Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby. BEVERLY BARTON
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As long as she lived, she would never forget the image of that tiny infant lying on the cold, steel table. Somewhere out there another mother had lost a child. The only difference between that woman and Leenie was that this other woman had no hope. Her baby boy was dead.
Frank probably didn’t understand why she’d pulled away from him the moment they returned to her house or why she’d hurried into the bathroom and locked the door. He had called to her several times, asking her if she was all right and if there was anything he could do for her. But she hadn’t responded. Wouldn’t. Couldn’t. As much as she needed Frank, as desperately as she wanted him close, she had to be alone right now. Alone to cry. Alone to die a thousand deaths in her heart and soul. Alone to work through the wild, mixed emotions she could barely control.
Even before the unknown infant’s body had been found, Leenie had felt as if she were on the verge of losing her mind. Although Frank and Kate and Haley had forced her to go through the motions of living, she really didn’t feel alive. She felt numb one minute and on fire with terror the next. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. And at the same time she wanted to run and scream and beat her fists against the wall. It was as if she were dead and alive. Numb and oversensitive. Subdued and crazed. All simultaneously.
After closing the lid, Leenie sat down on the commode and crossed her arms over her chest. She sat there and cried. Soft sobs. A steady stream of tears cascaded down her face. There was an ache inside her that hurt so bad she could barely breathe.
“Oh, Andrew…Andrew.”
Frank lifted his hand to knock on the bathroom door again. He’d knocked several times half an hour ago and pleaded with Leenie to answer him, to let him help her. But when she hadn’t responded, he’d finally left her alone. He had talked to Kate for a few minutes, then spent the past twenty minutes alone in his son’s nursery. He had run his fingers over the hand-painted mural on the wall—a Noah’s Ark scene. The walls were a pale blue, the ceiling covered with fluffy clouds and a host of stuffed animals and infant toys lined the floor-to-ceiling shelves. A magic room for a much-loved baby boy.
“Leave her alone.” Kate stood in the doorway to Leenie’s bedroom.
Frank whirled around to face Kate. “What?”
“Leave Leenie alone. She’ll come out when she’s ready. You’ll have plenty of time to comfort her then, when she needs you. Right now, she needs to hide away.”
He didn’t know Kate all that well, but had heard the speculations about her that abounded around the Dundee office. “What makes you the expert?” he asked.
“I’m a woman.”
“Okay, if being a woman makes you an expert on all things female, then tell me this—why is it that Leenie pulls me to her with one hand and pushes me away with the other? She’s blowing hot and cold. I don’t know what she wants.”
“Believe me, you men are just as big a puzzle to us as we are to you.” Kate motioned for him to come toward her. “Let’s wait for Leenie in the living room. Eventually she’ll come out and that’s when you can play knight in shining armor again. Just wait for the signals. A smart man knows when to advance and when to retreat.”
“I’m not smart when it comes to women,” Frank admitted, following Kate down the hall and into the living room. “I’m bad at relationships.”
They sat down on the sofa. Kate curled up sideways, her waist and lower back supported by the sofa arm. Frank pressed his shoulders into the back of the couch, then crossed one leg over the other knee.
“Your personal life is none of my business. But if you care about Leenie, and I think you do, then ask yourself just how serious you are about a relationship with her. Don’t let her believe she can count on you for the long haul if you’re just in this until we find Andrew.”
Good advice. Hell, great advice. “What if I don’t know how I feel or what I want for the future? For now, I want to bring Andrew home. I want to protect Leenie and support her through this ordeal. But…” He shook his head. “I want to be a father to my son.”
Kate looked him right in the eye. “But not a husband to your son’s mother?”
“You’re not one for being subtle, are you?”
“No. I think there’s no use beating around the bush. Right? Let’s call a spade a spade. You no doubt have your reasons for being afraid of love, of committed relationships. And whatever those reasons are, I don’t want or need to know. But Leenie has a right to know why.”
“Maybe Leenie doesn’t care,” Frank said. “You’re assuming she wants something permanent with me. Just because we had a child together and right now she needs me doesn’t mean she wants a future with me.”
“Have you ever thought of just asking her?”
Frank shook his head. “Nope. I’ve found the direct approach seldom works with women.”
Kate made a face, then huffed. “What sort of women have you been dating? Or did one woman do a number on you years ago and now you paint us all with the same brush?”
The truth stung just a tad, but Frank managed to halfway smile at her comment.
Kate opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Frank’s cell phone rang. Grateful for the reprieve—he’d figured Kate was about to dish out some more feminine advice or dig deeper into his past personal life—Frank whipped the phone from his pocket and hit the on button.
“Latimer here.”
“Yeah, this is Special Agent Moran. We’ve got a possible break in the Andrew Patton case.”
Frank went stiff, his body tense, his breathing momentarily halted. “Have you found him?”
“Sorry, no,” Moran replied. “But the abduction ring we’ve infiltrated is putting up a new infant for adoption. In Tennessee. Memphis to be exact. The baby is male. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Approximately two to three months old. We’re making plans now to send in a couple of agents as prospective parents.”
“You can’t nab the kid right then and there can you?”
“You know we can’t. So maybe it’s better if you don’t share this info with Ms. Patton, unless you’re sure she can handle it.”
“I’ll talk things over with Kate before I decide whether or not to tell Leenie,” Frank said. “Keep us posted, will you?”
“Yeah, I will. I know he’s your kid and…well…I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thanks.”
Frank understood that these agents, disguised as hopeful, adoptive parents, would simply go in for a first meeting, but wouldn’t make any arrests or do anything to alert the top bananas in the abduction ring that the feds were on to them. From what Moran had told Frank, the bureau had been building this case for quite some time, working toward the moment when everything fell together just right. They wanted more than the peons in this dirty business—they wanted the kingpins. The only way to shut down the ring permanently was to destroy it from the top.
After returning his cell phone to his pocket, Frank turned to Kate. “Moran says there’s a new infant on the adoption block. Words out from the association the Feds have been investigating that they have a blond-haired, blue-eyed infant ready for adoption.”
Kate sucked in her breath. “And they’re sending in federal agents posing as a couple desperate to adopt a child, right?”
“Right.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Frank paced around the room. His paternal instincts warred with his logical, trained warrior mind. As a father, he didn’t give a damn about anything but rescuing his son. But the Dundee agent in him, as well as the Army Special Forces training that was such a fundamental part of him, acknowledged that the mission outweighed any personal needs. The FBI’s mission was