The Baby's Bodyguard (13 page)

“Tomorrow we’ll work out the kinks.” He turned his ear toward the door as the cry came again.

Kelsey sighed.

“I’ll get her.” He gave her fingertips a quick kiss and stood. “Finish your pizza and get some rest. I can handle this.”

“If you’re sure, it would be great if you would take her for a while. I’m exhausted.” She sank down on the stool he’d just vacated.

“No problem. I’ve got this.” Ethan flashed her a smile and took the stairs two at a time. Ever since he’d seen that baby turn blue and gasp for air, he’d been terrified she’d have another spell. He didn’t want her getting wound up, not if he could help it.

He pushed the door open and stepped into the darkened room. “Hey Janie-girl, what’s going on? You don’t want to go to bed tonight?”

She made a relieved whimper, raising her arms up to him. He lifted her from the crib and when she buried her head in his chest, he had to sigh. “Oh, you do know how to get to a man’s heart, don’t you, pumpkin?”

Ethan settled her on his shoulder and walked the length of the room, doing an awkward version of the swaying motion that he’d seen Kelsey do. Why did it seem to come so naturally to her?

Janie popped her thumb in her mouth and closed
her eyes. “I think you just don’t want to be alone tonight, and that’s okay. Sometimes I don’t want to be by myself, either,” Ethan told her.

As she relaxed, he walk-swayed into the sitting room, flipped on the sports channel and eased onto the couch, making sure the remote was within reach. Janie didn’t cry, so he tossed one of the cushions to the end and eased a little farther back, eyeing the baby. Still no movement.

Ethan laid all the way back, rubbing circles on Janie’s back, sure that at any moment she was going to wake up screaming.

His eyes were heavy, too, and with the baseball highlights running on the TV and seventeen pounds of baby snuggled into his chest, he gave in and closed them. It had been a killer day.

Tomorrow would be worse.

He closed his arms around the baby. Janie didn’t have to worry. She was safe in his arms. No one was going to get to her, not on his watch.

Kelsey tiptoed into the room where Ethan still slept on the sofa with Janie on his arm. From the looks of it, he was going to have massive cricks in his neck and his arm, where he propped Janie.

The baby was snuggled on his chest, her head where she could hear his heartbeat. His arm supported her weight and his free hand was on her back. Even in sleep, he was protecting her.

And there it was. That moment that she knew she’d been kidding herself. The exact moment when she knew
she’d fallen and fallen hard. She wasn’t fanciful enough to imagine birds singing or violins playing or anything like that. It felt more like getting hit over the head with a frying pan.

He was achingly gentle with Janie and everything he did, regardless of his own motives, was designed to protect others. He was such a good man and he didn’t even realize it. She was really in trouble here. In over her head, going down fast and she hadn’t even realized it.

Shaking her head at her own naïveté, she took the extra mug of coffee and placed it on the end table near his head before retreating a safe distance to the overstuffed chair on the other side of the room. His eyes popped open.

“Coffee?” he croaked. He rolled his head to the side and winced.

“Good morning.” She tried not to look at him like a woman who’d just been struck over the head with the frying pan of love.

“What time is it?” He turned his arm over to look at his watch, but Janie stirred. He jiggled her back to sleep.

“It’s five forty-five. Too early for her, but I needed to talk to you. Two things. Gracie got a call from one of her police buddies. A guy came into Sacred Heart last night with a bullet wound a couple days old. He had a nasty infection. Police ID’d him as Russian mafia, just like the other guy.”

He held his hand out for the coffee. “Really.”

Figuring it was safe, she crossed the room and handed him the mug.

“And here’s the interesting part. Guess which former partner of yours finished a case about a year ago dealing with the Russian mafia?”

Ethan eased to a sitting position and sucked down about half of the mug of coffee. “Bridges.”

“You guessed it. Nolan was up half the night digging up that information. The man must have Red Bull running through his veins.” She sat back in her chair and swigged from her own mug of coffee, pleased with herself to see the half-stunned look on his face. Of course that could be lack of sleep, the caffeine not having had time to kick in yet.

He frowned into the coffee mug. “Did you get some rest?”

“Me? Oh, yeah. I slept great on the couch downstairs. Didn’t even know where I was when I heard Nolan whoop from the library about an hour ago.” She ran a hand over her still damp, slightly curling hair. “I came up to relieve you, but you were both sleeping so sound, I left you alone.” She giggled a little. “You’re really cute when you sleep.”

He cut his eyes at her, a smile curving his lips. “Janie and I were cutting some Zs, man.”

Her eyes were on the baby, but the words were for him. “She’s had a lot of change to deal with. I bet she just wanted to know someone was here.”

Janie stirred, rubbing her face in Ethan’s T-shirt as she woke up. The sleepy toddler lifted her face, giving him a squinty-eyed look. He cringed. “Ooh. I know that
look. That look says, ‘Give me milk now or I’m gonna scream.’”

Kelsey dropped to her knees beside the sofa. “Hey, Janie … good morning, sunshine.”

Ethan laughed. She sat back on her heels. “What?”

“Nothing. It just strikes me as funny, that you’re sitting here talking baby talk and we’re having this really normal moment with Janie when everything is crazy out there.”

“It’s going to happen today, isn’t it? Whatever’s going to happen, all this is coming to a head.” She was worried and she didn’t mind him knowing. There was a lot at stake here. “It’s going to happen today.”

He sat up and shifted Janie on his lap. “Probably, yes. I can’t imagine Bridges waiting very long. He’ll have to know that I’m going to go after Charlie, which would blow his whole operation wide open. He’d also know that Viktoria Arsov would be a threat. He doesn’t know she’ll be going with the U.S. Marshals today.”

Janie reached for Kelsey, who lifted her into her arms and stood. “I wish we knew what he was going to try.”

Ethan stood and wrapped his arms around the two of them. “Don’t worry. You’re going to make sure Janie is safe. I’m going to make sure both of you are safe. And we’re going to control what Bridges does, not the other way around.”

He kissed her head. “Now go get the baby some milk before she has a complete meltdown.”

The sounds of a waking house drifted up the stairs. Breakfast making, shower running, people chattering.
Normal sounds of a normal day. Kelsey knew that it was anything but that.

This day had the potential to change all of their lives forever.

E
than looked around the table at their small team. The huge farm table in the remodeled dining room of the bed-and-breakfast held them easily—he and Kelsey, Gracie and Tyler, Nolan and their new ally, U.S. Marshal Tom Carlisle, and his partner, Jason Reeves.

The marshal piled Tyler’s home fries onto his plate. “So you want us to take Ms. Arsov off your hands this morning, but you don’t want anyone to know.”

“That about sums it up. We’re going to use her as bait, but we don’t actually want her to
be
bait.”

Carlisle thought about that for a minute. “Okay. I can handle it. Who’s going to provide backup?”

Ethan looked at Tyler. “The two of us are former agents, Tyler with the DEA and me with the FBI. So between the two of us we figure we can handle Cantori. If he decides to bring the hit squad, that poses a bigger problem.”

Gracie sat her coffee mug down. “I just happen to have access to the best crisis response team in the region. We have training scheduled for this morning anyway. They may as well be here.”

Tyler looked at his wife. “Call Todd and let him know?”

“Done.” She took another bite of her breakfast. “As soon as I’m finished with my bacon.”

Tyler’s friend looked at Kelsey, who was sitting by the high chair feeding Janie bits of potato. “Do you have law enforcement experience as well?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll be staying upstairs, keeping Janie out of the line of fire.”

Jason, the other marshal, looked at Nolan. “And you?”

Nolan looked from one armed agent to another. “I’ll be running tech support. And hiding with the baby—I mean, protecting her.” He grinned.

Tom took a bite of bacon, chewed slowly, and swallowed, obviously thinking. “What about the FBI agent? If you have a warrant for his arrest, one of us can stay to do the honors and we can transport all of the prisoners at the same time.”

“Our problem is that we have enough evidence to prove he’s involved, but not enough evidence to prove he committed a crime. We’re working on it,” Nolan muttered, reaching for another biscuit.

Jason, a quiet guy with a soft Southern accent, shrugged. “I don’t mind hanging around. I have two little girls of my own. If one of them were in trouble, I hope you’d do the same.”

His partner nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll move Ms. Arsov. You’ll stay here to take the others into federal custody. Local law enforcement will provide backup as needed.”

Ethan asked Tom, “Do you have time for us to do a quick interview with Ms. Arsov before you leave?”

“I’ve got time. I’d like to look around the place since Tyler promised me a couple days’ stay here in a few months.” He grinned. “It looks like a real nice place to bring the wife, mafia hit men notwithstanding.”

The marshal stood and unhooked his shirt, which had gotten hung up on the weapon on his hip. “Thanks for breakfast, Tyler. I’ll go outside for a while, enjoy the scenery.”

Ethan pushed back from the table. “Nolan, do you have that phone number?”

“The one we found for Tony Cantori’s alias? Yeah, I’ll get it. Are you ready to get this show moving?” Nolan slid his chair back.

Ethan nodded, but hesitated before walking away. He cleared his throat. “Maybe we should, uh, pray … before we should get started today.”

Shock slackened Tyler’s face, but they each stood and joined hands around the table. Everyone looked at the other and one by one, their eyes turned to him. Okay, so he guessed they wanted
him
to pray. That wasn’t exactly his intention.

He resisted the urge to release the hands on either side and swipe his suddenly sweating palms on his jeans. “I’m no good at this praying stuff, something that would make my mom want to crawl under the table in embarrassment. It’s kind of been a while.” Ethan felt his cheeks warming and bowed his head. “Dear God … please guide and protect us today. Help us stay safe as we try to do what’s right. Amen.”

Scattered
amens
came from around the circle. Kelsey squeezed his hand, nodded, her own color high—from nerves, maybe. “That was a good idea. I think your mom would be proud.”

He held her hand another second. “I’ve got to go make that call. Make sure you keep Janie out of the way today, okay?”

“I will. Ethan, please be careful. These men have a lot at stake.”

Ethan pulled her close for a hard, tight hug. “I know. We’re going to get through this.”

Nolan handed him a paper with a number. “The name is Boyd Macintosh. That was the confidential informant, right?”

“That’s the one. Thanks.” Ethan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, watching with his peripheral vision as Kelsey picked up Janie and brushed the crumbs from her little overalls.

In his ear he heard the one-word answer. “Yeah.”

The voice sent nausea spinning in his stomach. “I’m looking for Boyd Macintosh. Someone gave me this number.”

“Who is this?”

“A friend. I have something you want.” He picked up a digital recorder and played Viktoria’s voice saying,
The man you want is Boyd Macintosh. He’s the one in charge of it all.

“Who in the blazes is this?”

Ethan didn’t answer the question, just gave the instructions. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to come to the address that I text you. You will come at
the time I specify.” He barely stopped to breathe before barreling on. “Viktoria Arsov will be waiting for you and you can do whatever you want with her.”

“What’s in this for you?”

Ethan took a breath to say something, then stalled out. He hadn’t thought about that. They’d figured there would be something that Tony Cantori or Boyd Macintosh or whatever he was calling himself now would want—Viktoria—but hadn’t considered that he would think it was a trade, something of his for something he wanted. Without giving it much conscious thought, Ethan said, “Half a million dollars.” The amount he’d had in the satchel the night Amy died.

Cantori sucked in a breath. “I hope you know it’ll take some time to come up with that kind of money.”

“If you think real hard, I bet you can come up with it.” Ethan paused to give Tony/Boyd time to think about it. “Be on the lookout for the instructions on your texts. And if you don’t follow them, Arsov disappears.”

“But—”

Ethan clicked off. “Whew. That wasn’t as easy or as enjoyable as I thought it would be.”

Tyler leaned against the wall closest to the kitchen door. “Now you’re going to call Bridges?”

“Yes. I’m going to tell him that I found Cantori and if he wants to make the arrest he should be here this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. He’ll think I’m completely in the dark about his involvement and he’ll be here to get his old pal Cantori out of hot water.”

Tyler didn’t move, his eyes following Ethan as he paced the hall. “It’s gotta hurt that the one person you
trusted when you were under was the person who betrayed you.”

Ethan stopped midstep.

“I’ve been there, E. I’ve been undercover and I know what it’s like to trust someone with your life.” His voice was quiet. “I’m sorry that this happened to you.”

Ethan turned to face Tyler. “They say everything happens for a reason. I don’t believe that. But I’m beginning to believe that God can make good things come from bad situations, even as bad as mine. Thanks for sticking by me the last couple years. It would’ve been easier to give up.”

His voice had gone hoarse. And he could see his brother’s throat working, too.

“No, it wouldn’t.” Tyler pushed away from the wall and walked toward Ethan. “It’s going to be tricky to get them to incriminate themselves. I hope you have a good plan. If this goes bad, we could be in for a world of hurt.”

“If you don’t want to be here, Tyler, you don’t have to be. I know this isn’t your fight. You’ve done more than enough already.”

Tyler glanced toward the stairs where Gracie had gone to join Kelsey and Nolan. “One of these days I may have a daughter of my own. What Cantori and Bridges did to those young girls … I can’t imagine anything better than putting the two of them away for life.”

“Okay, then. Let’s get Viktoria down here and get started. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” And as he climbed the stairs to release her from the room where
they’d been holding her, he prayed again. He might not be good at it, but he knew there was no way they were making it through this day without help.

They were in position, Nolan in the upstairs sitting room to run the technical aspects of the op, Gracie beside him watching the security feed on a handful of monitors. Tyler was downstairs in the kitchen, with U.S. Marshal Jason Reeves hiding in Tyler’s huge pantry in the adjoining hall. The police squad had been deployed to the woods surrounding the property, not the first time they’d backed up one of the Clark brothers.

Each of the team members had been fitted with an earpiece that Nolan had dug up from somewhere. The man’s resources were seemingly limitless.

Ethan sat on the floor in the bedroom with Kelsey, while Janie played with blocks. She leaned against his arm. He was aware, so aware, what he stood to lose this afternoon. He couldn’t make a misstep. There was too much at stake. In his ear, he heard one of the cops posted at the gate. “Subject is entering the property.”

Kelsey was quiet. Too quiet for her usual self. He closed his eyes as she laid her head on his shoulder. She smelled like a sweet mix of lavender shampoo and baby powder. He smiled against her hair.

“What?”

“Nothing, really—you’re just something special. I hope you know that.”

She turned in his arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “Tell me that later. After all this is over, I want you to tell me how special I am to you then.”

Ethan laughed, surprising even himself. “Okay, Kels. I’ll tell you then.” He sobered, studying her face. Memorizing it. She was beautiful and special and precious. She’d survived something horrible and come out with an optimistic faith that he envied.

“I’m going to have to go downstairs.” He leaned forward, brushing a kiss across her lips. “Be safe.”

“You be safe. Don’t do anything courageous and stupid like jump in front of a bullet, okay?”

“I’ll try.” He got to his feet as the doorbell rang. “Showtime.”

He heard Tyler in the entrance hall and started down. Standing behind the door, he nodded at Tyler, who was dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt, tight across the chest and biceps. His weapon, a Sig 226, was in plain sight at his waist. If Ethan didn’t know better, he would be intimidated by Tyler.

Tyler opened the door. “Mr. Macintosh? I hope you don’t mind, but I have to check to make sure you’re not carrying.”

“I’m not stupid,” Cantori/Macintosh growled.

Tyler pushed him against the wall and patted him down, then turned him to face Ethan.

“You. I know you.” Cantori spit out the word, but fear grew in his eyes. “What is this?”

Ethan raised an eyebrow. “Exactly what you think. I recently did some digging. I found out about your operation and exactly why you wanted to get rid of me two years ago. I would’ve spoiled a very lucrative thing you had going on.”

“Yeah, so?”

“It pains me to say this after what happened, but I don’t want retribution. I just want you to disappear and take Arsov with you. I start a new life.” He did his best to look like he really didn’t care about the hundreds of children Cantori had brokered and the women he had sold.

“While you take my half a million dollars.”

Ethan allowed a small smile. “Well, yes, there is that. But really, it’s a small sum compared to your freedom, don’t you think? A small price to pay for the life of my wife?”

“Exactly where is Arsov?” Cantori crossed his arms, heavy dark eyebrows settling over eyes so dark brown as to be almost black. “How do I really know she’s alive, and that you have her?”

“Come with me.” Ethan turned and walked toward the library. He didn’t check to make sure Cantori was behind him. He knew the other man would be. Just like he’d known he would come. Cantori was too full of himself to ever believe he could be caught in a trap.

Nolan had rigged a twenty-six-inch flatscreen monitor on the table in the library that he would control from the sitting room upstairs.

“Have a seat.” Ethan gestured at the leather chair across from the monitor, while Tyler blocked the door. He punched a button on the top of the monitor. It flickered to life. The picture showed Viktoria looking from side to side, holding a newspaper with today’s date on it.

“Satisfied?”

“Where is she?” Cantori looked at the door that
Tyler blocked with his considerable bulk. “Is she in this building?”

Pretending to be bored, Ethan pointed at the monitor. “If you’ll notice the crown molding behind her … it matches the molding in this room. As does the shape of the window. She’s been held here all along. I can prove it.” He leaned forward and tapped the microphone that Nolan had taped to the table. “Ms. Arsov, can you hear me?”

Viktoria looked startled, then nodded. “Yes, yes, I can hear you.”

This part of the “show” had been scrupulously scripted. Ethan had made the original video with Viktoria, but to make Cantori believe that she was actually here, the timing had to be perfect.

Nolan was upstairs controlling the video monitor. He had the script and was telling Ethan in his earpiece exactly what to say and when so that it would match the video.

“Ms. Arsov.” She looked directly at the camera. “I have a Mr. Boyd Macintosh here with me. Sometimes he goes by Anthony Cantori. Do you know the name?”

On the screen, she looked to the side, like she would rather be anywhere else but there. Her face fell into resigned lines. “Yes, I know him.”

“Could you speak up, please?”

She cleared her throat. “I said, I know him. He’s been my boss for the last three years since he brought me here from my country.”

Cantori moved closer to the screen, as if he could
reach through and choke the life out of her through the glass. “Ask her what she did.”

Fortunately the question went right along with the script. “What did you do for Mr. Cantori?”

“He brought pregnant girls into the country with the express intention of brokering their babies into adoption.” She looked down at her hands, fingers knotted together. “I was the face with the adoptive parents and … delivered the children to their adoptive parents.”