Chapter Ten
Mama?
Kelly glanced at her sister to see if she had an explanation, but Mandy kept walking. “We shouldn’t be out here,” Mandy finally said when she reached the porch. “Bring Gracelyn inside with you.”
Gracelyn. That apparently was the child’s name. And her sister was right. They shouldn’t be out there. Jameson must have thought so, too, because he scooped up the little girl, shifting her to his hip, and he hooked his arm around Kelly to get her moving. Gabriel, Cameron and Susan, the other deputy, were right behind them.
“Mama,” the little girl repeated, and she tried to wiggle out of Jameson’s arms to get to Kelly.
Kelly knew what all of this meant. She’d been the one to raise Boyer’s daughter. She’d been the child’s mother.
She tucked Mandy’s gun in the back of her jeans and took Gracelyn from Jameson when the girl just kept squirming. The child immediately kissed Kelly’s cheek. It was as if someone had warmed her from head to toe, and Kelly was positive what she was feeling was love. A mother’s love.
“Pat, pat,” Gracelyn said.
“She learned to play patty-cake,” the woman on the porch supplied. Kelly had no idea who she was, but the moment they reached her, she pulled Kelly into a short hug. “I’m glad you made it back.” Her attention drifted to Kelly’s bandage. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Kelly could say that with complete certainty. Every inch of her was still spinning from the adrenaline, and she was getting more of those fragments of memories.
Fragments that didn’t make sense.
“Pat, pat,” Gracelyn repeated.
Jameson gave the little girl a long glance. Frowned. And he kept them moving. Once they were all inside, he shut the door and locked it.
“First things first,” Jameson said. “Mandy, make sure you don’t have a tracking device on you.”
She groaned and looked ready to curse, but she stopped when her gaze landed on Gracelyn. Mandy began to look over her clothes and shoes. Kelly helped, too. Balancing the baby on her hip, she checked Mandy’s hair and the back of her shirt.
“I don’t see anything,” Kelly relayed to Jameson when she’d finished.
“Want to tell me what the heck is going on?” Gabriel growled. “And who she is?” He tipped his head to the woman before going to the window to keep watch. The two deputies went to other windows to do the same.
The sheriff was obviously riled, maybe about this latest attack, maybe because they’d been brought here with such little information. But despite that, things suddenly started to feel, well, right. It must have felt right for Gracelyn, too, because she dropped her head onto Kelly’s shoulder as if it belonged there.
“This is Erica Welker,” Mandy said, looking at Kelly. Mandy went to the adjacent kitchen and came back with a first-aid kit.
The name meant nothing to her, and Erica must have seen the surprise on Kelly’s face, because she made a slight gasp. “What’s wrong?”
Kelly decided to keep the answer short, especially since Mandy had so much explaining to do. “I have amnesia and don’t remember a lot of things. I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are.”
Erica stood there, her mouth not open exactly, but she did have a gobsmacked expression on her face. “But you remember Gracelyn?”
“I have some memories of her.” Kelly shifted her attention back to her sister, who was now in the process of ripping off her shirtsleeve, no doubt so she could examine her wound. Kelly didn’t come out and ask Mandy to start talking. However, Jameson’s and Gabriel’s glares must have prompted her sister to do that.
Mandy looked at Erica. “Could you take Gracelyn to her room to play?”
Erica volleyed uneasy glances at all of them before she nodded and took the little girl. Gracelyn started to protest, babbling “Mama,” but she stopped when Erica said she would read to her. Kelly kept her eyes on them as they walked away, and the moment Gracelyn was out of sight, she felt the loss. Or something. It caused her chest to tighten when she could no longer see the child.
“FYI, there’s a whole lot about what I’m going to say that none of you will like,” Mandy began. When she started to clean away the blood from her arm, Kelly went to her and took over the task. It appeared the wound was shallow, but it was still bleeding.
“I haven’t liked much of anything since this whole mess started,” Jameson assured her. “But I want to hear it anyway.”
Mandy took a deep breath. “I’ve already told you that Kelly called me about a week ago. She said she was worried that someone, maybe August, was stalking her. She asked me to help her protect Gracelyn.”
“Why would August want to harm a kid?” Jameson snapped.
“Kelly thought he might try to take her to use her for leverage in something he was planning. Maybe like a last-ditch effort to get his brother out of jail. I didn’t think August would do anything like that,” Mandy quickly added, “but then someone did try to kidnap Kelly and Gracelyn. They escaped, and Kelly brought Gracelyn and Erica here.”
“Erica’s a nanny?” Kelly asked.
Mandy nodded. “She used to be a PI, though. She worked for us when we still had the agency.”
So more of a bodyguard than a mere nanny. Of course, that didn’t surprise Kelly that they would need that. After all, she’d probably been in hiding with the child since she was born, and she probably trusted Erica.
“Anyway,” Mandy went on, “we were here for a few days, and nothing happened. No more attacks. So I decided to go back to my place and get some supplies. That’s when those two thugs kidnapped me. They were going to hold me and force Kelly to do whatever it was they wanted her to do.”
“Kill Jameson,” Kelly quickly provided. “I had a note telling me to do that. But why Jameson?”
Mandy huffed and then winced when Kelly dabbed the wound with antiseptic. “Again, I’m sure you think it’s August trying to get back at the Becketts for putting his brother in jail. But I believe Boyer’s behind what’s happening.”
“You mean because of his daughter,” Kelly said under her breath.
“No. Because he’s dirty. August thinks so, too, because he asked us to look into some money laundering rumors. Rumors that Boyer was stealing federally confiscated funds and then funneling them into his own private offshore bank account.”
Now it was Jameson who huffed. “Why the hell would August care a rat about Boyer doing something like that?”
“August thought Boyer was going to set him up for it,” Mandy answered without hesitation. “You must know that Boyer was investigating August?”
They did know that because Boyer had told them at the sheriff’s office. Still, there was something that didn’t make sense. “Did we find anything to incriminate either Boyer or August?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah.” And that’s all Mandy said for several long moments. “You apparently found a money trail, and when this recent trouble started, you were trying to figure out who owned the account because it seemed to be connected to the money laundering that August thought Boyer was doing.”
Well, that would certainly make someone want to stop her. But it made Kelly wonder—how had August or Boyer known about her investigation into that money trail? Had someone tipped them off?
Jameson cursed. “You should have gone to the cops with this.” He aimed that snarl at Kelly.
And she deserved it. But Kelly knew why she hadn’t done that, why it was critical for her to find something that would put Boyer behind bars.
“I didn’t go to the cops because I couldn’t,” Kelly reminded him. “Because I’d stolen Boyer’s daughter.”
Since Kelly still had her fingers on her sister’s arm, she felt Mandy’s muscles go stiff. Mandy looked up at her, and Kelly didn’t understand what she was seeing in her sister’s eyes.
“You’ll want to sit down for this,” Mandy said before shifting her attention to Jameson. “You, too.”
Jameson cursed again. “I’m not sitting down. Just tell us...” His words trailed off, and he glanced in the direction of where they’d last seen Erica and the baby. “How old is Gracelyn?”
Mandy’s arm muscles tightened even more, and she pulled Kelly into the chair next to her. “She’s fourteen months.”
The room went still and silent. But that didn’t apply to what was going on inside Kelly. Or Jameson, for that matter. He groaned. It was hoarse and raw and came deep from within his chest.
“She’s not Boyer’s daughter,” Jameson somehow managed to say. He took the words right out of Kelly’s mouth, and she had no trouble taking this one step further. Gracelyn wasn’t Boyer’s.
That’s when Kelly knew Gracelyn was her and Jameson’s child.
Jameson turned a very nasty glare in Kelly’s direction, and it had a dangerous edge to it. He looked ready to explode. Kelly wanted to tell him that she hadn’t remembered giving birth to the child, much less keeping her from him, but the words froze in her throat.
Because she did remember.
It all came flooding back. The night she’d landed in bed with Jameson. Running and hiding after someone had attacked her. There were even bits and pieces of the pregnancy. What wasn’t a bit or piece, though, was what she felt for her daughter. She loved her more than life itself.
“Why?” Jameson said, and his tone matched that tight, lethal expression on his face.
“Someone was trying to kill her,” Mandy supplied.
That wouldn’t be enough to appease Jameson. No. Because he was a Ranger, and he would have expected her to go to him instead of running. Except she’d just stolen that file and hadn’t even known if she could trust him.
“I need to see Gracelyn,” Kelly insisted.
Jameson clearly didn’t like that, but Kelly didn’t take the time to say anything else. Everything inside her was urging her to get to her baby. To make sure she was okay. Later, she could hash things out with Jameson.
And it wouldn’t be pretty.
Kelly hurried to the room where she’d seen Erica take the baby, and she threw open the door. Erica was sitting on the floor, Gracelyn in her lap, but the little girl had fallen asleep.
“She was tired from playing outside,” Erica mouthed. She brushed a kiss on Gracelyn’s head, and then did a double take of Kelly when she looked at her. “What’s wrong? Did those kidnappers find us?”
Heavens, she hoped not. Now that she knew this precious baby was hers, Kelly had to do everything to protect her.
She went closer, sitting down on the bed next to Erica, and the nanny stood, easing Gracelyn into her arms. Kelly felt that same punch of love that she’d felt in the yard.
“Should I give you some time alone?” Erica asked.
The nanny didn’t mean that offer for only Kelly and Gracelyn. That’s because Jameson was in the doorway. He had anchored his hands on the jamb as if holding himself back.
“Yes, please,” Kelly answered. Erica didn’t jump to leave. She glanced at them, maybe trying to make sure it was safe to leave them alone with this cowboy cop. “It’s okay,” she added to Erica. “Jameson is Gracelyn’s father.”
The words hadn’t stuck in her throat, and even though she’d just spelled out what Jameson already knew, he flinched a little. He stepped to the side to let Erica out, and then he came to them, sitting on the bed next to her.
“I should have told you,” Kelly volunteered. “And there’s nothing I can say to make this right. ‘I’m sorry’ certainly isn’t going to do it.”
A sound left his mouth. Almost a laugh, but it definitely wasn’t from humor. He didn’t say anything. Jameson just sat there, staring at their daughter.
Their daughter.
Kelly wondered how long it was going to take for that to sink in. Not just for Jameson, but also for her.
She studied Gracelyn’s face and saw some parts of herself there. The shape of her mouth and eyes. But the coloring was all Jameson. Dark hair and olive skin. Kelly wondered why she hadn’t noticed it the moment she laid eyes on the child.
“Do you doubt she’s yours?” Kelly asked.
“No.” Jameson didn’t hesitate for even a second.
Kelly wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. On the one hand, if Jameson didn’t believe this was his child, he could just walk away and hand over their protective custody to someone else. But now that he knew Gracelyn was his, Kelly figured that meant he was going to work extra hard to make sure nothing bad happened to her.
He groaned, scrubbed his hand over his face and then turned to her. “I want to hate you for this.”
She mentally repeated each word. “I hate myself for it.”
“That doesn’t make us even. It doesn’t make it right.”
Kelly was in total agreement with that. This was a mess, and it was all her own doing. “I must have thought I couldn’t trust you.”
That wasn’t a good thing to say. It put more of that angry fire in Jameson’s eyes. “You could have, but instead you kept her from me for over a year.” He groaned again, and she could see this was eating away at him.
It was eating away at her, too. She touched her fingers to his arm, but he only jerked away from her. “I’m not going to give you a free pass on this,” he said like a warning. “I’m not going to let you cut me out of her life again.”
That stung as much as if he’d slapped her. Not just the words, but the raw anger in his voice. Anger that she’d need to face. It didn’t matter that she only had pieces of her memories; she somehow had to make this right. And that was a reminder that making things right started with Gracelyn’s safety.
“We can’t stay here,” Kelly said.
“No,” he agreed. “I need to get started on that. But just know that this conversation isn’t over.”
She hadn’t thought for a moment that it was. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Jameson brushed a kiss on the baby’s forehead, and he stood. However, he’d barely made it a step when Gabriel appeared in the doorway. The sheriff was still scowling, and he had his phone pressed to his ear. He motioned for Jameson to follow him.
Kelly’s stomach sank, because she figured this wasn’t good news. She got up, cradling the baby in her arms so she could follow him. By the time she made it back to the living room, Gabriel had finished his phone conversation and had turned to Jameson.
“That was SAPD,” Gabriel said. “Those men in the SUV got away.”
It felt as if someone had punched her, and it caused Kelly’s head to throb even more. Not good. It was already too hard to think, and the pain was only making it worse.
Mandy bit off some of the profanity she was mumbling. “How did that happen?” she asked Gabriel.
“The men turned on a side road and ditched the SUV. The cops believe they had another vehicle stashed there and used it to escape.” Gabriel paused, stared at her. “Any chance those men know where this place is?”
“No,” her sister answered. “If they’d known the location, they would have already come here. For the baby,” Mandy added in a whisper.
Yes, because if they had Gracelyn, then they knew Kelly would do anything to get her back.
Mandy’s attention went to the baby for a moment. “The only way for those goons to find this place would be by putting a tracking device on me, and you’ve already searched me.”
The moment her sister finished saying that, Jameson cursed, and he yanked the phone from his pocket. Not his phone but the one Mandy had stolen from the kidnappers. He immediately started taking it apart.
Oh, God. Kelly prayed there was nothing to find.
“Check the gun, too,” Jameson said, aiming a glance at Kelly.
That spiked her heart rate even more, and since Kelly didn’t want to handle the gun while she was holding the baby, she turned so that Gabriel could take it from the back of her jeans. Like Jameson, he immediately started to inspect it. But his inspection didn’t last long because Jameson dumped the pieces of the phone onto the coffee table.
Kelly saw it then. The white disk that was about the size of a quarter. Even though she still didn’t have many memories of being a PI, she knew exactly what it was. And what it meant. The kidnappers had planted it there and intentionally let Mandy take it so she would lead them here to the baby.
“We have to leave now,” Jameson insisted. He snapped toward the deputies. “Pull the cruisers right up to the porch.”
That sent Erica and Mandy scurrying, and Kelly realized they were gathering up the baby’s things. Obviously, they had been prepared for something like this. But Kelly certainly wasn’t. The other attacks had terrified her, but this was a whole new level of terror.
Because Gracelyn could be hurt.
Cameron drew his gun, opened the door, but just as quickly, he slammed it shut. “Are you expecting company?” he asked Mandy.
Mandy shook her head, and she hurried to the window along with Gabriel and Jameson. Kelly could tell from their body language that this wasn’t good.
The gunmen had found them.