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Hope and relief shot through Salazar. “You’re certain?”

  “I paid a good deal of your money to bribe a look at those reports. No mention of Castino … or you.”

  “Yet.”

  “As you say. But there may be a way to keep you safe if we work fast. Eve Duncan hasn’t made a statement yet. She’s in a local hospital being checked out for concussion, and her lover, Joe Quinn, isn’t letting her be interviewed.”

  “Where’s the kid?”

  “She’s being taken care of by a friend of Duncan’s, Margaret Douglas.”

  “Not at Child Services? They’re big on Welfare shit in the U.S.”

  “No, I’m sure. I knew you’d want to know where you could put your hands on her.”

  “Oh, yes.” His hands around her throat to end this nightmare. “Then it appears you may have a multitude of targets in the near future. You need to find out how much Duncan knows about Cara Castino … and me. I have to know I’m safe from Duncan before I move forward again.”

  “You’ll be safe. It’s only a question which target I hit first.” His voice was suddenly eager. “You tell me and it will be done. Duncan? Quinn? The kid?”

  “You’re moving too fast. I want you to go to that hospital and report back to me. Do you understand?”

  “If I took out Duncan, it would stop the—”

  “Report back to me,” Salazar repeated. “Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” He was silent. “I didn’t mean to argue. You’re the Pez Gordo, the big boss. I’m just concerned.”

  He was concerned because if Salazar and his cartel fell, he could be part of the collateral damage, Salazar thought cynically. It was obvious Franco was very ambitious. “Then it’s time to use that concern in the way I told you.”

  “I’ll leave for the hospital right away. I won’t disappoint you.” He hung up.

  Franco was moving fast and was eager to please but Salazar still wasn’t sure that he would obey instructions if an opportunity presented itself.

  Oh well, Franco was a superb assassin, and Salazar was just angry enough with the way Eve Duncan had spoiled his plans that he was willing to take a chance that Franco wouldn’t pay her a fatal visit in her hospital room without taking appropriate precautions. Salazar rather liked the idea of Duncan’s lying helplessly in that bed in her room while Franco moved around that hospital like a lethal buzz saw.

  But if Franco decided to do it, he’d damn well better do it right.

  COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF THE MONTEREY

  “Cara has good instincts,” Eve Duncan said as she turned back to Joe after watching the child walk out of her hospital room. “You’re not easy to read, Joe. I’m glad that whatever you’re upset about wasn’t about her. Though I’m not sure she believed you. It would have been difficult explaining a sudden change of heart. Do you know, I’m starting to look forward to having Cara staying with us for a while?” She shook her head. “Remember, we were talking on the day Jane left for London about how my life may be changing? Then all of this happened. Do you suppose Cara is the change?”

  “Not necessarily.”

  Eve went still. She couldn’t miss that jerky roughness in his tone. “What are you talking about? What is wrong?”

  “Not wrong. Strange. Bizarre.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what else.”

  “Stop playing around with words. Talk to me.”

  “I don’t know how to say it.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “The hospital has the results from all the tests they’ve been running on you. The doctor stopped me in the hall to go over them.”

  “The results? Joe, I know you’ve been ramrodding everything connected to my treatment since you brought me to this hospital, but that’s going a little too far. Why go over them with you and not with me?” She tried to smile. “Some terrible disease popped up that he thought you should break to me?”

  “God, I’m not doing this right. No terrible disease. You’re very healthy and ready to go home. He just didn’t want you to leave the hospital without knowing.”

  “Joe, what are you trying to tell me?”

  “In my completely clumsy and inadequate fashion.” He reached out and took her hand. “I’m trying to tell you that you’re going to have a child, Eve.”

  * * *

  “You’re joking,” Eve said dazedly. “It’s some kind of mistake?”

  “No.” Joe’s hand tightened around her own. “And no. To both questions. I wouldn’t have dared come in here if I hadn’t made sure the doctor had checked and double-checked. You’re pregnant.” His teeth bit his lower lip. “And that goes to show how upset I am. We’re pregnant. I can’t quite take it in either. I went into shock when the doctor told me.”

  “Tell me about it,” she said weakly as she sat up in the bed. “It wasn’t supposed to happen. I thought it couldn’t happen. It wasn’t as if we weren’t careful.”

  “I didn’t think so either,” Joe said. “We did everything right. Or maybe we didn’t. But I don’t know how we could have done anything different.” He shook his head. “I’m a little confused on that point at the moment.”

  “Me, too.” She met his gaze. “I … feel lost. I can’t quite grasp it.” She reached up and ran a hand through her hair. “How … long?”

  “Barely. A few weeks. You must have conceived before we left the Lake Cottage to come out here to California.”

  “I remember when I was pregnant with Bonnie, I didn’t know for months.”

  “Things have changed since you were sixteen. They can tell within five or six days now.”

  She nodded. “The whole world has changed. My whole life has changed. I’m not the same person.”

  “Yes, you are. You’ve just been tempered by experience.” He lifted her palm to his lips. “And this particular experience may do some more very intricate tempering. Just don’t let it throw you. We’ll think about it, then make decisions.”

  “Decisions.” No, she couldn’t make decisions right now. Her head was whirling, and all she could think about was the fact that in nine months she would bear a child. It was impossible. No, it was going to happen. “How do you feel about it?”

  “As dazed as you.” He grinned. “Kind of … primitive. I’ve never fathered a child of my own. I suppose that’s a natural reaction. I … like it.” His smile faded. “I never suggested it to you. After all you’ve gone through, I thought that it had to come from you. I know what you went through when you lost your Bonnie; when she was killed. After we adopted Jane, I believed that might be the way we should go.”

  “So did I.” She moistened her lips. “And now I’m wondering why we never talked about having a child of our own. Did I just bury my head in the sand? My God, Joe, I must have sensed you’d feel like this. Was I so afraid that I avoided facing it?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Because he knew it was true, she realized. She was his center, and he wouldn’t allow her to be hurt even if it meant being cheated himself. “You should have spoken to me about it.”

  He shook his head. “I have you. That’s enough, more than enough.” He leaned forward and kissed her. “Now stop fretting about me, you have thinking to do.”

  “Thinking,” she repeated. “You said decision. You know I won’t have an abortion. I couldn’t do that.”

  “That’s not what I meant. You told me once that you’d intended to adopt Bonnie out to a good home before she was born. Then, when you saw her, you changed your mind.”

  Eve stared at him in shock. “You’d consent to me doing that?”

  “I have no idea. I doubt it. Every instinct is shouting no, but I just had to bring it up because you’d once considered it. You were a teenager then, poor, virtually alone, and Bonnie was illegitimate. Now you’re older, but you have a career that obsesses you, and family would get in the way.” He met her gaze. “Whatever your decision, it has to be made with your whole heart. After that, we’ll work out what we need to do individually to meet both
our own goals. We’ll find a way to blend them together.”

  “Joe…”

  “Hush.” He squeezed her hand before releasing it. “I’m going to go and see about your release papers. You rest awhile, then I’ll send Margaret in to help you dress.” He paused. “Do you want me to tell her?”

  She shook her head. “It’s not real to me yet. How can I make it real to anyone else?”

  “What about Cara? Do you still want to take her into our home for a while?”

  “Of course I do. What are we supposed to do? Let her go back to Mexico and be torn apart in all those cartel wars? She’s just a child, and she’s already lost her sister and Elena, her best friend. You know that Salazar won’t stop hunting her because Walsh is dead. We’ve got to keep her safe until we can find a way to get rid of Salazar.”

  “And Juan Castino, her loving father,” Joe said grimly. “You’re right, she’s a pawn. She wouldn’t stand a chance if immigration sends her back to Mexico.” He turned toward the door. “I just thought that you might want me to handle it myself. You may be a little busy for a while.”

  “I believe the word is occupied,” Eve said dryly.

  “Whatever.” He glanced back at her. “I wasn’t sure that you’d be prepared for the hassle. We’re going to have to whisk Cara away from here, keep her real identity from the authorities, and get her to Atlanta. Then I’ll get to work on bringing down Salazar’s cartel. That should keep him too busy to pay attention to Cara in the near future.”

  “I agree. But most of those arrangements are in your court.”

  “It will overflow.”

  She nodded. “Then I’ll face it then.” She smiled. “And a challenge will be good for me. It will keep me from … It will distract me.”

  “I doubt it.”

  The next moment, he was gone.

  He was probably right, she thought. Nothing was going to distract her from this news that had shaken her world. But she had always found that hard work and putting her own problems at the end of the agenda could be a salvation.

  But did she need salvation? Why had the word even occurred to her?

  All she needed was to adjust to a situation that happened to millions of women every year.

  So adjust.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the pillow. Sort out what she really felt and examine it.

  Shock.

  A natural reaction.

  Disbelief.

  Also natural.

  Fear.

  A pregnancy was never easy when you were older.

  Of course, there was an element of—

  No, don’t hide behind that easy answer. There was something else behind it.

  Bonnie. Her little girl who had been her entire life during those seven short years before her death. Bonnie. The pain and agony that had almost killed Eve after she’d been taken.

  The fear that agony could come back if she allowed herself to love another baby as she had Bonnie. She dearly loved her adopted daughter, Jane, but that was another relationship entirely. Jane had been ten when they’d found each other, and with a maturity that had made them more best friends than mother and daughter. So different from Bonnie. She had been responsible for her from the instant of her birth, and she had lost her. Could she bear the constant worry that another child would be taken from her?

  Coward. She was a coward. Mothers faced that threat every single day.

  Did you know what a coward I am, Joe? Is that why you never asked?

  Well, there was no asking now. It was a fact. Stunning. Life-changing. Inevitable.

  Magical.

  The word had come out of nowhere.

  Because that was the final emotion she had felt when Joe had told her she was going to have a child.

  Magic. Joyous, rich, heady, magic.

  She slowly looked down at her abdomen. Flat. No sign that someone was growing, taking on more life with every second. She reached out tentatively and touched the skin of her stomach.

  What’s happening? It’s a crazy world out here, are you sure you want to trust me to take you through it?

  Was she expecting an answer from this baby, who had just barely been conceived? Of course not, the question was really for herself. She had lost Bonnie. She would have to do better to prove herself to this child.

  Her hand dropped away from her abdomen.

  Later. We’ll have to work on this. We’re just starting out. We have a long way to go.

  She sat up in bed and swung her legs to the floor. Time to start living life and not trying to avoid it. She went to the closet and started to take down her clothes.

  “Hey, I’m supposed to do all that.” Margaret had come into the room. “Joe said I should give you a little while to rest, and here you are ready to jump into your clothes.”

  Eve smiled affectionately at her. Margaret had been a tower of strength during the last days when they had been hunting for Cara, then Eve’s time in the hospital. But then Margaret had shown remarkable strength from the moment Eve had met her. She was young and full of life and possessed instincts and a knowledge of animals that was as unusual as her ability to deal with people.

  “I want to get out of here.” Eve headed for the bathroom. “And I’ve done nothing but rest since I got here. I had a mild concussion, and Joe insisted on having those doctors run every test under the sun to make sure I was okay.”

  “Typical Joe Quinn,” Margaret said. “He was a trifle … brief when he was talking to me. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine.”

  “Then you might tell Cara. She’s not too sure.”

  Eve stopped at the bathroom door. “She thinks I’m abandoning her?”

  “No, it’s not gotten that far yet. But who could blame her? She doesn’t really know any of us. She’s known since she was three years old and her sister, Jenny, was killed almost in front of her eyes, that she had to run and keep on running just to stay alive. Her nurse, Elena, taught her she mustn’t trust anyone.” She added grimly, “And with good reason. Elena died trying to protect her. Now Cara is alone, and she’s trying to come to terms with taking care of herself.” She shrugged. “Though she seems more concerned with taking care of you. Do you know she dreams about Jenny?”

  “Yes.”

  “And she told me she thinks you dream about her, too. Do you?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Margaret gazed at her, waiting. When Eve didn’t go on, she said, “Okay, you don’t want to talk about it. I understand. Well, I don’t really, but I would if you’d trust me. I thought that those reports from ‘confidential sources’ you told our Sheriff Nalchek you received were a trifle suspect when we were hunting down Walsh.” She suddenly chuckled. “Though he’d think what I’m guessing now is far more weird than suspect.” She took Eve’s suitcase out of the closet. “Go on, get dressed. Call if you need me. I’ll pack you up, and we’ll be set to go as soon as you’re ready.”

  “Thanks, Margaret,” Eve said quietly. “Thanks for everything. We would never have found Cara if you hadn’t helped. You’ve been there for me since the beginning of this nightmare.”

  “Not quite.” She tilted her head. “And that sounds remarkably like good-bye. Is it?”

  “I prefer au revoir.” She hesitated. “What Joe and I are doing isn’t exactly legal in taking Cara back to Atlanta with us. It’s morally right, but you could still get in trouble. You and the Immigration Department aren’t on the best of terms.”

  “We’re fine with each other as long as I’m smart enough to avoid them.”

  And Eve knew Margaret had made a science of avoiding them and keeping under the radar. Eve had never been told why Margaret felt that was necessary and could only be grateful that she occasionally dropped into their lives. “And you might be caught in the cross fire if they find out that we’re keeping Cara from her legal father.”

  “Who is a murderer, drug lord, and general scumbag.”

  “Joe and I will
be working on clearing up her situation, but it will take time. In the meantime, Salazar will be a danger.”

  “Then I should be there to—”

  “No, Margaret,” Eve said firmly. “You have too much to lose. I won’t have you stuck in a jail while they decide whether or not to deport you.” She made a face. “Though I don’t even know where they’d send you. You haven’t been very forthcoming on that score.”

  “It’s my life, my problems.” Margaret shook her head. “I can’t convince you, can I?” She shrugged. “Then I won’t try. If you need me, get in touch.” She started packing Eve’s bag. “Do you need to know where to get phony documents for Cara? I know a few good places and some people who will—”

  “No,” Eve said. “You’re out of this. Joe has managed to block any investigation on Cara’s background, but there are still problems. It will be a very tentative fix, but as long as they think Cara is an orphan after the death of her supposed Aunt Elena, we may get away with it. We’re hoping that Sheriff Nalchek will smooth things over with Child Services and persuade them to let us have temporary custody. He’s well thought of in this area.”

  “He’ll do it. He’s like you. He won’t want a child in danger.”

  “I believe you’re right. We’ll have to see. Everything is a little bewildering right now.”

  “Eve.” Margaret was studying her face. “You’re sure everything is okay? You look a little … unusual.”

  “Do I?” Trust Margaret to sense a truth that had only just been revealed to Eve. Unusual? The world was shaking. Everything was changing. She didn’t know how she was going to cope. But she would do it.

  She had to do it.

  She smiled at Margaret. “I’m sure it’s going to be okay. But you’re right, I feel a little unusual. Nothing physical. Just a new challenge on the horizon.”

  “Cara?”

  “She’s definitely a part of it.” She was closing the bathroom door. “I’ll be right out, Margaret.”

  * * *

  Margaret shook her head as she gazed at the closed door. Eve was going to prove obstinate, but that’s what she had expected. She had tried to push her away earlier when she had been afraid to involve her beyond what she considered safe. She would have to find a way to—