A Baby Before Dawn (3 page)

Shouting from a newspaper kiosk across the street saved her from having to answer. Chase glanced over his shoulder, his head cocked, his body going stone still.

“My God,” he said.

“What is it?”

“Vice President Davis has been kidnapped.”

“Is that what this blackout is all about?” she asked, shocked by the news. “Someone was after the vice president?”

“He was at the black-tie ball where I picked up the guy who ambushed me.”

“Do you think those gunmen back there are somehow involved in the kidnapping?”

“I’m going to find out.” He reached for his cell phone, hit a button with his thumb and cursed.

“What is it?” Lily asked.

“Battery’s dead.”

She might have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so dire. “What about Irma? Can you recharge the battery using the cigarette lighter?”

His eyes softened at her mention of the limo. “Too far away. I wrecked her not far from the Hancock Tower.”

She looked around the narrow, crowded streets of Chinatown, feeling uncomfortably exposed. “What do we do now?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “We need to get off the street and stay out of sight until I can figure out what’s going on.”

“You think they followed us?”

“Even if they didn’t, it’s only a matter of time until they start looking in this area.”

A chill swept over her at the thought of some unseen gunman hunting them down like animals. Already she loved her child more than her own life. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Chase was right. She needed him to stay alive.

Lily started when he took her hand. Her initial reaction was to pull away: she couldn’t risk getting too close to him. Chase Vickers was her one and only weakness, the one man in the world who could make her lose her head and forget about doing the right thing. With the baby to worry about, she couldn’t risk letting down her guard.

But she allowed him to lead her through a narrow courtyard, past a smattering of quaint shops, most of which were closed. A few of the die-hard shopkeepers who’d kept their stores open stood outside on the sidewalk, chatting in Chinese.

Lily and Chase reached a main thoroughfare. Cars jammed the intersection, engines rumbling, horns blaring. The smell of exhaust filled the still night air. Abruptly, Chase stopped. The next thing Lily knew he had grasped both her arms and ushered her quickly toward a narrow courtyard.

“What is it?” she whispered.

He pushed her against the brick of an old building and placed himself between her and the street. “We’ve got company.”

A deep chill passed through her body. She could almost
feel
the pistol sights leveled on her heart. Unnerved, Lily leaned against the brick and tried to catch her breath.

“Where?” she asked, resisting the urge to duck.

“Southwest corner. By the newsstand.”

She followed his gaze. Sure enough, the gunmen she’d encountered in the cafeteria stood at the corner, talking into a cell phone and gesturing angrily. She wished she could hear what he was saying because she was almost certain it had to do with Chase and her.

“What do we do now?” she whispered.

“I need to get my hands on a phone.”

Spinning, he urged her into a run. They sprinted through the courtyard, past a rusty fire escape and the darkened windows of a seafood shop where selections and prices were written in Chinese.

They ran for what seemed like forever. But Lily didn’t think about the discomfort or fatigue. All she could think about were the armed gunmen who obviously meant her harm. She’d always known something like this would happen. How could Chase do this to her and the baby? How could he place them in danger like this?

At the end of the block, she pulled her hand from his. Bending, she gulped deep breaths until the aching in her back subsided.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She wasn’t all right. Not by a long shot. She was frightened and angry and worried. Her physical stamina had long since run its course. “I can’t keep up this pace,” she said between pants.

“Are you in pain?”

“No, I’m just…exhausted.”

Setting his hand protectively on the small of her back, he looked around, his topaz eyes scanning the surrounding shops and fire escapes that laced the old buildings like steel spiderwebs. When his gaze met hers, Lily saw concern and a tenderness she didn’t want to acknowledge.

“There’s a homeless shelter a few blocks away,” he said. “We can rest there and try to come up with a game plan.”

“All right.”

Avoiding the more populated areas, they stuck to the shadows beneath colorful awnings and darkened neon signs. Lily usually loved Chinatown. She walked it often, buying fresh vegetables and fish when she had time to cook. But tonight, the narrow streets and alleys seemed ominous. Every stranger they passed seemed dangerous. At every corner, she found herself looking for men with guns.

Even coolheaded Chase appeared uneasy. He held her hand a little too tightly. At every intersection he made her stop so he could check both ways, even scanning the tops of the buildings and fire escapes before they crossed the street. All the while his eyes took in every detail, assessed every person they passed.

This wasn’t like Chase. He was usually the kind of man who jumped first and thought about consequences later. Tonight, his recklessness had been replaced with a caution she’d never before seen. She didn’t want to think about what that meant. Was he concerned for her and her child’s safety? Had he changed? Lily didn’t think so.

She knew he cared for her. That he would protect her with his life. But it was too little, too late. Their relationship had already been shattered beyond repair.

At the north end of Chinatown, they passed an Asian man walking a fat brown Labrador retriever. Chase surprised her by stopping him and speaking in fluent Chinese. But then she’d learned to expect the unexpected from him. He was so unpredictable, so complex and intense, Lily had always felt a little out of her element when she was with him.

Chase removed his wallet and dug out two twenty-dollar bills. The man shook his head. Chase dug out two more twenties. Smiling, the man handed him his cell phone and gave a slight bow of his head.

“Expensive phone,” she muttered.

“Worth its weight in gold if I can find out what’s going on and get us some help.” He motioned toward a dilapidated building at the end of the block. A hand-painted sign welcomed them to the Joy Family Shelter of Boston.

The homeless shelter was nestled in a brick structure that had once been a textile factory. Plywood splattered with graffiti covered the windows. A colorful mural depicting a Chinese parade replete with fire-breathing dragons graced the brick facade.

At the door a white-haired man with a tiny matching goatee smiled at them. “Welcome to Joy Family Shelter,” he said in broken English.

Chase dug another twenty from his wallet and handed it to the man. Despite her unhappiness with him, his generosity touched her.

They entered a darkened foyer that opened to a large, rectangular room. A single battery-powered lantern sat on a bookcase, casting shadows onto scarred plaster walls and illuminating a dozen or so cots. Several were occupied by sleeping figures, many of which were women and children.

Chase led Lily down another hall and into a second, smaller room. In the darkness he found two folded cots in the far corner and proceeded to unfold and set them up.

Lily knew they wouldn’t be safe here for long. But she’d never been so glad to see a cot in her life. Her back ached with increasing intensity, telling her she needed to get off her feet, at least for a little while.

“You look dead exhausted.”

Bad word choice, she thought. Chase had unfolded a single blanket and set a thin pillow on the cot. For her, she realized. “I’m pregnant, not sick.”

“You need to rest while you can.”

“It’s hard to relax knowing men with guns are out there wanting to kill me.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He patted the cot. “Come on, Lily. I’m worried about you. You’re pale. Lie down for a few minutes.”

Under any other circumstances Lily would have refused. She didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to be with him. She wanted to go home where she would be safe and the world was predictable. But she could no longer ignore the ache in her back. She’d been on her feet far too long. At this stage of her pregnancy, she didn’t want to push her luck.

“What about you?” she asked, her gaze flicking to the bloodstain on his shirt. In the darkness it appeared black.

“I’m fine.”

“It’s a bullet wound, isn’t it?”

“It’s a graze.”

She shook her head, disbelieving he could be so flippant about something as serious as a gunshot wound. “God, this is
so
you, Chase.”

“I’ll take care of it as soon as we’re safe.”

“And when will that be?”

Grimacing, he lowered his eyes, but only for a moment. “Have you eaten?”

Back at the hospital, she’d been famished, but the terror and adrenaline had stolen her appetite. “No, but I’m not hungry.”

“There’s a soup kitchen in the back,” he said. “Let me see if I can rouse a volunteer and get you something to eat.”

Too tired to argue, Lily sat on the cot.

Before she realized what he was going to do, Chase leaned close and lifted her feet onto the thin mattress. “Lie down.” One side of his mouth curved. “Might be your last chance for a while.”

She looked at him as he leaned his tall, sinewy frame over her, his long, unruly hair framing his face. She couldn’t see it in the dark, but she recalled the jagged white scar above his left eye. He looked even better than she remembered.

His voice sounded so sincere, so concerned, she did as he said. The moment she stretched out, all the adrenaline that had fueled her for the past seventeen hours ebbed. Her muscles went slack as exhaustion staked its claim on her body. She didn’t want Chase to leave her, but she’d rather cut off her right hand than admit he made her feel safe.

He must have noticed her uneasiness, because he hung back. “You’ll be all right here, Lily.”

The way he said it almost made her believe it. Almost. But almost wasn’t good enough. “It’s not just me I have to worry about now.”

She felt his gaze drill into her with an intensity that left her breathless. “At some point we’re going to have to talk about that.”

Not now, was all she could think. She was too exhausted to face his questions and the truth she’d hidden for seven-and-a-half months. It wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. Lily had decided the moment she’d found out she was pregnant that she would never let Chase Vickers know his child.

Aidan Shea couldn’t believe they’d gotten away. He’d been so close he could smell Vickers’s fear. He could see the terror white on the woman’s face. He’d reveled in both, and hoped he could make good on all the things he had planned for them.

So far, those carefully laid plans had done nothing but blow up in his face.

He’d been meticulous in building his strategy. Months of planning and hundreds of hours of work had gone into this operation. He’d paid tens of thousands of dollars for the explosives blueprint. He’d dealt with men he wouldn’t turn his back on, lest he risk a knife between his ribs. He’d spent six months building two utterly flawless bombs—devices powerful enough to take out both power plants in the city and inflict enough damage so that it would be days before electricity was restored.

Every aspect of the operation had been analyzed to the last detail, every variable countered with a constant. Every second had been synchronized so that the timing was perfect.

What the hell had gone wrong?

The question nagged like a migraine. But Aidan knew the answer. Chase Vickers was what had gone wrong. Evidently, the son of a bitch had nine lives and the luck of a gambler. Aidan had heard the man was good. Still, he’d underestimated him. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

Disappointment ate at him, but he wasn’t unduly worried. Not yet, anyway. The game was still in its early stages. And he was, after all, a driven man—and with good reason. This mission was his life’s work. He had an old score to settle—for himself and his father. Come hell or high water, he would see it through to the end.

The cell phone clipped to his belt vibrated. Glancing at the display window, he smiled and hit Talk.

“Did you get the woman?” He recognized the voice on the other end. His father. Liam Shea.

“She escaped.”

“How did that happen?”

“Vickers showed up.”

“Interesting development.”

“I thought so.”

“Watch him. He’s very good at what he does.”

“Yeah, well, so am I.”

A tense silence ensued, then Liam asked. “Where are they now?”

“Somewhere in Chinatown,” Aidan replied.

“I don’t like this. You need to find them. If you have to, kill the woman now. She’s expendable.”

“With all due respect, I think that would be premature at this point. She’s our ace in the hole.”

“I’m willing to sacrifice her to get my hands on Vickers. I want that son of a bitch on his knees and begging when I put a bullet in his brain.”

“Rest assured, he’ll beg. If not for his own life, for hers.” Aidan thought of the woman’s condition and smiled. “She’s pregnant.”

“His?”

“The timing is right.”

“No matter. He’s weak when it comes to women. The child’s parentage won’t matter. When we kill her, it will have even more impact.” He made a sound low in his throat. “What about the other part of the mission?”

The bomb, Aidan thought, and smiled. He’d planted the high-power explosives himself in a very central location that would have a maximum impact of terror on the good citizens of Boston.

“Done,” he said.

“Excellent.” Liam Shea sighed. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

“It won’t be long now.”

“Let’s stick to the plan as closely as possible, but if you have to divert to get the job done, do it.”

“Understood.”

“Find them, Aidan.” Urgency laced his father’s voice.

“I’ve got two of our best men on it. They’re like bloodhounds. I’m certain Vickers and the bitch are here in Chinatown. I’ve got a couple of snitches with sharp eyes. I’ll ask around. Rest assured, we’ll find them.”

“Let me know the instant you do. I want to be smiling when Vickers dies.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Breaking the connection, Aidan clipped the phone to his belt and set out to find Vickers and the pregnant woman.

“L
ILY
.”

Chase placed the paper plate of crackers, cheese and fruit on the beat-up table next to the cot where she lay sleeping. He’d been gone only a few minutes, but already she was out cold, a sure sign of complete physical exhaustion.

Taking in the pale cast of her complexion, he felt a quick and savage twinge of guilt. Intellectually he knew this wasn’t his fault. Not directly, anyway. But he’d always known his work with Eclipse might catch up with him one day. He’d known it could place the people he cared about at risk. It was one of the reasons he avoided close relationships.

But those dangers hadn’t been enough to keep him from his work. It sure as hell hadn’t been enough to keep him from getting involved with Lily.

Lowering himself onto the cot next to hers, he put his elbows on his knees and rubbed at the ache behind his eyes. “What a mess,” he muttered.

Remembering the cell phone he’d commandeered from the Asian man, he pulled it from his pocket and again dialed his half brother, Shane Peters. When it went to voice mail, he left another message and dialed Ty’s number. Another layer of uneasiness washed over him when Ty didn’t answer. It was unusual for either man not to answer. What the hell was going on?

Chase forced his mind back to the ambush in the limo and tried to think of who might be responsible and why. A frightening number of faces and names came to mind. Vicious men he’d played a role in bringing to justice. Had one of them targeted Lily in the name of revenge? If so, who had the resources for such a well-orchestrated attack?

Chase racked his brain, but time and time again he found his eyes straying to the woman a few feet away. In the shimmering yellow light of the battery-powered lantern, her face looked angelic. She lay curled on her side with both hands tucked beneath her pillow. Her knees were drawn up slightly. She was so beautiful it hurt just to look at her. The pain twisted like a dull knife between his ribs.

He could just make out the soft curves of her full breasts and the bulge of her belly. The reality that she was pregnant hit him like a sledgehammer. He couldn’t get that out of his mind. He still couldn’t quite believe it.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered.

But Chase knew why. She’d never approved of his penchant for risk taking, the secret work that took him away and sent him home battered and bruised. In the past he’d always written off her lack of support as a lack of understanding, or an over-reaction based on emotion. Now that he’d brought danger into her life, he knew he’d been wrong. He’d placed her baby—
his
baby—in jeopardy. The only question that remained was how he was going to keep them safe and make things right.

Chase didn’t have a clue.

He’d been half in love with Lily Garrett from the moment he’d laid eyes on her three years ago. She was everything he was not, his polar opposite in every way. While he liked being on the road, bouncing from one city to another, one foreign country to the next, she tended to be a homebody. She preferred routine and familiarity. He thrived on danger and living life by the seat of his pants. She had a level head. He was as reckless as a storm-tossed sea.

He’d always believed those contrasts were one of the reasons they’d been drawn to each other with such power and passion. While that was true in many ways, those stark differences were also what had ultimately torn them apart. The truth of that hurt more than he wanted to admit.

Raised in a series of foster homes since the age of ten, Chase had never known the familiarity and comfort of family. The series of families who’d raised him had been virtual strangers—and they’d treated him as such. He’d grown up alone with a chip on his shoulder and no close ties. Then he met Lily and for the first time in his life he knew what it was like to connect with another human being.

He met her when a mission left him with a broken arm. His brother had taken him to the New England Medical Center emergency room. While Chase sat on the gurney, Lily walked in and began treating him. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. He liked to laugh about it now, but he’d always secretly thought that was the night he’d fallen in love with her.

It took six tries in the following weeks, but he’d finally convinced her to go out with him. Once she did, his fate was sealed. She was the only pure and innocent thing in his life, and he’d always looked upon her with a sort of reverence. She was like a long, deep breath of fresh air after weeks of stagnant city smog. A month into their relationship he’d invited her to his cabin home on the jagged Maine coast. He’d taken her for a ride on his speedboat. She’d asked him to slow down; he’d gone faster. That night, they’d made love for the first time. The experience had rocked his world. That was when Chase realized he was in over his head. Him. Mr. Independent. Mr. Love ’em and Leave ’em. Lily, the levelheaded emergency room nurse who thrived on all that was normal in the world, had become the center of his.

Over the next few months, he saw her as much as he could between missions. But after the first year or so, the injuries he sustained while on missions, his disappearing for weeks at a time without a word, began to take a heavy toll on their relationship. Finally, when he came back from North Africa with a closed head injury, Lily had asked him to choose: her or his work. Instead of listening with his heart, Chase had listened with his ego. In the end she’d walked away, and like the ass he was, he’d let her go.

It was the beginning of the end.

For months, he’d assured himself he’d done the right thing. He didn’t want a woman telling him what to do or how to live his life. During that time, his tactics during missions became increasingly reckless. He volunteered for the most dangerous assignments. Assignments most sane men did their best to steer clear of. It was almost as if he were tempting fate to take a swipe at him. Then a shattered femur laid him up for several weeks. Alone in his cabin with nothing but time to think about his life—about Lily and all he’d lost—he realized how foolish he’d been for letting her go.

With his leg in a cast, he’d driven from Maine to Boston and gone directly to her apartment. There had been no romance or flowers or even a candlelit dinner. One look, one kiss, and he’d taken her down on the floor, where they’d made desperate, passionate love. Afterward, realizing what he’d done, Chase left before daylight. That had been seven and a half months ago, and he hadn’t seen Lily since.

Until tonight.

As he looked at her sleeping form, a yearning for something profound but elusive tugged hard at him. The only time he felt whole was when he’d been with Lily. He’d tried to find fulfillment elsewhere by throwing himself into his work. But he hadn’t succeeded. Now she was in danger, his baby was in danger, and it was his fault.

“Vickers, you’re an idiot,” he muttered into the darkness.

Sighing, Chase pulled the cell phone from his pocket and checked his service. Three bars. Why, then, weren’t Shane or Ty calling him back?

Undeterred, he called the only other person he could think of: Ben Parker, an FBI agent stationed in the Boston area, whom he’d met several months ago through Shane.

Ben picked up on the first ring with a curt utterance of his name.

“Are you the only person in this friggin’ town who answers his phone?” Chase asked.

“Busy night, bro.”

“What’s going on?”

“You mean aside from all hell breaking loose?” Ben’s laugh was strained. “Someone tried to get to Shane tonight.”

Chase closed his eyes. “He okay?”

“Narrow escape, but he’s fine.”

Relief swept through him with such force that for a moment he couldn’t speak.

“You there?” Ben asked.

“Yeah.” But his mind was reeling. That he had been ambushed just an hour ago was no coincidence.

Concern trickled through Chase as dark possibilities rose like a storm inside him. “They tried to get to me, too, Ben.”

The other man’s curse burned through the line. “You in one piece?”

“I’m fine.”

“You able to ID them?”

“There was something familiar about one of the men, but I’m certain I’ve never seen him before.”

“How did it happen?”

Chase described the ambush. Thinking of his limo, he frowned. “Wrecked Irma.”

“Hopefully the looters won’t get her.”

“Thanks for planting that thought.” His next statement made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. “Ben, they tried to kill Lily.”

“Lily Garrett? The nurse you—”

“That’s the one,” Chase interjected, not wanting him to finish the sentence.

“Damn. Is she all right?”

“She’s with me.”

“Good. Keep her with you. I don’t have to tell you these bastards mean business.”

Chase glanced down at the graze on his arm where the pain was coming to life. “No, you don’t.”

“If they tried to get to Lily, that means they tailed you. They researched her.”

“If they were able to tail me without me noticing, they’re probably professionals. They’ve probably got some connections.”

The other man fell silent. Tension traveled through the line. Chase got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Any idea who might be behind this?”

“Not yet, but we’ve got people on it,” Ben said after a moment. “I don’t know if this ties in, but the vice president has been kidnapped.”

“I heard.” He got that prickly sensation again. “Vice President Davis was at the black-tie affair where I picked up the client who ambushed me. There’s got to be a connection.”

“We’re trying to figure out what it is.”

“You think the blackout is part of this?”

“I hope not, but we’re not ruling out anything at this point. We’ve got BP&L crews working on both power stations.”

“I didn’t realize there were two plants.”

“One in Charlestown, across the river, and the other in South Boston.”

“You think it was sabotage?”

A pause ensued. “We’ve had unsubstantiated reports of simultaneous explosions, but nothing has been verified as of yet. Because of the power outage, communication has been hit or miss.” He paused. “We’re vulnerable, Chase. And prime for another attack.”

The news struck him like a ton of bricks. Chase almost couldn’t believe it. His mind scrolled through possible explanations. Random terrorism from some fanatical group. The kidnapping of the vice president by some homegrown political nutcase. But when you threw in synchronized ambushes on him and his brother, he knew there was another possibility that hit much closer to home.