“Any word on the guy in the park yesterday?”
“We dispatched a team to the site. By the tracks, someone had stood in that spot for several minutes, size eleven or twelve Nike sneakers. We found a cigarette butt. Camels, unfiltered.” Boswell ticked off the facts.
The smell of the cigarette had been William’s tipoff, the trigger that had caused him to visually search the area. He should have scanned several times prior to that moment, but he’d been distracted by the fun he was having with the girls and his desire to make Cora happy.
“Suspect headed east,” Boswell continued, “probably got in a car parked along the street. He could have been your standard pervert who watches kids play.”
“I doubt that,” William was quick to say.
“You sensed something?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got a friend who works for the city’s parks and rec department. I’ll check to see if there are cameras on that location. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get the guy on film.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s the rest of it going?”
“I’m behind in reviewing the security footage,” William admitted.
“Not surprised. Too many cameras to view.”
Damn. Boswell had no idea. William would have kept up if he didn’t have the distraction of three toddlers and a hot woman, but his priority was to keep them safe in the moment. Scouring film, hours of it shot from multiple cameras, took time. And though it was important, it took him away from protecting them.
He’d come to the home office that morning to try to get some perspective away from Cora and the girls, and he’d figured a meeting with his supervisor would do just that. He’d silently hoped that Boswell would chew his ass about neglecting the film. Instead, he seemed to be getting permission not to study every recorded millisecond.
“I can have Albright help with the deep dives.” Boswell jotted a note.
“I’ll manage.” Ben was the right man for the job, with similar training to William’s and kids of his own, but William didn’t want to give up control to anyone.
“We don’t work alone at Alert. You need the help, you’ll get it. That’s best for our clients and for us. We function like a family, Royce, same as your SEAL team did.”
What William had wanted when he joined Alert Security slapped him in the face. He’d wanted a place to belong and that’s what Boswell was telling him he had. But he was being reminded now that families came with strings, obligations. For a man who’d avoided ties, he was being pulled into two types of family. The girls and Cora felt more like his every day, and now he had the brotherhood of a team again as well.
“Yes, sir,” he responded.
“I’ll have Albright remote in. Give him full access. Anything else, Royce?”
“No, sir. Thanks.” William cut the connection and sent a secure email to Albright with the information he would need to access the feed.
William would keep up the daily scans. He tapped a button on his keyboard, bringing up the view from nine cameras on his monitor. Cora and the girls were in the backyard. She was helping them onto the trampoline. All seemed fine there. He checked the cameras in the house.
The one that shot down the upstairs hall caught his attention. He backed up the footage to the previous day and saw himself and Cora disappear into her bedroom. No one viewing the film would doubt what happened next. He was going to have to be way more careful about where he and Cora had sex.
He was suddenly glad for her refusal to allow a camera in her room. There wasn’t one is his either and with the connecting bathroom, they could easily move between the rooms.
If she wanted to. That was a conversation they were going to have to have. Soon.
He clicked back to the live feed, finding her. She smiled as she stood by the trampoline where all three kids were bouncing. As he watched, her expression changed, panic went across her face, and she gripped the edge of the trampoline.
Her mouth opened. Was she screaming? Before he could decide, the trampoline collapsed in on itself, sending the girls down in a heap in the center.
William leaped up, grabbing his phone. As he sprinted through the house, he dialed for backup. Once outside, the screams of the little girls reached him. He put on more speed, scanning the area for other threats. This could be a distraction, the prelude to something worse. Seeing nothing that triggered his concern, he hurried to Cora’s side.
“I can’t get to them.” Her voice was shrill as she struggled with the netting and twisted metal of the trampoline.
“Let me.” He took a knife from his pocket and cut through the mesh and the material, pushing the posts and springs aside as he delved in.
“It’s okay, babies,” Cora called from behind him. “William’s here, and he’s coming for you.”
The screaming eased, but the triplets’ sobbing sliced through his heart. He reached Haley first and lifted her out of the wreckage, passing her to Cora. He’d assess their injuries once he got them free. Next, he disentangled Melody from the netting. She clung to him, her arms around his neck, when he tried to hand her to Cora.
“I’ve got to get Paige, sweetheart,” he said, removing her gently. Paige’s sobs were far worse than the others. Since she was the toughest of the three, he feared what he was going to find.
“Haley’s okay,” Cora said when she took Melody from him and murmured comforting words to her.
William cut through more material, driven on by Paige’s crying. He saw her and his heart dropped. Her face was tear-streaked, and her left leg was pinned at an unnatural angle under her. When he lifted her, it was going to hurt. Anger blinded him for a second. Whoever did this was going to hurt, was going to pay. He’d seen what looked like a saw mark on one of the supports. He’d investigate later, but his guess was this was no accident.
Paige looked up at him, pain etched on her face.
“Do you have her?” Cora yelled to him.
“Yeah, we’ll be out in a minute.” He focused his attention on Paige. “Okay, princess, you’re going to have to be super brave. Can you do that?”
“Uh huh.” Paige wiped tears away with the back of her hand.
William had moved wounded soldiers before, but this was far worse. He knelt on the ground next to the child and slowly worked his arm underneath her. He could balance her weight on one arm and support the broken leg with the other.
“Here we go. One, two, three.” As he lifted her, Paige’s face went pale and fresh tears streamed from her eyes, but she didn’t yell. “You are so special, little one,” he whispered to her as he carried her to Cora.
“Oh, no,” Cora breathed, rushing to meet them. “Is it…?”
William dropped to one knee and placed Paige on the grass. He ran his hands over her, getting a tiny smile when he hit a ticklish spot.
“Poor baby.” Cora was on Paige’s other side.
“The other two?” he asked, gently touching the fractured leg.
“They seem okay. Scared to death, but physically okay.”
He reached for his phone and hit a button. “I need a car and driver. Pull in by the garage.” He clicked off. “They’ll be here in one to take her to the hospital.”
“Shouldn’t we call an ambulance?”
“This’ll be faster.”
Two SUVs appeared by the garage and three men got out. They immediately fanned out across the property while a driver waited for them, a rear door open.
“Here we go,” William said to Paige and picked her up from the ground. “Cora, you’ll go with her.”
“The others?” Cora was alongside him, nearly running to keep up with his pace.
“I’ve got them,” he said when they reached the vehicle. “Climb in and I’ll hand her to you.”
Cora did what he said without further questions. He settled Paige on her lap, giving the girl a quick kiss on the forehead before closing the car door. He stood there just long enough to watch them pull away before returning to
the mangled trampoline. Haley and Melody sat on the grass close by, their little arms wrapped around each other. They were his responsibility now as was catching the bastard who did this.
Thirteen
“Can I get you anything?” a nurse’s assistant asked Cora for the third time.
“Thanks, just word on how Paige is doing,” Cora responded. She’d been shown to a small waiting room in the pediatric unit after being transferred there from the emergency room.
“Nothing new, I’m afraid. The doctor will be out soon to talk with you.” The woman was sympathetic, but it didn’t lighten Cora’s frame of mind any. Sitting alone, there was nothing for her to do but stew in her guilt.
She had made the decision to let the girls have a trampoline, even though she’d been warned they could be dangerous. She didn’t know how three thirty-pound girls could bring a trampoline crashing down, but the how didn’t matter. This was her fault. She’d put the girls at risk. She thought back on those terrorizing moments when she couldn’t reach them but could hear their screams. Pure agony. Thank goodness for William. He hadn’t hesitated as he cut and pushed his way through mesh and twisted metal to reach them.
She stood and paced across the room, trying to get some distance from her emotions. No amount of walking was going to do that, she knew, but she couldn’t just sit as she waited for word on Paige’s condition. A broken leg was a certainty, the ER doctor had said. And not the first he’d seen from a trampoline. He’d advised her not to replace it. He needn’t have wasted his breath, she thought. She had no intention of ever allowing the girls near a trampoline again.
She peeked into the corridor, which was eerily quiet for a busy hospital. Too quiet. It reminded her of the nights she’d spent by her mother’s side all those years ago. The nurses had been kind to her and had let her sleep on a little couch in her mother’s room at the end. She remembered with a sickening chill the sights and smells of the hospital during those long, lonely hours of waiting.
Her mother slept almost all the time during her final weeks. Only the visits from nurses and the occasional phone call from her father interrupted the cycle of death. Her father’s words were always the same. Be strong, he’d said. Your mother needs you. Her mother had needed her husband by her side and Cora had needed her father. But he’d weighed them up against his devotion to the U.S. Marine Corp, and they’d fallen short, leaving Cora to cope with the unimaginable all by herself. She was going to have to forgive her father someday. She knew that, but her emotions were too strong to be rational just yet.
She brushed tears from her eyes, not sure if they were for the memory of her mother or her worry about Paige. The two were twisted up in her mind. Paige had been so brave on the way to the hospital. She’d whimpered a little and clung to Cora, but the girl hadn’t cried or complained.
The image of William kissing Paige’s forehead struck Cora again. It had been so soft, so loving for a man unused to children, a man who was just beginning to understand being part of a family. She sat down hard on a sofa and dropped her head in her hands, fighting against the wave of emotions. Cora, her mother, William…
Suddenly, she heard running footsteps. A surge of sympathy went through her. Someone was in as great distress as she was.
“Cora Caspian?” William’s voice called, a desperate edge to his tone.
“In there,” someone answered.
William’s large frame filled the doorway for a second before he entered and dropped to his knees in front of her. His breath came in short gasps. How far had he run? Or was it fear that made him short of breath?
“Melody and Haley?” Cora asked in a whisper, too frightened to articulate any more than that.
“They’re fine,” he touched her face, trailing a finger down her cheek and flicking away tears. “Ben has them.”
“Ben?” For a moment, Cora couldn’t place who that was until she remembered the security guard who had stayed with them when William was at the babysitting class.
“Don’t worry,” William assured her. “He has little kids. He knows what to do with them. They’re worried about Paige, but they were settled in watching Frozen when I left.”
“It’s their favorite—but why are you here?” His responsibility was keeping the girls safe. Why did he leave two of them like that?
“For you,” he said, his hands dropping to her shoulder where he gently massaged her tight muscles. “I’ve been so worried about you and Paige.”
“Me?” she uttered, shocked. “That’s not your job. The girls are.”
He blinked in surprise but tightened his grip on her. “This is more than a job, Cora.” His dark eyes shone with sincerity. “I care about you and the girls, and I hate the fact that some bastard hurt them.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered. This was intentional?
“The trampoline had been tampered with. Strategically cut to give way when enough pressure was applied. I should have seen it in the security feed,” he blew out a sigh, “but I was behind in analyzing all the footage.”
“Not your fault,” she said quickly. “Who would have anticipated this?”
“I should have,” he said, clearly blaming himself, “but I got caught up in…other things.”
Her mind shot to those moments in her bedroom. He’d been amazing. He’d made her feel amazing, too. She’d never made love like that before, with complete abandon and such raw emotion. Did he regret it? She met his eyes as the doctor entered.
“Miss Caspian?” A trim woman in a lab coat addressed her.
“Yes, that’s me.” Cora stood as William rolled to his feet next to her. His hand came to rest lightly on her back. “How is Paige?”
“Better. We gave her a mild sedative and put a cast on the leg. It was a clean break of the tibia, so there’s no need for surgery.”
“That’s good at least,” Cora breathed, relief hitting her.
“Can we see her?” William asked.
“In a little while,” the doctor replied. “A nurse will come get you when you can visit her.”
“Is she going home tonight?” Cora didn’t want Paige to have to stay the overnight in the hospital, and she didn’t want to be away from the other two much longer.
“Oh, definitely. We’ll give you instructions and some pain medicine for her. Kids bounce back quickly from fractures like these.”
“Thank you, doctor,” William said as the physician left the room.
Paige would be fine, Cora said to herself, but the tension didn’t leave her. If anything, it compounded, and a lump formed in her throat. She needed to be alone, to give in to the tears, however briefly. She couldn’t let herself do that with William standing by her side.
“You should go,” she said to William, pulling on her last reserves of strength. “No need for us both to stay now that we know she’s okay.”
“I’m not leaving you.” He stood in front of her then and placed a finger under her chin to tilt her face to his. “We’re in this together.”
What did he mean by that? Was he talking about protecting the children or was there something more? She met his gaze, his dark eyes seemed to reach into her as if he could read her mind. “What is it, Cora?”
She sucked in a breath. “Hospitals are tough places for me.”
He nodded. “Your mom?”
She nodded. “Not my favorite place.” She tried for a wobbly smile.
“Except when babies are born, hospitals aren’t happy places.”
“I suppose not.”
“But you’ve had a more difficult experience than many.” He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her.
She didn’t mean to, but she sagged against him. His offer of strength and protection sliced through her own sense of independence. She needed him in that moment, needed him more than she’d ever needed anyone in years. She burrowed her head into his chest and was grateful for his hands that stroked her back, grateful that he didn’t expect anything else from her.
&
nbsp; “Maybe you should get out of here for a bit,” William said after several minutes. “There’s a coffee shop around the corner. I’ll stay and wait for word on Paige, and you can get some air.”
“I shouldn’t leave her, but she’ll probably be just as happy with you.” Cora thought of the kiss William had given the injured girl when he’d placed them in the car. It was full of love and caring. It was fatherly. Did William even realize that?
He gave her a wistful smile. “I doubt that, but I can manage while you take a break. You need that sometimes, you know, Cora.”
She did know that, but she’d gotten used to being a single parent to triplets. It was a life with no breaks. Until William came along and changed it all. She hadn’t trusted him, hadn’t trusted the girls to his care, but he’d proven over and over what kind of man he was.
She reached upward to join her hands behind his neck, liking the spiky feel of his short hair on her fingers. “Come here,” she whispered, giving him a little tug down until their mouths met. She had meant for it to be a simple kiss of thanks, but her mouth opened when his tongue ran along the seam of her lips.
He gave and took in the kiss, alternating between a clash of tongues and sweet brushes on her lips and cheeks and jaw. Need and want battled in her. William did that. He drove her to a frenzy, and gently backed her down, fulfilling the tender role of lover.
After several minutes, they parted, both flushed, both content yet unfulfilled.
“I’ll get that coffee now,” she said, stepping away from him. “Be back soon.”
He caught her hand before she could leave and kissed it, just as he’d done in her bedroom. She thought then as she did now that it was a gentle, romantic gesture, not at all in keeping with her first impression of him.
Fourteen
A few hours later, Cora gathered Melody and Haley to her when she entered the house, giving each girl a kiss on the cheek.
“Why’d you have to be gone so long?” Haley’s voice had a little whine to it.
“It took the doctors a while to put a cast on Paige’s leg.” She was glad to have a minute to prepare them before William walked in with Paige. The sight of the cast might scare them if they weren’t expecting it. “Wait until you see it. It’s bright pink,” Cora said, trying to lighten the mood.
The SEAL’s Unexpected Triplets Page 9
