by Joanna Wayne
Tague got that. It was hard to imagine anyone spending a lot of time with her and not falling in love with her. But she hadn’t loved Scott back and he hadn’t been able to bear the rejection.
Finally, they made it back to Lena’s suite. Gabrielle pointed to a sitting area. “Take a seat. I have something shocking to show you, or at least it shocked me.”
She reached into her oversize handbag and took out a brown envelope. “This came to me as a registered letter the day of the funeral. Afraid that it would be too painful to read, I kept it locked in a bureau drawer for six weeks. Since then, I’ve had it in my safety deposit box.” She handed the envelope to Tague.
The letter inside was printed but hand signed by a Dr. William Reese. Scott read the letter through twice and then handed it to Jackson.
“Son of a bitch,” Jackson said. “Pardon my French, but this is the last thing I expected. All the talk of Lena not being able to have a baby and it turns out Scott is sterile.”
Tague took the letter from Jackson and returned it to the envelope. “If Scott’s not Tommy’s father, who is?”
“I honestly have no idea,” Gabrielle said. “After reading that, I’m not even sure that Lena was the mother. Perhaps Alexis was pregnant by some other man and Scott just wanted a son so badly he concocted the whole in vitro fertilization story. He gave Alexis free room and board. She gave him the son he and Lena couldn’t have. And then he fell in love with her.”
This was totally blowing Tague’s mind. Lena spun an interesting scenario, but he couldn’t believe that Alexis was still lying to him. He’d accepted that she lied in the beginning, but not now. Not when they’d become so close.
He had to know the truth, but he wouldn’t confront her until he did.
“May I take the letter with me?” Tague asked.
“Not that one. It’s the original, but I made a copy for you. There’s also a legal form that I think might interest you.” She reached back into her handbag and handed him a notarized form. This was signed by both Lena and Scott and two witnesses whose names he didn’t recognize.
The form stated that if anything happened to keep Lena and Scott from taking care of Tommy, Melinda Ryan was to be named as legal guardian.
“I can’t believe Scott signed this,” he said.
“Remember, that was when he was planning on making her his wife and before she openly rejected him.”
But this form would work against Alexis. It gave her a motive to want both Lena and Scott dead so that she’d have sole custody of Tommy. But if Tommy were her child, she could have just had DNA testing done and proven that.
Tague could do nothing but speculate now. He needed facts.
Neither he nor Jackson stayed around to haul out clothes. There were far more important things to take care of, starting with Dr. Reese.
* * *
“THE QUICKEST WAY to get at the truth is likely the old-fashioned paper trail,” Jackson said as they drove away from Scott’s mansion. “I already have Scott’s banking records for the month Alexis would have gotten pregnant.”
“How did you get that?”
“Don’t ask. You don’t want to know. Pull in at that coffee shop over there. They probably have wireless. I need to bring up my files.”
It only took a few minutes to discover that a huge check had been written to a fertility clinic in Beverly Hills for the month in question. They found a phone number for the clinic online, but it was no longer in business.
Within another thirty minutes, Jackson and Tague had worked together to get the full scoop. The clinic had been closed when the two doctors who’d operated it had been arrested for selling “designer sperm” from donors who believed they were anonymous.
“What exactly is ‘designer sperm’?” Tague asked.
“It’s when a person goes in with a list of qualities they specifically want in the sperm they’re buying. For example, you may want a child who’s an intellectual or one with unusual prowess in athletic fields or with a specific talent. The sperm bank gets you what you want, or at least claim to for a price that’s much higher than the normal price.”
“Is that illegal?”
“Not normally, but in this case the sperm bank was paying large sums of money for sperm from their chosen donors. The donors were assured they would remain anonymous, but in some cases where the people were well-known, the clinic was using their name to get even higher bucks.”
“In that case I’m sure Scott bought the best sperm available for his perfect son.”
“Yes,” Jackson said, “but did he use Lena’s egg? Or is Alexis the real biological mother?”
“I guess that is the conundrum,” Tague said.
“I might be able to get my hands on the clinic’s records and find out for you.”
“No,” Tague said. “I’m through investigating Alexis. Either we trust each other to tell the truth or there is no point in pursuing it. Let’s meet up with Meghan and fly home.”
* * *
GERALD HAMPTON HAD someone watching the turnoff road to Bent Pine Ranch day and night. He knew for a fact that Tague Lambert had not been back to the ranch since the morning he’d supposedly driven Melinda Ryan to rent a car.
No one in the Dallas area had rented a car to a person name Alexis Beranger. Even more telling was the fact that no employee at any car agency remembered seeing a woman that matched her description.
He would have never thought a Lambert would jump in on the side of a kidnapper, but he was starting to believe that Tague had done just that. Not just helped her escape, which would be bad enough. But he was protecting her, hiding her from the law.
He could have taken her anywhere. He definitely had the means. But Hampton suspected he was still in the area. All he had to do was figure out where a Lambert would go if they were looking for isolation and seclusion.
How difficult could that be?
* * *
MEGHAN CROSSED HER legs, giving Scott Hayden a glimpse of thigh that went almost to the crotch of her red thong panties. She’d used her most feminine wiles at the audition and won the role she was after—a dinner date with the legendary Scott Jeffery Hayden.
It didn’t take long to figure out he had the morals of an alley cat. But so far she’d gotten no new information to help Alexis’s case.
He ordered the second round of drinks for them. She’d managed to sip a little and pour the rest in his glass when he wasn’t looking. He was getting loaded fast, but he had a driver waiting for him in a limo outside, so his getting drunk wouldn’t cause a wreck.
“Go home with me tonight and I can show you a good time,” Scott said. “Hell, spend the week. You can sleep in a different bedroom every night if you want.”
She reached over and rubbed his thigh. “What if I just want to sleep in the one you’re in?”
“In that case there might be a little diamond trinket served with your coffee one morning.”
She rubbed a little harder and let her fingers slip between his thighs. “I thought you were married.”
“I thought I was, too. Turns out we’re both wrong.” He laughed too loudly and too hard for it not to be faked. Then he leaned over and whispered a sweet nothing in her ear that turned out to be something big.
“I don’t believe you,” she said. “You’re just trying to get me in your bed.”
“I got the proof right here.”
“Let me see it,” she cooed.
He did, and it was the real thing.
After that, she couldn’t get out of the restaurant and away from Scott fast enough. She started to call Tague on the way to the airport to give him the news. She changed her mind on the first ring.
Alexis should be the one to give him news like this.
Chapter Fifteen
It was four in the morning before Tague made it back to the hunting camp. He’d slept a few hours on the flight back from California but he’d been awake long enough to make some major decisions.
He had a list of some of the country’s best defense attorneys ready to start calling after breakfast. He would put together a dream team, give them all the information they’d gathered so far and then he’d let them call the shots.
They could even go with Alexis to turn herself in. That was his best offer. That was his only offer.
She couldn’t go on evading arrest. He couldn’t continue to help her do it. It wasn’t fair to anyone.
He fell asleep on the sofa and didn’t stir until after eight the next morning. By that time the odors of fresh brewed coffee and frying bacon permeated the house.
When he reached the kitchen, Damien pushed a mug of coffee into his hand. “You look terrible, bro. What time did you get in last night?”
“I didn’t. I got in this morning. What did you do with the women?”
“They went for a walk, but I told them to stay nearby. Tommy’s with them, so they probably won’t make it past the first grasshopper.”
“It does take him a long time to get from point A to point B,” Tague said.”
“Yeah. Cute kid. I guess I’ve just never pictured you as a father.”
“I’m not a father.”
“I’ve seen the way you and Alexis look at each other. Looks like the look of love to me. And I should know. I’m still under the spell myself.”
“Yes, but you know what you’ve got. I’m still trying to figure it out. And even if I had it figured out, it could all change after today.”
“Want to talk about it?” Damien asked.
“Yeah. I’d like to run it by you and then I’ll go find Alexis and run it by her. But my mind’s made up. You and Emma can drive back to the ranch today.”
He explained the new developments and the plan to Damien. Then he went in search of Alexis.
He thought he’d feel a tinge of relief that the decision had been made, but all he felt was emptiness down clear to his soul.
* * *
ALEXIS SNUGGLED INTO the Adirondack chair, then kicked out of her sandals and pulled her feet in with her.
“I have news,” she said. “Super news.”
“Let’s hear it,” Tague said.
“Maybe I should hear yours first. You look as if you need to get it off your chest and then I can cheer you up with mine.”
“That’s a deal.” He started with the meeting with Gabrielle. When he got to the part about Scott being sterile, Alexis threw her hands in the air.
“So that lying, manipulating Scott Hayden was sterile and he let Lena and me believe that I was carrying their baby.”
“Lena had to know the truth,” Tague said. “She had the original letter from the doctor.”
“I am surprised that she had the letter in her possession,” Alexis said. “I’m shocked that he even showed it to her.”
“She had the original,” Tague said. “It had been mailed directly to her.”
They both grew silent for a few moments.
“That explains it all,” Tague said, as the puzzle pieces seemed to fall together in his mind. “It all revolves around Scott’s finding out he was sterile. The change in Scott’s feelings about Tommy so soon after his birth, the resentment and maybe even Lena’s death.”
“Exactly,” Alexis said, keying in to what he was asserting. “Lena had the tests run and then she intercepted the letter so that Scott didn’t find out he was sterile until after Tommy was born.”
“When he did, his jubilation nose-dived. His feelings changed toward the boy and no doubt toward Lena,” Tague said. “He’d been duped.”
Alexis nodded. “That would have angered him enough that he might have killed Lena.”
“Lena’s sister thinks he killed her by shooting her full of drugs.”
“If there were injections involved, he’d have had to give them,” Alexis said. “Lena was deathly afraid of needles. Of course, that means he found out the truth about Tommy’s parentage shortly after his birth.”
“On the day that Lena called her sister and said that Scott was going to kill her.”
“So now we don’t know who Tommy’s father is,” Alexis said. “Not that it matters. It can’t be as bad as having Scott’s genes. What else did you learn?”
He felt a rush of relief that she hadn’t lied to him about Tommy’s birth, but the weight refused to lift from his mind.
“Gabrielle has notarized paperwork that states that in the event that neither Lena nor Scott is alive or physically able to take care of Tommy, that you become his guardian.”
“Thank God for Lena. I’m sure she saw to that. She knew how much I loved her son.”
Tague didn’t bring up the concern that the arrangement gave Alexis motive to kill both Lena and Scott. The defense attorneys would be better able to deal with that. He told her the rest, that while he’d keep the investigators working as long as needed, they would have to go with the attorneys’ recommendations.
She stood, her shoulders drooping, her eyes downcast. “It didn’t have to be this way. You could have just let me take Tommy and run.”
“We’ll prove your innocence,” he said. “I’m getting the best lawyers money can buy.”
She turned to walk away.
“I thought you had news,” he said. “Let’s hear it.”
“It doesn’t really matter anymore.”
He wanted to go after her, but she wouldn’t want his touch. She’d likely never want it again. He took his phone and started making calls to attorneys. Three hours later he had his dream team in place.
* * *
SCOTT HAD JUST climbed from his swimming pool when his cell phone started vibrating across the deck. He checked the caller ID, then picked up the phone and answered. “This had better be good. If not, consider yourself off the payroll.”
“I know where you can find Melinda.”
* * *
DAMIEN AND EMMA had left for the ranch right after breakfast. Emma couldn’t wait to get home to Belle.
Alexis had spent the rest of the day with Tommy, talking to him, singing with him, playing games, teaching him things, telling him she loved him. This could be her last full day with him before the authorities took him away. Her heart was breaking.
So was Tague’s. He was beginning to second-guess every decision he’d made. But deep in his heart, he knew he’d done the only thing he could do. If he let her run, Scott would find her and kill her. At least this way she’d stay alive and have a chance of clearing her name.
In fact, he’d never give up until she was completely exonerated. But this might be his last night with Alexis and she didn’t want him anywhere near her. She’d gone to bed when Tommy had and closed her door.
He went to his bedroom, took a shower and then pulled on a clean pair of jeans. Without bothering to snap them, he started back to the kitchen. Tonight he was the one who needed the whiskey—straight up.
The floorboards in the hallway creaked beneath his feet, but there was another sound as well. Someone was rattling the back door. He grabbed his pistol and went to see what the devil was going on.
He looked out the back door but saw no one. He went back for his gun and stepped onto the back steps. He caught only a glimpse of the giant fist as it came crashing down on the back of his skull. He saw the steps fly up to meet him and then everything went black.
Chapter Sixteen
Alexis was lying in her bed wide-awake and staring at the ceiling when she heard the crash. She jumped to the floor and took off running. Halfway down the hall, she heard Scott’s voice barking orders.
Fear pummeled her so hard and fast that t
he narrow hallway began to spin. She fell against the wall and leaned there just long enough to regain her balance.
She needed a weapon. This was a hunting camp. There should be guns, but she hadn’t seen one except for the antiques on the wall. They must have kept the hunting guns locked away or brought them with them when they came. There was no saber, no hunting knife, at least not here in the hall.
Footsteps started coming toward her. She reached up and yanked a framed picture from the wall. She banged it as hard as she could against the floor. The glass shattered and she managed to retrieve a jagged piece of it just as Scott stepped into view.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he said. “And ready to fight me and Bronco off with that tiny shard of glass.”
“What do you want with me, Scott?”
“My son, for starters.”
“Tommy’s not your son. You have no son and you never will. God saw to that.”
“But the world doesn’t know that.” He kicked Alexis back to the floor with a heavy boot to her face. Blood splattered from her nose.
She reeled in pain, then struggled to focus as fear and anger surged inside her. “Why are you here, Scott? You don’t want me. You don’t want Tommy. So why chase us down as if we were roaches you had to stomp?”
“Because you killed Lena and now you have to die for the crime.”
“I didn’t kill her. You did.”
“You’re the madwoman. Of course you killed her. If you don’t believe me, just ask the cops. And once you turn up dead, you won’t even be able to mount a defense.”
“They’ll know you killed me.”
“That’s impossible. I’m at home in Malibu. My housekeeper and my driver will vouch for that.”
“If they do, it’s only because you’re holding something over their heads. Where’s Tague?” she demanded.
“Not to worry, my dear. He’ll be at your performance. Bronco just has to get him ready first.”
“There is no performance. Think about what you’re doing, Scott. All the things you’ve accomplished will be for nothing if you kill us in cold blood. All anyone will ever remember of you is that you’re a murderer.”
