Baby Daddy (10 page)

“Great,” Dallas reached out and
flipped open one of the books.  “Can I get a tablet, a pen and calculator?”

“
The supply closet is at the end of the hall.  Help yourself.  We have laptops for each of you.”  Christopher looked around at us and we all nodded except for Liberty.  He pointed to a locked file cabinet in the corner of the room.  “In there are the active cases.  Look through them and you’ll see what sort of things we deal with on a daily basis.  Some might spark your interest and you can partner with the investigator handling it.”

That sounded in
triguing.  I may not be a computer whiz like Tulsa or a legal expert-to-be like Dallas, but I liked puzzles, and I was logical and usually had good intuition. 
Except when it came to men
.

We
exited the conference room, walked across the lobby to the double doors. Christopher pulled one heavy door open, reached inside and flipped a light switch.  Several long rows of florescent lights flashed on, illuminating a large, open warehouse lined with shelves all the way to the top of the high ceiling.  A forklift was parked off to the side, obviously used to place the various items on those shelves.

It was an odd mix of things, from furniture to sculptures to musical instruments and electronics of all kinds.  Everything was clean and well labeled with a
n alphabetic/numeric system that I was sure was some sort of code.

We were all a little overwhelmed as we walked in and wandered around.

“What the fuck!” Reno exclaimed from one corner of the warehouse.  “Who does the 911 GT3 belong to?”

“
Nice Porsche, isn’t it?” Christopher walked over to the shiny red sports car and smiled. “It belongs to the agency...sort of.  One of our clients, a famous singer, died mid-case.  His wife had run off with his manager, and, as you can imagine, our client was a little bitter.  He left everything to Roger in his will.  Harlan is working on straightening that one out.  The Audi over there was payment on one of our other divorce cases…from a very happy ex-wife.”

“Three Harleys, a Ducati and a 1910 Indian,” Reno practically drooled on the spotless machines.  “I bet that thing would sell for nearly $400,000, wouldn’t it Christopher?”

“I hope so.  The judge awarded it to us as payment for fees, but I haven’t found anyone I would trust with the sale.  You know someone?”

“I might.  He’s in California, but I’ll send him a picture.”  Reno took out his phone and snapped photo
s from several angles.  Then he swung his leg over one and settled on the leather seat as if he was about to hit the road.  “I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

“Yeah, that’s what happened to the guy who owned that.  Or, maybe not heaven
...who knows?” Christopher told him.

T
hat fact didn’t seem to bother Reno in the least.

We walked
past several sets of shelves that were loaded with fine crystal.  “Same thing with these?”  I asked as I stopped to examine a large black glass horse.

Christopher waved his arm in a circle.  “Yes, as i
s most of the stuff in here.  Some is agency property and some we’re holding for clients that are involved in messy financial or marital situations.  Don’t ever move or take anything out of here without checking on its status and signing for it.”  He  pointed toward a large overhead door on the far left end of the building, “Out back, we have a fenced employee parking lot.  Actually, it’s more of a wall for security and privacy.  Some of our clients prefer anonymity.  No one passing by can see who’s here unless they catch them driving in or out.  I’ll give you the codes and keys this week.”

We passed
about a dozen cardboard boxes with what looked like dates on them and the words
ROGER – PRIVATE
printed on them.  “What are these?” I asked.

Christopher explained.
“All of Roger’s tour mementoes.  He found them in his tour bus when he was cleaning it out last year.  It had been parked at Scandals ever since Roger quit the band.”

“I didn’t see it there,” Dallas pointed out.

“No, Roger sold it at a charity auction.  He left these boxes here and meant to go through them...but I guess he never got the chance.”

He
looked around for a handcart.  “Let’s take these to the conference room.  Maybe y’all would like to go through them.”  Christopher pulled one of the boxes off the shelf and almost tripped over Liberty who was sitting on the floor, surrounded by kittens.

“Who do these belong to?” she asked as she picked up a tiny calico and cuddled it against her cheek.

“The momma cat is our exterminator.  Her name is Gypsy,” Christopher explained.  As if she knew she was being talked about, a bigger version of the calico kitten jumped down from one of the shelves and rubbed against Liberty’s arm.  “She must have sneaked out to see a secret boyfriend because a couple months ago, she had this litter.  They’re old enough to be given away, but we haven’t had time to deal with it.”

“They’re adorable.”
  Liberty laughed as the kittens tumbled and played with each other.

As I looked down at her I noticed she
was more relaxed and comfortable than I had seen her since this
vacation
began.  Maybe she truly did belong more in the commune than here.  I hated to think that because of all my half-siblings, I liked being around her the most.

The guys loaded up the handcart with boxes, took them to the conference room and stacked them in the corner.  After three trips, the shelf was empty and Christopher returned the handcart to its spot in the warehouse.

“I thought we’d spend the rest of the day on Lake Travis,” Christopher suggested.  “Roger has a pontoon boat we can use.  It’s got a big enough engine that we can ski if you want or just drink beer and fish or paddle board.

Everyone eagerly agreed, so we headed
out of the warehouse.

“Can someone catch the lights?
” Christopher called back since he was leading the way.

“I got it,” Reno spoke from behind me.  He gave the cars and motorcycles one last, longing look, then switched off the lights and closed the double doors behind him.  I think those vehicles were the deciding factor for him.  Even the lure of bright lights and Vegas strippers seemed to have dimmed at the pr
omise of being part owner of so many high-end toys.

“Everyone gets in here around eight on Monday.  We have a group meeting where they all give updates on their cases, we talk about new ones and someone either volunteers or is assigned to them.  It would be a good opportunity for you to meet your staff and g
et a crash course on what we do,” Christopher told them as he locked the conference room door.  He glanced at his watch.  “Anthony should be here any minute.  I’ll ride with you tonight and pick up my car later.”

He led the way outside, and we all followed behind like little ducks in a row.  I, for one, would be glad when we were on our own a little more and not always traveling in a group.  The social part was fun, but this whole follow-the-leader stuff was getting annoying.

Anthony hadn’t arrived, but we found a spot of shade under a scraggly oak tree in front of the building, so it wasn’t too uncomfortable standing outside.

“Oh no!” Liberty cried.  “The kitten’s loose.”

We all turned and saw that somehow, the little calico kitten had managed to follow us from the warehouse, through the office and out of the building.  Considering the constant confusion of moving the boxes and such a large group of people around from place to place, I wasn’t really surprised.

Liberty ran over to the kitten and scooped her up. 
The tiny animal loudly purred her appreciation.  “Unlock the door and I’ll put her back with her mom.”

Christopher punched in the security code and opened the door for her.  She didn’t bother with the overhead lights because the glass in the front door let in enough light for her to see.  We all waited outside while she did her good deed.

“We can stop by the store and pick up some beer and food,” Christopher suggested.  “There are ice chests on the boat, but we’ll need ice and . . .”

BOOM!

The sound rumbled from the building and shook the ground, momentarily muffled by the walls, then magnified as the force of the blast sent the front door flying, separating the metal frame from the bullet-proof glass.  The glass flew out like a lethal Frisbee, burying itself in the tree at exactly the level where our heads had been only seconds before, had we not been knocked to the ground by the shockwave.  A  cloud of black smoke and particles of debris billowed out the open doorway, followed quickly by the shriek of the smoke detectors.

I scrambled to my feet.  “Liberty’s in there!” I shouted.  Without pausing to think, I ran inside.

CHAPTER TEN

“Killeen, don’t go in there!
” someone called, but I didn’t stop.

As soon as I was in
the building, all I could hear was the roar of the fire and the deafening scream of the alarms.  The air was thick and smoky and filled my lungs with my first breath.  I tried to remember the layout of the room because it was so dark that I couldn’t see further than a few feet in front of me.  I bumped into the receptionist’s desk and felt my way around the edge, heading toward the warehouse where the flames seemed to be coming from.  My subconscious registered that the doors must be gone because the glow of the fire lit up the cavernous room.

“Liberty!
” I screamed, then immediately choked and started coughing.  It felt like my lungs were on fire.  There were no flames around me and yet the air itself was super-hot like I had stepped into a pizza oven.

“Liberty!
” I called again, my voice raspier and not as loud.  When I was in elementary school, some firemen had come to my class and told us if we were ever in a burning room to get lower where the smoke wouldn’t be so bad.  I dropped to my knees and found out he was right.  The smoke wasn’t so thick and I could breathe a little easier.  Now I could see the outline of one of the doors leaning against the back of the receptionist’s chair and supported by the desk.  Sheltered in the small open area beneath it was Liberty, curled into a ball.  I could only assume that when the doors blew out, she had been swept along.  The heavy door had probably taken the brunt of the blow, protecting her, and luckily, the desk had kept the door from crushing her...unless it shifted or there was another explosion.  I knew I had to hurry.

I crawled
forward, trying hard to ignore that the closer I got to her, the closer I was to the flames.  The temperature seemed to increase ten degrees with every inch.  It smelled like burning paper, combined with the acrid odor of gunpowder, reminding me of the times I had gone to the range with my step-father and shot shotguns.  I remembered seeing some guns on the shelves in the warehouse.  My hope was that there hadn’t been any ammunition stored there, too.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, the sprinkler system activated and a shower of water rained down.  It felt good for a second
until the hot air turned it into steam, stinging my skin and making visibility much worse.

I shook Liberty, but she didn’t move.  “Liberty, wake up
!  We’ve got to get out of here!”  My voice was little more than a whisper now, drowned out by the pounding in my ears.  I grabbed a handful of her blouse and pulled her toward me.

The second
she cleared from under the door, I scooped her up into my arms and stumbled to my feet.  She didn’t weigh much, and I’d been doing some weight training, so it wasn’t a burden, but now that I was upright again, I was back in the worst of the smoke and spraying water.  My bangs were plastered to my forehead and drained water into my eyes.  I shook my head and blinked, trying to clear my vision so I could head toward the stream of light that indicated where the front door had been.

Christopher met me in the doorway where he took Liberty from me and carried her out to the parking lot.  I
stumbled outside, where I gulped in deep breaths of air and started coughing again.  My legs felt like noodles and I sank to the ground against the building.  It hurt to breathe, so I took short, shallow breaths and leaned forward with my head between my knees.  Tears streamed from my burning eyes and sooty snot flowed out of my nose.  Sirens screamed as a fire engine, a ladder truck and an ambulance pulled into the parking area and screeched to a stop.

Reno, Tulsa and Dallas ran back and forth, checking on me, then Liberty, then back to me.

“Oh my God, I couldn’t believe you ran in there,” Tulsa declared with a genuine look of concern on her face.

“I was right behind you,” Reno told her, “but Christopher held me back.”

“Hey, girl, you’re braver...or crazier than I am,” Dallas said, his voice full of new respect.

I waved weakly at them, forced to choose between talking and breathing.  A
female paramedic ran up to me and held an oxygen mask to my face.  The pure air filled my lungs and snapped me awake.  She let me take several deep breaths.

“We’ve got a critical patient over there, and we need to get you both to the hospital,” she said.

“No, I’m fine.”  I lifted the mask and tried to shake my head vigorously, but it moved in slow motion.  “Take care of my sister.”  It was the first time I had called her that, and it slipped off my tongue easily.

“My partner is
with her,” the paramedic explained.  “I need to get you to the ambulance.  Can you walk?”

“Of course, I can,” I declared and tried to rise, but my shaky legs betrayed me and refused to support my weight.

Christopher stepped out from behind the paramedic.  I hadn’t even realized he was there, but he bent down, put a strong arm around my waist and lifted me to my feet.  My feet tried to walk, but I suspected he was doing all the work as we crossed the short distance to the ambulance.

They already had Liberty immobilized on a backboard and loaded on a gurney inside.  Christopher moved his hands to my waist.

“I can do it,” I protested, very aware of how close he was.  I was tall and slender, but I wasn’t a lightweight.  I was very afraid he wouldn’t be able to lift me which would embarrass us both.

“Are you always getting into trouble?” he admonished softly, but there was no censure in his voice and something that looked like fear in his eyes.  To my surprise, he picked me up easily and set me on my feet on the floor of the ambulance.  As the paramedic climbed in after me, he added
to her, “Don’t listen to Killeen.  She needs to be checked out.  There’s no telling what sort of fumes she breathed in there.”

The paramedic nodded and pulled the door shut.  “He’s right, you know,” she told me.
“Why don’t you sit on the bench?”

I wanted to protest, but I felt like shit.  I was actually relieved when she slipped the oxygen mask over my face again.

“Are you able to hold this up?”

I nodded.  She strapped
the seatbelt around my waist and was taking my pulse as the ambulance started driving away.  I looked over at Liberty who still wasn’t moving.  She, too, had an oxygen mask on.  The female medic quickly took my vitals, which must not have been dangerously high or whatever she was checking for because she smiled at me, reassured me that I would be fine, then focused her full attention on Liberty.  Underneath the layer of soot that had been streaked into black trails by the water, her skin was deathly pale.

We reached the hospital in just a few minutes and I was hustled to a curtained off area in the ER and couldn’t see where they took Liberty.  The nurse helped me lie down on the narrow bed and spread a thin blanket over me.  She repeated the ritual of taking my vitals and snapped a small oxygen/heart-rate monitor on my finger.  I realized I was shivering as if I was freezing.  “I’m cold,” I spoke through chattering teeth.

She smiled and nodded.  “You’re probably going into shock.  I’ll get you another blanket out of the warmer.  She hooked a clear tube to an oxygen tank, placed two plastic things in my nose and looped the tube around my ears to keep it in place.  “This is a nasal cannula,” she explained.  “Just lie back and breathe normally.  I’ll be right back.”

The tank pushed oxygen into my nose like a gentle breeze and I relaxed back against the pillow.  As promised the nurse returned quickly and spread a toasty warm blanket over me, all the way up to my chin.  I snuggled beneath it, trying to stop shaking.

A young doctor who didn’t look old enough to be out of med school walked in and studied my chart.  “I hear you were quite heroic.”

I shook my head.  “I didn’t do anything special.  Is my sister okay?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll find out as soon as we get you settled.”

The doctor stepped closer
, lifted my eyelids and looked at my bloodshot eyes.  “Are you hurting anywhere?” he asked as he took my left arm out from under the blanket and ran his hands down it, checking the bones.

“Just my lungs,” I croaked out.  “And my throat.”

“That’s to be expected,” he said as he moved down to my left leg, then to my right.  Nothing seems to be broken, but I’d like to do an x-ray.  Are you pregnant?”

My eyes darted around as I looked for anyone who might overhear my answer.  The curtain was pulled, and I
couldn’t tell if someone I knew was on the other side.  This was my worst fear come true.  The only time I’d ever spoken it out loud was when I told Brandon…and we all know how that worked out.  But I had to be honest.  I didn’t want the radiation to make my baby grow two heads or something.

I gave him a tight nod.  “I think so.  I took a test and it was positive.”

“Oh,” he said and made notes on my chart.  “So, you haven’t consulted a doctor yet?”

“No,” I answered.

He gave me a reassuring smile.  “Then we will check that out, too.  Is your husband or boyfriend around?  Do you want us to contact him?”

“No, he’s not in the pi
cture.  And . . .” I hesitated. “This is kind of a secret.”

“I understand.”  He wrote more notes on my chart and underlined them.  “Your medical conditions and treatments are completely private, so you don’t have anything to worry about.”

They kept me in the ER for another hour, constantly checking my vitals.  Other than my lungs and my airway that the doctor told me were a little scorched, I felt much better.  The oxygen cleared my head, but, in the back of my mind, was the constant worry about the baby.  I still didn’t know if I wanted to keep it, but I realized I’d do anything to protect it.

I actually loved biology and had excelled in all my classes. 
Unfortunately, the information about pregnancy and babies had focused more on preventing them than what happened after the birth control failed.  I had no idea how big the fetus was or if it had a heartbeat yet or, more to the point of the moment, how hardy it was.  Had my impulsive rescue damaged my baby?

Tears filled my eyes and the saltiness stung my irritated corneas.  I felt so out of control right now.  All my life, I had been able to pick my own path, and if I worked hard, I usually achieved my goal
s.  But now, this surprise pregnancy, Brandon fleeing to Europe, Roger and his whole horny lack of self-control and me being stupid and possibly injuring or killing my baby made me frightened and helpless.

Which was ironic since I hadn’t completely ruled out an abortion.  Maybe the decision had been taken out of my hands.  If there was no baby, my life could go back to normal, couldn’t it?  Then why did the thought of the baby being dead make me so depressed?

They finally transferred me to a room.  Thankfully, I was able to take a shower, which, after I looked at my image in the mirror, was my number one priority.  I peeled off the blue pantsuit, that I was sad to see was totally ruined, and dropped it into the garbage can.

The hot water hurt my skin which looked like I had gotten a sunburn on all the areas that had been exposed.  The nurse had left me a hideous hospital gown that had seen a hundred washes too many, but at least it was soft against my prickly skin.  I had barely climbed into bed when the nurse returned, slipped the cannula back around my ears and in my nose, turned on a slow flow of oxygen, wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my arm and clipped that little oxygen thing on my finger again.

“Your friends stopped by, but we told them you weren’t ready for visitors yet,” the nurse said.

“How is my sister, Liberty Hernandez?” I asked.

“I checked on her before I came in here, and she is still in surgery.”

“What?”  I sat up so abruptly that I almost jerked
my tube off.  “She’s in surgery?”

The nurse gently, but firmly pushed me back down.  “She’s going to be okay.  She was very lucky and suffered only a broken ankle, a
mild concussion and smoke inhalation.  They’re setting her ankle now.”  The nurse nodded to the empty bed next to mine.  “We’ve arranged to have her moved in here as soon as she is out of the recovery room.”

I heaved a sigh of relief.  “Could you let my friends know I’m ready now?”

The nurse nodded and turned to leave.

“Uh…could I ask you one more thing?” I called out hesitantly.

“Of course.”

“Do you think my baby is okay?” I asked.

The nurse gave me a sympathetic look.  “How far along are you?”

“Maybe six weeks?”

“That’s too soon to hear the heartbeat.  The doctor will give you a complete examination tomorrow.  But right now, you need to try to relax and rest.  If you feel any cramps or pain or see any spotting, let us know right away.”

“So, I just have to wait and see?”

“Babies are tough.  They make it through car accidents and falls.  Your uterus provides a natural protective barrier,” the nurse’s voice was kind and reassuring.  “Sometimes we have to wait and see what nature has planned.”

That was not necessarily the answer I wanted, but I felt a little better.  At least I knew what to watch for if I was going to miscarry.  She left the room and I pulled the blanket up to my waist.  The gown tied in the back and provided little privacy when I was walking around.  But in bed, I was adequately covered even though I didn’t have any underwear on.