Security Blanket (10 page)

“There is an alternative, something that might help you keep custody.”

“What? I’ll do anything.” Marin was certain she sounded as desperate as she felt.

Lucky looked her straight in the eyes. “You can marry me.”

L
UCKY WATCHED HIS
marriage proposal register in Marin’s eyes. He’d dumbfounded her. She didn’t utter a sound. Her mouth dropped open a little, and it stayed in that position while she stared at him.

“It makes sense,” he insisted. “If we’re married and I make it known that I intend to legally adopt Noah, then how could a judge object?”

But Lucky could think of a reason: Marin’s parents were paying the judge so well that the man would find a way around the law. However, a maneuver like that would be temporary at best and highly illegal. Even this judge couldn’t be out of reach from the state attorney general or Justice Department. Just like Duran, Lucky intended to use both if it came down to it.

“Marriage?” Marin finally mumbled. “That wasn’t something I’d considered.”

“I know. We’ve been in overload mode since we first met.” Unfortunately, there were worse things to think about than temporarily losing custody of Noah.

Marin and Noah were in danger.

Marriage wouldn’t keep them from a killer, but it would give Marin a little breathing room. He also hoped it wouldn’t create a new set of problems. After all, Marin and he were attracted to each other. A marriage of convenience would muddy already murky waters.

She shook her head, but Lucky couldn’t tell from her stunned expression exactly what she was thinking. She opened her mouth to answer, but she didn’t get to utter a word before his cell phone rang.

“Blocked number,” he mumbled, glancing down at the caller ID screen. And he immediately thought of his sister. Was she trying to contact him? “Bacelli,” he answered.

But it wasn’t his sister’s voice he heard.

“Mr. Bacelli, this is Brenna Martel. Your sister and I worked together for Dexter Sheppard.”

Well, that was certainly a voice he hadn’t expected to hear. But it was welcome.

“I know who you are.” He didn’t want to put the call on speaker in case Marin’s parents were still around, but he motioned for Marin to move closer so she could hear this. “I thought you were dead.”

“A lot of people think that.”

Of course, Lucky wondered why she was calling and if this call was related to the attempts to kill Marin and him. But right now, he had a more pressing question. “Is Kinley alive?”

Silence. Lucky held his breath. Beside him, Marin was doing the same.

“I’d rather not say anything about Kinley,” Brenna finally answered.

“You don’t have a choice. I want to know if my sister is alive, and you’re going to tell me.”

“Not over the phone,” Brenna maintained, though her voice was shaky and hardly there. “It isn’t safe. The less I say, the safer it will be for me. Someone wants me dead.”

“Welcome to the club,” Lucky snarled. “Your safety isn’t my top priority, so start talking. I want to know if Kinley is alive and if so, where she is.”

“No answers over the phone. I want to meet with you and Marin Sheppard.”

Lucky didn’t bother to suppress a groan. “I’ll just bet you do. That way you can get another crack at trying to kill us.”

“It isn’t me who wants you dead.” Despite that whispery, weak voice, Brenna sounded adamant. However, that didn’t mean she was telling the truth. Killers were often very convincing liars.

“If not you, then who?” Lucky demanded.

“I don’t know. Dexter, maybe. Or someone connected to him. Possibly even Grady Duran. God knows he’s furious with everyone right now. I have information, or rather pieces of information, and I don’t know how they all fit. That’s why I need to see you. We have important things to discuss that involve both of you.”

Lucky had to pause a moment to gather his composure. He wanted to know about Kinley, but this sounded a lot like suicide. “You must think Marin and I are fools. Meet with you so you can ambush us?”

“Fool or not, if you want to know about your siblings, you’ll see me. Tomorrow morning, 6:00 a.m., at the abandoned drive-in theater. You must arrive together, without the sheriff or anyone else. And if you’re carrying a weapon, hold it high so I can see it. Because I don’t want to be ambushed, either.”

With that, Brenna Martel hung up.

“The drive-in is on the edge of town,” Marin immediately supplied, letting him know that she’d managed to hear the conversation. “It’s surrounded by a flat field. Last time I saw it, the big screen and the concession stand were still there, but little else. In other words, there aren’t many places a person could hide to ambush us.”

Lucky was already shaking his head before Marin even finished. “I can’t risk taking you out there. Heck, I can’t risk taking you out of this house after what happened on our little walk this morning.”

She caught on to his shoulders. “You can’t miss this meeting, either. Lucky, this could be your best chance to find your sister and for me to know once and for all what happened to Dexter.”

He made sure there was plenty of sarcasm in his voice. “You want to meet a potential felon who might have not only faked her own death and stole a chemical weapon, but also tried to kill us twice?”

Marin lifted her shoulder. “What’s the alternative? Not ever knowing? Running? Hiding? Brenna Martel might have what we need to stop all of this. She could end the danger so that I can safely get out of here with Noah.”

He couldn’t argue with that. “Then, I’ll go meet with her. I’ll hear what she has to say and come back here to tell you.”

She cocked her head to the side. “You heard what she said. This meeting will only happen if we’re both there.”

“Yeah, so it’ll be easier for her to kill us.”

“Not if we take precautions. I know that drive-in. We used to go there when I was a kid.” Marin caught on to his arm when he started to move away. “We can arrive ahead of time, hours before Brenna will be expecting us, and stake out a safe place to wait for her.”

Lucky couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Or what he was thinking. God, was it even something he should consider?

How could he not?

Judging from the determined look in Marin’s eyes, she felt the same. He cursed under his breath. “It’s still too dangerous.”

“Yes. But you can make it less dangerous. This is what you do. You know ways to minimize the risk.”

“Yeah. And you staying here at the house is the best way to do that.”

“No.” Marin let that hang in the air. “Nowhere is safe until we learn who’s trying to kill us. And if it’s Brenna, then maybe it’s time for a showdown.”

“A showdown?” He threw his hands in the air. “With you in the frickin’ middle?”

“With us in control of the situation.” She pressed her fingers to his mouth to stop more of his protest. “We have to do this, so no more arguing. Instead, let’s figure out how we can make this as safe as possible.”

He saw it then. The sheer determination on her face. Marin wasn’t going to back down from this. Worse? He couldn’t let her back down. Because she was right—they had to know the truth.

“I’ll set up a safety net. Some security,” he said thinking out loud. “I’ll get someone to provide backup so we’re not out there alone.”

“Does that mean we’ll meet her?”

Lucky cursed again. There was really only one answer he could live with. “Yes.”

He only hoped that he wasn’t leading them straight to their deaths.

“I need to make lots of calls,” he explained. “I have a PI friend who can get us some monitoring equipment so that no one can sneak up on us out there.”

He would have added more if he hadn’t heard footsteps. At first he thought the doctor was coming out of the office, but the footsteps came from the other direction.

Lucky pushed Marin behind him and drew his gun.

Just as Howard and Lois stepped into the hallway.

Lucky didn’t put his gun away, and he hoped his glare conveyed his displeasure over what the two were trying to do to their daughter.

“Dr. Blevins just called me on my cell,” Howard announced. He kept his attention nailed to Lucky. “He’s writing his report now, but he wanted to give us a heads-up about the lie you told. Now, who the hell are you? I know for a fact you’re not Randall Davidson.”

“Guess there’s no such thing as confidentiality when it comes to Blevins,” Lucky grumbled. That was something else he could mention to the state attorney general. “My name is Lucky Bacelli.”

“Marin, how could you do this?” her mother asked, snapping her attention to her daughter. “You hired this man, this imposter, so that we’d think Noah had a father?”

Lucky spoke before Marin could. “Noah does have a father.
Me.
My feelings for Noah aren’t based on DNA. Good thing, too. Because after meeting you guys, I think that whole DNA connection thing is highly overrated.”

Lois stiffened while her husband just stood there and stewed. “Judge Carrick will hear about your lies,” she threatened. “You’re obviously not thinking straight.” She kept her eyes trained on Marin. “If you had been, you wouldn’t have brought this imposter into our home. I don’t care what he claims his feelings are for Noah. This is a sham of a relationship.”

“A sham?” Marin stepped out from behind him and faced her parents. “For the record, Lucky asked me to marry him.”

With Brenna’s phone call, Lucky had nearly forgotten that. Though it was another critical cog in this complicated wheel they were building.

“You turned him down, of course,” her father issued like a warning.

Marin’s chin came up. “Actually, I hadn’t given an answer yet. But now is as good a time as any.” She turned, leaned in and kissed him. A real kiss like the one they’d shared in the closet.

“Yes, Lucky,” Marin said. “I’ll marry you.”

Marin waited, something she seemed to have been doing for hours.

Lucky was on the phone. She only hoped his efforts paid off and that this meeting with Brenna Martel ended with them alive and with crucial answers about Dexter and Kinley.

Lucky had certainly taken every conceivable precaution to assure their safety. It was midnight, a full six hours before the scheduled meeting. They weren’t at the drive-in, but rather parked across the field, with their car nestled in some trees. Marin was armed with one of the handguns she’d taken from the ranch. Lucky had his own weapon and a backup that he’d slipped into an ankle holster.

To make sure they were safe and not sitting ducks in the field, Lucky had rigged the area around the car with a motion detector that he’d had delivered to the ranch. With the detector activated, no one would get close enough to ambush them without him finding out.

Lucky had called Dr. Blevins and the judge. There was no word yet on the outcome of the so-called hearing. No decision about custody. It was a reprieve, but it wouldn’t last. Marin needed to make some decisions before the judge made them for her and took her son.

But what were the right decisions?

Lucky was obviously on the same wavelength because in the middle of all this chaos, he’d made wedding plans. Right after announcing to her parents that she’d accepted Lucky’s proposal, he’d taken her to town to see the justice of the peace and arranged for a marriage license. And he’d done that without so much as a flicker of emotion. If was as if he’d gone on autopilot.

Get safety equipment. Check.

Call the PI. Check.

Set up security for meeting. Check.

Marry Marin. Check.

It was stupid for that to sting. After all, Lucky was doing her a huge favor by marrying her. Or rather letting her parents
think
he was going to marry her. She wasn’t sure he’d actually go through with it. After all, he wouldn’t exactly jump at the chance to have a loveless marriage all because he cared for her son.

Marin wondered if there was more to his feelings.

Those kisses had confused her. And they’d made her burn. There was definitely physical attraction there between them. But that would only give her hope about having a real relationship with Lucky, which just wasn’t a good idea. The timing was all wrong. She already had too many things to deal with. Lucky did, as well.

“You’re positive there’s no one around the drive-in?” Lucky asked.

Though Marin couldn’t hear the answer, she knew that Lucky was talking to Burney Rickman, a San Antonio PI who had arrived earlier with a carload of security equipment. Lucky had told her that he trusted this man with his life. That was good because even though they had no choice about this meeting, they might need assistance to stay alive.

Thankfully, Noah was back at the ranch with her grandmother and a deputy that Sheriff Jack Whitley had sent over to guard them and the rest of the place. As a backup, her grandmother had an old Smith &Wesson that she definitely knew how to use. Still, Marin was eager to get this meeting over and done so she could get back to Noah, especially since her parents were also at home.

“Burney doesn’t see anyone around the drive-in or in the concession stand, and he’s searched the entire place,” Lucky relayed to her when he finished the call. “He’s also using equipment to make sure no one has set up surveillance cameras. If they have, he said it must be low-tech because his equipment’s not picking up anything.”

“Maybe the meeting is just that. A meeting. Maybe Brenna doesn’t have anything up her sleeve.” But Marin couldn’t trust that. They had to stay vigilant when and if they ever went into that drive-in to talk to her.

It was entirely possible that Brenna wouldn’t show.

And if so, they were back to square one.

Lucky’s phone rang again, and he immediately glanced down at the caller ID screen. “It’s Cal Rico from the Justice Department. I asked him to call if he found out anything about Brenna or Kinley.”

Apparently, he had.

“I see,” Lucky said to the Justice Department agent a moment later. Lucky sounded puzzled. “But it was my sister’s blood on the floor of that research facility.”

The comment had Marin moving across the front seat so she could hear what was being said. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t cooperate. Winter had decided to return in full force, and the wind was howling right out of the north. Added to that was the sound of the overhead swishing tree limbs, so she didn’t catch a word.

Lucky finally pressed the end-call button and slipped the phone back into his jacket pocket. “Cal Rico ran the surveillance disk from the train through some facial recognition software. It was a high percentage match for Kinley.”

No wonder Lucky looked so shell-shocked. “You said something about the blood on the floor?”

Because of the full moon, she had no trouble seeing his expression. That call had not been good news. “Cal had the blood from the research lab retested. It belonged to Brenna and Kinley all right, but there was a preservative present. They didn’t find the preservatives in the earlier tests because they weren’t looking for it.”

Marin shook her head. “What does that mean?”

“Someone could have stockpiled their blood, possibly without their knowledge if they thought they were donating to a blood bank. Then the person could have used it to fake their deaths.” Lucky paused. “Of course, they could have faked it themselves.”

Oh, mercy. That put his sister not only alive, but in the thick of what could be the cover-up to a crime. “It doesn’t mean she’s behind the attempts to kill us,” Marin pointed out. “She could be a pawn in all of this.”

Anything was possible, including the prospect that her own brother was the one who was manipulating this situation. Though she didn’t want to believe that, Marin had to at least consider the possibility. To do otherwise might be a fatal mistake.

“Just focus on what we can control,” Lucky said. But it seemed as if he was trying to convince himself along with her. “Once we know the outcome of this meeting, we’ll deal with the individual issues.”

“Like the wedding.”

Marin hadn’t intended to say it aloud. It just sort of popped out of her mouth. And it earned her a puzzled stare from Lucky.

Since the subject was out there, seemingly coiled and ready to strike, and since they appeared to have several hours of free time on their hands, Marin continued. “You know a wedding might not do any good. I mean, my parents will probably just look for another way to challenge me for custody of Noah.”

He made a sound that could have meant anything. “You’re afraid of marrying me.”

She thought about that a moment. “I’m afraid of us.”

Lucky had apparently thought about that, too. “Yeah.”

Marin thought it best to leave that comment alone. But she didn’t. “I can’t fall for you.”

“Same here.”

Surprised at his blatant honesty, she took a deep breath. “Good.” They were in agreement.

Then, she made the mistake of looking at him. There he sat, looking hotter than any man had a right to look. He certainly had her number. He could take her mind off anything and move it straight to where it shouldn’t be.

Specifically, on having down-and-dirty sex with him. She wasn’t exactly the dirty-sex type, but he certainly put some bad ideas in her head. They must have crept into his mind, too, because he cursed. Something sexual and rough.

“I’m thinking about kissing you,” he said.

“I’m thinking about it, too,” Marin admitted. It was a stupid admission, but he could no doubt see and feel the need inside her.

He gripped the steering wheel. “How much are you thinking about it?”

She noted his white knuckles. His rapid breath. “As much as you are.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. Groaned. And when he opened his eyes again, he reached for her.

It wasn’t a slow, fluid motion. It was frantic and hungry and totally out of control. Exactly the way that Marin wanted it to be. Their arms tangled around each other, and lowering his head, he placed his mouth solidly on hers.

Lucky nudged her lips apart, though it didn’t take much effort. She was ready to give him everything, even though she knew that wasn’t possible here in the car. This car was her safety net. A way of counting to ten. Because Lucky wouldn’t let things go too far.

Would he?

The whole forbidden fantasy thing spiked the heat. Lucky was the ultimate forbidden fantasy.

He pushed open her coat and slipped his hand inside to cover her breast. His touch was clever, wonderful, and he somehow managed to caress her nipple through her bra. Coupled with the fiery effects of his mouth, it sent her need soaring.

“We’re in the car,” she reminded him when he paused long enough for her to catch her breath.

“Yeah. I’m keeping watch.”

She opened her eyes to see if he was truly managing to do that. He was. Damn him, he was. Here she was, body on fire, wishing she could strip him naked, and somehow he was kissing her, pinching her nipple
and
keeping watch.

For some reason, that riled her. Or maybe it just made her feel as if she weren’t doing her part. “I’ll watch,” she insisted.

And because of her aroused, ornery mood, she slid her hand down his chest to his stomach. But her wrist brushed against the most aroused part of him.

Lucky sucked in his breath. “You can’t do that.”

“I’m keeping watch.” Oh, it felt so good to say that and see the tormented pleasure on his hot face.

“We can’t have sex in this car,” he insisted.

“No. We shouldn’t even be kissing.”

She couldn’t argue with that. So, they sat there. Staring at each other.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she mumbled. It seemed the threat of danger wasn’t enough to cool them down. “Someone could come at us any minute,” Marin reminded him.

“The PI would alert us.” His mouth inched toward hers again. “And while I’d like nothing more than to be inside you right now, I don’t want to have to multitask while we’re having sex.”

He continued to stare at her. His mouth moved a little closer. His hand slid up her jeans-covered thigh. Her breath stalled in her throat as his fingers touched her.

Marin could have sworn that her jeans dissolved off her. His touch felt that intimate, like breath against skin. She melted, her body preparing itself for more.

Which it wasn’t going to get, of course. She repeated that to herself.

“Keep watch a second,” Lucky instructed.

Before she could ask why, Lucky pushed her against the inside of the door, lowered his head and replaced his fingers with his mouth.

True, there was denim between his mouth and her sex, but he managed to make her feel ready to climax.

“Keep watch,” Lucky repeated.

“I can’t see,” she warned.

He chuckled, and his warm breath and the vibration of his laughter creating some very interesting ripples in her body.

Lucky made his way back up. Kissed her mouth again. Then, her cheeks. All the while, he continued surveillance around them.

“This is driving me crazy,” she said. “You know that?”

His phone rang, the sound slicing through the car and causing Marin to jump. Just like that, the lightness and the heat between them evaporated. Her heart immediately went into overdrive, and they pulled apart.

Lucky blew out several quick breaths to clear his head, and answered the call, clicking the speaker function. “It’s Burney Rickman,” the PI said. “A car’s headed this way.”

Thank God at least one of them was actually keeping an eye on things.

Marin fixed her clothes, tried to fix her brain and peered out into the darkness. “I don’t see anything.”

“The driver has the car headlights turned off,” the PI provided.

In other words, the person didn’t want anyone to know she was approaching. Did that mean Brenna had arrived five hours early so she could set a trap for them? Or like them, was she getting a head start to ensure she didn’t die tonight? After all, Brenna probably didn’t trust them any more than they trusted her.

There was a slight clicking sound. “I have another call,” Lucky told the PI. “Stay low. I don’t want you spotted.” He pressed the button to answer it.

“I know you’re here,” the caller said. It was a woman.

“Brenna Martel,” Lucky supplied to Marin.

“I set up some small surveillance cameras in the surrounding area before I even phoned you for the meeting,” Brenna explained. “So, I know what’s going on. Who’s the big guy with the gun trying to hide in the drive-in?”

Lucky hesitated and looked as if he wanted to curse. “A PI friend. He won’t hurt you.”

“I’m not willing to take that chance. Tell him to leave now.”

“I will if you’ll tell me what this meeting is all about.”

Now, it was Brenna’s turn to hesitate. A moment later, Marin heard another voice. Another woman.

Definitely not Brenna.

“Lucky?” the woman said, her voice little more than a raspy whisper. “It’s me. Kinley.”

Lucky’s sister.

“I need you to do exactly as Brenna says,” Kinley warned. “If not, I’m afraid she’ll kill us all.”