“They have you on tape. They saw Tim leave the bomb. That’s how they know it was you.”
“We heard that on the news, too.” The blonde shifted her stance. She was dressed in casual attire and hiking boots. Devoid of makeup, her hair was slightly tousled by the breeze. “I suppose we’re being filmed now, too. But it isn’t live, is it? No one is watching on a monitor.”
No, Lisa thought. No one was. “What do you want?”
“For you to take this.” Maggie held out a pill. “And after you do, we’ll go away and never come back. We can’t stay here now, not with the police looking for us.”
Lisa wanted desperately to scream, but not knowing what kind of danger her parents were in kept her silent.
“Take it.” Maggie removed a bottle of water from her pack. “It’s the easiest way.”
“To kill me or the baby?”
“The baby. We realized that God wants you to live, or you would have died in the explosion.”
God? They honestly thought that the Almighty had something to do with this? How sick was their religion? How twisted were their minds?
Maggie was still holding the capsule. It looked harmless, like cold medicine, but obviously it wasn’t. “Your real parents would be so disappointed in you.”
Her real parents were in the house, unaware that a threat loomed over their heads, unaware that Lisa was in trouble.
“Take it, dammit.”
Lisa reached for the pill. She would pretend to swallow it. She would do whatever she had to fool Tim and Maggie.
Then the other woman said, “If you try anything funny, I’ll be forced to kill you.”
Lisa nervously responded, “I thought God wants me to live.”
“He does, but not if you don’t get rid of that kid.”
Suddenly lights flashed in their eyes.
A car came toward the house and pulled into the driveway. Lisa squinted into the brightness.
Was it Rex?
Yes, oh God, yes. It was him. She recognized his hybrid. But it seemed obvious that he didn’t know that Tim and Maggie were there.
Lisa didn’t have time to warn him.
Maggie pushed her hard and fast, slamming her against the side of the house. She tumbled backward, unable to cradle her fall. The capsule flew out of her hand, but it didn’t seem to matter.
Instantly her stomach started to cramp, and she feared she was going to miscarry, regardless of any drug.
Tim rushed Rex as soon as he exited his car, and they tousled in the yard, back and forth, fighting over Rex’s gun.
Mom and Dad heard the ruckus and came out of the house. Maggie took off running.
Dad gave chase, and Mom dashed over to Lisa.
Everything happened in a blur, like a movie being fast-forwarded in her head. Dizzy, she shivered in her mom’s arms, praying that Rex prevailed.
When she saw him get to his feet, she clutched her cramping stomach. He’d knocked Tim out cold.
Dad brought Maggie back, and she was blubbering for her husband, assuming he was dead.
But he wasn’t. The only one in danger of losing its life was the baby.
Rex turned his gun over to Lisa’s dad, and the older man aimed it at Maggie and Tim, who was beginning to regain consciousness.
Struck with fear, Rex came over to Lisa and got on the ground with her. He’d already called 9–1-1. Soon the police and ambulance services would arrive.
She let go of her mother and crawled onto his lap. Rita stayed nearby, exchanging a nervous glance with Rex.
Lisa clung to him. “I think I might be losing the baby.”
No, he thought. Please, no. “Hang in there. You’ll be okay.” He didn’t know what else to say, other than offer his experienced support. “The Creator won’t take her from us.”
“What if He does?”
“He won’t.” Rex stroked a hand down her hair. She was breathing heavily, clearly more afraid than she’d ever been. This was worse than the threats, even worse than the bombing. This time, Tim and Maggie might have won, at least to some degree. They would be locked up, but the baby would be gone, too.
He wanted so badly to believe that Kamama would be born someday. Still, he couldn’t help but be afraid. There was no guarantee that she would survive.
“Do you know why I came over tonight?” he asked.
Lisa shook her head. She was curled against him, as if he had the power to make her pain go away.
“I talked to my parents, and my mom said you refused my proposal because you love me, and you wanted to hear me say that I love you, too. Is that true?”
She nodded. “Yes, but you don’t have to say that now just because you think you should.”
“That’s not why I’m going to say it. I realized as I was talking to mom that I do love you. I was confused at the bombing and wasn’t able to analyze my feelings or explain why I asked you to marry me. All I knew was that I wanted to have you near me, not just as the mother of my child, but as my wife.”
Her eyes went watery. “I want that, too. But what if…”
Her words drifted, but he understood what she meant. If they lost the baby, would they somehow lose each other, too?
“Nothing is going to change how I feel. And our butterfly is going to be okay.” Rex was hanging on to faith, to hope, to love, just as he was holding on to Lisa.
She gripped his shoulders. “My stomach still hurts. But I’m not bleeding.” She glanced at Rita, who was still on the sideline. “That’s good, isn’t it, Mom?”
“Yes, sweetie. That’s good.” She moved closer to her only child.
Rex wondered if Lisa’s mom had lost babies of her own, if she and her husband had tried to have a family before they’d adopted Lisa.
“I love her,” he said to Rita. “I love your daughter.”
She gave him a soft smile. “She loves you, too.”
“I do,” Lisa offered.
She looked up at him, and he never wanted to let her go.
Emergency vehicles arrived in a blaze of sirens, with the police on their tail. As Maggie and Tim were being handcuffed, Lisa was lifted onto a gurney, and Rex rode to the hospital with her.
Praying that their baby was safe.
Lisa awakened in a hospital room with last night’s chilling events still fresh in her mind. She glanced over at Rex. He was asleep in a chair beside her bed. He looked handsomely rumpled, the way one would expect an exhausted daddy to look.
God, how she loved him. He’d been there when she’d needed him most.
He seemed to sense that she was awake, and he opened his eyes, too.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.” He smiled at her.
And why not? They had a lot to smile about. The child they’d conceived was warm and snug in her womb. It had been touch and go, but in the end Kamama had been strong enough to survive. Their daughter was a fighter, even at this tiny stage.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Tired, but happy.”
“Me, too.” He stood up and stretched, then climbed into bed with her. It wasn’t quite dawn. The lavender light from the window was soft and beautifully hazy.
She gazed at his backlit image. “I hope she looks like you.”
“She’s going to look like both of us.” He shifted onto his side. “I’m going to propose again, Lisa. Next time I’ll have a ring, and I’ll say the right words.”
“You already have.” She ran her hands through the thickness of his hair. “I couldn’t ask for a more perfect fiancé.”
“I’ll sell my condo, and we can buy a house together. Or we can use the money to help rebuild yours if the insurance doesn’t cover all of it. Whatever you want to do, I’m good with it.”
“I think I’d like to start over in a different house.” New memories, she thought. A new life.
“The first room we’ll decorate will be the nursery.” He snuggled closer. “Butterfly magic.”
She skimmed her fingers over h
is jaw. “And fairies and Little People, too.” She wanted their daughter to have all the magic in the world.
“I said the Lord’s Prayer last night, in English and Cherokee. I must have said it a hundred times before I knew if the baby was going to be all right.”
“Then you must have helped save her.”
“Maybe Manny helped, too. Maybe he’s her guardian angel.”
“Maybe all of them are.” She thought about the victims whose graves they’d visited. She would never forget them. “Someday we’ll take Kamama to see them. We’ll teach her how important it is to love everyone, no matter what race, creed or color they are.”
“She’s going to be an amazing kid, and we’re going to have an amazing life together.”
“We are,” she agreed. The woman who’d made peace with her past, and the man who would always be her warrior.
Rex leaned over to kiss her, and she held him close, grateful for every moment they’d shared and every moment that was yet to come.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4489-8
PROTECTING THEIR BABY
Copyright © 2009 by Sheree Henry-WhiteFeather
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
*Warrior Society
*Warrior Society
Protecting Their Baby Page 14