Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: Navy SEAL Newlywed\The Guardian\Security Breach (31 page)

“He had at least five other men with guns,” Michael said.

“Then why didn't he bring them with him to retrieve the baby?” Marco asked. “Even one other man with him would have increased his chances of success.”

“Maybe he didn't want anyone to know about the baby,” Abby said.

“But they already knew about the baby,” Michael said. “Mariposa didn't try to hide her from the others, that I could tell.”

Abby stood and went to take the sleeping infant from Carmen. Angelique hardly stirred as Abby cradled her close. “Maybe Carmen is right and he came back for Angelique because she's his child,” she said. “If that's true, he might not want the others to know, or to suspect he had a soft spot for the baby.”

“We don't know that,” Michael said. “He might have intended to kill her.”

“Then maybe he didn't want the others to know that, either.” The idea made her sick to her stomach, but they would gain nothing by refusing to consider all possibilities.

“Whatever the reason he wanted her, it doesn't really matter,” Carmen said.

“Why not?” Michael asked.

“Because we know the baby represents a weakness or a secret he doesn't want anyone else finding out about,” Graham said. “If you know a man's weakness or secret, you can find a way to exploit it.”

“But if he's already on his way to Denver...” Abby sent a questioning look to Graham.

“I think Michael's hunch is right and he won't want to leave without the baby,” Graham said. “We can use that against him.”

Abby smiled down at the child, who had fallen back asleep. She'd never seen a more beautiful baby, with such long, dark lashes, and a perfect Cupid's bow of a mouth.

Aware that the room had fallen silent, she looked up to find everyone else looking at her—or rather, they were focused on the baby. “What is it?” she asked. “What's wrong?”

Graham cleared his throat. “If we spread the word around that you're keeping the baby for a while, and make you seem vulnerable, we could lure our guy out to take another chance. Only this time, we'd be waiting to capture him.”

“You mean, use Angelique as bait to catch him?” She stared, sure she couldn't have heard them correctly.

Graham nodded. “You and Angelique, yes. Bait to catch what could be a very big fish.”

Chapter Twelve

“No!” Abby and Michael spoke at the same time.

“It's too dangerous.” Michael shoved back his chair and stood. “She could be hurt.”

“He's right. You can't take that kind of risk with a baby,” Abby said.

“I wasn't talking about Angelique.” Michael moved around the table to stand beside her. “It's too dangerous for you
and
the baby.” His eyes met hers and she knew he was speaking not as a law enforcement officer, but as a man who cared for her. The realization moved her, but she looked away. This wasn't a time to let sentiment cloud her judgment.

“We'd have someone from the team with you 24/7,” Graham said. “And other team members stationed nearby. If our man makes a move, we'd be on him.”

“It's our best chance to catch this guy,” Marco said. “If we get to him, we're that much closer to finding the person in charge of the operation. We can stop him from enslaving other workers.”

“Can you help Mariposa and the others?” she asked.

“There's a good chance we can,” Graham said.

Abby looked down at the sleeping infant. As much as she cared for the child, she wasn't in a position to take her permanently. The baby needed to be with her mother, as long as her mother could take care of her.

Michael's hand rested heavy on her shoulder. “Abby, don't do it,” he said. “Don't risk it. We'll find some other way.”

“I can't risk anything happening to Angelique,” she said. “We don't know what this man's intentions are toward her.”

“She's right.” Carmen spoke up. “We'll need to use a decoy for the baby and move Angelique into temporary foster care.”

“Agreed,” Graham said. “I don't want the child to come to harm. And I don't want you harmed, either, Abby. I promise we'll protect you. But the final decision is yours.”

Michael's hand on her shoulder tightened, but he remained silent. That silence—his faith in her ability to make the right decision—moved her more than any words could have. “I'll do it,” she said. “As long as Angelique is somewhere safe.”

“Abby...” Michael spoke so softly she might have been the only one who heard.

She turned to face him. “I want to stop these people,” she said. “I want Mariposa and Angelique to have a better life. If I can do something to help them, then I have to act.”

“I want that, too,” he said. “But I want you to stay safe.”

“I'll be safe,” she said. “I know you've got my back.” She deliberately repeated the words he'd told her earlier.

“Carmen, you take care of transferring Angelique to foster care,” Graham said. “We'll have to manage the switch without anyone who might be watching realizing what's going on.”

“They make some pretty realistic-looking baby dolls,” Carmen said. “I'll get one of those and a layette. Abby will pretend to care for it as she would Angelique.”

“I might as well go back to my trailer in the park campground,” Abby said. “That will make it easier for this guy to get to me, and put me closer to all of you.”

“I'll go with you,” Michael said.

Graham gave him a hard look. “It might be better to send someone else.”

“No, sir. I can do this.”

Graham's expression remained grim, but he nodded. “All right. Go on to the trailer. Carmen and Marco will meet you there later to pick up the baby and substitute the doll. Randall, you and Lance can take turns watching Abby's trailer. I doubt this guy will try anything so soon, but stay on your guard.”

“Yes, sir.”

Abby carried Angelique, while Michael gathered up the diapers, formula and other baby supplies, along with an overnight bag from his locker. “I'll be sure to bring a car seat when we come to get her,” Carmen said, following them to her Cruiser, which Michael was borrowing until his could be replaced. “Right now, you don't have far to go to the campground.”

Everything at her trailer looked just as she'd left it, though Michael insisted on searching all around the outside and checking out the inside while she waited with the baby. “I don't think anyone's been here since you left,” he said at last, and held the door open for her to enter.

The baby started crying before they were through the door. “I think it's time for a diaper change,” Abby said.

“I'll get the stuff out of the car.”

When he returned, she was still standing in the middle of the room with the wailing baby. “What's wrong?” he asked.

“I don't know where to put her. I'm not exactly set up for a baby.”

Michael looked around at the compact space, then set the box of supplies on the table and began emptying it out. “We can put her in here. It's about the size of a bassinet, and she won't fall out.”

“You're brilliant.” She grinned at him.

“I have my moments.” He grabbed a towel from the counter and used it to line the box, then slid it toward her. “Instant cradle.”

“Hand me a diaper first.”

While she changed the baby, he put away the formula and other supplies. She wedged the box between the dinette and sofa and settled the baby inside. Michael sat beside her on the sofa. “Now what?” he asked.

“Why don't you take a shower, then I'll grab one,” she said.

“Are you suggesting I need one?” He pretended to look offended.

“No comment.” She stood. “I'm going to make some tea. The bathroom is kind of small, but I think you'll find everything you need.”

While she filled the teakettle and took a mug from the cabinet, she listened to the water beating against the wall of the shower and tried not to think of Michael, naked, just on the other side of that barrier. But once the image was fixed in her mind, of his sculpted shoulders and arms and muscular abs, she could think of nothing else. Her imagination filled in the rest of the picture, until desire settled over her in a languid heat.

She forced her mind away from the fantasy and savored the memory of the kiss they'd shared earlier in the day. In that moment, kissing him had seemed the most natural thing in the world—the thing she had wanted most. She'd lusted after men before, but she couldn't remember ever feeling so close to one. She hadn't been in a serious relationship in years—before she went to war. A lifetime ago, when she was a different person.

Was it only because circumstance and danger had thrown them together that she felt this way? Did she feel so comfortable with him because they were both veterans? Or because he'd saved her life when she was injured in Afghanistan? Was he right, and fate had somehow brought them together? She slipped her hand into her pocket and caressed the little rabbit figure. All these years, she'd held on to the token, feeling it was somehow important. Had the caring the gift of the rabbit represented now grown into something more—even into love?

The bathroom door opened and he emerged wearing only a pair of low-slung jeans, toweling his hair. She stared at the drops of water glinting in the dusting of brown hair across his muscular chest and her mouth went dry. Michael Dance in uniform was an impressive sight, but Michael Dance half naked was enough to make her forget her own name.

He tossed the towel aside and grinned, and she blushed, sure he had caught her staring. “I feel almost human again,” he said. He moved toward her at the same time she tried to leave the kitchen area, and they collided. The trailer suddenly felt too small to contain them. She mumbled an apology and tried to slip past, and he put out a hand to steady her, freezing her in place.

He smoothed his hand down her arm and a tremor rocked her. Her skin burned where he touched her, and she fought the urge to lean into him, to lose herself in the feel of his body against hers. She looked up and realized he'd shaved, the scent of his shaving cream filling her senses.

“Tight fit,” he said.

Why did her traitorous mind turn those words into a come-on, with thoughts of how well the two of them would fit together? She looked away—at the floor, the wall—anything but those sensuous lips, beckoning. If she started to kiss him now, she'd forget all about the shower, and the baby, and everything but slaking the desire that rocked through her.

“I'll just, um, take my shower now,” she said, pushing past him.

“Don't you need to wait for the water to warm up again?”

“That's okay.” A little cold water might be just what she needed.

The water was warm enough, though. She took her time in the shower, washing her hair and shaving her legs.
As if I was prepping for a big date
, she thought.

But this was no casual date. Michael was spending the night here in her trailer. Considering the electricity they'd managed to generate with only a brief touch, she wasn't foolish enough to believe they wouldn't act on that attraction at some point. But when—and what might happen afterward—was anyone's guess.

She slipped into yoga pants and a T-shirt and blow-dried her hair, but didn't bother with makeup. She didn't want to seem obvious or desperate. Besides, the man had seen her at her absolute worst. A little mascara and lipstick weren't going to change his opinion of her.

She opened the bathroom door and was surprised to hear humming. She froze, listening, and made out a few words. “Hush, little baby, don't say a word. Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.”

She peeked around the door and stared at Michael, standing by the sofa, holding the baby. The infant looked impossibly small in his arms, smiling up at him and cooing as he sang softly. More priceless still was the look on his face, the stern lines and angular features softened in a smile of such tenderness it brought a lump to her throat.

He turned and saw her standing there, and the tips of his ears turned pink. “She was fussy,” he said by way of explanation.

“Obviously, you've made a conquest.” She joined him in front of the sofa and he tried to hand the baby over, but she waved him off. “Oh, no, she looks very happy where she is.”

She sat, and he sat beside her. Angelique gurgled happily. “I've never spent much time around babies,” he said.

“Then, you're a natural,” she said. “You'll make a good father one day.”

He was silent for a moment, both of them watching the baby, who stared back with her solemn brown eyes. “Do you think about it much—having kids, raising a family?” he asked.

“Sometimes,” she admitted. “More lately, now that my life is beginning to settle down. Before, when I was in the army, and later, after I was injured, even the possibility of that kind of stability seemed so far away.”

“Yeah, I haven't exactly had the kind of life that makes a wife and kids seem like a good idea.”

“I have to finish graduate school and find a job—figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.” She leaned over and stroked the infant's satin-soft cheek. “But sometimes I wonder if those things are just excuses to keep me from focusing on all the emotional, personal things that are harder to deal with.”

“I know what you mean,” he said. “I can deal with the toughest situations in my job, but when it comes to relationships...sometimes that's a lot scarier.”

Their eyes met, and her heart sped up, fluttering in her chest. “Do I scare you?” she asked, keeping her tone light, a little flirtatious.

“Oh, yeah.” He cupped her cheek in his hand. “But I'm a big believer in the importance of facing your fears.”

He lowered his head toward her, but the sound of tires on gravel made him straighten, instantly alert. “Someone's coming,” he said, and handed her the baby.

He stood and walked to the window and peered out the blinds. Abby clutched the baby to her, aware that the vehicle had stopped outside her door.

“Hey, it's just us,” a woman called. “We came by to see how you're settling in with the baby.”

At the sound of Carmen's familiar voice, Michael's shoulders relaxed. He pulled on a T-shirt, then went to the door.

Carmen came in, followed by Lance. He carried a large cardboard box labeled Diapers.

“We brought you some more diapers and formula,” he said, his voice loud in the evening silence.

He set the box on the table, made sure all the blinds were drawn, then took the top off the diaper box to reveal a realistic-looking baby doll, wrapped in a blanket identical to the one that swaddled Angelique. “It's a doll called My Real Baby,” Carmen said. “Isn't it a kick?”

She lifted the doll out of the box, handling it as if it were a real baby, and passed it to Abby. “From a distance, I'm sure no one could tell the difference,” she said.

Abby cradled the doll and turned to look at Angelique, who rested in the box on the sofa. “I'm going to miss the real baby, though,” she said. “Where are you taking her?”

“The state put me in touch with a woman in Grand Junction who specializes in temporary foster care for infants,” Carmen said. “She'll be safe there.”

Safer than she would be here with her and Michael, Abby knew, but still, she hated to see her leave.

Carmen picked up Angelique and cooed at her, then transferred her to the diaper box. “I don't guess you've heard anything from our friend?” she said as she tucked blankets around the baby.

“Nothing,” Michael said. “But we don't even know if he knows she's here yet.”

“We talked it up in town,” Lance said. “I stopped for gas and told everyone there about the baby we'd found.”

“You'd think he lived for gossip.” Carmen elbowed the younger agent in the side. “Everyone was all ears. Maybe some of the talk will get back to our guy.”

“Maybe so.”

“Call if you need anything.” Lance fit the lid back on the diaper box and picked it up.

“Take good care of her.” Abby curled her hands into fists to keep from reaching for the baby.