Newborn Conspiracy (10 page)

She swallowed hard."Is it safe to go out there?"

“Maybe not. But we don’t have a choice. If someone planted a bomb in the car, he or she could have planted one outside the house."

Because there wasn’t anything else to do, Mia occupied herself by glancing around the squad room of San Antonio Police headquarters. It was better than the alternative: thinking about what’d happened at Logan’s house.

She figured if she could keep her mind on mundane things like the headquarters, it might give her body a reprieve from the adrenaline spikes and flashback memories she’d been experiencing.

So, Mia forced herself to study the squad room. She looked at and listened to the little details. And the big ones. The sea of cluttered desks, ringing phones and the dozens of conversations going on all at once. Harsh fluorescent lighting. Prison-gray floor tiles. The place smelled like disinfectant and stale coffee.

This was her second visit to the headquarters in less than forty-eight hours. Mia hoped it would be her last for a longtime.

As part of her job as a victims’ rights advocate, she was familiar with the police station and even knew some of the officers. She’d worked close with several of them on various cases of sexual assault and spousal abuse. However, that didn’t make her feel more at ease. She was ready to get out—now. She was tired, hungry, and she felt clammy and uncomfortable.

Tanner, on the other hand, seemed perfectly content with the surroundings. Since she’d changed him, he’d been awake for nearly a half hour, his deep blue eyes tracking various people as they walked past. He watched as Logan exited the captain’s office and came walking back toward them.

Logan’s expression was hard and etched with frustration and fatigue. At least it was until he saw Tanner. Mia saw the change in him immediately. Logan managed a smile as he sank down in the chair next to them.

“He’s awake." Logan touched the baby’s cheek, and Tanner smiled, too.

Logan’s expression softened and she could see the frustration and fatigue just melt away.

She knew how he felt because the same thing happened to her whenever she looked at her son.

Their son, she mentally corrected. Even though there was still a part of her that wasn’t able to accept that.

She’d planned her life, and Tanner’s, around having no father in the picture.

Well, Logan was obviously not going anywhere.

“Some people believe that babies this age don’t really smile," Mia explained, “It’s just a reaction to gas."

“He’s smiling"

Mia had to agree with him, Logan looked at her. Their eyes met. And there it was again—that magnetism that kept pulling her to him. Mixed with the sexual attraction and the spent adrenaline, it was a potent combination.

Especially now.

And no amount of concentration on mundane things like squad rooms would diminish it.

She cleared her throat and tried to clear her mind, “How soon before we can leave?"

“The captain is looking over our statements and making some calls. He wants to try to find out if George Devereux is involved."

Yes. George Devereux. The pieces to this puzzle kept multiplying, and the only pieces that fit were the ones that spelled out the potential for an even more dangerous situation. Mia didn’t want Genevieve’s criminal father involved in this.

“The crime-scene guys and my own team are still at the house,"

Logan explained."They didn’t find another bomb, thank God, and they’re collecting the pieces of the one that took out the SUV,"

“What about our things? Did they find a tracking device?" she asked.

“Nothing yet, but it’ll take a while to go through everything."

She didn’t doubt it. Mia also didn’t doubt that Logan’s crew and the police would be thorough.

They’d already taken all their clothes for examination and had replaced them with whatever they’d been able to find in the headquarters building. Tanner was now wearing a blue T-shirt many sizes too big and Mia was dressed in gray sweatpants and a men’s white button-down shirt.

The clothes made her look like a homeless person, Logan had fared far better in the clothing department, Jeans and a snug black tee. The items fit him as if they’d been tailor-made for his body. Which was too bad. Because They only made her notice his body even more.

What was with this attraction? Yes, Logan was hot. He had that whole dangerous bad-boy thing going on. But she’d resisted men like that in the past. In fact, she easily resisted them because they triggered the old memories.

But she wasn’t having such an easy time resisting Logan.

“How are you holding up?’ Logan asked.

As he’d done before, he slid his hand over hers, touching both Tanner and her at the same time. And as before, alarms went off in her head. This time, she ignored the alarms. It was true that Logan and she were getting closer, but she wasn’t going to refuse his help.

Or anything else he was willing to offer.

Mercy. She hoped those great-fitting jeans didn’t have anything to do with this.

“I’m okay" Mia said, and she was surprised that for the most part it was true. Instead of dwelling on what had already happened, she was far more interested in thinking about what was in their immediate future."Where will we go when the captain lets us leave?"

Logan glanced around to make sure no one was nearby."My team is making the arrangements.

We’ll go to a hotel for a while. It’ll be more like a safe house when my team’s done setting up the security."

She preferred a hotel to returning to either of their houses, especially since the shooting at her place and the explosion at Logan’s, but she had to wonder if the new temporary living arrangements would assure them any safety whatsoever. Of course, they couldn’t stay camped out in the police station, either. They had to go somewhere to regroup and figure out their next move. That’s what their would-be killer was almost certainly doing.

Mia checked her watch—it was already past noon. She checked the captain’s door again. Still closed. That antsy get-out-of-there feeling was building with each passing minute. Plus, she had a slight dilemma.

“Is something wrong?" Logan asked.

Because this couldn’t wait, Mia put her discomfort aside and just told him, “I need to go to the bathroom and l don’t have Tanner’s carrier seat"

Mia knew what the solution had to be because there was only one other person in the building that she trusted with her baby.

“I need you to hold Tanner," she clarified."I can’t carry’ him while I’m using the bathroom."

She stood and eased the sleeping baby toward Logan.

He looked surprised. Correction, he looked stunned, especially as she placed the baby in his arms.

And Mia’s heart was beating fast. The concerns she had certainly hadn’t faded. But there wasn’t any feeling of panic at seeing Tanner’s birth father holding him, and that troubled her in an entirely different kind of way.

“He’s really little," Logan mumbled.

“Yes," she said around the lump in throat.

The scene in front of her was… confusing, to say the least. It warmed her from head to toe to see Logan so content. It made her want to get close to him. Mia wanted more than hand holding. She wanted Logan.

“The last time I slept with a man, it was really awful," she heard herself say. And she groaned.

Mercy. Where the heck had that come from? Fatigue and the need for a bathroom break had obviously turned her into a chatterbox.

Logan blinked."Awful traumatic or just awful bad sex?"

And he was serious, too.

There wasn’t even the hint of a smile on his handsome face.

“Awful bad sex," Mia mumbled."I shouldn’t have brought that up " She was about to make some excuses for her chattiness, but Logan spoke before she could.

“It was the guy’s fault."

Because she hadn’t expected him to say something like that, it took a moment to sink in."W- what?"

“It was the guy’s fault" he calmly repeated. Then, he aimed those hot blue eyes at her and the impact of his equally hot looks hit her with full force, “Because sex with you could never be awful,"

For a moment she was just too astonished to say anything. She stood there, mouth open. Yes, her mouth open. Unable to speak and not knowing what to say even if she could have somehow managed to get her mouth to form words.

The corner of Logan’s mouth hitched, and he chuckled."You know I’m attracted to you. And no, it’s not because you’re the mother of my child."

Mia had just been about to point that out.

“And it’s not just because we’re in a dangerous situation together." Logan continued."I’d be attracted to you even if there wasn’t any danger. You’re a beautiful woman. But I’m also attracted to your vulnerability. And your strength."

“I’m not strong"

He shook his head, disagreeing."You haven’t even shed a tear after two attempts to kill you.

You’ve faced fears. And you’ve done all of that while taking care of a baby. I’d say that’s strong. Those are the reasons I want you naked and in my bed."

The image of that stole her breath.

There was nothing she could say to that. Admitting that she would like nothing more than to be naked in his bed would be playing with fire. Especially since Logan and she were going to be spending a lot of time together.

Mia motioned toward the bathroom."I won’t be long." And she made a hasty exit before she could say something that she would ultimately regret.

She went into the ladies room, used the facilities and then splashed some water on her face."What are you doing?" she asked herself as she stared into the mirror.

But she knew the answer.

She was developing a major case of the hots for Logan, Despite what he’d said, he so wasn’t her type, she reminded herself. Tall, dark and dangerous.

He could also only be insinuating himself into her life for Tanner. Then, there was the part about his lethal job description.

On paper, Logan McGrath was the worst possible match for her.

Too bad her body said otherwise.

Now, she had to contend with the image of herself naked in his bed. And he’d be naked, too.

How would it feel to be taken by a man like Logan?

How would he taste?

And just how memorable of an experience would it be?

She didn’t have to guess at the last question. It would be memorable, and would likely spoil her for any other man.

Disgusted with herself—and aroused—Mia dried her face and tried to put on a steely expression before she went back into the waiting area. What she saw when she returned, however, took away the steel and arousal, and the alarm and concern reappeared,

Logan was standing, holding Tanner, but he wasn’t alone. There was a man in a brown uniform.

The emblem above his chest pocket said Dependable Deliveries. Judging from Logan’s stance, she didn’t think this was something to do with his security arrangements.

The man tried to hand Logan a small caramel-colored cigar box.

Which Logan didn’t take.

Instead, Logan motioned for one of the officers to come over and examine it. That alarmed her even more and Mia hurried to take the baby so she could move him away from that box and whatever was in it.

“Stay back," Logan warned her the moment she took Tanner,

Sweet heaven. She prayed it wasn’t another bomb, and she stepped back into the recess of the ladies room so that Tanner would be protected. Logan took things one step further. He used his body as a shield.

The officer examined the box. First, visually and then with a small device that a lieutenant handed him.

“It’s okay," the officer concluded. He opened the box to reveal some cigars.

Mia let out the breath that she didn’t even know she’d been holding.

“There’s a note," the officer added. He extracted it from the box and took it to Logan.

“Congratulations on the birth of your son " Logan read aloud."It’s signed George Devereux ,"

That probably should have sent a shock of fear through her, but it didn’t. Instead, it infuriated her. Was this some kind of mind game? If so, she wanted to throttle Devereux for keeping her on this emotional roller coaster.

“Why would he send something like that?" Mia asked.

“I don’t think it was to wish us well."

No. In fact, it felt like a warning. But what kind of warning? Did Devereux want them to back off from accusing his daughter? Was that it?

Or was something else going on here?

Logan passed the cigars and the note back to the officer."You might want to keep this in case it turns out to be evidence in the investigation," he explained.

In other words, Logan didn’t want it with them if there was another bug. But he didn’t want to discard it, either, in case it contained some kind of clue.

“I’ll tell the captain that we’re leaving," Logan assured her.

But Logan barely made it a step in that direction. He stopped when he noticed a man making his way toward him. Mia recognized him from his photo and from her brief encounter with him at the hospital.

Donnie Bishop.

He wasn’t dressed in scrubs, nor was he wearing the dark outfit he’d worn when he was skulking around the pediatric clinic parking lot. Today, he was dressed more like a rock star with fashionably ripped and faded jeans, a bright purple shirt and a dark-green leather jacket.

Mia stepped away with Tanner in case there was an altercation, judging from Logan’s body language and expression, that was a strong possibility, “Logan McGrath," Donnie greeted."And Mia Crandall. We meet at last."

His tone and posture were cavalier In fact, everything about him was cavalier, down to his multiple ear and eyebrow piercings and his shoulder-length heavily highlighted blond hair.

With at least five carats of diamonds winking in his ears, Donnie certainly didn’t look like the sort who’d try to gun someone down, but Mia wasn’t about to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I just finished my little chat with the boys in blue," Donnie volunteered. He had a small plastic container of pellet-size breath mints, and he calmly tunneled some into his mouth. "I take it you’re here for the same reason?"