by Debra Webb
“He was here,” she insisted, her voice low and fierce with anger. “He tried to drown me. And you know what?” She jerked with emotion. “I think he’s going to keep trying to kill me until he succeeds. Will you believe me then, Nick?”
This time Nick released her. He watched until she disappeared through the patio door. He closed his eyes and fought the need to run after her. To assure her that he would never let that happen. What was he supposed to believe? All the facts pointed to Laura as being mentally unstable, suicidal even. Nick flinched at the idea. Not one single shred of evidence existed to support her claims, except the knife wounds James Ed wanted him to believe were self-inflicted. James Ed didn’t appear to have any reason to lie. Nick opened his eyes and shook his head. Then why the hell did he want—need—to believe her so badly?
Disgusted with himself as well as the situation, Nick strode slowly toward the still-open door. Maybe he was the wrong man for this job. Apparently he couldn’t maintain a proper perspective in Laura’s presence. “Big surprise,” he muttered.
Nick’s gut suddenly clenched. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He stopped stock-still. Someone was watching. He felt it as strongly as he felt his own heart beating in his chest. Nick turned around ever so slowly and surveyed the yard once more. Taking his time, he studied each dark corner, watching, waiting for any movement whatsoever.
Nothing.
Nick scrubbed a hand over his beard-roughened face and considered the possibility that maybe he couldn’t trust his own instincts anymore. Maybe paranoia was like hysteria, contagious.
One thing was certain, time would tell the tale. In Nick’s experience, given time all things became clear.
Nick just hoped that time would be on their side.
“HARDHEADED JERK,” Laura muttered as she flung another dresser drawer open. She rifled through the contents, then slammed it shut. She needed a change of clothes. Her own clothes. Surely there would be something here she could wear.
Laura paused in her search and tried to remember the last time she had been here and what she had brought with her. Two years ago. The final barbecue bash of the summer. She remembered. James Ed had insisted she come along. He had invited Rafe. It was Labor Day weekend. Only two months before…
Closing her eyes, Laura fought the memories that tugged at her ability to stay focused. Two months before she met Nick, fell in love with his self-assurance and intensity. Ten years older than her, he seemed to know everything, to be able to do anything. He was so strong, yet so tender. The way he had made love to her changed something deep inside her forever. And he had given her Robby. Tears threatened her flimsy composure. Laura clutched the edge of the dresser when emotion kicked her hard in the stomach. How was she supposed to go on when she didn’t know if her baby was safe or not. Had he eaten? Was someone bathing him and keeping his diapers changed? Pain slashed through her, making her knees weak.
No! Laura straightened with a jerk. No. Robby was fine and she was going to find him. She refused to believe anything else. Somehow she would get away and find him. Somehow…
Laura jerked the next drawer open and forced herself to continue her search. The next drawer contained some underclothes and socks, the one after that an old pink sweater. Laura exhaled a puff of relief. At least it was a start. All she had to do was get away from Nick, then she would go back to Doc’s clinic and look for clues—
“Laura.”
Startled from her plans, she met his gaze in the mirror above the dresser. He stood in the doorway, looking too concerned and too damned good. Laura willed away her heart’s reaction to the father of her child. She didn’t want to feel this way about Nick. She didn’t want to love him. He would never believe her. Never help her the way she needed him to. Laura clenched her teeth and blinked away the emotion shining in her eyes. She didn’t need Nick. She could take care of herself and her son…
…if she could just find him.
“What are you doing?” His gaze strayed to the items she had stacked on top of the dresser.
To lie was her first thought, but Nick was too smart for that. He would see through her in about two seconds. “I’m packing myself a bag.” Laura turned to face him. She gripped the edge of the dresser’s polished wood surface for extra support. “Because the first chance I get I’m out of here.”
Nick took two steps in her direction. He paused then and slowly looked the room over as if seeing her childhood summer sanctuary for the first time, and wanting to commit what he saw to memory. Finally, his gaze moved back to hers, dark, intense. Laura shivered with awareness. Heat stirred inside her. She wanted to touch him, to have him touch her. She swallowed.
“And you think I’m going to allow you to do that.”
It wasn’t a question, she knew. She leveled her gaze on his, and poured every ounce of determination she possessed into that unsettling eye contact. “You have to sleep sometime.”
Two more steps disappeared behind him. “Is that a threat?”
“Yes.” Laura’s heart rate accelerated. “It is.”
“Just for the moment, let’s say you were successful in your plan.” He paused, cocked his handsome head and assessed her thoroughly. Laura stiffened to prevent her body’s need to tremble beneath his blatant act of intimidation. Did he have any idea how he still affected her? “What will you do?”
She held her spine rigid when her body wanted to sag with despair as her harsh reality momentarily pushed aside all else. “I’ll find my baby,” she told him.
He moved closer. The smooth movement of denim-encased muscle dragged her attention to those long legs and the limp that had first endeared him to her. Nick had gotten that limp by taking a bullet intended for a client he had been assigned to protect the year before Laura met him. He had taken a bullet for her, too. Because that’s the kind of man he was. And despite his distrust of her, he had still come back to get her. To protect her. Laura’s breathing grew shallow and irregular as renewed need twisted inside her. Giving herself a mental shake, Laura jerked her gaze back to his intense, analyzing one. She had to focus. But she was exhausted, mentally and physically. She needed so much for Nick to hold her right now. But at the same time, Laura needed to escape his watch.
“And the man who’s trying to kill you?”
Laura’s lips trembled then tightened with the blast of outrage that raced through her at his words. He didn’t fully believe her. Why the hell was he asking? “I’ve been out-maneuvering him for two years. I can do it again.”
“Until recently you mean,” he suggested quietly. Another half yard of carpet disappeared between them.
“He would never have caught up with me and my son if it hadn’t been for you,” she told him tautly. Bottom line, Nick was one of the bad guys now. Why didn’t he just leave her alone? Why had he come back for her? A tiny seed of hope sprouted in her heart despite her efforts to resist that very emotion.
“So you consider this to be my fault?”
“That’s right.” Laura pressed back against the dresser as he came closer still. “I hope you can live with it,” she added bitterly.
He stopped two steps away. “Oh, I can live with it,” he said with complete certainty. “If you can live with this.”
Before Laura could fathom what he intended, Nick jerked his shirt from his waistband and pulled it over his head in one fluid motion. Laura’s heart slammed mercilessly against her sternum. Her gaze riveted to his bare chest. Broad, tanned, muscled and sprinkled with dark hair. The memory of touching him, making love with him, swirled inside her. Then she saw it. The single jagged scar that marred that amazing terrain just beneath his heart. Laura’s own heart dropped to her stomach then. A little higher and Nick would certainly have died.
“But I almost didn’t live with it,” he said, his voice dangerously low. A muscle flexed in that square jaw of his. “So while we’re on the subject of blame, why don’t you tell me about the guy you watched put this bullet hole in me. The one you d
isappeared with while I was bleeding to death.” His fingers moved gently over the scar, but there was nothing gentle about his voice or his expression.
Fear, regret, pain churned inside her, but Laura fought to maintain her composure. She had to do this, had to say what needed to be said—for the good it would do. How could he think she had willingly left him to die? “It was my fault that you got shot,” she said in a rush. Surprise flickered in Nick’s gaze. “Not one day has gone by since that I haven’t wished I could go back and somehow prevent what happened. But I swear to you, Nick, I didn’t go anywhere with him. He tried to kill me, too.”
Wariness slipped into his expression. “But you recognized him, Laura. I saw it in your eyes.”
Laura raked her fingers through her wet hair. Her hands trembled so she clenched them into tight fists. God, how could she ever explain everything? “Look,” she began wearily. “I admit that I got into some trouble in college.” She met Nick’s guarded gaze. “Just like James Ed said. But I know now that I was just desperate for his attention.” Laura closed her eyes and forced away the bitter memories twisting inside her brain. “I needed him and he was never there for me. He just wanted me away from him.” She stared at the floor for a while before she continued. “When I came home after graduation, he tried to marry me off to Rafe Manning.” Laura didn’t miss Nick’s reaction to Rafe’s name. She tamped down the renewed burst of hope that maybe he did feel something for her.
“But you refused,” he prompted.
Laura nodded. “James Ed wasn’t very happy. And I pretty much made a fool of myself about it,” she admitted. “But the car accident and all that other stuff was not my fault.” She leveled her gaze on Nick’s, hoping to convey the depth of her sincerity. “I tried to tell James Ed that the brakes failed, but he wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say.”
Nick snagged her hand. His thumb glided across the scar marking her wrist. “And this?”
Laura lifted her free hand and stared at the white slash of a scar. “All I know is that I came home from a party one night.” She licked her dry lips. “James Ed and I had argued before I left. So I had a little too much to drink I guess. I came home and crashed on the bed. I woke up the next day in a hospital under suicide watch.”
“You don’t know for sure what happened then,” Nick clarified.
She sucked in a weary breath. “I know I didn’t do it. I was passed out. Besides, I had no reason to want to die.”
Nick considered her words for a moment, then said, “Now, tell me about the man who shot me.”
Laura tried without success to read Nick’s closed expression. Did he believe anything she said? Would he believe what she was about to tell him now? Well, it was the truth. That’s all she could do was give him the truth. “I saw him in James Ed’s private office at the house a couple of times.”
Nick’s hands fisted at his sides, something fierce flashed in his eyes. “So you do know him?”
“I don’t know him. I only saw him—”
“Be careful what you say next, Laura.” There was no mistaking the emotion in his voice or his gaze then. Rage. Vengeance. “I know more than you think.”
Laura shook her head in confused denial. “Why would you believe that? I did not know him. I still don’t.”
“I heard everything,” Nick ground out.
“Everything?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand what you mean.” Laura had no idea what Nick was talking about.
Nick smiled, it was far from pleasant. “Oh you’re good, Laura. Too good.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Before I blacked out completely, he told you that you didn’t need me anymore, that it was just you and him now,” Nick said coldly. “I heard him say it. You didn’t deny it then, don’t even think about denying it now.”
Laura frowned, trying to remember. She allowed the painful memory to play out in her mind. She had screamed something like “why did you hurt him?” at the man after he shot Nick. Then he had said—oh God, she remembered. Laura met Nick’s accusing glare. “He didn’t mean it the way you think,” she explained. “He meant that he had me where he wanted me—without protection.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
Laura nodded. “I swear, Nick, it’s the truth. I had never seen the man before in my life except the times I saw him in James Ed’s office. That’s what this is all about,” she argued vehemently. “My brother wants me dead!”
“So you didn’t leave willingly with the shooter?”
Astonishment struck her hard. Why wouldn’t he believe her? “How could you think I left with him? That I left you hurt? He dragged me out to the riverbank and tried to kill me. He wanted it to look like a murder-suicide.” Laura shook her head at Nick’s still wary expression. How could she make him believe her? “The storm was still going strong. He lost his balance, and we both went over the edge. He hit his head on a rock on the way down. He never resurfaced, then I got swept away. I woke up the next day several miles down river. I was lost. It took me two days to find my way out of the woods.”
“But you never came back, never let anyone know you were alive,” Nick reminded her bitterly.
Laura slumped in defeat. “I thought you were dead. I knew my brother was trying to kill me. I didn’t think coming back would be too bright.”
“What about after you found out I was alive. Why not then? You could have come to me for help.”
Uncertainty seized her. She had to tread carefully here. Laura couldn’t risk allowing him to discover the truth about Robby. “You worked for James Ed. I knew you would take me back to him. And that’s just exactly what you did,” she reminded him curtly.
Nick hesitated, his green eyes bored relentlessly into hers. Something she couldn’t read flickered in that fierce gaze. “Even after what we had shared, you didn’t trust me?”
“Did you trust me? Our whole relationship stemmed from proximity and your desire to protect me. I…” Laura swallowed tightly. “I needed you so desperately. But how could I know that it was safe to trust you completely?”
The seconds turned to minutes before Nick responded. “You couldn’t have,” he offered flatly. “It’s late. You should get some rest,” he said, effectively changing the subject. “I’ll check all the doors and windows, then I’ll reset the alarm. Somehow it failed,” he added. He picked up his shirt and started for the door.
Laura wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he had left their discussion at a standoff of sorts. He had admitted what she knew as well. Two years ago everything had happened so fast there was no time to learn each other. What happened then hadn’t been their fault. Just like now. Circumstances had brought them together, then torn them apart. She closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. She was tired. Sleep would come easily. Laura shivered. What if someone came into the house again? Maybe sleep wouldn’t come so easily, she decided. The alarm system was obviously no deterrent. And Nick couldn’t be everywhere at once.
At the door Nick turned back to her. “One more question,” he said offhandedly.
Laura’s gaze connected with his. “What’s that?”
“How old is your baby?”
Laura’s breath fled from her lungs. “Why do you ask?” she managed, her voice devoid of all inflection, her body paralyzed by uncertainty.
“Is there anything I should know about your child?”
She knew exactly what he meant. Is the child mine? Laura swallowed the words that wanted to spill out of her. “No,” she said instead. Something in his expression changed. “There’s nothing you need to know.” She blinked back the tears that burned behind her eyes. “Except that I have to find him.” She clamped down on her lower lip for a moment to hold her emotions at bay. “I’ll die if anything happens to him.”
He looked away. “Sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
Laura watched him leave. Oh God. Why didn’t she just tell him the truth?
<
br /> Because she couldn’t live without her son. And if Nick knew the truth, he would take Robby away. After all, Laura was considered unstable. And she couldn’t prove any differently. Hadn’t tonight’s little episode added fuel to the fire? Laura shuddered at the memory of how those strong hands had held her beneath the water.
How would she ever be able to close her eyes now? Knowing her killer was near?
Panic slithering up her spine, Laura ran to first one window, then the next to make sure they were locked. She crawled into the bed and hugged her pillow to her chest.
No way would she be able to let her guard down tonight, even though Nick would be right next door.
All she had to do was stay awake….
Chapter Seven
Elsa smiled as she spooned another taste of strained carrots into the little boy’s mouth. He was such a good child. How could anyone believe that this child had been neglected in any way? Elsa frowned. And the only way a mother would abandon a baby this healthy and sweet would be if she were dead.
She stalled, the spoon halfway to the baby’s open mouth. If the mother and father were dead, why the abandonment story? The baby gurgled and swung his little fists about in protest. Elsa scolded herself for allowing her mind to drift.
“Okay, little one, be patient.” She popped the next bite into his waiting mouth. “I’m just an old woman, and too slow for the lively likes of you,” she cooed. The little boy loudly chanted his agreement in baby talk.
Elsa frowned again. This wasn’t right. She had worked here for a very long time and nothing like this had ever happened before. Maybe she should slip and take a look at the child’s file. There would be a perfect opportunity day after tomorrow with the director away.
Elsa nodded resolutely. Yes, she would see what she could find out. Not that it would really do any good, but it would put her mind at ease.
LAURA JERKED AWAKE. Sunlight streamed in through the partially opened blinds. She rubbed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts. She had finally given in and fallen asleep a few hours ago. Laura stilled. She had been dreaming. The image of Robby smiling and playing with his food filled her mind’s eye. Laura closed her eyes and allowed the dream to warm her. She prayed that it was a good sign. Robby had to be all right.
