His Son. Her Secret.

Chapter 4

By the time Beth slipped out of the warehouse and into the alley, her arms were tight around the small body pressed to her chest.

She moved fast, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. The night felt louder now. Every shadow looked like a threat. Every sound made her pulse jump higher, which in turn made her arms tighten.

“Beth, where the hell are you?” Avi’s voice cut through her earpiece.

“Back exit,” Beth murmured. “Two minutes.”

“Make it one.”

Beth didn’t argue. She moved faster, boots crunching lightly over gravel as she rounded the corner and froze.

The van door was already open, and nobody looked happy. Beth swallowed hard as she took in her friends. Avi stood just outside it, arms crossed, posture rigid, eyes locked on her like she was something that needed to be dealt with immediately.

Mal leaned against the side of the van, jaw tight. Even Belle was halfway out of the passenger seat, laptop abandoned, staring.

Knowing there was no avoiding it, Beth stepped out of the shadows until she was in full view of everyone. Then she stopped again and waited.

For a moment, they all seemed frozen, confusion written all over their features. If not for the tension, Beth would have laughed. As it was, she was sweating buckets, and her heart hadn’t slowed down.

“What,” Avi said slowly, “is that?”

Beth didn’t answer right away. She adjusted the little boy slightly, revealing just enough of the face for them to see. The child let out a soft, tired sound. That did it.

Mal straightened. “Oh, hell no.”

Belle blinked. “Is that… A baby? There was a baby in the safe?”

“What?” Beth said, brows furrowed. How the hell was that even possible? “No. Of course not. He was in the basement with two thugs.” The mention of the men seemed to remind her body that she’d taken some hits, and the ache returned, but not enough that she loosened her arms around the child.

Avi’s expression didn’t change. If anything, it got colder. “You stole a baby,” she said, voice flat, “Instead of the watches we are supposed to deliver for money?”

Beth’s jaw tightened. “They were going to kill him.”

“That wasn’t the job.”

“So was I just supposed to ignore the fact that there was a crying child?”

Avi wasn’t impressed. She took a step forward. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

Beth let out a short breath. “Yeah. I saved a life.”

“You compromised the entire operation!” Avi snapped, her voice rising for the first time. “We don’t have the watches, Beth. The watches we needed. The ones Mal already lined up a buyer for!”

“Eight million,” Mal muttered darkly. “Gone.”

Beth flinched, but only for a second. “Maybe I can still go back.”

Belle was already shaking her head. “The window was tight. If I sneak back into their system now, they will know, and the police will be on us before you even get into the building.”

Okay. Beth looked around as though the answer would pop out of the shadows and fix everything. “Then we will find another job to get the money.”

Avi chuckled, but it had no humour. “It’s not that easy, and you know it. Jesus, Beth, why couldn’t you just stick to the plan? We needed that money!”

Beth gave her friend an incredulous look. A beat passed as she tried to comprehend if Avi was just too stressed to reason with a little humanity or if her morals were just that selective. Finally, Beth lifted the child in her arms away from her chest and turned him around so they could all see him and see that he was a real baby, tears-stained cheeks and all.

“Fine,” Beth said, her voice icy. “Who wants to take him and dump him back in the basement? The men said he would either be sold or permanently relocated to a six-foot ditch somewhere, but that’s obviously not our concern. All we want is money. A child’s life doesn’t count even though it’s a child’s life at the center of things.”

Oh, Avi didn’t like that. Beth watched as her friend’s jaw clenched hard; thankfully, no words escaped her lips. Beth had no doubt she’d touched a nerve, but she’d only spoken the truth.

Belle, always the one trying to defuse the situation, cleared her throat. “Okay, maybe we can table this conversation until we get back home? We are still packed in an alley in the middle of the night, dressed in black. That doesn’t exactly spell innocent.”

Mal pushed off the van, running a hand through her locks. “Are we supposed to go with that child home?”

Beth nodded without hesitation. “Of course.”

“And when someone comes looking?” Mal added. “What happens then? Huh? We’re the ones holding the kid. What does that make us?”

Beth hesitated a beat. Her brows drew together in thought. “We will return him to his parents.”

Avi let out another sharp, humorless laugh. “And say what? Oh, we just found your son in a basement and decided to bring him back. Don’t ask what we were doing in the building or why we didn’t call the police. It’s not that simple.”

“Maybe it should be.”

Avi’s eyes flashed. “This isn’t a game, Beth. Use your head and be smart. This is how we survive.”

“And that’s how they die?” Beth shot back, tightening her hold on the baby as it shifted in her arms. “That’s the line now? We draw it at an inconvenience?”

“No,” Avi said, voice low and dangerous. “We draw it at stupidity.”

That hit. Beth’s expression hardened. “Stupidity?” she echoed.

“Yes,” Avi said. “Because every time you decide to follow your gut instead of the plan, we end up cleaning up the mess. Again.”

Beth stilled. A cocktail of emotions swirled in her chest. Hurt. Guilt. Anger. She couldn’t keep it down. “Say it properly,” Beth said, her voice growing cold. “Don’t dance around it.”

If she thought her friend would back down or soften a little, she was sadly mistaken. Avi didn’t hesitate. “You’re impulsive,” she said. “And it’s going to get us all caught one day.”

The words landed like a slap to the face. She would do anything for her friends and had done so over and over again. Her loyalty had never been questioned before. To say that she would be their downfall really hurt. For a second, Beth just stared at her. Then she released a breath. “Impulsive?” she repeated quietly, almost to herself. Okay. Maybe she hadn’t thought things through, but still.

Beth shifted the baby back against her chest, making sure he was comfortable before she looked back up. “Would you have left him?”

Avi didn’t answer.

“Answer me,” Beth pressed. A beat passed. Then two. Avi’s jaw tightened. Any harder and Beth was certain they would hear the woman’s teeth c***k.

“That’s not the point,” she finally gritted out.

“No,” Beth said quietly, shaking her head. “That is the point.”

Silence fell. Beth released a sigh. God, she suddenly felt exhausted like she hadn’t slept for a week. She rubbed her hand up and down the kid’s back for a moment. Then, deciding she was done with this discussion, she squared her shoulders and looked up again. “We will figure it out.”

Mal raised a brow. “That’s your conclusion?”

Beth gave a small, tired shrug. “For now?” she said. “Yeah.”

Belle huffed a quiet laugh. “Great. We’ve officially upgraded from thieves to… What? Babysitters?”

“Kidnappers,” Mal corrected dryly.

Beth’s grip tightened instantly. “No,” she said firmly. “We didn’t kidnap him. We saved him.”

Avi watched her for a long beat. Then she sighed, and for a second, she looked like a woman with the world on her shoulders. Beth almost felt sorry.

Finally, Avi shook her head. “Get in the van,” she said.

Oh, thank God.