Single with Children

by Arlene James

  The door gave slightly at the impact, but it held. He backed up a step and hurled himself at it again. Suddenly Cooper was there, throwing his own body weight into it beside him, and the door burst open.

  Adam froze in horror at the sight that greeted him. She was on the bed on her back, Moody sitting atop her, her arms pinned above her head, a knife poised in Moody’s hand. Adam’s heart dropped, and his gaze went straight to Laura’s.

  Laura saw him swaying there, horror on his face, love spilling out of his eyes, and thought, Too late. She knew then, with wordless certainty, that she should have trusted him with the whole truth long ago, and apology filled her expression. It was then that the other man—Cooper, she realized belatedly—dropped into a semi-crouch, hands whipping up and out. A gun was pointed at Doyal Moody, and suddenly it was all over. She was free, Doyal falling back and throwing up both hands. Free.

  She reached for Adam, crying out as he sank into her arms. She heard Cooper telling Doyal that he was under arrest, the words seeming to come from a great distance as sobs built in her chest and spilled over onto Adam’s shirtfront. His arm scooped beneath her, lifting her against him as his hand skimmed her hair.

  “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

  She shook her head, then nodded, confusing him. He laid her down and pulled back.

  “You’re bleeding!”

  “No.” Her hand drifted up to the stinging slash on her throat. “It’s just a scratch.”

  His hands were running over her busily. They touched the sticky mess on her belly.

  “His blood,” she said quickly, adding with pride, “I made him cut himself.”

  Cooper loomed over Adam’s shoulder. “She cut him, all right. Nicked the big artery in the bend of his left leg. A few minutes more and he’d have bled to death.”

  “A few seconds more,” Adam began, his voice breaking, “and I’d have lost you!” He closed his eyes against the vision that summoned up, and Laura lifted herself up and against him, her arms wrapping around his neck.

  “I’m so sorry, Adam,” she whispered. “I should have told you.”

  “You were protecting us,” he said in that same quaking voice.

  “I put you all in danger.”

  “I know the whole story, everything but the evidence that will put that scum away.”

  “I wrote it all down and sent it to Officer Cooper in care of the St. Cloud police. I should have done it long ago, but I was scared.”

  “For good reason,” Adam said, his hands splaying across her back. “You were trying to protect yourself, but you never meant to risk us in the process. I’m certain of that, because when it came down to it, you sacrificed your own safety for ours. I understand that. I even admire it. But if you ever do anything as dangerous again, I swear I’ll—” He gulped. “You should have trusted me with the truth!”

  “I wanted to,” she said, blinking back tears, “but that would have made you a target, too. I just couldn’t do that.”

  “And I nearly lost you because of it!”

  “But you came for me,” she pointed out tearfully. “I should have known you would!”

  “You certainly should have,” said a deep voice beyond them. Laura lifted her head from Adam’s shoulder and looked around. Jake stood with a shoulder against the wall next to the head of the bed. He lifted a big hand and patted the top of her head, smiling. “Let this be a lesson to you, young lady. We Fortunes take care of our own. Period.”

  “That’s all I was trying to do, sir,” she told him firmly, shifting her gaze to Adam’s face. “Take care of my own.”

  Adam tightened his arms around her. “Let’s go home.”

  Laura laughed. It was a throaty, watery sound that adequately conveyed everything her heart contained. “Home,” she said. “Oh, yes, let’s go home.”

  The limo waited, motor humming, one of many flanking the curbs of the street in front of the tall, narrow redbrick church. The man and woman inside both exclaimed in satisfaction as the white double doors burst open and people spilled out onto the bare walkway. Tossed rice filled the air as the newly married couple ran out, hand in hand.

  Laura’s long blond hair had been coiled into a heavy knot at the back of her neck, leaving tendrils free to waft about her face and cling to the fine tulle of her veil. The veil billowed around her, caught on a breeze that smelled of spring and sunshine and new life. The breeze ruffled her bangs and pinked her cheeks as it lifted the veil heavenward from the wide band of pearls atop her head. Laura clutched her flowers in one hand and Adam’s fingers in the other, laughing as she pattered down the gently sloping walkway toward the limo there. The driver got out and opened the back door, but Adam’s arm snaked around her trim waist, halting her at the end of the walk.

  Resplendent in gray tails and white tie, he took his wife in his arms, pressing against the full skirt of her embossed silk gown. One hand skimmed across her bare shoulders. Her silken-cased arms wound about him. He tilted her head back with the force and possession of his kiss. Rice showered down. The children jumped in place beneath the gently restraining hands of their grandparents. Adam lifted his head, blew his family a kiss, then turned his face to the sky, throwing a kiss heavenward from his fingertips before handing his bride into the car and following her.

  “That one was for you,” Sterling said in a gravelly voice.

  Kate nodded and dabbed a handkerchief at the tears spilling from her eyes. “She’s changed him. I knew it that day I saw him and his father at the restaurant.” She sniffed and rubbed at her nose. “I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could tell that my grandson’s whole demeanor had changed. He had softened, opened. I watched him embrace his father.” She smiled. “I never thought to see it.”

  Sterling nodded sagely. “I had my doubts,” he said, “but you knew she was right for him even before you saw her.”

  Kate sighed. “I felt it, and none of the information you gathered for me blocked that feeling, but I had to see her. I know it was taking a risk, hiding in the upper floors and peeking out the window, but at least I was there when those two imposters showed up.”

  She turned to stare out the window at those gathered on the still-brown lawn of the old church. They waved in clumps of laughing family as Adam’s and Laura’s limo pulled away and moved down the street. She spied the pair in question at the back of the crowd, like thieves lurking in wait of an unguarded pocketbook, and shuddered. Sterling laid his hand over hers and sought to divert her.

  “I shouldn’t have doubted you,” he said. “After all, no one needs to tell me what miracles a strong woman can work.”

  Kate laughed and put back her head. Gray streaks glinted softly in her thick auburn hair. Her smile was impish, knowing, as if she sensed the way his old heart lurched in his chest. Then she sobered, auburn brows arching as her quick mind moved on to other thoughts.

  “Adam is settled now,” she said briskly, turning her gaze back to the window. The family had begun to disperse, but knots of talking people still remained. Kate watched Tracey Ducet and Wayne Potts insinuate themselves into the nearest group. Tracey’s smile was tentative, almost shy. Wayne’s was ingratiating, oily. Kate’s patrician face settled into bold, hard lines. “What are we going to do about them?”

  Sterling cleared his throat. “I don’t see, at the moment, what we can do.”

  Kate frowned. “Obviously I cannot step forward and unmask them. Even if the family did not think me dead, I’m uncertain that revealing Tracey Ducet as a fake would be the best course.”

  Sterling nodded and pursed his lips. “I wonder if someone else might accomplish that task for us.”

  Kate shook her head. “I can’t imagine who it would be. Everyone who knew the truth is dead. Ben, the midwife…” She smiled cryptically. “Even me, at this point.”

  Sterling’s hand closed around hers. “What of the kidnappers? They would know.”

  A spasm of pain flashed across Kate’s face, leaving resolve
in its place. “They wouldn’t dare. It would mean exposing themselves.”

  “Ah, the lady is correct yet again.”

  Kate softened, smiling, and turned her hand, palm up, into his. “The lady once again has no choice but to watch and wait,” she said sadly.

  Sterling gazed at her, his eyes full of sympathy that would not find utterance, as she turned for a last, longing look at the remnants of her family.

  “As if my son didn’t have enough to deal with.”

  “Jake will be fine,” Sterling assured her. He pursed his lips. “It might help, however, if he knew that you are alive. You’ve always been a source of strength for him, for the whole family.”

  Kate stared longingly another moment, then shook her head. “I can’t risk it. If whoever came after me should learn they failed, the whole family could be in danger.”

  Sterling made a sound of reluctant assent. “Well, Jake can manage on his own a while longer. He’s strong. You saw to that.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right. When have I ever been wrong?”

  Kate cut him a sly look. “Any time you’ve disagreed with me.”

  Sterling chuckled. “I hope I’m smarter than that.”

  Kate glanced out the window again. “I hope we’re both as smart as we think we are,” she said, and then she sighed and pressed a button tucked into the armrest of her door.

  The speaker hidden in the frame of the door crackled. “Ma’am?”

  “Get us out of here.”

  She slid a worried glance in Sterling’s direction. He kept his expression carefully impassive and lifted his shoulder in the barest of shrugs.

  “One more identical limo in a long line,” he said dismissively.

  Kate let a smile tug at the corners of her mouth, the lines of worry easing out of her forehead. “You’re a pretty smart cookie, after all.”

  “I’m a fast learner with a good teacher,” Sterling said smugly.

  Kate turned her narrowed eyes to the front and pretended not to notice that he still held her hand. Let the old smoothie fret a while longer. Kate Fortune was not the sort of woman to easily give up her heart—or anything else.

  SINGLE WITH CHILDREN

  Copyright © 1996 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7320-1

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Arlene James for her contribution to the Fortune’s Children series.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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