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Everything inside him went still. Until now he hadn’t considered they could be connected.
But were they?
Landon decided to try something to jog her memory. “Four nights ago, someone murdered Emmett in your house.” Man, it was still hard to say that aloud. Just as hard to think about his cousin dying that way. “Your cleaning lady found his body. He’d been shot three times, and there was a note left on his chest.”
“‘This is for you, Landon,’” she whispered.
“How the hell did you know that?” He hadn’t intended to raise his voice, and the baby reacted. She started to whimper.
“I’m not sure. But I saw your reaction when Dade showed you what was on the boulder. I guessed it must have been something to do with Emmett since the majority of your questions had been about him.” She rocked the baby, kissed her forehead. “And her.”
Yeah. And he would have more questions about her when he was finished with this.
Landon took out his phone, and even though he knew the picture was gruesome, he searched through his pictures and found the one he’d taken at the crime scene.
Emmett’s body in a pool of blood.
There’d been blood on the note, too.
“Does this look familiar?” Landon asked, putting the phone practically in her face.
She gasped, turned her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “No.” And she repeated it in a hoarse sob.
Landon didn’t have a heart of ice. Not completely, anyway, and whether he wanted to or not, he was affected by that look on her face. Affected, but not to the point where he was stopping with the questions.
“Why was Emmett there at your house, and how did you know he was dead?” he pressed.
She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know.” Tessa paused, swallowed hard. “There’s something about that photo that seems familiar, but I don’t know what.”
Good. Because if it was familiar, then it meant she was possibly there and might have seen who had done this.
Landon went to the next picture. A mug shot this time of Quincy Nagel. “Recognize him?”
Tessa moved closer for a long look and gave him another head shake. “Who is he?”
“A person of interest.” Too bad Landon hadn’t been able to find him yet. “A thug I arrested who might have wanted to pay me back by killing my cousin.”
Tessa kept her attention on the baby, but because Landon was watching her so closely, he saw the small change in her. Her mouth tensed. A muscle flexed in her cheek. He hoped that was because she was concerned for the baby rather than because she was withholding something about Quincy. The little girl went beyond the whimpering stage and started to cry.
“So I slept with you, got pregnant.” Tessa stood and rocked the baby. “Or maybe you believe she’s Joel’s daughter? You’re not sure, but you’ll demand a test so you can be certain.”
He nodded. Though he would be surprised if she was Joel’s. Yes, Tessa had been more than just friendly with Joel, but Landon didn’t think she was the sort to go from one man straight to another. But he’d been wrong about stuff like that before. He didn’t think so this time, though.
“Or maybe she’s not my baby at all,” she added. Tessa shuddered, dodged his gaze.
Landon lifted her chin, forcing eye contact. “Are you remembering something?”
“No.”
Her answer came much too fast, and Landon would have jumped right on that if his phone hadn’t buzzed. It was Grayson, which meant it could have something to do with the investigation. Since the baby was still crying, Landon stepped just into the hall so he could hear what the sheriff had to say.
“We found something,” Grayson said the moment Landon answered. “A car on a ranch trail not far from the barn. The plates are fake, the VIN’s been removed, but it has some baby things in it. A diaper bag and some clothes.”
Tessa’s car.
Or one that she’d “borrowed.”
“We’ll process it, of course,” Grayson went on, “but something really stuck out. The GPS was programmed to go to your house in Houston.”
Landon wanted to say that wasn’t right, that there’d been no reason for her to see him, but if the baby was indeed his, maybe Tessa had been on the way to tell him. Of course, that didn’t explain the other things: the dyed hair, the hit on her head, fake tags, no vehicle identification number on the car. Those were all signs of someone trying to hide.
Landon stepped out of the doorway when he saw Dr. Michelson approaching. There were two other doctors with him. The pediatrician and the OB, no doubt, and maybe one of them could talk Tessa into having the examination.
“What about the area leading from the car to the barn?” Landon asked Grayson. “Were there any signs of a struggle?”
“None, but something might turn up. In the meantime, ask Tessa why she was going to see you. Hearing about the GPS might trigger her memory.”
He ended the call, intending to do just that, but Dr. Michelson pulled back the blue curtain and looked at him. “Where’s Tessa and the baby?”
Landon practically pushed the doctor aside and looked into the room. No Tessa. No baby. But the door leading off the back of the examining room was open.
Damn.
“Close off all the exits,” Landon told the doctor, and he took off after her.
He cursed Tessa, and himself, for this. He should have known she would run, and when he caught up with her, she’d better be able to explain why she’d done this.
Landon barreled through the adjoining room. Another exam room, crammed with equipment that he had to maneuver around. He also checked the corners in case she had ducked behind something with plans to sneak out after he’d zipped right past her.
But she wasn’t there, either.
There was a hall just off the examining room, and Landon headed there, his gaze slashing from one end of it to the other. He didn’t see her.
But he heard something.
The baby.
She was still crying, and even though the sound was muffled, it was enough for Landon to pinpoint their location. Tessa was headed for the back exit. Landon doubted the doctor had managed to get the doors locked yet, so he hurried, running as fast as he could.
And then he saw her.
Tessa saw him, too.
She didn’t stop. With the baby gripped in her arms, she threw open the glass door and was within a heartbeat of reaching the parking lot. She might have made it, too, but Landon took hold of her arms and pulled her back inside.
As he’d done by the barn, he was as gentle with her as he could be, but he wasn’t feeling very much of that gentleness inside.
Tessa was breathing through her mouth. Her eyes were wide. And she groaned. “I remember,” she said.
He jerked back his head. That was the last thing Landon had expected her to say, but he’d take it. “Yeah, and you’re going to tell me everything you remember, and you’re going to do it right now.”
But she didn’t. Tessa just stood there, her attention volleying between him and the parking lot.
“Please, just let me go.” Her eyes filled with tears. “It’s not safe for you to be with me.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Landon snapped.
She closed her eyes, the tears spilling down her cheeks. “I’m not who you think I am. And if you stay here with me, they’ll kill you.”
Chapter Four (#ulink_c25b58d3-e62b-511e-900a-dcb72a04c807)
Tessa tried to move away from Landon again, but he held on to her.
“Explain that,” he demanded.
She didn’t have to ask exactly what he wanted her to tell him. It was about the bombshell she’d just delivered.
If you stay here with me, they’ll kill you.
There were plenty of things still unclear in Tessa’s head, but that wasn’t one of them.
She glanced behind her at the parking lot on the other side of the glass door. “It’s not safe for us to be here. Please, let’s go somewhere else.”
Landon stared at her, obviously debating that, and he finally maneuvered her to the side. Not ideal, but it was better than being in front of the glass, where she could be seen, and at least this way she had a view of the hall in case someone came at her from that direction.
“Now that the drugs are wearing off, I’m remembering some things about Emmett’s murder,” Tessa admitted.
His eyes narrowed. “Keep talking.”
“I didn’t see the killer’s face.” Though Tessa tried to picture him, the bits and pieces of her memory didn’t cooperate. “I came into my house, and this man wearing a ski mask attacked me. Emmett was there, and they fought.”
Landon stayed quiet for a long time, clearly trying to process that. “Why was Emmett there?”
She had to shake her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know why the other man was there, either. Maybe he was a burglar?”
That didn’t sound right at all, though. No. He wasn’t a burglar, but clearly there were still some blanks in her memory. And because he was wearing a ski mask, she didn’t have even fragmented memories of seeing his face.
Tessa looked down at the baby. Did that man have something to do with the newborn?
“A burglar,” Landon repeated, “wouldn’t have left a note like that on Emmett’s body. His killer was connected to me and obviously to you since the murder happened in your house.” He tipped his head to the baby. “And where was she the whole time this attack on you was going on?”
“In my arms.” Tessa was certain of that. “She was also in my arms when I ran from the man. No, wait.” More images came. Then the memory of the pain exploding in her head. “He hit me with his gun first.” That explained the bump on her head. “Emmett tried to stop him, and that’s when I think the man shot him.”
Landon dropped back a step, no doubt taking a moment to absorb that. Those details were still fuzzy, and Tessa was actually thankful for it. She wasn’t sure that right now she could handle remembering a man being murdered. Especially so soon after nearly dying in that barn fire.
“You were close to Emmett?” she asked but then waved off the question. Of course he was. And apparently she had been, too.
After all, Emmett had been at her house.
“I think his killer might have been a cop,” Tessa added.
Landon huffed. “First a burglar, now a cop?”
She didn’t blame him for being skeptical, but her mind was all over the place, and it was so hard to think, especially with that warning that kept going through her head.
That it wasn’t safe here. That she couldn’t trust anyone.
That she was going to get Landon killed.
“The killer held his gun like a cop,” she explained. “And he had one of those ear communicators like cops use.”
“Criminals use them, too,” Landon was just as quick to point out.
True enough. “But he said something about a perp to whoever he was talking to on the communicator. That’s a word that cops use.” Tessa paused. “And when I saw your badge, I got scared. Because I thought maybe... Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought.”
“You thought I had killed Emmett,” he finished for her. Landon added a sharp glare to that. “I didn’t, and I need you to remember a whole lot more than you just told me.”
So did she, but before Tessa could even consider how to make that happen, she saw some movement in the hall. Landon saw it, too, because he moved in front of her. From over his shoulder, Tessa saw Dr. Michelson and a security guard. But there was another man with him. Tall and lanky with blond hair. Wearing a suit. It took her a moment to get a good look at his face.
Her heart jumped to her throat.
“Joel,” she said. Even with the dizziness, she recognized him.
Landon looked back at her, a new round of displeasure in his expression. “So you remember him now?”
She did. And unlike the other memories, these were a lot clearer.
Oh, God.
This could be bad.
Joel kept his attention on her, obviously studying her dyed hair, but she soon saw the recognition in his eyes, and he picked up the pace as he made his way toward her.
“Tessa?” Joel called out. “Are you all right?”
Landon didn’t budge. He stayed in front of her. “Someone tried to kill her. What do you know about that?”
Until Landon barked out that question, Joel hadn’t seemed to notice him. But he noticed him now. “What are you doing here?” Joel snapped.
Landon tapped his badge. “What I’m doing is asking you a question that you will answer right now.”
Despite the fact that Landon’s tone was as lethal as his expression, Joel made a sound of amusement when he glanced at the badge. “What happened? Did you lose your job as a Houston cop and have to come begging your cousin for work?”
That jogged her memory, too. Yes, Landon had been a detective with the Houston PD, but Tessa doubted he’d lost his job. He had likely come back to Silver Creek to solve Emmett’s murder. Good thing, too, or else there might not have been anyone to save her from that barn fire.
But he couldn’t help her get out of this.
“How did you know I was at the hospital?” Tessa asked Joel.
