Shattered

by Joan Johnston

  Kate flushed. She was only thirty, with many more childbearing years, she hoped, ahead of her. She laid a palm against Jack’s cheek, which was rough from an early five o’clock shadow, and said, “I would love having a child with you.”

  “Give me four months, Kate,” he said, “and we can start to work on it.”

  The kiss he gave her was soft, tender, loving. And brief. His gaze was still focused on her mouth as he said, “I’m sorry I have to break our date tonight. I’ll make it up to you. I’d better get out of here before I do something I’ll be sorry for in the morning.”

  Kate knew she could tempt him. Even though Jack had said he ought to leave, he was still holding her close. It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge. He was aroused again—or still. His dark eyes were heavy-lidded, with an avid look that made her pulse leap.

  “You’d better go.” But she made no move to send him on his way.

  “I love you,” he said again.

  “And I love you.”

  Which made what he was about to do all the more insane, Kate thought. Maybe if she told him about Shaw he would stay. But that would mean telling Jack who’d really fathered the twins. He was going to learn the truth sooner or later, and surely it would be better if he heard it from her than found out some other way.

  “Jack…”

  “Hmm,” he said as he nuzzled her throat.

  She leaned her head back to give him better access, feeling the shiver roll down her spine as he sucked on the tender skin beneath her ear.

  “I have a confession, too,” she whispered.

  “Hmm,” he said, trailing kisses across her cheek, headed for her mouth.

  “I…”

  He caught her lower lip in his teeth and nibbled gently. She returned the favor. Soon, Kate was breathless, as desire spiraled upward through her body.

  “I have to go, Kate,” he said. But he sought her mouth with his, and they were caught up once more in the pleasure of kissing and touching each other.

  With the sixth sense every mother has, Kate heard the front door opening. She pulled free of Jack’s embrace and pressed a quick hand to her mouth before she turned to greet her sons with a bright smile.

  “Mom, we’re home!” Lucky said as he flung the door open.

  “Hi, Jack. How’s Ryan?” Chance said.

  The twins had met Ryan at Christmas and talked about him often. According to Jack, Ryan had been jealous of the twins spending time with “his” father and had rebuffed their attempts at friendship at first. But before the holiday was over, the three boys had become “Best Buds.”

  “Ryan’s fine,” Jack said. “In fact, I’m glad I have this chance to let you boys know I’ll be living with Ryan for the next couple of months.”

  “You’re going to Kansas?” Lucky asked.

  “Ryan and his mom are moving back to Texas,” Jack said. “I’m going to live with them in Houston for a little while.”

  Kate held her breath, hoping Jack wouldn’t mention Holly’s pregnancy.

  Chance frowned and glanced from Jack to Kate. “I thought you and Mom liked each other.”

  “We did,” Jack said. “We do,” he corrected. “But Holly’s—” Jack stopped and looked at Kate, seeking guidance.

  “Ryan’s mother is pregnant,” Kate explained. “Jack’s going to live in Houston to help her out until she has the baby.”

  Kate waited with bated breath for one of the twins to ask how Ryan’s mother had gotten pregnant, but neither did.

  “You’re coming back though, right?” Chance asked.

  Jack playfully ruffled his black hair. “You bet!”

  “There are chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen,” Kate said, hoping to distract her sons and prevent more awkward questions.

  The twins gave a yell and headed for the kitchen.

  “Be sure to leave your book bags on the counter,” she called after them. She turned to Jack and barely stopped herself from walking right back into his arms. “We’ll miss you.”

  “I’ll miss all of you, too.”

  Kate waited for a last kiss, a final hug. But Jack was keeping his distance. She needed to tell him about Wyatt Shaw’s ultimatum and ask for his help. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

  “Can it wait, honey? I need to check in with my captain before I leave town and I’ve got some packing to do. We’ll have three hours to talk while I’m on the road to Houston tonight. If I don’t get out of here, I’m going to want to hold you again.” He grabbed his Stetson from the table by the door and settled it low on his forehead.

  Kate was torn. Her fear of Wyatt Shaw warred with her fear of what Jack would think of her when he knew the truth. “Jack, I wish—”

  “Goodbye, Kate.” He kissed her hard and walked out the door.

  And ran right into Wyatt Shaw.

  5

  “Did my father send you here?” Wyatt snarled at Jack, as the two men faced off on Kate’s covered front porch.

  “Hell, no!” Jack retorted. “What are you doing here?”

  “None of your damn business,” Wyatt said.

  Kate’s blood ran cold as she watched Wyatt and Jack face off like vicious junkyard dogs claiming the same territory. She was shocked by their verbal exchange, which suggested the two men knew each other.

  Wyatt shot Kate a veiled look, then said to Jack, “You tell D’Amato to keep his nose out of my business.”

  “Tell him yourself,” Jack said as he backed his way down her front steps, never taking his eyes off Shaw.

  Kate felt like she was watching a movie in a foreign tongue with no translation under the picture. She was both confused and terrified. It seemed Wyatt thought Jack, a man wearing the uniform and badge of a Texas Ranger, took orders from his father, the mob boss. And Jack was playing along.

  The explanation came to her in a flash.

  Jack is on some kind of undercover assignment for the Rangers. Wyatt has seen him talking in private with D’Amato and made the assumption that Jack is on his father’s payroll.

  It was the only thing that made sense. Jack had to be working—or pretending to work—for D’Amato, collecting enough information about the mobster’s criminal activities to put him behind bars.

  Why hadn’t Jack simply told Shaw that he and Kate were romantically involved?

  Because if Jack is working undercover for the mob, it might put me and my sons in danger.

  Kate shuddered at the thought of what D’Amato might do to Jack—or to those Jack loved—if he learned the Texas Ranger was still one of the good guys.

  “Did he hurt you?” Wyatt asked.

  “Of course not!”

  “Did he ask you any questions about the twins?”

  “Why would he?”

  Wyatt frowned. “You said you were dating a Texas Ranger. Is he the one you’re seeing? The one you’re planning to marry?”

  Kate’s heart pumped a burst of adrenaline into her bloodstream. Should she tell Shaw the truth? Or lie? She decided on the literal truth. “I may have exaggerated my relationship to Jack,” she said. “Under the circumstances, it seemed safer to say I was involved with another man.”

  “You’re not engaged?”

  “No. I’m not involved romantically with anyone at the moment. Jack’s just a friend.”

  “What was he doing here?” Wyatt demanded.

  “He came to see how I’m doing, now that I’m home from rehab. Jack and his parents were kind enough to take care of the twins at his ranch while I was in a coma and for the past six weeks while I’ve been recuperating. You do know that I was shot in the arm and the chest last October, and that I was in a coma for four months?”

  He nodded curtly. “I assumed your parents kept the twins.”

  Kate shook her head. “My mother was in delicate health—pregnant with a late-in-life baby—so Jack stepped in.”

  Wyatt followed Jack’s progress, his eyes narrowed, till he reached his SUV, then turned back to face her
. Jack shot her an anxious look behind Wyatt’s back that asked, What the hell is he doing here?

  Apparently, he couldn’t stay and demand answers from her without blowing whatever cover he’d established for himself as one of Dante D’Amato’s minions.

  In a raspy voice too soft for Jack to hear, Shaw said, “Did you tell him?”

  “Tell him what?”

  “Don’t play dumb. Did you tell him the twins are mine?”

  “No, I didn’t.” But she’d come very close.

  “Thank God for that.”

  Kate blanched as she realized why Shaw was so upset. He thought Dante D’Amato had also discovered the truth about who’d fathered the twins and sent Jack here to get Kate to confirm or deny what he’d heard.

  “By the time my father knows for sure that Lucky and Chance are my sons,” Shaw said, “I’ll have you all somewhere he can’t get to you.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Kate said, her voice sharp with fear. “Neither are my sons. Why should your father be any threat to us? I would think he’d be glad to know he has grandchildren.”

  “You don’t know Dante D’Amato.”

  Kate glanced toward where she’d last seen Jack, but his SUV had already disappeared down a small hill under a canopy of live oaks. Why had he abandoned her with Shaw? Was protecting his cover more important than protecting the woman he loved and her children from someone with Wyatt Shaw’s reputation?

  It must be.

  Or maybe the best way to protect her was to pretend not to be romantically involved with her. Which gave her way too much food for thought.

  Kate stood with a hand on either side of the doorway, blocking Shaw’s entrance, and said in a cold voice, “I told you not to come back.”

  “Let me in, Kate.”

  It was a command, pure and simple. Kate’s neck hairs rose. “Go away. I don’t want you here.”

  “I know the twins are home. I intend to see them.”

  She tried slamming the door in his face, but he caught it again with his hand.

  “We’re not going through this again, are we?”

  Kate realized she wasn’t physically capable of keeping him out. She was trying to think of an argument that would convince him to go away when Lucky and Chance came barreling into the living room.

  “Mom! Chance is cheating at Mario Brothers Galaxy on the Wii!” Lucky complained. “He won’t give me my turn.”

  “I was not!” Chance said, shoving Lucky in the back. “You’re just afraid I’ll beat you.”

  Lucky turned and socked Chance in the shoulder.

  Kate left Shaw standing where he was to intervene between her sons. “Chance! Lucky! Stop that right now!”

  Shaw moved into the open doorway behind her, where she knew he could see the fracas.

  Kate grimaced. Her sons weren’t making a very good first impression on their father. “We have company,” she announced.

  But Chance had already tripped Lucky, who turned and grabbed Chance’s school uniform shirtfront on the way down. Both boys landed hard on the floor. They rolled, hitting at each other with their fists and knocking into the furniture with their thrashing feet.

  Kate wished she could tell Shaw that this behavior was unusual. But ever since she’d come home from rehab, they’d roughhoused like this at least once a day. She supposed Jack must have tolerated this sort of behavior over the past four months while the boys had been living at his ranch house.

  “That’s enough.”

  Kate watched as her sons’ heads snapped toward the door. She wondered whether it was the mere sound of a male speaking, or the stern, no-nonsense tone of Wyatt’s voice, that had gotten their attention.

  They untangled themselves and sat up, staring at the stranger who’d spoken.

  Wyatt closed the door behind him and crossed to stand beside her. She knew he was waiting for her to introduce him to her—their—sons. “Come over here,” she said gently. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

  That wasn’t true. She didn’t like anything about this situation. But she figured this traumatic moment in her sons’ lives would be less devastating if she orchestrated it.

  The twins never took their curious gazes off Shaw. A quick glance at Shaw revealed that his gray eyes were focused intently on Lucky and Chance. His impenetrable gaze gave nothing away, but Kate could see the tension in his shoulders, the muscle that worked in his jaw. She felt a moment of guilt for depriving him of knowing his sons and quickly squelched it.

  Wyatt Shaw was a ruthless man capable of anything, maybe even murder. Just because the police hadn’t found enough evidence to arrest him didn’t mean he wasn’t guilty of strangling that poor woman with his bare hands. Could he possibly be as innocent as his expensive lawyer had told the press he was? If Shaw hadn’t killed that woman, who had? And why had she been found in his bed?

  Kate couldn’t believe the direction her thoughts had taken. She was realizing, far too late, that just because this stranger had been gentle with her during the night they’d spent together, didn’t mean he wasn’t a killer.

  “Mom?” Chance said anxiously.

  Kate flushed when she realized she’d been staring at Shaw—perhaps with the fear she was feeling showing in her eyes. She took a deep breath and said, “This is Wyatt Shaw. Mr. Shaw is…”

  Kate’s throat suddenly constricted. How was she supposed to introduce him? It seemed too abrupt to baldly announce to her sons that this man was their biological father. She turned to Shaw, looking for help. She found no sympathy in his steel-gray eyes. She realized she would rather tell the boys herself than have Shaw say the words, which he surely would, if she didn’t speak them soon.

  Kate turned back to her sons and saw the innocence Shaw was forcing her to steal. She took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Shaw is—”

  “I’m an old friend of your mother’s,” Shaw interrupted.

  Kate shot a surprised—and grateful—look in Shaw’s direction.

  “I’m Lucky,” Lucky said, holding out his hand to be shaken.

  Kate watched as Wyatt solemnly took his son’s hand. Shaw’s hand completely enveloped the smaller one. His hold lingered long enough that Lucky pulled free.

  “I’m Chance.” Chance thrust his hand out to be shaken.

  This time Wyatt let go before the boy felt the need to pull away.

  “Is it all right if we go play on the Wii again, Mom?” Lucky asked.

  Kate turned to Wyatt, wondering if he wanted to talk further with the boys. He met her gaze, the look in his eyes still obscure, and gave the slightest nod of agreement. She turned back to her sons and said, “Can you do it without fighting?”

  The twins exchanged grins, then turned to her and simultaneously said, “You bet.”

  “All right. Another half hour. Then you need to go wash your hands for supper.”

  Kate waited for the boys to disappear before she turned back to Shaw. “You’ve met them. Now I’d like you to leave.”

  “Is that normal behavior?”

  Kate bristled at the implied criticism but forced herself to stay calm. She refused to care what Wyatt Shaw thought. He wasn’t going to be around long enough for it to matter. She shrugged and said, “They’re boys.”

  “You allow them to fight like that in the house?”

  She opened her mouth to explain that the twins’ behavior was more rambunctious now than it had been before her accident and snapped it shut again. She would not apologize to this man for anything her sons did.

  “I’ve made arrangements to fly the three of you to Houston tonight,” he said. “You’ll be living with me. You should pack a few bags with whatever you need for tonight and maybe tomorrow. I’ll be providing everything you need from now on.”

  Kate felt as though he’d punched her in the gut. It took a moment to recover enough air to speak. “You can just tear up the tickets, because we’re not going anywhere.”

  A smile flickered across his face. “
We’re traveling on my private jet.”

  “I have a job here. I have to earn a living.”

  “Not anymore. I’ll be taking care of any expenses associated with my sons. And their mother, of course.”

  “I enjoy my work,” Kate said angrily.

  “You enjoy providing physical therapy to amputees at Brooke Army Medical Center?”

  “Yes!” she said, unsettled that Wyatt knew what she did and where she worked. “You can see how special—and unique—my work is. I can’t do it just anywhere or with just anyone.”

  “You can find a comparable job at M.D. Anderson.”

  Kate gasped. “Jobs like mine don’t grow on trees.”

  “They’ll give you a job.”

  “What makes you so sure?” she demanded.

  “I’m a benefactor.”

  “Oh, so you’ll buy me a job, is that what you’re saying?”

  “You’re the one who said you wanted to work. I told you, there’s no need.”

  “I don’t want your money. I make enough to support us.”

  “My sons are entitled to whatever I can give them,” Wyatt said. “And I can give them more than this.” He gestured around her tiny living room.

  She could understand the male need to be the provider. But she was stung by his disdain for her home, which was filled with love, even if it was small. She lifted her chin and said, “There’s more to being a good parent than living in a big house.”

  “Thanks to you, I wouldn’t know about that,” he shot back.

  “What makes you think you can be a good father to my sons?” she challenged.

  “I’m sure you’ll let me know where I go wrong.”

  “You have an answer for everything.”

  “There’s nothing you can say to make me change my mind.”

  Kate made a rumbling sound of frustration. There was another very good reason she didn’t want to go anywhere near Houston and M.D. Anderson. Holly would be living and working there. But she wasn’t about to mention that to Shaw.

  “The boys attend a good school.”

  “There are good schools in Houston.”

  “Their friends are here.”

  “They can make new friends.”