Daddy Devastating (6 page)

“And I don’t suppose it matters that the dangerous elements of your job could follow you from undercover work to a desk?”

“The FBI makes it a priority to protect the families of their agents.”

She was about to launch into the next wave of the argument, but he lifted his hand in a stop-right-there gesture. “Look, this isn’t a good time to go at each other about custody. We can work that out later.”

“Can we?” she snapped.

“We can,” he calmly assured her. Russ glanced around the room, and his attention landed on the minibar. Next to it was the small microwave she’d had brought in so she could heat up Emily’s formula.

“Do you have any hard liquor?” Russ asked.

Julia was still in a fit of temper, and that trivial-sounding question didn’t help. “Help yourself.”

“It’s not for me. It’s for you.” He went to the bar, selected a bottle of bourbon and poured some into a glass. He brought it back to her and motioned for her to sit on the sofa.

Because Julia’s legs were still wobbly, she did. She also took the drink and had a sip, despite the fact that she hated bourbon. As expected, it watered her eyes.

Russ eased down on the sofa next to her. Not on the other side. But practically hip-to-hip with her. So close that she could see the trouble brewing in his eyes.

“This drink is to help pave the way for what you need to tell me,” she said.

He nodded and combed his gaze over her. “I’m physically attracted to you. That’ll be a problem—”

“What?” The remark was such a surprise that it took her a moment to continue. “This is what you needed to tell me?”

“No. It’s just FYI. I keep thinking about your lace panties. I keep thinking about kissing you. That’ll be a problem because I’m a guy, and in my mind, that attraction will get all screwed up, and I’ll have this overwhelming need to protect you. I can’t have that now, because there’s someone else I have to think about.”

Julia had another sip of the bourbon and was disgusted that she needed it. “Am I supposed to understand that?”

“Yeah. Because I’m pretty sure you’re attracted to me, too.”

She tried to deny it. Tried hard. But the lie wouldn’t make it past her throat. “I won’t get involved with you.” No lie there. It was the truth. Julia didn’t get involved with anyone—ever.

“Good.” He didn’t seem insulted. More like
relieved.
“Because I need to ask you to do something, and I don’t want sex, lace panties or attraction to have any part in your answer.”

She stared at him. “You’re not making sense.”

“I will, soon.” He took the drink from her and finished it. “Milo, the gunman from the alley, contacted my partner to set up another meeting.”

“Good.” She nodded. “You said the meeting was important.”

“It’s more than important. And Milo won’t go through with it unless I bring you with me.”

Julia felt her heart skip a very big beat. “W-what?”

“Normally, I wouldn’t have even considered it, but the stakes are astronomical. Besides, if I don’t bring you, Milo will be even more suspicious. He might panic and do something stupid. Something that could set things back worse than they already are.”

Oh, God. Julia wished she’d finished that drink after all. Her heart started racing. She could feel the adrenaline flash through her. The anxiety hit her like a ton of bricks. She was racing toward a full-blown panic attack.

“Just take a deep breath,” Russ said, as if knew exactly what she was experiencing. He caught onto her chin. “Don’t make me put my hand up your dress again.”

“What?” She pushed him away from her.

“That’s right. Get mad. Slap me if it’ll help. Hell, kiss me. Do whatever you need to do to stop that response. It’s old garbage, and you’re stronger than you think, Julia. I watched you in that alley, and if I thought for one minute that you couldn’t handle this, I wouldn’t be asking.”

She blinked. No one had ever accused her of being strong. And much to her surprise, it worked. She felt her heart rate ease back to normal.

“That’s good,” Russ mumbled. “And for the record, I’ve never threatened to put my hand up a woman’s dress before. Well, not unless it involved mutual foreplay.”

A nervous laugh escaped before she could stop it. But she had nothing to laugh about.
Nothing.
Russ had just told her he wanted her to meet with a dangerous criminal.

“What’s at stake at this meeting?” she asked.

He met her eye to eye before he answered. “A baby’s life.”

Russ said it so softly that it took a moment to sink in. Julia gasped. “A baby?”

He nodded. “A child just a little older than Emily.” Russ took a deep breath. “I’m at the tail end of an investigation. Milo thinks I’m a black-market baby buyer, and that my client is someone rich, but who doesn’t have the credentials or the background for a legal adoption. Milo’s boss is the seller, a man whose identity I need to know so I can stop him from doing this again. Or it’s entirely possible that Milo is working alone. Either way, he has the baby.”

“Then why not just arrest Milo and make him tell you where the baby is?”

“Because he’ll just deny it. And if he’s put in jail, he’ll have his hired guns take the baby, go in to deep hiding, and we’ll never see the child again.”

She touched her fingers to her lips to stop them from trembling. “Where did they get the baby?”

“They stole him from his parents, Aaron and Tracy Richardson. And they left a note, warning the parents not to go to the authorities or the baby would be harmed. Thankfully, the Richardsons called the cops and the FBI anyway, because we learned that Milo or his boss intended to sell the child all along—probably by pitting the buyer he thinks he has waiting against what the parents will shell out. The baby will go to whoever pays the most.”

Julia hadn’t thought this day could get any worse, but she’d obviously been wrong. “My God.”

“Yes, I’ve been saying that a lot lately myself. People are messed up, Julia, and they do disgusting things. If I don’t complete this sale and get the baby, then Milo will find another buyer, and the little boy will end up being sold. Maybe he’ll get lucky and get good parents. Maybe he won’t. We know from past deals that Milo has been very careful about the buyers he chooses.”

Julia didn’t feel a panic attack, but her heart broke at the thought of an innocent child being bought and sold. “And if I don’t go…”

“The meeting won’t happen.” He lifted his shoulder. “Not unless I can somehow reason with Milo.”

She’d already seen him fail to do that in the alley, when Milo had cancelled the meeting. A cancellation that’d happened because she was there. If she hadn’t chosen this night to approach Russ about Emily, then the stolen baby might have been rescued and on the way back to his parents.

“How safe will this meeting be?” she asked.

Russ took a deep breath. “We can set up security in the area to take out any of Milo’s men if they make a wrong move. I don’t think they will. This is about the money. Milo wants the huge middleman fee, and I think he’ll play nice to get his hands on the cash.”

Julia stayed quiet a moment and gave that some thought. “And what would I have to do?”

“Maybe just stand there and look beautiful. Which won’t be a stretch,” he added, in a mumble.

She hated that she felt flattered with that ill-timed compliment. “Then why does Milo want me there if I’m just to be your arm dressing?”

Now it was Russ’s turn to have a few moments of silent thought. “Could be several possibilities. He might already know you’re a rich heiress. He might think you’re the actual buyer instead of Silas Duran, the agent we have in place for that. Or he might just want you there because he believes it’ll be safer for him.”

“Safer how?”

“If Milo suspects this is a sting operation, then he could see you as a shield of sorts. The FBI wouldn’t go in with guns blazing if you’re in the line of fire.”

“This is a lot to put on you,” Russ continued. “I’ll understand if you say no.”

If she said no, Julia couldn’t live with herself, but if she said yes, she might not make it through the meeting without a panic attack. Still, she would be there. She would fulfill Milo’s demand, and if she had an attack, so what? It would be humiliating for her, but it might speed things along with Milo. Besides, there really wasn’t a choice here. Julia knew what had to happen.

“I’ll do it,” she heard herself say. “Just tell me where I have to go and what I have to do.”

Russ didn’t seem surprised that she agreed. He simply nodded and gave her another of those arm rubs.

“We’ll know the details of the meeting in the morning,” Russ explained. “For tonight, there’ll be an agent outside your room. I won’t leave until he arrives.”

“Where’s the stolen baby right now?”

Russ shrugged. “We don’t know. But I’m sure he’s fine. The deal is to deliver a healthy baby boy to the buyer.”

That was something at least.

Julia heard the soft sound. It was barely audible, but it got her to her feet so she could go to the bedroom. Emily was stirring in her crib.

Russ got up, too, and followed her. “She’s awake.”

When Julia reached the crib, she saw those big brown eyes staring up at her. The baby looked first at Julia, then at Russ.

“Hi, princess,” Russ said, before Julia could say anything.

But he didn’t stop with just a greeting. Russ reached down into the crib and picked her up. He didn’t hesitate, and he didn’t say something clichéd about being afraid she’d break. He eased Emily right into his arms, cradling her protectively against him, and he rocked her as if he’d done this a thousand times.

“What?” he said, defensively, when he glanced at Julia, who was staring at him.

She had several questions she was trying to ask at once. “Do you have children of your own?”

“No. And I’m not married, either. Never have been. But I love kids. Always have.”

Obviously. “This isn’t your first time holding a baby, is it?”

“Hardly. Most of my coworkers and friends have kids. I’m godfather to three of them. All boys.” He leaned down and gently kissed Emily’s forehead. “What about you? Do you have much experience with kids?”

“Plenty,” she lied. Truth was, Emily was the first and only baby she’d ever held.

He chuckled when Emily puckered her lips. “I rescued a little boy not much older than her just three months ago, and I held him for hours before we could get him back to his parents. He was a cute kid all right, but nothing like the little angel here.”

Rescued? So, the stolen baby wasn’t his first. She supposed that made Russ a hero of sorts. And he certainly seemed to be a natural with Emily.

My God. She could actually lose custody of Emily to him. Yes, she had more money than Russ. Well, maybe. But she had also been in therapy for twelve years. She had panic attacks. And the final blow—Lissa hadn’t asked her to raise Emily. She’d wanted Julia to merely be the locator, and Lissa had murmured that dying wish in front of several members of the medical staff and a cop.

None of that would be in Julia’s favor.

Still, she had to fight; and her first step was to put some distance between Russ and her. Between Russ and Emily. Out of sight, out of mind might help him realize that he didn’t want to give up his undercover life after all.

“You’re breathing fast again,” Russ pointed out. But he didn’t look at Julia when he spoke. He kept his attention on Emily and made cooing sounds. Cooing!

“I was thinking about Lissa,” Julia mumbled, and forced herself to breathe normally.

“You were close to her?” He didn’t wait for an answer, as he announced “The angel just smiled.”

Julia looked at the baby, who did indeed seem to have the right corner of her mouth lifted into a pseudo-smile. Her first. And she’d smiled for Russ, not for her.

“Lissa and I weren’t close,” Julia admitted. “But we used to be.”

“Before the attack,” Russ added when she didn’t say more.

A cooing hero with ESP. Great. This wouldn’t be a custody battle, it would be a custody war.

“Yes,” she finally answered. “It was Lissa who set me up with the guy who stabbed me. He was a friend of hers.” A friend from the wrong side of town, her parents had said. Lissa had been from the wrong part, too. That’s what had drawn Julia to her. And look how that had turned out.

Russ pulled his attention from Emily and looked at her. “You blame Lissa for what happened to you?”

“No. But she blamed herself. We weren’t close after that, and I was too broken to try to mend things between us.” Uncomfortable with yet another personal wound that she hadn’t intended to reveal, she reached out and took Emily. “It’s probably time for a diaper change.”

Now, that should send Russ running,
Julia thought. But it didn’t. “I can do it,” he said, when Julia placed the baby in the crib. “With my godsons, diapering can be a challenge. I’ve gotten hosed down more than once.”

He reached into the bag next to the crib and pulled out the wipes and a diaper, but he had barely gotten started when his phone rang. The sound shot through the room and startled Emily. Julia picked her up again before she could break into a full-fledged cry.

Russ glanced at the caller ID on his phone. “I have to take this.” And he stepped back into the sitting room.

While Julia finished up the diaper changing, she tried to hear Russ’s conversation. But she couldn’t tell anything from his monosyllabic answers. It was possibly about the security guard who would be assigned duty outside her door. Or maybe it was about the meeting with Milo.

The meeting she hoped she wouldn’t regret.

Of course, she would have regretted not trying to save the stolen baby even more.

“I understand,” Russ said. He ended the call and came back into the room.

“Is the security guard here?” she asked.

“He is.” Russ reached down and ran his fingers over Emily’s toes. “But there’s a problem.”

Her head whipped up, and she met his gaze. “Not the baby?”

“No. Not the baby. My partner, Silas, just informed me that Milo has one of his men staked out near the hotel.”

Her heart dropped. “You don’t think his man will try to get in here?”