Every now and then Lexi and Kiel looked at each other and said with their hearts what they couldn't put into words. All of their emotions, all of their hopes, all of their prayers were being poured into the little girl sleeping fitfully in the hospital bed. They were united in spirit the same way they had been united in body not that many hours ago and it was that union of souls that gave them hope.
The hours passed slowly. Test after test came back with negative results. That would have been a cause for joy if only Kelsey's fever would break but by midnight that miracle hadn't happened.
They drank coffee. They talked little. What could they say that mattered? It was enough to hold hands and to know that each found strength in the other's nearness.
He marveled that the spoiled brat who'd showed up on his doorstep with an attitude and a whopper of an unpaid bill had turned out to be a woman with a heart as beautiful as her lovely face.
She found herself moved by the love he had for his little daughter and wondering if he ever regretted that their marriage of convenience wasn't a marriage of the heart.
There was so much he wanted to say to her when the time was right. He'd thought this part of his life was over forever, that he was incapable of feeling the towering sense of joy that he'd found in her arms.
That forever was no longer one of his dreams.
And there was so much she wanted to say to him when Kelsey's fever finally broke. She'd come to him with nothing on her mind except her inheritance. Now she would toss it all aside gladly if it meant Kelsey would be her happy and healthy self once again.
If it meant she could stay with him forever.
"Mr. Brown." He heard the unfamiliar voice as if from a great distance. "Wake up, Mr. Brown. We have good news."
He struggled up from an uneasy sleep and glanced at his surroundings. Next to him Lexi was pushing her hair off her face and stifling a yawn.
He sprang to his feet.
The doctor was standing in front of him. "Kelsey," he said, heart pounding violently inside his chest. "How--"
"Normal," said the doctor.
He stared at her. "What?"
"Normal." The doctor's professional demeanor slipped and she offered Kiel and Lexi a huge and triumphant smile. "As in 98.6."
"Her fever's broken?" asked Lexi in amazement.
"Not only broken, Mrs. Brown, but vanished. Whatever it was Kelsey had, it left as quickly as it came."
"You still don't know what it was?" Kiel asked.
"Afraid not," said the doctor. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't give us a nasty scare but it's all over."
Next to him Lexi began to cry tears of joy and he found his own eyes welling with emotion.
"Now what?" he asked, unable to suppress his smile. "When can we take her home?"
"I know you're anxious," said the doctor, "but we'd like to keep her another twenty-four hours just to be on the safe side."
"She's going to be okay!" Lexi threw herself into Kiel's arms as the doctor walked away. "Oh, God, Kiel--"
He lifted her off the ground and swung her around. He felt as if he'd been handed the moon on a silver platter. "Alexa."
She looked at him. Her big blue eyes were warm, inviting. He'd never seen a more beautiful woman...or known a more caring one.
"I don't know what I would've done without you these past few hours," he said, his voice gruff with emotion. "You--"
"Shh." She kissed him gently on the mouth. "I lo--" She cleared her throat. "I care for her so much."
"I know." He held her close for a long, long time.
"I hate to leave you here," Kiel said as he and Lexi said goodbye in front of the hospital an hour later.
"I'll be fine," she said. "Imelda promised to bring me a toothbrush and a clean t-shirt. The important thing is that one of us is here with Kelsey."
"I'd stay," he said, "but I'm so close to cataloguing--"
"Don't." The look she gave him was unsettling. "I don't know exactly what you're up to in that lab but I do know you're not counting endangered species."
For the first time he didn't deny it. "You're part of it," he said. "You know I can't tell you more."
"I know you won't tell me more," she said. Part of it? Part of what?
He pulled her close and kissed her. For some strange reason the kiss tasted of danger.
"I'll be back later," he said.
Lexi nodded. "I'll be here."
She watched, arms wrapped across her chest, as he drove away, his red taillights swallowed up by the night. What on earth had she become part of when she said I do?
The house had been ransacked.
Kiel stood in the middle of the living room and looked at the devastation. Sofa pillows had been sliced open. Carpeting had been ripped up. Books and magazines and videotapes were scattered all across the floor. Even the ashes in the hearth had been sifted and left in a heap near the rocking chair. Everything that could be opened, torn apart, or removed had been.
He reached for the telephone and wasn't surprised to find the line had been cut. Okay. That was to be expected. But PAX, in its wisdom, had supplied secured and permanent lines to his laboratory.
He was halfway across the backyard when the sensor went off. The tiny microchip beneath the skin that covered his third rib vibrated a message that he'd prayed would never come. A bead of sweat trickled down his back as he remembered Ryder's final warning. "Contact us immediately if the sensor goes off." Not by telephone or fax, but by the ultimate in written communication, a satellite-based laser system that even the government didn't know existed. "Bad news?" Kiel had asked. "The worst," Ryder had confirmed. "Let's hope we never need to use it.
His blood ran cold as he reached the lab and found half of the security system had been breached. Whoever it was, they meant business. He breathed a sigh of relief that both his daughter and Lexi were safe and sound at the hospital and out of harm's way.
He leaned forward, resting his chin against the support while retinal identification was taken. The green light flashed, and O'Neal's scrawl appeared across his monitor.
Operative found murdered.
WHO? Kiel wrote across the computer note pad.
Harry Blackburn.
That bumbling fool who had jimmied the lock during the wedding party was one of theirs?
WHEN?
Last night.
SUSPECTS?
Everyone but you.
NOT ALEXA.
We can't discount her.
BUT SHE'S ONE OF YOURS.
Nominally, yes.
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, NOMINALLY?
We don't have time for this.
SO HELP ME GOD, IF YOU DON'T--
He was cut off by a sharp buzz emanating from the monitor. He tried to continue typing but nothing registered. O'Neal's words filled the screen.
Take Kelsey, go to the airfield and wait for the courier.
KELSEY'S IN THE HOSPITAL. ALEXA'S WITH HER.
Get Kelsey, O'Neal repeated. We'll deal with Lexi.
They closed the connection.
Kiel sat there, staring at the blank screen.
"Not Lexi," he said aloud as the old loneliness flooded his soul.
Not Lexi.
"Imelda!" Lexi put down her cup of coffee. "Thank you so much for coming."
Imelda's brown eyes crinkled with concern. "How is the little tyke?"
Lexi's smile was broad. "The fever broke last night. She'll be coming home this afternoon."
Imelda breathed a loud sigh of relief. "Saints be praised! What was it? Do they know? In all my days I never seen a little one get so sick all of a sudden."
"They still don't know exactly what it was," Lexi said, "but whatever it was, it's gone now."
"That's the important thing," said Imelda.
"Absolutely," said Lexi.
"You look worn-out," Imelda observed. "We're a hop skip and jump from my place. Why don't I run you over so you can catch forty winks before you take the girl home."
"Oh, I couldn't," said Lexi. "What if Kelsey wakes up? She'd be scared to death alone."
"Oh, I don't think that will be a problem," said Imelda with a smile.
"What do you mean they've left?" Kiel demanded of the day nurse at the hospital. "The car's in the parking lot. They couldn't have left."
"I'm afraid they did, Mr. Brown," said the nurse. "Mrs. Brown signed out your daughter, against doctor's advice I might add, two hours ago."
He'd never understood the word terror until that moment. Fear gripped him so tightly by the throat he had to remind himself to breathe. "There has to be some mistake."
She type in Kelsey's name then swung the computer monitor around to face him. "See? Your daughter was released in your wife's care. The signature card is on file."
"I want to see it."
"Mr. Brown--"
"Now!"
She made a phone call to the administrative office. "They'll fax me a copy in a minute."
He counted down the seconds. They were as good as their word. "That's Alexa's signature," he said flatly.
The nurse, eyes wide with concern, looked at him. "Are you certain?"
He nodded. "I'm certain." He'd seen that signature one month ago on their marriage certificate.
"I wouldn't worry, Mr. Brown," said the nurse, patting him on the forearm. "I'm sure they're home right now." She pushed the telephone toward him. "Why don't you call and put your mind to rest?"
"I can't," he said as dread sent icy fingers up and down his spine. "Our phone's down." A thought occurred to him. "If they'd headed for home, I would've passed them on the road." There was only one road from his cabin to the hospital.
The nurse's face brightened. "Oh, I know why. Their friend took them home."
"Friend? What friend?"
The nurse smiled. "Why, that lovely Mrs. Mulroney."
Imelda Mulroney's house in town was empty. Except for the furniture, nothing else remained. No books, no clothes, no food in the refrigerator. Nothing.
Wherever she and her husband had gone to, they weren't coming back.
A red mist of rage clouded his vision. "Son of a bitch!" He picked up one of the maple kitchen chairs and pitched it through the window over the sink. Not even the sound of breaking glass satisfied him. He wanted to lay waste to the house but there wasn't time.
Imelda had always been coy about the location of their "cabin in the woods." He'd chalked it up to a personality defect. Now he suspected it was a lot more than that. Her old man had been exchanging fish stories at the wedding reception. Kiel vaguely remembered hearing something about the best stream in Alaska running through their property. "Had to post the land to keep the hordes out," he'd boasted. "Before too long they'll be bussing 'em up from Seattle to take my fish."
He leaped back into the truck and roared away from the Mulroneys' house.
Somebody in Nowhere had to know the location of that legendary fishing spot and if he had to talk to every damn resident of the town in order to track it down, he would.
Connecticut
"We found him!" Joanna's cry broke the tense silence in the headquarters office.
"Where is he?" asked Ryder, his face drawn.
"His plane landed an hour ago. He's en route to Nowhere."
"Does he know the whole story?"
Joanna nodded. "He'll meet the others at the airfield."
"It's three hours since we heard from Kiel."
"I know," said Joanna. And longer than she cared to think about since they'd had any word at all on Lexi and the child.
"Did you look at the film of the break-in?"
Joanna nodded. "The guy was smart. He kept his back to the camera."
Ryder looked around the high-tech communications center and muttered an oath. "All of this goddamn equipment and we still don't know what in hell's going on up there. For all we know we handed Kiel right into the hands of the enemy."
"Lexi isn't the enemy," Joanna said. "I'd stake my life on that."
"Don't, Jo," said her husband. "I'd hate to lose you on a bet like that."
Wish I could help you, but I don't know nothin' 'bout the Mulroney place.
If Kiel heard it once he heard it a hundred times in the next hour.
He went from house to house begging for information on Imelda and her husband and each time he came up dry. He uncovered their bank balance, how they liked their hamburgers cooked, and that Imelda wore support hose under her stretch pants but he couldn't uncover one damn thing about the house they'd lived in before they moved down to Nowhere.
"Never thought too much about it," said Agnes Lopez. "They'd come down here every Sunday for church and be real sociable but they tended to like their privacy." She frowned. "Though that sure changed once they moved here to stay. Imelda was a real friendly type, the kind who'd stop to help a stranger if he was in need. She was always droppin' in to set a spell and visit."
By noon he'd exhausted all of his possibilities. The only thing left to him was to fill up the tank of his Jeep and start driving.
"Heard you been askin' about the old Mulroney place," said old man Packer said as he pumped gas.
Kiel nodded. "Heard there's some great fishing up there."
Packer chuckled. "'Up there'? Ain't up anywhere. The Mulroney place is about thirty miles east of here."
Kiel thought his heart was going to explode as pure adrenaline shot through his veins. "You know where it is?"
"A man never forgets where he caught the big one now, does he?"
Two minutes later Kiel and old man Packer were racing east on Eagle Pass Road.
"Glad you brought your gun," Kiel said, noting the pistol in the older man's hand. "Just don't waste the ammo on me. Save it for the bad guys."
"You better be tellin' the truth, boy," said Packer, "because if that little gal ain't in trouble, I'll make you pay for this!"
"Ten thousand dollars," said Kiel as the needle climbed past seventy. "Get us to that cabin in time and it's yours."
Chapter 13
The cabin smelled of must and desperation.
"This isn't going to get you anywhere," Lexi said as one of Imelda's two cronies tied her to a straight-back chair. The ropes dug into her upper arms and chest, leaving her hands resting useless in her lap. Her mouth still smarted from the pull of adhesive tape when they removed the gag they'd used to silence her on the way there. "Kiel isn't rich. If you're holding us for ransom you're going to be sorely disappointed."
Imelda motioned toward the rear of the cabin. "Put the kid in one of the bedrooms," she snapped to the bear of a man who carried Kelsey. God only knew what they'd done to the little girl; she'd been soundly asleep since they took her from the hospital. "And close the door so she can't hear us if she wakes up."
"I want her in here with me," Lexi said in an imperious tone of voice. The only weapon she had left was attitude. She doubted if it would get her any place but she had to try. Kelsey...oh God...I'm here for you....
"You want, you want," mimicked Imelda. "I don't care what you want, little lady. There are things I want too and you're going to see that I get them."
"I tell you, you're making a mistake. Kiel doesn't have any money."
"Why does she keep talkin' about money?" asked one of the men who'd been waiting for them at the cabin.
"Because she's a damn good little actress," said Imelda. "It's almost like she don't know what kind of man she married."
"If you're trying to upset me, you're failing miserably," said Lexi. "Now bring Kelsey back in here this minute."
"Shut up!" Imelda backhanded her across the face, snapping Lexi's head back with the force of the blow. "No more games. He killed off one wife and I don't think he'd cry into his beer if he saw another one die before her time."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, don't I? It wasn't an accident that finished off the first Mrs. Brown."
"She died in a boating accident. Kiel had nothing to do with it."
<
br /> "She was murdered, right after she ran away from her handsome hubby."
"Liar."
Imelda smacked her again. "She ran off with another man, missy, and he made her pay for it. Sooner or later they all make you pay."
A sudden, clear vision of Kiel's anger the night she'd pinned back Kelsey's hair with Helena's cloisonné comb danced before Lexi's eyes. The topic of Helena had triggered his temper and that temper was considerable. There was violence in him, a simmering anger that had been just below the surface from the moment they met. But murder?
No, she thought. Please, no.
She lifted her chin in defiance. "Even if everything you say is true, what does it have to do with me?"
"We didn't have to take you, lady," one of Imelda's henchmen said. "He ain't gonna give us nothin' for you, it's the little girl he's gonna pay big for."
This is a business arrangement, Alexa Grace...marriage is many things but convenient isn't one of them....
"Let the child go," she said, praying she sounded more certain than she felt. "Take her back to the hospital and I'll pay you whatever you want."
Imelda obviously found that statement hilarious. "You ain't worth a bucket of warm spit to us."
"Maybe not but my money is."
"We don't want money," Imelda said. "We want what he's got hidden away in that fancy lab of his. That's worth more money than they got in the Mint."
"His lab?" Lexi's laugh was high, almost out-of-control. "He's an environmentalist! He counts migrating birds for a living."
"Right," said one of the men, "and I'm a rocket scientist."
...the triple locks on the lab door...the high tech alarm systems...the sense of urgency that was part of everything Kiel did....
"Enough talk," Imelda roared. She turned to her accomplices. "He's a smart boy. He'll be here soon. Let's get ready to welcome him."
The Bride Came C.O.D. (Bachelor Fathers) Page 14