I saw it, the moment my baby slid into the world. I was sitting up enough that I could see over my massive belly and could see the back of his head. Cole gently took him into his hands and twisted him just slightly, and he slithered out like an eel sliding through the water.
I was suddenly gripped with this fear that the baby was dead. I didn’t know where the thought came from, but after everything else that’d happened in my life lately, it wouldn’t have surprised me. I lay back, afraid to look at him, afraid to see his face. This horrible image filled my mind and a sob jumped to my lips. But then…the sweetest sound in the world filled the silent world of the car.
He was crying.
“It’s a boy,” Cole said in a voice I almost didn’t recognize as his.
I opened my eyes. Cole had the baby cradled against his chest, blood and God knew what else smeared over his arms and his hands. He was staring down at the baby with this look of awe on his face that softened the hard lines and made him even more handsome than he’d been before. When he lifted his eyes to mine, I swear there were tears in them.
“He’s beautiful,” he said softly.
“He’s okay?”
“He’s perfect.” Cole lifted a foot. “Ten toes and ten…”—he hesitated a second as he lifted the baby’s right hand—“…fingers.”
He looked at me again, and there was something different in his eyes. Respect, maybe.
“We need to get you to a hospital,” he said. “Can you sit up?”
I nodded.
He helped me up, covering my legs as best as he could. Then he carefully laid the baby in my arms, brushing his finger over the side of the baby’s face. He stood and stripped his t-shirt over his head and wrapped it around the baby, my arms, and whatever else got in the way. Then he slammed the door and rushed around to the driver’s side, putting the car into gear and pulling out so quickly that we left quite a mark on the soft shoulder.
The interstate was only four miles back, but we were still forty miles from Houston. A muscle worked in his jaw as he drove, faster than the already generous speed limit, easing the car around curves and other vehicles with the finesse of a racecar driver. I stared down at my baby, admiring the curves of his face, the shape of his lips. His nose was a little squished, but I thought it would look a lot like Peter’s in a day or two.
I was so tired. The exhaustion that I’d been carrying around for the last three months suddenly descended again. But it was heavier, and it continued to grow heavier until I felt like I couldn’t lift my shoulders, my arms. I was afraid I might drop the baby.
“Cole…”
The world grew dark around the edges. I heard Cole say my name, but I couldn’t answer him. I was floating away into oblivion, and it felt really, really good.
Chapter 7
Cole
The car tires screamed as I pulled to a stop outside the emergency room. I had the baby in one arm and was driving with the other, trying to rouse Amber with just the sound of my voice. But she was gone, completely unconscious. I should have stopped; I should have done something more than take the baby from her slack arms. But she needed the hospital and pulling over would have just delayed that moment longer than necessary.
I opened the car door and the dome light suddenly flooded the car with illumination. That’s when I saw it, all the blood. I’d smelled it, but I thought it was because it was on my hands…oh, God, that was a lot of blood!
I ran inside, screaming for someone, anyone. A nurse rushed up.
“She’s bleeding!”
“The baby? Let me see…”
“No. The mother. She’s out in my car. She’s bleeding.”
The nurse took one look at me and immediately jumped into action. Several other nurses came to her call and they pulled Amber out of the car, setting her on a gurney. I followed as they rushed her into a curtained off room behind the main entrance, but another nurse cut me off before I could go inside.
“Let’s have a look at this one,” she said, her eyes weary as she met mine.
“Will she be okay?”
“We have to let the doctor take a look. Right now, we need to check out the baby, okay?”
I followed her to another room, my ears perked to every sound, every call for more help. The nurse was just beginning to peel my shirt off the baby when I saw them rushing the gurney down the hall, Amber’s lifeless body on it.
“What’s going on? Where are they taking her?”
The nurse went to the door and watched for a second. Then she closed to door to the exam room and came back.
“Your wife is hemorrhaging. It’s not uncommon after giving birth, especially in unusual circumstances.”
“Will she be okay?”
“They’re doing the best they can.”
“But will she—?”
The woman touched my arm lightly. “Let’s take a look at the baby, okay? Clean him up a little?”
I reluctantly allowed her to take the baby from my arms. She carried him to a little plastic bed thing and carefully removed the t-shirt. The baby began to cry quite loudly as she carefully wiped away the blood and mess that was stuck to his tiny body. Once he was clean, she diapered him and pulled a little t-shirt over him, slipping a teeny hat onto his head.
“He looks good. Do you know how far along your wife was?”
“She had like three more weeks till her due date.”
The nurse nodded. “We consider a birth at thirty-eight weeks full term, so this one wasn’t that far off.” She smiled at me as she came toward me with a plastic hospital band. “I’m going to put this on you so that everyone knows that you belong with the baby. Then we’ll walk him upstairs together so that the on-call pediatrician can look at him.”
I followed her, feeling like I was in some sort of daze. I kept going over it all, the birth and the moments afterward. Had I forgotten to do something? Had I done something to cause Amber to bleed like that? I had no idea. I didn’t know what I was doing. The baby came out, I caught him. I thought that was all there was to it. But there was so much blood.
If she died…
I wouldn’t let myself go there. Instead, I watched the doctor examine the baby. I was seeing him in full light for the first time. It was a little overwhelming. He had blond hair that was so thin that it might as well not have been there. And his features…all babies look basically the same to me. But his hands. I knew it earlier and I knew it now. The baby had the same funny turn to his right pinky finger that all the Bradford men had.
This baby was Peter’s. There was no doubt in my mind.
“The baby’s fine, Mr.…?”
The doctor looked at me with questions clearly radiating from her eyes.
“Bradford.”
“Mr. Bradford. The baby is in perfect health.” She looked me over a second. “Can I ask what you cut the cord with?”
“Pocket knife.” I reached into my pocket and held it up. “It was all I had at the moment.”
She nodded. “We’ll want to give the baby some antibiotics, just to be on the safe side. But he’ll be ready to leave the hospital in a day or so.”
I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t know what was going on with Amber. If she died, what were we supposed to do with the baby? Neither Megan nor I were prepared to raise a newborn. And Mom and Dad were so close to retirement that taking on a baby would be like moving backward. I’m sure it was the last thing they’d want. But it was Peter’s baby. His son. He’d want us to take care of him.
The nurse showed me to a bathroom, and I cleaned up, scrubbing my hands so many times that they glowed red under the florescent lights. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fear in Amber’s eyes that slowly disappeared when I told her it would be okay. But now she was in surgery, fighting for her life. Was it really going to be okay?
I slid on the scrub top the nurse found for me and wandered down the hall to the windows outside the nursery. I could see the baby. He was sleeping now, clearly exhausted from
his ordeal. He was on his back, one fist curled up against his cheek. He was a fighter. I could see it already. He was a Bradford.
I turned away, leaning against a far wall, and called Megan.
“What’s going on, Cole?” she asked without bothering with a greeting.
“Did I wake you?”
“It’s three in morning. What do you think?”
I slipped a hand into the front pocket of my jeans and closed my eyes. The story spilled out, the words falling all over each other. Megan listened without interruption, so quiet that once or twice I thought maybe we’d been disconnected. But she was still there, her soft breathing almost reassuring.
“How long has she been in surgery?”
“I don’t know. An hour?”
“And you’re sure about the baby? About the finger?”
“I’m positive.”
She was quiet for a heartbeat. “Okay. I’ll go tell Mom and Dad. We’ll be there in less than an hour.”
“Thanks, Meg.”
“Are you okay, Cole?”
I almost laughed. I hadn’t thought about myself all this time. That had to be some sort of record.
“My car is sitting outside the emergency room doors. It probably ought to be moved and cleaned.”
“I’ll get one of my guys on it.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“You did good, Cole.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I wasn’t quite ready to pat myself on the back.
I went back to the nursery window and studied the baby’s features, trying to see Peter there. The more I looked, though, the more I saw Amber, not Peter.
“Mr. Bradford?”
I turned as a couple of doctors walked toward me in green scrubs. One held out his hand.
“I’m Dr. Simons. I’m the on-call obstetrician here tonight.”
“Cole Bradford.”
“Your wife is Amber?”
I nodded, not bothering to correct his assumption. It just seemed too complicated for the situation.
“She had a small tear in her uterus, and that’s what caused all the bleeding. But we were able to repair it.”
“She’s okay?”
“She’ll be fairly weak for a few days since she lost so much blood. But, yes, she should be fine.”
Relief rushed through me so quickly that my knees knocked together. I shook his hand enthusiastically.
“Thank you.”
The doctor smiled. “Next time, let the real doctors do the job, okay?”
“Definitely.”
Chapter 8
Megan
I touched my finger to my own last name on the placard outside Amber’s hospital room.
Cole shrugged. “They made assumptions when we came in, and I was a little too occupied to correct them.”
I just nodded, my eyes moving to my parents. They were sitting beside Amber’s bed, speaking to her in low voices that we couldn’t hear. But I knew what they were saying. They wanted to offer her any help that she might need. And, from the sound of things, she was going to need a lot of help.
“Holes in the floor, huh?”
“You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it.”
“What was Peter doing with this girl?”
Cole shook his head, his eyes not leaving Amber. He’d been standing there staring at her since we left the room. And, before that, he’d been sitting close to her bed, playing with the fringe of blanket hanging off her mattress.
He was messed up. I could see it. The delivery had gotten into his head, done things that wouldn’t be easy to change. It probably would have gotten to me, too, delivering some girl’s baby in the middle of nowhere, especially if the baby belonged to my dead brother. It did belong to my dead brother. And that just confused everything and made it so much harder to figure out what the hell was going on here.
“She’s a quiet little thing, isn’t she?” Daddy said, as he came out of the room, Momma by his side.
I could see that Cole had something to say to that, but he bit his lip, his eyes flashing back to Amber before he turned to join our family discussion.
“We told her that she was more than welcome to stay at our house with us,” Momma said, her eyes moving over Cole, “but she said you already invited her to stay with you.”
Cole inclined his head. “I thought it would be best.”
“How’s that?” Daddy asked.
I wrapped my arms over my chest. I hadn’t wanted to get into all of this with them before, but now it seemed like I couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Do you remember when I asked you what Peter might have been doing in Ada, Daddy?”
“I do. But I still have no idea.”
“We think he was investigating something.”
“Something to do with the illegal use of software,” Cole helpfully added.
Daddy frowned. “What does that have to do with this?”
“Amber’s from Ada, and that’s where she met Peter. And there was a man following her who is connected to whatever Peter was investigating out there.”
“That’s why she came to us last week,” I said. “She was frightened by this guy, and she didn’t know that Peter had died.”
“How could she not have known?” Daddy wanted to know. “The news went national after his accident.”
“She claims she doesn’t read the paper,” Cole said. “And she probably doesn’t own a computer or a cell phone. She’s just a struggling waitress.”
Daddy shrugged, clearly accepting Cole’s explanation. But Momma looked sharply at him, concern written all over her face. She heard the same thing in his voice that I did. Cole didn’t believe what he was saying, but he was so attached to Amber now that he’d delivered her baby and realized that she was telling the truth about Peter being the father, that he wanted to believe everything she’d told him.
That was dangerous. I was beginning to think I’d made a big mistake sending Cole after Amber. I should have sent one of my other assets. But it never crossed my mind that Amber was in any real danger, or that Cole would fall for her so easily.
“Are you sure you can handle taking care of a woman and her new baby, Cole?” Momma asked.
“It’s fine.”
“Can we at least buy some furniture and things for the baby? I can’t imagine you’re too prepared for that sort of thing.”
“I’d appreciate it. She doesn’t have anything.”
Momma glanced at Daddy. “We can do that. It’s the least we could do for Peter’s son.”
Her face crumpled. Daddy slipped his arm around her and pulled her close.
“Keep us updated,” he said, as he led her away.
Cole was already halfway through the door to Amber’s hospital room by the time I turned back to him.
“Hey!”
He turned, leaning against the doorframe.
“Be careful. Don’t get in over your head.”
He inclined his head, but he didn’t say anything. He simply turned and went back into the room. He paused at the baby’s basinet, reaching down to touch his cheek. Then he returned to his perch on the chair beside Amber’s bed, leaning close to speak quietly to her. She smiled softly, weakly. Then she looked at me, her eyes haunted.
I stood there for a long minute, but I knew I had to go. There was something bothering me about Cole’s confrontation with the bald guy. I needed to check it out.
Things were quiet at the office when I walked through the front door. Sam watched me come toward her, concern in her expressive brown eyes. She waited until we were behind closed doors, and then she tugged at my arm and pulled me into her arms.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
I shook my head “no.” I hated to admit it to anyone, even my dear friend Sam, but it was killing my soul to see that baby and know that he was a part of Peter. I’d just begun to put my grief to bed, but this ripped it back to the surface like tearing a Band-Aid off of a raw, festering wound.
“He
looks like him. I know he’s just a few hours old, but he looks like Peter.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I miss him. The whole time I’m sitting in that room, holding that baby in my arms, I’m thinking that Peter’s going to walk in at any second, laughing because he managed to miss the birth of his child. It kills me to know he’s not going to do that. Ever.”
“I know.”
I stumbled back and leaned on the front of my desk, staring down at my hands.
“Why did this happen? Why did my brother die?”
“It was an accident.”
“But was it? I’m beginning to wonder.”
“Why?”
I shook my head. “Why would he go all the way to Ada to ask some guy about the way his company was using some software? And why would that guy think that Amber Zavalas, some waitress my brother had one night with, would know anything about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I. But I don’t believe in coincidences, you know?”
“What do you want me to do?”
I chewed on my bottom lip for a long second. “Call Bobby. Have him track the bald guy down and find out exactly who the hell he is and whom he works for. Then have him go to Ada and see what he can find out about Peter’s visits. Have him talk to some of the other people who work at the diner, talk to people around town. But tell him to keep it on the down low.”
“Of course.”
“Then…Peter’s personal effects. I have them at my house. Would you help me look through them later this week?”
“You know I will. I offered before.”
“I know. I wasn’t ready. But I think I have to do it now.”
“What about his house? His office?”
“Daddy had the house packed up and most of the stuff moved to storage. And his office…Cole told me Daddy doesn’t allow anyone in there, so it’s probably still untouched.” I chewed my lip again. “If I know Peter, though, he had with him whatever he was working on, especially if it was as important as I think it was. Otherwise, it would be in his office.”
COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) Page 5