Undercover Daddy

Luke moved to another window in the living room where he had a better view of the street and the side of the yard. He kept his gun ready.

“How do you figure?” he asked.

“Those men must have followed you to Crystal Creek.”

Luke couldn’t completely rule it out, but that scenario wasn’t very likely. “If someone followed me, I would have noticed.”

“Maybe not,” she fired back.

“I would have noticed,” he insisted.

Maybe someone hadn’t followed him per se, but they might have gotten the information from Collena Drake and backtracked until they found Elaina.

Now the question was—what the hell did they want?

Luke didn’t want to get into a lengthy discussion, or argument with Elaina to try to figure all of that out. Later, he would have to learn what kind of hornet’s nest her dead fiancé had left her to deal with. Because according to what Elaina had said, these men were almost certainly connected to Kevin.

Unless…

There was an outside shot that they were connected to him. Oh, man. He hoped that wasn’t the case.

Elaina moved to the window next to him and stared out. “Do you see them?”

“No.” In fact, no one seemed to be around.

Except Elaina, of course.

She moved so close to him that he caught her scent. Something fresh, floral and feminine. Something that he didn’t want to smell or notice. Luke stepped away from her and moved to a window in the adjoining dining room.

Of course, she and her feminine scent quickly followed him. “How long before you hear something from your partner?”

“Soon. He’ll be as thorough and as fast as he can possibly be.” Luke only hoped that it wouldn’t be hard to spot two strangers in the small town. Thankfully, there wouldn’t be many guys with an eye patch.

“This is a nightmare,” she mumbled. “And this is what I’ve been trying to avoid for over a year.”

Luke spared her a glance to see how she was physically reacting to the situation. Elaina had a white- knuckled grip on the perky yellow umbrella, but other than that, she seemed to be holding up.

“You sure that’s all you were trying to avoid?” he asked.

Elaina’s grip tightened even more. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe you were trying to avoid me because I’m Christopher’s father.”

She probably would have pounced on that accusation if Luke hadn’t noticed the car driving toward the house. He held up his left hand to cut off anything she might have said, and then raced back to the front door so he’d have a direct shot if it became necessary.

Luke waited, his heart in his throat, as the black four-door car slowly approached and stopped in front of the house. A blond man was driving. The guy with the eye patch was riding shotgun.

This didn’t look good.

He took out his phone and called Rusty Kaplan again. “The suspects are at the sitter’s house. Get here ASAP.”

He put his phone away so he could focus on keeping his weapon aimed and ready. Beside him, Elaina did the same. She lifted her umbrella.

Luke rolled his eyes at her attempt to defend herself. “Get down on the floor,” he ordered.

“I want to protect Christopher,” she countered.

“Well, it won’t happen with an umbrella. Get on the floor in case they fire shots.”

“Oh, God,” she mumbled.

She was obviously terrified at the thought of bullets flying.

So was Luke.

But it wouldn’t help matters if Elaina got hurt. In fact, it was his responsibility to keep everyone in the house safe. He might not have been the one to bring these men to Crystal Creek, but there was too much at stake for him to not make sure they did no harm— especially to his son.

Instead of getting on the floor, she stooped down next to him and put her shoulder against the door so she could peek out the stained-glass sidelights. “I can’t just hide. I have to do something to stop them.”

Luke knew how she felt.

“For now, the best way to help is stay put. Backup in on the way.”

The men didn’t leave their parked car. They just sat there, watching the house, occasionally saying something to each other.

More than anything, Luke wanted to go out there to confront them. But that was too big of a risk. If he got shot or hurt, then that would leave Christopher, Elaina and Theresa without protection. He couldn’t do that. But he could try to make sense of all of this while they were waiting.

“If these guys are looking for Kevin’s software modifications, what do you think they’ll do to you if they can’t get them?” he asked.

“They’ll kill me.” Her voice wasn’t shaky or trembling. Nor was she hesitant.

Luke didn’t take his eyes off the car or the men inside. “And these guys didn’t show up until after you’d adopted Christopher?”

“That’s right.” Now, there was some hesitation. “Why do you ask?”

“Because they might not be associated with software but with the adoption itself. Maybe they’re working for someone who wanted to cover their tracks.”

“Maybe. But the people involved with the adoption ring have already been arrested.”

“That’s why they’d need to hire someone on the outside to do it for them,” Luke pointed out.

Especially if their crimes included murder.

There, Luke had finally made a connection that he didn’t want to make. A connection that linked him with these goons in the car. And it also might link them to his estranged wife’s suspicious death. “What did this so-called adoption agency tell you about Christopher’s birth mother? Specifically, what did they say about her death?”

“Nothing.”

“They didn’t even tell you that she was dead?”

Elaina’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “I didn’t know. The paperwork was sketchy at best, and I never dealt directly with them. Only Kevin spoke to them.”

Great. One crook dealing with a bunch of others who were making a fortune in the baby-selling business. The police had estimated that Kevin had paid nearly fifty thousand dollars for his son.

“You think they killed your wife?” Elaina asked.

The woman was certainly good at connecting the dots. “Someone did,” Luke mumbled.

He heard Elaina suck in her breath. Luke had a similar mental reaction. Just thinking about Taylor’s death affected him that way. Even though Taylor and he had fallen out of love long before their separation, he would always blame himself for not being there to protect her.

“I had Taylor’s body exhumed,” Luke explained. “They’re doing the autopsy in a day or two, but it looks as if she had help dying from complications from a C-section.”

That was all Luke had time to say.

Because the two men stepped from the car and started walking toward the house.

ELAINA LIFTED HER umbrella, knowing it was probably futile and borderline stupid, but also knowing that she wouldn’t let these men get to her son.

If that’s what they intended.

It was entirely possible they’d come just to kill her. She wasn’t ready to die, but she preferred that to any attempt they might make to harm Christopher.

The two men stopped at the end of the walk and stared at the house. The blonde said something to the other and then glanced over his shoulder at Elaina’s car. They obviously knew she was there.

Would they just try to break in?

Would they storm the place?

Maybe. But with Luke there, she was betting they wouldn’t be successful. For the first time since she’d laid eyes on the man who could destroy her, she was thankful Luke was with her. Protecting Christopher was everything now, and though Elaina had plenty of doubts about Luke Buchanan, she didn’t doubt his ability to keep her baby safe.

But safe from what?

Were these men connected to Kevin, or as Luke had suggested, were they connected to the adoption? If so, had they already murdered Luke’s wife?

That chilled her to the bone. Because if this was linked to the adoption, then they might plan to go after Christopher. Maybe they’d do that to eliminate a connection to a murdered woman. But if that was true, then Luke would be a target, as well.

The men began walking again. Beside her, she was aware that Luke tensed his muscles. But that was only reaction. He aimed his weapon directly at them.

“Move away from the door,” Luke whispered. And even though it was a whisper, it was still an order.

This time, Elaina obeyed, because she knew that bullets could easily go through the wood. Theresa’s fifty-something-year-old home wasn’t designed to block intruders.

Elaina crawled to the side. Not far. She wanted to be near that door if the men tried to break it down.

“There’s my backup,” she heard Luke say.

Elaina scrambled to the window to see what he meant, and she saw the other car approach. But it didn’t just approach. The dark blue SUV came screeching around the corner and came to a jerky stop right behind the men’s vehicle. And that wasn’t all. The agent who got out was armed. He pointed a huge gun right at the men.

“Stay put,” Luke warned her.

Luke barreled out the door, probably to give back up to the backup. Elaina didn’t mind. She wanted those two men arrested and away from Christopher and her.

She couldn’t hear what Luke said to them, but both men lifted their hands into the air. Luke kept his gun trained on them while Luke’s partner, a tall brown-haired man, rushed to handcuff the two men. The agent also searched them. Both men had not just one weapon but two each.

Luke and the agent didn’t waste any time. They ushered the men into the backseat of the agent’s SUV. Elaina sat there, her face glued to the sidelight window, and she watched as Luke said something else to them. The men didn’t respond. A few moments later, the agent drove away with the men.

Elaina got to her feet, though the adrenaline made her jittery. Later, when all of this sank in, she was certain she’d be furious at those imbeciles for putting her through this.

Luke came through the door, and he tucked his gun back into his shoulder holster. “Agent Kaplan is taking them to the local jail. As soon as they’re processed, I’ll go there and assist with the interview.”

“So, they didn’t admit to any guilt when you arrested them?”

He shook his head and blew out a weary breath. “No. But unless they have permits to carry concealed weapons, we can hold them on that for a while.”

For a while didn’t sound nearly long enough.

“Why would those men have killed your wife?” Elaina asked. She shoved the umbrella back into the basket and made sure that Theresa was still in the nursery. She didn’t want the woman overhearing any of this. “You think they did it to get Christopher from her so they could hand him over to the lawyers running the adoption ring?”

Luke adjusted his leather jacket so the weapon wouldn’t be visible. “That’s one theory.”

She snapped toward him. “There’s more than one?”

He nodded. Raked his fingers over his eyebrow. “Right before I went on the deep cover-up last year, I arrested a man named George Devereux. He was slime, into too many different crimes to name. Devereux vowed revenge because I arrested him. I haven’t been able to prove it, but it’s possible that Devereux murdered Taylor shortly after she gave birth. It’s also possible that he or one of his henchmen sold or gave Christopher to the adoption ring.”

Elaina felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. It took several seconds to regain her breath and some semblance of composure. It took her slightly longer than that to manage to think his theory through. On the one hand, it would make her feel marginally better to put the blame on Luke. But on the other hand, she didn’t want a heavy-duty criminal like Devereux to be involved in this.

“So then, why would Devereux’s men come after me?” she demanded to know. “I certainly can’t link him to Christopher’s adoption or to Taylor’s death.”

“Maybe Devereux didn’t want to stop with Taylor.” Luke paused and met her gaze. “Maybe he’s had time to stew while sitting in prison and wants to continue his revenge.”

“Oh, God.” Elaina dropped back a step. “You mean Christopher?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

Elaina groaned and felt the sickening knot form in her stomach. “So, either George Devereux or Kevin might have spawned this?”

“There’s only one way to find out which one. Those two men will provide the answers.”

Yes. The men. With all the talk about Devereux and revenge, she’d nearly forgotten that they might be very close to learning what this was really about. In fact, if the men confessed to trying to kill her, then they’d be off the streets for a long, long time. Their confession and incarceration could give her the safety she’d been praying for and the freedom to resume a normal life.

For all the good it’d do her now.

Luke Buchanan’s arrival had changed everything, and Elaina didn’t think they would agree on what she considered a normal life. Heck, he could still try to have her arrested for the illegal adoption.

Elaina felt sick. That feeling didn’t go away when she heard Theresa call out. “I hope those protestors are gone. Christopher’s up from his nap. Is it okay if I bring him out there?”

She was on the verge of saying no, but the word stuck in her throat. Luke, however, seemed to have no trouble responding. Obviously following the sound of Theresa’s voice, he headed straight for Christopher.

Elaina rushed after him. It was like a train wreck about to happen.

Luke paused in the doorway of the nursery, and since he took up nearly the entire space, Elaina had to stand on her tiptoes to see what had stopped the agent in his tracks.

Christopher was there. He wore the denim overalls and long-sleeved knit blue shirt that she’d dressed him in that morning. He was standing, holding on to the arm of the rocking chair where Theresa was seated.

“The protestors are gone?” Theresa asked.

“They’re gone,” Luke assured her, but his attention was focused solely Christopher.

Luke stepped toward the baby. Elaina’s instincts screamed to stop him. But she couldn’t. She could only stand there and watch as Luke reached down and gently lifted her son into his arms.

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