Solid Muscle (Unseen Enemy Book 5) (13 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Cordelia sat in total darkness. The three men in the SUV were silent, but she could hear them breathing both in front of her and next to her. She felt dizzy, disoriented. Lost in the dark.

The only stable, solid thing in her whole world right now was Hunter. He was sitting between her and the man in the back seat, holding her hand tight in his, giving her a small squeeze every once in a while, just to let her know he was there with her. He was reassuring her and comforting her, acting as though he didn’t have a gun shoved in to his side. His entire focus was her, she was the center of his whole world; she actually
felt
that.

They drove for what felt like a long time, at least an hour. Cordelia started to feel almost sick from the motion, from the darkness. She shut her eyes as hard as she could, took some deep breaths.

“Millie?”

She jumped. “Yes?”

“You doing OK?” She heard the concern in Hunter’s voice and all she wanted to do was cuddle up in his arms. “You feel sick?”

“A bit,” she admitted. “But I’m alright.”

“I love you,” he said, deliberately not saying her cover name. He wanted her to know that he was talking to
her
, to Cordelia.

“I love you too.” Tears prickled her eyes. “So much.”

“Shut the hell up back there,” the driver snapped. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

They fell silent again, but Hunter gripped her hand tighter, wishing this was all over and done with.

Fuck, Dallas… you better be close by, man
.

When the SUV finally stopped, it was a shock. Cordelia heard the front door open, then her door opened. A rough hand grabbed her forearm, pulled her out of the vehicle. She stumbled, no sense of where the ground was.

“Hey!” Hunter roared. “Be careful with her! Millie, you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m OK.”

The man was behind her now, shoving her forward. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other, hoping to Christ that the ground was even. There was a pause, a knock, another pause. Then she heard a door open and she was shuffled forward again. He jerked her to a stop now and she heard Hunter cursing behind her. The ground under her feet changed from sandy to solid and she knew she was inside a building.

Without any warning, the blindfold was yanked off her eyes and she closed them, a bit shocked at how even the dim light was bright. Right away, she turned to look at Hunter. His dark eyes were nailed to her, checking her for damage.

“Alright?” he asked, husky and low. “Talk to me, baby.”

“Yes.” She gave a stiff nod. “You?”

“Yeah.” He put an arm around her shoulder and glared at the woman standing in front of them, watching them carefully. “Are you in charge here?”

“I am.” She was mid-forties, maybe, with a smoker’s wheeze and enthusiastic eye makeup. “Come on.”

She spun around and they followed her through a large doorway in to a long, dark hallway. Sully felt himself tensing up again – this place looked like a holding center for POW’s. He’d spent time in one back in Iraq and he’d never forget the stench of despair and desperation. He’d been rescued in less than a week and he’d suffered no significant harm during his detainment… but sometimes, he still dreamed about the smell. And here it was again.

He took firm command of himself, needing to be here for Cordelia. He glanced over at her and saw – to his utter astonishment – that she was actually looking fine. He examined her more closely, saw the expression on her face and he almost hugged her.

She looked the way she always looked when she and Jack were training: she was focused, intent, concentrated. She’d obviously made up her mind to
work
, to be professional and to gather as much information as she could for the police and Dallas. She’d set aside any feelings she had about any of this – her fear and disgust and anger – and she was just
working
. He loved her so much in this moment, it almost fucking killed him.

“OK.” The woman stopped outside a door. “This is the nursery. Walk around, take a look.” She glanced at her watch. “Five minutes. No touching.”

They stepped in to the room and were immediately plunged in to a nightmare. The ‘nursery’ was dark and dank and it stank of feces and vomit. There were no windows, no natural light. No toys. No color. Most upsetting, it had almost no movement.

The babies were all in cribs; Cordelia knew that they were never taken out, never played with down on the filthy floor, never taken outside in to the fresh air for a walk. Some of the smaller ones were sleeping, some were just staring at the low ceiling with blank eyes. The bigger ones were sitting in full diapers, staring at them silently with unwavering, bright looks. Cordelia and Sully could practically feel the waves of
want
coming from these tiny little people.

“So?” the woman asked from the doorway. “See one you want?”

How about all of them?
Sully thought.
I want every single one of them. Now.

But the assignment was clear: to reject every child they saw until they got taken to the third place and then choose any one at all, totally at random. They had both known that just walking away from these first groups of children was going to be hard – but they’d been unprepared for the harshness of the reality.

This isn’t hard. This is fucking impossible.

Their eyes met: they saw the horror and fury in each other.

Sully cleared his throat. “No. Any others?”

“Sure.” The woman shrugged and Cordelia despised her for the disinterest in that gesture. “Two more rooms here. This way.”

The next room was full of older kids, maybe aged two years to five. These children all stood in a row, like soldiers on inspection. Unlike the babies, they made no eye contact at all and stared down at the floor. Many of them had bruises on their faces and they all wore ratty, dirty clothes. Most of them were barefoot.

Cordelia shut her eyes when she saw one small girl with an ugly, swollen black eye: even from several feet away, she saw the snarls and knots in her long, blonde hair and she itched to hold the girl close, brush her hair gently. When she looked again, the girl was staring at her with cold contempt and blazing hatred.

It was only for a second and then those blue eyes dropped back to the floor, but it was like a punch to Cordelia’s throat. The girl
knew
that they were leaving her there in that fucking hellhole, and Cordelia had to fight hard to not tell her they’d be back for all of them. Soon. But for now, they were walking away, like so many others had already done.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

“And?” The woman’s voice was hateful. Impatient and annoyed. “One of these?”

They shook their heads and the woman sighed. “OK.”

The last room had the oldest kids and once again, they were lined up, ready to be examined like show dogs. Unlike the smaller children, these kids didn’t seem to have any energy at all – not even enough energy to hate Cordelia and Sully.

Cordelia knew at a glance that every single one of these children had thrown in the towel. They were too old, most couples would want babies, and these kids were painfully aware of that. They stood stoically and they’d already given up on everything: on being taken home, on being loved. On life.

Oh, God. We’re going to get you home, if you have one… we’re getting you out of here. Just hang on a bit longer, guys. I promise, we’re not leaving you her
e.

“Nope.” Sully turned abruptly to the woman before she could ask the question, and Cordelia saw nothing but frustration and rage on his handsome face. “Nothing here that we want.”

The children stood placidly, not even reacting. Not a flicker of hurt at his words, and that absolute acceptance of being rejected –
yet again
– almost undid Cordelia. But she played her part and bit her lip and nodded in agreement with her husband.

“Can we go to the next place now?” she asked.

The woman sighed. “You sure you don’t want one of these?”

“We’re sure.” Sully’s voice was firm.

She shrugged, huffed. Cordelia figured that she probably got paid a commission or a bonus and she was spitefully glad to deny this bitch even one extra red cent. They followed her back out, down the hallway, to the door where the two men stood waiting. They held up the blindfolds and Cordelia and Sully submitted to the darkness again.

The second holding building was even more depressing than the first, and it was harder to walk away, but they did it. In the SUV on the way to the third place, Cordelia dug her nails in to Sully’s hand, fighting to not burst in to tears. He held on, soothing her with his touch, hating every second of this.

But as bad as the first two places had been, it was the third one that was almost their undoing – it was the place that defeated and broke Sully. Or maybe, in some twisted and shining way, it was the best place. Maybe it was where Sully found his heart for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.

**

Sully was completely frozen, staring down at the little girl in front of him. She was wearing a stained onesie that might have been pink once upon a time. Her head was covered in dark curls; her eyes were dark; her mouth was a perfect rosebud. She was sitting in her crib, looking up at him and the look on her face was pure sweetness. She had her arms out, extended to him, begging for a hug. Begging to be loved.

Everything in his massive body crumbled. Without even one second of conscious thought, he picked her up.

“Hey!” The woman in this place was even more disagreeable than the first two they’d met. “No touching!”

He turned on her, tightening his grip on the tiny body now curled up warm and safe on his broad chest. “This one.”

“No touching!” the woman insisted. “Put it down!”

“Her,” Sully ground out. “
Her
.”

“Put. It. Down.” The woman spoke through gritted teeth now.

Sully felt a gentle hand on his forearm. Dazed, he looked down at Cordelia.

“Garrett?” She was frightened and she knew he could hear it. “You OK?”

“This one,” he said. “This one’s ours.”

She stared up at him, totally clueless about what to do. Hunter wasn’t playing a character here; he wasn’t Garrett Baker right now. He was almost naked in his honest emotion as he stood there, cradling that child. In this moment, he was Hunter Sullivan and he was holding that baby like he wasn’t going to let her go. It wasn’t fake. Oh, no. Not at all. He
wanted
this child. Wanted her for his own.

“Hunt–” Horrified, appalled, Cordelia bit down on her lip hard enough to almost draw blood.
Fuck
, she’d almost used his real name… he was being so real, so vulnerable, and it had thrown her to the point of forgetting what they were meant to be doing. “
Honey
… what about the others?”

“Do we really need to see them?” he asked.

She was silent. No, they didn’t. She knew exactly what would be in the last two or three rooms down the hallway and around the corner. More bruises, more dead eyes, more looks of despair and anger. Did she need to see it again?

We’re done. Dallas has all he needs, we’ve seen enough to give statements and testify. We can go now
.

“No,” she said quietly. “You’re right. She’s perfect.”

“Put it down now,” the woman parroted one last time. “Or I won’t let you have that one.”

Quick as a flash, Sully laid the baby back in her crib. Immediately, she sat up again and reached for him once more. He felt something inside his chest cave in and he knew that he was completely and totally fucking
lost
. He wanted this baby – wanted her for real. She was
his
. His and Cordelia’s.

“Come on.” Cordelia tugged on his arm, knowing that he was seconds away from picking her up again; his resistance to this child’s silent need was non-existent. “Let’s do the paperwork. Then she’ll be ours.”

He stared at her, confused at her choice of words, wondering how she’d heard his thoughts, then his expression cleared. “Yeah. Yeah, she will.”

Relieved that he was back on side, Cordelia smiled at him. “Oh, Garrett! Our baby!”

She flung her arms around his waist, silently willing him to play along. He hugged her back, kissed her.

“She’s ours,” he murmured against her lips. “We’re taking her home.”

And as she both felt and heard his words, Cordelia knew that Hunter was speaking nothing but the truth. He fully intended to keep that baby – assuming she didn’t have a family searching for her somewhere.

My God. He’s not going to let that child go without a fight.

Chapter Sixteen

Cordelia stared down at the baby in her arms. Hunter was in the office getting the briefcase from the safe, his every move eager and impatient. He wanted the men gone, she knew that, but she
also
knew that he wanted to hold the baby.

“Here.” Hunter reappeared now. “Take it.”

The men had their guns out again and Cordelia watched their faces. This was the time for them to make a move, if it was going to happen at all: there was nothing stopping them from taking the money, shooting Cordelia and Hunter, taking the baby back. Nothing at all. So she examined their faces, reading their thoughts and intentions, alert and watching for any sign at all that they were thinking about double-crossing them.

Sully had his gun tucked inside the waistband of his dress pants; like Cordelia, he was watching for any flicker of an imminent clusterfuck. But so far, the guys looked supremely disinterested in anything but the money. They checked it, looked up at Sully, nodded.

When they moved to the door, Cordelia damn near sighed with relief but kept her face impassive. It was almost over and she clutched the baby a bit tighter. Soon the police and the feds could go back to those horrible places and free the rest of those children.

Sully followed the men to the door, stood between them and Cordelia and the baby. The one man handed him a manila envelope.

“Your documents,” he said. “Birth certificate and adoption papers with your names on them.”

Sully refused to thank them, but he did give a stiff little nod. He almost pushed the assholes out the door, but managed to control himself. When they finally left and he shut and locked the door behind them, he was able to take his first full breath since five minutes before noon.

Right away, he came over to Cordelia. “Let me have her.”

Silently, Cordelia handed the baby to him. He gazed down at her, delighted.

“Want me to check the documents?” she said.

“Yeah.” He rocked the baby a little. “Let’s find out this sweet little girl’s name.”

“Hunter…”

“Yeah?” He glanced up. “What?”

She paused. She was going to tell him that he couldn’t keep this child, but then she decided against it. Whatever was going on here, it was good for him. It was healing, somehow, and even though this little girl was clearly not Connor, she
was
something that meant something. He
needed
this right now and he trusted her to see him in this terrible need – and Cordelia wasn’t about to take any of it away from him.

“Nothing.” She smiled. “I’ll find out her name.”

He watched her rip open the envelope, unfold the papers. She scanned everything, saw that the documents were undeniably excellent. As a receptionist who had handled endless pieces of paper for three different security firms, she knew all about forgeries and fakes and these were world-class. It seemed that that million dollars had been well-spent, indeed.

She looked up at Hunter. “Iris. Iris Baker. She’s almost six months old.”

“Iris,” Hunter breathed. “Perfect.”

Iris cooed up at him and his heart stopped. Yeah, he knew this was insanity… and he truly didn’t give a fuck. Every cell and nerve and fiber in his body was screaming at him that Iris was meant for him, that she was meant to be with him. That this was
his
baby, the one that he could keep safe this time.

Cordelia bit her lip, worried. The man was in love and she was terrified that he was going to get his heart broken. Would he be able to handle losing another baby? Because that’s
exactly
what it would feel like for him and she knew it damn good and well.

“You hungry?” he murmured to Iris. “You want some milk, baby girl?”

“I’ll get it,” Cordelia said, already moving towards the kitchen. “I’ve got everything ready.”

“Thanks.”

She scooped the formula, added it to the water that she’d already poured in the bottle, shook it vigorously. As soon as they’d arrived home, she’d boiled some water and she now stood the bottle in it for a minute, just to heat it up a bit. She checked it against her wrist, dropped a bit on her tongue. It was fine.

She came back in to the living room and stood for a few seconds, just watching Hunter and Iris. Suddenly and surprisingly, despite her reservations and her concern, Cordelia wished this for him… she wished it hard.

He was holding Iris in those strong arms, rocking her back and forth tenderly. He was whispering to her and she was listening to him, her dark eyes fixed on his face. She gurgled and it sounded like a laugh… and then she smiled. A huge, happy, no-doubt-about-it
smile
. It was so beautiful, it damn near knocked Cordelia over backwards. It was Iris’ first smile at Hunter and Cordelia knew it wouldn’t be her last.

Cordelia came over now and handed Hunter the bottle. “All ready.”

“Thanks.” He carefully offered the bottle to Iris and she grabbed it in both hands, pulled it to her mouth. She sucked hungrily, still gazing up at Hunter. “Wow, you’re hungry, huh?”

“I don’t imagine she was fed well or regularly,” Cordelia said, trying to stay neutral on the subject. “She’s definitely underweight.”

There was a flash of anger in his eyes. “Yeah, well. That’s all behind her now.”

“Hunter…”

“I know,” he said quietly, not meeting Cordelia’s look. “I know, sweetheart, OK? Just – just let me have this. Just for a little while. Please.”

She paused, hating the hurt and defeat in his voice. “OK. You enjoy her while you can.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door and Sully shut his eyes. He knew it was Dallas and the cops and the feds. He was about to hand Iris over and he knew it – he’d known it all along. But hope had crept in, maybe just a little bit, and now he ached at what he was about to lose.

“Let them in, Cordelia,” he said, fighting to not care about what was surely coming. “Let’s get Iris home.”

**

Except as it turned out, Iris didn’t
have
a home to get to. Dallas dropped
that
little bombshell two mornings later in his hotel room.

He, Sully and Cordelia had spent the whole of the previous two days in the hospital with Iris. She’d received a thorough checkup and the only time she’d stopped screaming had been when Sully or Cordelia was holding her; she’d even looked at Dallas with suspicion. The doctor had declared her to be dehydrated and hungry, but surprisingly bright and alert. X-rays had shown no breaks, no stress fractures, no knitted bones. Her blood tests came back clean; her heartbeat was strong; her internal organs were perfect.

Over the two days at the hospital, Sully, Dallas and Cordelia had answered question after question, both individually and together as a team. They’d provided every single detail humanly possible about the men, the women, the drives to and between the holding centers and, of course, the conditions at the centers themselves. Sully now demonstrated his incredible memory and attention to detail and he outlined the location of every door, every bed, every hallway. He had a precise tally of the children, he knew the height and weight of every adult he’d seen. From her side, Cordelia drew a more ‘human’ picture of the men and women involved, from who she thought was actually in charge to who she thought had physically hit the kids.

It was just past eight a.m. now and Dallas, Sully and Cordelia were in Dallas’ hotel room. They were exhausted and elated, drinking take-away coffee and scarfing down far too many doughnuts. The day before, while they were in the hospital with Iris, the feds had stormed all three holding centers simultaneously. They had the women in custody as well as five men, and they had picked up all the kids and sent them to three different hospitals around the state: there were so many of them that no single E.R. could handle the demand.

Dallas was flipping through the preliminary reports on the children now. Of the one hundred and forty-four kids rescued, almost one hundred of them had been identified by and matched to missing person’s reports filed by their parents over the previous two years, all over North America. Another thirty-one had been reported taken from foster care or orphanages, and the last few were still being identified.

Iris, though. Iris was an actual, real orphan. When she was just a few days’ old, she’d been abandoned at a fire station in Michigan and three months before, she’d been taken from her stroller when the foster mother was grocery shopping. At the time of her abduction, there had been nobody applying to adopt her.

Sully damn near dropped his coffee cup.

“So… so she can be adopted?” he asked, almost afraid to get his hopes up.

Dallas studied his employee, saw the light shining across that exhausted face. He’d quietly watched Sully with that tiny baby, watched for hours as he’d fussed and fretted about her. Dallas had been nothing less than astounded when Hunter Sullivan – tough, bad-ass, ‘don’t-fuck-with-me’ Hunter Sullivan – had rocked Iris to sleep in his arms and kissed the top of her head.

“Well,” Dallas said cautiously. “Technically – yes.”

“But?” Cordelia prompted.

“But.” Dallas shrugged and took a big sip of his black coffee. “She’s from Michigan, man. That means that any and all decisions are made there.”

“But I can apply?”

“Sure you can and you’d better believe I’ll put in a damn good word for you, if it comes to that.” Dallas grinned. “You sure you want to go through this? The questions and the inspections and all that digging in to your life to check your suitability?”

“Yes.”

“Even though you work crazy hours and you come in to direct contact with lunatic stalkers?”

“I’ll change jobs if I have to,” Sully said. “I’ll work in a fucking office from nine-to-five, if that’s what they tell me it takes. I’ll do whatever I have to do to get Iris.”

Dallas and Cordelia stared at him.

“Ummm,” Dallas said. “Well, how about we talk to the child protection services woman here in Kansas? Tell her what you’re thinking, see what she suggests?”

“Yeah, OK.” Sully stood up and stretched a bit. “How much longer are we staying here? Anything else to do?”

“Not you guys,” Dallas said. “You go back to Denver today. I have to stay for another day, for sure, maybe two. Tie up some loose ends.”

“Back to Denver.” Cordelia sighed. “Sounds good.”

Dallas handed Sully an envelope. “Your plane tickets.”

“What about the SUV?” he asked.

“Mark’s flying in tomorrow and he’ll drive it back. Don’t worry about it, OK?”

“Thanks, Dallas.”

“Sure.” He grinned at them now. “And guys?”

They looked at him.

“Take a week off, huh? Maybe together?”

Now they looked everywhere
but
at him; Cordelia blushed and Sully’s eyes hit the floor.

Dallas laughed. “Yeah, I thought so.
Damn
, you two… took you long enough.” He glanced at Sully. “Of course, the delay was all your fault, Sullivan, acting like such an asshole when you got back from Foxburg Falls.”

“Yeah,” Sully muttered. “Yeah, I know.”

“So.” Dallas cocked his head. “Go back to the house, pack up. Your flight leaves this afternoon. And I’ll see you at work next Monday. Yes?”

“Yes.” Cordelia gave him a brilliant smile. “Thank you, Dallas.”

“My pleasure, darlin’. Now, go.”

“And Iris?” Sully asked. “You’ll tell the woman from the child protection department what I want? Tell her that I’ll fly out to Michigan, file papers, open up my whole damn life?”

“I swear to you, Hunter,” Dallas said quietly, using Sully’s real name for about the fifth time in all the years they’d known each other. “I swear, I will help you get that baby girl. Whatever it takes.”

His throat too tight to say much, Sully held out his hand and Dallas grasped it.

“Thank you,” Sully managed.

“You’re welcome, man.”