SEIZED, A Romantic Suspense Novella by Suzanne Ferrell Read Free Book Online

upset.
    Cautiously, he locked up his service weapon in the gun cabinet then started up the stairs, all the time trying to figure out what he’d done to piss off the normally calm and cooperative woman he’d married.
    “Judy?” He called again as he stopped in front of the half-closed bedroom door.
    “In here.”
    He pushed the door open, his breath catching in his throat.
    There she stood with her back to the door, hands on her hips.
    Naked.
    “Judy?” Was something wrong with her? She’d had a doctor’s appointment today. Had there been bad news?
    Slowly she turned.
    He focused on her face. Her eyes glistened with tears, but there was a soft smile on her lips.
    “What’s going on, babe?”
    She simply pointed down.
    His gaze traveled down her body. There was a trail of body paint, from just below her breasts—a vine pattern in a rusty color—that swirled down and around her abdomen, stopping at a word.
    BABY
    “You’re pregnant?”
    “Yes!” She jumped up and down like a happy little child then threw her arms around his neck. “I had Sami do the henna art, because I wanted to celebrate for more than one day. It will last for weeks and we can smile every time we see it. We’re having a baby! Isn’t it wonderful?”
    He swallowed his terror watching her happiness .
     
    For the next nine months he hid his dread of losing her. She’d survived not only that first birth, but the others as well. He’d been less afraid the other two times.
    Now that fear was back.
    “Hold it together, man,” his brother Matt said laying a hand on his back, bringing the present back into focus.
    “Take some deep breaths. We can do this,” Katie whispered.
    Castello moved around them, opening the door to peer out into the hallway. “Suck it up, Edgars. Your woman needs you.”
    And those words hit him like a command, pulling him out of his own despair.
    With a deep breath, he straightened and nodded to Castello. “We’re one floor below the OR. At the end of the corridor to our left is an elevator and set of stairs leading to the back entrance. Hopefully, the stairs won’t be full of SWAT waiting to storm the place.”
    They headed out single file with him in the lead chanting his friend’s words in his head.
    Your woman needs you.
     

Chapter Four
     
    T o prevent the battering of his body by the gale-force winds, Jake kept close to the side of the building, making his way up the sidewalk as best he could toward the Emergency Room entrance. Beneath his shoes crunched areas of frozen sleet and pellets of salt the hospital’s maintenance crew had spread to prevent too much ice from forming on the sidewalk. Occasionally he slid on the errant spot they’d missed.
    The bastard gunman couldn’t have picked a more crappy night to pull this stunt.
    As he neared the ambulance bay he slowed to study the chaotic scene up ahead.
    Something wasn’t quite right .
    A small contingency of police and hospital personnel were moving patients in wheelchairs and gurneys to the older part of the hospital, away from the new annex where the operating room and emergency rooms were located. A very small amount of police presence for the situation.
    That was the problem. He’d expected to see half the police force and the SWAT van in place. Where were they? Had the roads gotten so bad they couldn’t get here?
    Spying a young officer on the perimeter of the area stopping anyone trying to approach, Jake headed his way, slipping his credentials out of his pocket.
    “Sorry, sir, no visitors are being let in tonight,” the cop said, holding up his arm to prevent Jake from just strolling in.
    Putting on his I’m-FBI-and-I’m-in-charge face, Jake flipped open his credential case for the younger man to see. “Agent Carlisle, FBI, and I need to speak to the officer in charge here, pronto.”
    The policeman dropped his arm. He took the credentials to study them a moment and handed them back before turning and pointing toward a tall, lean, older