Deep Blue Ch. 07

I took a deep breath and let it out. "I'd have been an idiot not to suspect you might have reservations. I'd have had a hell of a lot of reservations if I were you. Not just over the whole girl-girl thing, but about how fast it happened, and yeah, most especially about my motives, whether I was actually in love with Gretchen or with her money. So, yeah, I understand your reservations. They don't bother me, not coming from you. We both love your little girl, we both want to protect her and we'll manage."

"Yes," he said, "we'll manage, but I wanted to make sure that you knew that over the last eight months or so, you've more than allayed my reservations. I know that the two of you truly love one another, and that's the only reason you're with her. I've even realized that I don't have to understand why or how you love one another. All I need to understand is that you make my baby happy, and that she does the same for you. With that, I'm content. Do what you have to do to protect our girl and I'll do the same."

My throat closed and I couldn't speak because of all the emotion running through me. His unexpected words arrowed through me and left a warmth I never expected to feel. He was everything I wish my own father had been. I swallowed heavily and coughed. "That means a lot to me, Hans. More than you can know. I'll handle this. You have my word."

"You have my love as does Gretchen," he said quietly. "I'll be waiting for your call."

I swallowed again. I was going to have a lot of thinking to do about Hans and me. I wanted to tell him I loved him back, but the words seemed to stick in my throat. I wasn't sure why, because I more than suspected that when I dug down I'd find that I did love him, in a fatherly way. I just couldn't force the words out.

"Thank you," I finally managed. "We need to talk more, but I need..." I struggled in vain to find the right words to tell him how I felt without offending him. I wished I had paid more attention to Gretchen's lessons on how to talk to people. This was one time where I didn't want my lack of diplomacy to screw things up. This was too important.

"I understand," he said, gently cutting me off. "We don't have to force or rush things between us, Shauna. When you're ready to talk about anything at all, I'll be here. Take care, my dear."

"I will," I said hoarsely. I swallowed again as I put my phone away and sank slowly into the seat. What had just happened? I felt almost befuddled at the shock of emotion running through me. Then it hit me. Hormones. It was just hormones from the pregnancy making me crazy. I sighed with relief. I wasn't losing my mind. I could blame all my befuddlement on being pregnant. I just hoped I could convince myself that was all it was.

Only a few minutes had passed when the two detectives came out and nodded to me as they silently left me sitting there. I guess they thought they were through with me. Idiots. I levered myself up and out of the chair as the nurse was pushing Gretchen out of the x-ray room, and I gave her face a good look. She looked tired and annoyed, but her smile at seeing me lit up my heart.

"I see that you got run through the ringer by the local dicks," I said as fell in beside her. The nurse was kind enough to slow down for me and I smiled my appreciation at her.

"Those two..." Gretchen said, anger tingeing her voice. "They all but said I made the whole thing up. I smell a cover-up in the making. I don't think they want to dig too deeply."

Gretchen and I were on the same page, then. Those guys might or might not be smart enough to handle this, but I was starting to think that there were some things best looked into by someone that wasn't a company man. They had a vested interest in making the line look good and, no doubt, they would have superiors breathing down their necks if they made too many waves. Management idiots were probably a lot like political idiots. They didn't want someone upsetting the masses on their watch. They just wanted things to be smooth and look good.

Well, I'd taken heat from people more powerful than this before. I quirked my lips in a smile. Since I didn't work for them, I had a lot more freedom to dig after the answers and ask troubling questions. And when I stepped on toes and people started screaming, I'd deal with that, too. This time, I knew I had backup and friends in high places.

"Hawk?" Gretchen asked, knocking me out of the little world I'd wandered off into. I was doing it again. Focus, dammit!

"Sorry," I said apologetically. "I wandered off for a second. I think this requires a more experienced, outside approach."

She shook her head. "Oh, no! This isn't your fight. I'll live and you're not a cop anymore. I can't risk you or the babies getting hurt."

I grabbed the bed and stopped it in the hall. The nurse looked at me with wide eyes and I gestured for her to go on. "We'll be along in a second. You just go on ahead." I watched the defiant resolve in Gretchen's face, and the tinge of worry that she probably didn't expect me to notice. Or, at least hoped I wouldn't see.

"That comment about me not being a cop is playing dirty, and I refuse to let you drag this argument down into the muck, Sweetheart," I said with as neutral a voice as I could manage. "They made this my business. I can't stand around and let someone get away with murder, even if I can't stand the victim. And I'll be damned if I let someone try to kill you and have them walk away." I put my face in front of hers and glared at her coldly. "Don't try to head me off by making me feel guilty or worried about the babies. I'm not going to back down to you, either. I love you with every fiber of my being. I love our children just as much, but I'm who I am. You knew that when you married me, so don't try changing me now."

Gretchen broke our locked gazed with a nod. A tear slid down her cheek and she closed her eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry. I love you. I don't want to see you get hurt."

I put my arms around her and kissed the tears away. "I'm sorry, too. I could've said that better and not have been such a bitch. I guess I'm not housebroken yet, or I'd be a dutiful wife and do as Daddy tells me to."

She laughed in spite of herself and smiled at me. I knew she forgave me even before she spoke. Once again, the almost uncanny connection between us was back in full force. We might fight, but we never stayed angry for long. "Don't think you can call me Daddy once and then back up, Mommy. Now you've done it."

I chuckled in spite of myself. She was right. I'd slipped up there, and it was too late to back up. "Ah, well. At least I'm Mommy until we get you knocked up. Then I can take back my alpha status."

"Are you planning to get me knocked up soon?" she asked with a smirk. "Lisa might object."

"We'll see," I said. "That's one of the things we all need to talk about. Do you want to be pregnant?"

Slowly she nodded. "I think I do."

"Then we'll all talk about it this week." I said and hugged her. "You don't need to do that just for me."

She laughed. "I want it for myself, too."

"Come on," I said, grabbing the bed and wheeling it down the hall. "Let's get you out of here and back to our room."

-----

The doc looked over the x-rays and pronounced her battered and bruised. He gave her some pain medication and told her to rest for a day and then to take it easy. He didn't know her like I did. She'd be up tomorrow as sure as anything.

Sandy and the girls took her back to the suite, and I made my way back to the scene of the crime. The boys were sitting in the chairs and keeping an eye on the darkened area. They stood when I arrived.

"They never came back down to look the place over," Ted said disgustedly.

I nodded and picked up the flashlight from the table. "They don't take this as seriously as I do. Stay behind me and if you see something, tell me. Touch nothing."

Clicking on the light, I started quartering the area, starting with the lamp that was supposed to be illuminating the area. The bulb was broken. Not burned out. Broken. As clear a sign of something hinky as you could get.

With the boys help, we shortly had the area searched. When we got near the rail, Ted pointed. "There!"

Lying on the deck was a pair of glasses. I pulled a handkerchief from my purse and picked the glasses up gently. They were ugly. Black plastic frames and clear lenses. We used to call them 'birth control glasses' in high school. They differed from the standard by having a watch battery on the inside of one of the earpieces.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion and took a closer look at the front of the glasses. Sure enough, there was a tiny lens on the nosepiece.

"Well, well," I drawled. "What have we here?"

"What is it," Ted asked, peering over my shoulder.

"Spy glasses," I said, looking into the lens coldly. "The kind that let someone else see what you're looking at. Like the ones Tom Cruise had in Mission Impossible. Pretty unusual stuff."

"What do we do with it?" Keven asked.

"We find the other end." I put the lens close to my face. "I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I'm coming for you, you bastard."