“What’s wrong with your stomach?”
I glanced at Cole. “What do you mean?”
“It’s oddly shaped there.” He made a sort of pointing gesture toward me. “It wasn’t like that a minute ago.”
“It’s the baby. That’s a foot.” I reached for his hand. “You can touch it.”
He pulled away. “I don’t want to hurt it or anything.”
“You can’t hurt him. He’s well protected.”
Cole hesitated a second longer, but then he rested his hand over the spot where the baby’s foot was pushing out. The baby moved, shifting his foot to another spot like he was annoyed by the heat of Cole’s hand. But then he came back, pushing hard against Cole again.
He drew his hand back, his eyes wide with surprise.
“That was the baby?”
I nodded. “Kind of weird, huh?”
He stared at me for a second, his eyes moving from my face to my belly. Then he started the car, focusing on the windshield as he drove in silence. I watched him, watching his big hands move confidently over the steering wheel. That’s when I noticed something funny about his hand that I’d seen only once before.
“Your pinky’s kind of crooked.”
He held his right hand up and glanced at the smallest finger. “Yeah. It’s not really a big deal. I can use it just fine. It’s just a cosmetic thing.”
“Peter’s right pinky finger was like that, too.”
Cole glanced at me. “It’s a family trait. My dad and grandfather have it, too.”
I ran my hand over my belly, thinking about my baby.
“If it’s a boy—and it’s Peter’s—your baby will have it, too.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then we’ll know you’re lying.” He held his hand up again, almost admiringly. “Better hope it’s a girl. That’ll buy you a little more time.”
The thing was…I already knew it was a boy.
Chapter 5
Cole
I walked her to her door. The front steps of her tiny trailer were a little rotted, making me pick out my steps carefully. When I reached the front door, she was already inside. She’d left the door open, so I assumed that was her way of giving me permission to go in.
I was completely blown away by what I saw.
It was a small trailer, a kitchen in the front, a tiny living room, and a narrow hallway that I assumed led to a single bedroom. It was sparsely furnished, just a table with a broken leg, a couch, and a couple of portable trays set up around the room. The carpet was threadbare, the kitchen cabinets practically falling from their hinges, and holes in the thin particleboard that passed as walls.
She was nowhere to be seen, so I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. There was a nearly empty gallon of milk and a single orange. In the cabinets were mismatched dishes—cracked and chipped, but clean—but no food. When I made my way up the hallway, there was a massive hole covered with a thin piece of plywood right in the center of the floor.
What the hell? This place was uninhabitable!
“You plan to bring a baby home to this place?”
She poked her head around the bedroom door. “What do you mean?”
“Look at this place! It’s a rat’s nest.”
She stepped into the doorway and crossed her arms over her chest. “I know it doesn’t look like much—”
“Much? There’s a fucking hole in the floor!”
She blushed, but there was this defiance in her eyes that was like little swords flying.
“It’s the best I could do. In case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t much decent housing in this town for those of us working for minimum wage. It’s the best place I could find for what I could afford to pay—”
“You actually pay for this place? They should pay you to live here.”
She snorted. “Wouldn’t that be nice?” She stepped back slightly, tugging at the bottom edge of her uniform. “If you don’t mind…you don’t have to leave, but I was going to take a bath.”
“No.”
I shook my head, turning to look around me again. There were more holes in the walls here, like someone lost his temper and put his fist through them. And the breeze coming through the hole…there was no way I was going to let her stay here.
“No? What do you mean, no?”
“Pack your things.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m taking you to Houston.”
“Why?”
She stepped back, clearing the way for me to go into the bedroom. It was the smallest room I think I ever saw. It was almost completely filled by the double-sized bed in the center of it with just barely a few inches to walk around it on any side. There were no closets, so her clothing was just sort of stacked in one corner of the room. And the bathroom…I wanted to be sick when I saw the mildew stains and the cracked porcelain. Again, the room was clean, but the fixtures were so old that there was no telling what diseases she was exposing that baby to just by breathing the air.
I grabbed a stack of clothes and set them on the edge of the bed.
“Where’s your suitcase?”
“What suitcase? I don’t own a suitcase.”
“Then a bag.”
“No.” She moved up beside me, heat just rolling off her body, pushing my hands away from her clothes. “I’m not going anywhere. I told you, I don’t want your help.”
“You need someone’s help, and I’m the only one here.”
“I don’t need anyone’s help.”
But even as she said it, she moaned, reaching to rub the small of her back.
I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but I knew I couldn’t let her stay here. Not in these conditions, not alone. I still thought she was a gold digger, that she was after something she thought Peter owed her. But I could see that she was also desperately struggling, and if there was even the teeniest chance the baby was Peter’s, I couldn’t let her stay here.
I lifted her up into my arms and carried her down the hallway.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, pushing against my shoulder.
“I’m taking you to Houston.”
“I don’t want to go to Houston.”
“Why not? You have nothing left here.”
“You don’t know anything about me!” She slapped my shoulder before pushing against it again, managing to wedge quite a wide space between herself and me, making me strain to keep from dropping her. “You don’t know what I have here, what I’m doing with my life. All you know is what you’ve assumed!”
I set her on her feet beside my car and pushed her back against the cool metal side.
“You live in squalor. You can’t afford to pay your bills. And you just lost your job. I know enough.”
She opened her mouth, ready to argue again, but then her face twisted with pain.
“And you need to see a doctor.” I brushed a piece of hair out of her face. “Have you seen a decent doctor since you got pregnant?”
“I go to the free clinic. They do a good job there.”
“Yeah, well, if that kid’s Peter’s, it deserves more than just a good job.”
“And now you believe me?”
“No. But I’m not taking any chances.”
I wrenched open the car door and pushed her to the seat, barely waiting for her to fold herself inside before slamming the door. It crossed my mind to lock the doors just for the amount of time it would take me to walk around, but I could see that she was completely exhausted. She wasn’t going to fight me anymore.
I didn’t bother to get her clothes, but I did think to grab her bag with her ID inside. I pulled out of there, trying to decide how to explain to Megan that I brought the target home with me. I could put her up in a hotel, but I could watch her closer at my place. But that presented its own problems. I’d only been out of the military for two months. I barely had the lease signed and there was little furniture there right now. I’d ordered some, but it took time. The guest bedroom
was completely bare. But the master was complete.
I glanced at her, thoughts of her lying in my bed more pleasant than I wanted to admit. She was looking down at her feet, her hands on her belly. She was angry. I got that. But this was for her own good. Tomorrow, I’d talk to Megan, and we’d figure out the best thing to do. Megan would understand. And she’d know what to do.
I hit the highway, and we were about ten miles out of town when headlights flashed in my rearview mirror. I flipped the mirror up to get the glare out of my eyes. When I did, I thought I saw a bald head behind the wheel of the other car.
“What kind of car did that guy drive?”
Amber suddenly sat up in her seat, looking over her shoulder through the back window of my Audi. I could feel the tension radiating off of her.
“One like that.”
“Is that him?”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell for sure.”
I took the next exit off the highway, going a little too fast as I followed the access road to a small country road going west. I glanced in the rearview just in time to see the car behind us do the same thing.
“What’s out here?”
“Nothing. Just ranchland.”
I sped up as the road rolled out straight in front of us. He kept right up with us.
“It’s him.”
Amber twisted to look back again, but then she made this little squealing sound, her hand moving over her belly. She sat up straight, facing the windshield, her face completely devoid of color. I couldn’t worry about that right now. I had to figure out what this guy was up to.
I slowed the car down to let him catch up. I wanted to see what he would do, but the guy just stayed on our tail, not trying to run us off the road, not trying to catch our attention in anyway. It didn’t make sense to me. If he wanted something from Amber, wouldn’t he at least try to get us to pull over?
I decided I’d pull over and have a talk with him. What could it hurt?
I reached across Amber and took a loaded handgun from the glove box.
“What the hell?” She scrunched up a little, pulling as far from the gun as she could in the tight confines of the car.
“I’m going to talk to this guy.”
“Are you crazy?”
“You want to know why he’s following us?”
She glanced back over her shoulder, then looked at me.
“What if he has a bigger gun?”
“I was a sniper in the Marines. He won’t get the drop on me.”
I carefully pulled the car to the side of the road, parking on the soft shoulder, but leaving the engine running. I watched in the rearview as this guy did the same thing. He sat behind the wheel of his car, both hands up where I could see them. I waited a full minute before I started to get out of the car.
“Be careful,” Amber said, touching my thigh lightly.
I looked back at her. She was so pale, and she was sweating, her hair stuck to her face in a multitude of places. It was a warm night, but the air conditioning was running. I was almost cold.
I reached over and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Keep the doors locked. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, her eyes sliding closed as she ran her hand over her belly.
I walked toward the back of the car, pulling the slide on the gun to move a bullet into place. The man watched me, his eyes wide as he spotted the gun. He held his hands up where I could clearly see them. I approached the driver’s side door as cautiously as I could, yanking the door open and pulling him out in one fluid motion. The second he was on the ground, I aimed the gun at his head.
“Who are you? What do you want with Amber?”
“I just wanted to talk!” He held his hands up, his body curled on his side to protect as much as he could. “I just needed to ask her something.”
“About what?”
“About Peter Bradford.”
I kicked his hip to force him to turn onto his side.
“How do you know Peter Bradford?”
“I don’t, really. He was just…he came to me and asked me questions. And then he was dead, and now someone else is asking the same questions.”
“What questions?”
He shook his head, clearly unwilling to be completely honest with me. But then I dropped into a squat and pressed the barrel of my gun against his temple.
“Tell me what you know.”
The man was shaking, and I could smell the distinct odor of urine. He closed his eyes, his hands still raised in front of him.
“Peter was asking questions about software code. My company makes computer chips, and he thought that we were using code that was illegally obtained. He wouldn’t tell me where he got his information, but he clearly thought someone at his company had done something illegal. And now…this guy came to my office a week ago and wanted to know about the same code. He said he worked with Peter.”
“What’d he look like?”
“Tall. Dark hair. Brown eyes.”
“That describes half of Texas.”
The guy just shook his head.
“Why come after Amber?”
“I just…I saw them talking the night I met with Peter. I thought she might know something about what Peter was looking into. I just…I thought if I knew what he was after, I might know what this other man was after.”
I looked up at my car, but I couldn’t see anything more than the back of the front seats.
“She doesn’t know anything. Stay away from her, understand?”
“Yeah.”
“But that other guy…” I reached into my back pocket, pulling out one of Megan’s business cards, and tossed it onto his chest. “If he shows up again, call this number. Tell them it’s about Peter.”
The man nodded more enthusiastically than the moment required.
I stood up and moved back, ejecting the cartridge from the gun and watching as it bounced across his chest.
“Remember what I said.”
The guy nodded again. Then he rolled over and crawled into his car. He was gone before I even got back to my own car.
That was…odd. There was something strange going on here. But before I could analyze it, Amber screamed.
Chapter 6
Amber
The pains in my back were super regular, coming every two to three minutes. And now they were radiating around to my lower belly. I wanted to tell Cole, but then that car showed up and he pulled out that gun and…then my water broke.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
I leaned forward as another pain burst through me. I could see Cole standing over that man, talking to him with the gun pointed at him. It scared the crap out of me to see that gun. Some of my mom’s “boyfriends” liked guns. I tried to stay as far away from them as possible.
The pain passed and I sat up, watching them again in the rearview mirror. But then another pain. They were coming faster and faster. I needed to tell Cole, but I was afraid if I stood up, this baby would just slide right out of me.
How could I be in labor now? The baby wasn’t due for three more weeks. And they told me that a first time labor lasts days and days. How could this be happening?
Another pain and I wasn’t sure I could stand it. I bit my lip, trying to hold back the scream that was building in my chest. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. I just lost my job and I was sitting in a car in the middle of nowhere, waiting for my baby’s uncle to stop harassing some guy with a gun.
What if the guy attacked Cole? What if he got the gun from him? What if they killed each other in this stupid show of masculinity? Who’d get me to a hospital?
Oh, God! I needed drugs!
I heard the man’s car pull away, but another pain was slicing through me so I didn’t see where it went or who was driving it. This time the pain in my back didn’t relent. And then it intensified, moving around my belly until it felt like I was in some sort of vice. And there was pressure…so much pressure…
Cole was suddenly there, wrenching open the car door.
“What? What’s the matter?”
“The baby’s coming!”
“What do you mean, the baby’s coming? I thought you had a couple more weeks!”
“He’s coming right now. I can feel him.” I looked at him, panic rushing through me like a sudden storm. “What are we going to do? There’s no hospital! No clinic!”
The shock and fear that had been in Cole’s eyes a second ago suddenly vanished. He took my face in his hands and moved so close that I could feel his breath washing over me.
“Take a deep breath and tell me exactly what’s happening.”
“My water broke. And now the contractions are right on top of each other.”
Even as I said the words, another one grasped my lower belly, and that pressure was back. I felt this sudden urge to push down, as if I was constipated and it was finally working its way out. I cried out, grabbing Cole’s wrists and squeezing because it just seemed like the thing to do.
I heard him curse. And then he was pushing me backward so that the gearshift and console were pressing into my back and I was lying across both front seats.
“I can see the head,” Cole announced, quite unceremoniously ripping off my panties. “I thought labor took hours.”
“It’s supposed to.”
Another pain rushed through me, and I bit my lip.
“Don’t fight it. Push.”
It was almost a relief when he said that. I pushed, and the pain was still intense but it was different. Productive, I suppose. I cried out at the end of it, throwing my arm over my eyes as I waited for the next one. I was so tired…I wasn’t sure I could do this.
“One more should do it,” Cole said. “I can clearly see the top of the head.”
“Have you ever done this before?”
“No. But I took health class in high school.”
I groaned, but even in all that pain, I couldn’t resist his charming smile. He took my hand and squeezed it.
“It’s going to be okay.”
I started to nod, but another pain rushed over me. I pushed myself up a little on my hands and pushed with everything I had. “Good,” Cole said, encouraging me. “It’s coming. Just a little more.”
COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) Page 4
