He laughed, the sound oily and horrible. “Them bruises don’t got my name on ’em. You can’t prove nothin’. Far as anybody else knows, you got yourself a nasty-tempered boyfriend.” He traced a fingertip along her cheekbone. Maggie tried to jerk her face away, but pain and weakness made her movements sluggish. “Here’s how it stands, sweetness. I got signed, notarized papers sayin’ you gave up your kid for adoption and that you took the money. All legal and tidy. If you try to fight me, there ain’t a judge anywhere that’ll rule in your favor, especially not when your own stepdaddy speaks out against you, testifyin’ that you ain’t a fit mother.”
“Unfit?” Using the hand unhampered by the IV, she shoved his arm away. “Get out of here. You’ve got no hold over me now. Heidi’s safe. I’ve seen to that, and she’s prepared to tell a judge what a creep you are so she can live with me. You’ll never get within a mile of her again. I’m warning you, Lonnie. Back me into a corner on this, and even though it may upset Mama, I’ll come out fighting. You’ll be the one who lives to regret it. Do you understand? I’ll file charges against you for assault. The doctor here will back me up. She’s seen what you did to me. They’ll toss you in a cell and throw away the key.”
His grin only broadened. “So Heidi’s safe, is she? You sure about that, little girl?”
Maggie’s heart caught. She’d seen that gleam in Lonnie’s eyes before.
“I figured out where you took her,” he whispered.
He was lying. He had to be lying, Maggie thought frantically. Her boss’s sister had offered to let Heidi stay with her until Maggie could send for her. The woman had a different married name than Terry and lived in another town. There was no way Lonnie could have tracked Heidi down.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I? Well, now, sweetness, you best be damned sure.” As he spoke, he curled his fingers over her hand and started bending her wrist back. “You see, it went like this. Heidi, she got to worryin’ about your mama frettin’ over her, so she telephoned home to tell her she was all right.” He laughed. “I always knew that caller ID would come in handy someday. Heidi bein’ only ten, I guess she didn’t stop to think about me tracin’ the call. I wrote down the name and phone number, went to the sheriff’s office, and me and a county deputy drove over to Tillard to fetch her back.” He smiled evilly. “If you don’t come home, fine by me. Me and Heidi will get along right fine.”
A wave of dizziness made Maggie blink. Pain lanced up from her twisted wrist. Through clenched teeth, she whispered, “You monster!”
Lonnie wrenched harder on her hand. “Say now, let’s not call names. Start gettin’ mouthy and disrespectful, and I’m liable to get mad. What happens to Heidi then?” He pressed his face so close that the rancid smell of his breath nearly gagged her. He arched his brows in question. “Hey, sweetness, what’s wrong with your screamer? It broke or somethin’? All of a sudden, like, you’re bein’ a model of good behavior!”
Through the closed door of Maggie’s room, Rafe could hear the growl of Boyle’s voice, interspersed with Maggie’s faint responses. Settling Jaimie in the bend of his right arm, Rafe inched the door open. Through the crack, he could see Maggie on the raised hospital bed. Boyle leaned over her, twisting on her wrist and laughing softly. Rafe’s gaze shot to the side of her bed where the emergency buzzer dangled at the end of its cord.
“You’re gonna tell that asshole to let me have that kid, or you’ll be sorry. You understand me?”
Maggie arched her spine and tried to grab his wrist with both hands, but her IV tube snagged on the bed rail.
Helpless to intervene with a baby in his arms, Rafe turned to catch a nurse who was hurrying down the hallway. Ignoring her startled expression, he thrust the infant into her arms. “Take this child to the nurses’ station and see to it he’s kept safe. No one but me is to take him. You understand?”
Wide-eyed, the young nurse nodded mutely.
“Then get on the horn to page Dr. Hammish and security. There’s a disorderly visitor in 122. He’s roughing up a patient. There’s going to be trouble, and I may need help.”
As the nurse scurried back toward the nurses’ station with Jaimie, Rafe turned to face the door, trying with everything he had to get his temper under control. It was a no go. He’d never been so mad.
When he pushed the door back open, he grew even more furious. Face averted from her stepfather, Maggie struggled while Boyle continued to bend her wrist to the breaking point. The tendons at each side of her throat were distended as she strained to free her twisted arm.
Rafe didn’t feel his feet move. Between one breath and the next, he was across the room. Not bothering to speak, he swung at Boyle with all his strength, knocking him off Maggie and backward. Maggie screamed as Boyle spun with the force of the blow. After doing a full turn, the heartless bastard grabbed for the privacy drape to break his fall. He pulled the drape down with him, sending the curtain hooks flying in all directions, and landed flat on his ass.
Rafe was on him again before he could move, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. At the edge of his mind, he knew this wasn’t the time or place for it, but he couldn’t resist planting his fist squarely on the bastard’s nose. Just once. Boyle howled and clamped a hand over his face.
“You broke my nose!”
“That’s not all I wanna break, you worm!” Seizing the man’s bent arm, Rafe twisted it behind his back, flipped him over onto his belly, and straddled his hips. For good measure, he smacked the back of Boyle’s head with the heel of his hand to make damn sure he did a face plant on the tile. “You ever lay so much as a finger on her again, and I’ll kill you. You read me loud and clear, you rotten son of a bitch?”
Boyle grunted and gasped out, “My arm! Goddamn! Let up before you break my wrist.”
“How’s it feel to get some of your own medicine?” Rafe twisted harder. “Oh, Jesus, God!” Boyle cried. “Maggie, make him let me go! Maggie!”
“Rafe, please! Let him up. This will only make it worse!”
Amazement coursed through Rafe. He’d seen the look on her face. She hated and feared this man, and there wasn’t a doubt in Rafe’s mind that it had been Boyle who’d beaten the hell out of her. Yet she was pleading with Rafe to release him? Not a chance.
“Rafe, please!” she begged. “Oh, God! You don’t understand. You’ve no idea what he’ll do. Please! Oh, please.”
Rafe reluctantly eased the pressure. “Are you all right?”
Sitting up in bed, she was shaking violently, one arm curled around her ribs. Her brown eyes swimming with unshed tears, she glanced fearfully around the room. “Jaimie. Oh, God, my baby! What did you do with him?”
“The nurses have him, and they’ve been warned to turn him over only to me,” Rafe hastened to assure her. “He’s fine, Maggie.”
Her shoulders slumped with relief.
“Dr. Hammish and security are on the way here,” Rafe told her. Then, leaning forward, he met Boyle’s gaze and added, “You’re going to jail. You may get away with this where you come from, but you can’t walk into a hospital and manhandle a woman. I hope they toss you in a cell and throw away the key.”
“What’s going on in here?”
Rafe reared back to see around the bed. He recognized the flash of Dr. Hammish’s red hair as she ran to Maggie’s side. Over the top of the mattress, Rafe saw her quickly check the IV shunt in the back of her patient’s hand. Then she pressed Maggie against the pillows and sent Rafe an inquiring look. He nodded at the man beneath him.
“Meet Mr. Boyle. I caught him trying to strong-arm your patient. It seems he forced her to sign adoption papers. I think we both know what kind of coercion he used. Now he’s demanding she relinquish custody of the baby. He claims the adoptive parents paid her hand-somely to give Jaimie up—all her medical bills and money to go to college.”
“I never got a cent!” Maggie insisted. “I wouldn’t sell my baby! It’s a lie, a horrible lie. Lonnie took the money. All
of it. He arranged everything behind my back and then forced me to sign the papers.”
The doctor slipped an arm around Maggie’s shoulders and drew her close. “Shhh, Maggie. Calm down,” she soothed. “He won’t take your baby. In most cases, even if a woman does sign the papers, a judge will rule in favor of the natural mother if she changes her mind.”
“Wanna bet?” Boyle cried. “How about if the natural mother’s unfit? I’ll testify against her. See if I don’t. How will that look? Huh? Her own stepfather speaking out against her! After I get done talkin’, the judge will think twice about ruling in her favor, mark my words.”
“Don’t believe him, Maggie,” Dr. Hammish interjected.
“Doesn’t make no difference what she believes!” Boyle retorted. “Only what a judge thinks will matter. He’ll want that kid to have a good home, and the folks adoptin’ him are rich. Big, fancy house. Uppity-up neighborhood. They’ll send him to the best schools! No contest! They’ll already have that baby, and no judge in his right mind will make them give a child back to a two-bit little tramp who sold him to support her drug habit!”
Maggie made a tortured sound. “Drug habit? I don’t take drugs!”
Boyle sneered. “Oh, yeah? Prove it! I’ll swear you did! And so will the attorney. We’ll say you only stopped using long enough to get your kid back.”
The physician’s green eyes darted to Rafe. The security guards rushed into the room just then. After taking quick stock of the situation, one of the uniformed men turned to the doctor. “Should we call the police?”
“Yes! Call the goddamned police!” Boyle yelled, straining against Rafe’s hold. “She signed them papers of her own free will and took money. Sold her own baby. Some mother! The adoption attorney notarized the papers himself. They’re on the bed. Look and see for yourself. She’s got no claim to that kid anymore, and I’m takin’ him to his new parents. None of you can stop me. I got the law on my side! It’ll take months before the case goes to court. By then the kid’ll love his adopted parents, and she’ll play hell gettin’ him back.”
Rafe didn’t doubt for an instant that money had changed hands. He was also convinced it had gone straight into Boyle’s. Maggie had gotten nothing out of the deal but a beating that had damned near killed her. Evidently, after being forced to sign the papers, she had somehow managed to flee with the baby before her stepfather could turn him over to the adoptive parents.
Any attorney who had been present to authenticate those adoption papers when Maggie was being physically forced to sign them had to be as slimy a worm as Boyle was.
A crooked adoption attorney who dealt in human flesh. A son of a bitch for a stepfather. Dear God.
Searching Maggie’s terrified gaze, Rafe knew she was in way over her head. Boyle was right. It would look bad for Maggie if her own stepfather testified against her at a hearing, and in the ensuing months until the case was reviewed by a judge, Jaimie would become attached to his adoptive parents. The court would definitely take into account that Maggie was a virtual stranger to him. Unless she could prove she’d been muscled into signing those papers, she could lose her baby, and as Boyle had already pointed out, none of those bruises on her body had his name on them.
It would nearly kill Maggie if she lost her child.
Seeing no alternative, Rafe released Boyle’s arm and swung off him, signaling the guards to take over. Boyle rolled onto his side, rubbing his wrist. He sneered as the two security guards pulled him to his feet, then shook their hands away as he gained his balance. He swiped furiously at the blood under his nose, grabbed the adoption papers off the bed, and staggered to the door.
Before storming from the room, he turned and leveled a finger at Maggie. “You made a bad mistake when you decided to mess with me, little lady. That baby ain’t all you’re gonna lose. What about your sweet mama and that cute little sister of yours? I’ll wait in the lobby and give you an hour to think about it. If you don’t change your mind and hand over the kid in that time, I’m callin’ the cops.” He waved the papers and shot Rafe a smoldering look. “You won’t be such a hotshot then, hey, boy? Refuse to give them that kid and see what happens! They’ll throw your ass in jail so fast, it’ll make you dizzy.”
Chapter Seven
After Boyle made his exit, the hospital room went deathly quiet. Rafe wasn’t sure how he expected Maggie to react. He only knew any reaction would have been less alarming than nothing at all. She lay motionless, staring straight ahead, her face so pale and her eyes so lusterless she might have been a corpse.
Dr. Hammish flashed Rafe a worried look, then stepped to the bed and retrieved the emergency buzzer. After ringing for a nurse, she rewound the cord on the bed rail. “It’s going to be all right, Maggie. You have a friend in me and in Mr. Kendrick. We’ll help in any way we can.”
A nurse in pink scrubs rushed into the room. Her rubber-soled shoes squeaked on the tile. Dr. Hammish turned to softly issue orders for medication.
During their exchange, Rafe had eyes only for Maggie’s drawn face. God only knew what she had endured at Boyle’s hands, the only certainty being that she couldn’t take much more. “Maggie?” he said softly. “Honey, can you talk to me? I want to help you, but I need to know exactly what I’m up against here.”
“You can’t help me,” she said stonily, and then, before Rafe realized what she meant to do, she sat up, jerked the IV shunt from the back of her hand, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “Where are my clothes?”
The doctor gasped and grabbed for her patient’s bleeding hand. “Dear God, what are you doing?”
“Leaving.” Applying pressure to her hand to stop the bleeding, Maggie stepped down off the stool and headed for the wall locker, the back of her hospital gown flapping. As she threw open the locker and grabbed her jeans, she cast Rafe a determined glance. “Could you go and get Jaimie for me, please?”
Even as she spoke, she swayed with weakness. Dr. Hammish scurried across the room. “You can’t do this!” she cried.
Maggie shook her off. “I am doing it.” She braced a hand on the locker to support herself as she bent to thrust a foot down one pant leg. At the effort, her face lost even more color. “I have to get back to Prior before Lonnie does so I can get my sister out of there.”
Rafe couldn’t move. He had the oddest sensation, as if the tile beneath his feet had turned to water, and he was about to sink. Over the last two days, he’d been assaulted by one inexplicable feeling after another about this young woman, and now, in a heartbeat, they were all hitting him at once.
“I’m sure your sister will be fine for a day or so,” Hammish insisted. “You’re very ill, Maggie. You can’t leave here without receiving treatment.”
“Write a prescription for pills,” Maggie retorted as she worked the jeans up over her slender hips. “If I don’t get my sister out of there, Lonnie may hurt her to get back at me. That’s the way he operates.”
The doctor seized Maggie’s elbow to help steady her. “Let’s not overreact. We’ve other options. Calling the police is one of them. And isn’t your mother living in the home? Surely she’ll look after your sister until we can work through appropriate channels to get the child out of there.”
Her movements jerky with urgency, Maggie snapped her jeans and bent to collect her socks and shoes. “I can’t call the police. They might take one look at that adoption agreement and hand Jaimie over to my stepfather.” She tugged on a sock and shoved her slender foot into a sneaker. “Then it’d take months, maybe even years, for me to get my baby back.”
“I admit there may be an element of risk,” the doctor conceded, “but calling the authorities is still your best bet. I’ll intercede on your behalf. It’s obvious you’ve been physically abused. They’ll see that and take steps to help you.” Tightening her grip on Maggie’s elbow, Dr. Hammish added, “Don’t put me in this position. If you persist in trying to leave, I’ll have no choice but to sedate you, and I really hate to have to do tha
t.”
Maggie hesitated in putting on her second shoe to glance up, the haunted, hopeless look in her eyes nearly breaking Rafe’s heart. “So, you’re going to save me from myself? And what about Heidi, Dr. Hammish?” she asked in a quivering voice. “Can you intercede on her behalf as well?”
The doctor’s lips parted as if to speak, but then she simply stood there, saying nothing.
“You see?” Maggie said softly. “It’s not just me and my baby. If not for that, don’t you think I would have left a long time ago?”
“What pushed you into leaving this time?” Dr. Hammish asked.
“Things came to a head, and I didn’t have a choice. It was that or lose Jaimie. I thought Heidi would be safe, that there was absolutely no way Lonnie could find her. But he did!”
Rafe took a hesitant step toward her, not entirely sure what he could do to help her, but convinced he had to do something. She squeezed her eyes closed, her face twisting with anguish.
“I wanted to bring Heidi with me, but Lonnie isn’t stupid. He knew I might try to leave, so he took all my money and charge cards before he went to bed that night and locked them in his nightstand drawer.
“My boss floated me a loan, but she’s only the truck stop manager, not the owner. She gave me all that she could, but it still wasn’t enough for me to get settled someplace. Rent, deposits, food. I had no choice but to take Jaimie, but unless I absolutely had to, I couldn’t go dragging a ten-year-old all over God’s creation in the dead of winter, not knowing if I could even provide adequate shelter for her. I decided she’d be better off staying with Terry’s sister where she’d be safe until I could find a job and send for her. With the money Terry gave me, all I needed was one week’s pay.”
She lifted her hands in a gesture of futility. “It wouldn’t have been for very long. Only nothing went right! While I was trying to get on the train, it started to move. Jaimie was already on board, and I was running to catch up. I slipped on the ice and dropped his quilt and the diaper bag. Everything was in it. Stuff for Jaimie, the money, everything. And then I got sick. Now Heidi’s back home. I can’t just leave her there. Please, try to understand that.”