Ellie offered Max her heart.
Her soul.
You could give someone a name and still keep it.
You could give someone your heart when it was still right there inside you, keeping you alive.
Such gifts were treasures that were the most precious things you could own and nobody could take them away from you.
Ellie was musing on the wonder of it all as she took Mouse…no, Mattie…for a ride in her pushchair late the following afternoon.
She was walking slowly, a little weary after her amazing night, but she’d never been this happy.
Ever.
Not even when she’d seen her baby for the first time or felt her suckling at her breast. Or when she’d felt the first stirrings of her love for Max in that moment of connection when he’d been there to witness her feeding Mattie for the first time. And when he’d chosen a name that meant so much to him and offered it to her daughter. Or even when she’d held him in her arms last night when he’d come apart and cried out her name in the wake of her own astonishing climax.
No. This feeling was bigger. A combination of all of those things and it encompassed all the people involved. Herself. Max. Mattie.
Even if it only lasted a matter of days. Even if Max had no idea he was such an integral part of it, this was what family felt like. Separate beings welded together by love. By the gifts that you could give and still keep.
She and Mattie were only going as far as the corner shop. Ellie was cooking dinner for Max and wanted it to be very special. She’d been to the supermarket earlier and thought she had everything, right down to the bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge.
Max didn’t have to know what she was really celebrating. She intended to tell him it was a name-warming for Mattie. And then she thought it could be her one-month birthday but that needed a cake and when she went to start baking one, she discovered they had run out of butter. No big deal. It was a short walk to the shop and, now that she thought about it, there was a postbox there as well. She could buy the butter and finally post that application form. Silly to keep putting it off when it might mean she missed out on the opportunity altogether.
The walk took her past the motel where she’d spent her first day away from the hospital. The place she’d never gone back to, not wanting to claim the old clothes that were part of a life she intended leaving well behind. The memories of her brief stay there were decidedly unpleasant. Echoes of the abuse being shouted still hung in the air. If she looked down the driveway as she walked past she’d be able to see the spot where Nigel had landed in front of her unit. Had the bloodstains been cleaned away?
Not that she really wanted to know but it was inevitable that her head turned in that direction as she reached the motel’s entranceway. What she saw made her stop in her tracks. Blink hard and look again because she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Right there—in the exact spot Nigel had been sprawled after his fall from the balcony above—lay another shape. A small one.
A child?
Ellie could feel the blood draining from her head. A curious buzzing sound filled her ears, which probably explained why she hadn’t heard the woman crying out for help. A woman who was now running towards her.
Was this one of Nigel’s children? Had they been climbing on the balcony? Had it been damaged by the accident and never repaired? She hadn’t taken much notice of his wife that night. It could be her rushing down the driveway.
‘Help,’ the woman begged. She grabbed Ellie’s arm. ‘Please…he’s fallen. Can you help?’
‘Of course.’ Ellie jerked the pushchair to turn it but the wheels were locked somehow and it almost tipped.
‘I’ll take care of her,’ the woman gasped. ‘Please…I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if he’s breathing…’
Ellie ran to the child, pulling her phone from her pocket. She’d just check the boy’s airway and then call for an ambulance. She knelt down and tipped the child’s head back carefully. His eyes snapped open and he grinned up at her.
‘Do I get my ten dollars now?’
‘What?’
Ellie’s heart was pounding painfully and her head was still buzzing. What kind of stupid prank was this? He’d scared her half to death. Had scared his mother. She flicked her head sideways, opening her mouth to call out. To reassure the woman that this child was fine and there’d been no need to panic. And that was when her heart stopped. Because the woman was nowhere to be seen. And neither was the pushchair containing her own child.
CHAPTER NINE
OF ALL the events that had occurred to turn his life upside down in the last month, this was by far the worst.
It was an unimaginable horror.
Max had received the call at work just as he’d been due to finish his shift. He’d been having a coffee with Jet and Rick, in fact, and the other two men had stiffened to attention as they’d heard his stunned silence and the staccato questions of a man intent on gaining control of an unacceptable situation.
‘What’s happened?
‘What’s being done?
‘Where is she right now?’
They had all ridden their bikes to work that day. They might have arrived at different times but they left as a single unit. Three powerful machines with black-clad men hunched over them as they sped towards the same destination.
The motel where the police had been talking to Ellie.
She looked like a ghost. A small, terrified wraith.
If Rick and Jet were surprised by the way Max strode into the motel manager’s office, pushing through the throng of uniformed police officers to gather Ellie into his arms, they did no more than exchange a loaded glance.
Every occupant of the room watched the embrace that followed. The way Ellie clung to Max as though her life depended on it. The way the tall, leather-clad man curled his body so protectively over hers.
The bond was unmistakable.
So powerful that Rick sent another glance at the man standing at his shoulder. Jet merely quirked an eyebrow and then nodded, albeit with resignation. The significance had been noted. The importance of this mission had just been upgraded to a red alert.
‘You’re Dr Max McAdam?’ A senior police officer had apparently decided enough was enough when it came to a comforting embrace.
‘Yes,’ Max growled.
‘And you’ve been posing as Ms Peters’s husband? The father of this missing child?’
‘He told me he was her brother.’ The motel manager looked up from where another officer was taking his statement.
Max took a deep breath. He moved so that he could face the senior officer but he didn’t let go of Ellie. He tucked her against his side with an arm that enclosed her completely.
‘That’s correct.’ He held the gaze of the man speaking to him. He was more than prepared to defend his actions and if anyone threatened this woman he held, they’d better be prepared for a battle. ‘And you are?’
‘Detective Inspector Jack Davidson.’ The officer was taking Max’s measure. ‘Jack,’ he added, his tone suggesting that he was impressed by what he was seeing. His gaze slid to Ellie. ‘We’ve been told about the behaviour of Dr Marcus Jones. I believe you were a witness to his pursuit of this young woman? Following her to Dunedin?’
‘Also correct.’
‘The man’s a weasel.’ Rick’s drawl floated across the room.
Jack Davidson ignored the interjection. ‘You’re also aware that he’s the real father of Ms Peters’s baby?’
Max scowled. No, he wanted to say. The real father would have been there to do the kangaroo care his baby had needed at birth.
He would have been the one to witness the miracle of that first breastfeeding.
He would have seen that first smile.
He would have cherished Ellie, dammit. Realised what an amazing woman she was and won her trust so that he could have experienced the joy of making love to her, not forcing her because he’d decided that was what he wanted.
‘Dr McAdam? Max?’ The tone was impatient.
‘Biologically, yes,’ Max snapped.
But Mouse’s real father?
He was that person. And he always would be as far as he was concerned. Would it make any difference to Ellie if she knew how he felt? That he loved her child and would protect her with his life, if necessary? He gave her the softest squeeze to try and convey that he was there. Heart and soul.
‘We’ve confirmed that it was Marcus Jones who visited Mr Grimsby, the manager here, yesterday and obtained all the details he could regarding Ms Peters’s stay here and the incident that prompted her departure.’
‘He said he was a lawyer,’ the manager protested. ‘That Miss Peters was planning to sue. That he could get a court order if I didn’t co-operate and that he could make sure my business got wrecked.’
Max ignored the interruption. ‘I still don’t understand how this happened. How he managed to take Mouse.’
‘Mouse?’ The detective inspector frowned. ‘You mean—?’
‘It was my fault,’ Ellie said quietly. Her voice was oddly calm. Expressionless. ‘I left her. I practically handed her over. I—’
‘This wasn’t your fault,’ Max told her firmly. He could be perfectly sure about that without knowing any of the details.
‘Ellie was taken in by what appears to be a carefully set-up ruse,’ Jack Davidson told Max. ‘We’re currently trying to track the woman involved who offered to look after the baby while Ellie went to the aid of a child who seemed to have fallen from an upstairs balcony here.’
Max tightened his hold on Ellie. The bastard. He must have heard the details of the accident and known exactly what kind of buttons it would push for someone who had the training to help. Especially using a child. There was no way Ellie wouldn’t have been sucked in. He would have been himself.
But she pulled away from his touch. She wrapped her own arms around herself and looked as though she was staring at something a million miles away.
‘It was my fault,’ she whispered.
‘We’ve got a good description of the woman from several people and—’ The detective broke off as the radio clipped to his shoulder crackled into life. He answered with a call sign.
‘Jack?’ Everybody could hear the voice on the other end. ‘We’ve located the pushchair.’
Ellie gasped but everybody else seemed to be holding their breath.
‘Any sign of the baby?’ the detective snapped.
A moment’s silence and then came the response.
‘No.’
How could one of the smallest words in existence create such agony?
Ellie couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even cry. The atmosphere in the room was changing. People were moving and things were happening but she couldn’t focus on what was being said. This was a nightmare and she had no control over any of it.
After a bewildering length of time, she found herself being led out of the motel office.
‘Keep her in your apartment, then,’ she heard someone say reluctantly. ‘Don’t go anywhere.’
‘If any contact whatsoever is made,’ another voice ordered, ‘let us know. Immediately. We’ll keep you informed of any developments on our side.’
Max walked her to his apartment. He tried to put his arm around her again but Ellie couldn’t bear it. She had to hold onto herself because her heart was ripped open and this was the only way to hold the pieces together. If she let go—relaxed even the tiniest bit—she might actually die.
When she entered the apartment and saw the table that she’d set for the special dinner she’d planned for Max it all morphed together into the same, ghastly nightmare.
If she hadn’t fallen in love she wouldn’t have set the table like that. With candles and glasses ready to fill with champagne. She wouldn’t have thought of baking a cake and wouldn’t have gone on that fateful walk to the shop.
She wouldn’t have lost her baby.
‘He won’t hurt her,’ Max said gently. Did he want to believe that because the alternative was simply unthinkable?
Ellie spun around. ‘You don’t know that.’ She knew more than he did. The fear lying like a dead weight inside her was growing. Starting to send tendrils right into her veins.
‘I know it’s you that he wants.’ Max raised his hands as though he wanted to touch Ellie. She took a step backwards. She couldn’t cope with being comforted. Didn’t deserve to be. Max dropped his hands by his sides. ‘He’s using Mouse as bait. He can’t afford to hurt her.’
Why not? How would she know what he was doing? Maybe he was just doing this to punish her.
‘He’ll call,’ Max said. ‘And then we’ll know where he is and the police can get him. They’ll find Mouse and bring her back safely.’
She was Mouse again. Not Mattie.
Why? Because she was so tiny and defenceless? Or because the person she’d been named for had died a dreadful, and possibly unnecessary, death?
Ellie squeezed herself more tightly to try and hold back the wave of pain. She tried to shake the black thoughts away. The effort was so great that her breath escaped in an agonised sob and her legs felt so much like jelly she had to let herself sink onto the couch. She pulled her legs up beneath her, curling into the corner. She could hear the rumble of motorbikes outside. She could even feel it, against her skin.
No…that was her phone vibrating. Oh…God…was this it? Contact?
She fumbled for her phone as Max was moving to open the front door. Rick came in.
‘Jet’s gone back to get your bike,’ he told Max.
Ellie had managed to open her phone to find a text message.
Don’t talk to anyone, it said. Or you won’t see her again.
She snapped the phone shut as Max turned but he hadn’t missed the action.
‘You got a message?’ There was an urgency in his voice that she’d never heard before. Pain, even.
Every instinct Ellie had was to tell Max. To show him the message. To share the horror and have these men help to make a plan and deal with it. They would protect her and Mouse. The dark angels.
But, if she did, Marcus might know somehow and he might hurt her baby. He was capable of it, she knew that better than anyone. He’d hurt her, hadn’t he?
‘N-no,’ Ellie stammered. ‘I was just…hoping.’
Max held her gaze with a look that broke her heart all over again. He understood. He was feeling this, too. Then he gave a single, curt nod.
‘He would have got the landline number from the motel records. He’ll probably ring here.’
The phone in the apartment did ring a short time later, after Jet had joined the tense group. Ellie uncurled her legs, ready to jump from the couch, but Max got to the phone first.
‘They’ve traced the woman and arrested her,’ he reported after what seemed an interminably long conversation. ‘She was paid to set it all up and snatch Mouse. She handed her over to Marcus at the corner shop as arranged. He abandoned the pushchair and took off in a vehicle. One that he rented at the airport and apparently requested a baby seat for. The police have the details. They’ve got all the manpower they have available searching now.’
Ellie could feel her phone vibrating silently in her pocket again.
‘They’ve got the airport covered,’ Max continued. ‘And they’re watching the main roads in and out of the city.’
Ellie managed to nod. Then she stood up. Three men stilled. Three sets of dark eyes were fixed on her.
‘I…um…need to go to the loo,’ she said.
In the privacy of the bathroom, she opened her phone with trembling fingers. The text message this time was an address. A road she’d never heard of.
Come alone, the message finished.
Or else.
Ellie splashed cold water on her face, trying to rinse away the nausea that made her stomach roil. She had to try and think. What the hell was she going to do now?
Tell Max.
No. If she did, he would go instead of her. Probably without taking the risk of including the police. These guys didn’t always follow the rules, did they? Not when someone’s life was at stake and they might be able to do something themselves. And if he went instead of her, Marcus would hurt Max. And if he hurt Max, what would stop him from hurting Mouse? To punish her for sending someone else. For disobeying him.
She stood to lose the two people she loved most in the entire world.
But if she went herself, there was a chance she could sort this out. What if she could persuade Marcus that she’d made a mistake? That she wanted to be with him and their child? He couldn’t keep her isolated completely and she could use the first opportunity she had to call for help.
To call the police.
And Max.
Yes. The more she thought about it, the more the idea seemed the best choice she had. Maybe the only choice because the safety of her baby had to be her first consideration and what did she have to go on?
The knowledge that Marcus had Mouse.
The fact that he wanted her.
All she had to do was convince him that he’d won for long enough to save Mouse.
And then what?
Would Max still want to have anything to do with her given the amount of trouble she’d caused? There was a new pain to be found going down that track so it was just as well she couldn’t afford to think that far ahead. She couldn’t handle thinking of anything more than how to get where she needed to be. To where Marcus was. And Mouse.
The ache in her breasts went up several notches to become unbearable. They were heavy with the milk that Mouse must be getting desperate for by now. Marcus might have requested a baby seat in the rental vehicle but had he thought to provide a bottle? Or nappies? Highly unlikely.
Another reason why she had to be the one to go. And surely Max would be grateful that she hadn’t made things worse for him and his friends?
The Honourable Maverick / The Unsung Hero Page 12
