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It was a baby.
A newborn, from the looks of it, and he or she was making that kitten sound.
“Whose child is that?” he asked. “And why are you here?”
Those were just two other questions Landon had to add to the list of things he would ask Tessa. And she would answer. Especially answer why Emmett’s body was found in her house and where the heck she’d been for the past four days.
“You have to help me,” Tessa whispered, her voice barely audible.
Yeah, he did have to help. Just because he didn’t like or trust her, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t save her. Landon didn’t want to move her any farther, though, in case she was injured, so he fired off a text to get an ambulance on the way.
Both the baby and she had no doubt inhaled a lot of smoke, but at least the baby’s face didn’t have any soot on it, which meant maybe the blanket had protected him or her.
“Did you hear me?” he snapped. “Why were you near the burning barn? And whose baby is that?”
He wanted to ask about that dyed hair, too, but it could wait. Though it was likely a dye job to change her appearance.
Landon couldn’t think of a good reason for her to do that. But he could think of a really bad one—she was on the run and didn’t want anyone to recognize her. Well, she’d picked a stupid place to hide.
If that was what she’d been doing.
She stared up at him. Blinked several times. “Who are you?” she asked.
Landon gave her a flat look. “Very funny. I’m not in the mood for games. Answer those questions I asked and then tell me about Emmett.”
“Emmett?” she repeated. She touched her hand to her head, her fingers sliding through her hair. She looked at the ends of the dark strands as if seeing them for the first time. “What did you do to me?”
Landon huffed. “I saved your life. And the baby’s.”
At the mention of the word baby, Landon got a bad feeling.
He quickly did the math, and it’d been seven months, more or less, since he’d landed in bed with Tessa. And he hadn’t laid eyes on her since. Seven months might mean...
“Is that our baby?” he demanded.
As she’d done with her hair, she looked down at the newborn who was squirming in her arms. Tessa didn’t gasp, but it was close. Her gaze flew to his, the accusation all over her face.
“I don’t know,” she said, her breath gusting now.
That wasn’t the right answer. In fact, that wasn’t an acceptable answer at all.
He didn’t hold Tessa in high regard, but she would know who’d fathered her child. If it was indeed Landon, she might also be trying to keep the baby from him. After all, they hadn’t parted on good terms, and those terms had gotten significantly worse with Emmett’s murder.
Damn.
Were Tessa and he parents?
No. They couldn’t be. The kid had to be Joel Mercer’s and hers, and even though Landon had plenty of other reasons for his stomach to knot, just thinking of Joel’s name did it. That night, seven months ago, Tessa had sworn she was through with Joel, but Landon would bet his next two paychecks that she had gone right back to him.
She always did.
In the distance, Landon heard the wail of the sirens from the fire engine. It’d be here soon. The ambulance, too. And then Tessa would be whisked away to the hospital, where she could pull another disappearing act.
“Start talking,” Landon demanded, getting right in her face. “Tell me everything, and I mean everything.”
The baby and the ends of her brown hair weren’t the only thing she looked at as though she’d never seen them before. Tessa gave Landon that same look.
“Who are you?” she repeated, her eyes filling with tears. “Whose baby is this?” Tessa stopped, those teary blue eyes widening. “And who am I?”
Chapter Two (#ulink_b8dafe4e-9814-575c-bba4-b9fd8031d0eb)
She couldn’t catch her breath. Couldn’t slow down her pulse. Nor could she fight back the tears that were stinging her eyes. Her heart seemed to be beating out of her chest, and everything inside her was spiraling out of control.
Where was she?
And who was this man staring at her?
Except it wasn’t only a stare. He was glaring, and she could tell from the tone of his voice that he was furious with her.
But why?
With the panic building, she frantically studied his face. Dark brown hair. Gray eyes. He was dressed like a cowboy, in jeans, a white shirt and that hat. But he also had a gun.
God, he had a gun.
Gasping, she scrambled to get away from him. She was in danger. She didn’t know why or from what, but she had to run.
She clutched the baby closer to her. The baby wasn’t familiar to her, either, but there was one thought that kept repeating in her head.
Protect her.
She knew instinctively that it was a baby girl, and she was in danger. Maybe from this glaring man. Maybe from someone else, but she couldn’t risk staying here to find out. Somehow she managed to get to her feet.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the man snarled.
She didn’t answer. It felt as if all the muscles in her legs had disappeared, and the world started to spin around, but that didn’t stop her. She took off running.
However, she didn’t get far.
The man caught her almost immediately, and he dragged them to the ground. Not a slam. It was gentle, and he eased his hands around hers to cradle the baby. While she was thankful he was being so careful, that didn’t mean she could trust him.
She heard the sirens getting louder with each passing second. Soon, very soon, there’d be others, and she might not be able to trust them, either.
“I have to go,” she said, struggling again to get away from him.
But the man held on. “Tessa, stop it!”
She froze. Tessa? Was that really her name? She repeated it several times and knew that it was. Finally, something was clear. Her name was Tessa, and she was somewhere on a farm or ranch. Near a burning building. And this man had saved her.
Maybe.
Or maybe he just wanted her to think that so she wouldn’t try to run away from him.
“How do you know me?” she asked.
He gave her that look again. The one that told her the answer was obvious. It wasn’t, not to her, anyway. But he must have known plenty about her, because he’d asked if the baby was theirs.
She didn’t know if it was.
Mercy, she didn’t know.
“You know damn well who I am,” he snapped. “I’m Landon Ryland.”
That felt familiar, too, and it stirred some different feelings inside her. Both good and bad. But Tessa couldn’t latch on to any of the specific memories that went with those feelings. Her head was spinning like an F5 tornado.
“Landon,” she repeated. And she caught on to one of those memories. Or maybe it was pieces of that jumble that were coming together the wrong way. “I was in bed with you. You were naked.”
That didn’t help his glare, and she had no idea if she’d actually seen him without clothes or if her mind was playing tricks on her. If so, it was a pretty clear trick.
A fire engine squealed to a stop, the lights and sirens still going, but Tessa ignored them for the time being, and she gave the man a harder look. She saw the badge then. He was a lawman. But that didn’t put her at ease, and she wasn’t sure why.
“Can I trust you?” she came out and asked.
He grunted, and then he studied her. “Is this an act or what?”
Tessa shook her head. Not a good idea, because it brought on the dizziness again. And the panic. “I don’t remember who I am,” she admitted, her voice collapsing into a sob.
He mumbled some profanity and stood when one of the firemen hurried toward them. “An ambulance is on the way,” the fireman said. “Is she hurt?”
“Maybe. But there’s also a baby with her.”
That put some concern on the fireman’s face. Concern in her, too, and she pulled back the blanket to make sure the baby was okay. Something she should have done minutes ago. But it was just so hard to think, so hard to figure out what to do.
The baby was wearing a pink onesie, and she appeared to be all right. Her mouth was puckered as if she were sucking at a bottle, and she was still squirming a little but not actually fussing. Tessa couldn’t see any injuries, thank God, and she seemed to be breathing normally.
“I’ll tell the ambulance to hurry,” the fireman said, moving away from them.
And he wasn’t the only one rushing. The firemen were trying to put out the rest of the blaze, not that there was much to save. There were also other sirens, and she saw the blue lights of a cop car as it approached.
She caught on to Landon’s hand when he got up and started toward that car. “Please don’t let anyone hurt the baby.”
That seemed to insult him. “No one will hurt her. Or you. But you will tell me what I need to know.”
Tessa didn’t think this had anything to do with that memory of them being in bed, but she had no idea what he expected from her. Whatever it was, he clearly expected a lot.
Landon pulled his hand out of her grip and started toward the man who stepped from the cop car. The second man was tall, built just like Landon.
A brother, perhaps?
The second man and Landon talked for several moments, and she saw the surprise register on the other man’s face. He kept that same expression as he made his way to her.
“Tessa,” he said. Not exactly a friendly greeting. “I’m Deputy Dade Ryland. Landon’s cousin,” he added, probably because she didn’t say anything or show any signs of recognizing him. “We need to ask you some questions before the ambulance gets here.”
Tessa nodded because she didn’t know what else to do. The baby and she were at the mercy of these men. Her instincts told her, though, that she should get away, run, the first chance she got.
Maybe that chance would come soon. Before it was too late.
But it wasn’t Dade who asked any questions. It was Landon. He put his hands on his hips and stared down at her. “We need to know what happened to Emmett.”
“He’s dead,” she blurted out without even realizing she was going to say it. “And so is his wife, Annie. Annie was killed in a car accident.”
Where had that come from?
“That’s right,” Dade said, exchanging an uneasy glance with Landon. “Emmett and Annie are both dead.” As Landon had done earlier, Dade knelt down, checking the baby. Then Tessa. Specifically, he looked into her eyes. “She’s been drugged,” he added to Landon.
“Yeah,” Landon readily agreed.
The relief rushed through her. That was why she couldn’t remember. But just as quickly, Tessa took that one step further.
Who had drugged her?
The drug had obviously messed with her head. And maybe had done a whole lot more to the rest of her body.
She had a dozen bad possibilities hit her at once, but first and foremost was that if someone had drugged her, they could have done the same to the baby.
The panic came again, hard and fast. “Did they give the baby something, too?”
“I don’t think so,” Dade said at the same moment that Landon demanded, “Tell me about the baby.”
Tessa latched on to what Dade said about the baby, but she had to be sure that the newborn hadn’t been drugged. It was something they’d be able to tell her at the hospital.
It’s not safe there.
The words knifed through her head, and she repeated them aloud. And something else, too. “Don’t trust anyone.”
They weren’t her words but something someone else had said to her. Important words. But Tessa didn’t know who’d told her that.
Or why.
Obviously, that didn’t make Landon happy. He said some more profanity. Added another glare. “She keeps dodging questions about the baby.”
That caused Dade to give her another look. This time not to her eyes but rather her stomach. Not that he could see much of it, because she was holding the baby, but he was no doubt trying to see if she had recently given birth.
“Did you set this fire?” Dade asked her, easing the baby’s legs away from Tessa’s belly.
Tessa flinched, and Dade must have thought he’d hurt her, because he backed off. But that wasn’t the reason she’d reacted that way. She’d winced not from pain but from his question.
“Someone set the fire?” she asked.
