God would get her for those lies, Leenie told herself, all the while managing to keep her phony smile in place. She certainly wasn’t a simpering virgin, but she was hardly a good-time girl either. She remembered the names of her former lovers because there actually hadn’t been all that many and each time she’d been in a relationship, she had hoped he would be “the one.” But the biggest lie of all was that she didn’t want marriage. She did. Now more than ever. And not marriage to just anyone. She wanted Frank.
He narrowed his gaze as he studied her closely, as if trying to gauge the truth of her declaration. “Let me give you a little advice about men, Slim. A guy never likes to hear about a woman’s former lovers. And he especially doesn’t like to hear that there have been so many she can’t remember their names.”
Leenie laughed spontaneously. Frank was jealous. But he had no idea that he was. Why would a man be jealous of other men in a woman’s life unless he loved that woman? “Thanks for the advice. I’ll remember not to mention my former lovers to my next boyfriend.”
Frank growled quietly, then cleared his throat.
He was so jealous! It was apparent that he hated the idea of her being with another man. Past. Present. Or future.
Don’t do this to yourself, Leenie’s inner voice cautioned. Even if Frank does love you, he may never be able to admit it to himself, let alone to you.
Coming to an understanding, of sorts, they relaxed around each other. The tension between Frank and her should have eased up, and it had—to a certain extent. Beneath the calm alliance binding them together as Andrew’s parents lay an ever smoldering sexual edginess. Neither could escape a basic truth—they were in lust, if not in love. And lust was a potent motivator, not as enduring as love, but equally as powerful.
The hours passed slowly, turning the day into night and into day again. During the daylight hours, Kate and Frank kept Leenie busy and occasionally, for brief periods of time, she became so absorbed in whatever she was doing that the ache in her heart diminished a fraction. Those were moments when her entire focus was not on Andrew. But those moments were few and far between. The nighttime hours were the worst, when she lay alone in her bed, longing to hold her baby in her arms. And needing Frank at her side. It had been two days and nights since they’d made love and although he was tender and caring, he had not come to her again.
Leenie kept telling herself that he was afraid of her, of the way she made him feel. He didn’t want to love her, didn’t want a future with her, but the passion between them was something he could not ignore.
The waiting was wearing on her nerves. How much longer could she hold it together without falling completely apart again? Special Agent Dante Moran had called and talked to her. He’d told her to be patient, to keep hoping for the best, that it could well be only a matter of time before Andrew surfaced as an adoptive infant. So she clung to that hope because it might well be the only hope she had. If her baby had been taken by some woman wanting a child, she might never see him again. And if some lunatic had kidnapped Andrew, her baby was probably already dead.
Leenie shook her head, an effort to dislodge all morbid thoughts. Andrew was alive. He would come home to her. Frank kept repeating those words to her over and over again, as if he was trying desperately to convince himself as well as her.
“Are you ready to go?” Frank asked.
She nodded. “Yes, I’m ready.”
The first thing on the keep-Leenie-busy schedule for today was a visit to the hospital to see Debra, who was now resting comfortably in a private room. The doctors had said Debra might be released in a week or less. She had recovered remarkably well for a woman of sixty.
“Stay as long as you’d like,” Kate told them as they headed for the front door. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you two go out for lunch after your visit to Mrs. Schmale. I can hold down the fort here and if I get any news, I’ll phone y’all immediately.”
“I’d like to run by the station,” Leenie said. “Haley suggested that I might want to give a statement about Andrew’s abduction and make a personal plea for his return. I simply haven’t been up to doing something like that before now. WJMM has been broadcasting Andrew’s photograph periodically, with the news about his kidnapping, but Haley thinks a message from me might actually influence his abductor to return him.”
“Since Moran has given you the okay to make a public statement, I see no reason why you shouldn’t,” Frank said.
“Just so long as you don’t mention the infant abduction ring,” Kate reminded her. “You don’t want to do anything that might alert them that the feds are on to them.”
Leenie sighed. “God, I hope Andrew was taken by those damn people. It’s the one sure chance we have of getting him back, isn’t it?”
Frank put his arm around Leenie’s shoulders. “Come on, Slim, let’s go see Mrs. Schmale, then I’ll take you out for lunch. I’m in the mood for…a greasy hamburger and fries. And maybe a chocolate milk-shake.”
Leenie smiled. “Just thinking about that kind of food has already put five pounds on me, mostly on my hips.”
Frank’s arm slipped down her back and encircled her waist. One hand slid down to cup her hip. “Five pounds won’t hurt you. Hell, ten pounds wouldn’t.”
“Frank Latimer, you know just what to say to a girl to make her happy, don’t you?”
“I try,” he said, sincerity and a touch of sadness in his voice.
Frank liked Debra Schmale and could see why Leenie had hired her as Andrew’s nanny. She possessed a kind disposition and maternal love oozed from her pores. The woman’s hospital room looked like a florist. Floral arrangements of every size and kind filled the small private room and four balloon bouquets floated in the air, held in place by ribbon streamers tied to both chairs in the room and to the knobs on the closet doors.
Leenie hugged Debra, careful not to squeeze too hard and hurt the healing patient. “It’s good to see you looking so well. I’ve been worried about you.”
“I’ll be just fine…once we get Andrew back. I feel so guilty for—”
“Hush that kind of talk,” Leenie said. “You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
“If only I could have stopped that woman from taking Andrew.”
“Mrs. Schmale, you had no way of knowing that the woman had deliberately crashed into your car so that she could kidnap Andrew. You did exactly what anyone would have done,” Frank told her as he walked over and stood directly behind Leenie.
“Please, call me Debra.” She offered him a warm, genuine smile. “I’m so glad that you’re here with Leenie. She needs you, now, more than ever.”
Leenie gasped softly. Frank realized that Mrs. Schmale—Debra—knew he was Andrew’s father, which made him wonder just how much Leenie had told her about him.
“In case you’re wondering, Leenie told me very little about you, not even your name,” Debra said, as if reading his mind. “She didn’t offer the information and I didn’t pry.
“Then how did you know—?” Leenie asked.
“Haley told me about Mr. Latimer. She’s been a frequent visitor. And she is as pleased as I am that Andrew’s father is by your side during this terrible ordeal.”
When Debra looked at Frank, she smiled, but he felt her disapproval and understood she was wondering why he had gotten Leenie pregnant and walked out of her life. Women of Debra Schmale’s generation expected a man to do the right thing, to make an honest woman of his child’s mother.
“You and Haley are a couple of busybodies,” Leenie said jokingly. “And just so you won’t badger Frank, you should know that he plans to be a part of Andrew’s life…once we have him back with us.”
“There’s no news, then?” Debra asked.
Leenie shook her head.
Frank put his arm around Leenie’s waist and pulled her close. “We have every reason to hope that no news is good news, at least for now. The FBI thinks Andrew will be found unharmed. Leenie and I are clinging to that ho
pe.”
Debra eyed Frank’s arm around Leenie.
The telephone on Debra’s bedside table rang. She reached out for it, but Leenie grabbed it to save Debra the effort.
“I’ve gotten a dozen calls already today,” Debra told Frank. “Everyone in Maysville must know I’m out of ICU and in a private room now.”
“Debra Schmale’s room,” Leenie said.
Frank glanced at Leenie, who paled instantly.
Leenie looked at Frank and said, “It’s Kate and she wants to speak to you.”
The muscles in Frank’s belly knotted painfully. He reached out and took the receiver from Leenie. “Yeah, Kate, what’s up?”
“Moran just called,” Kate said.
“Tell me it’s good news.”
Leenie grasped Frank’s arm.
“It could be,” Kate told him. “Two new infants have come up for adoption. Both fit Andrew’s description.”
“When is he sending in a couple of agents?” Frank asked.
“What is it?” Leenie demanded, tugging on Frank’s arm. “Is it news about Andrew?”
“Everything is set up for tomorrow,” Kate said. “Moran wanted me to tell you something. He made me repeat it twice.”
“What?”
“He said to tell you that it’s sooner rather than later.”
“God!” The FBI operation that had been in the works for several years was coming together. Sooner rather than later. Possibly tomorrow? Was that what Moran was trying to tell him? Was it all going to happen tomorrow, right when Andrew—if he was one of the two infants—would be smack dab in the middle of everything? What if when the feds made their arrests, the two babies were whisked away before being rescued? What if they lost Andrew? What if there was gunplay?
“I’ll bring Leenie home right away,” Frank told Kate. “We’ll skip going to WJMM today.”
“Moran knows you’ll come back to Memphis.”
“Damn straight about that.” Frank replaced the receiver and turned to Leenie, who was squeezing the life out of his arm. “Good news. A couple of infants have been found and it’s possible one of them is Andrew.” He glanced at Debra Schmale and smiled, then gave Leenie a sharp glare, hoping she’d understand why he couldn’t be totally forthcoming with Debra.
“This is wonderful news,” Debra said.
“Keep it to yourself for now, okay?” Frank smiled at her.
“Absolutely.” Debra folded her hands together in a prayerlike gesture.
“We need to go,” Frank told Leenie.
She kissed Debra on the forehead and said her goodbyes, then rushed out of the room with Frank. When they were alone in the elevator, she didn’t wait for him to explain.
“Two more infants have come up for adoption, right?” she asked.
“Right.”
“In Memphis?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re going to Memphis tonight, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“And you want me to stay here in Maysville and wait.”
“Yeah.”
The elevator doors swung open and they emerged on the first floor. Frank grabbed her arm and hurried her outside to the parking lot. She walked quickly to keep up with his long-legged gait. When they reached his rental car, she halted and dug in her heels.
Before she could speak, he grabbed her by the shoulders and said, “Dammit, Slim, stay here in Maysville, will you? Let me be the big, strong man. Let me be your man.”
“You want to be a buffer between me and the big bad world, don’t you?”
“Something like that. After all, I am Andrew’s father. I wasn’t around when you were pregnant or when you gave birth. I should have been. You needed me and I let you down.
“I need to do this for you. Hell, I need to do it for myself. Let me be the one to handle things, and if it is Andrew, I want to be the one to bring him home to you.”
“And if it isn’t Andrew?”
“Then I should be the one to tell you. We’re Andrew’s parents. And if we’ve lost him, we should share that grief together.”
Leenie swallowed, then offered Frank a fragile smile. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “You go to Memphis. I’ll wait here in Maysville for you…and Andrew.”
He cupped her face with his hands, then kissed her.
Eight
Frank had left for Memphis around eight-thirty last night and called after he arrived at the hotel. Leenie and Kate had sat up until after two this morning, watching television, talking, looking through magazines, listening to Leenie’s substitute on WJMM’s late-night talk show. They had done anything they could think of to kill time. At midnight, while listening to the radio, they made fudge and devoured a third of what they’d prepared. As if by silent agreement, they hadn’t mentioned Frank or Andrew. At two, they’d gone to their separate bedrooms and Leenie had tried her best to sleep. She had tossed and turned for hours. Finally giving up hope of getting any rest, she’d flipped on the bedside lamp and searched for a romance novel in her stash of to-be-read paperbacks. As entertaining as the book was, Leenie simply could not concentrate enough to do the story justice, so around four-thirty, she’d taken a shower and put on jeans and a sweatshirt.
As she passed the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the hallway, she caught a glimpse of her image. She looked bleary-eyed and somber. Her damp hair was secured in a loose ponytail. Faded jeans hugged her hips and legs. A comfy green fleece sweatshirt with an enormous sunflower in the center gave her otherwise pale appearance a touch of color. All-in-all, she was a pitiful sight.
She wondered if Frank had gotten any sleep last night. Probably not. If only she’d gone with him, at least they’d be together right now. But Frank had needed to make the trip to Memphis alone. She understood. And deep in her primitive feminine heart, she loved him all the more for wanting to play the role of her protector.
How was it possible that her whole world had become condensed into one event—into what happened this morning in Memphis, at some immoral, money-hungry lawyer’s office? Two FBI agents would once again pose as prospective parents, but would they get to see the two infants who were available for adoption? Would one of those babies be Andrew? If Andrew hadn’t been kidnapped in order to sell him to the highest bidder, then she might never know his fate. Could she live that way, never knowing?
When Leenie entered the kitchen, she glanced at the wall clock. Five-fifteen. The meeting was set for nine o’clock this morning. Less than four hours from now. But how long would it take the agents to report back to Moran if they did get to see the babies? It was possible that even after the meeting, they still wouldn’t know if Andrew was one of the two infants.
While preparing the coffee machine, she stared at the telephone. She wanted to talk to Frank, to hear his voice. But he might be asleep. She shouldn’t disturb him.
She reached out and jerked the receiver from the wall phone, then glanced at Frank’s cell number, which he’d jotted down on the bulletin board by the telephone. After dialing, she suddenly had second thoughts and started to hang up, but Frank answered on the second ring.
“Latimer here.”
“Frank?”
“Leenie? Honey, are you all right?”
“I’m okay. I didn’t sleep much.”
“You didn’t sleep at all, did you?”
“No, I didn’t,” she admitted. “I’ll bet you didn’t either.”
“I closed my eyes a few times, but… We’ll both sleep once I bring Andrew home.”
“I—I want you to know that if neither baby is Andrew—” Emotion tightened her throat. She swallowed. “It won’t be your fault, so don’t blame yourself.”
“We can’t lose hope, even if neither baby is Andrew. He’s out there somewhere. We’ll keep searching.”
“I’m going to hang up now.” Her voice quivered. “Before I start blubbering.”
“Yeah, we don’t want that, do we? If you start, I might, too. And that would blow my macho i
mage to hell and back.”
“Nothing could destroy your macho image, least of all crying for your lost son.”
“Leenie…I…keep praying, will you?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”
“Yes…please…”
“Bye, Slim.”
“Bye.”
With the dial tone humming in her ear, Leenie stood there and forced back the tears that ached inside her. These next few hours were going to be the longest of her life.
By the time Leenie downed her second cup of coffee and was munching on a slice of buttered toast, Kate entered the kitchen. Wearing a pair of flame-red sweats, her hair hanging loosely around her shoulders, Kate looked like a teenager, all fresh-faced and glowing with good health.
“How long have you been up?” Kate asked, as she headed for the coffeepot. “Or should I say how long have you been in the kitchen? I figure you’ve been up most of the night.”
“I came in the kitchen about forty-five minutes ago.”
“Hmm-mmm.” Kate poured herself a cup of coffee, then sat across from Leenie.
“I called Frank.”
Kate raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
“He’s going to call back the minute he knows something,” Leenie said.
Kate took a sip of coffee, clutched the mug with both hands and looked right at Leenie.
“I hope and pray one of those baby boys is Andrew. But while you’re hoping for the best, you have to prepare yourself for the worst.”
“I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t want to think about what it’ll mean if—”
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