Secret Agent Affair Read online

  “Mama,” Sasha interjected.

  Magda sighed. She didn’t bother turning toward her oldest daughter. “Again someone is worrying that I am embarrassing the man—or maybe one of my daughters, too. But I speak from the heart, I am not playing any kind of games—”

  “Mama.” This time Sasha said the name more urgently, although it was still somewhat restrained.

  Giving up, Magda turned around. She had expected Marja to try to steer her away from this new young man, not Sasha.

  “What is it?” Magda cried, one hand on her hip. “Is something wrong with the dinner?” And then she stopped as she took a long look at Sasha’s face. She knew that face, recognized that face. It was the same one she’d had all those years ago.

  Crossing herself, she murmured, “Jesus, Mary and Sainted Joseph,” under her breath, hurrying over to Sasha’s side.

  At the last minute Sasha’s husband had been called to the scene of a homicide and had to beg off from attending the grand opening. Though he really thought it best if she just stayed home herself, Tony surrendered to her argument that she needed to be around people and who better than her family? Tony agreed that he’d join her the second he was free to do so.

  Now Sasha was really glad she hadn’t stayed home by herself. Although she’d attended scores of women in her condition, it just didn’t take the place of being in that position herself. Giving birth alone was too scary for words.

  “My water broke,” Sasha told her mother unnecessarily.

  The second the words were out of her mouth, all four of her sisters converged around her.

  Marja took her hand. “Does it feel as if the baby’s coming right away, or can you make it to the hospital?” Marja’s heart hammered with excitement.

  “Hospital,” Sasha pleaded as a breathtaking pain overtook her and sucked her deep into its center.

  “We’ll take her in my car,” Mike declared. Running late, he’d told Natalya that he would meet her at the restaurant and drove his police vehicle there. “I’ve got a siren.”

  Sasha stood up and the next moment her knees buckled. She would have sunk to the floor had Kane not caught her. Without any hesitation, he picked her up in his arms, holding her as if she weighed nothing at all.

  “Lead the way,” he told the man he’d met over the chopping block. Mike’s face was vaguely familiar and he had a feeling that he and the vice detective might have interacted at one time. But Mike gave no indication that he knew him, so at least for the time being, he was safe, Kane thought.

  “It’s parked two blocks over. I can pull it up to the door,” Mike told him.

  Kane shook his head. “Just lead the way,” he repeated.

  Natalya and Mike quickly took the lead. Marja fell into place beside Kane with everyone following behind. A total of eleven of them poured out onto the darkened street.

  Magda stopped just short of the doorway, torn. She looked over her shoulder at what was her newest baby, the restaurant. There were tallies to make and if nothing else, it had to be locked up and secured until tomorrow came.

  Reading her expression, knowing her better than he knew himself, Josef dropped back and waved her on.

  “Go,” he urged his wife. “I will closing the restaurant for you,” he told her. “You go be with our daughter.”

  Magda blinked back tears that suddenly sprang to her eyes, seeming to come out of nowhere. Leaning in, she lightly brushed her lips against his cheek. “I love you, old man.”

  Josef smiled as if this was the first kiss they had ever exchanged. “I am knowing this. But I am not so old,” he informed her. “Go, go.” He waved her on again. “I will be there as soon as I can.”

  When she couldn’t seem to get through using the cell number, Marja tried calling the precinct where her brother-in-law worked. Connecting to the dispatcher, she asked the woman to notify Tony Santini that he was probably minutes away from becoming a father.

  “His wife is on the way to the hospital,” Marja told the dispatcher. “Tell him to hurry if he wants to make the blessed event.”

  “Now,” Sasha all but screamed.

  “Did you get that?” Marja asked the dispatcher.

  “I think Newark got that,” Natalya quipped.

  “Wait…until…it’s…your…turn,” Sasha panted.

  “I think she just put a curse on you,” Marja told Natalya. She tucked the cell back into her purse, turning her attention to Sasha again.

  Both she and Kane were in the back seat with the pregnant woman while Natalya rode in the front with Mike. The latter was swiftly and smoothly going through all the lights. There was a lot of ground to cover between the restaurant and Our Lady of Patience Memorial Hospital in Manhattan and he aimed to set a new record.

  As another colossal wave of pain came for her, Sasha grabbed both Marja and Kane’s hands, squeezing hard as she tried to channel her agony through the death grip.

  It wasn’t working.

  As the wave receded for a moment, Sasha fell back against the seat, panting. “I always thought the first one would take its time.”

  Natalya responded with a short laugh. “It’s half a Pulaski,” she reminded her older sister. “How could you have expected it to play by the rules?”

  Sasha couldn’t answer her. She was being hammered by another huge contraction. They seemed to be getting larger and more devastating every time they swept over her.

  In the end, they just barely made it to the hospital in time. Kady, following with Byron and her mother in the next car, called ahead to the hospital and Sasha’s doctor. Sasha was one of their own and the E.R. team was waiting for her outside the hospital doors. The moment Kane lifted her onto the gurney, Sasha and Tony’s baby began her journey into the world.

  Sasha looked stunned as well as in agony. Marja was the first to see it. “Move it, move it, move it,” she cried as she ran alongside Sasha’s gurney. “She doesn’t want to give birth in the parking lot.”

  “Where’s Dr. Johnson?” Kady asked.

  “En route,” one of the nurses answered.

  “Not good enough,” Marja said. “This baby is coming.”

  “Not until Tony’s here,” Sasha cried, clenching her teeth together to keep the scream bubbling up within her in check.

  Just then, they heard a car come tearing around the corner. The vehicle all but flew into the lot. It came to a teeth-jarring, screeching halt several feet away. The engine hadn’t stilled yet, but Tony Santini was running toward them with the speed of an Olympic athlete being chased by a starving lion.

  Thank God, Marja thought. “You can fire at will, Sasha,” she told her sister.

  Tony grabbed for Sasha’s hand as he reached the gurney’s side. They hurried her through the doors. “You okay?” he asked.

  “Been…better…” Sasha cried.

  Any second now, Marja thought. “Trauma room,” she ordered the E.R. team. “Take her to a trauma room,” she repeated.

  “But the maternity ward—” the nurse began to protest.

  Agreeing with Marja, Natalya shook her head. “The elevator’s too far. There’s not enough time.”

  When the orderly didn’t comply fast enough, Kane elbowed him out of the way, taking possession of the gurney.

  “Which one?” he asked Marja.

  A quick glance told her that the closest one was free.

  “One,” she pointed.

  Natashya Magda Santini, with her father, her grandmother who couldn’t be budged, and all four of her aunts in attendance, arrived less than five minutes after the door to Trauma Room 1 was closed.

  Chapter 12

  “It’s not always like this,” Marja said to Kane, finally breaking the thick silence as he drove her back to her apartment.

  Her brand-new niece was now about two hours old. Natalya, the family pediatrician, had checked Natashya out and pronounced the baby to be what everybody already knew: perfect. A starry look had flared in Kady’s eyes as she and Byron left the hospital. So
much so Marja was certain she would probably be an aunt again approximately nine months from tonight.

  Her father had arrived at the hospital an hour after the rest of them and had promptly fallen in love with his first grandchild. It had taken a total of three seconds. Maybe less. He and Mama seemed incredibly content as they left the hospital, bound for their little house in Queens where it had all started.

  Tony was allowed to remain with Sasha for the rest of the night. The staff had brought in a cot for him and the new family dozed as their visitors tiptoed out of the room.

  All in all, it had been a great evening for the Pulaski family, Marja thought, struggling not to get teary-eyed. But she wasn’t sure how Kane had taken in what must have seemed like a three-ring circus. She told herself it didn’t matter what this man thought. But she knew she was lying to herself. It mattered.

  He mattered.

  “My family,” she said in case Kane had missed her point. “They’re not always this…” Her voice trailed off as she searched for a word that was expressive but didn’t come across as too judgmental. She didn’t want to add to any ideas he might already be harboring.

  “Intense?” he suggested.

  It was too dark inside the car to read his expression. And yet he’d chosen the right word and she nodded in agreement.

  “Intense,” she echoed.

  He slowed down for the third red light in a row. Progress was made one short block at a time. “You don’t need to apologize for them.”

  She hadn’t intended for it to sound like an apology, at least, not exactly. She just wanted him to know that while her family was an exuberant bunch, this night had been unusual. There weren’t usually grand openings that needed CPR behind the scenes and babies being born.

  But if he didn’t think any apologies were necessary and he wasn’t intimidated or put off, why hadn’t he said anything for the last ten minutes? “Then why are you being so quiet?”

  He laughed shortly. “I thought a little quiet would be nice after all that commotion.”

  Now he was just being polite. Not that she didn’t appreciate it. “You mean, noise.”

  Finally turning right, he spared her a glance. “If I’d meant noise, I would have said noise.” The truth of it was, after he’d gotten used to the nonstop activity, he’d enjoyed himself. “Your family’s a little larger than life, especially your parents.” He paused, then narrowed it down even more. “Especially your mother,” he emphasized.

  The way he said it made her laugh. “That’s a given,” she told him. “Mama is fiercely protective, fiercely loyal and sometimes just plain fierce.” They had all gotten used to it and loved her for her energy. But to an outsider her mother came on strong.

  Kane concentrated on the road and his next red light. “You’re lucky to have her.”

  She hadn’t expected that from him. His response sounded almost intimate—and it made her smile. “Yeah, we feel that way, too, even when we’re complaining about her.” Grateful for the conversation, she shifted in her seat and looked at his profile. “What was your mom like?”

  He didn’t answer her at first. Didn’t answer for so long she thought he hadn’t heard the question. As they passed a streetlight, the interior of the car was briefly illuminated and she realized that his jawline was rigid.

  “I don’t know.”

  The moment he said the words, she remembered. Remembered that he’d said something about being partially an orphan. Or rather, she’d guessed at that and he’d more or less agreed. Tired, she’d forgotten about that.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. But now that she’d stirred memories he probably preferred leaving dormant, she might as well get the rest of it. She was a firm believer that talking helped reduce the pain. “When did she die?”

  He blew out a breath, debating telling her it was none of her business, then decided it no longer mattered to him anymore. “Physically or mentally?”

  The sarcastic question took her aback. This was worse than she’d thought. His mother must have been the victim of an accident, sent into the depths of a coma for a length of time before she finally died. Curious though she was, she retreated. “I didn’t mean to stir up bad memories.”

  One shoulder rose and fell in a careless response. “Not your doing,” he told her. “The memories are always there somewhere, just below the surface.”

  His niceness made her feel guiltier. Someday she was going to learn how to keep her mouth shut. “It must have been very hard on you.”

  He stared straight ahead at the road, his voice distant. “I lived.”

  Kane retreated right before her eyes. She hated the wall that went up like a force field if she pressed the wrong button, said the wrong thing. “Yes,” she said gently, “but how.”

  It was more of a statement than a question, a testimony to a life she couldn’t begin to fathom.

  While trying to imagine the kind of childhood he must have had, it took her a moment to realize that they’d entered the underground parking structure beneath her building. Kane pulled his car up into the first available spot designated for guests. Shifting, she quickly unbuckled her seat belt and got out, then rounded the hood and came over to his side. She was afraid he would leave without a word.

  Her heart ached for the boy he’d been. Opening the driver’s door, she bent over, unbuckled his seat belt, then silently took his hand. She tugged gently, urging him from the vehicle.

  Getting out, he was in no hurry to follow her to the elevator. If he did, complications would ensue. “Maybe I’d better go home.”

  Marja looked at him for a long moment, banking down the surge rushing through her body. Since they’d made love, the desire for a repeat performance was never far away. But he had to want it, too, not just go through the motions because she was throwing herself at him. “Do you want to?” she asked in a low, even voice.

  “No,” he told her honestly. “But maybe that’s why I should.”

  She could understand being so overwhelmed by a feeling that she resisted having it overpower her. But she couldn’t bear the idea of his being alone just now. She pictured Kane as a small boy, having to deal with a life with no mother to turn to, no mother to act as his buffer, his haven. It explained a lot of things.

  “No strings, Kane,” she promised. Giving voice to what was already understood between them. “No commitments.” Even as she said the words, she drew him closer to the elevator. And he let himself be drawn. Into the elevator. Onto her floor. And into her apartment.

  Because he wanted to.

  Because he wanted her.

  “What about your sister?” he asked as she closed the door behind them and slipped the chain in place.

  She could feel her blood racing through her veins, her heart pounding in her chest. It all mingled into a symphony, all echoing his name. Marja dropped her purse on the floor where she stood. Her fingers got busy with the belt on his slacks.

  “Tania’s spending the night with Jesse.” She glanced down when the button gave her trouble, working it free.

  “She told me so.”

  Her hair brushed against his throat. How could he so quickly get used to the scent of her hair, to the way her body fit against his, to the texture of her skin? How could all of that feel so familiar when he had only been with her that one time? Granted the evening had flowed into the next morning and “once” had multiplied into a number of couplings, but still, this was all new, all fresh, not something that came as naturally to him as breathing.

  As naturally as taking up with the other half of his soul.

  He didn’t believe in souls. Didn’t believe in anything he couldn’t see. Feelings were not visible, he silently insisted.

  But his heart raced in anticipation a second before he filled his hands with her hair and brought his mouth down on hers. Before he heard her breath get caught in her throat and felt her yielding to him, this fiery, unbendable female who had somehow woven her way into his every thought.

 
Desire roared through him. He ran his hands, his lips, all along her face, her throat, her breasts, each movement making him only more hungry, only more insatiable. He wanted her now, stripped of everything except her warmth.

  His mouth sealed to hers as if she was the source of life-sustaining air, Kane began to tug away at Marja’s dress.

  The noise began somewhere in the distance, like an unheeded car alarm buzzing far away on the street. But the noise grew in volume, in insistence, and succeeded in prying them apart.

  Marja was breathless. “It’s your phone,” she said with a barely disguised gasp as she sucked air into her lungs. He made her head spin, she thought. If he didn’t make love to her very, very soon, she would wind up jumping his bones. Not lady-like, but damn necessary. “Mine has the theme song from E.R.,” she told him.

  He could feel the cell phone ringing and pulsing in his pocket. He wanted to hurl it across the room, not answer it, but he knew the former was not an option. He’d signed on the dotted line and his life was not his own. Ever.

  So he yanked the cell phone out of his pocket, his brow creased with impatience. His voice was short as he barked, “Yeah?”

  And then, as he listened to the voice on the other end of the call, his expression sobered. The anger and desire he felt began to recede until both had disappeared entirely.

  His eyes closed, he blew out a silent, frustrated breath. “Right. I’ll be right there.” It sounded more like he was swearing rather than making a promise to appear.

  With his thumb and forefinger, Kane snapped his cell phone closed and then pushed it back into his pocket. Tension ran through his body as he willed himself to regain control.

  “I have to go,” he told her. There was no room for argument, no space left where he could be persuaded otherwise.

  Disappointment rolled over her. As she stood in the middle of a pool of material that had been, a few moments ago, her dress, Marja silently bent down and raised the garment back up along her hips. Never taking her eyes off his, she zipped the dress back up again. It was as if someone had thrown a switch.