Her Baby’s Bodyguard Read online

  She was about to thank him when she realized there could have been another reason he’d taken care of the bundles. Had he wanted to search her belongings for the disk more thoroughly? Eva swung her legs over the side of the bed frame, shoved her hair out of her eyes and looked around for Katya’s carrier. She spotted it on the floor beside the fireplace. “Would you pass me the carrier, Sergeant Norton? I’d like to disturb Katya as little as possible.”

  Instead of releasing her hand, he tugged her to her feet. “Sorry, I can’t let you use it. Your wound—”

  “My wound is fine. The bleeding stopped hours ago.” She looked back at Katya, then inhaled sharply as she was struck by a wave of dizziness. She tightened her grip on his hand. “How far do we need to go?”

  “Around another twenty klicks,” he replied.

  “Will the people in the helicopter be there? I thought we’d missed the time.”

  “They’ll be there tonight. The timetable just got pushed back twenty-four hours. We arranged a backup extraction scenario when we planned the mission. We try to cover every contingency.” He glanced at Katya. “Well, almost every contingency.”

  Eva tugged her hand free from his grip and went to pick up the carrier. She faltered when she saw the rusty-brown patch of dried blood on the cotton. She couldn’t see the blood on her sweater because of the dark wool, and she avoided looking at the stained area on her blouse. But the sight of the carrier reminded her once again of how close the bullet had come to Katya.

  “Dr. Petrova…”

  “I won’t risk keeping my baby unrestrained again.” She grabbed the carrier, straightening one set of ties as she returned to the bed frame. “Traveling with her on my lap yesterday was foolhardy.”

  “So would putting this contraption back on,” he said, snatching the carrier from her. “Those straps would rub directly on your wound.”

  “I’m not going to hold her in my arms for twenty kilometers, especially over roads like these. All it would take would be one bad bump or sudden stop and Katya would be hurled….” She paused until she regained control over her voice. “I’ve already exposed her to far too much danger,” she said, holding out her hand. “This is the best way to protect her.”

  “We leave in six, Jack,” Colbert said. He picked up his own rucksack and went outside. Ice-laden wind swirled in from the darkness, along with the rumble of an engine before the door slammed shut.

  Sergeant Norton tossed Katya’s carrier on the bed frame and unzipped his coat. “Those straps look long enough to go around me. Show me how to fit the kid inside.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll carry her.”

  “No, she’s not familiar with you. When she wakes up—”

  “You’ll be right beside her.” He dropped his coat on the floor. “I agree that having her restrained is the best way to keep her safe. Since you can’t do it, I will.”

  “But—”

  “The longer you argue about it, the more danger we’re all in.”

  What he said was true. Her objections were because of her own needs, not Katya’s. She hadn’t been more than a few steps away from her daughter since the baby’s birth. It had always been just the two of them.

  “Sooner or later, you’re going to need to trust me, Dr. Petrova.”

  Did she? No, she knew better than that. Eva slid her hands beneath Katya to ease her into her snowsuit. Then she put on her hat and mittens and moved her as gently as possible to the pouch in the center of the carrier. “Trust has nothing to do with it, Sergeant Norton,” she said. “This is a matter of expedience.”

  “Call it what you like as long as we get moving.”

  She eyed his height. “I’ll be able to manage this better if you sit on the bed frame.”

  He complied and held his arms out at his sides. “Now what?”

  “Hold her while I fasten the ties.”

  He brought his hands in front of him palms-up. “Okay, lay her on me.”

  The baby stirred when she was transferred to the sergeant’s grasp. He held her stiffly until Eva put her hands over his and guided them toward his chest. “You need to keep her close. She likes feeling secure.”

  He spread his fingers over Katya’s back and brought her against the front of his sweater. She snuffled, cuddled closer and settled back to sleep without opening her eyes.

  Eva was surprised. Katya had calmed quickly the last time Sergeant Norton had held her, too. It hadn’t been that way with Burian. The few times he’d picked her up, his daughter had begun fussing immediately. Eva leaned down so she could bring her face to Katya’s. “What a good girl you are, kitten,” she whispered. “I’ll be right beside you. We’re just going for another ride.”

  “You don’t need to, uh, feed her again, do you?”

  Eva could feel her cheeks heat at the mention of what had happened earlier. It had been a natural function, she reminded herself. It hadn’t been sexual. So she shouldn’t think about how close she was to his body. The fact that she was still holding her fingers over his didn’t help. She grabbed the top set of straps and tied them behind his neck. “Not for a while.”

  “Because when you do, just let me know. I’ll find you some privacy from the guys.”

  She blew her hair aside so she could focus on the knot she was making. “Thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  She put one knee on the bed frame. Taking care not to brush against him, she leaned behind him to bring the remaining set of straps behind his back. They barely met, so it took longer to tie them together. Finally, though, she managed to secure the carrier to her satisfaction. “There. That should hold,” she said, pushing herself back to her feet.

  He stood carefully, still cradling Katya with his hands. The ribbons from one of her mittens trailed over the back of his knuckles. He was obviously ill at ease holding the baby—like the other men, he’d be more accustomed to carrying weapons than children. Yet instead of looking awkward, he looked…endearing.

  Eva scooped up his coat and held it out. “It’s all right. You can let go of her now.”

  He took his hands away slowly, watching as the cotton carrier tightened with Katya’s weight. “Man, she’s tiny. Hard to believe she can make as much noise as she does.”

  “My daughter is the perfect weight for her size and her age.” She thrust his coat at him and then retrieved her own and put it on. “And I think we already had the conversation about her healthy lungs.”

  “Easy there, ma’am. I wasn’t insulting your kid.” He zipped the front of his coat over Katya. “I just don’t know anything about them.”

  Neither had she, until she’d had a baby of her own. She’d never envisioned herself as a mother, either. Her ambitions had involved having her own research project, not her own family. She placed her hand over his to stop him from closing his coat all the way so she could tie the loose ribbon on Katya’s mitten. She pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head, then straightened up and looked around. “Have you seen my hat?”

  He splayed his hand over the bulge Katya made as he stooped to reach beneath the bed frame. “Here.”

  She twisted her hair to cram it under her hat. “Let me know if you feel her begin to wake up. She’ll often calm down when she hears my voice.”

  “Sure.” He brushed a strand of stray hair off Eva’s cheek with his fingertips. For a moment his thumb lingered at the corner of her mouth before he tucked her hair under the edge of her hat.

  The caress caught her off guard. He was focusing on her lips.

  And just like that, her body tingled with feelings that weren’t remotely maternal. He was looking at her as if he wanted to kiss her. As if he cared. As if there weren’t a truck full of armed men waiting outside.

  No. He was a soldier, doing his duty. She was merely part of the mission to him, regardless of how good his touch felt. Or how much she wanted to lean into it. She tipped her head away. “We’re ready to go, Sergeant Norton.”

  “Right.” H
e dropped his hand. Without another word, he extinguished the lamp, picked up his pack and led her outside.

  By the time dawn broke, the wind had died, leaving the air sharp but no longer biting. Daylight revealed slopes that bore a rugged mix of gray-black, windswept rock and crumbled stones. Apart from sharp-edged drifts where the road wound through treed valleys, most of the snow from the previous night’s storm had blown clear. Puddles were already beginning to form in the ruts. So far, the team hadn’t encountered any traffic, but that wouldn’t last much longer. Ideally, they would have traveled in the dark so there would have been less chance of encountering other vehicles or having someone witness—and remember—the direction they took. Moving by daylight was always risky, yet that sheep farm had been too close to the complex so remaining there until nightfall would have been riskier.

  Jack braced his boots against the floor to steady himself as the truck rocked around another curve. The engine sputtered. Maybe to a trained ear it would sound better after Kurt’s tinkering, but it still seemed to Jack as if it would rattle apart at any minute. Considering the condition of the road and the vehicle, it wouldn’t be wise to push for more speed.

  But going slow was the last thing Jack wanted. The kid was no longer the limp weight she’d been when he’d strapped her on. He could feel her starting to stir against his chest. He sure hoped that didn’t mean she was about to launch into one of her crying fests.

  He leaned forward and twisted his head so he could see Eva’s face. She was propped against his shoulder, her eyes still closed. Though she’d tried to fight it, she’d gone back to sleep shortly after they had started out. It was just as well that she’d let him carry the baby. The night had obviously taken its toll on her. Rather than wake her up to tend to her daughter, he opened his coat enough so that he could slip his hand inside the way he’d seen her do and placed his fingers over the curve of the baby’s back.

  The kid went still. Encouraged, Jack gave her a few pats for good measure.

  “Too bad Gonzo’s up front.”

  Jack looked up to find Tyler watching him. “What?”

  “I think he’d consider the fifty bucks you cheated him out of worth it if he could see this.”

  “What are you talking about? I won fair and square. We were ready before Kurt was.”

  “That’s because you’re carrying the kid yourself.”

  “That wasn’t cheating.”

  “What would you call it?”

  “Expedience,” Jack said, using Eva’s word.

  “Hey, Duncan,” Tyler said. “Doesn’t Jack look cozy there?”

  Duncan nodded. “Uh-huh. Like a regular Father Goose.”

  Jack snatched his hand away from Katya. As soon as he did, though, she started to whimper. He patted her back again, and she quieted. “Come on, guys. I’m just doing what I have to. You’ve heard how loud this kid can get.”

  “He must have played with dolls when he was a boy,” Tyler said, returning his attention to the road behind them. “What do you think?”

  Duncan nodded. “Dolls are a well-known conditioning tool, used by females for centuries to indoctrinate the next generation of mothers.”

  “You guys in Intelligence have way too much time on your hands if that’s the kind of information you come up with,” Jack muttered.

  “That’s how my sister got started with her basic parent training,” Duncan continued. “She had this baby doll she hauled around everywhere with her.”

  “I heard Jack didn’t really want to be a medic, Dunk. His first choice was being a nurse.”

  “That explains it. Hey, Jack. Was it a nurse doll you played with?”

  Jack heaved a sigh as the guys got going. He wouldn’t hear the end of it now. He needed a diversion. “Junior’s still playing with dolls, except they’re the blow-up kind. They’re the only dates he can get.”

  Duncan raised one eyebrow. “He does have a way with things that blow up.”

  “Something’s glinting. Off to the northeast.”

  At Tyler’s warning, Duncan sobered quickly. “Air or ground?”

  “Air. The sun’s behind it, so I can’t make it out yet.”

  “The chopper should be coming in from the west. That’s not one of ours.”

  Duncan tapped a few keys on his computer. “Base hasn’t picked up any alarms from the complex. No chatter about a missing scientist or talk about pursuit.”

  Jack firmed his grip on the baby. “Tell Lang to floor it.”

  “We don’t want to attract unnecessary attention if it’s just a routine flight.”

  “That Ryazan guy is supposed to be a genius. All those scientists are, including Eva.”

  “That’s right.”

  “So when he does find out that she’s gone, he’ll know she had help.”

  “He’s right, Duncan,” Tyler said. “Because of that patrol we ran into, Ryazan will know what we’re driving, too.”

  “And since he’s a genius,” Jack continued, “what do you want to bet that he’s smart enough to figure out we’re monitoring their communications?”

  It didn’t take them long to grasp the situation. “Aw, hell,” Duncan muttered. “They could have been maintaining radio silence like us.” He stretched his arm and rapped on the window to the cab, signaling Kurt to go faster.

  Jack slid his free arm around Eva and anchored her to his side as the truck picked up speed.

  Either the increased jouncing of the truck or the shift in position woke her. She lifted her head and twisted to look at him. Though her eyelids were heavy and puffy, her eyes sparked with anxiety, just like the last time she’d awakened.

  “It’s okay, ma’am,” Jack said. “We’re almost there.”

  She brought her hand to her chest. Panic flared on her face. “Katya!”

  “She’s fine. I’ve got her, remember?”

  She blinked and then thrust her hand into his coat. Her fingers brushed his as she groped for the baby. “She’s all right?”

  “Fine,” he repeated. “I think she’s waking up.”

  “Yes, she would be getting hungry soon.”

  He put his hand over hers. “Sorry, ma’am. This wouldn’t be the best time…”

  “I can see it now,” Tyler said. “It’s a chopper all right, but it’s too small to be ours.”

  Over the noise of the truck, Jack heard the throb of the helicopter’s engine. It wouldn’t need to follow the twists of the road, so there was little hope of outrunning it.

  “What’s happening?” Eva asked.

  “You might want to hang on to the strap again, ma’am.” He squeezed her fingers and withdrew their hands from his coat. It was a good thing she had insisted on having the baby restrained in the carrier. Neither of them would be able to hold on to her adequately. “I have a feeling things are going to get bumpy.”

  “They’re coming up fast,” Tyler warned.

  Eva fell against Jack’s shoulder as the truck took a bend on two wheels. The helicopter was close enough for Jack to see it through the gap in the canvas. It was skimming the ridge above the road, sun glinting from its bulbous windshield and royal blue fuselage.

  “Doesn’t look like army issue to me,” Duncan said. “Not unless the Russians are into painting their aircraft pretty colors.”

  “Oh, no,” Eva cried. “It must be Burian’s men. The complex’s helicopter is that color of blue.”

  “Are you sure, ma’am?” Tyler asked.

  “Yes! So are all their vehicles. Burian likes to be noticed. It feeds his ego.”

  Tyler sat back so he could prop his elbow on his bent knee and took aim. Firing on Russian troops, on Russian soil, would raise the profile of the mission past any chance of deniability. It could trigger an international crisis. Defending themselves against Burian Ryazan’s private army was another matter entirely.

  Light flashed from a point midway between the chopper’s landing skids. The road behind erupted in plumes of slush and muddy dirt. Tyler returned f
ire, but the helicopter lifted out of range. The baby startled and began to wail.

  “Eva, get behind me and stay down!” Jack ordered.

  Instead of obeying him, she threw herself across his chest.

  She was shielding the child, he realized. Damn, she was some woman. He wrapped his arm around her back and rolled over to reverse their positions. Once again, he ended up on his hands and knees on top of her. “Looks like we can forget about stealth, Duncan,” he shouted over Katya’s cries. He twisted his head to keep an eye on their pursuers. “You want to ask for a little help here?”

  “I’m already on it, Jack.” Duncan activated his transmitter and reported their situation in a few terse sentences.

  “He’s coming in for another run,” Tyler warned, readying a pair of grenades.

  An explosion rocked the truck. Eva screamed and clutched Jack’s arms as slush and rock chips pelted the canvas. Tyler’s second grenade exploded before it hit the road, putting out a shock wave that popped Jack’s ears. “Dammit, junior, we’ve got a baby here,” he yelled. “That’s too risky.”

  “You got a better idea, Jack?”

  The helicopter veered aside, then roared overhead. Jack gathered Eva closer, feeling the baby kicking between them, and braced himself. The canvas roof of the truck wouldn’t slow bullets the way the metal sides would. Depending on the ammunition the complex equipped their guards with, his body might not be enough protection for Eva and her child, but it was the best he could do.

  Yet the pain he’d anticipated didn’t come. The helicopter went past the truck’s unprotected roof and fired at the road in front of them.

  “We’re on our own, guys,” Duncan said, pulling off his headphones. “They’re sticking to the timetable. No evac until tonight.”

  Jack lifted his head to stare at him. “Say again?”

  “You know the drill, Jack. They’ve got no choice. We’re in too deep to risk a daylight flight. If they were identified they would compromise the operation.”

  Jack swallowed the rest of what he wanted to say. Duncan was right. Every man on the team accepted the risks when they went out. More often than not, Eagle Squadron did end up on their own. He swore and looked at Tyler. “Hey, junior. What’s the chances of you bringing down that chopper without frying us in the meantime?”