“Your ribs are fine,” a feminine voice was saying as Brody started to come out of the haze. “Your arm is not broken. I think if you hold a cold pack to your wrist it should be fine by morning.”

“No, I can tell that something is broken. I had four hundreds pounds of Australia fall on top of me. I have to have nearly died,” Miles whined. “I’m sure he broke my spleen.”

He felt a hand on his wrist, soft fingers sliding over to check his pulse.

“Brody? Can you open your eyes?” Steph’s voice was strong and clear. The voice of a doctor taking over out in the field.

He opened his eyes, blinking at the lights. What had happened? “I’m fine. I must have fallen.”

She frowned down at him. “You fainted.”

“You tried to kill me,” Miles accused. “You were like a mountain of pain falling on me.”

“Good, you arsehole.” Brody struggled to his feet. He needed to eat something. It had been roughly twenty-four hours since he’d eaten a damn thing and it was catching up to him.

Then he remembered where he was. “I want to see him.”

Steph held a hand out. “Why don’t we go talk?”

So she could put him off? “I want to see him. Or are you going to deny that’s my child? Because I can get a DNA test very quickly.”

“I never once denied it,” she replied. “I left you several messages concerning the fact that I was pregnant. I believe I threatened you with lawyers.”

“I didn’t listen to the messages and I damn straight didn’t get any messages from a lawyer. Did you try anything else? Why the hell didn’t you come to see me?”

Steph leaned over and gently kissed the baby, who was now being held in the nursery worker’s arms, a bottle lodged firmly in his mouth. When Steph glanced back up, there was a steely look in her eyes. “Out, Mr. Carter. We can have this discussion but I’m not doing it in front of the kids. I’m not going to scare them.”

He looked around and the older kids were watching him with wary eyes. The Taggart twins were staring up at him like they were ready to jump into action if needed.

He took a step back. “All right, but we do need to talk. Tucker, go find something to do.”

Tucker nodded and started down the hall toward the kitchen.

Steph led the way out after assuring Miles that getting a knee jammed into his crotch didn’t necessarily mean he could no longer have children.

Bastard.

Steph walked into an office, Li’s office. Brody followed and closed the door behind him. They were alone for the first time in a year.

She’d had his baby.

“You didn’t even listen to the messages?”

He sighed. “I was afraid I would give in if I heard your voice.”

“Give in to what?” Steph asked, obviously exasperated. “You act like I’m some kind of temptress. I asked you to sleep with me once. I agreed to all your conditions. If I hadn’t gotten pregnant I would never have called you again.”

That hurt more than he’d like. And it was perverse. He’d wanted to disconnect with her and yet the idea that she didn’t want him made him ache inside.

She shook her head, leaning against the desk. “Don’t. You don’t get to look hurt. I was honoring your wishes. You didn’t want me to call. I wouldn’t have called unless there was an emergency. You couldn’t even find out if something was happening to me. That’s how little you cared.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, the evidence would say differently, Mr. Carter.”

He had to get through that wall. “Stop calling me that, Steph.”

“I’ll call you whatever I like,” she replied. “You wanted a polite relationship, this is what you get. We ceased being Brody and Steph the minute you decided to ignore my calls. And don’t you dare tell me I should have done more. You want me to show up on your doorstep? With what? I barely had enough cash to get out when someone was trying to kill me. I wasn’t wasting what I had on a man who didn’t care. And I certainly never dreamed you felt so little for me that you would erase my voice mails.”

God, he was in it up to his neck now. “That’s not why I did it, luv. It was the opposite. I felt too much for you.”

Her eyes rolled. “Yes, that’s why you haven’t reached out at all in a full year. Well, I feel better.”

“The minute I thought you were in danger, I flew here. Doesn’t that say something?”

“It’s too little too late.” She crossed her arms and winced slightly.

No one had even checked her out. Things had moved quickly, and then he’d been a dumb arse and passed out at the sight of his son. God, he had a son. “Let me see your arm.”

“I’m fine.”

“I said, let me see your bloody arm,” he repeated, his voice low. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Not this time. He’d fucked up horribly, but he was going to take care of her now. A year couldn’t have changed the heat between them. A year hadn’t changed his feelings for her. For an unknown reason, this woman had wanted him once before. He could find that magic again if he stayed close to her.

Suddenly, staying close to this woman was his main mission in life.

She shrugged out of the plaid shirt she wore, revealing a plain white sleeveless T-shirt underneath. She often wore layers. He could remember vividly sitting up in bed a few days after they’d met and thinking about how nice it would be to peel back those layers of clothing and get down to her skin, to unwrap her like the gift she was.

“See, it’s nothing more than a graze,” she said, holding her arm out.

He moved behind her because the red line where the bullet had grazed her seemed to start at the back of her arm. He held her in one big hand, gently running a thumb over the raised scratch. “Still needs to be cleaned.”

He reached over and grabbed a tissue from the box on Liam’s desk, soaking it with the hand sanitizer the Irishman kept by a picture of his kid. She was perfectly still as he touched the cleaner to her wound, though he couldn’t miss the hiss that came from her mouth.

“Sorry, but if you think you need better care, I can take you to an ER,” he promised.

“I think we’re avoiding the ER. Liam doesn’t want the police to get involved,” she replied, her whole body stilling as he leaned over and blew across the wound, trying to cool the heat from the alcohol. “Li doesn’t have a lot of faith that they can handle something like this. They don’t have the kinds of contacts in Africa that McKay-Taggart has.”

She seemed fragile. Despite the weight she’d gained, she was still dainty compared to him. He could wrap his hand nearly all the way around her arm. This was why he’d been reluctant to touch her at first. He was a hulking beast and she the fairy princess who deserved a prince.

“Are you sure there’s nothing else wrong?” Brody asked quietly.

“Besides the fact that I’m tired and I’ve barely slept because I’m terrified a maniac is going to kill me and my son? I’m great.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. She always held her tension there. How many nights had he run his hands along her shoulders, rubbing until she finally relaxed? It had served as a way to quell the deep need to touch her. He let his thumbs slide along the rigid muscles, satisfied at the way she sighed.

“I came as soon as I found out you were in trouble. I don’t intend to leave. I’m going to take care of this for you.”

“It’s fine, Brody. I’m hiring bodyguards and Li is sure that they’ll figure out how to handle this man.”

“What does he want from you?” He wanted to talk about Nate. Desperately. He wanted to know everything about the kid, but she was talking to him, allowing him to touch her. He wasn’t about to stop. They would have plenty of time to talk later.

“I don’t think he wants anything but revenge.” Her voice was softer now.

He would rather keep that sweet voice of hers softening up. He knew how to do it. She melted when he touched her, responded like no woman ever had to him. But that would have to wait. Li would be back any moment and they needed to solve the problem.

“That’s not how he sounded on the phone. He wanted something. He said he knew what you had and he would get it back one way or another.” He’d thought about those words over and over again. He’d carefully typed them into his phone so he would have notes on the conversation.

Her shoulders were tight again and she moved away from him. “I didn’t take anything except Nate. I barely had time to shove a can of formula in his diaper bag. I left my phone behind, my laptop, everything except my purse. I had to buy clothes and a small suitcase when I got to Guinea. I only did that because I knew there would be questions about a woman traveling to the States without a suitcase.”

“That was smart.” He kept his voice low and soothing despite the fact that he wanted to shout a million questions at her, wanted to drag her back into his arms. “They likely would have questioned you and that would have cost you time.”

“Well, I didn’t actually think of it. Alfi did,” she replied. “He’s another Aussie, believe it or not. I can’t seem to find a security guy who wasn’t born in Oz.”

Alfi. Bloody Alfi. Oh, he should have known better than to think Alfi could do one favor for him. “What did he do?”

“The boss? I don’t want to go through this again, Brody. I’m tired.”

“I meant that wanker Alfi Dauterre.”

She was quiet for a moment and then her jaw dropped. “How did you… Of course. You sent him. I should have known he was too good to be true when he showed up two weeks after you left and wanted nothing but room and board.” Her hands went to her hips. “And you say you had no idea about Nate? Alfi knew. And by the way, if you sent him to take your place, sorry, I turned him down. I’d had enough larger-than-life Aussie sex for a lifetime.”

“He did what?” Brody felt his fists at his sides again. “He tried something with you?”

The door opened and Liam stood there. “What’s going on? Carter, if you lay a hand on her…”

Steph waved the notion off. “He’s not going to hit me. He’s pissed that his plan to foist me off on someone else didn’t work.” She frowned as though something had just occurred to her. “Or maybe it did. You know Alfi could be Nate’s bio dad. Maybe you’re off the hook.”

“Don’t you even pretend that boy ain’t mine,” he growled back. “Don’t try me right now, luv. I’m not capable of handling it the way I should. Or maybe it would be the way I should. You always were interested in D/s, weren’t you? You keep pushing me and you’ll find out what it means to be my sub.”

Steph started to open her mouth.

Li put a hand out. “Don’t. He’s been pushed enough, darlin’.”

“I thought you were on my side.”

Liam turned to her. “Have you figured out that he’s a dumb bastard who didn’t know about the boy?”

“Like that matters,” she shot back. “It means nothing. He didn’t care enough to even listen to my voice mails. And according to him, he sent Alfi to take his place. Did you think if I started sleeping with Alfi that I would leave you alone? Seriously? You are one of the most arrogant men I’ve ever met.”

“He’s not arrogant at all and that’s part of the problem,” Liam said, holding the door open. “And I doubt he sent someone to take his place in your bed.”

“I bloody well didn’t, and when I get my hands on him, he’ll find out how little I thought of his help,” Brody said between clenched teeth. “He was my friend. We grew up in the same town, went into SASR together. The bastard was supposed to tell me if she needed anything. I sent him to watch over her because I couldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t,” Li corrected.

He wasn’t going to argue the point now. “He didn’t bother to tell me she was pregnant and now I find out he tried to sleep with her. I’ll kill him.”

“He also managed to get her out of there before she got killed.” O’Donnell seemed determined to be the voice of reason. “Now, we’re wanted in the conference room. There have been a couple of developments and Big Tag wants to talk about how we proceed.”

“I don’t want him here,” Steph said, her arms crossed over her chest.

O’Donnell’s jaw firmed and he pointed her way. “Then you shouldn’t have made a baby with the bastard. He is here. He is Nathan’s da and you’ve got to deal with that. Unless Carter doesn’t want the boy.”

“I want him.” He spat the words out as quickly as he could. There would be no doubt as to whether or not he wanted the child. That boy wouldn’t spend another day without his father in his life. “I didn’t think I was good enough for Steph, but none of that matters now.”

“So you’re not good enough for me, but you’re good enough for Nate?” Steph asked, sarcasm dripping.

“No, I’m not good enough for him, but I got no choice. I’ll make myself better. He’s my son and I got no choice but to change and be the kind of man he can be proud of. I ain’t leaving him. I ain’t gonna be my dad.”

Her eyes closed and when they opened, they were softer than before. “Of course I want you to be able to see him. You are his father.” She sighed and looked back to Liam. “All right. Let’s get this done. I need to find a place to stay tonight.”

“You’ll stay with me.” It was said in stereo. Brody hadn’t meant to be in tune with O’Donnell, but they managed to say the same thing.

Steph threw her hands up and strode out the door.

O’Donnell shook his head. “You’re in trouble, mate.”

Like he didn’t already know that.

 

* * * *

 

Steph eased into her chair and realized she’d made a horrible mistake. She hadn’t taken the empty chair between Charlotte Taggart and Adam Miles. She’d decided to sit across from them and that left a chair open on either side of her.

Not for long. Brody sat down beside her, moving the chair closer to hers.

Why did he have to look so damn good? When she’d run around the corner and nearly knocked into him, all she’d been able to think about was that he looked like safety and home all rolled into one gorgeous man package.

I ain’t leaving him. I ain’t gonna be my dad.

She wasn’t going to think about how easily her heart had softened. She’d heard him talking about how he would be a better man for Nate’s sake and much of her rage had drained.

He couldn’t love her, but if he could love their son, she had to give him the chance to. She had to try to at least be friendly with him.

Remy Guidry strode in with Riley Blade and Shane Landon at his back. “We’ve handled the police. Told them it was some prankster trying to pull one over on the doc. They were happy to let us deal with it internally.”

Because they had a million things to do. If they thought for a second it wasn’t serious, the police would move on to real problems.

Of course, they couldn’t know how real her problem had become.

“I don’t understand why I’m needed in this meeting.” Sadie was being herded into the conference room by a steely-eyed Liam.

She knew that look. They were in a whole lot of trouble.

“You’re here because I asked Li to invite you, Sadie.” Ian Taggart sat at the head of the table, leaning back and looking way more intimidating than he had when he’d been hoarding his sweets. There was no glint in his eyes now. The blue had turned an icy color. “Please sit down. We’re going to have a talk. You might not be my niece by blood, but you are family because Grace is my family.”

Sadie frowned and sank into the chair on the other side of Steph. “And I love my aunt and uncle.”

“Then why do you seem intent on giving them both freaking heart attacks? You do understand that I have to tell my brother what happened here today. I can’t get around it.” Ian stood, leaning over the table a bit like a cobra waiting to strike. “Coffee? You went after a known killer with two cups of frigging coffee?”

Damn that man was scary when he wanted to be. Even Sadie shrank back a bit.

“It was all I had,” Sadie replied.

“Where the hell was the damn pistol I made sure you knew how to use?” Ian asked.

She winced. “I didn’t take my purse because it’s heavy.”

Charlotte sighed. “That was the wrong answer, hon.”

“I’ll make sure your damn purse is easy for you to carry then,” Ian said. “We’ll go through it together. You and me. We can dump all the frilly girly shit. Or better yet, Remy, I believe Sadie will be joining you for afternoon workouts from now on. Pay special attention to her shoulders so she can carry her damn bag around.”

“Have ya heard the term too stupid to live, you two?” Li joined in, standing next to Ian.

This was what it meant to have an overbearing dad. Yeah, she hadn’t had one of those. Her dad had been laid back, allowing her mom to do most of the work. She’d had a mom who’d believed in logic and quiet discussion.

“I am not too stupid to live,” Sadie shot back, her former fear seeming to evaporate. “I knew exactly what I was doing. I snuck up on him and made sure he didn’t take Stephanie, and now you can totally ID him because he’s going to need medical attention. Unless one of the big bad boys managed to catch him.”

There was a whole lot of silence from the boys.

Li and Big Tag looked at each other for a moment and then Ian sighed.

“Adam, start checking the ERs.” He pointed a finger Sadie’s way. “You don’t get caught without a gun again. I am responsible for you until your uncle can marry you off. I’m helping him find a list of qualified candidates and everything.”

“That’ll be the day,” Sadie replied, more chipper now. “Now, it’s after hours and I have my own things to take care of. I’ve already typed up a whole report on how everything went down and I think you’ll find that it’s more detailed than anyone else’s. So I think I was good in the field.”

“Absolutely not.” Ian shook his head in pure horror. “I am not telling my brother that I made his niece an operative.”

She stood up and straightened out her skirt. “Someday. Now, I have work to do. Let me know if you need anything else.”

Sadie winked her way before she walked out.

Ian slumped into his seat. “That girl is going to kill me. It was easier when Grace was here. She ran the office and didn’t once try to take out the bad guys all on her own. I don’t understand this generation.”

Charlotte smiled. “I view it as practice for our own girls. They’ll be way worse than Sadie. Now that the men have stopped yelling, are you all right, Steph?”

“I’m fine.” Except for the fact that her biggest mistake was sitting beside her.

Could she trust him with Nate? It wasn’t Brody’s fault that he couldn’t love her. She had to throw away all her anger with him when it came to their son. He hadn’t known. He’d been a bastard, but he seemed to want to know Nate.

Could she leave Nate with him while she hid? She was worried about Nate being around her, though the idea of being apart made her heart hurt.

“I’m glad, but you can’t do that again,” Charlotte said. “I understand that before we believed the situation might be fluid, but we have solid evidence now and I have to ask you to reconsider your position. There is a hefty bounty on you on the Dark Web.”

Her stomach churned but she managed to stay upright. This asshole was offering people money to take her out? Had they put Nate’s life up for sale, too? It seemed surreal. Even with what had happened this afternoon, it was hard to reconcile with reality. “For my head?”

“Not bloody likely.” Brody’s hand slid over hers, warming her skin. “You need to understand no one is going to allow that to happen.”

She forced herself to pull away when all she really wanted was to crawl up into his lap and wrap herself around him and beg him to save her, to save their son. But that was a reality she’d accepted long before.

Ian Taggart leaned forward, his elbows hitting the table. “The good news is they want you alive.”

“I think he wants to torture me himself.” And not the fun torture. No, this would be pain and horror and eventually death.

Did she deserve that? Had the universe merely granted her a reprieve from the pain she deserved for that night when she’d taken lives instead of saving them?

“I don’t think that’s his point. When I talked to the bastard he said Steph had something he wanted and he was willing to let Nate go if she came in,” Brody said. “He wanted to bargain with her. Now that doesn’t mean he won’t kill her. I won’t have her used as bait or a bargaining chip.”

He might say that, but she had to seriously consider it. It wouldn’t do a lick of good to mention it here though. “I don’t know what they think I have to give them.”

“That’s what we need to figure out.” Ian sat back. “I’m hoping that finding out the bastard’s name will help point us in the right direction. We’ve got a few feelers out on the Dark Web. We’ll see if we can get someone talking.”

“I’ve already pulled CCTV footage. Hopefully we’ll get a face from our would-be kidnapper today if he chooses not to seek medical attention. But I do have a couple of questions that might help. Did the man you were working on pass anything to you?” Adam asked. “Did he say anything at all?”

“He was unconscious when he was brought in,” she said, her voice going a flat monotone. She hated thinking about this. Hated everything about it. When she closed her eyes she could see the boss’s face, the cruel hard glint in his eyes as he promised to end her. “He had a GSW to the upper right quadrant. I was forced to resection part of his liver and take out his spleen. The operation took approximately three hours. The patient required three liters of blood. Luckily, I had some on hand. He was O positive. I keep that and A pos on hand at all times. He did have a cardiac arrest on the table, but I was able to get the heart functioning again. When I left him, the patient was critical but stable.”

“I’m not talking about the operation,” Adam said quietly. “I’m talking about before and after the operation. What do you remember about that? Can you tell us anything about him as a person and not a patient?”

She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. I don’t remember much. I remember a lot of yelling and one of my nurses was crying. I have two. One fled when she realized what was happening. It was protocol. She was responsible for the kids. We had a small group of pediatric patients. Luckily no one was critical. Uhm, two broken arms and a case of strep throat. She would have walked them to the nearest village. It’s about a mile east of the clinic. The children were mostly from that village. They should be safe.”

Adam was taking notes. “Excellent. We’ll see if we can find her and ask if she remembers anything. What happened to your other nurse?”

Anya Shadrova. God, what had happened with Anya? Guilt pressed on her. Stephanie had fled, terrified for her son. She’d spoken briefly to the young nurse from Ukraine before she got into the car, but Anya hadn’t left with them. She’d been all of twenty-four and filled with a need to do good in the world.

Had she gotten Anya killed?

“Anya wouldn’t leave the clinic. She stayed with me and assisted on the procedure. She remained with the patient to monitor him overnight. That was the last time I saw her. That was roughly two o’clock in the morning. I went to sleep and my security head woke me up. The patient had died and he thought we needed to get out of there very quickly. I don’t honestly know that I could have saved him even if I’d been in a modern facility.”

“What do you remember about the patient?” Charlotte asked.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember. She tried to envision him alive, but all she could see was that shell of a body on the table, the one she hadn’t been good enough to save. “He was male, mid- to late-forties. Dark hair. I estimate his weight at one hundred seventy pounds and his height as a little shy of six feet. His skin was a sallow, yellow color indicating jaundice and probably liver damage. I believe that was from the wound. I estimate he’d been shot over eight hours before he was brought to me.”

Charlotte held up a hand. “No. No medical terms. Remember everything you can. What was he wearing?”

Frustration swelled, a wave threatening to crest over and drown her. “Clothes. Bloody, torn up clothes.”

She hadn’t been sure of what color his shirt had been. It had been soaked in blood.

“Hey, I think she needs a break.” Brody leaned forward. “She’s had a hell of a day. Can we take this up tomorrow?”

“Will she be able to remember tomorrow?” Taggart asked, his eyes narrowed on Steph. “I think we’re dealing with a serious case of PTSD. Or she’s potentially blocking the information because it’s too painful. I’d like you to let Kai put you under hypnosis and walk you through the day.”

Walk her through? Walk her through what had been one of the most horrifying days of her life? She shook her head. “I’ll try to remember on my own.”

“Stephanie, we need to know everything we can,” Li said, his voice soft. “I’m worried something’s happened at the clinic.”

At her clinic? “He came after me. Why would he do something to the clinic?”

“Not the clinic, exactly,” Ian said. “It’s still standing, but drone footage shows something that concerned me. Our London office had a drone do a couple of flybys, and I found the pictures it took a bit disturbing.”

“What?” She had to see them. Tension twisted her spine, her hands curling into fists. What had happened? What had her cowardice cost someone else? “Do you have the pictures?”

“That’s not for you to worry about,” Li said.

Ian passed her his tablet. “Scroll through the footage. The photo that’s worrisome is at the end. The London office isolated the problem areas. Thanks for the heads up, Carter, but until the moment she fires us, this is an American op. I’ve already talked to Damon and he’s forwarding everything to me. As far as I’m concerned, you’re nothing more than a friend lending my client support.”

Brody had stiffened beside her. “I’m bloody well not a friend and you know it.”

Taggart said something else, but she was looking at the pictures on the tablet in front of her.

“You don’t have to look at those.” Li sat down beside her. “I can take care of this for you.”

She barely heard his words. She knew them though. Those words were filled with sympathy and took her back to that moment when she’d woken up in the hospital after the accident. Her mother had been there, promising her it wasn’t her fault. Not really. She’d killed two people and the third might not live, but it hadn’t been her fault. She’d been tired and distracted. That’s what her mother had told her over and over again, as though saying the words would somehow make her magically believe.

She’d heard the same tone in the police officer who’d arrested her. He’d explained that by law, since she had a small but discernable amount of alcohol in her system, he had to arrest her for DUI. In the state of New York, any alcohol level in a person under twenty-one years of age was considered a DUI. She’d barely registered, but the accident had gone from tragic mistake to something that could end her life then and there.

She’d heard it when Avery Charles had stared at her and then quietly come to some place deep inside that Steph had never understood. Some place that made Avery who she was.

So much sympathy when she hadn’t deserved any of it. It didn’t matter the whys or hows. It only mattered that she’d been driving that car.

She flipped through the pictures until she got to one that showed an aerial view of the cabin her nurses shared. She recognized it because of the flowerpots on the side of the cabin. Anya had loved gardening and said she couldn’t live without flowers to brighten her day.

The whole place was eerily empty. No one walked down the dirt paths. No kids skipping in, looking for the candy Steph always kept for them in the pockets of her scrubs. No patients milling about or staff briskly walking to their next task.

It was empty.

Had they all fled? She wouldn’t be able to breathe until she got to talk to Anya, make sure she was all right.

She flipped through and this time the photo had been enhanced, the cabin bigger than before. It looked like the door was open, the inside of the cabin lost to the shadows.

She flipped again, the photo becoming grainier as the cabin came closer and closer.

And she realized what Ian Taggart had been talking about. What Liam hadn’t wanted her to see.

There was a shoe sticking out of the doorway. One tennis shoe. The photo was black and white, but she knew the shoe itself was pink. She’d seen it many times in real life. Anya wore them because she was one of the girliest girls Steph had ever met. Even her tennis shoes had a hint of glitter to them.

Now one lay on its side and she couldn’t see enough to discern whether it was still connected to its owner.

Nausea threatened.

“Damn it, I told you not to let her look at those things,” Liam cursed. “She didn’t need to see that.”

“She needs to take this seriously,” Ian shot back. “She needs to understand that she can’t run off like she used to. She has to protect herself and that means following orders. Next time around, there won’t be a crazy girl with coffee to defend her.”

Brody took the tablet out of her hand and stared at it himself. “I can’t tell if that’s just a shoe or a body. You think that’s one of your nurses?”

Steph nodded. “I’m pretty sure it is. I don’t suppose she’s napping in her open doorway, and she wouldn’t have left a shoe behind. How many others died?”

“We don’t know that she’s dead,” Charlotte began.

But the truth was there in her sympathetic eyes. Anya was probably gone and Steph had left her there. Alfi had convinced her that the boss would show up at any moment and kill her baby. She’d made a choice in that moment, one that might have cost Anya her life.

So much of that day was a horrific blur. She didn’t want to remember.

“How many others?” She forced the question from her mouth again. When had her tongue gotten so dry? It was hard to talk.

“I don’t know,” Li replied. “But I’m going to find out. I’ve got a call in to a friend who’s out that way. He’s in Liberia with his wife, but I’m sure he’ll help us out. I’ll have him make his way to the clinic and report back. He’ll also go into the village and make sure we can find your other nurse.”

“I don’t want a friend of yours to walk into something he can’t handle,” she insisted.

“There’s very little Tennessee Smith can’t handle,” Li promised. “I also called Fain a couple of hours ago. The Agency’s interested if there’s a new player in that region. It’s actually fairly stable, and that’s why Fain is a bit worried. He wants to check it out, too, but we need that information from you. I need you to remember everything you can.”

Ten Smith? She knew him. She liked his wife. Before she could protest, Brody was speaking.

“Not today she doesn’t. She needs to rest and settle in. She’s had a shock.”

“A couple of them,” Charlotte corrected.

Adam chuckled. “Yeah, she’s not the only one. Though I should remind everyone that I took the brunt of the Aussie finding out about the secret baby.”

She wished they wouldn’t joke. She had no idea how they could find anything at all funny at this point.

“I can handle it. Tell me what you want me to do. You want me under hypnosis? I can do it.” Her hands were shaking.

Brody stood up. “No. She’s not doing shit tonight except having a good meal and cuddling with our son and getting a few hours of sleep. We’ll make sure she does what she needs to do in the morning, and we’ll send Smith a report before he goes in. Can we stay at the club tonight?”

“I wish I could let you do that, but we already have guests there,” Ian explained. “The king and queen of Loa Mali also find themselves on the bad side of someone who wants to kill them. They’re in hiding, a fact I know the two of you will keep to yourselves. But I can’t put all my chicks in one basket. That’s a good way to get the whole client list murdered.”

She was incredibly tired. She wasn’t even willing to argue with Brody, but there was one thing she was determined to do. “I won’t stay with Avery. He knows where I am. He’s watching me. He could come and hurt her and Aidan and the baby Avery is carrying.”

Before Li could argue, Adam held up a hand. “Stay at our guesthouse. We’ve got a fence and security that’s about as tight as we can make it. Riley, Shane? You up for some night duty?”

Both men nodded. “And we’ll make sure Declan and Remy and Wade take their turns, too.”

“You have two children in that house.” She couldn’t stand the thought of someone else getting hurt.

“And I have a partner who hasn’t killed anyone lately. It’s making Jake cranky. Bring it on. I need that man calm. We’ve got to present a united front when I tell Serena I want to turn the upstairs game room into a massive man cave. She doesn’t understand the need for a TV screen that covers a whole wall,” Adam explained.

“We’re getting old,” Ian offered. “Our eyesight’s going.”

Charlotte groaned as if she’d had this argument before. “No. Your eyesight is perfectly fine. The children need a playroom, not a television overlord.”

Brody reached for her, gently hauling her up from her seat. “Thank you, Miles. We accept. And I’ll put Tucker on duty as well. He can learn from the bodyguards. He’s a good bloke, even though you’ll find him a bit odd. Excellent when it comes to hand to hand as well.”

“I think I should stay at a hotel or something.” And then everyone in the hotel was a potential victim. Was there anywhere she could go that she felt safe? Anywhere on earth where her continued existence didn’t endanger someone else’s?

When she didn’t move, Brody leaned over and picked her up like she weighed nothing at all. “Come on, then. We should get settled in. I want someone to follow us, make sure we get there all right. I’ll have Steph lay down in the back with Nathan’s car seat. Tucker can sit in the front. When we get there, I want a full walk of the property and a report on security.”

Miles gave him a salute. “I’ll let Serena know we have a few extra for dinner. Don’t worry. She’ll be thrilled. She’s been trying to write an Aussie hero so she’ll want you to talk a lot.”

“Brody, I said…” She’d said no, but it seemed foolish. Did she honestly want to do this alone? Her choices were to let Brody take some of the burden or let him take Nate and leave it all with her.

She was weak, but she wanted another few days with her son.

“Hush, luv. I’ve been gone, but it’s my turn to take over.” He leaned in and she could feel his breath against her ear, the sensation sending a long dormant longing through her body. “It’s my turn to handle things. You’ve done good, Steph. Our boy’s alive and healthy. Let me do my part.”

She sagged in his arms, his warmth too nice to deny.

It was all she would let herself have. This one moment where she could pretend he was really here for her.