Guarding the Babies

by Sandra Robbins

  Although it was early summer, there was still a nip in the air in the mornings. Holly shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist. “While you’re trying to make sense of this, would you like a cup of coffee?”

  Cole’s mouth opened as if he was about to speak. Then he exhaled and shook his head. “No, thanks. I don’t want to bother you.”

  At his clear reluctance to come inside, a sharp pain pierced her heart and she winced. What had happened to them? They’d been best friends since childhood, and now they were barely able to tolerate being in the same vicinity. Things might have ended badly for them in the romance department, but it was time they salvaged their friendship.

  “It’s no trouble, Cole,” she said. “We ought to be able to share a cup of coffee for old times’ sake.”

  An undecided look flashed in his eyes, and she was sure he was going to tell her no. Instead, he nodded. “You’re right. I’d love a cup of coffee.”

  She grinned and stepped back for him to enter the house. “Good. Come on back to the kitchen.”

  He followed her through the house without speaking and stopped just inside the kitchen door. She motioned for him to have a seat at the table. She refilled her cup and poured one for him before she turned back and set them on the table.

  “Black. No sugar or cream,” she said with a smile.

  He picked up the spoon she’d placed on the saucer and began to stir the hot coffee. He smiled as he glanced up at her. “You remembered how I take my coffee.”

  “And why wouldn’t I?” she said with a laugh. “We’ve probably consumed gallons of coffee together through the years.”

  He chuckled and nodded. “Yeah. I guess we have.” They sat in silence for a few minutes as they sipped from their cups. Then he set his mug down and lifted his head to stare at her. “How have you been, Holly? Other than losing your sister and Michael, I mean.”

  She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I miss Ruth. No matter where I was or what I was doing, we talked every day on the phone. Sometimes, I pick up my cell phone to call her before I remember that she isn’t going to answer.”

  “I know how you feel.” His gaze drifted around the kitchen. “I really miss coming here. I would stop by on my way to work several times a week, and Michael and I would have a cup of coffee together. Ruth used to join us, but after they adopted the twins she was busy all the time.”

  Holly smiled at the memory of how excited Ruth had been the day she called to tell her that the adoption had finally gone through and they were picking up Emma and Ethan that afternoon. “She went through so much with all the in vitro treatments she had, trying to get pregnant. But she said all her disappointments disappeared the first time she saw the twins.”

  Cole picked up his cup and stared at her over the top. “And now you have them. How have you been dealing with it?”

  Holly shrugged. “Okay, I guess, but I have a lot of help. At first, I thought I couldn’t do it. My lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to raising children. I thought about terminating my rights and letting someone else adopt them, but then I knew I couldn’t. They are Ruth’s children, and they’re all the family I have left. And after what happened last night... It makes me wonder why on earth I thought I could come here alone and take care of them.”

  Cole set his coffee back down. “You did a great job protecting them last night. But it would probably help if you had someone here with you.”

  She nodded. “That’s why I called my assistant to cut her stay at her parents’ home short and come help me. I hated to do that, but I’ll make it up to her.”

  “What about security? I know you have a team. I think they should be here, too.”

  “They will be soon.”

  Cole took one last drink from his cup, set it down and pushed to his feet. “Good. I’m glad you’re going to be protected. I’ll have the officers continue to patrol by here, and if you’ll give me your cell phone number, I’ll have my partner get in touch with you if we turn up anything about your intruder.”

  Holly realized he had just let her know he wouldn’t be getting in touch himself or seeing her again before she left. Trying to keep her voice steady, she recited her number and watched as he programmed it into his phone. Then, without speaking again, he rose to leave.

  Unable to let him leave like that, she followed him to the front door. Just as he reached for the doorknob, she called out to him. “Cole, wait.”

  He stopped and faced her. “What is it?”

  She licked her lips and clasped her hands in front of her. “Ever since you arrived last night, you’ve acted like I’m just another victim of a crime you’re investigating. Cole, we’ve known each other since we were children, and for years I was closer to you than I was to anybody else. I don’t want us to be reserved with each other. I would like for us to be friends again.”

  He stared at her with a skeptical look on his face. “Friends? How can we do that? You broke my heart, Holly. I don’t have any desire to be friends with you again.”

  She blinked back tears. “I know I did, but that was ten years ago. Surely you’ve moved on by now. Ruth told me once that you were serious about a woman from Gatlinburg.”

  He shook his head. “It didn’t work out. There’s nobody in my life right now. You, on the other hand, are featured on magazine covers all the time on the arm of a handsome singer or movie star at red-carpet events.”

  “That’s all arranged by my publicity team,” she responded. “Most of the men I go out with are less interested in getting to know me and more concerned that I’m going to get more attention from the paparazzi than they are.”

  Although she’d hoped to lighten the atmosphere with that final comment, he didn’t smile. “Sounds like you have a really tough life. But it’s just what you always wanted. You left Jackson Springs to find it, and now you’ve come back to rid yourself of the last hold that this place has on you. I hope you’re able to find a buyer right away.”

  The flat tone of his voice stung her. “The Realtor doesn’t think she’ll have trouble selling the ranch. Its location is a real asset. It’s in a valley surrounded by the Smokies, which makes it a prime example of a vacation home. So once I get everything cleaned out, the twins and I will be on our way back to Nashville.”

  He nodded. “Have a safe trip.”

  With that, he turned and strode toward the front door. When she heard it close, a sad feeling engulfed her. She hadn’t expected seeing Cole again would be so hard. She was being truthful when she’d said he was the best friend she’d ever had, and lately she’d come to miss that.

  With a sigh, she picked up the coffee cups and carried them to the sink. Cole had no interest in being her friend, and she would just have to accept that. After all, she had no one to blame but herself.

  At least she knew he would do his best to keep her and the babies safe—for the twins’ sake and in honor of Ruth and Michael’s memory, if nothing else. That was what mattered the most. Cole might not trust her anymore, but the twins were counting on her, dependent on her in every way.

  She wouldn’t—couldn’t—let them down.

  * * *

  Cole didn’t look back as he drove away from Tumbling Creek Ranch. Once, it had been a second home to him, but now he felt like a stranger there. He’d held on to his attachment to it while Ruth and Michael were alive, but now it was Holly’s, and she was going to sell it.

  That shouldn’t have surprised him, but somehow it did. How could she get rid of the land that her father had loved so much? But then, she had severed all connections with everything in this place, except for her sister, when she left years ago.

  He clenched his jaw as he thought back to that time and how he’d felt when she’d broken off their engagement and moved to Nashville. To her credit, she’d begged him to go with her, to stay in the band that they’d started together. But in his heart, he knew he
didn’t have the talent that she had, and he also didn’t have the dream of making it in the music industry. He supposed, in the end, their relationship had turned out the only way it could. She’d left, and he’d stayed.

  Now she said she wanted to be friends, but that was never going to happen. He could just hope that the ranch would sell right away and she’d be gone. Back to Nashville and out of his life for good.

  Shaking the troubling thoughts from his head, he directed his attention back to the road. With summer just having begun, tourists had flooded into Jackson Springs to spend some time in the Smokies. The sight of so many cars on the road made him smile as he drove into town. Ten minutes later, he walked down the hall of the sheriff’s department and entered his office.

  His partner, Dan Welch, had the day off, and Cole settled behind his desk to do some paperwork he’d been putting off. He tried to push his conversation with Holly from his mind and forced himself to concentrate on the papers in front of him. He had no idea how long he’d worked and was shocked to look up a while later and see that it was almost lunchtime. He stood up and stretched his back, which had grown stiff while he was hunched over his desk, and was about to leave his office when the phone rang. The light on the base showing the various lines coming into the office indicated a call on line one from the receptionist. He picked up the receiver and answered. “Hey, Brenda. What’s up?”

  “You have a call on line one from a young woman, Cole. I’ll connect you,” she answered.

  Almost immediately, he heard the click that told him he’d been connected to the caller. “Detective Jackson speaking.” For a moment, he didn’t think anyone was there, and then he heard a throat clearing. He waited for someone to say something, but there was silence on the line. “Can I help you?”

  “Yes,” a voice replied but didn’t say anything else.

  He frowned as he tried to determine if he’d ever heard the voice before and decided he hadn’t. It was definitely a woman’s voice. And she sounded afraid.

  “What do you need?”

  The caller took a deep breath. “I think they’re trying to kill me, because I know too much.”

  Her voice trembled, and Cole sat up straight in his chair. “Who’s trying to kill you, and what do you know about?”

  “I don’t know all their names, but...” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was laced with panic. “He’s...he’s found me.”

  “Where are you?” Cole asked. “I’ll come for you.”

  “No! I have to go!”

  With those words, the call disconnected. “Ma’am, where are you?” he yelled into the phone, but there was no answer.

  He punched the button that connected him to Brenda’s phone, and she answered right away. “Cole, do you need something?”

  “Have our tech guys see if they can find out where that last phone call came from, and tell them it’s urgent. Let me know as soon as they have something.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” she said before ending the call.

  For the next fifteen minutes, Cole paced the floor in his office as conflicting thoughts ran through his head. What if the girl on the phone had been lying? Some people enjoyed giving a false police report, and she could be one of them. On the other hand, though, she had sounded really frightened.

  When the phone rang again, he grabbed the receiver. “Brenda? Any word on the call?”

  “Yes. The call came from a cell phone and pinged off the tower near the old water plant. They placed her somewhere in the vicinity of that mall on Sturgis Road.”

  “I’m on it,” Cole said before he slammed the phone down and headed out the door.

  He knew he was probably on a wild-goose chase. How could he possibly identify a girl when he’d only heard her voice? Something in the way she spoke, though, told him that she was serious about being in danger. He’d heard fear in people’s voices before, and hers definitely told him she was afraid.

  Whether or not he’d be able to find her, he had to try.

  THREE

  Getting the twins ready for the day was a full-time job, and Holly wondered again how her sister had done it. Holly usually had someone to help her, but the nanny she’d hired had recently quit, and Mandy hadn’t been able to find another one yet. Maybe while Mandy was here she could work on that.

  Thankfully, two members of her security team had arrived. With one at the front of the house and one behind it, she felt safer. But there was another problem. She needed to go to the grocery store.

  She stepped out onto the front porch and was met by Todd Bingham, who’d been on her security team for about two years. “Miss Lee, is there something I can do for you?”

  “Yes, Todd. I hate to ask you, but could you and Ray take me to the grocery store? I need to do some shopping.”

  Todd frowned. “I’m not sure you need to go out in public after what happened last night.”

  “It’ll be okay. Evidently, the break-in hasn’t been discovered by the media yet. If it had been, we’d have reporters all over the place. So let’s go before they find out. I may not have another chance.”

  He looked like he wasn’t convinced, but he raised his walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Ray, we’re going to town. Bring the car around.”

  “Thanks, Todd,” Holly said. “Come inside and get one of the twins, and I’ll bring the other one. We need to put their stroller in the car, too.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied as he followed her into the house.

  Ten minutes later, Ray pulled the car to a stop in front of the supermarket inside the Sturgis Road Mall. Holly pulled the baseball cap she wore lower on her head and slipped on her sunglasses before she stepped from the SUV. With Todd’s help, they settled Emma and Ethan in the double stroller.

  Todd turned to Ray. “Park the car and then wait out front. If you see anything suspicious, call me.”

  Ray nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  As they walked toward the automatic doors at the store’s entrance, Holly hoped if anyone was looking she, Todd and the children would look like a normal family coming to do some shopping. Once inside, Todd grabbed a shopping cart and they headed toward the first aisle.

  No one seemed to pay them any attention. She just wished Todd would relax more. His gaze darted here and there, and every time they approached someone, he would place his body between her and the other person.

  “Todd,” she whispered. “Relax.”

  “I’ll relax when we’re back at the ranch, ma’am.”

  She laughed at the flat tone of his voice and stopped in front of the cereal that the children liked. She was about to pick up a box when something caught her eye at the other end of the aisle, and she turned her head to see a young woman staring at them.

  At first, Holly thought she might be a reporter, but the more she studied her the more she thought that couldn’t be. Her brown hair hung down to her shoulders, and it looked as if it hadn’t been brushed all day. Even from far away, Holly could see the red streaks around her eyes. They seemed to stand out, especially since her face was so pale. She gave the appearance of someone who hadn’t slept in days.

  The young woman’s gaze flickered from her to the babies and then back to Holly. There was something in her eyes that sent cold chills down Holly’s spine. Who was she, and why was she staring at the twins so intently?

  Suddenly the woman whirled and disappeared down the next aisle. Holly stood there a moment, wondering what that was all about. Todd, who’d been looking the other way, evidently hadn’t seen her, and Holly didn’t say anything. The girl probably recognized Holly and was just shocked to see a country-music star buying groceries.

  Shaking off her discomfort, she tossed the cereal in the cart and pushed the stroller toward the end of the aisle. Todd followed with the cart. When she rounded the end, she looked about in hopes of catching another glimpse of the s
trange woman, but she was nowhere to be seen. Maybe Holly was overreacting thanks to nerves that were still fragile from her experience the night before. With a shake of her head, she pushed the stroller toward the produce section and came to a stop in front of a display of bananas. Emma and Ethan spied their favorite fruit stacked up and began to point.

  Holly laughed and chucked each one under the chin. “Don’t worry. I’m going to get you some.”

  She was just about to pick up one of the bunches when she heard a cry at the end of the aisle at the back of the produce section. She froze in place and turned a startled gaze in that direction. A man lay on the floor, and a crowd had begun to gather around him.

  “Call an ambulance. Does anyone know CPR?” someone called out.

  Todd glanced at Holly. “I know CPR. I need to go help him.”

  Holly nodded. “Go on. See what you can do.”

  Todd rushed over to the prostrate figure and dropped down on his knees beside the unconscious man. He leaned over and examined him for a moment before he looked up. “He’s breathing on his own,” he announced, loud enough for Holly to hear him. “I’ll just watch him until the paramedics get here.”

  Holly took a step closer to the drama that was playing out on the floor of the supermarket and stared at the man who lay there. The observing crowd was growing, and it looked like every customer in the store had congregated in the area. With the thought that Todd could handle the situation, she turned back to the twins.

  Later, she would remember that she had only looked away for not more than a few seconds. But that was all the time someone had needed. The space where the stroller had sat was now empty, and the twins were nowhere in sight.

  She looked around in panic before the first scream ripped from her throat. “My children! Someone’s taken my children!”

  Todd came barreling through the crowd toward her, but she was already running to the front of the store. “Did you see someone leave with two children in a stroller?” she yelled at the checkout girl.

  Her eyes grew wide, and she nodded. “A man just pushed a stroller out the front door.”