by Janie Crouch
“My mother may not be the easiest person to be around, but she would never have allowed a teenage girl to be victimized. Not if there had been anything she could do about it.”
Keira held up her palms. “Not even to protect her own son?”
Roman seemed about to launch into a defense of his family when emergency services called out from the main section of the building, letting them know they’d arrived.
Roman’s brows knitted together. “This conversation is not over. We’ll table it for now, but we’ve got to talk this stuff through.”
Keira nodded. She just didn’t know what good talking would really do. At the end of the day, Roman was part of the Weber family.
They had money, they had power and they had a name to protect.
She knew Roman would never physically hurt her. But also knew that wasn’t the only way she could be hurt. She’d been a victim once. She never wanted to put herself in a situation where she’d be a victim again.
Not to mention she was pretty sure that Maureen Weber Donovan would never accept Keira as a suitable anything for her son, especially not a wife. Not that Roman had said anything about getting married. Or that Keira would even consider it if he did.
The thought of marriage all but made her break out in hives.
She pushed thoughts of babies and marriage and hives aside as the emergency services team helped them get to Roman’s truck and get it cleared out so he could drive. The whiteout was over, but the roads were still piled with snow.
Roman insisted on taking Keira to Omega Sector headquarters. It was closer. And they also had a doctor who could check her out immediately, rather than having to wait the hours it would take at any of the local hospitals.
An hour and a half after they arrived at Omega, Keira had enjoyed a hot shower, a full meal, and had been thoroughly checked out by the Omega physician.
None of her fingers or toes had any issues with frostbite; her pulse and breathing showed no signs of problems with hypothermia.
And a blood test confirmed she was very definitely pregnant.
The doctor assured Keira that if no damage had been done to her body from her time in the cold, then the chances of there being harm to the embryo was slight at best. Her body would protect the baby first.
She was given clothes to change into from one of Roman’s teammates. Keira knew of Lillian Muir, the lone female SWAT team member, but had never really talked to her. Given that her clothes almost fit Keira, the woman couldn’t be much taller than Keira’s own five-three. Hard to think of someone that size on a SWAT team.
Keira’s head was still reeling from the confirmation that she was definitely pregnant as she walked out, then was led by an agent she didn’t know to a conference room down a different hallway.
She had no idea what she was going to do, but no matter what, in about seven months she was having a baby.
And damned if she couldn’t stop smiling about that. She knew nothing was going to be easy, wasn’t confident how Roman would fit into the picture, but she was absolutely positive she wanted this baby.
She’d never considered having kids of her own. She’d figured since she never planned to get married again, kids would be out of the question. Maybe down the road she would’ve considered adopting or something, but babies hadn’t been on her radar.
They were now.
It didn’t change anything for her in terms of Fresh Starts or the shelter or helping the other women. It just meant she would have another little person with her as she did it.
“Wow, that’s the brightest smile I think I might’ve ever seen out of you.” Andrea came out of the conference room and slipped an arm around Keira. “I’m assuming the doctor said everything was fine.”
Andrea was right. Keira couldn’t stop smiling. “Yep. No lasting damage at all.”
Her friend laughed softly. “That news seems to definitely have gotten you very excited.”
Because she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it from Andrea more than a few days, she went ahead and blurted out the news. “I’m pregnant, Andrea.”
Andrea had such an uncanny ability to read people that it was very difficult to get the drop on her. But Keira had just succeeded. Her eyes grew wide and she grabbed Keira’s arm and pulled her down the hallway.
“You’re pregnant? How did this happen?”
Keira raised an eyebrow. “You just came back from your honeymoon and you have to ask me that question?”
“You know what I mean. Who? When?” Andrea looked back down the hallway toward the conference room. “Roman Weber. I knew it.”
“Do you want me to enter into this conversation or do you just want to continue to have it with yourself?”
Andrea shook her head sheepishly. “I’m sorry. Are you okay? Is this what you want?”
Keira could still feel herself smiling. “It wasn’t what I was planning, but I’m definitely okay. And now that it’s happened, it’s definitely what I want.” Her hand moved to her stomach, still completely flat, with no sign of a child inside.
“I’m going to have a baby, Andrea.”
Andrea pulled her in for a hug. “And you’re going to be the best mother in the world. I’m so excited for you, Keira.”
Before Keira could respond, Roman was walking toward them, concern clear on his face.
“Are you all right? Did the doctor say everything is fine?”
Keira and Andrea stepped back from each other. “Yes, he said everything is fine.” She looked into Roman’s blue eyes. “And confirmed everything.”
Andrea looked back and forth between them. “I’m going back into the conference room. I’ll catch you later.” She leaned over and kissed Keira on the cheek. “Congratulations, Mama.”
As Andrea walked away, Roman leaned a little closer. “You told her?”
Keira shrugged. “I figured she’d be the first person I told anyway, so why wait?” All of a sudden Keira had a thought. Maybe Roman wouldn’t want her telling everyone about the baby. “But maybe we should’ve discussed it first. Is it all right that I told her?”
“It’s more than all right. Between you telling her and that smile on your face, it alleviates a lot of my fears.”
“What fears?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. That you weren’t excited about being pregnant. That somewhere inside, you felt like a baby would ruin your life or something.”
“No. I’ll admit it’s a huge change, but I’m definitely excited.”
“Roman, can you and Keira come in here for a few minutes?” Steve Drackett stuck his head out of the conference room. “We found something important.”
“We’ll talk more about this later,” Roman murmured. She felt his hand slip to the small of her back as he led her back down the hall. “But I’m glad you and the baby are fine and safe.”
Inside the conference room, some of Roman’s colleagues, people she’d met over the last few months through Brandon and Andrea, reintroduced themselves. Everyone was glad she and Roman were safe, but there was a somberness permeating the air that she hadn’t seen before.
The reason for that gravity became apparent when she saw the whiteboard that held information about Grace Parker’s death.
The pictures weren’t gruesome, but they were definitely disturbing. Roman saw where Keira was looking.
“Do you want me to have them cover that?” he asked her, whispering close to her ear. “Grace’s death is forefront on all of our minds so we asked Steve if we could have an open whiteboard here in case some of us, people like me who don’t normally do investigative work, might be able to help.”
Keira shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I want to do whatever I can to help, also.”
“Keira,” Steve said, holding his arm out to a woman in a lab coat standing near the table. “This is Sydney Ruiz, our new compu
ter and electronic expert.”
Keira looked over at the young woman, who might be twenty years old if even that. Her youthful appearance wasn’t helped by the fact that she wore her brown hair back in two French braids and was chomping on chewing gum.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Keira smiled.
The young woman smiled back. “Same. I’ve been doing some tests on your cell. Hope that’s okay.” She held up Keira’s phone and continued her rapid explanation. “We wanted to make sure the tracker we placed would work long-term, but then I noticed some crazy stuff.”
Sydney talked so fast, moving her arms around as she did so to accentuate her points, it was difficult to keep track of what she was saying.
“What sort of crazy stuff, exactly?”
“Were you using your map app when you got lost in the storm?”
That question at least Keira could understand. “Yes. I could’ve sworn it was taking me the wrong way, but I know with a blizzard like that sometimes you can’t trust your instincts. And that app hadn’t ever given me problems before.”
A look passed between Sydney and Steve. This was something they had obviously talked about.
“When did you realize you were going the wrong way?” Sydney asked.
“I was pretty sure as soon as I left the supercenter, but I didn’t know if maybe the app was taking into consideration some closed roads or something. After a couple of miles, when it had me do some really random turns, I seriously began to question it.”
Everyone around the room was nodding and had a concerned look. Keira realized there was something she didn’t know.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“When did you decide to stop following the map application?” Steve asked.
“When I saw that abandoned church, I knew I was on the wrong side of town and that there wasn’t much outside of that.”
“Keira,” Sydney said. “Have you gotten a new phone recently, or has anything unusual happened with yours?”
She nodded. “Yeah, actually, a few days ago my phone was stolen.”
That look passed again between Steve and Sydney. Roman appeared concerned now, too.
“And you bought a new one?” he asked.
Keira shook her head. “No, it was turned in a day later. Somebody found it. I counted it as some sort of miracle, to be honest.”
“Did you get a look at the person who returned it to you?” Steve asked quickly.
“No, I wasn’t there. I’m not sure who turned it in, but they gave it to Annabel, I think. We could ask her if she remembers who did it.” Keira glanced from Steve to Roman to Sydney. “What’s going on?”
“Your phone has been tampered with,” Steve said gently. “Whoever took it modified it to both track your location and mess with your apps.”
“Like the maps app taking me the wrong way in the storm?” Keira asked.
Sydney nodded. “Exactly like that. It also would’ve gotten all your financial information the first time you opened your banking app. Plus, would’ve given the hacker information about your whereabouts when you open your calendar app.”
Keira had to grab one of the chairs so she could sit in it. “I have pretty much my whole life on that phone.”
Sydney paced back and forth beside the conference room table. “It was a very sophisticated program that was being run on your phone. If it hadn’t caused interference on the Omega tracker, I probably wouldn’t have detected the malware.”
Keira looked over at Roman. “Is this Damien Freihof? Is he the one who did this?”
Roman nodded grimly. “Almost positively.”
“Did anything else happen to you while you were out in the storm?” Steve asked. “Before Roman got to you?”
“I got run off the road. I don’t know if that counts. But it might’ve just been from people like me who couldn’t see anything. Although...”
Now that they were talking about bad guys and someone hunting her, she wasn’t sure if she was just letting her imagination get the better of her.
“What?” Steve asked. “You tell us everything and let us sort out what may be deliberate and what may just be part of a weather-related event.”
Keira told him about the car that had almost hit her as she pulled away from the church and then the pickup that she felt had been deliberately trying to hit her.
She shrugged. “Thinking someone was deliberately trying to run me off the road seemed ridiculous and extreme at the time. But now...”
But now there seemed to be a madman intent on destroying Keira’s life, the way he had so many others.
Chapter Fifteen
The next two weeks passed in a blur for Keira. Brandon came back to Fresh Starts with her and Roman to interview Annabel about the person who had turned in Keira’s phone after it had been stolen.
Unfortunately, all Annabel remembered was that it had been a sort of old man, nondescript, who didn’t say very much.
“He just told me he found it outside near a trash can. I was so excited about it being returned that I didn’t think to question him about it. He didn’t look like a criminal.” Annabel wrung her hands as she answered the questions.
Keira slipped her arm around the other woman’s shoulder. “Why would you have any reason to suspect him? You thought it was a Good Samaritan turning in a lost item.”
But after talking to Roman and Brandon, Keira realized that the old man could very definitely have been Damien Freihof. They’d shown her some pictures of what he’d looked like at different places. Evidently, the guy was a genius with disguises.
Omega Sector also sent some of their forensic team to check for prints from the vandal who had broken in the night before Keira found out she was pregnant. They did find some prints, but they weren’t in the system.
That was both good and bad news. Good, because Freihof’s prints were in the system and they weren’t his. Bad, because that was another dead end.
And since Freihof often used other people to do his dirty work, the person who broke in may not have been a vandal or burglar at all. Once again, Keira was very thankful she’d gotten only a black eye. Could’ve been much worse.
They installed a much more sophisticated security system in the salon. It had been costly, but worth it.
Between getting all this done, running the salon and dealing with the issues the women staying in the shelter had, and oh yeah, being pregnant, Keira was exhausted.
The only thing she knew for certain was that Roman was there every time she turned around.
Literally.
When they left Omega Sector after the storm, Roman had wanted Keira to come home with him.
“We can’t underestimate Freihof,” he’d said. “I want to protect you and the baby. I can do that best at my house.”
She’d been tempted, she really had. But she couldn’t.
“There’s nothing I’d like better than to hide out until this entire thing blows over. But I can’t. These women need me and I couldn’t live with myself if I was just another person who let them down.”
Roman didn’t get angry, he didn’t push. She appreciated that.
But he did go back to his house so that he could pack a bag to stay with her at the salon.
“I can’t make you stay with me. Honestly, I don’t even want to try to make you stay with me. You’re right, those women are counting on you.” He turned his blue eyes on her. “But until Damien Freihof is caught, I will be staying here, too. Not some other random agent. Me. Deal with it.”
It was a confusing thing to be irritated and so completely turned on at the same time. But Roman did that to her when he got all alpha male.
Plus having him here had meant a measure of relief that Keira could hardly allow herself to admit. A sharing of the burden.
Yesterday, when Annabel had found another
spider and screamed bloody murder, calling for Keira, Roman had rushed into the salon, weapon drawn. When he’d seen what the actual danger was, he’d just rolled his eyes.
Then killed the spider.
Keira had to admit it was nice. She’d been doing everything for herself for so many years, what felt like forever, she hadn’t really known how nice it could be.
She and Roman hadn’t made love since they’d been trapped during the storm. Keira just needed space and Roman had again respected that. Hadn’t pushed.
Which, of course, just made her want him more. Everything about him seemed to make her want him more. The way he treated the women staying at Fresh Starts with gentleness and respect. The way he was able to see what needed to be done and just did it. That sometimes involved installing further security measures and sometimes involved picking up a broom and sweeping the floor.
Roman never had to be asked to do it, he just did so.
And when Keira saw him holding Heather’s baby, with such obvious gentleness and joy, something inside her cracked wide open.
Concerned about her, he’d asked Keira if having the baby would change her life. But she hadn’t asked him if he was concerned about a child changing his own life. Now, seeing him hold baby Rachel was just evidence of what a good father he was going to be.
Two weeks after the storm, they were eating takeout in Keira’s apartment after a late night salon closing. Roman was telling a hilarious story about how he’d locked his sister in the bathroom after she quit a Monopoly game in the middle of it once it became apparent she was going to lose. Keira was laughing so hard her sides hurt when they heard it: the breaking of a window in the salon and the alarm blaring.
Within seconds everyone was running down the stairs.
Roman stopped them. “Everybody back. Keira, take everyone into your apartment and lock the door.”
Keira’s eyes flew to his. “Do you think it’s Freihof?”
“I don’t know. But I can do my job much more effectively if I know you all are safe.”
Keira nodded, even though she didn’t like it. He was right. The best thing she could do to help him now was to get everyone out of his way.
