The Baby's Bodyguard

by Stephanie Newton

  Need crashed through him. Unexpected.

  Her lips parted, she pulled back, breath quick and shallow. He’d scared her to death. “Sorry. I’m sorry.”

  She put her finger on his lips. “Stop. I was just surprised.”

  “I have really great timing.” He brushed the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip, his fingers shaking. “I can’t explain. You make me feel—” He tried to fill in the blank and couldn’t. He shrugged. “You make me feel.”

  And maybe that was it. She made him feel, an electrifying prospect when for two years all he had felt—all he had wanted—was black nothingness.

  Her eyes were dark, her face troubled. “Your emotions are all over the place. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  “You’re right.” There was no doubt about that. He tried to figure out how to explain the feelings tumbling inside. “For two years, I’ve been like the walking dead. I felt … forsaken.”

  “Oh, Ethan. You weren’t alone.” Her sweet, soft voice made him smile.

  “I know. I know God never left me. I know my family was there, giving me time.” He paused. “But when I met you, it was like you cut through all the stuff and just saw me. You’re really good at that. I bet it makes you really good at your job. The kids that you work with, they have a lot of baggage, a lot of layers of armor built up.”

  She didn’t move, just looked into his eyes, trying to see him again, he figured. “I guess. But you’re not a job, not to me.”

  “I know. And that makes you even more special.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips across hers again, not the “chock-full of temper and passion” kiss from earlier, just a reminder that he was here and thinking about her. Despite the circumstances, she gave him peace.

  No small gift.

  “I better go inside to check on the baby. I’ll see you in the morning?” She pulled gently away and took two steps toward the door.

  “I’ll be here.” He watched her close the door and set the alarm before he walked back to his boat. He checked the moorings before boarding, feeling the boat rock beneath his feet. He countered it with the weight of his body, the motion as natural to him as breathing.

  Inside the cabin, the small wooden chest sat there on the shelf above his bed. He reached for it, feeling the smooth surface of the cedar under his fingers. There were so few things in here, so few reminders of a life that had been so rich.

  He opened it and sifted through the memories of another lifetime. At the bottom of the box was one of those photo strips from the booths in the mall. Amy had given it to him while they were dating. She’d always had a goofy sense of humor, and she’d made signs for each photo. You. Have. My. Heart.

  She’d been so beautiful, so full of life. She’d had his heart, too. Fully and completely.

  And now he was falling for someone else. His throat ached as he looked at the picture and picked up another.

  Amy had taken this one. It was of him, asleep on the sofa, with newborn Charlie nestled into the crook of his arm. A hard knot of grief and hope lodged in his chest.

  He’d mourned the loss of his family for two long years. Two years with no reason for hope. But things were different now.

  As hard as it was, it was time to move on. He blinked stinging eyes and closed the lid on the box.

  NINE

  Kelsey flopped back on the bed and giggled. Janie flopped beside her and put her feet in the air. Feet covered in soft fleece PJs. Kelsey grabbed her toes and wiggled them through the cloth.

  “You’re a smart girl, my Janie. And once you get your heart fixed, you’re going to go places. You know that?” She tapped the nose of her little pumpkin and wondered if there was any way she was going to be able to let her go.

  Janie’s big blue eyes focused on hers. “Eat.” She made the sign as she said the word.

  Kelsey was amazed how fast Janie was picking up words to go with her signs. “Case in point. Are you hungry?”

  She tickled Janie’s tummy before rolling to her feet. She pulled on a robe and caught Janie as the baby nearly took a dive off the bed toward the hardwood floor. Man, she was fast. “Okay, okay. Let’s go see if we can find some food, baby girl.”

  After punching in the code to the alarm, she opened the door to the pool deck and found the men deep in conversation around one of the patio tables.

  As she hesitated in the door, Ethan looked up. “Join us. We’re just talking about what comes next.”

  She sat next to Ethan in an empty chair, with Janie on her lap.

  Ethan passed the bread basket to her, the knit of his shirt pulling tight on his bicep. She held the baby tighter in her arms.

  Tyler held up a carafe. “I only brought coffee—I’m sorry there’s no tea.”

  “Coffee’s fine.” At his quizzical look, she added, “Whatever’s handy is fine—I’m good.”

  Tyler poured black coffee in a mug. “We do have some cream for the wimpy people at the table.” He gave his brother a pointed look.

  “I refuse to be baited into arguing with you. Besides, I don’t think cream makes a guy wimpy. Do you, Nolan?”

  Nolan looked up from his plate. “Uh … no. Definitely not. I mean, I like mine black, but I wouldn’t call you a wimp just because you like fluffy topping on your coffee.”

  Kelsey hid her grin and placed a homemade croissant on her plate. She broke off a piece for Janie and then had to untangle the baby’s fingers from her long hair. “So, what’s going on? Are we waiting for the FBI?”

  Ethan looked up from his plate. “No. Two reasons. One, I think we’ll have better luck with Arsov if we continue the line of questioning we started yesterday. And two …”

  Nolan pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it on the table. “This.”

  “What is that?” She didn’t know what it was, but it looked ominous to Kelsey.

  “It’s the GPS tracker I found on Viktoria’s car. Standard government issue.” Nolan’s light brown eyes were tired. Serious.

  “What does that mean?” She looked to Ethan for the answer.

  His face settled in grim lines. “I should’ve suspected before, but I couldn’t believe that someone on my team would sell me out, get my family killed.”

  “You think someone in the FBI is in on this?”

  Ethan nodded slowly, catching his brother’s eye.

  Tyler’s shrug said maybe. “It’s difficult to swallow, but it wouldn’t be the first time one of the ‘good guys’ got lured by the prospect of easy money. Once you’re in, even if you change your mind, it’s too late.”

  “Do you have any idea who it could be?”

  “It had to be someone close enough to my investigation to know what was going on—there were only a few agents privy to the details of the sting. All people I trusted with my life.” The disgust on Ethan’s face was unmistakable.

  “I don’t understand how we’re going to find this person, or people, if they’ve been able to stay hidden this long.” As Janie reached for the table, Kelsey handed her another piece of bread.

  “We’ve got Viktoria and Janie. We’ve got the photo evidence that the adoption scam actually took place. And hopefully, we’re going to get Tony Cantori’s location out of Viktoria.” Ethan pushed his own plate away, half-eaten.

  Nolan didn’t seem to have that problem. He shoved the rest of his croissant in his mouth, covered in fresh raspberry jam. “And we’re going to follow the money. You always follow the money. If any of the guys on Ethan’s team were on the take, I can find the evidence.”

  He had a smidgeon of jam left in the corner of his mouth. Kelsey handed him a napkin.

  The computer genius, today dressed in jeans and a light green tee with the Mountain Dew logo, wiped his mouth with the napkin and grinned at her. “We’re going to take them down.”

  Ethan’s smile was a little weak but still reassured her that he was hanging in there. “Nolan loves a good hunt through cyberspace.” He pushed back from the table. “Do you think we
could take Janie in to see Arsov? I want the baby in the room. I want Viktoria to see exactly what’s at stake if she doesn’t cooperate with me.”

  “And that is …?” Kelsey handed the baby another bite of croissant and vowed silently to supplement it with something healthy as soon as possible.

  “Janie.”

  Involuntarily she hugged the baby closer. “You think she’ll be in danger until we get them off the streets.”

  “I do. And with her going for surgery next week, she’ll be very vulnerable. I want this tied up before then.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Stay nearby. We want to keep her thinking about the baby. She came this far to protect the child. We need her to remember that.”

  “Do you want to hold her while I change?” Kelsey didn’t give him a chance to refuse. She handed Janie to Ethan—Janie, who definitely didn’t have a hard time bonding with people. She fisted her little hand in his shirt and pulled up in his lap, leaving a trail of croissant crumbs on his clean shirt.

  As Kelsey latched the pool house door behind her, she heard him laugh, deep and full. She closed her eyes and leaned against the door. She was falling in love. With the baby and the man.

  A man who kissed her last night. And really kissed her. She kind of felt the need to fan herself all over again.

  But despite that, he was a man she wasn’t sure was ready to let go of his past. A man who had a lot to come to grips with to deal with that past.

  She could see the writing on the wall—she with her missionary-kid history of leaving friends and moving on. There was always another assignment, another place that would break her heart.

  Oh, yeah, she knew hurt was coming her way, but she wouldn’t stop it. Sometimes hurt was the only way you knew you were alive.

  A few minutes later, Kelsey reappeared in a lightweight blouse loose over the jeans, which she had rolled up to right above the ankle. She still wasn’t putting all her weight in the right places on her feet, Ethan noticed. But she was walking easier than she had the day before, in borrowed flip-flops.

  Her black hair was in a loose braid down her back. Tendrils had escaped to play around her face. She was so beautiful. He was stunned by it, by her. Not just her physical beauty, but by the generosity that she seemed to share effortlessly with those around her. And that was what it was, he thought. The inner beauty that reflected a kind of peace that seemed rare these days.

  Janie caught a glimpse of her and started bouncing in his arms. He wasn’t the only one who had taken a shine to the social worker.

  Tyler stood, too. “I’m going to head back to the kitchen. Ethan’s favorite comfort food tonight. Roast, carrots and potatoes. With my own flair, of course. Kelsey, if you have a favorite, I’ll try to make it for you while you’re here.”

  “Chicken and dumplings,” Nolan inserted. His light brown eyes gleamed in the early morning light. “With those little baby carrots still attached to the leaves. I love those.”

  “Yeah, I know what you like, Nolan. It’s on the week’s menu already.”

  Nolan’s fist pumped the air. “Yes!”

  “I swear you act just like my little brother.” Ethan shook his head at Nolan, but his mind was on how Kelsey’s face had gone blank at Tyler’s question. “Kels?”

  “What? Oh, I really don’t have any favorites. Whatever you guys like is fine.”

  His ribs were bruising from Janie’s relentlessly kicking him to get to Kelsey. He passed her over. “Tyler doesn’t mind. He likes figuring out ways to tweak people’s favorites to make them more creative and hoity-toity.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you just used the word hoity-toity.”

  Nolan made a speculative face. “No, he’s right. Your food is kind of hoity-toity. I mean, I love those little carrots, but they’re fancy.”

  A long-suffering sigh from Tyler made Ethan smile despite everything, the good-natured teasing getting all their minds off what was at stake here, even if just for a few minutes. “Okay, Kelsey, spill it. What’s your favorite?”

  She started for the main house. “I had to eat whatever was put in front of me growing up. If it filled me up, I ate it. Therefore, I’m not picky.”

  “And holidays?”

  “Pretty much like any other day. It’s not that big a deal.” She turned back, looked from face to face. They were all staring at her. “C’mon guys, really?”

  Ethan caught up with her and walked beside her, staying on the pool side, Nolan and Tyler following behind them. “Do you make a big deal out of holidays for the kids in foster care?”

  “Yes, of course, but that’s because they don’t always have anyone to make a big deal for them.” She stopped and looked at him. He gave her an I-knew-it look. “It wasn’t like that for me.”

  “I believe you.” He had no doubt that she was more generous with others than she expected people to be with her.

  His expression dropped into serious lines, and he glanced back to see how close the others were. “Just to warn you, I have a feeling Viktoria is going to be harder to crack today. She’s had a night’s rest and time to think.”

  “I’m going to need more coffee.” Nolan peeled off toward the kitchen door right behind Tyler.

  “So, are you going to be harder on her?” Kelsey hitched Janie higher on her hip and patiently untangled sticky baby fingers from her braid for what seemed to Ethan to be the umpteenth time.

  “No, I’m going to remind her of Janie’s surgery and try to get her to talk now. We need this wrapped up. It can’t go on indefinitely.” His stomach was in knots already, despite the joking.

  “I agree—I’ll be behind you all the way. Whatever you need me to do. But first, I’m stopping in the kitchen for a sippy cup of milk.”

  “First things first.” He took a deep breath, keeping his eyes locked with hers. “Okay. One goal today. Tony Cantori.”

  “You get started. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Ethan watched her walk away, the memory of last night’s kiss on his mind. He walked toward the library, where one of the cops staying here had put Viktoria Arsov for her breakfast. Despite Brad’s earlier antagonism, he and his team had proven to be invaluable once Tyler filled them in on what was going on. They were patrolling the property, and one of them had sat outside Viktoria’s door around the clock. Ethan wondered what they would do when the team checked out later that morning.

  He nodded to the cop at the door and entered the room. Viktoria sat at the table. Someone—Gracie, probably—had given her a pair of sweats and some tennis shoes to wear. Her newly dyed dark hair had been pulled back into a low ponytail.

  But what he really noticed was the exhaustion that haunted her face. Dark circles ringed her eyes. She seemed to have aged overnight.

  She looked up at him with her pale blue eyes. “I am going to jail. Is that right?”

  Ethan sat in the chair across the table from her, laying the file folder that he’d brought square in front of him. He didn’t open it. He was nervous. There was so much at stake today. The library normally had a warm and cozy feel, but this morning it felt claustrophobic, the window too small for the space.

  He leaned back in the leather chair, crossed his ankle over his knee and nodded slowly. “Yes. Though it’s possible if you cooperate and testify against Tony Cantori and whoever is running him, you’ll get a reduced sentence.”

  “You said they tried to kill my malyshka. They sent someone after her?”

  She’d obviously been saving these questions overnight. “Yes, a hit team.”

  “I got Jane to you. I got you started looking into this because I want her to be safe. I want her to get her heart fixed.” The Moldovan woman stood, paced to the window.

  Ethan didn’t move to stop her, instead letting his low, slow tones do the work so she could make the decision. “The chances are good that we’re safe here, but I still wouldn’t stand by the window if I were you.”

  She whirled around, fitting h
erself against the wall next to the window. “You are serious?”

  “As a heart attack.” He tried not to let his anxiety show, instead letting her see a laid-back lawman, nothing but time to kill. “You must know that they’re after you. The only way you’ll be protected is to share the information you have with us.”

  “It won’t help. I’m a dead woman. I knew it as soon as I left with Janie.” Her lips were tight.

  “Then you have nothing to lose by telling me where Cantori is.”

  She slid back into the chair, one millimeter at a time, shooting sideways glances at the uncovered window. “I don’t know where he is.”

  “Come on, Viktoria.” He leaned forward and got as close to her face as he could. Maybe it was time for some shock value. He opened the folder and pulled out a photograph, slapping it on the table. “Do you recognize this?”

  She glanced at it, making a horrified sound as what the photo showed sunk in.

  “This is Ristorante Giorgio after the explosion. Cantori killed six people in order to murder my wife.”

  He laid another picture on the table, this one of a single hand bearing a wedding ring, next to an evidence marker on the asphalt. The hand was nearly perfect, barely a scratch on it. “Her name was Amy. There wasn’t enough left of her to have a casket, Viktoria.”

  Her eyelids fluttered as she looked at him. Tears brimmed but didn’t fall.

  He laid one more picture on the table. This one more recent. “This is a picture of one of the men sent to kill Janie.”

  “He’s dead.”

  “Yes. That photograph was taken in the morgue yesterday. A policeman faxed it to me this morning. Do you recognize those tattoos?”

  The fear was in her eyes, in the fine mist of perspiration that formed on her skin. “Russian prison tattoos. He’s Russian mafia.”

  “You know as well as I do—better—how brutal they are.”

  Her voice was an aching whisper. “What do you want from me? They are going to do to me what they did to your wife. Worse.”

  He felt for her—he did. No matter what she’d done, she was a victim. But he couldn’t stop asking questions. They had to know how to find Cantori. “Janie will have her first surgery next week, Vika. She’s going to be in a hospital with people who won’t know how to protect her.”