Undercover Daddy
“What did these guys want?” he asked.
“I don’t know. But I think it had something to do with some computer software that Kevin was modifying for someone he only ever referred to as T. Maybe those men were associated with this T, or maybe they thought I had the modifications or Kevin’s research notes. I didn’t.” She snagged his gaze. “I really don’t know anything about my late fiancé’s criminal activity, okay? But I’ve paid for it. I’ve paid dearly by losing my home, my friends and by having to recreate a life among strangers.”
Luke wasn’t unaffected by the weariness and pain he heard in her voice, but he pushed aside any sympathy he was feeling by reminding himself of what this woman had done.
She’d robbed him of his life.
“What about the illegal adoption?” he asked. Not easily. It was almost impossible to keep the emotion out of it. “Have you paid for that, too?”
She blinked and pulled in her breath. “How did you know about the adoption?”
“I know a lot about you, Laina Marie McLemore. You’re twenty-eight. Born in Bulverde, Texas. A rancher’s daughter, though both your parents are dead. I can tell you the name of your third-grade teacher and what you had for dinner last night. What I’m trying to figure out if you were the mastermind behind Arneson’s illegal ventures, or were you just along for the very lucrative ride?”
“I knew nothing about Kevin’s business dealings or the legality of the adoption.” And she was adamant about it, too.
Luke continued to push. “But you went along with it?”
“Unknowingly went along with it,” she corrected.
When she didn’t say more, he made a circular motion with his hand for her to continue.
She started with a huff. “Kevin was sterile, we wanted a baby, and he didn’t want me to use donor sperm to get pregnant. He’s the one who arranged for the adoption through an attorney in San Antonio. I didn’t know it was illegal, not until months after Kevin was murdered, when I read about the illegal adoption ring in the paper. Even then, I didn’t know that’s how Kevin had gotten Christopher.”
“But you suspected it,” he accused her.
“No, I didn’t. Not until I saw the name of the attorney who’d been arrested. By then, it was too late. I was already in hiding. I’d already established a life here in Crystal Creek. And I knew if I didn’t stay hidden, those men would come after me—”
“Ah, the men again,” he mocked. “They’re getting a lot of playtime in this fantasy world of yours. And it’s because of these men that you fled San Antonio and went into hiding.”
“Yes.” She paused. “You don’t believe me?”
“No, but that’s not important. The important thing is that after a year of digging, I found you.”
“Lucky me,” she grumbled. She turned in the seat so she was facing him. Her loose, well-worn jeans and dark red cotton shirt whispered against the vinyl seat. Her breath whispered, too. There was more weariness in it, but Luke could see her fighting it off. “Now, it’s your turn to answer some questions. Who are you and what do you want?”
“I’m Luke Buchanan.” Since the truth would no doubt speed this along, he added, “I’m a federal agent with the Department of Justice.”
She put her hand over her heart as if to steady it. “Prove it.”
The crisp demand had him doing a double take. For a weary lying woman, she certainly had a lot of resolve left. “Prove what?”
“Show me a badge or some kind of ID.”
Jeez. Why couldn’t she just confess all?
Irked, Luke reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his badge. She took it, stared it and even scraped her thumbnail over the picture. Not just once. But twice.
“It’s real,” he assured her.
She must have agreed because she thrust it back at him. What he wouldn’t tell her, yet, was that while the badge was real, this wasn’t official Justice Department business.
No.
This was as personal as personal could get.
“I suppose you’re here to arrest me for the illegal adoption?” she asked.
“That all depends.”
“On what?” Finally, there was slip in her resolve. Her voice cracked.
“You.” He came to stop in front of the house, turned off the engine and stared at her.
Probably because she hadn’t taken her eyes off him, she hadn’t realized where he’d taken her. She glanced out the window for a second before she snapped her head back in his direction. “This is my babysitter’s house. What are we doing here?”
He turned toward her so he could see every nuance of her reaction. “Why do you think I’m here?”
“Oh, no.” She began to shake her head. “I can’t let you do this. You can’t arrest me. You don’t understand— he’s my son. I’ve raised him since he was three days old. I’m the only mother he’s ever known.”
“Believe me, I know that.”
And that was the only reason he hadn’t had Laina McLemore arrested.
“I won’t let you take him from me,” she insisted.
“You have no choice.” And he was just as adamant.
“But you do.” Her bottom lip began to tremble, and she gripped the sides of his leather jacket. “You can walk away from this. You can pretend you never found me.”
Luke had thought he would be immune to a reaction like that, but he wasn’t. “I can’t do that.”
The grip she had on his jacket melted away, and she touched her fingers to her mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes. “Oh, God. The birth parents know about Christopher, and they want him back.”
“His birth mother is dead.” Luke had to take a deep breath after saying that. And another deep breath before he could continue. “But his birth father does indeed want him back.”
Twin tears spilled down her cheeks. “Then, I need to talk to him. I need to make him understand how much Christopher means to me.”
“You’re already talking to him, and there’s nothing you can say or do to make me change my mind. Christopher is my son.”
Chapter Three
Elaina’s breath vanished. And her heart. God, her heart. It was pounding so fast and hard that she thought her ribs might crack.
This was her nightmare come true. Well, one of them anyway. The only thing worse than this would be another attack from those men. But this was an attack of a different kind.
Luke Buchanan was Christopher’s birth father.
Or was he?
On the surface it seemed stupid to challenge him, but she was desperate. “Why should I believe you?” she asked. “Show me some proof that he’s your son.”
She figured that might buy her some time. It didn’t. As if he’d anticipated the question, he calmly reached inside his leather jacket and produced a manila envelope. Elaina also noticed the gun tucked in a leather shoulder holster. It looked as authentic and official as his badge. Luke Buchanan seemed to be the real deal.
“Let me start with how I found out that you had my son. A woman named Collena Drake, a former cop, has been digging through the hundreds of files left by the criminals who orchestrated the adoptions, among other things. She got in touch with me and was able to tell me the names of the couple who’d illegally adopted Christopher.”
“Collena Drake could have been wrong,” Elaina offered. “And the records could have been wrong, too. After all, the people who put them together were criminals. You just said so yourself.”
He ignored her, opened the envelope and extracted a picture. “That’s Taylor, my late wife.”
Elaina took the photo from him, dreading what she might see. It was the picture of a couple on their wedding day. The bride, dressed in white, was a beautiful brunette. The groom, Luke Buchanan, wore a tux.
“That’s still not proof,” Elaina insisted.
Luke Buchanan’s calm demeanor remained in place. From the envelope, he produced a marriage license. He placed it on the seat between them. Elaina was about to repeat her doubt, but the next document kept her quiet.
It was a lab slip indicating a positive pregnancy test.
The date on the slip was eight months prior to Christopher’s birth.
“In addition to the lab results, this is a report that details how I learned about what happened to Taylor and our baby.” He plopped the stapled pages onto the stack. “There’s an eyewitness account of Taylor arriving at the Brighton Birthing Center just outside San Antonio. She was in labor. The eyewitness helped her into the E.R. section of the building and then left. All of this happened August eleventh of last year.”
That information hit her hard. Because August eleventh was Christopher’s birthday. And his place of birth was indeed the Brighton Birthing Center. Still, Elaina wasn’t going to accept this blindly.
“Eyewitness accounts can be falsified,” she countered.
“Not this one. It came from the cab driver who took Taylor from our house to the birthing center. He has absolutely no reason to lie.”
She swallowed hard. “Maybe not, but that still doesn’t prove Christopher is your son. There were probably dozens of babies born that day.”
“Three.” He paused a heartbeat and snagged her gaze. “But only one boy. Seven pounds, four ounces. Twenty-one inches long. Sound familiar?”
Oh, mercy. It did.
Elaina felt the tears burn hot in her eyes, and she didn’t even try to fight them back.
“Take a good look at that photo,” he said, fishing out the wedding picture from the pile. “You’ll see that Taylor and I are Christopher’s birth parents.”
Though it was nearly impossible to see clearly through the thick tears, Elaina did study the photo he handed her. Luke and Taylor Buchanan were both brunettes. As was Christopher. And though she hadn’t made the connection when she first met Agent Buchanan, she could see it now.
Christopher had his eyes.
Except on her son, the color seemed softer. Kinder. Rainy-cloud-gray, she’d whimsically called them. It was ironic to see those same eyes on this man who could destroy her.
And there was no doubt about it—losing Christopher would destroy her.
That’s why Elaina didn’t give up. She couldn’t. He’d made a good case, but other than the similar eyes, he certainly hadn’t proven anything.
“Why did your wife have to take a taxi to the Brighton Birthing Center?” she asked. “Where were you during all of this?”
“I was on a deep-cover assignment trying to stop a terrorist attack.” A muscle flickered in his jaw. “Taylor and I were having problems, and we’d gotten a legal separation right before I left. I didn’t know she was pregnant until after I returned. Then, I learned she’d died of complications from a C-section. I also learned that the baby, our son, had been adopted, but the records had supposedly been destroyed. The records didn’t surface until the police busted the illegal operation and Collena Drake decided to devote all her time to locating the missing kids. That’s why it took me this long to find you.”
Each word added dead weight to her heart. Because this was unfortunately all starting to make sense.
“I found you eight days ago,” he continued. The calm façade seemed to slip a little. There was a touch of hot, raw emotion in his voice. “And I put you under surveillance.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know.”
“Of course, you didn’t. I do a lot of surveillance in my job, and I’m very good at it.”
No doubt. It riled her that someone had been able to intrude into her life without her even realizing it. That gave her the resolve she’d been searching for. “So, you watched me and decided to step into my fake life and pretend you’re my husband?”
He nodded. “You made it easy for me to do that. I had a fellow agent ask around town. He pretended to be interested in having some church windows repaired. And he learned there were no photos of your fake spouse. No specific physical accounts or descriptions. No one around here seemed to know what Daniel Allen looks like.”
“I didn’t want anyone comparing the photo to Christopher. Since he doesn’t look like me, I just told people that he took after his father.” Elaina paused and tried to fight off the dark reality she felt closing in around her. “And maybe he does.”
“Maybe? You still have doubts after everything I’ve shown you?”
“I have to have doubts.” She slapped her hand on the documents he’d shown her. “Doubts are the only thing that prevents me from screaming and running inside to hide my son from you. Besides, you have no DNA proof—”
“I do have proof. I got back the results about two hours ago. That’s why I’m here.”
There was no way Elaina could have braced herself for the final paper that he took from the envelope. She shook her head when he tried to hand it to her, but he finally dropped it onto her lap.
She had no choice. Even though she didn’t want to look at it, her eyes refused to cooperate. It was indeed a DNA test, and it identified Luke Buchanan as the father of one Christopher Allen.
That put another fracture in her heart.
“This can’t be accurate,” she challenged. “You don’t have Christopher’s DNA so you had nothing to make the comparison.”
But his expression said differently. “After I found you, I took a pacifier that Christopher had left in his car seat. And before you accuse me of breaking and entering, I didn’t. I had a warrant.”
She hadn’t thought it possible, but her heart pounded even faster. Elaina frantically searched for holes in his case and found one. “If you have this proof,” she said picking up the DNA test, “then, why pretend to be my long-lost husband?”
“Because there’s something I need from you.”
He let that hang between them for several moments before he scooped up all the papers and put them back into the envelope. “Here’s what’s going to happen—we’ll go inside and you’ll make introductions. To the sitter and especially to my son. For the next few days, I’ll pretend to be the husband that you’ve so cleverly created.”
But once they were inside, he could take Christopher. “And if I don’t agree?”
He lifted his shoulder and slipped the envelope back into his jacket. “Then, I call the FBI, and have you arrested for participating in an illegal adoption. Then, I take Christopher from Crystal Creek, and you’ll never see him again.”
Mercy, he was indeed holding all the cards. “And if I cooperate?” She held her breath, praying for some good news in all of this.
“I’ll still take Christopher, eventually. After he’s gotten to know me.” More of that calm reserve slipped away. He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Look, I know you’ve been a good mother to my son, but he’s mine, and I have no intentions of giving him up. We might even be able to work out visitation rights for you—if you can ever convince me that you didn’t do anything illegal to get him.”
Elaina was about to ask how she could ever prove that, but she caught some movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked out the window. Theresa, the sitter, was making her way across the yard toward the car.
Elaina groaned. She didn’t need this visit. Not now. She still somehow had to convince Luke Buchanan to leave and never come back.
A smiling Theresa tapped on the window, and Elaina reluctantly lowered it. The elderly woman had sugar-white hair and smelled of ginger cookies. Christopher’s favorite. Theresa had no doubt been baking them for him.
Theresa’s attention went straight to Luke Buchanan. “Daniel, it’s so good to meet you,” Theresa said before Elaina could offer any explanation. “I’m Theresa Gafford. I babysit your precious son.”
Luke nodded and even flashed a smile. The facial gesture seemed stiff as if it’d been a while since he’d done that. “Good to meet you, too, Theresa.”
There were tears in Theresa’s eyes and a smile on her face. “Thank goodness you’re home. You’re the answer to so many prayers.”
More like the answer to a nightmare. “Carrie called you to tell you that Daniel was here,” Elaina said to Theresa.
“Yes. And Jay from the gas station, too,” Theresa verified. “It’s impossible to keep secrets around here.”
It was a comment that caused Elaina to cough.
Theresa motioned toward the house. “Christopher’s taking a nap, but I can wake him. I suspect you’re anxious to see him.” She smiled. “Or maybe you two should just head home and I can bring him after he’s awake.”
“No.” Elaina quickly vetoed that. She wanted to spend no more time alone with this man. Of course, she didn’t want him around Christopher, either. “We’ll come back later.”
Much later.
“Darling,” Luke said. The term of endearment seemed as foreign as his smile. “If you don’t mind, I’d love to see my son. Now.”
Those stormy eyes warned her to defy him.
Elaina cast him her own warning, but she knew his carried far more weight. He could have her arrested. He could legally remove Christopher from her life.
Because she had no choice, Elaina reached for the door handle. She would cooperate, for now. But there was no way she could let him take Christopher.
Luke got out of the car at the same time she did, and he quickly went to her and slid his arm around her waist. Since Theresa was ahead of them and couldn’t see, Elaina tossed him a scowl and pushed her elbow against his ribs to keep some distance between them.
“Daniel, the three of you will have to come for dinner once you’re settled,” Theresa said.
“Thank you,” Luke answered. “I’d like that.”
Elaina mumbled the same fake gratitude under her breath, knowing that there’d be no dinner. If she couldn’t talk Luke into leaving, she’d have to consult an attorney about what her rights were.
If she even had rights.
It was entirely possible that she didn’t.
“Oh, I nearly forgot,” Theresa said, stopping on the top porch step. The wind rifled through her hair when she turned around to face Elaina. “About two hours ago I went over to your house to get Christopher his bunny. You forgot to bring it this morning. Anyway, while I was there, two men drove up in a black car and asked to speak to you.”
Elaina stopped, too, and stared up at the woman. “Who were they?”
“Census takers, they said.” Theresa’s forehead bunched up. “I thought it was a little early for that, but they said they needed to ask you some questions. I told them you might be at your shop and let them know that it was easy to find since it was on Main Street just up from the police station.”
Elaina was more than a little concerned. In the entire year she’d been in Crystal Creek, no one had come looking for her. It seemed too much of a coincidence that she’d have three visitors in the same day.
“Did these men show you any ID?” Luke wanted to know.
Theresa shook her head. “No. I didn’t ask for it. Oh, dear. Should I have?”
“No,” he assured her. “It’s just they might have been from the air force, to give Elaina official notification that I was coming home.”
“They definitely said they were census takers.” Theresa paused. “But to be honest with you, they made me a little uncomfortable. Especially the one with the eye patch.”
“Eye patch?” Elaina repeated, her voice barely making a sound.
Theresa nodded. “You just don’t see many eye patches these days, and this guy had a scar to go with it. Anyway, he didn’t talk much, but the tall blond man with him said they’d come back later to discuss things with you.”
Elaina looked at Luke, and would have given him an I-told-you-so glare if she hadn’t been so terrified.
Luke reacted. And his reaction terrified her even more.
He shoved his hand inside his jacket so he could grip his weapon, and his gaze fired around them.
“Get inside,” he ordered. “Now.”
Chapter Four
“What’s wrong?” Theresa, asked. “What’s happening?”
Luke didn’t answer her. Instead, he hooked his arms around both women, hurried them inside and locked the door. He did a quick visual scan of the interior of the place. It was clean and homey with the smell of freshly made cookies. But the main thing he wanted to establish was that there were no gunmen inside.
There weren’t any signs of them. Hopefully, it would stay that way.
“Are the other doors locked?” he asked Theresa.
Her eyes widened. “Yes. I did that before I drove over to Elaina’s. I haven’t been out back since then, so I’m sure they’re still locked.”
Good. A locked door wouldn’t stop pros, but it might slow them down. “Check, just to make sure.”
Theresa didn’t question him. She hurried to do what he’d asked.
Luke automatically went through a mental checklist. According to the sitter, the baby was asleep. The men were likely only minutes away. Maybe less. And basically, once he’d verified that the doors were locked, Theresa’s house was about as secure as he was going to be able to make it without equipment and assistance.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Elaina mumbled. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms and paced.
Yeah. Luke was having a hard time believing it, as well. “You’re sure these guys are a real threat?”
She stopped in midpace. “Oh, they’re real. I’m just wondering why they didn’t go to the shop after Theresa told them that’s where I was.”
Probably because the shop was so close to the police station. If the men were up to no good, that’s the last place they’d want to confront Elaina. More likely scenarios were that they’d either hang around her house. Or they’d come here.
“Everything’s locked up,” Theresa said, returning to the room.
Luke took out his gun and pulled back a lacy white curtain so he could see outside.
“Please tell me what’s wrong.” Theresa said. She sounded on the verge of tears.
Elaina answered before he could. “There are war protestors who might have followed Daniel to Crystal Creek. You know how some people are opposed to the military being overseas. Daniel just doesn’t want to take any chances that these protestors might be fanatics.”
Luke wasn’t surprised that Elaina’s lie had come so easily, but this time, he was thankful for it. He needed to focus on what had to be done. Because, simply put, his son could be in danger.
“Go to Christopher,” he instructed Theresa. “If the windows aren’t locked, then lock them. Close the curtains, turn off any lights and stay with him until we’re certain these protestors are gone.”
Theresa nodded. “Should I call the sheriff?”
Luke didn’t really want to have to deal with the locals on this. Not until he was certain what he was dealing with. “No. Don’t call him yet. This might turn out to be nothing.”
The sitter rushed away again, headed toward one of the side rooms of the house, and Luke turned his attention to the street. Would the men arrive in a car, as they’d apparently done at Elaina’s, or were they on foot? Luke had to be prepared for either.
He took out his cell phone and pressed in the number for his backup: a friend and fellow agent, Rusty Kaplan. He was waiting just a few miles away.
“I need your help,” Luke told Rusty. “Look for two men driving around town in a black car. One is blond. The other is wearing an eye patch. If you find them, take them in for questioning.”
Rusty assured Luke that he would, and Luke hung up, slipping the phone back into his jacket pocket.
“I blame you for this,” Elaina snarled in a hoarse whisper. She frantically looked around the room and extracted an umbrella from a tall reed basket by the door. Presumably, she planned to use it as a weapon.