LITMIR.BIZ

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hard across the face.

      Her eyes popped open. “Tyler!” The cry grated through her dry throat. She grabbed her empty belly and squinted her surroundings into focus. “Where’s my baby?”

      “That’s what we want you to tell us.”

      Katie’s thoughts grew more coherent as the blow carved a path through her muddled brain. Not them again. No, no, not this place. She crawled into a sitting position. How the hell did she get back here? Had they recaptured Whit, too?

      “Oh, my God,” she rasped. Tears filled her eyes. She’d really screwed up.

      She was back in the hospital bed. Neat white sheets. IV stands. Antiseptic smells. Even a call button beside her on the blanket. But this wasn’t really a hospital.

      And neither the tall porker on her right nor the garlic-chewing shrimp on her left was a doctor. Or a male nurse. Or even an orderly.

      Katie lifted her hand up to her aching cheek and winced at the sharp pinch of pain around her wrists. She looked down. A thick plastic band, as secure as handcuffs, was bound around her wrists.

      Next time, escape wouldn’t be so easy.

      If she had a next time.

      “She’s with us now. Make the call, Fitz. Welcome home, darlin’.”

      While the big man pulled out his cellphone and punched in a number, Stinky Pete sat on the edge of her bed and mocked her with a smile. She’d seen that same sort of leer before—on her father’s face when he looked at her mother.

      As a little girl, Katie had never wanted to leave the room when she saw that particular smile because she knew that the minute she was gone that smile would vanish. And her mother would bear the full brunt of the savagery beneath that smile.

      Katie lowered her eyes and sank into the pillow, trying to make herself as small and insignificant as possible. She didn’t feel like the brave crusader anymore, out to save the world one friend at a time. She didn’t even feel seventeen. With those dark eyes laughing at her, gloating over her, she felt like a scared little girl again. She wanted to go home. Aunt Maddie would keep her safe. Aunt Maddie would love her baby.

      “Tyler?” she whispered.

      “Not here, darlin’.” Stinky Pete pinched her chin between his thumb and finger and forced her to look at him. “We thought maybe you could clue us in. He’s bought and paid for and we want him back. What’d you do with him?”

      Her plan had failed. Maybe she hadn’t helped anyone, after all. Just because she was in a private room now didn’t mean Whitney had escaped. They might have recaptured her friend, as well. She could be tied up and drugged somewhere else in the building. Or Whit could be dead. And it would be Katie’s fault. Instead of helping her friend, she’d gotten her killed.

      Katie had made a critical mistake in calling for help. She’d trusted the wrong person and given away their location. Now she was back with Stinky Pete and his big buddy, the hulkster.

      But if she was here—and they were asking these questions—that meant they didn’t have Tyler. A perverse sense of hope tried to take root. Thank God. Mr. Powers would take care of him. Even if she didn’t survive this, her baby would be safe.

      Her mother had made the same sacrifice for her. Katie felt through the thin cotton of her gown for the chain she wore and closed her hand around her mother’s ring.

      The big man named Fitz held out the phone. “The boss wants to talk to you.”

      The boss? There was someone else these two goons answered to? Other than the grandmotherly midwife who’d help deliver Tyler, Katie hadn’t seen anyone else but the other girls. Katie held up her battered wrists. “I can’t hold the phone.”

      The little man with the scary eyes and false smile grabbed the cellphone and pushed it against her ear. “Talk.”

      Katie caught a startled breath and obeyed the command. “Hello?”

      The voice on the phone was sickeningly familiar. “I’m very disappointed in you, Katie. I went out of my way to help you and this is how you repay me?”

      By the time the call had ended, Katie was numb with fear.

      But Tyler was still safe. Please, God, let him stay out of harm’s way.

      She heard the big man speak. “The boss wants us to take out some insurance. Something to improve the new mama’s cooperation.”

      Stinky Pete grinned. “Now that should be interesting.”

      Insurance? There was nothing these men could do to make her tell them what she’d done with her baby. Nothing. She’d die first.

      Katie had resigned herself to doing just that by the time the needle pricked her arm, filling her head with the weight of that elephant and sending her back into oblivion.

      MADDIE ROCKED BACK and forth slowly, softly singing her own version of an old movie song about fish swimming and birds flying and loving dat boy of mine.

      Tyler had finished his bottle, burped like a pro and drifted off to sleep. But Maddie was in no hurry to put him in his bassinet. She loved the warm, gentle weight of him nestled against her and found his contented slumber a balm to her own fractured sense of peace.

      Katie had done a wonderful job taking care of herself during her pregnancy. The vitamins, exercise and careful diet had produced a healthy boy.

      But Maddie was no closer to understanding why Katie had run away. What had changed in the girl’s life? As Dwight Powers had suggested yesterday morning, something pretty drastic must have occurred for Katie to risk Tyler’s health and her own during the last month of her pregnancy.

      How could she not have seen it? She and Katie talked every night over dinner. Had she not been listening?

      Maddie replayed those last few evenings together in her mind. Maddie had talked about the summer class she’d been teaching; Katie about the classes she’d be taking in the fall. With tutoring from her favorite aunt to compensate for the first few weeks of school she’d miss, Katie had been thrilled that she’d still be able to finish high school and graduate with her own class. She’d be forced to give up most of her extracurricular activities, but a couple of her best friends had promised to still come to the house to hang out, keep the gossip fresh and help with the baby.

      Katie had been a little despondent about not having her mother around to see Tyler. But more than once, she assured Maddie that she’d fill in just fine as a grandma.

      Joe Rinaldi’s name hadn’t come up.

      The baby’s father hadn’t come up.

      One evening, Maddie and Katie were commiserating over swollen ankles and the summer heat; the next, Maddie was alone with a note in her kitchen.

      Dear Aunt Maddie,

      You know I love you more than anything in the world, right? Well, maybe just a nanobit less than I’m gonna love Tyler or Amanda. But don’t be frightened if I’m gone for a while.

      I need to take care of something. Something I know you’d understand if I could tell you about it. But I promised to keep it secret.

      I’ll always remember how you tried to help Mom. How you’ve always helped me. It’s my turn to pay it forward now.

      I’ll be home as soon as I can.

      Love ya,

       Katie

      What did she mean? What sort of debt did a seventeen-year-old have to pay that would be shrouded in such secrecy?

      Tyler cooed in his sleep and Maddie smiled for his benefit. “Where’s your mommy, sweetie? What’s so important that she can’t be with you right now?”

      Even if the baby couldn’t understand, Maddie refused to mention the possibility that someone else might be keeping mother and

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