Secret Surrogate

Lucas whipped around and fired a shot. “I’m Sheriff Lucas Creed,” he called out, his voice even more of a warning than the bullet he’d just fired. “I know your partner’s injured because he’s got my knife in his leg. My advice? Surrender. He needs medical attention now.”

The footsteps stopped.

And the silence returned.

Long, agonizing moments.

She waited. Trying to stay conscious and to still her body as Lucas had done his. Of course, the baby chose that moment to kick like an NFL punter. Kylie slid her hand over her stomach and rubbed gently.

Lucas’s gaze came to hers. He didn’t speak, but his left eyebrow slid up. It was a question. Are you truly okay? That unsaid question touched her.

Until she made the connection.

His concern wasn’t for her per se. This was some kind of transference because of his own impending fatherhood. Of course, he had no way of knowing that the kicking baby was his baby.

She’d done everything within her power to keep it a secret. And she would continue to do that. Not just through the pregnancy and delivery, but forever.

The thought of that broke her heart. She could never let this child know that she was his or her mother.

Never.

Sometimes, like now, that seemed too high a price to pay, but then she’d created a huge debt because of that fatal shooting three years ago. And she’d made that promise to Marissa. This was the one way she could repay Marissa and Lucas. Her heart would be broken, but his would finally be healed.

“They’re gone,” she heard Lucas say.

Kylie listened and heard the sound of a vehicle on the lake road. Driving away.

Or better yet—getting away.

“You have to go after them,” she whispered frantically.

But just saying those few words robbed her of what little energy she had left.

“No,” Lucas answered. “I can’t leave you. Not without backup.”

Part of her greatly appreciated that. Especially since she was unarmed, barely conscious and a couple of steps past being defenseless. But another part of her, the former cop part, knew that without suspects in custody, she might never learn why they’d come after. The two ski-mask-wearing men might simply disappear.

Which would create a real nightmare for her.

She’d always be wondering, worrying when, where and if they’d strike again. What little peace of mind she had would be a thing of the past.

With that realization, Kylie gave up the fight.

Because she had no choice, she leaned her head against the tree, and the murkiness and the winter night closed in around her.

Chapter Four

“This isn’t necessary,” Kylie grumbled. Again.

Lucas ignored her. Again.

Balancing the cell phone that he had sandwiched between his shoulder and his ear, he gently deposited Kylie onto the paper-covered examining table. She was still groggy, but not so groggy that it prevented her from insisting that she could have walked into the clinic on her own.

Yeah, right.

She was wearing only those flimsy socks. And the temperature had been below freezing. The ground had been hard and slick with frost. Still, if Lucas hadn’t been concerned that she might fall flat on her face, he would have given in to her protests and let her test her theory concerning her walking capabilities. But a fall might have injured her baby. Or even her. Despite how he felt about Kylie, Lucas hadn’t been about to risk that.

“You can wait out there, Lucas,” Dr. Finn McGrath insisted. And to clarify what he meant by out there, Finn hitched his thumb in the direction of the empty reception area just outside the examining room.

“She’ll be okay, right?” Lucas asked.

That earned him a flat look from Finn, a man he’d known all his thirty-one years of life. His best friend.

“I know, I know. Your psychic skills are a little rusty,” Lucas jested.

“But you’re in luck,” Finn replied. “I’m not too rusty in the medical department.”

Lucas appreciated his friend’s attempt to settle him down, but the attempt was wasted. “They drugged her with something,” he explained.

“Yeah. Figured that out.” Finn put a hand on Lucas’s back to get him moving. “I’ll examine her. But since examining her means making sure she doesn’t have any injuries beneath her gown, I don’t think Kylie will want you to be in the room for that. Doubt you’ll want to be there, either.”

No. He didn’t. And it made Lucas more than a little uncomfortable to think of Kylie and what was beneath that gown. Best to think of her only as his former deputy.

As his enemy.

As his most recent 911 call.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to leave out the part about her being pregnant and apparently in a whole boatload of danger.

“I need to bag her clothes,” Lucas reminded Finn. “I can send them to the crime lab in Austin to see if they recover any trace evidence.”

“Yes, I figured that out, too.” Finn pressed a little harder on Lucas’s back. “Don’t worry. Clothes will be bagged and tagged, and I’ll scrounge up something around here for her to wear.”

Lucas nodded and stepped into the reception area. He hadn’t really noticed it on the way in—mainly because his brain had been too occupied with Kylie and her need for medical attention—but he saw the recent changes Finn had made in the office. A wall mural of a serene pasture dotted with bluebonnets and longhorns. A children’s corner stocked with all sorts of toys and books. Gone was the old loveseat, and in its place were four navy leather chairs. Nice ones. But Lucas was too antsy to make use of the chairs. And he was too tired to pace. So, he leaned against the wall and waited.

He glanced at the tiny screen on his phone to determine if he was still on hold. He was connected, which meant Sheriff Knight was no doubt trying to come up with a situation report on the crime scene, so Lucas used the downtime to try to figure out what the heck was going on.

Two men, both armed, had tried to kidnap Kylie.

Why?

They hadn’t wanted to kill her, that’s for sure, or she would have been dead before he could have gotten to her. Not exactly something he cared to admit. But he knew it was true. After mentally reconstructing the possible scenarios, Lucas figured the kidnappers had had more than ample opportunity to murder Kylie while she was still inside her house. But instead, they’d taken her outside. Toward the lake. Probably to some waiting vehicle.

And that’s where his scenario reconstruction dropped like a sack of rocks.

Once he’d carried Kylie to his truck so he could get her to the doctor’s office, he’d called Dillon Knight, the sheriff from the neighboring town, and asked him to proceed with backup to Kylie’s house. Knight’s initial report was that there were no signs of the kidnappers or a ransom note. Plus, Lucas knew Kylie wasn’t a good candidate for a ransom demand since she wasn’t wealthy.

That ruled out kidnapping for money.