He cleared his throat and repeated his question. “Why?”
Still, she took more long moments before she opened her mouth. Moments they didn’t have. “After you died...after I thought you died,” she corrected, “I decided it was time to try to figure out exactly what my father and his associates were doing.”
The explanation stopped there. Cold and way incomplete. “Why didn’t you just find a rattlesnake or two to play with? It would have been safer.”
That earned him a glare. “Because I wanted to know the truth about my father.”
Wow. Not something he’d expected her to say. “Can you deal with the truth?” he fired back.
Her glare got worse but then softened almost immediately. “I was looking for proof that he had something to do with my mother’s death.”
Yeah, Gage knew something about that. Her mother had died from a so-called accidental drowning when Lynette was just a kid, nine years old. A lot of people had wondered if Ford had killed his wife, Sandra, after rumors of an affair.
Rumors of an affair between Sandra and Gage’s own grandfather, Chet McLaurin, who was then the sheriff of Silver Creek.
Even now, after all these years, it hurt to think about losing his Granddaddy Chet. The rumors hurt, too. Though his grandfather had been a widower during the alleged affair, it had put a stain on his good name when folks whispered about a possible involvement with a married woman. And not just any married woman but the wife of the rich and powerful Ford Herrington.
“Did you find anything about your mother?” Gage pressed.
“No.” She looked at him. “And I didn’t find any link to my father killing your grandfather, either.”
That didn’t mean it hadn’t happened.
The timing was suspicious since his grandfather had been gunned down by an unknown assailant just weeks after her mother’s drowning. It was bad enough that during that same month Lynette and he had both lost people close to them, but then shortly after, Gage’s own father had abandoned the family. Boone Ryland had just walked out without warning. Gage and his brothers had been devastated. Their mother, too, since she committed suicide not long after he left.
A lot of bad things had gone on around that time.
And Gage figured Ford Herrington could have started the whole ugly ball rolling by killing his wife and her supposed lover.
“That was the worst summer of my life,” Lynette mumbled. “Well, one of the worst. Another was when you got Hodgkin’s.” And she sounded all torn up about it.
He had to be wrong about that. These old memories couldn’t mean anything to her now. If they had, then she would have tried to contact him during the past decade. She hadn’t. And after a couple of years of waiting for that, Gage had shut out all thoughts of her.
Until now.
Hard to shut her out when she was just inches away and after that kiss.
“Even though you were sick, there were still some parts about that summer that were good,” she said, her voice practically soundless. But somehow Gage managed to hear her anyway.
“Oh, you considered the good part our marriage?” he growled. “Except it didn’t last long enough for the ink to dry on the license. Not much good about that.”
No glare from her this time. Something he figured that she’d toss at him. In fact, it was the opposite reaction. Her forehead bunched up, and she started to nibble on her bottom lip.
“You hate my father because he forced me to get that annulment,” Lynette mumbled.
Gage couldn’t argue with that. It was true. But it was also true that he hated Lynette for not standing up to the man. Ford got away with what he did only because Lynette had allowed him to have his way. She’d backed down when Gage had needed her to stand up to her father.
Gage decided to take this conversation in a slightly different direction—or rather a backtracked one. His SUV was quickly eating up the miles to the airport, and while the conversation made him feel marginally better, it wasn’t giving him the answers that he might be able to use to get to the bottom of this.
“I take it you didn’t find any dirt on your mucked-up dad?” he concluded. “But we both know there’s plenty of dirt to find. How hard and how long did you look?” Better yet, what had she found?
“There is dirt. I’m sure of it. But I didn’t find it in any of the files in his office.” She paused. More lip nibbling. Another pause. “I even tried taping him in the hopes that he might let something slip, but he must have known something was up, because he grabbed my purse and found the recorder that I’d tried to hide.”
Of course, he would have. Ford was very good at reading people, and he was suspicious by nature. At least that’s how Gage remembered him and all the dirty looks and snide comments he’d made when Lynette and he were dating.
But Ford had another side, that fake face he put on for the world to see. Gage had also gotten a glimpse of that when they’d first told Ford about their elopement. Maybe because they’d told him in front of witnesses, including the justice of the peace, Ford had been all calm on the outside. But there must have been some fire beneath all that calmness or else he wouldn’t have talked Lynette into the annulment.
“Why’d you quit looking for the dirt on your father?” Gage asked. “And don’t get me wrong— I’m glad you quit. Less snooping will keep you alive. But why’d you try to close up Pandora’s box after you opened it?”
“I had my reasons,” she snapped.
And apparently those were reasons that she wasn’t planning to share with him. He’d probably find out anyway, because he was going to do some deep digging of his own when he had Lynette on safe ground.
Gage pulled into the tiny airport parking area, stopped and spotted the plane on the runway. Good. No hitch in that department. The pilot was there, as well, tucked underneath the awning of the maintenance hangar. In other words, this last leg of the plan was a go—despite the rocky start with the hit man and the kiss. What Gage should do was get Lynette’s butt on the plane now and never look back.
But the need for those answers gnawed away at him, and he just couldn’t let go of it yet. Especially one answer in particular.
“And what would those reasons be for stopping the investigation?” he pressed, and he braced himself for another snapped response.
Which he didn’t get.
With her mouth tight, she just stared out at the wipers slashing the rain off the windshield.
“Okay. You won’t tell me,” he fired back. “Then, let me guess. You fell in love with someone. Or maybe it wasn’t love. Maybe just lust. You landed in the sack with him, and when you found out you were pregnant, you figured you’d better not do anything to get yourself and that baby killed.”
More silence.
That didn’t help the anger roaring inside him. “At least tell me that this SOB is willing to marry you now that you’re pregnant.”
“We haven’t discussed it,” she mumbled.
Gage cursed. “Was this like a one-night stand?” He didn’t wait for an answer. Which he should have. He also should have dropped a subject that was none of his business. But he didn’t. He just had to get in one more jab to go along with the knot that this news had put in his gut.
“There is such thing as safe sex, you know?”
Even though Gage wasn’t too happy about any kind of sex with Lynette that didn’t involve him. Yeah. That was petty since they weren’t together. Heck, they didn’t even like each other anymore.
Still, it stung.
This pregnancy was a couple of steps past stinging. Maybe because part of him—the immature part still hanging on to the past—remembered that once, years ago, Lynette and he had planned to have kids of their own.
A whole brood of them, she’d insisted. To make up for her being an only child.
Gage had siblings, five of them, so he didn’t have the same need as Lynette did, but yeah, he’d wanted kids back then. Now... Well, now didn’t matter. His future was sealed as long a
s Sampson Dalvetti was alive, and since Gage hadn’t been able to get to him in the past eleven months, he wasn’t counting on eliminating the drug lord anytime soon.
Lynette pointed to the plane. “I’m supposed to get on that?” she asked.
It took a moment to get his jaw unclenched, and it didn’t happen until after he cursed himself for going off on another thought tangent. “You are. You’re supposed to stay gone until I can figure out who’s trying to kill you.”
She pulled back her shoulders. “You mean you’re continuing the investigation into my father and the others?”
“Damn straight.” It was the only way to end this.
Lynette shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. If my father learns you’re alive—” Again, she stopped cold.
And Gage intended to find out why this was a forbidden subject with her. She knew how he felt about Ford. Gage hated the man, and the feeling was mutual. There was no reason for her to keep skirting around the obvious.
“You think your father will try to kill me?” Gage concluded. “Well, that’s a chance I’ll have to take, because if I don’t stop him, or the person responsible, then you’ll never be safe. You’ll never be able to have a normal life. Guys like Freddie Denton will just keep coming after you.”
She frantically shook her head. “I won’t be safe if my father finds out you’re alive. He’ll put things together. He’ll start digging.”
Lynette sucked in her breath as if she’d said too much.
But she hadn’t said nearly enough.
Fed up with the lack of answers, Gage caught her by the shoulders and turned her toward him. “I know Ford hates my guts, but why would my being alive make your father come after you?”
She tried to dodge his gaze, tried to turn away from him, but Gage held on, and he got right in her face. “Why?” he demanded.
She started shaking her head and didn’t stop. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.” And Gage didn’t say it nicely. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll get the answer from your father.”
Lynette gasped. “Please. You can’t,” she repeated. “It’d only make things worse.”
Probably, but it was just a bluff. Still, that didn’t mean he was going to let her get on that plane until he had what he wanted. An answer.
“Why would your father come after you if he finds out I’m alive?” he pushed. Gage glared at her, to let her know he wasn’t just going to let this go.
Her gaze came to his, finally, and it seemed as if Lynette changed her mind a dozen times before she opened her mouth. “Because my father will figure things out about the baby.”
Well, that was a reason he darn sure hadn’t expected to hear.
Gage tried to work it out. Did Ford disapprove of the baby’s daddy? But he shook his head. Then, what the heck would that have to do with Lynette’s and his safety?
Especially Gage’s.
He moved closer, and met her eye to eye. “I’m missing something, and you’re going to tell me what this pregnancy has to do with me.”
Lynette swallowed hard, and her breath rushed out in a thin stream. “Gage, the baby is yours.”
Chapter Five
Lynette knew that telling Gage the truth could be a massive mistake. Everything at this point could be a wrong move for her, and she’d already made too many of those.
Maybe it was the shock of seeing him and learning he was alive. Maybe that spontaneous kiss of relief had melted her brain. And maybe it was this blasted attraction that just wouldn’t die. Whatever the reason, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from blurting out what would no doubt be a bombshell for him.
The baby she was carrying was his.
Gage stared at her as if she’d lost her mind, but it wasn’t exactly shock she saw in his expression. More like total disbelief. “Lynette, I haven’t had sex with you in ten years,” he reminded her.
Yes, ten years, one month and four days.
Yet she still remembered every inch of his body. His touch. The things he said to her in those intimate moments. That made her one sick puppy.
Or something worse.
Lynette was afraid to put a label on that something worse but a one-man woman came to mind. Despite smothering all the good things she had once felt for him, the memories still haunted her.
“You want to explain to me how I could have gotten you pregnant?” But he didn’t give her time to answer. “Did someone come to you, someone pretending to be me?”
“No,” she quickly assured him. “I’m pretty good at detecting the real Gage versus a fake one.” And there was no way he could argue with that. She’d certainly found him out soon enough despite the disguise and the altered voice.
He huffed and made a circular motion with his hand to prompt her to continue with her explanation about the pregnancy. Lynette debated where she should start and decided to go with the beginning.
“When you were twenty-one and got Hodgkin’s, we were already making plans to get married.” She tried to keep her voice level. And failed. “The doctors in San Antonio told you the treatment could make you sterile. We’d talked about having kids down the road, so you stockpiled some semen.”
She paused to give him time to absorb that.
He didn’t absorb it well.
Gage cursed, a long string of profanity. “The hospital kept it after all this time?”
Lynette nodded. “Until about six weeks ago. When the hospital couldn’t reach you, they called me because you’d listed me as your emergency contact. They wanted my permission to dispose of it since it’d been there so long. I, uh, took it instead.”
There were few times that she could remember when Gage had been gobsmacked, and this was one of them.
He cursed again and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Why the heck would you do this?”
“Because I wanted a baby.” Your baby—something else she kept to herself. In fact, there were other things she had to keep secret, as well.
Things that could make this situation even more dangerous than it already was.
“Plus, I thought you were dead,” Lynette reminded him.
“Yeah, but my being dead wouldn’t prevent the fallout from Ford if he found out the kid is mine.”
“My father didn’t know about the frozen sperm, and I had no plans to tell him. In fact, I don’t intend to tell him about the baby, period. I’d planned to be out of Silver Creek before I started showing.”
“And you thought he’d just let you leave?” Gage asked.
“No. But I’ve been making arrangements for a new identity in a place far away from here so I can raise this baby and have the life I always wanted.”
“A life with my baby.” He punched the steering wheel. “Lynette, I’m not exactly in any position to be a father.”
“I know.” She couldn’t say that fast enough. “And I don’t expect you to be.”
Did she?
Well, she hadn’t expected him to be because she’d thought he was dead. But now...
No.
She couldn’t go there, either.
Gage wasn’t really back in her life. He was just here to save her.
“All right,” he said, and repeated it. “I need you to get on that plane and leave. I’ll try to figure out who’s after you and how to stop it.”
That seemed like the goodbye she’d been expecting, and Lynette wanted to hang on to this moment just a little longer. “I could stay and help you.”
“No deal.” Another of Gage’s sayings. In this case, he delivered it with a stubbornness that she had no trouble hearing.
Lynette opened her mouth to argue. She didn’t want Gage shouldering all the danger. But then she thought of her unborn child. Their baby. If she stayed, the baby would also be in danger.
“You’ll go,” he insisted. He glanced at her stomach again to let her know they were on the same wavelength. “Who else knows the baby you’re carrying is mine?”
“Just you and me.”
“What about the doctor in San Antonio who contacted you?” he pressed.
She shook her head. “I didn’t tell him I’d planned to be inseminated.”
“No, but it isn’t much of a stretch for him to figure it out. Someone could have followed you to the hospital and then paid off the doctor.”
Another headshake. “I was careful, and I didn’t have the insemination done there. I went to Houston, used a fake ID, and had it done at a private clinic where I paid to make sure my records would stay confidential.”
He stared at her. “And all these precautions were because of your father?”
“Yes,” she admitted, though she knew that would only lead to more questions.
It did.
Gage turned toward her. “Do you finally realize how dangerous a man he is?”
“Yes.” Again, it would mean more questions. So, Lynette continued before Gage could ask them. “Ten years ago when my father found out we’d eloped, he said I had two choices. I could have the marriage annulled, or he’d kill you.”
No profanity. No glare. But thanks to the lights on the runway, she could see his eyes, and the aha moment of truth. A truth she’d kept from him for a decade.
“And you believed him?” Gage pressed.
“Oh, yes.” Lynette had to take a deep breath. “He convinced me after he confessed that he’d murdered my mother and gotten away with it.”
There. She’d finally said it aloud. The words, the fear. The horrible secret she’d been carrying in her heart for so long that it was now part of her. Not just part of her past but her future.
Now, Gage cursed again. “You should have gone to Grayson. He could have arrested Ford.”
“There was no evidence, just his confession that only I heard. He told me that before I could make it to the sheriff’s office, you’d be dead and at least half your brothers, too.” That required another deep breath. “I couldn’t take the risk of losing you.”
Ironic, since she’d lost him anyway.
Gage had hated her after the annulment. Still did. Well, maybe. He’d certainly responded to that kiss of relief. But Lynette couldn’t pin her hopes on one kiss. Especially a kiss that could have been left over from the old heat between them. He could still lust after her without wanting anything to do with her.
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