Bernie was right, but there was nothing she could do about Reed right now. Her thoughts focused on the bag in Bernie’s hand.
Having a baby was one of her dreams. A dream she thought was forever out of her reach. It would be a gift if she was pregnant.
But if she was, it would change everything between her and Connor. He might feel trapped. He might not even believe it was his. After all, they’d been apart for seven weeks. If he walked away now, she’d never see him again. Or if he didn’t, it might be only because of the baby. Having their relationship change so drastically could be devastating.
She looked up at Bernie. “Should I wait until in the morning, or should I do it now?”
“How many weeks would you be?”
“Seven almost eight.”
“Do it now.”
She started to tear up. “I was teasing Jona down at Johnson’s office that I was going to do something I’d never done before once a month. I mentioned skydiving.”
“You’ll be covered for the next seven and a half months,” Bernie said, her tone upbeat as she broke open the box and took out the stick. “All you have to do is pee in this cup,” she held up a paper cup, “then dip in the stick. It’ll take a few minutes. A plus sign means you are, a negative means you’re not.”
Sloane took the cup and the pregnancy test into the bathroom. Stalling, she brushed her teeth first.
As she came out, loud voices came from outside in the hall, She and Bernie moved together to the door and peered out. Two police officers were half-marching, half-dragging Reed down the hall toward the elevators.
“Keep it up, asshole, and we’ll add resisting arrest to your charges.”
“This is all a mistake,” Reed insisted. “I’ll sue you for false arrest.”
Behind them Clay Johnson followed their progress while other office staff and attorneys stepped out into the hall to gawk.
“I want to call my lawyer,” Reed sounded strident. With a desperate lunge, he jerked loose from one of the policemen and grabbed his gun, backhanding the other one in the face with it.
A scream came from down the hall, and people scattered. Reed pointed the gun at the cop who remained standing and backed toward Sloane’s office.
“Put the gun down,” the cop ordered.
Bernie jerked Sloane back, and she twisted the new lock they just installed before they rushed through her office into Sloane’s and shut the door. Sloane locked that door as well. The two of them backed away and huddled near the bathroom.
A crash came from Bernie’s office, and they both jerked. Bernie caught her breath.
The lock sprang like it was made out of tissue paper and the door banged against the wall.
Reed pointed the gun at Sloane. Her legs turned to water and her stomach hollowed. After seeing Connor’s thigh she understood the damage a bullet could do.
“Get over on the couch, Sloane. You too, Bernie.”
He shut the door, though the lock to keep it closed was useless. He dragged the small table next to it over to block it. The books on it tumbled to the floor, and he kicked them out of the way.
Sweat ran down Reed’s face, and his breathing sounded ragged.
She and Bernie reached for each other and clung.
The phone started ringing. Reed jerked it off her desk and threw it against the wall. Sloane flinched at his violent reaction, and felt Bernie’s shudder.
He paced back and forth like a caged animal, his large feet eating up the narrow strip of floor space in front of the desk.
“What’s happening, Reed?” Sloane asked, purposely pitching her voice low.
“They’re arresting me for extortion and blackmail.”
She wished she was surprised, but she’d suspected he was holding something over Clay Johnson’s head to get his position back.
“I’m being investigated by the state bar for ethics violations, and I was evicted from my apartment yesterday.”
Three hard punches. It explained his air of desperation. “Call your lawyer, Reed. And ask him to come here.”
“I don’t have one. I don’t have the money for one.”
“Maybe Simon Stewart would take you on as a professional courtesy. He’s worked with you in the past, and he used to do criminal law. Just call him. My cell phone’s on the desk.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why are you trying to help me?”
Nausea rolled over her again, and even swallowing the saliva in her mouth made it worse. She wanted to live. She wanted to tell Connor she loved him. “Because I want to get out of here in one piece. I want all of us to do that. If the police come in here, guns blazing, none of us will.”
Though he’d had the gun down by his side he jerked it up and pointed it at the door.
At least he wasn’t pointing it at them.
He leaned back against her desk. “Bernie, come here.”
Bernie remained where she was, her face pale with fear. “What do you want?”
“I want you to call Stewart and ask him to represent me.”
CHAPTER 20
‡
Connor saved his work and moved on to the next thing. Being laid up had given him a new understanding of why his mother encouraged his father to start a business. This inactivity was driving him crazy, and he’d only been out of the hospital for a few days.
He pulled up the checklist he was given by the military transition center nearly a year ago, and studied the number of things he had yet to accomplish. He’d arranged to take the last two classes of his business degree online starting in August. He was already registered, and the classes paid for.
He’d been doing some research on the jobs available close to his dad, but now he decided to research the Charleston area. A long-distance relationship with Sloane just wasn’t what he wanted. Even two hours away seemed too far if they wanted their relationship to deepen.
He’d get an apartment close by. He couldn’t live with her until they figured out if this thing they had would grow into something permanent. He’d work, finish those last two classes, and apply for college. Now he had a plan, he researched colleges. And realized he’d be able to go to the Citadel as retired military on the GI bill and complete a mechanical engineering degree and master’s if he wanted to.
If things didn’t work out for them… He wasn’t going down that road. A SEAL never gave up. Sloane was right, he needed to incorporate some SEAL attitude into his personal life.
She was too important to lose.
The thought broke his focus on the computer, and he glanced away to the balcony just outside. He was in love for the second time in his life. He loved her. Just acknowledging it helped relax some of the tension in his shoulders. But did she love him too?
She had strong feelings for him. The way she behaved when he first arrived after those fifteen days proved that. The way she responded to him in bed… He couldn’t see her giving so much of herself to anyone if she didn’t care deeply for them.
She’d only had three lovers before him. That told him straight up how cautious she was about who she allowed intimately close.
She loved him. She had to.
He checked his watch. He’d be early to pick her up for lunch, but he just couldn’t seem to wait. He closed the computer, grabbed the keys to Sloane’s car, and left the apartment.
Though he wasn’t supposed to operating a motor vehicle just yet, he seemed to be doing fine with it. It took him twenty-five minutes to get from her apartment to Radcliff Street downtown. He turned the corner, then parked in the back lot. A police car was in one of the slots. Strange.
He walked into the lobby, and the desk where the young receptionist usually sat was empty, so he moved on to the elevator. In the distance, sirens wailed.
The doors to the elevator stood open and someone had hit the lock button. Thinking something must be wrong with it, he walked over to the door just down the hall and hobbled up the steps to the second floor.
*
Sloane
squeezed Bernie’s hand, offering her what courage she could. Reed wouldn’t hurt her as long as she was doing something for him.
The shift in his attitude toward Sloane since before coming back to the firm was frightening. He had no reason to hurt Bernie, but Sloane could easily believe he’d be willing to take it all out on her. Sloane brushed back the lank strands of hair around her face where Bernie had rested the paper towel compress.
The nausea had finally passed, but she was feeling hollowed out from losing what little breakfast she ate this morning.
“Why couldn’t you just let me work with you, Sloane?” Reed demanded. He wiped his sweating face with a Kleenex from a box on her desk.
No matter what she said it would anger him. “I trusted you once, Reed, and you betrayed me. I’m not going to let you take advantage of me again.”
His rounded jaw tightened.
“You didn’t really care about me at all,” she added. “I realized that after the things you said when you broke it off.”
“I needed money, and I knew you wouldn’t loan it to me. Because of the non-compete agreement you signed here, I knew you couldn’t take your clients with you, so I figured I’d get your job and clients, and I’d have cash coming in.”
She was surprised she felt so little outrage at this point. She truly had moved on. “What is it? Drugs, gambling, sex?”
“Does it matter?” he bit out, his face suddenly haggard.
“No, I don’t suppose it does.”
Bernie interrupted them as she brought the phone to Reed. “It’s Mr. Stewart.” She took her place beside Sloane and dropped her voice to a whisper. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. The nausea has finally passed.”
“Good.” She reached for Sloane’s hand and tucked something into it.
It was the pregnancy test. She’d left it on the sink in the bathroom, and Bernie retrieved it while Reed was distracted.
Sloane looked down at it, then tucked it into her bra, her eyes stinging with tears.
Connor was supposed to be coming here to pick her up for lunch. She was going to take tomorrow off so they could have a three-day weekend together. She prayed they’d both have those days together.
*
Connor pushed the door open from the stairs. The reception area on this floor was empty, too. What the hell was going on?
“Stop.”
A very young police officer beckoned to him from one of the office doors across the hall from Sloane’s. He grabbed Connor’s arm and tugged him into the room. “How did you get up here?”
“I came up the stairs. I’m here to pick up my girlfriend for lunch.”
“My partner and I cleared the building. A man is holding two women hostage in the office across the hall.”
Jesus! It had to be Sloane and Bernie.
Adrenaline hit his system like a punch and his heart rate skyrocketed.
“I’m waiting for a hostage negotiation unit to arrive.” Even as the young patrol officer spoke, the sound of booted feet carried down the hall, and he stepped to the door and beckoned to the group. All six men crowded into the small office.
As Connor listened to the young cop report how the whole thing had gone down, he wanted to punch something. They hadn’t followed procedure and cuffed Reed Alexander because his boss asked for their discretion.
They’d put two women’s lives at risk, and everyone else’s, because they hadn’t handcuffed the son of a bitch. He wanted to punch that young cop, but instead he stood against the wall and tried to let the anger eating at him drain away.
One of the cops approached him. “Who are you, and why are you here?” Short and stocky, with gray hair and a flinty expression, he checked Connor out with the suspicious look of a veteran cop. He’d have to be if he was in charge of this unit. Connor glanced at the tag on his tactical vest. The patch said Sgt. Henry.
“I’m Chief Petty Officer Connor Evans. Sloane is my girlfriend. Bernie is her legal secretary and jack-of-all-trades in the office. And the man who’s in there with them is Sloane’s ex. Reed Alexander. They were engaged for two years, but it ended about eighteen months ago.” He laid out the entire tangled situation for the cops, including Reed’s aggressive behavior toward Sloane. “I can draw you a map of the layout of the Bernie’s exterior office and Sloane’s if you’d like.”
“Do it. Get this man some paper. And get me some kind of communications going with this guy.”
Connor spent five minutes drawing a map of both rooms, then handed it off to one of the men in the unit.
He’d been on rescue ops like this. SEALs didn’t normally talk people down, because they were in areas where the tangos were killers and didn’t really respond to a phone call. Reed Alexander wasn’t a killer, but he was a bully. And he was desperate.
And he was holding Sloane, the woman he’d dreamed about for seven weeks. Couldn’t get enough of when they were together. Was already building a life around. He was in love with her. Had been since that first night, that first kiss.
The cops were grouped around the drawings, still talking strategy, while another was focused on getting some kind of communications set up between them and Alexander. The office phone was off the hook and Alexander wasn’t picking up his own phone.
Connor walked out of the room and across the hall to Bernie’s office. He heard the shouts behind him, but just kept walking. Other than the damage to the doorframe and lock, the place appeared normal. He avoided looking at the pictures on the shelves behind Bernie’s desk. Was her husband aware of what was happening? Possibly not. He couldn’t allow himself to get emotional, though he’d become fond of Bernie.
He stood to one side of the door while he dialed Sloane’s number and heard the ring inside her office.
Reed’s voice came across the line, angry and belligerent. “Sloane can’t come to the phone right now.”
“I’m calling to talk to you, Reed. I’m standing just outside Sloane’s office. Why don’t you come out here so we can talk? You have the gun, and I’m not armed.”
“No thanks. I’m safer in here with your girlfriend.” He gave the word extra emphasis.
Through the crack in the door, Connor heard the feedback of his voice as he answered him. “You need to know that across the hall seven police officers in full tactical gear are waiting for the opportunity to bust in there and take you down.
“They’re a hostage crisis team like SWAT. They’ll try calling and talking to you, like I’m doing. Because you have a gun, they’ll consider you a threat. And because you’ve taken Bernie and Sloane hostage, they’ll assume you’re a threat to them as well.
“They probably have the building surrounded by now, and they’ll have snipers on the roofs of the buildings around us. So if you move close to any of the windows, they’ll take you out.”
He paused to let that sink in and let Reed stew on it for a moment. He heard the hitch in Reed’s breathing as he realized the danger of his situation.
“I know you had to have some kind of emotional bond with Sloane when you were together. There isn’t a man on the planet who couldn’t develop feelings for her after spending five minutes together. She just draws you in and makes it impossible for you to keep your distance.
“I don’t know what happened that turned your feelings for her in another direction, but she and Bernie don’t deserve to have their lives put at risk. Let them come out.”
Alexander remained silent for a moment. “I was never good enough for her. I knew it from the start.”
Relief brought a momentary easing of tension to Connor’s shoulders. This gave him a way to build a rapport with the man. “I’m not good enough for her either, but I’m trying to convince her I am.”
He waited for Reed to speak, and when he didn’t, he pushed on.
“Leave the gun on Sloane’s desk and come out with them. You may have taken a wrong turn, but that doesn’t mean your life has to be over. I took a wrong turn when my daughter died. I
froze everyone out because I couldn’t deal with the pain or the grief, and I lost my wife because of it.
“Sloane is my second chance. She means everything to me.” He crushed down the emotions that threatened to rise.
“You can have a second chance, too, but you have to be alive to live it. Leave the gun on the desk and come out with Sloane and Bernie. Surrender, pay your dues, and then rebuild. Nothing has to end here. You can make it right.”
*
Reed had gone still for several moments while silence hung between him and Connor. The gun hung slack in his hand. When he placed it on the desk beside the phone, Bernie’s fingers tightened on her arm.
Tears streamed down Sloane’s face, and she turned her face against Bernie’s shoulder. The open emotion she heard in Connor’s voice were a joy and a comfort, but the awful possibilities that hung over them all made it difficult to take it in.
She wanted out of this room so badly it took all her control not to leap to her feet and run for the door. But it would destroy everything Connor was trying to do.
There was defeat in Reed’s expression when he looked up. “Sloane, you and Bernie need to get out of here.” He leaned forward to rest his hands on his thighs, as though all his strength had drained out of him.
The two of them rose as one, still clinging to each other. Bernie’s whole body shook. Sloane’s legs felt just as shaky and uncooperative.
She kept her eye on Reed as they moved toward the door, fearful he’d change his mind and pick up the gun again. Bernie didn’t waste any time dragging the table out of the way.
“Sloane.”
She stiffened and turned to look at Reed, searching for the gun. It still lay on the desk.
“I’m sorry for everything. For it all. Everything that happened was all my doing. Everything I said when I ended it… I’m sorry.”
She nodded. Maybe later it would matter to her, but right now all she wanted was to get away from him.
Connor waited just outside the door. He grabbed them both and held them for a second, then pushed them toward the door. “Go. I’ll be right behind you.”
Hot SEAL, Rusty Nail (SEALs In Paradise ) Page 16