by Debra Webb
Holding her breath, she peered through the security peephole in the door just in time to see a blonde with dark glasses reach the door across the hall. The woman fumbled with the key before she managed to get the door unlocked. Once the door was open, she disappeared inside and slammed it behind her.
“Is it her?”
Serena turned back to Todd. “Maybe. I couldn’t see her face very well for the glasses.”
“I have to make a call. Keep an eye on the door.”
Serena did as he said while he made his call. He informed someone, probably Braddock, of their location and the situation.
The door across the hall opened and the blonde rushed out, moving out of visual range before Serena could get a decent fix on her.
“She’s leaving!” Serena whispered as loudly as she dared.
Todd was next to her before the words stopped echoing in the silence of the room. He took a look and swore. Serena’s eyes widened. She hadn’t heard him use that language before.
“I’m going after her.” He reached for the knob.
“Wait!” She grabbed his arm. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Stay here,” he ordered.
Before she could argue, he was gone.
She stood there, stunned that he’d actually left her. Not that she was afraid. But she should be going after Delia with him.
She couldn’t just stand here. Summoning her courage, she opened her door and stared at the one across the hall. If Molly was in there…
Before she could change her mind, Serena walked straight over to the other door and turned the knob.
Locked. Dammit.
She pushed against it, but that didn’t get her anywhere.
Biting her bottom lip, she considered her options. She could stand here like a helpless dummy or she could do something.
Without a second thought she dashed back into the room where she and Todd had made love and snatched her purse from the bed. She dug through it until she found a credit card and then strode back to the door across the hall. Her heart galloped like a racehorse on the final stretch to the finish line.
If Todd could do it, so could she.
She inserted the credit card into the crack between the door and the frame and started to slide and jiggle it while she twisted the doorknob.
Just when she started to give up, something gave way. The knob twisted and the door moved inward.
Victory soared through her.
She glanced toward the far end of the hall at the stairs and the elevator. No sign of Todd or Delia.
“Okay.” She was going in.
TODD REACHED the first floor just as the elevator doors closed.
“Damn!”
A whistle called his attention to the manager’s desk. The manager hitched a thumb toward the front entrance.
Todd rushed out of the lobby, ground to a stop on the sidewalk and looked both ways. A glimpse of blond hair flying around the corner of the building and into the alley on the right had him tearing out in that direction.
He slid to a stop at the corner and risked a look. She hadn’t stopped, was still running.
He rushed after her, pushed harder. He couldn’t let her get away.
If he found out that bastard at the desk had double-crossed him he would kick his butt all the way to hell and back.
Todd reached out…could almost touch her…there…
His fingers curled around her shoulder and he yanked her back. They both lost their balance and went down. She fought like a wildcat. He wrestled her onto her back, saw the gun in her hand that hadn’t been there before. He deflected her aim. She screamed but the weapon didn’t discharge. He slammed her arm against the pavement until the weapon flew out of her hand.
He pinned her right hand with his knee and ripped off the dark glasses.
Shock radiated through him. “What the hell?”
SERENA LOOKED in the bathroom and under the bed.
Nothing.
Her hopes plummeted.
She had been praying so hard that Molly would be here. That she would be safe.
She sat back on her heels and closed her eyes. It just wasn’t fair. Molly had been through enough. She didn’t deserve any more hurt in her life.
Heaving a weary sigh, she stood, glanced around the room once more, then did a double take. Something red on the closet door pulled her in that direction. It looked as if fingers dipped in red paint had clawed at the knob and bumped into the white-painted door.
As she neared it, she realized it wasn’t paint.
It was blood. She touched it.
Still damp…blood.
Oh, no. Please, no.
Her heart bumping against her sternum, her fingers curled around the knob and she gave it a turn. She pulled it open and the first thing her eyes landed on was a swollen belly. And blood…so much blood.
“Oh, no!”
Serena dropped to her knees and leaned into the closet. Tears streamed down her cheeks and somehow she forced herself to look at Molly’s face….
She blinked…not Molly.
Horror rocked through her.
Delia Neely’s horror-filled eyes stared at her, unmoving, unblinking.
A gaping wound had split her throat like a heinous grin. A river of blood spilled from the wound.
Her hands shaking, Serena reached out…touched Delia’s arm.
Serena gasped. Her skin was still warm.
She fell backward. Scrambled up onto all fours. Whoever had killed her…the blonde…had done so only moments ago. Her body wasn’t cold yet; blood still poured from her.
The baby.
Serena’s gaze fell to the woman’s swollen belly.
“Oh, my God.”
She rushed over to the phone and stabbed the number for the front desk. When the manager answered, she yelled, “We need an ambulance! A woman is bleeding to death up here!”
Serena slammed the phone onto its cradle and rushed back to the closet.
She had to get her out of here, had to try to stop the bleeding. She couldn’t reach her in there without…
Forcing herself to breathe and ignoring the light-headed feelings, she grabbed hold of Delia’s bent knees and pulled her out of the closet.
Serena jumped to her feet and stumbled to the bathroom for towels. She raced back to Delia and dropped onto her knees. She placed a hand towel against her throat and applied as much pressure as she dared.
It didn’t help.
There was nothing she could do. Delia was dying or dead already. Her pupils were fixed. Not good.
Serena looked down at the woman’s belly. What about the baby? The baby might still be alive.
How could she tell? She placed her hands on the rounded flesh and tried to hold her breath to slow her pounding heart.
In her peripheral vision she saw something shiny on the closet floor.
The knife.
Serena shuddered and shifted her attention back to Delia. What did she do? Wait for help…
She glanced at the window and hoped the ambulance would get here soon.
But what if it didn’t?
Todd bolted through the open door. “You okay? Man alive!”
Serena didn’t bother answering. She tried different ways to slow the blood, but it just wouldn’t stop. It soaked through the towels.
“Help isn’t going to get here on time.” Serena closed her eyes. She started to shake. She had to do something.
Todd put his hands on the woman’s belly. His breath hitched. “The baby moved.”
Panic closed Serena’s throat. “What do we do?”
His gaze fixed on hers. “Did you study anatomy?”
She shook her head, then nodded. “It was a while ago. But I had a course….”
Could she do this?
If they didn’t do something, the baby would die.
She gazed toward the window once more…still no ambulance. Then she looked at Todd. “Hand me that knife.” She pointed to the closet.
<
br /> For a second or two their gazes held, then he scrambled over to the knife. He wiped it clean on his shirt and handed it to her. It didn’t matter that it was in all likelihood the murder weapon…they had no choice.
It needed to be sterile…but she couldn’t worry about that right now. Delia was dead. The baby would die, too. Whatever Delia’s sins, this baby deserved a chance at life.
“All right,” she said, more to herself than to Todd.
All she had to do was take it slow and stay shallow.
And pray.
SERENA STOOD outside the hospital room, her gaze glued to the patient in the bed beyond the viewing window. She’d cried until she’d felt empty emotionally.
The sounds around her made her shudder. People moaning and crying out for help.
The psychiatric ward of the hospital.
Landon was in a conference with a team of the best psychiatrists in the city.
The blonde who’d run from the hotel room had been Molly.
Serena closed her eyes and shook her head. How could this be right?
Molly had killed Delia.
Not with the gun she’d been carrying: it had jammed. Ballistics, however, showed that it was the same gun used to kill Dr. Wright.
They didn’t have all the details yet, but the best they could piece together between Molly’s ramblings and the original obstetrician she’d gone to was that Molly had lost her baby. Her uterus had been damaged as a child, the result of abuse by her father and possibly even her adopted father since she kept ranting about him and how he hadn’t deserved to live. Apparently Molly had been the one to sneak into the nursing home and suffocate him.
Shortly after she’d lost the baby she’d discovered that Delia Neely was pregnant. Thinking that the baby the other woman carried was her husband’s child, Molly abducted Delia with the intention of killing her once the baby was born. Then Molly would pass the baby off as her own and claim that Delia had been the one to do the kidnapping and that she’d had to kill her to escape. The knife she’d used to kill Delia had been purchased in case of complications during the imminent birth. All sorts of home birthing guides had been found in the room.
The police had found a pint container of lighter fluid hidden in the toilet tank. Todd concluded that when the time came, Molly had intended to burn the room, including Delia’s body, in an effort to cover the evidence of the woman having recently given birth.
She’d thought of almost everything.
Except her only sister’s determination to save her.
Serena just hadn’t known she would be saving Molly from herself. The sleazebag manager at the motel had told her that some old friends had come looking for her. Molly had flipped and cut her losses…literally. The picture, or what was left of it, from Serena’s memory box had been found in that sleazy hotel room, as well, torn into a dozen pieces.
“Hey.”
Serena looked up and Todd was there. The smile was automatic. Barely twenty-four hours had passed since the two of them had entered that rundown motel. So much had happened. Not enough time to think about…what had taken place between them.
Her heart warmed at his nearness. She’d fallen so hard for him.
And now their time together was over.
“Hey,” she said back.
“The baby’s doing fine. Child Services came in to take a statement. The police contacted Arthur Miles and he admitted the baby was his. He and Delia had begun an affair shortly after Landon ended things with her. Miles had loved the idea that Landon knew. It was his way of getting back at him, but it backfired. Delia got pregnant and Miles had no choice but to support her or have her spill her guts.”
Serena experienced a chill. It wasn’t that Child Services didn’t do a lot of good. They did. But she couldn’t help remembering her early life…and that of her sister. Could they stand back and let that little girl’s life hang in the balance like that?
“What’ll happen to the baby now?” Her voice sounded stark after the long hours of just standing here looking in at her sister.
“Miles wants nothing to do with her.”
“Do you think…” Serena turned her face up to Todd’s. “That maybe they would let me adopt her? She deserves a good home.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Your chances might be better if you could assure them that the baby girl would have a father to keep her in line.” A grin tilted one side of his mouth. “I know just the guy for the job.”
“I…don’t know what to say.” Her heart skipped at least two beats. Was he proposing? “Maybe we should clarify the terms of your offer.”
He shrugged one of those broad shoulders. “I don’t know—that might take some time.”
Serena looked in on her sister one last time, then she took the hand of the man she loved. “I asked for a few days off. I don’t have anything but time just now.”
The fellowship for her Ph.D. was the only good news she’d had in a while. Dr. Landon had given her the news just before she’d had to tell him about Molly. He hadn’t realized Serena had come to his office for that…she’d felt so guilty for believing he’d hurt Molly in some way. She also understood now that the only reason he’d passed her over for promotion was so that she would be free to accept the fellowship. She’d also learned that Landon’s numerous affairs were a result of his wife pushing him away. Their intimate life had been so tense he’d feared touching her. That was the main reason he’d worried the police were right about Molly leaving him. Getting pregnant had seemed her only goal in their marriage.
All those worries were behind Serena now. She had to move on. And moving on with Todd was the one thing she wanted to do more than anything else in this world.
“The hospital’ll call you if they need you.” He tugged her toward him. “Let’s get out of here.”
As they walked toward the elevator, she asked, “You don’t have to stop in at the Colby Agency?”
He shook his head and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Braddock’s taking care of the report.”
“I like Braddock,” Serena said, suddenly more thankful than ever for Todd’s partner.
Todd pulled her into the elevator with him. “Me, too.” He enveloped her in his arms. “But I like you a lot better.”
His mouth lowered to hers as the elevator doors slid closed.
Maybe the past hadn’t been everything she’d hoped for…but the future was looking a whole lot brighter.
VICTORIA COLBY-CAMP set aside the final report on the Blake/Landon case. Not a happy ending, but at least the child’s life had been spared. Thank God for Serena’s and Todd’s quick thinking. The ambulance would have been too late to save the baby.
A light rap on the door pulled Victoria’s attention away from the troubling thoughts.
“Victoria?” Nicole Reed-Michaels waited in the doorway.
“Nicole, come in. I was just about to call you.” Gabrielle and Michelle had completed their final evening session on the Agency’s computer systems. Training Todd Thompson would take place when he returned to work. All staff members were required to know the system.
Victoria noticed that Nicole looked a bit distressed and she hoped that the children weren’t ill. “Is everything all right?”
“I’m not sure.”
The response was completely unlike Nicole. “Explain, please.”
“It’s Gabrielle.”
One of the new recruits. Victoria reached for a file on her desk. She’d already spoken with Ian and Simon. She felt confident that Gabrielle was ready for her first assignment. The young lady had spirit.
“She’s missing.”
Missing? “She was here yesterday,” Victoria countered.
Anger flashed in Nicole’s eyes. “Yes, she was. Yesterday was the day she received access to the secure server to complete the final phase of her training.”
Victoria suffered a tremor of tension, but she didn’t react until she heard the rest.
“She
called in sick today.”
“And you have reason to believe that is not the case?”
“This morning we discovered a breach. An unauthorized file was downloaded from the secure server.”
“Have you initiated security protocol?” Victoria steeled herself for the worst: the possibility that Gabrielle had been employed by an unethical competitor. But nothing could have adequately prepared her for what was to come.
“Yes. At first I was perplexed because she only downloaded one file. A single file,” Nicole emphasized. “That’s the only thing she took.”
Victoria felt a moment of bewilderment, as well. “Which file?”
Nicole wet her lips and swallowed, the effort visible. “The file on Trevor Sloan. As you know, that file contained information regarding Angel.”
Victoria stilled. “There’s more.” Not a question. She could feel the coming storm.
Nicole nodded. “When the breach was brought to my attention I reviewed Gabrielle’s file in an attempt to determine if perhaps she was a mole contracted by a competitor.”
But that wasn’t the case. The other shoe was about to drop.
“Gabrielle Hanson fabricated her time at Texas A&M. She was actually doing time in prison for assault with a deadly weapon.”
Victoria shook her head. That didn’t make sense. “How could she have flown under our radar like that?” The Colby Agency research department employed the very top in their fields. They weren’t prone to mistakes.
“She faked everything. Her name isn’t even Hanson. It’s Jordan. She borrowed someone else’s identity, all the way down to the fingerprints.”
“So I have to assume that Miss Jordan has some vendetta against either Angel, who is dead, or Sloan, who won’t appreciate his seclusion being interrupted,” Victoria considered. She would have to call Sloan immediately to warn him of the breach.
“It gets worse.”
A new finger of tension prodded Victoria’s spine. “Go on.”
“According to Gabrielle Jordan’s birth certificate, her father was Gabriel DiCassi.”
Angel.
Ice slid through Victoria’s veins.
“Victoria—” Nicole leaned forward “—we may be looking at a long-awaited case of vengeance here.”
