A Baby Before Dawn by Linda Castillo

created?”
    The other man stepped in to take some of the heat off his counterpart. “I thought—”
    “Don’t think!” Aidan shouted. “Act! I want them caught yesterday! You got that? I don’t care what you do or how you do it! Find them.”
    “We’ll find them.” The man in the wing-tip shoes met his gaze and a silent understanding passed between the two men.
    Within the pale blue depths of the other man’s eyes, Aidan thought he saw a smidgen of grit, of cold determination, the icy fortitude of a killer, and he was marginally relieved. He and his brothers and father had paid top dollar to these brutal men. Men who didn’t ask questions and got results no matter how distasteful the task. He hoped they hadn’t wasted their money. Aidan was starting to think he’d be better off finishing this alone.
    But it was too late. Boston was a huge city. He didn’t want to be the one to tell his father Chase Vickers had gotten away.
    “Find Lily Garrett,” he said after a moment. “Bring her to me.”
    “What about Vickers?”
    Aidan Shea smiled. From what he’d seen, big, bad Chase Vickers was like a puppy dog when it came to Lily Garrett. “Bring me the woman, and he will follow.”
     
    L ILY FOUND cold ham, some smoked cheese and a bottle of grape juice in the galley. As Chase finished his call, she gathered plates and glasses and set them on the table. In one of the cupboards, she discovered a box of stale crackers. Normalcy in the midst of lunacy, she thought as she arranged crackers on the plate next to the cheese.
    Chase looked at the table as if the concept of eating were foreign.
    Lily motioned toward the food. “I know eating seems mundane in light of everything that’s happened.”
    “No,” Chase said quickly. “You need to eat. You’re…” His words trailed.
    She couldn’t withhold the smile. “Eating for two.”
    Chase smiled back, but it looked tense on his face.
    Taking the bench seat, Lily set a slice of cheese on a cracker and popped it into her mouth. Chase poured grape juice into glasses. For several minutes neither of them spoke; the only sound came from the gentle lapping of waves against the hull.
    “You’re really worried, aren’t you?” Lily asked. It was a profound question, because Chase wasn’t the kind of man to worry.
    “Worry is an understatement.”
    “Do you have any idea who’s behind it?”
    “Maybe.”
    She arched a brow, wondering if he was going to keep her in the dark.
    “There was a mission, eleven years ago,” he began. “Things went wrong and some hostages were killed. A man was court-martialed and went to prison.”
    “And?”
    “He was recently released.”
    “Who is it?”
    He grimaced. “Look, I think the less you know the better off you’ll be.”
    “So you’re going to keep me in the dark?”
    “I just think there are some things we shouldn’t talk about,” he said carefully.
    “If something happens…” Not sure how to finish the sentence, Lily let her words trail. She didn’t want to think about anything catastrophic happening. Not to her. Not to Chase. But she had her unborn child to think about now. She had no choice but to consider every possible scenario no matter how distasteful.
    “If something happens,” she began, “I need to know what to do. I need to know where to go. I need to know who to trust.”
    Rising abruptly, Chase crossed to the small stove and leaned. Lily held her ground, taking in the rigid set of his shoulders and white-knuckled fingers. She could practically feel the tension coming off him. All she could think was that this wasn’t the Chase Vickers she’d once known. That man had been totally unshakable. He’d thrived on danger, gotten off on adrenaline. What had changed?
    “You think if they get their hands on me, they’ll torture me for information about you?” she asked.
    He gave her a dark look, the muscles in his jaws working. “That’s where they’ll start.”
    A powerful shudder ran the