Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2

by Jennifer Kacey

  The woman jumped, the calm of the moments before they were interrupted clearly vanished in the presence of another person. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m so sorry for wasting your time.” She got to her feet and spilled the rest of her water on the table. “Shoot.” She looked around in a panic.

  Campbell grabbed some paper towels and reached toward the table.

  Wren snatched them out of his hand and started mopping up the mess. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s water. It’s no biggie.” He grabbed a couple more and dried up a line of water getting away from her. “Now, what were you telling me?”

  “Nothing. I’ll just get Hazel and we’ll be on our way. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep lately with being pregnant and all. My mind gets carried away with me sometimes. I’m fine. We’re fine. Fine.”

  Campbell could see through that reasoning from a mile away. She clearly wasn’t comfortable talking with him and he couldn’t blame her. Especially if she were having trouble with her husband, not to mention if she were being threatened or something worse. “How about I go see if Natalie is free now? Maybe you could speak with her.”

  Wren continued to dry up the mess but she slowed down, weighing her options maybe. She didn’t say anything at first, but she chewed on the inside of her cheek.

  Campbell grabbed the paper towels and got them in the trash.

  “What about Hazel?” She glanced at the door as if she could see through it.

  “Debbie’s watching her for you and she’s a doll. Nothing will hurt her while you talk with me. Will you wait? If I go see if I can get Natalie, will you wait here?”

  Nibbling her lip, she shoved her hands into her thin coat. “I’ll try.”

  Campbell knew that was all he was going to get and he was thankful for it. “Sit back down, or grab another glass of water. I’ll be right back, okay? Right back.” He waited for her to nod and then he was out the door.

  Down the hall, Campbell opened his mouth to call for Natalie when she yelled his name. Around a corner, Campbell’s heart stopped beating for a second. At the end of the hall a woman with red hair had collapsed and the staff surrounded her. “Natalie,” he bellowed, but then a woman stepped in front of him.

  He grabbed her shoulders to move her out of the way, but the woman’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

  “It’s me.”

  Natalie.

  He didn’t wait for her to speak.

  Gathering her close, he hugged her to his chest and kissed her mouth.

  “What was that for?”

  “I thought you were hurt.”

  “Oh gawd.” She pushed out of his hold and shook her head while grabbing his hand. “You distracted me. Mary passed out. We have an ambulance on the way but I need your help.”

  “Anything.” Her needing his help was one thing. Her asking for it was something altogether different.

  “I need you to pick her up and carry her out front. The ambulance is only a couple minutes away, but the faster we can get her in and secure, the faster they can get her to the hospital. Everybody back up, please.”

  Campbell stepped to the side of the woman lying on her side. She was clearly breathing, which was a very good sign. He scooped her up and settled her against his chest. Natalie arranged her arms in her lap and then Campbell carried her through the clinic.

  Natalie walked in front of him, opening doors. They were a good team together.

  Jay got to the front door first and opened it for them. “Natalie, lemme have her paperwork and things. You don’t need to be outside if Campbell’s got his hands full.”

  “Agreed,” Campbell added before Natalie could utter a word.

  “All right,” she grumbled and handed over the patient’s purse and file. “Maria?”

  “Yes?” One of the nurses stepped forward.

  “Go out with them, please. Give the paramedics a rundown of Ms. Baker and where her labor’s at.”

  The woman in Campbell’s arms took a deeper breath and her arms flexed around her stomach. Protecting the baby maybe, even when she wasn’t fully back with them. That gesture warmed his heart as the ambulance pulled up in front of the clinic. Thankfully it wasn’t that busy out on the street, so they could pull up close. One of the guys stepped outside. “Do you want us to get the gurney out?”

  “No. Just open the back and I can get in with her.”

  “You got it.”

  They transferred the woman into the back and Maria gave them the info they needed to take her to the hospital and get her admitted. She was coming around even more before he stepped down from the back of the bus.

  “Dr. Scott Brazos is trying to wrap up his patients here and he’ll be on his way in just a little while. We’ve called one of the on-call OBs and told her to be on stand-by as well in case someone needs to get there in a hurry.” Maria was finishing up as he looked down both sides of the street to make sure all was clear.

  Jay was doing the same thing.

  “Hey, thanks for keeping Natalie inside earlier.”

  The other man nodded. “No problem. Last thing she needs is to be attacked again. Especially being worried about one of the mothers and forgetting to protect herself.” He shook his head. “Ridiculous that she can’t just do her job.”

  “Not to mention when she’s so busy Greta’s turning people away. Oh fuck.”

  “What?” Jay asked but Campbell was already moving toward the front of the clinic.

  As he opened the front door he scanned the front area. Hazel was gone.

  “Campbell?” Natalie called his name but he didn’t stop.

  “Gimme two seconds.” He made it back to the break room and it was empty. “Damn.” His hackles were raised with how Wren was acting and he just couldn’t shake the feeling whatever she was trying to tell Natalie had something to do with her safety. With the limited amount of info he had to go on though, short of tailing her and leaving Natalie alone and exposed, he probably wasn’t going to get close enough to get any more details.

  He knew nothing about the woman, and the subpoena to clear the records hadn’t turned up anything the week before when he’d went through the files. Where Wren was living was missing, along with who she was living with or who her baby daddy was. Husband. She’d said husband.

  He ran a hand over his hair and his stomach turned over.

  Something bad was tied to that woman but he just couldn’t tell what.

  She didn’t look like a junkie, but he knew too well how people with an addiction could hide it when they wanted to.

  The video.

  He left the break room and headed back toward the front to find Jay.

  Natalie met him in the hallway. “Hey, you okay?”

  The words to tell her what was going on were right there, but he didn’t want her to worry. There wasn’t really anything to get her worried over even, so he changed the subject.

  “All good. Was just looking for someone. Is that mother in the ambulance going to be okay? She seemed to be coming to when I got out.” He opened his arms to her and thankfully she walked into them. He kissed the top of her head and held her. The fact she didn’t hesitate to seek comfort from him rocked him more than he thought.

  Natalie nodded. “Maria said she woke up while they were trying to take her vitals. She was scared but she’s on the way to the hospital. Ready or not she’ll have a baby in the next couple days.

  “Is she going to keep it?”

  “Not certain yet. She’s undecided, which I think is adding to the panic. Been there. Done that.”

  “You’re pretty awesome, you know that? For what you do. How you help these women. You’re a rock star.”

  “No I’m not. I’m just a woman trying to make things right.”

  “Penance. Is that how you see this place?”

 
She seemed to contemplate his question for a minute, looked around at the pictures of smiling babies and mamas on the wall. Her smile said it all. “No. It’s hope.” She grabbed a hold of his shoulders and kissed him, then pulled away to go back to work. Her wink at the end of the hall made him fall just a little bit more in love with her.

  Love.

  Oh shit.

  As he wandered down the hall, it took him a minute to remember where he was heading.

  Jay.

  He needed to find Jay.

  As he approached his office Jay stepped out, and he looked a bit freaked out.

  “What?” Campbell asked.

  “I caught that patient Wren trying to get into Natalie’s office.”

  “When?”

  “Just a few minutes ago. I walked over here after I came back inside, and she was walking into that office where she clearly shouldn’t have been. Come here.” He moved into his office and sat in his chair, turning his monitor to the side so they could both see it. Pulling up the video didn’t take him long at all. “See here.” He pointed to camera twelve, which was the camera outside Natalie and Jay’s offices.

  He double-clicked, and that camera came up full screen.

  Wren appeared on the screen, holding Hazel, and she made a beeline for Natalie’s office with something in her hand. Something small. Blue. She juggled the little girl and opened the office door.

  Then Jay appeared, talking to her, and he pulled her out of the office and closed the door again.

  “Why did she want in there?”

  It looked like they exchanged words, but there was no audio feed because it was a medical facility and Campbell couldn’t get approval for microphone installation so they had video only.

  Jay shook his head, totally perplexed. “She wouldn’t tell me. Wouldn’t say a word. She got upset when I asked her what she wanted in there. Seemed angry or scared or some combo of the two. The little girl was crying. I told her to stay where she was ’cause I knew you’d want to talk to her but she took off.”

  As if he were narrating the video, Wren bolted right about that time, nearly racing out of the hallway. Jay got all the screens back up and followed her progress.

  “There. Did you see that?” Campbell asked. “Back it up and bring up camera three.”

  Jay did and they watched it again.

  “There.”

  Jay paused it. “What did she do?”

  “She threw something in the plant by the door.” Campbell was already out of the office. Instead of inciting some kind of panic, he simply walked to the door and looked at the plant.

  It was a USB stick of some kind. Blue. The thing she’d had in her hand when she was trying to get into Natalie’s office. He picked it up and then went out front. Looking both ways, he knew it was a long shot that she’d still be in the area for him to catch sight of her.

  The sense of foreboding grew stronger as he walked back inside.

  “Hey, Greta?” he called out as he walked back through the door and to the back area of the front counter.

  The older woman turned around. “Mmhmm.”

  “The woman in here earlier who wanted to speak to Natalie.”

  “Wren?”

  “Yes. Did you say she had an appointment in a couple days?”

  “Uhh. I think so. Hold on.” She turned back around and flipped through a couple pages on their big calendar book. “Yes. Friday. Were you able to help her earlier? I saw she left in quite a hurry a little bit ago.”

  “No. I ended up having to help Natalie, and she left before I could finish talking to her. Will you let me know when she shows up in a couple days for her appointment? I’d really like to talk to her again.”

  “Of course. I’ll make a note in here to remind you.”

  “Perfect. Thanks.” He moved back toward the hallway leading to the offices and went straight back into Jay’s office.

  “What is it? What was in the plant?”

  “A USB stick. What in the world could she have on the stick? I’d hope she didn’t have anything to do with the porn files loaded onto Natalie’s computer. The woman just doesn’t strike me as someone who would do something like that. But I’ve been surprised before.”

  “Hand it over and let’s see.”

  “Oh hell no. Natalie would kill me if I put something on your system that fried it or compromised it. Lemme take it and put it on my laptop. It has extra programs and protection for this kind of stuff.”

  “Good call,” Jay acknowledged. “Lemme know what you find.” He ran a hand over his head. “What a freaking day. Is the full moon out or something?”

  “Probably.”

  Campbell stepped out of Jay’s office, moved down a few feet, and opened the door to Natalie’s. She wasn’t inside, which he was thankful for.

  Booting his laptop, he opened a secure browser and plugged in the stick. The handheld device lit up and then nothing. No files populated. No folders appeared. Nothing.

  That’s too easy.

  He pulled up another menu and then a password screen appeared.

  An encrypted password screen.

  Encrypted?

  Campbell was stumped and tried a different way.

  Same encryption screen.

  Definitely more than just a simple password. Trying to crack it in his spare time became a very high priority. He grabbed another empty stick from his laptop bag and cloned the contents onto the secondary media device. Thankfully, no password was needed to clone the data.

  Pulling the second one out, he grabbed his cell and called a number he was beginning to think should be on his speed dial.

  “Detective Wyatt.”

  “I’ve got something for you. Might be nothing. Might be something, but I think you should have all the info.”

  He brought him up to speed quickly on what had happened.

  “And you’ve never seen this woman trying to get into Natalie’s office before?”

  “No, but we’ve only just finished putting the cameras up recently. Who knows what happened before that.”

  “Agreed. I’m out in the field and I’ll stop by on my way to another crime scene in just a few minutes. Can you put the video footage off onto the stick as well? That way I can have it all in one place.”

  “You got it. I’ll have it ready in twenty minutes.”

  They both hung up and Campbell pulled up the camera playback screen to make a backup. Natalie walked in and eyed him.

  “You’re looking very intense over there.”

  “I’m an intense guy.”

  “Clearly.”

  “Wyatt’s going to stop by in just a few minutes to pick something up.”

  “Pamphlets on breastfeeding?”

  Despite his worry, Campbell smiled. “I doubt that kind of literature would do a lot for him.”

  She sat at her desk and rifled through paperwork. “Are you gonna willingly tell me what’s going on, or am I going to have to strong-arm you?”

  Campbell raised his eyebrows. “I’m almost willing to risk it just to see you try.”

  Natalie smiled but then got serious. “I’m assuming this is something that revolves around me.”

  He held her gaze, trying to decide how to handle it. She was almost back to some semblance of normal, and he understood how fleeting that could be. Hiding things from her did nothing for him either so he decided to approach it head-on. “What if I told you I honestly didn’t know if it had anything to do with you or the attacks? What if I told you I didn’t want to burden you with something that could be nothing when I know how much you already have on your plate?”

  She nibbled her bottom lip. “I’d say I believe you, but I don’t like the idea of you keeping me in the dark.”

  “The last thing I want to do is make you doubt my honesty or my
faith in your ability to handle your shit and kick its ass. But I’d like your permission to handle this on my end and if it gets to the point you need to know what is going on then you will be the first to know and I’ll bring you up to speed on everything.”

  It took a long time for her to answer. “You know how hard it is for me to be okay with that?”

  “I do.”

  She thought a bit more and then nodded. “Then I trust your judgment. When I need to know, I’d like you to tell me immediately and don’t leave things out because you think it’s hard for me to handle. I want all the info. Nothing less will do.”

  “Agreed. One hundred ten percent.”

  “Then okay.” She took a deep breath and went back to work.

  Campbell smiled and continued pulling up camera feeds for his backup.

  It was odd.

  He’d always thought he’d croak before he witnessed a woman bringing him to his knees with a single word. Trust. Good thing he’d been sitting down.

  Chapter Twenty

  Natalie

  “Is this Natalie? Natalie Grant?”

  It actually took Natalie a second to answer because it was close to two in the morning and the shrill ringing of her home phone had woken her and Campbell both out of a deep sleep.

  “Yes, this is Natalie.”

  “Who is it?” Campbell asked, sounding more awake then he should since he had been dead asleep beside her not seven seconds ago.

  “I don’t know yet. Who is this?”

  “My name is Becky Moreno and I work at Lenox Hill Hospital. God, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m trying to reach you because you’re listed as the next of kin to two people who were just brought in DOA.”

  Natalie sat up in bed, holding the covers to her naked breasts. Campbell moved back against the headboard and wrapped an arm around her. Her heart lodged in her throat, and she had to swallow a few times to get her vocal cords to work again. “It’s someone from the hospital trying to get an ID on someone.”

  “No, ma’am. We already have the ID. A last will and testament was found in the system naming you as the next of kin and guardian of her children if anything ever happened to her.”