The Bounty Hunter's Baby Surprise

by Lisa Childs

  “I don’t want him dead,” Jake said—because that would hurt Lillian. No matter how badly her family treated her, she still loved the selfish idiots. “I do want something he has, though. A flash drive that belongs to his sister.”

  “If I get this flash drive for you, you’ll give me the car?” Shane asked.

  Jake sighed. The classic vehicle was in rough shape now, but it had once been a beauty. He didn’t have time to fix it any time soon, though. Hell, he might wind up in jail himself for helping Lillian. “Yeah, it’s yours, then.”

  Shane clicked off the cell. And Jake felt a rush of hope. Maybe the O’Hanigans would be able to find Donny and that flash drive.

  “You love that car,” Lillian said from where she leaned against the doorjamb to the bedroom. Her hair was tousled around her face. And for once the dark circles were gone. She looked rested but worried, with a furrow on her brow.

  He had loved that car, but he loved something else more. He shrugged. “I’m not holding my breath that they’ll find him.”

  He didn’t want her to hold her breath. That was why he said that, even though he was hopeful. He didn’t want to build up her hopes only to have them dashed again. “They haven’t ever been able to find any of the rest of your family.”

  But they had found Jake at his safe house. So the O’Hanigans were getting better. Or maybe the Davieses were getting better at being fugitives.

  That might not be a bad thing, though, because if that flash drive wasn’t found, Lillian would have to remain a fugitive.

  There was no way she was having his baby in jail.

  * * *

  Lillian didn’t want to live her life on the run—like most of her family. Like Jake’s dad.

  She wanted a real life with Jake and their baby. But she didn’t hold out any more hope for that than she did for the other bounty hunters to find her brother and the flash drive. Even if this nightmare of her false arrest ended, she doubted Jake was willing to settle down.

  If he’d really cared about her, he wouldn’t have given up on them eight months ago. He would have fought for their relationship. He would have kept apologizing until he’d convinced her to forgive him.

  She hadn’t quite done that yet, though. She loved him. But she couldn’t entirely get over how he’d used her.

  “You won’t have this baby in jail,” Jake said, his voice deep with resolve.

  But she wondered who he was trying to convince—her or himself?

  She certainly wasn’t convinced. “We can’t count on finding that flash drive,” she said.

  If Donny had offered it to Mr. Kuipers for money, Tom wouldn’t have paid out until he was certain he’d had it. And the minute he’d had it, he would have destroyed it.

  That was probably why Donny had been avoiding Lillian. He didn’t want to tell her what he’d done with it and that it was gone forever.

  “So what are you saying?” Jake asked. “That you want me to let you get away? And you’ll have this baby on the run?”

  “You would let me get away?” she asked, and she felt a twinge of pain in her heart. He’d already done that once, so she shouldn’t have been surprised. But now she was pregnant with his baby. Didn’t that mean anything to him? Didn’t she? Didn’t their son or daughter?

  She blinked against the sting of tears and cleared her eyes before meeting his gaze.

  He’d hesitated a long moment—as if he was torn. Then he replied, “I should have brought you in the minute I found you in my truck back at the beach.”

  “You probably should have,” she agreed. Because now he was in trouble, too.

  “But I couldn’t.”

  She was grateful for that, but Jake hadn’t answered her question yet. He hadn’t said whether or not he would let her go now.

  But she didn’t want it to come to that. She didn’t want to keep running. “I have another idea.”

  He narrowed his dark eyes and stared at her with apparent suspicion. “Why do I feel as though I am not going to like this?”

  Because he probably wouldn’t. She didn’t like it, either, but she didn’t see any other way.

  “I think I should meet with Mr. Kuipers,” she said.

  “You want to meet with the man who has been trying to kill you?” Jake asked, his voice cracking with outrage. “No way.”

  “It’s the only way now.” That the flash drive was gone. “I need to get him on record saying that he framed me.”

  Jake snorted. “And you think he’s just going to admit that?”

  “No,” she said. “But I think I can get him talking.”

  Tom Kuipers was a notorious womanizer. In fact, she was the only female in the office he hadn’t hit on and that had been before she was pregnant. If he hadn’t found her attractive then, he certainly wouldn’t now with as big as she was. So she wouldn’t be able to charm him into talking. She would have to goad him into it.

  Jake shook his head. “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”

  “So is going to prison,” she said. Lillian knew herself—she wasn’t strong enough to survive behind bars.

  “We’ll make sure it won’t come to that.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Jake,” she warned him. At least he hadn’t done that the last time. While he’d deceived her about who he was, he hadn’t made her any promises.

  “Lillian.”

  “You can put a wire on me or something,” she said. “You must have done that when you were with the US Marshals.”

  “I have, but I won’t now,” he said. “Not for you.”

  She flinched. “Jake.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” he insisted.

  But Lillian was beginning to believe it was the only way. And if Jake wouldn’t help her, she would figure out how to pull it off on her own. She couldn’t count on her family or on that flash drive turning up.

  And Jake had proven eight months ago that she couldn’t count on him.

  She could only count on herself now.

  * * *

  Seymour slammed his fist against his desk. “Damn Jake Howard!”

  Shane O’Hanigan just shrugged. He’d been standing in Tuttle’s office when he’d taken that call from Jake—the one asking the O’Hanigans to find Donny Davies.

  “That’s not the Davies that Jake needs to be worried about apprehending,” Seymour continued.

  “We both know he already has the one you’re talking about,” Shane said.

  And that was why Seymour was worried.

  “There’s no bounty on Donny,” he continued. And he had finally learned his lesson now. If the guy got arrested, he was going to have to call another bail bondsman to get him out. Seymour wanted nothing to do with any of the damn Davies family ever again.

  “There is a bounty on him now,” Shane said with a devilish grin. “A 1969 Chevrolet Nova.” He turned for the door, but before he could grasp the knob and pull it open, Seymour shouted for him to stop.

  “You can’t help him with this!”

  “I don’t really think it’s helping him,” Shane pointed out. “Not when he loses that sweet ride of his.”

  Jake wasn’t going to need a car where he was going, either. If he didn’t turn in Lillian Davies soon, there would be a warrant issued for him aiding and abetting a fugitive.

  “He’s in too deep,” Seymour said.

  Shane shrugged again. “It’s his funeral.”

  That was exactly what Seymour was afraid of—not that Jake was going to wind up in jail but that he was going to wind up dead.

  Chapter 20

  The waiting was killing him. Jake wanted to be out looking for Donny himself. He wanted to personally shake that flash drive off of him. But he couldn’t leave Lillian alone and unprotected, and he couldn’t take her out again. Nearly every time he ha
d, they’d been shot at.

  They were lucky every bullet had missed. But eventually that luck was going to run out. That was why he’d refused to go along with her dangerous plan.

  He’d seen the disappointment on her beautiful face. But it was gone now. She was smiling as she puttered around the kitchen. She was cooking.

  She’d cooked for him a lot when they’d been going out eight months ago. Hell, they’d cooked together. But every time he’d tried to step into the kitchen this afternoon, she had shooed him out.

  He couldn’t help but wonder if she was preparing what she thought would be her last supper. “Do you have everything you need?” he asked.

  The US Marshals used this safe house enough that the kitchen was pretty well stocked. Jake had only had to stop and pick up perishables before he’d brought Lillian here.

  She glanced up at him from where she stirred something on the stove. “I could use a few more things,” she said. But then she looked away again, as if unable to meet his gaze.

  He studied her face. Her skin was flushed, maybe just from the heat of the stove and the oven. Or maybe for another reason.

  Jake felt a chill of apprehension chase down his spine, just like he had when they’d pulled up at Donny’s apartment that night. “You understand, right, that your plan is too dangerous?”

  “I know it’s dangerous,” she said.

  “Tom Kuipers is dangerous,” he said. “You can’t go anywhere near him.”

  She gestured around the small kitchen. “I don’t see him here.”

  But Jake was afraid that if he left her alone—even for a minute—that she might either invite the guy over or offer to meet him somewhere.

  He stepped into the kitchen with her. “I think you’ve done well with the ingredients you have.” He leaned over her at the stove and kissed the side of her neck. She’d pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

  She shivered now.

  “Smells good,” he said.

  “It would be better with fresh ingredients,” she said as she stirred what looked like pasta sauce.

  “I wasn’t talking about dinner,” he said. And he brushed his lips along her neck.

  Maybe he could make her forget all about her dangerous plan. Maybe he could make himself forget all about the frustration of waiting for the O’Hanigans to find Donny and that damn flash drive.

  Maybe he could ease another kind of frustration...with her. He reached around her and turned off the stove. Then he swung her up in his arms.

  She giggled and offered a weak protest, “Jake...”

  “Dinner will keep,” he said. “I’m hungry for something else now.”

  He was hungry for her. And for the past eight months, he’d had to fast. Now he couldn’t get enough of her. He was careful to rein in his passion, though. He was gentle with her—as he undressed her, as he made love to her.

  She moaned and arched, so responsive, so passionate.

  Her breasts were so full, so round, so perfect.

  He spent time caressing them, stroking his fingers over them, before he teased the nipples into tight buds. Then he closed his lips over one of those and gently tugged.

  She arched off the bed and cried out. “Jake...”

  She reached for him, but he clasped her wrists in one hand and held her off. He wanted to focus on her—on giving her pleasure.

  But no matter how much pleasure he gave her, he didn’t know if it could replace the pain he’d also given her eight months ago. He hadn’t meant to hurt her then, though.

  He hadn’t meant to fall for her, either. But he hadn’t been able to help himself.

  He wanted to show her how much she meant to him. That was why he couldn’t let her risk her life, not even for her freedom.

  He moved his mouth lower, over her belly. Then he made love to her with his lips and his tongue.

  She cried out again, louder. And she tugged her wrists free of his grasp. Then she dragged off his clothes and drove him out of his mind with her lips and her touch.

  Finally, he rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him. She slid down the length of him, her inner muscles clutching at him. And he felt like he was home—inside her. Like this was where he belonged.

  He’d never felt like that before—except for eight months ago when he’d been with her. He’d been so shocked by how perfectly they’d felt together.

  Jake had lost her once, and he didn’t want to lose her again. But on some level, he felt like this might be the last time they would be together. So he drew out the tension, pulling out just when her muscles started to clutch him.

  He drove them both out of their minds until they finally came together. She screamed. And he shouted as the pleasure overwhelmed him.

  When they finally stopped panting for breath, Jake wrapped his arms around her, keeping her close to his side—where he was beginning to believe she belonged. And he fell asleep, imagining that she would always be there.

  * * *

  Once Jake had fallen asleep, Lillian forced herself to slip out of his arms and out of the bed. She hurried back toward the kitchen.

  Jake had shut off the stove. Nothing was going to burn. But she wasn’t worried about the food burning. She was worried about how she was going to slip Jake the sleeping pills she’d found in the bathroom cabinet.

  The US Marshals must have planned for everything—even witnesses who were too anxious to sleep—because they provided some pretty powerful sleeping aids.

  She wasn’t sure how many to give Jake, though. He was so big. And she needed him asleep. Or he would never let her leave. He would never let her risk her life and their baby’s.

  Was she being too reckless?

  No. She had to do this. It was the only way to prove her innocence. The only way she could be free to raise her baby and...

  Love Jake. She already loved him. She didn’t need to be free to do that.

  Once she’d set the pot on the stove to simmer again, she reached for her phone. She’d had it turned off since the last time she’d tried calling Donny but had charged it.

  She didn’t bother trying to call Donny now.

  Her brother had proven himself unworthy of her trust. Just as she would prove herself unworthy of Jake’s when she sneaked out on him again. But hopefully, he would understand that she’d had to do it.

  She had no choice.

  And she was doing this as much for their child as for herself. So she scrolled through her contacts until she found another number, and she called it.

  She called him.

  “Hello?” he tentatively answered.

  She had never called him before, so he probably didn’t have her number in his contacts. She’d found his that night she’d broken in to the office and downloaded all those files to the flash drive.

  “Mr. Kuipers?”

  He released a breath that rattled in the phone. “Lillian Davies...” Then he chuckled and asked, “What can I help you with?”

  “You can stop trying to kill me,” she said, letting her anger and resentment slip into her voice. He was such a monster. It was bad enough that he’d framed her for his crime; now he wanted her dead, too.

  But he acted all innocent when he replied, “Now, why would I be trying to do something like that?”

  “So I don’t turn over that flash drive to the authorities and prove that you framed me for your embezzling from your wife and father-in-law’s company.”

  He snorted. “So that’s your defense? No wonder you didn’t show up for your trial. You’re going to lose with wild accusations like that.”

  “I have the proof,” she said.

  Or she’d had it. How could she have been so naive as to trust Donny with it? Sure, he was her brother, but he was also their father’s son.

  Tom Kuipers chuckled again. “I find that quite har
d to believe, Ms. Davies, or I doubt you’d have jumped bail like you have.”

  “I have it,” she said. “But I figured it might be worth even more to you than it is to me.”

  “You want me to buy it?” He laughed again.

  She named a price that was a lot of money to her but probably very little to him.

  “That’s steep,” he said.

  “It’s nothing to you,” she said. “I have the records that show exactly how much you stole and where you stashed it.”

  He sucked in a breath as if she’d punched him.

  And she had hit him where it hurt—for him—in his wallet. She intended to hit even harder.

  “I would need to be able to check out your story before I gave you any money,” he said. “Are you willing to meet?”

  “Not if you’re going to have those men shoot at me again.”

  “What men?”

  “You know. You’ve already buried two of them.” And for that she felt a twinge of regret. But it had been their lives or hers and Jake’s.

  Jake...

  She heard him murmur and call out in his sleep. He would be awake soon. Then she would have to put him back to sleep, because she had an appointment to keep.

  “An hour and a half—at your warehouse,” she said. Unfortunately, it was already after hours, so there would be nobody else around but Tom and his men. And her...

  “And if anything happens to me,” she added, “a copy of that flash drive will go to the police.”

  She didn’t wait for him to agree or disagree. She clicked off the cell and dropped it back into her purse—just in time—as Jake stumbled out of the bedroom looking all scruffy and sexy.

  He would be furious if he knew what she’d done. But she was doing it for him as much as she was for herself and their baby. Because she wanted to be with him...

  * * *

  Tom hurled his cell phone across the room where it struck his office wall and broke into pieces. He hated being played. And he was definitely being played.

  Either by Lillian Davies or her dimwit brother.

  Neither of them was going to get away with it. If that flash drive existed, he would get it. And then he would kill them both. She’d told him not to have his men at the warehouse.