Lucas

“Just got a text from Sawyer,” Mason said, his voice low and dangerous. “The guy he shot is drifting in and out of consciousness, but this is what the guy said.”

He held his phone screen up for her to see, and the words there caused her to drop back a step.

Hailey Darrow paid me to take the kid.

Chapter Five (#u22dc40c6-d642-5aab-bd04-820e082802cd)

Lucas didn’t know who looked more shocked by the accusation that the wounded gunman had just made. He or Hailey.

“I didn’t,” she said, her gaze firing between Mason and him. “I only left the hospital a couple of hours ago.”

Mason didn’t seem convinced. “You were conscious for a week. You could have called someone and set this whole thing up.”

The anger flared through Hailey’s eyes, and she opened her mouth as if ready to return verbal fire, but she was obviously spent. Heck, so was Lucas, and while part of him hated to defend the woman who’d tried to run from him, he couldn’t see how this would have played out.

“There was no phone in her hospital room,” Lucas explained. “And yes, she could have borrowed one from someone on the staff, but that kind of thing doesn’t stay a secret very long.”

Lucas could have gone on and mentioned the part about Hailey not having touched her bank accounts since she’d been in the coma, and it wasn’t as if she’d had wads of cash lying around the hospital to pay someone to carry through on something like this.

Even Lucas’s own explanation didn’t seem to convince Mason. “You trust her, then?” Mason asked.

“No,” Lucas readily admitted. “But if Hailey intended to take the baby, she wouldn’t have done it this way.”

At least, he hoped like the devil that she wouldn’t. The baby and other members of his family could have been hurt by the thug who’d trespassed onto the ranch.

“Thank you,” Hailey said to him.

For some reason, that riled Lucas. Maybe because he didn’t want to do anything for her that would cause her to say something like that.

“So, who did hire the lying sack of dirt?” Mason asked.

Hailey shook her head, but it was clear from the way she was looking around that her attention was elsewhere. She obviously wanted to see the baby, and Lucas tried to remind himself that if their positions were reversed, he would have wanted the same thing.

Of course, their positions would never be reversed because he would have never gone on the run from the law.

“I’ll question Hailey’s sister, Colleen, and Eric DeSalvo in the morning.” Lucas tipped his head to the hall that led to the bedrooms. “Is Tillie in the nursery?”

Mason lowered his phone and nodded. Even though he didn’t voice his disapproval as to what was about to happen, it was on his face. “I’ll wait here until I get the all-clear from Sawyer.”

Lucas thanked him and made a mental note to thank all the others who’d pulled together to keep Camden safe. For now, though, he had to focus on getting through this. And this was having Hailey see the baby.

From the moment Camden had been born, Lucas had known it might come down to this. But as every day had passed with Hailey in a coma, he’d also considered that she might never wake up. That she might never have a claim on their child. Now, here she was, and Lucas was having to face one of his worst fears.

That he might lose his son.

Not to a kidnapper, either. But to Hailey. She wouldn’t be able to get full custody of Camden. No way would Lucas allow that, but she would be entitled to visitation rights. Considering she was in WITSEC, that was going to be tricky. And not very safe for any of them.

Moving ahead of her, Lucas led her down the hall. She caught onto the side of the wall to steady herself, and she was probably moving as fast as she could go.

When they reached the nursery, Lucas stepped in, his gaze immediately connecting with the nanny’s. There was just as much concern in Tillie’s expression as there had been in Mason’s. But she stepped aside so that Lucas—and Hailey—had the crib in their direct line of sight.

Where Camden was sleeping.

“I’ll be in the living room if you need me,” Tillie said, but her offer seemed to be a question, as if maybe he wanted her to stay.

Lucas nodded, giving her the go-ahead to leave, but Hailey didn’t wait for Tillie to be out the door before she hobbled her way to the crib. The sound that left her mouth crushed at his heart. Part moan, part sigh.

All love.

It was a sound and a look that Lucas felt all too well because he got that same punch of emotion every time he was near his son. And even when he wasn’t.

“He’s so beautiful,” Hailey whispered, touching her fingers to the wispy strands of dark brown hair.

Lucas had to agree with her, but he was certain that was the reaction of most parents. Certain, too, that Hailey would want to do more than just touch his hair. She looked back at him, as if waiting for permission. She didn’t wait long, though, before she scooped Camden up in her arms.

She made that sound again and kissed his cheek. Even though Camden stirred a little, he went right back to sleep. Good. Even though his son was too young to know what was going on, Lucas didn’t want to risk Camden being upset by having his sleep interrupted. He also didn’t want to risk Hailey falling with the child, and since her legs were obviously still wobbly, he helped her to the nearby chair.

“Is he healthy?” she asked.

“Yeah.” It was hard for him to talk about something so—well—normal. “He’s right on target for his height, weight and milestones.”

She nodded and looked up at him, and that’s when he saw the tears in her eyes. “I was so scared that he’d been hurt in the accident.”

“He could have been,” Lucas quickly pointed out, but then instantly regretted the jab. It was the truth, but stating the obvious didn’t make him feel any better.

“I know. I’m so sorry. When I ran, my only thought was to keep him safe.”

Lucas nearly went for another jab by reminding her that the safe thing to do would have been to come to him, but that ship had already sailed. They were here now and had to deal with this. Not just the danger, either. But all those old feelings.

He’d been attracted to her once and vice versa. That’s what had landed them in bed in the first place. And while there were still some lingering traces of the attraction, it wouldn’t play into this. He hoped the bitterness he felt over what’d happened wouldn’t, either. Right now, bitterness wouldn’t help.

He was about to question her more about the night of the accident, to see if she remembered any details that would help them find out who was responsible for the attacks, but Hailey spoke before he did.

“Tell me about the delivery,” she said.

Lucas paused, not because he intended to hold anything back, but because remembering that night still felt like a punch to the gut.

“I was scared,” he admitted. “We didn’t know if there’d been trauma to the baby, and since you were so close to your due date, the docs did a C-section on you. But everything turned out okay. Everything except that you were in a coma,” Lucas added.

She, too, paused. Then nodded. “I’ve heard that some people remember and hear things while they’re in comas. I didn’t.” She brushed another kiss on Camden’s cheek. “I wish I could remember seeing him as a newborn. He’s already so big.”

Camden was, but while Hailey had indeed missed a lot, the baby wasn’t old enough to have noticed that his mom hadn’t been around.

Hailey looked up at Lucas again, those tears still shimmering in her eyes. “I know this is hard for you. You haven’t had to share him with anyone for the past three months.”

Lucas wasn’t sure how to respond to that and didn’t get a chance to say anything anyway, because Mason appeared in the doorway. One look at his cousin’s face and Lucas knew something else had gone wrong. Apparently so did Hailey, because she slowly got to her feet, her attention nailed to Mason.

“The gunman died on the way to the hospital,” Mason said.