CHAPTER NINE

Emelia’s townhome was a beautiful old red-brick two-story structure in Alexandria. It had three bedrooms, so the team was able to spread out and share beds. It wasn’t ideal, but they bought a few blow-up mattresses and made themselves at home. While Sebastian ordered pizza for everyone, she called the one person she needed the most.

“Maddie, please come over,” she begged. “This is important to me, and I need my sister here to help me.”

“I don’t know, Em. I’m crazy busy here.” She was lying. Emelia knew it. She’d been lying for weeks now, and no one knew why.

“Maddie. I’m your sister. I was kidnapped and almost killed. I need you, and I need your brain. What is the matter with you? I thought you and Forrest were doing well.”

“We were. We are. I just…”

“I can’t believe you won’t do this for me. I don’t understand,” she said, feeling the emotions flood her body. Maddie looked at her sister, shaking her head.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

A few minutes later, the pizzas were delivered, and everyone dove into their meal. Emelia loved to cook for family, but living alone didn’t give her a lot of opportunities to do that. She preferred ordering just for herself than to cook with tons of leftovers that usually spoiled.

Unsure of what was happening between Maddie and Forrest, she didn’t want to get his hopes up and tell him she was on her way. Em knew that they’d been seeing one another for the last five months almost every weekend. Then suddenly, three weeks ago, Maddie started avoiding him. In fact, she was avoiding everyone, and that was even more disturbing.

“I’ll get it,” she said as the doorbell rang. Sebastian gripped her hand, standing with her.

“I’ll answer with you.”

“You don’t need to,” she whispered. “It should be Maddie.” He nodded but stayed close as she opened the door. They both stared at the young woman, then behind them.

“Who is it, honey?” asked her father.

“It’s me, Dad.” Maddie stepped inside the room, and it felt as if the air was sucked out of the entire house. Chief stared at his daughter, then back at Forrest.

“You’re pregnant,” said Em. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I haven’t told the father. Yet.” She looked at Forrest, then rubbed her slightly protruding belly. “I should have told you. I know I should have. I’m sorry, Forrest. I know you don’t want kids, but I do, so I just thought that I’d do this by myself. I was going to come home sooner or later and tell everyone.”

“What the fuck would make you think I don’t want kids?” he snapped, standing so quickly he dropped his plate.

“Y-you said so. Our first time,” she stopped, blushing as she looked at the room. They were family, but some things felt wrong to talk about. Unfortunately, they weren’t giving her an inch at this point.

“Our first time we were together. You said kids have a way of fucking up your life.”

“Maddie, baby. I said if you’re not truly in love, truly committed, kids can cause more problems. They don’t fix the problem. We’d just finished that case with the couple who hated each other’s guts but kept having kids that they ignored and abused. I wasn’t talking about us, Maddie.

“You and me, baby, you and me love one another. At least I know I damn sure love you. Any kids we were to have would be showered in love, affection, learning, peace, everything they could ever want. I have always wanted lots of kids, honey. Hell, I’m a Robicheaux. Lots of kids is written in our DNA.”

“You want kids?” she whispered. Everyone chuckled, and Forrest took a few steps closer to her, hoping she didn’t run. Her father gripped his arm, giving a nod of approval.

“Christopher just found out Ramey is pregnant with triplets. There are five others back home pregnant. Looks like you and I will be the first to bring new babies home since you’re further along. When are we due?”

“We.” She smiled at him and took another step forward. “We are due December 23 rd .”

“A Christmas baby,” he smiled.

“Babies.” Chief gasped, staring at his daughter, then at Forrest. His smile got wider, and he reached for Maddie.

“How many? How many blessings does this undeserving man get?”

“Genetics are strong at Belle Fleur,” she grinned. “Four. Spontaneous quadruplets. Again. It’s why I’m so damn big. The Pentagon knows that I have to leave soon. The doctor wants me on bed rest right away.”

“Then you’ll be on bed rest,” said Forrest. “In our bed in our cottage at Belle Fleur. I think first, we need to call your mother and my parents and our grandparents. Sebastian? Em? We might ask to have a double wedding if you could stand that.”

“I would love nothing more than being married beside my sister,” smiled Emelia. She hugged Maddie, kissing her cheeks and then touching her belly. “You should have called me. I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” She looked at her father. “Dad? I’m sorry.”

“For what?” he laughed. “I’ll have all my daughters married and grandbabies on the way. Your grandma and grandpa are going to be happy as shit.”

For the next hour, Forrest and Maddie made call after call to let everyone know at Belle Fleur. It didn’t take much convincing for Forrest to get her to agree to leave the Pentagon the next day and return with him. Sebastian and Emelia knew it was best for all of them.

“I did pull some information for you, Em,” said Maddie, taking a seat. Forrest pulled her slightly swollen ankles up onto his lap, gently massaging her feet. “Your lady, Helen. She’s got an interesting past.”

“How so?” frowned Em.

“She didn’t always work as an admin at the bureau. She was with the Pentagon for a while. I’m not sure what happened. That isn’t in her files, but she requested a transfer to the bureau about twenty years ago.”

“Interesting. Why would she lie and tell me all her time was with the bureau?”

“I’m not sure, but what I can tell you is this. There was a group of individual contributors, mostly admins, who stuck together. They did lunch, often carpooled together, even took days off together. The Pentagon told them that had to stop because they had six or seven admins out on one day. It put a big stoppage in the work.”

“These are all people who worked for us,” said Em. “Any at the Pentagon?”

“Several transferred shortly after she did. They had access to it all, Em. Our files, our family history, cases that were being worked, all of it. As much as you liked Helen, and I know you did. You talked about her. As much as you liked her, I think she’s a traitor. At the very least, a bank robber.”

“But she was at work when the robberies were taking place,” said Emelia.

“I’m just trusting my gut. All of this is connected to that woman. And the two that drugged you, Myrtle and Ed? They didn’t bother to hide their names. Myrtle was the executive assistant to General Borden at the Pentagon for years. Ed was a file clerk at the bureau.”

For another three hours, they talked about a million possibilities, writing everything on a huge whiteboard in Em’s office. When Maddie started to yawn, Forrest took control.

“I’ll stay with Maddie tonight, and we’ll go home in the morning. If you need me, I’ll come back,” he said to the others.

“No, brother,” smirked Sebastian. “She needs you. Make sure she knows that you fucking love kids, and you’re going to be an amazing father.”

Forrest nodded, hugging all his friends. When Chief hugged him, he was surprised at the loving and compassionate way he held him.

“You’re a fine man, Forrest. I couldn’t have chosen anyone better for Maddie.”

“Thank you, sir. Maybe later you can tell me how to raise four babies at once. I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing.” The men all laughed, but it was Hex who slapped his back as he left.

“Guess what? None of us do.”