Lawman From Her Past

“It could turn out to be nothing,” the nanny added in a hoarse whisper. “They might not be the men who were after us.”

Judging from her tone, she didn’t think that was true. Neither did Cameron. It was too much of a coincidence for someone to show up on that trail so soon after Lauren had been shot.

“Did you get a glimpse of anyone in the SUV?” he asked the woman.

“Barely. I could just make out the outline of the driver behind the tinted glass. I think there was another man in the passenger seat.”

Maybe the same two who had attacked Lauren in Dallas. If so, they’d come a long way. And they had probably had some inside help since Lauren had been right about the trail. Not many people outside the area knew it existed. Of course, a police officer might know because they could have tapped into the area maps that were in the database at San Antonio PD.

Hell, he hoped they weren’t dealing with dirty cops.

“Is everything okay?” someone called out from the other side of the house. Merilee.

That tightened the knot in his stomach. He could tell Merilee was terrified, as well. She’d been Isaac’s nanny right from the start, and since there’d already been two attacks on the ranch, she knew something was wrong.

“Just stay put in the nursery,” Cameron settled for saying. He didn’t want to unnecessarily alarm the woman even though she was probably well past the alarm stage already.

Cameron also had a second reason for keeping Merilee and Isaac where they were. This way, Lauren wouldn’t see Isaac. Of course, she would see him soon enough, but right now he needed her to focus. If Lauren saw him and truly believed he was her son, then she might fall apart.

“Hand Patrick to Dara,” Cameron told Lauren. “I need you to keep watch at the window on the side of the house.”

He hated to ask her to do that, but right now she was their best bet. Besides, he knew Lauren could shoot since he’d been the one to teach her.

She gave a shaky nod, passed the baby back to the nanny and with a tight grip on her gun, she went to the window near the breakfast table. He didn’t have to remind her to stay back. She did. Lauren positioned herself against the side of the glass so she could still peer out.

“Nothing,” she relayed to him.

It was the same from his view. That didn’t mean the men weren’t out there, though. Lauren had been out there for a while before he’d spotted her. Plus, it was possible the men were regrouping, maybe calling for their own backup so they could storm the place and take the baby.

But why?

That was something he intended to find out once they were out of any immediate danger.

Behind him, Patrick started fussing, and he made the mistake of glancing back at the boy. Cameron hadn’t been able to see his face earlier when the nanny was running toward them. He saw it now, though.

Oh, man.

It felt like someone had knocked the breath right out of him. The kid had blond hair, and those were definitely the Doran gray eyes. In fact, the resemblance was close enough that Patrick could have been mistaken for Cameron’s own son. He wasn’t.

But the boy was his nephew.

Cameron silently cursed. This was not what he wanted in his head right now, but it was a fight to keep the thoughts at bay. What the hell was he going to do?

He forced his attention back to the window just as the sound shot through the room. Clearly, everyone was on edge because both Lauren and the nanny gasped. But it wasn’t a shot being fired. It was just his phone ringing, and Cameron saw Gabriel’s name on the screen. Good. Maybe that meant the sheriff was there.

Cameron put the call on speaker, laying his phone on the counter so his hands would be free in case there was an attack.

“What the hell is going on?” Gabriel demanded the moment he came onto the line.

Since he wasn’t going to have time to get into everything, Cameron went with the short version. “Lauren’s here, and some men are after her. They tried to kill her.”

Gabriel cursed, but he quickly reined it in, no doubt because he realized his kid sister was listening. “Any reason she came to you and not me?”

Gabriel didn’t rein in his emotions on that question. Cameron heard the anger come through loud and clear. The emotion was in Lauren’s expression, too. Her forehead was bunched up, and she had her still-trembling bottom lip clamped between her teeth. With everything else she was facing, she probably didn’t want a showdown with her brother, as well, but it was going to be on the agenda whether she wanted it or not.

“I’ll explain it all later,” Cameron told him, but he had to raise his voice to speak over Patrick. The baby was fussing even louder now. “The men who are after Lauren will be in an SUV,” he added to Gabriel. “It’s possible they’re on the trail behind my house.”

“They’re not. I just spotted a black SUV coming up from the back of my folks’ old place.”

Cameron bit back a groan. The trails coiled all around the ranch, and the men had obviously found a way out of the woods. That meant they could be trying to escape so they could regroup and come at Lauren again. As much as Cameron hated the notion of that, at least it would give him a chance to get the babies, nannies and her to a safe place.

“The SUV isn’t moving,” Gabriel went on, “and I can’t tell if anyone is still inside it. They could have already gotten out and slipped onto the ranch grounds.”

Not exactly a comforting thought, but Gabriel was right. Cameron didn’t know how long it’d taken the nanny to get to Lauren and him, but the thugs could have driven off the moment she started running. If so, that would have given them plenty of time to get to the old Beckett house, and then the chance to escape.

Or sneak up on Cameron’s house.

“I’ve stopped on the road and am waiting for Jameson,” Gabriel continued a moment later. “Once he’s here, we can go closer. Why do they want Lauren?” he tacked onto that.

“She’s not sure yet.” But it gnawed away at him to think it could be because of his sister’s scummy dead boyfriend. “Just give me a heads-up if you see these clowns.”

“Will do. Is that Isaac crying?”

“No. It’s...Lauren’s son.” Cameron hadn’t meant to hesitate, but it’d just seemed to stick in his throat.

Gabriel’s silence let Cameron know it hadn’t been easy for him to hear. That was probably because Lauren hadn’t bothered to introduce her son to the rest of her family. Even though things had been strained between Lauren and him since their parents’ murders, it still had to cut Gabriel to the core. For him, it was all about family, and he’d worked damn hard to bring his siblings back to their birthplace.

Cameron ended the call, and he went to the back door to look out the small windows there. The angle was better for giving him a view of the opposite side of the yard that Lauren was watching. The SUV was the other direction, but it didn’t mean the thugs couldn’t have brought some help along.

“I think I see something,” Lauren said.

That sent Cameron running to her, and he followed her pointing finger in the direction of the far side of his barn. Since the barn was closer to the old Beckett house than Cameron’s, it would be a likely place for someone to hide.

But he didn’t see anything.

“I’m obviously on edge,” Lauren admitted. “It could have been my imagination.”

She looked up at him at the exact moment he looked down at her, and it seemed as if there was something else she wanted to say to him. An apology, maybe, but the silence said it all. Because she’d been giving him the silent treatment for the past decade. No reason for this to be any different.

He kept watch, but even though he didn’t see anything, it didn’t mean someone wasn’t out there. Which made him rethink their position. There were way too many windows in this part of the house. Plus, it was hard to hear anything with Patrick crying.

“Stay low,” Cameron instructed the nanny, “but take the baby to the nursery. It’s the first room off the hall.” He tipped his head in that direction. “Go with them,” he added to Lauren.

But she shook her head. “You need me to help you keep watch. I don’t want those men getting in the house.”

Neither did he, but Cameron had figured she’d want to be with her baby. And she probably did. However, like him, Lauren almost certainly knew things could turn on a dime.

“Merilee?” he called out. “A woman and little boy are joining you in the nursery. Once they’re in there, lock the door, and all of you get down on the floor.”