Surrogate Escape

by Jenna Kernan

  “Yeah.”

  “You should put it back.”

  “That right?” asked Jake. He knew Ty would not be happy that he was driving Colt’s truck, but his approach was odd. Cryptic, even.

  “Sooner is better.”

  “Why is that?”

  Ty glanced toward the woods, as if anxious to be gone. “Just that there have been inquiries. I’m not sure they believe that I don’t know where you are.”

  Jake didn’t have to ask who they might be. They all believed that someone in the Wolf Posse had made the attack on the clinic yesterday based on the truck colors, and that the pair had been targeting Fortune, just as he feared.

  “Is it safe here?” asked Jake, a knot twisting his gut.

  “For now. But if I were looking, I’d try the home of every police officer on your tiny force.” He started away and then paused. “Maybe they’ll go alphabetically and you’ll be in luck. Me, I’d start with the junior officers and work up. Danny only has a year on you, right?”

  The knot tightened.

  “Don’t bring her home to Mama.”

  Jake snorted. “That’s the last place I’d bring her. Mom hates Lori.”

  Ty’s stare was accusing. “Well, she had to blame someone and that wouldn’t be you. But that’s not why. They’re watching our house.”

  “Why do they want this baby?”

  He shrugged. If he knew, he wasn’t talking. Jake gripped his utility belt as he tried and failed to tamp down the rising anger.

  What if they were also targeting Fortune’s mother? And now he had brought Ty right in the middle of this.

  “Ty, maybe this was a bad idea.”

  Ty’s expression turned stormy. “You afraid I’ll give you up?”

  “No. I’m afraid you’ll reveal the mother’s location.” His brother gave him a long look. Jake thought he saw disappointment in his brother’s eyes.

  “I don’t have time for this.”

  “What’s going on? How would Mrs. Colelay give birth to a blond baby, and why would she abandon it?”

  “You’re the police officer. You figure it out.”

  Before he could stop himself, he lashed out. “Too busy souping up another car for your posse?”

  Ty scowled at him and Jake lowered his chin, almost hoping for a fight. They needed to clear the air. Maybe a fistfight was just the ticket.

  But Ty changed the subject and took the wind from Jake’s sails.

  “I’ve been busy with Colt. He lets me see him sometimes. I talk to him. I think he’s listening.”

  Jake’s anger vanished like mist. Of course Ty was looking after Colt, just like always.

  “I’m sorry. I should have known.”

  Ty snorted and turned. His enormous dog rose and stretched, then followed her master toward the tree line, casting one glance back at Jake before the two of them reached the pine forest behind the house.

  Jake thought about Mrs. Colelay and her kids. How many daughters did she have, and what were their ages?

  “Any chance you and Hemi would come with me to see my neighbors?” called Jake.

  Ty did not pause as he and his dog stepped into the tree line and disappeared.

  * * *

  JAKE OPENED THE kitchen door to the sound of water running. He found Lori at the sink, running water into an oddly shaped plastic thing that kept the baby in an inclined position.

  “That’s wonderful,” he said, watching the proceedings. He would love to know how to bathe an infant.

  Lori used only a small amount of warm water in the sink. Fortune seemed delighted with the water, kicking and splashing her arms in an uncoordinated motion that Jake found completely adorable.

  He laughed. Soon Lori was laughing as well, and his hand was circling her waist. He wanted to keep them here, right here in this spot forever, with the joy bubbling in his heart and the baby gurgling and Lori smiling as if none of the rest had ever happened.

  Was he ready for that kind of happiness? More important, was Lori willing to let him back into her life?

  She was lifting the dripping, wiggling baby with an expertise he found so enviable. Would he ever have the chance to be so adept at holding a baby? He longed for that experience, wanted it deep in the marrow of his bones.

  But Ty’s warning intruded. They had to go. But where?

  The soft hand towel went around the baby’s naked backside, and Fortune went to Lori’s shoulder. Fortune waved her hand and managed to clasp hold of a strand of Lori’s black hair.

  He stepped up behind Lori, and she turned Fortune to look at him. The little infant stared up, eyes widening, and then she gave him her first official smile.

  “Oh, do you see that?” said Lori. “She likes you.”

  That was a very good thing, because that baby already had his heart.

  A golden haze circled around Jake that had little to do with the changing leaves or the autumn sunlight.

  Kee’s words came to him. He should apologize. He’d pretended he didn’t understand, but he did. The minute they’d been freed of the pressure of marriage and the notoriety of their pregnancy, he had wanted no more of her. The only thing he had wanted was more distance. Yet when he needed her, she had come.

  He couldn’t figure out how to explain why he hadn’t called or visited her again after they had buried their child. Why he had not spoken up when other people blamed Lori for the entire misstep. His girlfriend hadn’t dumped him. He wasn’t on the rebound. He’d left Alice for Lori, and he’d never expected to go so fast. But something had happened—had always happened when he was with Lori and no one else. She was the woman for him. His heart knew it, even if his mind hadn’t.

  Alice had told everyone that Lori had cut in behind her back. It wasn’t true. Jake should have said so, instead of pretending he didn’t know what was happening.

  But he was afraid that if he tried to explain his tangled-up emotions now, he’d just drive her off. He understood. Lori had agreed to come here despite him, not because of him.

  But now that she was here, something was happening between them again. She felt it, too, didn’t she?

  “Lori?” he said, fearing that he was ruining the moment even as he opened his mouth, but wanting so much more.

  “Hmm?” she said, smiling down at Fortune.

  “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  And then she was smiling at him, too.

  He held Fortune while she prepared a bottle. She came back to him with a small warm bottle in one hand and a welcoming smile on her lips. Before he could remember that she was here for the baby and he for their protection, he reached out and laced his fingers through her hair.

  She hesitated as her gaze flashed to his, reading his intention in his eyes, and then she stepped toward him, lifting her chin and parting her full lips. Acceptance, he realized.

  He swooped, taking her mouth in a kiss that he had intended to be sweet and gentle. Instead, the lustful prelude gave way to a second and a third. These were the kind of kisses that were shared between lovers long parted, between souls that yearned for the connection of one body to another. He drank her in, tasting the salty sweetness of her mouth. Lori gave a sound of need deep in her throat as their tongues slid back and forth. His hand moved from her hair and ran up and down her back. She stepped forward, pressing against him. She turned, angling so her hip met the center of him, and she rubbed against his arousal. His hand went under her soft T-shirt.

  Fortune made a sound that he had come to recognize preceded her crying, a sort of staccato series of chirps, as if to remind them both that she had not yet been fed.

  Lori broke away, and he let her go. His timing sucked. For a moment they both just stared at each other in a mix of wonder and horror.

  “Overdue, I’m afraid,” he said.

  “But still an inc
redibly bad idea.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  She lifted her brows, casting him a look of disbelief.

  “Jake Redhorse, we have had no more than polite conversation since I got back on the rez, and now, today, you kiss me like...like...like that?”

  “I tried to talk to you, Lori. You weren’t having it.”

  “You don’t get a pass, Jake. Before this happened, the last time we had a conversation that lasted more than a minute, it was at the grave of our daughter.”

  That was true.

  “You wouldn’t talk with me, Lori. Not about anything that mattered.”

  “Because I still have some pride left, Jake.”

  What did that even mean?

  She reached for Fortune, plucked her from his arms and held her to receive her breakfast. Fortune smacked her lips in anticipation. Then Lori held Fortune as she sucked on the bottle.

  “So you’re saying we need to talk first.”

  “First?” Her gaze flicked to the ceiling and held there, as if she were counting to ten. Then she met his gaze. “We have some things to work through. No matter how well we fit or how much I’m tempted to, I know you, and you are not staying around after we sleep together.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “No? Then let’s go visit your mother. Tell her we’re a couple.”

  Now his gaze flicked away, resting on the floor.

  She made a sound in her throat.

  “Is that what you want, Lori? To be a couple?”

  “I don’t know, Jake. But I sure know what I don’t want. I don’t want to be your dirty little secret. And I don’t want you to hurt me again.”

  “I never meant to.”

  “You knew what Alice was saying about me. You had to know what everyone was saying.”

  He did. “I didn’t encourage them, though.”

  The sound she made seemed one of exasperation, landing somewhere between a humph and a growl. “You didn’t stand up to them, Jake. You didn’t tell them that you were the one who broke up with Alice. That we were a couple, and we had sex. You left me out there. Do you know what her friends called me?”

  He didn’t. But he did remember what Alice had asked him. At the time, it seemed a small thing. Now he realized he’d loaded the shotgun that Alice had used to fire at Lori.

  “She said it would help her save face if I said she dumped me,” said Jake.

  Lori’s voice went low and dangerous. “So you were worried about her feelings? Protecting her from gossip?”

  “I didn’t think...”

  “That’s for sure.” She spun, presenting him with her back.

  “It was just words.”

  Lori rounded on him. “Words? They called me a slut. A little tramp, and worse. Every day until I graduated. Two years of being the girl who dared to have sex with you. And you never came back to me. Never proved to them that I didn’t trick you or seduce you.”

  “You wouldn’t speak to me, Lori.”

  “Do you blame me?”

  Fortune finished draining the bottle. Lori lifted the infant to her shoulder and walked away. He didn’t know what to say to Lori because she was right. He had distanced himself from her at her request. He had no idea Alice’s little groupies had been so cruel. But that was also his fault. He shouldn’t have let Lori push him away, and now that he knew why she had done so, he felt even worse.

  “I should have stopped them. I should have done something. I didn’t know how bad it was for you. I—I...” There was no going back and fixing this. There had been too much pain and too much loss.

  “Getting my degree and coming back here gave me some satisfaction. I see Alice married her second choice.”

  The former cocaptain of the basketball team, Jake knew. The marriage hadn’t lasted. Rumor had it that Alice had not been faithful.

  “They had a daughter, too.”

  “I helped deliver her,” she said.

  He could only imagine how awkward that must have been.

  “Really?”

  “Don’t worry, Jake, I’m doing fine. Looking out for my sisters and giving them some stability. Turns out I don’t need you after all.”

  Was that another reason for her return? To show him that she’d succeeded despite her mother and her family—and him?

  “I heard you’ve joined the Turquoise Guardians.”

  She turned back to face him. “I’ll bet that sticks in your craw.”

  “Congratulations.”

  She pinned him with a hard gaze. “This isn’t a game, Jake. It’s my life.”

  “I’d like to be a part of it.”

  “Is this about me or about a way for you to keep Fortune?”

  “Both.”

  She sighed. “How romantic. Funny how you only seem to notice me when there’s a baby around.”

  “Be reasonable.”

  “I am reasonable. I’m trying hard not to fall in love with this baby because I know that one day soon the tribe will come and take her away from me. We aren’t the parents.”

  “But we could be.”

  She blinked. “This baby has a mother.”

  “Who doesn’t want her.”

  “You don’t know that. There are many reasons to leave a baby with someone you trust. She might want her back.”

  “If I find the mother and get her to give up rights, will you consider staying with me?”

  “As what, your nanny? I have a job, Jake.”

  “As my wife.”

  Her voice went cold. “Your wife. And here we are again.” She gave him that long, angry stare. “When I marry, if I marry, it will be to a man I love and trust. I don’t trust you, Jake.”

  His brows lifted as he noticed that she did not say she didn’t love him. Could it be that Lori’s feelings for him ran deeper than desire? His mouth quirked.

  “Well, I’ll have to work on that.”

  “Fortune needs a clean diaper.”

  How did he prove himself trustworthy? he wondered. And how did he prove that he wanted her for the woman she was?

  “Why were you outside?” she asked.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jake stood before the Colelay’s home, just a quarter mile from his own. He had explained to Lori about Ty’s early-morning visit and arranged to have Wetselline watch over Lori and Fortune while he investigated what Ty’s dog had discovered.

  Jake mounted the steps, crossed the flaking boards of the Colelays’ back porch and knocked. A moment later, Mrs. Colelay appeared behind the torn screen door. The woman’s hair hung loose and greasy around her gaunt face, and her skin had a yellow cast. He knew she could not be past forty, but the lines on her face and the many missing teeth made her appear much older.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Colelay. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  From inside came the cry of a baby.

  “You have a baby?” he asked.

  “Yeah. He’s three months. Good set of lungs on him.”

  Jake nodded. Mrs. Colelay was not Fortune’s mother. Couldn’t be.

  The wail went on. “Let him go a minute. See if he falls back to sleep.”

  The cries went on and Jake shifted, uneasy with this style of infant care. But the cries did diminish and then stop.

  “He’s cutting a tooth. Can’t make him happy, and he slobbers like a dog smelling cooking bacon.”

  Jake dived right in. “I was wondering if any of your girls are here.”

  She squinted at him. “Why? What have they done?”

  “Nothing. I wanted to ask a question about the DARE program. About graduation. Your kids have all been through the program.”

  She nodded, her eyes wary.

  “I just want your daughters’ opinions on the ceremony.”

 
“They’s all in school ’cept Zella.”

  “Could you remind me of their ages?” Jake asked.

  Mrs. Colelay looked up and squinted, as if calculating some difficult mathematical equation.

  “Let’s see now. Sammy is in seventh grade. She’s thirteen. The twins are fourteen—freshmen—and Zella is fifteen. Would have been a sophomore, but...” Mrs. Colelay turned her head and raised her voice. “She’s done with school.” Then she directed her attention to Jake. “I think it’s a boy, the way she’s been moping around. She don’t toughen up, she’ll end up like her mama.”

  “Could I speak to Zella?”

  “I don’t know. Those folks from the clinic keep poking round and she won’t see them. Actually lit out every time they come round.”

  “I didn’t know the clinic did that.” They didn’t, as far as Jake knew, and that concerned him. He planned to check that with Lori.

  “They said she’s got something catching. So why ain’t I caught it, too? She sleeps in my bed more than I do.”

  Jake wondered if they meant Zella had an STD.

  “Who was it coming by?”

  “I don’t know. Different people and those gangbangers. Minnie Cobb, for one. She says she’s friends with my girl, but Zella’s never been friends with that one. My gals ain’t perfect, but they knows to stay away from trash.” Mrs. Colelay was rubbing her upper arms as if her skin itched. “I’ll see if she’ll come.”

  Mrs. Colelay retreated into the house, leaving Jake to look through the screen. A moment later the baby started crying again.

  “Hush up now,” said Mrs. Colelay. Then she was hollering for her daughter.

  Jake waited and Mrs. Colelay returned. “Sorry, Jake. She lit out again.”

  He thanked her and was headed off the porch when he caught movement. Zella appeared at the corner of the house, pausing at the assortment of dusty plastic chairs that formed a circle in the backyard.

  “Hello, Zella. Thanks for seeing me.”

  She nodded, big dark eyes staring at him, cautious as a filly. The girl wore an oversize sweatshirt that made her legs look like two sticks by comparison. The choice of garment and the way her hand went to her middle raised his suspicions.

  “Heard you’ve left school.”