Chase looked at his hands as he twisted his wedding ring around his finger, a definite sign he was torn. Did he want to stay and continue the search for his best friend? Yes. Did he want to go home and make sure his wife stayed safe from the man who wanted her dead? Also, yes. “We don’t even know if it’s him for sure. We can’t risk the whole team on a wild goose chase.”
Adam nodded. “Agreed. With the vice president arriving tomorrow, Boston will be overrun with feds. Every enforcement agency will have boots on the ground looking for potential threats. We can’t chance them stumbling across Jay.”
“No one knows I’m here,” Jay said, wanting to find Jamie and Tak. “We don’t have to pull the plug on my account.”
“Diane knows,” Adam replied.
Jay shook his head. “She wants me out of Boston as much as you do. She’s not a threat to me, and the CIA needs us to get to Johnson’s backers. She’s not gonna fuck over the only team in a position to deliver what she wants.”
“Can’t take that chance, Jay. Sorry.” Adam swept his gaze over the men assembled, and decision made, he gave his orders. “We’re packing it in. Z, get your ass back here. The rest of you start loading gear. I want to be wheels up before they close airspace in advance of the VP’s arrival. For now, we’ll assume Jamie is in a secure location and doesn’t want to be found. We’ll resume the search for him and Tak from the Montana base. Any questions?”
“What about the baby?” Jay asked. “If we leave before we figure out how to keep her safe, Eve’s going to kick all our asses.”
“True.” Adam grinned in appreciation of his fiancée’s ability to inflict a significant amount of pain with a couple of well-placed finger pokes to the ribs. “Get her and Grant on the line. Let’s find out what they know about Kosamina and the baby. Then we’ll make whatever arrangements are necessary to have her delivered somewhere safe. One of Petrova’s men can play stork and make the delivery.”
An hour and thirty minutes later, Jay still sat in the same fucking chair, fighting a craving for cereal so fucking bad, he’d do anything for a bowl of Frosted fucking Flakes. Hell, he’d settle for dry Raisin Bran out of the box at this point.
“Father’s name is Eric Altman,” Grant said, adding a picture of a dark-haired man to the screen. “Chief of Emergency Medicine at Mass Gen and Kosamina’s former boss. He’s married with three kids, all under the age of six.”
“Let me guess,” Adam said. Arms crossed, the double tap of his trigger finger against his bicep was a clear indication of his level of frustration. “He wants no part of an out-of-wedlock baby.”
“Neither one of them wanted the baby,” Eve replied. “According to the text exchanges, Altman wanted Kosamina to abort the pregnancy. She refused and decided to put her daughter up for adoption instead.”
“Maybe he’ll have a change of heart now that circumstances are different,” Cody said.
“Doubt it,” Eve replied.
“Besides,” Grant added. “If we let him take her, she puts the rest of his kids in danger. Are we willing to take that risk?”
“What about Ko’s family,” Chase asked. “Can they take her?”
Eve shook her head. “She was an only child. Her parents are in their late eighties and live on the small island of Nauru in the south pacific. They can’t care for a baby.”
“Or protect her from Johnson and his backers,” Gray added. “There’s no other option, Adam. You need to bring her to Montana. She’s—”
“Now wait a sec—”
“It’s the only way to keep her safe,” Gray bit back. “And we owe it to Jamie to—”
“Jamie’s not the father,” Adam cut in. “We don’t know what he’d want.”
“Yeah, we do,” Jay replied. He knew Jamie. They’d spent two years bunking together in Palo Pinto before they’d found out the truth about Jonas Johnson and had to abandon their Texas base of operations. “She’s Kosamina’s daughter, and she’s been given Jamie’s last name. That makes her his responsibility, which makes her our responsibility.”
“Adam,” Eve said. Her quiet calm capturing the attention of the entire group. “Bring her home. We’ll figure out the rest together.”
As if she had a spell on him, Adam’s shoulders visibly relaxed. The change in posture was minuscule, the effect enormous. He looked from person to person, and heads nodded in unanimous agreement. “Alright,” he said. “Guess we have a baby to take care of. Jay, what’s the status of her health?”
“Good,” he replied. “She’s underweight, but she’s a fighter. She has no other medical issues from being born premature, so I can work up some discharge papers, and have her released to social services, no problem.”
“I’ll connect with Dax,” Chase offered. “Let him know what’s up and arrange for his team to bring her to us. Does that work for you, Jay?”
“Yeah, I’ll whip up some fake IDs.”
“We’ll need some baby things,” Zander said. “Diapers, formula, clothes, blankets, a carrier.”
“I’ll work with Z to make a list,” Eve volunteered. “Dax’s team can pick up what we need for transport from the hospital. We’ll worry about everything else once we get her back here.”
“Okay.” Adam checked his watch. “We’ll need to be in the air before zero nine hundred to avoid being grounded ahead of the VP’s arrival. Let’s get this done and our Little Miss JTT on board. Any questions?”
