LITMIR.BIZ

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safe,” Lucas finally said, but he spoke through clenched teeth. “Now, tell me why you need to make sure of that. Does it have something to do with the so-called killer?” He didn’t give her a chance to say a word, though. “Or are you trying to lie your way out of why you ran from me three months ago?”

      “It’s not a lie.” She wished it was. “But I didn’t tell the truth about some other things.”

      That tightened the muscles in his jaw even more. “Start from the beginning, and so help me, there’d better not be any lies this time.”

      Hailey nodded but glanced around them. Since it was Tuesday and a school night, Silver Creek wasn’t exactly teeming with activity, but she did spot someone jogging in the park. She kept her attention on him until he disappeared around the curve of the tree-lined trail. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe the guy was just that—a jogger—but he could have been someone after her.

      “We need to find a better place to talk,” Hailey told him.

      Lucas gave her a flat look. Cursed. “I’m not taking you to the Silver Creek Ranch.”

      That was no doubt where the baby was.

      Camden.

      Hailey mentally repeated that, something she’d been doing since Lucas had first mentioned her precious son’s name. Learning something—anything—about her baby caused her heart to ache. It felt as if someone was squeezing it hard.

      Mercy, she’d lost so much already. Three months. And there was a lot more she could lose. Thank God the baby was okay, but it was up to her to make sure he stayed that way.

      “I can’t see Camden,” Hailey answered. Saying it aloud added an even deeper pain. “Not until I’m sure it’s safe.”

      “You won’t see him at all,” Lucas snapped. He spewed out more of that profanity. “You don’t have a right to see him.”

      No, in his eyes, she didn’t. But if and when this was over, she would see her son. Even if she had to push her way through an army of Ryland lawmen. No one would keep him from her.

      Since it was obvious Lucas wasn’t going to budge, Hailey tried to figure out the fastest way to convince him that it wasn’t safe for her to be out in the open like this.

      That meant starting from the beginning.

      “I’m not who you think I am,” she said.

      A burst of air left his mouth, but it wasn’t a laugh. “Obviously. You slept with me and then sneaked out, leaving me a note saying you couldn’t see me again.”

      Hailey didn’t need a reminder of that. She could have recited the note word for word.

      Lucas, I’m sorry, but this was a mistake. I can’t get involved with you.

      “That was the truth,” she continued. “I shouldn’t have let things get so...intimate between us.”

      “But you did, and you got pregnant.”

      Yes, she had. Since they’d used a condom, the pregnancy definitely hadn’t been something Hailey had been expecting. But that hadn’t stopped her from wanting the child right from the start.

      “Mistakes aside,” Lucas continued, “you had no right to run away from me while you were carrying my baby.” He cursed again. “If you hadn’t had that car accident, I might have never found you. Of course, that was probably the plan, wasn’t it? To run away so that I’d never be able to see my child?”

      Hailey didn’t even have to think about that answer. “No. That wasn’t the plan.”

      He didn’t believe her, but it was the truth.

      “I was trying to stay alive, trying to keep the baby from being hurt,” Hailey explained.

      He tapped his badge. “I’m a Texas Ranger.” That was probably his way of saying that if something was wrong, she should have gone straight to him.

      But Lucas had been in danger, too.

      Something he didn’t know.

      Yet.

      Figuring she would need it, Hailey took another deep breath. “Two years ago, I was employed as a computer systems analyst in Phoenix for a man named Preston DeSalvo. I found out he was working with someone in the FBI. A dirty agent. And they were selling confiscated weapons. I went to the cops, DeSalvo was eventually arrested, and after I testified against him, I was placed in witness protection and given a new identity. The marshals relocated me here to Silver Creek.”

      She paused, giving him a few moments to let all of that sink in, but Lucas didn’t take the time. He whipped out his phone again, and before she could stop him, she saw him press the contact for one of his cousins.

      Sheriff Grayson Ryland.

      “Don’t tell him I’m with you,” Hailey insisted. “The sheriff’s office could be bugged.”

      She saw the debate Lucas was having with himself, but he didn’t stop the call. He did put it on speaker, though, and it didn’t take long before Grayson answered.

      “I heard about Hailey,” Grayson said right off the bat. “I’ve sent two of the deputies to the hospital to help look for her.”

      “Thanks,” Lucas said. And he paused. A long time. “Can you look up info on a guy named Preston DeSalvo?”

      Grayson paused, too. Hailey knew the sheriff well because she’d worked for him as an emergency dispatcher shortly after her arrival in Silver Creek. Grayson had a lot of experience as a lawman and was probably suspicious.

      “Is DeSalvo connected to Hailey?” Grayson asked, though she could hear the clicks of his computer keys.

      “Maybe.”

      More keyboard clicking sounds. “Well, Preston DeSalvo was sent to prison about eighteen months ago. He’s dead. Killed in a fight at a maximum security prison in Arizona a little over three months ago.”

      “Why was he in prison?” Lucas pressed.

      “A laundry list of charges, including murder, extortion and gun running. An employee, Laura Arnett, testified against him, and she’s in WITSEC.” He huffed. “Now, what does this have to do with Hailey?”

      “Maybe everything. I’ll call you back when I know more. In the meantime, can you make sure the ranch is on lockdown?”

      “Already have. Mason called and said you’d asked him to go to your house. You think Hailey could be headed there?”

      “I’ll call you back,” Lucas repeated, probably so that he wouldn’t have to lie to his cousin.

      But the stalling wouldn’t last long. Soon, very soon, his cousins would be demanding answers. Especially Grayson, since he wasn’t just the sheriff but also the head of the Ryland clan. However, Lucas would be demanding them first.

      “Laura Arnett?” Lucas repeated. “That’s your real name?”

      She nodded. “I haven’t thought of myself as that since all of this happened. I’m Hailey Darrow. For now, anyway. But I’ll have to come up with another identity. DeSalvo’s dead, but no one knows who his partner was,” she added.

      “The dirty FBI agent,” he spat out like the profanity he tacked onto that. “And you believe he’s after you?”

      “I know he is. Well, one of his henchmen, anyway.”

      She glanced around again, praying that one of those thugs wasn’t nearby, looking for her.

      “I don’t know how he found me,” Hailey continued. “Maybe he hacked into the WITSEC files, or he could have bribed someone to give him the info. But three months ago, I found an eavesdropping device in my house here in Silver Creek, and I knew my identity had been blown.”

      “You

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