Harlequin Romantic Suspense March 2021

by Anna J. Stewart

  “This isn’t some ploy to get me to give up all my secrets so you can report in with Chief Colton, is it?” She chuckled, lifted her tea, and took a sip.

  “I thought you said you didn’t know anything that would help police.”

  At Travis’s words, she set her mug on the table with a thud, the liquid sloshing over the top. As he sopped up the mess with a napkin, he grinned at her. Clearly, she hadn’t been the only one trying—and failing—to get a laugh from the other.

  “You make it too easy.” He took a drink and set it aside.

  “Glad I could help.” She rolled her eyes. “You think I should tell the police about the call, don’t you?”

  “I never said that.”

  “But you said—”

  He shook his head until she stopped. “I told you they were looking for that type of information. There’s a difference. It was, and is, your choice how much you share.”

  “So, the call?” Her chest felt tight as uncertainty filled her.

  “It makes him sound guilty, but it doesn’t prove anything,” he said. “Anyway, they have DNA evidence on the second murder charge. I’m sure the police would like to hear about it in connection with the first charge, but it’s up to you whether you tell them. If you did, then maybe they would check your phone records to determine his location at the time of the call.”

  “Location would be all it showed,” she said. “It was probably a burner phone. I remember because I didn’t recognize the number and almost didn’t answer. I told you. He’s a smart guy. He wouldn’t have left clues like that.”

  “What about the first two murder scenes? Police found DNA evidence both times.”

  “That I’ve never been able to make sense of. Maybe he left clues on purpose. He could have wanted to get caught.” She lifted her hands, palms up. “But then I never really knew Len Davison, either.”

  “Don’t say that.” He shook his head. “Maybe you knew him when he was his best self. You don’t know what losing a life partner can do to someone. Something could have snapped in him when your mom died last year. What if he just couldn’t cope?”

  It would be so easy to believe Travis. He offered her a convenient escape from a maze with too many turns and dead ends, but the path he’d cleared had left her without the real answers she craved.

  “We still don’t know if there were other victims.” Her heart ached at just giving voice to the suspicion. “Dad’s job might have been just one of the reasons we moved around a lot.”

  He nodded, as if he’d considered the same possibility, but his eyes were filled with such compassion that she straightened her back. “I don’t need your pity.”

  “Good. Because I’m not offering any. But you need to know that no matter what Melissa, Troy and Bryce said, you aren’t obligated to help them build a case against your own father.”

  He held his hands out in an imaginary scale. “If you knew something important like the location of a murder weapon, that would be different. And you could be forced to testify if the case ever went to trial, since you’re a daughter, not a spouse.”

  “But Troy said I should help them stop him, or I’ll feel responsible—”

  “They’re trying to catch someone they believe is a serial killer. But whether you help them any further or not is up to you. You’ve answered questions the best you could at the time. Twice. That can be enough. Our best has to be good enough.”

  That he lowered his gaze and started stuffing napkins and used tea bags into their empty mugs made her wonder if he was speaking of more than just her situation with her father.

  “Parents make mistakes. A lot of them,” she told him this time. He needed to hear it. How could he have so much understanding for her father and be so uncharitable to his own? “We’ll make them, too.”

  He looked up from the mugs to where her left hand rested on her belly.

  “And all parents worry,” she continued, “that someone will hurt their children. That they won’t be able to protect them. Could that be what your dad has tried to do with all his caution about the business? Could he have been trying to shield you from failure?”

  Travis shook his head, closing his eyes, as if he didn’t want anyone to defend his father. But then he opened them again and pointed to her abdomen.

  “No one’s going to hurt this child. Not if I can help it.”

  His pronouncement made her smile, but then sadness filled her instead. “I just worry that the odds will be stacked against this little one. How could they not be? You heard what that reporter asked? What was it like to be a serial killer’s daughter? Our child will never be able to escape that lethal legacy. He or she will always carry the DNA of a criminal. Just like I do.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.”

  “How could I be—”

  He shook his head to interrupt her. “This child will know only love and unconditional acceptance. From both parents. This child will wake every morning and go to sleep every night confident that his mom and dad have his back.”

  Tatiana’s eyes fluttered, and her heart raced like she’d been running up a staircase. How could he be so committed to her baby—theirs—when they’d known about his or her existence such a short time? How could he make a commitment to this little person when she and Travis hadn’t figured out the boundaries of their professional relationship or the possibility of a personal one? Was it instinct that caused her to splay her fingers over her belly in protectiveness?

  “You don’t know what will happen in the future.” She shook her head for emphasis. “Whether my dad will be captured. Or what will happen with the company. We haven’t even told anyone about the baby—Len Davison’s grandchild. And then there’s someone coming after me, making a normal life impossible for us in Grave Gulch.”

  “I don’t have to know what will happen in the future. And I don’t care whose blood flows through his veins, as you said it the other day. This is our child—yours and mine—and we’ll do whatever is necessary to protect him.”

  He reached out a hand so that it was only inches away from the one she’d rested against her body.

  “May I?”

  Something fluttered inside her though it was too soon to have been the baby’s movement, but finally she nodded. He rested his right hand on top of her left one, his so large that only her fingertips peeked out. Time could have frozen, or maybe it was just her, as they stared down at their hands. Travis shifted his, though, and so easily their fingers laced, a matched pair, their only mission sheltering their child. She’d once welcomed him inside her body, but no contact until that moment had ever felt more intimate.

  After what felt like seconds but must have been minutes, Tatiana lifted her gaze to find Travis staring back at her, his eyes wide, his pupils so large that there was barely a ring of blue around them. He cleared his throat and slid his hand away from hers.

  “Sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

  But Tatiana couldn’t allow him to apologize away that perfect moment. Not when it seemed like two sides of an angle, coming together at a perfect point. Not when nothing else had felt so right in the six weeks since she’d left Grave Gulch. Since she’d left him. So, she did the only thing she could think of to stop the flow of words, even if it meant ignoring her own gut shouting that she would regret it.

  She leaned in and kissed him.

  CHAPTER 13

  Tatiana’s swoop toward him came in slow motion, and yet he still started when she touched her lips to his. But even if it took a moment for his mind to catch up, the rest of him was immediately on board. His arms closed around her and pulled her to him, and his fingers sank into the silk of her hair, still tied at the back of her neck. Her scent, her taste, the satiny feel of her skin all enveloped him in a heady concoction he couldn’t have resisted, even if he’d wanted to.

  And right now, he didn’t want to.


  From that first touch, Travis couldn’t imagine how he’d resisted doing this since the moment she’d returned to Grave Gulch, and they’d been forced to walk the same hallways and breathe the same air. Now he couldn’t get close enough to her, couldn’t stop rolling his mouth over her sexy, pouty bottom lip. And when he dabbed his tongue to the seam of her mouth, and she opened for him, he couldn’t sink deeply enough into her sweetness.

  What was wrong with him? He’d been with women before. He’d been with her before. Sure, it had been a while since he’d last had sex. Yet something was different now. It was as if his most ardent desires had become entangled in that mass of hair and in those haunting eyes.

  He traced a tiny circle on her neck with his tongue, her pulse thudding beneath it, and reached behind her to free her hair. It cascaded down her back. Then with a gentle tug on her shoulders, he pulled her into his lap, blessing his decorator this time for choosing the armless chairs that made it so easy for her to straddle him.

  When Tatiana scooted closer and fitted herself to him while kissing her way up his neck, he decided to send flowers to his interior designer the next day. Or his new co-CEO. Or both.

  Before now, he’d longed to forget that night, a painting he’d only been able to recall in broad strokes. Now he resented those large swaths of color, craving the precision that too much wine had dulled. Much of it was coming back to him, though, as he skimmed his hands down her sides and then traced his thumbs over the hardened tips of her amazing breasts. But as he settled them into his palms, heavier and fuller than he remembered, Travis stilled his hands.

  Something was different, all right.

  Was he craving her more now because she carried his child? His reaction to her had been primal before, but the intensity of it now shocked him. His eyes opened in time to see Tatiana squeeze hers closed in what looked like pain rather than pleasure.

  “Ouch,” she said, her lids lifting.

  Hands shifting to her elbows, he eased her back from him. Immediately, she crossed her arms over her chest. Then she curled her shoulders forward so that even her own arms wouldn’t touch them. “I’m really sore there.”

  “Sorry. I’d forgotten that was a thing.”

  He helped her off his lap and back into her own chair, not missing when her gaze slipped to his lap, where the evidence of what she did to him was hard to hide. He leaned forward, wishing he’d worn darker slacks. Or stopped her before she’d kissed him. Or at least avoided trying to repeat their activities of six weeks before. Tonight, he didn’t even have an excuse.

  “I, uh, don’t know what that was,” he said.

  She stared down at her crossed arms. “I think that’s fairly obvious.”

  “I’m sor—”

  “Don’t worry.” She rushed over his words. “It won’t happen again.”

  That wasn’t what he was worried about. How could he tell her that he would think of nothing else until she was in his arms and in his bed again?

  “It’s not your fault. I was the one who let the conversation get so—I don’t know—intense. The one who went all caveman about the baby.”

  “Good analogy, but you don’t have to make excuses for me.” Tatiana grabbed the mugs he’d started to put away before and carried them to the sink. “I’m a big girl. I get it.”

  She didn’t. That was just it. But he couldn’t afford to explain it to her right then. The truth was that he couldn’t protect her if he became so distracted by her. Nor could he safeguard their baby, or the interests of Colton Plastics, when it would be so easy for him to become lost in her. When he might be tempted to toss away his road map to their relationship and stay happily adrift for good.

  Hadn’t he learned his lesson with Aubrey? He wasn’t a great judge of character. Tatiana had already admitted she’d lied to him, too. He couldn’t be certain that there weren’t more to go with that one, hers dangerous because of her connection to a fugitive from justice. She’d told him he could trust her, but could he?

  “Let’s just forget about this. We should get to bed, anyway.” He cleared his throat and shifted his feet. “I mean, you should get to bed downstairs, and I’ll go to my room up here.”

  “Glad you clarified that.”

  He could have sworn she was grinning when she looked away from him, which made his jaw tighten, but he continued anyway. “We have to be at our best if we’re going to fool your stalker into believing we don’t have him figured out.”

  “Since we’re not even close to determining who sent that message, we won’t have trouble pretending.”

  “Guess not.”

  When Tatiana started from the room without looking back, Travis followed her into the hall. She kept her head high, though she had to believe that he’d rejected her not once but twice now. Even with all those reasons he’d given himself for keeping space between them, he had to force himself not to chase after her, pull her into his arms, and show her just how wrong she was.

  She glanced back at him when she reached the top of the stairs. “See you tomorrow.”

  He should have let her go, but he couldn’t resist a parting comment.

  “Tatiana?”

  She stopped and looked over at him.

  “If this were another time, another place, then...” He stared at his feet before looking up again. “Anyway, I’m—”

  She tilted up her chin so quickly that he stopped, those eyes that had been filled with passion only moments before now appearing more raw than angry.

  “Please don’t apologize again.” She cleared her throat. “Look, if anyone should apologize tonight, it should be me. I kissed you. So, sorry. I shouldn’t have—” She blinked several times as her voice faltered, and then she stared down at her hands. Again, he was tempted to go after her, and this time, he took one step. As her eyes widened, he stopped.

  “Good night.”

  She fled down the stairs. Though she didn’t stop or look back when she reached the lower level, Travis stood staring down at the empty steps, watching after her for a long time. When the sound of a door closing to her suite filtered up to him, he shook his head.

  What was he doing? He’d made every mistake possible since inviting her into his company and into his life. He seemed to only be gearing up for more and hurting her in the process. However, this wasn’t only about protecting her. He’d told himself he would never be vulnerable to a woman again, and he’d already opened to Tatiana in a way he never had with anyone before. Did he have no sense of self-preservation? Could he take a risk on the serial killer’s daughter, who still seemed to have something to hide?After the sounds of her movement died down, he began the ritual of turning off all the lights, checking the doors and arming the security system. Grave Gulch used to be a place where people didn’t worry about dangers from outside. Not anymore.

  When he’d finished the evening tasks, he returned to his master suite, which felt emptier than ever. Though he didn’t need one anymore to cool his body, he climbed in for a punishing cold shower. Then, shivering afterward, he snuggled in the blankets and prepared himself for the sleepless night ahead.

  * * *

  After her lunchtime appointment that next afternoon, Tatiana parked Travis’s SUV in his assigned spot and headed back inside the Colton Plastics headquarters. She hurried past the few straggling reporters still hanging around the parking lot, one of a few reasons that Travis had been unable to go with her to the appointment. A secret pregnancy wouldn’t remain concealed for long in a small city if Travis Colton had been seen entering an ob-gyn office.

  After passing through security, Tatiana skipped the elevator and took the stairs. She planned to get extra steps since her doctor had said walking was one of the best exercises for women like her.

  The words of the older ob-gyn she’d chosen made her smile. At least the lady hadn’t said “in a family way” like her gran
dmother would have. And the doctor hadn’t blinked when she’d asked if it would be possible to get a noninvasive prenatal DNA test. It was kind of Travis not to ask for one, but he deserved to know for certain that the child was his.

  Tatiana patted her tote bag, which carried precious cargo now but no laptop. She was going to be a mom, and she had an ultrasound photo in there to prove it. Despite her embarrassment over his rejection again last night, and though they’d been dancing carefully around each other all morning, she still couldn’t wait to share the news.

  She couldn’t think about how mortified she’d been while escaping downstairs to hide in her room, feeling alone without his arms around her and still aching for his touch. None of that could matter today when she could confirm that Travis was going to be a father.

  As employees who passed her greeted her, Tatiana returned the favor, but didn’t stop to chat. The two IT guys—Lucas and Dylan, if she remembered correctly—waved from the break room. One of the female engineers she’d met the day before greeted her at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Hi, Tatiana. Hope you had a nice lunch,” the woman said. “Try anyplace new?”

  “No. Just running errands on my lunch hour.” Tatiana tried to recall her name. “It’s Christa, right?”

  “Good memory.” She waved and continued toward the lab.

  She was on the fourth step when someone spoke from behind her.

  “Hey there, Tatiana.”

  The deep male voice set her nerves on edge, but she’d been jumpy most of the morning, anyway. At least, when she hadn’t been in her private restroom pacing and trying to decide if her breakfast would be making a return visit.

  Stopping, she gripped the handle and looked back at him.

  “Oh, hi...” She milked her memory again, but this time, it came up dry.

  “Enzio DeLuca,” he said. “Engineering.”

  “Right. Enzio.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll get the names down soon enough.”

  “I appreciate the support.” She took a few more steps up, holding the rail tightly in case she became dizzy.