Then again, Bonny hadn’t called Jack “dah.”
She shook off the strange thoughts and watched Chad take the seat across the table from her.
“I missed you, short stuff,” he said, tapping his index finger against Bonny’s nose. He wasn’t quite as happy when she grasped the finger and stuck it into her mouth, giving a healthy chomp. “Ow!”
“She must have another tooth coming in,” Hannah said.
Chad’s grimace was altogether endearing. “Yeah, well, looks to me that she’s doing just fine with the ones she’s got.”
“Can you check to see if she feels a little warm to you?”
His expression instantly sobered as he stared at her, then Bonny. He lifted his large hand, then pressed his fingers to several points on their daughter’s face and neck. “She feels fine to me, but I don’t know. Do you think maybe you should give her something?”
“No. But we should keep an eye on her just the same.”
In that one instant it was all too easy to imagine that they weren’t in the midst of what essentially amounted to a military state. That, instead, they were in their own home somewhere, nothing more than an average, everyday family doing everyday family things.
Her smile slowly faded.
But they weren’t, were they? There was nothing normal about their current situation. And there was nothing normal about their relationship. Oh, she supposed her bond with her daughter was normal enough. And Chad and Bonny were growing more attached with every passing moment. If only the ring Chad had wanted to give her had more to do with love than a sense of outdated gallantry. “I should have offered to do the right thing the moment I saw Bonny,” he’d said.
She averted her gaze, hating the tears welling up in her eyes. Didn’t he understand that she couldn’t marry someone only because she’d given birth to his daughter? She couldn’t stand thinking for even a moment that she’d somehow trapped him into doing something he would never have done otherwise.
The door opened again and in stepped McKay.
For the most part, they’d been left on their own in the kitchen, with only an occasional nondescript agent passing through on his way to the back. She’d suspected the peace wouldn’t last for long and she was right.
“Take these and see if any of them look familiar.” Randy McKay tossed a pile of color photographs onto the kitchen table.
“I didn’t give you enough credit, McKay.” Chad reached around Bonny and picked up one of the photos.
“You have been busy.”
The agent gestured vaguely with his right hand. “They were gathered by one of my men. People either suspected of theft of high-tech items, or with a past of smuggling them out of the country. I’m hoping you’ll identify one in particular.”
Hannah leaned toward Chad. “You think the men from the airport this morning are in here?”
In the hour since McKay had found them, Chad and Hannah had filled the FBI agent in on everything that had happened since they had taken on the unusual case. Well, almost everything. Hannah warmed slightly, remembering her and Chad’s respite from the chase that morning. Besides, that detail didn’t matter. Not anymore.
If only she could force her heart into agreement.
“There is only one way to find out,” McKay replied, staring in an odd way at Chad. “Look them over. If you come up with anything, let me know.”
Hannah pulled the photographs closer. McKay walked from the room, leaving them alone again.
“Chad?”
He slowly looked at her. “Strange change of events, wouldn’t you say?”
Hannah smiled. “Considering we were facing jail time, yes, I would say conditions have changed drastically. What surprises me is that McKay handed the reins over to you.”
Chad grimaced and directed his response to Bonny.
“He’s hoping I’ll hang myself with them, isn’t he, Bon-Bon?”
Hannah recognized his use of her own nickname for Bonny and her heart gave a little squeeze. “You are more likely to hang him, and he knows that.”
A slight arch of a brow told Hannah he was surprised by the compliment. She fought a smile, enjoying that she could still make him feel good.
She sifted through the pictures in front of her, pushing them toward Chad once she finished, but careful to keep them out of Bonny’s reach. So many faces. She held out a picture, but Chad didn’t take it from her.
“Hannah?”
She glanced at him, thinking he had found something in one of the pictures. Instead, her breath froze in her chest at the sober expression on his face.
His frown was poignantly endearing. “I know I haven’t always been honest with you, you know, about my past.”
She secretly bit the inside of her lip, unsure where he was headed, and not entirely certain she wanted him to go there given everything that had happened between them in the past few days. “You mean about the fact that you used to be FBI?”
His wry grin touched her in a way that reminded her of when they first met.
For the second time she realized that she had never really known Chad. Not really. From the moment she first laid eyes on him, she knew she had wanted him—for who he was at that moment. For all the promise his responding, fiery gaze had held, despite the shadow of pain that always touched his expression. A shadow she had ignored, keeping her focus steadfastly on the future. Their future. On who she believed he could be. Then came the time when she’d wanted a ring and he’d bought her an Alfa Romeo. Ironic that now that he’d offered her a ring she wanted nothing more than his love.
He shook his head. “No, Hannah, this isn’t about that. Before…well, I thought I could keep everything separate. Live with you in the present, and lock the past safely away.” He thrust his fingers through his hair. “But it doesn’t work that way, does it?”
She ached to reach out to him, but couldn’t seem to put down the picture she held.
“I was an agent for the FBI for a little over six years. I quit the day after the death of my wi—of Linda and Joshua.”
She tried to imagine Chad dressed in the strict blue suits worn by the men in the other room, but couldn’t. The Chad she knew was a rugged loner she had never seen in anything other than jeans. Whose golden-brown hair was forever in need of a trim, and whose eyes hinted at a wild, reckless nature she had thought inherent. And his wild nature was inherent. It had only found a different, more intense release after the loss of his family.
“Thanks,” she said quietly. “I mean, for telling me.”
He stared at her for a long moment.
She shifted, guessing he expected more from her. More questions? Probing? Perhaps anger that he had kept something from her that had been a large part of his life?
Whatever he expected, all she could offer in return was quiet acceptance.
She concentrated her attention on the picture in her hands, though she could see little more than colors and blobs.
“Is that it?” Chad asked, a tinge of amusement coloring his voice.
She slanted him a wary glance. “Yes. Unless, of course, there’s some other deep, dark secret you’ve been keeping from me.”
His ominous silence sent a chill racing up her spine. Was there something else he was keeping to himself?
She almost breathed a sigh of relief when he held out his hand for the photo she’d tried to give him before. Until he said, “I want you to drop out of the trace. I want you to allow Randy to see you and Bonny back home…back to New York tonight. As soon as possible.”
She blinked at him, unable to believe she’d fallen into what essentially had been a trap. “Don’t even go there, Hogan.”
“I want you out, Hannah.”
Out? She swallowed hard, flinching away from the strong word. “Chad, I’ve told you that you don’t have to protect me—”
“This has nothing to do with protecting you. In a situation like this, I’m better off working alone. I don’t need anyone dogging my steps, distracting me
.”
“Distracting you?” she asked, hiking a brow. “Let’s just see what’s going to happen next, okay?”
What seemed like a long while later, Hannah finally returned to the task at hand. She stared at the faces in the photographs, nearly bending them with her jerky movements.
She dragged another off the pile. Was there even a jail big enough to hold them all?
Chad tossed a picture aside then fastened Bonny into her stroller so he could stand up. He was obviously as frustrated by the tedious task as she was. Tortured by demons she couldn’t hope to ever understand, much less help him conquer. He walked a ways away, then leaned against the farthest wall. She waited for him to repeat his request for her to drop out.
“I wish something would break. I’m afraid our friend—” Chad motioned toward the door with his thumb “—won’t wait long. He may decide to renege on the deal and take us to jail.”
Hannah was relieved he hadn’t said anything about her continued involvement in the trace. “That won’t happen. The guy likes you.”
There was a shadow of a smile on Chad’s face when he looked at her. “McKay doesn’t like anybody.”
She returned her attention to the pictures. The one she held was of a strikingly attractive man who looked like he’d stepped from the cover of GQ. Certainly he couldn’t be involved in anything criminal? She frowned, reminding herself that looks had nothing to do with a person’s career. She was proof of that.
She slid the picture to the bottom of the pile, revealing the one under it. Her pulse vaulted as she stared down at the familiar face.
“Chad, I think I have something.”
He pushed from his position against the wall. “What is it?”
Overall, there was nothing particularly remarkable about the man. He had dark, thinning hair. A round face. Dark-rimmed eyeglasses. He could have been any one of a hundred men she’d pass going about normal day-to-day business. In a grocery store. On the street.
Hannah tapped the photo with her finger. “I’ve seen this guy. He was standing across the street from Rita Minelli’s place before we found Persky….” She glanced at Bonny where she threw a set of plastic keys to the floor. “Well, you know.”
Chad took the photo from her. She had little doubt that he recognized the man.
“McKay?” Chad didn’t say the name loudly, for he and she knew the agent was standing just on the other side of the door, probably listening to every word they’d said since he’d left them alone. The FBI agent immediately joined them.
“What is it?”
Hannah handed the photo to him. “Who is this?”
Randy took it. “His name is Robert Morgan.” He paused, his attention focused on Chad. “Is he someone you recognize? Who you’ve seen in the past couple of days?”
Chad ran his hand through his hair. “He’s the comptroller at PlayCo where Persky and Furgeson worked. He’s the guy I spoke to.”
“And he was in Atlantic City yesterday, suspiciously close to the time Persky was murdered,” Hannah added. “I saw him.”
“Are you positive this is the man?” McKay placed his hands on the table. “This is very important, Hannah. He was high on our list of suspects when we discovered the stolen chips were being circulated through the toy company, but every line we put out on him has come back clean. Too clean.”
“Well, I don’t know how much dirt this will fling on him, but I’m positive that’s the man I saw around Rita Minelli’s apartment building a few minutes after Eric Persky was murdered.”
McKay knocked his knuckles on the tabletop. “I knew it.”
Hannah examined Robert Morgan’s photograph. She said, “So Morgan recruited Eric Persky to do his dirty work, namely to distribute the stolen chips through toy telephones, presumably to parts outside the country. But when things went down, Lisa Furgeson got arrested, too. Why?”
McKay rubbed the back of his neck. “Probably so the trail wouldn’t be traced back to him. Also, when an innocent is arrested with the guilty, the innocent is usually proven as such, getting the others arrested with them off as well. Complicated, but it works.”
A sudden commotion from the front of the house put an end to their conversation. Hannah rose from her chair, glancing anxiously at Bonny as Chad and McKay moved toward the door. She plucked her daughter from the stroller and held her close to her chest.
“What’s going on out here?” McKay demanded.
Hannah stopped next to an agent standing in front of the living-room windows. He made room for her and she peered out to find the mob of agents gathered around a shadowy figure.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know, ma’am,” the agent next to her replied. “The moment he tried to cross the outer perimeter, we were all over him.”
Hannah reached out, squeezing Chad’s forearm as he appeared beside her. Bonny did the same. “Wait a minute…”
He leaned closer, his every muscle bunched. “It’s Stokes.”
For long moments she stood staring at Chad, trying to work out the possibilities.
“Is Furgeson with him?” she asked.
Chad shook his head. “Not from what I can see.”
“What is it? Do you two know that guy?” McKay emerged from a conversation with one of his agents.
“Yes. It’s Jack Stokes—noticeably without Lisa Furgeson,” Chad told him flatly. “It’s only a matter of time before we’re contacted for the chips.”
McKay stared at two of his agents. They immediately moved toward the front of the house.
Hannah followed them to the door. What was Stokes up to? And where was Furgeson? Shifting aside so the two men could bring Jack in, Hannah stared at him in shock. “What happened to you? You look like you got caught on the wrong side of a baseball bat.”
Jack touched his swollen face and flinched, his battered leather cowboy hat hanging in his other hand. “Believe me, that’s exactly how I feel.”
Chad bit off a curse. “What have you done now, Stokes? And where’s Furgeson?”
“I think we would all like to know the answer to that question,” McKay added.
“I’m doing just fine, thank you,” Jack offered in an offhand matter. “How about all of you?” He surveyed the packed house. “Aw, you’re having a party and forgot to invite me.”
Hannah had a bad feeling about all this. “Where is she, Jack?”
A grimace marred the Aussie’s blood-caked face. “I wish I knew, Hannah.” He looked at her. “I will tell you this much—the lady didn’t look too pleased with the changing of the guard.”
“You know, I ought to have you arrested.” The stonelike quality of Chad’s words told Stokes he meant it.
Jack half laughed. “Yeah, well, I would probably deserve it, Hogan.”
Hannah looked at Chad in concern as McKay ushered them all into the kitchen.
Jack sank onto a kitchen chair. “There were at least three. Two who looked like these guys—” he moved a thumb in McKay’s direction “—and one I couldn’t see. I could only hear his voice from the back of a Lincoln.” He moved a hand over his stress-lined face.
Hannah slipped into a chair across from his. She pulled the picture of Robert Morgan toward him. “Did any of them look like this man?”
Jack squinted at the photo. “The two who worked me over didn’t.” He shook his head. “I didn’t see the one in the Lincoln.”
McKay leaned in. “Where’d they get you?”
“Outside a motel I’d booked a room at earlier.” Chad frowned at the agent. “This guy’s small change, McKay. He’s freelancing this bounty.” He explained how Stokes was working for himself, hoping to get Elliott Blackstone to come around. “But I guess he wasn’t having any luck,” he said of the Australian. He spoke of Stokes in the third person, as if dismissing him. “But that doesn’t matter anymore. What’s important now is that we get that call.”
Why was it taking so long? It seemed like forever, though it had only been an h
our since Jack had showed up and shared his story. Hannah, Chad and Jack sat around the kitchen table, the telephone sitting silently in the middle of it, while Randy McKay stuck to the shadows. Bonny was safely asleep in her stroller in the corner, her thumb stuck halfway into her mouth, a blanket covering her tired little body. She was blessedly unaware of the activity going on around her.
“I don’t know, Hogan,” McKay said from the open back doorway where he was smoking a cigarette. “I’m beginning to think Morgan—if it is Morgan—isn’t going to contact you. Circumstances have gotten too hot for him. It’s my guess Furgeson has met with the fate of her co-worker and is this very minute lying in a ditch somewhere.”
“Keep your thoughts to yourself, McKay,” Hannah murmured.
McKay stepped into the beam of light from the ceiling fixture. “I’m considering calling off this whole farce. This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“We’re not going anywhere, mate.” The determination in Jack’s voice held a measure of threat. “If Hogan and McGee think he’ll call, then he’ll bloody call. So just crawl back into your hole and shut up, will you?”
McKay stood where he was for a long moment, returning Jack’s scathing stare. Hannah knew the agent held the power to do as he threatened. With a wave of his hand he could place her and Chad under arrest and shut the whole operation down. She swallowed with difficulty. What would become of her and Chad and Bonny if that happened?
“That’s it. It’s over. I’ll catch up with Morgan eventually, but it won’t be today.” McKay started toward the kitchen door. “We’re closing up shop.”
Chad immediately went after him and Hannah moved to get Bonny. The telephone gave out a short, sharp ring that stopped them all midmotion.
Chairs screeched as they urgently reseated themselves, not paying attention when McKay closed the door, backtracking to stand behind Hannah.
“Answer the thing!” Jack moved to snatch up the black receiver. Chad gave him an ominous look and he stopped.
On the fourth ring, Chad reached out and picked it up. “Hello.”
Hannah felt like a rolled spool of copper wire, unable to move, unable to breathe. She saw no sign of emotion on Chad’s face.
Just Eight Months Old... Page 18