The Baby's Bodyguard

by Stephanie Newton

  “What’s in this for you?”

  Ethan took a breath to say something, then stalled out. He hadn’t thought about that. They’d figured there would be something that Tony Cantori or Boyd Macintosh or whatever he was calling himself now would want—Viktoria—but hadn’t considered that he would think it was a trade, something of his for something he wanted. Without giving it much conscious thought, Ethan said, “Half a million dollars.” The amount he’d had in the satchel the night Amy died.

  Cantori sucked in a breath. “I hope you know it’ll take some time to come up with that kind of money.”

  “If you think real hard, I bet you can come up with it.” Ethan paused to give Tony/Boyd time to think about it. “Be on the lookout for the instructions on your texts. And if you don’t follow them, Arsov disappears.”

  “But—”

  Ethan clicked off. “Whew. That wasn’t as easy or as enjoyable as I thought it would be.”

  Tyler leaned against the wall closest to the kitchen door. “Now you’re going to call Bridges?”

  “Yes. I’m going to tell him that I found Cantori and if he wants to make the arrest he should be here this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. He’ll think I’m completely in the dark about his involvement and he’ll be here to get his old pal Cantori out of hot water.”

  Tyler didn’t move, his eyes following Ethan as he paced the hall. “It’s gotta hurt that the one person you trusted when you were under was the person who betrayed you.”

  Ethan stopped midstep.

  “I’ve been there, E. I’ve been undercover and I know what it’s like to trust someone with your life.” His voice was quiet. “I’m sorry that this happened to you.”

  Ethan turned to face Tyler. “They say everything happens for a reason. I don’t believe that. But I’m beginning to believe that God can make good things come from bad situations, even as bad as mine. Thanks for sticking by me the last couple years. It would’ve been easier to give up.”

  His voice had gone hoarse. And he could see his brother’s throat working, too.

  “No, it wouldn’t.” Tyler pushed away from the wall and walked toward Ethan. “It’s going to be tricky to get them to incriminate themselves. I hope you have a good plan. If this goes bad, we could be in for a world of hurt.”

  “If you don’t want to be here, Tyler, you don’t have to be. I know this isn’t your fight. You’ve done more than enough already.”

  Tyler glanced toward the stairs where Gracie had gone to join Kelsey and Nolan. “One of these days I may have a daughter of my own. What Cantori and Bridges did to those young girls … I can’t imagine anything better than putting the two of them away for life.”

  “Okay, then. Let’s get Viktoria down here and get started. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” And as he climbed the stairs to release her from the room where they’d been holding her, he prayed again. He might not be good at it, but he knew there was no way they were making it through this day without help.

  They were in position, Nolan in the upstairs sitting room to run the technical aspects of the op, Gracie beside him watching the security feed on a handful of monitors. Tyler was downstairs in the kitchen, with U.S. Marshal Jason Reeves hiding in Tyler’s huge pantry in the adjoining hall. The police squad had been deployed to the woods surrounding the property, not the first time they’d backed up one of the Clark brothers.

  Each of the team members had been fitted with an earpiece that Nolan had dug up from somewhere. The man’s resources were seemingly limitless.

  Ethan sat on the floor in the bedroom with Kelsey, while Janie played with blocks. She leaned against his arm. He was aware, so aware, what he stood to lose this afternoon. He couldn’t make a misstep. There was too much at stake. In his ear, he heard one of the cops posted at the gate. “Subject is entering the property.”

  Kelsey was quiet. Too quiet for her usual self. He closed his eyes as she laid her head on his shoulder. She smelled like a sweet mix of lavender shampoo and baby powder. He smiled against her hair.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, really—you’re just something special. I hope you know that.”

  She turned in his arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “Tell me that later. After all this is over, I want you to tell me how special I am to you then.”

  Ethan laughed, surprising even himself. “Okay, Kels. I’ll tell you then.” He sobered, studying her face. Memorizing it. She was beautiful and special and precious. She’d survived something horrible and come out with an optimistic faith that he envied.

  “I’m going to have to go downstairs.” He leaned forward, brushing a kiss across her lips. “Be safe.”

  “You be safe. Don’t do anything courageous and stupid like jump in front of a bullet, okay?”

  “I’ll try.” He got to his feet as the doorbell rang. “Showtime.”

  He heard Tyler in the entrance hall and started down. Standing behind the door, he nodded at Tyler, who was dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt, tight across the chest and biceps. His weapon, a Sig 226, was in plain sight at his waist. If Ethan didn’t know better, he would be intimidated by Tyler.

  Tyler opened the door. “Mr. Macintosh? I hope you don’t mind, but I have to check to make sure you’re not carrying.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Cantori/Macintosh growled.

  Tyler pushed him against the wall and patted him down, then turned him to face Ethan.

  “You. I know you.” Cantori spit out the word, but fear grew in his eyes. “What is this?”

  Ethan raised an eyebrow. “Exactly what you think. I recently did some digging. I found out about your operation and exactly why you wanted to get rid of me two years ago. I would’ve spoiled a very lucrative thing you had going on.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “It pains me to say this after what happened, but I don’t want retribution. I just want you to disappear and take Arsov with you. I start a new life.” He did his best to look like he really didn’t care about the hundreds of children Cantori had brokered and the women he had sold.

  “While you take my half a million dollars.”

  Ethan allowed a small smile. “Well, yes, there is that. But really, it’s a small sum compared to your freedom, don’t you think? A small price to pay for the life of my wife?”

  “Exactly where is Arsov?” Cantori crossed his arms, heavy dark eyebrows settling over eyes so dark brown as to be almost black. “How do I really know she’s alive, and that you have her?”

  “Come with me.” Ethan turned and walked toward the library. He didn’t check to make sure Cantori was behind him. He knew the other man would be. Just like he’d known he would come. Cantori was too full of himself to ever believe he could be caught in a trap.

  Nolan had rigged a twenty-six-inch flatscreen monitor on the table in the library that he would control from the sitting room upstairs.

  “Have a seat.” Ethan gestured at the leather chair across from the monitor, while Tyler blocked the door. He punched a button on the top of the monitor. It flickered to life. The picture showed Viktoria looking from side to side, holding a newspaper with today’s date on it.

  “Satisfied?”

  “Where is she?” Cantori looked at the door that Tyler blocked with his considerable bulk. “Is she in this building?”

  Pretending to be bored, Ethan pointed at the monitor. “If you’ll notice the crown molding behind her … it matches the molding in this room. As does the shape of the window. She’s been held here all along. I can prove it.” He leaned forward and tapped the microphone that Nolan had taped to the table. “Ms. Arsov, can you hear me?”

  Viktoria looked startled, then nodded. “Yes, yes, I can hear you.”

  This part of the “show” had been scrupulously scripted. Ethan had made the original video with Viktoria, but to make Cantori believe that she was actually here, the timing had to be perfect.

  Nolan was upstairs controlling the video monitor. He had the script and was telling Etha
n in his earpiece exactly what to say and when so that it would match the video.

  “Ms. Arsov.” She looked directly at the camera. “I have a Mr. Boyd Macintosh here with me. Sometimes he goes by Anthony Cantori. Do you know the name?”

  On the screen, she looked to the side, like she would rather be anywhere else but there. Her face fell into resigned lines. “Yes, I know him.”

  “Could you speak up, please?”

  She cleared her throat. “I said, I know him. He’s been my boss for the last three years since he brought me here from my country.”

  Cantori moved closer to the screen, as if he could reach through and choke the life out of her through the glass. “Ask her what she did.”

  Fortunately the question went right along with the script. “What did you do for Mr. Cantori?”

  “He brought pregnant girls into the country with the express intention of brokering their babies into adoption.” She looked down at her hands, fingers knotted together. “I was the face with the adoptive parents and … delivered the children to their adoptive parents.”

  “Just like I thought. She’s lying. And you can’t prove anything she says. I helped girls who needed jobs get to the United States, to work in the tourist industry. If there really was an adoption scam, then she’s the one who ran it.”

  In his earpiece, Nolan said, “I’ve inserted a looped piece of tape of Viktoria looking around the room, but when we go back to the questions, there will be a blip. You’ll have to distract him.”

  Ethan leaned forward. “We’re recording Ms. Arsov now. Everything she says is being saved.” He slammed his hands on the table and the picture on the screen jumped. “So, Ms. Arsov, Cantori here, he says he got the women legitimate travel documents, but what you’re saying is that they traveled here under false pretenses—fraudulent circumstances, in other words.”

  She nodded again. “Yes. He told them they would be able to make money working here to support their babies. When they got here, he held them captive until they had their babies, then he sold the babies to adoptive parents.”

  Before Cantori could interrupt again, Ethan said, “Ms. Arsov, what happened to the women after they gave birth?”

  She swallowed hard. “After they signed the papers for the adoption, he didn’t need them anymore. So, the girls … he sold them, too.”

  He turned off the screen. “I’ve heard enough. I think she can be very damaging to you on the stand, Cantori. She’s very well spoken.”

  “She’s a liar.” Cantori crossed his arms, staring at the screen, as if he could reach into it and throttle Viktoria Arsov.

  “Oh, I don’t think she’s lying. I do think you’ll be willing to pay to get her off my hands. To keep her from telling the truth to the authorities.” Ethan walked to the other side of Cantori and leaned close to his ear. “You forget just how much I know about you, Tony.”

  “All you want is the money.” The disbelief in Cantori’s voice was enough to make Ethan question whether this was going to work or not.

  “I want the money and I want the truth. You knew me as a man named Sam Prentiss. Correct?”

  Cantori shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “Were you or were you not going to sell those girls to me two years ago in an operation the FBI called Operation Safe Harbor?”

  The criminal looked at Tyler in the doorway. Ethan crossed to the door and closed it, giving Tyler his most reassuring look. From the look on Tyler’s face, he wasn’t buying it.

  As Ethan crossed back to Cantori, he unbuttoned his shirt. “See? No wire. It’s just you and me in this room. Tell me the truth. There was a leak in the operation and you found out I was undercover.”

  “Yeah, there was a leak. I don’t know what the operation was called, but your partner Bridges told me all about you. He was running me as Boyd Macintosh. I was his confidential informant. Well, sort of.” Cantori smiled, and it chilled Ethan’s blood. This man truly had no conscience.

  “What else did Bridges tell you?”

  The smile never wavered. “He told me where to find your baby boy at Mother’s Morning Out. And Bridges built the bomb, but it was my idea to get rid of your wife to get rid of you. And it worked.”

  Ethan stood and buttoned his shirt, one deliberate button at a time. “Did you get that, Nolan?”

  Nolan said, the glee evident in his voice, “Every word, every nuance, every facial expression.”

  Cantori looked confused. “What? Who’s Nolan?”

  “My video tech, the one who played that video of Viktoria for you, is watching through hidden cameras. He recorded every word you said.”

  Tony Cantori lunged for Ethan, and in the split second it took him to cross the room, Ethan had his weapon drawn and cocked. “Please. I’m looking for an excuse.”

  Ethan backed him up, one careful step at a time until the trafficker sat down heavily in the chair. Ethan locked Cantori’s wrists to the arms of the chair with plastic restraints. “You’re about to start a new life, Cantori.”

  The door swung open.

  Ethan’s former partner, Booth Bridges, stood in the doorway. He held Kelsey in a headlock, and had his own service weapon tucked under her chin.

  THIRTEEN

  Kelsey’s pulse slammed in her throat. She knew Bridges had killed before and wouldn’t hesitate to kill again to protect what he’d built.

  Yet, her fear wasn’t for her. Her heart went out to Ethan. She looked at his face, expecting shock and pain. And for just a second, she saw it. Every emotion that he must’ve felt losing his wife, grieving her, raced across his face in a time-lapsed slide show. She couldn’t hear what was being said in the earpiece, but she prayed that Nolan had gotten to Janie and she was safe.

  Ethan’s eyes left hers and slowly raised to meet Bridges’s.

  He smiled.

  “I guess you think you won, Booth.” He let go of his weapon, letting it dangle from his thumb as he held his arms out and stooped to the floor to put it down. She jerked a breath in as Bridges eased up on the pressure under her chin.

  As Ethan stood, still with the same peaceful expression on his face, Bridges once again jabbed the gun farther into the soft skin under Kelsey’s chin.

  He shouted at Ethan, “Why are you smiling?”

  Ethan just smiled some more. “Because I’ve won and you don’t even know it yet.”

  “What are you talking about?” Bridges was physically upset, his muscles jerking as he tried to maintain control over her. He didn’t have to worry. She wasn’t going anywhere. She couldn’t risk it.

  From behind Ethan, Cantori screamed, “Just shoot him, Bridges.”

  Booth Bridges edged closer, his face twitching. “What do you know, Clark?”

  “Pull the trigger, you moron!” Cantori shouted.

  The look on Bridges’s face was pure, unadulterated hate as he slowly turned the gun from her to Ethan.

  The shot took them all by surprise.

  To Kelsey, the moment happened almost in slow motion. Bridges’s head snapped back.

  She dropped to the floor. Bridges fell beside her.

  Cantori was screeching from his position in the library. No one moved to stop him.

  U.S. Marshal Jason Reeves stepped out of the pantry, a serious expression on his face. Into his mic, he said to the Crisis Response Team, who would’ve heard the gunshot and would be responding, “We’re clear inside.”

  Tyler had been knocked out by Bridges. He slowly sat up from the position where he’d fallen by the staircase. He groaned and gingerly tested the back of his head for a cut.

  Ethan lifted Kelsey from the floor, cradling her in his arms. “Hey, Kels—you okay?”

  “I think so.” She looked up as Gracie stormed down the stairs toward Tyler.

  “Oh, babe. I’m so sorry. We couldn’t check on you, not without blowing the whole thing.” Gracie threw herself at Tyler, who closed his arms around her.

  “I’m fine.” He winced. “Ow. I think.”

 
; An angry cry sounded from upstairs, but just as quickly, Nolan called down. “It’s okay, I’ve got her. Just a momentary blip with Tickle Me Elmo.”

  Kelsey laughed, full and long, letting her head fall against Ethan’s chest.

  He sighed against her hair. “We’ve got some angles to finish up, like Cantori in there, but all in all, I think it’s over.”

  “What about the girls? If they haven’t been sold, we can still save them.”

  Ethan whipped his head up at Kelsey’s words. He’d been unable to save the girls two years ago, but he had a new chance to finish what he’d started, to give those young women a chance at a real new start.

  “Cantori!” He lifted Kelsey to her feet and strode back into the library as the local cops came in the front door. “Where are the girls?”

  Tony Cantori didn’t speak, just maintained the smug look he’d worn since Ethan came back into the room.

  “Where are the girls being held, Cantori?” Ethan leaned forward and got into Cantori’s face. “We will find them. And I will testify that you hid their location from me. If you cooperate it will go better for you.”

  Cantori gave Ethan a look reminiscent of rolling eyes. “It doesn’t matter whether I cooperate or not. I’m going to jail. And it doesn’t matter what you do to me now because I can’t help you. Bridges called me two days ago and told me he was moving the whole operation.”

  “What?” Ethan took a step back.

  “I don’t have any idea where they are. You just killed the only person who does.” Cantori laughed. “It’s pretty ironic, isn’t it?”

  Ethan stalked out of the room, slamming his fingers through his hair in frustration.

  Kelsey met him at the stairs. “What’s going on?”

  He shook his head. Later. “Where’s Janie?”

  “In her crib. I just got her to sleep. Now tell me what’s going on.”

  The place was crawling with cops. People. He was about to go stir-crazy. He needed his boat, the wide-open water, where it was him against the ocean. And win or lose, his life was the only one on the line.