Authors: Alexa Grace
Paul reached for Jennifer's hand and squeezed. "Jennifer, I'm the one who should be sorry. If I'd been the man I should've been when you told me you were having my baby, none of this would have happened. I just hope you'll let me make everything up to you and the baby."
Paul was interrupted with the news they needed to leave for the hospital.
"Are you going with us?" The EMT directed the question to Jennifer.
"Please stay with me, Jennifer," begged Paul.
"I'll see you at the hospital, Paul. I need some time with my dad."
Lane was waiting for Frankie at the second ambulance, his wrists already treated and wrapped in gauze and white tape. He noticed the blood was spreading across the front of her white tank as she rounded the corner of the open vehicle door.
"Holy shit, Frankie. Come here." He lifted her shirt to reveal the long cut on her midsection was missing several butterfly bandages and some sections were bleeding profusely. He shouted for an EMT. One came running and helped Lane get Frankie into the ambulance and on a gurney.
The EMT took one look at Frankie and said, "Didn't I just treat you? Weren't you the one driving that red Mazda Miata that flipped over in the ditch?"
"Great memory. Just fix me up. And one more thing — I'm
not
going to the hospital."
Lane waited outside the ambulance and watched as two members of the SWAT Team hauled David and Dr. Caine to waiting patrol cars. Though it was the end of a chapter, it was not the end of their work.
Everyone knew how thorough Michael Brandt was when he prepared a prosecution case. Every single piece of evidence must align until he had a slam dunk. That meant Lane would have to make sure Michael had all he needed to put these two away. More evidence to support the baby trafficking charge against the doctor would have to be found. He prayed that the forensic evidence that was collected from the two crime scenes would nail David Chambers. That guy was too dangerous to be roaming this earth.
He heard arguing inside the ambulance, and stepped back to have a look.
"Are you nuts? I don't care what kind of a bad-ass cop you think you are, you need stitches and you're going to the hospital!"
"No, I'm not." Frankie said as she climbed out of the vehicle.
"I've got this," said Lane as he scooped her up in his arms, noticing how she grimaced and bit her lip. Typically, she was in pain but wanted no one to know about it.
As he headed across the yard, he shouted at the cop who'd just put David Chambers in the back of his car. "Hey, that perp has my car keys."
"I've got them." The cop pulled the keys out of his pocket and ran to hand them to Lane.
Lane carried Frankie inside the garage and deposited her on the passenger seat of his black Cadillac Escalade. He rounded the SUV and popped into the driver's seat and turned his key in the ignition. He watched in his rearview mirror as the two police officers turned their cars around, and then headed down the driveway. He backed out and turned his vehicle around, too.
"You're quiet, Frankie. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking how good it will be to get home."
Lane grinned as he drove down the driveway, and then turned left and headed toward the hospital.
Jennifer waited in her dad's car as he tied up some loose ends. She wondered how she would explain everything that had happened. If there was anyone she owed an explanation to, it was her dad. She felt a kick and smiled. The baby was moving again. Or maybe, she thought, the baby was communicating to her, so she spoke out loud.
"Sweetie, you're staying with your mom. After all we've been through; I could never give you up. Your mom is much stronger than she thought she was when this misadventure began. She knows that no matter what, she's going to protect you, love you, and give you the best home she can. That's a promise."
Jennifer heard the twist of the door handle then saw her father get into the car. As soon as he sat down, she said, "Dad, we need to talk."
"Yes, we do."
She reached across the console and pulled her father's hand until it was stretched flat against her baby bump. She felt the baby kick again and so did her father. Quick tears glistened in his eyes.
"There's plenty of room in our big old house for you and the baby. What your mother wouldn't give to fill that place up again. It'd be a wonderful place to raise a child, Jennifer. Please tell me you don't still plan to give it away."
"No chance, Dad." She squeezed his hand and lifted it to her lips. "No chance."
"Why did you go to such lengths to hide your pregnancy from us? As parents, what did we do wrong?"
"You and Mom did nothing wrong. I want you to be proud of me, Dad. Getting pregnant like I did brought shame to our family. You are such a public person and you've worked so hard to get to where you are in your career. I didn't want my mistake to hurt you." Her heart squeezed as she felt her dad tighten his grip on her hand.
"Jennifer, don't you know I've been proud of you since the day you were born? The public person people are going to see in our county is a sheriff who is so damn proud to have a wonderful daughter and brand-new grandchild that he can't stop boasting about either of them."
"I love you, Dad."
"Love you, too. Don't ever forget it." He pulled his daughter to him and kissed her forehead. "It's going to be a long night at the police station making statements. I'll drive there and you take the car so you can rest in my hotel room until I get there."
"I think I'll drive to the hospital to see Paul first."
By the time she got to Paul's room in the hospital, his wound had been treated and he was sitting up watching television. As soon as he noticed her in the doorway, he flipped off the TV.
Jennifer eased into the room and sat in a chair next to his bed. She felt awkward in his presence. Scenes of their last night together flashed through her mind. He was staring at her and she had to say something. "What did the doctors say?"
"They said the bullet went clear through and didn't hit anything important so I'll be fine."
"That's good."
"Jennifer, I am so sorry for the way I acted the night you told me you were pregnant. Please forgive me."
"Honestly, I don't know if I can do that." It was the truth. She couldn't forget that he wanted her to kill their baby.
"Marry me, Jennifer. We can fly to Vegas. Let's leave tomorrow and get married."
"Yeah, that will solve everything. Let's run off and get married because I'm pregnant."
"I'm not looking at it like that."
"Yes, you are. The topic wouldn't have come up if I wasn't pregnant. You've had two years to ask me to marry you, but you didn't. You barely had time for me with all the football practices and games."
"You said you understood how important football was to me."
"I know how important football
is
to you. I also know how much it means to you to have a chance at pro ball."
"Marry me."
"The answer is no. I think this pregnancy was a test of our relationship and we failed miserably. You freaked, and I made the stupid decision to hide it from my parents. Even worse was the decision I made to give the baby away."
"Honey, you have to reconsider. I looked everywhere for you."
"I don't trust you to be there when the going gets tough, Paul. I'm sorry, but I don't. Things may change in the future, but right now I can't see me being with you any time soon. I'm taking my dad up on his offer to move home, have the baby and possibly raise him or her there. If you want to see the baby and have a relationship, I'm all for that. It's up to you."
It was six o'clock the next morning and Jennifer was fast asleep when her dad crept into the hotel room. Tim took off his jacket, put his revolver in a drawer, and hung up his holster. He looked at her and thought of how angelic she looked in sleep, just as she had as a child. His baby was all grown up now and soon would have a baby of her own.
Suddenly his cell phone sounded, piercing through the quiet room. Jennifer stirred and opened her eyes and watched him as he answered.
"Shit, I forgot all about you guys. Are you at the lake? No kidding. Did you call a tow truck yet? Okay, I'll be right there."
"What was that about, Dad?"
"I forgot all about the scuba team searching for evidence in Monroe Lake this morning. They just found your car. I'm going out to meet them."
"No you're not." She pulled herself out of bed, still dressed in the jeans and shirt from the night before. "It's my car they found and I'm going. I know exactly where the lake is. Besides, you better get some sleep. Sometime later today, we need to tell Mom about my pregnancy."
"Talked me into it," he said as he headed for the shower.
At Monroe Lake, bright beams of sunlight cut through the trees surrounding the sparkling blue lake. It was a beautiful morning for being outside doing anything besides looking for evidence that might lead to a missing person — alive or not.
Blake Stone stood watching the rest of his team walking out of the water toward the shore and didn't notice Jennifer pulling in a parking space near the boat dock. The men pulled off their diving suits as he had done and threw them on the shore.
Blake reached down in the water for the rope tied to their boat and looped it around a wooden dock post.
Jennifer watched Blake from the distance as she walked toward him on the dock. He was obviously the one in charge. He carried himself with a commanding air of self-confidence. She watched his powerful, well-muscled body move with grace as he helped a man in a scuba suit out of the boat.
"I can't tell you how freaking glad I was that we found her car but didn't find Jennifer Brennan down there," Blake said to the man standing next to him.
"And
I
can't tell you how freaking glad
I
am that you found her car but didn't find Jennifer Brennan down there."
Hearing the feminine voice, he spun around and at first thought he was seeing things. Standing in front of him, very much alive, was the young woman in the photo his sheriff had given to him.
Blake put his hands on his hips and said, "You're alive. And you're even more beautiful than your photo, Jennifer Brennan."