Hero in the Nick of Time

by Marie Ferrarella

  “He’d get suspicious,” Gray predicted knowingly. “These people can smell a cop a mile away.”

  That was just the point. “But I’m not a cop,” she stressed. “Just a private citizen.” The plan began to build momentum in her brain. “Maybe I can bring test results to him—falsified records.” She looked at Gray. If doctors were a fraternal organization, the police were even more so. Rules were bent at times for good causes. “You must know somebody who could do that.”

  It was a good idea, Cade thought. But it needed work. Polishing. “It’d be better if the records were genuine,” Cade speculated. Chewing on that corner of the problem, he said slowly, “If we could get our hands on records where the woman was actually infertile—”

  Cade stopped, thinking of the doctor back home who had delivered his son. She was a lively woman whose connection with her patients did not end at the edge of the office’s boundaries. It was worth a shot.

  He looked at Gray. “Can I use your phone?”

  Stepping away from the desk, Gray waved at the multilined telephone. Two of the lines weren’t lit. “Be my guest.”

  As Mac listened, Cade called directory assistance in Bedford, California, and asked for the number of Dr. Sheila Pollack. Citing an emergency, he managed to by-pass Sheila’s nurse and was talking to her within minutes of dialing.

  Piecing things together from his side of the conversation, Mac began to see her idea take shape. She looked at him hopefully when he hung up the telephone.

  Cade nodded. “The doctor knows someone. The woman was raped as a teenager and developed endometriosis. Internal scarring prevented her from ever being able to have children. She was around your age when most of the tests were taken.” He paused, realizing that McKayla had never actually come out and told him her age. “I’m guessing you’re twenty-five.”

  “Then you’re guessing wrong.” Although, there was a small part of her that was flattered by the miscalculation. “I’m a dentist, remember? How many twenty-five-year-old dentists do you know?”

  “I don’t know any dentists,” he admitted.

  The answer took her by surprise, but it was something she’d get back to later. Right now there was something far more pressing to focus on than Cade’s missed visits to the dentist.

  “When can we get our hands on the tests?”

  “Sheila has to ask the woman for permission, but she doesn’t think that should be a problem. If the answer’s yes, she’ll have her nurse forward them to Megan. Megan’ll make the necessary changes so that the records’ll look like they’re yours.” Cade appeared to do a quick calculation. “If all goes well, we can have the records in our hands probably by tomorrow morning.”

  The answer disappointed her. She was ready to go ahead with the plan now. “Tomorrow?”

  “It’ll probably take you longer than that to get an appointment with the doctor,” Gray pointed out. He paused, studying her. The woman struck him as being capable enough, but this wasn’t simply a challenging situation. She was facing a potentially dangerous one. “You know what you’re getting into?”

  Mac didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Yes, the next step to getting Heather back.”

  He had a feeling she would say that. Judging by the look on Cade’s face, so did he. Gray went over the key points in his mind. “All right, if you’re going to go through with this, may I make a suggestion?”

  Cade was open to any input the other man was willing to give them. “Sure, what?”

  “This’ll go down a lot better if the two of you show up at the doctor’s office together. Mr. and Mrs. Respectable, looking for a baby to round out their perfect lives.”

  “Sure,” Mac agreed. “That makes sense.” She looked at Cade. “Are you willing?”

  There was no reason to ask. Cade was going to do whatever it took to recover the little girl. If breaking up a baby-selling ring was included in the deal, so much the better. “You don’t even have to ask.”

  It looked as if they had a plan going. Getting into the spirit of it, Gray went on to explore the necessary details.

  “I don’t doubt that if the good doctor and his wife are involved in a black-market ring, they’ve been very discreet, very good at what they do. They’re not about to take careless chances and get involved in a sting. That means they’re going to check you out. You’ll need an identity—a life. Here, in Phoenix,” he emphasized. “If you say you’re from California, it might put them on their guard.”

  Cade nodded. That made sense. The details could be arranged. “We could tell them I’m an engineer, newly transferred here from the east. We’ll need a place to stay—”

  Gray was already ahead of him. “One of my wife’s friends is a real estate agent. I’ll give her a call and see if something can’t be arranged for a few days. The main focus is going to be on you in this little drama,” Gray warned Mac. He didn’t like the idea of a civilian laying herself open like this. “Do you think you’re up to it?” Before she could answer, he said, “I can try digging around a little, and if we get more evidence, I might be able to persuade the captain to send in some of our people instead—”

  But Mac was shaking her head. “No, all that’ll take too much time.” She looked to Cade to back her up. “And time’s the one thing we don’t have. I appreciate anything you can do for us.”

  “Not a problem.” Gray knew he could put in a little time on this case, off duty. Just as backup in case anything happened. That way, the department wouldn’t actually be involved.

  Mac pulled the telephone over toward her. “I guess I’d better start the ball rolling.” Taking a deep breath, she placed the call to the doctor.

  Wheels had moved quickly, greased, Mac had a suspicion, by a massive calling in of favors. She’d lost count how many phone calls Cade and Gray had made in the few hours that had followed their initial meeting.

  She had a lot of people to be grateful to.

  As twilight gave way to night outside, Mac slowly looked around the neat, two-story condominium the real estate agent had found. Furnished, it had just come up on the rental market a week ago. A job transfer had necessitated the owner leaving the country on short notice. He had left everything up to the agency.

  The condo was nestled in a pricey neighborhood, making it perfect for their purposes.

  In short order, a telephone repairman—someone’s brother-in-law—had come after hours to hook them up, allowing another piece of the mosaic to fall into place. The stage was almost set. Even though Dr. Lambert was supposedly booked solid for several months, when she’d heard Mac’s address, the receptionist had “suddenly” discovered a cancellation and fit them in. They were seeing the doctor tomorrow.

  “They shouldn’t have much trouble finding someone to lease this,” she commented.

  “Don’t be so sure.” Mac turned from the patio to look at Cade, one brow raised in a silent question. “It might be a little too close to the railroad tracks to satisfy some people.” As if to prove his point, a passenger train went by. Even though it was short in comparison to a freight train, the noise and slight swaying that marked its passage underscored Cade’s statement.

  She grinned. “You might have something there.”

  The smile on his face gave way to concern. He’d grown accustomed to putting himself on the line, to facing dangerous situations. It was what he was paid for. But she wasn’t used to this sort of thing. She was a pediatric dentist, for God’s sake. The most dangerous thing she faced was having a patient accidentally bite her. McKayla was diving into this headfirst, and he wondered if she really knew the possible consequences.

  “You know, it’s not too late to change your mind about this.” He saw the surprise in her eyes, but he pressed on. “Once you walk through that door, there’ll be no turning back. Lambert hasn’t seen you yet. We could still ask the lieutenant to send in someone else.”

  “No, we couldn’t,” she insisted. “I don’t like sitting on the sidelines, Cade. I can’t sit on the si
delines. Like you pointed out,” she reminded him, “I don’t do ‘patient’ very well.”

  He was more than aware of that. What he wasn’t, he thought, was aware of much else about her beyond the sketchy details he had.

  “That you don’t,” he agreed. “Okay, if you’re determined to do this, I’m with you all the way. What we need to do right now is get some dinner and go over your life story.”

  She looked at him, confused. “You lost me right after the dinner part.”

  “If we’re going to pull this off, you and I are going to have to know more than just each other’s names to make it appear as if we’re a couple.”

  Chapter 9

  “If you wanted to know something about me, why didn’t you just come out and ask?” Mac’s smile turned into a grin that included her eyes.

  Cade found himself lost in those same eyes for a moment, intrigued and enticed by the glint of humor he saw there. And by the woman who was more than she seemed. While they ate the pizza he’d ordered, Cade had begun with simple questions, working up to complex ones, like why she wasn’t married. Clearing his head, he gave a half shrug. “Sorry, let one of my own questions slip through. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”

  His honesty took her aback for a split second. She wasn’t expecting it. She felt oddly pleased that he was curious about her.

  His asking why she wasn’t married made it too personal, he thought. But still, since he’d already begun, he asked, “All right, why didn’t you ever get married?”

  “I don’t think the doctor is going to ask that one. As far as he knows, I am married. And for your information, it’s personal.” And then her eyes laughed at him, giving her away. He looked so serious, as if he didn’t know what to do with himself. She’d only meant to tease him. “No, the real reason I never got married was because there just never seemed to be enough time to cultivate a romance.”

  He thought of his wife. He’d known the first moment he’d seen Elaine that there was something different, something magical there.

  A little like there was with McKayla. The realization startled him.

  “Sometimes,” he said quietly, “it doesn’t have to be cultivated, sometimes it just happens.”

  Something in his tone rippled along Mac’s skin, whispering its way into her pores. It unnerved her. Purposely avoiding his eyes, she turned her attention to the half-eaten slice on her plate.

  “Well, if it happened, it must have happened while I was busy.”

  She was far more complex than she let on, Cade thought, but there were pieces that were beginning to emerge for him. Certain givens he had a feeling she guided her life with. “Busy taking care of everyone else?”

  Mac looked up sharply. That made her sound domineering and she wasn’t. “I don’t take care of them—” The quick denial faded a little. “Well, maybe. But that’s just the way things arranged themselves.”

  “Not without help.” He smiled knowingly as he picked up his third piece.

  Mac dropped the piece back on her plate. Her nerves on edge, she’d been spoiling for a fight, a way to discharge the tension that was knocking around inside her, battering her soul. Cade’s comment elected him as her target.

  Her eyes narrowed. “What is it that you’re suggesting—that I just walk away, not care? Go home and wait for you to call—” Too late, she realized that the words could be taken two ways. The men she knew would have immediately gravitated to the wrong meaning. “To fill me in about the kidnapping,” Mac added in a burst of words.

  “No, that’s not what I meant. I was referring to the rest of it.” Cade had gotten the distinct impression that although there appeared to be an outward hierarchy, headed by her father, that the real core of strength for the family was actually Mac. And that perhaps the strain of it was getting to her a little. “I just thought that maybe if you took time out to live your own life, they would be equal to facing theirs.”

  Annoyed, Mac tried to bridle her irritation. Given the nature of his work, Cade probably thought of himself as part psychologist, but he was way off base here. He hadn’t the slightest clue about her or her family. Or the way things were.

  “Nice in theory.” Mac’s words were clipped. “But I wouldn’t want to put it into practice.”

  Cade studied her for a moment. He had a feeling he understood her a little better than she enjoyed being understood. “Afraid to find out that they can stand up on their own two feet without you?”

  No. The single word rushed to Mac’s lips, but in all fairness, she suppressed it and thought over what he’d said. And discovered that there was a small part of her that was afraid, afraid of not being needed. Being needed had become a very large part of her life, a part she wasn’t sure she could completely exist without.

  “Maybe,” she agreed. And then her eyes held his. “But more afraid of seeing them fall on their faces—or worse—because I wasn’t there as a backup.”

  Cade wondered if she actually believed that, or if it was just something she was telling herself. And yet, she didn’t strike him as someone who had to be constantly in control because it fed an inner need for empowerment. It was more of a situation that she’d allowed to happen, for one reason or another.

  “To be a backup, you have to stand back,” he reminded her with a smile. “Not lead the way.”

  Maybe he was right, and maybe he wasn’t, but Mac wasn’t feeling her sharpest right now and she wasn’t up to matching wits with him. So she sidelined the debate by restating her position. “Say what you want, Cade, I’m not going home now. Not when we’re this close.”

  Picking up a napkin, Cade wiped off his fingers. For now, three slices were enough. He noticed that she was still trifling with her first one. That wasn’t good. “No one’s telling you to. I don’t think the doctor would believe that I was the one who wanted to get pregnant.”

  The image of his sitting in the doctor’s office, confiding this secret desire to be pregnant, had Mac laughing out loud.

  Suddenly, a piece of the pizza slice became lodged in her windpipe. Within seconds, the laughter turned to panic. No air was coming in, and she couldn’t cough up the piece. Her eyes widened as the horror of the situation penetrated. She was going to choke to death.

  Cade saw the look in her eyes and immediately reacted. Getting up from the table so fast that his chair fell backward, he came up behind her and yanked Mac to her feet. He encircled her rib cage with his arms. With his hands clasped just beneath her breastbone, Cade applied pressure quickly, jerking upward hard. Her back was pressed against his chest, and even in the midst of the dire situation, he was aware of her hair brushing along his face, aware of the scent of it.

  Jerking again, afraid he was going to wind up injuring her ribs, he squeezed even harder. The next moment, the piece came flying out.

  Making noises like a woman who’d just been pulled from a watery grave, Mac gulped in snatches of air. Concerned, relieved, Cade held her for a moment to see if she could stand on her own.

  He held her, he thought later, perhaps a second too long. Just long enough for him to realize that his hands were pressed against her breasts and that the very contact that had given her air had sucked it away from him.

  A light-headedness filtered through him. Cade attributed it to McKayla’s narrow escape. “Are you all right?”

  The question seemed to rumble along her back at the same time that the breath that propelled it brushed along the top of her head, tingling her scalp. Mac could feel everything tightening inside of her, like skin reacting to a sudden, unexpected sweet breeze.

  “Uh-huh.” Pulling herself together, she took another deep breath, embarrassed, but for the most part relieved. Turning so that she faced him, her lips curved in a half smile.

  “I guess I can always do that if the doctor starts asking too many questions.”

  “Hell of a conversation stopper,” he observed.

  He was still holding her, Cade realized. Only now, his hands were at her
back. Wound a little too close, a little too tight. Telling himself it was to give her support didn’t exactly have the ring of truth to it. Even he saw through it.

  “Um, Cade?” Mac began. She licked her lower lip, catching it between her teeth as she looked up at him.

  He found himself fighting against urges that suddenly popped out of nowhere, demanding attention. Demanding satisfaction. He barely trusted his voice as he replied, “Yes?”

  The tiniest of smiles seeped into her eyes again, finding its way to her mouth. “How long are you going to go on holding me?”

  He considered lying, mumbling some excuse, or just dropping his hands. None of the above seemed to work. He fell back on the truth. It was his only option. “Until I either let you go, or kiss you.”

  Her lips curved a little more, entirely without her permission. Mac’s heart refused to calm down, continuing the strange rhythm it had started when he’d taken her in his arms. “I see. Have you made up your mind which it’s going to be?”

  “Just about there.” Cade whispered the words a heartbeat before he lowered his mouth to hers.

  This was asking for trouble, she knew that. It just further complicated an already-complicated situation unnecessarily. Kissing him was clearly the wrong thing at the wrong time, and yet she couldn’t follow through on her thoughts, couldn’t quite make herself move away.

  Couldn’t quite make herself not enjoy what was happening, or the effect it was having on her even while she was attempting to argue herself out of it.

  Like the lens of a camera zeroing in on a close-up, the instant his lips touched hers, everything else around her went out of focus. All she could think of was Cade, the hard press of his body against hers. The way he held her, as if she were something fragile, something that could break.

  Ever since she could remember, Mac had always prided herself on her strength of character, her ability to stand up to anything that came her way, large or small. She truly liked the fact that her family turned to her in their time of need. Every time. But it would have been a lie to deny that there was something incredibly enticing about being held this way, kissed this way. As if she needed to be cared for.