Chapter Nine
“How’d the job in Florida go?” Logan Knight asked Adam.
Ellie’s head rested on Adam’s thigh. He petted her absentmindedly. She’d been glued to his side since he’d walked into the house an hour ago. He and Logan were sitting in the backyard getting a healthy dose of caffeine before Logan left to register at the hotel.
“Like a mission,” Adam said. “Cooper tracked down the blackmailers who stole the company secrets in order to sell them back. I convinced the client to bring in the police at that point, and it was a clean bust all around.”
“What’s interesting to me is that you called me here to dogsit while you took off to handle that.”
“I’m the boss.” The client had been high profile, and Adam’s young company couldn’t afford any screwups. Work, that’s what he was good at. Well, that and sex. Look how that had turned out. He’d slept with Meg, then emotionally hurt her. Shit. He had to call her, find out what she needed.
“You keeping that dog? She’s timid as hell.”
“Can’t. I travel too much.”
Logan reached over to pet Ellie. “Dude, you’re letting the dog get attached to you. Not cool.”
Adam looked down at the dog’s head resting trustingly on his leg. “It’d be the same for anyone who fostered her until a permanent home is found. She’ll be okay.” Right. When he’d first insisted on taking the dog, he’d really been thinking about his goal of reconnecting with Megan, not the dog. Now here he was hurting another innocent.
His doorbell rang, surprising him. It was before nine a.m. Ellie followed him as he walked through the house and past the last box of his parents’ stuff. Just the pictures and documents. He had to make a decision: keep them or destroy them.
The bell rang again and Ellie looked up at him with questioning eyes and a small whine of anxiety. Rubbing her ear, he said, “It’s okay, girl. We can handle whatever is on the other side of the door.” He pulled the door open.
Or maybe not.
“Megan.” She stood on his porch, backlit by the morning sun and trying to steal the breath from his body. An ache of longing lodged deep in his chest. He wanted to rub the spot to make it stop. “I was going to call you. Just got back this morning.”
“I took a chance you were home. I need to talk to you.”
Her voice was tense. She wore flats and a flowing skirt paired with a rust-colored top. Her hair was pulled back, revealing tight strain on her face. His desire cooled as concern took over.
He and Ellie stepped back. “What’s wrong?”
Megan walked in a few steps, then froze. “Oh, sorry. You have company.”
Adam glanced at the other man, noting his too-interested gaze, and said, “Megan, this is Logan. He’s one of my operatives. He’ll be in town working until the security job for the Celebrity Golf Tournament is complete.”
Logan strode up to her with a dumb ass grin on his face. “Hey, Megan. Nice to meet you.”
Her smile was forced. “You too, Logan. Sorry to intrude.” Dropping his hand, she turned back to Adam. “Maybe we can talk outside?”
“No need, I’m just leaving.” Logan grabbed his travel bag, pet Ellie one last time, then headed out the door.
“Want some coffee?”
“No. Thanks.” She glanced around, as if searching for something, then sucked in a breath. “I wanted to do this better, ease into it or something. But now…”
His guts clenched at her rising tension, and that ache in his chest was getting downright annoying. To give himself a minute to gather his composure—he hadn’t expected Megan to show up wearing a tight, worried expression—he looked down at the dog pressed up against his leg. “Go lie down,” he told Ellie.
She ducked her head, then went to the blanket he had for her by the table where he worked.
Adam watched as Ellie settled herself on the comforter, then turned back to Megan, ready to deal. “Whatever it is, just spill it.”
“I’m in trouble.”
He crossed his arms, refusing to give into the urge to touch her. He’d touched her for hours in that cottage, and it still hadn’t been enough. But this need right now? Not sexual. It was caveman possessive and insanely protective. “What kind of trouble?”
She fidgeted with the strap of her purse. “I think I’m being set up. I could be arrested.”
“For what? Who is setting you up?”
She shook her head. “That’s not what I need your help with. Besides, you don’t want to get involved with that.” She turned and went to the front window and looked out. Wrapping her arms around herself, she looked so alone. “It involves Nathan McCray, and that’s a problem for you since he hired your company to provide security for the golf tournament.”
She wasn’t making any sense. He put his hands on her too-tense shoulders. “What’s Nathan done?” The guy was an aging celeb trying to hold onto his fame. But not a criminal. “How could he set you up?”
“He and his ex-wife Debbie are in a custody battle over their valuable show dog, Celtic Fire.”
Adam listened as she explained the whole story. Nathan’s attempt at bribery, his subsequent apology, the deposition, her run-in with the asshole mentor, and this morning, police asking her if she had the dog Nathan claimed was stolen.
He pulled her against his chest. “Easy, you’re too tense. We’ll figure this out. Nathan can be a blowhard, completely full of himself, but I don’t think he’d risk hiding the dog in an attempt to frame you.”
She pushed out of his hold. “I’m not asking you to get involved in that. I know Nathan hired you, so of course—“
“Of course what?” he snapped, anger crackling through him.
She kept his gaze. “You can’t risk the reputation of your security company by getting involved in this. I get that.”
Her reasonable voice just pissed him off. “Then why are you here? If that’s what you think of me, that I wouldn’t help you, why are you here?”
She looked away from him, went to the couch, and sat down heavily. “I need your help with something else.”
Adam couldn’t remember ever being this confused. “What then, Meg?”
She twisted her hands in her lap. “I think at some point I’m going to be arrested.”
“You might be overreacting.”
“I thought that too. But after the police left, I got a call from a reporter. He said he had an anonymous tip that I was taking bribes in exchange for my expert testimony in the dog custody case.” She paused, pressing her lips together for a brief second. “That’s not a coincidence. How is it the reporter called right after the police left?” She shuddered. “I’m being set up and I’m going to be arrested.”
Adam went military straight. That did have the sound of something carefully coordinated. “Did you see anyone watching your house?”
“I didn’t look, but it feels creepy.”
“Shit.” All his instincts went hot. He moved around the coffee table and sat next to her. “First, we make sure you’re safe. You’re not staying in your house alone. Move in here, or—”
“Wait, slow down, Adam.” Megan paused a second. “I’m still getting to what I need from you.”
This was worse than defusing a bomb. Every wire he pulled revealed a more dangerous one. “How much worse does this get?” He put his hand on her arm. “Meg, you didn’t take the dog, did you?”
She frowned at him. “No. Now you don’t believe me, either?” She closed her eyes then opened them. “Never mind. I’m not here for me.”
“Okay, what are you here for?”
She took a deep breath. “I need you to help me protect our son.”
Adam jerked his hand back from her arm and jumped to his feet. He hadn’t heard her right. She could not have said what he thought she had. “What did you say?”
She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. While fidgeting with it, she said, “I got pregnant when you were here three years ago. He’s two years old now.” She held out her phone, a photo displayed on it. “This is Cole.”
He swung around, striding across the room, damn near tripping over the box of pictures and documents. “You got pregnant? And didn’t tell me?” He clenched his fists, fear making his heart pump. “Is this some kind of sick joke? What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t have a son. I don’t have any children. I am always careful.”
Color flushed her pale cheeks and she stood up. “How would I have contacted you, Adam? You told me you were never coming back. I didn’t have an e-mail or a phone number. What was I supposed to do?”
“Oh, I don’t know Megan, maybe contacted the property management company that was renting out this house for me? Or hey, this is just a wild shot in the dark, but see if the U.S. Marine Corps knew where I was? Rumor has it they actually keep track of their Marines!” He realized he was bellowing.
It was all too fucking familiar. He was yelling like his mom after she’d gotten into the booze. The sarcasm, blame, and ugliness were like old friends he couldn’t shake. Adam wouldn’t wish that on any child, yet there he was, acting just like his mom when she was drunk. And he was stone-cold sober, so he didn’t even have that excuse.
“Yeah, I could have. And then what? What would you have done? Told me to get rid of it?” She yelled right back at him.
He blanched, sick at the thought. “We’ll never know, will we? Because you didn’t have the guts or decency to tell me.”
He couldn’t even take care of a dog. Glancing over, he saw that Ellie had burrowed her head under the comforter. Great, he’d scared the injured, timid dog. And he was supposed to be a father?
She visibly fought to get control of herself. “I’m telling you now because Cole needs his father to protect him if I’m arrested.”
That ache in his chest turned into a stone. Weighed him down. Trapped him. Adam had spent his life avoiding anything to do with family. Okay, yeah, the men he worked with in the military, they were a brotherhood. He’d led his team, and he’d been responsible for their lives. But they were adults who signed on to risk their lives.
That was different.
Not this. Not a child he could destroy with words, glares, and long, accusing silences broken only by drunken screaming. He lifted his hand to rub the bridge of his nose. He had to pull it together. He dropped his arm and stared at the woman he had been so wrong about. “How could you do this, Meg? I told you I didn’t want a family. Ever.”
She glared back at him. “I didn’t get pregnant by myself.”
He held onto his anger, keeping his darkest fears tightly under control. “I’m always careful.”
“Except once, obviously.” She lifted her phone with the screen toward him.
He didn’t look at it, didn’t want to see whatever she had on that screen. “No exceptions. I don’t take chances on saddling a kid with me as a dad.”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Then slowly, she lowered her arm holding the phone. “You should have thought of that when I woke you up. You were having a nightmare after your parents’ funeral. I woke you…” Her face softened. “We had sex.”
He wanted to deny it. Tell her she was wrong. Problem was…he remembered. Oh yeah, he remembered the nightmare having a strangle hold on him, the blazing heat of the desert covered in the blood and gore of men blown apart. Of Brady, his face swollen and blue, shaking his head and telling Adam that he’d failed. Again.
Then her cool hand on him, her soft voice pulling him out of hell. He’d needed her. He recalled rolling over her, spreading her thighs and pushing into the warm depths of her softness. The feel of her arms around him. The horrors in his head receding as he lost himself in Megan. Afterward, he’d gone back to sleep, able to rest. And he’d never thought of a condom.
“Christ, Meg, how could you let that happen? The one time I don’t remember, you couldn’t take a little responsibility?”
“I’ve been taking responsibility since the moment I found out I was pregnant. Alone. Because I knew you didn’t want me or a kid. And you know what, Adam? That was fine. Cole is the best thing in my life. Not a mistake, but the best thing.” She closed in until she stood toe to toe with him. “But now he needs his father. Otherwise, if I’m arrested, there’s a chance Cole will be put in protective custody.”
The rock in his chest kept growing until he could barely breathe. “That’s a little extreme. What about your mom? Surely the authorities would just let the kid stay with his grandmother.”
She shook her head. “That’s not a risk I’m willing to take. You’re the father, you’re on the birth certificate. You can make sure he’s not ripped out of his home to be placed with strangers.”
He looked for a way out. “I’m a stranger. The boy doesn’t know me.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t want to be a father.”
Megan narrowed her eyes, her face tightening with strain. “Don’t you ever tell Cole that. Do you hear me, Adam? You can yell at me all day long, you can hate me until the day you die, but you won’t ever hurt our son with comments like that.”
He clamped his mouth shut because she was right. Oh yeah, he knew just how right she was. It was Megan he was pissed at, not the boy.
“All I want from you is to be willing to step up and claim him if I’m arrested. Stay with him at my house until I can pay the bond. My mom will help, but you need to physically be there to make sure he won’t be removed. If you do that, I’ll give you whatever you want. I’ll sign papers that I’ll never go after you for child support, sever your parental rights, whatever the hell you want. Just help me protect our son now.”
More anger arced through him and his guts twisted. “Back off, Megan. My kid isn’t a bargaining chip. I’m not making deals here. Especially with you, a woman who kept my son a secret for more than two years.” He still didn’t know how she could have done that. Why? Yeah, he didn’t want kids, but he would have at least paid child support. Made sure they both had what they needed. But then, they’d never know what he would have done. She hadn’t given him the chance. And now he had a two-year-old son.
None of this was the boy’s fault. Adam had to do the right thing by the kid. See him through this mess now. Then get the hell out of his life.
“I’ll do it.”
Megan closed her eyes, her entire body sagging. She turned away from him. “Thank you.”
“I’m not doing it for you, that’s for damn sure.”
She nodded. “I know.”
He hated this…everything that had been between them, it was broken. Destroyed. “I’m going to see a lawyer.”
Her shoulders tensed again.
“We’ll set up child support.”
She turned, frowning. “I don’t want—”
“I don’t care what you want. I stopped caring the second I learned that you kept the boy a secret. The support isn’t for you.” He struggled as emotions kept detonating in him, erupting without warning and shredding his self-control. “It’s for the boy. And I’ll have my will redone.” He was so pissed at her, it was taking everything he had to be rational. Think of the kid. Not her, not the sick feeling in his chest.
The sense of loss.
“All these years, Meg, I thought of you in the long nights. You were what I fought for. I knew I could never be that man who would love you and have a family with you. But I fought for you…because I believed you were worth it. Good, honest, real. When I got so worn down at times, when I wanted to walk into the firestorm instead of run from it, I thought of you.
“And I kept fighting, wanting to make the world a better place for you.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Adam…”
He shook his head, refusing to let her suck him in again. “You’re not that woman. You’re not who I thought you were.”
She nodded, picked her purse up. She headed for the door and pulled it open. She hesitated.
Morning sunlight streamed over her, catching the gold in her hair. She was so damned beautiful, yet her face and eyes were heart-wrenchingly vulnerable in those seconds. He held himself rigid. Cold. Locked in his anger.
“It might be best if you meet Cole. So he’s used to you. Get familiar with the house. Once I get a security system in, I’ll give you the codes.”
Security system. Shit, he’d gotten lost in his anger, and forgot there was a very real threat hanging over Megan. And a threat to Megan was a threat to their son.
“I’m moving in. Today.” He’d handle getting her place secured too.
She stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
Folding his arms over his chest, he said, “I might not be father of the year material, but I can damn well protect my son and his mother.”