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“Assisted?” He latched right on to that and mentally cursed when he spotted something he didn’t like in the mirror.
Hell.
“Usually I was just a consult for a particular facet of a project,” she explained. “For instance, I only worked on a portion of the formula for the primary antidote. I never got to see the finished results. None of us did. That was the way the facility maintained security.”
Jordan calmly started the car, put on his seat belt and kept his eyes on the mirror. “But even though you don’t have the big picture, you have pieces. Others have pieces. And you have the names of those others.”
“Yes.” That was all she said for several moments. “Brenna Martel was one of the top lab assistants at the research facility. She’s in a federal prison serving a life sentence. But there are others who disappeared after the facility was destroyed and the federal investigation started.” Another pause. “I’ve written notes about the research, and I’ve gone over them a thousand times, but I just don’t know why someone would still be after me.”
“Notes?” he questioned.
“They’re encrypted,” she huffed, obviously noting his concern. “I wouldn’t just leave information like that lying around for anyone to see.”
But someone would look hard for info like that. “And these notes are where exactly?”
“Hidden in my apartment.”
Jordan didn’t even have to think about this. “I want to see them.” In fact, he wanted to study them and then interrogate Kinley and put anyone in those notes under surveillance until all of this finally made some sense.
“I can show you what I have,” she answered. “But I want to see Maddox.”
He glanced at her, frowned. “Who the hell is Maddox?”
“My son,” she said as if the answer were obvious. “That’s what I named him. You didn’t know?”
“No. Shelly didn’t get around to that when she left him on my doorstep.” Jordan had been calling him Gus. “And I couldn’t exactly go digging for his name or paternity, now could I?”
“No.” Despite the fear and the seriousness of their situation, she smiled softly. “Do you have a picture of him?”
“Not a chance. And as for you seeing him, that’s not gonna happen until you can convince me that you’re here as a mother and not as someone who wants to use him as a pawn in some sick game.”
The smile vanished, and her mouth opened in outrage. “I wouldn’t do that. God, what do you think I am?”
“You’re a woman who left her baby with a bodyguard because it was too dangerous to keep him with you. The danger’s still there.” He glanced in the mirror again.
“I know that,” she snapped. “Shelly had been my friend since high school. I trusted her. And she died protecting my son. If I could change that I would. But I can’t. And I’ve searched and searched, and I can’t make the danger go away.” The minitirade seemed to drain her, and she groaned and rested her head against the back of the seat.
Jordan huffed, glanced in the mirror again and tried not to let her emotion get to him. He didn’t want sympathy or pity playing into this. “This isn’t convincing me that you should be mother of the year.”
That brought her head off the seat. “I don’t want to be mother of the year. I simply want my son.”
“And then what?” he challenged.
“I take him and I find someplace safe.” Her voice grew softer. “If necessary, we’ll live our lives in hiding, but we’ll do that together.”
Not anytime soon, she wouldn’t. Maybe not ever. Jordan didn’t intend to hand over Gus until he was damn sure that it was safe to do so, and Kinley hadn’t done anything to convince him of that.
“So, what do we do now?” she asked.
“Soon, we’ll go to your apartment and get those notes.” However, he also had a more pressing problem. “But for now we’ll just drive, and we’ll see if that guy parked up the street plans to follow us.”
She snapped toward the side mirror and stared into the glass. “What guy?”
“Black sedan near the intersection.”
Her breath suddenly went uneven. “How long has he been there?”
“He arrived not long after we got in the car. It could be nothing,” he admitted. But Jordan didn’t believe that.
It was likely a huge something.
“Put on your seat belt,” he instructed. As he eased out of the parking lot, Jordan kept his attention fastened to his rearview mirror so he could watch the other vehicle.
It pulled out just seconds after they did.
Hell.
Jordan drew his Sig Sauer and got ready for the worst.
Chapter Three (#u0e06bc5e-d605-5fee-ad15-25527abc542c)
Kinley’s heart dropped.
This couldn’t be happening. She’d been so careful and so sure that no one had followed her. Yet, the black car was there and made the same turn Jordan did when he drove away from the Sentron building.
She felt sick to her stomach. And she was terrified. She had to do something to stop this.
But what?
What she couldn’t do was call the police. That would likely alert the wrong people, and it’d be impossible to explain everything that had happened. That kind of explanation could get her son hurt.
“Let me out,” she insisted. “Maybe he’ll follow me and won’t connect any of this to my son.”
“Too late. We’re already connected. I’m just hoping this person is curious, that’s all, and we can convince him that we’re together because we’re would-be lovers.”
Maybe. But she hated to risk that much on a maybe. She stared in the side mirror. The car stayed steady behind them. “Any idea who is back there?”
“Nope. But I hope to change that.” Placing his gun on his lap, Jordan took out his cell phone, and he pressed in some numbers.
“Cody,” Jordan said when the man apparently answered. “I’m traveling north on San Pedro, and I have a shadow. Can you slip away from the party and run a visual?” A moment later, Jordan ended the call. “Cody will get back to me when he has something.”
Kinley latched on to that hope but still had her doubts. “He’ll be able to see the person following us? How?” she wanted to know.
“Traffic cameras. We might know soon who’s after us. And knowing who might tell us why. We might get lucky. This could be someone from witness protection. It might not have anything to do with Gus.”
“Gus?”
Jordan huffed. “That’s what I call your son.”
She repeated it under her breath. It was hard to pin that name to her baby. She’d always thought of him as Maddox. But then, she hadn’t seen him in fourteen months. He wouldn’t even know her.
But her son obviously knew Jordan.
Where had Jordan kept him all this time? What kind of a caregiver had he been? Kinley wanted to know every precious detail of what she’d missed, but first, they had to deal with the person in that black car.
She checked the mirror again, as did Jordan. The car was still there—at a distance but menacing. “Will you try to lose the guy?”
“Not just yet. I want to give Cody some time to get a photo so he can use the facial recognition program.”
“Good,” she mumbled.
“Well, maybe not good. Remember, I’ve identified others who’ve followed me, and I’ve never been able to link it back to the person who hired them.” He glanced at her. “That’s where you can help. Think hard. Who could have known that you left Gus with Shelly?”
She pulled in a long breath. “I’ve already thought hard, and I don’t believe anyone knew. After all, Shelly had him for nearly a month before the trouble started.”
“Okay. Then what started the trouble?”
Kinley had thought hard about this as well. “A lot of bad things happened around that time. I was drawn out of hiding because someone was trying to kill my brother, Lucky. He’s a P.I., and he started looking for the head researcher, Dexter Sheppard, because Lucky believed Dexter had murdered me. He obviously hadn’t, but Dexter had convinced me and his lab assistant, Brenna Martel, to fake our deaths and his in that explosion.”
“Why do that?” Jordan wanted to know.
“Because Dexter said it was the only way for us to stay alive. He had taken money from the wrong people, and he’d promised to deliver a chemical weapon that we couldn’t deliver. He convinced me that all of us would die if I went to the authorities.”
“And you believed him?”
“Yes,” she said with regret. “I guess Dexter did a good job faking my death because my brother thought I was indeed dead. But he didn’t think the same of Dexter. He thought Dexter was in hiding but couldn’t find him. So, Lucky followed Dexter’s sister, Marin, to Fall Creek, a small town not too far from here. And when the attempts to kill both Marin and my brother started all over again, I knew I had to do something to try to save them.”
“So you went to Fall Creek, too,” Jordan commented.
“I did, and while I was trying to save my brother and Marin, Brenna Martel showed up there. Someone had been trying to kill her, too, and Brenna was desperate. She mistakenly thought if she kidnapped me, then she could force my brother to tell her where Dexter was. But my brother didn’t even have proof that Dexter was alive, much less where he might be hiding out. We soon got proof, of course…when Dexter tried to kill us. He died during that last attempt.”
Jordan stayed quiet a moment, obviously processing all that. “Brenna Martel knew you’d had a baby?”
“Of course. But she didn’t know where he was.”
Jordan cursed under his breath. “This Brenna Martel could have figured out that you and Shelly were old friends. She could have sent someone to get Gus, and Shelly was murdered in the process.”
“I doubt it. Brenna was on the run like me, and she didn’t have the money to hire anyone.” She checked the car behind them again. “I don’t suppose the danger could have stemmed from Shelly? I mean, what if someone was after her for some reason, and they saw Maddox with her and decided to use him to get to her?”
He shook his head. “I dug deep for that connection. Didn’t find it.” Jordan didn’t add more because his phone rang. The call was brief, just a couple of seconds. “Cody has a photo of our snoop in the black car and is looking for a match. Hold on.”
That was the only warning she got before Jordan gunned the engine of the powerful sports car. They bolted forward, and then he took an immediate left turn. Even with her seat belt on, she went sliding against him. She righted herself, looked in the mirror.
The black car was still behind them.
“He’s definitely following us,” Kinley mumbled.
“Yeah.” And that was all Jordan said for several moments. He kept his speed right at sixty, which wasn’t too far over the limit. He also kept watch in the mirror and one hand on his gun when he made another turn.
Toward her apartment, she realized.
Of course, he knew where she lived. He’d probably learned that not long after figuring out who she was. “Is it wise to lead him straight to my place?”
“It is if we’re aiming for more damage control. When we get there, we get out. We look like lovers who can’t wait to hurry inside and have a go at each other. Get your key ready.”
She huffed. “I hate to state the obvious here, but what if he shoots us when we get out?”
“If he’d wanted to shoot us, then he would have done it when we came out of the building. No, I suspect his orders are to follow us and hope that we lead him to whatever information you might have. Or to the baby.”
Her heart dropped again. Because as long as someone was following them, she’d never get to see her son.
Kinley got her keys ready, and Jordan stopped his car directly in front of her apartment. It wasn’t upscale by anyone’s standards. A far cry from the lavish Sentron building and Jordan’s palatial estate. But it’d been all she could afford.
“Stay put,” he insisted. “I’ll get out first and then open your car door.”
She glanced back and saw the black car. It’d come to a stop just up the street. Away from the lights but still visible.
Tucking his gun into his holster, Jordan left the car, hurried to her side and helped her out.
He pulled her right into his arms.
And kissed her.
The kiss landed on the side of her mouth. Not a real kiss, of course. But it had a real impact, just as the other kiss had done. It made her wonder just what kind of impact a genuine kiss would have.
She didn’t have the time or energy to find out, even if her body seemed more than willing to explore the idea.
“See?” he mumbled. “No one’s shooting at us.”
Yet. She hoped she didn’t have to say I told you so.
Jordan kept her pressed to him, and he positioned his right hand next to her breast so he could get his gun. He didn’t linger. He kept up the frenzied fake kiss while he maneuvered her to her apartment door. She reached behind her, unlocked it and they practically tumbled inside.
The security system started to beep, and she punched in the code to prevent it from going to a full alarm. Then, Kinley opened her mouth to tell him that she would get the notes, but Jordan put his fingers to her lips. He stayed close. Nose to nose with her.
“Don’t say anything,” he warned in a whisper.
That spiked her heart rate again. God, did he think someone had broken in? But if so, the person would have triggered the alarm. It was an inexpensive unit, one she’d bought at a discount store a couple of days after she moved in, but unless someone knew the code, she didn’t think they could have easily disarmed it.
Jordan reholstered his gun and took out that strange little platinum PDA again. He pressed a few buttons, lifted it into the air.
“Make sex noises,” he mouthed.
And with that, he added a manly sounding grunt and proceeded to walk around the room. After a few steps, he glanced over his shoulder at her and gave her a get-on-with-it bob of his head.
Kinley moaned.
Apparently, it was a good one because he nodded. Grunted. And he flapped his jacket as if mimicking the sound of clothing being removed. While she checked the bedroom and the small bath, Kinley tossed in some deep breathing, though she didn’t think it was necessary. No one else was in the apartment.
