BEVERLY BARTON – Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby (страница 12)

“I’m a woman.”

“Okay, if being a woman makes you an expert on all things female, then tell me this—why is it that Leenie pulls me to her with one hand and pushes me away with the other? She’s blowing hot and cold. I don’t know what she wants.”

“Believe me, you men are just as big a puzzle to us as we are to you.” Kate motioned for him to come toward her. “Let’s wait for Leenie in the living room. Eventually she’ll come out and that’s when you can play knight in shining armor again. Just wait for the signals. A smart man knows when to advance and when to retreat.”

“I’m not smart when it comes to women,” Frank admitted, following Kate down the hall and into the living room. “I’m bad at relationships.”

They sat down on the sofa. Kate curled up sideways, her waist and lower back supported by the sofa arm. Frank pressed his shoulders into the back of the couch, then crossed one leg over the other knee.

“Your personal life is none of my business. But if you care about Leenie, and I think you do, then ask yourself just how serious you are about a relationship with her. Don’t let her believe she can count on you for the long haul if you’re just in this until we find Andrew.”

Good advice. Hell, great advice. “What if I don’t know how I feel or what I want for the future? For now, I want to bring Andrew home. I want to protect Leenie and support her through this ordeal. But…” He shook his head. “I want to be a father to my son.”

Kate looked him right in the eye. “But not a husband to your son’s mother?”

“You’re not one for being subtle, are you?”

“No. I think there’s no use beating around the bush. Right? Let’s call a spade a spade. You no doubt have your reasons for being afraid of love, of committed relationships. And whatever those reasons are, I don’t want or need to know. But Leenie has a right to know why.”

“Maybe Leenie doesn’t care,” Frank said. “You’re assuming she wants something permanent with me. Just because we had a child together and right now she needs me doesn’t mean she wants a future with me.”

“Have you ever thought of just asking her?”

Frank shook his head. “Nope. I’ve found the direct approach seldom works with women.”

Kate made a face, then huffed. “What sort of women have you been dating? Or did one woman do a number on you years ago and now you paint us all with the same brush?”

The truth stung just a tad, but Frank managed to halfway smile at her comment.

Kate opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Frank’s cell phone rang. Grateful for the reprieve—he’d figured Kate was about to dish out some more feminine advice or dig deeper into his past personal life—Frank whipped the phone from his pocket and hit the on button.

“Latimer here.”

“Yeah, this is Special Agent Moran. We’ve got a possible break in the Andrew Patton case.”

Frank went stiff, his body tense, his breathing momentarily halted. “Have you found him?”

“Sorry, no,” Moran replied. “But the abduction ring we’ve infiltrated is putting up a new infant for adoption. In Tennessee. Memphis to be exact. The baby is male. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Approximately two to three months old. We’re making plans now to send in a couple of agents as prospective parents.”

“You can’t nab the kid right then and there can you?”

“You know we can’t. So maybe it’s better if you don’t share this info with Ms. Patton, unless you’re sure she can handle it.”

“I’ll talk things over with Kate before I decide whether or not to tell Leenie,” Frank said. “Keep us posted, will you?”

“Yeah, I will. I know he’s your kid and…well…I’ll keep you updated.”

“Thanks.”

Frank understood that these agents, disguised as hopeful, adoptive parents, would simply go in for a first meeting, but wouldn’t make any arrests or do anything to alert the top bananas in the abduction ring that the feds were on to them. From what Moran had told Frank, the bureau had been building this case for quite some time, working toward the moment when everything fell together just right. They wanted more than the peons in this dirty business—they wanted the kingpins. The only way to shut down the ring permanently was to destroy it from the top.

After returning his cell phone to his pocket, Frank turned to Kate. “Moran says there’s a new infant on the adoption block. Words out from the association the Feds have been investigating that they have a blond-haired, blue-eyed infant ready for adoption.”

Kate sucked in her breath. “And they’re sending in federal agents posing as a couple desperate to adopt a child, right?”

“Right.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Frank paced around the room. His paternal instincts warred with his logical, trained warrior mind. As a father, he didn’t give a damn about anything but rescuing his son. But the Dundee agent in him, as well as the Army Special Forces training that was such a fundamental part of him, acknowledged that the mission outweighed any personal needs. The FBI’s mission was not only to return Andrew Patton—unharmed—to his parents, but to destroy a malicious infant adoption ring that had been operating in the Southern states for over a decade.

“She won’t understand, will she?” Frank said, his back to Kate.

“No, she won’t understand.”

“Then I shouldn’t tell her. Moran thinks it best not to tell her.”

“Moran doesn’t have anything personal to lose by not telling Leenie.” Kate said. “You do.”

“Do I?”

“You tell me.”

“I’m willing to bet that once Andrew is back in her arms safe and sound, she’ll be willing to forgive me for just about anything.”

“Don’t count on it. If she ever finds out—”

“If I ever find out what?” Leenie’s voice rang out loud and clear from the other side of the room.

Frank snapped around to face her. A wide-eyed Kate glanced from Frank to Leenie and then back to Frank.

“Is it something about Andrew?” Leenie asked, hope in her voice.

Frank grimaced. “Nothing concrete.”

“What does that mean?”

Frank looked at Kate, wanting her to say something—anything—to defuse this ticking time bomb before it exploded. One of them had to give Leenie an explanation. Kate looked at him, her expression telling him that she thought it should be him.

Hell, now what was he supposed to do? “It means that the FBI have a lead in the case, but—”

“What sort of lead?” Leenie entered the living room, her face freshly washed, her eyes slightly swollen.

She’d been crying, Frank realized. And now she was approaching him, all but begging him with every look, every move, every word to give her a thread of hope to cling to. “A blue-eyed, blond infant has been put up for adoption in Memphis. His general description fits Andrew—”

“We have to go to Memphis right now,” Leenie said emphatically. “Where do they have him? Has Special Agent Moran sent someone to get him? Oh, Frank, this is wonderful news. Andrew is safe and—”

Frank grabbed her by the shoulders. She gasped as her startled gaze met his.

“We don’t know that it’s Andrew,” Frank said.

“But it might be.” She offered him a fragile smile. “It has to be.”

“We’ll know soon enough.” He squeezed her shoulders, then eased his hands down her arms, caressing and comforting.

“How soon? Tonight? First thing in the morning? How long do we have to wait?”

“It could be a while.” His gut instincts told him that this was not going to go well. Leenie was in no mood to listen to reason. Hell, who could blame her?

She jerked free of his hold and glared at him. “How long is a while? And why do we have to wait? If it’s Andrew—and I have to believe that it is—why won’t the FBI bring him home to me immediately?”

Frank let out a sigh of relief when Kate injected, “Things are never that simple with the feds. There are procedures to follow, agendas that have to be—”

“No, I don’t want you to explain.” Leenie held up her hand in a stop signal. “I want Frank to tell me why he isn’t moving heaven and earth to get his hands on Andrew and bring him home to me.” Narrowing her eyes to slits, she skewered Frank with her angry glare.

Frank cleared his throat, then took a step toward Leenie. Easing backward, she held both hands in front of her, a gesture that warned him not to come any closer.

“Dammit, Slim, don’t you think I want that baby to be Andrew? Don’t you think I want to drive to Memphis and be the one to go in there and tell those slimeballs that I want to adopt the baby and then get him away from them as quickly as possible?”

“Then why don’t you? Why can’t we pose as the people wanting to adopt Andrew, then—”

“Moran will send in a couple of federal agents,” Frank told her.

Leenie nodded. “All right. And if the baby is Andrew?”

“If these people supposedly representing the birth parents have the baby with them, they’re not going to release him immediately to the adoptive couple. A price will have to be agreed on and a second meeting set up to sign legal documents and exchange cash for the infant.”

“What are you not telling me?”

Frank swallowed. Damn! She wasn’t going to let this go until she knew everything. “It’s complicated. The feds have a major case going on, something they’ve been putting together for quite some time. In order to bring down the ringleaders of the infant abduction ring, they can’t do anything that might tip off these people and that includes grabbing this particular infant before the time is right. The entire procedure could take several days, maybe even several weeks.”