Lucas

by Delores Fossen

  “No, the shooting happened in the back pasture,” the guy said after Lucas gave him a go-ahead nod. “Mason said, though, that y’all should wait down here until they’ve made sure there’s only one.”

  Oh, mercy.

  As hard as that was to hear—and it was even harder for her to stay put—Hailey knew he was right. The attacker might not be alone. Heck, he could have brought an entire army with him, and it was best to aim that army at her rather than launch an attack near the houses.

  Still, waiting was hard.

  Even if she lifted her head, something Lucas wouldn’t like her to do, Hailey couldn’t see Lucas’s house from this part of the road, but she knew it was less than a half mile away. She knew because he’d taken her there for the one night they’d been together. The night she’d had a serious lapse in judgment and gotten way too personal with a man she should have avoided. Or so it’d seemed at the time. But without that night, she wouldn’t have her son, and despite everything that’d gone on, the one thing she was certain of was that she loved her baby.

  Lucas didn’t seem to be having an easier time waiting than she was. He put the window back up, mumbled some profanity and took out his phone. This time she saw that he was calling the nanny again.

  “Just checking to make sure everything is okay,” Lucas said when Tillie answered.

  Hailey automatically scooted closer so she could hear what the nanny had to say, but that only earned her a scowl from Lucas. He put the call on speaker, her cue to inch away from him. She did.

  “The baby’s fine,” Tillie assured Lucas. “He went straight to sleep after his bottle. And Mason’s still here just in case.”

  Just in case everything went from bad to worse. Hailey hated that it was a possibility, but Mason was another lawman, so it was good to have him there. She prayed, though, that he wouldn’t be needed and that the danger would end soon. With this idiot intruder not just in custody but also willing to tell them the name of the person who’d hired him.

  “You said earlier that Hailey was with you,” Tillie went on. She paused. “Is, uh, everything okay? Did that man try to get onto the ranch because of her?”

  “Yeah,” Lucas admitted. Now he was the one who paused. “I’ll need to take the baby someplace safe. Will you be able to come with us?”

  “Of course,” Tillie quickly agreed.

  Hailey was shaking her head before the nanny even answered.

  The head shaking caused Lucas to scowl again. “I’m going to protect my son,” he snarled as if she didn’t want the same thing.

  She did. More than anything, she wanted him safe. Lucas and his family, too. “But I want to see him.”

  That got Lucas’s muscles tightening again. “And then what?”

  It was a good question. Hailey didn’t have anything resembling a good answer. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I need some answers, and I think the place to start is with my sister.”

  “I agree,” Lucas said without hesitation. “I’ll want her contact info and anything recent you have on her. I’ll especially want to know why she could want you dead.”

  “I don’t know any of those things,” Hailey had to admit. “I haven’t seen or heard from Colleen since I’ve been in WITSEC.”

  Lucas huffed, clearly not pleased that she hadn’t given him something to go on. “You two were close?”

  “Once.” But that was another round of bad memories. “We were both working as computer systems analysts for Preston DeSalvo’s company. I testified against him, but Colleen didn’t. She claimed she didn’t see the incriminating evidence that I found.”

  Lucas jumped right on that. “She lied?”

  “Maybe. But I can’t believe she’d be the one behind this. I’m still her sister.”

  He gave her a flat look. “Cain and Abel were brothers, and you know how that ended.”

  Yes, with one murdering the other, but Hailey had to hang on to something, and that something was that her only sister hadn’t betrayed her like this. Still, she wanted to talk to Colleen and get this all sorted out.

  She nearly reached for his phone to make a call, but there was no one who came to mind that she could trust. Well, no one other than Lucas.

  “I’ll bring Colleen in for questioning,” Lucas said as if reading her mind. He didn’t get a chance to add anything else because the sound got their attention.

  A shot.

  Even though it was in the distance, it still caused Hailey’s heart to slam against her chest. She held her breath, waiting, and even though she tried to steel herself for whatever would happen next, she still gasped when Lucas’s phone buzzed.

  “Mason,” he said looking at the screen before he answered it and put the call on speaker.

  She hadn’t thought her heart could beat any faster, but she’d obviously been wrong. Mason was with the baby, and if he was calling then maybe that meant the shot had been fired close to the house.

  Or in it.

  Hailey pressed her fingers to her mouth and listened, praying.

  “Sawyer fired the shot,” Mason said. “The guy’s alive for now.”

  “Is he talking?” Lucas asked.

  “No, but I just called an ambulance, so maybe he’ll say something on the way to the hospital. Sawyer has a way of getting dirt to talk.”

  Good. But that didn’t mean this was over. “Are there any other attackers out there?” Hailey pressed.

  Just as the ranch hand had done, Mason hesitated. “No. Nothing else is showing up on any of the security feeds, either. It looks as if this clown came alone. And I don’t think he came here to kill anybody. He had surveillance equipment on him.”

  So there could be others on the way. It was too much to hope that this guy’s injury and arrest would get the person behind this to back off.

  “It’s safe for you to come to the house,” Mason continued. “If you want to come, that is.”

  She knew what he meant by that. Mason was giving his cousin an out in case Lucas didn’t want her to see the baby. Hailey was about to insist that happen when Lucas gave Grayson the go-ahead to get moving.

  Toward the house.

  Hailey sat back up, keeping watch around them, but she was also looking for the house. It finally came into view since it was the first building on the ranch road. All of the interior lights were off, probably as a safety precaution, but there were security lights on all four corners of the property. Enough for her to see the barn and corral that hadn’t been there a year ago.

  Lucas was making this place a home.

  Part of her was thankful for that. Their son deserved it. But she was betting there was no place in this home for her.

  Grayson pulled to a stop directly in front of the porch, and the door opened. Mason. Yet another unfriendly face, but then, Mason usually looked unfriendly. As he’d done at the sheriff’s office, Lucas got her in—fast. This time, though, he didn’t carry her. He looped his arm around her waist to steady her, and the moment they were inside, he moved away from her.

  Hailey immediately looked around for the baby. But there was no sign of him or the nanny. She was about to demand to see him, but Mason stepped in front of her.

  “Just got a text from Sawyer,” Mason said, his voice low and dangerous. “The guy he shot is drifting in and out of consciousness, but this is what the guy said.”

  He held his phone screen up for her to see, and the words there caused her to drop back a step.

  Hailey Darrow paid me to take the kid.

  Chapter Five

  Lucas didn’t know who looked more shocked by the accusation that the wounded gunman had just made. He or Hailey.

  “I didn’t,” she said, her gaze firing between Mason and him. “I only left the hospital a couple of hours ago.”

  Mas
on didn’t seem convinced. “You were conscious for a week. You could have called someone and set this whole thing up.”

  The anger flared through Hailey’s eyes, and she opened her mouth as if ready to return verbal fire, but she was obviously spent. Heck, so was Lucas, and while part of him hated to defend the woman who’d tried to run from him, he couldn’t see how this would have played out.

  “There was no phone in her hospital room,” Lucas explained. “And yes, she could have borrowed one from someone on the staff, but that kind of thing doesn’t stay a secret very long.”

  Lucas could have gone on and mentioned the part about Hailey not having touched her bank accounts since she’d been in the coma, and it wasn’t as if she’d had wads of cash lying around the hospital to pay someone to carry through on something like this.

  Even Lucas’s own explanation didn’t seem to convince Mason. “You trust her, then?” Mason asked.

  “No,” Lucas readily admitted. “But if Hailey intended to take the baby, she wouldn’t have done it this way.”

  At least, he hoped like the devil that she wouldn’t. The baby and other members of his family could have been hurt by the thug who’d trespassed onto the ranch.

  “Thank you,” Hailey said to him.

  For some reason, that riled Lucas. Maybe because he didn’t want to do anything for her that would cause her to say something like that.

  “So, who did hire the lying sack of dirt?” Mason asked.

  Hailey shook her head, but it was clear from the way she was looking around that her attention was elsewhere. She obviously wanted to see the baby, and Lucas tried to remind himself that if their positions were reversed, he would have wanted the same thing.

  Of course, their positions would never be reversed because he would have never gone on the run from the law.

  “I’ll question Hailey’s sister, Colleen, and Eric DeSalvo in the morning.” Lucas tipped his head to the hall that led to the bedrooms. “Is Tillie in the nursery?”

  Mason lowered his phone and nodded. Even though he didn’t voice his disapproval as to what was about to happen, it was on his face. “I’ll wait here until I get the all-clear from Sawyer.”

  Lucas thanked him and made a mental note to thank all the others who’d pulled together to keep Camden safe. For now, though, he had to focus on getting through this. And this was having Hailey see the baby.

  From the moment Camden had been born, Lucas had known it might come down to this. But as every day had passed with Hailey in a coma, he’d also considered that she might never wake up. That she might never have a claim on their child. Now, here she was, and Lucas was having to face one of his worst fears.

  That he might lose his son.

  Not to a kidnapper, either. But to Hailey. She wouldn’t be able to get full custody of Camden. No way would Lucas allow that, but she would be entitled to visitation rights. Considering she was in WITSEC, that was going to be tricky. And not very safe for any of them.

  Moving ahead of her, Lucas led her down the hall. She caught onto the side of the wall to steady herself, and she was probably moving as fast as she could go.

  When they reached the nursery, Lucas stepped in, his gaze immediately connecting with the nanny’s. There was just as much concern in Tillie’s expression as there had been in Mason’s. But she stepped aside so that Lucas—and Hailey—had the crib in their direct line of sight.

  Where Camden was sleeping.

  “I’ll be in the living room if you need me,” Tillie said, but her offer seemed to be a question, as if maybe he wanted her to stay.

  Lucas nodded, giving her the go-ahead to leave, but Hailey didn’t wait for Tillie to be out the door before she hobbled her way to the crib. The sound that left her mouth crushed at his heart. Part moan, part sigh.

  All love.

  It was a sound and a look that Lucas felt all too well because he got that same punch of emotion every time he was near his son. And even when he wasn’t.

  “He’s so beautiful,” Hailey whispered, touching her fingers to the wispy strands of dark brown hair.

  Lucas had to agree with her, but he was certain that was the reaction of most parents. Certain, too, that Hailey would want to do more than just touch his hair. She looked back at him, as if waiting for permission. She didn’t wait long, though, before she scooped Camden up in her arms.

  She made that sound again and kissed his cheek. Even though Camden stirred a little, he went right back to sleep. Good. Even though his son was too young to know what was going on, Lucas didn’t want to risk Camden being upset by having his sleep interrupted. He also didn’t want to risk Hailey falling with the child, and since her legs were obviously still wobbly, he helped her to the nearby chair.

  “Is he healthy?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” It was hard for him to talk about something so—well—normal. “He’s right on target for his height, weight and milestones.”

  She nodded and looked up at him, and that’s when he saw the tears in her eyes. “I was so scared that he’d been hurt in the accident.”

  “He could have been,” Lucas quickly pointed out, but then instantly regretted the jab. It was the truth, but stating the obvious didn’t make him feel any better.

  “I know. I’m so sorry. When I ran, my only thought was to keep him safe.”

  Lucas nearly went for another jab by reminding her that the safe thing to do would have been to come to him, but that ship had already sailed. They were here now and had to deal with this. Not just the danger, either. But all those old feelings.

  He’d been attracted to her once and vice versa. That’s what had landed them in bed in the first place. And while there were still some lingering traces of the attraction, it wouldn’t play into this. He hoped the bitterness he felt over what’d happened wouldn’t, either. Right now, bitterness wouldn’t help.

  He was about to question her more about the night of the accident, to see if she remembered any details that would help them find out who was responsible for the attacks, but Hailey spoke before he did.

  “Tell me about the delivery,” she said.

  Lucas paused, not because he intended to hold anything back, but because remembering that night still felt like a punch to the gut.

  “I was scared,” he admitted. “We didn’t know if there’d been trauma to the baby, and since you were so close to your due date, the docs did a C-section on you. But everything turned out okay. Everything except that you were in a coma,” Lucas added.

  She, too, paused. Then nodded. “I’ve heard that some people remember and hear things while they’re in comas. I didn’t.” She brushed another kiss on Camden’s cheek. “I wish I could remember seeing him as a newborn. He’s already so big.”

  Camden was, but while Hailey had indeed missed a lot, the baby wasn’t old enough to have noticed that his mom hadn’t been around.

  Hailey looked up at Lucas again, those tears still shimmering in her eyes. “I know this is hard for you. You haven’t had to share him with anyone for the past three months.”

  Lucas wasn’t sure how to respond to that and didn’t get a chance to say anything anyway, because Mason appeared in the doorway. One look at his cousin’s face and Lucas knew something else had gone wrong. Apparently so did Hailey, because she slowly got to her feet, her attention nailed to Mason.

  “The gunman died on the way to the hospital,” Mason said.

  Hell. Lucas had wanted him alive so they could get answers. But maybe they could still do that. “Did he have a phone on him? Maybe his boss’s number is in his contacts?”

  Mason nodded. “Grayson will check for that, but there’s more.” He paused. “The ranch hands did a thorough search of the fence line in that back part of the ranch, and it appears the dead thug didn’t come alone. There were enough tracks back there for t
hree people.”

  Lucas bit back the profanity that he nearly blurted out, something he’d been training himself to do now that he was a father. Still, it was hard not to curse about that. “Any other signs of the men?”

  “No. They’re apparently gone. For now, anyway.”

  That didn’t mean they wouldn’t be back. Maybe even tonight, since the darkness would give them an advantage for an attack.

  “I’ve got men patrolling the entire ranch,” Mason went on. “I also called everyone and told them to lock down and stay inside.”

  By “everyone” he meant his brothers and their cousins. No one would be leaving and coming onto the ranch unless Mason gave the okay. Which he wouldn’t do until he was certain it was safe. And Lucas knew what that meant.

  This time he wasn’t able to stop himself from cursing.

  Because it meant Hailey would have to stay there.

  Of course, he probably wouldn’t have been able to talk her into budging since she’d want to be near the baby, but Lucas had planned on having her sleep far away from the Silver Creek Ranch. Far away from Camden, too.

  “I’m so sorry,” Hailey whispered. Maybe she was apologizing again for the danger. But one look in her eyes and Lucas knew the reason for this “I’m sorry.” She had also figured out what the sleeping arrangements would be.

  “You can stay in the guest room,” Lucas growled. It was at the end of the hall, as far away as he could get her while still having her under the same roof.

  Hailey mumbled a thanks, and while Lucas thought part of her looked relieved, that was still fear he saw in her eyes. Worry, too. Especially worry when she looked at Mason again. His cousin wasn’t budging. Mason continued to stand there, his hands bracketed on the doorjamb.

  “What else happened?” Hailey asked Mason. Her voice was shaky again, probably because she knew they were about to get another dose of bad news.

  “Grayson tried to get in touch with Colleen, so he could bring her in for questioning.” Mason paused again. “But there’s a problem. Colleen is missing.”

  * * *

  HAILEY HOPED THIS medical exam wasn’t a mistake.