Millionaire in Command(20)

Nine



Frozen  in the front seat of the Mercedes, Phoebe gripped the phone,  terror and  relief warring within her. Kyle tensed beside her and she  feared he  might reach for the receiver.Her fingers trembling, Phoebe  changed to  speak-Oerphone. "Bianca? Is that you?"

"Of course it's me," her  college friend, Nina's mother, answered. Her  perfectly modulated voice  filled the car. Any accent had long ago been  smoothed away in her  theater training. "I'm standing outside your  apartment. I've been  ringing your doorbell for the past five minutes  and the neighbors are  starting to get pissed. Wake up and let me in."

Bianca was in  Columbia? Where had she been all this time? Wherever  she'd been hiding  out, she must not have read a newspaper if she didn't  know about Phoebe  and Kyle getting married. The news had been splashed  all over South  Carolina and beyond. Diplomats from around the country  had congratulated  them last night at the D.C. dinner party.

A marriage they'd  consummated, the scent and feel of him still  lingering under her satin  gown. Had it only been a few short hours ago  they'd left for Washington,  D.C.? Good God, her world was blowing apart  faster than she could  gather up the pieces.

At least Bianca seemed oblivious to all the  changes that had gone on in  their lives, which would give them a few  precious hours to get their  thoughts together before Nina's mother burst  through the door. "I'm not  at home. I'm in Hilton Head-with Nina."

She  couldn't even think about the upheaval this would cause for Nina.  She'd  just been settling into the Landis home and their new-more  secure-life.  Phoebe's belly clenched.

"Hilton Head?" Bianca asked. "What are you doing there?"

Phoebe  glanced at Kyle beside her in the parked car inside the lighted  garage.  How would Bianca react to the news they'd married? Even more  important,  didn't Bianca care what had happened to her child? Of course  not, or  she wouldn't have simply disappeared. "I'm taking care of  Nina."

"Oh, how's the kiddo doing?"

The  throwaway tone grated along Phoebe's already raw nerves. It was  obvious  Bianca was unharmed and had chosen to fall off the face of the  earth.

Phoebe  resisted the urge to throw the phone as maternal anger  mushroomed  inside her. "Nina's fine. Since you left her with me last  summer, she  learned to roll over. She's almost sitting up on her own."

"Good,  good. Thanks for babysitting. Do you have an extra key hidden  around  here somewhere? It's not under the flowerpot like it used to be,  and I  really need a place to crash."

Babysitting? Babysitting! Two months-nearly three months now-went way beyond some kind of nanny gig, especially with an infant.

"I  took the key with me when I left my apartment." She'd closed up the   place but had kept paying rent. She'd planned on going back, but deep   down she'd always thought Nina would be with her. Now Nina had both her   biological parents in the picture, which left little room for a   babysitter. "Uh, Bianca, I'm in Hilton Head with Kyle Landis. When you   didn't come back, I brought her here to her father."                       
       
           



       

She watched  Kyle's jaw flex, his face stark and hard, anger darn near  rolling off  him in waves. Nina would have a fierce defender in her  Landis father.  Silently Phoebe sent up a prayer of thanks that she  could count on him  now.

"He's back from Afghanistan?" Bianca's voice breezed from the phone. "Wow, cool, I was planning to get in touch with him."

How  could she be so blasé about letting Kyle know about his daughter?  Would  Nina have ever had the chance to know this big and wonderful  family if  Bianca hadn't told Phoebe?

He gestured for her to keep talking.

Phoebe swallowed down the wad of fear clogging her throat. "Well, you can come to Hilton Head and talk to him in person."

"He's  probably mad, isn't he?" Bianca asked, hesitancy tingeing her  voice for  the first time. "Could you just bring Nina back here?"

Phoebe's  patience snapped. If Bianca thought she could steamroll over  her old,  quiet friend, she was in for a rude awakening. "I can't do  that, Bianca.  You abandoned your daughter. Kyle has temporary custody."

"Phoebe," Bianca gasped, "what in the hell have you done?"

"You didn't leave me any choice when you walked out on your child."

"Fine, I'm getting a hotel for tonight. I'll meet you in Hilton Head tomorrow."

It  was less than three hours' drive. Nothing would have stopped Phoebe  if  it were her child, and oh, God, she could lose Nina now. "Call when  you  get close to town and I'll give you directions to the house."

Bianca hung up without another word.

Phoebe  stared at the phone in her hand, a chill settling all the way to  her  bones. Her teeth started chattering. Vaguely, she heard Kyle  speaking to  her, offering up soothing words about how everything would  be okay. But  she couldn't think of anything but checking on Nina.

Phoebe  tossed aside her phone and bolted from the car. Bunching her  dress up,  she raced into the house, up the stairs, not stopping until  she reached  Nina's nursery.

The crib was empty.



Kyle heard Phoebe's scream.

He  sprinted into the nursery and found her clutching a baby quilt to  her  chest as she stood by the crib. "Where's Nina?" Panic lit her eyes  as  she looked frantically around the nursery. "You said she would be  taken  care of. I shouldn't have left her for even a second. Oh, God, do  you  think Bianca lied and she's already taken her?"


Kyle cupped  her shoulders. "Calm down, it's okay. Nina is in the main  nursery. The  sitter put her there and went to sleep on the daybed. Nina  hasn't been  alone for even a second since we left."

Phoebe sagged with  relief. He pulled her to his chest, understanding  her fear and vowing  for her-for Nina-he wouldn't let anyone harm one  hair on their heads.  She shuddered against him, and it ripped him up  inside to see his  normally cool wife fall apart.

With a final trembling sigh, she  straightened. He only had a second to  register her damp eyes before she  charged out and into the hall. Her  high heels clicked along the hardwood  floors as Kyle followed her to  the green nursery his mother kept for  all her grandchildren.

Phoebe cracked the door open  slowly-warily?-and peered inside. She  slumped against the door frame,  her eyes closing, releasing two fat  tears. "Thank God."

Kyle stopped behind her and peered through the door at the baby fast asleep in the spindled crib.

His daughter.

He  allowed himself a selfish moment to just stare at Nina and reassure   himself she was okay, she would be okay. He memorized her features, a   face he should have studied more fully before now.

She had the  Landis chin and hair. If she were awake, he would be  staring at his own  eyes. But beyond that, he knew she liked her feet  uncovered and she  giggled when he waved her favorite panda-bear  teething toy in front of  her face.

It was so damn little to know. He should know more. He  would know more.  He wouldn't be that part-time parent jetting off for  months only to  find out his child had met a milestone while he was gone.  He had  options, damn it.

She was his daughter.

He loved  her. And in the morning, he could lose her to a woman who  didn't think  anything of disappearing for nearly three months. He'd  never known this  kind of fear before, not even when he'd been shot down  in Afghanistan.  The full impact of that crushed his chest until he  damn near couldn't  breathe. He couldn't even imagine what kind of hell  Phoebe must be  feeling. His wife had loved this little girl for months.                       
       
           



       

He  started to reach for Phoebe, but she stepped deeper into the room.  She  quietly called out to the sitter, gently waking her, smiling her  thanks  and telling her she was free to go to the guest room across the  hall.

Once  the sitter bustled past him and into the other room, Phoebe curled  up  in the corner of the daybed as she'd done her first night here.

Watching  her distance herself from him, Kyle realized he wasn't just in  danger  of losing his daughter, he could also lose his wife.