She watched Byron process that. His eyes calmed a little, but then he shook his head. “And how the hell did you know it would work? Good God, Jessie, I read the newspaper this morning. It said there were nearly three hundred people in that ballroom. Three hundred!” His hands fisted again. “Any one of them could have blown your head off, and you wouldn’t have known what hit you.”
Jessie started to reach for him, then pulled back her hand. She hated the suspicions she had about Byron, but she couldn’t seem to make them go away. “I’m safe, all right?”
“No. The hell it’s all right! I want you to end this charade right now. I want you to tell him, everyone, who you really are. What you are. That’ll stop the killer—not some pretend engagement to Jake McClendon.”
Her heart slammed against her chest. Oh God. She hadn’t intended for Jake to find out this way. Not like this. “Byron, it’s time for you to leave,” Jessie said softly.
Jake’s low, threatening voice cut through the silence that followed. “What does he mean, Jessie?”
She looked pleadingly at Byron, begging him to leave. He didn’t. He kept his stony gaze on her while he answered Jake.
“She’s a cop.”
Jessie slowly turned toward Jake. He pulled back his shoulders and looked at her as if she were a stranger. “I planned to tell you today,” she whispered. It was so inadequate. And sounded like a total lie.
A muscle flickered in his jaw. “A cop.” He didn’t say anything else. He just stood there and stared at her.
“I’m on a leave of absence,” she corrected.
But that didn’t seem to matter to Jake. His eyes turned to blue steel.
“She was working undercover at that cantina,” Byron continued. “Jessie didn’t want to tell you because it might cost me my job. But she doesn’t have to worry about that because I’m telling the lieutenant everything.”
She could see the wheels turning in Jake’s head and it didn’t take him long to come up with a conclusion about why she’d kept her profession a secret.
“This has to do with Christy Mendoza.”
She nodded and tried to steady her breathing. “It wasn’t an official investigation. At first I thought you’d covered up her death.”
“Go on,” he demanded. Whatever they’d shared the night before—the passion, the emotion—wasn’t there now. He was as cold as the sudden chill that went through her.
“Christy was a friend. A close friend. We’d spent time in foster care together when we were younger, and then later on we were roommates. The day she died, she called saying she’d landed a part-time job with a caterer and that she was going out to your ranch. She said she thought you were…” Jessie took another breath. “Attractive. She said she was going to see if she could get something started with you.”
“Sex,” Byron bluntly provided. “Christy wanted to see if she could get you into bed.”
Jake shook his head. “She didn’t even speak to me, and I damn sure didn’t have sex with her.” He paused, his expression growing colder. “But you decided I was guilty. You were looking for some way to pin this on me.”
It was the truth and Jessie certainly couldn’t deny it. “But then I got to know you, and I realized—”
“And the rest?” Jake snapped. “The kidnapping, the pregnancy. Was that part of your plan, too? Were you the one who set out to bring me down?”
“No. God, no.” Jessie felt as if he’d slapped her. She flattened her hand on her chest. “All of that was real and it happened just like I told you. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“But you’d lie. You let me take you to bed, and the whole time you knew you were lying to me. How? How could you do that?”
“I wanted to tell you. I planned to tell you. Not like this.” She aimed a narrowed glance at Byron. “Will you please leave now?” But she didn’t wait for him to agree. Jessie latched on to his arm and led him to the door. There was a security guard on the other side, so she could only guess that Byron had used his badge to get in.
“I don’t want to leave you here with him,” Byron insisted.
“It’s not your decision.” She got the guard’s attention. “I want you to escort this man away from here.” She pushed Byron into the hall and slammed the door in his face.
“You’ll regret this!” Byron yelled.
She already did. She should have told Jake the truth days ago.
“Well?” Jake asked the moment she turned back to him. “How do you plan to explain away your lies?”
“I’ve already explained it. I thought you were guilty of covering up Christy’s death. And because I thought that, there was no way I could go walking up to you and tell you about an unauthorized, undercover investigation.”
“So you let me believe you were a cocktail waitress at Ray’s Cantina.” He shook his head. “Jesus! Did it ever occur to you that I’d be madder than hell when I found out how you’d deceived me?”
“Of course it did. That’s why I planned to tell you today.”
“Today,” he repeated wryly. “How convenient. And would you have found an excuse to keep me in the dark if your friend hadn’t let the cat out of the bag?”
“I said I would have told you and I would have.”
“Right.” He turned and headed for the other room.
Jessie followed him. “It’s the truth. God, Jake, I wouldn’t have slept with you if I planned to continue this investigation.”
He whirled back around so fast that Jessie nearly ran into him. “So when exactly did the investigation end, huh? When I put myself in front of those bullets to save you?” He tapped his head and smiled mockingly. “Or did it end about the time I stripped your clothes off and had sex with you?”
The words stung. But not nearly as much as the bitterness in his tone. “No, it ended about the time I realized how much I care for you.”
The words shocked her as much as they obviously shocked him.
“That’s bull!” he shouted. “You don’t care for me.”
She grabbed his arm, but he slung off her grip. “All right, if it makes you feel any better, go ahead and dismiss everything I’ve said as lies—but what I just told you is the truth.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hands against the wall. “This is how it’s going to work. We’ll go to this breakfast together—not for my sake, but in case someone still wants you dead. And after we’re done here, that’s the last time I want to see you. Got that?”
Jessie shook her head, the full impact of his words hitting her at once. Oh God, she’d ruined everything. This went beyond hurt. Beyond pride. He was throwing her out, removing her from his life. “You can’t mean that.”
“I do mean it. Every word of it.” He angled his eyes to the front door of the suite. “Have the guard escort you to Douglas and Willa’s room. I want you to finish dressing there. I’ll make arrangements so security can take you somewhere after breakfast.”
Now her pride kicked in. It was the only thing she had left. Jessie lifted her chin and met him eye-to-eye. “I’ll make my own arrangements.”
And because it was all she could do, she turned and walked out. She didn’t get far before she realized what had just happened. She’d lost him. She’d lost Jake. And she also realized something else—she didn’t just care for him. She was in love with him. Hopelessly in love with a man who hated her.
JAKE DROPPED ONTO THE SOFA and buried his face in his hands. “Hell,” he mumbled under his breath, and the profanity didn’t stop there. He ran a string of it together, hoping it would release some of the anger that had knotted his stomach.
It didn’t.
Jessie had lied to him! Lied about who she was and about what she wanted from him. Jesus, the woman was conducting a murder investigation. Worse, she thought he had killed her friend.
So what else had she lied about? Jessie had denied there were any more lies, but he just couldn’t believe her. Had he been wrong about the baby, too? For days now he’d
felt the child was his, but was that a lie, as well? Had he let his feelings for her lull him into believing that?
The door flew open and Douglas stormed in. “All right, what happened?”
Jake didn’t even look up at him. He figured from Douglas’s perturbed tone that he’d seen Jessie. “I learned the truth about her.”
Douglas stayed quiet at first, then sat in the chair across from Jake. Then he asked, “Jessie was lying?”
“Yes.”
“She must have come clean because she knew the game was up.” He blew out what sounded like a breath of relief. “So how did you find out, anyway? Did you—”
“Her friend, Detective Byron DuCiel, dropped by and told me.”
Douglas groaned. “To arrest her? Damn, the publicity will destroy us. I knew it. I just knew this woman was trouble from the first minute I laid eyes on her.”
“No,” Jake corrected. “DuCiel didn’t come to arrest her. Jessie’s a cop.”
Douglas didn’t say anything for several moments. “She’s what?”
Jake knew the questions Douglas would have. Hell, he still had questions about Jessie, and he’d even spoken to her. “She’s investigating Christy Mendoza’s death. Apparently, Jessie was friends with this woman and received a call from her the day she died.” Jake paused and tried to tamp down some of the anger over Jessie’s distrust. He knew he wasn’t successful when he heard his own voice. “She thought I killed her and covered it up.”
“Damn it!” Douglas sprang from the chair and started to pace. “Is that what she’ll tell the press?”
“I don’t think so.” But Jake immediately shook his head, discounting that possibility. “I don’t know what she’ll do.”
Douglas cursed. It was vicious. “So what does Dr. Lisette’s call have to do with any of this?”
Jake slowly looked up, catching Douglas’s concerned gaze. “I didn’t even know he’d called.”
“Last night and again this morning. He says it’s important.” Douglas handed him the note with the phone number.
“But I was in the room—”
“I had your calls routed through my suite.”
Jake was about a hundred percent sure he didn’t care for that, but there were few things about this situation that pleased him. It was too bad he hadn’t received the doctor’s call. It might have interrupted him before he made love to Jessie.
He snatched up the phone and punched in the numbers. “Dr. Lisette,” he said, when the man answered. “It’s Jake.”
“It’s good to hear from you. Well, we got lucky.”
Thank God. He was due for some good news. Jake just hadn’t figured it would come from the doctor. “Lucky? How?”
“I found the lab that did Jessie’s test. Fortunately, it was under her own name.” Before Jake could ask what test, Dr. Lisette continued. “There was a chorionic villi sampling performed. It’s a test used to determine paternity.”
Well, that explained why Dr. Radelman had that written on the notepad at his house.
“The lab even had your blood sample that they apparently obtained from Cryogen,” Dr. Lisette continued. “I don’t know how you feel about it, but I wanted you know that the results match.”
Jake didn’t have a clue what he meant. “Match what?”
There was a short pause. “Your DNA. This test is very accurate, Jake. You’re the baby’s father.”
He was glad he was sitting down. That would have knocked his feet out from under him. God, of all the lousy timing. Jake clenched his teeth and tried not to take out his frustration on the messenger.
“I’m the father,” he repeated. “You’re positive?”
“The test has a ninety-nine point nine percent certainty. Of course, we can repeat it if you’d like.”
“No.” Jake took a deep breath. “Thank you for getting back to me.” But he couldn’t thank the doctor for delivering this news. Jake couldn’t think beyond ending this call.
“No problem. Some people don’t want to know this,” Dr. Lisette continued. “But I also learned the baby’s gender, if you’re interested.”
Was he interested? Jake didn’t know. Right now he didn’t know anything. This baby complicated things beyond belief. Still, it was his baby. That was a ninety-nine point nine percent certainty. His child. A baby he’d fathered with a perfect stranger. But not just a stranger. A woman who thought he was a killer.
“Jake?” the doctor prompted. “Are you still there?”
“I’m here. Why don’t you save the news of the baby’s gender. That’s probably something you can tell Jessie when you speak to her.”
“The baby’s yours?” Douglas asked the moment Jake hung up the phone.
“Yes.”
“Well, this damn mess just keeps getting deeper and deeper.” He stood and started to pace again. “She’ll use this. If she thinks you killed Christy, Jessie will use this pregnancy somehow. She’ll go to the press and tell them everything. It’ll ruin you and the campaign.”
“I don’t see how she could use it. We’ve already let the press know we’re engaged. So what if she tells them she’s carrying my baby?” Jake stumbled over the last two words. Could he ever say that without his heart dropping to his stomach?
“She could tell people you were the one behind this insemination plot,” Douglas pointed out.
Jessie had already accused him of that in the beginning. Jake didn’t think she felt that way any longer. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense. The scandal alone will be enough to fuel the press and the gossips.”
“Maybe. But I doubt if Jessie would have gone through all of this if all she wanted to do was discredit me. She could have done that by announcing that she was investigating me for Christy Mendoza’s death.”
Douglas stopped dead center in front of Jake. His eyes were hot and tight. “God, Jake, listen to yourself. You defend her even now.”
“I’m just stating the facts.”
“And those are facts that came from a woman who repeatedly lied to you,” Douglas crisply added.
That brought Jake off the sofa. He cut across the room and poured himself a glass of water. “I know she lied, damn it! I don’t need you to remind me of it.”
Douglas’s mouth clenched, and he glanced at his watch. “This discussion will have to wait. We need to get downstairs. I’ll come up with an excuse as to why your fiancée can’t join us. Where the hell is Jessie, anyway? I want the guards to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t try anything stupid.”
Jake put down his glass and rubbed his forehead. “She’s in your suite. I told her to go there and finish dressing.”
“When?” Douglas asked.
“Not long before you came in.”
“Well, she’s not there.”
Jake looked sharply at Douglas. “You’re sure?”
“I’m positive. I came here straight from my suite. She wasn’t in the hallway, either. I would have seen her.”
Jake hadn’t thought the morning could get any worse, but that did it. The only thing worse than finding out she was a liar was learning that she was missing. “She better not have left the hotel.”
“I’m sure she didn’t. I doubt she’d want to get too far away from you, especially if she thinks she can convince you to forgive and forget. She’s probably off somewhere planning her next move. I’ll have the guards look for her. In the meantime, you have a speech to make and you’ve kept everyone waiting long enough. Finish dressing so we can get downstairs.”
Jake wasn’t sure he could put on a calm enough face for this political commitment. Still, there wasn’t anything he could do sitting around the hotel room, either. The guards could look for Jessie, while he made his speech. And they needed to find her. Soon. Even if she’d lied about who she was, that didn’t mean she was out of danger.
“She’s a cop, remember?” Douglas said, as if reading Jake’s mind. “She can take care of herself.”
Maybe. But he would feel a lot better once he learned where she was.
Chapter Seventeen
Jessie leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t cry. It wouldn’t do a darn thing to help the situation. Her insistence, however, didn’t stop the tear when it slid down her cheek. Jessie wiped it away, hoping it hadn’t left its mark.
She could hear the voices of the people in the banquet room. Someone was testing the microphone. The smell of coffee and fresh pastries seeped into the hallway where she was. There was nothing to indicate Jake’s arrival. By her calculations he should have been in there.
But then so should she.
She wouldn’t let him down about this, even though it would break her heart to stand next to him, knowing how much he hated her. She’d been so right about how he would feel once he found out the truth. That didn’t give her any comfort. She’d finally been right about something. Painfully right.
Something brushed against her shoulder. A touch. Her training and instincts came together at once—this could be the killer and she shouldn’t be here unarmed. She spun around and brought up her elbow for a strike to the person’s face. But it was Willa. Jessie halted her elbow before it made contact.
“Whoa!” Willa put up her hands defensively. “You’re jumpy this morning.”
“You have no idea,” Jessie mumbled.
Willa struggled several seconds to catch her breath. “What are you doing here, anyway? You’re supposed to be in the banquet room. You look awful, you know. And you’ve been crying. What, did you and Jake have an argument or something?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“Know what?” Willa asked.
Jessie didn’t want to be the one to tell her. She’d take the easy way out and leave it for Jake. That way he could put his own slant on events. If he wanted to denounce her as a liar, it was his right to do that.
Willa pulled a small compact out of her purse and dabbed some powder on Jessie’s face. “Does this have anything to do with Dr. Lisette’s calls?”
That brought Jessie’s eyes wide open. “Dr. Lisette? When did he call?”
“This morning and last night. He said he’d tracked down some kind of test results.” She finished the makeup repairs and put her compact back into her purse. “What was he talking about, anyway?”
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