The Baby's Guardian

There was another shot, but this one came from a rifleman on the SWAT team. Shaw didn’t look up, but he heard the sound of glass being blown apart.

Good!

That would stop the gunmen from aiming any more shots at Sabrina and him. At least from that window. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t go elsewhere to return fire. The abandoned building was large, at least five thousand square feet, and there were a lot of places for someone to hide or get into a position to kill.

The shots continued, all coming from his men, which meant it might be time to try to get Sabrina to better cover. Shaw glanced at the front of the building. Hell.

Too many windows.

And a set of double doors with glass fronts.

The gunmen could use any of those points of attack to fire again. That meant staying put until the officers and SWAT had apprehended the suspects. The one advantage that his officers did have was that the building was only one floor. The gunmen wouldn’t be able to move upstairs and launch an assault there. They were going to have to face the SWAT team and other cops head-on.

So that Sabrina’s pregnant belly wouldn’t be smashed against the ground, Shaw eased off her and moved her to a sitting position so that her back was against the brick wall. They were close. Too close. And face-to-face.

He found himself staring right into those sea-green eyes.

Shaw quickly looked away. Then he turned around so he was facing outward. This would make it easier for him to cover all sides. It was a solid strategic move, he assured himself. And it was far better than staring at her.

With the gunmen no longer firing at them, Shaw’s men started to close in around the building. One of the SWAT members bashed in the double front doors, and officers began to pour inside. It shouldn’t be long now before he could get Sabrina out of there.

Once he had her in an ambulance and on the way to a hospital, he could return to the original crime scene and try to mop up things. He’d left Lieutenant Bo Duggan in charge, but that was strictly temporary. Since Bo’s own wife was a hostage, Shaw needed to get back on scene so that Bo could be with his wife. If their situations had been reversed, Shaw would have certainly wanted to be with Fay.

“The gunmen said they were going to use me,” Sabrina muttered, her voice a shaky whisper. But it was loud enough to cut through his thoughts and snare his attention. “To get you to cooperate.”

“What?” Shaw said that a little louder than he’d intended and glanced at her over his shoulder.

Sabrina shook her head, sending a curl of that wild red hair flinging over her cheek. “I don’t know what they meant by that. Do you?”

“No.” But he could guess. “I’m a police captain.” A lot of people might want him to cooperate, especially when it came to helping with a plea bargain or reduced charges.

That wouldn’t happen in this case. Shaw turned his head away from her so he could keep watch of all the areas around them. “What else did they say?”

“Not much. They were careful not to talk in front of me or the others. But I think they knew I’d be at the hospital this afternoon. They were waiting for me.”

Oh, man. That didn’t sound good at all. “Why the heck were you even there?”

Sabrina took a deep breath. “Someone from the hospital phoned me. A male nurse named Michael Frost, and he said Nadine Duggan had called an urgent meeting of the moms’ support group. So, I went.”

Shaw cursed and didn’t bother to keep the profanity to himself. Sabrina knew how he felt about that group. It was headed by Nadine Duggan, the wife of one of his lieutenants and a woman who’d also become a hostage. Bo’s wife. Nadine was a psychologist and probably bound to keep secret whatever she was told in that support group, but Shaw didn’t want Sabrina baring her soul to someone who might share those soul-baring secrets with her husband, a man whom Shaw worked side by side with. Bo and all the other officers knew about Shaw’s late wife, of course.

Everyone also knew about the baby.

But Shaw hadn’t wanted Sabrina to talk about the problems that he’d had adjusting to her pregnancy. About all the appointments he’d missed for her checkups. All the calls from her that he hadn’t returned.

Their arrangement was complicated since, after all, he’d ultimately given her approval to get pregnant. Hell, he’d provided the semen for the procedure, but he and Sabrina both knew he wasn’t really on board. Not emotionally.

And it was those emotions Shaw wanted to keep to himself.

Best not to let his men know the mental turmoil he was going through right now. Something like that could perhaps water down his authority, and as their leader, the last thing he wanted in a dangerous situation was to have his authority questioned or undermined.

That’s why Shaw had offered to pay for Sabrina to attend another support group. But she’d refused.

What else was new?

They didn’t see eye to eye on, well, anything.

“Is that why Nadine Duggan was there at the hospital, too?” Shaw asked, still keeping watch. Another wave of officers went into the building.

“No. She was actually in labor. I saw her when I first arrived, but then she disappeared when the gunmen starting shouting. A lot of people did. It was chaos, and some of the women ran and hid.”

Shaw had to take a deep breath. He hoped that didn’t mean anything bad had happened to the lieutenant’s wife or any of the patients, staff or babies.

“What about this Michael Frost who called you?” he asked. “Did you see him after you arrived at the hospital?”

“No.” She paused. “Why?”

“No reason.” Not yet anyway. He’d make a call in a minute or two to have a background check run on the male nurse. Everything and everyone would be checked.

“The gunmen killed someone,” Sabrina added.

That caused Shaw to glance at her again, and this time those green eyes were filled with tears. “Who?”

“A lab tech. I don’t know his name. They shot him. Right in front of me.”

This time Shaw added a groan to the profanity. Sabrina had witnessed a murder, and in addition to the emotional trauma that created, it could mean that she was now a target. If those gunmen thought for one minute that she could identify them, they wouldn’t want her around, so that’s why it was critical for this to end now.

“Did the men shoot at you, too?” Shaw asked.

She didn’t answer right away. “Yes. But not when they killed the tech. It was later. I could tell they were getting ready to leave, and I had a gut feeling they’d take me with them. So, I tried to sneak away.”

Unfortunately, he could picture that scene all too well.

“The gunman didn’t shoot at me, not really,” she added. “The bullet went in the ceiling.”

Which confirmed the gunmen wanted her alive. After all, the gunmen had already killed others, so that meant they had a reason for allowing Sabrina to live.

Was he that reason?

“I’m sorry, Shaw. I’m so sorry,” Sabrina said. But he knew she wasn’t talking about this situation alone. She was dredging up the past.

Something he wouldn’t discuss with her.

“Don’t,” he warned.

He didn’t add more because his phone buzzed. He glanced at the caller ID and saw it was from the SWAT team commander, Lieutenant Josе Rivera. “Tolbert,” Shaw answered.

“Captain, we need you to stay put for a couple more minutes. We’re trying to secure the building now, but we don’t want Ms. Carr or you out in the open just yet.”