Could she take him into her life for the baby? The idea of living with him ignited her anxiety. So where did that leave them? Starting off with dysfunction right out of the gate?
Why was this happening? Had she done something wrong and now was being punished?
How could she think of a baby as punishment? She and Jasper had created a life. A living soul grew inside of her. What the woman from the grocery store said played back again, as it had a few times before now.
They are such a miracle.
Maybe, but this didn’t feel like a miracle. She was pregnant and the baby’s father had just walked out on her. She’d driven him out.
Just as depression began to sink into her, the hotel door opened. She turned to see Jasper coming toward her, his face set with determination.
Her breath stopped along with the exhilaration of seeing him. As he reached her, he slid his arm around her waist. Pulling her against him, his stormy gaze held hers in a fierce connection.
“I’m not going anywhere. You can talk all you want about how you don’t think I’ll be happy settling down and it won’t matter. I could never abandon you or my child. You’re just going to have to learn to accept that.”
This must be what he felt like when something thrilled him. “Okay.”
That eased all the tension out of his face. He lowered his head and kissed her.
She looped her arms over his shoulders and relished how he melted her insides and sent a delicious tickle shivering through her. She met his hard kiss until it turned needier. Then he drew back, looking with fiery eyes into hers.
A baby really complicated everything, but for now she’d take this moment and run with it. There might come a day when he acknowledged he would never be happy living in isolation. Sadie could no longer live any other way. She had left the exciting world of nonstop corporate action and the demands of her overbearing father. She would never return to that way of life. She might enjoy driving fast cars and expensive accessories, but she loved the quiet beauty of the mountains and her home that had become her sanctuary.
Her nonprofit company was nothing like the renowned, nationally famous private investigation agency where Jasper came from. He needed to be out in the world, and that had nothing to do with his sense of failure where Kaelyn was concerned. She couldn’t send him away now, but she didn’t think she’d have to. She only had to protect her heart in preparation for that day.
Chapter 12
That kiss and another as he left Sadie with two bodyguards on the circular drive of her parents’ mansion kept going through his mind. While he stood by the decision to stick by her and the baby, he felt evermore drawn to her. And the discovery that he was going to be a dad in nine months did strange things to him. One minute the notion touched and intrigued him and the next terrified him. It helped that Sadie dealt with similar feelings. He’d rather not try to predict what the future held.
Darien entered the Black Bean coffee shop, a quaint little cottage-style business on the corner of two busy downtown Toronto streets. Yellow with white trim, four small café tables with white umbrellas charmed the front patio. Jasper passed the patio, void of people on this chilly spring day. The car Darien had left remained parked on the street, two men inside. He didn’t recognize either one.
Stepping into the coffee shop, Jasper spotted Darien at the counter ordering coffee. Fairly tall at just over six feet or so, he wore an expensive suit and had dark hair except for slight signs of graying. Jasper waited for him to get his steaming cup and find a table. Then he approached. Darien looked up from his tablet. His dark eyes stayed on Jasper but nothing changed in his expression. The fact that he kept staring indicated he recognized him.
“May I?” Jasper pulled out a chair and sat across from the man.
“Do I know you?” Darien asked.
“Let’s cut the bull, shall we?” Jasper opened his jacket enough to let Darien see his shoulder gun holster.
“I have a few of those nearby, as well.”
“I saw them in the Buick,” Jasper said. “I’ve been watching you for a few weeks now.”
The way Darien’s head angled ever so slightly and his eyes grew more guarded told Jasper he’d caught him by surprise. Darien hadn’t known anyone had spied on him. The men Jamie had sent were good, better, probably, than anyone working for this clown.
“That’s something I’ve noticed men like you always overlook,” Jasper said. “Insecurity makes you stupid.”
“Where did Catalina find you?” Darien asked. “Or should I call her Sadie now?”
“She knew where to look.”
A couple took a seat at the table next to them.
“What’s your name?” Darien asked. “My people have been trying to find out with no luck.”
“You can call me Jasper.”
“All right, mysterious Jasper. First of all, I am not insecure. I am a very successful businessman.”
“Anything else you’re up to other than drug dealing?” When Darien simply stared at him, Jasper said, “Yes, I know everything about you.”
“Perhaps not everything.” He picked up the phone on the table and entered a text message, probably letting his goons know he might need them.
“I know you murdered Bernie and left a clue that would lead Sadie to you. I know you murdered a man over planted drugs. And I know you like to slap women around. Only weak-minded men do that. I’m pretty sure the only reason you can call yourself very successful is however you cheated your way there, in which case, I wouldn’t call you successful at all.”
Darien put down his phone. “You’re righteously bold, aren’t you? Someday you may find you regret coming here attempting to threaten me.”
Leaning back, Jasper saw the couple engaged in a low-volume, intimate conversation. “I’m not threatening you or trying to. I wouldn’t waste my time. I’m here to ask you about the supplier Sadie saw you kill. And how about that policeman? You shut them all down and drove Sadie away. Why?”
“That supplier as you call him tried to steal from me, but I didn’t kill him. You’re crazy if you think I killed anyone. Bernie? Who is that?”
Jasper wouldn’t try to make him admit to murder. “What did your supplier know about you?” He had a view of the street from his seat and noticed the two men get out of the car.
“I believe we’re finished with this conversation.”
“Almost, yes. Just one more thing. You’ll never get close enough to Sadie to hurt her ever again. If you doubt me, I’ve got a message for you.” He looked out the window and saw two of Jamie’s finest intercept the two men who’d gotten out of the car, covertly sticking guns to their sides and giving an order to back off.
“Who the hell are you?”
Jasper stood and looked down at Darien. “You can’t win this one. I can see how this is going to turn out and it isn’t the way you picture it. While I’d like nothing more than to choke the life out of you, I’m going to take you down the honest way. And believe me, you will go down. Nobody hurts a woman I care about and gets away with it.”
“I never hurt Sadie. What are you? Her new boyfriend? What kind of stories has she been telling you?”
Jasper didn’t respond. He turned and walked away, having said all he’d intended to say. All he wanted was for Darien to see the face of the man who’d hold him responsible for all the evil he’d inflicted on innocent people.
“She was a fool for leaving the way she did,” Darien said to his retreating back. “She had everything she could ever possibly want. But she had to turn her back on her father and me. That’s the trouble with her. Nothing is ever good enough.”
Jasper looked back when he reached the door. The couple had stopped their exchange to stare at Darien, as had a few other patrons in the coffee shop.
“All that tells
me is you don’t know Sadie at all.” Jasper pushed open the door and left.
Outside he nodded once toward Jamie’s watchdogs. They nodded back. They’d hold Darien’s men a few minutes longer and then let them go, long after Jasper left the vicinity.
He walked down the street and turned at the corner. Almost at his rental, a man appeared from an alley. Jasper stopped in the act of reaching for his gun when he recognized Steven.
Steven stepped toward him and extended a piece of paper, looking up the street in the direction Jasper had just come. “Meet me here. Now.” With that, Steven returned to the alley, walking down the middle toward a parked car.
Jasper read the address and got into his car. He drove the short distance to a mom-and-pop café. In an older brick building tucked between a row of other connected businesses along the cracked sidewalk, Dave and Charlene’s didn’t offer much in the way of aesthetics.
He entered the café. A long row of red-topped stools lined a counter with a view of shining stainless steel in the kitchen. The sound of frying food and the smell of bacon greeted him along with the smiling face of a waitress passing him with handfuls of dishes. Seeing he’d arrived before Steven, he found a table out of sight of the front window.
Less than two minutes later, Steven opened the front door and walked toward him, looking out the window until a wall blocked the view. He carried a laptop case and put that on the floor before extending his hand.
“Jasper.”
Jasper shook his hand. “Steven. I wasn’t expecting to run into you on this trip.”
“I wasn’t expecting you, either. I’ve been tailing Darien whenever I can. He took a trip to California during the same time that the dead animal turned up at the Revive Center.”
“Is that why you wanted to meet?”
Steven settled in on his chair and told the waitress he’d like coffee and nothing else. Jasper declined to order anything.
“How is Sadie?” Steven asked.
Pregnant, but other than that...
“She’s well. Right now she’s visiting her mother.”
Steven went still. “Alone?”
“With two bodyguards.”
He relaxed. “Oh, good. I know she misses her mother.”
Jasper waited for him to get to the purpose of this meeting. They probably shouldn’t meet for very long. Steven shouldn’t draw too much attention to himself with any lengthy, unexplained absences.
“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get some things to you and Sadie.” He leaned over and retrieved something from the laptop case. “Regular mail didn’t seem very secure and couriers leave a trail.” He sat up with an envelope.
Jasper took it but didn’t open it. “What am I going to find in here?”
“A receipt from a Loredo candy store and some creepy pictures of a secret room in Darien’s castle of a home. He’s clearly got a severe obsession with Sadie.”
“He’s a serial killer wall type?” That Jasper hadn’t expected. Criminal business deals and drugs, yes, but freak-show stalker? Nope.
“Without a doubt. There’s something else.” Steven glanced around the café and toward the door. “He also took a trip to Iran I found highly suspect.”
That didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“I don’t have any proof, but I heard him on the phone before he left, talking about some equipment he was bringing with him. He called them cryogenic accelerometers. I looked them up on the internet. Those types of components are used in ballistic missile propellants and liquid-fuel rocket engines to measure acceleration at low temperatures. Sounds illegal to me.”
Rocket engine components sent to Iran? The sanctions probably didn’t include technology like that. “Darien’s motive for killing one of his suppliers just got a lot more interesting.”
“I’d say,” Steven said. “That’s the first time I started to feel scared working for him and spying. He’s into some serious illegal activities. Drug dealers can be clever but rocket engine sales to sanctioned countries takes things to a different level. Now I understand why he’s always so careful, and why I couldn’t help Sadie these last five years. Darien trusts no one and does his technology sales himself. I knew he had dangerous friends but I never saw this coming.”
“Why don’t you get out of here?” Jasper said. “Get away from Darien. Now. If you keep spying you’re going to get caught.”
“I will.” He smiled at Jasper. “Now that I know Sadie will be safe and you have what you need to get Darien.”
“You’re awfully loyal to her.” Everyone close to her was.
“There was a time when I would have been romantically involved with her, but the timing never worked out. She had to get away from Darien and emotionally wasn’t in a place to start up with someone new.”
He didn’t say she still wasn’t.
“And I’m glad nothing ever did happen between us. I might not have met the love of my life. Sadie isn’t the kind of woman you leave.” He sent Jasper a man-to-man look.
He couldn’t comment on that. Leaving Sadie wasn’t an option now. And as he imagined doing so without the baby, he had mixed feelings. He couldn’t say he’d leave after the case was solved. It wasn’t an issue of excitement, either. Maybe Sadie had been right when she said that was a crutch and he avoided the relationship itself. He supposed he’d never denied that. Neither one of them was ready for that, were they? And yet, here they were, with a baby on the way.
“It doesn’t happen when you’re looking for it,” Steven said.
Which only worsened Jasper’s rising sense of dread.
* * *
Sadie spent most of the day catching her mother up on what she’d done since leaving Loredo and her life with Darien behind. Her mother had wanted to go out for a special lunch but Sadie had promised Jasper she wouldn’t leave the house. Instead her mother had asked her serving staff to prepare lunch here. For two hours Sadie had enjoyed the most delicious salmon salad and a long conversation.
They now sat on a rooftop patio overlooking the city, drinking iced tea. She’d called ahead to let her know she was coming so it wouldn’t be such a shock. Her normally quiet and reserved mother had screeched in delight. They’d hugged and cried and blurted how much they missed each other and then settled down for some good quality girl time.
“Tell me more about this man who’s helping you rid yourself of that monster,” her mother said.
On this a warm May day, Ana Sophia wore diamond-accented sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat with her semi-revealing silk dress. It seemed she’d taken on the same thirst for showy clothes and accessories as Sadie had when the occasion warranted. Even apart they still had similarities. Sadie had dressed up today as well, wearing something sexy and stylish that would surely displease her father.
Her mother’s long, slender legs were exposed from the knee down. Her beige silk shorts and matching top were tailor-made, but there was something different about her. Sadie didn’t know if her contented smile was because she was happy to see her daughter or if other things put it there.
“What do you want to know?”
“Well, for starters, what put that look in his eyes when he said goodbye?”
She’d noticed something romantic between them? Sadie recalled how Jasper had looked at her. He didn’t seem happy to be leaving her behind. And there had been that heat to his eyes that she often saw.
“We...there’s... I think we’re attracted to each other.”
“You think?” Ana Sophia laughed softly. “You don’t have to think, sweetheart. He looks at you like you’ve already gone to bed together.”
“Stop being such an intuitive mother,” Sadie said. “Since when do you speak like that anyway?”
“Ever since I had your father served with divorce papers.”
&nbs
p; Sadie sat up from the recliner and gaped at her mother.
“Yes,” her mother confirmed. “A few months ago I finally had enough. Took me long enough, huh?”
“But...you said you signed a prenuptial agreement.” Her father wouldn’t give her a dime.
“My lawyer pointed out a condition in the section that outlined the money I would and wouldn’t receive if I divorced him. It said unless there were children involved, I leave with what I entered with. I’ll clean him out of half of everything and I won’t feel an ounce of shame.”
Her father deserved what he had coming. “I guess he’ll just have to work harder to make up for it. Divorce should suit him just fine.” Sadie laughed and her mother laughed with her.
“Karma.”
Yes, karma. But deep down Sadie still harbored hope that her father would change his ways and work at becoming a better person.
Her mother reached over and curled her fingers over Sadie’s hand. “I know, darling.”
Sadie marveled over her mother’s keen insight. She knew her daughter’s thoughts without any words. Ana Sophia likely hoped the same. She’d loved Matias at one point in her life. Sadie had loved her father, too, but the darkness in him had become too much to bear. It had poisoned her for too long. Her mother, too.
“Your father named you. Sadie is a name I would have come up with.”
She still held her mother’s hand. “Love you, Mom.”
“Oh, and I you, my dear. When do I get to come see you? You can’t make me go another five years and I’m dying to see your house.”
“As soon as it’s safe.” She would not have her mother walking into an attack. “Knowing Jasper, it won’t be that long.” He’d have Bernie’s case closed soon now that they knew Darien was behind it all. Then only the baby would keep him around. Sadie wished there was no baby, that she could see if what they had was real or not.
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