Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Adam backed up, using his body to shield Eve.
“You all right?” Adam tossed the question at her over his shoulder.
She struggled to keep from shaking. “Yes. But who just—?”
There was some kind of movement just beyond the window. “I think we’re about to find out. Stay behind me,” Adam ordered.
“Hey, don’t shoot,” someone called through the broken glass. “I’m not as fast as I used to be.”
Eve’s mouth dropped open. She recognized the voice even before the man came in. “Lucas?”
The rest of the glass from the shattered window rained into the room as it was summarily swept away. One hand raised in token surrender, Lucas came in through the window. He held a high-powered rifle in his other hand.
“That would be me,” he said amiably. “Sorry about your window.” He nodded toward the shattered glass on the floor. “But I didn’t have time to pick my shot. I had to take what I could get.”
Eve stared at the rifle. Josiah’s driver seemed so comfortable with it. And there was no arguing that he was a dead shot. Wasn’t anyone what they seemed?
She looked at Adam. “Is he with you?”
Adam slowly shook his head. “Not that I know of,” he qualified. And then he grinned with relief. “But he can join my team anytime he wants.”
Lucas laughed. “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m retired.” As he spoke, he began disassembling his rifle.
This wasn’t real, Eve couldn’t help thinking as she watched Lucas reduce his weapon to a sum of its parts, placing each down on her coffee table. “You’re not just a chauffeur, are you?”
Lucas raised his eyes to her face. “No, ma’am,” he said mildly, his fingers never missing a beat. “I’m also a cook, a social secretary whenever Mr. Turner needs one, and—”
“A sniper,” Adam concluded, no question in his voice.
“No,” Lucas replied easily, placing the last piece of his weaponry on the table. “I’m not a sniper. I was a sniper once upon a time,” he admitted.
It was getting increasingly difficult to regulate her breathing. Any second now, she would need a paper bag to keep from hyperventilating.
“Does Josiah know?” Eve asked the tall, athletic man. But even as she asked, she had a feeling that she knew the answer.
Lucas’s smile transformed his tanned, serious face into one belonging to a young man who enjoyed his life. “He knows.”
“He sent you, didn’t he?” Adam asked. It was time to get a hold of his handler. The situation could still be salvaged if they were fast enough. Digging into his pocket, he took out his phone and flipped it open.
Lucas nodded. “Mr. Turner would have come himself,” he told Eve, “but his vision isn’t what it used to be—and someone had to stay with the baby. I’ll be right back,” he promised.
Opening the front door, he stepped out for a moment. The next moment, Lucas was back, carrying what appeared to be a leather case. Laying it on the coffee table next to the rifle parts, he quickly packed the separate pieces of his weapon into it.
“If you won’t be needing anything else,” Lucas said, addressing his words to both of them, “I’ll be getting back to the house. Mr. Turner will be anxious to debrief me.”
“No, we’re fine,” Adam assured the older man with feeling. “Thanks to you.”
Lucas smiled his thanks for the compliment and silently left.
Shaken, Eve sank down on the closest available flat surface, in this case, the coffee table. Rather than complete his call, Adam looked at her with concern. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Peachy,” she replied mechanically, staring at the inert form on her floor. “I’ve got a dead man in my living room, my oldest client has a driver who carries around a rifle that breaks up into tiny pieces, and my baby’s father shoots people for a living.” She took a deep breath and then let it out again. Nothing got better. “I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and I can’t get out.”
Hugh could wait a few minutes. Adam closed his phone and shoved it back into his pocket. Sitting down beside Eve, he put his arm around her shoulders. She’d been through a lot tonight and he had no idea how to make it up to her.
“I’m sorry you got tangled up in this. I never wanted to get to this point, never wanted to get involved with you,” he told her honestly, “because I was afraid this could happen.”
She glanced up sharply, her mind still swimming. “You knew Lucas was going to shoot that awful man through my window?”
“No, but I was afraid that Sederholm might think of me as a threat instead of a connection to more markets and want to find some kind of leverage to use against me.” He was sorrier than he could ever express. “And you were that leverage.”
“Just shows-to-go-ya,” she quipped, “that you can’t map out everything.” Eve paused a second. “Now what?”
That part was rather clear to him. “Now I call my handler and tell him what went down and then we see what we can do to salvage the sting.”
Sederholm had dropped the head man’s name without realizing it. It wouldn’t take much for their reformed computer hacker to find where the man was staying. Once they had that information, he’d go to Montoya and make a pitch, saying he had eliminated the middle man, in this case Sederholm, and wanted to do business with the head of the cartel directly. If Montoya bought the story, the end result could still be the same.
Eve listened quietly to Adam’s answer. She hadn’t been talking about the operation when she’d asked. “Now what?” referred to the future of their relationship. But obviously, she and Brooklyn were far down on his list of priorities.
Eve couldn’t help wondering if she’d been part of his cover. Pride kept her from asking.
“Well, good luck with that,” she said as brightly as she could, standing up on very shaky legs. Her eyes were drawn to the body of the man who had come close to terminating her life. “Do you do clean up?” she asked Adam.
Adam took his cell phone out again. “Just getting to that.”
She nodded. “Good.”
Placing the call, Adam didn’t notice that she clenched her fists to her sides. Eve did her best not to unleash any of the emotions running rampant through her. Because if they came out, she had no idea if she could ever bank them down again.
Because she didn’t want to return to an empty house with the baby in the middle of the night, Eve waited until morning before she drove to Josiah’s house to pick up her daughter. Once her arms were safely around the baby, she couldn’t keep the question back any longer.
“Who are you, Josiah?”
The older man regarded her with as much of a smile as she had ever seen on his lips. “I’m your friend, Eve.”
She wasn’t about to engage in some sort of verbal dance, she was still much too drained from last night. “Besides that.”
He considered a moment before replying, “A retired gentleman.”
Not good enough. “Who was once a navy SEAL?” she demanded. “A commando?” she supplied when he made no answer. “What?”
Josiah was silent, as if debating what, if anything, to say and if so, how much. Finally, he said, “I spent time in Special Ops and then came to work for the Bureau in a rather, shall we say, unique capacity.”
It had the ring of truth about it, even if a little bizarre. “Did Lucas work in the same ‘unique’ capacity?”
By the oddly amused expression on Josiah’s face, she knew she was asking too many questions. But she needed to know. “If you’re asking if that’s where I met him, the answer’s yes.”
“Are you still part of that…‘unique’ capacity?” she asked.
Josiah began to laugh. “Oh, my, no. But I do believe that one’s skills should be exercised every so often, just to keep them primed, you know.” Rising, he touched her elbow, urging her to the guest bedroom where Brooklyn was sleeping. “Now take your lovely daughter a
nd go home, Eve,” he coaxed. “Lucas will follow you to make sure you get there.”
“Lucas doesn’t have to follow me, Josiah. I can get there on my own,” she assured him. And then she paused. “Thank you for sending Lucas to my rescue.”
The small shoulders lifted in a careless shrug as he walked her to the front door. “I thought your young man might need help.”
So that’s how Adam had managed to appear just then. Josiah had sent him, as well. “You called Adam to tell him what was going on?”
He looked at her as if to ask why she would even question such a thing. “It was only right.”
Incredible. She tilted her head and kissed the older man’s cheek. “Thank you.”
Josiah lightly brushed the tips of his fingers along the area where she had kissed him. “My pleasure entirely, my dear,” he told her with as much feeling as she’d ever heard him display.
It was over.
After months of waiting, months of preparing, months of constantly looking over his shoulder and, near the end, almost losing Eve, it was finally over.
And this time, at least, Adam thought, the good guys won.
Even so, it felt almost anticlimactic.
He supposed that was because for him, it had all come to a head the other night, when that worthless waste of human skin had almost killed Eve. Just remembering made his stomach feel as if it was in the middle of a deadly typhoon.
Damn, but he’d earned his paycheck tonight, delivering the head man, not to mention a hell of a lot of kilos of heroin, to his boss. A lot of spoiled rich kids would have to rough it for a while, doing without their customary high.
Ordinarily, that would make him feel high. But he’d moved beyond that, beyond the rush a good bust brought with it. Now, in order to get that effect, he needed to have Eve beside him. Eve, making love with him. Eve, just being.
He needed to make that happen. He’d left the meeting early, letting the others celebrate. He had somewhere else to be.
As he took a sharp right, he automatically swung his hand out to keep the pizza box on the passenger seat from tumbling upside down onto the floor of the car. He didn’t even remember most of the trip. He was fixated on the end goal. He hadn’t spoken to her since he’d helped one of the lab boys clear out Sederholm’s body. That was two days ago.
Two days felt like an eternity.
By the time he arrived at Eve’s house, his heart was pounding a hell of a lot harder than it had when the final bust went down this afternoon.
Because this meant more to him.
“Here goes nothing,” he murmured under his breath as he pulled up to her driveway and got out. Or rather, everything, he amended.
Taking the pizza box out of the car, he carried it to the front door. When he rang the doorbell, he called out, “Pizza delivery.”
He was about to ring it again when the door opened.
Eve, barefoot and wearing jeans and a T-shirt, stood in the doorway, the door slightly ajar. “I didn’t order any—” When she saw who it was, her mouth dropped opened. “Oh.”
“No, you didn’t order any,” he agreed, striving to get back some of the initial charm he was supposed to have had. “But I thought you might want to celebrate.”
She slanted a look at him. “Just what is it that I’m celebrating?”
“Well, the almost perfect drug bust for one,” he told her. He knew it sounded like a boast, but he deserved to give himself a little praise. “As of this afternoon, there’s going to be a lot less heroin on the street, at least for the time being.”
“You said ‘for one,’” she reminded him. “What’s ‘for two?’”
He studied her for a long moment. For two cents, he’d sweep her into his arms and just head for the hills. But he knew she’d never be happy with that. She thrived in crowds, around people. And he loved anything that made Eve Eve.
“Two is a little trickier,” he admitted.
Now he had her curious. “What is it?” she wanted to know.
He put his hand up, as if to say all in good time. “Before I answer that, I need to spread these out.”
Eve watched as he laid out what looked like old report cards on the kitchen table. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the one closest to her. “Are those report cards?”
“Yes. Mine,” he added before she could ask.
Just to verify the unusual claim, Eve picked one up and glanced over it. It was his all right. And he was a fairly decent student, she noted. She put the card back on the counter. “Why are you showing me your old report cards?”
“So you can see that I mean it when I tell you that for you, I intend my life to be an open book. I’ll show you anything you want to look at,” he promised. “No more secrets, Eve. Not from you. I want you to know everything there is to know about me.”
This all sounded well and good, but she wasn’t going to allow herself to get carried away or let her imagination run wild. She wanted everything spelled out.
“Because?” she prodded.
“Because,” he began evenly, “then you can’t use the excuse that I’m keeping things from you.”
He certainly didn’t believe in shooting straight from the shoulder. “And why would I want an excuse?”
“To use in case you want to turn me down,” he told her, hating the very thought.
She almost felt like throwing up her hands. Almost. “You know, maybe it’s your secret agent mentality that makes you think this convoluted way, but I’ve always found that the simplest path between two points is a straight line. Draw me a straight line, Adam,” she implored. “What are you trying to say?”
“Actually,” he corrected, “I’m trying to ask something.”
She dug deep for patience. “Okay, what are you trying to ask? Spit it out, Adam,” she ordered briskly.
So he did. “Will you marry me?”
It took her a second to come to. A second more to breathe evenly. “That depends.”
He didn’t understand. “On what?”
“On who’s asking me,” she told him, then specified her problem. “Is it Adam Smythe or Adam Serrano who wants to marry me?”
“It’s just me,” he told her softly, taking her hand and placing it against his heart. “Adam. Just Adam. And just so you know,” he interjected before she could answer, “no matter what your answer is, I plan to love you for the rest of my life.”
She could feel her heart melting in her chest.
“Well, Just Adam,” she began, smiling at him, “I can’t see how I can resist a proposal like that.”
He laughed and hugged her close. “I was hoping you’d see it that way. Any chance that I could have a do-over on that romantic evening you were planning for us the other night?”
“You mean the night your little playdate pal tried to kill me?”
He had the good grace to wince. “That’s the one.”
Eve wrapped her arms around his neck and raised her face up to his. Her eyes were smiling. “Every chance in the world.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Adam murmured just before he sealed the deal with a long, soulful kiss that promised to go on forever.
And nearly did.
Epilogue
Laura Delaney pushed herself away from her computer for a moment. Not to get up, just to reflect.
A very self-satisfied smile curved her lips as she closed her eyes and savored the message she’d just read in her private e-mail account. The one that she still maintained for communications that involved the life she had once led, not her life now. Her contact at the CIA had just informed her that not only had Adam Serrrano shown up on Eve’s doorstep to take responsibility for the child she was carrying, he’d actually helped deliver said child and then stuck around to marry Eve. The two now appeared to be the very definition of happiness.
Mission accomplished.
She’d never thought the old, familiar term would feel so good to her. Sound so good to her. Heaven knew that she didn’t regret
leaving the Company. But she did miss that sense that all was right with the world that came over her when a mission resolved itself well. That feeling was there now, in spades. She’d set out to reunite Eve with her lover and she had. Moreover, it had turned out even better than she’d hoped. The magic that had brought them together in the first place hadn’t faded. It had only grown stronger, despite the obstacles.
Would that ever happen to her? She’d like to think so, but she was realistic enough to know that most likely, she would never get the chance to find out. Finding the location of the father of her son had proven to be impossible up until now. There was no reason to believe that would change despite her efforts and the combined efforts of her old friends at the Company. God knew she’d tried.
Don’t spoil your mood. You did good. Maybe, just maybe, if you put your mind to it, you can do good again. You seem to have a lot better luck locating unsuspecting fathers when they don’t directly involve you.
Laura smiled again and opened her eyes. It was late, but she wasn’t sleepy. Jeremy was tucked away in bed, sleeping like a little rock and she didn’t much feel like watching TV tonight. The holiday season presented nothing but reruns on its schedule tonight.
Time to see if she could get lightning to strike twice.
Pulling up close to the computer again, she went back to the Web site she’d originally set up to network with other single mothers. She was curious to see if there was anything in her in-box.
A few strokes brought her to the right location. She moved her cursor over the e-mail button and clicked it. The screen filled up with unread mail.
Settling in, Laura smiled to herself. Time to get busy. MysteryMom had work to do.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4132-3
THE AGENT’S SECRET BABY
Copyright © 2009 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
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