Baby Trouble: The Spy's Secret Family

Her hands started to shake, and then her whole body got into the act. Nick glanced over at her in concern. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“No, I’m not okay. Would you care to tell me why those men just tried to kidnap you again?”

Nick frowned. “It looked to me like they were trying to kill us.”

She shook her head in the negative. “They didn’t shoot at you when you were running across the lawn. They only fired at your car. They didn’t want you to leave, but they didn’t want you dead. In the woods, only a few of the shots came anywhere near us, and I think those were mistakes. They were trying to scare us into surrendering but definitely weren’t trying to kill you. Which means someone wants you alive. I can only infer that means someone wants something from you.”

Her declaration put a heavy frown on Nick’s handsome features.

She continued, “Why weren’t you killed six years ago? Why the elaborate kidnapping instead? I’ll bet that’s the same reason those men weren’t trying to kill you tonight.” Lord, it felt good to finally ask the question. “What’s going on, Nick?”

Chapter 7 (#ulink_b1bb7596-68d3-5ec5-a370-bd5f27018afb)

Nick sighed. Laura, of all people, deserved answers. Answers he was far from having, however. “I truly don’t remember anything of those five years. I swear,” he stated.

Laura nodded and crossed her arms expectantly, announcing silently that she wasn’t going to back off this time. Her child had just been put in mortal danger, and she was at the end of her prodigious patience. Not that he blamed her. He just hoped she’d forgive him when she heard the entire, sordid tale. Although, it wasn’t like he forgave himself.

He picked up the story reluctantly. “That trip I took a few days ago was to Boston to pay a visit to my old attorney, William Ward. It turned out he was able to fill in some pertinent details of the two years prior to my kidnapping.”

When Laura opened her mouth to ask about it, he raised a hand gently for her to let him continue. She nodded and subsided.

“I’ll fill you in on that in a minute. The morning after my face got splashed all over the news, William called me. He said he had important information to show me. He insisted I come up to his house on the Cape immediately.”

“What was it?” Laura blurted.

“I don’t know.”

Her hopeful expression fell.

“But when we get somewhere safe, I have a flash drive in my pocket that I took from the secret drawer in William’s desk. I’m hoping it’ll give us some answers.”

“How did you know about his house’s security code, not to mention this secret drawer?”

He made a face. “William was practically a second father to me. I spent a lot of time with him and his wife on the cape. He represented me when I turned eighteen and took over Spiros Shipping. He’s been my attorney ever since.”

“Who do you think killed him?”

“I have no idea.”

Laura mulled things over, and Nick let her. In his experience, she was eminently reasonable when left to her own devices to figure a thing out. He only prayed that reason led her to accept his words as truth.

They were off the Cape and approaching Boston proper before she finally asked soberly, “Why do you think someone killed your lawyer?”

“I can think of about a billion reasons,” he answered grimly.

She nodded in agreement. “I’ve been reading on the internet about the sale of Spiros Shipping after you dropped out of sight. I’m assuming someone faked your permission and sold it out from under you?”

“I don’t know if they coerced me into signing something or just forged my signature. I can’t imagine ever giving anyone permission to sell the family business.”

“Who hated you enough to steal your business?”

He briefly considered pulling off the road to address her question but decided she’d be less likely to attack him if he were at the wheel of a moving car with her and Ellie in it. He answered carefully, “When you arrived at William Ward’s house, I was browsing through the most recent documents on his computer.”

“And?” she prompted cautiously.

“And it turns out that shortly before I met you in Paris, I took a secret trip to Las Vegas.” Laura went still. She must see it coming. He continued grimly, “I wasn’t alone on that trip. It turns out I was secretly married there to a woman named Meredith Black.” The name felt strange on his tongue. Vaguely unpleasant, like the remembered taste of bitter medicine.

If Laura had been still before, she went statuelike now. Alarmed, he alternated between glancing over at her and keeping an eye on the highway.

Finally, he couldn’t stand the suspense of her complete nonreaction any longer. “Talk to me,” he urged.

“What do you want me to say?” Laura’s voice was hollow. Hoarse. Unlike how he’d ever heard it before. Guilt and self-loathing consumed him. He’d caused the woman he loved this pain.

He spoke in a rush. “I swear. I have no recollection of her whatsoever. I don’t know why I married her, and I surely don’t know why I got involved with you in Paris so soon afterward. I can only assume the marriage was an impulsive thing and didn’t work out. Maybe I was drunk and it was all a big joke.”

“A joke?” Laura choked out.

“A really, really bad one?” he offered. Based on the thunderous frown settling on her brow, Laura clearly failed to see the humor. He didn’t blame her.

He drove in silence while guilt and misery ate at his gut from the inside out. It was his worst nightmare come true. Something—someone—out of his past had the power to destroy everything he and Laura had built between them, including their happy little family. He’d contact this Meredith Black woman and get a divorce. The woman could have whatever financial resources had been left to Nikolas Spiros. He’d make it all better.

But then Laura asked, “Why hasn’t she come forward or contacted you now that your face is being splashed all over the news?”

“Maybe she hasn’t heard about me.”

Laura snorted. “You’re an international sensation. The playboy billionaire back from a mysterious, six-year absence. She’d have to be living in a cave not to have heard about you.”

He frowned. Laura was right. Why hadn’t this Meredith person contacted him? Or had she? Was she the urgent reason William Ward had insisted on him coming to the Cape to discuss?

“Did she have control of your financial assets while you were gone?” Laura asked.

“I don’t know. Possibly.”

“Then your return would throw a serious monkey wrench into her life. You’d be a massive problem for her.”

He laughed with scant humor. “Gee. Thanks.”

“Sorry. Just trying to think like my enemy.”

Warmth burst in his gut. If Laura considered Meredith her enemy, he almost felt sorry for the woman. But not quite.

Laura made an angry sound under her breath. He’d bet she wasn’t even aware of having made it. Her unconscious loyalty warmed him all the way down to his soul.

“You truly have no recollection of her whatsoever?”

“None.”

“Convenient,” Laura muttered.