Chapter 2 - THE MAN SHE SWORE SHE WOULD NEVER FORGIVE
By the sixth hour, Lena Carter could no longer feel her feet.
That terrified her more than the contractions.
Pain meant her body was still fighting.
Numbness meant something was shutting down.
She sat wedged between two steel storage racks with flattened cardboard boxes stuffed beneath her dress and cardigan, anything she could find to create a barrier between her body and the freezing floor.
Her fingers had turned stiff and pale.
Every breath hurt.
The contractions were coming hard now.
Too hard.
Too close together.
Lena pressed both hands beneath her swollen belly.
“Stay with me,” she whispered to the babies. “Please stay with Mommy.”
She didn't know whether she was talking to them or herself.
Somewhere beyond the steel door, the industrial complex was silent.
Victor had chosen the building carefully.
Carter Specialty Foods leased three warehouse units in the manufacturing district outside Milwaukee. The freezer was in the oldest building, scheduled for renovation the following month.
Nobody normally worked there after six.
Victor knew that.
That was why he had lured her there with a phone call claiming an employee had discovered accounting files suggesting someone was stealing from the company.
Lena had been handling Carter Specialty's finances since marrying Victor.
She had come because she thought the company was in danger.
She had never imagined the danger was Victor.
Another contraction seized her.
She cried out.
The sound bounced uselessly off the walls.
Then something changed.
A vibration.
Lena froze.
Not from the cold.
From hope.
She lifted her head.
For several seconds there was nothing.
Then—
Bang.
Somewhere outside.
Metal against metal.
“HELP!”
Her voice emerged weak and cracked.
“PLEASE!”
Silence.
She began striking a frozen plastic crate against the door.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
“HELP ME!”
Outside the warehouse, Damon Cross stopped walking.
He turned toward Building C.
“What?” his project manager asked.
Damon raised one hand.
“Be quiet.”
Rick Mason frowned.
They had been inspecting an electrical issue in a property Damon had purchased two buildings away. At nearly one in the morning, Rick wanted nothing more than to finish and go home.
Damon had almost agreed.
Then he heard it again.
A faint metallic pounding.
Coming from Carter Specialty Foods.
Rick shook his head.
“Probably machinery.”
“The building's closed.”
“So?”
Damon stared toward the dark warehouse.
There were few people in Milwaukee whose property he would have ignored faster.
Victor Carter's was one.
And there was exactly one person connected to Victor whom Damon had spent five years trying to erase from his mind.
Lena.
He had once been her closest friend.
Her business partner.
Almost something more.
Then five years earlier, money disappeared from a company they had founded together.
Documents carried Damon's authorization.
Lena accused him of stealing $600,000.
Damon accused her of choosing Victor's lies over fifteen years of friendship.
Their partnership collapsed.
Three months later, Lena married Victor Carter.
The last thing she had ever said to Damon was, “I hope I never have to see you again.”
Damon had answered, “You won't.”
He had kept that promise.
Until tonight.
Another sound carried across the loading area.
Not banging this time.
A scream.
Damon was already running.
They found a side entrance unlocked.
Inside, the lights were mostly off.
“Call security,” Damon ordered.
Rick followed him through the warehouse.
“Damon, technically we're trespassing.”
“Call the police too.”
Then Damon saw the light above the industrial freezer.
Red.
WARNING.
MANUAL OVERRIDE DISABLED.
He approached the door.
“Hello?”
A faint sound came from inside.
Damon grabbed the handle.
Locked.
Then he heard a woman's voice.
Barely audible.
“Please…”
Every muscle in his body went rigid.
He knew that voice.
“Lena?”
Inside the freezer, Lena stopped breathing.
No.
It couldn't be.
Not him.
Anyone but him.
“Damon?”
His face drained of color.
“Jesus Christ.”
He pulled hard on the handle.
Nothing.
“Rick! Find the breaker panel!”
Damon pounded against the door.
“Lena, can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Her answer came between shaking breaths.
“Victor.”
That one word changed everything.
Damon stepped back.
His eyes hardened.
“What did he do?”
“He locked me in.”
Rick returned from the corridor.
“Emergency release isn't responding. Looks like somebody disabled the exterior mechanism.”
Damon looked at the hinges.
“Tools.”
“We don't have enough equipment.”
“Then find something.”
“Police are eight minutes out.”
“She doesn't have eight minutes!”
From inside came a scream.
Damon pressed his palm against the frozen door.
“Lena!”
“My babies…”
His stomach dropped.
“How pregnant are you?”
“Thirty-two weeks.”
Then she screamed again.
Rick whispered, “Oh, God.”
Damon's voice changed instantly.
No anger.
No history.
Only focus.
“Listen to me, Lena. You're getting out.”
“I can't feel my legs.”
“You are getting out.”
Another contraction.
Lena curled forward, tears freezing against her cheeks.
“I think one of them is coming.”
Damon looked around wildly.
“Rick, get the truck.”
“What?”
“The tow chain.”
“You'll destroy the frame.”
“I don't care.”
Within minutes, the chain was wrapped around the freezer door mechanism and attached to Damon's heavy-duty pickup outside the loading bay.
The police arrived as Damon climbed behind the wheel.
An officer shouted for him to stop.
Damon ignored him.
He accelerated.
The chain snapped tight.
Metal screamed.
The first pull bent the locking assembly.
The second tore part of the frame loose.
The third ripped the door open.
A wave of white frozen vapor rolled across the floor.
Damon jumped from the truck and ran.
He saw Lena against the racks.
For one terrible second, he thought she was dead.
Her lips were blue.
Her hair was crusted with ice.
Her maternity dress was soaked beneath her.
Then her eyes opened.
They met his.
Five years of hatred vanished from Damon's face.
“Hey.”
Lena tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
He took off his coat, wrapped it around her and lifted her carefully.
She cried out.
“Baby.”
“I know.”
“No.” Her frozen fingers grabbed his shirt. “The baby's coming.”
Paramedics rushed through the doorway.
One look at Lena and they began shouting instructions.
Damon carried her toward the ambulance until a medic stopped him.
“We need her on the stretcher.”
Lena refused to release his shirt.
“Don't leave.”
The words shocked both of them.
Damon looked down at the woman who had once told him she never wanted to see him again.
“I won't.”
Inside the ambulance, Lena's condition deteriorated quickly.
Her body temperature was dangerously low.
The twins' heart rates were unstable.
The paramedic called ahead for an emergency obstetric and neonatal team.
Lena shook violently under warming blankets.
Then suddenly she stopped shaking.
The medic's expression changed.
Damon noticed.
“Why did she stop?”
The medic didn't answer him.
He leaned toward Lena.
“Stay awake for me.”
Her eyes fluttered.
“Victor…”
“We'll deal with Victor.”
“He'll say it was an accident.”
Damon looked at her.
“Was it?”
She swallowed painfully.
“No.”
Then Lena whispered something only Damon heard.
“He wanted the insurance.”
Damon went completely still.
At St. Catherine's Medical Center, doctors rushed Lena directly toward surgery.
Damon followed until a nurse blocked the doors.
“You can't come farther.”
Lena was disappearing down the hallway.
“Damon.”
He moved around the nurse.
“I'm here.”
She looked at him with terror in her eyes.
“If I don't make it…”
“Don't.”
“My babies.”
“You'll tell them yourself.”
“Promise me.”
His jaw tightened.
“I promise.”
The operating-room doors closed.
Damon stood alone beneath fluorescent lights with Lena's blood on his shirt and frost melting from his coat.
A police detective approached.
“Mr. Cross?”
“Yes.”
“We need to know exactly what you found.”
Damon turned.
Before he could answer, another man entered the emergency department.
Expensive coat.
Perfectly styled dark hair.
Fear painted convincingly across his face.
Victor Carter.
“My wife!”
Damon stared at him.
Victor rushed toward the desk.
“Where is Lena? Someone called me and said there was an accident.”
Then he saw Damon.
His performance faltered for half a second.
Half a second was enough.
Damon understood.
Victor hadn't expected Lena to be found.
And Victor certainly hadn't expected Damon Cross to be the man who found her.
“What are you doing here?” Victor whispered.
Damon slowly walked toward him.
Police officers watched from nearby.
Victor recovered.
“Where's my wife?”
Damon stopped inches away.
“In surgery.”
Victor put both hands over his mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Damon leaned closer.
“She told me what you did.”
Victor's eyes changed.
Only briefly.
But Damon saw that too.
“She's confused,” Victor said. “Hypothermia can—”
“She told me about the insurance.”
Victor went pale.
Damon's voice dropped.
“You should start praying she survives.”
Victor swallowed.
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
Damon looked toward the operating-room doors.
“Because if Lena dies, your problem won't be me.”
He glanced at the detectives approaching from behind Victor.
“It'll be explaining why your eight-month-pregnant wife was locked inside your freezer with the safety mechanisms disabled.”
And for the first time that night, Victor Carter looked afraid.
Then the operating-room doors opened.
A doctor stepped out.
There was blood on her gown.
Damon and Victor both turned.
The doctor's expression was grave.
“We delivered both babies.”
Damon held his breath.
“And Lena?”
The doctor hesitated.
May you like
“We're trying to save her.”
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