The Baby's Guardian

“Yeah. Make it as fast as you can,” Shaw insisted. Because he didn’t want to stay there with Sabrina any longer than necessary, and he was anxious to get back to the primary crime scene.

Shaw ended the call and waited with the sounds of the search going on in the building behind them. He didn’t stop watching the place. Definitely didn’t lower his gun. Because he didn’t want those men, those killers, coming back outside to grab Sabrina.

“Think hard,” Shaw said. If he had to wait there with her, he might as well start the interrogation that had to happen for the reports and the cleanup. “What did these men want? “

“I don’t know.”

Sabrina was crying. He could hear the tears in her voice. Part of him wanted to comfort her, but Shaw resisted. He couldn’t open up his heart to that kind of intimacy with her. The only way he had survived Fay’s death was to shut himself off, and he would continue to do just that.

Shaw tried again with the questions. He wanted to keep this conversation on the business at hand. “Other than you and the lab tech they killed, did it seem as if the gunmen were after anyone specific?”

“They kept calling out for someone named Bailey. I don’t think they found her though because they kept shouting her name. And then they had a group of us sit in the hall. One of them held us at gunpoint while the other gunman took this one pregnant woman. I don’t know where they took her, but she was gone for several hours. Then, she tried to escape, but she fell and hit her head. She was bleeding.”

Each new thing he learned disgusted him even more, and it was just starting. All kinds of details would no doubt be brought out when the other hostages were questioned. He’d definitely need to speak to this woman whom the gunmen had yelled at.

If she was still alive, that is.

“What else did the gunmen do?” he asked. “Did they appear to be searching for anything specific?”

“Other than the person named Bailey, I don’t think so.” She paused, shook her head. “Wait. One of them went into the lab and the records room. The lab door wouldn’t open so he shot the lock, and he stayed in there a long time. He also had one of the hostages with him a lot of time.”

Okay. That was a start. He’d have every inch of those rooms processed and review the surveillance camera footage to see what the men had been after.

“How about a drug cabinet or something like that?” Shaw didn’t enjoy forcing her to go over all the details, but with her memory still fresh, this was the time to do it. Later, the shock and the adrenaline crash might rob her of critical details.

“No drugs. At least, I didn’t see them take or use any.” Behind him, Sabrina shifted her position, probably because she was trying to get comfortable. But with the shift, her belly pressed against his back.

Shaw felt it then.

The soft bumps.

He glanced back at the contact and realized what he was feeling was the baby.

“The baby’s kicking,” Sabrina explained, moving away again so that she wasn’t touching him.

Shaw immediately felt the loss. It was the first time he’d felt his child move. The timing was lousy, but he couldn’t totally stop himself from reacting.

In a month, maybe less, he’d be a father.

His phone buzzed again. Thank God. He needed something to slap him back to the moment. It was Rivera, the SWAT team commander.

“Captain, we have a patrol car ready to get you and Ms. Carr out of here. It’s pulling up to the curb right now.”

Well, that was good news. “And the situation with the search?”

“We have all points of the building secure. But no sign of the gunmen yet. We’re still looking.”

“Find them!” Shaw ordered after he got his teeth unclenched.

He pulled Sabrina to her feet so he could get her moving. The sooner he had her away from the building, the better.

Even though she was obviously slowed because of the pregnancy, she hurried, keeping up right along with him, but she was breathing hard again by the time he got her into the backseat of the cruiser. The driver, a uniformed officer, drove away.

“Ms. Carr will need to go to a hospital,” Shaw instructed the driver.

She didn’t protest. Which wasn’t a good sign. Since Sabrina often protested any-and everything he suggested.

Did that mean she was hurt?

While the driver meandered his way through the deserted downtown streets, Shaw called Harris, the hostage negotiator, for a situation report from the maternity hospital. It took a while—four rings—before Harris answered, and the moment Shaw heard the strain in the man’s voice, he knew this conversation wasn’t going to be good.

“The fire’s out,” Harris started. “It wasn’t much of one. The gunmen lit some damp papers, and that created more smoke than fire.”

And they’d used that smoke to escape. “Casualties?” Shaw asked, dreading the answer.

“Four so far.”

Shaw cursed. “Not one of the babies?”

“No, they all seem to be fine, but we have doctors on the way to check them all out,” Harris answered quickly, and then hesitated. “Three of the dead were on the medical staff here. The other was a patient. She died just a few minutes ago.” Another pause. “It was Nadine Duggan.”

Ah, hell.

The lieutenant’s wife. A cop’s wife. Shaw had to take a deep breath, but that didn’t stop the jolt from the memories of the night his wife had died.

“Nadine was nine months pregnant,” Shaw said. He didn’t dare look at Sabrina, but he was aware that she was sobbing now. She’d obviously heard what Harris had said. “What happened to her child?”

“They’re alive. Twins, a boy and a girl,” Harris added in a hoarse whisper. “Bo’s taking this pretty hard.”

Of course he was. Bo loved his wife, and what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives—the birth of their children—had turned into a nightmare.

“We have another patient clinging to life,” Harris continued. “I don’t think she’s going to make it so we have someone tracking down her next of kin. Another woman is in critical condition. Both of them delivered babies during the standoff.”

And this might be just the tip of the iceberg. His men had been in that building less than forty-five minutes. God knew what they would find when they searched every nook and cranny. The death and injury toll might skyrocket.

“Sabrina said some of the women hid,” Shaw told Harris. “Some might be too scared to come out. You’ll need to look for them.”

“Of course. We’ll go through the place room by room. How is Sabrina? Did you find her?”

Shaw had to clear his throat before he could speak. “I found her. She’s safe.” And because he needed to focus on the job, he checked his watch. “I’m dropping her off with a uniformed officer at the hospital on San Pedro, and then I can join you on scene.”

“Good. Because we can use all the help we can get.” “Nadine’s dead?” Sabrina asked the moment Shaw ended the call.

He settled for a nod.

She pressed her fingers to her mouth, but he still heard the sob. Shaw wasn’t sure how well she knew Nadine, but they’d obviously met and chatted in that hospital support group. Plus, Sabrina was no doubt thinking that it could have been her who’d ended up dead.

Shaw was certainly thinking it.