Navy SEAL Protector

by Bonnie Vanak

  “I agree she’s capable, I just need more of a motive.”

  “I agree with that, too. That’s why I called you. I want you to find out, either way. Was Tess murdered and if so, did Livia do it? Tess’s accident report said her car swerved off the road and there were no skid marks before she hit the pole.”

  “She was drunk.”

  “Something Livia would capitalize on.”

  Adeline seemed to ponder that awhile. “Who is she to you?”

  “Livia? Wrecker of my friends’ lives.” He knew several of the Colton clan. “Destroyer of a community I love. And someone who I know for a fact hated my wife—for whatever reason.”

  “You talk as though you know she’s still alive.”

  “I believe she is.”

  Again, she fell quiet and considered him. “Livia is dead, Jeremy.”

  “Livia has escaped capture before. She was on the run for months until she was found hiding in her La Bonne Vie estate. Her kids all thought she would finally go back to jail when the vehicle crashed and went into the river. Her body was never recovered.”

  “The SUV was swept downstream during a heavy storm. She’s probably buried in mud somewhere.”

  He enjoyed visualizing Livia dead under several feet of gooey mud. “Right where she belongs.” Was there a more fitting demise? “Ever since Tess’s accident, I’ve had a feeling she shouldn’t have died, that the accident seemed too staged, that she wouldn’t have driven into a pole. Livia never liked her. Now I find out Tess met with a man she never told me about. I just need answers. I need someone I can trust to look into it, to make sure she wasn’t murdered.”

  Her expression eased of skepticism. “All right. I can do that.” She picked up the padfolio and opened it. “What’s the local’s name? I’ll start there.”

  He sat back. “Good. Why don’t you pack some things and stay at my house until this is over?”

  She looked up from the padfolio. “Excuse me?”

  “If Livia is involved, this could put you in danger. Besides, when you aren’t busy investigating, I thought you could help me with Jamie. Spend some time with him. I had to let his nanny go for stealing some of Tess’s jewelry. Emily Stanton seemed like a nice woman, but I had her pegged all wrong.”

  “I’m not... I’m a private investigator, not a nanny.”

  He suspected she might react this way. She hadn’t seen Jamie in a long time. As his biological mother, she would have to have some kind of feelings on the matter, wouldn’t she? While he didn’t want to push too hard, concern for her safety was his primary motive. If Livia was involved, he needed to know Adeline and Jamie were safe and the only way to do that was to have her close to him.

  “I’ll pay you,” he said. “In addition to your investigation fee.”

  She looked down with a befuddled grunt.

  “Jamie would love to meet you.” His son had gone too long without a mother figure around.

  She looked up with only her eyes and he saw her reluctance. Is that the reason she stayed away after giving Jamie to him and Tess? Was it too painful to be with Jamie and know the boy didn’t belong to her? He’d often wondered. Not that he would have wanted her to be a permanent fixture. That might have been awkward, but a friendly visit every now and then would have been just fine.

  “Please.” He had to convince her. “You’re the only person who’s capable of helping me. I don’t trust anyone else.”

  After several seconds she closed her padfolio. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Then come over for dinner tonight. We can talk about strategy going forward. I’ll give you the name of the local then.”

  She half smiled, wry. “Are you bribing me?”

  He answered her smile with a grin. “Just giving you a little incentive.” If he was honest, he’d have just said yes.

  * * *

  Jeremy’s handsome grin stayed with Adeline long after she left his office. Dark stubble had begun to make its presence known and matched the black color of his hair and arches of his eyebrows. His playful but determined brown eyes and the deeper crease on the right side of his mouth haunted her thoughts most. Sitting in her four-door Audi A3 with the headlights off in case Jeremy watched for her, she gripped the steering wheel and looked at his house. She hadn’t driven up to the gated entry yet, just parked on the street to be sure of whether to do so.

  She could see his house through a stone pillar and iron fence, a veritable mansion by her standards. She had a nice house but it wasn’t big, just a fixed-up older colonial with two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. She could get lost in Jeremy’s house. On a huge plot of land where the nearest neighbor was a tee shot away, the modern English country manor had no front yard. Exterior light lit the impressive home. She pictured a carriage rolling to a stop before the arched front entrance, over square stone slabs that extended right up to the house with some kind of ground cover growing in the spaces between. Four symmetrical casement windows lined the first and second levels on each side of the door. This part of the house was made of varying earth-toned sedimentary stone blocks that gave it a rough texture. Three attic windows jutted out from a dark slate roof. The front of the house stood out from a recessed back portion made of much smoother, monotone stone.

  Was she really going to do this?

  Reaching over to her laptop case, she unzipped a pouch along the outer side. Pulling out the last photo Tess had sent her of Jamie, she stared at his one-year-old face. At the time, she’d thought sending the surrogate and egg donor a picture of her son odd. Why had Tess done it? Her note had said something to the effect of, “Thought you’d want to see what an angel we have, thanks to you.” She’d been tempted many times to reach out to Jeremy just so she could see her son again, but doing so would only make her want more. Had Tess sent the photo as a warning not to try to come see her baby? The original photo showed all three of them, Jeremy and Tess smiling, Jamie in Tess’s arms. Tess hadn’t struck her as that type of person, and she had to admit her reluctance to see Jamie had been the only thing that had kept her away—nothing Tess had done either intentionally or unintentionally.

  Now here she was, parked outside Jeremy’s house, knowing full well that she’d go inside and not leave, help him investigate Tess’s accident while they both watched over Jamie. The drug dealer she’d investigated had been arrested just this afternoon, so she had no other cases. That had only given her another reason to come here.

  Putting the photo back into the pouch, she was about to drive to the gated entry and onto the stone slabs when she noticed a car across the street. It hadn’t been there when she’d pulled up. In fact, it must have just pulled up. The headlights went out and no one left the vehicle.

  Adeline stayed in her car and watched.

  A few minutes later, a man got out and walked toward Jeremy’s property.

  Removing her pistol, Adeline loaded it and got out of her car. The man disappeared into the darkness along the fence lining Jeremy’s property.

  Adeline ran after him. Seeing him clear the fence, she did the same. On the other side, she saw the man go into a cluster of trees between Jeremy’s house and the one next door. At the trees, she hid behind a trunk and spotted the man continuing along the same line. He reached the backyard and stopped. Looking at the house where light shone from an upper level window. Jamie’s room?

  “Hey, you!” Adeline raised her weapon. “Don’t move!” She stepped out from the tree and walked toward the man.

  He ducked into the trees and ran.

  She ran into the trees after him, hoping to cut him off. She heard him crashing through the trees, breaking branches and shuffling leaves. When he stopped, so did she, taking cover behind a tree. Peering out, she searched the wooded area. She heard water flowing through a small stream. Jeremy lived on a large parcel of land in a wood
ed area of Shadow Creek. She moved forward slowly, listening and looking for a sign of the man.

  At the stream, she stopped. Downstream she saw several boulders rose above the surface of the water. He could have crossed there. She ran to the spot and hopped rocks to the other side. Lighting her flashlight, she searched the ground until she found a fresh footprint. Following them until they reached the fence. Climbing over, she ran back to her car. Before she reached the road, she heard the revving engine of a vehicle driving away. Just as she made it to the street, she saw the car that had parked across the street racing away in the other direction, too far to get a plate number.

  Why had that man been here? What would he have done if she hadn’t interfered? Hurt Jamie? Motherly instinct she could never shed after giving birth raced through her.

  Putting her gun back in its holster, she went to her car and drove through the open gate and parked on the stone slabs near the front door. No question about staying with them now...

  She took her luggage and laptop case to his door, ringing the bell. Jeremy answered and then smiled when he saw her luggage. He’d removed his suit jacket and tie, the top three buttons of his blue dress shirt undone to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of his chest. He looked stunning in a suit. She’d always thought so, but he wore more relaxed just as well.

  “I just chased a man through the trees.” She stepped inside as his pleased look faded; she took in the curving staircase to one side of the wide and high entry and the formal living room to the other. She could see a little of the grand family room through one archway and a dining room through the other. A huge, colorful abstract painting hung on the wall across from the front door, a light shining on it, and a console table beneath with a vase full of fresh flowers and a stack of books about art.

  “You what?”

  “Yeah.” She walked toward the family room, nervous over seeing Jamie again. “He got away before I could find out who he was.” But she would.

  “And you went after him yourself?”

  His house wasn’t anything she didn’t expect from someone with his kind of money. Functional leather furniture and a few tables were well placed with dashes of color. A large, round hanging light broke up the cavernous space and floor-to-ceiling windows would allow ample light in the morning. A table lined most of the back of the couch that separated this room from the magazine-worthy open kitchen with stainless steel appliances, white cabinets and marble countertops. The kitchen island sat six. Clean. Tidy. No clutter. She liked it.

  She completed her circle. “Should I have rung your bell first?”

  “Very funny.”

  She told him what happened, how she had seen the man and followed until he had raced away.

  “Someone must have started watching me. Maybe after discovering I hired you.”

  That could be true. Seeing his house for the first time had diverted her attention—that, and nervousness over seeing Jamie.

  “Nice place,” she said, more as a conversational statement, unable to ward off the impending moment when she’d meet Jamie, see him for the first time in two years.

  “Thanks.”

  His delayed response made her aware that he noticed her discomfort.

  “Daddy?”

  With a sharp pang bursting in her core, Adeline looked up at the railing of the loft and saw a three-year-old boy clutching one of the spindles. He wore jeans and a superhero T-shirt.

  Her chest froze. She struggled to breathe, or maybe her body had automatically made her conscious of the fact that she had to take deeper breaths and the reaction might be obvious to the astute observer. She didn’t care. She gobbled up the sight of the little boy, his full head of ruffled blond hair that reminded her of painful combings after a shower, his light blue eyes shaped like Jeremy’s but the exact color of hers. So much more, intangible and strumming a lovely tune in her.

  “Who’s that?” Jamie pointed to Adeline.

  She sensed his curiosity and it warmed her. Was he curious because she was a woman? He was too young when Tess died. Did he remember her at all? She doubted he remembered enough to make a significant conscious impact. He had to have dealt with some subliminal effects. Instinctually he’d feel the loss.

  “Hey, buddy, this is Adeline.”

  Jamie eyed Adeline and then turned to his father. “Can I have ice cream?”

  “Sure, come on down.”

  Adeline wondered if he said yes just to get the boy to come down and greet her. Her heart drummed anxiously until she put herself in check. She was there to help with a case, not take over the role of Jamie’s mother. She stood stiffly as he came down the stairs and emerged through the front entry. His little steps carried him toward her and he stared in shy absorption.

  “I don’t bring women here much,” Jeremy said. “I haven’t dated or anything.”

  After he lost his wife, Adeline could well understand. She wouldn’t think too long on why he hadn’t seen any women.

  “I’m a bit younger than his grandparents,” she said.

  “You’re not my grandma,” Jamie said, all in fun. He went to the freezer.

  Jeremy got a bowl and went about the task of scooping a small amount of ice cream while Adeline took advantage of the time to just stare at her son.

  Tess had been Jamie’s mother, but he was her son. She’d felt proud and sometimes sad because she wasn’t part of his life. She didn’t like thinking of Jamie as Tess’s son. She couldn’t quite let go of the fact that she’d had a son and he was being raised by his father and another woman. Tess hadn’t been able to have children of her own because of undiagnosed endometriosis. Adeline should be completely happy that she’d given the woman such a gift, not envious or regretful. Why did those thoughts plague her so much? She hadn’t been at a point in her life to care for a child. She had college ahead of her. She’d made the right decision, despite the occasional doubt that seized her.

  The only thing she might doubt...and even more, regret...was letting her fantasies of Jeremy take flight.

  Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  ISBN-13: 9781488016691

  Navy SEAL Protector

  Copyright © 2017 by Bonnie Vanak

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