Paternity Unknown

by Barrett, Jean

  “What are you hiding, Lauren?”

  “Nothing. Please, just go.”

  She was protecting something inside that bedroom. Or someone. He was certain of it. She was no longer living here alone. Another man? He was gripped by a sudden spasm of jealousy.

  When he strode purposefully toward the bedroom door, Lauren tried to cut him off. “You have no right!” she cried in panic.

  He opened the door, walked into the room. There was no other man. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for a crib located near the window.

  Ethan was only dimly aware of Lauren behind him, plucking at his sleeve in a futile effort to stop him. He reached the crib, the breath sticking in his throat as he looked down into its shallow depth.

  A pair of blue-green eyes—his eyes—gazed back at him innocently.

  Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

  This month you’ll want to have all six of our books to keep you company as you brave those April showers!

  • Debra Webb kicks off THE ENFORCERS, her exciting new trilogy, with John Doe on Her Doorstep. And for all of you who have been waiting with bated breath for the newest installment in Kelsey Roberts’s THE LANDRY BROTHERS series, we have Chasing Secrets.

  • Rebecca York, Ann Voss Peterson and Patricia Rosemoor join together in Desert Sons. You won’t want to miss this unique three-in-one collection!

  • Two of your favorite promotions are back. You won’t be able to resist Leona Karr’s ECLIPSE title, Shadows on the Lake. And you’ll be on the edge of your seat while reading Jean Barrett’s Paternity Unknown, the latest installment in TOP SECRET BABIES.

  • Meet another of THE PRECINCT’s rugged lawmen in Julie Miller’s Police Business.

  Every month you can depend on Harlequin Intrigue to deliver an array of thrilling romantic suspense and mystery. Be sure you read each one!

  Sincerely,

  Denise O’Sullivan

  Senior Editor

  Harlequin Intrigue

  PATERNITY UNKNOWN

  JEAN BARRETT

  To my readers

  I never forget that you make it all possible

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  If setting has anything to do with it, Jean Barrett claims she has no reason not to be inspired. She and her husband live on Wisconsin’s scenic Door Peninsula in an antique-filled country cottage overlooking Lake Michigan. A teacher for many years, she left the classroom to write full-time. She is the author of a number of romance novels.

  Write to Jean at P.O. Box 623, Sister Bay, WI 54234. SASE appreciated.

  Books by Jean Barrett

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  308—THE SHELTER OF HER ARMS

  351—WHITE WEDDING

  384—MAN OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

  475—FUGITIVE FATHER

  528—MY LOVER’S SECRET

  605—THE HUNT FOR HAWKE’S DAUGHTER *

  652—PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS *

  692—OFFICIAL ESCORT *

  728—COWBOY PI *

  770—SUDDEN RECALL *

  804—THE LEGACY OF CROFT CASTLE *

  842—PATERNITY UNKNOWN

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Lauren McCrea—The frantic mother has no choice but to join forces with the one man she is unable to trust.

  Ethan Brand—He has sworn to find his little Sara…and prove his innocence to the woman he never forgot.

  Sara—The innocent baby is a pawn in a desperate game.

  Hilary Johnson—What terrible secret is the housekeeper concealing?

  Sheriff Howell—He resents any interference in his cases.

  Marjorie Landry—The FBI agent ends up being a disappointment.

  Anthony Johnson—He is the key to everything.

  Buddy Foley—The Seattle cop is a friend from the past.

  Charlie Heath—The pompous lawyer isn’t all that he seems.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Prologue

  He was in the wilderness, he was lost, and it was snowing.

  Okay, so there was still some question about the first two, but there was no mistaking the snow. The skies had been a clear, brittle blue when he’d left the airport near Kalispell. Somewhere along his route, though, a cloud cover had sneaked in over the mountains, obscuring the sun.

  He hadn’t been worried when the first white flakes swirled through the air. Hell, it was November, and this was Montana. It was supposed to snow, wasn’t it? The car rental agency hadn’t mentioned anything about the possibility of a storm on the way.

  But the snow had thickened and for the better part of an hour now, the stuff had been falling at a serious rate. No weather report on the radio. All he could seem to find was music.

  The wilderness part was a matter of definition. He knew there were rugged mountains out there—the Flathead Range, according to the map he’d found in the glove compartment. He just couldn’t see them through this curtain of white.

  For that matter, he could barely make out the ranks of evergreens pressing in on him. They crowded both sides of the winding road, a forest unbroken by any clearing or a sign of a building. For a man who had spent most of his life in a large city, that translated into his version of a wilderness.

  As for being lost…yeah, it felt like it.

  He couldn’t remember when he had last met another vehicle. There was just him and this narrow ribbon climbing through the hills. It seemed more like a back road than a highway. Had he missed a sign, taken a wrong turn? The map was of no use; it wasn’t specific enough.

  Nor could his cell phone help him. He’d tried to raise the state highway department to learn about the weather conditions and to ask directions, only he was unable to get a signal. The weather was probably to blame—maybe a tower was down.

  As if all that weren’t bad enough, the light was rapidly fading. No surprise at this time of the year when the days were so short, but it made his situation all the more treacherous.

  Any fool would have turned back long ago, but he didn’t consider it. He couldn’t. Whatever the risk, the urgency of his mission forced him to go on. He had to reach the woman whose knowledge meant his survival.

  No time to lose, either. They must be searching for you by now, and if you don’t get to her before they find you…

  Forget about that. Take it one step at a time.

  At this moment, that meant concentrating on the road. It wasn’t good. The snow was piling up. How much longer would the route remain passable?

  Whether it was the instinct that had served him so well in the past or merely blind luck that enabled him to glimpse the sign at the side of the road a moment later, he couldn’t say. The point was, he saw it, and he could have easily missed it in the driving snow.

  Easing the car to a halt, he peered through the windshield where the wipers swished across the glass. The beams of his headlights penetrated the snow and gathering darkness just enough for him to make out the old, faded sign.

  It wasn’t a directional sign. It was a small billboard. Straining, he could see that it advertised vacation cabins for rent. The cabins were of no interest to him. Their location was. Elk ton, Five Miles Ahead, the sign read. His destination. He was on the right road.

  Relieved, he moved on. The conditions worsened with each bend in the road as the snowfall accelerated to a furi
ous blizzard. It was full night now. He could barely see the route. Feeling his way, he crested a rise and almost missed a sharp curve. He swung the wheel in time and rounded the turn.

  Though alert for trouble, he wasn’t prepared for the cow that loomed directly in front of him. Or maybe it was a moose. It didn’t matter. Whatever the animal was, it was a large threat frozen in the glare of his headlights that sliced through the screen of snow.

  He cursed as he hit the brake to avoid a collision. Mistake. There was ice under the snow. The vehicle went into a skid, its nose spinning to the right. Before he could correct it, the car leaped the shoulder and plunged down a long, steep embankment.

  Pine boughs slashed the sides of the rental sedan, failing to slow its descent. In the end, the car slammed against the trunk of a tree. Bouncing off, it lurched over onto its side.

  He felt a sharp jolt as his head struck the doorframe. A second later, his pain was obliterated by the blackness that swallowed him.

  Chapter One

  Somebody had gone and changed the rules, Lauren thought. Either the power could be out or the phone could be out, but never both at the same time. That the two of them were just that on this occasion was an indication of how major the storm was.

  Has to be the ice, she decided, replacing the receiver in its cradle after testing her phone and finding it dead. There had been a lot of it in the area in the form of frozen rain before it turned to snow. It must have brought down lines everywhere, which meant it was anyone’s guess when her services would be restored.

  Lauren wasn’t worried. This wouldn’t be the first time she had been without either a phone or electricity. Hey, you had to expect such inconveniences when you lived in a place this remote.

  Anyway, she knew the drill and had already fired up the gas-powered generator out back. Although it was small, it would keep the water pump and the refrigerator going. Nothing else that depended on electricity was essential.

  She had also lit the oil lamps and placed them in strategic positions around the combination living room–kitchen that overlooked the frozen lake. The doors to the two bedrooms were closed to conserve heat. Without the electric furnace, she would have to rely on the fireplace at this end of the living room and the old cookstove on the kitchen side. Both were cheerfully blazing.

  Needing to make sure there was plenty of firewood inside, Lauren eyed the split logs heaped beside the hearth. They seemed to be a generous supply. They weren’t. She knew how fast the pile could sink when you had to feed both the fireplace and the stove.

  Snagging her coat from a peg beside the door, she bundled into it, seized the log carrier, and left the cabin.

  The wind was howling off the lake, the snow was flying and it was brutally cold. Definitely a night to stay indoors. But since the covered porch that stretched across the front of the cabin was as far as she had to go, she didn’t complain. Firewood was stacked along its entire length against the log wall.

  Lauren was filling the carrier when she noticed it. A strange glow off the far end of the porch.

  What in the world—

  Leaving the carrier, she moved toward the light. When she reached the corner of the building, she leaned out over the rail for a better look. Whatever its source, the glow was some distance off. It came from the direction of the road up along the ridge above her cabin.

  Puzzled, Lauren went on gazing into the night, trying to figure it out. The obstruction of the trees and the falling snow made it impossible to identify. It wasn’t until there was a brief lull in the snowfall that she realized what she was seeing.

  Not one light. Two lights. She was seeing the twin beams of a car’s headlights. Only there was something wrong with them. They weren’t horizontal. They were turned upward, like a pair of fixed lamps searching the night sky through the tall spires of the trees.

  And that’s when Lauren realized what must have happened. A car had run off the road and landed at such an angle that—

  Dear God, an accident! Maybe a serious one, with people injured. There would be no help from a passing vehicle, either. With the new highway to Elkton, this was no longer the main route. The road up there was rarely traveled now, and in weather like this it could be forever before someone came along. Probably not until after the plow came through, and who knew when that would be.

  That leaves you as the only available help.

  As much as she disliked the thought of going out into the storm, Lauren didn’t hesitate. She was already forming her plan as she left the railing and sped back into the cabin.

  Blankets. She would need blankets. She pulled three of them off the shelf of the closet next to the bathroom. Throwing them down on the floor beside the front door, she traded her coat for her snowmobile suit, boots and helmet.

  She would have to take the snowmobile. Her car would be useless in this stuff, her driveway already blocked. And she would need the toboggan. She used it when the snow was deep to haul supplies from her car to the cabin or to replenish the wood on the porch from the shed out back.

  The toboggan was leaning against the porch. When she came away from the cabin, she lowered it and piled the blankets on it. Then she drew the load around the corner of the building to where her snowmobile was parked. Removing the protective cover from the machine, she roped the toboggan to its rear bumper.

  The engine kicked in with a roar on her first try with the pull start. Straddling the saddle, she wove a trail up through the snow-laden firs and pines. The headlights of the helpless car guided her like a beacon.

  Their glow seemed to grow weaker the closer she got, which had to mean the car’s engine wasn’t running and that the headlights were operating on a battery whose power was dwindling.

  Topping the last rise, she arrived at the scene of the accident. A silver sedan lay half on its side, with its back end buried down in a drift and its hood pointed upward.

  Braking her snowmobile and leaving the engine idling, Lauren trudged through the snow, fearing what she would find as she approached the vehicle.

  She had a flashlight with her, and when she reached the car, she directed its beam through one of the windows. The driver was still inside, sprawled behind the wheel. He was either unconscious or—

  But Lauren refused to consider the worst.

  She played the flashlight around the interior. No other occupants. That meant she had only the one victim to rescue. And, providing it wasn’t already too late, she could lose him if she didn’t hurry.

  With the car’s motor stalled, he couldn’t have had the heater to keep him warm. There was no telling how long he had been out here in the cold. Certainly he would never have survived the night if, by pure chance, she hadn’t spotted his headlights.

  Lauren didn’t stop to question the risk. Stranger or not, she had to transport him to the warmth of her cabin. There was no other option.

  It was a decision easier made than executed. Just getting at him was a challenge in itself. The driver’s side was jammed down into the snow, which left that door inaccessible. The passenger door was her only entry, and a difficult one when it was at an angle and several feet off the ground. Lauren somehow fought it open and lifted herself inside, noticing the air bag hadn’t deployed. Well, technology wasn’t infallible.

  The driver never stirred. Removing her glove, she groped inside the collar of his expensive-looking leather coat. Her fingers pressed against his strongly corded throat, feeling for a pulse. She got one, slow though it was. He was still alive.

  But her relief was dampened when she encountered a trickle of blood. The flashlight revealed its source as a wound on the side of his head. Just how serious it was she would need to try to determine when she moved him into the cabin.

  The easy part was clambering out of the car, releasing the toboggan from the snowmobile, and positioning it below the open door.

  The tough part was placing him on the toboggan. From what she could judge, he had to be all of a solid six feet in length. And a deadweight.
But with a combination of tugging, dragging and sheer stubbornness, Lauren managed to wrestle him out of the car and lower him onto the toboggan. What damage she might be inflicting on him in the process she didn’t dare to think about. It couldn’t be helped.

  After trussing him up in the blankets and hitching the toboggan to the bumper of the snowmobile again, she went back to the car to switch off its headlights and remove the keys from the ignition.

  Pocketing them, she had a last look around the interior. Her flashlight disclosed a small travel bag on the backseat. She took it and placed it on the toboggan with her unconscious passenger.

  It was time for her sled to go into action again.

  ONCE SHE’D RECOVERED enough wind to do more than wheeze, Lauren addressed her patient.

  “A few words of congratulation would be nice.”

  He didn’t answer her plea. He remained inert.

  “Please.”

  No response. Not so much as a flutter of his eyelids.

  It really wasn’t his approval she needed, only some form of reassurance from him that he wasn’t going to expire on her. Though, considering what she had undergone to get him here, she was entitled to that congratulation.

  The trip itself back to the cabin hadn’t been eventful. It was what Lauren had achieved after the snowmobile delivered them to the cabin that deserved recognition. Since she’d had to get him inside, and since he was clearly far too heavy for her to carry, she’d used the only means she could think of.

  Filling the steps and the floor of the porch with snow, huffing and straining, she had hauled the toboggan and its load up onto the porch. Dragged it across the porch, over the threshold of the front door, and somehow arrived with her burden in front of the hearth.