Newborn Conspiracy

He glanced at her. “You know you’re not going to just get rid of me, right?”

She didn’t want to hear that, either. “I know no such thing.”

“I’m not going to leave my son—”

“He’s not your son,” she snapped.

Logan made a hmmmp sound. “Well, I might have started off as the sperm donor, but we’re past that now.”

No. They weren’t. “I don’t want or need a man in my life. That includes you.”

“Then think of it this way. I won’t be the man in your life, Mia. I’ll be the man in Tanner’s life.” He paused, waiting for an objection. “You’re aware that you could be in danger.”

A burst of air left her mouth. Almost a laugh. But she was definitely not happy. “I’m aware of it. I’m also aware that I wouldn’t be in danger if it weren’t for you and your ex.”

He looked as if she’d slapped him.

Mia felt as if she had, too. “Sorry. You didn’t deserve that last part. I mean, we haven’t even connected your ex to this.”

Silence.

The moment crawled by.

Before he finally spoke. “I have a theory.”

That chilled her to the bone. “What?”

More silence. “Last year, when Genevieve and I were still together, I found out that she’d been taking fertility drugs. She also tampered with my condoms.”

Mia was starting to put together a mental image of this woman, and there was little about that image that she liked. “She wanted a baby.”

He nodded. “It was an obsession with her. She believed a baby would bring us closer together. She wanted marriage.”

“You didn’t want those things.” It wasn’t exactly a question.

“Not with her. Genevieve knew that right from the start.”

Mia believed him. Despite what he did for a living, he didn’t seem the sort of man who’d have to lie to get a woman into bed. “Did she get pregnant?”

“I don’t think so. After I found the fertility drugs, we argued and she stormed out. A few days later, I got an e-mail from her saying that she would always love me but that she needed time apart so she could think. That was a little less than eleven months ago.”

Around the time Mia had undergone the insemination.

“Maybe Genevieve did get pregnant,” Mia concluded. “Maybe that’s her connection to Brighton. She could have had your baby there.”

Logan immediately shook his head. “If she’d found some way to overcome her infertility and have my baby, she would have told me. In fact, she would have been delighted to tell me because she would have thought that would get us back together. It wouldn’t have. I would have taken care of my child, but that care wouldn’t have extended to the mother.”

Mia didn’t believe that last part. After all, he was trying to protect her, a stranger. However, she didn’t have the bad blood with him that Genevieve apparently did. They only had a severe case of dislike of each other.

She hoped it continued.

Mia needed all the emotional barriers she could get to make herself immune to this man that her body seemed interested in. Because she could still feel the tingle of his touch on her breast.

Damn him.

He glanced at her and took the final turn into her secluded neighborhood. “But you’re right about one thing,” he continued. “Maybe that’s how Genevieve is connected to Brighton.”

Now, it was Mia’s turn to shake her head. “I don’t understand.”

“Genevieve could have been the one who arranged to have the semen transported from Cryogen to Brighton. That’s how she intended to get pregnant.”

“And then somehow I got the semen by mistake?” Mia shook her head. “That seems like a huge blunder for a medical center to make.”

“We’re talking about Brighton,” he reminded her. “They made a lot of mistakes. Some intentional and some because they were trying to cover up their crimes.”

He took the turn into her driveway. Her house wasn’t a typical burbs kind of place. Mia had bought the three-bedroom ranch-style house because of the privacy. The house was positioned amid several sprawling oaks, shrubs and hedges. Tonight, amid those oaks and in front of her house, she could see a woman.

Mia’s heart started to race.

“It’s all right,” Logan assured her. “That’s Collena Drake.”

Mia got a better look at the woman when they came to a stop directly in front her. The tall, too-thin blonde seemed oblivious to the winter wind. She wore a black coat, unbuttoned, and her bare hands were exposed. The wind whipped at her shoulder-length hair and her clothes. She seemed pale and frail. As if she wasn’t all there.

“Collena,” Logan greeted as he stepped from the car. “I’m glad you came.”

After checking that Tanner was still asleep in his carrier in the backseat, Mia also got out, and Logan made introductions that Collena dismissed by dropping a little bombshell.

“Ms. Crandall, I’ve been going through the Brighton files, and I don’t think the things that happened with your insemination were accidental.”

Okay. Even though Mia and Logan had just played around with that theory, it was a different thing hearing it confirmed. “So, what went wrong?” Mia asked.

Collena Drake opened her mouth to answer, but that was as far as she got. Mia saw the woman’s eyes widen, and she tried to figure out why Collena had that reaction.

Mia caught just a glimpse of the car out of the corner of her eye. A slow-moving gray car. The same vehicle from the parking lot of the pediatric clinic. This time, the passenger’s side window was lowered about halfway. Not enough, though, to see inside the darkened interior.

Everything happened fast.

Almost a blur.

Logan yelled for them to get down. But he didn’t wait for her to comply. He dived at Mia and knocked her to ground. He didn’t stay there. He came up, with his gun drawn and ready to fire.

But it was already too late.

There was a thick, heavy blast from the open window of the gray car. The brutal sound tore through the otherwise quiet community and slammed right past where Mia had just been standing.

But Mia was no longer there and the bullet hit Collena Drake instead.

And the gunman continued to fire.