“I’m not married. I’m allowed to have female houseguests without having to explain it to everyone.”
“Still, I’m not comfortable with this.” Jessie took a deep breath. “I’ve thought about asking the police to put me in protective custody.”
“Whoever’s behind this has connections,” he pointed out. “Perhaps even to the police.”
Yes, perhaps. And it was a brutal reminder of the conversation she’d just had with Byron. Jessie was almost afraid to let the next question form in her mind. But she couldn’t stop it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop it.
Was it possible she’d been wrong about Byron?
God, was it possible?
Chapter Twelve
Frustrated that his questions about Byron would obviously have to wait, Jake yanked the phone from his pocket when it started to ring. “McClendon.”
“Thank God,” the woman said in a near whisper. “I didn’t know who would answer this line.”
“Who is this?” Jake demanded.
“I’m not sure you’ll remember me.”
Oh, yes he did. It’d been a while since Jake had heard that voice, but he knew exactly who she was. He just couldn’t believe they’d finally, maybe, gotten a break. “Marion Cameron. You were a nurse at Cryogen Labs.” And one of the people no doubt responsible for Jessie’s kidnapping.
Jake motioned for Jessie to move closer. He grabbed the notepad off the table and wrote the caller’s name. Jessie’s eyes widened when she read it. She frantically motioned for him to continue the conversation.
“What can I do for you, Ms. Cameron?”
“I have some things to tell you, but first I need a promise that you’ll give me protection. I won’t say another word unless you can swear to me that you won’t let them kill me.”
Jessie put her ear close to his so she could hear. “I promise I’ll do my best to protect you,” Jake assured her. After all, he very much needed her alive so he could find out what she knew. “Where are you?”
Her voice crumbled and it took her several moments to steady it. “I’m just outside the security gate at your ranch.”
God, she was right under his nose. Jake immediately thought of Detective DuCiel. He hoped DuCiel had already made it off the property so the woman wouldn’t be spooked. He also hoped the ranch hand had secured the gate as Jake had told him to do. He didn’t want Marion Cameron just driving up to the front door. And he also couldn’t risk her bringing in those two guards who’d held Jessie hostage.
With the phone pressed to his ear, Jake started toward the door. Unfortunately, Jessie followed him.
“I’m coming to get you,” he told Marion. “Alone.”
“I’ve done some terrible things,” Marion continued. “Stupid things. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? What do you mean?” Jake wanted to hear everything she had to say, but he wanted to hear it face-to-face.
He made it to the front door and grabbed a gun from the entry closet before he turned around and placed his hand on Jessie’s shoulder. You’re staying here, he mouthed.
She frantically shook her head.
The woman on the other end of the line made a strangled sound as if choking back tears. “There’s a plot to ruin you.”
Nothing new there. Jake had already come to that conclusion.
He turned to leave, but again Jessie followed him. She just brushed off his hand when he put it on her shoulder. Jake didn’t have time to waste on this battle of wills. He needed to get to the gate before the woman left.
“Why do you want to ruin me?” he asked Marion. He hurried outside, taking the steps two at a time. Jessie stayed right behind him. He gave her a look that she wouldn’t have any trouble interpreting—stay back. But she didn’t stay back. When he got into the car, she climbed into the passenger seat, slid right next to him and put her ear close to the phone.
“It wasn’t me who wanted to ruin you,” Marion continued. “I didn’t know what they’d planned to do. I swear, I didn’t. Dr. Radelman said no one would get hurt. I needed the money, you see. My husband wiped out our accounts. I had bills to pay. I was going to lose my home.”
Jake started the car and pulled away from the house. He easily could have taken the paths through the woods and run there, if Jessie hadn’t been with him. But since she insisted on going, the car might give her some protection if Marion was armed.
“We took this woman,” Marion went on. “Dr. Radelman and I inseminated her. But he swore to me that she wouldn’t be harmed.”
Jake gripped the steering wheel hard and tried to block out the image of Jessie locked up in that warehouse. Three months of hell they’d put her through. There was no way he could forgive Ms. Cameron for being part of that.
“Who chose this woman?” Jake asked. Because Jessie was so close to him, he could feel the pulse drum in her body.
“Jessie. That’s her name. Jessie Barrett. I don’t know who chose her or why. Dr. Radelman had her address, her name. I don’t know how he got it.”
So it probably wasn’t random. They’d chosen Jessie for a reason. He was sure if he learned that reason, he could figure out who was behind this. “Why did you want this woman inseminated?”
“Dr. Radelman said it would ruin you. We did some tests. The DNA will prove it’s your child, and we were supposed to leak that information to the press.”
Again, that was nothing new. He’d known this was his child. Still, it was a jolt to hear her say it. Beside him, Jessie pulled in her breath.
Jake stopped the car a good quarter of a mile from the gate. It was as close as he wanted Jessie to get to this woman.
“Who’s behind this plan—Radelman?” he asked.
“No. He was just like me. He did it for the money, too.”
“Then, who? Abel Markham?”
“I don’t know. I truly don’t know. There were two guards. They brought us our money. In cash. I only knew them by their first names—Mike and Lennie. They traded off shifts. Don’t bother looking for them. If Dr. Radelman is dead, they probably are, too.”
Jake would put money on it. “Why would your boss want them dead? For that matter, why would he want Radelman dead? If all he wanted to do was ruin my campaign—”
“God, no,” the woman interrupted. “It wasn’t to ruin your campaign. It was to ruin you.”
He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
She made a pitiful sound. A ragged sob. “After we leaked the DNA results to the press, the guards had orders to kill Jessie. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know. They were going to strangle her and leave her body where someone could find it.”
Jake felt as if someone had knocked the breath right out of him. It was true. It was all true. He choked back everything he was feeling—the hate, the rage, the fear—and forced himself to keep talking. “Why did they want her dead?”
“So you’d be blamed for her murder. It would give you motive, you see. Because she worked at that bar and because the test would prove the baby was yours. They’d say you murdered her because she was carrying your child.”
Jake balled up his fist and pressed it against his head. He fired a glance at Jessie. She was ashy pale and her bottom lip trembled. He caught her around the waist and pulled her to him. She whispered something. His name, he realized. And she wrapped her arm around him.
“I didn’t know they were going to kill her until I heard them talking about it,” Marion continued. “That’s when I left the door unlocked so she could escape. But I think they found her. She was drugged. I’m sure they found her. I was trying to save her and the baby.”
Jessie’s grip tightened, but he eased her away from him. There wasn’t time to comfort her now. Marion Cameron was the only witness they had, and he needed to get to her.
Jake grabbed his gun and motioned for Jessie to stay put when he opened the car door. He aimed a finger at her stomach to remind her that she needed to think of the baby. She finally seemed to
listen, though she folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. What she didn’t do was get out of the car when he did.
He held his hand over the phone so Marion couldn’t hear what he whispered to Jessie. “If anything goes wrong, promise me that you’ll get out of here.” When she didn’t say anything, he repeated it.
Jessie nodded eventually. He paused a moment until her eyes came to his. There was no time to wish he’d forced her to stay at the house. No time to wish he’d alerted one of the ranch hands to come and stay with her. He prayed those wouldn’t be mistakes that he would soon regret.
“I can arrange protection for you,” he told Ms. Cameron. He reached over, opened the glove compartment and pulled out a gun. Jake figured Jessie knew how to use one, since she’d owned a couple of .38s. He pressed the weapon into her hands. It was paltry protection against someone who seemed ready to go to all lengths to kill her, but it was all he could offer.
He held Jessie’s gaze a moment longer and saw the swirl of so many emotions. Fear, concern, and even hope. Hope that the threats on her life would soon come to an end.
“Be careful,” she murmured.
He nodded. “You, too.”
Her mouth opened as if she was about to say something else, but she didn’t. Jessie shook her head, a frustrated gesture that he understood all too well.
Jake forced himself to tear his gaze away and he hurried toward the gate. “You need to tell the police everything you just told me,” he explained to Marion.
“I will, I promise. Just come and get me before someone else finds out that I’m here. I don’t want to die, Mr. McClendon. If they—” And just like that, she hung up.
Hell. He hadn’t wanted her to do that. He’d wanted to keep her on the line to make sure she didn’t change her mind. Marion Cameron was the only living link he had to the person who’d kidnapped Jessie.
Jake ran the rest of the way. He saw the dark-colored car parked on the side of the road and the woman behind the wheel. Not Byron. Evidently, he was long gone. And so was the ranch hand who’d escorted him out.
Not wanting to leave the gate open, Jake decided to scale it, instead. It would set off the silent alarm that would alert the security company, but that wasn’t such a bad idea. He climbed up the wrought-iron panel and dropped to the ground on the other side.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he heard Marion start the car. He also heard the odd noise that came from the thick woods to his right. God, someone was out there.
There was a swish that made his mouth turn to dust. Jake dived behind a cluster of bushes. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought maybe someone had fired a shot from a rifle rigged with a silencer.
Marion must have seen or heard something, as well. She gunned the engine, kicking up dirt when she clipped the ditch. Somehow she managed to get the car back on the road and turned around. She sped away.
He scrambled to his feet, torn between going after Marion or running back to make sure Jessie was all right. It wasn’t even really a decision. He only prayed that it wasn’t too late.
WITH HER HAND CLAMPED around the gun, Jessie watched for any sign of Jake. Nothing. But then, he’d only been gone a few minutes. Mercy, the waiting was always the hardest part, especially with Marion’s words still ringing in her head.
Jessie had known someone wanted her dead, but to hear it chilled her to the bone. Because they hadn’t just wanted her dead. They wanted to set up Jake to take the blame. They would murder her to ruin him. In the grand scheme of things, the baby and she were nothing more than expendable casualties.
She stared out into the darkness. No sign of Jake. No sign of anyone. Not even the dogs were around. She almost wished they were. Even though they frightened her, they would alert her if something was wrong.
It hit Jessie then. She’d been so caught up in worrying about Jake and rehashing the plot to kill her that she hadn’t considered the other things Marion had said. Jake had just learned the DNA would prove that this was his child.
His child.
Jessie caught her bottom lip between her teeth. He hadn’t believed her when she told him about the baby. Did he believe Marion Cameron? Were her words eating away at him or had he found some way in his mind to deny it?
Yes, that was probably it.
Right now, Jake was most likely trying to rationalize all of this away. And why not? Ms. Cameron’s confession wasn’t necessarily gospel. She had simply repeated what she’d been told. What if Markham or the person behind this planned to fix the DNA evidence to reveal what he wanted it to reveal? Suppose Jake’s vials really had been destroyed at Cryogen Labs?
Jessie ran her hand over her stomach. There was a baby inside her, a baby with no father. Even if it was Jake’s DNA that had been forced to join with hers, it didn’t make him the father. DNA couldn’t do that. That had to come from the heart. And she wouldn’t force this on him, even if she wanted it.
She didn’t.
Jessie blinked hard when her eyes started to water. It was good that Jake would likely dismiss all of this. That way, she could leave and eventually get on with her life. The truth of the DNA didn’t matter to her. This baby had no father, but it had a mother. And she would make sure that was enough.
It would just have to be enough.
She leaned closer to the window when she thought she heard something. An odd sound. Someone running, maybe. Or maybe just the breeze rustling through the leaves. Her gaze raked through the heavily wooded area that surrounded her.
Nothing.
Jessie released the breath she’d been holding and sank lower into the seat so that she wasn’t so visible. She was inside the security gates, she reminded herself. Jake had said there were sensors all around the property. So if anyone tried to get in, they would trip the alarms. That didn’t give her as much peace of mind as she would have hoped. After all, Byron had gotten through and so had Markham. Douglas and Willa obviously had access, as well.
Trying not to let her fears get the best of her, she forced herself to concentrate on Jake. By now, he had certainly reached Marion and was, Jessie hoped, already on his way back. While she was hoping, Jessie silently added a prayer that he would stay safe, that all of this would work out without anyone else getting hurt. At the moment, it seemed a lot to ask for.
There was another rustle, and just like that, her heart was in her throat. Something was terribly wrong. She could feel it in her bones. Jessie searched the woods again. Still nothing. Not a sign of Jake.
With the gun gripped in her right hand, she eased over the console and slipped into the driver’s seat. If anything goes wrong, promise me that you’ll get out of here, Jake had said. She’d barely had time to repeat the words to herself, when the shot ripped through the glass, shattering the window on the passenger side where she’d been sitting just seconds earlier. Jessie heard the scream tear from her throat before she could stop it.
Oh God. Panic and fear raced through her, nearly choking off her breath. The bullet came so close, Jessie could feel it. Smell it. There’d been only a slight accompanying sound, however. That probably meant someone was using a silencer.
She twisted the key in the ignition, but before she could even put the car in gear, someone fired again. This shot demolished the back window and the rearview mirror. It sent a spray of glass and metal through the air. Jessie ducked. And threw the car into reverse.
The tires shrieked when she gunned the engine. She had to put some distance between her and the gunman. If not, the next time he probably wouldn’t miss. As it was, he’d only missed her head by inches.
“Please,” she prayed. And that prayer encompassed a lot. She had to get out of the line of fire, but she didn’t want to do that at Jake’s expense. She hoped he was still with Marion Cameron and wasn’t anywhere near the shooter.
Her heart hammered. Her breath was ragged. Inside, her stomach churned, the fear nearly turning her inside out. With the gun still clutched in her hand, she used the side mirro
r to see the road. With the rear window a cracked web, it was her only chance of staying on the road.
There was nothing muffled about the next shot. It blistered through the air, and left her ears ringing with the terrifying sound. She didn’t stop, didn’t even look around to assess the damage, but the shot told her more than she wanted to know. The gunman had two weapons. At least. Guns rigged with night scopes or some other gadget that allowed him to shoot in the dark.
Another shot and Jessie felt the car jerk violently to the right. Someone had shot out the tire. God, he just wasn’t giving up.
She grappled with the steering wheel, using all her strength to keep the car from careering out of control. One thing was for sure; she couldn’t stay on the road where the gunman obviously had a clear line of sight. When she spotted a narrow clearing in the wooded area, Jessie went for it. Her arms strained and knotted, but somehow she got the car headed in that direction. She shot into a group of towering oaks, praying they would give her the cover she needed to survive.
The bullets didn’t stop. One right after another, the shots slammed through the car, spewing the chunks of safety glass everywhere. Jessie fought the black wave of panic that washed through her. She couldn’t give in to it. It would only make her powerless to help herself.
Fighting the steering wheel, she shoved her foot onto the accelerator, lurching the car ahead. She didn’t dare turn on the headlights, but she could barely see inches ahead of her. The trees and underbrush were thick, practically smothering the narrow path. Still, she didn’t have a choice but to go forward. She had to get away from the gunman and that high-powered rifle that he was using to hunt her down.
Hunt her down. Jessie mumbled the words aloud several times. For some reason, she thought of that photograph in the library. The one of Willa with the hunting rifle propped on her shoulder. She didn’t want to believe Jake’s sister would do something like this, but Willa did have a motive. And the means. Did she have the capacity to kill, as well?
His Child Page 13