The Texas Lawman's Last Stand

Bo reacted like a cop. He whipped his gun from the shoulder holster that was concealed beneath his jacket.

“Go to the babies,” he told the nanny. “Call Garrett O’Malley at headquarters. I want a unit out here now.” Then he headed for the front door.

Mattie followed him. She eased her snub-nose .38 from her purse and braced herself for the worst. However, she hadn’t counted on the worst coming from Bo himself.

He turned around, lightning fast, and with his left hand caught on to her right wrist. Before she even knew what was happening, he tore the gun from her hand.

“What the hell are you doing with this?” he snarled getting right in her face. So close that his body brushed against hers.

Mattie pretended not to notice the contact. “I have my reasons for carrying a gun. And you might need backup if there’s danger.”

“I don’t want or need backup from you. Get in the living room and stay there.”

Mattie didn’t try to wrestle her gun away from him, not that she would have succeeded anyway. He outsized her by at least seven inches and seventy-five pounds. But despite being outsized, she disobeyed his order.

She went to the front door and looked out one of the beveled glass sidelight windows. Even through the distortion of the bevels and the dusky light outside, she had no trouble seeing that black van. What she couldn’t see was who was inside it. The heavily tinted windows prevented that.

“What do you know about this?” Bo asked, joining her. Well, actually he muscled her out of the way and looked out for himself.

“Nothing … specifically. Maybe nothing at all.”

That earned her a glare from his narrowed brown eyes. “Then you’d better get into unspecifics, even if they involve nothing at all.”

Mattie tried to keep her chin high, though it wasn’t easy. “Later. After we take care of this.”

Whatever this was.

It could be someone from Witness Protection, or her family, or maybe the men who’d been hunting her. None of these was a good option. Unfortunately, with her luck she didn’t think it would be a van of Girl Scouts selling cookies.

From the end of the hall, Mattie could hear the sounds of children playing. Happy sounds. The nanny obviously hadn’t frightened the children with her alarming news about the van. That was good. Now Mattie had to make sure it stayed that way. She didn’t want the children upset or anywhere near the possible danger.

Despite Bo’s grunt of obvious disapproval, Mattie stayed by the sidelight window. “How long before the police unit arrives?” she asked.

“Soon.” He slipped her .38 into his jacket pocket. “Once they’re here, I’ll go out and have a chat with whoever’s in that van. And then, Ms. Cooper, I’m taking you to headquarters for an interview and possibly even an arrest for carrying a concealed weapon.”

Mattie couldn’t go to headquarters, of course. She couldn’t risk being seen. If she couldn’t convince Bo otherwise, then she’d have to figure a way out of there. But she didn’t want to leave. Not with so much unfinished business.

Or with so much at stake.

Bo volleyed glances between the van and her. He had a unique way of making her feel like a criminal.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t all.

He also had a unique way of making her feel like a woman.

It probably had something to do with all that testosterone emanating from him. Yes, he was a man. As alpha as they came. Tall, dark brown hair. Oh, and dangerous, too. Not the kind and gentle soul that Nadine had described. But Mattie saw the appeal.

Or rather, she felt the appeal.

And she gave herself a good mental tongue-lashing for it. There was no room in her life for Bo Duggan or any other man.

After she had another look to make sure no one was coming out of that van, Mattie stepped back, putting some distance between her and the hot, glaring cop.

And then she saw it.

The photo on the wall.

She probably hadn’t noticed it when she first came in because Rosalie had quickly ushered her to the living room. But Mattie saw it now. It was a picture of two babies.

A boy and a girl.

Both were around a year old. Both smiling for the camera. The boy had dark brown hair and was a genetic copy of Bo Duggan, right down to his already intense eyes.

And then there was the little girl.

Brown hair, as well, but hers was shades lighter than the boy’s. Green eyes, not so much intense but filled with curiosity. She was so beautiful.

So precious.

Mattie heard the sound escape from her throat. Part moan, part gasp. A paradox of emotions flooded through her. The unconditional love mixed with the heart-wrenching pain of how much time she’d already lost.

She felt the movement next to her. It was Bo, although she had to blink back the tears just to see his face.

He was scowling.

And worse, he was puzzled and almost certainly on the verge of demanding answers. Mattie wasn’t ready to give him those answers just yet. First, she had to lay the groundwork. She had to convince him—somehow—to help her.

“The van,” she reminded him, looking back out the window. It was still there. No open doors.

Bo returned his attention to the menacing vehicle, as well, and the silence sliced right through the foyer. “Who’s out there?” he asked.

She had to clear away the lump in her throat before she could speak. “I honestly don’t know.”

“But it’s related to you?”

“Maybe. But I don’t think so. I’ve covered my tracks well. Plus, as you said, the van followed you. There shouldn’t be a connection between me and you.”

Mattie prayed that that was true. It didn’t mean it was. Someone could have put one and one together and that would have led them to Bo. And to that precious little girl in the picture.

“Have you been followed before?” Mattie asked.

“No.” He was adamant enough about it, but there was something that made her keep pushing.

“You’re sure?”

He cursed under his breath. “Someone’s been looking into my personal info. And yesterday someone tried to break into my SUV.”

“Yesterday,” she repeated. Mattie didn’t like the timing. Yesterday was when she’d called Bo’s house and asked for an appointment to see him.

She caught some movement on the street and spotted the white police cruiser. It came to a stop behind the van.

“Wait here,” Bo ordered. But he didn’t just order it. This time he snared her gaze, and there was trouble in his eyes. Trouble that dared her to defy him.

Mattie stayed put. Besides, it was possible that whoever was in that van would want to shoot her on sight. She didn’t want to die, and she didn’t want bullets coming anywhere near the children.

Much to her surprise, the driver of the van didn’t slam on the accelerator and speed away. She watched as the person inside rolled down the window. Bo approached, his gun aimed and ready. The two uniformed officers who got out of the cruiser had their weapons trained on the van, as well.

When the window was completely lowered, she spotted the man inside. Scraggly salt-and-pepper hair. Long, thin face.

He was a stranger.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t a gun hired by someone who didn’t qualify as a stranger. It wouldn’t be the first time a gunman had been paid to come after her.

“Is everything okay?” she heard someone ask.

She looked over her shoulder and spotted Rosalie. The sixty-something-year-old nanny with the sugar-white hair was in the doorway of one of the rooms down the corridor. She had the little boy in her arms, his legs straddled around her thin hip.

Mattie’s heart lurched, and she waited. Breath held. Hoping to see the other child. And then hoping that she didn’t. Not at this moment with the van out there.

“The police are here,” Mattie relayed. “Bo should be back soon.”

Rosalie nodded and disappeared into the room, where she’d hopefully be safe with the children if bullets started flying.

Mattie forced her attention back on the van. The driver was smiling. His demeanor was almost apologetic. He even laughed about something one of the officers said. Bo didn’t share the laugh, but he did lower his weapon, and then he said something to the uniformed officers before turning to walk toward the house.

Mattie opened the door for him but stood to the side so that neither the officers nor the van driver could see her.

“The guy says he’s interested in buying the house across the street,” Bo announced. “That seems to be the lie of the day, huh?”

“You think he’s lying?”

“Maybe. But even if he’s not, those are fake plates on his vehicle. He’ll need to explain that to the officers.” He re-holstered his gun. “And speaking of explaining, let me check on Rosalie, and then I can call someone to stay with her while I take you down to headquarters.”

“No.” She grabbed his arm to stop him from heading to the nursery. “If you take me there, you’ll be signing my death warrant.”

He couldn’t have possibly managed a more skeptical look. “I’m a cop, not a killer.”

“There are others, though, who would love to pull the trigger.” Mattie wished she’d rehearsed this or at least figured out the best way to approach what she had to say. Of course, maybe there was no best way.

He shook off her grip and turned, practically trapping her against the wall. “Did you have something to do with the men who took the hostages at the hospital?”

“No. I told you that I was one of the hostages.”

“Madeline Cooper,” he said as a challenge.

“Mattie,” she offered, though she knew this wasn’t going to turn into a friendly visit.

“Mattie,” he repeated. “Your name wasn’t on the list of patients who were in the ward during the hostage standoff.”

“Because I left before the police arrived.”

“Yeah. I know.” His eyes narrowed. “And why would you do something like that?”

Mattie answered his question with one of her own. “Can I trust you?”

“As much as I can trust you,” he warned, his eyes narrowing even more.

If she’d had a choice, she would have backed off then and there. But she didn’t have a choice. “I was in the Witness Protection Program.”

He hesitated only a heartbeat. “I want your case number so I can verify it.”

“The number doesn’t mean anything anymore. There was some kind of leak, and someone found out my new identity and location. Right before the hostage situation, that someone tried to kill me. I escaped and went to the hospital. The trauma must have triggered my labor. When I checked in, I used a fake name, obviously, and I said I didn’t have my insurance card with me.”

“You think the ski-mask-wearing SOBs were really after you?”

She shook her head. “No. At least I don’t think so.” From what she’d read about the case in the past thirteen months, the gunmen had been there to break into the lab and tamper with some DNA evidence. Nothing related to her.

“I couldn’t just let the cops find me there at the hospital that day,” she explained. “My former boss believes I’m dead, and if they’d learned differently—”

“Who’s your former boss?”

She decided to tell him the truth, because maybe this would help her cause. “Kendall Collier.”

Those cop’s eyes darkened. He obviously recognized the name. “You’re not Madeline Cooper. You’re Mattie Collier. And two years ago you testified against Kendall Collier.”

“Yes.” Her boss, her uncle. And also someone who’d gotten involved with an illegal arms dealer and gotten off scot-free because of a technicality. “I have reason to believe that Kendall, or someone else, will kill me if anyone learns I’m alive. That’s why I left the hospital.”

He made a sound deep within his chest to indicate he was thinking about what she’d said. Processing it. She could see the moment that the question came to him. It didn’t take long.

“On the video, you didn’t have a baby with you. You were alone. What happened to your child? ”

Mattie considered several ways she could go about this, but those ways all led to the same inevitable end. It was an end that Bo Duggan was not going to like.

She pointed to the picture on the wall. “My daughter is here with you. You’ve been raising her. But I’ve waited long enough, and I want her back.”

Chapter Three

Bo hadn’t thought there could be too many more surprises today, but he was wrong. He was also obviously dealing with a liar or someone in need of medication.

But Mattie Collier seemed to be lucid.

Well, except for that part about him having her child. There wasn’t a chance that was true. No lucid woman would be saying that.

“Nadine had twins,” he spelled out for her. “A boy and a girl.”

Mattie shook her head. “No. Nadine had a son that I helped deliver. I had a daughter. And when I realized that I had to get out of that hospital or be killed, I knew I couldn’t risk taking my child with me.”

“So you put your newborn baby in the arms of my unconscious wife?” Bo didn’t even try to take the sarcasm and skepticism out of his voice.

“She wasn’t unconscious when I left. Tired and sleepy, yes. But conscious. We talked.” Mattie huffed and pushed her hair away from her face. “Nadine agreed—she was to tell you about what I was doing. But only you. And then I told her when it was safe, I’d come for the baby.”

Bo couldn’t even let himself fathom that this might be true. It wasn’t. Jacob and Holly were his. They were his life. And he’d already ascertained that Mattie Collier was a liar. The trouble was, he couldn’t quite figure out why she’d come up with this particular lie.

Maybe to get his help with her Witness Protection problem?

Perhaps. She was obviously troubled and in trouble. But it seemed an outlandish approach to get his help.

And why did he want to help her?

She’d riled him with her accusation about being Holly’s mom. She’d also riled him with her stream of lies and her connections to an alleged lowlife scumbag like Kendall Collier, someone that Bo would prefer not to have introduced into the lives of his children.

Still, Mattie had that vulnerable look about her, and he hoped like the devil that vulnerability was all there was to it. This wasn’t a man-woman thing.

Was it?

But then he rethought that question. It couldn’t be that. Other than a passing glance, he hadn’t noticed another woman since Nadine.

“Do you have any proof whatsoever about what you’re saying?” he demanded.

“No. But you can get proof by doing a DNA test on my daughter. I brought the kits with me.”

“My daughter,” he corrected. “Holly is mine. Both babies have O positive blood type—that matches mine.”

“O positive is a common blood type.” She stepped closer. “I know this is hard for you to accept—”

“It isn’t hard, because I won’t accept it. But I will ask why you’re doing this. Do you think if you have some kind of emotional hold over me that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you out of the path of your uncle and his hired guns?”

Mattie stepped back as if he’d slapped her. “Even you can’t keep me out of Kendall’s path. An entire team of federal agents failed. I failed.”

“Ahhh. So, by your own admission a dangerous situation still exists in your life. Yet, according to your delusional plan, you told Nadine that you’d come for the baby when it was safe.”

He expected to see some anger in her eyes, especially since he’d just caught her in another lie. But there was no anger. Only weariness and fatigue.

She leaned back against the wall. “I have a friend who works in the Office of Vital Statistics in Austin, and she told me that someone is searching through birth records for the time period my daughter was due to be born. That someone is looking for her as a way to get to me, and judging from the records they’re searching now, they’re getting close to finding her. If I stay in hiding, I can’t protect her, and protecting her is my first priority. That’s a promise I made to her father just hours before he was murdered.”

“Your story just keeps getting better and better,” he mocked. Though he wouldn’t put it past a criminal like Kendall Collier to commit murder. Bo didn’t personally know the man, but from what he’d heard, Kendall was capable of just about anything.

Which only weakened Mattie’s story.

“If you’re telling the truth,” Bo explained, “you wouldn’t be here. A mother wouldn’t put her baby in that kind of danger.”

“A mother without a choice would have,” she countered. “I don’t have a choice.”

“I beg to differ. You can turn and walk out that door right now.” Of course, he wouldn’t let her do that. If she was going anywhere, it was to police headquarters for a long hard interrogation.

“I’ve been living in fear for a long time.” Her voice was strained and low now. “I worried that right after the hostage situation, the hospital would do DNA tests on all the babies. I thought my secret would be discovered then.”

“How do you know the hospital didn’t do tests?” Bo snarled.

“If they had, then you’d know that the little girl in the picture is mine.”

She had him there. But some of the babies had been tested, those in the newborn unit that had been evacuated because the gunmen had set a fire near it before they escaped. And the other group that had been tested was those newborns that had been physically separated from their mothers at any time during the standoff.

That hadn’t been the case with Nadine.

Bo and the other officers had found her and the babies in the nurses’ lounge. Alone. It was obvious Nadine had given birth, and it was equally obvious that she was holding her babies in her arms.

Mattie glanced in the direction of the nursery when one of the babies fussed, but the noise soon stopped.

“Nadine didn’t say anything when you got to her?” Mattie asked.

“Not much.”

“But she said something,” she pressed.

Oh, yes. Nadine had said something. Something that Bo had replayed in his head a million times. Words that he would never forget.

We have to protect her.

Not them.

Her.

The comment had puzzled Bo, but he’d dismissed it as the ramblings of a traumatized, dying woman. Nadine had meant to say them. The twins. Just as she’d meant to tell Bo that she loved him. But there hadn’t been time, and Nadine hadn’t had the energy to speak anything else.

“What did she say?” Mattie whispered. She was begging. And there were tears in her eyes, though she quickly blinked them back.

Bo didn’t like those tears. They seemed genuine. The real McCoy. Still, he wasn’t ready to cut her any slack. Not with what was at stake.

“I’ll tell you what Nadine said,” he countered, “when you tell me why you’re really here.”

Mattie was apparently still contemplating that when he saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. Rosalie stepped from the nursery. And she wasn’t alone. She was carrying Jacob, and Holly was peeking around Rosalie’s skirt.

“Is that van gone?” Rosalie asked.

Bo nodded and went toward her. He didn’t want Mattie seeing Holly. But it was too late. She obviously saw the child, because Mattie went in that direction, as well.

He blocked her from moving any closer.

“What’s wrong?” Rosalie demanded.

Bo locked eyes with Mattie, but he addressed his comment to the nanny. “Just wait in the nursery.”

“You keep dodging the question, Bo,” Rosalie answered. “And I think it’s time you told me what’s going on. I have ears, you know. I can hear what this woman is saying. Well, most of it, anyway.”

Bo had no idea what to say to that, and it turned out that an immediate response wasn’t required. That’s because Holly squealed “Da Da” and toddled toward him. She had just taken her first steps two days before, so when she wobbled, she fell to the floor and crawled toward Bo.

Jacob followed her lead, babbled “Da Da” as well and wiggled and squirmed so that Rosalie let him down. Jacob had been walking for nearly a month now but still had some trouble mastering the carpet in his bare feet.

Holly made it to Bo first. Her loose brown curls danced around her beaming face, and despite everything else going on, Bo’s bad mood melted away. He scooped up his daughter in his arms and got rewarded with a sloppy kiss on his cheek. A moment later, Jacob reached him, as well, and both of Bo’s arms were suddenly filled with the children he loved more than life itself.

He looked at Mattie. This time, she wasn’t successful in blinking back those tears. She reached out, her fingers going straight toward Holly’s curls, but it was Rosalie who snagged her wrist.

“You said some powerful things,” Rosalie acknowledged. “What I want to know is why you’re saying them.”

Mattie kept her attention nailed to Holly. “Because it’s the truth.”

Rosalie met Bo’s gaze, and he didn’t see the immediate dismissal that he hoped would be there. He kissed the babies again and passed them back to the nanny. “I need to clear this up with Ms. Collier.”

Rosalie looked ready to argue, but thankfully she didn’t. She pulled both kids into her arms and headed back down the hall.

“I was going to name her Isabella,” Mattie said before he could speak. Her voice cracked. “But Holly suits her. It’s a good fit.”

He didn’t want to hear any of this.

“This ends now,” Bo quickly told Mattie. “I’ve already wasted enough time. If you were really Holly’s mom, you wouldn’t have come here.”

“I told you I didn’t have a choice. I’ve been keeping tabs on my uncle and his cronies, and I have reason to believe that Kendall or someone else has made the connection between your wife and me.”

There it was. The feeling of being punched in the gut. “And how would he have done that?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe that hospital video. Maybe by talking to eyewitnesses who were able to give him a description of me.” She paused. “As I told you, someone has been researching all the babies born around the time my child was due. It’s possible Kendall knows that you have my child. And if he knows that, then it won’t be long before he comes after her. Because he’ll probably try to use Holly to get to me.”

Every muscle in his body tensed. Bo couldn’t bear the thought of anyone being a threat to his child.

“I still don’t believe you,” he said, enunciating each word so that she wouldn’t misunderstand.

“Just think this through,” she countered. “Nadine and you must have known she wasn’t carrying twins.”

“We didn’t. There were no ultrasounds. Nadine had read a lot of articles about ultrasounds, and she was worried they might not be a hundred percent safe. Something to do with the way the high-frequency waves could maybe alter cells. Even though there’s no conclusive evidence that an ultrasound would be harmful, Nadine didn’t want to take the risk unless it was absolutely necessary.”

Mattie cleared her throat. “If what I’m saying isn’t true, then why else would I have been in that maternity hospital?”

He could think of a reason. A bad one. Maybe she’d been there to assist the gunmen. But if so, then why hadn’t she gone with them?

Or maybe she had.

Keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t go after Holly, Bo took out his phone, scrolled through his numbers and tapped Sergeant Garrett O’Malley’s personal cell.

“Bo, have you got ESP or something, because I was about to call you,” O’Malley answered, obviously seeing Bo’s name and number on his caller ID. “You’re not going to like this, but the guy in the black van hasn’t even gotten here, and his lawyer has already arrived. It’s Ian Kaplan.”

“You know this Ian Kaplan?” Bo asked. He heard Mattie’s breath rattle, and she took a step back.

“No, but I ran a check on him as soon as he showed up,” O’Malley explained. “Ian Kaplan is expensive and exclusive.”