Undercover Daddy (13 page)

Luke didn’t open the door. Instead, he went to the window and looked out. There was indeed a dark green two-door car parked just up the block.

Because he didn’t want to risk Brenda being shot, nor did he want to put Elaina at risk, he didn’t lower his gun, but he went to the front door, disengaged the security system and opened it. Brenda was there, looking a little harried and sweaty despite the near freezing temperatures.

Brenda had her hand in the pocket of her jogging jacket, and Luke made an immediate assessment that there was something wrong with her body language and stance. He caught on to her arm, hauled her inside and reached into her pocket. He retrieved a small handgun.

“What are you doing with this?” he demanded.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She pointed in the direction of the car. “There’s a shooter on the loose, and I wasn’t going to take any chances.”

Neither was Luke. He kept her gun and didn’t plan to return it until Brenda was on her way out. Even then, she might not get it back.

“Call the sheriff’s office,” Luke instructed Elaina. “Let them know we might have a problem.”

However, before Elaina could pick up the phone, Luke’s own cell phone rang. He handed Brenda’s gun to Elaina and answered it. He was careful though not to use his name because as far as he knew, Brenda still thought he was Daniel Allen. Luke wanted to keep it that way for a while so it would save him from being asked too many questions.

“Agent Buchanan,” the caller said. “This is Collena Drake. I saw your visitor and thought I should wait for her to leave before I come up to the house.”

“You’re in the two-door dark green car?” Luke asked.

“Yes. I came with a Justice Department agent. He’s going to guard the place while Elaina and you are here.”

Luke was relieved to hear those words. “I wouldn’t say no to that.” He paused. “Why’d you come to Crystal Creek?”

“We have something important to discuss.”

No relieved feeling this time. He didn’t like the sound of that. “I was just showing our guest out anyway. Give me a couple of minutes.”

Brenda flinched. “What do you mean you’re showing me out? I can’t go out there. The gunman—”

“That’s a federal agent and a former cop in the car. You’ll be safe.” He glanced at Elaina to let her know that the safety extended to her. “But, Brenda, I would like to know why you’re here.”

She squared her shoulders. “For Elaina, of course. I was worried about her.”

“There’s a lot of that going around,” Luke mumbled.

Here, he’d thought Elaina and he were going to get some quality search time, and instead they’d been bombarded with people. The only one he wanted to see was Collena Drake. She wouldn’t have come unless she had important information.

“I’ll go,” Brenda offered. “But just tell me where you’re staying so I’ll know how to get in touch with you.”

“We’ll be at my sister’s in Arkansas,” Luke readily answered.

It was obviously a lie, since he didn’t even have a sister, but a lie was as good as Brenda was going to get.

“Okay.” Brenda nodded. “So, you’re not planning on staying here?”

“No,” Elaina answered. “But there’ll be someone guarding the place until the investigation is finished.”

Another nod, this one was a little choppy. Brenda went to Elaina her and hugged her. She did the same to Luke, surprising him. And alarming him. He didn’t like a suspect being so close to his gun.

And speaking of guns, he had to take care of the matter of what to do with Brenda’s. Legally, he had no right to confiscate it. So, he walked Brenda to the door and handed her the weapon once they were outside on the porch.

“Who’s out there in the car?” Elaina asked the moment Luke closed the door behind Brenda.

“An agent and Collena Drake.”

The color drained from her face. “She’s not here to take Christopher?”

“Nothing like that.” But he couldn’t say what this conversation would entail.

He walked to the front window and looked out. So did Elaina. She stood right beside him. “Collena will come in soon,” Luke explained. “She just wants to make sure Brenda is gone first.”

Elaina didn’t say a word.

“Is anything wrong?” he asked. When the silence continued, he added another question. “Did you find anything in your bedroom?”

“Sort of. But it doesn’t apply to the investigation. It’s personal.” She paused. “We can discuss it after you talk to Ms. Drake.”

“That sounds ominous.” Another glance out the window, and he confirmed that Collena still hadn’t gotten out of the car. “It must really be bad.”

She opened her mouth, closed it and she stayed that way several moments before she finally spoke. “When I was in the bathroom, I saw a condom in your toiletry bag.”

It took him a moment to put two and two together.

Hell.

Luke tried to explain but soon realized he didn’t have a clue what to say. However, Elaina didn’t have any problem in that area.

“You know, if you didn’t want to have sex with me, that’s all you had to say.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. “What I got from you was a pity orgasm, and I don’t appreciate that.”

“There was no pity. Not on my part anyway.”

Oh, man. That was not the right thing to say. Her eyes narrowed, and her teeth came together. “It wasn’t pity on my part, either. I wasn’t playing a game while we were in the hall. Every emotion was real.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” she snapped. “Because I think you still believe that I’m trying to manipulate you into sharing custody of Christopher with me.”

Now that riled him. “I don’t think you’d use sex to do that, and trust me, I wouldn’t have kissed you or touched you if I’d thought that was on your mind. I might be attracted to you, but I don’t do all my thinking below the belt.”

“Then why lie about the condom?” she asked.

Well, he couldn’t just fire off an answer to that one. And it didn’t matter how he said this, it wasn’t going to sound good. Not to Elaina.

Probably not to himself, either.

“I didn’t want to lose focus on the investigation,” he told her. But that was only half the story, and judging from Elaina’s expression, she knew that. She deserved better. She deserved to hear the truth. “I was a terrible husband to Taylor. I was never there when she needed me.”

“And you thought…what—that I was looking for a husband? I’m a grown woman, and not once did I think you’d owe a marriage proposal if we had sex.”

Luke met her gaze. “But I thought maybe you’d think it was more than sex.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “Mercy! You don’t have much faith and trust in me. Don’t answer that. I know. I know. You really don’t know me well enough to have faith.” Elaina shook her head. “Luke, it’s all right if you don’t want a sexual relationship or for that matter, any other kind of relationship with me. Heck, I’m not sure I want one with you. But please don’t lie to me again. I’ve had enough of Kevin’s lies to last me a lifetime.”

“See? And that’s the point. We both have so much baggage. That’s why I didn’t go get that condom.”

She stayed quiet a moment. “I guess that’s the bottom line. Neither of us might be able to get past our pasts. At least I know where I stand now.”

No, she didn’t. Heck, Luke didn’t know where he stood. Or what he felt. He just knew that this wasn’t the time or the place. They had to concentrate on finding the people who wanted them dead. That was it.

That was the real bottom line.

Luke saw some movement out of the corner of his eye, and he spotted Collena Drake making her way across the yard toward the house. The conversation would have to wait.

He glanced at Elaina to tell her that, but her attention was already on the tall, rail-thin blonde approaching the porch steps. Collena was dressed in black pants and a turtleneck. Her calf-length leather coat was black, too. Ditto for the dark sunglasses. She looked as if she could have been on her way to a funeral, but each time Luke had seen her, she’d worn a similar outfit.

“So this is the person….” But Elaina didn’t finish that. Instead, she looked away.

Luke mentally finished the sentence for her. Elaina no doubt felt that Collena had ruined her life. Because Collena had helped him find his son, Luke had an entirely different opinion of the woman.

He opened the door to her, and they exchanged brief smiles as she entered. However, there was no joy in Collena Drake’s smile. She introduced herself to Elaina and pulled off those sunglasses. There was no joy there, either. Luke was betting that a lot of heart-breaking sadness had put that emotion in her brown eyes.

“I won’t stay long,” Collena started. She shook her head, declining to sit on the sofa when Elaina motioned in that direction. “I’ll tell you both what I’ve learned because it applies to this investigation.” But her eyes landed on Luke when she continued. “You know that the police exhumed your late wife’s body.”

Luke nodded. “They’re conducting another autopsy.”

She brought out an envelope from her pocket. “The coroner is finished. He did me a favor and put a rush on it.”

Luke took it and stared at it.

“I can give you the gist of it,” Collena said when he didn’t open it. “Taylor died from complications from a C-section. Basically, she got an infection, and her body didn’t respond to antibiotics. The infection caused organ damage and then kidney failure.”

Oh, man. That was hard to hear, but it also gave Luke some consolation. At least it didn’t appear to be murder.

“So that lets George Devereux off the hook,” Elaina concluded.

Collena nodded. “The coroner checked for negligence on the part of the hospital staff. In other words, they might have not taken full measures to stop the infection. His results are inconclusive. We might never know the answer.”

Yeah. And somehow Luke would have to learn to live with that. At the moment, however, he wasn’t even sure that was possible.

Since he had no choice, Luke sank down on the arm of the sofa. Elaina immediately went to him. She touched his arm and rubbed gently.

“Devereux might be off the hook,” Elaina said. “But that doesn’t explain who tried to kill us last night.”

Collena nodded. “The SAPD have a theory for that, too. The day that Luke came to Crystal Creek, two men matching the description of the guy with the eye patch and his blond partner were seen near the Cryogen Lab in San Antonio.”

Oh, this was not sounding good. “That’s where I took Christopher’s pacifier for the DNA test.”

“Yes. The police reviewed surveillance tapes, and they spotted the men in the parking lot just minutes before you picked up the test results. It looks as if they were waiting for you and perhaps even followed you.”

Luke shook his head. He was about to say that he would have noticed the men, especially if they’d followed him, but the truth was, he wasn’t sure of that. Seeing those DNA results had felt like sucker punch. It’d confirmed his worst fears and his greatest wish.

“How would these men have known to follow Luke?” Elaina asked.

“Maybe through the information I was posting about the investigation on my Web site,” Collena explained. “I have information there for parents who are still searching for their lost children. The two men could have realized that Luke was looking for you and his son, and they perhaps wanted to use Luke to get to you.”

He pushed his thumb against his chest. “I’m responsible for those men finding Elaina and Christopher.” He moved away when Elaina tried to continue to rub his arm. It was a loving gesture meant to soothe him, but he wasn’t in the mood to be soothed. He damn sure didn’t deserve any loving gestures from the very woman he’d nearly gotten killed.

“I’m sorry,” Collena said. “I wish there’d been an easier way to tell you this.”

She added a soft goodbye and quietly left.

Since Luke wasn’t sure he could move yet, he was thankful when Elaina went to the door to lock it and re-arm the security system. With his state of mind, he needed all the help he could get.

“Well, at least we know Devereux’s not the one who’s after us,” Elaina commented. She sounded hesitant as if she didn’t know what else to say.

Luke was right there, on the same page with her.

She walked closer, also hesitantly, and stopped just a few inches away. She didn’t reach out, didn’t touch, she just stood there until he looked at her.

“Say it,” Luke demanded. “Or slap me. Do something, anything, because I damn well deserve that and worse. I did this.” He pointed toward the boarded windows in the kitchen. “I nearly got you killed.”

“No. A gunman nearly got us killed.”

Sympathy. Luke wasn’t in the mood for it. “I brought them to your doorstep.”

Elaina shrugged. “They would have found me eventually.”

“You don’t know that,” he fired back.

“Oh, but I do. Remember, I lived with a criminal so I know how they think. Those software modifications are obviously worth a lot, and this T and his henchmen weren’t going to give up their search.”

Now, she touched him, putting her hand on his shoulder. “Look, I know you’re beating yourself up, and I doubt I can say or do anything to convince you otherwise, so just listen. Those men would have found me. Now, what if that had happened after you’d taken Christopher and were no longer around? I seriously doubt the shooter would have been content to fire through the windows. No. The shooter would have waited for a clean shot and would have killed me so he or she could walk inside and search the place.”

He wanted to refute that. Man, did he. He wanted to slap this blame right back in his own face. But he couldn’t. Not about that particular point anyway. Because Elaina was right. These guys had taken massive risks with the shooting, and people like that usually did whatever it took to get the job done.

That put a fistlike grip around his heart. He could almost see it. Elaina alone under attack.

She put her other hand on his arm and curved her fingers around his bicep. “You know what I’m saying is true.”

He didn’t nod, didn’t agree and he couldn’t get those images of her out of his head.

“There are a lot worse things in life than having you here with me,” Elaina said, her voice whispery and filled with breath.