reality sucker punched him. “Leenie’s baby has been kidnapped?”
“Yesterday afternoon. Someone crashed their vehicle into the nanny’s car. The nanny was injured, but she’ll live. The woman who caused the wreck stole the baby from his car seat.”
“It is my baby, right?” How was it possible? he asked himself. Yes, he and Leenie had had sex. Repeatedly. But not once had he forgotten to use a condom.
“The lady who called me, this Haley Wilson, is Leenie’s best friend and she says the baby is definitely yours.”
“Why the hell didn’t she—God, Kate, I’m a father.”
She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, then squeezed. “Ms. Wilson said that Leenie is trying very hard to be strong and brave, but she’s falling apart. She needs you.”
“She needs me now. What about when she first found out she was pregnant? Or when the baby was born?” Frank growled the questions, outrage bringing his blood to a boil.
“And even now, with our child abducted, she’s not the one who called and asked for me. Damn her!”
Leenie showered and changed clothes around noon, and at Haley’s insistence lay down on the bed. She’d been staring up at the ceiling for the past hour. How could she sleep when she had no idea where Andrew was or what had happened to him? Didn’t anyone understand that she was slowly going out of her mind? Although she’d tried to convince herself that it was only a matter of time before the FBI found her baby and brought him home to her, she hadn’t been able to escape the wide-awake nightmares that plagued her. What if Andrew had been killed, maybe even tortured?
Keening mournfully, Leenie wrapped her arms around herself and rolled over in the bed. Oh, God, please take care of Andrew. Don’t let anyone hurt him. Tears gathered in her eyes. She swallowed hard.
A sharp knock on the bedroom door gained her immediate attention. She sat straight up. “Yes?”
“Leenie, there’s someone here to see you,” Haley said through the closed door.
“I don’t want to see anyone. Please tell whoever it is that—”
The door flew open. Frank Latimer stormed into her bedroom. Frank? Frank! What was he doing here? How had he found out about—?
He marched across the room to the bed, reached down, grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to her feet. They stood there staring at each other. Leenie’s heartbeat accelerated at an alarming speed.
“Why the hell didn’t you let me know I had a son?” he demanded.
Leenie trembled from head to toe, but she kept her gaze locked with his. “How did you—who told you about Andrew?”
“I did.” Haley stepped into the bedroom, Kate Malone directly behind her. “Well, actually, I spoke to Ms. Malone and she told him about Andrew and what had happened.”
“Leenie, we’re here to help,” Kate said. “You have all of Dundee’s resources and manpower at your service. We’re going to work with Moran…with the FBI to find your little boy.” Kate came over and grasped Frank’s arm. “And despite his less than pleasant greeting, Frank is here to help you.” She shook his arm. “Aren’t you, Frank?”
He broke eye contact with Leenie long enough to confront Kate. “How about you two let me talk to Leenie alone, without an audience.”
“Is that all right with you?” Haley asked Leenie. She nodded.
Haley glared at Frank. “I’m the one responsible for your knowing about Andrew. Don’t make me regret what I did.” She hurriedly left the room.
After letting go of his arm, Kate hesitated. “The absolute worst thing that can happen when a child is kidnapped is for her—or his—parents to blame each other and be at each other’s throats. What Leenie needs right now, Frank, is your understanding and your support.”
He didn’t reply, but he released his tenacious hold on Leenie’s arm. Kate gave him a warning glare before leaving them alone. For several minutes the silence between them pulsated throughout the bedroom. A bedroom in which they had made mad, passionate love on more than one occasion. She couldn’t help remembering and her body warmed as those luscious memories encompassed her. Frank’s hard body pressing her into the mattress as he plunged into her. The feel of his strong arms holding her. His moist lips on hers, at her breasts. His fingers caressing, probing, tantalizing. For a millisecond she stopped breathing.
“I spoke to Dante Moran…briefly,” Frank said, his voice tight and controlled. “The local police found the vehicle that crashed into your nanny’s car. It was abandoned outside of town. Naturally there was no sign of the baby. Our baby.”
“His name is Andrew,” Leenie said.
He clenched his jaw, then said, “My middle name.”
She nodded. “Andrew Latimer Patton.”
Frank huffed, then frowned and shifted his shoulders. “Damn, Leenie, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Pride maybe. Too proud to ask for your help when I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself and a child without a father. Or maybe I was scared that you’d do the honorable thing and ruin all our lives. I don’t know. We weren’t even a couple, not really. We had a fling. No strings attached. We used protection. You left and never called or—”
“I thought about calling,” he told her.
Had he? she wondered. She wanted to believe him, but it really didn’t matter. He might have thought about it, but he hadn’t called. Not once in nearly a year. “Admit it, Frank, if Haley hadn’t called Kate and you didn’t know about Andrew, you’d never have gotten in touch with me.”
“We can’t know that for sure, can we? Besides, that’s a moot point now anyway.”
“Actually my not telling you about your child is a moot point.” She wanted to touch Frank, to put her arms around him and beg him to hold her. “Until we find Andrew, nothing else matters.”
“You’re right. Finding our son is our only concern. Everything else can be sorted out later, once we bring him home.”
“For what it’s worth…” she paused and looked right at Frank “…I’m glad you’re here.”
Chapter Three
Frank had left Leenie in her bedroom and gone through the house, out the back door and onto the porch. For late November, it was unseasonably warm. Probably somewhere in the high sixties and not a rain cloud in the sky. He’d gotten away from Leenie as fast as he could because he’d sensed that she had wanted him to put his arms around her and hold her. But he hadn’t. He couldn’t. And not just because he was angry with her, that a part of him wanted to wring that long, smooth neck of hers for keeping his son a secret from him. He knew that if he touched her, she’d work that crazy magic spell on him and make him want to stay with her, hold on to her, make love to her and never let her go. When he’d left Maysville eleven months ago after his assignment ended, he’d sworn he’d never look back. The way Leenie turned
