by B. J Daniels
The one young woman had broken up in giggles. “She got pregnant by a john.”
Meredith had stood rooted to the floor until finally she heard the clerk call, “Ma’am, can I help you?” She didn’t remember paying for her gas and coffee or walking out into the hot afternoon sun to her car.
John. The asinine girl had told these women that she had purposely gotten pregnant by a man from out of town named John?
Meredith had driven a few miles out of town before she’d had to pull over and, physically ill, had retched beside the road. She’d tried to still the panic. The girl had set John up, purposely getting pregnant by the fool so she could…what?
The realization had hit her like a fist, and she’d had to clutch the side of the car as she’d bent over again with another spasm.
There was only one reason: extortion. Soon Charlotte Evans would be contacting John, telling him about the baby, demanding money. Or, worse, marriage?
If John found out, he would do the “right” thing. He’d always wanted children. Meredith hadn’t. Even her father and father-in-law would support John, at least in making sure he took care of his child—especially if the child was a son.
She abhorred the thought of money that belonged to her going to some bastard child and his whore mother. But she knew there was nothing she could do if the foolish girl decided to contact John. The one thing she could not let happen was lose anything that belonged to her because of this mess.
Meredith had left Whitehorse frantic with worry. By the time she’d reached home, she’d calmed down enough to think rationally. There was only one thing to do.
She would have to get pregnant—and right away.
“CLARIFICATION?” Hank demanded as he watched Cameron take a drink to one of the leather chairs.
“You can’t blame them, Hank.”
Like hell he couldn’t. He tried to calm down.
“What is it they want me to do?” Hank asked, fearing the answer.
“Nothing. We just needed confirmation.”
“And clarification.”
Cameron shrugged. “They’ll take what they get.”
He stared at Cameron, too shocked to speak for a moment. “That’s it? They aren’t demanding I fix this? Or, hell, putting out a hit on me?”
Cameron laughed and shook his head. “Like I said, there’s talk. They’d like to know how this happened, but as far as taking any action…” He shook his head again.
Hank glanced toward the darkened window and felt a sudden chill. He remembered another dark night and what he’d thought was a confirmed kill.
He could pretty much guess how it had happened. Rena had expected the hit. Someone had leaked that the agency was onto her. She had set him up. It was that simple. And that complex.
Hank said as much to Cameron, who simply nodded.
“That’s the way I figured it. I’ll be sure I put that in my report,” Cam said. He finished his drink and reached for the folder with the photographers inside. “My job is done, then.”
Hank had been so surprised by Cam’s visit he hadn’t been thinking clearly. But he was now. “You could have sent the photographs electronically and saved yourself the trip.”
“And missed being verbally abused by you?” Cam shook his head. “Don’t worry. You’re still a legend with the agency. This doesn’t change that.”
Hank let out a curse. “I wasn’t worried about my legend status, and you know it.” He had to admit it was good to see Cam. He studied his once best friend and realized maybe he hadn’t lost his edge. “You think she’s going to come after me. That’s why you came here yourself.”
“It crossed my mind and a few other minds,” Cam said.
Hank began to laugh. “You were worried about me.”
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
Even with their difference in age, there’d been a time they were closer than brothers. But that was before Rena, before she went to the other side, before Hank was ordered to kill her.
“Just watch your back,” Cameron said as he tucked the folder under his arm and pocketed the magnifying glass.
“Where are you staying?”
“I’m not. I’m driving back to Billings tonight so I can catch an early flight out. If you didn’t live in such a Godforsaken place…”
It was three hours to the closest large airport, with miles between towns.
“That’s what I love about it up here,” Hank said. “They call it ‘the big open.’ Have you ever seen a bigger sky or felt as small and insignificant?”
Cameron laughed. “You actually like it here.”
He nodded. “Just one question,” he said as Cam got ready to leave. “They aren’t hoping to use me as bait to catch her, are they?”
Cameron shook his head almost sadly. “You wanted it that way when you quit the agency. Said you didn’t want to see any spooks for any reason.”
Hank laughed again. He didn’t buy it for a minute. “I know what they’re up to. They think my pride will force me to track her down and finish the job. My last job. My perfect record. They think I miss this crap?” He sobered. “I’m done with that life, Cam. I can’t kill anymore.”
Cameron smiled. “Take care, Hank. I have no idea what you’re doing out here in the middle of nowhere, but it really was great seeing you again.”
“I wish I could say the same,” Hank said, but he reached for his friend’s hand and pulled him into a quick hug. “Watch for deer along the highway. That’s the biggest threat we have up here.”
“You just keep telling yourself that,” Cameron said.
Hank watched him hike down the back road to where he must have stashed his vehicle and felt sorry about the way things had turned out. But then, that wasn’t anything new, was it? Cameron had saved his life—and taken it from him by getting him into the agency.
Closing the blinds, Hank walked back to the bar and thought about Rena, wondering how long it would be before he saw her again.
With Rena on the loose, he was a walking target. The last thing he wanted was Arlene to be anywhere near those crosshairs.
MEREDITH THREW A surprise dinner party not long after her return from Whitehorse to announce her good news.
She’d waited until everyone was seated and, in the glow of the candles and fine china, announced, “I’m pregnant.”
In the shocked silence, it was John’s expression that she’d wanted to see the most. He knew that she’d never wanted children, abhorred the idea.
He’d gone deathly pale, his dark eyes wide as the charger under his dinner plate. Then he’d met her gaze and held it, the look in his eyes hardening to flint.
Then they’d both known that she had him right where she wanted him.
“Congratulations!” her father had boomed into the stunned silence. “I, for one, couldn’t be happier.”
Her mother had smiled over at her, a triumphant twinkle in her eye as she gave her daughter a slight nod.
Meredith had kept a happy smile on her face all through dinner, but she’d worried that this would backfire on her and she would end up with a child she didn’t want and John gone.
When she’d mentioned this to her mother later in the kitchen, her mother had given her a rueful smile. “You know John. He has the spine of a jellyfish. That’s why you married him to begin with. He might leave you, but never if there is a child. John is brought to tears at the sight of kittens.”
“I hope you’re right, Mother.”
“A woman does what she has to do. Haven’t you learned that yet?”
Back in the dining room after dessert, her father-in-law had raised his glass in another toast. Meredith had noticed that her mother-in-law had been watching John from the stony expression on her face, her sentiments had been with her son—and didn’t include a grandchild. At least not with Meredith.
She’d once overheard John’s mother tell a friend, “I worry for John. Meredith is so…headstrong.”
The friend had laughed an
d said, “Headstrong? And as warm as a glacier. I can’t for the life of me understand what John sees in her.”
“I tried to talk him out of marrying her, but his father…” That’s when Fran Foster had looked up and seen Meredith and known that she’d heard every word. Their eyes had locked, and Meredith had let her know with just one look that she would always hate her.
After her announcement, Meredith had raised her water glass, wishing it were wine, and tried her best to look demure. Her hatred of Fran Foster was nothing compared to what she felt for John. He’d forced her into this. She planned to make his life a living hell.
“Thank you,” Meredith had said after John senior’s toast. “John and I couldn’t be happier. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
John being John had nodded. “We couldn’t be happier.”
ARLENE WAS GETTING ready for bed when she noticed there was a message from Sheriff Carter Jackson.
She dialed his home number at once, fearing the worst.
He answered on the second ring. “Arlene, I just wanted to ask if you’d heard from Charlotte.”
She had to sit on her bed, her legs were so weak. “Yes. That is, she called and sent a note. We found her car in a gully not far from here. She says she’s with the father of her baby.”
If the sheriff heard the hesitation in her voice, he didn’t react to it. “Good,” he said. “I’d hoped that was all it was. I’m going to be out of the office for the rest of the week, then two weeks on my honeymoon….”
“Your wedding. Yes.”
“But if you need me—”
“No. I’m fine.”
He seemed to hesitate. “Well, one of the deputies will be here, should anything arise.”
“Yes.” She thanked him for his call and hung up.
Exhausted, she crawled into bed and was almost asleep when she heard the deep throb of a motorcycle. She sat up as the noise grew louder, then died away to the chirp of crickets again.
Charlotte?
She jumped out of bed, pulling her robe around her as she headed for the front door. She stopped abruptly at the sound of a heavy tread on the porch steps.
Peering out the window, she saw the large shape of a man stop at the door and raise his hand to knock.
She opened the door to Charlotte’s former boyfriend, bracing herself for the worst.
“Don’t go off on me,” Lucas Bronson said, holding up both hands. He wore black leather pants and jacket, a red bandanna tied around his dark hair. “I come in peace.”
Arlene glared at him. “I thought we saw the last of you.” Lucas had been in and out of Charlotte’s life since she was fourteen. In and out of trouble during that same time, Lucas was the last person Arlene wanted to see, especially now. “Do you realize how late it is?”
Lucas smiled. He was a good-looking young man a year older than Bo. He came from a broken family—but then, few families weren’t broken, Arlene thought.
“I know it’s late,” he said. “I just need to see Charlotte. It’s important.”
“Yo, Lucas, my man!” Bo said from behind her as he pushed past to shake hands with the biker. “Hey, it’s good to see you.”
“Bo, please go back to bed. I need to speak to Lucas,” Arlene said.
Bo shot her a look, no doubt surprised by the calmness he heard in her tone. “What brings you back, man?”
“I need to see Charlotte,” Lucas said, craning to look past them into the house. “I hate to wake her, but it really is important.”
“I’m afraid—” Arlene began, but Bo cut her off.
“She took off, Luke. Nobody knows where she is.”
Lucas looked as if he’d been punched. “No way! She’s got to be really pregnant by now.”
“Eight months,” Arlene said, realizing as she said it that Charlotte had originally lied to her about how far along she was. She hadn’t been but a couple of months when she’d told Arlene she was four months along.
Lucas was shaking his head. “She’s got to be closer to nine months, since she’s carrying my kid.”
“What?” Arlene demanded.
“Didn’t she tell you?” Then he seemed to realize how ridiculous that was. “Sorry, I guess she probably didn’t. It’s my baby.”
“How do you know that?” Arlene demanded.
“She told me she was pregnant before I left.”
“But you left anyway?”
He had the good sense to look ashamed. “But I’m back now. I’m going to marry her.”
Arlene groaned. “Did Charlotte know this?”
“We talked about it. She wasn’t real keen on it. But I know I can talk her into it.”
Arlene tried to shake away the cobwebs in her brain. This didn’t make any sense. “I got a call from her saying she was with the baby’s father and they were making a new life for themselves.”
Lucas shook his head. “No way. Unless it’s that old guy she said she was going to get to pay for all her medical expenses.”
“Old guy?” Arlene echoed. Old as in thirtysomething John Foster?
Lucas ducked his head, realizing he’d said too much.
“Tell me. My daughter is missing. If you know anything…”
“She bedded some old guy. They didn’t…you know. She drugged him and made him think—”
“I get the picture,” Arlene snapped thinking if Charlotte was here, she’d ring her neck.
“Wow,” Bo said, sounding impressed by his sister’s antics.
“I thought I told you to go back to bed,” Arlene snapped at her son. “Lucas, you go wherever it is you go. But if you hear anything from Charlotte—”
“I’ll let you know. It’s weird. I haven’t heard from her in several days. I thought maybe she already had the baby.”
Several days? Charlotte had been in contact with him? Why, Arlene groaned, was this news to her? “Was she threatening to run away the last time you heard from her?”
“No. She said she’d changed her mind about, you know, hitting the old man up for money,” Lucas said. “She was thinking about giving the baby up for adoption. That’s when I realized I had to get back here and stop her.”
Great, Arlene thought. Charlotte actually had been listening to reason. Maybe there was cause for hope. Or not, she thought, remembering that Lucas had come home to stop her. And knowing Charlotte…
Back in the house, Arlene waited until the sound of the motorcycle faded before she picked up the phone and started to dial Hank’s number.
She put the phone back. She wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep and she desperately needed someone to talk to, but she didn’t want to do this over the phone. With luck, Hank would still be up. He’d told her once that he was a night owl.
She quickly dressed and drove to his ranch. While she’d never been inside, she’d seen the house from the road when it had belonged to some corporation that only used it a couple of weeks a year.
The lights were on, she saw with relief.
By the time she’d parked her pickup in front of the huge house and gotten out, Hank was standing on the porch, a dark, large silhouette against the lights inside.
The way he stood made her hesitate. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. It had been impulsive. Hadn’t she learned in the past where that kind of behavior got her? Maybe her children had inherited this behavior from her.
She stopped partway to the house. “Hank?”
“What’s going on?” he asked. He sounded as if he’d been drinking. Yes, this had been a bad idea.
“I…that is, I thought you might still be up. I hope you don’t mind me coming over.” She moved toward the porch. “Charlotte’s old boyfriend just stopped by. It seems she told him he is the baby’s father.”
“Do you believe him?” Hank asked as she climbed the wide steps to where he stood. She saw that he had a half-finished drink in his hand.
“I think it’s possible.” She told Hank about Charlotte’s plan. “Apparently she
drugged John Foster and made him think they slept together so she could later get money out of him. At least that’s the story she told Lucas, her biker boyfriend.”
Hank nodded but said nothing. He hadn’t invited her inside, either. Clearly he wasn’t happy to see her.
“I shouldn’t have come by so late,” she said.
“I’m sorry.”
“No,” he said. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
She’d warned him that her family was a train wreck, but it just got worse each day. Hank hadn’t signed on for this. She felt guilty. Worse, she’d known it was only a matter of time before he tired of the drama. She certainly had.
When he’d signed up for her rural Meet-A-Mate Internet dating service, he’d said he was retired, looking for someone to spend quality time with, like traveling around the world. He’d just wanted someone to date a few times, have some fun with—not to get roped into their problems.
“I should go,” she said and turned to leave.
“Arlene.” He seemed at a loss for words as she turned back, and suddenly she was scared of what he would say when he found them.
“I was going to call you,” he said finally. “I think we need to take a step back. It’s just that things have been happening so fast with us….”
She felt her heart drop. “You don’t have to explain. I understand.”
“It’s not you.”
Her smile hurt.
“Arlene, when I met you I thought I was ready to start dating, but—”
“My service will find you someone more compatible,” she said quickly. “Unless you want to cancel your membership. I’ll be happy to refund your money.”
“No. That is, I don’t want to date anyone else. But I don’t want you to lose money on me. I won’t break my contract.”
“I don’t need your money.” She warned herself not to say any more, but the words came out sounding as painful as they felt. “Or your sympathy. Isn’t that what these have been—pity dates?”
“You’re wrong. I thought I could do this, but…”