LITMIR.BIZ

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he took Sloane’s arm and steered her into the empty hospital room next door. He pushed the door shut. “Why do you need a witness for the call? Is he threatening you?”

      “Not exactly.”

      “What exactly?” he asked sharply. The hackles on the back of his neck were standing up, and he realized with a bit of a start that his right hand was balled into a fist. He forcibly relaxed the fingers and focused all of his considerable observational skills on Sloane. Elevated breathing. Faint sheen of perspiration on her skin. Gaze darting around. She was scared.

      “You’d better damned well believe I want to hear this phone call,” he growled.

      The phone rang for a third time, and she took a deep breath. He watched, eyes narrowed, as she put the phone on speaker and accepted the call.

      “Hello, Ivan.”

      “Why the hell are you avoiding me?” a male voice snarled.

      “I’m busy. And I don’t have to answer your calls. We’re not married anymore. You can speak to my lawyer if you have something to say to me. You have her phone number.”

      Ivan swore viciously at that suggestion, and Liam’s eyebrows climbed. Temper much?

      Then Ivan spat out, “I’m not kidding, Sloane. I’ll expose what you did. I want Chloe back. I will take her from you.”

      “You don’t want Chloe. You just want to punish me.”

      More swearing.

      “Look, Ivan. Chloe’s sick. She’s in the hospital with a bad viral infection. If you want to come see her, I won’t stop you.”

      “I’m busy. And besides, I don’t want to catch some godawful disease.”

      “She’s your daughter.”

      “I said I’m busy.”

      “Then get to your point. Or were you just calling to threaten me?” Sloane asked coolly. Liam had to give her credit. She was an icicle under pressure.

      “My parents wanted me to remind you that they’ve got a scheduled visit with Chloe next week. You have to bring her to Denver.”

      “I haven’t forgotten. But you did just hear me say she’s in the hospital, right? I don’t know if she’ll be well enough to go—”

      Ivan cut her off. “I don’t care if you have to scrape her out of her sickbed and pour her into an ambulance to get her here. I’ll sue for breach of contract and overturn the custody agreement if you don’t comply with the court order down to the last letter.”

      “She’s a baby. She’s very sick.”

      “Tough shit.”

      “Ivan. She’s your flesh and blood. Show a little compassion—”

      Ivan cut her off with another blistering round of swearing that made a muscle tick in Liam’s jaw.

      Then Durant snarled, “I’ll drag you back into court so fast it’ll make your head spin. And I’ll get that eff-ing custody order amended. I’m going to end up with Chloe if it’s the last thing I do—”

      Sloane cut him off, her voice hard enough to cut through glass. “I’ve got a police officer listening to this phone call, Ivan, so before you devolve into more threats against me, consider yourself notified that you are being monitored.”

      “That’s a load of crap. You had no idea I was going to call you. No way did you have time to arrange for a cop to listen in. You can take your high-and-mighty attitude and choke on it, wifey dearest.” His tone turned even more menacing “You’re going to regret ever dragging our personal life into court. I’ll make you beg for mercy before I’m done with you. You’ll never see your daughter again. I ruin your life. I’ll ruin you—”

      Sloane had gone pale, and the hand holding her cell phone was trembling violently.

      Liam lifted the phone out of her hand and disconnected the call. He was sorely tempted to give Ivan Durant a piece of his mind, but pulling a stunt like that would force him off the investigation of what was going on with Sloane’s house.

      Besides, she was shaken enough without him heaping any more drama on top of what Ivan had just piled onto her.

      The phone rang again. Liam glanced at the caller ID and blocked the number.

      “You can’t block him!” Sloane exclaimed. “What if there’s an emergency and—”

      Liam cut her off with quietly intensity. “And what? You can always unblock him and call him, But are you really going to turn to that jerk for help with anything in your life? He didn’t show even a hint of concern when you told him his own child was in the hospital. Do you really want a man like that anywhere near your daughter?”

      “No. Of course not. But what if he actually does need to talk to me about something?”

      “You have a lawyer. He can call him or her.”

      Sloane looked up at him, lost. She appeared so young and vulnerable and scared out of her mind in that moment. Liam swore silently at himself. As attracted as he was to this woman, he had no business even considering a romantic entanglement with her. She was off balance, frightened and still trying to get on her feet after what had obviously been a hideous divorce. She was in no condition to get into a relationship with any man.

      God knew he didn’t want to be the rebound guy. It would only end up hurting them both in the end.

      “You should seriously consider installing an app on your phone that will record phone calls. If he threatens you again, it would help us to have a recording of it for evidence purposes.”

      “Good idea,” Sloane replied woodenly.

      He pressed her phone back into her hand. “You have tons of family. Friends all around you. Turn to us. You don’t need Ivan Durant for anything. We’ve all got your back.”

      Sloane drew one wobbly breath. Let it out slowly. Then her spine stiffened, her chin came up and she dashed at the tears glistening on her cheeks.

      Admiration unfurled in Liam’s gut. What kind of strength did it take for Sloane to gather her tattered courage around herself like that, to set aside the attack Ivan had just hurled at her, and to march back to her daughter’s sickbed with a brave smile on her lips? She was a hell of a woman. A warrior mom.

      And the last thing she needed in her life right now was a man like him to complicate matters.

       Chapter 4

      Liam got rid of her family in the nick of time because over the next hour, Chloe went from bad to worse. Coughs wracked her tiny body, and each wheezing breath the little girl drew terrified Sloane a little bit more.

      A new doctor came in at lunchtime and introduced herself as a pulmonologist, a lung and breathing specialist. The woman commenced listening to Chloe’s chest through a stethoscope. The doctor frowned and jerked her head toward the hallway door.

      Sloane’s brain froze. It was bad news. A little voice somewhere in the back of her skull screamed, nononono.

      “Ms. Colton, you daughter is very sick. We’re going to do everything we can for her. We’ll x-ray her chest periodically to check for fluid in her lungs, and I’m going to start support for her breathing. She’ll still be breathing on her own. I just want to get a little more oxygen into her.”

      Sloane managed to pull her wits together enough to ask, “How long will this phase of the virus last?”

      “The next twenty-four hours should tell the tale. If we can dodge pneumonia, we should be home free after that.”

      “What can I do for

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