The Bounty Hunter's Baby Surprise

by Lisa Childs

  But he had no intention of walking into whatever trap she and that damn brother of hers and her Rambo bounty hunter thought they were setting for him.

  Hell, no.

  Tom Kuipers was nobody’s fool.

  He would set a trap for her instead. He used his desk phone to call his chief of security. “I have two meetings tonight,” he told Archie Wells. “In the warehouse.”

  And his anger ebbed away as he realized that Lillian Davies and her brother had actually given him a gift—even if that flash drive didn’t exist. He didn’t have to worry about tracking either of them down. They were coming to him.

  And to their deaths...

  Chapter 21

  “Were you talking to someone earlier?” Jake asked, and he looked around to see if she had her cell phone in the kitchen. But he saw only plates, which she’d already piled high with linguine noodles and pasta sauce. Chunks of bread, liberally buttered and peppered with cheese and garlic, perched on the edge of each plate.

  His stomach growled.

  And this time he was hungry for the food. Making love to her had worked up his appetite. It had also exhausted him to the point that he’d fallen asleep.

  He couldn’t believe he’d done that, not when he’d already been suspicious of her. And when he’d overheard her talking in the kitchen, he had jerked awake, afraid that she was no longer alone, that she was in danger and he’d been too distracted to protect her.

  But when he’d walked out of the bedroom, his gun drawn, he’d found her alone.

  She glanced up from the plates. “What did you hear?” she asked, and she sounded nervous. Or guilty.

  He narrowed his eyes and studied her flushed face. “What was there to hear?”

  She laughed. “Just some very terrible singing.”

  “It didn’t sound like singing.”

  “I told you it was terrible.”

  “I find it hard to believe that you’re terrible at anything,” he said.

  Hadn’t he heard her sing before? In the shower, before he’d stepped inside and joined her...

  And after he’d joined her, her singing had turned to moans and cries of pleasure.

  So maybe he hadn’t really heard her sing before. Or at least not long enough that he would be able to remember if she was a good or a bad singer.

  “Before you claim that I’m not terrible at anything, you will want to try this meal,” she warned him as she carried the plates to the small table in the eat-in area of the kitchen.

  “You’re an excellent cook,” he said. “But you shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.”

  “I couldn’t handle any more greasy burgers from that diner,” she said. Then she patted her belly. “And neither could he.”

  He held out a chair for her. “This certainly looks healthier.”

  Before she sat down, she swapped the plates on the table. “This one has less on it,” she said of the plate she took for herself.

  “You’re the one eating for two,” he reminded her.

  “But the bigger the baby gets, the less room I have for food,” she said, and she patted her belly.

  “You’re really not that big,” he assured her. It was just that her frame was so slender and delicate that the swell of her belly was especially noticeable. And beautiful.

  She shook her head. “You don’t have to charm me anymore, Jake.”

  “Anymore?”

  “Like you did when we first met,” she said.

  Had he charmed her then? Even knowing who her family was, he’d been so drawn to her—to her beauty, to her sweetness. He hadn’t tried to con her. He’d meant every word he’d told her then. And now.

  But maybe she knew him too well to be charmed anymore. Since he’d told her about his dad and mom, she knew him better than anyone else ever had. And she hadn’t called him a hypocrite for acting the way he had about her family.

  She could have called him that and so many other things. But she was Lillian. Sweet Lillian.

  “Eat,” she urged him, “before it gets cold.”

  He was hungry, especially after making love with her. He’d been panting like he’d run a marathon before he fell asleep. His stomach growled again, so he dug in to his plate, twirling pasta around his fork. Then he shoveled it into his mouth.

  “Is it good?” she asked.

  He nodded. He wasn’t about to tell her that it would have been better with fresh ingredients. There was an odd, almost metallic, flavor to it, but he had no idea how old the can of sauce was that she’d found in the cupboard. The bread was good, though. He used that to sop up the sauce, and he continued to eat as if he was ravenous.

  She barely touched her food. Maybe it was like she’d said—she didn’t have that much room for it with the baby taking up most of her stomach space. But it wasn’t just that she wasn’t eating, it was the way she was watching him.

  And he knew—she hadn’t been singing in the kitchen like she’d claimed. She had been talking to someone, like he’d suspected. The guilt was on her pretty face and in her blue eyes as she refused to meet his gaze.

  “Lillian...” he murmured, but his words slurred together as if he’d been drinking. “What did you do?”

  The question echoed within his head, the words sounding as distorted as she suddenly appeared to him. Her beautiful face wavered in and out of focus.

  He tried to jump up from his chair as he realized what she’d done. “You drugged...” His legs wouldn’t hold his weight. They buckled beneath him, and he dropped to the floor.

  She’d drugged him. And he could think of only one reason why: to get away from him.

  But then he couldn’t think any more as he lost consciousness entirely.

  * * *

  Had she killed him?

  Lillian hadn’t been sure how many pills to crush up into his sauce. Had she given him too many?

  Lillian dropped to her knees beside Jake and felt for his pulse. It beat quickly beneath her fingertips. And his chest—his magnificent muscular chest—rose and fell with deep breaths.

  He was alive.

  He was just sleeping. And since she had no idea how long he would stay asleep, she needed to leave quickly. She reached into one of his jeans pockets, feeling around for the keys to the rental.

  Now a soft groan slipped through his parted lips, and his body tensed.

  She froze.

  Had she awakened him?

  Then she saw his erection pushing against the fly of his jeans, and she smiled. She had only awakened part of him. But would he want her anymore after what she’d done? He might never forgive her for drugging him.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and she pressed a kiss to his lips.

  He murmured again, and it was as if he tried to drag his eyes open but the lids refused to lift. His thick dark lashes lay yet against his chiseled cheeks. He was still unconscious, but not completely.

  She needed to hurry. She pushed her hand in his other pocket and finally found the keys. Good. She wouldn’t have to waste time trying to remember how to hot-wire the SUV. She pulled the keys out and noticed his holster.

  Should she take his gun?

  It wasn’t as if she actually knew how to shoot it, despite those long ago lessons Gran had given her. But Tom Kuipers wouldn’t know that. Could she threaten him with it? But then if she took it, she left Jake totally unprotected.

  Of course, with as unconscious as he was, he was completely vulnerable. Tears stung her eyes.

  This had been a bad idea.

  But she was committed now. And she knew if Jake was awake, there was no way he would let her go through with her plan to meet Mr. Kuipers. If she could record her former boss admitting that he had framed her, it would be nearly as good as the evidence she had downloaded to that flash drive.

  His verbal
confession would have to be enough to get the charges against her dropped. She had a record feature on her cell phone; she could use that to take down his statement. But how would she get him talking?

  The gun?

  She reached for the holster but then jerked her hand back when Jake moved. No. She did not need the gun. She needed to get to the warehouse before Jake woke up and stopped her. She knew her plan was as dangerous as Jake had warned her it was. But she had to risk it.

  For her baby. And for Jake.

  Because he was unconscious and couldn’t hear her, she leaned forward and just before brushing her lips over his, she whispered, “I love you.”

  She didn’t want him to know that, though. Not when she didn’t think he returned her feelings. And even if he did, they had no guarantee of a future. Not until she got the charges against her dropped.

  And this plan was her last-ditch effort for that. It could be her last attempt at anything, though.

  She may not come back to Jake again.

  * * *

  Donny struggled against the bindings on his wrists. He would have shouted but one of the men who’d grabbed him had shoved a bandanna into his mouth after the first time he’d yelled.

  Or actually, he’d screamed, probably sounding like a little girl. But these guys were huge.

  His heart pumped fast and hard with fear. Were these Kuipers’s men? If they were, he didn’t like his chances for escaping. Not with as tightly as they’d bound his wrists and ankles.

  Finally, the truck stopped, and the driver told the man sitting in the back with Donny, “Bring him along.”

  “Are you sure this is the place?” the guy in the passenger’s seat asked.

  They were all big, all with deep black hair and green eyes. They must have been brothers. Not that Donny looked like his brothers. With his thin blond hair and blue eyes, he looked like Lillian and their mother had.

  The driver nodded. “Yeah.”

  “But he didn’t tell you where he was hiding out.”

  Was Tom Kuipers hiding out? Maybe someone else had reported him to the authorities. Or he’d pissed off the wrong people the way Jake Howard had. The bounty hunter was relentless.

  Surely, he would help Lillian.

  If he believed her.

  Maybe if Jake saw the flash drive, he would. But Donny didn’t have it anymore.

  “Should we see if he’s here first—before we drag him along?” the guy in the back asked.

  “Why do you two always doubt me?” the driver asked with a long-suffering sigh. He opened the door and stepped out. And despite their arguments, the other two followed suit. Then someone reached in and dragged out Donny.

  With his ankles bound, he nearly fell over. But these guys were so much bigger than him that they easily lifted him. Two of them stood on either side of him, clasping his elbows to carry him. His bound feet dangled a foot or so above the ground.

  “This one,” the driver said as he stopped outside an apartment door. Instead of knocking, he drew his gun from his holster.

  And Donny’s heart beat faster. Just what the hell was going on?

  The guy knocked. Several times.

  “Maybe he’s not here,” one of the other men remarked.

  The driver tilted his head as if he was listening. Then the others tensed and reached for their weapons. And finally, Donny heard it, too—a loud thud, like something or someone had fallen over.

  “Shane?” one addressed the driver.

  Shane nodded and kicked open the door. Then he cursed and rushed into the apartment. “Ryan, clear it!” he yelled out.

  Donny couldn’t see very far inside the doorway. He couldn’t see much beyond the broken wood dangling from the jamb. The guy who must have been Ryan followed Shane inside, his gun drawn. With him out of the way, Donny could see a little more—like Shane dropping to his knees.

  What the hell was going on? What had made the loud thud?

  “The rest of the place is empty,” Ryan called out as he stepped back into Donny’s sight.

  The guy who was still holding on to Donny murmured, “What the hell—”

  But he wasn’t looking inside; he was looking at Donny. “Just how much damn trouble is your sister in?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  The man gestured inside the apartment again. And Donny turned back to look inside, and now he saw why Shane had dropped onto the floor. He knelt next to the prone body of Jake Howard.

  “Those guys must have knocked out Howard and grabbed your sister,” his captor told him.

  Knocked Jake out or killed him?

  The big bounty hunter wasn’t moving. And probably the only way someone would have gotten Lillian away from Jake Howard was over his dead body.

  Chapter 22

  Something cold and hard and wet struck Jake, jerking him awake with a curse slipping out of his lips. Instinctively, he reached for his holster, but it was empty. And he lay, vulnerable, on the floor, staring up at three huge guys.

  How the hell had they gotten the jump on him? Then he remembered Lillian’s dinner and how she’d drugged him.

  Lillian!

  He didn’t even look for her, though. He knew she was gone. If she hadn’t left already, these guys might have taken her for the bounty. But they weren’t heading to the jail with her. They were still here, staring down at him. He’d forgotten just how damn big the O’Hanigans were.

  Shane held his gun out to him, handle first. “I took this—just in case you reached for it and started shooting before you identified us.”

  “He might have started shooting because he recognized us,” Trick added with a smirk.

  “What happened?” another man asked, his voice higher than any of the O’Hanigans. Donny Davies stumbled forward, his ankles bound as well as his wrists.

  And Jake knew why the O’Hanigans had tracked him down, although he wasn’t quite sure how they’d managed to find the US Marshals’ safe house and Donny Davies so quickly. He’d seriously underestimated the bounty-hunting brothers.

  “Where’s my sister?” Donny asked, his voice cracking with concern. “What happened to her?”

  “Yeah, what happened?” Shane O’Hanigan asked. “Did some of those armed guys knock you out?”

  Jake’s face flushed. “No.”

  “You were out cold,” Ryan said, “until we threw that ice water on you.”

  Jake picked up a cube that was melting on his chest. “You could have spared me the ice.” The frozen cubes had hurt, but it had been effective in finally rousing him. He had been struggling to wake himself up ever since Lillian had taken off. But every time he’d managed to get to his feet, he’d fallen over again.

  “What happened?” Shane persisted. But even as he asked the question, he glanced over at the food on the table, and a smile curved his mouth. “She drugged you!”

  Jake wasn’t sure where she’d found the sleeping pills, but she must have.

  Shane shook his head. “You should have brought her in right away. Now you have to give up your sweet ride, and you don’t even have the bounty anymore.”

  “I know where she is.” Or he could guess. He jumped up, but he was still a little woozy and might have fallen over again if not for Shane grabbing his arm and steadying him.

  “On a plane to a country with no extradition to the US,” Trick said.

  “She played you,” Ryan added with a chuckle.

  She had—with the food and the drugs. But he didn’t think it was because she’d wanted to escape him.

  “My sister’s not like that,” Donny protested. “She’s not a con artist.”

  “Then she would be the only one in your family who isn’t,” Shane said with a derisive snort. “What makes her so special?”

  Everything, Jake wanted to say. But right now he was fu
rious—with Lillian and most especially with Donny. He grabbed the younger man by the shirt and dragged him close. “What the hell did you do with that flash drive?”

  Donny’s face flushed.

  “When we grabbed him, he was claiming it never existed,” Shane said. “That there is no such thing.”

  And Jake’s stomach plummeted. Had he been played? Had it all been a lie to convince him not to bring her to jail? Maybe she’d conned him for payback—like she felt he’d conned her eight months ago. And even though he’d had it coming, he was devastated.

  * * *

  The company gates stood open, but Lillian hesitated before driving the SUV through them. Once she drove back beyond the offices to the area where the warehouses were, she could get locked inside those gates or in that warehouse. And she might never leave.

  Alive.

  Jake had been right. This was a bad idea. One that could get her and their baby killed. As if the baby felt her fear, he kicked—hard. And maybe that kick knocked some sense into Lillian because she shifted the transmission into Reverse. But before she could back away from those gates, a white van pulled up behind her, blocking her in. And the doors of the SUV were jerked open.

  The guy on the passenger’s side pointed a gun across the console at her while the guy on the driver’s side pulled her from her seat. She stumbled and nearly fell, and, since she hadn’t put it in Park, the SUV rolled back into the van.

  She gasped.

  “Don’t worry about it,” the guy said. “The vehicle is the least of your concerns right now. The boss has been waiting for you. And for that flash drive.”

  Lillian didn’t doubt that. He wanted to make sure no evidence existed to implicate him in the embezzlement. She wasn’t sure if the evidence existed or not anymore, either. So she had to make sure she got more. That part of her plan might still work. The part she should have worked out better before she’d driven to the company building was how she would escape once she obtained that evidence.

  The guy jerked her forward again, pulling her toward one of the warehouses that were behind the fence, behind the company’s office building. Lillian had always thought the warehouses were used only to store the building equipment that Kuipers’s wife and father-in-law sold. But now she knew a lot more than storage happened in those warehouses.