The siren blared on the top of Max’s paramedic vehicle, its long looping wail mingling in Daisy’s ears with the agonizing screams of the tiny babe beside her in the back seat as the rapid-response unit sped through the countryside.
“Hold on, Fitz,” she said, brushing her fingers along his fevered cheek. “Max is going to get us to the hospital, then we’re going to get you some medicine and it’s all going to be okay.”
Emergency lights flashed above them. Max’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had gone white. Her eyes met his in the rearview mirror for a fleeting moment. Her heart caught to see how they glistened with worry.
“It’ll be okay,” Max said. His eyes snapped back to the road. “Fevers can spike suddenly in little kids. It’s usually nothing more than an infection and can be treated easily with antibiotics.”
She let her gaze run over the tiny screaming infant beside her and everything in her heart wanted to take the pain away.
Lord, please heal his tiny body.
“What if it’s something serious?” Panicked tears choked in her throat. “What if the low-level fever we thought was just teething was something worse? What if something is very wrong?”
“I told you I’d do everything in my power to protect him, Daisy, and I meant it.” Max’s voice rose above the sound of the siren and Fitz’s tears. “I know how special Fitz is. I care about him, too.” He wiped a hand over his eyes. “I’m going to take care of him. I promise.”
The minutes ticked by at agonizingly slow speed, each second seeming to stretch into minutes. Finally, she saw buildings appearing in the distance and the bright blue of a hospital H shining above them.
Max pulled the truck into the paramedic bay, grabbed his uniform jacket and forced his arms through the sleeves. She pulled Fitz from the car seat and they ran into the hospital. Her footsteps faltered as they ran through the sliding doors into the emergency room.
The chaos of caregivers and those needing care surrounded her on all sides in a sea of worry. She barely noticed when Max slipped away and had a quick word with the nurse behind the front desk. A moment later, he was back. He reached for Fitz.
“I can take him straight in,” he said, “and we won’t have to wait. Even though my wallet was stolen, I still have my badge, and they know me well here. I can take him right back, get him diagnosed and on the medicine he needs. But only if I take him in alone. I’m sorry, you’re not a relative or legal guardian, and while your warrant may have been canceled, they still have your name on an alert list because of the coverage the kidnapping charge got. If Fitz’s parents were still alive, they could grant you access, but under the circumstances, getting you authorized to come back with him will take both paperwork and time.”
What was he saying? Fitz was screaming in her arms, clinging to her. Hot tears filled her eyes. And here was Max, standing there calmly telling her he was taking him.
“Don’t make me give him up,” she said. “Not like this. Not while he’s screaming. Not while he’s in pain. Please. You don’t understand.”
But lips set in a firm line. A look filled his eyes that was so calm, it jolted something inside her.
“Yes, I do,” Max said. “This is my job, Daisy. I can take Fitz straight to a doctor and get him the diagnosis and medication he needs. Delaying his admittance until you’ve been cleared to go with him isn’t fair to him. Every second counts right now. Please, Daisy. You’ve trusted me before. Trust me again. I’ll take care of Fitz like he is my own son. I promise.”
He pried Fitz from her hands, pulled his screaming body up to his chest, and all she could do was stand there and let him take him.
“Chloe will be here soon,” he said. “She’s just helping Trent book Bradley, and then she’ll be right over. Chloe hopefully will be able to help you get access, and I’ll make sure someone is out for you as soon as I can. But not right this second and not until I take care of Fitz. Wait for me. Trust me.”
She felt herself nod. Max turned and ran through a pair of double doors. Tears filled her eyes. She pushed through the emergency doors back outside to the sidewalk, staying close enough to the emergency room that she could see Max when he came back through but far enough away from those in need that she wasn’t taking anybody’s seat. A narrow rural highway ran past the hospital entrance, hemmed in by thick forest on the other side of the road. She sank down on a bench, pulled a thermos of soup and a hunk of fresh bread from the lunch bag Emily had given her and had a little of each without tasting either.
She’d never been in an emergency room before, not that she could remember anyway, and there was something overwhelming about the chaos, pain and need that had seemed to surround her on every side. The sick and the injured, the crying and the praying, those rushing at full speed and those shuffling slowly, these were the people that Max saw and cared for every day. This was his world and she couldn’t imagine how he processed it all and kept his head about him, while he and those like him did the job of a hero, day after day after day.
She finished her lunch, wrapped her arms around herself and prayed. She prayed while ambulances and rapid-response units came and went, and people rushed through the doors. She dozed in and out, under the grey and cloudy sky, watching the trees sway in the wind, and sitting up like she had so many nights when she’d sat up, holding Fitz to her chest while he drifted to sleep. Until eventually, a nurse stepped outside the door and tapped her on the shoulder.
“You’re Daisy Hayward, right?” he asked. She nodded. “I’ve been asked to let you know that the baby you came in with is responding well to antibiotics and sleeping soundly. Would you like to go see him?”
She leaped to her feet. “Absolutely! Yes.”
She followed the nurse back through the emergency waiting room, down a long hallway, into an elevator and out onto a surprisingly bright and airy floor. He led her down the hall, past a string of hospital rooms, until they reached a room at the end of the hall. “Here you go. Your friend’s in here.”
She stepped into a large, private hospital room. It didn’t make sense. How would Max arrange for a private hospital room? She didn’t expect he’d have either that power or that amount of money. “Hello?”
“Come on in.” The voice was crisp and female, with an oddly familiar tone. She took another step into the room and saw a woman with short black hair sitting with her back to her in a rocking chair between the window and the crib. She was Fitz’s aunt, she had to be, and she’d come to take Fitz away.
Daisy took a deep breath and felt the door close behind her. She crossed the floor and saw Fitz, looking tiny and exhausted, lying in the crib with his face thankfully free from fever. She brushed her fingers against his cool, soft cheek.
“Thank you for letting me see him,” she murmured. “I’m Daisy.”
“I know.” The dark-haired woman rose and turned.
Daisy’s heart stopped.
It was Anna. Her lips tweaked with the familiar half sneer that implied the world was full of minor irritations and Daisy was the smallest of them all.
“But I thought you were dead!” Daisy’s voice rose. “I saw you die.”
Anna sniffed.
“Lower your volume. We’re in a hospital, after all,” she said. She pulled a tiny handgun from her pocket, intricate and lethal, and waved it in Daisy’s direction as if she was swatting a fly off the back of her hand. “Uncross your arms and stand up straight when I’m talking to you. The whole point of choosing a nanny from England was that you were supposed to be a quiet little thing with good manners.”
Daisy’s fingers slid into Fitz’s curled fist. He held her tightly.
“Yes, of course you saw me ‘die,’” Anna said. “That was the point. You were supposed to see the house being trashed, witness my death and run out. Then after the explosion, you were supposed to tell the world that you saw me die and then go off back to your little life in England none the wiser. That was your role. Instead, you grabbed Fitz and ran off with him. I should’ve known. You’ve always had an unhealthy attachment to that little brat.”
Daisy felt her chin rise. Lord, maybe I should be afraid right now. But all I feel is fight and the determination to save Fitz. Help me get him out of here alive.
“It was you,” Daisy said. “You somehow talked Jones and Smith into murdering Gerry and setting the house on fire, because you wanted to steal the counterfeit technology he designed for yourself.”
“Excuse me?” Anna’s lip curled. “You think Gerald Pearce designed the counterfeit technology? You think he ran the operation or that Smith and Jones were ever loyal to him? I was one of Pearce Enterprises’s head designers! I replicated the bills and designed the technology, back when I was working under him. At first, having a relationship with him was enough to keep his suspicions at bay while maintaining unfettered access to his company and equipment. But he found the operation and got suspicious. He started taking pieces of my technology and files out of the office and hiding them on locked devices. I had to resort to low doses of poison to slow down his mind, but it only made him paranoid and erratic. One night, he called the police, and I was forced to bribe them to look the other way. He’d felt so guilty about our affair after Jane’s death, he would’ve reassigned me to one of his other offices if I hadn’t managed to convince him that the best thing to do for little Fitz was to marry me.”
“So you could keep working on refining the counterfeit process right under his nose,” Daisy said. “Did you kill Jane, too?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Anna said. “I don’t like hospitals. That was Smith.”
Daisy looked down at Fitz and her hand brushed over his tiny one as she promised herself silently that no matter what, she would protect him.
“How can you possibly think you’re going to get away with this?” Daisy asked. “I won’t let you. I’ll tell the police.”
“Tell them what exactly?” Anna laughed. “That you saw the woman you work for, injured and bleeding on the floor, and instead of calling anybody for help, you kidnapped a baby and ran? Tell me, do you know how to prove I had anything to do with sugar maple money or Gerry’s and Jane’s deaths? Of course not. No one will believe you and you’ll look like a lunatic. So no, you’ll do no such thing. Instead, you’ll be thankful that I’ve decided I’m keeping you on as Fitz’s nanny. Whether I like you or not, I need to take him with me and you’ve clearly bonded with him. And I can’t be expected to deal with a baby myself, especially a sick one who needs constant care and antibiotics. Searching for a new nanny right now would be a ridiculous risk for me to take, and I can’t exactly delegate him to Jones and Smith to take care of. So you’re going to go tie up an unfortunate loose end for me, then you’re going to come back here, pick up Fitz and carry him wherever I tell you to go.”
“Why?” Daisy asked. “What do you possibly want with Fitz? You don’t like him. You don’t care about him. Why can’t you just let him go to be with a family who will love him the way he deserves?”
“Does it matter?” Anna asked. “I’m taking Fitz, whether you like it or not. The only question is whether he’s traveling in your arms or in whatever baby container or carrier I can find to put him in. Now, I have one last task for you to perform before we leave. You didn’t just make a mess of this whole thing, you got somebody else tangled up in it, too. Unfortunately, he’s apparently now scouring the hospital looking for you, and when he finds someone moved the baby as well, he’ll probably go frantic. Killing a man in a public place is not exactly the kind of attention I need, but having him running around making noise won’t do either.”
Anna glanced down at her phone. “Jones has a high-powered rifle trained on your friend Max right now. You’re going to tell Max you’re leaving. You’re going to tell him whatever lie you need to tell him to convince him to drop this matter and forget he ever met you and Fitz. Then you can come back here, pick up the baby, and we’ll go. I will be listening in, and you will make it convincing. Otherwise, I will give the order and Jones will kill him.”
* * *
Max’s gaze darted around the crowded hospital emergency room, scanning for the one unmistakable face in the crowd. People seemed to be everywhere, in a moving symphony of care, compassion and need. He didn’t see her anywhere.
“Max!” Chloe ran through the hallway. Her voice was both gentle and sisterly, and as much as Max usually appreciated both qualities about her, right now it made him worried that he wasn’t going to like whatever she was about to say next. “I’ve checked every ladies’ room. Is it possible that Daisy’s left?”
“No, it’s not.” Max frowned. He refused to believe it. Daisy was done with running and she’d agreed to cooperate with the police. She wouldn’t just take off. And if she had, then what did that mean?
Trent’s hand landed on his shoulder before Max even realized he’d returned from searching outside. Trent steered him toward the wall.
“Look, bro,” Trent said, “I know you care about this woman, but I think you do need to face the possibility that she ran.”
“She wouldn’t just leave Fitz,” Max said. “Not without a really good reason. Not without knowing he was okay. She loves that baby more than anything.” Unless he’d driven her away. He ran both hands through his hair. “I think I might’ve been sharp with her. She was just panicking about Fitz and letting him go, so I made it very clear she was wasting time and needed to let me take him. What if I hurt her feelings?”
Trent’s eyes grew wide, he took a step back, and then he and Chloe exchanged a long glance that didn’t make Max feel any better.
“What?” Max said. “What’s wrong?”
“Sorry.” Trent ran his hand over his jaw. “We honestly had no idea the situation had got that serious.”
“What situation?”
“Whatever this is going on with you two,” Trent said. “Look at you! I just walked in here from booking a criminal who tried to murder you, there are more criminals out there who probably want you dead, and you’re panicking that you hurt this woman’s feelings! Which...” He blew out a long breath. “Which I can’t even pretend I don’t understand. It took me far too long to admit to myself that I was in love with Chloe, and you should’ve heard the way Chloe and I used to bicker and snap at each other.”
“Although,” Chloe said, “to be honest, it was usually because we were running for our lives and somebody was shooting at us. But it’s true your brother gets on my nerves more than anybody else I know.”
Trent slid his arm around Chloe’s shoulder. “And she gets on mine, which is why she insisted we have a yearlong engagement and premarital counseling to give us the best possible head start. The bottom line is, I don’t know if you hurt Daisy’s feelings. It was a crisis situation, those tend to get everyone heated. If you did and she ran instead of even giving you an opportunity to work it out, then she’s not the woman for you. Because I know you don’t like drama and you like to pretend you’re all chill. But if you want a future together, you’re both going to make a ton of mistakes, and you have to get used to working them out and forgiving each other.”
Funny how their dad had said pretty much the exact same thing.
Lord, I need wisdom and clarity. Help me see what matters most. Help me know what’s important now.
A flash of gold caught his eye through the crowded room. Daisy was walking toward him slowly, her face every bit as calm as the moment they’d met, when Smith had her kneeling at gunpoint, and her dark eyes locked on his face like nothing else mattered. A breath left his chest so suddenly it was like the air had been knocked from his lungs. He strode through the crowd toward her. His arms opened wide, she tumbled into his chest and he held her there, feeling her heart beating against him and his hand running over the back of her head.
“I thought you’d left,” he said.
She took a step back, her gaze running over the huge emergency room, as if she was scanning for one specific person or point in the crowd. When she spoke, it was almost as if she was talking to herself. “There are a lot of people in here. Kids, elderly people, injured people, doctors and nurses...” Her voice trailed off and it was only then he realized how very pale her face was. “Let’s step somewhere a little less public. Like outside the front door.”
“Okay,” he said. “No problem.”
He took her hand and led her out through the crowd toward the front door. His brother and Chloe hung back at first until, to his surprise, Daisy waved a slight hand in their direction, and they pushed off the wall and followed behind.
The double glass doors slid open with a familiar hiss. Daisy pulled him against the wall. Both of her hands grabbed his. Her eyes darted over his shoulder. He turned and saw nothing but bushes.
“Don’t say anything, please.” Her eyes locked on his face. “I need to say something and I need you to listen, okay?”
He nodded. She said the words like he was a stranger. The beautiful spark that lit up the dustiest corners of his heart was gone from her eyes. He didn’t know what had happened to the Daisy who’d been tenaciously pulling and tugging on his heartstrings ever since they’d met. He just knew he’d do whatever it took to get her back. “Talk to me. Please.”
“I’m leaving.” The two words slipped from her lips and hit him like a one-two punch. “Not because I want to, but because I have to. I can’t tell you where I’m going and I don’t want you to try to find me or contact me.” Her lip quivered. “Please, Max. I want you to walk away and forget me.”
“How can you say that?” He wrenched his hands from hers. “How can you possibly ask me to forget about you?”
She pressed her lips together as if trying to stop her chin from shaking.
“Because I need you to!” Her voice rose. “I don’t belong in your life. I don’t belong here. I’m just some accident, some mistake, that fell into your path!”
“You’re making it sound like you’re something random I tripped over!”
“Well, maybe I was!” Sudden fire flashed in her eyes, flickering like flames at a pile of kindling. “Maybe that’s what happened. You were going along in your life, happily and comfortably trying to get from Point A to Point B, and then suddenly I landed in your path and knocked you down. Now it’s time for you to get up, dust yourself off and get on with your life.”
“Maybe I don’t want to get on with my life!” His hands rose like he was conducting a wave even as it crashed over him.
“You don’t get that option!” Daisy said. “Because no matter what you say right now, I’m leaving and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Doors hissed open and shut behind them. Sirens sounded as ambulances came and went. People rushed around on all sides. But there she stood, this one strong and fierce anchor in the middle of the storm. And suddenly he knew, without a doubt in his mind, that he was tired of trying to outrun the storm or skip over the top of it, like the messy things of life didn’t matter. He wanted to be right in the middle of it. As long as it meant being there with her.
“What if I found a way to keep you in the country?” Max said. “I don’t know how this works. But what if I helped you with a visa? I know you’ve just lost everything that anchored you here. But what if I was that anchor. What if I sponsored you? What if we made a go of it and tried to build a future together, like some of those lumberjacks and British governesses in those books my mother reads?”
“What if we make a go of it? What if we build a future?” Daisy’s hands rose to her lips. Tears filled her eyes. “Why are you saying this?”
Because foolishly blurting out to a woman I just met that I’m suggesting a marriage of convenience in the hopes she’ll one day fall in love with me is too ridiculous to say out loud. But what can I do, Daisy? I think I might be falling in love with you, but I’ve never said those three little words to anyone before and I’m not sure how.
He took her hands and slid them around his neck. But instead she pulled her hands from his and let them fall.
“Don’t you dare joke about something like that,” she said. “Not about this. Not about us. If you don’t get what you mean to me, then I’m glad I’m leaving. Because I’m not some damsel in distress. And if I ever do agree to build a future with someone, it will be because they can’t imagine life without me and I’m not willing to live without them.” She pushed him farther back and stepped out of his arms. “Goodbye, Max.”
She turned and ran back into the emergency room. The doors hissed shut behind her.
He groaned. What had he done? Why couldn’t he have just been honest with her? Why couldn’t he have told her how he really felt? He closed his eyes.
Forgive me, Lord. Daisy deserves a man who’s willing to fight for her. Help me be that man.
“Daisy! Wait!” He took two steps. She stopped, turned and looked back at him through the glass. His heartbeat pushed him forward but somehow his feet stayed still, as if afraid taking another step would spook her. “You matter to me,” he called, “and if I need to spend months or years convincing you that I want you in my life, I will. All I know is that I don’t want to lose you.”
Daisy’s eyes met his through the closed glass. Something glistened in their dark depths that made his heart pound with more hope, fire and happiness than he ever hoped to feel. It was that same gaze that had been in her eyes when she’d looked at Fitz. That expression that said she’d cared about the person she was looking at so much she was willing to fight for them and didn’t want to lose them. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
“Then don’t go. Stay. And we’ll figure this out.”
The smile fell from her lips. Then a red laser point of light flickered on the glass. “Max! Duck!”
He dropped to the ground as the emergency room doors shattered.