Deadly Secrets (53 page)

Nothing else could be proven, he thought, nothing.

Chapter 38

The waiting room was full to bursting with Kinncaids and law enforcement officials. The Richardsons were even there, so someone had contacted them about her baby being found. Sadly, she hadn’t thought of it.

Ella didn’t want to leave, but Quinlan had finally made her go get some water at least.

“How is she?” Ian asked, leaning against the wall.

She stopped and could only look at him. “She’s . . . she’s fine. She’ll be fine, or so they tell us. Her oxygen levels are better and she responds to our voices.”

“Of course she does, you’re her mother,” he told her. An older couple had stood up when she’d come in. Quin’s parents. She looked back at Ian. “She knows her father’s voice. I saved all his voice messages to my sim card, so I still had them when I got my new phone. I played them to her. And a video I made of him back in New Orleans when he came to see me and he was singing,” she admitted quietly.

“You’re smiling.”

“Just remembering.”

“Does he know you played his voice for her?”

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t told him yet. One day I will.”

Her hands started to shake and she rubbed her forehead. “I’m not dreaming, am I? Please say I’m not.”

Ian, always so serious, laughed. “No. You’re here, she’s here, he’s here. You’re all here together. With most of our interfering asses as well, and I’m told the others will be arriving later tonight.”

Taking a deep breath, she stepped closer to him, noticed when he stiffened and then quickly leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

“I really didn’t do much, you know.”

“You were there for him when I couldn’t be.”

“I’ll figure out a way you can pay me back,” he told her, grinning. “Maybe babysitting sometime.”

She laughed.

The older couple stepped forward. The woman had graying red hair and looked familiar.

Quinlan, Ella realized. The woman resembled Quinlan.

“Welcome to the family, Ella. I’m Kaitlyn.”

Ella swallowed, looked from the woman who was neatly dressed to the man beside her with his bushy white hair, back to Ian.

“Yeah, they made it, were actually at the hotel when the excitement happened in the parking lot. We’ve all been waiting to hear about the baby, and I’ll warn you now, they’re dying to see the newest addition to the family.” Ian nodded behind. “Where’s Quin?”

“We don’t want to leave her alone and he said I needed to get some water or something. He’s being bossy.”

Kaitlyn handed her a water bottle. “Here. We’ve all had the water bottles for a while. Jock keeps shoving them on me. I told him I’m not thirsty, but he doesn’t listen.”

“That’s what I told Quin.”

Kaitlyn stepped forward and hugged her. For a moment, Ella stiffened and then slowly hugged her back.

“Yes, well, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, dear, Kinncaid men like to get their way.”

For the first time in way too long, she laughed. “I’ve sort of noticed that about them.
All
of them, or at least the ones I’ve spent time with, and I honestly thought Quinlan was the most laid-back of the bunch.”

“Oh no, dear. That would be Brayden, or maybe Gavin. The twins are more laid-back than the other three. Ian’s too intense and will end up with high blood pressure if he doesn’t slow down. Aiden worries about everyone, like Ian and Quinlan. Quinlan’s always tried to prove . . . well, something.”

She just looked at this woman who was talking to her when she had every right to hate her. “Quinlan has nothing to prove.” She met her mother-in-law’s eyes. “Not a thing to anyone.”

The woman smiled, and it was Quinlan’s single-dimpled smile. “Oh, I know that. I’m glad to see you do as well.”

For a minute they just stared at her. Ella looked at the man behind this lady and sort of nodded to him before she uncapped the water and played with it for a minute. Finally, she asked, “You want to see her? I’ll ask them to raise the blinds so you can see her.”

The older man cleared his throat. “Does she have a name? No one knows it if she does.”

She gave him her attention. Must be where all his sons got their height. Dark blue eyes like Aiden and Ian, intense eyes that he trained on her now. She tried not to squirm. After everything, it wasn’t like this man could hurt her. “We haven’t decided yet.”

“Well, don’t wait too long,” Ian said. “Dad’s likely to give her some deplorable nickname.”

Kaitlyn chuckled. “That’s the truth.”

“I resent that remark.” The older man winked at her. “I only give nicknames that are deserved, Kaitie lass.”

Her look said,
See what I mean?

Ella drank some water and said to Ian, “Where are the DeSaros?”

Ian jerked his head to the side, where the gentleman was talking to the cops. Where was the woman?

Ian leaned over and whispered, “She’s in the chapel down the hallway, I believe.”

Nodding, she said, “I’ll be right back, and then you guys can see her, okay?”

Without waiting for anyone to say anything, she asked a nurse at the station where the chapel was and followed the hallway down to a little room. For a moment, she stood staring at the door. Probably a dumb thing to do, but she had to. Inside sat a woman on a pew staring at a stained-glass window. Or she supposed it was supposed to be a window. Merely glass in front of a light so that it gave off a calming effect.

The woman didn’t move, and Ella wondered if she should just leave well enough alone.

She turned around to the door, her hand freezing on the handle. Then she turned back and walked down the little aisle. Ferns stood on either side of the stained-glass angel.

She sat down in the pew beside the woman.

Taking another deep breath, she tried to think of what to say. Finally the woman looked to her.

“Is Sophia okay? Please tell me she’s okay. They won’t tell us anything, won’t tell me any—”

“She’s doing well, they said. Her oxygen levels are climbing and that’s good.”

The woman nodded. “Thank you for that.” She blew out a breath. “I’ve wanted a baby for so long. I thought . . .”

Ella could only nod.

“I know. I know I can’t have Sophia,” she whispered and wiped a tear away. “That’s what we called her, you know. I’ve all her stuff with us too. Or most of it. The diaper bag with her diapers and the formula and the—” She waved the words away. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I am sorry for your pain.”

“Are you?” the woman asked, her blonde hair coming out of the ponytail it had been in. Her blue eyes were rimmed red from crying.

“I am. I know what you’re going through.” She looked down at her wrists, the skin red and marred. “I know what it’s like to watch someone take your child and not be able to stop them.”

Neither said a word for a long moment. “How do you get through it?”

Her jaw trembled and finally she reached over and took the woman’s perfectly manicured hand. Mrs. DeSaro jerked away but then slowly placed her hand on top of Ella’s. “What happened to your wrists?”

“They tied me to the bed with zip ties and the plastic cut my wrists when I tried to get away.” She shrugged. “I tried so hard to get to her. So that helpless feeling you’re feeling . . . I get that. And I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you’re going through it. That you’re hurting.”

The other woman nodded and wiped a tear away. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but to me, she’s mine. She’s my baby and I’m her mother. That’s what we were told and . . .” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “Vincent doesn’t know what to do. He’s always got to protect, to fix things, and this time . . . there’s no way to fix it. To stop it, to protect.”

Ella shook her head. “You’re wrong. You both protected her when I couldn’t. That was the only thing that got me through. I prayed. I prayed and prayed and prayed that whoever had her would know. That God would have someone who really cared watch over her. That if I couldn’t be with her, that someone else could love her just as much. Would feed her if she was hungry.” She swallowed past the tightening in her throat. “I was terrified that whoever had her wouldn’t hold her, wouldn’t care for her, wouldn’t—wouldn’t know if she needed something. Or if she was sick.”

Wiping her own tear away, she looked at this woman who had to hate her. “You saved her. You and your husband kept her safe. You were the answer to my prayers.”

“What’s the answer to mine?” she asked brokenly.

Ella shook her head. “I don’t know.”

The woman started crying, leaned over and cried on Ella’s shoulder, and all she could do was mumble sweet nothings because there was nothing else to do.

* * *

Ian looked down the hallway to the chapel.

Landry walked up to him. “Thought you might be interested in Jareaux.”

“I hear he’s under investigation, and will probably lose his job.”

Landry just cocked a brow. “I probably don’t want to know how you know that, do I?”

Ian smiled. “No, you don’t.”

He left the agent there and strode down the hallway to look in on the chapel, just to make sure Ella was okay. No one was about to let anything happen to her now. Ella, for all her faults in helping people, wanted to help people. He didn’t know about Mrs. DeSaro.

Mr. DeSaro didn’t like that his wife was hurting, even as he understood the law and the right thing to do.

But sometimes right had different views on each side.

“Is she still in there?” the very man asked from behind him.

“Yes, they’re . . .” Ian shook his head. “Hell if I know. Women baffle me.”

The man peeked in, started to step in and then shook his head. “All she wanted was a baby. She can’t have any, or I’m too old, I don’t know, but either way I’d do just about anything to see her happy.”

Ian nodded. “I get that. I do.” He took a deep breath and thought about what he was about to say. He hated hospitals, the way they smelled, the way he had a constant itchy feeling between his shoulder blades. “Look, I know someone.”

DeSaro only arched a brow at him. “Thanks, but no. I’ll be lucky if we don’t face prosecution for this.” The man rubbed a hand over his face. His blue eyes were weary and angry and hurt. “So, no.”

Ian looked down the hallway and then motioned to the doors at the far end of the hallway. “Take a walk with me.”

DeSaro stared at the door that led to the chapel. “I need to get my wife out of here. The police said we could go.”

“Yes, but I might have an answer to your problem. Just a walk. And a talk and if you’re not . . . interested, fine.”

The other man raked a hand over his face again and then finally nodded. “Okay. Five minutes.”

Perfect. Ian led him to the elevators and then through the lobby and finally outside.

“Look, I used to work for someone who wishes to remain anonymous. He’s widowed and apparently his late wife’s sister and brother-in-law never changed their wills after her death. They died in a car accident recently, about a month ago. Both were lawyers in Georgetown. Their nine-month-old twin girls have no home and my old boss isn’t interested in becoming a father. A guardian, or a godfather, maybe, or at least that was his stipulation to me.”

“To you?” the other man asked him.

“He wanted to know if my wife and I wanted the girls. We have three other children, all adopted. Of course, we’d love to have them, but I haven’t told her yet. If you’re interested . . . well, I would have to talk it over with him. He’d want to meet you and your wife, I’m sure. But he might go for you guys adopting the girls instead.”

For a long moment the man just stood there. He blew out a breath and shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Actually, I already mentioned it to him,” Ian admitted. “If you don’t want them, fine. Rori and I will take them.”

The man stared out over the parking lot. “Twins?”

Ian pulled up their photo on his phone and turned it so that DeSaro could see the smiling cherubs on the screen. Big blue eyes and almost bald heads, chubby cheeks.

“Cute kids,” the man said. He blinked, studied them, then huffed out a breath. “When?”

“Tomorrow if you want. We can fly out to D.C. Or I can see if he’ll meet us in Chicago.”

“After this, I doubt a judge would agree.”

Ian just looked at him. “Mr. DeSaro, I think we know that . . . how did you put it . . . men in our positions overcome complications? He’s not looking for judges, it would be a straight private adoption. Your lawyer, his lawyer.”

“What is the catch?” DeSaro asked him, his gaze narrowed on Ian.

Ian smiled. “Always a catch, isn’t there? That’s the thing. He’s . . . let’s just say he works behind the scenes. Though he doesn’t believe he’s conducive to giving the girls a proper, safe home life, he’s not so keen on never ever seeing them either. He takes his responsibilities rather personally. So he’d want to know they’re safe.”