Anna DeStefano - The Firefighter's Secret Baby

“You have to believe me!” she whimpered.

Whimpered?

The woman who’d ditched Luca Gianfranco and stayed ditched for nearly two years didn’t whimper. About anything.

“Try to relax,” a soothing feminine voice said.

Then the voice belonged to a nurse wearing pink clothes that were covered in ducks.

Not the him Sam had been begging.

Not Randy.

Had he only been part of a dream? Everything was so muddled. Sam could remember feeling safe, because Randy had been there. Even though Luca would keep coming for her…

“Your baby will be here soon,” the nurse said. “The doctors want to deliver her without a C-section. They’re bringing you around enough to push, but there will be no pain.”

“My baby…”

The room swam into sharper focus. She was in an O.R. Her nurse was wearing a surgical mask. Other people moved around her.

Terrifying flashes of the accident sliced through her pounding head. She clenched her fingers against her cramping stomach.

“My baby!” It had all been real. The accident. Randy. Going into labor. Was it too late? “Is she—”

“Your little girl’s fine.” The pretty nurse smiled. “We did an ultrasound. She’s in distress, but as long as we deliver her soon, she’ll be fine. Your condition is stabilized. You’ll need a sling to protect your shoulder for a while, but somehow nothing was broken. Your head injury is minor. There are stitches, and we’ll have to monitor your concussion for a few days. But the seat belt seems to have saved you from the worst of it.”

But not her baby.

Sam wasn’t due for another two weeks.

Everything that had happened swirled through Sam like bolts of sizzling lightning that couldn’t hurt her, because they weren’t quite real. All that felt real was the man she’d been dreaming about for close to a year. A stranger who’d left her with a piece of himself. A miracle. A promise that there would be a tomorrow.

“Randy’s baby…” Sam whispered.

A moment of shock crossed the other woman’s face.

“Do you know him?” Sam asked, grappling to remember what his response had been to her revelation that he had a child on the way. A daughter who was in danger. But there was nothing there—no memory to reassure her. “You have to make him believe me. You have to tell him. Luca…Don’t let Luca hurt our baby….”

“…she’s hemorrhaging…”

“The baby’s heart rate…”

“Save her,” Sam begged. “Tell Randy he has to…”

“…can tell him yourself,” the nurse was saying. “We’ll take good care…your baby and you…”

“…fully effaced…This baby’s delivering now!”

The nurse was lifting Sam’s shoulders. She’d been right, there was no pain. Only the need to push so her daughter—Randy’s daughter—could be born. The nurse supported Sam’s back. Everything faded but the realization that the baby was coming. It still wasn’t safe. Luca couldn’t know there was a child. But—

Voices told her to push.

To push again.

Pressure.

More pressure.

Then, finally, relief, followed by a wave of loneliness no drug could numb.

“She’s beautiful.” The nurse eased Sam back.

“Is she…” Sam was so tired, but she had to know. “Is she okay? She…she isn’t crying…”

“Let the doctors take care of her,” the nurse said.

“You’re going to sleep again,” a male voice added.

“No! I want to see her. Just once…” Sam fought the touch restraining her.

“You’ll see her when you wake up,” the nurse reassured her. “You and your daughter are safe. Rest…”

“You don’t understand…” What if she didn’t wake up quickly enough? What if she didn’t wake up at all? Someone had to make Randy understand.

They’d be back.

Luca’s men.

They’d come for her. Luca would come for her baby, and Sam didn’t trust the feds to protect her daughter. A child wouldn’t be their priority. Sam’s testimony was all they cared about.

Where was Randy?

Randy had to know. He had to keep their daughter out of Luca’s clutches. And he would. Sam had sensed it the morning she’d woken in his hotel room in Savannah. Randy was the kind of man who’d stop at nothing to protect someone he cared about. She’d run from the temptation of wanting to be cared for that completely.

Now she was reaching for the dream, needing it to be real while the world faded.

“Tell Randy he has to protect our baby.” She fought the pull of the drugs. “Tell him…I’m so sorry I’ve done this to him.”

“HER RECORDS ARE SEALED, man.” Rick winced at the murderous expression that crept across Randy’s face.

“And that means, what?” Randy glanced at Emma, who was standing beside her husband. “That whatever’s going on is at a level even you can’t access?”

“It most likely means that me snooping into Robyn Nobles’s life is putting people at risk,” Rick explained. “This woman and her baby, if no one else. Someone’s got to have a pretty good reason for there being no record of her anywhere, except a note not to pursue information.”

It wasn’t the answer Randy had been hoping for. A jealous ex. An abusive husband. Someone Sam had been running from last night, and months ago, that could be stopped from causing her more trouble. This was about something far worse.

Emma took his hand and squeezed.

“What kind of danger is she in?” Chris asked. He and Charlie had joined them.

“There was a federal marshal on scene,” Rick explained. “That much I confirmed from the APD officer’s report. Which means Randy’s instincts are right—there’s reason to question the cause of the accident. Beyond that, all I know for sure is that APD brass has agreed to secure the victim’s safety until further notice.”

“A federal marshal?” Charlie asked.

“As in federal protection?” Chris added.

Randy hadn’t mentioned Dean to anyone but his sister. Now all of his siblings were staring at him, while Rick stared at the floor.

“Did she give you her full name in Savannah?” Rick asked.

“No.”

“Give you any idea where she was from? If she was married? Why she would be passing through Atlanta with South Georgia plates that trace back to a dead end?”

“I don’t know!” Randy shook off Emma’s hold. “We just…It never got that far. All I remember is that there was a northern accent. Not much of one, but it stuck out in a place like Savannah.”

And it had been sexy as hell.

“What kind of northern accent?” Rick asked. “Like New York?”

“Maybe.” Randy waited for his brother-in-law to say something else, but Rick hesitated. “Just say it. What do you think all this means?”

“With federal marshals involved? I’d guess she’s hiding from something or someone that’s coming at her from wherever she’s originally from. And the feds are interested enough in whatever she knows to keep her hidden.”

“You’re saying this woman’s been on the run since March?” Chris sputtered.

“Maybe longer.” Rick rolled his shoulders beneath his Atlanta Braves T-shirt. “Not that we’re ever going to know.”

“Why?” Charlie asked.

“Depending on what she’s offering in return for protection,” Rick said. “She might be—”

“Running for the rest of her life,” Randy finished.

The possibility of federal relocation made Sam’s disappearance from his arms that morning go down a little easier. But it also made everything he didn’t know about her situation harder to stomach. Not to mention that he might be responsible for the innocent, newborn life she’d have with her from now on.

“Excuse me, folks.” Seth Washington stepped into the lounge.