Lucy’s heart skipped a beat. It hadn’t really sunk in that the nurses had named her Lucia. Lucy’s given name.
“She was just under five pounds when she came in. I’m guessing based on her development that she was about thirty-six weeks into the pregnancy. She’s perfectly developed, just small, and her lungs are immature. She can breathe on her own, but it’s a struggle, so we’ve put her in an oxygen-rich environment. She’s having a hard time keeping formula down, so we’re feeding her every hour in small quantities.”
The doctor reached out and took her hand. “Are you okay, Agent Kincaid?”
Lucy nodded, out of habit more than anything. “Did I… do something wrong?”
“No. She would have died if you waited to get her mother to a hospital. The toxins from the mother’s body would have made their way into her bloodstream, if the lack of oxygenated blood didn’t kill her first. She’s alive because of you. She’ll be here for at least a week.”
“And then what happens to her?” Lucy asked.
“That’s out of my hands. It’s up to Children’s Services.”
For a moment, just a moment, Lucy wanted to say, I want her. And she did. Desperately. Lucy couldn’t have her own children, but Baby Lucia was as close as she’d come to delivering a child.
But her life was a mess. And dangerous. She was twenty-six and ill prepared to be a mother. She was unmarried, and while she and Sean had talked about adopting… they didn’t lead calm lives. Could they? Could they settle down, move to a mountain in the middle of nowhere, and raise an infant?
And yet… right now, at this moment, Lucy didn’t even know what was going to happen between her and Sean. A baby wouldn’t solve any of their problems. And they had many. Far more than Lucy had thought. For nearly two years, she’d thought their relationship was perfect. Ups and downs but they, together, were a constant. She trusted Sean explicitly with everything, with her heart and her thoughts and her fears.
Trust. It all came down to trust. She couldn’t marry Sean if she didn’t trust him anymore.
And she couldn’t possibly raise a child on her own. Women did it all the time. And maybe, if she were a different woman, she could do it. But Lucy didn’t want to taint a baby with the horrors of the world, and those horrors were a part of her life. For the first time, she considered what Nate had told her months ago, that he never wanted to bring children into the world because the world was a screwed-up place. And Lucy had said it was up to people like them to raise the future leaders to clean it up.
But maybe that wasn’t in the cards for Lucy. Maybe she was the one who had to clean up the world so her nieces and nephews had a safer place to live.
For the first time, Lucy didn’t see the light of the future. With all the darkness she’d witnessed over the last three days, the light was gone. It was all darkness, all hopelessness, and how could she taint Baby Lucia with that?
Davidson was talking to her, and it took Lucy a few moments to realize she was giving her a status on the women they’d rescued. “I’m sorry, you said something about Ana de la Rosa?”
“She’s on mandatory bed rest. She’s twenty-eight weeks’ pregnant with twins, and her body is weak. Not from lack of nutrition-her blood work is good. But her heart is struggling. She went into premature labor last night, which we stopped. Her leg was shattered and she’s going in for surgery to repair it, but she’ll have a severe limp for the rest of her life. We’re going to try and keep her resting for at least four to six weeks before we schedule a C-section. If she improves, we’ll see if she can carry them longer.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“Would you like to see Baby Lucia? You’re on the approved list, you just need to show the head nurse a photo ID.”
“No.”
The doctor looked at her oddly. “I thought-”
“I can’t. Not now.”
“Is something wrong?”
Everything.
“I need to find Baby Elizabeth’s mother. And then… maybe I’ll be back.”
But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t hold that baby and think again about everything she could never have.
She thanked the doctor and went to find Nate.
Nate was waiting for her. He didn’t look happy.
“Noah is negotiating with Zapelli about the whereabouts of Marisol.”
“He can’t let that bastard go, that’s not what you mean, is it?”
“We actually don’t have a choice-the AUSA said the judge is going to toss everything we have. His statement, the search of his luggage, everything. But Zapelli doesn’t know that yet. The judge is angry, but he also understands the situation and postponed the hearing until one this afternoon.”
“Which means what?”
“We have a few hours to pressure Zapelli. Offer a deal to let him go because he doesn’t know we’re going to have to cut him loose anyway.”
“That’s not good enough. He sold her!”
“We can’t prove it.”
“We can if we find Marisol.”
If we find her alive.
An hour later, Noah met Nate and Lucy at the sheriff’s department.
“I have something.”
“Did you cut him loose?” Lucy asked.
“He will be released after the hearing.” Noah caught her eye, didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. She was personalizing this case, and she had to stop. She had to remember that not all the bad guys could be stopped.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“It sucks, Luce, I know it does, but I think she’s still alive.”
Adam said, “Where is she?”
“We need to go through Dobleman’s phone records. Zapelli said that he delivered Marisol to Lance Dobleman on Tuesday night. They met in a parking garage and moved her from his trunk to Dobleman’s. He overheard Dobleman talking to a man he believes was going to buy Marisol.”
Lucy sat down heavily in the closest chair. Would this nightmare ever end? Marisol had lost two children, had been prostituted, and was now being sold to another man?
“I have the records.” Adam flipped through several folders, pulled out one and handed it to Noah. “That’s it,” Adam said, pointing to something.
“Run it,” Noah said. Then added, “Please.”
Adam waved away the formalities. “The faster the better.” He got on his computer.
Noah sat next to Lucy and put his hand on her forearm. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“You good?”
“Yes.”
“You can stay here.”
“No.”
“Lucy-you don’t have to be superwoman all the time.”
She tilted her chin up and looked Noah in the eye. “I know, and I’m not. I’m going to see this through.”
“I think she’s alive, but… we have to expect the worst.”
“I do.” Always.
“Okay.”
“I heard from Sean this morning. They’re on their way back.”
“That’s really good. Rick didn’t have a time line. I assume they have everyone?”
“Yes.” And that was all she could say about that.
“Got it!” Adam scribbled an address on a notepad. “And it’s close by. You want backup?”
“Yes,” Noah said. “As many as you can spare. We don’t know what we’re facing.”
While Adam put together three units to assist, Noah called Quantico for information. “I have an address and a phone number, I need everything you have about the person or persons who live there. Immediately.”
Five minutes later Adam’s team was ready and Noah briefed him as they walked out to the vehicles.
“The house is owned by-guess who?-one of the shell corporations that Carson Spade set up. But the phone is personal. It’s registered to a forty-nine-year-old man named Alastair Holmes. He’s a registered sex offender who went off the grid years ago.”
“Yet he has a phone in his name.”