by Cassie Miles
“I’m sure she’s got some time,” Tasha informed him. “First babies usually don’t come too fast. We can drive. And Mandy is all registered at Rose Hospital. Would you stay with her for a minute?”
“What do you mean? What am I supposed to do?”
“Hold her hand. Don’t panic.”
“Easy for you to say,” David muttered. He’d rather hang on to the tail of a raging bull than take care of a woman in labor. “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back.” She went to the rear of the store and knelt down beside Jenson. “Thank God, you’re all right.”
He blustered. “I wouldn’t call a busted arm all right.”
“I was afraid it might be more serious.”
The paramedic informed her, “He won’t ride in the ambulance.”
“You’ve got to cooperate, Mr. Jenson,” she chided. “These people are here to help you.”
“My supervisor from work is on his way. And I want to wait for the cops, to fill out a report.”
“We’ll do that later. Both of us. It’s important that you get yourself taken care of.”
“Maybe you’re right.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “How’d you get away from that guy? Jeez, he was big.”
“He let me go. Just let me out of the car by the capitol. I guess he just wanted to scare me.”
David would have been impressed by her take-charge manner if he hadn’t known she was lying. Tasha wasn’t about to help the police locate Green or Brown or Cerise. She was working with them. She was the newest member of their thieving gang.
Beside him, Mandy began to groan.
Before Tasha left Jenson, she planted a light kiss on his forehead. “Thank you for trying to help me. You were incredibly brave.”
“Just doing my job.”
“Now it’s your job to get better. Go with the ambulance people.”
She saw Mandy through one more contraction while Jenson walked out to the ambulance. Then Tasha looked up at David. “I want you to go into my office. The phone number for Mandy’s parents is written on the front page of my calendar. Call her mother, and tell her that we’re taking Mandy to Rose Hospital.”
David had no choice but to obey. No matter how much he wanted to confront Tasha, there were more important concerns.
In her office, he found the number and dialed. The mother was as calm as Tasha and said she’d meet them at the hospital within an hour. How could women handle these things with such complacency? They made giving birth seem like the most natural thing in the world.
David sank into the chair behind her desk, grabbing this moment of quiet, not wanting to go back out front and deal with Mandy. His gaze landed on the photograph Tasha had on her desk behind the pen set. A dark woman, wearing a ton of jewelry, and two little girls with long black hair. He recognized Tasha and. Tasha. The girls were identical.
She stuck her head in the door. “Did you reach Mandy’s mother?”
He held up the photo. “You’re a twin.”
“That’s right.”
“Your sister, Stacey. She’s your twin sister.”
“Brilliant deduction, David. I can tell that you’re a highly trained detective. Now would you bring your car around to the front door. I’ll lock up. Then we can go.”
“Go where?’
“Rose Hospital, silly.”
As David ran for his car, he wondered exactly when he’d lost control of this situation. Was it the first time he saw Tasha and she told him that she didn’t need or want a bodyguard? Last night, when he convinced her that he should stay in her apartment, it felt as if he knew what he was doing. But then he kissed her. He felt like a harebrained marionette, and Tasha was pulling all the strings.
As soon as he double-parked, Tasha came out of the store with Mandy leaning heavily on her arm. Clumsily, she loaded Mandy in the back seat and got in beside her. “Go, David. Rose is really close. Straight up to Colorado Boulevard, then north to Eighth.”
David figured that now wasn’t the best time to confront Tasha regarding her criminal activities. Not while she was caring for a pregnant teenager who was about to give birth. But he wasn’t going to let her off the hook.
“Slow down,” she ordered. “The baby isn’t coming in the next five minutes.”
“Sorry.” He hadn’t realized he was speeding, but the speedometer showed him going fifty in a thirty zone. “Are we really close?”
“Yes. Trust me.”
There would be a blizzard in Hades before he ever trusted this woman.
TASHA STAYED WITH MANDY until she was checked in, gowned and hooked to a fetal monitor that showed the strong beating of her unborn infant’s heart. By then, Mandy’s mother had arrived, and Tasha left the two of them in the birthing room.
She took refuge in the four-sink, institutional-style bathroom outside the waiting room, slipped into a beige stall, locked and leaned against the door. Staring at the beige-and-brown tiled wall, she tried to marshal her thoughts. Never before, not even when she and Stacey had been hell-bent-for-trouble teenagers, had Tasha gone through a day like this one. Was this really happening to her? The cat-and-mouse conversation with Cerise had seemed surreal, as if she were looking through crushed glass that distorted every image.
Cerise, Tasha realized, was the name of a shade of red. So that meant she’d met Red, Green and Brown. What kind of gang was this? They sounded like a pack of crayons. If she joined up, would she have to pick her own color? Tasha Blue. Tasha Purple. Puce, she thought. Puce was appropriate because, standing here in front of a sanitized white toilet bowl, she felt like pucing. Puking. Whatever.
She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. At least her sense of humor was coming back. When Green threatened her with broken bones, she feared she would never laugh again.
But now, there was Mandy to worry about. Tasha had been much relieved when the doctors examined the girl and discovered that she was dilated four centimeters. And the heartbeat on the fetal monitor was strong. Though the shock of finding Jenson hurt might have precipitated labor, Mandy’s body was ready to deliver. Nothing would go wrong. Tasha prayed with all her heart that Mandy would come through delivery without too much pain and that the baby would be healthy. Nothing else really mattered. Green and Brown and Cerise were utterly unimportant when compared with Mandy and the new life she was about to bring into the world.
An old, familiar ache wrapped around Tasha’s heart as she thought of the baby. Though it might have been smarter to be alone with her thoughts, she wanted to see David, her bodyguard. She needed his strength. Even if it was only for a moment, she wanted him to hold her and tell her that everything would be all right.
She left the bathroom and went down the antiseptic hall to the waiting room. Her spirits lifted when she saw him, pacing nervously back and forth like an expectant father.
He came to her and grabbed both of her hands in his own. With worried eyes, he searched her face. “Is she okay? Is it over?”
“Mandy’s fine. The doctor says we’ve probably got several hours to wait.”
“That can’t be right. She was in a lot of pain.”
“Mostly, I think, she was scared. And surprised that it hurt so much. It’s one thing to have people tell you that labor is painful, and another to go through it yourself.”
“You sound like the voice of experience.”
“I had a baby,” Tasha said. “It was three months’ premature. Stillborn.”
The words echoed hollowly in the vast empty cavern of her soul. Though her pregnancy had been seven years ago, the sorrow was sharp as a still-bleeding wound. She had named her infant son Nicholas. He was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery on the west end of Denver. On his birthday and at Christmas, she decorated his grave with bouquets of wildflowers.
Her eyes burned as she looked up at David. Why had she told him? She never talked about Nicholas, not with anyone. The tragedy of his death was still too close. By sharing, she made herself vulnerable.
; She longed for David to comfort her, to offer the gentle solace that she’d never accepted from anyone else. But she was afraid that if he did, she wouldn’t be able to hold back her tears. And she would never stop crying.
Purposely, she reclaimed her hands from his grasp. She went to a row of chairs and sat. She wasn’t tired in the physical sense, but Tasha felt drained of emotions.
David sat beside her. “I’m sorry about your baby. I didn’t know. The PEI dossier on you is very incomplete.”
“Giving birth changes a woman,” she said. “When I found out I was pregnant, I made a lot of decisions about my life. Though my son didn’t live, I’ve tried to be the kind of person he’d be proud of.”
When she was pregnant, Tasha willfully rejected the wild, exciting, sometimes glamorous life that she and her sister had been leading. She had wanted to give her child the security of a home. Her baby would have all the love that Tasha could give, all the love she had never known from her own mother and father.
“How did it change you?” David asked.
“For one thing, I had to quit my job as soon as my waist began to thicken. My sister and I worked as assistants for a magician, and I couldn’t very well parade around in skimpy, sequined outfits while I was pregnant.”
“A magician’s assistant?” David’s deep voice lifted in astonishment. “My God, I don’t know anything about you.”
“There’s not that much to know. I had a rocky childhood, a crazed adolescence, and then I grew up and became a responsible adult. Ta-da! Nothing magic about it.”
“And your sister? Your twin?”
“What about her?” There was something in his voice that disturbed her. “Why would you ask about Stacey?”
“Twins are interesting.” He shrugged with too much nonchalance. “Were you a lot alike?”
“We’re identical. People who don’t know us can’t tell us apart. But we’re polar opposites when it comes to goals and temperament.”
“Then she doesn’t share your passion for precious gems.”
Tasha grinned. “I guess we have that much in common. We’re both extraordinarily fond of beautiful things. Stacey loves designer clothes, flashy cars and a glittering night at the Metropolitan Opera.”
“What about you?”
“I’m more likely to find beauty in a clear blue sky. Or a shop full of blooming flowers. Or the lusty cry of a healthy baby.” She stood. “Which reminds me. I should be getting back to Mandy.”
“Tasha!”
He caught hold of her arm, and she swiveled to face him. His gray eyes seemed darker, as if there were storm clouds in his gaze. His mouth was tight. Holding back something he needed to say? “What is it, David?”
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
She smiled broadly. “So am I.”
Mandy’s labor continued, gathering intensity, with Tasha and Mandy’s mother alternating time at her side. Every half hour or so, Tasha returned to the waiting room to give David an updated bulletin.
After the second time she emerged from the labor room, he’d taken to foraging in her absence. He had a magazine, a newspaper, a candy bar. At the dinner hour, when she came out to see him, he greeted her with food. Two bagels and a quart of orange juice that Tasha wolfed greedily.
On her next visit to the waiting room, David had a companion, a uniformed policeman. Her first instinct was to run. During her teens and early twenties, Tasha’s relationship with cops, like the repulsive Inspector Henning, had been less than cordial. She was older now, impeccably responsible. But she still had something to hide.
David introduced Officer Perry. “He has a few questions for you. It’s about the assault on Jenson.”
“All right,” she said. “Let’s be quick about it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The officer glanced at David. “Is she always this bossy?”
“Always,” he said.
“Here’s what happened,” Tasha said. She told the story of Green coming into the shop twice.
“And he called himself Green?” the officer queried.
“Mr. Green,” she said.
“Do you think that’s his real name?”
“Probably not.” She glanced over at David. “There was a man who bothered me on the street last night. A Russian-speaking man. He said that he was Mr. Brown.”
“I see.” Officer Perry made a note. “And do you have any idea why these, urn, colors are coming after you?”
Without the slightest hesitation, Tasha lied, “No idea whatsoever.”
To tell the truth would be to sign her own death warrant. During their ride in the car, Green had made that perfectly clear. If she betrayed them, he would kill her. Slowly. And he would enjoy every sadistic minute.
To Officer Perry, she quickly described what had happened with Jenson. “Then Mr. Green ordered me into his car. I didn’t resist. I was much too afraid.”
“I understand. Then what happened?”
It was best, she knew, to stick as close to the truth as possible. “Green took me to the capitol building and dropped me off.”
“And that’s all?”
“Yes.”
“Did he say why he was abducting you?”
“I’m sorry, Officer. He might have said something or done something that would have explained his behavior, but I was so terrified that I wasn’t thinking straight. Green is a huge man. Well over six feet tall, with arms that are bigger around than my waist. I can’t remember a thing.”
“After he dropped you off, what happened?”
“I caught a cab back to Bloom’s where I found Mandy in the first stages of labor. Then we came here.” She smiled in what she hoped was a disarming manner. “I really should get back to Mandy now.”
“Sure,” the officer said. “Thanks for your time.”
When she glanced back at David, he seemed cool, as if he suspected she was lying. What did he know? What did he suspect? It occurred to her that David’s intelligence might be extremely hazardous to her health.
After another hour with Mandy, Tasha returned to the waiting room. The hours of stress were taking their toll on her. She felt haggard, exhausted, wrung out. At first, she didn’t see David. What if he’d gone? What if he knew she was lying to the police and had left her? She couldn’t bear being alone after she’d had a taste of his companionship and caring. For the first time in her life, Tasha didn’t want to be alone.
David strolled around the corner from the gift shop. “There you are,” he said.
Relief flooded through her. He wasn’t gone! He hadn’t left her. Not yet, anyway.
David reached behind his back and produced a homely display of pink and blue daisies in a ridiculous ceramic vase that looked like a duckling.
The arrangement was so tacky, yet so well-intentioned, that she had to laugh.
“I realize,” he said, “that bringing flowers to a florist’s assistant is a bit like carrying chocolate to Hershey, Pennsylvania.”
“A bit.”
“I want to do something. Isn’t there anything I can do?”
“Mandy’s on her own. Like it or not.” Tasha gazed into his eyes, wishing he could read her mind and know how much she wanted for him to hold her. “Nothing you can do.”
At half past eight o’clock, Mandy went into hard labor. She was wheeled into the delivery room. Tasha scrubbed quickly and followed the gurney. She held Mandy’s hand as the girl pushed with all her waning strength. Sweat poured down her forehead. She strained with every muscle.
“Come on, Mandy,” Tasha urged. “You can do it.”
“I can’t.” She was weeping loudly. “I can’t.”
“Push again. I’m so proud of you.”
With Mandy’s last ferocious effort, the head crowned. Tasha watched in awe as a miracle occurred. The baby girl was born.
Immediately, the attending physician and a nurse bent over the tiny, silent infant. They were working hard.
Tasha’s heart stood still. Was something wrong with th
e baby? Oh, God, no. Remembered horror choked her in an icy grip.
Mandy whispered, “Where’s my baby?”
Tasha gripped her hand. Fighting her own panic, she tried to reassure the new mother. “It’s a girl, Mandy. A baby girl.”
“What’s wrong? Where is she?”
Tasha prayed with all her might. “She’s fine. Just fine. You did a great job, Mandy. Really. You were wonderful and you worked so—”
A loud cry resounded in the delivery room.
Joy and relief exploded within Tasha. She sang out, “A beautiful baby girl! Oh, Mandy. She’s perfect.”
The nurse placed the squalling infant upon her mother’s breast. “There she is. With all ten fingers and toes. A healthy baby.”
In the recovery room, they were joined by Mandy’s mother, who also fawned over the new mother and child. Tasha was glad to see this evidence of bonding. Mandy’s mother had been consistently disapproving of her daughter and the decision to keep this fatherless child, but now she was warm and kind and everything a grandmother should be.
Mandy rocked the baby against her bosom. Glowing, she asked, “Is David still waiting? I want him to come in and see my baby.”
“He’d love that,” Tasha said.
“Do you think the hospital would mind?”
“It’s probably breaking a rule, but what could it hurt? Only for a minute. Okay?”
She ran to the waiting room, still dressed in the baggy hospital scrubs. When she saw David, she was beaming. “It’s a healthy, beautiful baby girl.”
He grabbed her in his arms and lifted her off her feet. They were both laughing as if they’d won the lottery. But this was even better. The prize was a precious human life. Tasha could think of few moments in her life that were so unabashedly happy. And it was exactly right that David was there to share this experience with her.
When he set her down, she clasped his hand and pulled. “Come with me. Mandy wants you to see the baby.”
“Me?” He pointed to his chest. “She wants to see me?”
“That’s right.”
When they crept into the recovery room, Mandy smiled at them both. “You two look good together.”
David leaned over her. “Not as good as you and this little beauty. Congratulations, Mandy.”