Undercover Daddy (7 page)

That sounded plausible, but Luke didn’t look as if he totally bought the explanation. Of course, they were both suspicious of almost everyone.

“I noticed Gary outside,” Carrie commented. She blinked and lightly rubbed her right eye.

Elaina nodded. “He came by yesterday afternoon.”

Carrie offered a flat, dry smile. “Let me guess. He wasn’t that enthusiastic to see Daniel here.”

“No, he wasn’t,” Luke provided.

“He’ll get over it. I swear, Elaina never gave him any encouragement. Just the opposite. She was always telling everyone how much she was in love with you.”

It was another of those awkward moments.

Because Christopher started to fuss, Elaina moved out of Luke’s embrace so she could finish feeding him his oatmeal. It was a welcome reprieve.

Carrie checked her watch. “Brenda needs to hurry. I have to get to the shop. The woman from Luling is coming by this morning to pick up that Victorian panel.”

“Do you need me there for that?” Elaina asked.

“Not on your life. You’re staying here with your husband. I insist. Remember, I don’t want to see your face in that shop for at least a week.”

Elaina had no intentions of being gone that long. But then, it wasn’t easy to think of the future, mainly because she had no idea what her future held.

Brenda came back into the room and she immediately grabbed Carrie’s hand. “Let’s get out of here and leave these two lovebirds alone.”

But Carrie pulled out of her grip. She blinked hard again. “There’s something underneath my contact, and it’s bothering me. I won’t be long.” And she rushed off to the bathroom.

Brenda looked at Luke and smiled nervously. “The whole town is talking about you, you know. Everyone is anxious to meet you. Don’t worry though, they’ll stay away for another day or two. Will you stay in the military?” Brenda asked.

It wasn’t something Luke and she had rehearsed, though thankfully he had an answer. “No. I’m on what they call terminal leave right now. I should receive papers soon that’ll release me from active duty.”

Brenda studied him. “I don’t guess you want to talk about being held captive?”

“No,” Elaina and Luke said in unison.

“I understand.” Brenda paused. “I know you’re just trying to get your footing, but I hope you won’t take Elaina and Christopher away from us.”

“We haven’t made a decision about where we’ll live,” Elaina provided. And she kept her tone a little cool so that it would hopefully prevent any more questions.

It worked. Well, that and the fact that Carrie came back into the room. Carrie gave Christopher another kiss and then followed Brenda out the door. Luke didn’t waste any time locking it and resetting the security system.

“If someone really did break into my shop, then it must be connected to those two men,” Elaina suggested.

“Maybe. I need to check the lock myself and have the sheriff dust for prints.” He glanced down at his rumpled shirt. “I also need a change of clothes.”

“Will Christopher and I stay here while you get your things?”

“Not a chance. You’re coming with me.” He took the oatmeal bowl from her hand. “I’ll finish feeding Christopher while you get dressed.”

Since she, too, wanted to get a look at that lock, she hurried into her bedroom and went to the closet. She reached for an ivory-colored sweater and jeans, and then turned back.

And that’s when she noticed that her window was open, just a fraction.

She wasn’t in the habit of leaving it open, but she wondered if Luke had done it while checking the security system. Elaina closed it and glanced around the room.

Something else wasn’t right.

The box that’d contained the adoption papers. The night before she’d taken the box from the attic space above the closet and had put it on the corner desk. It was still there, but it’d been moved, practically to the edge.

She looked inside, at the meager files. Nothing seemed to be missing, but things were out of place. Specifically, the adoption papers with Kevin’s signature. Elaina was certain she’d left them on top of the other files, but they’d been tucked inside.

With her clothes clutched in a death grip, Elaina returned to the kitchen. “Did you leave the window open or get anything from the box in my bedroom?”

“No to both.” He stopped feeding Christopher and looked at her. “Why?”

“The files have been moved around.”

Slowly, he stood. “As if someone had rummaged through them?”

Elaina nodded. “God, did Brenda do this? Or maybe someone sneaked through the window and did it,” she said, thinking out loud. “After all, the security system wasn’t on while Carrie and Brenda were inside. Someone watching the house, like Gary for instance, might have known that.”

But why would someone do this? Idle curiosity, maybe? After all, the box of papers had been just sitting there in plain sight. Maybe Brenda just wanted to see what they were. And maybe Gary had sneaked in because he was suspicious of Luke.

But Elaina couldn’t be sure of that.

Obviously, neither could Luke.

He took out his phone. “I’ll have a background check run on both. Within an hour, we should know who they really are and what one or both of them were really doing in your bedroom.”

When Luke finished his call to headquarters, everything was official. He’d requested a full background check on Brenda McQueen and more extensive ones on Gary Simpson and Carrie Saunders. Hopefully, those checks would provide him with much needed answers to an ever-growing list of questions. He’d also informed his boss that he intended to work “this case” until everything was resolved.

His mind was racing, and he forced himself to slow down so he could think things through. He certainly hadn’t counted on all these issues when he’d come up with the plan to get acquainted with his son.

First, there were the two now-jailed men. Once their lawyer showed up, he needed to figure out what part they had in all of this. Now, he could add Brenda to his list of persons of interest. He really didn’t like the possibility that the woman or Carrie had rummaged through Elaina’s files.

“You said that Brenda moved to Crystal Creek a few months ago?” Luke asked Elaina.

“Yes.” She wiped the oatmeal from Christopher’s face and took him from the high chair. “I think that’s why we became friendly. Because we were both outsiders.”

And maybe they’d become friends because Brenda had orchestrated it.

“Brenda’s visited you here at the house before?” Luke wanted to know.

“Of course, but I don’t think anything was out of place after she left.” She kissed Christopher’s hand when he patted her mouth and babbled Ma Ma. “But I can’t be sure. I just wasn’t looking for something like that.”

Well, they’d be on the lookout for it now. If he let Brenda return, that is. Until he knew everything there was to know about her, Brenda wouldn’t be making another visit.

The doorbell rang again, and like before, Luke reached for his gun. That reach put another look of near panic on Elaina’s face, and he hated what all of this was doing to her. Thankfully, Christopher seemed oblivious to it. He continued to babble and make happy sounds.

Luke went to the door and looked out. He instantly relaxed. “It’s Rusty.”

Elaina blew out a long breath and probably because she still wore pj’s, she took Christopher and headed for her bedroom. Luke disengaged the security system and greeted the one man he did want to see.

“Your suitcase,” Rusty said, depositing the case inside the small foyer. He eyed Luke’s rumpled clothes. “Hey, you really do look like a guy on his honeymoon.”

Unfortunately, Luke felt that way sometimes, but he kept that to himself.

“What about the security equipment?” Luke asked, going straight for business. It’d lessen the chances of Rusty making any more honeymoon comments. Maybe it’d also lessen Luke’s thoughts about such amorous activity.

“I have it with me. It shouldn’t take me more than ten or fifteen minutes to install. Don’t worry. I’ll be discreet. I don’t want Elaina’s neighbors wondering what the heck I’m doing.”

“Believe me, I appreciate that. Her neighbors and friends seem overly curious. One of them might have even rummaged through her things. I’ve already requested a background check,” Luke added.

“Good. I guess it’s too much to hope for a quick in and out for all of this.”

Luke shook his head. “It doesn’t look like it.”

That brought on a few under-the-breath grumbles from Rusty. “I’ll get that equipment installed. My advice? Take a shower. You look like you just climbed out of bed after several long rounds of really good sex.”

Luke aimed some obligatory profanity at his fellow agent. “Wait right here a second. I want to give you Elaina’s laptop so the lab can check it out. Her late fiancé might have left something about his illegal projects on it.”

He left Rusty in the foyer while he went to Elaina’s bedroom. The door was open just a fraction, and he fully opened it when he spotted Christopher sitting on the floor. His son was pounding the carpet with a small plastic hammer.

But Elaina was nowhere in sight.

Luke’s reaction was immediate. A slam of adrenaline. His heart kicked into overdrive, and Luke raced across the room to see if she was in the adjoining bathroom. She wasn’t.

He heard the movement in the closet and hurried there. Luke found her.

She was naked.

Well, practically naked, anyway. She wore just her underwear. Sheer pink panties and a matching bra. She quickly grabbed her robe to cover herself but not before he got an eyeful.

“I was dressing,” she said. She sounded startled and out of breath.

Luke knew how she felt. He was having trouble breathing, too. Where the hell had the air gone? Better yet, where was his head? He obviously wasn’t using it to think straight.

He finally looked away.

“I, um, needed to get your laptop. I didn’t know you were changing. Sorry.”

“No problem.”

Oh, but it was a problem. A huge one. Despite all the crud going on around them, Luke didn’t think he would be able to forget the sight of her in her pink panties.

He gave Christopher a quick kiss, and nearly got playfully bammed in the face with the plastic hammer. Luke grabbed the laptop from the desk, and took it to Rusty, who was still waiting for him by the front door.

“Let’s hope we find something on this that we can use,” Rusty commented. “And I’ll call you if and when that lawyer shows up.”

“Thanks.”

Rusty turned to leave but then stopped. “Say, are you okay?”

“Why do you ask?” Luke countered, wondering just how poleaxed he really looked.

Rusty studied him a moment. “It’s just that before you got to Crystal Creek, you were so riled that Elaina had taken your son.”

Oh, that. Luke shrugged. “I don’t think she had any part in the illegal adoption.”

Rusty flexed his eyebrows. “Any reason for that change of heart?”

No logical one. “Gut instinct.”

That caused Rusty to curse under his breath. “Elaina’s a beautiful woman.”

Luke stared. Nope, he glared. And hoped this wasn’t going where he thought it might be going. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Rusty aimed his index finger at him. “It means that you need to forget that she’s beautiful. She loves that baby. We saw that when we had her under surveillance.”

Luke’s glare worsened. “And your point would be?”

Rusty’s index finger landed against Luke’s chest. “Elaina would do anything to keep your son.
Anything.
Just remember that.”

Luke didn’t need any help remembering that particular detail. He could say the same for the attraction he felt for her. And it was time to put an end to this finger-pointing visit. “Call me when that security equipment’s installed,” Luke grumbled, and he shut the door.

When he turned around, Elaina was standing there with Christopher in her arms. She was fully dressed, thank goodness. In addition to wearing an ivory-colored sweater and jeans, she was also wearing a scowl.

“I’m not faking this attraction,” she volunteered. “In fact, I’m doing everything to nip it in the bud, understand? I wouldn’t use sex to keep custody of Christopher.”

He held up his hand in a mock act of surrender. “Rusty was wrong.”

She made a yeah-right sound. “You suggested the same thing last night.”

“And I was wrong.” It was time to eat a little crow. All right, a
lot
of crow. “I was wrong about a lot of things. Your involvement, or lack thereof, in the adoption. About us being able to live together, pretending to be a loving couple, without it leaking into reality. We’re both human. It’s only natural to be attracted. Especially after seeing you in that pink underwear.”

She looked ready to argue some more, but then the fight dimmed. Christopher might have had something to do with that. He began to kiss her cheek. It was difficult to stay angry with a cute kid showering you with sloppy kisses.

Elaina smiled at the baby’s antics. Man, she glowed when she looked at Christopher. Luke stood there, watching them. And wanting to be part of it.

Well, he felt that way until Elaina looked at him.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No.” And he left it at that. “Rusty’s in your backyard installing security equipment,” he let her know. “I’d like to take a shower while he’s in the area.”

She combed her gaze over him. It took a while. She lingered on his unbuttoned shirt. “You can use my bathroom.”

Luke’s idiotic body wanted to watch her visual appraisal, but he forced himself to pick up his suitcase. Unfortunately, he felt uneasy with Elaina being out of earshot. Elaina likely felt the same.

That didn’t mean she was going to like his suggestion.

“Considering what we just talked about, this is going to seem like a really dumb idea, but I need you to stay close to the bathroom while I’m showering,” he insisted. “I want to be able to hear you if something goes wrong.”

She nodded, picked up Christopher, and led him toward her bedroom. “I’ve been giving a lot of thought to things that could go wrong. I’m not anxious to experience whatever that might be. Not while Christopher is here, anyway. So, while watching you shower might be a little, uh, awkward, it’s better than the alternative.”

Luke couldn’t agree more.

Elaina sank down onto the floor with Christopher. He immediately crawled out of her arms and lay belly first on the carpet. He jammed his right thumb into his mouth and began sucking it.

She pointed to her bathroom. “The shower curtain is opaque. And I won’t peek.”

For some reason, Luke found that amusing. “I peeked at your underwear,” he pointed out because he thought they could use some levity.

It didn’t have the effect Luke intended. Maybe it was the threat of danger or the intensity of the moment. Or maybe it was both. But Elaina didn’t smile. Her mouth tightened, and she glanced away.

“You can leave the bathroom door open,” she said, taking the plastic hammer from the baby. “And I can sit right here with Christopher.”

Right here. In other words, very close to where he’d be naked and showering. Thankfully, his son would act as the ultimate chaperone. Nothing remotely sexual was going to happen with Christopher around.

Except Luke immediately had to rethink that when he looked down at his little boy.

Who had fallen asleep on the floor.

Oh, man.

So much for his chaperone.

Luke reached inside the shower stall, turned on the water and started to undress. His body apparently thought it was about to get lucky because he started to react in a totally male kind of way.

Frustrated with himself and this burning need for Elaina, he tossed his shirt into the sink. The jeans followed. Then his boxers. He turned to step into the shower, but the noise alerted him.

He turned around. Fast. A gut reaction to possible danger. But there was no danger. Well, not the ordinary kind anyway. There was just Elaina reaching for Christopher’s plastic hammer that she’d apparently dropped on the floor beside her.

Elaina reacted, too. Her gaze flew in Luke’s direction, probably so she could see what had caused his own reaction.

She froze.

Luke didn’t exactly move, either. He just stood there. Naked. Elaina just sat there. Staring. And looking very interested in what she was seeing.