The Firefighter’s Secret Baby

by Anna DeStefano

  Footsteps thundered toward them from below. Lewis drew his weapon and stepped around them, his gun raised and trained down the stairwell. When another officer rounded the flight below them, Lewis turned back. He didn’t reholster his weapon.

  “Stay down and against the wall,” he said. “Don’t get yourself or me shot and make me regret doing this. My ass is officially on the same line as yours now.”

  Lewis approached the door leading from the stairwell to the fifth floor. Charlie and Seth shared a silent stare.

  “All eyes,” the officer said into his walkie-talkie. “Stairwell door opening. Repeat, I’m entering through the stairwell. Two parties in tow.”

  A squawk of chatter Charlie couldn’t decode must have cleared them through.

  “Wait here.” Lewis opened the door with his free hand and caught it with his foot. He positioned his gun through the gap. The officer who’d reached the landing beside Seth and Charlie covered their backsides. When Lewis nodded his head, the other officer grabbed the door. Lewis stepped through. He scanned one direction with his eyes and weapon, then the other.

  “Clear,” he said.

  The other officer motioned for Seth and Charlie to follow his partner.

  Seth and Charlie stepped onto the floor.

  The stairwell door closed soundlessly behind them.

  RANDY SHIFTED Sam behind his back as they neared the office’s door. His arm braced her, protected her, while he put his body between her and whatever was happening in the hall. His hand itched to be holding the handgun he’d given back to Dean yesterday.

  Another blast of gunfire rang out. Hell if he could tell where it was coming from, or see through the hazy gloom. All he was certain of was that their sting had just gone from a bad idea to a disaster, progressing exactly as planned. They’d drawn Luca Gianfranco out. The mobster was there to finish things with Sam. Job well done.

  “Randy?” Sam shivered behind him. “Max said to wait here until—”

  “I’m not going to wait for you to be picked off by your brother or whoever he’s gotten to betray Dean’s team.”

  Enough of sitting and doing nothing. Enough waiting and watching. His commitment was to Sam, not this insane plan.

  “It’s Luca,” she said. “He’s—”

  “He’s blown the compressor for the central elevators.” A familiar shadow suddenly loomed in the doorway.

  “Get out of my way.” Randy challenged Sam’s federal marshal.

  More gunshots echoed from too nearby.

  “Get down.” Dean yanked hard on Randy’s arm.

  He didn’t loosen his hold until Randy and Sam were kneeling beside him. Max motioned with his gun. The agents accompanying him closed ranks, effectively flanking the doorway. A female agent that Randy recognized but couldn’t place joined the group.

  “Are you two out of your minds moving around?” Dean demanded. “We can’t secure you outside this room, and—”

  “That’s what my brother does best.” Sam coughed. “He corners people where they think they’re safest. He has to know our location by now, and he’ll—”

  “My men have every access point to this floor covered.” Dean fingered the comm device at his ear.

  “So will Luca’s people,” Sam argued.

  “We have it covered,” insisted the female agent—Glinda, Randy finally remembered. Her hand was at her own comm device. Her frown matched her boss’s as they listened to whatever information was pouring in from their team.

  “Is that what the gunfire means?” Randy flinched as another shot rang out. “Yeah, you’ve got our asses covered but good! It’s time to get Sam out. She’s done her job. Her safety comes first. You either give us your exit plan, or I’m getting her out myself.”

  “Which will put her at even more risk,” Dean assured him.

  Randy grabbed Sam’s hand. He fought for focus. To remember how he’d asked her to be strong enough to see this through. Now Sam was the one calmly facing reality, while Randy wanted to take Dean apart with his bare hands. This was how Sam got her life back. She was watching him, waiting for him to decide. Trusting him to stand by her.

  Randy closed his eyes. Told himself to trust the team fighting around him. Just like at an accident scene, where his job was to set a rescue plan in motion, then turn things over to his men. Except what he’d turned over to Sam was his heart, and now he had to trust Max Dean with protecting it.

  “I love you,” he reminded her before turning back to her protection detail.

  “Tell me what your next move is,” he demanded. “No more need-to-know. How are you going to protect Sam from her brother?”

  Dean was still listening to the reports streaming into his earpiece.

  “The fire’s contained in the basement,” he reported, “though there’s smoke still circulating through the central elevator shafts. Armed suspects were neutralized on the ground floor just after the blast.” His hand dropped from his ear. He gave Randy and Sam his undivided attention for the first time. “This has all the earmarks of someone trying to herd a mark into a trap. Which means we can’t remove Sam without giving Luca Gianfranco the chance to eliminate her. He’s trying to flush her out.”

  “My brother was probably already on this floor before his men took out the compressors,” Sam said. “He’s sitting back somewhere, watching the fallout from his attack. Luca likes to show up early for a party—my father taught him that. He’d want the best vantage point, while he waited for his opening.”

  Dean didn’t seem particularly surprised by Sam’s assessment. Randy tucked her closer against him.

  “Is that a possibility?” he asked.

  “That someone’s put Gianfranco in position, maybe even before you arrived? It’s entirely possible. Even more reason to not deviate from our plan and make half-assed emotional mistakes.”

  “Your plan is bullshit, Marshal Dean,” Randy yelled over the screeching alarms. “What about us being window dressing?”

  “Plans change,” Dean said. “And I’ve arranged for contingencies that weren’t shared with my chain of command.”

  “Which are?”

  “There are staff elevators diagonally opposite the central ones,” Glinda said. “For bringing over patients from the hospital for consults. They don’t stop on all floors, and they won’t be officially operational until the construction is completed.”

  “Please tell me they’re unofficially working well enough to use.” Randy took his first full breath since the explosion, then coughed over the bite of smoke.

  “They are,” Dean confirmed. “No one but me and my deputies know. The staff elevators work on different compressors than the central banks. I’ve secured an auxiliary room on the garden basement floor for Sam, just in case.”

  “Auxiliary room?” Sam asked.

  “Somewhere to stash you, if we couldn’t get you all the way out. At this point we have to assume that Luca is monitoring every exit. We need to appear to be trying to evacuate you from the building via a more traditional route, meanwhile I’ll be securing you five flights down until your brother’s in custody.”

  “Okay, 007,” Sam sassed. She gave a shaky smile, and Randy couldn’t resist kissing her again. “How does this work?”

  “We split the two of you up,” Dean said. “I only have four deputies, so it will be tight, but…” His hand went back to his ear. He cursed under his breath, then sighed and shot Randy a rueful smile. “Actually, Lieutenant Montgomery, your troublesome family may just have made my day.”

  “What the hell are you—”

  Randy didn’t get to finish his question before a crouching APD officer escorted two other stooped figures into the dimly lit room. Then Seth Washington and Charlie were straightening to their full heights beside him.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Doing what’s best for your daughter,” Charlie said, “just like I promised. And what’s best is for you and Sam to get out of this in one piece, so that
little girl can grow up with both parents, the way she deserves.”

  Randy swallowed the curse he’d been about to fling at his big brother. Instead, he found himself hauling Charlie into a hug that included Sam.

  Family. It’s what Randy and his brothers and sister had always been fighting for. It’s what they’d never given up on. Randy felt a renewed surge of confidence that no weapon could give him.

  Dean eyed them. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to bode well for my career?”

  “Is your career what we’re most concerned about at the moment?” Charlie asked.

  “No.” Dean nodded. “How do you feel about duck hunting?”

  “Duck hunting?” Randy sputtered.

  “You and Charlie here are about to become decoys.” Dean nodded to Glinda who’d stepped past Randy and Sam and further into the office. The female agent began stripping out of her suit jacket and pants, ignoring Randy and Charlie as if they weren’t there.

  “Decoys?” Randy asked Dean.

  “I’m with you,” Glinda chimed in. “While I play the part of Ms. Gianfranco here, Sam goes with Marshal Dean.”

  “Dr. Washington,” Dean said to Seth. “You’ll need to stay here. But hand your lab coat to your partner in crime.”

  Seth took off his coat while Glinda began passing her clothes to Sam.

  “Do we have to split up?” Sam’s grip on Randy’s hand felt like a vise. She stared up at him. “Luca will think I’m with you still. He’ll be gunning for you.”

  Nodding, forcing himself to function, Randy began to gently remove the sling from her arm. Then he went to work on the buttons of Sam’s dress.

  “It’s the best way to draw out your brother while Dean gets you out,” he said. “It ends this.”

  “No!” Sam batted his fingers away.

  Randy went back to work on the buttons without comment.

  “You’re not…” Sam grabbed his hands. “I can’t—”

  “Yes, you can.” Randy’s palms were sweating and his hands were shaking at the thought of leaving someone else to protect her.

  His fingers slipped trying to work the next button. He couldn’t lose Sam. He’d never survive it. He pulled her close, holding on to her for a few endless seconds. Then he told himself to get a grip. To do what he’d promised her he would. Shuddering, dying inside, he moved her away.

  “Damn it, Sam. I believe in you. I believe you love me and our daughter enough to get through whatever craziness Dean has planned.” Randy set her further away from him. “Your protection detail knows what they’re doing. Trust them. Trust me. I know you can do this, baby.”

  Randy held his breath, willing Sam to fight for them. For the family he wanted to build with her. No more running. No more hiding. This was it. He didn’t like it any more than she did. But if Sam was going to make it out of this alive, Randy had to let her go, and trust her to come back to him.

  Nodding at the conviction he’d forced into his expression, Sam slowly began to undress herself.

  “All right.” Randy smiled down into her terrified gaze.

  He’d never been more proud of anyone. God, please, don’t let him be making the biggest mistake of his life. She’d slipped away from him in Savannah. He wouldn’t survive losing her now.

  “Let’s hear your can’t-lose plan for digging our asses out of this mess,” he said to Dean. “Then, let’s get it on.”

  Max Dean chuckled, nodding. “Let’s get it on.”

  LUCA HAD SMILED when the charges his men had set beside the elevator compressors went off. Next had come the blare of the fire alarms, followed by the distant racket of gunfire, as two of Luca’s more expendable men distracted the APD officers they’d been told would be staking out the ground floor. All while Luca sat waiting, cramped, in a tiny room where no one would be looking for him.

  He was biding his time, giving his sister and her handlers space to take the bait. Enough time for the federal marshals to decide to get her off the fifth floor. A knock on the supply room’s door announced Danny’s arrival.

  “They’re on the move,” Danny said. “It’s time.”

  Luca opened up, only a crack until he could confirm that Danny was alone. Then he stood, securing his weapon.

  “Everything’s in place. Sam’s protection detail will be attempting to evacuate her any minute now,” Danny assured him.

  “Then let’s add a touch of excitement to their trip.” It was thrilling, how much Sam still underestimated him. How much the feds did.

  The sacrifices Luca made every day would have protected and cared for Sam and Gabby forever, if Sam had only trusted him. But the little bitch had been too weak to do even that.

  “I don’t care what happens to anyone else,” he reminded Danny over the blare of the alarms still clamoring through the building. “But my sister’s mine to deal with.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  RANDY WALKED toward the central elevators with his brother and the others in his detail. He held the feminine hand clutched in his as if he’d never let it go, playing his role for all he was worth. Meanwhile, Max and Sam and the one deputy Max had taken with them were walking in the opposite direction, as if they were merely a team of agents scanning the fifth floor and other parts of the building for unseen threats.

  You can do this, Sam.

  “Turn at the central elevators,” Charlie said. “Stay behind your cover, and—”

  “I’ve got the plan,” Randy snarled at his big brother. “You’re nuts for involving yourself in this. When I said take care of the baby, I meant just that. I don’t need—”

  “You’re distracted as hell,” Charlie growled back. “You have been since the accident. Since St. Patrick’s Day. You need someone besides these feds covering your ass. And that someone is me. Deal with it.”

  “What the hell good do you think you’re going to be if we do attract enough attention to get Sam out safely. There are five armed professionals surrounding me, and—”

  “And none of them are your family. No one’s going to cover you the way I will. Not even the good witch here.”

  “Who?” The woman at Randy’s side glared at his brother.

  “Glinda, the good witch,” Charlie explained.

  Randy snorted as the deputy’s grip tightened painfully.

  “Don’t look at me.” Charlie was all innocence. “Emma’s the one who started calling her that. The point is—”

  Shots rang out as they neared the central elevators. The two male deputies and two APD officers completing their party blurred into motion, weapons drawn, turning in a single motion toward the hallway to their left.

  “Get down!” Charlie positioned his body in front of Randy and Glinda.

  What happened next took only seconds. Their team fired back. Another barrage of gunfire returned. The fire alarm continued to blare around them. Glinda dragged Charlie down.

  “Shit!” Charlie gasped as they both collapsed to the floor.

  “Charlie!” Randy wrapped his arms around his brother.

  “Behind here.” Glinda pulled at Randy’s arm.

  He dragged his brother behind the vending machine. Charlie was wheezing. Coughing.

  “Damn, man,” Randy cursed once they were reasonably protected. “You weigh a ton! You better not be dying on me, you got that?”

  “Shut the hell up and help me get this thing off,” his brother bit out.

  Randy yanked open Seth’s lab coat, then pulled up his brother’s T-shirt. Bullets pinged into the vending machine. More shots were fired from Dean’s men, who were giving as good as they got. Randy just prayed it was Luca they were wrangling with, and that they finished the psychotic bastard off.

  He stared down at the bullet-proof vest Dean’s men had produced for Charlie to wear. Randy had donned an identical one. A bullet was embedded in his brother’s protective gear. Nothing seemed to have penetrated. No blood anywhere.

  “Damn, man.” Randy covered his eyes with his hand. His fingers w
ere shaking. “Just…damn.”

  Vest or not, Charlie had put himself between Randy and the madness closing in on them. And the shooting wasn’t over yet. Dean’s team was doing their job—keeping their attackers engaged.

  Would it be enough for Sam to reach the hospital elevators? Would she be able to handle the sound of everything crashing down around them? Randy peeked around the vending machine, across the floor in the direction Dean and Sam had headed out. A bullet banked off the metal just above his head.

  “Stay down!” Glinda yanked him back. “Keep your head down, you idiot.”

  “Get me an update on Sam,” he demanded. “Or I’m—”

  “Your ass isn’t doing anything but staying here.” Charlie shoved Randy further into the corner while Glinda tuned into the comm device in her ear. “Sam’s got her own protection, and—”

  “And who knows if this charade is doing any good. I—”

  “You’re not going to get yourself killed,” Glinda chimed in. “Stick with the plan. Trust my team to do their jobs.”

  “I’ll trust them, as soon as you get me the information that Sam made it off this floor.”

  “Kiss the baby for me, if—” Sam had started to say when they’d split up.

  “You’ll kiss her yourself,” Randy had insisted.

  “But if I don’t—”

  “You’ll make it out of this, Sam. I know it.”

  There’d been doubt in her brave smile as they’d broken into two teams. There’d been something too close to goodbye in their final kiss.

  “We’re clear,” Glinda announced.

  “What?” Randy and Charlie asked in one voice.

  Silence resonated. Glinda was on her feet. They followed her lead and stepped into the hallway. The rest of their detail was still on point, watching. But the showdown was over.

  “Nix the alarms,” Glinda said into her comm link, “and flip the switch.”

  The deafening blare of the fire alarms was squelched at the same moment that the auxiliary lighting flickered off and the mains came back on.