The Bounty Hunter's Baby Surprise. Lisa Childs
“Her trial was supposed to start Monday,” Seymour said, “but she never showed up for court.”
Trial. For what? What the hell was going on?
Jake’s spine stiffened. He shot away from the door to grab the mug shot from Tuttle’s hand. As he stared down at the photo, myriad emotions passed through him.
Guilt. He’d felt that for the past eight months every time he had thought of her, which had been always. She had never left his mind. He remembered how devastated she had looked that last time he’d seen her, how her beautiful blue eyes had been dark with betrayal and pain. She’d thought he’d used her. And he had. That had been his plan all along, to get close to her to find out where her dad and brother Dave were hiding, but then something else had happened to him.
Desire. He hadn’t planned on that, hadn’t plotted to get as close to her as he had gotten. But he’d wanted Lillian Davies more than he’d ever wanted any woman. With her shimmery pale blond hair and deep blue eyes, she was stunningly beautiful. And sweet. She had acted and tasted so damn sweet. Her kisses had gone straight to his head and desire had gone to his groin. He hadn’t been able to resist her. And he’d nearly forgotten all about apprehending her dad and eldest brother.
Maybe that had been her plan, though. Maybe she had known all along who he really was and she’d set out to seduce him into forgetting about the bounties on her brother and father.
Anger. He felt it now as he stared down at her mug shot. He could barely look at her beautiful face, and she was still beautiful—even with dark circles rimming her eyes. He looked instead at the charge printed on the photo: embezzlement. She must have played him, just like she had everyone else. Her boss, the judge and the bail bondsman. Lily-white Lillian Davies was anything but. She was a con artist just like the rest of her criminal family.
“I know, I know,” Tuttle said. “You told me that if I bailed one of them out again, that you didn’t want to hear about it, that you wanted nothing to do with any of them again. But...”
Jake had been adamant about that because he hadn’t thought he’d ever be able to face her again—because he’d felt so damn guilty over hurting her.
He’d staged their whole cute first meeting, literally bumping into her in the grocery store. She’d apologized when their carts had collided, even though he’d deliberately plowed his into hers. Somehow he had sweet-talked her into dinner and then he’d made it for her.
All he had been after was information on her dad and brother Dave. But he’d gotten so much more...
Had he seduced her, though? Or had it been the other way around?
“I’ll call one of the O’Hanigans to bring her in instead,” Tuttle offered.
“No!” was Jake’s sharp retort as some emotion even uglier than anger coursed through him. Was it jealousy? He’d never felt such a sick, twisty feeling in his stomach before. He didn’t want Lillian seducing one of the O’Hanigans like she’d seduced him.
No, if she was going to seduce anyone...
Images flitted through his mind, like they did every night when he tried to sleep. Images of her lying naked in his bed, her silky skin flushed with desire, her lips parted on a husky moan.
No. She wasn’t going to seduce him this time. He would not be conned twice. He’d spent the past eight months hating himself for making her hate him. He’d felt guilty and remorseful because he’d hurt her.
And she’d probably been laughing at him—as she stole money just like her brother and father had. She’d been laughing at him and her hapless trusting employer.
She wasn’t going to get away with it.
Not this time.
She wasn’t going to elude justice.
This was why he had resigned from the US Marshals and gone into business for himself as a bounty hunter. The US Marshals didn’t have the time or the resources to bring back all the fugitives from justice. So Jake had taken it upon himself to do the job.
“Don’t call the O’Hanigans,” he said with more control. “I will bring back Lillian Davies.” He’d spent the past eight months dreading ever seeing her again, but now he couldn’t wait.
His pulse tripping away with anticipation, he turned toward the door but not so fast that he missed the little smile that curved Seymour Tuttle’s thin lips. The old bail bondsman had played him—just like Lillian had.
He would deal with Tuttle later. Right now, he had a fugitive to apprehend. A beautiful fugitive...
* * *
Lillian felt sicker than she had during her first trimester when she hadn’t just had morning sickness but all-day sickness. Of course, that might have had less to do with her pregnancy than the charges she faced—charges that could put her behind bars for a very long time.
But jail was the least of her concerns at the moment.
Her heart pounded fast and her palms sweated against the steering wheel she clutched. She had no idea where to go now. Since ditching court, she was a fugitive.
She knew what that meant. She knew who might come looking for her. That was her biggest concern, even bigger than finding out what the hell had happened to the flash drive.
Her lawyer claimed she’d never received it. But dare Lillian believe her?
Or had he gotten to her? Her former boss.
Mr. Kuipers was wealthy, even wealthier since he’d embezzled all that money from his company. He could have easily bribed an underpaid legal aid attorney to lose the evidence that would have proved Lillian’s innocence and his guilt.
That had to be what happened. She couldn’t consider the alternative. Then it would only prove that Jake Howard had been right about her family.
And he wasn’t...
He hadn’t been right about anything. But the man was good at his job—so good that he would use whatever means necessary to get what he wanted. Just like he had used her.
She hadn’t been complaining at the time, though. Of course, she had been totally unaware that he was using her. She’d been so naive.
Again. Why did she trust people that she shouldn’t?
But Jake had overwhelmed her—with his good looks, his charm. Her pulse quickened just thinking about him, how he’d looked at her that first time he’d literally bumped into her. His dark eyes had twinkled with amusement, and his sexy lips had curved into that wicked grin of his. He was so damn good-looking with those chiseled features and overly long thick dark hair. And his body.
Tall, broad and muscular.
And powerful.
While she was naive, Lillian had never been romantic or foolish. She’d never believed in love at first sight—until that moment. But it had been like she’d always known Jake and he her.
Of course she had—she just hadn’t realized it at the time, especially since he’d given her a different name. He’d called himself Jacob Williams. If he’d told her Jake Howard, she would have recognized him as the ruthless bounty hunter her family feared. She had felt a flicker of fear at that first meeting—because she’d somehow instinctively known her life was about to change forever.
Her baby kicked her belly, and she moved her hand from the steering wheel to rub over the bump where a little foot pushed against her abdomen. “Shh...”
She needed to calm down; she couldn’t risk her anxiety causing any harm to her baby. She had to think.
Where could she go?
If Jake came looking for her, he was bound to figure out where she was hiding. But he wouldn’t come, would he? After what he’d done, how he’d deceived and hurt