Designated Daddy Page 3

  He certainly didn’t. Was there no end to the ins and outs of infant care? “Can’t you carry her into the store like that while we’re waiting for the great event?” he asked, deciding they may as well get the shopping over with.

  “If necessary. But that’s not what you ordered me to do. Which reminds me—I didn’t enlist in Steve Henderson’s private army. I rate requests, not orders.”

  Steve raised his eyebrows and she smiled sweetly.

  Damn redhead. Had to admit she was right, though. When he was working, he tended to be brusque. Due to Kim’s inexplicable actions and the fact she’d been associated with Malengo, this was now an agency case. They’d all like nothing better than to nail kingpin Gregor Malengo to the wall.

  But he and Victoria did, after all, have time to do the necessary shopping before he went through Kim’s belongings. It’s just that he wasn’t used to putting anything ahead of agency affairs.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. Apologizing didn’t come easily to him. “I’ll try to remember you’re a volunteer, not a recruit.”

  “A temporary volunteer,” she reminded him.

  As they entered the store, he thought what a strange threesome they made. No doubt to the casual observer, the reluctant nonfather, the temporary nurse and the motherless baby looked to be a family. A happy family? The idea made him smile wryly.

  Victoria picked out far more food than he could imagine them needing but he kept his mouth shut, aware he had no expertise in basic meals. Carry-out and microwavable food he could comment on but nothing prepared from scratch. Made it a tad awkward when he visited his hideout in the Adirondacks—but he didn’t get up there too often.

  She chose other baby items, too, which he paid little attention to.

  At the checkout, the baby not only burped audibly but spit up a glob of milk on Victoria’s shoulder, which was luckily protected with a cloth. Babies seemed to be messy little things. He admired Victoria’s competence. She was a known factor, as well. At his request the agency had run a check on her and she’d come up clean. Usually best to deal with what you had rather than the unknown. He’d convince her to stay on until he knew what to do about Heidi Angela Henderson.

  They got back to the condo and unloaded the car without any surprises from the baby, who seemed quite content in the carrier, though awake. He set the carrier carefully in the middle of the table and started to leave the kitchen.

  “Wait, please,” Victoria said. “I’ll need some help getting this on.”

  She’d stressed the please, making it a definite request—for his benefit He acknowledged her ploy with a reluctant smile.

  The help she needed from him was in fastening some kind of contraption around her, sort of an uphigh kangaroo pouch evidently designed to carry a small infant in. This required him to get close enough to her so her scent—something pleasantly floral—filled his nostrils. He quashed a vagrant impulse to move closer still.

  Keep your distance, Henderson. Whatever she has, you don’t need. Like you told her, she’s the baby’s nurse. Period.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “My pleasure,” he surprised himself by saying. Surprised her, too, from her expression. But, what the hell, it had been a pleasure.

  Enough of that. Back to business. Past time to go through Kim’s belongings. He turned away to do just that.

  “Oh, damn,” Victoria said.

  Steve whirled around. “Whit’s wrong?”

  “I forgot something important. I don’t go anywhere without what I call my medical survival kit. I left it in the trunk of my car.”

  “You mean a first-aid kit?”

  “No, a lot more than that. It’s important that I have it here because of the baby.”

  Steve frowned. Here he’d been silently approving Victoria’s competence, and now she was turning out to be as forgetful as the next woman. He was not a fan of disorganization.

  “We need to go back and get it right away,” she went on. “I don’t want to discover I need something from the kit and not have it on hand.”

  He couldn’t deny she might need the damn thing—what did he know about babies?—but there was no way he was going to haul her and Heidi back to her apartment complex.

  “Give me your car keys and I’ll run over and get the kit from your trunk. What’s it look like?”

  She told him as she handed him the keys.

  Her so-called survival kit turned out to be exactly where she’d told him it was. After relocking the trunk of her car, he stowed the kit in his car and started for home. Even though he didn’t expect to be followed, out of habit he took a roundabout route designed to detect such a problem. On the fifth turn, he noticed the same brown car was still behind him.

  Why would any car take this convoluted route he’d chosen unless they were following him? Unlikely as it seemed, he’d picked up a tail. Working for the agency had taught him it paid off to be a bit paranoid. Now he’d have to lose the brown car because no way did he intend to let it follow him home.

  Where he lived was as much of a secret as he could make it. He’d moved after Kim left him, and had taken care she never learned his new address. He sure as hell didn’t mean to lead anyone there.

  Malengo? He nodded. No one else had any reason to be on his tail. Odds were the driver of the brown car was his man. What was Malengo looking for? Kim’s baby? Something incriminating that had been in her possession? Or both?

  Damn. He could and would lose the brown car, but that didn’t mean someone with Malengo’s resources wouldn’t ferret out where he lived. Anger hammered through him. Kim had gone to great lengths to keep her baby from Malengo, but once the man discovered the baby’s location, Heidi would no longer be safe.

  Using a few tricks he’d picked up during his agency years, he soon ditched the tailing car. Even then he didn’t drive directly to the complex but weaved around it several times to make certain it was safe to drive through the gates. All the while he kept puzzling over how Malengo could have made the connection between him and Victoria. Because her apartment was where he’d picked up the brown car. Obviously Malengo had it staked out.

  The leak had to have come from Kinnikec Hospital. Malengo would have been notified that one of his men had died there, even though the injured one had been transferred to Washington Hospital Center for treatment. It wouldn’t have taken him long to send someone around to both hospitals asking questions. Victoria, with her red hair, was easily identifiable.

  He was lucky he hadn’t been tailed earlier. Or had he? Not to his knowledge, but... Better play safe and see what the agency had dredged up. Steve swerved into a convenience store and grabbed the pay phone. Minutes later he flung himself back into his car, his suspicions confirmed. The DOA brought into the Kinnikec ER had been a known Malengo employee. So was the victim who’d been transferred to Washington Hospital Center.

  His scenario had been right on target. Malengo must have sent the two men in pursuit of Kim, with orders to bring her back. Her desperation to avoid capture had probably caused the accident. The remaining mystery was why she’d been trying so frantically to escape Malengo.

  Once through the gates, he turned into his street with adrenaline pumping, no longer certain the town house was safe. If it was, he’d made up his mind what to do. If not—he’d take things as they came.

  Gun in hand, he activated the garage button and drove in, scanning its interior bareness before letting the door down. Exiting the car, he moved cautiously toward the connecting door to the house, then unlocked it quickly, slamming it all the way open.

  The door smacked into the wall. Victoria, sitting at the table eating a sandwich, let out a squeal and the baby in her pouch began to cry.

  Hastily shoving the gun out of sight, Steve entered the kitchen. “Sorry,” he muttered.

  “Do you always come in like a March lion?” she asked tartly.

  Since she didn’t mention it, apparently he’d been quick enough so she hadn’t seen the gun, somethin
g which he was grateful for.

  “Door got away from me,” he told her. “Have you unpacked?”

  “No, not yet,” she said. “Why?”

  “Good, because we’re leaving right away for the cabin.”

  Victoria stared at him. “The cabin?” she asked. “Where’s that?”

  “In the mountains. I’ve decided the peace and quiet will be better for the baby. For all of us. Didn’t you tell me you’re supposed to be on vacation? So am I, and that’s the place I’d like to spend it.”

  “Caring for Heidi was supposed to be only for a few days,” she said.

  “You mean you’d turn down a paid vacation in the Adirondacks?”

  He couldn’t know it but he’d hit on her dream. When she was ten and her parents were living in New York, she’d been sent to a summer camp in the Adirondacks. Her stay there had been the most wonderful six weeks of her life, before or since. She’d always wanted to visit those mountains again but never had the chance. As she weighed his offer, she gently rocked Heidi back and forth in the pouch until her wails subsided.

  “You frightened the baby,” she accused, stalling for time.

  “Didn’t mean to. You know I don’t like to listen to her cry. We need to hurry if we’re going to get there before midnight.”

  “You’re assuming I’m going.”

  His gaze challenged her. “Do you plan to leave me alone with the baby?”

  He knew damn well she wouldn’t do that; he was pushing her buttons again. Unfortunately they were the right ones. And he had said paid. Which had been implicit from the beginning but not confirmed in so many words. Plus she’d be in her dream mountains.

  She stood up and looked at him levelly. “I’ll come as Heidi’s caretaker. Period.”

  His mouth twitched as though he fought a grin. “No sex? Well, I can stand it if you can.”

  Just when she pegged him as humorless, he fooled her. Victoria gave him a reluctant smile. “I’m not known for changing my mind.”

  “Neither am I.”

  “Since we agree, I’ll pack Heidi’s things.”

  “Groceries, too, including staples. I don’t keep edible supplies on hand up there.”

  “Please,” she reminded him.

  He crooked an eyebrow but she held his gaze until he muttered, “Please.”

  As Victoria began gathering up the baby’s clothes and other necessities, she assured herself her decision to accompany Steve to his mountain cabin wasn’t rash. True, she tended to be impulsive, but since she’d never been drawn to his type of man—domineering, aloof and uncommunicative—there’d be no “vacation romance” to regret later.

  Though eventually she’d have to leave Heidi, she was happy to have the chance to be with the baby longer. Because they’d bonded, it’d be a sad time for her when they parted for good. Fortunately that wouldn’t apply to Heidi’s father. When she and Steve parted ways there’d be no weeping on either side.

  After her devastating experience with Jordan the Jerk, she’d thought a lot about what she wanted from a man. Mere sexual attraction wasn’t nearly enough. He’d be a person she could trust because they shared their true feelings with one another and he’d be totally empathetic. She doubted that Steve had even one empathetic bone in his body.

  “I’m agreeing to this for you,” she crooned to Heidi. “For you and for me.”

  In his bedroom, folding clothes into his bag, Steve heard her words and smiled wryly. He had no illusions about why Victoria was going to the cabin with him. Just as well she’d warned him off sex because it set up the rules ahead of time. Not that he’d planned to romance her. One thing to admit he was attracted to her—another redhead, of all women—and completely another thing to plan to act on that attraction.

  The only problem was, in banning sex, she’d set up a challenge. Unfortunately, he’d spent his entire life thriving on challenge, a habit he might find difficult to break.

  Chapter Three

  Although she was eager for her first glimpse of the Adirondacks, Victoria dozed off and on during the drive to New York. Which was easy to do because Heidi was also sleeping and Steve wasn’t the world’s greatest conversationalist. He seemed to be rationing each word.

  She roused from one of her naps when he said, “Aylestown at last. Here we are in the upstate New York boondocks, Victoria.”

  Looking around she saw they’d stopped in a small community in front of what appeared to be a residential garage.

  “We change to the van here. Need it for the mountain roads,” he said before getting out and unlocking the garage door.

  Inside was a four-by-four gray van, not new nor old, unremarkable in every way, like his car. After he backed it out, Victoria helped him transfer their belongings and supplies and then held the baby while he shifted the carrier to the van.

  “The carrier’s only a temporary solution for a baby bed,” she said. “You really should think about getting a crib or a bassinet for her.”

  “There’s an old cradle at the cabin. You can buy some gear for it.”

  Accustomed by now to the way he expected her to handle everything concerning the baby, she didn’t really believe he’d have any idea of the cradle’s dimensions. “What size is it?” she asked anyway.

  “Standard, I assume.”

  Victoria nodded resignedly. With an old cradle, that meant nothing, but she’d do her best. At least Heidi would have a real bed. She wondered whether Steve and Kim had chosen the cradle together during happier days.

  As if in answer, he said, “I bought the cabin furnished. The cradle came with it. Never expected to use the thing.”

  “But it is usable?”

  “Seems sturdy enough. She doesn’t weigh much.”

  “Seven pounds, three ounces at birth.”

  Steve gazed assessingly at Heidi. “Puny little thing.”

  Victoria bristled. “That’s a normal birth weight. She’s a beautiful baby.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  He’d never once asked to hold his daughter. She wondered when he would. Or maybe it should be if he would. First-time fathers were often nervous about the fragility of newborns but he seemed unwilling to have anything to do with his daughter. She’d wait until they were settled into the cabin and then make an effort to get him acquainted with Heidi.

  Once the van was packed, he drove the black car into the garage, closed the door and locked it. “We’ll stop at the chain store outside of town and pick up everything we might need in the next week or so,” he said when he got into the van. “Not easy to go shopping once we’re there.”

  Duly warned, Victoria stocked up on disposable diapers, formula and more clothes for Heidi as well as pads, sheets and blankets for the cradle—plus extra food. They ate in the fast-food place inside the store and there Victoria fed, burped and changed Heidi.

  Once on the road again, shortly after they left the town, they started to climb. Steve soon turned onto a secondary road, rounded a curve and stopped.

  She glanced at him, eyebrows raised.

  He bent forward, fiddling with the odometer. “Always mean to check the mileage going up,” he muttered. “Keep forgetting.”

  The distinct impression he was fudging made her uneasy. Still, if the odometer wasn’t the real reason he’d stopped, what could be?

  Several cars passed before he eased back onto the blacktop. After a while he turned again, this time onto a narrow gravel road that wound its way up a mountain. Evergreens grew close on each side, their aromatic scent filtering into the van.

  Victoria took a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m really in the Adirondacks after all these years.”

  “You’ve been here before?”

  “Once.” She smiled at the memory as she told him about her childhood camp days. “It’s one of the reasons I agreed to come to your cabin,” she added. “Heidi’s my main reason, though. I think she needs me.”

  He slanted her a look she couldn’t quite interp
ret. “You won’t mind the isolation, then,” he said finally.

  “You make it sound as though your cabin is perched on the mountaintop with nothing around except trees. Like you’re king of the hill.”

  He half smiled. “Not a bad feeling. Happens there’s one other cabin about a half mile away, but she won’t bother us.”

  Determined to pry more out of him, Victoria echoed, “She?”

  “Old woman named Willa Hawkins. Harmless.” Harmless. What a strange way to put it, since the same could be said of most old women.

  “Keeps to herself,” he added.

  “Is this the only access road?” she asked as they drove around yet another switchback.

  He nodded. “There’s a foot trail down to a hamlet called Hanksville on the other side, but no road from the cabin to there.”

  Belatedly she realized such isolation might mean primitive living. Come to think of it, she hadn’t noticed any electric poles climbing with them. “How about lights and water?” she asked.

  “I tapped a spring so water’s no problem. Got a windmill pumping it into a tank. Kerosene lamps. Could get a generator but they’re noisy. I like the quiet up here.”

  “Uh—toilets?”

  “I had a septic tank put in. Kept the outhouse for emergencies.” He glanced at her. “Think of it as an adult camp.”

  Which was okay with her, but caring for a newborn on top of a mountain with no electricity might prove to be a challenge. Still, she looked forward to her time at Steve’s cabin. Not because of him, although she was more aware of him next to her than she wanted to be. He really was an attractive man and, despite his wary, keep-out attitude, she felt drawn to him.

  Was it because he’d suffered a loss? She’d been told often enough she was too empathetic for her own good. He and Kim had separated, but he must be emotionally distraught over her death and maybe blaming himself for not being more understanding.

  Victoria grimaced. No, that was going too far. Though she believed Steve mourned his wife’s death, he certainly didn’t act as though he felt guilty about anything.