Mommy Midwife
ALMOST NINE MONTHS PREGNANT AND ON THE RUN...
Staying several moves ahead has kept Troy Weathers alive in the world’s most explosive hot spots. So when this marine learns that Olivia Laughton is being stalked, he immediately takes her and their unborn child on the run. His instincts tell him it will require more than skill to keep them safe—and to prove just how much he wants to stay in their lives.
Olivia has no problem trusting Troy to keep her safe, or following his orders. It’s believing their one night together was more than just a passionate fling that seems riskiest of all. Still, with time running out and an unsuspected enemy closing in, Olivia knows Troy is her best chance at survival...and their baby’s only shot at a promising future.
Troy swept Olivia into his arms. “Get back in the car!”
“Are you all right?” Her eyes were wild. “Tell me you’re all right.”
“Not until you’re in the car.” He shoved her into the backseat and dove in behind her, slamming the door behind him.
She held his face in both her hands. “You scared me half to death.”
“I’ll need to get this suit dry-cleaned for my brother. Other than that, I’m fine.”
Her mouth pressed gently against his. His pulse was still racing. He was breathing hard. The extreme pressure of battle clenched inside him, tying his gut into knots. But the sweetness of her kiss did a lot to ease his tension. Every fight should end with a kiss from a beautiful woman as a reminder of what was really important....
Cassie Miles
Mommy Midwife
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Though born in Chicago and raised in L.A., USA TODAY bestselling author Cassie Miles has lived in Colorado long enough to be considered a semi-native. The first home she owned was a log cabin in the mountains overlooking Elk Creek, with a thirty-mile commute to her work at the Denver Post.
After raising two daughters and cooking tons of macaroni and cheese for her family, Cassie is trying to be more adventurous in her culinary efforts. Ceviche, anyone? She’s discovered that almost anything tastes better with wine. When she’s not plotting Harlequin Intrigue books, Cassie likes to hang out at the Denver Botanical Gardens near her high-rise home.
Books by Cassie Miles
HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
904—UNDERCOVER COLORADO**
910—MURDER ON THE MOUNTAIN**
948—FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW
978—PROTECTIVE CONFINEMENT*
984—COMPROMISED SECURITY*
999—NAVAJO ECHOES
1025—CHRISTMAS COVER-UP
1048—MYSTERIOUS MILLIONAIRE
1074—IN THE MANOR WITH THE MILLIONAIRE
1102—CHRISTMAS CRIME IN COLORADO
1126—CRIMINALLY HANDSOME
1165—COLORADO ABDUCTION‡
1171—BODYGUARD UNDER THE MISTLETOE‡
1177—SECLUDED WITH THE COWBOY‡
1193—INDESTRUCTIBLE
1223—LOCK, STOCK AND SECRET BABY‡‡
1229—HOOK, LINE AND SHOTGUN BRIDE‡‡
1255—MOUNTAIN MIDWIFE
1279—UNFORGETTABLE
1293—SOVEREIGN SHERIFF
1317—BABY BATTALION
1343—MIDWIFE COVER
1368—MOMMY MIDWIFE
**Rocky Mountain Safe House
*Safe House: Mesa Verde
‡Christmas at the Carlisles’
‡‡Special Delivery Babies
To Christine Jorgensen and the Monday Think Tank.
And, as always, to Rick.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Olivia Laughton—Eight and a half months pregnant, the midwife is about to become a mommy.
Troy Weathers—The baby’s father wants to marry Olivia but isn’t ready to give up his career as a marine captain in special ops.
Alex Weathers—Troy’s brother is a doctor who works in the E.R. and at a homeless clinic.
Bianca Laughton—Olivia’s sister, a lawyer, is on her way toward partnership in her firm.
Richard and Sharon Laughton—Olivia’s diplomat parents have kept their life-changing secret for years.
Sergeant Blaine Nelson—Troy’s second-in-command is running the show on the investigation into a terrorist cell code named Hatari.
Kruger—A legendary undercover operative who entered the U.S. more than twenty years ago has linked with the Hatari terrorists.
Prince Amir—The powerful Saudi prince is attracted to Bianca.
Matthew Clark—A top executive in an oil company, he is a client of Bianca’s law firm and a man with many secrets.
Jarvis Raines—A former client of Olivia’s, he blames her for the death of his baby.
Carol Raines—The trauma of losing her baby propelled her to help others at the homeless clinic run by Alex.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Excerpt
Prologue
Cold and alone, Olivia Laughton shuffled aimlessly through the dark streets of Denver. A stiff November wind rattled the last of the dead, dry leaves clinging to the branches, and she clutched the broken zipper on the front of her borrowed sweatshirt, a navy blue rag she’d discovered in the hospital lost and found office. She’d left her bloodstained parka behind.
She couldn’t throw away her memories so easily. In horrible detail, she recalled the scene of the car accident in the mountains, the chopper that brought her and the victims into town and the E.R. staff who told her there was nothing more she could do for them. There was always something more. She was a nurse. She should have tried one more procedure. She should have found a way to save them.
A sob crawled up her throat but she was too numb to make a sound. All she could do was keep walking, step after step, mile after mile. If she stood still, the gathering sorrow would rise up and roll over her like an avalanche. Would she still feel pain when she was frozen in a solid block of ice?
Though she hadn’t planned her destination, her surroundings were familiar. Stumbling to a halt, she looked to her right and saw the beige brick bungalow where Alex Weathers lived. Alex was a doctor; he’d hold her hand and tell her that everything was okay. It’s not your fault. That was what he’d say. And she wouldn’t believe him.
Seeing Alex wouldn’t help her. His brother, Troy, was a different story. When she thought of him, she felt a burst of heat in her belly. Troy Weathers would give her what she needed. He’d take her in his arms and make her forget what happened. With Troy, she could purge her memory.
Did she dare approach him? They’d been on only two dates. Once for coffee. Once for lunch. There had been a fiery kiss that left her craving more, and he’d promised that he’d call her the next time he was in Denver. In spite of their nearly combustible chemistry, she didn’t make the mistake of thinking they were headed toward a relationship. They had nothing in common. She was a nurse midwife, a healer. And he was a career marine in special ops, a dangerous man.
Unaware of moving toward the porch light, she found herself standing at the front door. She pressed the buzzer.
Troy opened the door. “Olivia?”
Through the screen door
, she stared into his dark brown eyes. “I need you.”
He pulled her inside. The light from a table lamp glared in her eyes, and she blinked until the room came into focus—a typical bachelor pad with mismatched furniture. The lamplight shone on the spine of an open book. Odd. She never would have thought a man of action like Troy would spend his spare time reading.
“Alex isn’t here,” he said. “He’s working a night shift.”
“I don’t want Alex.”
The warmth inside the house penetrated the cold that wrapped around her like a shroud. Her skin prickled as her heart began to pump and her blood began to flow.
“You look like hell,” he said.
She couldn’t say the same about him. He looked damn good. With his wide shoulders and narrow hips, he made the black Mickey Mouse T-shirt he wore seem sexy. Even in his bare feet, he towered over her. His sinewy, tanned forearms were cut to perfection. She wanted his arms around her, wanted to feel him inside her.
Was she really doing this? Showing up on the doorstep of a casual acquaintance and demanding sex? Never before had she done anything so desperate. She was the type of person who took care of others, not the other way around. She prided herself on being able to handle any crisis. Not this time. Never before had she felt so shattered.
Her arms fell loosely to her sides, and the oversize sweatshirt gaped open. Troy stared at her T-shirt.
“That’s blood,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Are you injured?”
“It’s not mine.”
“Do I need to call 911?”
She was puzzled. “Why?”
“Well, if it’s not your blood, there’s somebody else out there who’s in need of first aid.”
“You think I killed someone?”
“Did you?”
If she could have mustered the energy, she would have laughed at the absurdity of his suggestion. “No.”
“What happened?”
He deserved an explanation, and she wanted to give him one. But she couldn’t force herself to tell him. She gasped. Her lungs ached, and her throat was raw. The sobs she’d been holding back threatened to gush from her. She shook her head, and her vision blurred. She felt herself beginning to hyperventilate.
“Hey,” he said. “Pull it together, woman.”
His voice was like a slap in the face. “What?”
“You heard me. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s to see a woman cry.”
“Don’t worry.” With an effort, she stiffened her spine. “I’m not going to have a breakdown.”
“Good.” He took her hand. His gentle touch contrasted the authority in his voice. “You’re freezing. Come with me.”
She followed him down the hallway, glad to let him take control. In the bathroom, he flicked on the overhead light. The clear shower curtain was decorated with a map of the world, and the countertop was littered with shaving supplies, which Troy hadn’t been using lately. His square jaw was covered with stubble, a rugged contrast to his neat-trimmed black hair.
“You’ve got blood all over,” he said. “It’s on your shirt and your jeans. Even in your hair.”
She glanced into the mirror. A brownish smear matted in the tangles of long blond hair that had escaped her ponytail. Quickly, she looked away. “I’m a mess.”
“I’ve seen worse,” he said. “Now, here’s what’s going to happen. First, you need to get cleaned up. You’re going to strip and take a shower. Okay? And I’ll bring you something to wear.”
She stumbled toward the toilet, flipped down the seat and sat. The prospect of washing up felt like a monumental undertaking. She stared at the shower curtain map, wishing she were somewhere else, somewhere far away. Was coming here a mistake?
“Come on, Olivia. You’ve got to get out of those clothes.”
“I know.”
“Just relax. Talk to me.” He knelt on the tile floor in front of her and untied the laces on her sneakers. “Tell me what you’re doing in Denver. You live up in the mountains, right?”
“In Dillon.” She had a private practice as a midwife and also worked at the hospitals in Summit County, but she came to Denver twice a month to assist at a clinic for the homeless. That was where she’d met Alex.
“What are you doing in town?” he repeated as he pulled off her right shoe and sock. “You can tell me anything. Where did the blood come from? Was there an accident?”
“Car accident. Then the helicopter came.” She remembered the roar of the rotors, shouts from the crew, the endless scream. “It was loud.”
“Yeah, choppers are like that.” He took off her other shoe and sock. “You went to the hospital.”
She nodded. “E.R.”
“And then what?”
A mental door slammed shut. “I can’t. I don’t want to talk about it.”
His large hand rested on her knee, and he gazed into her eyes. “You might find this hard to believe, but I know where you’re coming from.”
Anger whipped through her. “How can you possibly know?”
“I can see that you’ve been through something bad, really bad.” He stood and hovered over her. “Do you need help with that sweatshirt?”
She growled, “I can undress myself.”
“There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, you know.”
“A nice little chat,” she said bitterly. It would take more than that to heal her.
“It’s a place to start. After you take your shower and get cleaned up, I’ll make you something warm to drink.”
“If I’d wanted tea and sensitivity, I would have come looking for your brother.”
“Fair enough,” Troy said. “What do you want from me?”
She surged to her feet. Reaching up, she held his face with both hands and kissed him. His mouth was hard as stone, but that didn’t stop her. Her tongue traced the line of his lips and she kissed him again.
Though he held back, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against him. “Make love to me, Troy.”
He tried to push her away, but she clung tighter.
He tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen.
Desperation consumed her. She needed to feel life pulsing inside her. She needed the heat of passion to melt the icy fingers that held her heart in a frozen grip.
Another kiss. Another frantic caress. She could feel him beginning to respond. “Please,” she begged. “Please.”
His arms embraced her. His mouth found hers, and he breathed new life into her lungs.
Tonight, they would make love.
After that, she never expected to see him again.
Chapter One
Eight and a half months later...
Today was a first for Olivia. Triplets, she’d delivered triplets! She rubbed her hand over the swell of her own hugely pregnant belly, glad that there was only one bun in this oven. Three were way too many to handle as a single mom. Her one baby—a boy—was the perfect number, just perfect. Nearly every aspect of her pregnancy was perfect.
After a last peek at the three healthy baby girls in the hospital nursery, she headed down the corridor toward the front exit of St. Agnes Hospital in Summit County. Tired but happy, she stepped outside and inhaled a breath of fresh mountain air.
The last glow of sunset was fading from the August skies, leaving a faint gold outline along the hogback ridge opposite the hospital complex. The summer night was quiet and warm enough that she didn’t really need the cardigan she’d thrown on over her purple scrubs. She set her backpack on the pavement beside a stone bench, stretched her arms over her head and yawned.
It had been a twelve-hour labor with many anxious moments. At one point, Olivia had considered calling for a C-section, but the mom had insisted that she’d get a second wind. And she’d been correct. When the time had come to push, the babies had arrived without complications, other than the juggling act required to handle three newborns at the same time.
Before crossing the parking lot to her SUV, Olivia sat on the bench to check the phone messages that had accumulated on her cell. The first had come at sixteen minutes past four o’clock.
“Hey, pretty lady.” It was Troy. “I’m in Denver, and I want to get together. Call me back.”
Eight and a half months ago, she’d needed him desperately. Now...not so much. She patted her belly and deleted his message.
Erasing the man himself wasn’t so easy. The next phone message at precisely five o’clock was also from him. “Don’t think you’ll get rid of me by not calling back. If necessary, I’ll use military intelligence resources to triangulate your phone signal, pinpoint your exact location and find you.”
“Like a stalker,” she muttered as she pressed Delete.
His third message came only fifteen minutes after the second. And it was brief. “Marry me, Olivia.”
“No way,” she said to the phone. What did it take to get through to this man? This had to be the twentieth time that he’d proposed.
When she was four months pregnant, he’d been back in Denver, and she’d told him the news. He had the right to know that he’d fathered a child and that it was her intention to keep the baby and raise it on her own. At age thirty, her biological clock had been clanging like a fire siren. She wanted this baby with all her heart, and she’d made it crystal clear to Troy that she would not require child support and would allow him all the visitation rights he wanted.
His response had been to drop to one knee and propose. She should have known he’d take responsibility. The man was a career marine, and he was all about honor and duty.
Short-sighted was what she called that attitude. Her grandma always said, “Marry in haste and regret it at leisure.” Olivia had thanked Troy for being considerate, but she’d told him no, absolutely not, no.
Her refusal didn’t stop him from proposing again. And again. And again. Every time she saw him or heard from him, he popped the question. He’d sent a dozen roses on her birthday—a date she hadn’t told him but he’d somehow figured out. In the flowers was a card that said, Marry me, Olivia.
Then he’d started sending baby gifts. A tiny Yankees baseball cap, a hand-crocheted blanket, a teddy bear and a three-wheel jogging stroller that was perfect for the mountains. If they’d been in love, she would have been touched. But they weren’t.