The Firefighter's Secret Baby. Anna DeStefano
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to this woman, whether the rest of us understand it or not. I’ve never seen him like this. Chris or Emma neither. Randy’s all about logic and reason and keeping things simple. But he’s neck deep in whatever this is and not looking for a way out. All for a woman he hasn’t spent more than a few hours with. I don’t see him stopping until he has some answers, do you?”
A wave of understanding passed between them. Randy might work nonstop and party hard and all the other things that guaranteed his personal life stayed superficial and uncomplicated. But nothing stopped him when it came to keeping the people he really cared about safe. And this accident victim had Randy caring like she was family—in the midst of a situation that sounded more unstable by the second.
“Get my brother whatever information you can,” Charlie insisted. “Whatever it’s going to take to keep him and this woman safe.”
“Randy should back off. Now.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Not even if pushing might be the worst thing he could do for the lady in question?”
“He’ll never believe that, not after she begged him for his help.”
“She was delirious. Injured. Giving birth.”
“And she reached out for my brother, after nine months of the rest of us having to deal with him sulking because he couldn’t see her again. She told him she was in so much trouble he shouldn’t say anything to anyone, but he’s trusting my family. Now we’re trusting you. He needs your help, Rick. We all do.”
Downing blinked at the closest to begging Charlie had ever come. Then he nodded.
Simple.
Direct.
Rick was all-in, the same way he’d been when it had been Emma’s well-being on the line.
“All right,” Rick said. “I’ll get you everything I can. Just don’t expect to like it. And don’t expect my information to make whatever Randy’s next decision has to be any easier.”
CHAPTER FIVE
SAM COULD HEAR, but she couldn’t feel. She could remember, but only what was far away. What was closer, what was happening around her, made no sense.
All that made sense was that she had to be sure. She had to make him understand. He had to keep their baby safe.
“You have to believe me!” she whimpered.
Whimpered?
The woman who’d ditched Luca Gianfranco and stayed ditched for nearly two years didn’t whimper. About anything.
“Try to relax,” a soothing feminine voice said.
Then the voice belonged to a nurse wearing pink clothes that were covered in ducks.
Not the him Sam had been begging.
Not Randy.
Had he only been part of a dream? Everything was so muddled. Sam could remember feeling safe, because Randy had been there. Even though Luca would keep coming for her…
“Your baby will be here soon,” the nurse said. “The doctors want to deliver her without a C-section. They’re bringing you around enough to push, but there will be no pain.”
“My baby…”
The room swam into sharper focus. She was in an O.R. Her nurse was wearing a surgical mask. Other people moved around her.
Terrifying flashes of the accident sliced through her pounding head. She clenched her fingers against her cramping stomach.
“My baby!” It had all been real. The accident. Randy. Going into labor. Was it too late? “Is she—”
“Your little girl’s fine.” The pretty nurse smiled. “We did an ultrasound. She’s in distress, but as long as we deliver her soon, she’ll be fine. Your condition is stabilized. You’ll need a sling to protect your shoulder for a while, but somehow nothing was broken. Your head injury is minor. There are stitches, and we’ll have to monitor your concussion for a few days. But the seat belt seems to have saved you from the worst of it.”
But not her baby.
Sam wasn’t due for another two weeks.
Everything that had happened swirled through Sam like bolts of sizzling lightning that couldn’t hurt her, because they weren’t quite real. All that felt real was the man she’d been dreaming about for close to a year. A stranger who’d left her with a piece of himself. A miracle. A promise that there would be a tomorrow.
“Randy’s baby…” Sam whispered.
A moment of shock crossed the other woman’s face.
“Do you know him?” Sam asked, grappling to remember what his response had been to her revelation that he had a child on the way. A daughter who was in danger. But there was nothing there—no memory to reassure her. “You have to make him believe me. You have to tell him. Luca…Don’t let Luca hurt our baby….”
“…she’s hemorrhaging…”
“The baby’s heart rate…”
“Save her,” Sam begged. “Tell Randy he has to…”
“…can tell him yourself,” the nurse was saying. “We’ll take good care…your baby and you…”
“…fully effaced…This baby’s delivering now!”
The nurse was lifting Sam’s shoulders. She’d been right, there was no pain. Only the need to push so her daughter—Randy’s daughter—could be born. The nurse supported Sam’s back. Everything faded but the realization that the baby was coming. It still wasn’t safe. Luca couldn’t know there was a child. But—
Voices told her to push.
To push again.
Pressure.
More pressure.
Then, finally, relief, followed by a wave of loneliness no drug could numb.
“She’s beautiful.” The nurse eased Sam back.
“Is she…” Sam was so tired, but she had to know. “Is she okay? She…she isn’t crying…”
“Let the doctors take care of her,” the nurse said.
“You’re going to sleep again,” a male voice added.
“No! I want to see her. Just once…” Sam fought the touch restraining her.
“You’ll see her when you wake up,” the nurse reassured her. “You and your daughter are safe. Rest…”
“You don’t understand…” What if she didn’t wake up quickly enough? What if she didn’t wake up at all? Someone had to make Randy understand.
They’d be back.
Luca’s men.
They’d come for her. Luca would come for her baby, and Sam didn’t trust the feds to protect her daughter. A child wouldn’t be their priority. Sam’s testimony was all they cared about.
Where was Randy?
Randy had to know. He had to keep their daughter out of Luca’s clutches. And he would. Sam had sensed it the morning she’d woken in his hotel room in Savannah. Randy was the kind of man who’d stop at nothing to protect someone he cared about. She’d run from the temptation of wanting to be cared for that completely.
Now she was reaching for the dream, needing it to be real while the world faded.
“Tell Randy he has to protect our baby.” She fought the pull of the drugs. “Tell him…I’m so sorry I’ve done this to him.”
“HER RECORDS ARE SEALED,