“Hmm.” He took a deep breath. As plans went, it wasn’t the worst one he’d ever heard. But it wasn’t the best either. “Probably good I showed up when I did. Who knows where these guys are? They could have eyes on the embassy—maybe even spies on the inside. You might’ve been walking right into their trap again.”
She shuddered against him and he tucked her closer, resting his chin atop her head. “Shit. I didn’t even think about that. I should have, though. Seems everyone on this island is corrupt.”
“Except me,” Noah reminded her.
“Except you,” she repeated, then laughed. “As far as I know right now.”
“No.” He nudged her side gently, then grinned when she squirmed. “As far as you know always.”
“Yeah, I get it. I’m just saying, give me some time, all right? I’m used to dealing with things on my own. Having you around will take some getting used to.”
No doubt there. Noah still had to pinch himself sometimes to remember that he’d found Serena again, in the last place he ever would have expected. Seemed fate had thrown them together once more and added a baby to boot.
“Same here,” he said, then kissed the top of her head. “But we’re in this together now, for better or worse, so if you do remember anything at all that might be a clue about your captor’s identity, let me know. I’ll have my team investigate and see what we come up with. You don’t have to do this alone anymore. Deal?”
She didn’t respond for a while, just rested against him. The sound of palm fronds swaying in the breeze mixed with the low song of locusts outside. Even with the windows closed, the air carried the scent of rain and fresh growing things.
Finally, Serena placed her hand over his heart and pressed herself up to meet his gaze. “You know, now that I think about it, I did hear some of the staff whispering one time about a gringo.”
“Gringo?” Noah frowned. “You mean like a criminal or outlaw?”
“No. From the little I overheard, it sounded more to me like they were discussing an American.”
Huh. Up until now, Noah had been focused on the idea of a local perpetrator. Maybe one of the cartels, perhaps planning to call in a ransom at some point. Except no one had ever called to request money for her safe return.
His mind spun with the new information, his analytical brain ticking off new scenarios. If an American person or persons was behind this, why go after Serena?
The first thing that popped into his head was her family’s company. As he’d learned from her dossier, put together by the SSoF researchers, after her parents had died, she’d become the CEO of Carson’s Candies. It was a huge multi-billion-dollar company with operations around the world. He didn’t know squat about chocolate, other than he liked to eat it, but he’d bet good money you didn’t get to the pinnacle of international business without some competition along the way. Could a business rival be behind all this?
He reached down to pull out his phone and shot off a quick text to the guys to look into it. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was more than they’d had before.
“What are you doing?” she asked, sliding off his lap to sit on the cushion next to him. He missed the warm weight of her immediately, but forced himself not to pull her back to where she’d been. “Calling your team?”
“Just sending them a message about what you told me,” he said, clicking his phone off again and setting it aside. “Maybe they’ll find something out by morning before we leave.”
“Right.” She sat back into the corner of the sofa and tucked her legs under her. “So, lots of walking again tomorrow. We should probably get some sleep.”
“We should,” he said, yawning. He was beat, no question there.
A tiny squeak issued from the cot across the room. Serena exhaled slowly and pushed to her feet. “Sounds like someone’s awake.”
Noah reached up and grabbed her wrist, stopping her after one step. For some reason he couldn’t name and didn’t want to think too much about at present, he wanted to hold his daughter. Needed to hold her. “Can I get her? I mean, if it’s okay with you?”
“Uh.” The weight of Serena’s stare prickled on the side of his face even though he wasn’t looking up at her, afraid of what he might see there. “Sure. Yes. Come on over and meet Gracie up close.”
He followed her to the side of the cot, dazed and definitely nervous. What if he messed this up? What if he hurt her? She was so tiny and he was so big. Maybe this was a colossal mistake.
Serena bent and scooped up Gracie, smiling and cooing to her before turning to Noah. “Hold out your arms, pretend she’s a football you’re cradling. Yep, like that. Good.”
Noah froze as the tiny baby’s weight settled on his forearm, like nothing and everything all at once. Then he was staring down into a pair of blue eyes so like his own it was like gazing into a mirror. Unsure what to do, he bounced her slightly up and down like he’d seen Serena do, and smiled what he hoped was a good dad smile. “Hey, baby girl. I’m Noah. I’m your daddy.”
And somehow, saying that made it all real. There were no takebacks now, not that there ever were really. Not for him. Gracie squealed and grinned up at him. Or maybe it was gas. Who knew? Whatever it was, he was delighted and deeply moved, and he reached out one finger to stroke her downy little cheek. She latched on to him, wrapping her tiny hand around his finger, and he was a goner.
Gracie had his heart, totally, completely, irrevocably. From that time forward, he would do everything in his power to keep her safe, no matter what it took.
6
Serena trudged along after Noah through the St. Dourdane rainforest the next day, her feet screaming inside her too large boots. At the time, stuffing them with scraps from sheets to make them fit had sounded like a good idea. Now? Not so much. Her blisters had blisters and her neck felt permanently cricked from the weight of the baby sling across her chest. All she wanted at this point was a big glass of ice water and a long nap.
What she got instead was Noah acting like a Universal Studios tour guide while they hiked through the ass end of nowhere. And yes, perhaps she was a bit cranky, but she was doing the best she could here. At least the baby was sleeping soundly after a full meal at 6 a.m.
“See that tree there?” he said, pointing to a trunk that looked exactly like the other three thousand and fifty other trunks to her. “That’s a rubber tree. It’s where latex comes from.”
She almost said Thanks, Professor Proton but bit the words back at the last second. Just because she was miserable and exhausted, didn’t mean she should take it out on him. He had saved her and Gracie’s lives the day before, so…
Still trying to think of a response that didn’t involve lethal doses of sarcasm, Serena didn’t say anything right away. After a few more steps, Noah looked back at her over his shoulder, his frown troubled. Great. He’d obviously mistaken her silence for something else.
Noah stopped and turned around, blocking her path and forcing her to halt. “Everything okay?”
A million answers zipped through her mind at that moment, but the one she settled for was, “Fine.”
She wasn’t a whiner by nature and considering how much more awful her situation could be right now, she didn’t want to start complaining—regardless of how her cramped toes might disagree.
He narrowed his gaze on her and sighed. “I’ve been with enough women to know that means the exact opposite. Here, give me the knapsack.”
“No. I’ve got it.” She scowled. “It’s my shift and I can do it.” She shifted her weight slightly, unable to hide a cringe when the muscles of her lower back shrieked. “Just let me rest here for a second, okay?”
“Okay.” He watched her for second longer, looking like he wanted to argue but then thought better of it. Smart man. He took a deep breath and backed away a step or two. “While you rest, I’m going to go on ahead a little way and do a bit of recon. Make sure our path is clear. All right? Stay here until I get back.”
Serena gave a c
urt nod and leaned against the stupid rubber tree he’d pointed out earlier, waiting until he’d disappeared around a large copse of bushes before she allowed herself to slump back and drop the heavy knapsack at her battered feet. Maybe she was being stubborn by not letting him help, but dammit. She was used to being a strong, independent woman and after having her right to make any choices taken away from her for so long in captivity, she wasn’t eager to let her newfound agency go so easily.
While she waited for Noah to return, she eased the sling from around her body and checked on Gracie. Still snoozing away. Lucky gal. She kissed her daughter’s head, the sweet fragrance of baby shampoo reviving her flagging spirits a bit. This. This was why she’d endure any hardship. Why she’d hike clear across the damned Andes if necessary. For Gracie. Always.
After changing the baby’s diaper and feeding her again—it had been over three hours since the last time, after all—Serena had just tucked Gracie back into the sling when Noah returned. Instead of the intrepid explorer grin he’d worn earlier as they’d traipsed through the jungle, faint lines of tension now stood out around the corners of his lips and eyes. An answering twinge of unease vibrated through Serena.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, holding the baby and sling in her arms.
“There’s a road up ahead. I flagged down a passing truck and the driver told me there are checkpoints set up now every few miles.”
“That’s not unusual though, is it?” Serena put Gracie over her shoulder to burp her. “I mean, I’m not usually in this part of the country, but even I know it’s a hotspot—lots of cartels, right?”
“According to the driver, today they’re searching for a woman,” he said, his tone dead flat. “And that’s definitely not the norm. We need to get moving again. Now.”
Unexpected tears of frustration and fatigue prickled the backs of her eyes before she blinked them away hard. Dammit. Now was not the time to fall apart. Too much depended on her keeping her shit together and getting herself and her baby out of here to safety. If she just wasn’t so darned sore and tired and…
Some of her inner turmoil must have shown on her face because Noah waggled his fingers at her. “Give me the knapsack. No arguments this time.”
She did as he asked, then gritted her teeth while she slowly eased the sling over her neck and down around her strained shoulder again, muttering under her breath, “If you really wanted to help, you’d take Gracie too.”
“What?” he asked, holding the heavy knapsack with a couple fingers like it was nothing. She contemplated kicking him hard in the shin, just because, then stopped herself. Hurting him wouldn’t help her. And knowing her luck, it would just make her blistered toes feel worse. He kept staring at her expectantly. “I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I said…” she started then shook her head. “Forget it.”
“No.” He slung the knapsack over one brawny shoulder and crossed his arms, clearly not moving until she relented. “Tell me what you said.”
“I said if you really wanted to help, you’d carry Gracie too.” She tried to make it sound like a flippant joke. Ha-ha. Except his serious expression said it landed otherwise.
A beat stretched out between them as he seemed to come to some kind of decision. Then Noah gave a curt nod and held out his arms like he was about to catch a football. “Give her to me.”
“What? No.” She shook her head and snorted. “She’s a small human, not sports equipment.”
His dark brows knit and his blue gaze turned intense. “I’ve never carried a baby before. But I have carried live grenades across a minefield, so I think I’m qualified.”
As analogies went, it wasn’t completely wrong. Besides, her shoulder felt permanently dented from her daughter’s weight and she feared walking like Quasimodo for the rest of her days if she didn’t do something so…
Carefully, she eased the sling off her body and walked over to Noah. “Bend down.”
He did as she asked and Serena carefully looped the sling around his neck and over one shoulder, nestling baby Gracie over the center of his chest before adjusting the knots in the sheets to make sure it was all secure. “Okay. Now, you’ll still need to support her head, like this.” Serena showed him by cupping the back of her daughter’s tiny skull with her hand. “And if you need to adjust her position, make sure you have one arm behind her back too, for support.”
Noah repeated all of the movements Serena showed him, all with the same nervous hesitation she would imagine people normally reserved for handling armed nuclear warheads. Finally, Gracie was asleep against his chest and Serena felt ready to set out again.
They only made it about half a mile, though, before he stopped and held up his hands in exasperation. “This is making things worse instead of better. Now I’m slowing us down.”
Serena scrunched her nose at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re moving along just fine.”
“No. We’re not. Every time this baby moves or makes a noise, I freeze up because I’m scared to death I’ve hurt her somehow. That I’ve done something wrong. It’s exhausting and counterproductive.”
“Welcome to my world.” Serena shook her head and chuckled. “She’s fine. Look at her. What’s not to like? She’s warm and cosy and your heartbeat calms her. Gracie’s having the best time of all of us. When she gets hungry or needs a diaper change again, she’ll let us know. Otherwise, she’s good.”
His dubious expression showed his skepticism, but he kept going. “Fine. But if she comes out of this with some kind of trauma, it’s on you.”
“It always is,” Serena mumbled, then followed alongside him through the rainforest. As the sun had risen higher in the sky, the damp air had begun to fog around them, lending the whole place a sort of happy fairy tale appearance. Well, except for the crazed thugs trying to kill her. That part came straight from the brothers Grimm. They walked on for what felt like miles, past flora and fauna and all kinds of things that at a different time, in a different place, Serena would have been eager to study and photograph. As it was now, she just longed to see some signs of peaceful civilization again.
At least Noah seemed to have moved beyond his initial freak-out and had settled into fatherhood nicely. She gave him a side glance and didn’t miss the small smile on his lips as he gazed down periodically to check on Gracie. She also couldn’t help but noticing the comfortable way he held the baby against him now, the earlier tension gone. Noah might not have a lot of experience with kids, but he was a natural, if the way Gracie was responding to him was any indication.
Finally, a couple hours later, the baby started fussing and Serena stopped to check her watch. Yep. Feeding time again. They found a secluded spot just off the path and she took Gracie to feed her. Afterward, she handed the baby back to Noah to burp her while she got out supplies from the knapsack.
“Does she always take to new people this way?” he asked, holding the tiny girl over his shoulder and rubbing her back like Serena had shown him. “She seems quite comfortable with me.”
“She likes you,” Serena said, hiding her smile. “You can hand her back to me, if you want. She’s going to need—” Before she could finish her sentence a long, loud, wet squelching sound came out of Gracie, and it wasn’t from her mouth. Noah’s eyes grew comically big as he stared at Serena and she couldn’t help but laugh this time. “—a diaper change. C’mon, hand her over. Unless you want a crash course in that today too.”
While she changed Gracie, Noah looked anywhere but at them, having taken one glace at the old diaper’s contents and gagged. Serena shook her head and snorted. “Look at silly Daddy. He’s a big tough SEAL and can’t stand one stinky diaper.”
“I can stand it just fine,” he said, though his queasy tone suggested the opposite. “I just need to strategize our next moves, that’s all.”
“Uh huh. Sure.” She finished cleaning Gracie off and disposing of the soiled diaper in the plastic bag she’d tucked into the knapsack, then got her changed a
nd ready to roll again. “All right. I’ll take the sling again, if you want. My turn.”
He handed the thing over to her—a bit reluctantly, she noted—and they were off. This time to distract herself, Serena started a game for them while Gracie napped once more. “What are you going to do once we’re out of this jungle? Me, I’m going to take a nice hot bath, then bathe Gracie before dressing us both in the softest, most luxurious jammies and then sleeping for twelve straight hours, not counting feeding, of course. What about you?”
Noah scowled straight ahead, not looking at her. “I’m going to work and keep working. I’m on a mission here and that’s to keep you and the baby safe.”
“Jeez.” She gave him a look. “I was just trying to have a little fun. What’s your problem now?”
“Nothing’s my problem,” he said, daring a glance over at Gracie. “You need to hold her up higher. She doesn’t like to be slouched down like that.”
Serena frowned, but looked down at Gracie and noticed that she did look a little uncomfortable—so she gave her back to Noah, even as she was wondering who died and made him the baby expert already. Then just as fast as that idea came into her head, another followed on its heels. He’d liked carrying Gracie. He’d not wanted to stop. Huh. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. At first glance, it was good news. Noah was Gracie’s father and they should bond. On the other hand, up until yesterday it had just been the two of them against the world. Serena wasn’t entirely sure she was ready to give all that up yet, especially to a man who’d breezed in and out of her life in one night, only to crash back into it again a year later. Literally. When she looked over at him once more, he was watching her closely, his blue eyes stormy as if he was going through the same battle inside himself. Before she could ask him, though, he strode on ahead of her, tromping through the rainforest with heavy footsteps.
“Come on, we need to keep moving if we’re going to reach our destination by nightfall,” he said to her over his shoulder. “Keep your mind in the present and stay alert to what could go on right here and now.”
Protecting His Kidnapped Family: Southern Soldiers of Fortune Book Two Page 4
