Mother by Fate

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “What are you doing? Of course you have my buy-in, whatever it is, but I won’t have you risking your life, Sara. We need you.”

  It came down to that sometimes. Most particularly with Lila. She made decisions that affected the entire Lemonade Stand complex, including the two blocks of small businesses the Stand owned and ran. She had to think about all of the women they currently served, had served and would serve in the future. She couldn’t put all of them at risk to save one.

  “Someone in the LAPD put a bounty hunter on her,” Sara said now, still watching Michael. He didn’t wave again, but he was watching her, too. Sitting back laconically, his elbows on the arms of the chair, his fingers steepled at his mouth, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  And she had to wonder why.

  What more did he want from her?

  Unless he thought she still had contact with Nicole. Which made her of use to him.

  She needed him to think she was of use to him for her plan to work.

  “It’s probably from the dismissed warrant.”

  “That’s what I thought, too, at first. I asked him the last time he verified his paperwork. It was this afternoon. He was in touch with that Miller cop...”

  “The one Nicole said was dirty and working with the Ivory Nation.” The nationally known white-supremacist organization that had named Trevor Kramer president of the California coalition.

  “I know Sanchez’s report says that Kramer claims he left all of that behind, but it’s clear he didn’t. It’s also clear to me that this Miller guy is as crooked as Nicole feared he was. He probably issued a second warrant today. You know how Nicole said that anytime she acted contrary to Trevor’s wishes, another warrant was issued.” Anytime Nicole tried to get away from Kramer, or stand up to him, Miller would show up at the door with another warrant for her arrest. The charges were always dropped, but there was a record of them. They were taking away her freedom one doubt at a time.

  “I agree. There’s obviously a new warrant.”

  “But until the LAPD has a chance to follow up on everything Nicole gave them, he’s free to brutalize her.”

  “She should have gone into protective custody like they wanted her to.”

  “And risk never seeing her son again? Would you do that?”

  The question was superfluous—Lila didn’t have a son. Or any children that Sara knew of. “No, I wouldn’t.”

  “I don’t know what this bounty hunter guy thinks I can do for him, but I want to offer to go with him, to help him hunt for Nicole. I’ll tell him that once he finds her, I’ll go in and bring her out. She trusts me.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “This guy’s determined, Lila. He’s going to find her. And when he does, she’s as good as dead.”

  “Do you think he’s one of them?”

  “I don’t know. It’s possible.”

  “What’s your gut instinct?”

  “I think he’s doing his job and might be caught up in their game. But I’m not clear either way.”

  “I don’t like it. You’re usually clear.”

  “I know. But this has been one hell of a weird day.” And Lila only knew half of it. “Whether he’s with them or not, my instincts tell me that he won’t hurt me, Lila. And I don’t want this guy finding Nicole without someone on the team there to help her,” she said. “He thinks he can convince me that Nicole’s not what we think she is. I’m going to go along with that.”

  “He obviously thinks you can help or he wouldn’t be there.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I don’t like it,” Lila said again.

  “She needs this, Lila. She deserves it.”

  “I know.”

  “It doesn’t put the Stand at risk.”

  “It puts you at risk, and you are a huge part of the Stand.”

  “There are other counselors who would be equally as good at coaching victims.”

  “You’re part of our family.”

  “I have to do this, Lila.” There, she’d said it. “There’s something about Nicole. I...need to do this.”

  “I think I knew that.”

  “So you’ll give me whatever support you can?”

  “I’ll do more than that. I’m alerting the team and I’ll make sure that wherever you are, Sanchez or someone from his department will be right behind you.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lila took a couple more seconds to issue severe warnings. To extract promises that they both knew Sara might not be able to keep.

  And then Sara hung up.

  She was sure-footed as she crossed the cool decking on her way back to Michael Edison. She was doing the right thing. The only thing.

  Her biggest doubt was the little extra spring she felt in her step at the prospect of having a few more hours with the handsome bounty hunter.

  It made no sense. She’d been married to a liar once. It wasn’t a road she was going to travel again.

  Ever.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE WOMAN WALKED with assurance, her shoulders straight and her head held high. She took her seat across from him at the round glass-topped table.

  “Sorry about that,” she said.

  “No problem.” He didn’t need an apology. He wanted an explanation.

  She wasn’t offering one. Her gaze met his and Michael knew he’d met his match.

  “Did you take care of whatever it was?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  It was late. But the air was nice. Balmy. If they listened carefully they might just hear the ocean on the other side of the security wall surrounding the complex.

  “Why are you still here?” He liked that she was direct.

  “Because I need to know anything you know that can help me find Nicole Kramer. I need to know what she told you.”

  “If I knew a Nicole Kramer, I couldn’t tell you anything even if I wanted to.” She repeated what she’d told him earlier, and added, “I’m legally bound by HIPAA laws. And by client-counselor privilege.”

  He’d obviously failed to convince her of the seriousness of the situation.

  Leaning forward, one arm on the table, he said, “It would be just like Nicole to use a women’s shelter as a hideout. And if she’s doing so, every woman in your care is at risk.”

  She assessed him silently.

  He made certain that he stood up to the test. His gaze didn’t waver.

  “The longer she’s out there, the more chance there is that someone’s going to get hurt,” he said, trying to find even a little of the connection they’d had earlier. He’d been there under false pretenses, but some of those feelings had been real. Her interest had been obvious, and his actions hadn’t been all calculated. All lies.

  “You’ve seen her rap sheet?” Sara met him gaze for gaze.

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve read it yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  “This isn’t just something you heard about from someone else? A cop, maybe?”

  “No.”

  She studied him some more. And he wondered if she put her clients under the same microscope.

  He wasn’t sure how well that tactic worked with abused women, but was pretty certain her skills would be a huge asset in law enforcement.

  “Look, I realize you have no reason to trust me at this point. But I’m asking you to do so anyway. I’ve shown you my credentials. I’m not out to hurt Nicole. Only to get her off the streets until our justice system determines it’s safe for her to be there. I’m after her because she’s a threat to innocent people... And I came clean before allowing you to engage in a personal partnering based on lies.”

  Her nod allowed him the first moment of satisfaction he
’d had since he’d refused to allow their kiss to turn into something more.

  Next to keeping his family safe, he’d wanted that in the worst way.

  “So you’ll tell me what you know?”

  “I’ll help you on one condition.”

  His eyes narrowed. He wasn’t going to like this. Her tone of voice told him so. “What’s that?”

  “I come with you.”

  “No.”

  “You need me.”

  So she did know something.

  “I work alone.”

  “Make an exception.”

  What was it with this woman? The question was becoming like a broken record in his mind. “Why?”

  “You said you were near the thrift shop this afternoon.”

  “Right.”

  “And that this Nicole person was there with me yesterday.”

  “Yes.”

  “But she’s on the run now.”

  “Correct.”

  “It’s highly likely, then, that she saw you and that you are the reason why she took off.”

  She’d made a bit of a jump. He hadn’t said he’d seen Nicole at the thrift shop that day. Only that he’d seen her there the day before. And that he’d been there that day. The day she’d run.

  She knew more than she was openly admitting.

  But then, he’d already known that. The question was did she purposely just let him know that? Or had she slipped?

  “It’s possible that I spooked her” was all he said.

  “Chances are if Nicole is associated with me, she trusts me.”

  “Chances are.”

  “She trusts me, not you. She sees you, she runs. I can’t find her. You can. Simple math here. You take me with you, and once you find her you let me approach her, and you end up with more than the nothing you have now.”

  “So you don’t know where she is.”

  “I’m not saying I know her at all.”

  “But if I agree to take you with me, you’ll suddenly realize you know her. Am I getting my math right on that one?”

  “You’re going to have to trust me on that one.”

  He couldn’t have another woman’s death on his conscience. If he didn’t get Nicole, more than one person’s life could be in danger, and a baby’s, too.

  “The woman is armed.”

  “So you say.”

  “So the police report says. You approach her, you could get shot.”

  “You said I was already with her, and I’m not sporting any bullet holes.”

  Did nothing faze this woman? And yet, the more she met him volley for volley, the more she intrigued him.

  Michael remembered the fire in her kiss. She’d definitely been losing control in that hot tub.

  “You die, it’s on you.” Try that one on, lady.

  “I’ve already had that discussion.”

  “With whom?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  “That phone call you just made, that was to talk to someone about helping me find Nicole?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  He wanted to let go with a string of words that would shock her. He wasn’t sure any would.

  “I plan to leave at first light.”

  “To go where?”

  “That depends on what you have to tell me.”

  “I have your word that you’re taking me with you?”

  “My word doesn’t hold any weight with you, remember? But you have this—me—over a barrel. You’re right. Nicole made me. She knows what I look like and that I’m after her. And she trusts you. I find her—you approach. That’s our deal.”

  “How light are we traveling?”

  “I keep a change of clothes on me at all times.”

  She nodded, her face, illuminated by the security light, in stark contrast with the darkness surrounding them. “What’s our mode of transportation?”

  “My SUV.”

  She stood. “I’ll be ready at first light.”

  Not so fast.

  He grabbed her hand, and then immediately let it go. “You’ll need a blanket. In case we have to spend the night in the vehicle. I only have one.” And he’d be damned if he was sharing it with her.

  Because...he’d be damned for what would happen if they shared a blanket.

  “Thanks for the heads-up. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. I need to know what you know about Nicole Kramer.” He’d needed the information hours ago.

  “I know that she’s not guilty of any of the crimes you claim.”

  Disappointment wasn’t new to him. Hardly moved him at all. “Then why help me?”

  “Because I want to help keep her alive.”

  If he wasn’t mistaken, he’d just received a warning.

  * * *

  SARA WASN’T A fan of deception. To the contrary, she avoided it whenever she could. But if she hadn’t already learned the art of subterfuge growing up in a wealthy family where guile was a necessary way of life, to avoid those who would say or do anything, promise anything, to get a piece of the financial pie, her time at the Lemonade Stand had honed her skills.

  Abusers stopped at nothing to get what they needed. Sometimes there was no reasoning with them. Sometimes it took trickery to save lives.

  Michael Edison thought she was going to trick Nicole.

  He was probably tricking Sara even now.

  And she, most definitely, was going to trick him.

  But not about finding Nicole. They had to get to her before Trevor did. Their ticking clock was more like a ticking time bomb.

  “Let’s go inside,” she told the bounty hunter, making a few critical decisions as she stood there.

  “It’ll have to be your place, as I don’t really have one here.”

  They’d talk about that. Later. Maybe.

  “I intended my place,” she told him. “People know that I’m with you. They know where I live. They’ll be watching out for my safety.”

  “I’m a licensed professional,” he said, his voice even as he followed her to the gate that would lead them out of the pool area.

  She didn’t speak as she took the shortcut across the grass to the sliding glass door that led to her living room. Another identical door, several yards down, led to her bedroom, but he wasn’t going to have any cause to know that.

  And she’d deal with her disappointment on that score later.

  He’d given her power when he’d admitted that she had him over a barrel. She intended to use however much of it she needed.

  “I’m going to have to insist that whatever sleep we get tonight, we do it here. I have a spare room, or you can crash on the couch.” Critical decision number one stated. “I don’t trust you to remember to pick me up on your way to work in the morning.”

  “Fair enough.”

  She didn’t want to be curious about anyone who might wonder where he’d spent the night. Or about where he lived. He was nothing to her anymore. A means to help Nicole. Period.

  How could she still be attracted to him? a small voice in her head wondered.

  Sara didn’t have an immediate answer.

  “You won’t have anyone missing you at home? Anyone you should contact?”

  “No.”

  With her house key in hand, she paused. “Because you already told her you’d be out?”

  “Her who?” Beneath the light of the back porch light, he could have been her Prince Charming, the way he was looking at her.

  They were a pair, the two of them. Watching every word. Neither giving more than necessary. Leaving back doors open in case they needed to slip out of whatever it was they might be accused of having said.

 
And still...there was something between them. Something he clearly hadn’t planned. And probably didn’t want.

  Something she wasn’t even going to consider. He’d lied to her without blinking. She couldn’t live with a man so skilled at the art.

  “I’m not married,” he said then, seeming to take an unusual pity on her.

  “You were, though?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t lie about that part.”

  It was awkward standing there on her back patio, with her white wicker furniture witness to the exchange. She should take him inside. But she hesitated until they had this part straight.

  Having lived with a husband who’d been unfaithful more than once, she didn’t want to play any part in another couple’s relationship troubles. If he had a significant other, he was calling her before he spent the night at Sara’s.

  At least, that was her preference. She wasn’t going to risk Nicole’s life on the mandate.

  “I lied only slightly.”

  Sara pretended to herself that she didn’t care.

  “I’ve been single for four years, not three.”

  She frowned then. “Why lie about something like that?”

  His shrug seemed to carry with it a hint of embarrassment. “I was trying to establish similarities in our circumstances,” he said. “You said you’d been here three years.”

  She slid the key into the lock. “So...no significant other?” He might think she was asking for personal reasons. He could draw whatever conclusions he liked.

  “No.”

  She turned the key.

  “In an effort to solidify our working arrangement, I’m going for total disclosure here,” he said. Her hand froze on the key. “I don’t live alone.”

  “You don’t.” She stared up at him.

  “No.” His serious expression turned into a smile. “I live with my daughter. She’s six going on sixty and is a complete hoot.”

  He looked at her as if he expected her to smile, as well. To share his joy, understand his pride. Maybe even find him more trustworthy because he was a dad.

  All Sara felt was dismay. Disappointment.

  He was divorced. And had custody of a little girl? Apparently there were more women than she knew who bore children and then didn’t raise them.