The Baby Assignment. Christy Barritt

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      Tanner felt in the man’s pocket. There was no ID. He hadn’t expected to find any, but he had to at least try. Maybe they’d get a match off his fingerprints.

      The man moaned on the ground, beginning to stir slightly. Tanner knew that trying to talk to him would be useless. If the man came out of this alive, they’d interrogate him until he gave up all the information they needed. But right now he was useless.

      “Come on. Let’s get you out of this room.” He took Macy’s arm, knowing the emotional effects caused by seeing a wounded man. He didn’t want to put either Macy or Addie through it.

      They stepped into the waiting room, but it also looked like a war zone. Windows were broken. Furniture was overturned. Pieces of drywall littered the floor. Water trickled from the broken edges of the aquarium.

      There was also that trail of blood, left by at least one of the men Tanner had shot. They were long gone now. Law enforcement would search for them, but most likely they’d had a getaway vehicle waiting outside.

      The way those men had fired showed they were professionals. Maybe former military. Either way, they were skilled. No doubt that they’d thought through their escape plan in case things went wrong.

      And things had gone wrong for them—thankfully.

      Macy pulled Addie closer, hugging the innocent baby to her.

      “Backup should be here any time now,” Tanner said, glass crunching beneath his feet.

      As the last word left his mouth, a siren sounded outside. He pulled Macy into the corner, desperate to ensure her safety. A moment later, EMTs rushed inside, along with his backup team.

      Rick Saul, his boss, hurried toward him. “Tanner, you okay?”

      “Yeah, I’m fine. How about Frank? We saw him go down.”

      “EMTs are evaluating him. It doesn’t look good, though.” Saul’s gaze flickered toward Macy and Addie, and he nodded at them.

      Saul was like a rock: emotionless, immovable and strong. He was nearly bald, but had a salt-and-pepper beard, and icy blue eyes. He was a good man, and he’d never let Tanner down before.

      “There were at least two gunmen who got away,” Tanner said. “They went through the back door, and I can only assume a car was waiting for them there.”

      “The police are on the lookout for any suspicious-looking vehicles now,” Saul said. “There was a camera outside, and we’re hoping to find some video footage. There are tire marks by the back door that we can assume belong to the gunmen. We’ll do everything we can to locate them.”

      Tanner wasn’t sure why, but he felt certain these guys wouldn’t be found. And that would be a shame. At this point, the only way of knowing who sent them was to bring those guys in or get the guy in the other room talking. Because it was obvious these were hired guns someone had sent.

      “That baby is the key in all of this,” Saul said. “We need to figure out why before anyone else is hurt.”

      “I agree.”

      The EMT wheeled the gunman away, two FBI agents flanking either side of him.

      Tanner turned to Macy. “We need to get you out of here and to a more secure location.”

      “But—” she started.

      He squeezed her arm again, desperate to get through to her. “It’s becoming obvious that nowhere is really safe. The sooner you’re tucked away out of sight, the better.”

      “Me? Why me? I’m not a part of this.”

      “You are now.”

      Her walls came down a moment, and he could see the fear on her face. But when she blinked, she’d plastered on that self-assured image again, the one that made it seem like she was in total control.

      The realization squeezed his gut. When he’d known her before, she’d reserved that façade for strangers. But never him. She’d let him see the rawest parts of herself.

      This was just another reminder of how things had changed.

      Tanner led her toward the door.

      “You’re coming too, right?” she asked.

      He nodded. “Yes, I am.”

      “But you’re bleeding.”

      “I can have an agent stitch me up once we’re somewhere safe.”

      “Are you sure?”

      “It’s just a surface wound. I’ll be fine.”

      Before they reached the door, Tanner looked at the ground and frowned.

      A picture of Macy that had once been hanging on the wall now lay on the ground. The glass was shattered, and two bullet casings rested atop it.

      He swallowed hard. That wasn’t a sign of things to come.

      He would make sure of that.

       Three

      Everything happened in a whirlwind. One minute, Macy was waiting for a client, the next moment, she was whisked inside an FBI sedan, secure and snug in the back seat with Addie screaming beside her in a car seat.

      If only she could cradle the child. Give her a warm bottle. Change her diaper.

      She could do none of that right now.

      Macy hadn’t had time to ask questions or process anything. Not really. Too much was happening all at once, with little time to breathe even.

      Just then, Tanner hopped into the back seat beside her. He tapped the seat in front of him, and the driver—Special Agent Williams, as he’d been introduced—took off.

      Macy tried to ignore just how close Tanner was to her. She wished she couldn’t smell his leathery scent. She wished any other FBI agent had shown up at her door today, for that matter. But no, it had to be Tanner. Her life insisted on coming back full circle.

      Addie wrapped her tiny hand around Macy’s finger, and Macy murmured in an attempt to soothe her. She whimpered then cried then tapered the sound into another whimper.

      Meanwhile, Tanner spoke to Agent Williams in the front seat, their mishmash of words barely discernible to Macy as Addie continued to wail.

      All Macy cared about right now was getting away and keeping this child safe.

      Her gut clenched as she replayed each moment in her mind. She remembered the cold fear that had trickled inside her. The battle-heavy smell of ammunition. Each heart-pounding second that had ticked past at a painstaking pace. They were all stark reminders that death could show up at a moment’s notice.

      Her day had started so normally yet had turned into this one with an СКАЧАТЬ