Laura was groggy and disoriented as she came awake. Where was that loud cry coming from? Who had left their baby with her?
Then it all came back as she looked down at her red-faced daughter screaming to the top of her lungs. She was a mother. A mother. After all she had been through this past year, Chloe was finally here.
And so was her father. She still was not entirely sure how she felt about that. After planning for almost fifteen months to be a single parent, to have Ryan Ranger turn up on her doorstep as she went into labor, was confusing as hell.
Especially when she saw the bond that already existed between father and daughter. She barely remembered Ignacio Garcia, and her sisters did not at all. What little she did remember of the man, almost made her glad that he had been captured and deported.
He never worked; of course, now she knew it was because he did not have the necessary paperwork. But it was not just that; he was home with them all day, but still, her mother had to come back to cook, clean, and do the laundry. Because that was woman's work.
She knew that Elena had contacted his other family in Mexico during one of their mission trips, but Laura had stopped her sister before any details of that trip left her lips. She had no desire to know, or even know about, the man who had sired her.
But Ryan Ranger was different. Well, the Ryan that she had spent that one beautiful night with, and the Ryan that took charge and delivered their daughter, the baby he knew nothing about. Of course, the cold bastard who showed up that morning in her office and fired her was not on her happy list.
She loosened the button that kept the flap of her nursing gown closed and shifted to release her breast, but that was not as easy as it sounded. Her whole body was sore. It felt like a Mac truck had driven between her legs. And the rather strong contractions, which Lupe assured her were not only perfectly normal but good, well, those were a bitch.
Two strong hands reached out and lifted her daughter. At first, panic rose along with bile in her throat. But she followed those hands up muscled arms to his face. His pale blond hair was darkened as if curled tight to his head. Obviously, he had taken a shower.
She could use one too. Lupe and her mother had helped her to wash down after the birth, but she would almost kill for a long bath. Even a quick shower would do for now. He wore another dark t-shirt and jeans that were not stained with amniotic fluid. He looked way too good, especially as rough as she felt.
"Shhh, princess, Mommy's getting your food," he crooned in a low, comforting voice to the baby as he held her to his shoulder and softly rubbed up and down her back.
Yeah, he was definitely different than her sperm donor, or even most of her friends' husbands. She certainly could not imagine Clay Cummins with his designer suits and Ivy League degrees cradling a baby with such care. Yeah, she was well rid of that one.
But did she trust Ryan? Did she dare? Did she have any real choice at the moment?
Freeing her breast, she got into a more comfortable position for breastfeeding Chloe. She noted that each movement pulled and tugged. While there were no sharp pains of those after-birth contractions, her whole body ached. To be fair, birth was more strenuous than any gym workout. Although it did little for her figure.
"Hand her to me."
He nodded before kissing the top of Chloe's downy head. "You'll be nice and full soon, sweetie."
Laura shook her head, "Not likely. She is only getting a few drops of colostrum right now. It'll be a couple of days before my milk comes in properly."
She did not add - if it came in at all. She would not allow those thoughts to take root. Even if she knew that this stress made that more likely. She had wanted to breastfeed even when she planned to return to work. The thought of bottle feeding her only child seemed like such a defeat.
Like her Mama, she was more than just a survivor. She would not be defeated in this. Any more than she had been when the bottom fell out of her career. Thanks to this man. She sighed, well not entirely, the McBrides had more to do with that, she supposed.
She got the baby settled and well attached to her nipple. It took a couple of tries to get it just right. But she managed without her Mama or Lupe's assistance this time.
When that was accomplished, she forced herself to face other dilemmas. Raising her face to his, she asked, "So, what did you find out?"
She could tell he was hesitating, and she steeled herself for what was to come. Chloe must have sensed her unease because she broke her latch onto Laura's nipple with another piercing cry, and the whole process began again.
By the time she had their daughter settled again, he had sat on the edge of the bed. His wet hair looked like he had run his fingers through it a couple of times. But she gave him credit; he met her gaze head-on.
"We need to leave here."
"I figured that much. When? How long do we have? Where will we go?" This time she kept her voice low and tried to remain as calm as she could. Breastfeeding her daughter was important to her, though perhaps not as important as staying alive.
"As soon as possible."
She watched him bite the inside of his cheek and knew whatever came next was not good news.
"Stephens, my handler, isn't willing to play ball. He's threatening to send the sheriff to arrest you if I don't turn you in." He sighed and held her stare, "I don't need to tell you how corrupt that man is, you grew up here. I can't protect you if you're in his custody."
She shivered, and her eyes glazed over with tears. The man had stood trial for murdering a drug dealer when the man would not cut him in on his profits. Worse, he had been acquitted, despite overwhelming evidence. And even though the trial had been moved to another county. No, if she ended up in that man's jail, she was as good as dead.
"How long do we have?"
"As soon as you can get packed, I'm gonna call Jack Greywolf. He's my cousin Rex's cousin on his mother's side of the family. The three of us used to spend summers together on Rex's grandfather's ranch in the Hill Country."
Ryan sighed and met her gaze, "My cousin Rex says Jack's back in Sebida and thinks we can trust him to help. But I wanted to talk with you before I made that call, sweetheart?"
She nodded her head, though she did not trust her own judgment at the moment. This was all so surreal. Like a nightmare or horror movie. And she was the star. "How well do you know Jack?"
"As I said, Jack is my cousin's other cousin," he chuckled. "Yeah, I know how odd that sounds. But Rex is my cousin on his father's side. Jack is his second cousin or something on his mother's. His grandfather and Rex's were brothers, though they were separated and adopted by different families when they were little boys."
"The brothers found one another in their middle years, quite by accident, as both had become active in Native American issues. They got to comparing notes and realized the truth," he explained.
"When we were in our teens, Rex, Jack, and I would spend our summers on his Grandfather's ranch in the Hill Country. That's where I want to take you. If you're okay with that."
"Why there? Won't the agency, at least, know about this place? Even come looking for us there?"
He bit the inside of his cheek again. His tell, she would have to remember that. "Yeah, it is a possibility. But for one thing, I trust the sheriff in that county. And for another, I know those hills better than I know my own mind sometimes. Besides, if we go there, then I have Rex and Grandfather as backup."
"And you'll have another woman to talk to and rely on. Rex just found his mate. Jaycee has a little girl who is six or seven and is pregnant with Rex's first child."
She sighed, "Then should we be taking our troubles to them?"
He chuckled, "Taking it back to them. Jaycee's ex-husband was Sean Riley. I don't need to tell you that his death started all this."
She frowned, "Then isn't that even more reason not to?"
He sighed heavily, and his shoulders slumped, "I won't lie to you, sweetheart. I don't like involving my cousin and his family in this mess, especially with Jaycee pregnant."
"But we need someplace defensible and close. Even the few hours drive that it is between here and there is probably longer than you and Chloe should be traveling right now. You got any better ideas?"
Laura rifled through the shortlist of possibilities that she had already compiled for such an eventuality. The cabin that had been Mama's bugout plan was over eight hours away. As for the other options, those were not close enough, either. "Okay, so what do we do next?"
"Are you good with me calling Jack, sweetheart?"
It had been over twenty years since she babysat him. She was eighteen, and he was thirteen the last time. When he tried to put his hand up her t-shirt, she had told Injun Joe. The old man had forced Jack to apologize, and they had agreed that perhaps Jack was old enough not to need a babysitter anymore. But something told her that was a story best kept to herself.
She knew that, like Ryan, Jack had enlisted in the military. Though he was not the academy or officer type, the rumor was that he had been special forces, too. He had left the army after his grandfather's death and come back to Sebida. She had even seen him, or she thought it was Jack, once or twice in the dinner, when she was feeding her country-fried steak cravings.
Yeah, she had no reason not to trust the man, especially if Ryan and his cousin trusted him. "Yeah, I guess so," she nodded her head as she broke Chloe's seal on her nipple. She winced as she tried to scoop the baby up and roll to the other side.
"Fuck," he cussed. But almost immediately, he was by her side, taking their daughter in one arm and holding out the other for her to use as leverage to turn over. "I'm sorry, babygirl. Daddy should not cuss like that around you."
Laura got herself settled, closing the flap of her nursing gown on one side and opening it on the other, as she held out her arms for the baby. "My first word was 'ah, shit,' and I turned out alright."
"Ah, shit?" his brow shot up.
