushing up to them.
Whit broke the embrace. Carly handed the baby to Mr. B.
“Susan?” he said, rocking Mia.
“She’s okay, but traumatized.”
“Serenity Resort was a fraud,” Mr. B. said. “Susan had no idea. The kidnapping wasn’t her fault.”
“The kidnapping had nothing to do with Serenity Resort,” Whit said. “The man who took you, Levi Moore, is Mia’s biological father.”
“I...I don’t understand. The woman we adopted her from said she didn’t know who the father was.”
“She didn’t want Levi coming after Mia,” Carly said.
Mr. B. stared off into space, his face looking even paler.
Whit waved two EMTs over. “Let’s get you to the hospital, Harry.”
Mr. B. wouldn’t let go of Mia.
“Come on, little brother. I got this,” Whit said.
He reached out and took Mia.
“You don’t know anything about kids,” Mr. B. said, climbing onto a stretcher.
“Yeah, funny thing, I got a crash course this week.” He glanced at Carly. “Had a great teacher.”
Mr. B. reached out and squeezed Carly’s hand. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
The EMTs wheeled him away.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Whit called.
Carly and Whit headed out of the hangar toward Detective Harper’s car.
“What about Levi?” she said.
“He was shot and killed by federal agents. Two of his men were critically injured, and the third, well, someone shot him with a Taser.” He quirked an eyebrow.
“I’m a pretty good shot.”
“Maybe with a Taser, but the gun you handed me? The safety was on.”
“Not sure I could have used it anyway.”
They walked in silence for a few seconds. Now that the case was resolved, and life would go back to normal, an unexpected awkwardness grew between them.
“Thanks for finding us,” she said.
“I was confused at first, when you took my phone—”
“You thought I was joining the other side, huh?”
Whit shrugged. “Not for long.”
“I knew you’d figure it out.” She smiled.
* * *
The woman’s smile lit up Whit’s heart. He’d never experienced this kind of connection and it wasn’t because they’d met during a high-adrenaline situation. He knew in his heart that no matter how they met they’d develop a connection beyond ordinary friendship or romantic love.
“Carly, once everything settles down—”
“I know, you’ll be going back to your job in Dallas, and I’ll take the nurse’s exam. Everything will get back to normal.”
Whit didn’t want normal. He wanted Carly.
“Actually, I was thinking I might hang around Miner for a while, reconnect with my brother, spend some time with my niece, maybe even ask her nanny out for dinner.”
“And then you’ll return Texas,” she said.
He hesitated, realizing he had no real desire to return to the department. After everything that happened this week, he felt like his hero complex, the need to catch the bad guys and protect the world, was interfering with something more important: his desire to reconnect with his brother, with family, which had been missing from his life.
He couldn’t do that from eight hundred miles away.
Frustration had consumed him when he’d been benched because of his injuries on the job. Somehow that frustration had dissolved and today everything looked different, it felt different, and he wondered if maybe God had something else planned for him.
God? Since when have you considered God’s plans?
Since Carly entered his life.
Mia lunged sideways, reaching for Carly. Whit handed her over and said, “I like the weather better in Denver.”
“It’s definitely gorgeous in the summer.”
“As opposed to a hundred-plus degrees in Texas.”
There was a long, awkward pause. “I can’t believe we’re talking about the weather,” Whit said.
Carly smiled. And he was lost yet again. Or make that...found.
He was about to officially ask her on a date when Harper interrupted them. “The feds need Carly’s statement.”
“Oh, okay.” Carly handed the baby back to Whit.
As she walked away with one of the federal agents, she glanced over her shoulder and shared a half smile with Whit.
“I’ll see you later,” he called out.
Whit turned to get into Harper’s car and the detective cracked a half smile, shaking his head. “You are in trouble, my friend.”
* * *
During the next few weeks, everyone struggled to get back to normal: Susan and Harry, the doting parents, Susan now a cooperating witness for the prosecution into the fraud scheme; Whit playing his part of overprotective brother and uncle; and Carly, the loving nanny.
Even though something had significantly changed between him and Carly, Whit still felt a connection. He assumed she was stressed about her upcoming nurse’s exam and therefore he decided to give her space.
That didn’t stop him from sharing a smile now and then.
Whit and Harry were talking and drinking coffee one night when Carly entered the kitchen.
“She needs her nighttime bottle,” Carly explained and proceeded to open the refrigerator.
“Susan will be okay,” Harry said. “At least legally.”
“And emotionally?” Whit asked.
“She’s still struggling with the trauma.”
“Who wouldn’t be after everything she’s endured,” Carly chimed in, and then glanced at the men. “Sorry, didn’t mean to insert myself into your conversation.”
“No apologies necessary,” Harry said. “You’re more like a part of the family than an employee.”
“Thanks. I’ve been wondering how Sam’s doing.”
“She’s physically on the mend,” Whit said. “Decided to cooperate with the feds, filling in the blanks about Levi’s business, which means she may need to go into witness protection.”
“So she won’t be able to see Mia,” Carly said softly.
“Sam still wants Harry and Susan to raise Mia. Nothing’s changed there,” Whit said.
Carly nodded. “Well, I’d better get the bottle up to the little one. Mrs. B. wants to feed her while I read a bedtime story.”
“T
ell Susan I’ll be up in a few minutes,” Harry said.
“Will do.” She glanced at Whit and a slight smile curved her lips. She turned and left.
“Really?” Harry said.
Whit snapped his attention to his brother. “What?”
“We were kidnapped and you were making a play for the nanny?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Yeah, okay,” Harry teased.
Whit smiled and stirred his coffee. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What happened last month? I mean, I thought we were reconnecting and then you stopped returning my calls.”
“I started to suspect something was off with Serenity Resort. I was embarrassed, ashamed, didn’t want you to know.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“On some level I felt responsible.”
“Come again?”
“Perhaps if I’d been more attentive to my wife, Susan wouldn’t have thrown herself into all these projects. She might have paid more attention and not been manipulated by the Serenity scheme. It was so important that I be proud of her. I told her what a great mom she was, but I guess she didn’t think that was enough.”
“And Mia, why didn’t you tell me she was adopted?”
“I planned to, eventually, but you and I were just starting to reconnect. Susan was terribly insecure about our inability to conceive and wanted to keep it private. The adoption wasn’t something we broadcast, although a few close friends from church knew. The thought of losing Mia...” He sighed and stared into his coffee. “One thing’s for sure, I’m going to spend more time with my family and less time at the office.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
“My turn to ask you something,” Harry said. “You don’t seem to be in a hurry to return to Texas.”
“They haven’t cleared me to go back to work.”
“And when they do?”
Whit shrugged. “I guess I’m starting to think other things might be more important than the job.”
“Mia got to you, didn’t she? Or was it the nanny?”
Whit shrugged. “A little of both?”
“Good, because this experience has inspired a new business venture and I think you’re the perfect guy to help me get it started.”