Their faces were so close she could count his eyelashes, which were too long, she decided. His breath was sweet. From the soft drink, not his disposition. He also needed a shave. His five o’clock shadow was dark and coarse. And it made him look a little like an outlaw. She wouldn’t allow herself to look at his mouth. No. Even the dizziness wouldn’t counteract that. That mouth had her hormonal number.
She stepped back. “Thank you, Mr. McClendon, for reminding me that you’re a jerk. No, worse than a jerk. You’re navel lint.”
“Anytime.” But his comment lacked sarcasm.
When Jessie glanced up, she saw more of that concern in his expression. He was still close, despite that step she had taken away from him. She took another, but he caught her arm. She was thankful. The inside of her head was still whirling around. If he hadn’t caught her, she no doubt would have fallen on her face.
“Let’s go in,” she insisted. “That way, I can sit down, and you don’t have to hold me.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not holding you for your sake. My concern is for your child. I don’t want you blaming me for pushing you too hard.”
She gave a hollow laugh. “That’s a joke, right? You’ve done nothing but push me hard. You’ve hounded me, harassed me and called me names.”
He didn’t say anything for several seconds. “I want answers, and I’m sorry if you don’t like my methods. Once we’re through inside, your game will be over. You can get out of my face and I can get out of yours.”
“Good.” She wiggled out of his grip and walked to the door on her own. Fortunately, the anger eased the dizziness.
“Yes. Good.” He jerked open the door and led her inside.
The reception area looked like any other place of business. Monochrome shades of beige. It looked too clean. Almost sterile, which seemed ironic to Jessie, since the place stored one of the most basic elements needed for human reproduction.
The blond woman behind the desk greeted them with a businesslike smile. “Welcome to Cryogen Labs. How may I help you?”
“I’m Jake McClendon.”
“Yes, Mr. McClendon.” The perky-looking blonde became flustered and blushed. “Wow, it really is you. I saw you on the news, but you look much better in person.”
Jessie tried not to roll her eyes. The icing on the cake. A fan of Jake McClendon’s. It was bad enough that she had to be here with him, but now she had to experience some woman who was neck-deep in hero worship, as well. That sexy mouth of his must have the same effect on all females.
Apparently he didn’t want to indulge too much in the adoration, either, because he got right to the point. “I need to speak to Dr. Radelman.”
“Oh. He doesn’t work here anymore.”
“Since when? He’s the man who contacted me after my vials were destroyed.”
“Yes, and he left, um, let me see when…” She flipped through her calendar. “About two weeks later.”
Two weeks after the vials were destroyed and about two weeks before someone kidnapped her. Jessie didn’t think that was a coincidence. A doctor probably would have been the one to do the actual insemination.
“Why did Dr. Radelman leave?” Jake demanded.
“He transferred to another job.” She snapped her fingers as if trying to recall something. “Harvest Place, I think it’s called. Something like that, anyway. It’s not connected with Cryogen.”
Jessie started to ask if the woman had the address or phone number of the place, but Jake spoke before she could. “There was a nurse who worked here. She had a soft voice and she was tall. Red hair. She wasn’t the one I spoke to on the phone a couple of days ago.”
Soft voice. That got Jessie’s attention. The woman who held her captive had had a soft voice. And she’d no doubt been a nurse, since she was the one who had administered the injections. She was tall, too. Jessie remembered that about her, even though she’d never seen the woman’s face. Nor her hair. Her hair had always been bundled under a surgical cap. But the eyes. Yes, she’d seen her eyes. And they were dark green.
“You must mean Marion Cameron,” the blonde said with a grin. “But she doesn’t work here anymore, either. She left the same time Dr. Radelman did.”
Jake shook his head in apparent frustration. “To take another job?”
The woman shrugged. “A sabbatical. She’d been under a lot of stress. Her husband walked out on her, so she was going through all this emotional stuff.”
“Does she have green eyes?” Jessie asked.
Jake looked at her.
So did the blonde, who said, “Yes, as a matter of fact she does.”
Jessie didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. Finally, there was some proof, little though it was, to back up what she’d been saying.
“Thank you for the information,” Jake told the woman. “By any chance do you have addresses for Marion Cameron and Dr. Radelman?”
“Sorry.” The blush on her cheeks deepened. “I’m not allowed to give that out.”
Jessie thought he might argue, but he didn’t. That was probably because he knew his people could easily come up with that kind of information. He took her by the arm and led her out of the building.
“Still think I’m lying?” she asked briskly, as they walked across the parking lot.
He didn’t answer for several seconds. “Yes.”
Of course. What had she expected? “But what about the missing doctor and nurse? You can’t believe it’s a coincidence they would leave right after your vials were supposedly destroyed.”
“I don’t know what to believe yet—not until I’ve spoken with them.” He put his hand on the car door, but didn’t open it. “I’ll make some calls and find out where they are.”
“And then what?”
His mouth thinned. “Well, I won’t be buying cigars anytime soon. Even if by some miracle these people were involved in a plot to kidnap you, it doesn’t mean you’re carrying my baby.”
Jessie would have returned verbal fire, but she caught some movement out of the corner of her eye. A late-model, white, four-door sedan. And it was going much too slowly. She turned toward it, her own body seemingly moving in slow motion, as well. Before she could respond, before she could brace herself, there was a deafening blast. The back window of Jake’s car shattered and the pebbled sheet of safety glass crashed onto the seat with a walloping thud.
“Get down!” she yelled. Jake shouted something similar at the same time, but he punctuated it with some vicious profanity.
A rapid fire of bullets sizzled across the roof. Just like that, in the span of a heartbeat, Jessie’s anger evaporated. In its place, her instincts kicked in. And her fear. A sickening fear that clawed away at her. God, she didn’t want to die this way.
She hit the pavement, her knees catching the brunt of the fall. Jake shoved her the rest of the way down and followed on top of her, sheltering her body with his. She got only a glimpse of a man in the white car.
“Someone’s shooting at us.” But it wasn’t necessary for Jessie to relay that information. Jake apparently knew exactly what was happening.
It was an awful time to say that she told him so, but blast it, she had told him so. Nothing bad will happen while you’re with me. Yeah, right. She’d warned him that somebody wanted her dead and he hadn’t believed her. Well, maybe this would finally convince him.
If they lived long enough for it to convince him.
A bullet, then another, tore into the car. The sounds of lead ripping through metal were all around them. Her heart was in her throat. And her pulse pounded violently. Her every instinct screamed for her to fight back. To protect herself. But there was no way to do that in an open parking lot.
A thousand thoughts crossed her mind. None good. This was the culmination of her worst fears. She was unarmed, with a gunman after her. This time, he just might succeed in killing her. Maybe even killing Jake, as well. They could both die right here, right now, and she wouldn’t even know why she’d been murdered.<
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There was the squeal of tires, followed by another shot. She didn’t dare hope the gunman was leaving. From the sound of it, he was simply circling around to get a better angle. Jessie sucked in a hard breath, trying to keep the veneer over the panic that was so close to the surface she could taste it, fiery and bitter in her mouth.
Jake pressed himself against her, a reminder that he had placed himself right in the path of those bullets. Like hers, his breath came out in short, fast spurts. Jessie could feel the knots in his muscles. The hot scent of adrenaline and scorched metal was all around them.
When the white car momentarily darted out of her line of sight, Jake reached up and fumbled around until he located the handle. He popped open the door. “Stay down and get on the floor.”
He rolled to his side so she could slip into the car. Doing so, he put himself in even greater danger. Jessie wouldn’t let herself consider why he did that. No use thinking about him as a Boy Scout.
She crunched herself as far under the dash as she could and latched onto his shirt. “Get in!” she yelled.
He did. Somehow, he snaked through the narrow opening and across the seats, slamming the door behind him. Within seconds he had the car started and gunned the engine.
They sped away, just as another bullet demolished the window right above Jessie’s head.
Chapter Four
“Are you hit?” Jake yelled as he maneuvered his car through a hairpin turn.
Jessie did a quick inventory. “No. You?”
“No, but stay down.”
“I could say the same to you.” But he didn’t stay down. He continued to speed away from the person who had just tried to kill them. Or her. Jessie suspected those bullets had been meant for her.
God, would this nightmare ever end?
“Is he following us?” she asked, unable to see for herself. But she didn’t have to wait for Jake to answer. Another bullet skipped off the roof, gashing into the metal and even the leather interior just overhead. Someone meant business. “Did you get a look at the gunman?”
“Just a man in a white car. The first digit of the license plate was C.”
“The last was F,” Jessie provided, after she pulled in a generous breath. Not that it helped. Every inch of her was on a razor-sharp edge, her body braced for the fight. A fight she could easily lose. And losing this fight would mean dying. “There was mud or something covering the rest of the plate. I think it might be the same man who kidnapped me.”
Jake made another turn, his gaze darting between the rearview mirror and the street ahead. “I thought you said there were four people who kidnapped you.”
“There were. Three men and a woman, for sure. My guess is one of the men was Dr. Radelman. The woman could have been Marion Cameron. That leaves the two goons who tied me up and dumped me in the back of a van. Anytime they needed muscle, they brought in one of them.”
Jake didn’t say anything for a while. “Well, whoever our shooter is, he’s apparently decided not to come after us. He turned on that last street.”
That didn’t make her relax one bit. It only meant the gunman wouldn’t pursue them now. It didn’t mean she was safe. For that matter, apparently neither was Jake. The shooter hadn’t even tried to keep those bullets aimed specifically at her. And that troubled Jessie. A lot. A hired killer probably wouldn’t have risked killing his boss. So just who was this man who’d fired these shots? She hoped she didn’t have to wait long to find out.
“Don’t get up yet,” Jake insisted, when she started to move.
Jessie didn’t like taking orders from him. After all, he was the one who had put them in danger by insisting they go to Cryogen Labs. But if they hadn’t gone, she might not have learned the names of two of the people who were likely involved in her kidnapping.
Now all they had to do was find those people and get them to confess. She wouldn’t hold her breath waiting for that to happen, but now that she had names, maybe she could get Byron to check them out. Of course, involving Byron any further probably wasn’t a smart idea. His job would be on the line if anyone found out how he’d already helped her.
Jake pulled the phone from the console and began to press in some numbers.
“Who are you calling?” she asked, returning to the seat.
“Who do you think? The cops.”
Jessie desperately wanted to stop him, but she couldn’t think of a reason to give him. Besides, it was logical to bring in the police. Someone had tried to kill them. Still… “How much will you tell them?”
He stopped the call and gave her a considering glance. “What do you mean? I’ll tell them the truth.”
“All of it, even the parts about me?”
Jake paused. Frowned. “You know, that’s something else that bothers me about you. Why haven’t you gone to the cops already? If you had, maybe this shooting wouldn’t have happened.”
She should have anticipated his question. It was logical. Too bad she didn’t have a logical explanation she could give him. “I have my reasons for trying to work this out myself.”
“And what would those reasons be?” he asked sarcastically.
“My own business.”
“Wrong answer. When people start shooting at me to get to you, it’s my business. Now why didn’t you go to the cops when you supposedly escaped from these kidnappers?”
She stared at him for a moment, shook her head and glanced away. “Because I thought I could handle this. I figured the minute the cops were called in, then these people would cover their tracks so fast I’d never find them.”
“And?” he prompted. “There’s more to it than that. You knew you shouldn’t be investigating something like this. Besides, as far as I can tell, you were hiding out, not investigating.”
Not true. That trip to his hotel room had been a fact-finding mission. Too bad it had been a dumb idea. It had also been dumb to involve Byron in all of this. Some friend she was—it could cost him everything. Still, if Jessie thought the police could help, she would have called them despite the consequences.
“If I went to the cops and told them I suspected you of kidnapping me, who do you think they would believe? Certainly not me.”
“Ah. You mean because of your criminal record? Well, you’ll just have to put aside your distrust of law enforcement and let them do their job. You don’t have a choice.”
Apparently, he was right. Especially since she didn’t know what else to do. Jessie didn’t say another word, while he made the call. She sat quietly and listened as he related the shooting incident. And as he identified her as his passenger. What he didn’t mention was the kidnapping or the other things she’d told him. He would. She was sure of it.
Jessie glanced out the window. Her hands still trembled from the shooting, so she clenched them together. If she somehow managed to get out of the car before it arrived at the station, Jake would still probably give the cops a detailed account of everything she’d told him. Worse, he would no doubt implicate her in the insemination plot. Then, the police would be searching for her.
That would eventually lead them to Byron.
On the other hand, she didn’t think she could talk Jake into keeping her secrets. No, he would tell, all right. Men like him reported crimes. And she’d have to verify it. Jessie couldn’t see a way around that. But she wouldn’t have to let the cops in on everything—only what she’d told Jake. Only what she wanted him to know for the time being. She could protect Byron a little longer, until she figured out what to do.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a while. “I shouldn’t have brought you to Cryogen Labs with me.”
Jessie glanced over at him, but he looked straight ahead, focused on the street. “Is that like an apology?”
He scowled, bunching up his forehead. “Yes, I suppose it is. Until we get all of this figured out, I want to offer you protection. A bodyguard, maybe. It doesn’t mean I believe everything you’ve told me, but I can see now that you’re in danger.”
“No, but your baby does. Have you thought about that?”
She hadn’t. And Jessie didn’t want to think about it, either. Not now. So far, in her mind, the baby was just a vague notion along with a little blue circle in the bottom of a test tube. She wanted to keep it that way for a while.
“We’ll call this my good deed for the day,” Jake continued.
That didn’t sit well with her at all. “And this is coming from the man who said nothing bad would happen while I’m with you. How many rounds do you think that gunman fired at us?”
“Listen, you’re the one who dragged me into this.” He shoved a thumb against his chest. “You came to me, remember? Now I intend to finish it, and I’ll do that by providing you protection whether you want it or not. Got that?”
Yes, she got that. She only hoped it didn’t cost both of them their lives. Or worse. Jake was right about one thing. Little blue circles in test tubes didn’t need protection. But babies did.
Yes, babies did.
Now, she had another life to worry about. If she couldn’t protect herself, she couldn’t protect the baby.
Her baby.
And protecting the baby suddenly seemed the most important thing in the world.
IT WAS DARK by the time they finished at the police station, even though they had their statements taken almost immediately. The cops also agreed not to release information about Jessie. They wanted time to check out her story and see what they could find out about Dr. Radelman and Marion Cameron.
For the most part Jessie had cooperated with the officers, but Jake noticed that she looked uncomfortable. That was natural, he supposed. Other than a couple of barroom fights, he’d had no run-ins with the law, but Jessie couldn’t say the same. With her priors, she probably felt like a frequent sinner standing at the Pearly Gates.
His Child Page 5
