Christmas Guardian. Delores Fossen

      To Dakota and Danielle

Prologue

       San Antonio, Texas

      Jordan Taylor heard the pounding, but it took him a moment to realize it wasn’t part of the nightmare he’d been having. Someone was banging on his door.

      He checked the clock on the nightstand. Three in the morning. He cursed, threw back the covers and grabbed his Sig Sauer, because visits at this time of morning were never good.

      “Jordan, open up!” a woman said. Not a shout, exactly, but close.

      He recognized that voice and cursed again. Shelly Mackey, his ex, both as a business associate and a girlfriend. He wouldn’t need the Sig Sauer. Well, probably not. Since he hadn’t seen or heard from Shelly in months and since her voice sounded a couple of steps beyond frantic, Jordan decided to bring the gun with him anyway.

      “You have to help me!” Shelly insisted. She continued to pound on the door. “Please. Hurry.”

      That got him moving faster. Shelly wasn’t the drama queen type. Jordan didn’t bother to dress. He pulled on only his boxers and raced out of his bedroom.

      Her voice wasn’t coming from the front of the house, he realized, but from the door off his kitchen. Jordan sprinted that way.

      But the pounding stopped.

      He stopped, too, just short of the door. He waited a moment. Listened.

      And heard nothing.

      “Shelly?” he called out.

      Still nothing. That gave him another jolt of adrenaline. Shelly was likely in big trouble.

      Jordan lifted his gun as he reached for the doorknob. Then, he heard it. The sound of a car engine.

      Someone was driving away. Not fast. More like easing away, the tires barely whispering on the brick driveway that encircled his house. Jordan unlocked the door, jerked it open, but he caught only a flash of the bloodred taillights before the car disappeared into the darkness.

      With his gun aimed, he shot glances around his heavily landscaped yard. He didn’t see anyone, but the soft grunt he heard had him aiming his attention lower. To the porch.

      There was a basket with a blanket draped over it.

      “What the hell?” he mumbled.

      Jordan kept his attention on the yard, just in case the someone or something that had caused Shelly to run was still out there. He stooped down and lifted the corner of the blanket.

      A baby stared back at him.

      Jordan had never remembered being speechless before, but he sure was now. He looked beneath the blanket again, certain he was mistaken.

      No mistake.

      The tiny baby was still there. Still staring at him with eyes that seemed to ask who are you and why am I here?

      Jordan wanted to know the same thing.

      He grabbed the basket, brought it inside so he could set it on the floor and shut the door. He also reached for his phone and jabbed in Shelly’s number. Each ring felt like a week-long wait.

      “Jordan,” she finally answered. He didn’t know who sounded more frantic—him or her.

      “Talk to me,” he snarled.

      “Someone’s trying to kill me.”

      Despite the baby-in-the-basket bombshell, he wasn’t immune to the fear he heard in her voice. “Where are you? I’ll send help, and then you can come back for the little delivery you left on my porch.”

      “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do things this way, but I had no choice. They’re after me, because of the baby. He’s in danger, Jordan. The worst kind. And I need you to protect him.”

      Him. A boy.

      Then it hit Jordan. He threw back the blanket and had a better look at that little face. Dark brown hair. Dark brown eyes. About two months old at the most. He quickly did the math. He’d last slept with Shelly nine or ten months ago. Break-up sex. And he hadn’t seen her since.

      Jordan groaned, and because he had no choice, he sank down on the floor next to the basket.

      “I’ve sanitized my office,” Shelly continued, her words rushing together. “Actually, I burned it to the ground. They won’t find anything there, but I don’t want them tracing the baby to you. Don’t let anyone know you have him. Please. There can be no chain of custody when it comes to him, understand?”

      No. He didn’t. But he focused on Shelly and her safety. “Tell me where you are so I can help you.”

      “You can help me by taking care of the baby. There are no