Adopt-a-Dad

by Marion Lennox

  “Why? Lana, she’s not my wife.”

  “Is that what you’re going to tell the authorities?”

  “No, but-”

  “And if immigration asks questions, and Garrett and Shelby have never even met her?”

  “There’s no real need-”

  “She’s alone, Michael. I’m assuming she’s finished work until the baby’s born, so what’s she doing for the next few weeks?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “In my shop I see heaps of pregnant women,” Lana told him. “They all say the last few weeks of pregnancy seem endless. They’re full of fears and anxieties-and you’re just leaving her by herself.”

  “I told you, Lana, she has nothing to do with me. That’s the way she wants it.”

  “You’ve married her, Michael,” she snapped. “For better or for worse, she has everything to do with you.”

  “Lana…”

  “Enough! We’re going home now,” she said, bending to scoop her small son from the floor. “Come on, Greggykins. Let’s take your daddy home to bed. And tomorrow…tomorrow you and me and Daddy are coming back here to see Camille marry her Jake and meet your new aunty Jenny and make your first contact with your new cousin.”

  “Cousin?”

  “Greg’s my son, Michael, and your new wife’s about to have a baby,” she said serenely, standing on tiptoe to give Michael a sisterly kiss on the cheek. “Like it or not, brother mine, you’ve just expanded our family. So shut up and get on with it.”

  THERE WAS nothing else to say.

  Lana and Dylan left, Lana giving Michael her unsolicited advice, Dylan following with amused pride.

  “Go with the flow,” he told Michael as he passed him on the way out. “You can’t fight City Hall.”

  “City Hall meaning Lana?”

  “One and the same.” He grinned and headed out the door.

  That left Shelby and Garrett. Unlike Lana, Shelby was close to tears.

  “I don’t know how you could do it,” she said. “Oh, Michael, I wanted you to marry-but not this way.”

  “Shelby, you know I never intended to marry.”

  “Yeah, but I’d hoped you’d meet someone who would change your mind.”

  “I already have. Her name’s Jenny.”

  “I mean someone you love.”

  “Like I love you guys? I don’t think so.” He gave her a hug that was meant to be reassuring, but her eyes were still troubled.

  “Oh, Michael…”

  “Don’t fret about him, Shelby,” Garrett said roughly, putting an arm around his sister and giving her a squeeze-almost as if he was protecting her. “Our Mike’s a big boy now. He’s got himself into this mess.”

  “It’s not a mess,” Michael protested, but Garrett shook his head.

  “This mess,” he repeated. “He may not see it yet, but it’s a minefield. But don’t worry, Shel. If there’s one thing Mike’s good at, it’s minefields. He’s not security chief of Maitland Maternity for nothing.”

  Garrett hesitated, then sighed. This evening had got sidetracked, and he’d called them together for a purpose. “I suppose there’s no chance of you helping us look for our mother now, Mike?”

  “No.”

  “You being so busy with your new wife and all?”

  “Get off my case, Garrett.”

  “Yeah, right. But you’ll squeeze in Jake and Camille’s wedding tomorrow?”

  “I don’t-”

  “You’d better,” Garrett warned. “You’ve married the woman, and now it’s time she meets your family.”

  “It’s not as if-”

  “Just bring her tomorrow, Mike,” Garrett said heavily. “We’ll judge your new wife for ourselves.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  M ICHAEL LEFT, and he should have gone straight home. He was tired, wasn’t he? The last sleep he’d had seemed days ago, in a hotel in El Paso.

  With his wife.

  The words kept drifting into his mind and staying. His wife.

  She wasn’t his wife, he told himself savagely. She was just some woman he’d done a favor for. She had nothing to do with him.

  The car nosed itself toward her apartment all by itself.

  What was he doing? It was close to midnight. Jenny’d be asleep, and he had no business being there.

  He’d just drive by to see.

  To see what? He was being a dope.

  But he’d just drive by, all the same.

  HER LIGHT WAS ON.

  He couldn’t see Jenny’s apartment from the street. It had one lousy window looking out over the fire escape at the back, but Michael knew it well enough by now. He’d just sort of head his car down the back alley where he’d parked it before and look up, and- Her light was on.

  So what if it was on? So what if she was having a sleepless night?

  Maybe she was having cramps again.

  It had nothing to do with him, he told himself, a note of desperation entering his logic. Tomorrow he’d convince her to move into his place, but for now she didn’t want him. If her muscles cramped, then she’d just walk around until they eased. It was only for one night.

  That was that. He should never have come here. He backed his car onto the street again and turned away from-

  No. He didn’t turn away. His car slowed to a crawl. Another car was parked in front of the apartments.

  Not just a car. A Mercedes.

  This wasn’t the sort of neighborhood where you parked a Mercedes, Michael knew. For one thing, no one in this neighborhood owned such a pricey car. For another, it was careless. On Saturday nights, vandalism was at its worst, and parking expensive cars in this low-income district was asking for trouble. Michael had left his Corvette here two days ago, in broad daylight with Jenny inside, and even then there’d been trouble.

  But why was the Mercedes here? And why was Jenny’s light on?

  Maybe there was no connection at all. Still… Edgy, he drove slowly past the car and noticed the tiny sticker on the edge of the windshield. It was a stylish S, so small and discreet that thieves weren’t supposed to know what it stood for, but Michael did. He’d been a cop. He was trained to notice such things. The S stood for Sparchan’s Rental Service-suppliers of luxury rental cars for the well-heeled tourist.

  So what was a well-heeled tourist doing parked outside this dump of an apartment block at midnight?

  When Jenny’s light was on?

  He didn’t like it, and suddenly his logic wasn’t driving him. Instinct was. It took him ten seconds to park the car, ignoring the threat of thieves and vandals, and another ten to race up three flights of stairs.

  Jenny…

  At the top of the stairs he forced himself to pause. He’d been trained too well to rush in without thought. Stop, think and live. That was his legacy from Dan. It was a hard-learned lesson, but one he’d never forget. He paused and slid along the wall, his eyes on Jenny’s door.

  It was wide open, and a woman was speaking. Not Jenny. An older woman with an aristocratic English accent. Measured, controlled and icy with contempt.

  “You’re coming with me, my dear. Now! If you believe I’ll allow my grandchild to be born here, then you’re even sillier than I think you are.”

  Michael frowned. There was real venom behind the words.

  “I’m not coming with you, Gloria.” That was Jenny. Her breathing was too fast, and it was all he could do not to rush in. “You can take your thugs and leave. I’m staying right here.”

  Thugs!

  Wait… Force yourself to wait, he told himself harshly. Rushing could do more harm than good.

  The thugs wouldn’t be doing any physical harm, he figured, his thoughts racing. If it was Gloria, she wouldn’t allow Jenny to be hurt-not while Jenny was carrying the baby she wanted so much. Somehow Michael forced himself to keep still, straining all the time to hear.

  “You’re not staying here.” Gloria’s voice lowered, became silky smooth. Michael slid silently along the wall until h
e was beside the doorway. He could hear but not see. Thugs, Jenny had said. How many? “It’s time this nonsense was over. I have a plane waiting to leave. The immigration people were ready to escort you there for me, and then you had to be so foolish as to take such drastic measures to avoid them. You might have known it wouldn’t work. What did you pay to have someone marry you?”

  “I didn’t pay Michael. He wanted-”

  “Of course you had to pay. No one would want you like this.” The woman’s voice was disdainful. “Look at you. This place is a disgrace, you’re fat and unattractive, and your breeding’s appalling. What my son saw in you-”

  “Peter wanted me.”

  That stopped her for a moment. “Oh, yes,” Gloria said at last, her voice an angry hiss. “My esteemed son. He wanted you. For about five minutes. You know very well the only reason he married you was that you were so low-class he knew it would upset me. You were a grubby bit of boyish rebellion, nothing more.”

  “Get out,” Jenny whispered, and Michael could hear fear mixed with her anger. “Get out now, this minute, or I’ll call the police.”

  “You just try it, my dear.” There was a pause, then Jenny’s breath rasped inward, as if something dreadful had been placed before her. “This is for you, my sweet daughter-in-law. We need to be sure you come quietly. Unless you agree to accompany me like the meek, quiet mother of my son’s heir.”

  “No.”

  “But yes, my dear.”

  He’d heard enough. Michael spun into the doorway and faced them.

  There were two thugs, men built like stud bulls. They were dressed in immaculate suits, but the image of civility stopped right there. They looked like bouncers at some seedy nightclub, and he thought he recognized one of them from his days on the force. They were thick-necked and heavy-jowled, and seemed to have been squeezed into their suits. With one glance Michael understood Jenny’s fear. One of the men had a syringe, and he was holding it toward Jenny like a gun.

  What the hell? Michael’s mind raced. He’d seen syringes in his time, held by drug addicts and wielded like weapons. This one was different, though. These people wanted Jenny’s baby. At worst the syringe would contain an anesthetic and, unless Gloria was a complete fool, it wouldn’t be harmful to an unborn child. Or its mother.

  There was no sign of any gun, and why should there be? They wouldn’t need one. Two large men and one woman against a very pregnant Jenny? What were the odds?

  Jenny would be no match at all.

  Nor was there any guarantee Michael could do better, he thought grimly. He wasn’t carrying his gun. He was fit and well trained, but he wasn’t as tall or as heavy as either of these guys. He moved into the room and stepped aside, leaving the doorway clear. Then he stood still, loose-limbed and watchful.

  Unnecessary violence wasn’t his style. Besides which, there was a really good chance he could lose. What he needed here was logic.

  “That’s enough,” he said flatly. “You’re scaring the lady, and she’d like you to leave.” His voice was soft, with just the faintest undertone of menace. “Now.”

  “Who-” He’d caught them by surprise. Gloria wheeled to face him. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Jenny’s husband,” Michael told her. “I’m asking you to go.”

  There was a long, drawn-out moment of absolute silence in which it seemed the whole world stood still. Jenny’s face was drained of all color. She’d backed away from the men and stood with her hands behind her to hold the table, as though she had need of its support.

  Her eyes had flickered once to Michael as he entered, but her gaze returned to the first thug’s hand. They were fixed on the syringe.

  She wouldn’t be thinking the way he was, Michael knew. She’d be terrified of the syringe for her baby’s sake.

  But the threat was fading. The guy wielding the syringe hadn’t moved. He was the one Michael had recognized, and there was a trace of uncertainty in his eyes.

  “Bruno,” Michael said. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  Bruno’s hand dropped to his side. “He’s a cop,” he said into the stillness. “I know him.” It obviously made a difference. Bruno would do a lot for money, Michael thought grimly, but violence-kidnapping and assault-in front of cops was out of his league. Michael had arrested him in a drug bust years back. Just as well Bruno didn’t know he had left the force.

  Bruno’s eyes were on Gloria, and Gloria was obviously thinking fast. The lady was diminutive and beautifully groomed, dressed in an immaculate soft gray suit that must have set the estate back thousands. Her dark hair was perfectly coiffed, her eyebrows penciled into lines of permanent astonishment, and her pearls looked to be worth a king’s ransom.

  She had the appearance of a woman in charge of her world.

  She wasn’t in charge now. Michael could see a whole gamut of emotions race across her features as her sharp, intelligent eyes summed him up. She cast a quick glance at Bruno and saw his uncertainty. It added to her own.

  He saw her other henchman’s muscles tense and involuntarily tensed his own. He had to deflect the violence fast. Michael was superbly muscled and trained to use his body to good effect, but there were two against one here, and he was no Superman.

  “Yeah, I’m a cop, and I wouldn’t do anything stupid,” he said into the silence. “It’s not worth it. It will achieve nothing and get you into so much trouble your heads will spin. All the money in the world won’t get you out of it.”

  And then he waited.

  While Gloria thought.

  What were her options? he asked himself, his eyes not leaving her face. Keep going? Make her men bash him-if they would-and take Jenny by force?

  “Even if you hurt me,” he said pleasantly, “I have a large extended family who will move to protect Jenny, plus the police force. She’s not alone. She has me-her husband-and she has in-laws and connections. If you succeed in taking Jenny out of the country, we’d invoke the full force of the law in having her and her baby returned. The Lords and the Maitlands are a powerful force in Austin. This is our territory, and you’re not welcome.”

  Silence. The woman’s face contorted in fury.

  “What are you being paid?” she demanded at last, her voice furious.

  “I’m sorry?” Michael showed polite surprise, nothing more. His eyebrows arched as if he couldn’t make any sense of what he was hearing.

  “What has the girl promised you?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You won’t get any of it. The child stands to inherit, but the girl herself… She’s as poor as a churchmouse.”

  “If we’re talking about Jenny-”

  “Of course we’re talking about Jenny. My daughter-in-law. But if she’s-”

  “You know, I don’t think she is your daughter-in-law anymore,” Michael said evenly, his eyes flicking to Jenny and then moving away. Hell, she looked dreadful. If he kept looking at her, he’d slug someone. “She was only your daughter-in-law while she was married to your son. But she’s no longer married to your son. She’s married to me.”

  “You really married her?”

  He didn’t just want to slug someone. He wanted to slug her. “I really married her.”

  “Why on earth-”

  “That’s none of your business.” Michael’s voice was flint hard. “Get out.”

  “No.” Gloria smiled then, and at her nod, Bruno carefully replaced the cap on the syringe. He placed the sealed syringe in his pocket, and Jenny’s breath came out in a rush of relief. “Not quite yet.”

  “Now.” Michael took one dangerous step forward, but Gloria put up two beautifully manicured hands.

  “There’s no need.”

  “There is.”

  “How much do you want?”

  It was a raw demand, thrown bluntly into the room, and it had the effect of making Michael stop dead.

  “What?”

  “I assume there’s money in here somewhere.” Gloria cast a disdainful lo
ok at Jenny. “I have no idea what terms you’ve agreed on, but I’ll make it worth your while to forget them. You can say you married her when you were drunk. I’ll pay you off, and we’ll have your marriage annulled. You’ll find me more than generous.”

  “Generous?” Michael’s eyes were watchful, carefully assessing.

  “More than generous.” Gloria’s mouth twisted into the self-satisfied smile of someone who knew everyone had his price. “Say two hundred thousand?”

  “American dollars?”

  “Pounds sterling.” The smugness grew more pronounced. “That’s about three hundred thousand of your-”

  “I know what it’s worth.” Michael’s eyes narrowed. “You’d pay that much? You must really want her.”

  “I want nothing about her. I just want the baby.”

  “I’m not-” Jenny spoke from the other side of the room, but Gloria turned on her like a snake.

  “Quiet, girl. We’re talking business.”

  “How high will you go?” Michael asked idly, and waited.

  Gloria looked at him assessingly.

  “I have to assume you’ll go higher. If Jenny has offered me more than that-”

  “She hasn’t.” Gloria swiveled to stare at Jenny incredulously. “She doesn’t have a penny to her name. I’ve seen to that. If she’s said she has, then she’s lying.”

  “How much?” Michael asked. “Half a million pounds?”

  “I don’t-”

  “You really want the kid. Do you want him half a million pounds’ worth?”

  “I don’t-”

  “Get out, then,” Michael said indifferently. “Half a million pounds, or we’re not talking at all.”

  “Michael!” Jenny’s voice rose in dismay. She was staring from Gloria to Michael, and her face reflected her sense of betrayal. “You don’t mean-”

  “Quiet, Jenny,” Michael said kindly. “Can’t you see your mother-in-law-or your ex-mother-in-law-and I are doing business?”

  “I don’t wish-” Gloria said, but Michael interrupted.

  “That’s not the way to talk. Not when you’re trying to buy a man’s wife from him. Half a million or out!” He took a step toward Gloria, and Gloria fell back as the thugs stepped forward. Neither of the heavyweights seemed to know what to do.