About the Author

Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why Texas author and former air force captain DELORES FOSSEN feels as if she were genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force top gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.

The Texas
Lawman’s
Last Stand

Delores Fossen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Prologue

San Antonio Maternity Hospital

The gunshots stopped.

With her heart in her throat, Mattie Collier waited for more rounds of fire. They didn’t come, thank God. And judging from the scene unfolding on the live news report on TV, this was the end of the hostage standoff.

The nightmare was over.

Well, one nightmare anyway.

Blinking back tears, Mattie knew it was time for her to die, again.

Another faked death, another run for her life. She’d done it before when she’d gone into the Federal Witness Protection Program six months earlier.

This time, it would be much, much harder.

Harder, because of her newborn baby. Her precious daughter was a mere two hours old. She was too young to be in the path of danger, and Mattie knew it was too big a risk to try to escape with her. If she failed, if they caught her, the unthinkable could happen.

On the muted TV in the nurses’ lounge, Mattie could now see the police and firemen outside the four-story hospital. Reporters, too. They had their cameras aimed at the building where Mattie and the others were still hiding and waiting for the official end of the nine-hour hostage standoff.

Their captors, the gunmen who’d terrorized them for those nine hours, had stayed concealed behind ski masks, and Mattie had only gotten a glimpse of them before she and another patient had escaped and hidden in the nurses’ lounge at the end of the maternity ward hall. Now, without explanation, their captors had apparently given up and perhaps even managed to get out of the building despite every attempt to stop them.

Any minute, San Antonio PD would storm the hospital to look for injured patients or perhaps even another gunman. The officers would eventually make it to the fourth floor, where she was, and if Mattie allowed them to rescue her, the photographers who were no doubt waiting outside could snap her picture. The wrong people could learn that she wasn’t dead after all.

And that was a sure way to get her and her precious daughter hurt, or worse.

With her baby cradled in the crook of her arm, Mattie got to her feet. Not easily. She was still dizzy and weak from the long labor and the stress of not knowing if the gunmen were going to kill them all. The adrenaline had come and gone, leaving her with the bone-weary fatigue and sickening dread that came with an equally sickening reality. She’d barely had enough strength to change into the green scrubs that she had found in a nurse’s locker, and she wasn’t expecting to regain her strength anytime soon.

A fire alarm sounded and was quickly followed by water falling from the overhead sprinklers.

She glanced up at the ceiling. There were no sprinklers here in the lounge, and that gave her a jolt of panic. She cracked open the door, barely a fraction, and looked out. There were no signs of fire, just the faint smell of smoke. Thankfully, her fellow patient and she were far enough away from that smoke, and the sprinklers would hopefully smother any flames before the firemen could come in and do their thing.

Mattie took some steps, staggering. Neither the pain nor the dizziness would stop her. She knew what had to happen. And it would be the hardest thing she would ever have to do.

Mattie made her way to the leather sofa where Nadine Duggan was asleep. Mattie hadn’t known the petite blonde before they’d been taken hostage while in the throes of labor. With no one to help them, Mattie and Nadine had sneaked away from the others and hidden in the nurses’ lounge. Nadine and she had cried, hoped and prayed through their labors while trying to stay quiet so their captors wouldn’t find them. They’d helped each other and then both had given birth there in the lounge. First, Mattie. Then, a half hour later, Nadine.

Now, Nadine had her own newborn son snuggled against her, where he’d fallen asleep after nursing.

“It’s over,” Mattie told Nadine, tipping her head toward the TV. “The gunmen seem to be gone, and the police are in the building.”

Nadine’s eyes were glazed from fatigue. “Is Bo here?”

From their whispered labor conversations, Mattie knew that Bo was Nadine’s husband. Or rather “the best husband in the world,” as Nadine had claimed. The love of her life. The answer to her prayers.

Mattie hoped Bo would soon be the answer to her own prayers, as well.

From what Mattie had gathered from the TV coverage, Lieutenant Bo Duggan, a cop in the San Antonio PD, had been on the way to the hospital when the ski-mask-wearing gunmen had stormed the labor and delivery ward. Nadine had been trapped inside, and Bo had been unable to get to her.

Now with the gunmen gone, Bo was no doubt tearing his way through the hostage negotiators, firemen, SWAT and reporters to get to Nadine and their child. Mattie had seen Bo on TV, and though she hadn’t been able to hear his exact words, she knew he was pleading for the gunmen to release Nadine and the others. Maybe he’d been successful. After all, something had caused the gunmen to give up the hostages.

“Bo’s coming,” Mattie promised Nadine.

So were Mattie’s tears. She couldn’t stop them as she eased her baby daughter into the crook of Nadine’s left arm.

Nadine’s watery blue eyes widened, and she shook her head, obviously not understanding.

“Protect her,” Mattie said. “Tell everyone here at the hospital and the newspapers that you gave birth to twins. Only your husband can know the truth for now.”

Another shake of her head. “Wh-why?” Nadine asked.

“Because it’s the only way I can keep her safe. Please. I have to leave. I have to try to get out before anyone sees me, but I’ll be back to get her. When I’m sure it’s safe, I’ll be back.”

Nadine ran her tongue over her chapped bottom lip and took a deep breath. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“I will be if anyone figures out who I am.”

“Bo can help you,” Nadine insisted.

“I don’t doubt that he’d try. But all it would take is one picture of me. Or for someone out in that crowd to recognize my face. That might even include the police. The world is watching, Nadine, and I can’t risk being seen.” And Mattie knew for certain that she couldn’t trust her point of contact, a federal marshal, in the Witness Protection Program.

Not after what had happened.

Mattie swallowed hard. “Will you protect my baby?”

Nadine closed her eyes and nodded. Mattie heard the racing footsteps in the corridor. There were frantic shouts. One of them came from a man calling out for Nadine. Bo, no doubt.

Mattie’s time was up.

She took one last look at her baby and leaned down and kissed her warm, rosy cheek. And with her heart in shreds, she did the only thing she could do to make sure her child would survive.

Mattie turned and left.

Chapter One

Thirteen Months Later

Lieutenant Bo Duggan didn’t like what he saw in the rearview mirror of his SUV. A black van had been several vehicles behind him since he pulled out of the parking lot of San Antonio Police headquarters ten minutes earlier. The van was still there.

Maybe it was a coincidence.

Maybe not.

Bo didn’t slow down or speed up. He simply continued his fifty-five-mile-per-hour pace on the drive home. Except he wouldn’t go home just yet. Not with the possibility of that van on his tail.

As a veteran SAPD cop and head of the Special Victims Unit, it was always a possibility that someone was dissatisfied with the outcome of a case and wanted to bring that personal grudge to Bo’s doorstep. But he wouldn’t let it get that far. He already had enough to manage with the other crazy things happening in his life.

What the hell was going on anyway?

The day before, he’d learned someone was running a cyber-investigation on him. A deep one. From an unsecured computer at a coffeehouse, no less. He was still trying to get a list of possible suspects from the partial fingerprints taken from that keyboard. Then someone had tried to break into his SUV while it was in the parking lot at police headquarters.

Now this.

Slipping his phone from his pocket, Bo called one of his sergeants to inform him of the situation and to give him the van’s license plate number to run through the database. Bo’s second call was to his house, and as he expected, the nanny, Rosalie, answered.

“Rosalie, I don’t want to scare you, but are all the doors and windows locked, and is the security system turned on?” Bo asked.

“Yes.” But he could tell from her hesitation that she was already alarmed. Probably because he hadn’t been able to keep the concern out of his voice. Still, better to be safe than sorry. “Why?”

“Just a precaution.” He checked to make sure the black van was still there. It was. “Keep everything locked up tight, and don’t let anyone in unless you hear differently from me.”

There was more hesitation. “I’m sorry, but someone’s already here.”

His stomach knotted, and he pushed his foot to the accelerator. “Who?”

“Madeline Cooper, the woman who’s interested in buying the house across the street. Remember, she called yesterday to make an appointment with you so she could ask some questions about the neighborhood? I let her in about five minutes ago.”

Bo didn’t relax. He was expecting Ms. Cooper, just not this soon. And not with that van following him.

“Tell our visitor I’ll get there as soon as I can,” Bo explained to Rosalie. “And if anyone else calls or comes by, get in touch with me immediately.”

“You’re scaring me, Bo. What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it all when I get there. Right now, I just want to take a few precautions and make sure you and the kids are safe.”

He clicked End Call and was about to call for backup before he stopped the van and confronted whomever was inside, but he realized that wouldn’t be necessary. The van made a right turn, off the main highway, and disappeared down a side street.

Bo blew out a long breath and wanted to dismiss the incident as mild paranoia on his part, but something in his gut told him he had reason for concern. After twelve years of being a cop, the one thing he’d learned was to trust his gut.

He pressed a little harder on the accelerator while he kept watch around him, to make sure that van didn’t resurface. It didn’t. Bo made the turn into his neighborhood without any sign of it or any other suspicious vehicle. However, in front of his ranch-style house there was an unfamiliar two-door blue Ford.

Ms. Cooper’s probably.

He would quickly answer his prospective neighbor’s questions and send her on her way.

Rosalie met him at the door that led from the garage and into the laundry room. Oh, yes. She was concerned. Normally, Rosalie was cool and calm under pressure. But Bo saw the stress, and the tenseness only accented the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

“Everything okay?” Rosalie asked.

“Yeah. How are the kids?”

“Fine. They’re playing in the nursery.” She glanced down at the monitor she held in her hand. She carried it with her whenever she wasn’t with the twins so she would be able to hear them no matter where she was in the house. “So, why did I have to make sure the doors and windows were locked?”

“I thought this black van was following me. I was wrong.” Bo kept it at that, but Rosalie’s raised eyebrows let him know that she would want to discuss this further. “Where’s our guest?”

“Living room.”

Bo headed in that direction, and he kept his jacket on so that it would shield his shoulder holster and gun. Best not to alarm Ms. Cooper in case she was squeamish about such things.

He found her just where Rosalie said she would be. Not seated, but standing by the limestone fireplace, where she was looking at a framed photo. He’d forgotten the photo was there, but then he rarely went into this room. Heck, for that matter, he rarely had guests. Between fatherhood and his job, there wasn’t much time for anything else.

Madeline Cooper turned. Their eyes met, and Bo made a split-second cop’s assessment of her. Tall, about five-nine. Average build. Shoulder-length, straight brown hair. Green eyes. A full mouth. Very little makeup, just a touch of pink color on her lips. She wore matching olive-green pants and a sweater. The outfit was nondescript. Definitely not flashy.

She was not a woman who wanted to draw attention to herself.

But something about her caught Bo’s attention.

“Do I know you?” he immediately asked.

“No.” Her answer was immediate, as well. Maybe too immediate.

“You look …” Bo didn’t know where to go with that. Several things came to mind, including, much to his surprise, that she looked damn attractive. But what also came to mind was that she was “… familiar.”

“Oh.” It was her only response.

Bo was ready to launch into more questions, but his phone rang. He pulled it from his jacket pocket and looked at the screen. It was Sergeant Garrett O’Malley from headquarters.

“Please excuse me a second. I need to take this call. Duggan,” he answered after his guest nodded.

“I ran the license plate on that black van you thought might be following you,” O’Malley informed him. “It must be fake. No record of it.”

Hell. That was not what Bo wanted to hear. “What about the van itself—was it stolen?”

“That’s my guess. I checked, and there were two black vans reported stolen in the last twenty-four hours.”

Bo didn’t like that, either. “Keep digging. Try to locate that vehicle. And call me if you find out anything else.” He kept his instructions vague since he had an audience nearby. Madeline Cooper seemed to be hanging on his every word.

“Is there a problem?” she asked, her forehead bunched up.

“No problem.” At best, that was a hopeful remark. At worst, a lie.

He might not know which was the truth for a while.

Bo walked closer, studying her and trying to figure out why bells the size of Texas were going off in his head.

“You have a lovely home,” she commented. She folded her arms over her chest and tipped her head to the photo on the mantel. “That’s your wife?”

Bo glanced at the photo of Nadine. She sported a grin from ear to ear, because that picture had been taken the day she learned she was pregnant.

“My late wife,” he corrected. “She died not long after giving birth.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss.” It sounded heartfelt, as if the loss had been hers, as well. Strange. “Do you have a son or daughter?”

“Both. I have twins.”

She glanced away but not before Bo saw something flicker through her eyes. What, exactly, he didn’t know, but it didn’t seem to be a normal reaction.

“I remember your name now,” she continued. “Wasn’t your wife at the San Antonio Maternity Hospital during that hostage standoff?”

Bo let the question dangle between them for several seconds. It was definitely an uncomfortable silence, and if he’d had any doubts that his guest was nervous, he didn’t have them after that. “That’s right. My wife had the babies by herself while hiding in a nurses’ lounge. She had internal bleeding and died.”

The lack of emotion in his tone certainly didn’t mean there was a lack of emotion in his heart. No. Losing Nadine had been the most difficult thing he had ever faced. If it hadn’t been for the babies, he would have shut down and died emotionally right along with her. But he’d survived for their children and because that’s what Nadine would have expected him to do.

“So, you had questions about the neighborhood?” Bo asked, changing the subject.

She nodded. “Um, is it safe?”

He thought of the van and hesitated. “I’m a cop. I wouldn’t be living here with my children if it wasn’t.”

Another nod. She moistened her lips. Hell. That mouth was so familiar. Where had he seen it before?

“Are you from San Antonio?” he asked.

“No. Born and raised in Dallas, but for the past two years I’ve been traveling so much that I don’t really have a place to call home.”

“No family?”

There it was. Another flicker in her eyes before she glanced away again. “No family.”

“You’re not a very good liar.” Bo hadn’t intended to be so blunt, but frankly he was tired of this conversation. For a woman who wanted to know about the neighborhood, she didn’t have much interest in it. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Stared at him. And looked even more uncomfortable. He knew how she felt. Bo was uncomfortable, too.

He stared at her, waiting for an explanation that one way or another he was going to get. He wouldn’t let her leave until he knew if she were connected to that van. He was about to toss that particular accusation at her, when something flashed in his head.

And he knew where he’d seen that face and that mouth.

“I know why you look so familiar,” he told her. “The surveillance video at the hospital.”

She shook her head. “What video?”

“The one I studied a thousand times after the hostage standoff. A woman wearing green scrubs left the area of the nurses’ lounge only seconds before I got there. The hair is different, darker, but the mouth—it’s the same.”

She didn’t deny it. In fact, her body language confirmed it. “I have a problem,” she practically whispered. “A serious one.”

“Yeah, you do. You left the scene of a crime, lady, and the police want to question you. Hell, I want to question you. What were you doing in that nurses’ lounge with my wife and newborn babies?”

She stood there, blinking hard as if fighting back tears. “I was a hostage, too. I was trapped there like everyone else on the ward.”

Bo hadn’t known what answer to expect, and he wasn’t sure yet if he believed her. After all, she’d fled the scene, and people didn’t usually do that sort of thing unless they were running from the law. But there was something in her voice. Something in her eyes. Some deep pain. Bo understood that and knew she probably wasn’t faking it. He’d already determined she wasn’t much of a liar.

He went closer to her so he could keep watch with his lie-detector eyes. “You were with my wife?”

“Yes.” She sank down onto the sofa and looked at her hands. “After the gunmen stormed into the hospital ward, they fired some shots at the ceiling. People ran. Obviously, there was chaos. And Nadine was in the labor room next to me. Our labors were just starting so we were able to get out of our beds and hide.”

Each bit of information was a mixed blessing. For months, he’d wanted to know what Nadine had endured in those last hours, but since she’d never been able to tell him herself, he had been the one to try to fill in the blanks. As a cop, those blanks had been filled with gruesome images. Now, he had the chance to learn the truth. Well, maybe.

If this woman was telling the truth.

Because his legs suddenly felt unsteady, Bo had to sit, as well. He took the chair across from her. “How did you get from the labor rooms to the nurses’ lounge?”

“The gunmen were trying to gather everyone into the hall outside the delivery suites. Nadine and I waited until the gunmen were in one of the other rooms, and that’s when we left. We used the back hall and followed it to the nurses’ lounge.”

She fidgeted with the clasp on her purse, finally got it open, extracted a mint and popped it into her mouth. “There was a TV in the lounge, and we were able to figure out what was going on.”

Yes. He remembered the TV. It was still on with the volume muted when he got to Nadine. “You didn’t try to contact anyone? “

“There was no phone in the lounge, and neither of us had our cells with us. We’d left them in the labor rooms. Then, it wasn’t long before the pain made it impossible to try to escape. So, we stayed put … and helped each other.”

Just hearing this reopened all the old wounds. The pain. Hell. Several hours before the hostage standoff had begun, Nadine had called him from her routine doctor appointment. Her cervix was dilated, she’d said, and the doctor wanted to go ahead and admit her to the hospital.

Bo knew he should have been there to protect her. And he would have been if there hadn’t been a damn traffic accident. That fifteen-minute delay had meant the difference between life and death. Because if he’d been there at the hospital, he could have gotten Nadine the help she needed, and she might not have died from complications.

He pushed aside those regrets and focused on his guest. “Why are you really here? And please don’t try to lie and say it’s because you’re interested in the neighborhood.”

She nodded, paused again. “I wanted to talk to you about what happened in the nurses’ lounge.”

“Good. Because I’m all ears. And while you’re at it, why don’t you explain why you fled the scene?”

Silence. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have a response. There was plenty of nonverbal stuff going on. Increased respiratory rate. Her pulse, working on her throat. Bo didn’t care for any of it. Nor did he care for her. This woman clearly had some secrets, and he didn’t plan for them to be secrets much longer.

He came out of the chair, startling his guest with his abrupt movement. Ms. Cooper jumped to her feet and looked ready to run, but Bo caught on to her shoulders to stop her.

“You will tell me what happened,” he insisted. But then he got a sickening thought. “Did you know the gunmen? Were you their partner?”

Her eyes widened. “No.”

“And why should I believe you?”

She didn’t get a chance to answer. That’s because they heard the rushed footsteps.

Both looked in the direction of the sound, and a moment later Rosalie appeared in the entryway of the living room. “Hate to disturb you, but it’s important.” There was already alarm on her face, but it went up a notch when the nanny noticed their positions. Bo still had her by the shoulders.

“What’s going on here?” Rosalie asked.

He turned his attention back to Ms. Cooper. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, whatever it is, I hope it can wait,” Rosalie insisted. From the other end of the hall, Bo could hear his son, Jacob, babbling and playing. “You said something about a black van when you came in. You thought it might have been following you?”

That grabbed his attention. Bo let go of the woman’s shoulders and turned toward Rosalie. “Yes. Why?”

Rosalie aimed her trembling hand in the direction of the front door. “Because a black van just pulled up in front of the house.”

Chapter Two

Mattie’s heart dropped to her knees.

No, no, no! This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t have found her this fast.

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.”

He felt another punch. That was not a good connection. So what did this exclusive lawyer have to do with a van driver with fake plates?

Bo didn’t think he was going to like this answer, either.

“Do me a favor, Garrett. I told you someone’s been doing computer checks on me, and it flagged firewall markers. The person used a PC in a coffeehouse over on San Pedro. I had someone lift prints from that PC, and they were running the forty or so partials they found. Is that list ready?”

Bo heard Garrett’s keystrokes on the computer. “Yeah,” the sergeant said a moment later. “Forty-six partials but only two hits.”

The odds sucked, especially since the person responsible might not have prints on file in the database. “Is Ian Kaplan one of the hits?”

“No. But there is a name here I recognize. Kendall Collier.”

Bo thought his blood might have turned to ice.

“You know, the guy that beat that illegal arms rap about a year and a half ago,” Garrett continued. “His own niece testified against him, went missing and is presumed dead, but I’m thinking she went into Witness Protection and they faked her death. So why the heck would an SOB like Kendall Collier be digging into your files?”

Oh, hell.

“I’ll get back to you on that,” Bo told Garrett.

He shoved his phone into his pocket, caught on to Mattie’s shoulders and put her hard against the wall. “I want the whole truth, and I want it now.”

Chapter Four

Mattie wanted to give Bo the truth he was demanding, but she had no idea what that truth was. That would change. She had to figure out what was going on so she could try to keep her daughter safe.

Her daughter.

That nearly took her breath away. She was so close to her baby. Holly was just up the hall. Mattie wanted to run to her, take her and get as far away from this place as possible. But there were some big reasons why she couldn’t do that.

The biggest reason now had her pressed hard against the wall.

Bo was right there, in her face, his gaze drilling into her.

“Your uncle used a computer in a coffee shop to dig into my background,” Bo told her, though she didn’t know how he managed to speak with his jaw that tight. “I know it was him because we found his prints on the keyboard.”

It felt as if someone had punched her. “Oh, God. Kendall’s closer to learning the truth than I thought. I’d hoped we’d have at least a day or two.”

Bo got even closer. His chest pushed against her so that it was hard to breathe. “A day or two for what?”

“To get Holly to some place safe.” Mattie mentally cursed, as well. “If Kendall used a public computer and left his fingerprints, then he wanted you to know he was searching for information on you. Have the computer checked again, because I’ll bet he also used it to do searches on babies born the same day as Holly.”

His eyes narrowed, his stare became even more intense, but he finally backed away from her. “Why would Kendall want me to know he’s doing these things?”

“Maybe because he wants to use you to find me. So he can kill me. Of course, Kendall would never confess to something like that. According to him, he loves me and forgives me for testifying against him.”

He stepped back even farther, apparently giving her theory some thought. Finally, Bo groaned and pulled out his phone again.

“Whoever you talk to,” she warned, “be careful what you say.”

Not that it would matter much at this point. If Kendall didn’t know she was at Bo’s house, then it was just a matter of time before he did. That’s why she had to hurry up this conversation.

Bo dismissed her warning with an ice-cold glance with those intense brown eyes. But Mattie knew he wasn’t really dismissing everything she’d just told him. No. Bo was too sensible for that. And while this had to be ripping his heart apart, he would need to get to the truth.

She was counting heavily on that.

Mattie wasn’t sure who Bo reached with his call. Maybe Sergeant O’Malley again. But whoever it was, Bo requested information about her, about her Witness Protection file, and he also asked for the browsing history on the computer Kendall had used. Each request seemed to make him angrier, so Bo was in full stewing mode when he ended the call. However, she couldn’t give him the time he no doubt needed to work through his anger and the bombshell she’d just delivered about being Holly’s mom. They had too much to do.

“You mentioned Ian Kaplan earlier,” she reminded him. “Why?”

He glared at her so long that for several moments Mattie didn’t think he would answer. “He’s the attorney for the guy in the black van.”

Mattie’s nerves had already been right at the surface, but that caused the blood to rush to her head. “Then the man in the van is connected to Kendall, because Ian is one of my uncle’s lawyers.”

Bo studied her. “You know this Ian?”

She nodded. “We worked together a lot when I did some P.I. jobs for my uncle. He’s very loyal to Kendall. And Kendall was no doubt sending another message by having him represent the man who was probably sent here to kill me.”

“You’re a P.I.?” Bo questioned.

“I was. Am,” she corrected, since she still had her license. “Much to the disgust of my family. The Colliers aren’t big on family members with careers in law enforcement.” That was a massive understatement.

“Yet your uncle hired you.”

“He did. After my parents died in a car accident five years ago, Kendall sort of took me under his wing. He hired me to do background checks on potential business associates. When I learned one of those associates was an illegal arms dealer, I told Kendall, but he didn’t believe me. That’s when I contacted the authorities.”

“A Collier with a conscience.” And it was obvious he didn’t bother to tone down the sarcasm.

Mattie couldn’t blame him for his attitude. He was right. Her parents had owned several investment businesses that were barely legal. She had known from an early age that they had questionable ethics, but only after she’d become a P.I. and had dug into their backgrounds had she realized just how corrupt they were.

“As you know, I testified against Kendall,” she continued, “but he was acquitted.”

“Because the FBI didn’t have the proper search warrant when they found the incriminating documents.”

She nodded, swallowed hard. “And I think because of that, Holly’s father, my fiancé, was gunned down when I was six weeks pregnant. The police weren’t able to find any proof of who killed him.”

Bo blinked, probably because that had struck a still-raw nerve. He’d lost Nadine, the love of his life, and Mattie had lost Brody, the love of hers.

Sometimes, life just plain sucked.

“After someone tried to kidnap me,” she continued, “I was placed in so-called Witness Protection. Turns out I didn’t get much protection there.”

Mattie took a deep breath to regain her composure, and she glanced toward the nursery. “Look, I know you have questions, but honestly they should wait.”

The glare turned sharp again. “For what? For you to try to tell me again that Holly is your daughter?”

Obviously, Bo wasn’t going to take her word on that, and she didn’t blame him. She had walked into his ideal family life and had essentially ripped it apart.

Mattie reached into her shoulder bag. Bo reached, too, lightning fast, and he snagged her wrist.

“You already have my gun,” she reminded him. Mattie waited until his grip eased a little, and she extracted the two DNA swabs that she’d bought online.

She saw the argument she and Bo were about to have, but his phone rang, cutting off the angry words that he was no doubt about to fire at her.

Bo let go of her wrist, but he stayed close, still violating her personal space. Normally, Mattie would have put some distance between them, but she wanted to hear his phone conversation, especially when she glanced at the caller ID screen and noticed that it was Sergeant O’Malley again.

“Mattie Collier,” she heard the sergeant say. “She’s in Witness Protection, but someone hacked into her file. Her identity was compromised.”

That didn’t soften Bo’s glare. “Someone tried to kill her?”

“Well, at minimum someone tried to kidnap her several times, and it’s highly likely the culprit had intentions to murder her. The FBI thinks the attempts are connected to her uncle, Kendall Collier. And that brings me to the computer in the coffee shop. You wanted to know what other searches Kendall made …”

Mattie automatically moved closer, so close that her cheek brushed against the back of Bo’s hand. He jerked away from her and went to the center of the room where she couldn’t hear a word the sergeant was saying.

“Yeah,” Bo said to the sergeant a moment later. Then the seconds crawled by. She certainly couldn’t tell from Bo’s expression what exactly he was being told, but she doubted it would be good news.

While he finished his conversation, Mattie glanced out the window to make sure all was well. There were cars parked in the pristine driveways. Her own vehicle was still in front of Bo’s house. Someone was walking a dog. But there were no menacing black vans or possible assassins lurking in the shadows.

Not now, anyway.

But they would come. She was certain of it.

Bo ended the call and closed his phone, but he just stood there, staring at the cell.

“You were right,” he finally said. He came back across the room toward her. “Kendall used the computer to search for babies born on Holly’s birthday.”

Mattie wasn’t exactly relieved, because it meant Kendall was closing in fast, but at least now Bo might realize that they both wanted the same thing.

To protect Holly.

“You need to know the truth about her DNA,” Mattie pressed. She opened one of the kits and swabbed the inside of her mouth. She put the swab back into the plastic bag and handed it to Bo along with an unused one.

More seconds crawled by, and Mattie could feel her heart in her throat. Everything hinged on this.

Bo snatched the kits from her. “I’ll have the tests done, but I’m not giving up my daughter. Got that?”

No. She didn’t get that. But now wasn’t the time to argue with a father on the verge of losing a child he loved. Even if arguing was exactly what Mattie wanted to do. She wanted her baby in her arms, right here, right now. But her need for her baby would have to wait. Holly’s safety had to come first, and since that safety depended on Bo’s help, she had to keep this as non-hostile as possible.

“I probably don’t have to remind you to keep those results a secret,” she said. “Kendall has probably already bribed labs all over the city to alert him to something like this.”

“I’ll use the police lab,” he mumbled. “And I’ll make sure the results come only to me.”

Well, it wasn’t foolproof, especially considering how someone had hacked into her Witness Protection files, but Bo needed these test results so they could move on to the next stage. Plus, he was aware now of the danger and would hopefully be taking massive precautions.

Mattie used the pen and notepad near the house phone to jot down her number. “I obviously use a prepaid cell these days. No way to trace it. But when you find out who the man in the black van is, I’d like to know.”

Bo glanced at the paper but gave her no assurance that he would do that. Mattie would give him until noon the following day. If she could wait that long. And if she hadn’t heard from him, then she would call him.

“I want you to move Holly and your son to a safe house,” she added. “If you can’t arrange that for tonight, then ask for officers to patrol the neighborhood.” She’d already noticed that he had a security system.

“Don’t tell me how to protect my kids,” Bo snapped. “I’ve done all right so far.”

“Yes, but you haven’t run up against the likes of my uncle.”

He looked at her phone number and then the DNA kits before his gaze came back to hers. “The authorities want to talk to you.”

“It’ll have to wait until I can figure out a way to neutralize my uncle and his hired guns.”

“Neutralize?” he repeated, sounding very much like a cop again. “What are you planning to do?”

“After I’m sure Holly is safe, I’ll call Kendall and see if I can negotiate a deal with him. I’ll tell him I won’t testify against him if there’s a new trial.”

It cut her to the core to make that kind of compromise. After watching her family’s dirty dealings, the one thing that Mattie had always sworn was that she wouldn’t be like them. But her child was at stake. If she had any hopes of being a mother to her baby, she had to bring things to a peaceful end with Kendall.

“You believe your uncle would adhere to a truce?” Bo pressed.

“No. Not voluntarily, anyway. I plan to appeal to his new fiancée, Cicely Carr. We’re old friends, and I think I can reason with her.”

“And if you can’t?”

Mattie met his gaze head-on. “Then I’ll make arrangements to live a new life in hiding.” She paused. “And then I’ll petition the courts for custody of my daughter.”

There. That was the gauntlet she hadn’t intended to throw tonight, but a lie wouldn’t have worked. Bo would have instantly spotted it and called her on it. At least this way he knew her intentions were, well, motherly.

“You’re leaving now,” he insisted. And to make sure that happened, he took her arm and began to haul her toward the front door.

Mattie dug in her heels and stopped, whirling around to face him. She landed against him again, body to body. They’d already touched from head to toe, so this was familiar to her now. It was almost like being in his arms.

Almost.

The seemingly permanent glare on his face didn’t give her any warm and fuzzy feelings. Neither did his body for that matter. But he did stir something deep within her, and it was a stirring she preferred to ignore.

Mattie stepped back. “Please let me say good-night to Holly.”

“Not a chance.” He didn’t roll his eyes exactly, but it was close.

It was the answer she’d expected, but it still felt like someone had clamped a fist around her heart. “You know I’m telling the truth about being her mother.” Mattie didn’t try to keep the emotion out of her voice, but she did try to blink back the tears.

Mattie had known she couldn’t take the baby with her tonight. Well, her head had known that, anyway. The rest of her was having a hard time walking out that door even though there was no alternative. There wasn’t a chance in Hades that Bo would let her leave with Holly. Not now. Probably not without a court order, which she would get.

“If you don’t do the DNA test, I’ll get a judge to force you to do it,” she managed to say.

But there was something new in his eyes. Something beneath the shock and the pain. Something that made her believe the test would be done. Bo was, after all, a cop, and he no doubt had a need for the truth, even if that truth was too painful to bear.

She needed the truth, too.

Mattie turned, stopped and then eased back around. This time she made sure she didn’t run into him. No more touching. It was creating a warmth that shouldn’t be there.

“What did Nadine say to you before she died?” Mattie asked.

The muscle in his jaw flexed again, and he glanced at the DNA baggies that he had practically crushed in his hand. “I’ll call you with the test results.”

Her heart suddenly felt a little lighter. It wasn’t nearly as good of a concession as holding her baby would be, but it was a start.

“Your gun,” he said when she started to leave. He took it from the waist of his pants and handed it to her. “You have a permit for it? ”

She nodded. “Thank you—”

“Don’t,” he warned. “I don’t want you to thank me for anything. I just want the test results to prove Holly is mine, and then I want you out of our lives forever.”

Mattie nodded again. “If she’s not mine, you’ll never see me again.” But Mattie knew the little girl was hers. Bo would soon know it, too.

She reached for the door and at the same time looked out the window. Old habits. And this time, the old habit had her hand freezing on the doorknob.

“What?” Bo snarled. But he didn’t wait for her to tell him what she’d spotted. He muscled her aside and had his own look out the window.

“The dark green car,” she whispered. “It’s parked up the street, about fifteen feet from mine.” Mattie was surprised at how calm her voice sounded when inside there was a hurricane of emotions and fear.

Especially fear.

My God. Had Kendall sent someone after her here?

“Does the car belong to one of your neighbors?” She prayed the answer would be yes, but Bo shook his head.

“Could you run the license plate?” she asked Bo, but he was already dropping the DNA bags onto the foyer table and taking out his phone.

He called someone and a moment later rattled off the plate numbers. He also drew his gun. And they stood there together while they kept watch. There was a streetlight, but because the car windows were tinted, Mattie couldn’t tell if there was anyone inside. She did know the vehicle hadn’t been there earlier.

“You’re kidding,” Bo mumbled a moment later.

His answer surprised Mattie a little, but there was certainly no humor in that remark. Worse, she saw the car door swing open.

Mattie lifted her gun and waited with her breath frozen in her lungs. The stranger kept his head down, so that she couldn’t see his face. But the tall, thin man who stepped from the vehicle had dark hair.

He was also armed.

Even in the darkness she could see the familiar bulge beneath his coat.

He eased his car door shut, as if he didn’t want to alert anyone to his presence, and he fired glances all around him. Mattie stepped back from the window so she’d hopefully be concealed, but she didn’t take her eyes off him.

Finally, she saw his face.

And she gasped.

No. This couldn’t be happening.

But that thought barely had time to register when the man whipped out a handgun. He didn’t stop there.

He came straight toward the house.

Chapter Five

Bo pushed Mattie aside so he could see what had just caused her to gasp.

Hell.

A man was walking full speed ahead toward the house. Bo didn’t have to guess who he was or what he wanted.

He wanted Mattie.

Bo had been able to figure that out from what Sergeant O’Malley had just told him. Now the question was, would Bo just hand her over?

As a cop, he was duty bound to do just that, but he was positive Mattie wouldn’t go without a fight, and he didn’t want a fight in his house with his kids just a couple of rooms away.

This was turning into being one hell of a night.

Bo positioned Mattie behind him, and he opened the door. However, he had no intention of just letting the man barge in. “The car is registered to the federal marshals,” Bo let her know. “Witness Protection.”

No gasp this time. Mattie groaned and no doubt understood why he’d responded with “You’re kidding” when Sergeant O’Malley had told Bo about the license plates.

“I know,” she mumbled.

“Larry Tolivar. U.S. Marshal,” the man said, pulling back his coat so that Bo could see the badge attached to his belt.

Bo still didn’t fully open the door.

“You know him?” Bo asked Mattie.

“Yes. He was the man in charge of my case. And I don’t trust him.”

That went without saying. Bo wasn’t sure he trusted the guy either, but he didn’t know exactly why.

Looking all around as if he expected an ambush, Tolivar came to a stop on the porch and reached for the door. Bo held it in place so the marshal couldn’t open it any farther.

“Lieutenant Bo Duggan,” he said, identifying himself. “How can I help you?”

“You can let me talk to Mattie Collier.”

The guy had the attitude of a fed, all right. Some arrogance mixed with an air of authority. Well, Bo had his own damn air of authority, and he didn’t exactly want to examine why he felt this stupid need to protect Mattie.

He wanted her out of his house. Away from the kids, especially Holly. And here he had the opportunity to do just that, but he couldn’t forget that Mattie had nearly been kidnapped and killed while in protective custody.

“Why would you think Mattie Collier was here?” Bo demanded. It was a reasonable question, especially since he’d bet his paycheck that Mattie had taken some serious security precautions before coming to his house.

Well, he hoped she had anyway.

“She’s here,” Tolivar insisted. He fired another glance over his shoulder. “And you’re to release her to my custody immediately.”

“I’m not going with you,” Mattie insisted right back.

Bo couldn’t fault her for speaking up, but he would have preferred to take care of this himself. He could have sent Tolivar on his merry way and then five minutes later done the same for Mattie. Now he was in some kind of jurisdictional contest with a federal agent.

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