by Rita Herron
Eric grimaced as he realized their mistake—they had searched all of CIRP’s personnel records, but it had never occurred to him or the other agents that Hughes might be at the center as a patient. And Stinson was the name of the war veteran in the picture, the missing man.
Fox cleared his throat. “We’re also bringing in Robert Latone and his friend, Edward Moor, for further questioning.”
“Who killed Candace?” Melissa asked.
“Don’t worry, Miss Fagan,” Black assured her. “Now that we have Hughes in custody, we’ll get the rest of the answers.”
MELISSA PACED the waiting room while Eric was in surgery. He had looked so desolate and alone when they’d wheeled him into the E.R., so distant. As if he’d already decided to end their relationship.
She pieced together her own emotions. He had lied to her and used her when he’d first come to CIRP, and she’d been hurt. But he’d had good reasons. Hughes had caused the explosion that had killed Eric’s witness and nearly killed him.
But how did Dr. Hopkins play into it all? Why would he brainwash Eric to kill her?
Eric…admittedly he had frightened her. But he hadn’t hurt her. Could he move past the incident on the island and possibly love her?
“Miss Fagan?”
Melissa startled and turned to see a tall dark-haired man and a woman holding a baby. “Yes?”
“I’m Cain Caldwell, Eric’s brother.” Cain gestured toward the woman. “This is my wife, Alanna, and our son, Simon.”
Melissa smiled. “Yes, Eric told me all about you.”
Cain’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
“Yes.” She played with the baby’s hand. “Hey, Simon, your uncle is so proud of you.” One day she’d like to have a little boy of her own. Maybe one who looked like Eric.
“Yeah, Simon’s pretty special.” Cain grinned, the goofy proud look of a father. “How’s my brother?”
“He’s in surgery now. The bullet pierced his abdomen.”
“How about you?” Alanna asked softly.
Melissa shrugged. “Shaken, but okay.” She glanced back to Cain. “Did you know the reason Eric was here?”
“Yes, although I was against Eric working undercover,” Cain admitted. “But my brother can be pretty damn stubborn.”
“That stubborn nature helped him learn to walk again, it should get him through surgery, too,” Melissa said. Although, it might prevent him from forgiving himself.
Alanna jiggled the baby on her hip. “You want to fill us in on what happened?”
Melissa folded her arms across her stomach and relayed the ordeal. “Eric blames himself for the brainwashing,” Melissa said. She gave his brother a pleading look. “But he wouldn’t hurt me,” she said, staring down at her knotted hands. “He couldn’t, he’s too much of a protector.”
Alanna curved a comforting arm around Melissa.
“Let’s just hope we can convince him of that,” Cain said.
The doctor appeared in the doorway. “Miss Fagan?”
“Yes.” She gestured toward Cain and his wife and introduced them.
“How’s my brother?” Cain asked.
“Mr. Caldwell came through surgery fine. He’ll need some time to recover, but he’ll be all right.”
He would be physically, but what about his mental and emotional state?
When she and Cain and Alanna entered the room to see him a few minutes later, her fears were confirmed. Eric refused to look at her.
And the soul-deep anguish and loneliness she’d seen in him when they’d first met had returned.
THE NEXT TWO DAYS were torture for Eric. Not only did his side throb like the devil, but so did his leg. And he missed Melissa.
She had stopped by to visit, but he had refused to see her. How could he look into her eyes after almost killing her? She deserved a good strong, whole man, not a scarred one who possessed a dangerous side.
“You’re crazy,” Cain told him. “That woman loves you.”
“Let it go,” Eric told his brother. “I’m not interested.”
“Then why the hell do you look like you lost your best friend?” Cain asked.
Alanna rocked Simon in her arms. “I may be new to the family, Eric, but you deserve some happiness for a change.”
“That’s right,” Cain said. “You’ve served your penance for Mom’s death.”
“This has nothing to do with her.” In fact, he’d realized how much stronger Melissa was than their mother. She had been weak, even selfish in giving up, in leaving her boys alone to fend for themselves.
Melissa never gave up—she was a fighter.
“Go after her,” Cain said.
“Just drive me to the station,” Eric said. “I want to be there when they interrogate Latone and Moor.” The Feds had caught Latone and Moor trying to escape the country the night before. Hughes had given in to a DNA test and they were waiting for results. So far, Hughes had admitted to his other crimes, and that he had overseen the brainwashing experiments. The police had also found the tattooed man who’d been brainwashed and had him in custody.
Cain shook his head, a disgusted look on his face, but he and Eric headed outside, then Cain drove him.
“Shouldn’t Melissa be here?” Cain asked as they seated themselves in the interrogation room.
“Let’s see what we find,” Eric said, determined to cushion the blow for her.
He cornered Devlin before they started. “How did Hopkins and his men know who we were and where we were meeting Hughes?”
“We have a leak in the FBI. We don’t know who yet, but someone is working both sides, us and CIRP.” Devlin excused himself to meet with Latone and Moor.
Eric frowned, wondering who the FBI mole might be. Devlin would pursue the matter later. He and Cain watched behind a two-way glass window as Devlin, Black and Fox began questioning. Latone looked haggard, Moor worried.
Devlin leaned his hands on the scarred wooden table. “Latone, why did you try to kill Melissa Fagan?”
Latone glanced at his lawyer, then spoke, “I didn’t.”
“We believe otherwise, Latone. We think you didn’t want people to know she was your granddaughter, so you tried to kill her.”
“As I explained before, Miss Fagan has no biological relationship to me.”
“Hughes admitted that he got your daughter pregnant.”
The door opened and Arnold Hughes walked in, a little unsteady with his new leg, but he still had a commanding presence about him. “That’s right, but you claimed she lost our baby.” Hughes’s tone sounded ominous. “Did you give our child away, Robert?”
Latone looked truly nervous for the first time. Moor shifted in his seat, remaining tight-lipped.
“I told you the truth,” Latone said. “Candace lost the baby. Melissa Fagan is not your child.”
A rap sounded on the door, a uniformed officer came in, handed Devlin a paper, and left. Devlin read it, then stared at Hughes. “His story checks out, Hughes. Melissa Fagan is not your daughter. She’s also not Candace Latone’s child.”
Eric gripped the window edge in shock. If Candace Latone wasn’t Melissa’s mother, who had given birth to her?
Hughes sank into one of the hardback chairs. “So, she’s really not my daughter? I thought after all these years…maybe…”
Latone fisted his hands on the table. “Did you kill Candace, Arnold?”
Hughes shook his head. “No, why would I?”
Latone spun toward Moor, accusation in his eyes. “It was you, wasn’t it?” His face turned ashen. “You killed my daughter.”
Moor glared at Latone. “I was trying to protect you, Robert. Candace was nothing but a sick tramp, a black hole of need, and a detriment to you all these years.”
“I loved my daughter,” Latone said, his temper rising. “She was not a danger to me.”
“What if she had spilled the truth?” Moor stood and paced, furious. “I was trying to protect you. When that Fagan woman came asking questi
ons, I was afraid Candace would expose the truth. Then your reputation, your career, everything we’ve worked for all these years would be ruined.”
Latone vaulted across the table and attacked Moor, trying to choke him. Black and Fox dragged them apart and thrust them back into the chairs.
“So, you killed Candace?” Devlin said to Moor.
Moor nodded, rubbing his neck. “For him.”
“I never asked you to kill my own daughter.”
“No, but you did ask me to assume responsibility for keeping your reputation intact, and just as always, you left the dirty details up to me.” He shrugged. “This time was no different.”
Devlin interrupted before the situation became more volatile. “Latone, you dropped Melissa off at the church, didn’t you?”
Latone nodded.
“So, if Melissa Fagan wasn’t Candace’s child, who were her parents, and why did you abandon her at the church?” Black asked.
Latone’s lawyer shot him a warning look, but Latone seemed to realize all was lost. He wiped sweat from his forehead. “The night Candace’s baby died, she was so distraught. She…wasn’t herself, she had an emotional imbalance, all because she had a reaction to those experimental birth control pills. The pills caused the baby to have birth defects.”
“The reason I spearheaded research to improve intelligence in infants,” Hughes said.
To create the perfect child. Project Simon. Eric grimaced and glanced at Cain.
“But Candace was beyond reason. She was so upset, she was out of her mind,” Latone said. “In the middle of the night, she kidnapped a newborn from the nursery.”
“Melissa Fagan?” Devlin asked.
Latone nodded, looking miserable. “When I found out, I figured if the police discovered what she’d done, they’d arrest her and lock her up for life.”
“So, you took the baby to a church and abandoned her instead of returning her to her parents?”
“What else could I have done?” Latone bellowed. “If I’d carried her back to the hospital, I would have had to explain. Candace was my baby, I felt responsible, I had to protect her.”
Eric’s heart pounded. He wanted to tear the man apart limb by limb. He had essentially destroyed Melissa’s life to protect his sick daughter and his own reputation.
“But Candace never forgave me. She got it in her head that Melissa was really hers, and she…she was never the same.”
The room grew quiet as the revelations registered.
Finally, Devlin directed his comments to Moor, “So, you arranged with Dr. Hopkins to brainwash a hired man to kill Candace, then Melissa?”
Moor nodded and glanced at Latone, but Latone gave him a bitter unforgiving look.
Eric’s jaw tightened. The pieces had all come together. Latone, Moor, Hughes, Hopkins—they would all pay for their crimes.
But Melissa had suffered because of all of them. Who were her parents?
Chapter Seventeen
Melissa had spent the longest three days of her life waiting for answers. She wanted closure about Candace’s murder and her parents.
But more than that, she wanted Eric.
Would he ever change his mind and see her? Could he forgive her for her father’s crimes against him? Or would she always remind him of Hughes and the explosion?
Maybe he doesn’t love you.
If so, she needed to accept the truth and move on. Maybe return to Atlanta. Although she enjoyed her work at CIRP, she didn’t belong here, not after all the bad memories….
She poured herself a cup of coffee, brushed through her hair, preparing to go to work, when a knock sounded. Hope that it might be Eric flickered through her.
She hurried and answered the door, a smile of relief coming when she actually saw him on her doorstep. He still looked serious, haunted, a little leaner from his surgery, but so handsome that her heart swelled with love.
“Can I come in, Melissa? We have to talk.”
“Yes.” Talk would be good, at least a start.
He followed her to the living area, his limp pronounced.
“You need to continue therapy.”
“I will.” He waited until she sat on the sofa, then claimed the chair opposite her. “I have some news about the case.”
Nerves fluttered in her stomach. “You found out who killed Candace?”
“Yes.” Eric leaned his elbows on his knees. “Edward Moor, Robert Latone’s assistant. Apparently, he thought he was protecting Latone from his own daughter.”
“Did Robert Latone know what Mr. Moor had done?”
Eric shook his head no. “But Latone wanted the two of us out of the picture.”
“We were getting too close to the truth?”
“Exactly.” Eric sighed. “Hughes was working with Dr. Hopkins on brainwashing experiments, so Moor contacted him, and Hopkins hypnotized this thug to be his hired gun.”
“So they would have an alibi?”
“Exactly. Meanwhile, Hughes assumed the identity of an old war buddy. If we’d checked the patient files, we might have made the connection earlier. But there’s more.” Eric glanced up into her eyes for the first time. “Latone wanted to protect Candace, so he gave you away, but Candace Latone is not your mother.”
Melissa gasped. “What?”
Eric gave her a somber look. “Apparently, Candace lost her own baby in childbirth. The baby had birth defects due to the experimental drugs Hughes had given her. Candace was so distraught and inconsolable that she kidnapped a newborn from the nursery.”
“The newborn…” Her voice faded. “It was me?”
Eric nodded. “When Latone discovered the kidnapping, he didn’t want the police to arrest Candace, so he carried you to the church and left you.”
Melissa rubbed her forehead, seeing the events and the way they’d played out. “Instead of returning me to my real parents.”
“Yes.”
So selfish. So many people hurt, lives changed. “And my real parents, then, who are they?”
“Your mother is waiting outside.”
“What?”
“I found her for you, Melissa. It’s a present to make up for—”
“You don’t have anything to make up for, Eric.”
“Then call it my goodbye gift.” He stood then, bent and kissed her lips, and limped to the door. She sat in stunned silence as he walked out, struggling to comprehend all that had happened.
Who was her mother? Louise? The woman who’d been so confused…
A second later, Helen, the nurse she’d been working with at the hospital, appeared in the doorway. She looked hesitant, shaken, emotional.
Melissa stared at her in shock. “Helen?”
Helen’s eyes filled with tears. “Melissa…I…I can’t believe this, but Mr. Caldwell, he found proof. You’re…I’m…you’re my baby.”
“How?” Melissa’s throat closed. “Are you sure?”
“I thought…you were kidnapped, but…I was told you were a boy. I’ve looked for you for all these years, but I’ve been searching for a son.”
“A son?”
“Yes.” Helen swiped at her eyes. “When you mentioned you were looking for your parents, it never occurred to me that you could be my child.”
“And that’s the reason you acted so oddly when I asked about the labor and delivery wing.”
“I couldn’t talk about it,” Helen admitted. “It was just too hard. I…wanted a baby so badly.” She hugged her stomach. “The night they told me you’d been kidnapped, I wanted to die.”
Melissa pressed her hand to her mouth. “My father?”
Tears flowed down Helen’s cheeks. “He died before you were born. I had to go on alone, and there were times…times I didn’t think I’d survive.”
Melissa took a step forward. “I know…I felt the same way.” But she had to be sure, she’d thought Candace was her mother. “Wait here just a minute.” She ran to the bedroom and retrieved the tiny crocheted bonnet from the keepsake b
ox, then returned with it pressed lovingly in her hands.
“Oh, my heavens.” Helen’s face paled as she spotted the cap. “You kept it…I made that with my own hands….”
Melissa enveloped Helen into a hug and sagged against her, both dissolving into tears of joy. Neither one of them would ever have to be alone again.
After all these years and nearly getting killed, she had finally come home.
There was only one thing missing…Eric.
THREE WEEKS LATER, Eric sat on the boat dock behind his cabin on Lake Lanier, the slow lull of the water against the embankment soothing his agitated mind. He had spent the past few weeks recovering and trying to put the past behind him.
But he couldn’t forget Melissa.
Sweet, strong, gutsy Melissa who had challenged him to walk, who had kissed his scars and confessed that she loved him, who had given him her virginity and hope when he thought he had none left for his life.
Every whisper of the wind brought memories of her strength and courage. Every night he lay awake, imagining her in his arms. Wishing he’d been good enough for her, courageous enough to be the kind of man to fulfill her dreams.
At least she had her mother now—the family she had always wanted.
And he had Cain and Alanna and Simon.
So why did he still feel lonely?
A car engine purred in the distance, and he pivoted, fishing line in hand. Cain and Alanna had been checking on him regularly. Devlin had even offered him a job, but Eric had declined, the ranch idea growing in his mind.
A familiar Camry pulled into his driveway, and he tensed. Melissa?
Was something wrong?
He held his breath as she exited the car and glanced around. Then she spotted him on the dock and strode toward him. His hands tightened around the fishing pole.
“Eric?”
She looked more beautiful now, rested, a soft pink rosiness to her cheeks that hadn’t been there before. And she was smiling. Tentative, but a real smile. God, she looked gorgeous in that slinky sundress with her long hair spilling across her shoulders and the wind kissing her cheeks. He wanted to kiss her….
“Melissa, what are you doing here?”
“I had to see you.”