Kentucky Confidential

by Paula Graves

  What the hell was he thinking?

  * * *

  JESSE COOPER’S HEADLIGHTS illuminated the brown-and-tan uniforms of the county sheriff’s department, but the man who came to the window, flashlight in hand, was a tall, slim man in a Sunset Mountain Police Department uniform. Lifting his flashlight, he checked Jesse’s driver’s license, then Evie’s. “Alabama, huh? You’re a ways from home.”

  “We’re driving north to see my sister for Christmas,” Evie said with a friendly smile. “She lives in New York. We decided to make a fun trip of it. Go antiquing, visit some of the sights.”

  “What’s the roadblock for?” Jesse asked, because it was a logical question to ask.

  “Just routine,” the police officer answered with a polite smile. He handed their licenses back. “Can you lower all your windows?”

  “Sure.” Jesse depressed the power window buttons, lowering the front and back passenger windows.

  The policeman ran the beam of the flashlight through the car, taking in the luggage in the back and the small plastic trash bag hanging on the back of Evie’s seat. Jesse knew they’d look like normal travelers. He’d made sure they looked that way.

  “All right,” the policeman said with a smile. He leaned a little closer and lowered his voice. “Chief Halsey says hi.”

  Then he stepped back and waved for the others to let them through.

  Jesse drove slowly past the small phalanx of deputies and police officers, his pulse pounding like a drum in his ears.

  * * *

  THEY WERE GETTING closer to the highway. Sound carried well in the cold night air, and now and then, Risa heard a vehicle motor, which meant the highway couldn’t be that far away now.

  The odd sensations in her belly were starting to come more frequently. It wasn’t pain, exactly, more a tight rippling sensation in the lower part of her abdomen. It might be muscle spasms, she thought, from the stress of hiking through the woods.

  “I think I’m starting to see car lights,” Connor said as he pushed his way forward through the undergrowth. They’d had to abandon the creek bank again, slowing their pace as they struggled against the pull of the vines and the constant threat of hidden obstacles under the tangled carpet beneath their feet.

  Risa’s legs had begun to feel rubbery, and the odd sensation in her stomach was starting to feel less like twinges and more like pain.

  Don’t think the word, she told herself firmly.

  “Definitely seeing lights now,” Connor said, excitement and relief coloring his voice. He started to push ahead more quickly now, no doubt spurred on by the prospect of reaching the end of their journey.

  Risa followed, struggling to keep up as she refused to dwell on the swelling pain that had started to feel like hard cramps in her lower back and belly. Don’t think the word. Don’t think the word.

  Connor slowed to a sudden halt, reaching into his pocket for his phone. He flipped up the goggles and checked his messages. “They got through the checkpoint. They’re waiting off the road near the creek crossing.”

  Relief swamped her, sending a rush of heat pouring down her spine. “Good. Let’s go.” She put her hand on Connor’s shoulder to nudge him forward.

  But as she started to take a step forward, a hard cramp shuddered through her stomach, sucking the air from her lungs in a harsh gasp. She grabbed for Connor’s arm, doubling over as the pain started to crescendo.

  “Risa?” Connor turned to look at her, flipping the goggles up again. His eyes were wide and dark in the gloom.

  The pain subsided to a light ache, and she loosened her death grip on his arm. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

  “No, you’re not.” His voice was low and shaky. “Are you?”

  She could no longer lie to herself. Or to him.

  Rubbing her trembling belly, she took a deep breath and said the words she wouldn’t even let herself think a few minutes earlier.

  “I’m having contractions.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Do not panic.

  Connor’s heart had started to race the second Risa uttered the word contractions but he hadn’t been through years of Marine Corps training and combat experience for nothing. It wasn’t even the first time he’d dealt with a pregnant woman, was it? He’d been there when an Iraqi woman gave birth to her fourth child in the back of an armored Humvee. Granted, he’d mostly guarded the vehicle while the team medic handled the push-and-pull stuff, but hadn’t he been pleasantly surprised by how smoothly things had gone?

  Of course, there was a difference between a fourth baby and a first one, wasn’t there? And Risa wasn’t some anonymous woman giving birth on the side of the road with the help of a trained medical professional.

  She was his wife. Carrying his baby. And depending utterly on him to get her through the next half mile of woods and safely to the waiting SUV.

  He had stopped only long enough to pull out his phone and text a heads-up to Jesse Cooper, then started pulling her through the woods as quickly as they could go.

  She had her next hard contraction as they were nearing the highway. As he helped her ride it out, he spotted bits of the blacktop highway through the trees. Less than two hundred yards away.

  “Okay,” she breathed as the pain ebbed again. “Let’s go.”

  The last hundred yards felt like a nightmare. The hard contraction had passed, but smaller, lighter spasms had Risa panting and groaning as they threaded their way through the thinning underbrush. Finally, they broke through the trees and onto the shoulder of the highway, winter-brown grass crunching beneath their feet.

  The SUV was parked about twenty yards from where they emerged, across the highway. Connor ripped off the goggles and waved his arm. The SUV growled to life, the headlights piercing the darkness, and rolled forward to meet them as they hurried across the highway.

  Connor lifted Risa into the backseat and climbed in behind her, buckling her in as he gave Jesse an urgent look. “She’s had two contractions. About ten minutes apart. How close is the nearest hospital?”

  “We can’t,” Risa said, her voice coming out in soft pants. “I don’t have any identification, no insurance—”

  “Already taken care of. There’s an ob-gyn waiting at the motel,” Jesse said, reaching back to give Risa’s hand a quick pat. “We’ll be there before you know it.”

  He might have oversold how quickly they’d arrive at the Meade Motor Inn; Risa rode out a third contraction before they reached the motel, but soon the SUV’s headlights illuminated the shabby facade of the motel, giving Connor a brand-new problem to worry about.

  “This is where you’re proposing that my wife have our baby?” he asked in disbelief. It was a long, one-story building with a boxy office at one end and about twenty small rooms in a row, fronted by a concrete walkway covered by corrugated metal awning held up by rusty steel poles. The place looked as if it had probably been shabby twenty years ago.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Jesse said, parking in front of one of the rooms on the far end of the building.

  “There’s a helicopter in the side lot,” Risa said. “Why is there a helicopter?”

  “It’s for you.” Evie turned in her seat and reached for Risa’s hand. “The doctor will evaluate your condition and if she feels it’s necessary, we’ll chopper you to the nearest hospital with a labor-and-delivery unit.”

  When he entered the room Jesse led them to, Connor saw what Jesse meant when he’d said looks could be deceiving. The room’s carpet was a little worn but very clean, the bedclothes neat and spotless. What little he saw of the bathroom before Risa closed herself inside it was also clean and bright.

  He turned to Jesse, who had brought their belongings into the bedroom. “Where’s the doctor you promised? And who is he?”

  “She. And she
’s in the room next door, with the senator.”

  Connor stared a moment. “The senator?”

  Jesse smiled. “I didn’t tell you about the congressional hearing? Senator Blackledge agreed to meet us here and bring some video equipment. We were hoping to have her testify by video to a special panel about her experiences with Akwat and everything that happened after the plane crash.” He nodded toward the bathroom. “We didn’t count on your wife going into labor.”

  Risa came out of the bathroom, looking tired and pale. “I can still testify.”

  Connor put his arm around her and helped her to the edge of the bed, where she sat, bending forward with her hands on her knees. “We can worry about that later. Let’s get the doctor in here to take a look at you.”

  * * *

  THE OB-GYN WAS an attractive woman in her early fifties named Dr. Andrea Bolling. Besides a pleasant smile and a gentle touch, she possessed a calm competence that went a long way toward easing some of Risa’s nervousness. “You’re in active labor, and since this is your first, I think we need to get you to a hospital sooner rather than later.”

  Connor let go of Risa’s hand. “I’ll go tell Jesse to get the chopper ready to move.”

  Risa waited until Connor had left the room to ask the doctor, “Are you sure everything is okay?”

  “As sure as I can be until we get to a hospital and get an ultrasound done. But from what I can tell, the baby seems to be in the right position, your contractions seem normal, and other than being tired from your recent ordeals, you appear to be healthy. We’ll get you through this.”

  The contractions were getting closer. Only seven minutes between the last couple she’d had. But her dilation was only around five centimeters. From the books she’d read about childbirth, she should still be a few hours away from giving birth.

  She went through one more hard contraction before the helicopter was ready to go. Connor and Evie helped Risa out to the black Bell 407 and settled her in one of the five passenger seats. Connor and Dr. Bolling took the seats nearest her, joined by Evie, while Jesse sat in the cockpit with the pilot, a tall, rangy man in his late forties Jesse introduced as his cousin J. D. Cooper.

  “We’ve contacted the Eastern Kentucky Regional Medical Center and arranged for a labor-delivery room to be on standby,” Evie told them as they buckled in for the flight. “Courtesy of Senator Gerald Blackledge.”

  Then the helicopter engine roared to life and it was too loud in the cockpit to hear what anyone had to say.

  Connor and Dr. Bolling coached Risa through two more contractions before the helicopter finally came to a landing on the helipad atop the medical center. An attendant and a nurse were waiting with a gurney to whisk Risa down to the labor-delivery floor. The nurse helped her change into a hospital gown and settled her in a wood-paneled area that strived to look like an ordinary room in someone’s home, except for all the medical equipment and the narrow adjustable bed in the center of the space.

  Connor entered dressed in a blue coverall gown, a mask hanging around his neck. He took her hand in his. “Ready to get this mission started, Mrs. McGinnis?”

  She managed a tired grin. “Ooh rah, Major.”

  He stroked her hair and looked at Dr. Bolling, who had donned a gown and protective goggles, her hair tucked under what looked like a blue paper shower cap. “I just found out about this a few days ago, so I haven’t had time to prep for my part of this job,” he told her. “So tell me what to do.”

  Dr. Bolling’s smile crinkled the skin around her soft gray eyes. “In my experience, your best bet is to treat your wife as a queen. She’s in charge. Do whatever she tells you she needs.”

  The look Connor gave Risa made her heart contract. “It’ll be my privilege.”

  * * *

  “TROUBLE INCOMING.”

  Evie’s voice drew Jesse’s attention away from his phone, which he’d been using for the past hour to coordinate with the senator’s team as well as his own assets still in Kentucky. Everyone from Cooper Security had made it through the roadblocks unaccosted to reach the motel.

  Following his wife’s gaze down the hallway outside the delivery suite, Jesse released a gusty sigh.

  He should have known everything was going too smoothly.

  A tall, officious-looking man in a neat charcoal suit strode down the corridor as if he owned the place, flanked by a small army of uniformed officers and a couple of men who reeked of “federal law enforcement agent.”

  Wearily, Jesse rose to stand in front of the delivery suite door.

  “Who are you?” the officious man asked in an impatient, imperious tone. Garrett Leland, Jesse guessed a moment before the man reached into his jacket and pulled out a small wallet containing his Homeland Security credentials.

  “Jesse Cooper,” Jesse answered.

  “Why are you here?”

  Jesse felt his anger rise. “Why are you?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “Exactly.”

  Leland’s mouth flattened to a thin, angry line. He nodded toward the two men who stood at his sides. “These gentlemen are with the FBI.”

  Jesse nodded at them. “Nice to meet you.”

  One of the two men shot Jesse a look of mild amusement, but the other continued to look grim and imposing.

  “Where is Parisa McGinnis?” Leland asked.

  There was no point in lying. “In the delivery suite, having her baby.”

  Leland nodded toward the door. “Get out of the way.”

  “You never did say why you were here,” Jesse said, keeping his tone conversational, even as he refused to budge.

  “This is a federal investigation.”

  The door behind Jesse opened, and Connor nudged him aside, taking Jesse’s place. He closed the door behind him and gave Garrett Leland a glowering look. “This is a hospital. My wife is in labor. I don’t care who you are or why you’re here, you will remove yourselves from this corridor until after she’s delivered. Do you understand?”

  Behind Jesse, Evie cleared her throat deliberately. He looked at her, and she nodded toward the nurse’s desk, where a silver-haired man dressed in a dark gray suit and crimson tie stood with his own entourage. One of the men beside him was holding a large brown teddy bear, while another was carrying a small potted plant.

  Jesse grinned as the silver-haired man spotted the clump of uniforms down the hall. The old man began to walk with a strong, purposeful stride toward them, his entourage following in his wake.

  “Major McGinnis!” The man’s bombastic drawl carried down the hall. “How is your lovely wife?”

  A look of pure loathing twisted Garrett Leland’s face, but he schooled his features quickly as he turned to face the newcomer. “Senator Blackledge. How unexpected.”

  Gerald Blackledge pulled up short of the man from Homeland Security, his thick silver eyebrows notching upward with mild disdain. “Well, of course it was. I took great care to keep my trip here under wraps.” He turned his attention to Connor. “I hope all is well with Mrs. McGinnis?”

  “So far, so good, Senator.”

  “Wonderful. My committee so looks forward to hearing from her as soon as she’s well enough to speak to us.”

  “Senator, I’m afraid Mrs. McGinnis is under arrest.”

  “Nonsense.” Blackledge waved off the notion with one hand. “Mrs. McGinnis is a national hero. I believe if you’ll check in with the secretary of Homeland Security, you’ll find that your precipitous trip to the lovely state of Kentucky was for naught. The warrant for Mrs. McGinnis’s apprehension was a dreadful misunderstanding. She is, in fact, a vital part of the Senate’s investigation into governmental corruption.”

  Leland didn’t hide his fury. “You’re overstepping your bounds, sir.”

  B
lackledge took two strides forward, until he stood directly in front of the man from Homeland Security. “And you, Mr. Leland, have dug your own grave.”

  Leland was half a head taller than Blackledge, and at least three decades younger, and for a moment, Jesse thought the man from Homeland Security was about to take a swing at the senator. But when the two FBI agents who’d accompanied him to the hospital stepped away and joined the ranks of the senator’s entourage, leaving Leland standing in the midst of several confused-looking Kentucky lawmen, the younger man soon realized he’d been beaten.

  He started to leave, then stopped and slowly turned to look at Connor. “This is not over.”

  Connor’s lips curved into a feral smile that gave even Jesse a chill. “You’re right. It’s not.”

  As Leland began to walk away, a growl of pain erupted inside the delivery suite. Connor hurried back through the door, shutting out all the drama behind him.

  Evie sidled closer to Jesse, slipping her hand into his. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, given what a whiny little pain in the backside she’s been for the past week, but I can’t wait to get back home to Cara.”

  Jesse pictured his little daughter’s scrunched-up, reddened face—Cara Cooper at her imperious worst—and smiled. “Me, either.”

  * * *

  “SHE’S BEAUTIFUL,” CONNOR BREATHED, one large finger brushing delicately over the newborn’s wrinkled red forehead.

  Risa took in the slightly misshapen head, the toothless maw opened wide and emitting soft bleats, the reddened skin and squinty eyes, and murmured her agreement. “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Connor met her tired gaze. “I wouldn’t go that far. Her mother’s just as beautiful.”

  Risa laughed. “This must be that post-childbirth temporary euphoria thing I’ve heard about.”

  The nurse approached with a rueful smile. “Dr. Sankar, our neonatal specialist, wants to give her a full examination since she’s a couple of weeks early, so I need to take her to the neonatal unit for a bit. Why don’t you try to sleep, Mrs. McGinnis? If everything is okay, I’ll bring her back before you know it.”