Wild Stallion (6 page)

“Oh, God.” And Bailey kept repeating it. With each repeat, she grew paler and her breath started to race. “I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection. I thought the intruder was here after you or even Caden—maybe a kidnapping for ransom. How could I have been so stupid?”

Jackson was about to point out that the intruder could indeed have been there for a kidnapping attempt. Of course, that still left the question of why the man had implicated Bailey?

“I’ve considered the possibility that the intruder somehow eavesdropped on my conversation with Evan,” Jackson explained. “When I talked to Evan in the foyer, I said your name and asked him to run a background check on you. If the intruder heard that, using some kind of long-range eavesdropping device, he might have latched on to it because he would have known I was already suspicious of you.”

She frantically shook her head. “Or he already knew my name before he arrived.”

That was his number-one theory. “But if this woman who stole your baby wants you dead, why try to have you killed here at the estate? Why not wait until after you left? There’s a long stretch of country road between here and San Antonio, and if the intruder had attacked there, fewer witnesses would have been around.”

Bailey shuddered. “I don’t know why it happened the way it did. But I can’t pretend that man didn’t come here looking for me. That means I brought the danger here with me. I’m sorry for that. I was so desperate to find out the truth about Caden that I failed to remember it might not be safe for me to come here.”

Jackson couldn’t argue with any of that. Except he, too, had been threatened by those mysterious letters. Now, the question was, were the threats connected? He couldn’t immediately see how, but then he didn’t like the timing of the latest letter and Bailey’s arrival at his estate.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. She turned quickly and headed for the door.

Jackson hurried after her. “Wait. Where are you going?” He caught up with her just outside his office and stepped in front of her.

“Far away from here. I’ll call you about the test results.” She swallowed hard. “I swear, I didn’t mean to put Caden or you in danger.”

“The danger was here before you arrived,” he conceded. Part of him wanted to step aside and let her leave, but he wasn’t stupid. This particular Pandora’s Box had already been opened, and whether Bailey left or not, he didn’t think the danger would go with her.

When she tried to dart around him, Jackson put her against the wall again. Hell. He’d been manhandling Bailey a lot lately, but he wasn’t going to let her leave until she saw the whole picture.

Even if it was a picture he wasn’t sure he wanted her to see.

“This is a theory,” he started, “with a lot of
if’
s. But it’s a theory that kept me up most of the night. If this mystery woman did indeed hire the intruder to kill you, and if she also arranged Caden’s adoption, then she might want to cover that up as well. That might be the reason she sent the hired gun here to the estate.”

Bailey uttered another, “Oh, God.”

Yeah.
Oh, God
summed it up.

She grabbed on to handfuls of his shirt. “You have to beef up security—”

“I already have. And my house manager is in the process of getting even more guards out here. Trust me, Caden will be safe.”

The breath swooshed out of her, and she dropped her head onto his shoulder. Even though he couldn’t see her face, he had no doubt that she was crying. Jackson could feel her knotted muscles, and he heard the sob she was trying to hold back in her throat. He hadn’t needed anything else to convince him that Bailey was on the up-and-up, that she truly was just trying to find her missing baby, but her reaction was definitely more proof that she was the victim here.

She lifted her head, met his gaze. “Why aren’t you throwing me out?”

Jackson was asking himself the same thing. He was good at coming up with the angles, and one angle was that he should keep her close, just in case that payoff would become necessary. But his usual heart of stone didn’t feel so stone-cold all of a sudden.

He wanted to help her. Even if that meant facing a truth he didn’t want to face.

Jackson cursed, and that caused her forehead to bunch up. No doubt she was wondering what he was cursing about. But this profanity was for
her
—for those needs she stirred deep inside him.

She stood there, her breath hitting against his mouth. Her incredible blue eyes wide with concern.

And with her body pressed against his.

Jackson especially noticed that body-to-body part.

He was responsible for it. After all, it had been his manhandling that had resulted in her being against the wall again.

There was a moment, just a split second, when his body started to think below the belt again. A moment where he wondered what it be like to kiss her.

How did she taste?

And were those lips as soft as they looked?

Jackson felt himself moving in closer. His body revved up, everything inside him preparing for something that damn sure shouldn’t happen.

He breathed in her scent, some kind of floral shampoo maybe. But beneath the bottled stuff was something that was all woman. Something warm and silky. Something that triggered his asinine male brain into thinking that kissing her was a good idea after all.

Her eyelids fluttered down. A velvety feminine sound left her mouth. Her body moved slightly closer, brushing against his.

Everything about her was soft. Her skin. Her scent. Even that clingy cotton dress that was now pressed against his jeans and shirt.

“This shouldn’t happen,” she whispered.

Even though her voice was soft as well, it was the hard mental slap that Jackson needed. He jerked back and tried to rein in that stupid urge to haul her to him and kiss her until neither one of them had any breath left.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

He was ready to fumble with an explanation about the danger creating the heat between them, but thankfully the house phone on his desk rang. He felt thankful for a moment before he remembered this was the line his staff would use if there were any other problems with security.

Jackson hurried into his office to grab the phone.

“It’s me,” Steven Perez said. With just those two words, Jackson could hear the concern in his house manager’s voice.

“A problem?” Jackson asked.

“Could be. Ryan Cassaine is at the front gate.”

The adoption attorney. “Why is he here?”

“He won’t say. He claims it’s important, but I checked your calendar, and you don’t have any appointments.”

No. But he did want to see Ryan so he could clarify that everything had been aboveboard with the adoption. “Let him in,” Jackson instructed.

“He’s not alone,” Steven interjected. “He has a woman with him. Shannon Wright.”

Jackson thought he might have misheard. “Shannon Wright?”

“Yes, sir. She’s one of the two women you asked me to investigate.”

He had indeed. Jackson had asked Evan and the sheriff to do the same. After all, Shannon Wright was a suspect in the disappearance of Bailey’s son. The hired gun had also used his cell to call her. “What does she want? And better yet, why is she here with my adoption attorney?”

“Neither one of them is volunteering much to me, but Shannon is insisting that she talk to you. She says she has to tell you something important about your son.”

Chapter Six

Everything seemed to be happening so fast that Bailey had trouble catching her breath. In the past twenty-four hours, she’d encountered an armed intruder, saw the precious child that might be her own and had flirted with danger by nearly kissing Jackson.

And now a suspect she’d been trying to question for four months had shown up on Jackson’s doorstep.

What the heck was going on?

That was something she didn’t get a chance to ask Jackson, because the moment he gave his house manager permission to escort Shannon Wright and Ryan Cassaine onto the estate, Jackson began a flurry of calls.

Some of those calls involved background requests on Shannon, but most were about security and moving Caden to the panic room. However, he also phoned Evan, his business manager, to see if he knew anything about this visit. Judging from what she could hear, Evan didn’t have a clue, but he was on his way back out to the estate as well.

Maybe with the DNA results.

As critical as those results were, however, Bailey had to put the thought of them aside so she could focus on this meeting. Was it possible Shannon had come to confess that she had indeed taken Caden? If so, that could be as critical as the DNA results.

“Come with me,” Jackson told Bailey when he ended the call. “I don’t want this meeting to take place in the house while Caden is here.”

Bailey agreed. She had no idea what the attorney’s role in any of this was, but Shannon was a suspect in a newborn’s kidnapping. Plus, the intruder had called Shannon. Her number was on his cell phone, and Bailey wanted an explanation for that, along with the rest.

“Shannon could be armed,” Bailey pointed out as she followed Jackson down the stairs.

“Steven, the estate manager, will search them both.”

Good. But Bailey wouldn’t breathe easier until Shannon said what she had apparently come to say and then was off the estate and far away from Caden. Or arrested. If the woman confessed to kidnapping the baby, then Bailey would make sure Shannon was hauled off to jail.

Jackson led Bailey through the house and to the sunroom. It faced an elaborate garden that still had spots of green despite the winter weather.

Bailey looked out the glass at the approaching car and the three people who exited when it came to a stop. She recognized Steven immediately, but it took her a moment to realize the stocky woman in the billowy gray dress was indeed Shannon Wright. In the picture Bailey had, and the last time she’d spotted her, the woman had been a brunette, but now Shannon was sporting auburn hair that was cut short and choppy.

The tall, dark-haired man walking next to Shannon was no doubt the adoption attorney. He spared Bailey a glance.

Shannon didn’t spare anything. When she caught sight of Bailey, her mouth dropped open, and she came to a dead stop. Either Bailey’s presence was a genuine surprise, or Shannon was faking it so she would appear innocent of having any dealings with the intruder.

“Strange bedfellows,” Jackson mumbled. He glanced at her. “You okay?”

“Yes,” Bailey lied.

Jackson must have known that, because he gave her arm a gentle squeeze. It seemed so…intimate. But Bailey accepted it as a gesture of comfort. Too bad Jackson was the last person from whom she should be seeking anything except information, but she kept finding herself drawn to him.

Steven ushered the visitors inside the sunroom, but he didn’t come in. He stayed on the other side of the glass as if standing guard. Good. Because Bailey had no idea what could happen during this so-called meeting. It could simply be an attempt to set her up for another attack.

“Ryan,” Jackson greeted. He shook hands with the attorney. “This is Bailey Hodges.”

Everything about the man seemed uncomfortable. His shoulders were pulled back. His facial muscles, tight. His mud-brown eyes were narrowed and filled with suspicion.

“First thing this morning, I got a call from Evan, several calls in fact,” Ryan said, without bothering to introduce Shannon. “He said you have some questions about the adoption. Not a good time for this, Jackson, considering the adoption will be final two days after Christmas. If you had questions, you should have called me directly when we started this process.”

“I didn’t have questions
then.
” In contrast, Jackson kept his voice calm. He looked laid-back and casual in his jeans and white shirt with rolled up sleeves. However, Bailey sensed the storm brewing beneath the cool facade. “Obviously, I have them now. Questions for you, too,” he said, turning that lethal gaze on Shannon.

With that, Jackson sat on the wicker sofa and waited. Because Bailey’s legs weren’t feeling very steady, she sat as well. Eventually, so did Shannon. Ryan continued to stand and hover over them.

“I know who you are,” Shannon volunteered, staring at Bailey. “You followed me. Hounded me,” she amended. “And all for no reason. I didn’t take your baby.”

Bailey listened to each word, replaying them in her head. Even though she had wanted to meet and talk with Shannon for months, this was Bailey’s first chance to hear the woman speak. Shannon had obviously been avoiding her, just as Bailey had been avoiding the cops.

Was this the same woman’s voice she’d heard in the hospital?

“I’m innocent,” Shannon persisted. “Though I’m guessing you don’t believe that, because I got a call that SAPD was looking for me again.”

Bailey wasn’t sure she bought the woman’s denial, and judging from the rumbling sound that Jackson made deep within his chest, he was skeptical as well.

“You could have told us this with a phone call,” Jackson pointed out. “Instead you opted for a face-to-face meeting, with my adoption attorney no less. How do you two know each other?”

“She called me out of the blue last night,” Ryan jumped to explain.

“I’d read he was your attorney,” Shannon continued when Ryan didn’t add anything else, “and when I realized that SAPD still considered me a suspect, I called Ryan.” She huffed and looked at Bailey. “SAPD has questioned me more than a dozen times. The same questions over and over again. And I still have the same answers. I didn’t take your baby. I didn’t even see you during the hostage standoff. The first chance I could, I got out of there and haven’t been back since.”

Bailey lifted her shoulder. “Then if you’re innocent, why call Ryan?”

“Because I learned from a cop friend that SAPD was questioning Ryan, too. At first I thought that was good, that I was no longer a suspect. But then I realized they were trying to connect
me
to Ryan and some moron who tried to break into your estate yesterday.”

“An armed moron,” Jackson supplied. “Who had called you just hours before he came here.”

“So the police said.” Shannon moved to the edge of her seat so she was closer and eye-to-eye with Bailey. “I don’t know the man who came here. I never spoke to him, and I have no idea why he called me.”

Bailey was about to suggest a reason—because Shannon might be neck-deep in all of this—but Jackson spoke before she could say anything.

“You didn’t know the gunman, and you didn’t know my adoption attorney. Am I supposed to believe that? After all, you’re here together.”

Shannon mumbled something under her breath, then said, “I’d never met or spoken to Ryan Cassaine before last night. I said I needed to clear up some things with you and asked him to drive me out here. I wasn’t sure you’d let me in if I came alone.”

“I wouldn’t have,” Jackson assured her.

Shannon snapped back her shoulders and stared at him.

“Shannon didn’t give me a stolen child,” Ryan explained, sounding more frustrated with each word. “No one did. And everything about that adoption was perfectly legal.” He paused, then shook his head. “Jackson, I can’t believe you’d think I would do something like that. You asked me to find a baby. A private adoption. And that’s exactly what I did.”

Bailey didn’t blindly accept that. “You don’t think there’s any chance, even a slight one, that Jackson’s adopted son is my missing baby?”

“No.” But Ryan had no sooner said that when he dodged her gaze.

Mercy, was the man hiding something?

“You were with Caden’s so-called birth mother when she delivered him?” Bailey pressed Ryan.

“Of course not. Jackson asked me to find a baby, so I did some checking. I put out a lot of feelers, and soon I got the call from the birth mother. And she’s not ‘so-called.’ She is his birth mother.”

“Go over the details of that again,” Jackson insisted.

Ryan huffed, louder this time. “She called me hours after she gave birth and told me that she wanted to give up her baby for adoption. A healthy baby boy. But she had no insurance and a lot of medical and credit card bills. She also wanted to go back to college. So, as you know, I contacted you, and together we came up with a sum to compensate her.”

“How much compensation?” Bailey wanted to know. And she looked at Jackson for the answer.

He shrugged. “A million to the birth mother, and then there were Ryan’s legal fees.”

A million dollars. That was probably a drop in the bucket for Jackson, but Bailey figured there were many people who would have sold a baby for that amount or less.

Her baby.

She turned to Ryan. “What proof do you have that this woman actually gave birth to Caden?”

“The usual documents. Hospital records. The application for a birth certificate. A statement from the midwife who assisted with the delivery.”

“They could have been faked.” Bailey slid her gaze to Shannon. “And someone who works in a hospital would have known how to fake them.”

That brought Shannon to her feet for another round of denial. Ryan got in on it as well.

“Quiet!” Jackson ordered. It wasn’t a shout. It didn’t have to be. Jackson had a way of commanding attention. “I want to talk to the birth mother.”

Ryan was shaking his head before Jackson even finished. “Impossible. Evan has already tried and failed. She demanded a closed adoption, and you agreed. That was all part of the deal.”

“Renegotiate the deal,” Jackson insisted. “Offer her more
compensation.
All I want is a simple conversation.”

Ryan glared at Bailey as if she were the cause of this demand. And she was. But Jackson seemed to be on a quest for the truth as well. Was that because he believed Caden wasn’t her son and therefore she wasn’t a threat to the adoption?

“I’ll make some calls,” Ryan finally conceded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Jackson didn’t thank the man, but instead looked at Shannon. “And as for you, I’d like you to take a lie-detector test.”

Shannon looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “SAPD gave me one and I passed.”

“Then you shouldn’t mind taking another. I have a friend who teaches at the FBI Academy in Quantico. He’s a truth analyst, and he uses some cutting-edge technology that’s several steps beyond the normal lie detector.”

Bailey examined Shannon’s expression. The woman seemed even more uncomfortable than she had when she first arrived, but then maybe anyone would be in her position. Bailey so wanted it to be Shannon who had taken the child, because Shannon was here, right in front of them, and if she confessed, then it could all be over. She would know what had happened when the mystery woman walked out of the hospital with her newborn son.

But Shannon didn’t appear to be on the verge of confessing anything.

“All right,” Shannon told Jackson. “Schedule the lie-detector test and I’ll take it.”

Bailey was both surprised and relieved, though agreeing to the test was one thing. Taking it was something else.

“Will you help me clear my name?” Shannon said, and it took Bailey a moment to realize that the woman was talking to her and not Jackson.

“I’m doing everything to find my son,” Bailey told her. “And if finding him helps clear your name, then of course I’ll help. But if you’re guilty, if you are the one who took him, I want you to tell me now.”

“I didn’t take him.” Tears sprang to the woman’s eyes. “I swear I didn’t.”

Ryan couldn’t have looked more disinterested about Shannon’s emotional response. He checked his watch and glanced impatiently at his car. “I need to get back to my office and contact the birth mother.”

“Or you could give me her number and I’ll contact her myself,” Jackson offered.

“I don’t have her number, only her attorney’s. Since it’s the holidays, it might take me a while to reach her. She’s likely on break from her college classes.”

“You’ll find her,” Jackson said with complete certainty, and in such a way that it sounded like a threat.

Ryan didn’t miss the undertone. The attorney’s jaw tightened again, and he motioned for Shannon to follow him.

“I’m innocent,” Shannon insisted one more time before she left with Ryan.

Jackson and Bailey stood there and watched them drive away. Steven followed behind them in his truck, probably to make sure they left the grounds.

“Well?” Jackson asked. “Did you believe everything they said?”

“I’m not sure. You?”

“I never believe anyone until I have proof.”

“You believed me,” she reminded him.

That brought his gaze to hers. And he nodded. “I believe your son is missing. I believe someone wants to harm you. I believe you’re searching for the truth.”

“And if I find the truth?” she asked cautiously.

“The truth doesn’t change, even if it’s hard to accept.” He stared at her. “I’ve had Caden for nearly four months now, since he was a week old.”

She knew what he was saying. She hadn’t even held her son, but Jackson had been Caden’s father. And even though she might indeed be the little boy’s mother, she was a stranger to him.

Yes, the truth was often hard to accept.

And in this case it was heartbreaking.

Jackson turned, eased his arm around her and pulled her to him. This didn’t feel like a veiled threat. It didn’t feel intimidating.

Unfortunately, it felt right.

It would be so easy just to take what he was offering her. But Bailey pulled back.

“Does this chemistry between us have something to do with Caden?” she asked.