Something passed between them. A look. And Mason tipped his head to the room off the left side of the foyer. Kade caught Bree’s arm and led her in that direction.
For one horrifying moment she wondered if she’d been a fool to trust Kade. After all, someone had kidnapped her and done heaven knows what to her. But that horrifying moment passed and settled like a rock-hard knot in her stomach when they walked into the living room and Bree saw the petite woman with reddish graying hair.
The woman was holding a bundle in a pink blanket.
“This is Grace Borden, one of the nannies here at the ranch,” Kade said. “Grace, this is Bree Winston.”
Grace offered Bree a tentative smile and then walked toward her. As she got closer, Bree saw the tiny hand as it fluttered out from the blanket. The knot in Bree’s stomach got worse. It got even tighter when Grace stopped in front of her, and Bree could see the baby nestled inside all that pink.
“This is Leah Marie Ryland,” Kade volunteered. He led Bree to the sofa and had her sit down, probably because she didn’t look too steady on her feet. And she wasn’t. “The names of both my grandmothers.”
A lot of family tradition for such a tiny little thing. “You said she’s healthy?”
Kade nodded. “She just had her checkup, and she’s nearly eight pounds now.”
Bree had no idea if that was good or bad. And the terrifying feeling returned in spades when Grace came closer and held out the baby for Bree to take. The nanny must have picked up on Bree’s uneasiness because she shot Kade a questioning glance. The moment he gave another nod, Grace eased the baby into Bree’s arms.
It probably wasn’t a normal reaction, but Bree gasped.
She’d never held any living thing this tiny, and Leah felt too fragile for Bree to trust her hands. Her breath stalled in her throat. In fact, everything seemed to stop.
“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” Grace whispered.
“I need you to call Dr. Mickelson,” Kade told her. “If he can, have him come out to the ranch right away to give Bree a checkup. Explain that she’ll need lab work done.”
That made sense. Maybe they could learn what she’d been drugged with. Considering the female kidnapper had seemingly tried to keep Bree alive, maybe the drug wasn’t addictive or harmful. Ditto for the drugs they’d given her when she was pregnant.
Grace verified that she would indeed call the doctor and walked out of the room. The silence came immediately. Awkward and long. Bree couldn’t say anything. She could only stare at the baby’s face.
“She’s got my hair and coloring,” Kade said. “Your green eyes, though.”
Yes, those curls were indeed dark brown, and there were lots of them. Bree couldn’t see the baby’s eyes because she was sound asleep. But she could see the shape of her face. That was Kade’s, too.
Until Bree had seen the baby, she’d been about to question the DNA test that Kade said he’d run. She had figured to ask him to repeat it, just to be sure. But a repeat wasn’t necessary. Kade was right: Leah was a genetic mix of Ryland and Winston blood.
And that required a deep breath.
Because she knew this baby was indeed hers.
Oh, mercy. Not good. She had lousy DNA, and that’s why she’d never intended on passing it on to a helpless little baby.
“Here,” Bree managed to say, and she quickly handed Leah to Kade. Despite her wobbly legs, she got up so she could put some distance between Kade and her.
Kade cuddled the baby closer to him, brushed a kiss on her cheek. The gesture was so loving. But the glare he aimed at her wasn’t. Far from it. She’d obviously riled him again, and he had no trouble showing it.
“I don’t have a normal life,” Bree blurted out. “I’m always deep undercover. Always living a lie.”
That didn’t ease his scowl.
“Besides, I’m no good with kids.” Even though looking at that tiny face made her wish that she was. There was something about that face that made her want to do what Kade had done—brush a kiss on her cheek.
Kade’s scowl ended only because Leah made a sound. Not a cry exactly, more like a whimper. And he began to rock her gently as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I was raised in foster care,” she added. Heaven knows why she’d volunteered that. Maybe to stop him from scowling at her again. Yes, it was true, and it was also true that her childhood had been so nightmarish that she’d vowed never to have children of her own.
And technically she hadn’t broken that vow.
But someone had overridden her decision, and Kade was holding the proof in his arms.
Kade kissed the baby again, stood and placed her in a white carrier seat that was on the coffee table just inches away. Leah stirred a little, but she didn’t wake up. He put his hands on his hips and stared at Bree.
“It’s all right.” His jaw was tight again, and his gray eyes had turned frosty. “I don’t expect anything from you.”
It felt as if he’d slugged her, and it took Bree several moments to recover and gather her breath. “What the heck does that mean?”
Kade shrugged. Not easily. The muscles were obviously locked tight there, too. “It’s clear you’re not comfortable with this.”
“And you were?” Bree fired back.
“I am now. She’s my daughter, and I’ll raise her.” He started to turn away, but Bree caught his arm and whirled him back around to face her.
“Now, just a minute. I didn’t say I wouldn’t raise her. I just need time. You’ve had seven weeks to adjust to being a dad,” she reminded him. “I’ve had an hour, and for a good part of that time we’ve been ducking bullets and nearly getting killed.”
The mini tirade drained her, but Bree stayed on her feet so she could face him. They weren’t exactly eye to eye since she was a good seven inches shorter than he was, but she held his gaze.
And she saw the exact moment he backed down.
Kade mumbled some profanity and scrubbed his hand over his face. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I love Leah, and I figured you’d feel the same.”
“I do!” The words came flying out of her, and so did the heart-stopping realization that followed.
Bree looked at that tiny face again. Her daughter. The baby she’d carried for all those months while being held captive. She felt the tears burn her eyes, and Bree cursed them and tried to blink them back.
“I tried not to think of her as a real baby,” Bree said, her voice barely a whisper. “Because I wasn’t sure we would make it out of that place alive.”
Oh, mercy. The confession brought on more blasted tears. Bree hated them because she wasn’t a whiner, and she darn sure didn’t want Kade to think she was trying to milk some sympathy from him.
Kade cursed again and called himself a bad name before he moved toward her. Bree wanted to tell him it wasn’t a good time to offer her a shoulder to cry on. She was too weak and vulnerable. But Kade pulled her into his arms before she could protest.
And then she was glad he had.
Bree dropped her head on Kade’s shoulder and let his strong arms support her. She felt that strength, and the equally strong attraction.
Good grief.
Didn’t she have enough on her plate without adding lust to the mix? Of course, maybe it was a little more than lust since Kade and she had this whole parenthood bond going on.
She pulled back, looked up at him. “This holding is nice, but it’s not a good idea.”
His left eyebrow cocked. “Considering what you’ve been through, you’ve earned the right to lean on somebody.”
But not you.
She kept that to herself, but it was best if she kept Kade out of this emotionally charged equation. There was still so much to figure out. So many questions…
First though, she wanted to get acquainted with her daughter.
Bree eased out of Kade’s grip and walked to the carrier seat that was lined with pale pink fabric and frilly lace. She touched her finger to Leah’s cheek, and Bree was more than a little surprised when the baby’s eyes opened.
Yes, they were green like hers.
Leah stared at her. Studying Bree, as if trying to figure out who she was.
“I’m your mother, little one,” Bree whispered. “Your mom,” she corrected. Less formal. Even though both felt foreign to Bree’s vocabulary. “And you’re the one who kicked me all those months. With all those hard kicks, I thought you’d be a lot bigger.”
The corner of Leah’s mouth lifted. A smile! It warmed Bree from head to toe. Yes. Now she knew what Kade meant when he said he loved this baby. How could he not? It was something so strong, so deep that if Bree had been standing, she wouldn’t have managed to stay on her feet for long.
“This is potent stuff,” she mumbled.
“Oh, yeah,” Kade agreed. “Wait until she coos.”
Bree wasn’t sure she could wait. She stood, reached into the basket and brought her baby back into her arms. Bree drew in her scent. Something that stirred feelings she thought she’d never have.
Magic. Pure magic.
It hit Bree then. This was the only person she had ever truly loved. Someone she would die to protect.
Of course, that brought back on the blasted tears, but rather than curse them, Bree sank down on the sofa and gave her daughter a good looking over. She pulled back the blanket.
“Ten fingers, ten toes,” Bree mumbled.
“And a strong set of lungs,” Kade supplied. He sank down next to her. “You’ll hear just how loud she can be when she wants her bottle at 2:00 a.m.”
Bree turned to him. “Will I be here at 2:00 a.m.?”
Kade nodded, but it wasn’t exactly a wholehearted one. Yes, he’d given her that hug and some much-needed empathy, but he was holding back. And Bree didn’t blame him. She was holding back, too. The problem was she didn’t want to be separated from Leah.
Correction: she couldn’t be.
Yes, she’d just laid eyes on her for the first time, but Bree felt like something she’d thought she would never feel.
She felt like a mother.
An incompetent one but a mother nonetheless.
“You can stay while we sort things out,” Kade finally said.
Again, it wasn’t a resounding yes, but Bree would take it. At this point, she would take anything she could get that would allow her to stay with this precious child.
“Things,” she repeated. A lot fell under that umbrella. The danger. And the custody, of course. Living arrangements, too. She probably no longer had an apartment since she’d been gone all this time and hadn’t paid rent.
Heck, did she even have a job?
“Take one thing at a time,” Kade said, his Texas drawl dancing off each word.
She returned the nod. “So, what’s first?”
But Kade didn’t get a chance to answer. That’s because Bree and he turned toward the footsteps. A moment later, Mason appeared in the doorway.
One look at his face, and Bree knew something was wrong.
No.
Not again. She automatically pulled Leah closer to her.
“We got trouble,” Mason announced, and he drew his gun.
Chapter Five
Trouble.
Kade was positive they’d already had enough of their share of that today.
“What’s wrong?” Kade asked his brother.
Mason tipped his head toward the front of the house. “About a minute ago, a strange car turned onto the ranch road, and Dade ran the plates. The vehicle is registered to none other than Hector McClendon.”
Beside him, Bree gasped. Kade knew how she felt because McClendon shouldn’t be here at the ranch. After all, he was their lead suspect in too many crimes to list—including Bree’s own kidnapping that had led to Leah’s birth.
That stirred some strong conflicting feelings in Kade.
He loved Leah so much that he couldn’t imagine life without her, but someone would pay for what had happened. His baby didn’t deserve the rough start she’d gotten in life.
Kade got to his feet, the questions already forming in his head. He hadn’t wanted this meeting with McClendon, but maybe they could learn something from it. Right now, he’d take any answers he could get—as long as he got them while keeping Leah safe.
Bree, too, he mentally added.
Yes, she was a trained federal agent, but she was in no shape right now to face down a snake like McClendon.
“Wait here,” he told Bree. “I’ll deal with this.”
But she stood, anyway, and eased Leah back into the carrier. “You’re not letting him near the baby.”
“Not a chance. I’m not letting him in the house, period. But I do want to talk to him and see why he came. He’s never been out here to see me before now, and I don’t like the timing.”
It was past being suspicious since it’d been less than an hour and a half since Kade had rescued Bree from that motel. Was McClendon here to finish off the job that the hired gunman had failed to do?
Kade drew his gun and headed toward the front door.
Of course, Bree didn’t stay put as he’d ordered. She was right behind him.
“Have Dade keep monitoring the security feed,” Kade instructed Mason. This could be a ruse that someone could use to get gunmen onto the ranch, but Mason probably already knew that. “And take Leah to Grace. I want them to stay at the back of the house until McClendon is off the grounds.”
Mason hesitated, glancing first at Leah in her carrier seat and then out the front window at the approaching silver Jaguar. His brother was probably trying to decide if he should stay and play backup, but Mason thankfully picked up the carrier and hurried out of the room.
Good. That was one less thing to worry about. One less
big
thing.
Kade gave Bree one last try so he could take another worrisome issue off his list. “McClendon could be dangerous, and you’re still feeling the effects of that drug.”
Her chin came up, and even though he didn’t know her that well, Kade recognized the attitude. Bree wouldn’t back down. Something he understood since he would have reacted the same in her position. However, because she wasn’t duty ready, he eased her behind him when he headed for the door.
Kade paused at the security system so he could open the door without setting off the alarms. By the time he’d done that, McClendon was already out of his car and walking up the porch steps. His driver—aka his armed goon bodyguard, no doubt—stayed by the open car door.