The Baby He Wanted

When she called it off, he’d been mad as hell. He’d never imagined himself in love with her, so it had been his pride that took the hit. Driving through the dark streets on the way back to his lonely apartment tonight, he admitted to himself for the first time that she had made the right choice for both of them. She wanted more than he could give. What he’d never seen before was that he had wanted more than she had to give, too.

Something was happening inside him, and it didn’t feel good. His chest felt compressed as he tried to figure out what it was he did want, beyond wife and kids. Home.

He didn’t have an answer.

* * *

THE PAIR OF FBI agents came to Lina’s apartment. Never having met a real, live FBI agent, she felt intimidated as she let them in. One was a woman, which helped her relax. Probably in her forties, the first thing she asked was when Lina was due. The man, way younger, appeared increasingly uncomfortable as the two women discussed pregnancy and childbirth.

He finally growled, “Can we get on with it?”

His partner grinned. “Scared you, did we?”

They did get down to business, making Lina repeat everything she’d already told Bran and then some. They asked some good questions. She was able to make what she thought was a pretty accurate estimate of height for the robber who had shot Maya. She remembered that mud had splattered the tires and bottom of the doors and sides of the cargo van, something she didn’t think she’d told Bran.

“It looked recent,” she said, thinking it out. “I mean, it was dry, or mostly dry anyway, but if they’d driven for hours I’d have thought more of it would have fallen off. You know? It had to have been from the day before, when it rained.”

“It might have rained here, but it didn’t in Seattle,” Agent Novinski, the woman, said flatly. She took out her phone and did a search. “Or in Tacoma.”

“Ruts and holes on a dirt road can stay muddy for quite a while, though,” Lina pointed out.

“That’s true,” Novinski agreed, but Lina could tell she wasn’t satisfied.

They wanted a better description of both the men than she could give them. No, she had no idea what color the second man’s eyes were. He had been looking at Mr. Floyd, not toward her. Wiry, short for a man. She was sure the hand that held the gun was encased in the kind of thin glove doctors and nurses wore.

They were even more dissatisfied when she couldn’t be sure what color eyes the guy who’d shot Maya had.

“But you say he stared right at you,” the male agent said.

“Yes, but you know how thick the glass is, and I was looking through it at an angle. Plus, I’d just seen my best friend get shot.” She glared at both of them. “It was horrible. Do you know what happens when somebody gets shot in the head?”

Clearly they did. Special Agent Novinski, the woman, had the grace to appear regretful.

“I was beyond shocked, and terrified, too. I can still see his face and the way he looked at me, but I didn’t think, oh, he has blue eyes.”

Naturally, at that moment she pictured Bran Murphy’s eyes, a vivid blue. She wished, quite passionately, that he was here. He wouldn’t let these two badger her.

“My best guess is hazel or light brown. You know, kind of in between.” She frowned. “I don’t think he had really dark hair, either. Even shaved, his head would have looked different if he did. His jaw would have been darker, too. He was definitely Caucasian.” She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I looked at him for a total of maybe ten seconds. This is the best I can do.”

Eventually they gave up and departed, leaving her feeling drained. Lunch might help, she thought, but didn’t move. Even making a sandwich seemed like a herculean effort. She wished suddenly, selfishly, that she had gone home for Christmas. Maya would still be dead, but her death wouldn’t be so brutally real. Lina wouldn’t be the only person who could potentially identify one of the men who’d robbed at least three banks.

And, oh, yeah, she’d still be in deep avoidance about telling Bran he was going to be a father.

Her phone rang. His name came up. For some reason, she didn’t hesitate to answer the call.

“Are they done with you?” he asked.

Stung, she said, “Hi. Yes, I’m fine this morning. Thank you for asking.”

There was a short silence. “Are you really fine?” he asked, in a different voice.

“No.” She closed her eyes. “I mean, yes, I’m okay.”

“Have they come and gone?”

“Yes. I don’t think I satisfied them, but I can’t see through walls and ski masks, so they were bound to be disappointed.”

“They were hopeful.” Was that a smile in his voice? “Can I bring you lunch?”

Her stomach came to attention. “What kind of lunch?”

“I was thinking pizza, but if you’d rather I could stop for deli sandwiches.”

In the interests of not gaining too much weight, Lina tried not to indulge often, but pizza sounded like exactly what she needed right now. “I would love pizza,” she admitted. “Can you make mine half veggie?”

“You don’t eat meat?”

“I just want to know I’m eating something healthy along with all the fat, okay?”

She heard a rusty sound that might be a chuckle. “Good thinking. Give me half an hour.”

And he was gone.

* * *

“I DON’T LIKE the sound of that,” he said flatly.

“Of mud?” Lina seemed bemused. “Why?”

He had set down his slice of pizza, wiped off his fingers and quickly checked his phone, to find that the last rain in south King County or Pierce County had been eight days earlier.

“Because it suggests they were staying up here for at least the previous day. They wouldn’t have picked up mud on the highway or in town.” The bank was actually outside the city limits because of recent growth the Clear Creek council members hadn’t been farsighted enough to anticipate, to their current frustration over lost tax dollars. A good percent of homes in the rural county were on dirt or gravel roads that developed potholes and ruts. Very few homes on acreage had paved driveways, either.

“Well, doesn’t that make sense anyway?” Lina asked. “I mean, Tacoma to here is kind of a long commute.”

He gave her a look she ignored. After two slices of pizza, she was full, which left her free to speculate.

“Plus,” she continued, “surely they’d have wanted to, I don’t know, scope out the bank in advance. Why did they pick that bank and not Chase or Opus or Whidbey Island Bank?”

He sighed. Starting at the crack of dawn, he’d watched videos from another local bank until his eyes were crossing. Charlie was doing the same, as were several borrowed deputies. The FBI had generously taken the footage from the bank that had been robbed. They’d let the locals waste time on banks the pair hadn’t targeted.

“You’re right. We’re going back a couple of days, thinking we’ll see the same face appearing at a couple of other banks. They are unlikely to have gone in together, because two men would draw more attention than one alone.”

“What if one of them was in Snoqualmie Community,” she suggested, “oh, ages ago and knew the layout was perfect and the only window on the street looks in at a conference room instead of the bank proper?”

“But why would he have been if he’s not a local?”

“He has a girlfriend or just a friend up here who needed to stop at the bank one day when they were together? He’d go in out of professional curiosity, wouldn’t he?”

Bran did not want to believe either of those slugs had any reason to feel at home in Harris County, because if that was the case, the likelihood became greater that he had somehow encountered Lina and that the spark of familiarity she felt was because she had actually encountered the creep.

“We have to look,” he said.

“I know.” Sitting cross-legged on the sofa, she made a face. “I’m sorry. You know what you’re doing. I won’t think of anything you haven’t already considered.”

He braced himself. “I don’t mind hearing ideas, but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about.”

Her wariness showed. So did her belly. He was still shocked at the way arousal had slammed him when she opened the door. Not once had he ever noticed a pregnant woman at the grocery store and thought, Wow, she’s sexy. Apparently Lina was different.

Part of it, he guessed, was the fact that she was carrying his baby. And then there were all the memories of that night, and especially of the morning when he’d made her pregnant. God, it had been amazing. He’d never felt anything like that before.

Also, unlike the day before, she wasn’t making any effort to disguise her pregnancy. No coat or thigh-length sweater. Nope, over black leggings she wore a stretchy black top that clung like a second skin to the generous curves of her body. Maybe she’d planned to do yoga or something. Her feet were bare, too. He kept finding himself fascinated by her long toes and high arches. With the nails unpainted, her feet looked innocent. Maybe she couldn’t reach them anymore, it occurred to him.

Her cheeks were turning pink, which meant he was staring.

He felt some heat in his own face. “Do you have plans tonight?”

“Why?”

“Because my brother and sister-in-law suggested you join us for dinner.”

Her mouth fell open. “You told them about me?”

“Shouldn’t I have?”

“I don’t know! We haven’t decided anything!”

“You decided to admit that you’re pregnant with my child.”

“Yours? Like you own her?”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” he said, exasperated. Why would she flip out because he’d told his brother she was pregnant?

Her eyes narrowed. “Did you tell them how it happened?”

Until this minute, it hadn’t occurred to him that she might mind, and why. Oh, crap. Should he lie? Be honest?

No lies, he decided, not ever. “I did,” he admitted.

Lina’s glare felt like the midday, equatorial sun. He’d wake up in pain tomorrow. Her voice, in contrast, was exquisitely polite if also steely. “Then you may tell them thank you, that I appreciate their kindness, but no, I can’t join them tonight.”

He had to fix this. “They’re not judgmental people, Lina. Once they knew your due date, they’d have figured out when you got pregnant. That alone would tell them I’d done something stupid.”

“Which stupid thing are you talking about? Not wearing a condom? Or did you mean, being careless enough to leave the wedding invitation lying in plain sight? But wait. Maybe you did that on purpose to make sure I didn’t hang around with any illusions, like hoping that we’d just had a beautiful beginning.”

“We did have a beautiful beginning,” he snapped, then was shocked when he realized what he’d said. But he tried to be honest with himself, and he’d felt something unfamiliar that morning. The timing might have sucked, but the woman and he had meshed in a whole lot of ways.

She blinked a couple times, obviously taken aback. “Why would you say that?”

Bran rolled his shoulders. “Because it’s true. I don’t make a habit of picking up women in bars. Yeah, I had too much to drink, and yeah, having Paige dump me at the last minute like that stung, but that’s not why I wanted you. You’re beautiful, and you seemed sad, and I liked you.” He felt awkward. “I would have asked you out if you’d still been there when I came out of the bathroom.”

“Oh.” Lina nibbled on her lower lip for a moment. Her gaze shied away from his momentarily before connecting again. “I would have said yes.”

“Good.” It was too soon to suggest marriage, even if he’d like to have it settled. His plan to create a family had stumbled over an obstacle, but now he had another chance. One he liked even better.

One step at a time, he told himself. Zach was right, he’d need to find out why she’d gotten drunk and had sex with a stranger. This wasn’t the moment, though, especially not if he wanted to spend Christmas Eve with her.

So, keeping his voice gentle, he said, “You didn’t answer my question about tonight. Do you have plans?”

After a moment, she shook her head.

“Then won’t you come with me to Zach’s? I’d really like you to get to know my brother and sister-in-law.”

She searched his eyes, her own betraying more vulnerability than she’d probably like. “Are you sure I’m welcome?”

“I’m sure.”

Her knotted hands clenched and tightened a couple times. “Okay. I admit, I wasn’t looking forward to tonight, especially not after...you know.”

He nodded. “I do know. Uh... I’d better get back to work. I’ll pick you up at five thirty, if that works.”

“Thank you,” she said with dignity. “Can I bring anything? I mean, food?”

He guessed there’d be plenty, but he said, “Don’t rush out to the grocery store, but if there’s a dish you can make easily, Tess would probably appreciate it. I know she’s baking a ham.”

She told him she’d think of something, and escorted him to the door. Bran wanted to touch her, but the way she held herself aloof told him that wouldn’t be smart. Soon, he told himself. He’d just achieved a significant win. He shouldn’t get greedy.

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