Книга - Unexpected Father

Unexpected Father
Delores Fossen


Tough-as-nails cop Jason Lawrence hadn't planned on parenthood.But after his brother's death, he'd raised his baby niece, Megan, becoming her father in every way that mattered. And there was no way that he was giving her up - even to the biological mother Megan had never known. Jason knew he should be trying to keep Lilly Nelson at arm's length.After all, she had the power to break up his happy home. But someone wanted Lilly dead, and everything about her - her strong spirit and fragile beauty - aroused Jason's most protective instincts. But what was he willing to risk to keep Lilly safe?









Clutching her daughter’s picture, Lilly drifted off to sleep.


She dreamed of walking, her hand gently holding her daughter’s. Of hope. Of a future Lilly hadn’t even known that she wanted until she’d seen the photo of Megan. Her baby’s smile. Her eyes.

Then the dream changed.

It became dark, and Lilly felt pressure on her face and chest. Painful, punishing compression that made her feel as if her ribs were ready to implode.

She fought the dream, shoved at the pressure with her hands and forced herself to wake up.

Her eyes flew open.

The darkness stayed. So did the suffocating sensation.

It was unbearable. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move.

It took a moment to understand why. The darkness and the pressure weren’t remnants of the dream. They were real. Because someone was shoving a pillow against her face. Suffocating her.

Someone wanted her dead.




Unexpected Father

Delores Fossen





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why Texas author and former air force captain Delores Fossen feels as if she was genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married a U.S. Air Force Top Gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.




CAST OF CHARACTERS


Lilly Nelson—She wakes up from a coma to learn she’s given birth to a daughter, Megan, and that the unidentified person who tried to kill her still wants her dead. In order to protect her child, Lilly will have to depend on Megan’s guardian…the very man she can’t have, despite what her heart is telling her.

Detective Jason Lawrence—This tough-as-nails cop finds himself the unexpected father of his late brother’s baby, Megan. Now, protecting Megan and Lilly from an unknown assailant could cost him everything, including his heart and his life.

Megan Nelson—She’s still two weeks away from her first birthday and has no idea of the danger she’s in. Megan only knows that she loves Jason and he’s the only daddy she’s ever known.

Wayne Sandling—A prominent, ruthless attorney who detests Lilly because of evidence she turned over to the police that got him disbarred.

Raymond Klein—Wayne Sandling’s business associate whose career was also ruined with the evidence Lilly provided to the police. Is he willing to murder Lilly out of revenge?

Corinne Davies—Lilly’s former secretary. On the surface Corinne seems helpful and supportive, but could she be covering her tracks to keep old secrets buried?

Erica Fontaine—She’s been Megan’s nanny since the day the child was born, and isn’t happy to hand Megan over to Lilly.




Contents


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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen




Chapter One


St. Joseph’s Convalescent Hospital

San Antonio, Texas

“Lilly came out of the coma.” Dr. Staten’s voice was clinical. Void of emotion or any speculation as to the impact of the bombshell that he’d just delivered.

Detective Jason Lawrence’s reaction, however, wasn’t quite so serene or detached.

There was emotion. Plenty of it. And speculation? That, too. A really bad kind of speculation that knotted his stomach and tightened every muscle in his body.

Oh, man.

It felt as if someone had sucker punched him.

“Lilly’s awake?” Jason managed to ask even though he already knew the answer. Still, he wanted a confirmation, and while he waited for it, he prayed.

Except he didn’t know what the hell to pray for.

Dr. Staten nodded. “She woke up about two hours ago. That’s why I called and asked you to come.”

And at no time during the call had the doctor indicated that Lilly was no longer comatose. Of course, Dr. Staten probably thought it was news best delivered in person. Jason was debating that. Though there was nothing that could have helped pave the way for this, he would have liked a few minutes in private to prepare himself.

“How did this happen?” Because he didn’t want to risk something as dignity-reducing as losing his balance, Jason dropped down into the burgundy leather chair across from Dr. Staten’s desk.

“She simply woke up.” The doctor lifted a shoulder and flexed his dark, gray-threaded eyebrows. “We don’t know why. It’s not a common occurrence, but it does happen—even after nineteen months.”

Yes. These things probably did happen. But nineteen months had been more than enough time for Jason to believe it wouldn’t happen.

Ever.

And he’d built his entire life around that ever.

Dr. Staten sat, as well, easing down into his chair, and from over the thin silver rims of his glasses, he examined Jason with sympathetic brown eyes. “I know this has to come as a surprise…”

Jason almost laughed. Not from humor. Definitely not from that. But from the irony. Lilly was awake—after nineteen months, three days and a couple of hours. After everyone, including the medical community, and he had given up hope. She was awake.

It was nothing short of a miracle.

And the beginning of what would no doubt be his own personal nightmare.

Jason pulled in his breath, released it slowly. “Has Lilly said anything?”

“A little. She’s still somewhat disorientated and doesn’t remember much about the car accident. That’s to be expected. It’ll take a while for her body to start functioning normally, but now that she’s awake, I believe she’ll make a full recovery.”

Jason silently cursed his reaction. Cursed himself. And then cursed fate for dealing him a hand that he didn’t want to play. He was happy for Lilly. Truly happy. No one deserved to be in a vegetative state, and now she would get a second chance at life. But Jason couldn’t help it: her second chance changed everything.

“Have you told her?” Jason asked.

Dr. Staten paused a moment. There was no need for Jason to clarify his question; the doctor certainly knew what was foremost on his mind. “No. I figured it’d sound better coming from you.”

Jason seriously doubted that. It wouldn’t sound better coming from anyone. But it was true—he needed to be the one to tell Lilly.

So he could soften the blow.

So he could prepare her for the shock of her life.

And then what?

Would he ultimately lose everything that he’d come to love in the past year? Jason suddenly felt as if he were perched on top of a house of cards with an F-5 tornado bearing right down on him.

The doctor picked up a pen, groaned softly and tossed it onto his desk. The cool facade was broken, and for the first time since Jason had walked into his office, he saw the frayed nerves.

Not exactly a comforting reaction.

“Lilly’s expecting you,” the doctor instructed. His suddenly strained voice said it all. “I let her know that you were coming.”

And that was Jason’s cue to get to his feet. He mustered what courage he could and tried to push aside his fears. No easy feat. His fears were mammoth, and the next few minutes would change his life forever.

“If you need more time, I can postpone the visit,” Dr. Staten offered.

Man, was that tempting. But it wouldn’t solve anything. This conversation with Lilly had to happen. Plus, delaying the inevitable would only prolong his agony.

Jason followed the doctor out of the office and toward the patient ward of the convalescent facility. With each step, his heart pounded and his breath thinned. Sheez. Such a wuss reaction. But he couldn’t help it. Because he was a cop, his life had been on the line a couple of times, but he’d never before had this much at stake.

When they reached the room, the doctor stepped aside to allow Jason to enter ahead of him. Jason took a deep breath and pushed open the door to Lilly’s room. A room he’d seen at least a dozen times. From the vantage point of the doorway anyway. He’d kept his distance, literally and figuratively. But this was different. She wasn’t just lying there, eyes closed and attached to machines to monitor her vitals. One machine was still in place, as was an IV, but she was sitting up with the help of pillows stuffed behind her back.

Her gaze slid in his direction and she spotted him. Instant recognition. Jason knew that from the brief widening of her blue-green eyes followed by the not-so-brief tightening of her mouth.

“Jason,” she said.

Not a friendly greeting. It dripped with questions. Why are you here? Of all the people in the world, why would you be my first real visitor?

Unfortunately, she would soon find out.

Because he suddenly felt awkward and fidgety, Jason stuffed his hands into the pockets of his khakis and ambled closer. “Welcome back, Lilly.”

The right corner of her mouth lifted. “You actually seem sincere.” Since her first attempt sounded as if she were speaking through gravel, she cleared her throat and repeated it.

“I am sincere.”

And Jason was almost certain he believed that.

Lilly was pale, a skim-milk kind of pale, but other than that and the two-and-a-half-inch whitish scar angled on the left side of her forehead, she didn’t look as if she’d been through a horrifying ordeal.

However, she did look different.

Her normally short auburn hair now lay on the tops of her shoulders. Loose. Not confined in one of the not-a-strand-out-of-place styles that she usually preferred. No makeup, either.

She had freckles and chapped lips.

Definitely not the pristine, polished corporate image that Jason had come to associate with that face. Too bad. Because that executive veneer had always been a reminder that she wasn’t his type. That she was hands-off.

For reasons he didn’t want to explore, she didn’t seem so hands-off right now. Lilly seemed very small and vulnerable, despite her defensive expression and her smart-ass reply to his greeting.

“How are you?” he asked, mainly because he couldn’t think of what else to say.

She hesitated as if considering what ulterior motive he might have for his question, and she moistened her lips. “Coming back from the dead isn’t easy.”

Jason nodded. “I imagine not.”

Lilly made a you-don’t-know-the-half-of-it sound. “My whole body’s stiff, and it doesn’t respond the way it should. I’ll spare you most of the specifics, but I’ve got a wicked headache. Cotton mouth. And I understand it’ll be days…or even longer before I can walk. I’m a little scared about that.”

Lilly stopped, wrinkled up her forehead. And closed down. She was no doubt embarrassed that she’d revealed her fear of not being able to walk. It was a totally human, normal response, but Jason figured she would view it as a weakness.

“Of course, there’s a bright side to this,” she continued. It was her CEO presentation voice. Light, confident, airy. “I figure I’ve lost a lot of weight. I doubt I’ve been this thin since high school.” Lilly fanned her trembling fingers through the air to indicate an imaginary marquee. “Coma—the ultimate diet.”

“You’ll be back to normal in no time,” Jason promised her. Though he didn’t know why. That certainly wasn’t a promise he could deliver.

She stared at him a moment. “Oh, I get it now.” Lilly’s mouth relaxed and she made a clumsy swipe to push her rumpled hair off her forehead. “This is an official visit from Detective Jason Lawrence, San Antonio PD. You want to question me about the car accident that put me here in this hospital bed.”

He wished that was the reason he’d come.

“I work Special Investigations now,” Jason informed her. “Your accident doesn’t come under the jurisdiction of my department.”

Something, some raw emotion, rifled through her eyes. “So, you’re here to talk about Greg.” Lilly huffed and coupled it with a disapproving groan. “I figured you’d give me at least a day or two to catch up on current events, physical therapy, visits from friends, trips to Krispy Kreme, et cetera, before you started badgering me again about the night Greg died.”

Greg. His brother. His dead brother. And the subject of the majority of Lilly’s and his last conversations, and bitter arguments.

Always arguments.

It didn’t matter that she was trying to diffuse this tension with her Krispy Kreme style of humor. The emotion and the pain were still there, crouching just below the surface of her words.

Jason moved closer and stopped a few inches from the foot of her bed. “I’m not here about Greg, either.” Besides, no amount of questioning and arguments would bring his brother back. He knew that. Now. But Lilly was right—nineteen months ago, it’d been a topic he’d broached often with her.

And yes, there had been plenty of badgering involved.

“All right, then.” She took a sip of water from a plastic cup clutched in her right hand. “You’ve piqued my interest. If you’re not here to talk about Greg or my car accident, then this’ll be a very short visit. Because I think we both know there’s nothing else for us to discuss.”

Jason couldn’t fault her defensive attitude. He deserved it. After all, this was the woman he’d accused of contributing to the death of his brother. Despite the fact he’d known Lilly for more than six years before his brother’s death, it was hard to stay friendly after an accusation like that. However, she was wrong about them having nothing else to discuss.

There was plenty.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” Dr. Staten announced, and he stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Jason glanced over his shoulder to confirm the man’s timely exit. Staten was definitely gone. The room suddenly seemed too small, and it was getting smaller by the second with Lilly’s stare drilling into him. Where had the air gone?

“Do you remember anything that happened while you were in a coma?” Jason asked.

Lilly blinked, as if surprised by the question. “No.” She paused. “In fact, not only is the coma a blank, so are the last few hours before I got into the car.” She stopped, angled her head, studied him. “Is there something about the accident that the police are investigating?”

Jason chose his words very carefully.

“The case is still active. I’m sure the lead detective will want to question you when you’re feeling up to it.”

And he left it at that.

She made a soft hmm of agreement. And concern. “Then something must really be wrong for you to be here.”

It was, and since there was no good introduction for what he had to tell her, Jason just started with the basics. “The night Greg was killed, you had sex with him.”

Not a blink of surprise this time. More like a flash of anger over his bluntness. “I don’t want to discuss this—”

“I know it happened because he called and told me. In fact, he told me just minutes before he died.”

Since this was only a recap and since he hadn’t wanted to start an argument with her, Jason left out one important detail: Greg had thought the sexual encounter might lead to a permanent relationship with Lilly rather than her shutting him out of her life.

But she had shut him out.

And because of that, Greg was dead.

There it was. The flood of old memories. The still-fresh pain. Always the pain. Jason knew for a fact he wouldn’t forget that grief any time soon. Nor would he forget, or forgive, what Lilly had done.

“Is this actually leading somewhere?” Lilly prompted in that crisp voice that he’d learned to hate. “Because I’m not in the mood for a trip down memory lane, especially when you’re the one doing the navigating.”

“It’s leading somewhere.” Since he needed it, Jason took another deep breath. “You got pregnant that night. With Greg’s baby.”

That got her attention. Man, did it ever. She did a double take and her breathing stilled. “Excuse me?”

“You got pregnant,” Jason repeated. Because Lilly looked as if she badly needed it, and because he needed it, as well, he waited a couple of moments to give her some time to try to absorb that.

The plastic water cup started to collapse under the pressure of her grip. “I didn’t know.”

Jason had been afraid of that. So that meant Lilly was in for a double shock.

He’d have to save the third part of these revelations for another day since that news would probably stall her recovery and send her into a panic.

A hoarse sob clawed its way past her throat. “Oh, God. Oh. God. Pregnant. I got pregnant.” Her gaze slashed to his, and she groaned. “The accident caused me to miscarry, didn’t it?”

Her reaction surprised him, and that was putting it mildly. Jason had been expecting her to be upset at the news of an unplanned pregnancy.

Or maybe that’s how he’d hoped she would react.

Upset.

But this was a couple of steps past that particular emotion. He’d never thought of the workaholic, success-driven Lilly as overly eager to start a family, but she looked genuinely distressed over not just the pregnancy but the possibility of losing a child.

“No.” Jason let her know. Not easily. But he finally got out the denial. “You didn’t miscarry.”

With her eyes suddenly dark and wide with concern, Lilly opened her mouth. Closed it. Frantically shook her head. “What do you mean no?” The question was all breath. Not a hint of sound. Yet Jason heard it clearly.

“Your injuries were mainly caused by a piece of metal railing that came through the windshield,” Jason explained. “It hit you on the head, caused some major trauma. The airbag stopped any impact damage in your midsection and probably prevented you from miscarrying.”

She didn’t have much color in her face, but what was there, drained completely. Her bottom lip began to tremble. “I don’t understand.”

Jason waited a moment, until he stood a chance of his voice being steady. It wasn’t a hundred percent, but under the circumstances, it was the best he could do. “You carried the baby full term, and then the doctors delivered it via C-section.”

“Are you saying…” But she didn’t finish. Mumbling something indistinguishable, she dropped back onto the pillows and her eyelids fluttered down.

Since Jason needed to end this conversation right here, right now, he just tossed it out there. Quickly. Before he could change his mind, turn and leave. “You had a baby, Lilly. Nearly a year ago.”

She lay there. Not moving. Except for her lips. She continued to mumble something. A prayer, maybe. Then she opened her eyes. Slowly. As if she dreaded what she might see on his face.

“Had?” she repeated, obviously latching on to his use of the past tense. A tear streaked down her cheek.

A real honest-to-goodness tear.

In the six years he’d known her, he’d never seen Lilly cry. Oh, man. This was ripping them both to pieces—but for different reasons, of course.

Jason couldn’t stand that look of undiluted pain on her face, so he put an end to it. “Not had, Lilly,” he corrected. “You have a baby. A daughter.”




Chapter Two


If it’d been any person other than Jason Lawrence telling her this, Lilly might have thought it was a joke. But this no-shades-of-gray cop wasn’t the joking type. Heck, she wasn’t even sure he was the smiling type. Still—

A baby.

How could that be?

If this was the truth, then she would have been…what? She quickly did the math. She would have been two months pregnant when she was involved in the car accident. Two months, as in sixty days.

Yet she hadn’t known.

How could she have not known?

Her life had always been so organized. She’d known every appointment, every deadline. So, how could a missed period or two have escaped her notice?

Almost hysterically, Lilly slapped the plastic cup onto the table beside her bed so she could pinch herself. Hard. She felt it all right, the sting of the pressure on her skin. But that wasn’t definitive. Maybe she was still in a coma. Maybe she was dreaming about a pinch and a pregnancy.

Yes.

That was it. This had to be some weird dream, even though she couldn’t recall a single instance of a dream the entire time she’d been in a coma.

“It’s for real,” Jason volunteered as if he could hear the argument going on in her head.

He walked toward her, slowly, and held out his arm. Probably so she could touch him. Because she didn’t know what else to do, Lilly took him up on that offer. She reached out. Dreading, hoping and praying all at the same time. Her fingertips brushed against the smooth fabric of his bronze-colored jacket, which was nearly the same color as his short, efficient hair.

The jacket felt like…well, a jacket.

But Lilly went one step further. She slid her fingers over the back of his hand. Warm, human skin. Comforting in a primal sort of way.

And maybe in other ways, too.

She suddenly wanted to latch on to his hand, and it wasn’t totally related to her need to make sure she was truly conscious. Simply put, she needed a hug. Mercy, did she ever. Even though she was twenty-seven—no, make that twenty-nine—she suddenly felt as fragile as a newborn baby.

Ironic.

Since a baby was the exact topic of conversation that’d sent her heart and thoughts into a tailspin.

Lilly met Jason’s gaze again, to see how he was reacting to all of this touching stuff, but whatever he was feeling, he kept it carefully hidden in the depths of those smoke-gray eyes. No surprise there. She’d always believed Jason was born to be a cop.

Or a professional poker player.

Because that rugged stoic face gave away nothing. The only time she’d ever seen an overt display of emotion from him was the night his brother, Greg, had died. Understandable. She’d had an overt display of her own.

Well, afterward, anyway.

When Jason had gone and she had been alone.

“Are you okay?” Jason asked.

Lilly didn’t even consider a polite lie. “No. I’m not. It’s hard to be okay when nothing makes sense.”

She moved on to part three of the reality check. Not knowing what to hope she might see, Lilly clutched the hem of her roomy green hospital gown and jerked it up. Thank goodness she was wearing panties or Jason would have gotten a real eyeful. But even if she hadn’t had on underwear, she would have looked anyway. She needed proof.

And she got it.

She slid her fingertips over the thin, pinkish-colored scar. Right on her lower abdomen. Not some ragged wound caused by an injury, but clearly the result of surgery.

A C-section.

Jason leaned in closer. So close. Too close. He caught her gown and eased it back into place so that the soft cotton whispered over her thighs. Probably because her near nudity bothered him.

No, wait.

He didn’t think of her that way. He’d covered her probably because further examination wasn’t necessary. She had all the proof she needed.

Reality check was over. Now it was time to deal with the aftermath. And she dealt, all right. The breath swooshed out of her and because she didn’t want any tears to escape, Lilly squeezed her eyes shut.

“A daughter?” she said.

“Yes.” Jason’s voice was tight. Edgy. Exactly the way she felt.

He didn’t add anything else, and it didn’t take long for the smothering silence to settle uncomfortably between them. Lilly used that quiet time to try to put a stranglehold on her composure, to try to grasp what was happening.

But both were impossible tasks.

Only two hours earlier she’d awakened to learn that she’d lost nineteen months of life because of a car accident that she couldn’t even remember. Nineteen months. Heaven knew what toll the coma had taken on her body. And there was the inevitable toll that her absence had no doubt taken on her business. Sweet heaven, she’d lost so much. Now, Jason had informed her that she’d been pregnant and delivered a baby.

A baby who was almost a year old.

“Her name is Megan,” she heard Jason say.

At the sound of some movement, Lilly opened her eyes to find him searching through his wallet. He extracted something. A photograph that was a bit crumpled around the edges. He held it up so she could see it.

Her mouth went dry.

She took the picture, hesitantly, and pulled it closer to her so she could study it. The little girl had auburn hair. Not quite a genetic copy of Lilly’s own, but close. Darn close. It wasn’t straight but instead haloed her face in soft, loose curls. Just as Lilly’s own hair had done when she was that age.

Lilly caught her bottom lip between her teeth to cut off any unwanted sound she might make. At this point, any sound would be unwanted. And too revealing.

In the photograph, Megan was smiling. Not a tentative one, either. It went all the way to her eyes.

“Oh, mercy,” she whispered. Lilly pressed the picture to her chest.

This precious child was hers.

The connection she felt for Megan was instant. Not a gentle tug of her heart, either, but a feeling so intense, so right, that the tears she’d fought came anyway. Lilly didn’t even care that she was losing control. Seeing that tiny face was worth all the tears. It was worth humiliating herself in front of Jason. Worth the coma.

Worth everything.

Her baby.

Her own flesh and blood.

“I’ve missed so much,” she mumbled, knowing it was a total understatement. She’d missed carrying her child. Giving birth. And most importantly, she had missed nearly the entire first year of her daughter’s life.

“Yes,” Jason whispered.

Since there was a lot of emotion in his one-word comment, Lilly looked at him again. He still had on his cop’s face, but those eyes said it all. Or at least they said something. Exactly what that something was, she didn’t know.

Unless…

“She’s Greg’s baby,” Lilly clarified. Why, she didn’t know. She didn’t need to explain her sex life to Jason.

He nodded. “The doctors did a DNA test on Megan after she was born.”

What a waste of time. If Lilly had been awake during Megan’s birth, she could have told them there was no reason for such a test. Before that night with Greg, it’d been nearly a year since she’d had sex. And that one time with Greg hadn’t been unprotected, either, which meant something had gone wrong with the condom.

And then it hit her.

Her heart practically leaped to her throat. “Who has her? Both Greg’s and my parents are dead—”

“I have her,” Jason interrupted.

Lilly was surprised that her heart didn’t jump right out of her chest. It was already pounding, and his statement made it pound even harder. “You?”

That improved his posture. Not that he needed it. He was already soldier-stiff, which was his usual demeanor, but Jason seemed to take her simple question as a challenge.

“Me,” he enunciated through semiclenched teeth.

Oh.

Even with his adamant confirmation, it just didn’t register in her brain and was in total conflict with the image she had of Jason Lawrence.

He shoved his hands into his pockets; it seemed as if he changed his mind a dozen times as to what he was about to say. “You were in a coma so long that the doctors didn’t think you would recover. I didn’t think you’d recover. I was Megan’s next of kin.”

There was something in the way he said that. Especially the tone he used when he tossed out the last part. Next of kin. Something…territorial? Something that launched a flurry of mental speculation.

And it also launched an equal flurry of concern.

A moment later Lilly realized that her concern was warranted.

“I have custody of her,” Jason finished. He paused a moment. “Legally, Megan is my daughter.”




Chapter Three


Jason braced himself for Lilly’s reaction. Or rather, he tried to. It was hard to brace himself for something he wasn’t sure he could handle.

“Oh, God,” Lilly mumbled. Not exactly the hostile accusation that he thought she might fire in his direction. After all, he’d just confessed to claiming her child. “You took Megan in. You’ve been raising her.”

It was a lot more than that. Yes, he’d taken the child in. Yes, he was raising her. But he also loved her. More than life. More than anything.

And he couldn’t lose her.

“I’ll bet taking care of a baby required some serious lifestyle changes for you,” Lilly commented. Not chitchat, though. Her eyes were too strained for that, and there was a slight tremble in her voice—which probably meant she was as thunderstruck as he was.

She’d just learned that she had a daughter.

And Jason had just learned that he might lose one.

“I made a few lifestyle changes,” he admitted. He tried to rein in his feelings. Failed. “It was worth it. Megan’s a sweet kid.”

Now there was a reaction from Lilly. Something small and subtle. But he could almost see the realization come to her. She’d had a child, but for all practical purposes, she wasn’t in the picture.

Jason didn’t think it was much of a stretch that Lilly would soon want to change that.

“Well…” Lilly started. But she didn’t finish whatever thought she’d intended to voice. Instead she looked down at the picture. She held it as if it were delicate crystal that might shatter in her hands. “She has my hair. Greg’s eyes, though.” She lifted a shoulder. An attempt at a nonchalant shrug. But there was nothing nonchalant about any of this. “Your eyes, too.”

Yes. The infamous Lawrence gray eyes that seemed to be the equivalent of a mood ring. Silvery pearl, sometimes, and on those not-so-good sometimes—gunmetal and steel. Megan had them in spades, along with the olive-tinged completion that was the genetic contribution from Greg’s and his Hispanic grandmother. Megan was a Lawrence through and through.

But Jason could see Lilly in the child’s face, too. The way Megan sometimes defiantly lifted her chin. The sly, clever smile that could melt away botched cases, heavy workloads, long hours at work and other unsavory things. At first, it’d been difficult for him to see the smile, Lilly’s smile, on the mouth of the child he loved.

DNA sure had a bent sense of humor.

“I want to see her, of course,” Lilly said.

It wasn’t exactly a request, either. She certainly hadn’t framed it with a please and hadn’t left room for argument.

Though Jason wanted to argue.

Worse, he wanted to take Megan and run. To hide her so that he wouldn’t lose her. But not only was that a stupid reaction, it would be wrong. He’d been the one to raise Megan—so far—but now that Lilly was awake and on the road to recovery, he no longer had sole claim to her.

Maybe he wouldn’t have any claim at all.

And that sent a stab of pain straight through his heart.

“I’ll make arrangements for you to see her,” Jason offered, once he could speak. “When you’re feeling up to it.”

There was a flash of that sly smile, and it was tinged with sarcasm. “I think it’s safe to say that I’ll feel up to seeing her anytime, any place. After all, she is my daughter.”

Jason had somehow known, and feared, that she would say that. “I just wasn’t sure you’d want her to visit you here in the hospital.”

It wasn’t a lie. Exactly. That had crossed his mind. It’d also crossed his mind that he wanted to delay the visit so he could prepare Megan. How, he didn’t know. It wasn’t always easy to reason with a baby. But perhaps he could show Megan pictures of Lilly so she wouldn’t be frightened of meeting a stranger who just happened to be her mother.

Picture recognition might help Megan. But it wouldn’t do much to soothe his fears. Nothing could do that.

“Besides, it’s late,” Jason added. “Nearly six.”

And he was babbling. Hell. He wasn’t a babbler. Worse, he seemed to be grasping at straws, at anything, to postpone what he knew he couldn’t postpone.

“All right,” Lilly said. She kept her attention staked to him. “This definitely qualifies as an awkward moment. We’re a lot closer to being enemies than we are friends, and yet you did this incredible, wonderful thing by taking in my—”

“Don’t,” Jason interrupted. He took a moment to gain control of his voice, and his temper, before he continued. “I don’t want your thanks.” He could handle her hostility, even her sarcasm, even that damn sly smile, before he could handle her gratitude. “I said I’d arrange for you to see Megan, and I will.”

Lilly nodded. “I might not be reading you right, but I get the feeling there’s something else. Something you’re not telling me.”

Well, the coma hadn’t dulled her instincts. That was both good and bad news. He wanted Lilly to be healthy and on the road to recovery. He truly did. But Jason had been counting on having a few days or even weeks before having to tell her everything. Not just about Megan and his custody. Other things, like the events surrounding the night she’d nearly died.

Panic began to race through her eyes. “Is Megan okay? There’s nothing wrong with—”

“Megan’s perfectly healthy,” he told her. “She’s had normal childhood illnesses, of course. An ear infection. A cold or two. Nothing major.”

The pulse on her neck was pounding so hard that Jason could actually see it. “However?” she questioned.

Yes, there was a however.

Jason considered the several ways he could go with this, including just ending the conversation and heading out. If he followed department regulations to a tee, he should just turn this over to the lead detective. But he couldn’t do that to Lilly. Despite their past and the inevitable obstacles they would no doubt face in the future, there was some information she needed to know.

The operative word was some.

Jason groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face. “The police will want to question you about the car accident.”

Her brief silence probably meant she was processing that. Not just his comment but his groan, as well. She leaned closer. So close that he could see all those swirls of blue and green in her eyes. “Are you saying they weren’t able to figure out what happened?”

It was touchy territory and, as Jason had done several times during their conversation, he considered his answer carefully. “They’ll want an eyewitness statement to the incident, and you’re the ultimate eyewitness. It’s standard procedure.” He hesitated, gathered his breath. “They also want to talk to you about the information you found when you were going through your father’s old business records.”

“You mean, the computer files that implicated some people in my father’s dirty dealings?” Lilly didn’t wait for him to confirm that. “I remember copying those files to a CD.”

“Yes. You’d called a friend in S.A.P.D. and told him about them.”

“Sergeant Garrett O’Malley.” Lilly touched her fingers to her left temple and massaged it gently. At first. Then, as the frustration began to show on her face, her massage got a little harder until her fingers pressed into her skin. “After I copied the files, things get a little fuzzy.”

Jason latched right on to that because even though her memory might not be totally intact, she still might be able to provide them with some critical details. “Just how fuzzy is fuzzy?”

“A big, giant blur.” The temple massage obviously wasn’t working so she stopped and huffed. “Did I give the CD to Sgt. O’Malley?”

He shook his head. “But you’d planned to do that the next morning.”

She bobbed her head in an almost frantic nod. “Now I remember. I took the CD from my computer at the office and got into my car in the parking lot.” Lilly froze. Her gaze froze, too, for several long moments before slowly coming back to his. “The CD wasn’t with me when I had the accident?”

“No.” This conversation was quickly taking them into uncomfortable territory. Because of their history together and because it didn’t fall under his department, the best thing he could do was to back away. He definitely shouldn’t be the one to interrogate her. “Look, you have enough to deal with right now—”

“And stalling won’t help me deal with it any faster, okay? Tell me what’s wrong, Jason.”

He couldn’t. The timing sucked, and whether Lilly believed it or not, she wasn’t strong enough, mentally or physically, to hear the truth.

“You’re still stalling,” Lilly pointed out.

Yes, he was.

And he would continue to do so until he’d taken care of a few things. Such as security, for instance. At a minimum, he wanted a guard posted outside her room. Just as a precaution, especially since no one other than the medical staff and he knew that she was out of the coma. Then he needed to get the doctor’s approval to allow the lead detective to tell Lilly what would essentially be yet another bombshell. One even bigger than the one he’d already delivered.

Because nineteen months ago, Lilly’s car accident hadn’t really been an accident.

In fact, Jason was about a hundred percent certain that someone had tried to murder her.



THE ROOM was too quiet.

No voices. No doctors. And definitely no Jason. He’d left hours ago with a promise to return. Lilly repeated his words now, using the Terminator’s thickly accented voice, and she added a hollow laugh.

God, how Jason must hate her.

First, there was her part in Greg’s death. Or from Jason’s perspective, not her part. She was entirely responsible. She accepted that. She was responsible. And no amount of penance, wishing or grieving would bring Greg back.

Nothing would.

Of course, Jason now had a new reason to despise her: Megan. He no doubt saw her as a threat to his custody. That was true, as well, a realization that didn’t make Lilly feel like issuing even a hollow laugh. This would almost certainly turn into a long battle where there would be no winners, least of all her daughter.

Lilly tried to force her eyes to stay open. Hard to do, though. If the clock was accurate on her bed stand, it was already past midnight, the end of what had been one of the most exhausting days of her life.

She could blame the fatigue in part on the physical therapy that she’d demanded. A two-hour session. Grueling. Painful. Essentially she’d discovered during the session that her muscles felt like pudding and were just about as useful. It would take “lots of time and hard work,” the physical therapist had said, for her to regain complete use of her limbs.

Lilly didn’t mind the hard work, but she wouldn’t settle for the lots of time.

She planned to be walking by the end of the week.

It wasn’t exactly an option, either. She needed to be mobile so she could see her daughter. She wanted to start building a life with the child she hadn’t even known existed until six hours ago.

A child she already desperately loved.

She hugged the picture to her chest and tried to stave off the tears. She failed. They came anyway. Tears of joy and sadness. The joy was there because she had a precious little daughter. The sadness, because she’d already missed so much of her baby’s life.

She wouldn’t miss anything else.

Thanks to Jason, her baby had apparently been well cared for—by the last man on earth whom she thought would do her any favors. Of course, Megan was his flesh and blood, as well. Greg’s daughter. Jason’s niece. That was probably the real reason he’d stepped up to the fatherly plate. He’d loved his brother. Therefore, he’d love his brother’s child.

In spite of the fact that Megan was her child, too.

There was true irony in that. Her sworn enemy had her daughter. Not just had her, either. Jason was her legal custodian. A father by law. And he was the only parent Megan had ever known. It wouldn’t be easy for her to try to find her place in her baby’s life.

But she did have a place.

And no matter how hard it was, she would find it.

Her eyelids drifted down again, but she fought it. It was irrational, but the thought of sleep actually terrified her. Because she might not wake up. Because she might lapse into another coma and stay there. In a permanent vegetative state. Alive in name only.

“That won’t happen,” Dr. Staten had promised her when he’d checked on her after the physical therapy session.

However, Lilly hated to take the chance. Still, she couldn’t stop her eyes from shutting. She couldn’t stop the fatigue from taking over. And the quietness of the room and the night closed in around her.

Clutching her daughter’s picture, she drifted off to the one place she didn’t want to go: sleep.

She dreamed of walking, her hand gently holding her daughter’s. Of hope. Of a future Lilly hadn’t even known she’d wanted until she’d seen the photo of Megan. Her baby’s smile. Her eyes.

Then the dream changed.

It became dark and Lilly felt pressure on her face and chest. Painful, punishing pressure that made her feel as if her ribs were ready to implode.

She fought the dream, shaking her head from side to side. When that didn’t work, she shoved at the pressure with her hands and forced herself to wake up.

Her eyes flew open.

The darkness stayed.

So did the god-awful pressure.

It was unbearable. She couldn’t breath. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move.

It took a moment to understand why. The darkness and the pressure weren’t remnants of the dream. They were real. Very real. Because someone was shoving a pillow against her face. Suffocating her.

Someone wanted her dead.




Chapter Four


The panic and the adrenaline knifed through Lilly, hot and raw. It was instant. Like a fierce jolt that consumed her. Fight or flight.

Do whatever it takes to survive.

Lilly managed to make a muffled, guttural sound. It wasn’t quite a scream, but she prayed it was loud enough to alert someone. Anyone. And she began to flail her arms at her attacker. She fought. Mercy, did she ever fight. She wouldn’t just let this SOB kill her. But her pudding-like muscles landed as helpless thuds on the much stronger hands that were smothering her.

Who was trying to kill her?

Better yet, how could she stop it from happening?

Even over the pounding of her heartbeat and the rough sounds of the struggle, she heard the footsteps. Frantic. Fast. Someone was coming.

Just like that, the pressure stopped. Lilly didn’t waste any time. She immediately shoved the pillow aside and, starved for air, gulped in several hard breaths so she wouldn’t lose consciousness.

She quickly looked around to make sure her attacker wasn’t still here. The room was pitch-black. Well, maybe. She couldn’t tell if the darkness was real or some leftover effect from nearly suffocating.

“I need help,” she called out.

The footsteps merged and blended with others, until Lilly was no longer able to distinguish which were coming and which were going.

“Hell,” someone said.

Jason.

He ran to her bed and looked down at her. He made a split-second check, probably to make sure she was still alive and well. The alive part was true, but it might be eternity before she could achieve the well part. She was shaking from head to toe and was on the verge of losing it.

Jason already had his standard-issue police Glock drawn, and he whipped his aim around the room. Ready to fire at the intruder.

But no one was there.

On the far end of the room, the window was open and the gauzy white curtains fluttered in the night breeze. It would have been a tranquil scene if a would-be killer hadn’t just used it as an escape route.

Jason raced to the window, and while still maintaining his vigilant cop’s stance, he checked outside. Cursed again. He used his cell phone to request assistance. His hard voice echoed through the room and her head.

“Are you okay?” he asked, hurrying back to her.

Lilly tried to take a quick inventory of her body. “I think so.” But she had no idea if that was true.

“We can’t stay here,” Jason informed her.

He reached down and scooped her into his arms. Not a loving act. Far from it. Clutching her against his chest, he rushed her out of the room. Probably in case her attacker returned.

A truly horrifying thought.

She didn’t want the person to get away, but Lilly wasn’t ready for round two, either. She was, however, ready for an explanation, and she was fairly sure that Jason was the person to give it to her.

“Earlier you were stalling about telling me something,” Lilly said. Her teeth began to chatter and she suspected she might be going into shock. Great. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with. Well, the shock would have to wait. She needed answers. “And I think that ‘something’ is important, that it has to do with what just happened.”

“Yeah.” Jason took her up the hall and to the deserted nurses’ station.

“Yeah?” she repeated, amazed and frustrated that he’d dodged her question once again. “The time for stalling is over, don’t you think?”

Jason deposited her onto a burgundy leather sofa in the small lounge just behind the nurses’ station. The cool, slick leather didn’t help with the chills that had already started.

With his own breath coming out in rough, frantic gusts, he glanced down at her. Just a glance. Before he turned his attention back to the doorway. Standing guard. Protecting her. Or rather, trying to.

“W-well?” Lilly prompted, curling up into as much of a fetal position as her stiff muscles would allow. “Don’t you have something to tell me? Wait—let me rephrase that. You have something to tell me, so do it.”

He nodded, eventually. “Your car accident probably wasn’t an accident.”

She watched the words form on his lips. Tried to absorb them. Couldn’t. It was next to impossible to absorb that someone wanted her dead, especially since she couldn’t recall anything about what had happened to her nineteen months ago.

“And what about tonight?” Lilly asked, afraid to hear the answer. “What happened?”

“This obviously wasn’t an accident, either.” Jason’s jaw muscles stirred as if they’d declared war on each other. “Whoever tried to kill you nineteen months ago—I think he’s back.”



WHEN HE SAW the lanky, blond-haired detective making his way up the hall toward him, Jason ended the call with his lieutenant and stepped out of the doorway to Lilly’s new room. He wanted to give his fellow S.A.P.D. peace officer his undivided attention. Unfortunately, it would be next to impossible to do that because of what the lieutenant had just requested.

Or rather, what the lieutenant had ordered him to do.

Talk about the ultimate distraction. That order kept repeating itself through Jason’s head, and he doubted it’d go away any time soon. Especially since he had no clue as to how he could carry it out.

“Please tell me you have answers,” he said to Detective Mack O’Reilly. Jason kept his voice low so he wouldn’t wake Lilly. To get her to fall asleep, it’d taken nearly a half hour of questions and assurances from him that she was safe. Jason didn’t want to go through that again until he could make good on those assurances.

If that were even possible.

O’Reilly shrugged. “I have answers, but I don’t think you’ll like them. There’s only one surveillance camera in or around this entire place. It’s in the parking lot and static, fixed in only one direction.”

Jason tried not to curse. “Let me guess—the wrong direction?”

“You got it. It was aimed at the center of the parking lot. Someone came up from the side and, while staying out of the line of sight, smashed the lens with a rock. All we got for a visual was a shadow. The crime-scene guys are dusting both the camera and the rock for prints, but it looks clean. Whoever it was probably had on gloves.”

Definitely not good. Jason had hoped for a sloppy crime scene, even though deep down he’d known it wouldn’t be. Whoever was behind this was brazen. Yes. Determined—that, too. Maybe even downright desperate.

But not sloppy.

Jason had personally gone over every inch of Lilly’s room and hadn’t found even trace evidence.

“How about the rookie guarding Ms. Nelson’s room?” Jason asked. “Did you find him?”

O’Reilly nodded. “He was in the utility closet at the end of the hall. Duct tape on his mouth, hands and feet. He has a goose-egg-size lump on his head, and someone had used a stun gun on him, but he can’t remember being knocked out.”

Probably because the guard had fallen asleep.

This time, Jason didn’t even try to contain his profanity, but it was aimed just as much at himself as it was at the guard. When Jason had checked on him about a half hour prior to Lilly’s attack, the guy had looked a little drowsy. Jason had asked if he’d wanted to be relieved, but he’d said no, that the double espresso he was sipping would keep him awake all night.

Yeah, right.

Jason wanted to kick himself. Hard. How could he have let this happen?

He’d been positive that nineteen months ago someone had tried to kill Lilly. That’s why he’d had a guard assigned to the convalescent hospital in the first place. What he should have anticipated, however, was that one guard wouldn’t be enough. After all, the person responsible for this latest attempt on Lilly’s life had no doubt been the one who’d forced her off the road and left her for dead.

Getting past one guard in the middle of the night obviously hadn’t been much of a challenge. Murdering Lilly wouldn’t have been a challenge, either, if Jason hadn’t returned to the hospital to talk to Lilly’s doctor about additional security measures for the facility.

Ironic.

While he’d been discussing the need for extra security, someone had been breaching it. And Lilly had nearly paid for that breach with her life.

“So far, no witnesses,” O’Reilly continued. “But we’re canvassing the neighborhood. Something might turn up.”

Not likely. It was late. Midweek. The small downtown hospital was surrounded by specialty shops that mainly did business from ten to six o’clock. That meant there probably weren’t a lot of potential witnesses milling around to see someone escaping through a window.

“I gave one of the detectives the names of two suspects, Wayne Sandling and Raymond Klein,” Jason explained. “Both are former attorneys. About two years ago, Lilly uncovered some information that caused them to be disbarred.”

What she’d uncovered, though, wasn’t an offense that would have earned them jail time. While Sandling and Klein had been working as advisors to the city council, the two had somehow managed to get a construction company a lucrative contract to renovate historic city-owned buildings. The problem? The owners of the construction company were Sandling and Klein’s friends. A definite conflict of interest. That suspicious contract wasn’t enough for an arrest and, coupled with other similar unethical activity, it was barely enough to get them disbarred and fired as city council advisors.

But Jason knew there was more.

His brother, Greg, had even suspected it. After dealing with Sandling and Klein on a city contract deal, Greg too had noticed inconsistencies with bid dates and altered estimates that had ultimately cost him a contract to do auditing work for the city. Greg had been more than ready to request an investigation into the two attorneys’ dealings. It hadn’t happened, of course.

Because Greg had died in the car accident.

“Sandling and Klein have already been contacted,” O’Reilly assured him. “Neither seemed pleased about that.”

“I’ll bet not. I want them questioned—hard.”

“Absolutely.”

Not that it would do much good. Questioning them hadn’t been effective nineteen months ago. Jason had no doubts about Sandling’s and Klein’s guilt as far as unscrupulous business practices, but what was missing was solid proof that their unscrupulousness had gone much deeper than what the police had already found. There was no remaining evidence since the files that Lilly had copied from her computer had disappeared the night she’d been run off the road.

Jason knew that wasn’t a coincidence.

Detective O’Reilly craned his neck to peer over Jason’s shoulder. “By the way, how’s Ms. Nelson?”

“Other than a few bruises, she wasn’t hurt physically.”

He couldn’t say the same for her mental health, though. Here she was, only hours out of a coma. Hours where she’d learned she had a daughter that she hadn’t even known she’d conceived. That in itself was enough trauma to face, but Lilly now had to deal with the aftermath of an attempted murder and a full-scale police investigation.

Jason looked back at Lilly, as well, and saw that she was in the exact place he’d left her. Well, sort of. She was still in the hospital bed. Still asleep. But it wasn’t a peaceful sleep by any means. Her arm muscles jerked and trembled as if she were still in a fight for her life.

Which wasn’t too far from the truth.

Someone wanted her dead, and wanted it badly enough to have tried not once but twice. Jason had been a cop for nearly eleven years and had learned a lot about criminal behavior.

This guy wasn’t going to give up.

But then, neither was Jason.

It’d been a mistake not to beef up security, a bigger mistake to let down his guard, and he wouldn’t do that again.

“Who knew Ms. Nelson was out of the coma?” O’Reilly asked.

It was a question Jason had already asked the hospital staff, and he’d gotten answers that hadn’t pleased him. “Too many people. One of the nurses called a few friends to tell them the news. Another nurse called Lilly’s former secretary—again, to share the good news. The doctors spoke to colleagues. Even Lilly’s insurance company was contacted.”

Jason couldn’t consider himself blameless, either. He’d told Megan’s nanny, Erica, though he didn’t think Erica would pass on the information to anyone. And of course, there’d been paperwork processed at headquarters to assign the cop to security detail outside Lilly’s room. In others words, at least several dozen people had learned that Lilly was no longer in a coma, and obviously one of those several dozen was someone who wanted her dead.

Lilly stirred again, and this time her eyes opened. In the same motion, she sat up, spearing him with her gaze. Her eyes were wild. Her breath, racing. She scrambled back toward the wall, banging into it with a loud thud.

O’Reilly immediately stepped away. “I’ll let you know what the crime-scene guys say about the security camera.” With that, the detective made a hasty exit, leaving Jason to deal with Lilly.

There was just one problem. Jason didn’t know how to deal with her.

Seemingly disgusted with herself, she shook her head. “I keep dreaming.”

Nightmares, no doubt. Jason wanted to tell her that they would go away, but he’d fed her enough lies tonight. Reassurances that she was safe didn’t contain even a shred of truth.

Not yet, anyway.

Jason eased the door shut and walked to her. He had a ten-second debate with himself before he moved even closer and sat beside her on the bed. Yes, there was plenty of bad blood between them, but he would have had to be a coldhearted jackass not to try to offer some comfort.

“You have more bad news?” she asked, her voice cracking on the last word.

She was trembling all over, and he reached out. He pushed aside any doubts he had about what he was doing and pulled her into his arms. Lilly stiffened at first. Not a little stiffening, either, but a posture change that affected practically every muscle in her body. Probably because she was shocked by his gesture. Or maybe even appalled. But by degrees, she soon settled against him, as if she belonged there.

Jason quickly dismissed that last thought. Lilly didn’t belong in his arms. She didn’t belong this close to him. This was an anomaly. An emotional blip created by the dangerous situation that had forced this temporary camaraderie between them.

Then he felt her warm breath brush against his neck. He took in her scent. The logic of emotional blips and anomalies flew right out the window.

Hell.

What was going on here?

The confusing yet tender episode lasted only a few seconds—thank God—because Lilly pulled back slightly and looked up at him. She squinted her eyes and appeared to be as thunderstruck as he felt.

Jason totally understood her dumbfounded state. Twenty-four hours earlier if someone had told him he’d be holding Lilly, and reacting to it in the most basic way a man could, he would have never believed it.

She swallowed hard and inched back even farther. The confusion in her eyes faded, and in its place came the uncomfortable realization of what had just happened.

Oh, yeah. They were on the same page.

Lilly cleared her throat, reached for the blanket and gave it an adjustment that it in no way needed. “You never did say—why were you here at the hospital tonight?”

Blind luck. But Jason kept that to himself. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to drop by to check on the guard,” he said, thankful for the conversation. It would hopefully take his mind off that basic male reaction he was still having. “When I saw Dr. Staten was still here, I went into his office to talk to him.”

She paused. “Well…thank you.”

Her thanks was genuine. Jason didn’t doubt that. But he also didn’t doubt that it hadn’t been an easy thing for her to say to him. Civility of any kind was tricky between two battle-scarred enemies.

“I’m sorry,” Lilly whispered, pulling away completely from him.

Jason immediately felt the loss of her body heat. A sensation that surprised and sickened him. Sheez. What the heck was wrong with him, anyway?

“What are you sorry for?” he managed to ask just to keep the discussion going.

“For borrowing your shoulder to cry on.” She dusted her fingers across his jacket as if to remove any evidence of herself.

“After the scare you had, you deserve a shoulder, and the crying.”

She stared at him. Paused. Stared at him some more. “You’re being nice to me.”

True, and he wasn’t exactly pleased that she’d pointed it out. “Blame it on the adrenaline and fatigue.” He groaned softly. “Don’t worry… I’ll be back to normal in no time.”

“Good,” she concluded. “Because it’s easier that way.”

Jason nodded, understanding. They had enough to deal with without bringing Greg’s death and all those unresolved issues to the table. Unfortunately, one of those issues now seemed to be this bizarre attraction, or whatever the heck it was, that he felt for her.

Lilly leaned back, rested her head against the stack of pillows. “I wish I’d at least gotten a glimpse of the person who tried to smother me. Maybe I would have recognized him so you could arrest him.”

Jason almost blew out a breath of relief at the change of subject. The right change. Too bad he hadn’t thought of it sooner. Which only showed how dangerous distractions could be. Instead of pondering the effect of his hormones, he should be questioning her and digging for any clues to help them find the perp.

“A visual isn’t the only way to recognize someone,” he reminded her. “Was there anything familiar about his scent or his clothes?”

She immediately shook her head. “No.”

Jason continued to press. “How about his voice? Did he say anything?”

“No to all of those. No scent. I wasn’t able to touch his clothes. And if he said anything, I didn’t hear it.” Lilly paused a moment. “I can’t even be sure it was a man. All I know is the person was a lot stronger than I am.” She flexed her eyebrows. “But then, I’m not exactly a menacing threat with my superheroine strength, am I now? It didn’t take much to subdue me.”

So they weren’t necessarily looking for a male, strong or otherwise. Just someone who had a reason to kill her. And Jason knew for a fact there were people who fit right into that category. “This has to be connected to your father. To his dirty business dealings.”

“I agree. He was involved in so much. Falsifying paperwork and bids so he’d get contracts for services that he then only partially provided…if at all. He scammed a lot of people with bogus agreements to do everything from audits to major construction.” Lilly grabbed a handful of the blanket and fisted it until her knuckles whitened. “He’s been dead for two and a half years. You’d think the fallout would be finished by now.”

It wouldn’t be finished until this SOB was caught. “We still have the same suspects. Names we’ve gone over hundreds of times.”

“And it could also be any one of the dozens of former business associates that my father scammed or involved in his illegal schemes. Once I’m back on my feet, I want to go through my office and my house—” Her eyes widened. “I still have an office and house, don’t I?”

He nodded. “Your attorney’s been taking care of that with money from your personal and business accounts. But it probably won’t do any good to visit your house and office. The police went through them and didn’t find anything.”

“Maybe they missed something.” She froze, and her gaze whipped back to his. “Oh, my God. Megan. What if this person tries to go—”

“There’s a cop at my house.” One he could trust not to fall asleep. He wasn’t about to risk Megan’s life.

Lilly’s breath was racing now and she placed her hand on her chest. “Thank you, again.”

Jason decided it was a good time to get to his feet and put some distance between them. Unlike Lilly’s other thanks, this one didn’t feel so warm and fuzzy. Nothing he did for Megan required gratitude. What he did for her was totally out of love, and it riled him that Lilly even felt that she had a right to thank him.

Yes, it was stupid. Petty, even. But every paternal instinct in his body screamed for him to latch on to Megan and not let Lilly anywhere near her. He would have to override his instincts, though.

His lieutenant hadn’t given him much of a choice about that.

“I’m making arrangements for you to be transferred to another hospital,” Jason advised her. “Logistically, this one just isn’t that easy to secure.”

“And then what?” she asked, her voice thin. “I’d planned to be discharged in a day or two.”

He’d already considered that, along with the lieutenant’s order. “Once the doctors release you, you’ll be placed in protective custody. My protective custody.”

“Oh.” Something flickered in her eyes and she stayed quiet a moment. “Let me guess—that wasn’t your idea?”

“My lieutenant’s,” he admitted.

Another Oh. “How in the world did he convince you to agree to that?”

“Quite easily. He reminded me that Megan might need protection, as well, and that I’d no doubt want to be the one to provide it.”

She examined him with her firm gaze. “This way, you kill two birds with one stone.”

The word “kill” turned his stomach. “I don’t like that analogy.” But to protect both Lilly and Megan and to minimize the disruptions to Megan’s life, the thing to do was for Lilly to move in with him.

It was logical.

Mercy, he hated that frickin’ word.

The move was logical, but nothing else about this was. This was the next step in the nightmare he’d dreaded since the moment he’d heard that Lilly had come out of the coma.

He would literally put Lilly under the same roof with the daughter he loved more than life itself.

The daughter she’d no doubt try to take from him.

Lilly shook her head. “You know this protective custody won’t work, right?”

Jason shrugged. “We don’t have a choice.”

“Maybe we do. I could always use a private bodyguard.”

Jason was about to give her an opinion on that, and it wasn’t a good opinion, but something—or rather someone—stopped him.

“I will see her now!” someone yelled from the hall. It was a man’s voice. One that Jason didn’t immediately recognize. That angry shout had him moving and reaching for his weapon.

“Take another step,” he heard Detective O’Reilly warn, “and I promise you’ll regret it.”

With his gun ready and aimed, Jason hurried to the door and looked out. Hell. While he hadn’t recognized the voice, he certainly recognized the man.

Wayne Sandling.

The former prominent attorney who’d done business with Lilly’s father. Lots of business. And it hadn’t all been aboveboard, either. Sandling was the last person on earth Jason wanted near Lilly.

“He barged his way in through the front desk,” O’Reilly told Jason.

That didn’t please Jason, but he would deal with the lax security once he’d finished with Sandling. “What are you doing here?” Jason demanded.

Sandling obviously recognized him, as well, because the man’s mouth practically curled into a snarl. “Detective Lawrence. Long time, no see.”

It wasn’t nearly long enough.

Though the former attorney had no doubt climbed out of bed to make this visit, he somehow managed to look as if he were ready for the courtroom. He wore a navy suit, complete with a tie. A tie! At this hour of the morning. His ink-black, conservative-cut hair had been combed to perfection. Not even a hint of sleep was in his eyes. For someone that meticulous, it made Jason wonder how he’d managed to get caught doing anything illegal in the first place.

“You didn’t answer my question, Sandling,” Jason pointed out. “Why are you here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not really.” Jason used his best badass-cop voice and added a glare. “Clarify it for me.”

If Sandling had an unsavory response to Jason’s tone and glare, he didn’t show it. “One of your fellow officers called me tonight. About an attack on Lilly Nelson. He wanted to know if I had an alibi.”

“Do you?”

“That’s not the point. The point is I was awakened and questioned.” His cosmetically perfect teeth came together for a moment. “I don’t like that.”

“Well, I don’t like someone trying to kill Ms. Nelson.” Jason stepped closer, making sure he violated Sandling’s personal space. “So, where were you tonight?”

“Home, in bed, asleep. Alone,” he added. Sandling came closer, too, violating Jason’s personal space. “And I won’t be questioned about my every move, either.”

“You don’t have a choice about that. You have motive and that gives me the right to question you about your every move.”

“Is that Wayne Sandling?” Lilly called.

“Don’t you dare try to get out of bed,” Jason warned her without taking his eyes off the man. He didn’t want Lilly to have to confront Sandling. That didn’t mean she’d agree with him, and she would probably go so far as to try to get up and make her way into the hall.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Jason decided it was time to put an end to this spur-of-the-moment conversation. “Detective O’Reilly, escort Mr. Sandling out of the building. If he puts up a fight, arrest him.”

“I won’t let the cops and Lilly Nelson try to pin trumped-up charges on me again,” Sandling insisted. “Find another scapegoat, Detective Lawrence, and leave me the hell alone.”

And with that, Sandling turned and walked away. His hand shot up, to give O’Reilly a back-off warning when the detective tried to take hold of his arm. O’Reilly’s escort duty wasn’t necessary; Sandling left on his own, practically gliding down the hall. Jason kept his gaze fastened on him until the man was out of sight.

“Make sure he doesn’t come back,” Jason instructed O’Reilly. He turned to Lilly, who was indeed trying to get out of bed. “Stay put. He’s gone.”

Huffing, Lilly sank her head back onto the pillow. “Well, that was a special ending to a special night.”

It was indeed. “I’ll beef up security at the nurses’ station and the front door.” Just having to say that riled him, because until Sandling’s impromptu visit, Jason thought he’d already done that. Which only proved just how dangerous this situation was. It was next to impossible to secure the place. He needed to have her transferred to the other hospital immediately.

“Sandling wouldn’t dare try to come back tonight,” Lilly said under her breath.

It seemed as if she was trying to convince herself.

“Are you still having doubts as to whether you need protective custody?” Jason didn’t wait for her answer. “Then think again. Because I’m going to protect you whether you want it or not.”

It was an order. Solid. Forceful. Certain. But Jason had his own doubts about the certainty. With everything that’d happened, he had to wonder. Could he do his job and keep Lilly alive?




Chapter Five


Lilly’s nerves were too frayed, and there were too many butterflies in her stomach for her to object to what Jason was doing. And what he was doing was lifting her from her wheelchair into the seat of the waiting SUV he’d rented. The rental was a necessity, he’d insisted, because his own vehicle would be too easily recognized.

By Wayne Sandling, perhaps.

Or by someone else who wanted to silence her permanently.

Carrying her was a necessary act, as well, Lilly reminded herself, because despite the past two days of intensive physical therapy, she still wasn’t able to walk unassisted. That meant she didn’t have a choice about his hands-on care. Still, there was something unnerving about having to rely on anyone—especially Jason—to make sure she got from point A to point B.

On the plus side, she was leaving point A: the hospital.

Point B: Jason’s house.

Where she would see her daughter for the first time.

Lilly glanced down at the photo she had cradled in her hand. That instantly soothed the unpleasantness from having to rely on Jason to carry her. It also lessened the fatigue and the stress from the spent adrenaline and the sleepless nights. She could face almost anything now that she knew she’d soon meet Megan.

The April air was already muggy and much too warm, and the morning breeze whipped at them, bringing with it the fruity grape smell of some nearby mountain laurels. It blended with the scent of Jason’s aftershave. No fruity fragrance for him. It was manly, and it reminded her of warm leather and the woods.

Jason nestled her in his arms, on the side away from his shoulder holster and weapon. Her aqua-colored silk top and pants whispered against his T-shirt and jeans. What a contrast. Her, wearing silk, mainly because that was the primary fabric in her wardrobe. Jason, wearing jeans, snakeskin boots and a plain black T-shirt. She was betting he had a lot of those items in his closet. But that wasn’t a criticism. He looked darn good. In fact, his firm, nicely shaped butt was meant for jeans, and she wasn’t exactly pleased that she’d noticed that about him.

“Sorry,” Jason mumbled when his arm swiped across her breast. He eased her onto the front passenger seat.

After all the inappropriate thoughts she’d had about his butt, Lilly pretended not to notice the intimate contact, even though she did suck in her breath. Thankfully, Jason pretended not to notice that.

She sighed.

This protective custody wasn’t off to a good start. Lilly wasn’t counting on it to get much better, either. All she could hope for was that the person who’d tried to kill her would be caught quickly so that neither Megan nor she would be in danger. As long as this person was out there, the sleeplessness would continue. So would the sickening, ominous feeling that the next breath she took could be her last. Hardly the beginning of a new life that she’d wanted when she’d first awakened from the coma.

Jason got in the SUV, started the engine and drove away from the hospital. Lilly spared the place a glance in the side mirror. She wouldn’t miss it. She was anxious to get on with her life, and that getting on with it started now. Of course, she would have to return every other day for physical therapy, but that wouldn’t take too much time from her plans to bond with Megan. She’d missed so much already, and she didn’t intend to waste even a minute more.

“What kind of security measures have you taken to make sure all of us are safe?” she asked Jason. And by “all of us,” she definitely meant Megan.

“I’m taking lots of precautions.” He hitched his thumb in the direction behind them. “That’s an unmarked car with two officers inside.”

She took another glance in the mirror and saw both the vehicle and the plainclothes cops.

“They’ll make sure no one’s following us and that we get to my place in one piece,” Jason explained. “I also created a little diversion by telling the hospital staff and your secretary, Corinne, that you’d be going to your house for a few days. There’s a decoy car headed there now. It’ll pull into your garage, and the officers will exit through the back. So if anyone’s looking for you, they won’t know if you’re there or not.”

All in all, it was a good plan. Or rather, it was a start to a good plan. “That’s one base covered. How about your house? Is it safe?”





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