Midnight Reckoning

by Rebecca Deel

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Sophie stared out the passenger-side window of her SUV. She hadn’t said a word since Micah’s stark announcement that he would sue for custody if she tried to block him from visiting her baby.

  Fear grew larger by the minute, a living, breathing entity roiling inside her. Sophie blinked against the tears burning her eyes. She didn’t have the money or connections to fight Micah in court. No court in the country would trust her to raise a child on her own. Her family always came to bad ends. She could almost hear Micah’s attorney laying the groundwork with a litany of criminal offenses by the Valeros. Though only a juvenile record, Sophie had a colorful past, too. She hadn’t helped her own case by admitting to Micah she was a reformed cat burglar.

  Somehow, she figured the judge wouldn’t see much difference between breaking and entering to return stuff as opposed to plain old breaking and entering. For the first time in a long while, she regretted covering for Sierra all those times. The real tragedy would be if Sierra’s kleptomaniac tendencies caused Sophie to lose the baby.

  Just the idea of never seeing or holding him nearly tore her heart from her chest, the same traitorous heart which had thought Micah attractive. What kind of heartless monster threatened to take a baby from his mother? A man who believed she’d pass her skewed Valero values to his son.

  A tear escaped and raced down her cheek. She turned her body to face the door before wiping the moisture with her palm. Another tear followed, and another until moisture dripped in a continuous stream from her face to splash on her coat.

  “I’m sorry, Sophie.” A clean handkerchief appeared over her shoulder.

  She snatched the cloth and blotted her face before turning a glare on Micah. “For being a jerk?”

  “For making you cry.”

  “I don’t want an apology. I don’t want anything from you or your family.”

  “What about a promise not to take you to court as long as you allow us consistent access to the child?”

  Wary hope sprang to life. Sophie twisted in her seat to face him. Micah glanced her way. His face gave away nothing. Did he mean that or was it a ploy to stem the tears?

  “He’s a Winter. My family will want to be a vital part of his life.”

  “And you?”

  “Same.”

  Sophie leaned against the headrest, the emotional storm depleting any physical reserves she had left from the last 24 hours. Fatigue swamping her body, she closed her eyes. A few minutes of rest could make a huge difference in her energy level. The more advanced her pregnancy, the greater her fatigue. Road noise and blowing heat encouraged her to settle deeper in the leather seat. A few minutes to rest and then she’d plan the next steps to keep her son safe from Micah Winter.

  #

  Micah stole quick glances at the woman slumped in the seat beside him. She hadn’t slept well. He lost count of how many times she had gotten up during the night. Each time the guest room door opened, Micah wondered if Sophie needed something only to listen to her lock herself in the bathroom. Did all pregnant women get up that often during the night? Between the restless night and the attack at her home, she must be exhausted.

  Exiting Interstate 440, he guided the SUV down West End to the parking lot of Natural Health. Three cars occupied slots in front of the store. Micah switched off the ignition and unbuckled his seatbelt. He threw open the door and limped to the passenger side. Sophie straightened when her door opened.

  He surveyed the snow-covered parking lot and slid her arm through his. One of her workers should have cleared the parking lot. Micah didn’t relish the thought of spending hours in an emergency room if Sophie fell on her way into the store.

  Bright lights, cheerful atmosphere, and rows of vitamins and minerals lining the walls and free-standing shelves throughout Natural Health greeted him as he ushered Sophie inside. Two women dithered in front of displays of organic shampoo, deodorant, soap and body wash, chatting quietly. Coolers along the back wall held a lot of bottled water and teas.

  “Sophie, what are you doing here?”

  Micah shifted his attention from Natural Health’s stock to the man behind the counter. Well over six feet tall, the twenty-something man with a shock of red hair and numerous freckles hurried to take Sophie’s coat.

  “I thought you would stay off the road today. What if you had an accident?”

  Sophie patted his cheek with her gloved hand. “Relax, Adam. I had a skilled driver today. This is Micah Winter. He’s . . . a friend,” she finished, her cheeks pink.

  Adam eyed Micah, rampant speculation in his hazel gaze. He shifted Sophie’s coat to his left arm and held out his hand. “Good to meet you, Winter. Haven’t seen you around. Where you from?”

  Amused at the less than subtle probe for information, Micah returned the handshake. “Washington, D.C.”

  “Ah. Guess you didn’t have any problems with our gift from old man winter.” The boy’s face flushed red. “Sorry. No offense meant.”

  Micah grinned. “Not the first time I’ve heard that.”

  “You and Kelsey ready for lunch?” Sophie asked.

  “Sure. She’s in the office, cataloging this morning’s shipment. The UPS man arrived right on time.”

  Sophie walked behind the counter. A few taps on the register and the cash drawer popped open. She pulled out a $20. “Take Kelsey to lunch on me. Consider it my thanks for helping me today. Have we had many customers?”

  “Steady trickle.” Adam nodded his head toward the two women. “Mrs. Grant and her daughter came in with a few questions I couldn’t answer. They asked about you and Junior there.”

  “I’ll talk to them.” She nudged the boy toward her office. “Get your girl and enjoy lunch. Take your time. You’re doing me a favor by closing tonight.”

  Adam beamed. “Thanks, Sophie.” Her coat on his arm, he hurried to the back of the store.

  Micah revised his estimate of the boy’s age. “Nice kid,” Micah said as he removed his own coat. His eyebrows rose at the appearance of the young woman coming from the office with Adam. Her blond hair fell in cascading waves over her shoulders, ends dyed blue. Her silver and turquoise earrings, dancing with each step and glittering under the store lights, provided a perfect foil to the black turtleneck sweater, black jeans, and black tennis shoes. A wave and Adam and Kelsey left the store.

  “I give up.” Micah pinned his gaze on Sophie. “How old are they?”

  “Adam is 22, a senior in Belmont’s nursing program. Kelsey is two years behind him in the pre-med program. She plans to be a chiropractor.”

  Micah sighed. “They look about 12.” The pair made him aware of every one of his thirty-five years. He rubbed his aching thigh. The ride from the cabin had aggravated his injury and the cold had done the rest of the job. He almost wished he’d brought the prescription meds though his effectiveness as a bodyguard might be called into question while he napped on the store floor.

  “My office is in the back, Micah. You can check your email or surf the Internet while I’m working.” Sophie’s gaze rested on his thigh. “Would you like water or tea?”

  Micah balled his fist and jammed it into his pocket. “Either. Thanks.” He crossed to the back, trying not to limp too much or look pathetic, and sank into the comfortable office chair. A package wrapped in brown paper addressed to Sophie sat in the center of the desk. He frowned. No return address or postmark.

  Maybe the package was one Sophie was expecting. He swiveled the chair to face the computer screen and logged into his Internet service provider’s home page. He planned to ask Sophie about the package before he let her open it. Call him paranoid, but he didn’t like anonymous packages. Too many bomb threats in his line of work to let this go.

  Sophie entered the office with a frosty bottle of sweetened tea from some company he’d never heard of and a green vitamin bottle in the other. She handed him the drink. “You might like this. No weird stuff.” She broke the plastic seal on the vitamins, shook one out
and handed it to him. “Take this.”

  Micah eyed the pill in his hand. “I haven’t taken vitamins since I was a kid.”

  “You should, but this isn’t a vitamin. It’s an herb, a natural pain reliever called Valerian.” She opened the tea and handed it to him.

  He brought the pill closer to his mouth and got a good whiff of the herb. Micah moved his hand farther away and coughed. “Smells like dirty feet. Trying to poison me, Valero?”

  “Stop being a baby. You’re hurting. This will help.”

  He eyed her a moment, screwed up his courage and swallowed the nasty-smelling capsule. Micah guzzled half the tea before he deemed it safe to breathe again. Sophie’s wry amusement sent heat rising to his hairline.

  He nodded at the package on Sophie’s desk. “Were you expecting a personal delivery?”

  “No.” She examined the box with a frown. “Wonder who it’s from.”

  “Sophie, do you have a minute?” A feminine voice called from outside the office.

  “Go take care of your customers.” Micah waved her toward the doorway. “I’ll open the box for you.” He waited until he heard the murmur of voices move away from the office before he reached for his knife.

  The brown paper slid away from the knife tip. Hand covered with Sophie’s scarf, he eased a box from the paper and stared at the ordinary shoe box closed with string. Men’s running shoes, sized 13. Micah’s eyes narrowed. Barge-sized shoes indicated a big man. Sophie’s attacker was a large man and Micah didn’t believe in coincidences.

  Using the knife tip again, he cut the string and nudged the lid from box. The contents made his gut clench. Inside the box lay a realistic newborn doll with a knife plunged hilt-deep in the chest.

  Micah rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t want Sophie to see this, reluctant to upset her more. When her footsteps drew close to the office, he rose and intercepted her at the door.

  “What’s in the box?”

  He grasped her upper arms and urged her back into the main store. “You don’t want to see. Call the police.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I think last night’s visitor sent you a warning, Sophie. We need the local cops to run forensics. If they blow us off, I’ll call in a favor.”

  “You’re scaring me, Micah.”

  “What’s in that box scared me.” Scared him for her sake as well as his son’s. What if he couldn’t keep his promise to her, couldn’t protect her and the boy? He swallowed past the invisible fist encircling his throat.

  “I didn’t think anything scared you,” Sophie whispered.

  “Yeah?” He nudged her toward the sales counter. “I didn’t either. We were both wrong.”

  #

  Sophie flinched with each flash of the camera, her attention drawn by the heated male voices drifting from her office. Murmurs from the West precinct detective and vehement arguments from Micah, no words distinctive enough to learn what was being said, just the sense of growing anger from both men.

  Adam’s truck fishtailed into the parking lot. A moment later, hand-in-hand, he and Kelsey rushed through the door. “Sophie, what happened? Did we get robbed? Are you okay?” He swept the cap off his head, wrestled off his coat.

  “Micah opened the package on my desk and called the cops.”

  Kelsey gasped. “Why? What was in it?”

  “Ms. Valero?”

  Sophie turned to the approaching detective, reluctant to leave the stool she sat on for fear her legs would give out. Micah, his expression dark and angry, followed from the office. “Yes?”

  “Would you step into the office with me, please?”

  So polite. As if she had a choice. Her gaze flicked to Micah.

  He scowled at the back of the detective’s head. “This isn’t necessary, Abbott. I don’t want her any more upset than she already is. She’s eight months pregnant.”

  Abbott’s gray gaze traveled to her distended stomach. “I see that,” he said. “Please, come with me.” He helped her from the stool, his hand clasping her upper arm in a firm grip. “Stay here, Winter.”

  “Not in this lifetime,” he snapped. “Sophie, you don’t have to do this. Abbott can do his job without you seeing the box. If he can’t, I’ll find a fed who will.”

  “Look, Winter, stop interfering or I’ll haul you in for impeding my investigation.”

  “Try it.”

  Micah’s soft response sent a cascade of tremors through her. The package contents were that bad? Baby squirmed in response to her distress. The detective lead her to the office. One uniformed officer worked with print powder while another took pictures. How many shots were necessary to record every angle of her small office?

  “Ms. Valero, examine the box contents, but don’t touch anything. I’ll take the package as evidence. We also need your prints for comparison.”

  On leaden feet, Sophie edged closer to her desk. Another step, two and the shoe box contents became clear. Nausea struck sharp, boiling up in her throat. Hand over her mouth, she bolted from the office.

  “Sophie!” Micah’s uneven footsteps thundered behind her.

  She barely made it to the restroom before she lost the contents of her stomach. After the violent spasms ended, she realized Micah had followed her and knelt beside her, wiping her brow with a wet paper towel.

  Sophie sank to the floor, face buried in her hands. She heard running water, then Micah pressed a plastic cup in one of her hands. Once she rinsed and spat several times to purge the vile taste in her mouth, he tossed the cup and flushed.

  She should be embarrassed she couldn’t take care of things herself, but Sophie didn’t have enough energy to care. She leaned back against the mint-colored tile wall. Who sent the horrible box? Must have been the guy in her house last night. No one else had anything to gain by intimidating her. She was intimidated, but clueless to what Sierra stole from the thug’s boss.

  More footsteps rushed toward the bathroom. Great. Sophie raised her head to see who else joined the party.

  Kelsey hurried into room, bottled chamomile tea in one hand, packs of Saltines in the other. “Here.” She thrust the bottle into Sophie’s hand. “If this stays down, try the crackers.”

  “Thanks, Kels. You’re an angel.”

  The girl beamed.

  Micah stood, fury in every line of his body. “Stay with her,” he said to Kelsey. “I want a word with the detective.”

  “Micah, no.” Sophie grabbed his hand to hold him in place. “Don’t make a big deal out of this. I’ll be fine.”

  “He deliberately upset you, Sophie.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time for Metro’s finest.” She sipped the cold tea, the liquid soothing her burning throat and unsettled stomach. The lightly sweetened drink was the most popular tea Natural Health sold.

  Micah squeezed her hand. “Better?”

  Her gaze darted to her hand, surprised to find it still held snugly in Micah’s. “Help me up.” She wrinkled her nose. “Now that I’m down here, I won’t be able to get up on my own without a crane.”

  A grin curved his mouth. “You aren’t that big.”

  “With this bowling ball in front of me, whatever grace I had is long gone. I don’t want to embarrass myself any further today by falling on my fanny.” Sophie handed her tea to Kelsey and, grasping Micah’s other extended hand, pulled herself up. “Thanks.”

  “Okay now?” Kelsey asked.

  “Don’t worry, Kels.”

  “You haven’t been sick in weeks.” The college student swept her blue-tipped hair over her shoulder. “Did you eat this morning?”

  “Yes, Dr. Chastain. I fed the baby scrambled eggs and toast with a side of orange juice.”

  “The sickness had nothing to do with food,” Micah said. “Who delivered the package on Sophie’s desk?”

  “Just some guy.” Kelsey shrugged. “He stopped in first thing this morning, said he had a gift for you.”

  “Did you recognize him?” Sophie asked.

 
; “No.” Her face flushed. “The way he acted, I thought he was Junior’s father. I hoped he brought flowers or a baby gift.”

  Sophie shuddered. “That man isn’t the baby’s father.”

  “The baby is mine.” Micah held out his hand. “Micah Winter.”

  Kelsey’s eyes widened. “Kelsey Chastain.”

  “Ms. Valero, I need to take the box to the station, get the prints in the system,” Abbott interrupted from the hallway. “We bagged the box and one of the officers took it to my car. I assume you don’t want the doll returned.”

  “No.”

  “What’s going on?” Kelsey’s gaze bounced between Sophie, Micah, and Abbott. “The box contained a doll?”

  “And you would be?”

  “Kelsey Chastain. I work with Sophie. A man brought the package this morning right after we opened.”

  “Could you describe him?”

  “Not really. He wore a hat pulled low and a black scarf covered the lower half of his face.”

  “You didn’t think that was odd?”

  “I figured he was cold. The temperature was in the low twenties when Adam and I opened the store this morning.”

  “Whatever you want to ask Sophie, Abbott, you better ask now or I’m taking her home,” Micah said. “She’s been through enough, thanks to you.”

  Abbott’s face hardened. “Return to your office, Ms. Valero. We’ll continue our discussion there.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes at the elevated testosterone level. Another minute and fists would fly. Tea in hand, she retraced her steps and sank into her chair, feet propped on the small stool under her desk. Micah stationed himself behind her, one shoulder propped against the wall. She almost laughed at the aggravation evident on the detective’s face.

  Abbott’s attention rested for a moment on her bare left hand. “Problems with an ex-husband, boyfriend? Someone want to hurt you?”

  “No.” Sophie’s chin rose. “I’ve never been married and all of my dating relationships have ended on good terms.”