“Good.” He didn’t seem insulted. More like relieved. “Because I need to ask you to do something, and I don’t want sex, lace panties or attraction to have any part in your answer.”
She stared at him. “You’re not making sense.”
“I will, soon.” He took the drink from her and finished it. “Milo, the gunman from the alley, contacted my partner to set up another meeting.”
“Good.” She nodded. “You said the meeting was important.”
“It’s more than important. And Milo won’t go through with it unless I bring you with me.”
Julia felt her heart skip a very big beat. “W-what?”
“Normally, I wouldn’t have even considered it, but the stakes are astronomical. Besides, if I don’t bring you, Milo will be even more suspicious. He might panic and do something stupid. Something that could set things back worse than they already are.”
Oh, God. Julia wished she’d finished that drink after all. Her heart started racing. She could feel the adrenaline flash through her. The anxiety hit her like a ton of bricks. She was racing toward a full-blown panic attack.
“Just take a deep breath,” Russ said, as if knew exactly what she was experiencing. He caught onto her chin. “Don’t make me put my hand up your dress again.”
“What?” She pushed him away from her.
“That’s right. Get mad. Slap me if it’ll help. Hell, kiss me. Do whatever you need to do to stop that response. It’s old garbage, and you’re stronger than you think, Julia. I watched you in that alley, and if I thought for one minute that you couldn’t handle this, I wouldn’t be asking.”
She blinked. No one had ever accused her of being strong. And much to her surprise, it worked. She felt her heart rate ease back to normal.
“That’s good,” Russ mumbled. “And for the record, I’ve never threatened to put my hand up a woman’s dress before. Well, not unless it involved mutual foreplay.”
A nervous laugh escaped before she could stop it. But she had nothing to laugh about. Nothing. Russ had just told her he wanted her to meet with a dangerous criminal.
“What’s at stake at this meeting?” she asked.
He met her eye to eye before he answered. “A baby’s life.”
Russ said it so softly that it took a moment to sink in. Julia gasped. “A baby?”
He nodded. “A child just a little older than Emily.” Russ took a deep breath. “I’m at the tail end of an investigation. Milo thinks I’m a black-market baby buyer, and that my client is someone rich, but who doesn’t have the credentials or the background for a legal adoption. Milo’s boss is the seller, a man whose identity I need to know so I can stop him from doing this again. Or it’s entirely possible that Milo is working alone. Either way, he has the baby.”
“Then why not just arrest Milo and make him tell you where the baby is?”
“Because he’ll just deny it. And if he’s put in jail, he’ll have his hired guns take the baby, go in to deep hiding, and we’ll never see the child again.”
She touched her fingers to her lips to stop them from trembling. “Where did they get the baby?”
“They stole him from his parents, Aaron and Tracy Richardson. And they left a note, warning the parents not to go to the authorities or the baby would be harmed. Thankfully, the Richardsons called the cops and the FBI anyway, because we learned that Milo or his boss intended to sell the child all along—probably by pitting the buyer he thinks he has waiting against what the parents will shell out. The baby will go to whoever pays the most.”
Julia hadn’t thought this day could get any worse, but she’d obviously been wrong. “My God.”
“Yes, I’ve been saying that a lot lately myself. People are messed up, Julia, and they do disgusting things. If I don’t complete this sale and get the baby, then Milo will find another buyer, and the little boy will end up being sold. Maybe he’ll get lucky and get good parents. Maybe he won’t. We know from past deals that Milo has been very careful about the buyers he chooses.”
Julia didn’t feel a panic attack, but her heart broke at the thought of an innocent child being bought and sold. “And if I don’t go…”
“The meeting won’t happen.” He lifted his shoulder. “Not unless I can somehow reason with Milo.”
She’d already seen him fail to do that in the alley, when Milo had cancelled the meeting. A cancellation that’d happened because she was there. If she hadn’t chosen this night to approach Russ about Emily, then the stolen baby might have been rescued and on the way back to his parents.
“How safe will this meeting be?” she asked.
Russ took a deep breath. “We can set up security in the area to take out any of Milo’s men if they make a wrong move. I don’t think they will. This is about the money. Milo wants the huge middleman fee, and I think he’ll play nice to get his hands on the cash.”
Julia stayed quiet a moment and gave that some thought. “And what would I have to do?”
“Maybe just stand there and look beautiful. Which won’t be a stretch,” he added, in a mumble.
She hated that she felt flattered with that ill-timed compliment. “Then why does Milo want me there if I’m just to be your arm dressing?”
Now it was Russ’s turn to have a few moments of silent thought. “Could be several possibilities. He might already know you’re a rich heiress. He might think you’re the actual buyer instead of Silas Duran, the agent we have in place for that. Or he might just want you there because he believes it’ll be safer for him.”
“Safer how?”
“If Milo suspects this is a sting operation, then he could see you as a shield of sorts. The FBI wouldn’t go in with guns blazing if you’re in the line of fire.”
“This is a lot to put on you,” Russ continued. “I’ll understand if you say no.”
If she said no, Julia couldn’t live with herself, but if she said yes, she might not make it through the meeting without a panic attack. Still, she would be there. She would fulfill Milo’s demand, and if she had an attack, so what? It would be humiliating for her, but it might speed things along with Milo. Besides, there really wasn’t a choice here. Julia knew what had to happen.
“I’ll do it,” she heard herself say. “Just tell me where I have to go and what I have to do.”
Russ didn’t seem surprised that she agreed. He simply nodded and gave her another of those arm rubs.
“We’ll know the details of the meeting in the morning,” Russ explained. “For tonight, there’ll be an agent outside your room. I won’t leave until he arrives.”
“Where’s the stolen baby right now?”
Russ shrugged. “We don’t know. But I’m sure he’s fine. The deal is to deliver a healthy baby boy to the buyer.”
That was something at least.
Julia heard the soft sound. It was barely audible, but it got her to her feet so she could go to the bedroom. Emily was stirring in her crib.
Russ got up, too, and followed her. “She’s awake.”
When Julia reached the crib, she saw those big brown eyes staring up at her. The baby looked first at Julia, then at Russ.
“Hi, princess,” Russ said, before Julia could say anything.
But he didn’t stop with just a greeting. Russ reached down into the crib and picked her up. He didn’t hesitate, and he didn’t say something clichéd about being afraid she’d break. He eased Emily right into his arms, cradling her protectively against him, and he rocked her as if he’d done this a thousand times.
“What?” he said, defensively, when he glanced at Julia, who was staring at him.
She had several questions she was trying to ask at once. “Do you have children of your own?”
“No. And I’m not married, either. Never have been. But I love kids. Always have.”
Obviously. “This isn’t your first time holding a baby, is it?”
“Hardly. Most of my coworkers and friends have kids. I’m godfather to three of them. All boys.” He leaned down and ge
ntly kissed Emily’s forehead. “What about you? Do you have much experience with kids?”
“Plenty,” she lied. Truth was, Emily was the first and only baby she’d ever held.
He chuckled when Emily puckered her lips. “I rescued a little boy not much older than her just three months ago, and I held him for hours before we could get him back to his parents. He was a cute kid all right, but nothing like the little angel here.”
Rescued? So, the stolen baby wasn’t his first. She supposed that made Russ a hero of sorts. And he certainly seemed to be a natural with Emily.
My God. She could actually lose custody of Emily to him. Yes, she had more money than Russ. Well, maybe. But she had also been in therapy for twelve years. She had panic attacks. And the final blow—Lissa hadn’t asked her to raise Emily. She’d wanted Julia to merely be the locator, and Lissa had murmured that dying wish in front of several members of the medical staff and a cop.
None of that would be in Julia’s favor.
Still, she had to fight; and her first step was to put some distance between Russ and her. Between Russ and Emily. Out of sight, out of mind might help him realize that he didn’t want to give up his undercover life after all.
“You’re breathing fast again,” Russ pointed out. But he didn’t look at Julia when he spoke. He kept his attention on Emily and made cooing sounds. Cooing!
“I was thinking about Lissa,” Julia mumbled, and forced herself to breathe normally.
“You were close to her?” He didn’t wait for an answer, as he announced “The angel just smiled.”
Julia looked at the baby, who did indeed seem to have the right corner of her mouth lifted into a pseudo-smile. Her first. And she’d smiled for Russ, not for her.
“Lissa and I weren’t close,” Julia admitted. “But we used to be.”
“Before the attack,” Russ added when she didn’t say more.
A cooing hero with ESP. Great. This wouldn’t be a custody battle, it would be a custody war.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “It was Lissa who set me up with the guy who stabbed me. He was a friend of hers.” A friend from the wrong side of town, her parents had said. Lissa had been from the wrong part, too. That’s what had drawn Julia to her. And look how that had turned out.
Russ pulled his attention from Emily and looked at her. “You blame Lissa for what happened to you?”
“No. But she blamed herself. We weren’t close after that, and I was too broken to try to mend things between us.” Uncomfortable with yet another personal wound that she hadn’t intended to reveal, she reached out and took Emily. “It’s probably time for a diaper change.”
Now, that should send Russ running, Julia thought. But it didn’t. “I can do it,” he said, when Julia placed the baby in the crib. “With my godsons, diapering can be a challenge. I’ve gotten hosed down more than once.”
He reached into the bag next to the crib and pulled out the wipes and a diaper, but he had barely gotten started when his phone rang. The sound shot through the room and startled Emily. Julia picked her up again before she could break into a full-fledged cry.
Russ glanced at the caller ID on his phone. “I have to take this.” And he stepped back into the sitting room.
While Julia finished up the diaper changing, she tried to hear Russ’s conversation. But she couldn’t tell anything from his monosyllabic answers. It was possibly about the security guard who would be assigned duty outside her door. Or maybe it was about the meeting with Milo.
The meeting she hoped she wouldn’t regret.
Of course, she would have regretted not trying to save the stolen baby even more.
“I understand,” Russ said. He ended the call and came back into the room.
“Is the security guard here?” she asked.
“He is.” Russ reached down and ran his fingers over Emily’s toes. “But there’s a problem.”
Her head whipped up, and she met his gaze. “Not the baby?”
“No. Not the baby. My partner, Silas, just informed me that Milo has one of his men staked out near the hotel.”
Her heart dropped. “You don’t think his man will try to get in here?”
“No reason for him to do that. He’s watching us with an infrared thermal device.”
“A what?”
“It means he can see us. Not complete images, but the heat that our bodies are generating.” Russ turned and slipped his arm around her waist. He eased her closer. “It means Milo is trying to figure out if you really are my fiancée.”
Sweet heaven. Her first instinct was to jump back from Russ, because it made her skin crawl to think that someone was spying on them. But Russ held on to her.
“What do we do?” she asked.
“I stay here tonight.” He tipped his head to the bed. “There. With you.”
Chapter Five
Russ stared at the laptop and tried not to break the screen.
Silas had sent him the reports and pictures on Julia’s computer, since Russ didn’t have his own with him. And the FBI hadn’t wanted to risk having one delivered to the hotel, in case it would make Milo even more suspicious. If that was possible.
Russ wasn’t feeling good about Milo’s meeting. But then, he was feeling even worse about the pictures in front of him.
They were photos of Julia’s attack.
Everything had been documented by the San Antonio police and used to convict the SOB who’d done this to her. There it all was—the details of the assault with a deadly weapon, the position of each stab wound, every bruise and scrape.
She’d been damn lucky to survive, because any one of the stab wounds could have hit a vital organ. Added to that, she’d nearly bled to death in the trunk of her car. A passerby, out walking his dog, had heard her moaning and rescued her. It’d been cold that night, close to freezing, and the low temperatures had slowed her bleeding.
Julia was alive because of a freak cold spell and a dog who needed a midnight walk.
In other words, blind luck.
Russ wasn’t able to hold back his feelings any longer, and he mumbled some profanity. Her attacker had gotten a life sentence, but that didn’t seem nearly harsh enough for what he’d done.
Beside him, Julia stirred a bit, pulling the cover to her chin, but she went back to sleep. Good thing, too. They’d been up and down most of the night, with Emily feeding every four hours. Julia had taken the midnight shift, and after he watched how she prepared the formula, he did bottle duty at 4:00 a.m. Since it was going on seven, it wouldn’t be long before Emily woke up for the morning round. She might be a little angel, but she ate like a lumberjack.
He smiled at that thought. It’d be like having daily miracles, just watching her grow up.
Russ closed down the files on Julia’s stabbing, and then deleted them from her computer. He didn’t want her coming across them accidentally, even though she probably remembered every single detail in those reports. He certainly remembered the bullet that had landed him in a hospital bed for over a week; but as an undercover agent, bullets were a possible job hazard. Julia had been attacked on a date. Big difference.
Julia stirred again, moving from her side to her back, and shifting the comforter in the process. That shift exposed her breasts. She was wearing a gown and a robe, but the robe had opened, and he could see the outline of her nipples.
Too bad Milo’s infrared couldn’t read Russ’s dirty thoughts. There would have been no doubts about Julia being his fiancée. Well, Milo wouldn’t have had doubts about the attraction being real, anyway.
Oh, it was real, all right.
And the bed sharing hadn’t helped. It also hadn’t helped that he’d slept on top of the covers so there wouldn’t be any skin-to-skin contact between them. All through the night, Russ’s body hadn’t let him forget that he was in bed with an attractive woman.
Thankfully, Russ didn’t have to pretend to have sex with her. Since Milo thought Julia had given birth just two weeks ago, that g
ave Russ and her an excuse not to take the pretense to the next level.
Russ saw her eyes open. There was that sleepy flash of ice blue, before she gasped and tried to scramble away from him. She obviously wasn’t accustomed to waking up in bed next to a man.
He didn’t say anything, just gave her a few moments to pull out of the sleepy haze.
“Oh,” she murmured, and she swiveled around so she could see Emily.
“She’s still asleep,” Russ whispered.
Julia made a small sound of relief and sat up, her robe shifting again. He caught a glimpse of the scar at the top of her right breast.
She looked at his damp hair and his bare chest. “You showered already?”
He nodded. “About an hour ago. I washed out my shirt, since I don’t have a change of clothes.” He’d been as quiet as possible, so he wouldn’t wake anyone. And then he’d gotten some work done on her laptop. “I figured, with only one bathroom, I’d better get in and out before Zoey or you needed it.”
He glanced at her breast again and bit back a groan.
“Any news about the meeting?” she asked. Was it his imagination, or did she dodge looking at his chest, as well?
“No. Silas should call soon.” He paused and tried not to look at her. “Are you having second thoughts?”
“Yes,” she admitted, “but I’m going through with it anyway.”
“You’re a brave woman,” Russ said.
“Right. Remind me of that when it looks as if I want to turn and run.”
Oh, he would. But what he couldn’t seem to do was keep his mind off her breasts.
Julia’s gaze dropped down to her partially exposed breast, and she gasped again. She tried to cover it up, but Russ caught onto her hand.
“It’s okay,” he said, keeping his voice emotionless.
She shook her head and her eyes watered. She obviously wasn’t used to anyone seeing her old wounds.
Russ didn’t think. He just leaned over and dropped a kiss on the scar. The moment his lips touched her warm, musk-scented skin, he knew it was a whopper of a mistake. His sympathetic brain was trying to assure Julia that she was beautiful, with or without scars, but that stupid, brainless part of him below the waist assumed this was foreplay.
Daddy Devastating Page 5
