Soul Deep (21 page)

Janet closed her eyes, drew deep breaths, the
odd sensation of tugging deep in her belly strange and not entirely
comfortable.

“Slow, deep breaths.” Jack kissed her
cheek.

He’d been so strong for her, coming to all of
her appointments, massaging her hip day and night to help ease the
pain caused by the weight of the baby, making meals that were not
only nutritious but which also catered to her food cravings—and
Megan’s. He’d been so respectful of her wishes and responsive to
her fears. He’d been her hero.

“Okay, we’re getting down to business here.
I’m cutting into your uterus.”

“You’ll have your baby in your arms in just a
minute,” a woman’s voice said.

“I just broke your amniotic sac, and we’re
suctioning out the fluid,” Dr. Fleming said. “I think this baby
wants out. Its head is right here.”

“Look at all that dark hair,” one of the
nurses said.

Janet met Jack’s gaze. “Oh, my God. We’re
having a baby.”

He smiled. “
You’re
having a baby. In a
minute, you’re going to be a mother.”

“Let’s lower the drape so they can see,” Dr.
Fleming said.

The blue surgical drape was lowered, and
Janet found herself staring at the surreal sight of her bulging
belly. There wasn’t as much blood as she’d expected, but there was
some. And then Dr. Fleming’s hand disappeared into her abdomen.

There was more pressure, more tugging, and
one of the assistants pushed down on her abdomen.

Then Dr. Fleming’s hand reappeared as he
eased the baby’s head from inside her. “The head is out.”

Janet watched in stunned amazement as the
head was followed by a shoulder and then a tiny arm and another
shoulder. In a rush of fluid, the baby slipped from her womb and
into Dr. Fleming’s hands.

“Hello, little one. Happy birthday!” Dr.
Fleming said, holding the baby up and wiping its face. “She wants
to hold the baby and have skin-to-skin contact.”

The baby made a little squeak, then began to
cry.

“My baby!” Janet’s eyes filled with tears, a
rush of emotion overwhelming her as Dr. Fleming laid the baby on
her chest. “My baby!”

She held the wet, squalling baby, Jack and
the anesthesiologist tugging her hospital gown down to expose her
breasts.

“Aren’t you even going to look?” Dr. Fleming
asked.

It took Janet a moment to understand what he
meant. She lifted one of the baby’s chubby legs and laughed. “It’s
a girl!”

Jack smiled at her, tears streaming down his
face.

“Thank you, angel.” He bent down, kissed her
on the cheek, then kissed their little girl on her damp hair.
“Welcome to the world, princess.”

# # #

Jack sat close to the bed and watched as
Janet tried to nurse Lily for the first time.

My God, he had a
daughter
.

He hadn’t seen that coming.

They’d named her Lily Kathleen after Janet’s
mother and Jack’s grandmother, but hadn’t yet shared her name or
sex with anyone.

Janet tickled the baby’s chubby cheek with
her nipple, and Lily turned her hungry little mouth toward Janet’s
breast, reminding Jack of a baby bird.

Janet gave a little gasp as the baby latched
on and began to suck, then laughed, the happiness on her sweet face
warming Jack to his soul.

“She’s latched on really well all by
herself,” the nurse, a lactation specialist, said to Janet. “That’s
what we like to see.”

Jack kissed Janet’s cheek. “The kid’s an
expert already.”

Janet turned to him. “Isn’t she
beautiful?”

She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever
seen.

“Like mother, like daughter.”

Janet didn’t seem to be in pain. They’d given
her some kind of narcotic injection through the epidural to relieve
her pain while still enabling her to be alert so she could have
bonding time with the baby. He hoped the pain relief lasted. He
hated to think of her hurting. She’d been through enough.

It had been a long, hard pregnancy. Once
she’d gotten through the nausea, she’d begun to have pain in her
hip and pelvis. Jack had done everything he could think of to make
her more comfortable—ice bags, hot compresses, massages, extra
pillows. He’d brought in an acupuncturist recommended by Doc
Johnson, who sometimes used acupuncture on the mares. None of it
had completely taken away her discomfort, but she had soldiered
through it.

Jack hadn’t thought he could cherish her more
than he had the day he’d married her, but watching her with Lily,
he felt shaken by the depth of his love for her. He wanted to do
right by her and Lily—and that meant he needed to talk to Nate.

Don’t think about it now, amigo.

He reached over, took one of Lily’s tiny
hands between his fingers, almost unable to believe she was real.
He laughed when the baby closed her entire hand around the tip of
his pinky finger, he and Janet exchanging glances, both of them so
lost in the baby that neither of them noticed when the nurse left
the room.

There came a knock at the door.

Megan peeked her face inside. “Can we come
in?”

“Please do,” Janet answered.

Megan entered, carrying flowers, followed by
Emily, who was dressed in a bright green sundress, and Nate, who
was carrying little Jackson.

“Come here, Miss Emily.” Jack got to his
feet. “We have someone who really wants to meet you. This is Lily
Kathleen.”

Megan gave a little shriek. “A girl!”

“Congratulations to both of you!” Nate said,
grinning ear to ear.

Emily approached the bed, a finger in her
mouth, a shy smile on her face. She looked over at Lily. “Oh,
Grandpa Jack, she’s so pretty.”

“You think so?” Jack sat, scooped Emily onto
his lap.

Emily nodded, finger still in her mouth.

The girl had been acting out lately, no doubt
feeling displaced by the new members of the family who were taking
up so much of her parents’ and Jack’s time. They were doing all
they could to make the transition easier for her, but she wouldn’t
adjust overnight. After all, she’d been the only child in the
family for close to three years now and had gotten the lion’s share
of Jack’s attention.

“Emily, this is Lily. Lily Kathleen, this is
your niece, Emily.” Janet looked from Lily to Emily. “She doesn’t
talk yet, but she’ll learn. When she’s done eating, you can hold
her if you want.”

Emily stared down at the baby. “Does she like
me?”

“Are you kidding? She loves you,” Jack
answered. “So does Jackson. They’re going to look up to you and
need your help. You can teach them how to count, how to tie their
shoes and—”

“I can teach them about horsies,” Emily said,
hopefully.

“That’s what I was going to say next.” Jack
shared a smile with Megan and Nate. “They don’t know a darned thing
about horsies.”

Megan put the flowers on the nightstand, sat
down on the edge of the bed, and peered down at the baby. “Oh,
she’s just beautiful. Look at all that dark hair. How much did she
weigh?”

“Seven pounds, thirteen ounces—a whole pound
less than Jackson.” Janet stroked Lily’s downy hair.

“She takes after you, Janet,” Megan said.

“Thank God for that,” Jack joked.

He looked over at Nate. “Can we talk out in
the hall?”

“Sure.” Nate handed Jackson to Megan and
followed him into the hallway, a look of concern on his face. “Is
something wrong?”

“Not exactly.” Jack didn’t know how to say it
except to come out and say it. “I’m sixty-four years older than
that sweet little baby girl, and you and I both know it’s unlikely
that I’ll be around to watch her turn thirty. I need to rewrite my
will and make some provision for her. In the meantime, I want your
promise that you’ll do right by her and Janet if something happens
to me before I get this all sorted out.”

It wasn’t going to be easy. The ranch needed
to go to a single heir. Dividing it up between heirs would
inevitably result in its being sold off piece by piece until it was
no longer a viable operation, ending the family’s legacy.

Nate raised an eyebrow. “I’m almost offended,
Dad, but having a new baby shakes a man up, so I forgive you. Of
course, I’ll take care of Lily and Janet. Lily is my sister, and
Janet is your wife, the woman you love. I would never throw either
of them off the ranch, deprive them of monetary support, or leave
them out of my will. I give you my word that they’ll both have a
home at the Cimarron for as long as they live.”

Jack rested a hand on his son’s shoulder,
anxiety he hadn’t realized he was carrying melting away. “Thank
you, son. That means a lot to me.”

“Now let’s get back in there. I want to hold
my baby sister.” Nate grinned. “A girl. I’m amazed. That’s the
first West daughter in a century.”

They went back into the room, where Janet was
telling Megan about her C-section while Emily sat on the bed
between them.

Lily had quit nursing and now seemed to be
sound asleep.

Janet took the baby from her breast, drew her
gown back up over her shoulder. “Okay, Emily, do you want to sit up
here next to me?”

“Be careful.” Jack helped Emily settle
herself beside Janet. “Remember, they had to cut Janet’s tummy open
to get Lily out.”

Janet laid Lily in Emily’s arms. “Good job!
You’ve gotten lots of practice holding babies, haven’t you?”

There came a knock at the door, and the
lactation nurse stepped in again. “It looks like the whole family
is here. Hey, do you want me to get a picture?”

“That would be wonderful,” Janet
answered.

Nate took out his cell phone, handed it to
the nurse, and showed her how to work it. “Just push the red button
on the screen.”

Nate went to stand beside Megan, who was
holding Jackson, while Jack stood beside Emily, who still held
Lily.

The nurse stepped back, took a few shots.
“These look great.”

“Thanks.” Nate took the camera from her,
scrolled through the images with a smile on his face, then handed
his phone to Jack.

And there in color were the people Jack loved
most in the world—and the second chance at happiness he’d never
expected to have. He had no idea what tomorrow would bring or where
life would take any of them. But right now, in this moment,
everything was perfect.

They’re beautiful.

Theresa’s voice sounded inside his mind as if
she were standing here beside him.

Yes, they are. I love them so much.

Could she hear him, too?

Be happy, my love.

And it seemed to Jack that Theresa was saying
goodbye.

“Are you okay, hon?” Janet reached out, slid
her fingers between his.

Jack swallowed the lump in his throat, gave
his wife’s hand a squeeze, his heart aching with the bittersweet
wonder of life. “Never been better.”

Keep reading for an excerpt from
Seduction Game
(I-Team 7), available in ebook format on
October 20, 2015, and in print in March 2016 from Penguin Group
(USA).

From
Seduction Game
(I-Team 7), coming Oct. 20, 2015, from Berkley!

CHAPTER ONE

Trust no one.

What the hell was Kramer trying to tell
him?

Nick Andris rubbed his closed eyes with the
heels of his hands, then looked up at the clock. Almost
midnight.

Shit.

This was a waste of time.

For almost three weeks, he’d been keeping
Holly Elise Bradshaw under round-the-clock surveillance. He’d
turned her life inside out, but had found nothing. He’d tapped her
cell phone and landline, sifted through her laptop, searched her
condo, memorized the details of her childhood, learned about her
friends, pored over her financial records, scrutinized her posts on
social media for hints of tradecraft, and tracked every move she’d
made via GPS. He’d found nothing remotely suspicious.

He’d even gone behind Bauer’s back and
contacted Rich Lagerman, an old buddy from Delta Force who was now
working for the FBI, and asked whether Bradshaw was one of theirs.
Every federal agency in the country now had undercover officers,
and it wouldn’t be the first time operatives from different
agencies had tripped over one another while pursuing a suspect.

“Nope. Not one of ours,” Lagerman had said.
“But if you need any help with her, maybe some late-night,
under-the-covers work, let me know.”

“Right.”

Nick now knew more about this woman now than
she knew about herself. If Holly Bradshaw were some kind of
underworld operative, a foreign agent, a traitor who sold US
secrets, then he was Elvis fucking Presley.

Someone at Langley had screwed up.

Bauer had recalled Nick from assignment in
Tbilisi amid whispers that a handful of officers were missing or
dead and that the Agency was conducting an internal investigation
of its Special Activities Division, or SAD, the top-secret branch
of the CIA that had recruited Nick out of Delta Force nine years
ago. He’d never been assigned to operate within US borders, so he’d
arrived in Langley expecting to find himself in the middle of an
inquisition.

Instead, Bauer, his supervisor, had given him
a file with the latest intel on Sasha Dudayev, aka Sachino Dudaev,
the Georgian arms smuggler who’d killed the only woman Nick had
ever loved.

“He killed an officer and stole a flash drive
containing classified information vital to US operations outside
the homeland,” Bauer had said. “Holly Elise Bradshaw is his contact
for the deal. Keep Bradshaw under surveillance, recover the data,
and neutralize them both using any force necessary.”

As a rule, the Agency left affairs within the
homeland to the NSA and FBI, but they sometimes broke that rule
when it came to high-value international targets and US citizens
who’d crossed the line to work with those targets. It was unusual
for Nick to run surveillance on a fellow American in her home, but
apart from that element of his current mission, Bauer had given him
exactly what he’d wanted for two long years now—a chance to make
Dudaev pay.