Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby

“What are you asking forgiveness for?” Leenie asked.

“You were hysterical, then emotionally wiped out. We couldn’t get you to stop crying, so Frank and I agreed that you needed a doctor. We phoned Haley Wilson and she arranged for her physician to make a house call.”

“It was Haley’s doctor who came to the house? I guess that’s the reason I didn’t recognize him.”

“She tried your doctor first, but he was out of town.”

“What did Haley’s doctor give me—an elephant tranquilizer?”

Kate chuckled. “Are you that hungover?”

Leenie rubbed either side of her forehead with her fingertips. “I feel as if I’ve been run down by a Mack truck.”

“Despite that fact, are we forgiven?”

Somehow Leenie managed to get up. When Kate came toward her, she nodded. “You’re forgiven. And I’m okay. I don’t need any help. However, I do need a shower.” She glanced down at herself. “And I need a change of clothes.”

“We thought it best to just let you—”

“We? You and Haley? Or you and Frank?”

“All three of us.”

“Where is Frank?”

“That was him on the phone. I tried to get to it before the ringing woke you, but—”

“Frank isn’t here?”

“No, he left last night, as soon as you went off to sleep.”

“I guess I can’t blame him for leaving. I said some terrible things to him.”

Kate reached out and took Leenie’s hands in hers. “He didn’t leave because of anything you said or did. And he’s coming back later today. He went to Memphis.”

Had she heard Kate right? “Frank went to Memphis?”

“He phoned Moran last night and asked if he promised to stay out of the way, could he just be there in town, at FBI headquarters, and wait around for word on Andrew.”

Emotion tightened Leenie’s throat. She had accused Frank of not caring about Andrew. But he did care, didn’t he? Why else would he have gone to Memphis.

“Do you know what time the meeting is today?” Leenie asked.

“The agents are set to go in posing as adoptive parents at ten o’clock.”

Leenie pulled her hands from Kate’s and hugged herself, determined not to fall apart again. “Why did Frank call? Is there a problem?”

“He called to check on you,” Kate said. “When he left here last night, he was worried sick about you.”

“Was he?”

“Yes, he was. You’ve got to know that despite the emotional barrier Frank has erected to keep the world at bay, that man cares about you. It’s so obvious to anyone watching him when he’s around you that he’s in love.”

“Kate Malone, I do believe you’re a romantic. Otherwise you’d never think Frank was in love with me. I doubt he’s capable of falling in love.”

“He is. He just doesn’t know it yet.” Kate looked Leenie square in the eyes. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

Leenie sighed.

“I know it’s none of my business, but—”

“Yes, I’m in love with the big lug. I’m so in love with him that it hurts.”

Kate smiled. “Why don’t you take a shower while I fix us some breakfast?”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Kate turned and headed for the door, then paused, glanced over her shoulder and said, “Frank will call us as soon as he knows anything. If the agents get to see the baby, they should be able to tell if it’s Andrew or not from all the photos the feds have of him.”

“Even if they can’t take him away from those horrible people today, I pray that it is Andrew. At least then, I’ll know he’s safe.”

Frank held his breath, a heartfelt plea repeating in his head, when Special Agents Currie and Rushing returned to the field office on Humphreys Blvd. He waited impatiently while Moran spoke privately to the two agents who had posed as potential adoptive parents. Despite all his training and the lifelong habit of employing logic before emotion, right about now Frank was thinking like a father. A father whose son had been kidnapped.

The office door opened and Moran came out alone to meet Frank. Please, God, please, let that baby be Andrew.

“Sorry it took so long,” Moran said.

“Is he or isn’t he Andrew?”

Moran shook his head. “No.”

Frank felt as if he’d been sucker punched.

“The baby Rushing and Currie was shown is six months old, has reddish blond hair and has a small birthmark on his right arm,” Moran explained. “Definitely not Andrew Patton.”

“Which means Andrew is still out there, his fate unknown. He might not have been kidnapped by this abduction ring y’all are investigating.”

“Just because this baby wasn’t your son doesn’t mean he won’t come up on the auction block in a few days or few weeks.”

“I’m not sure his mother can hold it together for a few more days, let alone a few more weeks.”

“Dr. Patton seems like an amazingly strong woman to me,” Moran said.

“Even the strongest person can break under the kind of pressure Leenie is living with on a daily basis. That baby—our baby—means everything to her. If I can’t give her some kind of hope that I’ll be able to bring him home to her…”

Moran nodded, then glanced down at the floor. “Yeah. Well…yeah.”

Uncomfortable discussing such an emotionally personal issue, Frank changed the subject. “How much time before this operation comes to a head?”

“That’s confidential info.”

“I don’t want specifics. No date, time, place. Just a general idea. I think I’ve got clearance for that much, don’t you?”

“A week. Ten days tops. But possibly sooner.”

“How soon?”

“A few days.”

Frank drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. “Once the operation’s in motion, would you let me know? Just in case Andrew is caught up in things.”

“Are you sure you want to know before it’s all over and done with?”

“I probably don’t want to know, but I’d appreciate a call beforehand anyway.” What Frank didn’t say, but suspected Moran knew anyway was that he needed time to prepare himself in order to be strong for Leenie if the worst happened.

Moran clamped his hand down on Frank’s shoulder. “There’s always a chance we’ll find Andrew. Tell her that. Give her that much hope.”

“False hope?” Frank asked.

“I honestly don’t know.”

Somehow knowing it was Frank, Leenie grabbed the telephone when it rang at two-thirty that afternoon. Her hand trembled as she placed the receiver to her ear.

“Hello.” Her voice quivered.

“Leenie…”

“I’ve been waiting for your call.”

“I know and I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. I’m on the road, heading back to Maysville. I should be there soon.”

She knew the news was bad; if it had been good, he’d have already told her. “The baby wasn’t Andrew, was he?”

“No, honey, it wasn’t Andrew. I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.” She swallowed. Tears welled up inside her, but did not surface. She was all cried out.

“Moran said that there’s a good chance another baby will come up for adoption soon. Maybe in a few days. The next one could be Andrew.”

“Yes, it could be.”

“Please don’t give up hope.”

She closed her eyes and willed herself to remain totally in control. Crying wouldn’t change anything. Hysterics wouldn’t help Andrew. And blaming Frank only hurt them both.

“I won’t give up hope,” she told him. “You shouldn’t either.”

“You’re right.”

“Frank?”

“Huh?”

“Thank you for going to Memphis to be there when…I’m sorry I was so rough on you yesterday. I couldn’t see beyond my own hurt to—”

“It’s okay, Slim. Honest. I didn’t mind being your whipping boy, if it helped you. God knows I’m not able to do much else to help.”

“That’s not true. Your being here helps.”

He didn’t respond for several minutes.

“Frank?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Just wishing I was already in Maysville with you. I’d really like to hold you in my arms right now.”

“Me, too. I sure could use a hug.”

“Give me about forty-five minutes and I’ll hug the life out of you.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Damn right it is.”

Kate had made herself scarce after telling Leenie she thought she’d go into town for dinner and a movie. “I need a break, if you think you’ll be okay here alone until Frank gets back.” She hadn’t fooled Leenie for a minute. Kate had left so that Leenie and Frank could be alone. But now that she heard Frank’s car pulling up in the driveway, Leenie wasn’t sure she wanted to be alone with him. She was so needy right now, so desperate to be held and comforted. What if Frank’s actions were rooted in his desire to take care of her? She didn’t want him being kind to her. She wanted him to love her.

Bracing her shoulders and willing herself to be calm, she opened the front door and waited for him. The moment she saw him, her stomach did a wicked flip-flop and sexual awareness zinged along her nerve endings. Their gazes met and held for an instant and then Frank was there, grabbing her and pulling her into his arms as he walked her backward into the house. Using his foot, he slammed the door shut. He clutched the back of Leenie’s head, his big fingers spearing into her hair. She gasped half a second before his mouth came down on hers.

He ate at her mouth, his hunger desperately obvious. She wrapped her arms around him and returned his kiss with equal fury. Rational thought ceased to exist. For her. And she suspected for him, too. They wanted each other. Needed each other.

Help me make the world go away was her last coherent thought before she tore at the buttons on Frank’s shirt. He released her only long enough to shrug off his jacket, then he shoved her backward and onto the sofa. She all but ripped off his shirt and buttons flew everywhere. They shared kiss after passionate kiss as he yanked her sweater over her head and hurriedly removed her bra. She gazed up at him when he came down over her. He blocked out the rest of the world. Life itself began and ended with Frank Latimer and with this moment out of time.

When his mouth took hold of her breast to suckle and tease, Leenie bucked up against him. His hands dipped under her to lift her hips so that she felt his pulsating erection pressing into her mound. She slid her hand between them and cupped his sex.

“I wanted to make slow sweet love to you,” he told her in a hungry, whispered rush of words. “But I don’t know if I can wait.”

“I don’t want slow and sweet.” She rubbed herself provocatively against him, naked breasts to hairy naked chest. “I need it fast and dirty.”

Her slacks landed on the floor, followed quickly by his. Her panties flew through the air and perched on a nearby lampshade. His briefs sailed off and onto the coffee table, atop a copy of Psychiatry Today.

His tongue lunged into her mouth just as he hoisted her hips upward to meet his hard, conquering thrust. He hammered into her. She went wild. Blind to everything except Frank. Deaf to everything except the beating of their hearts. Speechless, their only sounds those of grunts and groans and moans of powerful pleasure.

As they went at each other, hot, hungry passion ruling their actions, they toppled off the sofa and onto the floor. Frank rolled her over and placed her on top of him. She rode him at a frenetic pace until she came. Her climax hit her like a tidal wave. Fierce and overwhelming, wiping her out completely. Just as she cried with release, he took the dominant position and with one final stab sent himself over the edge. Growling ferociously, he jetted inside her, not giving a damn that he’d forgotten all about using a condom.

While ripples of the sexual aftermath glided through their bodies, Frank and Leenie lay in the living room floor and held each other. Naked, sated, tension drained from their bodies, he touched her tenderly as she caressed him. Those unbearably sweet moments after the loving prolonged their escape from harsh reality.

Leenie cuddled close. Frank cocooned her in his big, strong arms. She felt safe and protected. And loved.

Please, God, even if he doesn’t love me, let me hold on to that hope for a little while, just as I’m clinging to the precious hope that You will keep Andrew safe.

Frank kissed her temple. “Should we talk?”

“No. Not now. Later.”

He stood, then held out his hand to her. She rose to her feet and together they gathered up their scattered clothing and walked arm-in-arm into Leenie’s bedroom.

“How long did Kate say she’d be gone?” Frank asked.

“Long enough for an early dinner and a movie.”

He tossed his clothes on a nearby chair. She did the same.

Frank led her to the bed. She went with him willingly.

She needed Frank as she’d never needed him before, as she’d never needed another human being. Only he could share her every thought, her every feeling. He offered her solace and sweet moments of forgetfulness. Apart, their fears and worries were more than either could bear. But together, holding on to each other for dear life, they could manage to survive a few more hours…a few more days.

Chapter Seven

Leenie awakened early the next morning and for a few seconds remembered nothing except the pleasure she had experienced with Frank. He hadn’t stayed the night in her bed. After they’d made love for a second time, they had showered together, fixed sandwiches together and talked about Andrew. Being able to share this horrific experience with Andrew’s father somehow comforted her in a way she had never dreamed it could. Although there had been no promises exchanged, no words of love spoken between them, Leenie truly believed that Frank cared about her. And about Andrew. Perhaps Kate had been right. Was it possible that Frank loved her and just didn’t know it?

After slipping into her thick velour robe, Leenie ventured into the hallway. Silence permeated the house at this early hour. Perhaps Kate and Frank were both still asleep, after all it was only half past five and still dark outside. Wintertime dark. As she made her way into the kitchen, a chill racked her body. Was it a sense of foreboding or simply the chilliness of the house? She’d turn up the thermostat after she set the coffeemaker.

If only Frank had stayed in bed with her all night. Even without sex, it would have been such a comfort to have him within arm’s reach, to have been able to reach out and feel his strong presence beside her. How many times had she longed for him during her pregnancy?

Expecting the kitchen to be empty, Leenie gasped when she opened the door and found Frank sitting at the table reading the morning newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee.

“Morning.” He glanced up at her and smiled.

She returned his smile, even if it was somewhat tentative and uncertain. “Good morning.” She had no idea what last night had meant to him. Had it been nothing more than sex? Just a way to relieve the unbearable tension?

“Sleep well?” he asked.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I did.” She looked away from him and toward the coffeemaker on the counter. “Coffee. Wonderful. I could use a shot of caffeine.”

When Frank didn’t respond, she walked past him, lifted a mug from the mug rack and poured a cup of black coffee. “Is Kate still asleep?” she asked, her back to Frank.

“As far as I know. She’s still in her room.” Frank set his coffee mug on the table.

“She stayed out pretty late last night, didn’t she? She probably didn’t get to sleep until well past eleven.”

“Closer to midnight,” Frank said. “She and I stayed up for a while and talked about things.”

“About Andrew?”

“About the feds’ case involving the infant abduction ring. Kate is more than just a little interested in it, maybe even a little obsessed. I’ve never seen her quite so involved in a Dundee assignment. She’s taking your situation personally, almost as if—”

“As if she understands what it’s like to have a child kidnapped?”

Frank closed the newspaper, folded it in half and laid it aside, then looked at Leenie as she pulled out a chair and sat across from him. “Kate is a complex lady. She’s warm and friendly, but she never allows anyone to get too close.” Frank chuckled. “I can’t fault her on that, can I?”

“Maybe her relating to my predicament is nothing more than her having an empathic heart. She seems like a very kind person. I liked her when we first met last winter.” Leenie took a sip of coffee, then placed her mug on the table. “Tell me, Frank, why is it that you won’t allow anyone to get too close to you? I know your marriage ended in divorce, but—”

“I made a fool of myself over Rita.”

A surge of uncontrollable jealousy rose up inside Leenie. She hated Rita, sight unseen. “So Rita hurt you so badly that you decided to never risk being hurt again.”

“You make it sound melodramatic. It wasn’t. Just an old familiar tale. I cared more for her than she did for me. She found someone she liked better. Or should I say she met someone whose money she liked better.”

“You loved her madly, of course.”

“Of course.”

Hearing him admit it so freely stung Leenie terribly, as if he’d stabbed her in the heart with a very sharp knife. “Do you still?”

“Do I still what?”

“Love Rita.”

“Good God, no.”

“But you let what she did to you affect every aspect of your life,” Leenie said. “Even if you don’t love her now, she certainly still has a tremendous in-fluence in your life, doesn’t she?”

Frank glared at Leenie, tension etching the lines around his eyes and across his forehead. “Look, Slim, don’t try to psychoanalyze me. And don’t try to change me. I am what I am. Yeah, in part that’s thanks to Rita. And in part thanks to my mother, who was quite a bit like Rita as a matter of fact. And part of who I am is thanks to my own survival instincts. A guy who makes the same mistake twice is a fool.”

“And Frank Latimer is nobody’s fool.”

Their gazes collided, exploded, then when the metaphorical smoke cleared, he looked down at the newspaper and tapped it with his index finger. “It’s going to rain today. We might even get a little sleet.”

“Kate knows there’s something between us,” Leenie said. “That’s why she left us alone yesterday evening…why she stayed gone so long. You could have spent the night in my bed and she wouldn’t have been surprised.”

“If you’re trying to say something, just say it.” Not making eye contact with her, he picked up his mug, stood and went to the coffeemaker for a refill.

“Why didn’t you stay with me, Frank? We made love. Twice. It’s obvious that you care about me, that you care about our son. What are you so afraid of? Did you think sleeping with me all night would have been some sort of commitment, that I’d take it the wrong way and believe there was more to our relationship than there is?”

Full coffee mug in hand, he turned to face her, a somber expression on his face. “What do you want me to say?”

“Just tell me the truth. I think I deserve that much, don’t I?”

“The truth is—yeah, I care about you. I did last winter. I do now. The last thing I want to do is hurt you and if I allow you to believe we have a future together…I want to be good to you. I want to help you through this ordeal. I want to bring Andrew home to you. And I want a chance to get to know my son.”

Leenie sucked in a deep breath. Even without him saying it, she knew Frank already loved Andrew.

“When Andrew comes home, and he will, you and I will work out an arrangement so that you can be a part of his life.” Her pride in need of bolstering and not wanting Frank to suspect that he’d just broken her heart—again—Leenie forced a smile. “And don’t think that if we have sex again or even if we sleep all night together some night that I’ll start hearing wedding bells and ordering a picket fence to put up around this place. Heck, Frank, I’m the quintessential free spirit who has lost count of the men I’ve been with over the years. I don’t want to be tied down to one man any more than you want to get trapped by some woman.”

God would get her for those lies, Leenie told herself, all the while managing to keep her phony smile in place. She certainly wasn’t a simpering virgin, but she was hardly a good-time girl either. She remembered the names of her former lovers because there actually hadn’t been all that many and each time she’d been in a relationship, she had hoped he would be “the one.” But the biggest lie of all was that she didn’t want marriage. She did. Now more than ever. And not marriage to just anyone. She wanted Frank.

He narrowed his gaze as he studied her closely, as if trying to gauge the truth of her declaration. “Let me give you a little advice about men, Slim. A guy never likes to hear about a woman’s former lovers. And he especially doesn’t like to hear that there have been so many she can’t remember their names.”

Leenie laughed spontaneously. Frank was jealous. But he had no idea that he was. Why would a man be jealous of other men in a woman’s life unless he loved that woman? “Thanks for the advice. I’ll remember not to mention my former lovers to my next boyfriend.”

Frank growled quietly, then cleared his throat.

He was so jealous! It was apparent that he hated the idea of her being with another man. Past. Present. Or future.

Don’t do this to yourself, Leenie’s inner voice cautioned. Even if Frank does love you, he may never be able to admit it to himself, let alone to you.

Coming to an understanding, of sorts, they relaxed around each other. The tension between Frank and her should have eased up, and it had—to a certain extent. Beneath the calm alliance binding them together as Andrew’s parents lay an ever smoldering sexual edginess. Neither could escape a basic truth—they were in lust, if not in love. And lust was a potent motivator, not as enduring as love, but equally as powerful.

The hours passed slowly, turning the day into night and into day again. During the daylight hours, Kate and Frank kept Leenie busy and occasionally, for brief periods of time, she became so absorbed in whatever she was doing that the ache in her heart diminished a fraction. Those were moments when her entire focus was not on Andrew. But those moments were few and far between. The nighttime hours were the worst, when she lay alone in her bed, longing to hold her baby in her arms. And needing Frank at her side. It had been two days and nights since they’d made love and although he was tender and caring, he had not come to her again.

Leenie kept telling herself that he was afraid of her, of the way she made him feel. He didn’t want to love her, didn’t want a future with her, but the passion between them was something he could not ignore.

The waiting was wearing on her nerves. How much longer could she hold it together without falling completely apart again? Special Agent Dante Moran had called and talked to her. He’d told her to be patient, to keep hoping for the best, that it could well be only a matter of time before Andrew surfaced as an adoptive infant. So she clung to that hope because it might well be the only hope she had. If her baby had been taken by some woman wanting a child, she might never see him again. And if some lunatic had kidnapped Andrew, her baby was probably already dead.

Leenie shook her head, an effort to dislodge all morbid thoughts. Andrew was alive. He would come home to her. Frank kept repeating those words to her over and over again, as if he was trying desperately to convince himself as well as her.

“Are you ready to go?” Frank asked.

She nodded. “Yes, I’m ready.”

The first thing on the keep-Leenie-busy schedule for today was a visit to the hospital to see Debra, who was now resting comfortably in a private room. The doctors had said Debra might be released in a week or less. She had recovered remarkably well for a woman of sixty.

“Stay as long as you’d like,” Kate told them as they headed for the front door. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you two go out for lunch after your visit to Mrs. Schmale. I can hold down the fort here and if I get any news, I’ll phone y’all immediately.”