"Daddy," Patty said, sounding amazingly like Kate, "the potatoes are ready for you to finish. Mommy and I are hungry, and so is little Bethie," she said, patting her mother's rounded abdomen. Kate was five months pregnant with a daughter, as they had recently learned from her sonogram.

Lindsey ruffled Mike's blonde hair. "Sorry, Mikey, we'll play more after dinner." He walked up to the porch and picked up the little blonde girl. "Okay, Princess, let's go do the potatoes. Can you scoop them out of the shells for me?"

Kate took plates and glasses out of the cupboard and set them on the counter while Mikey put placemats on the table. He then took the plates one by one and set them carefully at each place. He took the silverware from the drawer and distributed them on each side of the plates. Meanwhile, Patty carefully scooped potato into the KitchenAid mixer bowl as Lindsey took milk, butter, and cheese out of the refrigerator. He whipped up the potatoes with the milk and butter, seasoned them with salt and pepper, stuffed them back into the shells, and topped them with cheese. Kate popped the potatoes into the oven, taking out the meat loaf. "I love your twice-baked potatoes, Lin." She showed her gratitude with a big kiss.

"Why can't we have your macaroni & cheese, Dad?" Mike asked.

"I'll make it Saturday, when I have a little more time. I promise." He took the salad out of the refrigerator and set the bowl on the table. Mike poured on the dressing and Patty carefully tossed it, not getting much on the table. Then he poured milk for his kids and Kate and a glass of iced tea for himself. "What's for dessert, Kate?"

"You need to lose about five pounds, Lin. Ice cream for us, nothing for you." She smiled at him gently as she said it to take the sting away.

"More of me to love, Katy." He knew she was right. He had always been a good cook, and Kate had learned rapidly, so he had eaten a little too well. As he sliced the meat loaf, he took just a small piece.

When dinner was over, Lindsey and his family carried their dirty dishes to the sink; Lindsey rinsed them before loading the dishwasher. As he worked, he reflected on what a lucky man he was. Kate was everything he ever wanted or needed in a woman, and the kids got along so well. The new baby would tie the family together. If only he and Kate would be allowed to adopt Mike. He'd ask again on Mike's birthday, as he had done every year since the boy was given into his care. He had gladly adopted Kate's daughter Patty. Although neither of these children were his biological children, he couldn't love them more. And he was happy working for Manning & Williams, a large local law firm, where he headed their pro bono department. What could possibly happen to spoil things?

Just then the doorbell rang. "Could you get that, Lindsey? It's probably Megan collecting for the new fire truck. She said she'd come by."

Lindsey went to the door and threw it open. Then his jaw dropped from the shock of seeing the person on the other side.

"Hello, Lindsey," Lilah Morgan said. "I'm here to take the boy."

Chapter 1

Lindsey shook his head. "No, Lilah. You can't take him."

"I can, Lindsey. It's in the contract. You know that."

"But he's fine. He's healthy, he's happy, I've taken good care of him. I sent all the records from the doctor, the dentist, his nursery school."

"It's funny how you forgot to send his baptismal certificate, though."

Lindsey stammered, "No one said it was forbidden. When Kate had Patty baptized, it was just as simple to do both of them at once."

"The Senior Partners weren't happy about it, but it wasn't enough to break the contract. And, after all, you were baptized, and so was I. Holland, too, or so I'd heard. That's not why we're taking him. If it were, we'd have done it years ago."

"But we're his family. We love him, and he's happy with us. He has a father, a mother, a sister, and another one on the way."

"Yes, a wonderful family. Mr. Evil Hand who shoots up board meetings as a father. A psychotic ex-cop who was thrown off the force as a mother, and her bast—"

Lindsey had raised his hand ready to slap her. "I hit you once, Lilah. Remember? At the 75 year review? Don't make me do it again. You'll never refer to my daughter that way again."

"Come on, Lindsey. I know who her father is. Still the big television star with the unsullied image, isn't he? You got Kate a wonderful settlement as long as his little—shall we say lapse in judgment—remains a secret. But Patty isn't yours any more than Michael is."

"She IS mine. I adopted her right after the wedding. And Michael is mine, too. I love them. I fed them, changed them, walked the floor with them, read to them, kissed their boo-boos, sat by their beds when they were sick, everything. Patty and Michael are mine."

"You're pretty desperate for love, aren't you? I'm so glad you'll finally have a child of your own." The sarcastic tone in Lilah's voice was unmistakable. "Anyway, Lindsey, it's been such fun catching up with you, but the plane is waiting. Get Michael for me now."

"No, Lilah. Please. This is his home. We're his family. Take me instead. You can do whatever you want with me. Torture me, kill me, make me eat my own liver like Robert Price. I don't care. Just leave him with his mother."

"You are so pathetic. I just can't believe they chose you over me. Get this through your head, Lindsey. We don't want you any more. You're free. You signed the contract, and you kept your part of it. You took care of him as long as we needed you to. But the project is terminated. We need to move on to the next level, so he's coming back with us. Goodbye, Lindsey."

"Terminated? What?" But before he could say more, he felt a sting at the side of his neck. Lindsey collapsed inside the doorway of his house.

"Go get him." Four men with gas masks and tranquilizer dart guns moved into the house. Two minutes later they were back, the unconscious little boy in the arms of one of them. "Let's go."

Linwood was waiting for her in the plane. "Did you have any problems?"

"Not really. Lindsey didn't want to let him go. Evidently he had fallen in love with the boy and thought of him as his own son." And how much sweeter it is to take him away from Lindsey, she thought. I knew he'd love the boy. This is why I insisted on Lindsey as the guardian.

After the takeoff, Linwood rose from his comfortable chair. "Come, Lilah, let's talk in the back room." He took her hand and helped her out of her chair.

When they got into the back room, Linwood began to slowly undress Lilah, kissing her from her forehead down to her shoulder. Lilah had become his lover shortly after he took over Holland's job. It hadn't been a bad decision. Although he was more than 20 years her senior, he was a skilled and very considerate lover who made sure that she was as satisfied as he was. Sleeping her way to the top was, to Lilah, just part of the job. She had slept with Holland even though he wasn't the lover that Linwood was; in fact, he was something of a pig. She had even slept with Gavin when it seemed the expedient thing to do. That had been a real surprise. Gavin had had moves that she hadn't dreamed of. When he left her gasping with delight, he had asked her, "Have you ever had sex with an Oriental before?"

"Never." She could barely get the word out.

"Your loss. You're not bad, Lilah, but you do have much to learn." The smug little jerk had dressed and left her office. She had been unable to move for a good half hour.

Lilah had slept with every man she had ever wanted to, and many that she didn't, except for two. Neither Lindsey nor Angel had ever had their way with her. Well, she would get even with both of them. Just wait until they were finished with Michael. Maybe she could manage to have them witness the ‘procedure' that the firm had in mind to discover how Michael, or Connor, as Angel had called him, had come into existence. Lilah sighed and leaned against Linwood as his hands roamed freely over her.

Lindsey picked himself up off the floor. Ow! What was it? He plucked the tranquilizer dart out of his neck. Kate! Mike! Patty! And the baby! What did they do to them? He ran around the house looking for them. Kate and Patty had been laid out on the bed looking as if they were asleep. Kate was starting to stir. "Lindsey, what happened?"

"Are you all right? Wolfram & Hart was here. They shot us with tranquilizer darts."

"Mikey!" They dashed into his room and then around the rest of the house but couldn't find him.

"Mommy! Daddy! My neck hurts." They ran to Patty. Lindsey drew the dart out of her neck while Kate held her on her lap. While Kate sat with her, Lindsey ran back downstairs. There was a paper on the table. It was a legal document withdrawing guardianship of the minor child known as Michael McDonald from him. They were gone.

"Kate, they took him. They took Mikey." Lindsey came into the bedroom where Kate was still comforting her daughter. "We have to find out if the tranquilizer hurt you or Patty or the baby, and then I have to go to Los Angeles."

"I'll call the doctor. I'll tell him robbers used a tranquilizer gun. That's the easiest explanation. Then we'll all go to L.A. After all, Mikey is my son, too."

Lindsey took his wife and his daughter into his arms. "I love you so much, Kate. Call the doctor while I get us plane tickets. Then I have another call to make." Moving to his study, he pulled a travel website up on his computer and made three reservations to L.A.

"The doctor said the baby is far enough along that there should be no ill effects, but he'd like to look at me just to be sure. He'll look at Patty too. He said he'd see us first thing in the morning. I should bring the darts with me for analysis."

"Good. Our flight leaves at noon. We just need to pack a few things, and then we'll go see the doctor. I need to call the firm and take a leave of absence, and then I have one more call to make."

"I'll start packing now." Patty following behind, Kate climbed the stairs to their bedrooms.

Manning & Williams were very understanding. "Take all the time you need, Lindsey. Just get your son back." Tom Williams, one of the senior partners, had a ‘caboose' just Mikey's age, and the two boys were great friends. "I know you're devastated, and I would be too. If you need anything, just call us."

"I will, Tom. And thank you." Then he dialed a number that he hadn't called in almost seven years. Had it been changed? Somehow he knew it hadn't, just as he still remembered it in all that time.

"Angel Investigations. We help the helpless." It was Angel's voice.

"Angel, it's Lindsey McDonald. My wife Kate and I need your help badly. We'll be in L.A. tomorrow. It's really urgent. Wolfram & Hart took my son."

"I'll see you then, Lindsey." He hung up. Well, Lindsey, we have something in common. They took my son, too.