Shattered

It was the only thing that made sense. Jack had to be working—or pretending to work—for D’Amato, collecting enough information about the mobster’s criminal activities to put him behind bars.

Why hadn’t Jack simply told Shaw that he and Kate were romantically involved?

Because if Jack is working undercover for the mob, it might put me and my sons in danger.

Kate shuddered at the thought of what D’Amato might do to Jack—or to those Jack loved—if he learned the Texas Ranger was still one of the good guys.

“Did he hurt you?” Wyatt asked.

“Of course not!”

“Did he ask you any questions about the twins?”

“Why would he?”

Wyatt frowned. “You said you were dating a Texas Ranger. Is he the one you’re seeing? The one you’re planning to marry?”

Kate’s heart pumped a burst of adrenaline into her bloodstream. Should she tell Shaw the truth? Or lie? She decided on the literal truth. “I may have exaggerated my relationship to Jack,” she said. “Under the circumstances, it seemed safer to say I was involved with another man.”

“You’re not engaged?”

“No. I’m not involved romantically with anyone at the moment. Jack’s just a friend.”

“What was he doing here?” Wyatt demanded.

“He came to see how I’m doing, now that I’m home from rehab. Jack and his parents were kind enough to take care of the twins at his ranch while I was in a coma and for the past six weeks while I’ve been recuperating. You do know that I was shot in the arm and the chest last October, and that I was in a coma for four months?”

He nodded curtly. “I assumed your parents kept the twins.”

Kate shook her head. “My mother was in delicate health—pregnant with a late-in-life baby—so Jack stepped in.”

Wyatt followed Jack’s progress, his eyes narrowed, till he reached his SUV, then turned back to face her. Jack shot her an anxious look behind Wyatt’s back that asked, What the hell is he doing here?

Apparently, he couldn’t stay and demand answers from her without blowing whatever cover he’d established for himself as one of Dante D’Amato’s minions.

In a raspy voice too soft for Jack to hear, Shaw said, “Did you tell him?”

“Tell him what?”

“Don’t play dumb. Did you tell him the twins are mine?”

“No, I didn’t.” But she’d come very close.

“Thank God for that.”

Kate blanched as she realized why Shaw was so upset. He thought Dante D’Amato had also discovered the truth about who’d fathered the twins and sent Jack here to get Kate to confirm or deny what he’d heard.

“By the time my father knows for sure that Lucky and Chance are my sons,” Shaw said, “I’ll have you all somewhere he can’t get to you.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Kate said, her voice sharp with fear. “Neither are my sons. Why should your father be any threat to us? I would think he’d be glad to know he has grandchildren.”

“You don’t know Dante D’Amato.”

Kate glanced toward where she’d last seen Jack, but his SUV had already disappeared down a small hill under a canopy of live oaks. Why had he abandoned her with Shaw? Was protecting his cover more important than protecting the woman he loved and her children from someone with Wyatt Shaw’s reputation?

It must be.

Or maybe the best way to protect her was to pretend not to be romantically involved with her. Which gave her way too much food for thought.

Kate stood with a hand on either side of the doorway, blocking Shaw’s entrance, and said in a cold voice, “I told you not to come back.”

“Let me in, Kate.”

It was a command, pure and simple. Kate’s neck hairs rose. “Go away. I don’t want you here.”

“I know the twins are home. I intend to see them.”

She tried slamming the door in his face, but he caught it again with his hand.

“We’re not going through this again, are we?”

Kate realized she wasn’t physically capable of keeping him out. She was trying to think of an argument that would convince him to go away when Lucky and Chance came barreling into the living room.

“Mom! Chance is cheating at Mario Brothers Galaxy on the Wii!” Lucky complained. “He won’t give me my turn.”

“I was not!” Chance said, shoving Lucky in the back. “You’re just afraid I’ll beat you.”

Lucky turned and socked Chance in the shoulder.

Kate left Shaw standing where he was to intervene between her sons. “Chance! Lucky! Stop that right now!”

Shaw moved into the open doorway behind her, where she knew he could see the fracas.

Kate grimaced. Her sons weren’t making a very good first impression on their father. “We have company,” she announced.

But Chance had already tripped Lucky, who turned and grabbed Chance’s school uniform shirtfront on the way down. Both boys landed hard on the floor. They rolled, hitting at each other with their fists and knocking into the furniture with their thrashing feet.

Kate wished she could tell Shaw that this behavior was unusual. But ever since she’d come home from rehab, they’d roughhoused like this at least once a day. She supposed Jack must have tolerated this sort of behavior over the past four months while the boys had been living at his ranch house.

“That’s enough.”

Kate watched as her sons’ heads snapped toward the door. She wondered whether it was the mere sound of a male speaking, or the stern, no-nonsense tone of Wyatt’s voice, that had gotten their attention.

They untangled themselves and sat up, staring at the stranger who’d spoken.

Wyatt closed the door behind him and crossed to stand beside her. She knew he was waiting for her to introduce him to her—their—sons. “Come over here,” she said gently. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

That wasn’t true. She didn’t like anything about this situation. But she figured this traumatic moment in her sons’ lives would be less devastating if she orchestrated it.