The Firefighter’s Secret Baby

by Anna DeStefano

  “That was then.” Randy kept his body between the marshal and the mother of his child. “I’m not convinced that’s the wisest course of action.”

  Dean shook his head.

  “The first conversation I always have with a protectee,” he said, “is about limitations and the importance of controlling your perspective. Sam never accepted that, and the results have been disastrous. Don’t make the same mistake she did. Regardless of how…touching the last few minutes have been, I can’t keep you three together and keep you safe, if that’s what you’re about to suggest.”

  “Safe? You mean the way you’ve been keeping Sam safe up till now?”

  “Federal protectees aren’t monitored 24/7, Lieutenant Montgomery. That only happens in TV dramas, at least until my team’s dealing with a high-risk situation. Which is what we have now. Sam had a secure identity and ’round-the-clock access to me or one of my deputies if she had a need she couldn’t meet herself. It was a textbook relocation until she made the decision to exceed the boundaries of her protection, more than once, putting a federal case, her life and now her baby’s safety at risk. Are you suggesting that I should have chained her to her bed and stopped her from blowing every safety guideline I gave her? I’m a federal marshal, not a therapist. I can only keep people alive if they aren’t hell-bent on getting themselves killed.”

  “Well, she’s not going anywhere now,” Randy argued. Sam hadn’t moved an inch since Agent North left. She was just sitting there, staring at the door the baby had been taken through. “She can barely stand on her own.”

  She looked like a broken doll, more and more of the warmth his kiss had brought to her complexion leaking away.

  “And you and your child are not an advisable part of Sam’s protection going forward,” Dean insisted.

  “What does separating us now accomplish?”

  “For one thing, it would prevent all of you from being taken in one sweep.”

  “So to simplify your job, she has to stay isolated?” Randy waited for Sam to say something, anything. But she didn’t. She wouldn’t. She was as good at hiding what she felt as he was. Maybe better.

  “I have an injured witness to care for, Lieutenant. Sam needs rest so she’s ready to testify whenever the grand jury gets off its ass and calls her up. She’s going to be on antibiotics and IV fluids for at least another week. Worrying about a baby would only further exhaust her physical resources, and—”

  “Worry?” Sam croaked, finally responding. “You think I’m not going to worry about my daughter just because she’s not here? I’m going to worry about her…I’m going to love her and think about her every second of every day for the rest of my life.”

  “You have to do what’s best for the people depending on you.” Max stepped closer.

  Randy blocked him. “I have a pretty good track record of keeping people safe,” he said, not giving himself time to change his mind. He couldn’t leave now. Not like this. “I never lose a victim once I’m on the scene. Why don’t we make doing the right thing for Sam and her sister and our child my problem from now on? Which means you’ll be dealing with me, Marshal Dean, not taking advantage of Sam’s fear and confusion. I’m staying.”

  “What!” Sam gasped.

  Uncertainty and pain and betrayal flashed across her face in a jumbled wave. The trust she’d instinctively placed in him at the accident scene was long gone. His anger and accusations had seen to that. The loss of it was like a fist squeezing in Randy’s chest.

  Max sized Randy up. He glanced at the way Sam was wringing her hands in her lap, then he pulled a cell phone from his pocket and pressed a series of buttons.

  “We’re ready,” he said into the thing.

  “Ready for what?” Randy asked.

  “I should have listened.” Dean headed for the hallway door. “They said this would be your reaction.”

  “They who?” Randy asked the man’s departing back.

  PANIC WAS CONSUMING Sam. Panic that she wouldn’t have the courage to do the right thing—again.

  She never should have held her baby.

  Now they’d taken her daughter away. Max would make sure Randy left soon, too. It was what Randy wanted, no matter what he’d said. It was the only way he and the baby would be safe. A man who scaled burning buildings and wielded the Jaws of Life needed to be protected because of Sam—from her.

  But all Sam could do now was dream of keeping him with her. Standing beside her like he was now, helping her through whatever Max needed her to do next. Protecting their daughter, while Sam got to hold her baby and feed her and cherish her.

  Randy had to get out of there. Now. He and the baby had to leave, before Sam lost the ability to watch them go.

  “Who are you dragging up here?” Randy asked the new deputy who’d stepped in from the hallway.

  “Dragging?” Max actually laughed when he reentered the room. “It’s been all my people could do to keep them from scaling the building to get in here. I’m guessing patience isn’t a trait that runs in your family, Lieutenant. This place is like Grand Central, and I’m risking exposure with every second we stand here debating the inevitable. You’ve got half an hour, than we’re all moving.”

  Before Randy could respond, in walked a beautiful blonde woman and a man that could have been Randy’s clone. Only the other guy was even taller and looked even more muscular than Randy, if that was possible. He had to be fire and rescue, too. In fact, if Sam’s misfiring memory was correct, he was one of the buddies Randy had been partying with on St. Patrick’s Day.

  The woman rushed into Randy’s embrace.

  “Thank God you’re okay!” She buried her head against his chest.

  He clutched her close and closed his eyes, running a tender hand down her hair. She was obviously someone he cared for deeply. Someone Randy should be spending his time worrying about keeping safe. Someone not Sam.

  The reality of it stopped Sam’s body from tingling in every place his hands had stroked her.

  “I’ll give you some privacy.” She made it to her feet, but she couldn’t move.

  Her legs refused to hold her up.

  She landed back on the cheap mattress with a bounce. She flinched when Randy’s arms were there, curling around her and enveloping her with a wave of concern. He’d been ready to be done with her just a few minutes ago. He’d had his say, blamed her for everything that she already knew was her fault, and kissed her out of spite. Now he had to let go.

  Because, it hadn’t just been spite or retribution or anger that had passed between them. There had been confused passion, need and surprise muddled together, and finally, a kind of connection that could get him killed.

  The other woman knelt beside Randy, her beautiful features clouded with worry.

  “Is she okay?” the woman asked.

  “She’s pretty weak still.” Randy took Sam’s hand.

  Sam glared up at him.

  “I’ve been an ass.” He moved back. “I’ve convinced her I’m the enemy.”

  “Typical.” The woman’s mouth quirked at the corner.

  “I’m not delusional, I know you’re not the enemy.” Why did they have to make this harder? “You’ve saved my life. Twice now. Thank you.”

  The first time, when she’d been on the verge of doing something destructive that night in Savannah. If she hadn’t met Randy, who knows where she’d have ended up. Luca’s goons might have found her back then and finished this months ago.

  “Get away from me,” she said to them both. “You’re nuts for being anywhere near me.”

  “I’m here because—” Randy started to say.

  “Because you didn’t know any better. When you did, you wised up and told me I was on my own. Don’t do anything stupid now, Lieutenant. I don’t need your death on my hands, too.”

  Somewhere deep inside, Sam knew she wasn’t responsible for the horrible things Luca did. But the guilt of people hurting and dying because of her was never far away. And if clingi
ng to that was the only way she could make herself do what had to be done, so be it.

  The blonde glanced between Sam and Randy. A slow smile spread across her face.

  “My brother—” she said “—smack dab in the middle of a crisis that’s completely out of his control. Well, well, well.”

  “Brother?” Sam asked.

  The resemblance of the other woman to Randy and the man she’d arrived with, despite the differences in their coloring, finally registered.

  Randy’s sister nodded.

  “And there’s another hulking mass of testosterone at home with my husband and daughter,” she said. “I helped raise the lot of them, and they’ve always been determined to save the world or die trying. Trust me when I say Montgomery men don’t back down when there’s a mission to be completed. Mostly because they like to feel in control of the uncontrollable. This one—” she pointed to Randy “—he’s never shown a weakness for damsels in distress before.” She smiled at Randy then. “She’s beautiful. No wonder you haven’t been able to forget her.”

  “I hate to interrupt this charming reunion with something as unimportant as keeping the bunch of you alive,” Max said from his post at the door. “But we’re down to twenty minutes and there are some tough decisions to make. We all have at least a cursory understanding of the common threat you face. Trust me when I say that the only way Sam, maybe all of you, will survive until the grand jury rules, is for Sam to be isolated again and the rest of you, including the baby, to be secured to separate locations.”

  “Not going to happen,” said the man who looked so much like Randy. “I’m Charlie,” he added to Sam.

  “Big brother,” Randy filled in. “And this is Emma.”

  He nodded toward his sister.

  “She’s the chief worrier of the pack,” Charlie offered. “We were awfully glad to hear that you’re alive. You have the most beautiful baby.”

  We?

  “Thank…thank you,” Sam stammered.

  This wasn’t happening.

  Charlie’s sincerity and Emma’s smile and Randy’s relief to have his family there had softened his features. A dangerous sense of wanting to belong was grabbing hold of Sam. The Montgomerys, so clearly connected to each other and protective of one another, were the kind of family Sam had always longed to be part of. What she’d hoped to make a reality once she and Gabby started over.

  She grabbed her IV stand, pulled herself up from the bed and headed for Max, shrugging off Randy’s attempt to stop her. She kept her gaze glued to her federal marshal’s.

  “I’ll check on the baby,” she said, “while you get these three to see the reason behind all your rules and regulations. It won’t be hard. Randy was ready to toss me out of the window a few minutes ago. Just do a better job of scaring them straight than you did with me. Get them and my daughter out of here.”

  Randy had a strong, loving family. Of course he did. That was part of the underlying goodness of the man, no matter the shitty things he’d said to her just now. He cherished the blood ties he was born into. It was no doubt part of what had instinctively attracted her to him. She’d secretly wanted to be someone like him for as long as she could remember.

  She would not be the reason Randy lost his family.

  Max reached for her. Her glare stalled his hand in midair. Then warmth caressed the arm the doctor had secured in a sling. Sam jumped at the zing of awareness that shot through her from Randy’s touch. It was the same need that filled her every time he kissed her.

  The need to keep him with her always.

  “I’m not going anywhere without you or our daughter,” he promised.

  “None of us are,” Randy’s brother agreed. The baby began to cry in the next room, her whimpers deepening the lines bracketing Charlie’s frown. “Your child is part of Randy. Part of us. Which makes you part of us. No one breaks up our family.”

  “The situation is too risky—” Max began.

  “To secure more than the principal protectee in a single location,” Sam finished by rote.

  Max nodded. “Especially with the exposure of Lieutenant Montgomery claiming paternity. We couldn’t risk someone zeroing in on the dynamic of all of you being in the same place.”

  “Well, you’re just going to have to risk it.” Randy pulled Sam and her IV stand closer.

  Her resistance fizzled as the room and everyone in it spun out of focus. Her back curved against Randy’s chest. Her head settled beneath his chin. They were a perfect fit.

  “You can’t…” She turned in his arms, the craving to cling almost overwhelming her. But she’d made enough weak, selfish mistakes. This wasn’t her fantasy of being loved and cherished. This was a man who didn’t know how to stop playing hero. “I’ve already ruined your life. Hopefully you can get it back, once this is all over, but—”

  “I’m sticking with you through this,” he insisted.

  “You had it right the first time, Lieutenant, when you were pissed about the danger I’ve put you all in.”

  Randy didn’t release her. “I was pissed. Then shocked about your situation. I jumped to a lot of conclusions. Then I saw you with our baby—”

  “A baby that was never supposed to officially exist,” Max said. “A daughter that makes you being in complete control of the choices you make out of question until this case is resolved. And even then—”

  “I never worry about then until I get there,” Randy insisted. “I deal with now and only now. That’s what saved my sanity when I was five years old, and it’s helped me save countless lives since joining the department.”

  The light was gone from his eyes. Emma and Charlie had tensed as their brother turned back into the closed-off man who’d initially struck out at Sam. Randy stepped away from her. He didn’t stop until he was nose to nose with Max.

  “You’re not going to scare me away from my responsibilities, Marshal Dean. Nothing you could come up with could touch what my family and I have already survived. We’ll get through this together. So you can take your scare tactics and shove them up your—”

  “Enough, Randy.” Charlie’s voice was reasonable. But his expression simmered with the same dangerous emotion that Sam felt rolling off his brother. “This isn’t about Mom and Dad. Your lady has enough to deal with. Don’t add our baggage to it. A child’s safety’s at stake. A baby you asked me to watch out for, remember?”

  “A baby I can’t afford to keep with my witness.” The done talking about it tone of Max’s voice ramped up Sam’s need to hold her daughter one last time. “It would be too easy a target. My deputies are getting her ready to transport, so—”

  “Stop it!” Sam braced herself against the emptiness that was slowly consuming her.

  She needed Randy’s touch back. Him saying that he wouldn’t leave her, even if it wasn’t true. She needed her child. And she couldn’t let herself have any of it.

  “Stop saying my baby has to go!” she shrieked. “We get it. I get it! I can’t keep my daughter. I can’t…”

  Suddenly, she was the one in Max’s face.

  “Why!” she screamed at him. “Why did you bring her here, knowing you were going to rip her away from me again?”

  Each word was shaking, sobbing proof that Sam couldn’t do this. She’d never been strong enough to do any of it. She sank to her knees, her arms wrapped around herself, hating the numbness that was taking over.

  Then there was warmth behind her. Following her down. Enveloping her, so she wasn’t alone. He whispered soft, soothing sounds into her ear. Sounds that insisted this could still be all right. That she didn’t have to be strong enough on her own. She just had to hold onto him until the hopelessness inside her stopped screaming to give up.

  “Shh…” Randy said. “We’ll find some way through this.”

  “We?” She clung to the word. To Randy.

  “We.” He held her a little tighter.

  “Touching,” Max commented.

  Sam glared up at him.

&n
bsp; Her unflappable federal marshal looked unsure for the first time she could remember. Concerned. He checked his watch.

  “You can’t keep her right now, Sam.” There was compassion in his statement, but no room for debate.

  “Then tell me how I’m going to live without her.” It was the same thing she’d said about Gabby, when Max had first relocated Sam. She’d been promised they would only be apart for a few months. “I can’t do this anymore.”

  “It’s just a little longer,” Max reasoned. “Then—”

  “Then there will be some other judicial delay. Luca has the money and connections to tie the case up forever. Which means I’ll never be free. I’ll never get Gabby out. I’ll never see my baby again. That’s what he wants.” Sam shuddered. “He wants to take away everything, and Luca always gets what he wants….”

  She was ranting. Weak. Losing it. She had to pull it together. She had to keep moving. To remember that Randy had hated her when she’d first told him about the case and the danger she’d forced on him. So what if he’d kissed her and was having a flash of momentary guilt over his threat to rip their child from her arms? All that mattered was protecting their daughter.

  Randy would blame Sam if he stayed, despise her even more when everything went to hell again. There was no future for them.

  “Shh,” Randy soothed. “You’re safe. Our daughter’s safe.”

  “No,” Sam said. “She’s not.”

  Sam got to her feet with Randy’s help, then she edged away.

  “You agreed to the terms of your protection.” Max actually sounded sorry. “You’ve run rogue twice already. I won’t cover for you again. This detail was already costing the federal government a fortune. It’s now doubled in size. Three strikes, and you’re out, kid. Stick to the deal you made, or—”

  “Or what?” she snapped.

  “I know it’s a bad situation—”

  “Bad? I’ve run from a goon who lied to me every day of my life, and as a reward I moved on to your doublespeak. What’s the difference? I’m still trapped.”