Then he glanced down and their eyes caught and held. He touched her cheek, and the emotion in his gaze nearly undid her.
“She’s beautiful, Soph. Just like her mama.”
She looked back at the monitor and smiled. The small burst of joy was so welcome, so wonderful that she wanted to hold on to it forever.
Dr. Richards pulled the wand away from her belly and carefully pulled her pants back up over her waist.
“I’d leave those stitches in your arm for another few days. Keep the area clean and a bandage over it. It’s healing quite nicely though. Everything else looks good. I’d say you have a healthy little girl there.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. It was so nice to see her for the first time.”
The doctor smiled and backed away from the couch. “I’ll leave you two now. I have patients to get back to.”
He wheeled the sonogram machine away, and a second later, she heard the door close behind him. She tried to push to a sitting position, but it was awkward. Sam helped her up, and she leaned against the couch, suddenly exhausted, but euphoric at the same time.
“A daughter.”
Reverently she palmed her belly and rubbed softly over the swell. Sam put his hand over hers and squeezed.
“I just want her safe,” Sophie said.
Sam cupped her chin and pulled until she faced him. His expression was hard now, devoid of his earlier tenderness. There was determination there.
“She will be, Sophie. We’ll find a way. I need you to believe that.”
“I want to,” she said honestly.
“Help me then. I need information. I know you’re tired. But I need you to tell me and my men everything you can about your uncle, about your father’s holding in Rock Springs. Every detail you can think of. They’re gathering intel now and we need to move quickly, but you can help us a lot if you tell us what you know.”
“Of course I will.”
“Where is the key? I asked you in the truck, but you never answered.”
She covered her face in a tired gesture, knocking his hand from her chin in the process. She rubbed at her eyes and sighed.
“The night I took the boat, when I was coming to you, I hid the key in a box and buried it in the planter that was at the bait shop where I got the boat. It’s there. The Ice Box. That’s the name of the store.”
“I know of it. It’s a few miles down the lake from Paris Landing. I’ll send one of Rio’s men for it.”
She shook her head. “No, I should go.”
He frowned. “You’re not going anywhere you’re unprotected.”
There was determination in her eyes as she stared back at him. “That key is all the insurance I have, Sam. All the insurance our child has. I won’t take a chance with it.”
“I know I don’t have a right to ask, and you have every reason to be unsure and scared, but trust me, Sophie. Trust me. Trust that I won’t do anything that puts any of you at risk. I’ll send him for the key and he’ll return it to us—to you.”
She swallowed hard, and he could see the conflict so readily apparent on her face. His hand closed over hers, and he felt her tremble in his grasp. Finally she nodded.
“Okay, send him.”
He lifted her hand and kissed her fingertips. “Come on then. Let’s go find the others.”
CHAPTER 26
AFTER issuing instructions to Rio to send a man to retrieve the key, Sam went back in to see his father. This time he didn’t disturb him. He simply stood by his bedside and watched the up-and-down lines on the heart monitor and took reassurance in the rhythmic sounds of each breath.
Now more than ever he needed to take steps to ensure the safety of his family. It would take months to see to fruition the detailed plans for a veritable fortress on the land he’d purchased, but no longer would he put it off.
His family would be safe and under his watchful eye—all of them.
He reached down to touch his father’s hand. It was cold—too cold—to the touch. His mother should be here, sitting by his bedside, not scared out of her mind in some shithole in West Texas.
He hadn’t prayed in a long time, but he prayed now. He recalled every trip to church with his parents, and knew his mother found comfort in scripture and the steady words from the pulpit. He hoped she reached back for that now and that she didn’t lose hope.
“I’ll bring her home, Dad,” he whispered. “Somehow I’ll make all this right.”
He turned and walked out of the cubicle and came face-to-face with the nurse who’d shown him in earlier.
She gestured toward a man on one of the phones at the nurses’ station a few feet away. “The doctor is here if you’d like to talk to him about your father.”
“Thank you, I would.”
“Wait here and I’ll get him,” she said.
A few seconds later, the doctor hung up the phone and the nurse spoke to him and pointed in Sam’s direction. The doctor walked over and extended his hand.
“I’m Dr. Caldwell. I’m in charge of your father’s care.”
Sam shook his hand. “Sam Kelly. How is he, Doctor?”
“He’s doing well, considering. He had a major blockage that we went in and stented. There was another artery with about sixty-five percent blockage that we ballooned. He’ll have to be on medication, and he’ll need to make some drastic changes to diet and lifestyle, but he should do well with proper treatment.”
Relief nearly crushed Sam on the spot. “When do you think he’ll go home? I mean is he even near that point? How long will you keep him?”
The doctor smiled. “I’d like to keep him for a couple of days and monitor his recovery, make sure there aren’t any problems. I’ll run some tests to see how much, if any, of the heart was damaged, but he’ll be able to go home in a couple of days.”
“Thank you,” Sam said.
The doctor put his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “No problem. That’s my job. If you’ll excuse me, I have other patients to see.”
Sam nodded and the doctor walked away. Sam glanced back toward his father’s room before walking out of the unit himself.
When he rejoined the others in the family room, he briefed Donovan and Garrett on what the doctor had said and then he turned to the matter at hand.
“Sean give me the details on what you’ve worked out for security here at the hospital,” Sam said quietly. “I need every man I can get when we go to Rock Springs, but I also won’t leave Dad and Rusty unprotected.”
Sean looked haggard, like he hadn’t slept in a week, and grief was raw like a storm in his eyes. Frank and Marlene were like parents to him, and he was another son in an already large family.
He was young, but he was a damn good cop, and Sam trusted him to keep his loved ones safe from harm.
“The state police were screaming, but your pal Resnick called and they calmed down,” Sean said.
Sam’s brow furrowed in surprise, and he turned to Garrett. “Did you know anything about this?”
Garrett shrugged. “All I told him was to keep Uncle Sam off our asses and out of West Texas. Figured that’s all he needed to know.”
Resnick had come through in spades. He was a good man when the chips were down. Sam knew he’d put him in an untenable position. His ass would be on the line with his superiors. But he’d gone out on a limb for Sam. Debt paid.
“Okay, what else?” he directed at Sean.
“We have three troopers assigned to the hospital. I also have two locals and two of my guys from the county. We’ve alerted hospital security, and they’ve called in backup so they’ve doubled their field. I’ll stay with Frank and Rusty myself.”
Sam inhaled and looked over at his brothers and broached the topic that had been troubling him since their conversation with their dad.
“I know Dad doesn’t want Ethan involved, but I have to call him. I
need
Baker and Renshaw, and Ethan will be pissed if we don’t tell him what’s gone down. I wouldn’t blame him. I’d want to know if I was out of town and all this shit had happened, and heads would roll if I was left out of the loop.”
Garrett grimaced. “I agree, but what about Rachel? If we call Ethan, he’s going to race home, and he’s going to want to go in with us.”
“We need him,” Sam said.
“Rachel could stay with Rusty and Dad,” Donovan offered. “Ethan’s going to be in a hell of a position. He won’t want to leave Rachel, but he’s not going to stay behind while we go after Mom.”
“I’ll guard them with my life,” Sean said in a tight, grim voice.
Sam put his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “I know you will, Sean. I just worry about dragging Ethan into this fight when Rachel is still fragile.”
“I don’t like it, but you’re right, we do need him,” Garrett said.
Sam looked at Donovan for confirmation, then heaved out a huge breath. “Okay, I’ll call Ethan and bring him in. The Kelly jet could have him home by morning, and we’ll take out as soon as we have things in hand here.”
He looked back over at Sean. “I want Sophie to stay here with you and the other women.”
He caught a blur of movement from the corner of his eye. Sophie had sat quietly through the entire conversation, but now she leaped to her feet.
“Are you insane?” she demanded. “I’m not staying here.”
Sam caught her hand and brought her next to him. “This isn’t up for negotiation, Sophie. I want you safe. I’m not bringing you into the middle of a war with your uncle.”
Her pale face crinkled with anger and outrage. “You’re signing your mother’s death warrant. Whatever your plan is, you cannot go in there without me. The moment he realizes I’m not holding up my end of the bargain, he’ll kill your mother. Oh, he won’t do it himself. He doesn’t have the balls. But he’ll have her killed. Are you willing to risk that?”
“I won’t trade her for you.”
She pulled her hand from his and faced him, her mouth set in a fierce line. “I made the deal with him. The key in exchange for your mother. We have to at least give him the semblance of that. What if your plan goes wrong? Are you prepared for the worst? Are you willing to pin everything on your ability to go in and flawlessly execute a rescue?”
“Sophie . . .”
“Don’t ask me to
trust you
, Sam. This has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with me not being willing to be responsible for your mother’s death. How about you trust me? Trust me to know my uncle and know what’ll happen when he realizes he’s not going to get what he wants.”
Sam closed his eyes. Goddamn but he didn’t want to involve Sophie in any of this. How could he?
“How close do you think you’ll be able to get without me? Are you willing to take that chance, Sam? You want me to trust you. Well, I do. I trust you to keep me safe when I go with you. I trust you to come up with a plan that has your men going in for your mother while I face my uncle. You know I’m right. You may not want to take me, but you know you have to. You
know
it.”
Her impassioned plea impressed the men gathered around Sam. They shifted restlessly, and he could see they battled the same dilemma he did. None of them wanted her in harm’s way. They didn’t want her anywhere near her uncle. But they also all knew she had a very valid point.
And it pissed him the fuck off.
“Christ.”
“I don’t like it,” Donovan said. “We can’t risk Sophie and her baby on the off chance we don’t get the job done.”
“I don’t like it either,” Garrett muttered. “But do we have a choice? Do we really want to take that risk? We can protect her, Sam. You know we can goddamn protect her. You don’t want her to go. I don’t want her to go. But do you really want to face Dad and tell him we didn’t do all we could to bring Mom back to him?”
“That’s a low blow,” Sam said fiercely.
Sophie’s small hand slid over his arm and she tugged, turning his attention back to her.
“Don’t I get a say in this?” she asked softly. “I brought this to your door, Sam. I brought it to your mother and father’s door. They didn’t get a choice. Let me do this. Let me save your mother like I couldn’t save mine. Do you think I could live with myself if I stayed here and she dies?”
Her courage astounded him. It humbled him. He felt wholly unworthy of her selflessness. And as much as he wanted to deny her, as much as he wanted to tie her down if necessary to keep her safe, he knew in his gut she was right. She was right and it made him so furious, so afraid for her that he wanted to break something.
He stared into her eyes and then closed his. His hands found hers and he hung on. God forgive him, but what was he supposed to do? How did you make a choice between keeping your woman safe or possibly causing the death of your mother?
Sophie moved against him. He opened his eyes just as she leaned up on tiptoe. She kissed him. A soft, gentle kiss that held a wealth of meaning. And support. It was the first time she’d made any overt gesture in front of the others.
“I have faith in you,” she whispered.
Her fingers squeezed his, and she rocked back on her feet. There was more trust in her gaze than he deserved. He just prayed he didn’t betray it.
Feeling empty, he turned to the others, but he kept a tight hold on one of Sophie’s hands.
“We rework the plan,” Sam said bleakly. “I’ll go in with Sophie. I want P.J. and Cole on sniper duty. As soon as the bastard shows himself to us, I want him taken out. Everyone else will surround and go in. This has to be precisely timed. There’s no room for mistakes.”
“We won’t fail,” Steele said. “We never have. We won’t start now.”
Sam pulled Sophie closer to him, needing in that moment to feel her warmth, to remind him of what was at stake. He slid his hand down her body to her belly, feeling for the reassuring kick of his daughter.
His daughter.
“This is your niece,” he said to his brothers. “Sophie’s having a girl.”
He needed them to know. Needed to make it personal, to make this as real to them as it was to him. Then they’d know what was at risk.
Donovan’s face split into a wide grin. He moved forward, swept Sophie into his arms and spun her around. Even Garrett smiled, and when Donovan set her down, Garrett reached for her hand.