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  Expanded Baby Central Scene from Chapter Nine:

  Note from Suz: I wrote this baby-heavy update for hardcore, longtime readers of my TS series, thinking they’d (you’d?) enjoy a peek at Molly & Jones, Max & Gina, and Sophia & Dave’s kids. The following baby-heavy scene got edited out of the final draft of the novella, because it slowed things down. The link at the end of this baby-packed scene will drop you back in the book, exactly where you need to be to keep reading. Or feel free to scream “Too many babies!” and return to the beginning of the revised scene here.

  “Pterodactyl,” Ben said as Eden answered her phone.

  And as he explained what was happening, she bit her tongue, because she couldn’t curse. Baby Central was teeming today with the under-five crowd.

  Normally, in Eden’s job as head of on-site daycare at the personal security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated, she had only a few children in the infant-to-toddler age-range at any given time, with her most regular being adorably precocious two-year-old Ash Starrett.

  Both of Ash’s parents worked at TS Inc—former Navy SEAL Sam Starrett’s wife Alyssa Locke was also his boss here. Eden loved that. Tough and smart, Alyssa was the company’s XO, which was military speak for Executive Officer, or second-in-command. Alyssa answered only to company owner Tom Paoletti, a former SEAL commander.

  Tom’s children—Charlie and Joe—were Eden’s second most regular charges, although today they were home with their mom, Kelly.

  Eden’s final regular was in the room—chubby-cheeked and perpetually laughing ten-month-old Jeremy Malkoff who, with his thick dark hair and eyes, could’ve been a clone of his father Dave. Jeremy’s mom Sophia was also a TS operative, but until Jeremy got a little older, his parents took turns working from their home in the afternoons. So Jeremy was usually only in part-time in the mornings.

  But today Eden had both Ash and Jeremy, plus two additional four-year-olds and two wobbly-walking pre-terrible-twos.

  Hope Jones was one of Club FourYO. She was here along with her little sister, Faith. Their dad, tall and extra-spooky, worked in the company’s Florida office. Jones and his crunchy-granola wife Molly were in San Diego for the week, mostly so he could be part of a series of meetings taking place off-site, probably at the local FBI HQ, although no one had told Eden that specifically.

  But she’d figured it out because also in town, and definitely connected to the mystery, was FBI Team Leader Max Bhagat, who was traveling with his wife Gina and their two kids. Both of whom were playing here in Baby Central today: Four-year-old Emma, who was very serious, and her little brother Michael.

  Ash wasn’t used to having kids his own age to play with, so he was in heaven, romping around the room with Michael and Faith. Most of the time.

  Maybe it was testosterone in action, but every now and then Ash and Michael would glare suspiciously at each other in heavy don’t you dare steal my favorite toy mode. But it never lasted for long, because Faith, who was a tiny but rambunctious firecracker of a child, would launch herself on top of them and start wrestling happily, and they’d all end up giggling hysterically.

  Because of the overflow, Eden had “help” from some babysitters-in-training, in the form of Ash’s half-sister, Haley Starrett, who was nine, and her ten-year-old friend Robyn Nilsson—Robbi, for short—whose dad was an officer in Izzy and Dan’s SEAL team.

  Like that wasn’t weird.

  But okay. Eden was the grownup here. (back)

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Reviews

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Table of Contents

  Timeline

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Author’s note

  Excerpt from Some Kind of Hero

  Other Books and Projects from Suzanne Brockmann

  Excerpt from A Match for Mike by Jason T. Gaffney with Ed Gaffney

  About Suzanne Brockmann