“The North Koreans captured me.”
“Oh my God. We both know what that means. How’d you escape?”
“I had some help and some good luck. Seems like we both did.” For just a moment, the knots in Rikki’s stomach had loosened and it felt like old times talking with David about an assignment.
She only had to glance at Quinn’s tight jaw to remember it wasn’t.
“What have you been doing, David? Where are you? What happened to your lead on Vlad? Was it all counterintelligence?”
“That’s the thing, Rikki. I’m hot on Vlad’s trail right now. This will be my ticket back to the Agency—mine and yours.”
Quinn poked her in the ribs, but he didn’t have to prod her to encourage David in this line of thinking.
“Your intel panned out?”
“Once I escaped from the North Koreans, I buckled down and burrowed in. I’m getting ready to bring down Vlad and I couldn’t be happier that you’re alive to help me do it.” He cleared his throat. “Just like old times, Rikki, right? You want to do this with me, right?”
Quinn jabbed her again, and she didn’t know if he approved or not, but Rikki refused to look at him—just in case he wanted to dissuade her.
“O-of course, David. I’m in.”
“You sound hesitant. You believe me, don’t you, Rikki? You believe I never meant our operation to go down like that—you captured, us split up.”
“I... Yes.”
“Of course things are a little different now, but we can work around all that.”
“Different? You mean because we’re rogue agents instead of official ones with support from the CIA?”
“There’s that...and the other matter. Your personal issue.”
Quinn jerked in the seat beside her, and Rikki’s heart began to hammer painfully in her chest.
“My personal issue?”
“You know—the fact that you have a daughter now. You can’t try to tell me that little redheaded baby in Jamaica with your mother isn’t yours.”
Chapter Fifteen
The roaring in Quinn’s ears sounded like a Mack truck coming up behind them in the rest stop. His gaze flew to Rikki’s face, a white oval in the darkness of the car.
Quinn waited for the eye roll. The laugh. The denial.
She stammered. “Wh-what are you talking about? You’re in Jamaica?”
The bastard’s voice lowered, silky smooth. “I’m not in this alone, Rikki. As soon as Belinda told me the good news that you were alive and well and...snooping around Savannah with a big bodyguard type, I sent one of my associates out to Jamaica. You see how well we know each other? I remembered your mother was out there. I thought maybe we could get some information about you out of her, and my associate discovered something even better.”
The only response Rikki could muster was a small gurgle, and Quinn clenched his jaw so hard he thought his teeth would break.
No denial. It had to be true. A child? A baby? Did it happen in Korea? Good God, it couldn’t be David’s.
David’s voice continued, and Quinn just wanted to punch the phone.
“Don’t try to deny she’s yours, Rikki. I’ve only ever seen that hair color on one other person.” Dawson’s voice had an almost dreamy quality, and Quinn clenched his fists. “That, and we asked around. The locals are talkative, especially when cash is involved.”
Rikki’s lips emitted small bursts of air, as if she couldn’t take in enough air to breathe. “Better?”
“What?”
“You said better. Why is discovering my...daughter better?”
Quinn wanted to shake Rikki, but she hadn’t even looked at him since Dawson dropped the bombshell. Had she been raped in the labor camp? Quinn’s blood boiled in his veins.
David sucked in a breath. “Having a child is a happy occasion, and she’s not a small infant. Although I don’t know much about babies, I do know yours must’ve been conceived before we left for Korea.”
A shaft of pain pierced the back of Quinn’s head. He wanted to grab the phone and end the call. He wanted Rikki to look at him. He wanted her to explain.
“Of course it’s happy.” Rikki leaned her head against the window. “I just don’t understand your interest in my child.”
“Everything about you interests me, Rikki. Let’s just say, I need your help on this Vlad assignment. I’ve always needed you, Rikki.”
“I’ll help you. Where are you?”
“We’ll talk again later...partner.”
“D-don’t you want to hear about Belinda? How I happen to have her phone?”
“I don’t really care. Just keep it.”
Quinn had been building to the boiling point during that call and wanted to pounce on Rikki with a million questions and accusations. But when Dawson ended the call, he sat there, staring out the window at the Alabama trees guarding the rest area, feeling like he’d been steamrollered.
Rikki didn’t move, but mewling noises started coming from the other side of the car where she was huddled against the window.
Quinn opened his mouth, but he couldn’t form any words, would probably sound like Rikki right now.
He swallowed and tried again. “What’s going on? Whose baby?”
Rikki sniffled, and Belinda’s phone slid from her hand and dropped to the floor of the car. “She’s yours, Quinn. Ours.”
Quinn covered his face with his hands. He had a baby with Rikki. How did she manage to keep it from him all this time? She lied for a living.
Cool fingers encircled his wrist. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you. I’d planned to tell you all along, but—” she waved one arm in the small confines of the car “—this all got in the way.”
Rikki’s voice had a tone he’d never heard from her before—pleading, unsure, frightened—and it shocked him out of his trance.
He dropped his hands from his face and rounded on her, grabbing her shoulder. “You were pregnant before you were in Korea.”
“Y-yes. Of course. Bella is yours.”
“Oh God, Rikki.” He cupped the side of her face, his thumb caressing her wet cheek. “You were pregnant while you were in that labor camp.”
She dropped her lashes, sticky with her tears. “I was.”
“You must’ve been terrified, not only for yourself but for the baby.”
“I just assumed I was going to lose her, and even after I escaped, I was concerned she might suffer.”
A fist squeezed Quinn’s heart and his breath caught in his throat. “Did she? Is she...?”
Rikki met his eyes for the first time, and a soft smile hovered on her lips. “Oh, Quinn. She’s perfect in every way. You understand, don’t you? You do understand why I had to keep her a secret, even from you?”
“I’m sure it didn’t help my case for fatherhood when you found out I was the one behind that sniper rifle.”
Her eyes widened, and fresh tears began a path down her face. “But she’s not a secret anymore. David knows. He has someone in Jamaica.”
“He’s not going to do anything.” He threaded his fingers through Rikki’s hair and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “The guy still loves you.”
She choked. “He set me up to be killed or captured, ruined my career, and just threatened my daughter. That’s love?”
“The twisted, obsessive, delusional kind.” He took both her hands in his. “The kind that you can use. You’re not above using David Dawson, are you?”
“Who, me?” She lifted her shoulder and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Hell no.”
Quinn chuckled. “That’s my Rikki Taylor. Now you’ve got another four hours on the road to tell me all about our daughter, Bella, but first you need to call your mother in Jamaica and give her a heads-up. Do she and your stepfather have people they can trust out there? People to look afte
r them?”
“Oh, yeah. Chaz, my stepfather, has been down there for years. The locals have adopted him, adopted Bella.”
“Good. She needs everyone looking out for her.” He reached into his front pocket and pulled out his phone. “Use this one. Will your mom be alarmed?”
“My mom is accustomed to my work, and Chaz will make sure she stays calm. She takes all her cues from him.”
“That’s a good thing right now.”
As Quinn got back on the road, he half listened as Rikki explained to her mother the need to keep Bella safe.
She ended the call and heaved a sigh. “Mom had already noticed a couple of tourists eyeing Bella at the hotel.”
“Maybe you got the spy gene from your mom. Did you scare her?”
“A little, but she got Chaz right on the phone and he assured me they’d take care of Bella. I trust him...and the locals.”
Quinn rolled his shoulders. “When did you find out you were pregnant?”
Rikki’s posture stiffened. “I swear, Quinn. I had no idea until I was in South Korea. I thought the food didn’t agree with me.”
“You don’t have to defend your decisions, Rikki.”
“Why not? I figured the longer I waited to tell you, the more furious you’d be with me for keeping it from you, and now...you don’t seem furious at all.”
“What right do I have to be mad? When were you supposed to tell me? The moment you discovered it was me on the other end of that sniper rifle waiting and willing to take you down?”
“You didn’t.”
“You’ve been through hell and back, Rikki, keeping our daughter safe through it all. I owe you nothing but gratitude. But you know what this means, right?”
She folded her hands and clasped them between her knees. “What?”
“You’re never leaving me high and dry again.”
“I don’t want to, Quinn, ever.”
He might be a fool, but he believed her.
“Now tell me all about our daughter.”
* * *
BY THE TIME they reached New Orleans, Quinn had already carved out a place in his heart for his little Bella, a girl with her mother’s ginger curls and her father’s stubbornness, although he secretly thought that trait came from Mom, too.
As Quinn inserted his key in the lock of his front door, Rikki put her hand over his. “Do you think your place could’ve been compromised?”
“Dawson wouldn’t be able to get any information on me.”
Rikki chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t know. He found out your name in Dubai and knew you were a navy SEAL.”
“Navy’s not going to give him anything.” He held up his hand. “And before you tell me Dawson’s some kind of CIA superagent, the CIA isn’t going to give him anything, either.”
He studied Rikki’s face—eyebrows drawn over her nose, lips twisted into a frown—and pulled out his weapon. “Stay back.”
He pushed open his front door and swept his gun from side to side as he scanned the living room and kitchen. “Everything looks in order.”
Following him over the threshold, Rikki took out her own weapon and crouched behind him as he moved toward the back of the apartment. They searched through both of the rooms and found nothing out of place.
Quinn double-locked his front door. “Feel better?”
Rikki sagged against the doorjamb of the bedroom. “Not really. David knows about you. He must know Bella is yours, and maybe he even figured out you paid a visit to Belinda with me.”
“Then it’s your job—” he touched Rikki’s nose with the tip of his finger “—to convince him he’s the only man in your life.”
“He’s not a fool, Quinn.”
“When a man has feelings about a woman like Dawson has about you, he’ll be only too eager to believe what you’re puttin’ down.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Speaking from experience?”
“One of many differences between me and Dawson.” Quinn held up a finger. “I’m in love with you, not obsessed with you. That allows me to look at you realistically. That’s why I let you go when you hightailed it out of Dubai and left me holding the sheets. For whatever reason, you couldn’t handle the feelings between us. It cut me to the core, but you had to do what worked for you. If you could figure it out and come back to me, I would be there with open arms.”
“I figured it out, sailor.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest.
He stroked her hair. “Dawson doesn’t want to let you go. He pissed off his own wife, the woman keeping his secrets, with his reaction to the news that you weren’t dead. Then he probably tried to have her killed for attempting to poison you.”
“We don’t know if that was David behind the shooting. He answered that phone call from me as if he thought it was Belinda.”
“Maybe the order was to shoot his wife, but not to kill her. When he saw the call from her cell, of course he’d act like he didn’t know anything about the attempt on her life.”
“That’s so cold.”
“He doesn’t want Belinda. He wants you, Rikki, and you’re going to give him what he wants.” He squeezed the back of her neck. “Are you okay with that? We can do it a different way—bring in Dawson and find out his connection with Vlad.”
“If you think I’m going to let this opportunity pass me by, there are a few more things I need to teach you about myself before you start professing your love for me again.”
“I’m sure there are a lot of things you can still teach me about yourself, but none of that’s going to change how I feel.” He wrapped her in a bear hug and rested his chin on top of her head.
She spoke into his chest. “And I’m ready to give David what he wants.”
Quinn tightened his hold on her. “But first you’re gonna give me what I want.”
“Always, Quinn McBride.”
He swept her up in his arms to carry her to his bedroom, but his lust couldn’t blot out the twinge of uneasiness in his heart.
She still hadn’t told him she loved him. He wanted more than her body. He wanted more than Bella to bind them together.
He wanted her love, unconditional and unreserved.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, they worked on a plan over breakfast.
Quinn stabbed a clump of scrambled eggs and shook it at Rikki. “Dawson wants to bring you into his scheme. He always wanted that. Whether he believes you’re game because he has someone watching Bella or because you’ve realized you can’t live without him, doesn’t matter. But he’ll be more open with you if he believes the latter.”
“I think I can pull it off, but if he knows I’m with you, that’s going to put a serious crimp in my game. He was so jealous of you.”
Quinn squirted some ketchup on his plate. “You’ve got an ace in the hole.”
“I do?”
“I was the sniper who tried to take you out. Everyone believes I did the job. Dawson has to know that.” He swept a forkful of eggs through the ketchup and held it over his plate as a red drop fell into the pile of eggs. “How could a woman ever forgive that, even if the sniper is the father of her baby?”
Hunching forward, Rikki broke a piece of toast in two. “That’s believable. I can make a story out of that.”
“Make that case to Dawson. And you need to tell Ariel what’s going down.”
“I will. Maybe she can send reinforcements for whatever David has planned.”
“I forgot to mention.” Quinn wiped his hands on a napkin and pulled his phone toward him with one finger. “Chan is making progress on Dawson’s emails to Frederick Von, thinks he found a pattern, one he can enter into his computer program.”
“The more evidence I can present to Ariel, the better. I’ll let her take it to the CIA. I’m not goi
ng to the Agency directly.”
“Good idea.” Quinn stacked his plate on top of Rikki’s. “Does Belinda’s cell phone still work?”
“It does. She doesn’t realize yet that it’s missing, she’s too injured to care or...she’s dead.”
Quinn tapped his phone. “Latest story I could find on the incident still lists one critically injured, no fatalities. Unless the CIA is hiding her condition from the press, it looks like she survived.”
“Then David wanted her to survive.”
“If it was David who ordered the hit.” Quinn took their dishes to the sink. “I hope he plans to contact you soon, before Belinda turns that phone off.”
“I did write down the number for Von, so I can always contact him if he doesn’t get back to me.”
“Yeah, but we want him reaching out to you first. He needs to make the first move.” Quinn ran some water over the dishes and it hit him all over again that he was a father. He grinned. “When do I get to see some pictures of my little girl?”
“As soon as we get past this and we know Bella is safe, I’ll have Mom text me some pictures to my temp phone.”
“I can’t wait.” Quinn crossed the room to yank open the drapes. “I’m picturing those red curls and big blue eyes just like her—”
Rikki screamed, “Get down!”
Instinct had him dropping his head and jerking to the side. He hit the floor—but not before he felt the searing pain of the bullet slam into his body. And all this time he’d thought he was bulletproof.
Chapter Sixteen
Her heart thundering in her chest, Rikki crawled toward Quinn bleeding on the floor. “Please, God. Please, God.”
When she reached him, he groaned and spit out an expletive.
“Quinn, you’re hit.” She cupped his head with both hands, her fingers searching every inch of his scalp.
“It’s not my head, damn it. It’s my shoulder.”
Quinn lay on his side, his knees to his chest, blood pooling beneath him.
“Thank God.”
“Really? Because it hurts like hell.”
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