Intercepted by Love: Part Six: A Football Romance (The Quarterback's Heart Book 6) (11 page)

T
he next morning
, Andie woke up hot. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned out of bed. A deep cramp bent her double as she hobbled to the bathroom to change her pad. The nurses had said bleeding was normal, but how much was too much?

The bathroom floor turned circles and she tumbled to the ground. Her heartbeat raced, and she struggled to get up, feeling as if her arms and legs were made of jelly.

“Mom, Mom, help me,” she called, but only made a faint noise.

Andie closed her eyes, and rested her feverish forehead on the cooler floor. Where was Cade now? Would he be able to catch Rob and Devon? How was Bonnie? Had the doctor checked her out? At least she was in the hospital where she’d be taken care of.

Andie’s breasts were hard and hot, and she ached for her baby. Her arms empty, and her entire body in pain, she lay on the floor and prayed for them.

“Andie, are you okay?” Her mother shook her shoulder, waking her.

Andie shivered and her breathing was too shallow. She opened her mouth to speak, but wasn’t sure if the words came out. The next thing she knew, she was on a stretcher with an IV in her arm and being transported to the hospital.

“You’re going to be okay.” Her mother held her hand.

“Where’s Cade? Has anything happened yet?”

“Shhh … Tyson’s monitoring the news. He’s in contact with the police. I’m sure Cade’s fine.”

“How can you be sure? What if they figure out Cade’s trying to trap them, and they ambush him instead?”

“Oh, sweetheart, you need to concentrate on getting well so Cade will have a wife to come back to.” Mother smoothed the stray hairs from her face. “Cade took you from the hospital too early, but Bonnie’s doing fine. I spoke to her doctor. She’s normal and there were no side effects from your heroin exposure. They tested her in every way and she’s a healthy little newborn.”

“Except we’re missing out on the mother-daughter bonding. My milk is going to dry out and she’s feeling abandoned. Who’s holding her and cuddling her? She’s lying in a bassinet being bottle fed by a nurse and left to herself most of the time.” Andie burst into tears.

“You’ll be together soon. She won’t even remember.” Her mother hugged her, rocking her shoulders. “We’ll all be together soon.”

C
ade frowned
as he got off the phone with Tyson. Andie had been taken to the hospital with postpartum infection and blood loss due to retained portions of her placenta.

He slapped his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut. He shouldn’t have taken her from the hospital so early. Devon and Rob hadn’t shown up so far, and he could have waited another day before removing her.

He made another round of inspection on his property, before taking his backpack and hiking up a knoll in back of his house to a stand of birch trees and bushes where he’d placed a duck blind draped with marsh grasses and branches, borrowed from one of the local police officers.

Cade wore camouflage and he was armed with a twelve-gauge shotgun, not that he was supposed to shoot the invaders. He was to watch for them and call the police.

Several hours passed by. Cade spoke to the police and they hadn’t seen anyone suspicious. His legs were falling asleep from crouching in the blind, and he was beginning to feel stupid. The Andie mannequin hadn’t moved, obviously, since he set her there. Would Rob and Devon really be tricked? Maybe they were on to him already and had headed for Canada. Could he trust Tyson and his security team not to divulge Andie’s whereabouts? What if there was a mole?

Cade wandered from the blind and went back into his house to use the bathroom. Once finished, he moved the Andie mannequin to the kitchen table. Then he texted Danny who’d taken the red eye.

A few minutes later, Danny returned his text.
Dude, just landed. Picking up luggage. See you soon.

Now what? If Danny was the assassin, he’d be here in a little less than an hour, since he’d flown into Rochester, NY.

What would he do? Invite him in for a cup of coffee, then blow him away? But what if Danny were innocent and he was truly coming for the job?

Sheesh. Cade’s head swirled and he rubbed his face. Maybe he was screwing this entire thing up. Except he couldn’t leave things to the authorities. The manhunt had turned up nothing. No one had seen the two convicts, and they’d had outside help. They were riding in the back of a delivery van, and could have gone anywhere.

There was nothing to do but watch and wait. Cade tucked an ereader into the pocket of his camouflage jacket and picked up his shotgun. He walked out of the kitchen with one last glance of the Andie mannequin, sitting there with her flaming red hair. Up close, she wouldn’t fool anyone.

Pop, pop, pop. The kitchen window shattered. Cade crouched down and pumped his shotgun. Dammit. He should have rented that assault rifle. Now all he had were two shots that might not stop a full grown man.

Crack. The kitchen door smashed open and two masked men charged into the kitchen, plugging the mannequin full of holes.

Cade blasted a shot and hit the first man in the stomach.

“Holy shit!” the second man shouted and turned tail, running out the door. He sounded like Rob.

Cade aimed at the running man, but lowered his shotgun. He could never shoot a man in the back, and Rob had run outside his house, eliminating the castle defense.

He wouldn’t go far. Cade unmasked the dead man and stared into the shocking blue eyes of his half brother and former teammate, Devon Davis.

“
I
’ve come
up with the perfect business for Ronaldo’s theater during the offseason.” Andie told her family and friends as they gathered around her and Bonnie at Bonnie’s baby shower. They were sitting in the Pavilion at Prescott Point Park overlooking the beautiful Canandaigua Lake.

Beside her, Cade bounced Bret on his knee while dangling his Super Bowl ring for the boy to swat at.

Their newly disguised Aunt Beatrice shook a rattle at Bonnie and tickled the baby’s feet, while two well-dressed men stood on either side of her.

Barbara, renamed Beatrice, had nailed the kingpins of a notorious gang of building contractors who bribed local officials into overpriced contracts. After she provided the information, she was given further plastic surgery and a new identity.

“Oh, really?” Aunt Beatrice sniffed, looking like a stuck-up snob with old money. “No one comes to the Finger Lakes in the winter, not even to visit the wineries.”

“Care for a glass of wine?” Ambrose McCallister, the owner of Tall Duck Winery, offered to pour from a bottle of his family’s vintage collection. He and his mother had been hired to cater the affair.

“Why, sure. I’d love some now that I’m not pregnant,” Andie said.

“I’ll have sparkling grape juice,” Barbara said, glancing at her two bodyguards. “By the way, does anyone visit the wineries during the winter?”

Ambrose grinned and gave Andie a wink. “They will if Andie’s business takes off.”

“That’s right.” Andie swirled the glass in front of her nose and sampled the bouquet of scent. “People get married all year round. I’m going to be a wedding consultant specializing in historical wedding reenactments.”

“Historical weddings? How boring,” Aunt Beatrice huffed and sipped her grape juice. “Mmm … this is good stuff.”

Ambrose nodded and moved on to the table where Andie’s parents and relatives sat.

“We’ll have something for everyone,” Andie said. “They can choose from a variety of weddings and themes. It can either be famous people, an era, time and place, or from a theatrical drama or blockbuster movie, like
Phantom of the Opera
or
Antony and Cleopatra
, or even Michal’s wedding from
Michal’s Window
or
David Betrayed
, since her wedding tent is already part of the props. Particularly motivated individuals can write their own script, maybe give a happy ending to
Romeo and Juliet
.”

“Interesting concept.” Aunt Beatrice brushed lint off her business suit. “How much would people pay for something like this?”

Not only was Barb, er Aunt Beatrice, completely reformed, she dressed as if she were in the country club set, complete with two lackeys at her beck and call.

“Since I’ll be the only historical and themed wedding reenactment company in the world, they’ll pay a pretty penny.” Andie was confident and not about to let Aunt Beatrice dissuade her. “It’ll be a unique experience. Dad can help me do the research and write the script, as well as consult on historical accuracy. I can contract out with Sylvia to design the costumes for the extras. The bride and the groom will want custom outfits, but they can rent them if they want. Just think, we can have a wedding for the Empress of China, or an Elizabethan wedding, or wedding on Plymouth Rock.”

“Sounds like a match made in heaven.” Cade leaned over them, one hand on Andie’s shoulder and the other on his mother. “I’ll put you in charge of advertising.”

“You?” his mother said, raising her eyebrows. “I thought this was Mr. Silver’s venture.”

“He’s the front man, but now that he captured you and got the bounty, he’s on to bigger and better targets.”

“I was always his biggest and best target,” Aunt Beatrice said. “He’s sour I turned myself in, depriving him of the catch.”

“Except Sylvia and Leroy got credit,” Andie said. “She’d called Leroy when she recognized Joanie, and he contacted the FBI who rescued her from the locked room. Cade didn’t find them there that night because they were busy being interviewed.”

Cade stepped over to clarify what had happened. “Yep, and as for Ronaldo, if he hadn’t been going around spreading rumors of a resort and building a stadium, the real bad guys wouldn’t have contacted Mr. Van Roekens and gotten caught.”

Ronaldo had been clever. All the noise had done exactly what he’d intended, attracted greedy bees to the honeypot. Meanwhile, Sylvia and Leroy had shared in the reward. Of course they’d come to Itasca with a motive—to use Andie’s wedding to catch Barbara, as well as to help their friend have the wedding of her dreams.

Sylvia decided to stay on in Itasca to design costumes for the Lakeside Theater, but Leroy returned to Hollywood to pitch his scripts to movie producers, since his
David Betrayed
play had been panned by the critics, although he left them rights to use the play in her wedding business.

As for Rob, he was captured running down the street in sheer panic after Cade shot Devon. Not that Cade felt good about it. Some days, he had the blues about killing Devon, although in self defense, since Devon had come into the kitchen shooting.

Devon had been jealous his father, Dick, loved Cade from afar. As for Rob, he blamed Cade for inviting him to play Ultimate Frisbee which resulted in a career ending torn ligament in his knee. In college, Rob had been the first string quarterback and Cade the second. He never got over it, despite pretending to support Cade’s career as his agent.

Finally, Roxanne was satisfied to be an absentee mother to Bret, as long as she got pictures and one or two visits a year. If all went well with the waiting period, Bret would someday be Andie’s son officially.

Aunt Beatrice jutted her jaw at Cade and crossed her arms. “I still don’t think they deserved the bounty. I was the one who turned myself in. I should have gotten the reward.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Auntie,” Cade reminded her. “You’re lucky to get away in one piece. Need I remind you Donnie and Joanie are both back in jail for kidnapping Andie?”

“That’s because they wouldn’t take a deal.”

“To rat you out, Auntie,” Cade reminded her. “Now that you’re Beatrice Preston, why don’t you move in with us and keep Andie company once football season starts?”

“Too busy. You do know I’m not just working for the Feds?” Aunt Beatrice lowered her sunglasses and blinked at Cade and Andie. “I still have to go back to jail every night.”

“You do?” Cade gaped at Andie who shrugged, wide-eyed. “You said you were doing stings.”

“I am.” She glanced up at the two silent men standing on either side of her. “These aren’t my bodyguards, they’re prison guards. So, as much as I’d love a sleepover with my little Bonnie Blue, I’ll have to wait until she’s ten.”

She reached for the baby, and Andie handed her over. “Sorry, Barb, er, I mean Aunt Beatrice. I didn’t know.”

“I get time off to visit, as you can see. It helps with my cover story as an oil and gas heiress.” She kissed little Bonnie and stared in her eyes. “We’ll have such fun playing dress up, won’t we? By the time you’re ready for a wedding, we’ll have a blast. Cade, can you unwrap Bonnie’s present?”

Cade picked up a box and held it for Bret, who loved to rip pretty paper off of presents. “One more for you, bud.”

Squealing with glee, Bret stuck his chubby fingers over the brightly colored wrapping paper and tore it to pieces. Cade pulled out a baby sized white tee-shirt with frilly lace trim and a logo, “Weddings are History.”

“That’s wonderful,” Andie said. “How’d you know I was struggling to find a name for my business?” Andie reached over and hugged Cade’s mother.

“Mothers always know. Welcome to the club.”

On the field and off the field, bartender Jeanine Jewell plays, collecting one-night stands like baseball cards. She doesn’t need a man, except to curl her toes and make her scream. She’s learned the hard way that the one who cares more is the one who gets hurt—and the last thing she can handle is getting hurt, or having anyone discover her shameful secret.

Scoring women is easy for catcher Kirk Kennedy—they don’t call him “Catch and Release” for nothing. He never goes back for a repeat performance. Being traded to a new city is an opportunity for new adventures. Everything changes when he runs into Jeanine and she refuses to go home with him.

Intrigued, Kirk is determined to catch the elusive blonde and keep her to himself. When he proposes a wingman to wingwoman friends without benefits relationship, he’s surprised she accepts.

The no benefits clause soon falls by the wayside when neither Jeanine or Kirk can resist their explosive chemistry together. But despite the sparks between the sheets, they both refuse to acknowledge they’re anything more than friends.

A phone call changes everything when Kirk discovers his past is the one Jeanine's hiding from …