Midwife Cover - Cassie Miles (23 page)

His gaze had turned inward, and his gray eyes had gone blank. There had been no mistaking his shock. After he’d drawn in a sharp intake of breath, he’d tried to reassure her and tell her that it was all right. He’d done his best to cover his disappointment, but she’d seen how he felt. That moment would be forever branded in her memory.

He wanted a normal life with a little ranch house and a couple of acres. He wanted a dog. And babies. He hoped for twins, and she couldn’t make any promises.

Everything else that happened at Lost Lamb was a blur. There had been a lot of shouting and police officers with guns. Brady had drawn his Beretta and pointed it at Robert.

“I have to arrest you,” he’d said. “I’m sorry.”

The big man hadn’t resisted. He’d merely shrugged his giant shoulders. “I guess I knew this was coming.”

“How much do you know?”

“Francine is running some kind of scam with the babies. She’s got that lawyer and the doctor working for her. They aren’t decent folks.”

“Why didn’t you quit?”

“I was going to.” He’d looked at Dee and grinned. “Then she showed up, and I couldn’t just leave her here.”

Lying back on the pillows, Dee had gazed at him with tenderness that surprised Petra. Giving birth just might have been the best thing that had ever happened to the diva. In the space of a few hours, she’d matured. When she’d promised Robert that she’d wait for him, Petra had believed her.

After that, the birthing suite had been invaded by uniformed deputies and patrolmen. As soon as Petra had been certain that Dee, her baby and the other women were safe, she’d left. Cole had arranged for one of the officers to drive her here. Brady had stayed behind.

Their arrests at the Lost Lamb hadn’t been an unqualified success. Two people had escaped—Francine and Margaret.

Brady had, of course, blamed himself. “Lack of organization,” he’d said to her.

“You’ll find them.”

“Margaret will turn up. One of the officers is taking care of her son. I don’t think she’ll leave the boy behind.”

But Petra hadn’t been so sure. She’d seen Margaret’s dark side in the way she treated Dee. Quiet, little Margaret had been willing to turn over the newborn to some dangerous third party. A woman like that was capable of just about anything.

Rolling over on the bed, Petra buried her face in the pillows. She smelled Brady on the sheets. She remembered their passion and a shiver went through her. Their lovemaking had been special. More than passionate, he had touched her in unimaginable ways.
I need him.
Those three little words had never been part of her vocabulary when it came to relationships.

She’d always been the caretaker, the one who made things work. That didn’t happen with Brady. They shared and compromised. Needing him wasn’t a sign of weakness; it was strength. They were stronger together than apart.

But she couldn’t give him the normal life he wanted. Long ago, she’d made her peace with not being able to get pregnant. After delivering dozens of babies, Petra was happy with adoption as a viable alternative. She wouldn’t mind using a surrogate—not a forced surrogate like Dee who agreed to that contract for all the wrong reasons. Monitored surrogacy through legal channels was a good thing…if Brady agreed.

As she found herself drifting in that more positive direction, the phone rang. It was Brady.

His voice was low and concerned. “How are you doing?”

She wanted to tell him that she hadn’t meant to drop that emotional bombshell on him while he was in the midst of an operation. She wished that she could have been more controlled and rational. All she said was, “I’m okay.”

“I wanted to give you an update on what happened at the compound we uncovered last night. Our guys closed in. There was a firefight with the guards, but they surrendered pretty quickly. The FBI apprehended Terabian.”

“Were you right about him? Was he harvesting organs?”

“Yes.”

Brady was terse, and she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know the details. “What about the surrogates?”

“Terabian was handling that, too. They found frozen embryos at the compound.”

Sadness trickled through her. These two medical procedures—in vitro fertilization and organ transplant—should have been used for good. Instead, they’d been horribly corrupted by Terabian and the human traffickers.

“What about Mancuso?” she asked.

“Under arrest,” Brady said. “The only real screwup in both operations was mine. It’s my fault that Francine and Margaret escaped.”

Because he’d rushed to her side.
“You’ll find them.”

“I know.” He paused. “Petra, I want you to know that…”

“Stop,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about anything important over the phone. I need to see your face.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, probably in an hour or so.”

An “I love you” poised on the tip of her tongue, but she held back. Those words should be spoken in person. “Bye, Brady. Be careful.”

“You, too.”

She inhaled a deep, cleansing breath and slowly exhaled, releasing the tension from her muscles. There were a million things to think about, but this had been an exhausting day and her throat was sore from belting out show tunes. She closed her eyes, intending to rest for just a minute or two.

When she wakened, Petra wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep. More than a minute, that was for sure. Was she even awake? A sense of dread hung around her. There was a nightmare feel in the air.

She smelled the fire and saw the smoke. Blinking furiously, she tried to clear her vision. This wasn’t happening; it couldn’t be.

She staggered to her feet. Looking down, she saw the gray tendrils clinging to her legs and whisking across the hardwood floor. On the landing, she spotted the primary source of the fire. Bright orange flames leaped from Brady’s studio, reaching toward her with fierce claws. She had to escape. But the staircase was already burning. There was no way down. No way out.

She stood like a statue, terrified and paralyzed. Her thoughts reached out toward Brady, telling him all the things she’d never have a chance to say.
Brady, I love you.
She loved him. She wanted to be with him.
I need you.

Her worst fear was coming true. Ever since she was a little girl, she’d been scared of the fires her father investigated. When she told him, he’d laughed and said she had nothing to worry about unless she was a witch who’d be burned at the stake. That comment was probably the main reason she’d never fully embraced Wiccan practices.

The floor beneath her boots was steaming. The heat of the fire in the studio seared her skin. Her lungs were burning from the smoke. She had to escape.

Forcing herself to move, she returned to the bedroom. She and Brady had gone over this before. He’d made a plan, and she knew the balcony was the best way to get out of the house. The moment she stepped outside, she heard a gunshot.

Petra dropped to the floor of the cedar balcony. She heard a loud voice.

“Might as well stay inside,” Francine yelled. “You’ll be unconscious from the smoke in a few seconds.”

Petra coughed. Francine was correct. The smoke was already poisoning her breath. “You won’t get away with this.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. This is how I’ll get away. The fire will destroy any evidence Brady has against me. Without evidence, I’ll claim I didn’t know what Mancuso and Terabian were doing.”

Through the bedroom door, she could see the fire moving closer, consuming everything in its path. “Let me go. You don’t need to kill me.”

“That wasn’t my intention. You fall under the category of collateral damage. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Petra scrambled to her knees, and Francine fired at her again. Petra sank flat. “Let me get out. We can talk.”

“If I see your face, I’ll shoot.”

The flames crackled like dry laughter. The fire was coming for her. “Somebody is going to come. They’ll see the smoke.”

“September is a bad time of year for wildfires,” Francine said. “Lots of people will be up here to respond. The fire department and the volunteers, they’ll be all over the place. Nobody will notice me slipping away.”

Her plan was horrible in its simplicity. She’d probably get away with it, and there was nothing Petra could do to stop her. She was trapped by the flames.
I won’t die like this.
She’d rather be shot.

Raising her head, she peered through the railing. At the edge of the driveway leading to their house, she saw a figure on horseback. It couldn’t be Robert because Brady had arrested him.

Margaret!
Quiet, unassuming, little Margaret had been watching her and Brady. She’d been following them. She’d as much as admitted it.

Margaret raised a rifle to her shoulder and aimed at Francine. “Drop your gun.”

Francine whirled. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to put an end to you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Francine said. “We can work together. I’ve got plenty of money tucked away in an off-shore account. We’ll be fine.”

“I’m not like you, Mother.”

“Actually, that’s true.” Francine sounded smug. “You’re not like me. You won’t be able to pull that trigger.”

Francine turned her gun at Margaret. Before she could aim, Petra’s truck crashed into the yard. Brady leaped out. Gun in hand, he charged toward Francine. He was so dominant, so fierce that he didn’t even have to speak.

The instant Francine saw him, she tossed her weapon to the ground and raised her hands over her head. The officer accompanying Brady kept her in his sights as he approached.

Brady kept coming until he stood directly below her. “Come on, Petra. You’ve got to climb down.”

“I know.” The smoke was making her dizzy.

“Move it, or else I’m coming up to get you.”

Petra hauled herself upright. With an effort, she slung her leg over the railing. Flames were reaching toward her from inside the house and from below. She let go of the railing and fell into Brady’s waiting arm. Holding her close, he carried her away from the fire. “Are you all right?”

“Been better,” she said. “You can put me down now.”

“Not yet.” He kissed her lips, the tip of her nose, her forehead. “I’m never going to let you out of my sight again.”

“I’m glad you’re here, but why? Did you see the smoke?”

He allowed her feet to drop to the ground but continued to hold her against him. “I felt it.”

“Felt what?”

“I knew you were in trouble. It was a pain, a stabbing pain in my heart. And I knew. I could hear you calling me as clearly as if you were on the phone. I had to come for you.”

“Like a mind reader.”

He frowned. “And if you ever tell anybody we can read each other’s mind, I’ll deny it.”

She remembered thinking of him, reaching for him with her mind and her heart. “I love you.”

“And I love you back. Twice as much.”

Swallowing hard, she asked the question that might destroy their relationship before it began. “Do you love me even if I can’t give you what you want? Even if I can’t get pregnant?”

“There are a lot of kids who need awesome parents like us. When the time comes, I’ll put together a flowchart of all the options.”

“A flowchart?”

“It’s the ultimate in family planning.”

She should have known that he’d rise to the challenge. He wasn’t somebody who turned his back. “Did I mention that I love you?”

“You did, but I like hearing it.”

She looked past his shoulder. The officer had already cuffed Francine and shoved her into the back of Petra’s truck. Margaret had dismounted and stood beside her horse.

There was something Petra needed to do. She stepped out of his embrace and walked toward Margaret. “Thanks for what you did.”

“I didn’t do this for you,” she said peevishly. “I don’t even like you.”

“Well, I appreciate it all the same.”

“I had my own reasons.”

“Francine is your mother.”

“To my regret,” Margaret said. “She ignored me for the first eighteen years of my life. When I had Jeremy, she kept me around to be her handmaiden, insisted that I call her Miss Francine. And she was going to do the same to my son, raise him as her servant. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Brady stepped around Petra to give Margaret a hug. “I’m going to make sure this turns out all right for you and Jeremy.”

She looked up at him and grinned. “This wasn’t exactly what I wanted from you, Brady, but I’ll take it.”

An SUV with the sheriff’s logo on the side pulled into the driveway. In the distance, Petra heard the siren from a fire truck.

“We should get out of the way,” Brady said. “The firefighters need to get through.”

She’d be happy to step back and let him take the leadership position. “Are you going to get everyone organized?”

“Not my job.” He ducked his head and kissed her again. “There’s only one thing I want to organize.”

“What’s that?”

“My life with you.”

She grinned. “That might take a lot of work.”

“I’m up for the challenge.”

And so was she.

* * * * *

ISBN: 9781459226333

Copyright © 2012 by Kay Bergstrom

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