Lethal Affair (37 page)

She clutched her lower abdomen. A red
stain had erupted. “The baby,” she managed, holding on to
consciousness.

Will looked up at Lyle and Kim. “We
need to get her to the plane. She needs a hospital, and
fast.”

The camp cot in the corner was the
logical choice. Lyle and Kim brought it over and Will gently
hoisted Kylie onto it.

No time was wasted as they literally
ran along the narrow trail, Will holding onto the cot in front,
Lyle and Kim in the back. Straining his arms and legs to their
maximum limit, Will called upon his own supercharged adrenaline to
maintain a grueling pace until they reached the little
beach.

Panting hard, the three men placed
Kylie, cot and all, into the row boat. Jolene, Max, Dino and Cal
all watched anxiously as they approached.

“
I called the Coast Guard,”
Cal yelled out to them. “They're on their way. Does she need a
doctor?”

“
Yes!” all three men
chimed.

Cal climbed back into the Cessna and
got on his radio.

* * * *

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

With Max safe, Will sat at Kylie's
bedside clutching her hand and watching her come awake. He'd told
the admissions clerk he was her husband and no one had questioned
it.

An army of people wanted to see Kylie
with Ethan Crane at the top of the list. With exception to Rita and
Joe they'd all been relegated to the waiting room. They'd stepped
out for a bite to eat but would soon return.

Kylie's eyes fluttered
open.

Will squeezed her hand.
“Hey.”

The faintest of a smile. Her eyelids
closed and he settled in for another wait. Seconds later her eyes
snapped open as memory flooded in. She tried to sit up.

“
Where's Max?” she demanded
in a hoarse voice.

“
He's fine.” He eased her
back onto the pillow. “Surprisingly strong for a kid who just went
through his worst nightmare.”

She leaned back with troubled eyes. A
dull ache throbbed. “I lost it, didn't I?”

Dread infused him. He'd been wondering
how he would say it. Now it seemed best to be
straightforward.

“
Yes, I'm sorry to say that
you did.”

He meant it. He was sorry. No matter
how the child had been conceived, it hadn't deserved to have its
short, undeveloped life ended so abruptly. Especially by its own
father's hand.

Kylie said nothing. Placing a hand
over her now childless womb, she absorbed the fact of the baby's
loss quietly. Will knew there was nothing he could say to console
her, but he wanted to try.

He stroked stray hairs back from her
face. “You risked so much by going after Max. I'm so indebted to
you, I'll never be able to make it up in a million lifetimes.
Thanks to you Max is here, alive. I only wish I could say the same
for your baby.”

She lifted a hand to his cheek. “You
could spout off all the clichés, but I made my choice when Drew
called me. I knew what I was getting into. Things could have turned
out a lot worse. I'm so very relieved that Max is alright. I'm
going to be alright too. You'll see.”

She wasn't sure how she felt about it
yet. While her heart mourned the loss, her mind wrestled with
reason. The child had been yanked back from the precipice of life,
a life that may have held a deep, dark chasm of genetically
inherited mental illness. Since she'd learned of her pregnancy
she'd given that a lot of thought, had wanted to believe that such
things could be overcome. She realized that life held no guarantees
right from the moment of conception.

It suddenly occurred to her, “What
happened to Drew?”

“
He ran off. Crane has a
manhunt going on as we speak. You really did a number on him.
Looked like he'd been clawed by a wild animal.”

“
I hit him with a piece of
firewood.”

“
Whatever you used, it
rearranged his face. He might not be such a pretty boy when they
find him.”

She smiled sadly. “Will, I've got a
news flash. You're not such a pretty boy yourself right now. Have
you been home any time recently? You look like you could use an
hour long shower in that massage unit of yours and about twenty
hours of sleep.”

His own smile was wistful. “I wanted
to be here when you woke up. Your parents will be back any moment.
They're a couple of rocks, those two. They kept me from wearing a
hole in the carpet while you were in surgery by telling me
anecdotes about your childhood. Oh the things I know about
you!”

Kylie's spirit lightened a small
degree. With Max alive a tragedy had been diverted. Her own child
had been taken but she would bounce back, move forward with the
life she'd been given back by the fates.

“
Will,” she uttered as she
pulled his lips to hers for a brief but sweet kiss. “I want to
thank you. It was because of me that Max was abducted and you could
be the kind of guy who would hold all of this against me. Instead
you're my rock. I'm planning on clinging to you for a while. Is
that alright?”

It warmed him to know that she
appreciated him. “I wouldn't want it any other way.”

Dr. Lydia Barrymore came into the
room. Without preamble she picked up Kylie's chart and asked, “How
are you feeling?”

“
I've got balloon head. What
kind of drugs are in this drip?”

“
The kind that make you rest
and get better. Mr. Delaney, I'm going to have to ask you to vacate
the room now.”

Will got up. “When can she go
home?”

“
I want her here for
observation overnight. You can come and get her in the
morning.”

He squeezed Kylie's hand. “I'll be
back,” he said in a Schwarzenegger voice, flashing her a grin. “I
promise I'll smell a lot better.”

As Will exited, Lydia sat next to
Kylie's bed and took the hand Will had just released.

“
Rita and Joe told me what
happened. Kylie, you're young and strong, and under normal
circumstances you would have had a healthy child. The blow you were
given dislodged the fetus and it self aborted. I performed a
D&C, dilation and curettage. You're recovery will be fast. No
reason why you can't have children in the future when you're ready.
Which brings me to the subject at hand: birth control.”

Absorbing, Kylie smiled weakly. “I'm
ready for any suggestions, doctor.” She hesitated, suddenly feeling
awkward. But it had to be asked. “How soon can I have
relations?”

Lydia's eyes twinkled. “I may be on in
years but I've still got a pulse, and Will Delaney is probably your
best medicine. You have a green light for one month from now, but
we'll schedule an appointment for next week and if you're in good
shape, we can shorten that time to two weeks. We'll discuss it when
I see you next, alright?”

“
Yes. And thank
you.”

Rita knocked on the door. “Can we come
in?”

Lydia waved in Rita and Joe as she
left the room. The rest of the evening passed in a blur of faces
and good wishes as the room filled with flowers, balloons, and most
important of all, support. Jolene stayed until the last visitor had
gone and the nurse came in to say visiting hours were
over.

“
You look like hell,” Kylie
told her. She'd held her own with her other visitors but now pent
up emotions overflowed as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I'd
accepted the idea of being a single mother,” she sobbed. “Hell, I
was looking forward to it! Now Mom will have to pack away all of my
old baby clothes again and you'll have to cancel that stroller I
know you have on order at Rock the Cradle.”

“
How did you know about
that? It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“
I snooped.” Kylie sniffed
miserably. “I saw the order form on your desk by your computer.
Sorry.”

Jolene's own fragile hold on things
collapsed and she laughed and cried along with Kylie, and only got
up when the stern nurse reappeared and tapped her watch in
admonishment.

“
Goodnight roomie,” Jolene
called out as she left. “I'll miss you at home.”

Just before the door swung closed,
Kylie glimpsed a uniformed policeman standing guard outside her
room.

*

Her first solid food since the bread
Drew had tossed at her, Kylie dug in and feasted on the full
home-style breakfast Jimmy had brought from the diner where Lyle
and Kim were doing early morning catch-up after having closed so
abruptly two days before.

She closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
When she opened them, Julia McMillan stood before her holding Max's
hand.

Julia held out her hand. “Hi. I'm
Julia, Max's Mom. How are you this morning?”

It was easy to pick out which features
Max had inherited from both Will and this lovely woman who
currently wore an expression of bedazzlement as Kylie shook her
hand. Max, who had been quietly standing next to his mother, rushed
forward and leaped into Kylie's arms, hugging her
fiercely.

She hugged back. Fiercely. A bond had
been formed.

Finally Max unraveled himself and
stepped back. “I'm sorry that man hurt you,” he said. “I heard you
tell him you're pregnant. That means you're having a baby,
right?”

Julia bent over him. “Max, that's not
an appropriate...”

“
It's okay,” Kylie stopped
her. “Max and I are tight now, and friends deserve to know the
truth. Isn't that right Julia?”

Julia smiled wanly. “Yes. Truth is
good.”

“
Well Max,” began Kylie,
“the man who took us was someone who fooled me into thinking he was
nice, and we made a baby together. Understand?”

“
Kinda.”

“
Okay, let's keep this
simple. After I got pregnant I found out he wasn't such a nice guy
after all.”

“
Is he the one who gave you
that bruise on your face?”

“
Yeah, he's the one. I told
him I didn't want to be with him anymore and that made him really
mad.” She paused, choosing her words carefully. “If someone tells
you they don't want to be with you anymore, you have to respect
that person's wishes. It's not only the right thing to do, but it's
the law. Are you still with me?”

“
Yeah. I get it.”

“
What that man did was
wrong. He's a bad man who likes to hurt people. After you ran out
of the cabin, he hit me really hard, and... and I lost the baby.
That's why I'm here in the hospital now. But he didn't get us, did
he? That's 'cuz we never gave up. Whenever you find yourself in a
predicament you should always keep looking for a way
out.”

“
What's
pre-dic...?”

“
It means an unexpected
situation that's hard to figure out.” Max's chest puffed out. “We
figured it out, didn't we?” Julia nudged him. “Thank you for saving
my life. My Dad said you didn't hes... hes-i-tate to come and get
me.” His eyes brightened with excitement. “You whacked him over the
head with that chair! Like a super-hero! I got away 'cuz of
you!”

“
You would've done the same
for me.”

“
I sure would'a
tried!”

Julia took his hand. “We should go,
Max.” She turned eyes filled with gratitude to Kylie. “My thanks go
on top of his. About a mile high stack in fact. Please don't
hesitate to call me if ever you need anything. I mean it! That's
not just fluff.”

“
Alright. You're both very
welcome.”

“
Mom's taking me back to
Vancouver,” spurted Max. “It's 'cuz that man is still loose. I can
come back when the police find him.”

“
I'm sorry your visit here
got cut short. We'll see each other again. Soon, I
hope.”

*

Ethan Crane tugged on his mustache
thoughtfully. His soulful eyes were the epitome of concern. Sitting
opposite him in his office were Kylie Lambert and Will
Delaney.

“
We've scoured the territory
where Hammond was last seen by your group. Our tracking dogs
followed his scent for two kilometers to a dirt road. Tire
impressions indicate he made off in a large vehicle, most likely
the camper owned by the hapless couple who owned that cabin. We're
looking for that vehicle now.”

Will frowned. “Hapless?”

Crane's expression was grim. “Our dogs
found their bodies tucked into a cave hidden by hanging tree
roots.”

Kylie thought she'd been prepared to
hear whatever had to be heard, but things just kept getting more
and more nerve-wracking.

“
What about the guy who
owned the boat? Did he turn up?” asked Will.

“
Washed up on shore on one
of the Gulf Islands. A sea creature got at him but we were able to
identify the remains.” He shifted in his chair. “Sorry Miss
Lambert, you're looking a little green. Is this too graphic for
you?”

Kylie felt nauseous. “I'm okay.
Please, go on.”

“
Hammond has become a
dangerous predator. He's lost all sense of morality, is on a
private mission with you at its epicenter. Now that the pregnancy
is no longer an issue there's no telling how he'll react. We can't
have you going off on your own like that again, Miss
Lambert.”