Undercover Daddy (9 page)

His touch was weightless. Barely there. And yet, like his gentle kisses, it was enough. Thorough was the word that came to mind.

Luke was
thorough.

The thoroughness went up a notch when those clever fingers made it to her breasts. He found her right nipple. It was puckered and tight from arousal and probably not hard to locate under her thin bra. He gently pinched her.

The hunger shot through her.

And the need. Mercy, the need. She could feel those stroking fingers on every part of her body. Here they were on her bed. Christopher was asleep. There was nothing to stop her from letting this lead to what would no doubt be the hottest sex she’d ever had.

But it couldn’t happen.

Elaina repeated that to herself.

Her body tried to veto her decision, but she somehow managed to break the kiss. She had no idea that she had that much willpower, and after she looked at Luke, she wasn’t sure that willpower would last more than a second or two.

“I didn’t fake that kiss,” she said, just to make sure he understood. And to make sure she could speak.

“I know.” He leaned back slightly, and he reached out. He ran his thumb over her bottom lip, gathering up the moisture from their kiss. He then touched his thumb to his tongue and made a low sound of pleasure.

That simple gesture ignited her body again, and Elaina actually had to get up so that she wouldn’t throw herself right back in his arms. Thankfully, she didn’t have to put her failing willpower to the test because Luke’s phone rang again. Not a normal ring. It was a series of beeps.

“You have a call,” she said, forcing herself out of her lusty trance.

Even though her eyes were still blurry, she could see that he no longer had that look of lust. “It’s not a call,” he let her know. “That’s a text message.”

Luke hurried off the bed and picked up his phone from her dresser. He cursed when he glanced at the screen. “Someone or something tripped the exterior security system.”

Elaina couldn’t say anything. Before that mind-numbing kiss, she’d just been thinking of the danger. And now, it might be here. Not some vague sense of unease. The danger might be right outside her door.

Luke took something from his suitcase that was still sitting on the bathroom floor. It was a small black gun. He removed what appeared to be a safety lock from it, and he pressed it into her hands.

“Wait here with Christopher,” he instructed.

She didn’t want to wait. She didn’t want to move, either. And she definitely didn’t want to panic. But that’s what she seemed to be on the verge of doing.

Elaina forced herself to breathe and spring into action. She got down on the floor to shelter Christopher’s body, and she prayed that the security equipment had malfunctioned. Maybe that was all there was to it. But her out-of-control heart and mind were screaming differently.

Moments later, she heard Luke’s hurried footsteps in the hall. “There’s a fire out back.”

“A fire?” A dozen things went through her mind, and none of them were good.

“I’ve already called the fire department,” Luke told her. “Lock this door and stay inside.”

Her out-of-control feeling soared. “You’re going out there?” she asked, instantly alarmed.

“I have to. I need to use the hose to try to put out the fire, or the flames might make it to the house.”

Oh, God. Now, she was ready to panic. “My house might burn down?”

“Not if I can stop it. If the fire gets out of hand, you’ll hear me shout for you to take the baby and evacuate. Don’t leave unless you hear me say differently. Try not to worry. This could be nothing.”

One brief glance passed between them, and in that glance, she could tell that Luke was trying to reassure her before he rushed away. She heard the back door close, and she heard the clicks to indicate he’d locked it. Elaina got up, as well, and went to the window. She didn’t open the blinds, but she peeked out.

There was black smoke billowing from the woods.

The fire wasn’t close, at least twenty yards away, but it was close enough for Elaina to catch a whiff of the smoke and feel the horrible threat that seemed to be closing in around her house. Worse, the ground was winter dry, and there was a cold wind blowing. That fire could easily get out of control.

She saw Luke. He had his gun in one hand, and the hose in the other. He was spraying the water on the fire. Unfortunately, the flames were large, and the water pressure wasn’t any match for them.

Elaina wanted to run out and help him, but one glance at Christopher, and she knew she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave her baby alone. So, she waited with her heart in her throat, and with her concerns and questions growing.

She put a halt to some of those concerns by reminding herself that all of this could have been an accident. This could have been caused by a spark from Gary’s barbecue grill. It didn’t matter that it was still morning and in the dead of winter. Elaina had seen him using that grill at all times of the day and in all kinds of weather.

And then she heard a sound.

It was something coming not from the fire area but from the front of the house. It sounded as if someone were testing the doorknob.

Oh, mercy.

Elaina hadn’t thought things could get worse, but she was obviously wrong.

She glanced at the gun and hoped she could shoot straight. Since she’d never tried, she doubted she could, but the gun made her feel marginally safer.

The doorknob jiggled again.

She tried not to make a sound because she didn’t want to give away her position in the house, but she tiptoed to her bedroom door and unlocked it. She stepped into the hall. This time, Elaina didn’t just hear the knob move, she saw it.

The motion was almost frantic as if someone were desperately trying to pick the lock. Which in all likelihood, that’s exactly what was happening.

She couldn’t go to the door and look out the peephole. Too risky. This person might have a gun, as well. Worse, the person might know how to use it. Unlike her. But she couldn’t just stand there and let someone break in, either. She couldn’t risk Christopher being hurt.

“Get away from the door now, or I’ll shoot,” Elaina shouted.

The jiggling immediately stopped.

She heard footsteps, and she wanted to run and see who was responsible for them, but again, she raced back to Christopher in case the intruder tried to come through a window or another door.

Then, a terrifying thought hit her.

What if this would-be intruder went after Luke? Oh, God. What if something happened to him?

Elaina had never felt more helpless in her life. She couldn’t leave the house, and she had no way to help him. So, she stood there, her hands aching from the grip she had on the gun.

More seconds ticked off the clock. It seemed to take an eternity, but Elaina finally heard something that she wanted to hear.

The siren.

That meant the fire engine was approaching her house. She hurried to the blinds and looked out. It wasn’t long before she saw the two firemen running across her lawn.

She said a quick prayer of thanks, but that prayer got a lot longer when she heard the key in the back door. She waited, just in case, but then she heard the security system being reengaged.

It was Luke.

Elaina raced out into the hall and saw him in the kitchen.

“Are you okay?” She couldn’t help herself. Elaina ran into his arms and held on tight.

“I’m fine.” He sounded out of breath, and he smelled of the scorched wood and smoke. There were smears of black ash on his face and clothes.

Elaina wasn’t sure she believed him. “Someone tried to get in through the front door. I was afraid he’d go after you.”

Alarmed, Luke shook his head. “No one came after me.”

“Thank God.” She brushed some soot off his chin. “What about the fire?”

“It should be out in no time. The house isn’t in danger.”

That was good news, but there wasn’t happiness in his eyes. He eased back and looked down at her.

“I smelled accelerant while I was out there,” he whispered. “I’m almost certain it was gasoline.”

Elaina held her breath and waited for him to finish what she already knew he was going to say.

“Someone intentionally set that fire. It was arson.”

Luke was mad as hell.

He didn’t like the speed with which things were moving. He didn’t like the evidence, or lack thereof, in what was now officially an arson investigation. And he didn’t like feeling as if he were spinning his wheels at one of the most crucial times in his life.

“We have the car packed and ready to go. What do you mean the safe house isn’t ready yet?” Luke demanded. He made that demand of the agent in San Antonio who was handling his request. A delay wasn’t an option, not after dealing with that fire.

Luke had to get Elaina and Christopher some place safe.

“We’re working as fast as we can,” the agent on the other end of the line insisted.

“Then, work faster.” Luke stabbed the End Call button and got up to pace. It didn’t help. But then, not much would help at this point. Well, not much other than a call to say the safe house was ready and that the arsonist had been caught and was behind bars.

“It’s already getting dark,” Elaina commented. She was in the kitchen feeding Christopher dinner. Mushy peas and some other food item that Luke couldn’t readily identify. It looked disgusting, but Christopher was wolfing it down. “Does that mean we’ll stay the night here?”

“No. Absolutely not.” He softened his tone when he heard the harshness. “The safe house will be ready soon.”

“And then what?” she asked.

It wasn’t an easy question for him to answer. “Once I have Christopher and you settled in, and once I’m sure that you’ll be okay there, then I need to find out who’s playing these games.”

“You think the fire was a
game?
”

“More like a ruse. I think the arsonist wanted us out of the house and was willing to create a diversionary tactic to make that happen.”

Elaina gave that some thought. “The arsonist did this so he or she could get inside and search while we were out there battling flames.”

Luke nodded. “I think that was the plan. But this idiot obviously didn’t realize that there was no way I would let you outside like that with Christopher.”

“True. But Rusty said there weren’t any useable prints on the doorknob. Only smears.” She met his gaze. There was so much weariness in her eyes. “So, maybe this person isn’t as stupid as we’d like to believe he or she is. Maybe he or she wiped down the knob. Or wore gloves.”

“Could have. But anyone who’s ever watched a crime show would have done that. What it does tell me is that this person is under some kind of pressure to come up with something—
fast.
Probably those modifications to Kevin’s software.”

“Or it could be the adoption papers,” she offered cautiously.

Luke couldn’t rule that out. And if it was the papers that had precipitated it, then this was his fault. He’d literally brought this right to Elaina’s door. Either way, no matter what this person wanted, Luke would have to find a way to stop him or her.

He had his list of suspects, and while technically anyone in town could be guilty, his primary ones included: Carrie, Brenda, Gary and his old nemesis, George Devereux. Carrie was least suspect of those four, but Luke wasn’t about to take her off the list. He’d learned the hard way that people would do all sorts of things for money. Besides, Carrie had had just as much opportunity to set that fire as Brenda and Gary. Devereux was the unknown factor here.

And Luke was soon going to remedy that.

Elaina took Christopher out of the high chair. “So, we go to the safe house, what will happen then?”

She eyed him suspiciously. It made Luke wonder if he was that transparent or if she’d managed to figure him out. Odd, because most people accused him of being hard to read. That kiss had probably broken down some barriers and created an intimacy and familiarity that shouldn’t exist between them. Those kinds of connections could cause him to lose focus. That couldn’t happen.

“There’ll be an agent at the safe house,” Luke explained after he cleared his throat. “Someone I trust. He’ll stay with you and Christopher.”

“And where will you be?” Judging from her expression, she’d already guessed the answer.

“Here.”

Yep. Elaina had guessed, and she wasn’t happy about it.
“Here?”

“I need to search the place, and I can’t do that if I’m worried about Christopher.” He almost added Elaina’s name in there, because he would worry about her, too, but it was best not to add any more of that familiarity to this already dangerous mix.

She shifted Christopher to her hip, and both of them gave him an accusing stare. “So, you’re going to put yourself in danger and possibly make yourself a target?”

That about summed it up. “I’m a federal agent, Elaina. This is what I do. Besides, I wouldn’t be any more of a target than I am right now.”

She didn’t say anything for several moments. “Maybe,” Elaina finally mumbled.

He knew what she was thinking and what terrified her. He also knew that her semicalmness was a façade. “Christopher and you are targets, too.” And it was hard as hell to admit the rest it aloud. “You can blame me for that.”

Her gaze whipped to his. Elaina stared at him. But she didn’t deny it. She couldn’t.

When she rubbed her fingers over her forehead, he noticed she was trembling. The façade was crumbling fast. “Sometimes I just want to run and hide again.” Her voice was trembling, too. “I want Christopher to be safe.”

Luke wanted that, as well. It hurt to know that he couldn’t make that promise.

He reached for her, but Elaina moved away. She sank down onto the sofa and placed Christopher on the floor so he could play with his toys. “I’m scared,” she admitted.

Those two words encompassed a lot. Elaina was scared of this arsonist-intruder who’d come into her life. She was scared of another attack. Scared of her uncertain future. But that wasn’t all.

“You’re scared of
me,
” Luke said. He sat down in the chair directly across from her.

When she lifter her head and met his gaze, he could see that Elaina was blinking back tears. She stared at him. Then, she nodded. “I
am
scared of you.”

Even though he’d braced himself, it was still difficult to hear. “Your fears are justified.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to make the same mistakes I made with Kevin—”

“I’m not Kevin.”

“I know.” Every part of her was filled with emotion. Her voice. Her body. Her eyes. “But I’ve let that kiss and my feelings for you get in the way. I can’t see you objectively. I can’t see myself objectively. And things are moving so fast. That can’t be good because I have to think beyond this day and this week. I have to look at the future, and I have to wonder where we’ll be if and when this attraction fizzles out.”

Luke knew exactly how she felt. In less than two days, he’d gone from despising Elaina to kissing her.

And worse, he wanted to kiss her again.

So that he wouldn’t do just that, he got up and moved away from her. Elaina took the cue. She picked up Christopher and headed for her bedroom. Luke followed them because he didn’t want her to be anywhere in the house without him.

He wanted to do something to ease her fear, but the only thing that would accomplish that would be to identify the person after them. So, that’s the direction Luke took.

“I have an idea,” he said. “Why don’t you get out everything else you brought with you from SanAntonio? Clothes, toys, everything. I have to go through all of that anyway, and this way, it’ll save some time.”

As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she handed Christopher to him. His son went willingly and didn’t give Luke that disapproving look that he sometimes did. In fact, Christopher snuggled against him and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

The whole situation suddenly seemed so intimate. They seemed like a family. But they weren’t. Still, that didn’t stop Luke from playing what-if.

Could he possibly make this work with Elaina?

He quickly came to his senses and decided he didn’t want to know. It wasn’t the right time to try to work through all of this. Truth was, it might never be the right time. Elaina could be correct—this attraction could all fizzle out and leave them both with bad tastes in their mouths.

Which made him think of her mouth, again.

He was in danger of developing a case of obsession.

“I had on these clothes the day I left.” She deposited a pair of dark gray pants, a top in a lighter shade and a pair of shoes. Another reach into the closet, and she added a purse to the pile. It was empty, Luke soon learned, after Christopher and he had a look inside. Christopher didn’t stop with a look, he began to slap at the purse and laugh. He even tried to put it on his head.

Luke smiled and kissed him.

Despite the wonderful moment, Luke knew he should be concentrating. His precious son was yet another distraction. The sooner he had him in a safe house, the better.

Elaina put the box of files on the bed, and then she went into the nursery. When she returned she had several items in her hands. “These are the toys I brought with me.” She put those next to the other things.

There were two small stuffed animals. A purple bear and a yellow bunny that drew Christopher’s attention. He ditched the purse for it.

“Kevin had these with him the night he brought Christopher home,” Elaina explained. “He called Christopher our little bunny.”

Luke didn’t care much for a criminal giving his son a pet name. “This is everything?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. There could be other things.”

Luke was afraid she’d say that. “When you get to the safe house, sit down and write a list. That way, I know what to look for when I come back.”

“Suit yourself, but it’d be easier if I just went through everything in person.”

“It wouldn’t be
safer,
” he reminded her. That earned him an eye roll. “You said Kevin used a miniature memory card. So, we’re looking for something very small, just as thin as a dime.”

“Something Kevin might have had on him the night he was killed,” Elaina pointed out.

“No. If it’d been on him, then someone wouldn’t still be looking for it. They would have found it. I read the police report of Kevin’s death, and he’d been stripped and searched—thoroughly. So had his car.”

Luke sat on the bed so he could better examine all the items. The most obvious things were the purse and toys. He squeezed all three and looked closely at the small details. The bunny’s glassy eyes. The bear’s padded black nose. The strap of Elaina’s purse. There were no obvious signs of the memory card, but these things needed to be checked and double-checked.

“I’m going to put this stuff in the car,” he let her know, passing Christopher back to her. “I can take it to my office in San Antonio once you’re settled into the safe house.”

Elaina opened her mouth, probably to argue about him returning here, but his cell phone rang. Finally! That safe house had to be ready. But the person who spoke to him on the other end of the line wasn’t from the Justice Department.

“Luke, it’s Collena Drake,” the woman greeted.

He certainly hadn’t expected to hear her voice, and it brought back a barrage of memories. The search for his son. The frustration of not being able to find him. And then, Collena’s help. If it hadn’t been for her, he’d no doubt still be looking for Christopher. Luke owed her a lot that he’d never be able to repay.

“I had to call,” Collena continued, her voice rusty and thick as if laced with too much emotion and fatigue. “Did you connect with your son?”

“I found him, yes. I can’t thank you enough.”

“You don’t have to thank me. In fact, it’s my guess that the adoptive mother would want to do the opposite. If she’s a good loving mother, then having you learn the truth must have turned her world upside-down.”

“It has.” Luke wasn’t immune to the guilt he was feeling over that, either.

“Well, it might take time, but you’ll work through this. I’m sorry it took so long to get you the information to find your son. The files were a mess. Little bits of info in one place. Other bits in other places. It took time to put the pieces together.”

That opened the door for something that Luke had wanted to ask from day one. “Why did you help me?”

She chuckled. It was rusty like her voice. “Penance, of sorts.”

“Yours or mine?”

“Mostly mine. I was the undercover cop investigating the Brighton Birthing Center. If I’d been able to identify the culprits sooner, then some of those babies would have never been illegally adopted.”

There was no mistaking the pain in that. “Something tells me you paid hard for that.”

“I have. I’m still paying,” she added in a mumble. “I found something else in the files, and I thought you should know. First of all, the leaders of the adoption ring have all been arrested. The police are now in the process of rounding up the investors.”

“There were investors?” This was the first Luke had heard of it.

“Lots of them. I don’t believe that most knew they were providing funds for illegal activities. And in some cases, the activities weren’t illegal at all. Which brings me to the point of this call. Before I gave you the information about how to find your son’s adoptive mother, I checked your background. I wanted to make sure you were a suitable father.”

Luke wasn’t surprised by that. He’d checked her background, too. “And what did you find?”

“You’re suitable. But I also learned that you’re the one responsible for putting George Devereux behind bars.”

Luke’s stomach knotted. He did not like hearing that connection. “Didn’t you have a minor role in that, too? You were on one of the surveillance teams when you were still with San Antonio PD. It’s a small world.” He paused. “Some things have been happening here. A suspicious fire. And someone might have rummaged through Elaina’s bedroom. Do you think Devereux could be behind what’s going on here?”

“I don’t know. But I’ve learned that he’s connected to the Brighton Birthing Center where your son was born. Luke, George Devereux was one of their investors.”