Lawman From Her Past

Lauren struggled, trying to force him off her, but when it was obvious this was a losing battle, she knew she had to say something.

And that something was going to shatter the life Cameron had built here.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, the question surprising her.

Only then did she remember the wound on her shoulder. That part of her hadn’t hit the ground, thank goodness, and since it was a constant throbbing pain, it had become a sort of white noise. Something she was trying to push aside so it wouldn’t cause her to lose focus.

“No. I’m not hurt.” But in hindsight, she probably should have lied. Maybe then, Cameron would have let her go.

“Talk to me,” he snapped. Obviously, he was over his concern for her injury. Of course, she couldn’t blame him when there were so many other things for them to discuss.

“We’re in danger,” she started. Lauren had to clear her throat and repeat it so it’d have some sound. “Those men who tried to kill me got away, and I believe they’ll be looking for me. Maybe for you, too.”

Because he was right in her face, it wasn’t hard to see the doubt go through his eyes. Despite the doubts, though, he still had a look around them. A cop’s look. Good. Lauren didn’t want anyone sneaking up on them. Or worse—trying to sneak into the house.

“What do those men have to do with me?” he snarled.

“Maybe everything.”

She tried to gather her breath. Couldn’t. Cameron wasn’t overly muscled, but he wasn’t a lightweight, either, and with his chest pressing against her, she couldn’t get enough air. He must have realized that, but he didn’t move. Probably because he thought she would go for her gun again.

Which she would.

Since there was no easy way to say this, Lauren just blurted it out. “I believe someone swapped my baby with Gilly’s.”

She gave him a moment to let that sink in, but she couldn’t give him the time he needed. She also continued to keep watch as best she could. Hard to do that, though, while on the ground.

He shook his head. “Why would anyone do that?”

“I’m not sure. Please, let’s just check on Isaac, and then we can go over all of this.”

Cameron didn’t answer. Not with words anyway. But his cold, hard stare told her that wasn’t going to happen.

“Someone started following me days ago. Two men in a dark car,” she added. “I believe those were the same men who broke into my house.”

“The men who tried to kill you.” Cameron said it as if he didn’t believe her. She couldn’t blame him. She’d had hours to try to come to grips with it, and part of her still wasn’t ready to accept it.

She nodded. “Before they found me, I heard them talking to someone on a communicator, and that’s when they said they were cops.”

“They could have lied,” he reminded her again.

“True. But they still broke in for a reason. And that reason was my son, Patrick. They wanted to kill me and take him.” She huffed in frustration because his skeptical look was only getting worse, and she wasn’t explaining this well at all. “Just please move off me so we can both keep watch.”

She saw him debate that for several moments. Lauren had lost track of how long she’d been out here with him, but Dara, the nanny, would be getting even more worried than she already was.

“If you try anything else stupid, I will put you right back on the ground,” Cameron growled.

He finally shifted his body to the side, rolling off her. He also snatched up her gun as he stood. Lauren didn’t like not being armed, but at least when she got up, she was able to better keep an eye on the trail behind them.

“Does your nephew look like your sister?” she came out and asked.

He stopped glancing around long enough to shoot her a glare. “That proves nothing. He could have inherited genes from generations ago.”

Lauren hesitated a moment. “Does he look like me?”

His quick glare intensified, but what he didn’t do was deny it. “First, you have to convince me that a swap even took place before I’ll start speculating about who my nephew does or doesn’t resemble.”

Fair enough. Or at least it would have been fair if time was on their side. She instinctively knew it wasn’t.

“I was telling the truth when I said I can’t be sure a swap took place, but the men said once they had Patrick, they could do a DNA test and go from there. Go from there,” she emphasized. “I believe that means they’ll come here next.”

Cameron cursed, and it wasn’t tame. “That’s a big leap to assume the men were talking about Isaac.”

“A leap except that I’d already started to get suspicious. Patrick doesn’t look like me or my late husband.” She swallowed hard. “He looks like you.”

She could tell from his slight flinch that Cameron reacted to that. Maybe because he saw something of her face in Isaac’s?

“Gilly could have arranged the swap,” Lauren went on. “She was afraid of Trace, and if she knew she was dying, this might have been her way of preventing Trace from getting his hands on their child.”

Though it sickened her to think that Gilly, a woman she considered her friend, would have intentionally done something like this since it could have put Lauren’s own precious son in danger.

“Gilly wouldn’t do that,” Cameron insisted. “If she was worried about her baby’s safety, she would have gotten word to me.”

“Maybe. But Gilly was dying. Scared. And they’d had trouble getting in touch with you.”

He flinched again, and she knew why. Cameron had gotten caught up in a lockdown at the prison, where he’d gone to interview a potential witness. He’d been trapped there for hours with no way to leave and get to his sister even though she’d gone into labor.

“But Gilly might not have done this,” Lauren added a moment later.

Mercy, she wished she’d rehearsed this or something because it was hard for her to put her line of thinking into words. Equally hard for her to imagine it had happened. “My late husband was Alden Lange, and his business partner or his sister could be the one responsible. They both hate me. Or at least they hate that I have control over Alden’s estate.”

The flat look Cameron gave her told her he wasn’t buying that. And she hoped she was wrong. Because both Alden’s sister, Julia, and his partner, Duane Tulley, could be very dangerous. They might have seen this as some sick mind game to watch her suffer. Of course, her suffering could also be profitable for them if it led to one or both of them getting their hands on Alden’s money.

“How would Trace or any of these other people have gotten into the hospital nursery to switch babies?” he asked.

Lauren didn’t have the answer to that, either. “It must have been an inside job since the babies wear bracelets with security chips that would trigger an alarm if they were carried out of the hospital. I’d just started checking out the medical staff when I was attacked.”

He made a sound, a rumble deep in his throat. “And why did you do that? What made you suspicious?”

“I kept thinking it was strange that I would look at my son and see you.” She waved that off before he could say anything about it. She didn’t want to talk about why the image of Cameron’s face was still so clear in her head after all these years and after all the bad stuff that’d gone on between them.

“I had a DNA test done,” she went on. “So I could compare Patrick’s DNA to mine. I’m supposed to get the results back any day now, but I made the mistake of asking the housekeeper if there was anything still around with Alden’s DNA on it.” She’d cursed herself for doing that. “I wanted to have the complete DNA results, but I think the housekeeper told Alden’s sister what I’d asked for.”

At least Cameron hadn’t simply dismissed her. He tipped his head to the trail. “We’ll get your son and sort this out.” Lauren was about to blow out a breath of relief, but then Cameron added, “For the record, I don’t believe there was a swap. Isaac is my nephew. But if Duane and Julia are bad news like you think they are, then they could have been the ones behind your attack.”

He took her by the arm again to get her moving, but Lauren dug in her heels. “I can’t risk bringing my brothers into this yet. Those thugs who attacked me could have connections to Duane and Julia, and they could find out I’m here.”

This huff was even louder than his last one. “Look, Gabriel is the sheriff, and my boss. As well as your brother. No way would he risk putting you in danger. I’ll just go inside, call him on his personal line and have him come out here.”

“No.” She couldn’t say that fast enough. “I heard those men say if my family got in the way, they would have to kill them.”

She hated when his skeptical look returned. Because she had the same skepticism. “I know those thugs could have wanted me to hear what they were saying, that they could have been feeding me information. But why would they have done that, then shoot me and try to take Patrick?”

“That’s what we’ll find out—as soon as I call Gabriel.” He tightened his grip on her arm and managed to drag her a few steps.

“They could be watching the front of your house from the road. They could be watching Gabriel’s and Jameson’s places, too. That’s why I used the trail. Only the locals know it’s there, and it’s not easy to spot unless you’re looking for it.”

Cameron couldn’t argue with that, not the last part anyway, even though it looked as if he wanted to dispute something. Anything. “We’ll go in through the back of my house. Even hired guns won’t be suspicious if they see the sheriff dropping by to visit with one of his deputies.”

Lauren wasn’t so sure of that at all. Anything out of the ordinary might trigger those men to shoot again. And this time, Isaac and anyone else who happened to be around could get hurt. If the gunmen were truly out there, they could be looking for any sign she was there, and Gabriel’s visit might give her away.

“I shouldn’t have come here,” Lauren said under her breath. She lifted her head, making direct eye contact with Cameron. “But I just had to know if Isaac’s really my son. Don’t get me wrong. I love Patrick with all my heart, but I had to find out the truth.”

Cameron hesitated, volleying glances at the house, the woods and her. Just when she thought he was about to give in and let her go inside, she heard something. Footsteps. Cameron heard them, too, because he pushed her behind him and aimed his gun in the direction of the sound.

Someone was running toward them.

Oh, God. Had something happened to Patrick?

Nothing could have kept Lauren behind Cameron. She snatched her gun from his left hand and would have taken off toward her car, but she finally saw something.

Something that stopped her cold.

Dara. The nanny had Patrick clutched to her chest, and she was running—fast. Probably as fast as she could go.

“They found us,” Dara shouted. “Run!”

Chapter Three

Cameron hadn’t been sure of what he was going to do, but there was no time left to debate it now. All of his lawman’s instincts told him that the stark fear in the woman’s voice was real.

So was that baby she had gripped in her arms.

A little blond-haired boy who was about the same size as Isaac.

Cameron forced himself not to think that everything Lauren had told him was real. If this was truly his nephew, anything he felt about that would have to wait. Right now he had to get them to safety.

“Get inside the house,” Cameron told Lauren.

She didn’t listen, of course. Neither would he if that’d been his child out there. Lauren started to run toward the nanny, but Cameron hurried in front of her. The moment he got to the woman and child, he hooked his arm around them, maneuvering them in front of him, and he got them running again.

“Keep watch around us,” Cameron told Lauren.

Maybe that would stop the panic he saw rising in her eyes. It was also something that needed to be done. Because if those two armed thugs were on their tail, then they had to get inside—fast—but they also needed to make sure they weren’t about to be gunned down. If necessary, they would have to take cover before they even reached the house.

The little boy wasn’t out and out crying, but he was whimpering. Probably because he’d picked up on their fear and because the running was jostling him. Cameron tried to ignore the sounds he was making, and he got them on the porch. He had to fumble in his pocket to get his keys to unlock the door, but the moment he did that, he pushed them inside.

“Get on the floor,” he ordered.

Cameron relocked the door, set the security alarm and went to the window to keep watch. He also fired off a text to Gabriel, asking him to come over. Lauren’s brother didn’t live far and could be there in minutes if he hadn’t already left for work. If so, then Gabriel would have to drive back.

A lot could happen in those extra minutes it would take Gabriel to do that.

Cameron still had a much too clear image of the bandage on Lauren’s shoulder where she’d been shot. Those goons could be returning now to finish her off.

Lauren scrambled to the nanny, taking Patrick into her arms and pulling him close. There were tears in her eyes again, and she was trembling. The nanny wasn’t faring much better. Hell, neither was he. Cameron wasn’t trembling the way they were, but he was worried because they had two babies in the house, and he might not be able to protect them if those gunmen started shooting.

“I saw an SUV coming up the trail,” the nanny said. Her breath was gusting so hard that it was difficult to understand her. “I couldn’t drive off since there were trees blocking the way so I got out and started running with Patrick.”

Yeah, there were downed trees back there. Probably shrubs, too, since it wasn’t a trail that was often used.

“It could turn out to be nothing,” the nanny added in a hoarse whisper. “They might not be the men who were after us.”

Judging from her tone, she didn’t think that was true. Neither did Cameron. It was too much of a coincidence for someone to show up on that trail so soon after Lauren had been shot.

“Did you get a glimpse of anyone in the SUV?” he asked the woman.

“Barely. I could just make out the outline of the driver behind the tinted glass. I think there was another man in the passenger seat.”

Maybe the same two who had attacked Lauren in Dallas. If so, they’d come a long way. And they had probably had some inside help since Lauren had been right about the trail. Not many people outside the area knew it existed. Of course, a police officer might know because they could have tapped into the area maps that were in the database at San Antonio PD.

Hell, he hoped they weren’t dealing with dirty cops.

“Is everything okay?” someone called out from the other side of the house. Merilee.

That tightened the knot in his stomach. He could tell Merilee was terrified, as well. She’d been Isaac’s nanny right from the start, and since there’d already been two attacks on the ranch, she knew something was wrong.

“Just stay put in the nursery,” Cameron settled for saying. He didn’t want to unnecessarily alarm the woman even though she was probably well past the alarm stage already.

Cameron also had a second reason for keeping Merilee and Isaac where they were. This way, Lauren wouldn’t see Isaac. Of course, she would see him soon enough, but right now he needed her to focus. If Lauren saw him and truly believed he was her son, then she might fall apart.

“Hand Patrick to Dara,” Cameron told Lauren. “I need you to keep watch at the window on the side of the house.”

He hated to ask her to do that, but right now she was their best bet. Besides, he knew Lauren could shoot since he’d been the one to teach her.

She gave a shaky nod, passed the baby back to the nanny and with a tight grip on her gun, she went to the window near the breakfast table. He didn’t have to remind her to stay back. She did. Lauren positioned herself against the side of the glass so she could still peer out.

“Nothing,” she relayed to him.

It was the same from his view. That didn’t mean the men weren’t out there, though. Lauren had been out there for a while before he’d spotted her. Plus, it was possible the men were regrouping, maybe calling for their own backup so they could storm the place and take the baby.

But why?

That was something he intended to find out once they were out of any immediate danger.

Behind him, Patrick started fussing, and he made the mistake of glancing back at the boy. Cameron hadn’t been able to see his face earlier when the nanny was running toward them. He saw it now, though.

Oh, man.

It felt like someone had knocked the breath right out of him. The kid had blond hair, and those were definitely the Doran gray eyes. In fact, the resemblance was close enough that Patrick could have been mistaken for Cameron’s own son. He wasn’t.

But the boy was his nephew.

Cameron silently cursed. This was not what he wanted in his head right now, but it was a fight to keep the thoughts at bay. What the hell was he going to do?

He forced his attention back to the window just as the sound shot through the room. Clearly, everyone was on edge because both Lauren and the nanny gasped. But it wasn’t a shot being fired. It was just his phone ringing, and Cameron saw Gabriel’s name on the screen. Good. Maybe that meant the sheriff was there.

Cameron put the call on speaker, laying his phone on the counter so his hands would be free in case there was an attack.

“What the hell is going on?” Gabriel demanded the moment he came onto the line.

Since he wasn’t going to have time to get into everything, Cameron went with the short version. “Lauren’s here, and some men are after her. They tried to kill her.”

Gabriel cursed, but he quickly reined it in, no doubt because he realized his kid sister was listening. “Any reason she came to you and not me?”

Gabriel didn’t rein in his emotions on that question. Cameron heard the anger come through loud and clear. The emotion was in Lauren’s expression, too. Her forehead was bunched up, and she had her still-trembling bottom lip clamped between her teeth. With everything else she was facing, she probably didn’t want a showdown with her brother, as well, but it was going to be on the agenda whether she wanted it or not.

“I’ll explain it all later,” Cameron told him, but he had to raise his voice to speak over Patrick. The baby was fussing even louder now. “The men who are after Lauren will be in an SUV,” he added to Gabriel. “It’s possible they’re on the trail behind my house.”

“They’re not. I just spotted a black SUV coming up from the back of my folks’ old place.”

Cameron bit back a groan. The trails coiled all around the ranch, and the men had obviously found a way out of the woods. That meant they could be trying to escape so they could regroup and come at Lauren again. As much as Cameron hated the notion of that, at least it would give him a chance to get the babies, nannies and her to a safe place.

“The SUV isn’t moving,” Gabriel went on, “and I can’t tell if anyone is still inside it. They could have already gotten out and slipped onto the ranch grounds.”

Not exactly a comforting thought, but Gabriel was right. Cameron didn’t know how long it’d taken the nanny to get to Lauren and him, but the thugs could have driven off the moment she started running. If so, that would have given them plenty of time to get to the old Beckett house, and then the chance to escape.

Or sneak up on Cameron’s house.

“I’ve stopped on the road and am waiting for Jameson,” Gabriel continued a moment later. “Once he’s here, we can go closer. Why do they want Lauren?” he tacked onto that.

“She’s not sure yet.” But it gnawed away at him to think it could be because of his sister’s scummy dead boyfriend. “Just give me a heads-up if you see these clowns.”

“Will do. Is that Isaac crying?”

“No. It’s...Lauren’s son.” Cameron hadn’t meant to hesitate, but it’d just seemed to stick in his throat.

Gabriel’s silence let Cameron know it hadn’t been easy for him to hear. That was probably because Lauren hadn’t bothered to introduce her son to the rest of her family. Even though things had been strained between Lauren and him since their parents’ murders, it still had to cut Gabriel to the core. For him, it was all about family, and he’d worked damn hard to bring his siblings back to their birthplace.

Cameron ended the call, and he went to the back door to look out the small windows there. The angle was better for giving him a view of the opposite side of the yard that Lauren was watching. The SUV was the other direction, but it didn’t mean the thugs couldn’t have brought some help along.

“I think I see something,” Lauren said.

That sent Cameron running to her, and he followed her pointing finger in the direction of the far side of his barn. Since the barn was closer to the old Beckett house than Cameron’s, it would be a likely place for someone to hide.

But he didn’t see anything.

“I’m obviously on edge,” Lauren admitted. “It could have been my imagination.”

She looked up at him at the exact moment he looked down at her, and it seemed as if there was something else she wanted to say to him. An apology, maybe, but the silence said it all. Because she’d been giving him the silent treatment for the past decade. No reason for this to be any different.

He kept watch, but even though he didn’t see anything, it didn’t mean someone wasn’t out there. Which made him rethink their position. There were way too many windows in this part of the house. Plus, it was hard to hear anything with Patrick crying.

“Stay low,” Cameron instructed the nanny, “but take the baby to the nursery. It’s the first room off the hall.” He tipped his head in that direction. “Go with them,” he added to Lauren.

But she shook her head. “You need me to help you keep watch. I don’t want those men getting in the house.”

Neither did he, but Cameron had figured she’d want to be with her baby. And she probably did. However, like him, Lauren almost certainly knew things could turn on a dime.

“Merilee?” he called out. “A woman and little boy are joining you in the nursery. Once they’re in there, lock the door, and all of you get down on the floor.”

“What’s happening?” Merilee asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Lauren is here,” he said after a pause.

Merilee would remember Lauren since she’d been the Beckett housekeeper all the way up until the time of the murders. Lauren’s mom was a former cop who also worked the ranch, and Merilee had been a pseudo-nanny to Lauren and her siblings.

He nearly asked about Isaac, to make sure his nephew was all right, but right now Cameron only wanted to focus on what was going on outside. Besides, if something had been wrong in the nursery, Merilee would have let him know.

“Thank you,” Lauren whispered.

Cameron was about to tell her not to thank him yet, but the movement stopped him cold. This time he saw what Lauren had almost certainly spotted by the barn.

A man.

He only got a glimpse of him, but the guy was wearing camo. Definitely not a ranch hand.

“He’s got a gun,” Lauren relayed to Cameron.

Yeah, he’d seen it, too. Again, just a glimpse, but it appeared to be a rifle. Not good because it gave the intruder a longer range that he could use to shoot into the house.

Without taking his attention off the man, Cameron pressed redial on his phone, and Gabriel answered on the first ring.

“Jameson’s here,” Gabriel explained. “We’re going to the SUV now.”

“Don’t. One of the shooters is here at my place by the side of my barn. I figure he’s not alone.”

Gabriel made a sound of agreement followed by some profanity. “Okay, we’re on the way to your place. I’ll also get some of the hands over there.”

“Tell them to be careful. The guy is armed, and he’s in position to pick off anyone who comes up the road to my house.”