Eighth Grave After Dark (25 page)

Another spasm hit just as she said, “I think I got it. I think she's in the clear.” She listened for the heartbeat again with the stethoscope as Reyes kept his hold tight, this time monitoring the entire time I pushed. I grabbed a handful of his hair and gave it my all.

She sighed in relief. “I think she's okay. We can do this, Charley.”

I heard the Native American man argue with Osh and Garrett. He was going to call an ambulance, but they insisted one was already on the way. They'd lied, but they had to hold him off.

“You're tearing, but I can't do anything about it down here.”

“It's okay,” I said, my entire body slick with sweat. “It's coming again.”

“You can do this, sweetheart,” she said.

I nodded and pushed when the spasm hit. I felt myself splitting as Beep's head passed through.

“Okay, stop pushing!” she said, taking one of the sheets and working on Beep. Then she took a sucky thing out of the bag. Though I couldn't see what she was doing, I heard a soft wail of annoyance waft up to me, and I let my head loll back against Reyes's shoulder. But Beep was still halfway in me, though, and I really needed to push. I fought the urge with all my strength.

“Okay, I'm going to pull her out one shoulder at a time. Don't push.”

“What?” But with one final jolt of pain, Beep was out. And pissed as hell.

I covered my mouth with my hands. “Reyes,” I said, unable to take my eyes off her.

“She's perfect,” he said into my ear. Thank God he continued to hold me. I doubted I had the strength to hold myself upright anymore.

Denise worked to get our daughter cleaned up. I could relax and focus on the broken rib and the nigh-fractured hips and the blood still running out of my head.

I smiled at Reyes. “What a day, huh?”

He shook his head.

“So, do you still need the rope?” Osh asked.

“Yes, but not for a few minutes,” Denise said. She cut the cord, clipped it with a clothespin from the looks of it, and wrapped our bundle in a clean-ish sheet. Then she handed her to me.

All I could see was a little round face still covered in spots of muck, but she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life. Dark lashes. Full mouth. Stubborn chin. She was Reyes incarnate, and my heart swelled with pride. “She's so perfect,” I said.

“Yes, she is, but we need to get you both out of here as soon as possible.”

“Katherine the Midwife is here,” Amber said. “Can I hold her?” she asked me.

“You'll have to ask Katherine, hon.”

She laughed. “I meant Beep.”

“You absolutely can, just as soon as we get out of here.”

“One more thing,” Denise said.

“What?”

“We have to get the rest out of you.”

“What rest?”

I shouldn't have asked.

*   *   *

They lifted Denise out first while she carried Beep. Then the guys lowered Reyes to get me. He lifted me into his arms and they hoisted us both up at the same time using some kind of pulley system Garrett had jerry-rigged. I lost consciousness about halfway up, exhausted and broken, but as long as Beep was okay, I was okay. I knew she'd be well taken care of. She had a large family.

I awoke hours later in bed beside Reyes with a tiny bundle between us. One lamp fended off the darkness in the small room, and I could see Katherine the Midwife snoring in a chair close by. Though I didn't much care what time it was, I did wonder how long I'd been out. How many hours of Beep's existence I'd missed.

They'd dressed her in the first outfit Cookie had bought her. When I first saw it, I'd remarked that it looked too small. Babies couldn't possibly be that tiny. Now that she was wearing it, however, it looked too big. Beep didn't seem real. She was like a doll with thick lashes, a perfect nose, and a widow's peak. She was surreal and angelic and mesmerizing.

I rolled onto my side and loosened the blanket. Her tiny fingers splayed in reaction to my touch, and I marveled at her fingernails—exact replicas of Reyes's—as I counted them. An even ten. Just what the doctor ordered. I felt as though my eyes were glued to her. I couldn't stop gazing at this little person we'd been waiting so long to see. I fought back tears as I looked at her, ignoring the fact that I felt like I'd been run over by a train. I'd been run over by trains before. The tenderness between my legs, however, was novel. And nature wasn't calling. She was screaming, ranting and raving like a lunatic.

Unable to ignore my bladder any longer, I kissed Beep's head, then her cheek, then her hand, before rolling out of bed. I glanced at my husband, wondering if he was really asleep at last. He lay on his side with his head propped on one arm, the dips between his biceps forming deep, alluring shadows. His long lashes fanned across his cheeks, just like Beep's, and I stilled to watch them just a few seconds more, until I heard Denise.

“She's perfect,” she said softly.

I turned to see her sitting in another chair they'd brought in. “She is, isn't she? She's so tiny. It's like she's not real. She's like a pink flower floating on a big blue sea.”

“They're always smaller than you think they will be.”

She and my dad had never had more children, and I always wondered why. Not enough to ask, but … “How long have I been out?”

“Since yesterday morning. About eighteen hours.”

“Eighteen hours?” I asked, scanning the room for the clock. “She had to face the world without me for eighteen whole hours?”

“They said you were in stasis or something. That you had to rest to heal.”

“Yeah, well, I don't think it worked this time.” I tried to stretch. It was just too painful.

“Do you want to hold her?” she asked, stepping forward. “We finally wrangled her away from your husband long enough to let Katherine check her out. A pediatrician is coming tomorrow, though, just to make sure.”

“Oh, good. Let me go pee, then she's all mine.”

I grabbed my phone, then walked to the bathroom, my pace that of a snail in its late nineties. The soreness I felt was beyond anything I'd experienced before. My hips hurt the worst, then Virginia. Poor Virginia. She'd never be the same again. Then my ribs, et cetera. It hurt to brush my teeth and wash my face, too. I had a nasty bruise on the side of my head with a lovely gash in the middle and a black eye.

I checked messages while sitting on the toilet. Multitasking had always been a specialty of mine. And I peed forever, so I had a lot of time. I had a text from Mr. Alaniz, my PI, asking me if there was any progress on the home front. Meaning, had I told Reyes yet? I was going to have to tell him. The Loehrs had given me until tomorrow. Maybe now that we had Beep, he would understand what I did. Either way, I dreaded that conversation.

By the time I got back, Reyes was up with Beep. Shirtless, he held her in his arms as he turned to me, and my breath caught in my chest. Here was a man so powerful, he could make the earth quake beneath us, holding something as fragile as fine china. It was charming and endearing and sexy and exquisite.

I walked to stand beside him. He grinned down at me, pride evident in his every move.

“Did you get some sleep?” I asked, placing a hand on his arm.

“Sure,” he said, lying through his teeth. His sleepy eyes and unshaven face awed me for a moment.

“I'll leave you two alone,” Denise said, barely audible above Katherine the Midwife's snoring. Then she turned back to me. “You have some pretty great friends.”

Reyes had just set Beep in my arms when I walked over to Denise. “You saved her life,” I said, my gratitude limitless. “I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't been there today.”

“Yesterday.”

“Yesterday,” I corrected.

She bowed her head. “I'm just glad I could help.” She turned and left.

“And you,” I said to the ball of perfection in my arms, “I have to show you something. Coming?” I asked Reyes as Beep and I left the room.

He followed us downstairs and outside, where we sat on two lawn chairs to gaze at the stars. I told her all about the constellations, pointing out each one and reciting its name, at which point, Reyes corrected me.

Naturally, I ignored him. “And see that star?” I asked her even though she had yet to wake up. “I'm claiming that one for you. It's all yours. Its name henceforth shall be known to all the lands as Beep.”

“I'm pretty sure that one's already named.”

I turned to Reyes as he lay beside us. Still shirtless despite the crisp night that didn't seem to faze him.

“And I'm pretty sure it's a planet, not a star,” he continued, a playful grin lifting one corner of his mouth.

“Really?” I looked at Beep. “Did you hear that? Daddy is dissing your star. And he's wearing duct tape. Duct tape is so last June.”

“Venus,” he said.

“Beep,” I volleyed with a stern brow.

He laughed softly. “Beep it is. I found something about her very interesting.”

“Just one thing?”

His grin widened. “This is interesting in a different way.”

“Really?” I asked, intrigued.

“Seven pounds, thirteen ounces.”

I gasped and gazed at her wide-eyed, making everything I said and did into a Broadway production. Not sure why. “Did you weigh seven whole pounds and thirteen ounces? No wonder Virginia is under the weather.” Then realization dawned, his point sinking in at last. I glanced at Reyes. “Seven original gods, thirteen altogether.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Just found that interesting.”

“I do too. Like, bizarrely interesting.”

“You seriously need to hydrate and eat something. What do you want?”

“Dude, you can make eggs into a gourmet three-course dinner. Surprise me.”

“Oh, I didn't say I was going to cook. I was just offering to hold our daughter while you cooked. I'm kind of hungry, too.”

I laughed.

“Eggs it is. I have some red chile potatoes made up, too.”

“My mouth is watering just thinking about it.” Then I bolted upright. “Coffee,” I whispered, the word like a delicate snowflake on my mouth. “I can have coffee now.”

It was like the heavens had opened up and God smiled down on me.

“Aren't you going to breast-feed?”

And they closed again. “Yes.”

He shook his head and went to scrounge us up some grub. I sat back in despair until I really examined the situation. Maybe it would be best for Beep if she built up a tolerance to caffeine now. Start her off young.

Reyes made breakfast, cooking eggs to go on the potatoes and chile, and brought me a huge plate. I handed Beep off to him.

Watching Reyes hold her, as though she were made of glass, afraid to wrap his arms too tight, was priceless. It amazed me to see how one tiny creature had the power to turn a man made of pure, natural prowess into a bumbling mess. Not that I was much better, but we'd get there. We had all the time in the world.

 

12

It was a sad and disappointing day when I discovered my Universal Remote Control did not, in fact, control the universe. (Not even remotely.)

—MEME

We went inside after we ate, not wanting Beep to get pneumonia. The house began to stir a couple of hours later. Kit and Agent Waters called soon after with news on the possible kidnapper.

“We tracked one of the burner phones from the text messages. It was still on and we traced it to a garbage can in the alley behind Dion's on Wyoming. From there, we traced where it was purchased and they had surveillance footage. We got him. His name is Colton Ellix. There's only one problem,” she said, her voice tinged with panic.

“What?”

“He died two days ago in a car accident. He was trying to outrun a squad car that, at first, wasn't even after him. He thought they were, took off. The officers pursued, but he exited at Rio Grande during rush hour traffic doing at least a hundred. He killed a pedestrian as well as himself.”

My heart sank. “She's still alive, Kit. You need to look into all his holdings, anywhere he frequented, his past. Where did he grow up? Does any of his family have land?”

“You're preaching to the choir, hon. We're looking into everything, but he didn't have any property. He was renting a small house in Algodones, but we searched it and the surrounding properties. The neighbors said they hadn't seen him in a few days.”

“Where did he know her from?”

“He worked for my brother,” Agent Waters said. “Did a few side jobs around the house for them and watched the dogs when they were out of town.”

“He had access to everything.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, then, what about your brother? Did he have any property that Ellix would have known about?”

“He had some land in Rio Rancho. They were going to build a new house, but there's nothing out there.” When I didn't say anything, he added, “I'll get a patrol car out there immediately.”

“In the meantime,” I said, speaking mostly to Kit on this one, “I'll do what I do and see what I can come up with.”

“And what is it you do?” Agent Waters asked.

“What I'm hired to do,” I said, being as vague as humanly possible. “We need everything you have on him.”

“Already en route,” she said.

“Oh, and Beep's here.”

A long silence ensued and I let it all sink in. Women had been having babies for years, though. It was all the rage. Not sure why it was such a difficult thing for her to digest.

“Well, say hi for us,” Kit said.

“Okay.”

“Oh!” she shouted. “Beep.
The
Beep. Oh my gosh, Charley, congratulations. Are you here in Albuquerque?”

“Nope, still out here at the convent.”

“You had her there?” she asked, appalled.