urges inside her grew in intensity. Not yet, I want it to last longer, a part of her begged, while another part of her demanded, Now, damn it, now. It’s too good to wait.
What was that ringing noise? she wondered. And where was it coming from? Hadn’t she unplugged the phone in her bedroom as she usually did when she and Frank were together? Go away, she wanted to scream. Leave us alone. We’ve waited such a long time to be together again.
The ringing continued.
Leenie’s eyelids popped open. She groaned when she realized she’d been asleep and only dreaming of being with Frank. It had seemed so real, so breathtakingly real.
Suddenly the telephone stopped ringing. Groggy, her mouth dry as cotton, her head filled with cobwebs, she forced herself into a sitting position. She still wore the clothes she’d had on the evening before, including her shoes.
What time was it? How long had she been asleep? Leenie glanced at the lighted digital clock on the bedside table—7:40 a.m.
As she slid her feet off the bed and onto the floor, yesterday’s events flooded her memory. She and Frank had argued about rescuing Andrew. She had been damned and determined to go to Memphis, totally irrational, uncaring that she wouldn’t have known where to go once she arrived there.
She had taken her frustration and rage out on Frank. She had actually hit him. Repeatedly. And he’d just stood there and let her vent, let her pound his chest with her fists. How could she have done such a thing? She’d never been a violent person.
Oh, Frank, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
She vaguely remembered him lifting her up into his arms and carrying her back into the house and…What had happened next? He had laid her on this bed, then Kate had sat with her, talking softly, assuring her that everything possible would be done to bring Andrew home. And then someone gave her an injection? Who? Had Frank called a doctor? Why couldn’t she remember clearly?
An insistent rapping on the closed door drew Leenie’s attention. “Yes?”
“May I come in?” Kate Malone asked.
“Yes, please.” She needed to ask Kate some questions and find out what had happened to her yesterday evening.
Looking like morning sunshine in her brown dress slacks and gold sweater set, her long blond hair neatly restrained in a loose bun at her neck, Kate entered the bedroom. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Like I’ve been drugged.”
“You were.”
Leenie lifted a questioning eyebrow.
Kate smiled. “Forgive us?”
“What are you asking forgiveness for?” Leenie asked.
“You were hysterical, then emotionally wiped out. We couldn’t get you to stop crying, so Frank and I agreed that you needed a doctor. We phoned Haley Wilson and she arranged for her physician to make a house call.”
“It was Haley’s doctor who came to the house? I guess that’s the reason I didn’t recognize him.”
“She tried your doctor first, but he was out of town.”
“What did Haley’s doctor give me—an elephant tranquilizer?”
Kate chuckled. “Are you that hungover?”
Leenie rubbed either side of her forehead with her fingertips. “I feel as if I’ve been run down by a Mack truck.”
“Despite that fact, are we forgiven?”
Somehow Leenie managed to get up. When Kate came toward her, she nodded. “You’re forgiven. And I’m okay. I don’t need any help. However, I do need a shower.” She glanced down at herself. “And I need a change of clothes.”
“We thought it best to just let you—”
“We? You and Haley? Or you and Frank?”
“All three of us.”
“Where is Frank?”
“That was him on the phone. I tried to get to it before the ringing woke you, but—”
“Frank isn’t here?”
“No, he left last night, as soon as you went off to sleep.”
“I guess I can’t blame him for leaving. I said some terrible things to him.”
Kate reached out and took Leenie’s hands in hers. “He didn’t leave because of anything you said or did. And he’s coming back later today. He went to Memphis.”
Had she heard Kate right? “Frank went to Memphis?”
“He phoned Moran last night and asked if he promised to stay out of the way, could he just be there in town, at FBI headquarters, and wait around for word on Andrew.”
Emotion tightened Leenie’s throat. She had accused Frank of not caring about Andrew. But he did care, didn’t he? Why else would he have gone to Memphis.
“Do you know what time the meeting is today?” Leenie asked.
“The agents are set to go in posing as adoptive parents at ten o’clock.”
Leenie pulled her hands from Kate’s and hugged herself, determined not to fall apart again. “Why did Frank call? Is there a problem?”
“He called to check on you,” Kate said. “When he left here last night, he was worried sick about you.”
“Was he?”
“Yes, he was. You’ve got to know that despite the emotional barrier Frank has erected to keep the world at bay, that man cares about you. It’s so obvious to anyone watching him when he’s around you that he’s in love.”
“Kate Malone, I do believe you’re a romantic. Otherwise you’d never think Frank was in love with me. I doubt he’s capable of falling in love.”
“He is. He just doesn’t know it yet.” Kate looked Leenie square in the eyes. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Leenie sighed.
“I know it’s none of my business, but—”
“Yes, I’m in love with the big lug. I’m so in love with him that it hurts.”
Kate smiled. “Why don’t you take a shower while I fix us some breakfast?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
Kate turned and headed for the door, then paused, glanced over her shoulder and said, “Frank will call us as soon as he knows anything. If the agents get to see the baby, they should be able to tell if it’s Andrew or not from all the photos the feds have of him.”
“Even if they can’t take
