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The kiss had done funny things to her body
Jessie tried to blame those funny things on the pregnancy, but she knew it wasn’t her condition causing it. This was some kind of spooky attraction to a man she knew she shouldn’t be attracted to. There was just one problem. She didn’t know how to make it stop.
“Are you all right?”
She didn’t realize she’d been staring at him. And there was certainly a lot of him to stare at. Jeans, worn white in places she wished weren’t so obvious. A blue cotton shirt that showed nearly every muscle the man had.
“Have you felt the baby move?” He reached out and placed his hand over her abdomen. It was probably a mistake, but she looked at him again. Their gazes met. Held. That unwavering, almost pleading look in his eyes caused her breath to stall in her throat.
It was his child….
Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,
Welcome to a brand-new year of exciting romance and edge-of-your-seat suspense. We at Harlequin Intrigue are thrilled to renew our commitment to you, our loyal readers, to provide variety and outstanding romantic suspense—each and every month.
To get things started right, veteran Harlequin Intrigue author Cassie Miles kicks off a two-book miniseries with State of Emergency. The COLORADO SEARCH AND RESCUE group features tough emergency personnel reared in the shadows of the rugged Rocky Mountains. Who wouldn’t want to be stranded with a western-born hunk trained to protect and serve?
Speaking of hunks, Debra Webb serves up a giant of a man in Solitary Soldier, the next installment in her COLBY AGENCY series. And you know what they say about the bigger they come the harder they fall…. Well, it goes double for this wounded hero.
Ann Voss Peterson takes us to the darkest part of a serial killer’s world in Accessory to Marriage. The second time around could prove to be the last—permanently—for both the hero and heroine in this gripping thriller.
Finally, please welcome Delores Fossen to the line. She joins us with a moving story of forced artificial insemination, which unites two strangers who unwittingly become parents…and eventually a family. Do not miss His Child for an emotional read.
Be sure to let us know how we’re doing; we love to hear from our readers! And Happy New Year from all of us at Harlequin Intrigue.
Sincerely,
Denise O’Sullivan
Associate Senior Editor
Harlequin Intrigue
His Child
Delores Fossen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why Texas author and former air force captain Delores Fossen feels as if she was genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force Top Gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Jessie Barrett—Someone wants her dead. Jessie’s only hope is Jake McClendon—the biological father of her unborn child. But will the prominent Texas rancher help a woman he’s never even met?
Jake McClendon—Texas rancher turned politician. Could he trust Jessie—the mother of a child he desperately wants, but thought he could never have?
Abel Markham—Jake’s political opponent. A man with more ambition than ethics.
Douglas Harland—Jake’s brother-in-law and campaign manager. He wants nothing—including Jessie—getting in the way of the campaign.
Willa Harland—Jake’s socialite sister. Is she overly protective of her brother—or does she have a different reason for wanting Jessie out of his life?
Detective Byron DuCiel—Jessie’s best friend. Does he have his own personal agenda, or is he truly trying to help Jessie?
To my husband, Colonel Thomas Fossen,
who encourages me, inspires me
and makes sure I keep my sense of wonder.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter One
Jessie hid in the shadows and waited for him. By now, Jake McClendon probably thought she was dead. He wouldn’t be expecting her or the Saturday Night Special she had gripped in her hands.
He was in for a real surprise.
Not only was she still alive, she was here, armed and in his hotel suite. No guards or restraints to stop her now. One way or another, she would get answers.
The doorknob rattled, and she heard voices in the hall. So he wasn’t alone. Sweet heaven, could nothing go right? Jessie softly groaned and ducked behind the thick brocade drapes. She’d still be able to see him by looking in the mirror over the fireplace, but she wouldn’t confront him until the other person left. Best not to draw anyone else into this.
Pulling in a hard breath, she leaned back against the cool glass of the balcony door. It didn’t ease the throbbing in her head, nor did it loosen the muscles that burned in her shoulders and back. Her body was a tangle of nerves and spent adrenaline. The bone-weary fatigue didn’t help, either. She’d been fighting off the effects of exhaustion for hours now.
Or had it been days?
God, she didn’t even know how long it had been since she managed to escape from that warehouse. For that matter, she had no idea how long they had held her captive. All she knew was that the person responsible was about to come through that door. He would answer for what he’d done to her.
“It wasn’t smart to insult him.” The man pushed open the door and issued that crisp remark over his shoulder. “You need him and his clout.”
Glancing at his reflection in the mirror, she saw his blond hair. Definitely not Jake McClendon. McClendon’s photographs were standard fare in the local newspapers. There was no shortage of publicity shots for the Lone Star State’s golden boy and congressional candidate.
McClendon walked in behind the other man. “I can do without that kind of clout.” He had already removed the tux jacket and was working on the tie. He tugged at it as if it were fighting back.
Jessie’s eyes narrowed. Finally. She was in the same room with the man who wanted her dead.
“You’re wrong.” The blond man again. His name was Douglas Harland, Jessie remembered, and he was married to McClendon’s sister. “You need Emmett.”
“And how about his wife?” McClendon tossed the jacket onto the sofa and shoved a hand through his short coffee-colored hair. “Do I need her, too? She thinks a campaign contribution obligates me to sleep with her.”
“So? Consider it stud service.” The corner of Douglas’s mouth hitched. “You knew there’d be things about this campaign you wouldn’t like.”
“I don’t like any part of it.” McClendon shrugged and undid the top buttons of his shirt. “I want to be in the Texas Legislature. That doesn’t mean I want to sleep my way there.”
McClendon moved to the fireplace, just beneath the mirror, where Jessie could easily see his face. A face that reflected none of the evil inside him. Deeply tanned skin. Sharp angled cheekbones, a legacy from his Comanche grandmother—something the press often mentioned. His brows slanted downward, making his expression a natural frown. His mouth was rigid. But not stern. Under different circumstances she might have considered him good-looking. Even handsome.
But it wasn’t different circumstances.
McClendon was the enemy, in every sense of the word.
He was taller than she’d expected. Over six feet. Lean. Built like the cowboy he was underneath the polished elegance of the tux. A real wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“You’ll just have to accept this stud status of yours,” Douglas continued, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Women want to heal your wounds because you’re a widower. It’s a chick thing.” He glanced down at his watch. “We need to get back before we’re missed.”
It seemed as if he was about to answer, but then McClendon went still. Perfectly still. And much to Jessie’s horror, he looked straight in the mirror. She tried not to move a muscle, even though he would probably see her reflection if he glanced at the curtains.
“Go ahead back to the party,” he finally said. “I’ll be down soon. I just need to make a few calls.”
Jessie allowed herself a quiet breath of relief. So, he hadn’t seen her. She wouldn’t have to reveal her hand while the other man was still in the room.
Before Douglas Harland even issued a “don’t be long” and closed the door behind him, McClendon went to the bar and poured himself a drink. He took the shot in one gulp, then slapped down the glass. In the same motion, he tipped his head toward the curtain. “Mind telling me what you’re doing behind there?”
Jessie went board stiff. There had been nothing in his body language to indicate he’d noticed her.
“Well?” he snarled. “I’m waiting.”
She stepped out, using her forearm to push the curtain aside so she wouldn’t have to lower the gun. For a moment she just stood there and sized him up. Jessie swallowed hard. In a hand-to-hand battle, she would lose. Big time. It wasn’t just his size; it was his street-wise expression. He’d won his share of fights. More, no doubt, than she had.
“How did you know I was here?” Jessie asked.
“Lucky guess,” he said, sardonically enough for her to understand that he had indeed seen her in the mirror. “What do you plan to do with that gun?”
Jessie glanced at it and then him. “It’s my insurance. To make sure you listen to what I have to say.”
“Then, by all means go on—say it. Then get the hell out of here before my brother-in-law comes back to check on me.”
Yes, him. Jessie hadn’t considered that he might come back anytime soon. But she should have. She should have anticipated all the contingencies. She cursed the fog in her head. Because of it, she was already a step behind him.
There seemed to be nothing wrong with McClendon’s thought processes, however. His laser-blue eyes were clear and trained right on her. He seemed ready to strike.
“I want some answers.” She fought back a sudden wave of dizziness. Effects of the fatigue, maybe. And maybe something else. Jessie prayed she could stay strong long enough to finish this.
“So do I. I’d say I’m entitled to some, since you’re holding a gun on me. For starters, do I even know you?”
“I have reason to believe you do.”
“You want money, is that it?” he asked.
A soft burst of air left her mouth. Almost a laugh, but it was lathered with sarcasm. “Money doesn’t solve everything. Why did you have them come after me like that? Why me?”
“Why did I have them come after you? I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady. I’ve never seen you before.”
“You didn’t have to see me to give the order for them to pick me up and take me to that warehouse.”
“Them?” He leaned against the bar and folded his arms over his chest. “Exactly who are you talking about?”
How dare he pull this act with her. “You know. You darn well know!”
“I don’t know, and you’ve got about five seconds to start explaining, before I call the cops.”
She waved the pistol, in case he’d forgotten that she was in charge here. For a man being held at gunpoint, he didn’t seem threatened or even nervous. She, on the other hand, was shaking, and her stomach was clenched tight. “There will be some explanations, and they’ll come from you. Why?”
“Why what?”
Jessie gave a frustrated groan. “Why me? Why did you have them do this to me? Why did you tell them to use me like that?”
“If you’ll tell me what you think I had them do to you, then maybe I can help you clear this up.”
“Why did you give the order for them to kill me and do those other things? Why would you want this to happen?” She shook her head in disgust. “What you had them do was sick.”
“Back up some. Who wants to kill you?”
Jessie frowned. “You!”
“Not me. Who?”
“Your hired help, then. Three men and a woman. I never saw their faces, but they chloroformed me and took me to that warehouse. They held me for, uh—what’s the date?”
He didn’t look as if he intended to answer her. He just stood there, the picture of intimidation. “It’s July sixteenth,” he finally said.
“July?” How could that be? Jessie pressed her fingertips against her temple, and her bottom lip started to tremble. She’d seen the date on the newspaper, of course, but it hadn’t registered until now. Suddenly, it all became much clearer. “Three months. They took me back in April.”
He shrugged. “And what exactly do you think these people did to you during these three months?”
“Things. And now I think I might be…” But the word stuck like wet clay in her throat.
“What? Lady, will you just spit this out so I can get you out of here?” he demanded. “What might you be?”
“Pregnant.” It left her mouth on a gasp. The room started to whirl in a black circle. Jessie leaned against the balcony door and let it support her.
“Pregnant,” he spat out, in the same way he did the profanity he uttered next. “This sounds like a personal problem to me. Why would you hold me at gunpoint just to tell me you’re pregnant?”
“Because—” She grabbed the drapes, but it didn’t stop her from sinking to her knees. The plush carpet broke her fall, some. “It’s your baby.”
LIKE HELL IT WAS.
Jake was one-hundred percent sure of that. He hadn’t been with a woman, any woman, in nearly a year. She was obviously some kind of strung-out nut. A stalker maybe. And definitely mentally unstable. There was no way he could be the father of her child, assuming she was even pregnant. That, too, could be the product of her drug-induced imagination.
Now he just had to figure out what to do with her.
Jake reached for the phone to call the police. Then stopped. He looked at her. Really looked at her. It was easier to do now, since she no longer had the gun pointed at him. He’d taken that from her as soon as she fainted. He had also moved her to the sofa. Why, he didn’t know. He should have gotten her out of there as quickly as possible. He should have turned this over already to the police.
He should have.
But for some reason, he hadn’t.
She wore an ill-fitting maid’s uniform that was several sizes too big for her rail-thin body. Obviously, the garment was something she’d stolen. Jake pushed her badly cut, midnight-colored hair away from her face and tried to remember if he’d seen her before.
Nothing about her seemed familiar. Absolutely nothing.
He’d never had sex with her—that was for sure. Since his wife’s death, there had been only a few women. Rare encounters that he could definitely count on one hand. She wasn’t one of those encounters.
Despite the clothes and the bad haircut, she was pretty. Well, she would have been if she hadn’t looked so ill. Her skin was pale, like skim milk. It emphasized the sprinkling of freckles on her slim nose. Maybe she wasn’t just strung-out, but sick. The bruise-colored smudges under her eyes and her parched lips said loads about her health. Or, if she hadn’t lied about her condition, then maybe the pregnancy had taken its toll.
Still, it was no skin off his hide. So what if the woman was pregnant?
It’s your baby.
No way was that humanly possible. Boy, had she picked the wrong guy to try to pin this on.
She stirred, moaning softly, and touched her fingertips to her forehead. Slowly, her eyelids fluttered open. She squinted. Then, groaned. “No. Please not this. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
Jake frowned. She had to be talking about herself. Not him. He hadn’t decided if she was actually stupid. Or maybe she was just crazy. He intended to find out soon enough.
“How long before the cops get here?” she asked.
“I haven’t called them yet.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down at her. “Let me tell you how this is going to work. I’ll ask the questions, and you’ll answer them. If the answers please me, I won’t call the cops at all.”
Wincing and mumbling, she sat up and scrubbed her hands over her face. “You’ll just kill me, then.”
Well, she was definitely crazy. “Right. Lady, I’m a congressional candidate, not a hired gun. No, I won’t kill you.”
“Then, what else could you possibly do to me that you haven’t done already?”
There was some fight left in her last question, making Jake rethink the sick theory. She was down but not out. Somehow, it made it easier for him to confront her. He hated to kick someone when they were down.
“I can have you arrested—that’s what I can do,” he informed her. “I think a breaking and entering charge and possession of a firearm will put you away for a while, don’t you?”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “Like I care about those piddly charges, when you want me dead. Why? Why did you have them do this and then order a hit on me?”
“Oh, no. We’re not going down that road again. I haven’t done anything to you—especially get you pregnant and order a hit on you. Now let’s go back to the part about me asking the questions and you answering them. For starters, exactly who the heck are you?”
“Jessie—”
She boldly met his gaze. Her eyes were the color of a gun barrel. Steely gray and just as hard.
“But you already know that.”
“Uh-uh. Don’t start that again. If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked. What’s your full name?”
“Jessie…Smith.”
He made an annoying sound like the buzzer on a game show. “Wrong answer. Try again.”
A muscle flickered in her sleek jaw. “Briggs.”
He didn’t believe her, but at least he had something to work with. It was certainly better than calling her lady. She was anything but a lady. “All right, Jessie Briggs, tell me why you think I’m trying to kill you.”
“I don’t know why, but you ordered those people to kidnap me.”
“People,” Jake flatly repeated. “The three men and the woman you mentioned? The ones who held you for three months?”
She nodded. “But you’re the one who hired them to take me to that warehouse. You had them use me, and—”
“Hold it right there. That’s the part I want to talk about now. Exactly how did they use you?”
She made a sound of outrage and bolted to her feet as if ready to tear out of the room. But she didn’t go anywhere. She pressed both hands to the sides of her head and sagged back down to the sofa.
“Dizzy?” he asked.
She tossed him a you think? look. “I guess it’s just one of the little joys of my condition.”
“Well, I suppose it’s time we broached that subject. Would you like to explain exactly how you think I got you pregnant? Afterward, I can blow anything you say right out of the water.”
“They inseminated me.” She didn’t even hesitate. “On your orders, I’m sure.”
Jake froze. That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. All right, so he couldn’t blow anything out of the water just yet. He had to think about that for a moment. Then he discounted it. “That’s impossible.”
“No, it’s not. I’ll spare you the exact details of how they did it, but I know what happened to me. And so do you.”
He paused, reconsidered it. But discounted it again just as fast. There were holes a mile wide in her story. “Let’s suppose for a minute that someone did inseminate you. What makes you think I was involved in any way?”
Again, she didn’t hesitate. “Your name was on the vial they took out of that weird bucket. I saw it. I don’t think they meant for me to, but I did. They’d given me a drug, and I guess they thought I was unconscious. I wasn’t. Plus, I heard them mention your name.”
Yes, in her dreams she’d probably heard someone mention his name. “This is a real cartload of bull you’re telling me, Miss Briggs. What I can’t believe is that you had the nerve to come here with it.”
“Are you saying you don’t have semen stored somewhere?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“At Cryogen Labs right here in San Antonio,” she clarified. “That’s what it said on the vial, along with your name and the numbers 6837. I’m not an idiot, Mr. McClendon. I’ve read about your Hodgkin’s disease. I know you stored semen before you went into therapy. Do you deny that?”
So, she did know about his illness six years ago. It didn’t make him believe her story. It just meant she’d done her homework. “I don’t deny it, but what you couldn’t have read in the newspaper was that my vials were accidentally destroyed nearly four months ago. Only a handful of people know that.” He paused so she could grasp that. “Would you like to leave on your own, or do I need to toss you out of here myself?”
Her eyes widened for a second, and then narrowed just as quickly. “The number on the vial was 6837. Call Cryogen Labs and see if that matches what they say was destroyed.”
Oh, she was good. Really good. Coming up with the number of the vial was a nice touch, but it wouldn’t make him believe her. “I’ll call them in a minute—but first I have another question. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say someone did inseminate you. You’re sure you became pregnant?”
“I heard them say so, yes. I didn’t see the test results, but I’m having some symptoms that make me think they succeeded in what you wanted them to do.”
“You said they drugged you. Your symptoms could be from that.”
Her eyebrow rose sharply. “Not these symptoms. And they didn’t keep me drugged all the time, just locked up. They only drugged me when they did those, uh, procedures on me.”
He didn’t want to delve into that any further, not when he had so many other things to discuss. “Another hypothetical question, then. Why would anyone want to do this?”
“That’s what I want you to answer. Trust me, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. Maybe you wanted some surrogate mother and you didn’t want to go through the hassle of doing it the legal way.”
He shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if you didn’t want the publicity because of your campaign. Some people are opposed to surrogate pregnancies. You probably didn’t want to risk offending any ultra-conservative voters. This way, you could adopt the child and pretend you’re still a good guy who’s giving some orphan a chance to be raised by a millionaire rancher-turned-congressman. You’re the winner all the way around.”
Jake still didn’t believe her story, and that theory was just plain asinine, but he could definitely see this from a different angle. A much different angle. If, and that was a Texas-sized if, there was any truth to what this woman said, it could be a plot by someone out to get him. Suppose someone wanted to use the child to embarrass him or to hurt his campaign? Even in this day and age, conservative voters wouldn’t care much for a future congressman having an illegitimate child.
She raked her tongue over her bottom lip. “But something must have gone wrong, because I heard them say they were going to kill me. Thank God I was able to escape before they could get around to doing that.”
“They said they were going to kill you?” Jake repeated. “Well, that shoots holes in your surrogate mom theory, huh? Why would I go through all that trouble to inseminate you, and then kill you before I even knew for sure if you’re pregnant?”
“I don’t know. I told you, that’s why I’m here. I need answers.”
“Well, you came to the wrong place, lady. Let me correct that, you came to the wrong man. I’m not buying any of this, so why don’t we just cut to the chase and you spit out exactly what you want. Money up front? Or are you doing this for blackmail so you can drag out the payments for years? Because either way I don’t intend to give you a dime.”
She tipped her head to the phone. “Make the call to Cryogen Labs. Vial number 6837.”
Jake looked at the phone, and then her. “All right, I will.” It was about time he called her bluff. He walked across the room, using the mirror to keep an eye on her. “I don’t suppose you know their phone number?”
“No.”
“No,” he mimicked sarcastically under his breath.
Jake didn’t know what to make of that. A con artist would have known the number. A victim of the crime she’d just described wouldn’t. Of course, she could be a very good con artist who was pretending she didn’t know. There was only one way to find out.
He got the number from directory assistance and called the lab. Jake wasn’t even sure the place would be open, but someone picked up on the third ring.
“This is Jake McClendon. I wanted to verify some information about specimens I had stored there.” The woman who answered the call asked him to provide some identifying data. Once that was out of the way, he got down to business. “I need to know about the six vials I had in Cryogen Labs. I want to make sure they were indeed destroyed.”
“Oh, yes, they were, Mr. McClendon. Didn’t someone contact you about it?”
“They did.” He glanced at Jessie. She stepped closer and stared at him. Her eyes darkened like storm clouds. “Equipment failure, the person said.”
“I’m afraid all the samples in that particular tank were destroyed. You are eligible for compensation from our insurance carrier.”
He wasn’t interested in insurance. In fact, before today Jake hadn’t been interested in the vials at all. He’d stored them at Cryogen in case the treatment for his Hodgkin’s Disease left him sterile. Since it hadn’t, he had forgotten they even existed. Until he got that call four months ago.
“I need the vial numbers,” he explained to the woman.
“Certainly. I have that right here in the computer.”
He heard the clicking of her fingers on the keys, and made another spot-check on Jessie. Now she was looking around the room. For her gun, no doubt. She wouldn’t find it. Jake had wrapped it in a plastic dry cleaner’s bag and put it in the closet in the bedroom. Later, he wanted someone to check the weapon for fingerprints. That was probably the only way he would find out who she really was.
“Okay, here we are,” the woman finally said. “The vials were numbered consecutively from 6851 through 6855. As I said, they were all destroyed.”
So, there was no 6837. But Jessie Briggs had been damn close. Jake was about to end the call and confront his visitor, when he realized the numbers that the woman gave him only accounted for five vials.
“There were six specimens,” he pointed out.
“Oh, yes. I see what happened. The first vial was the one you originally gave us. The other five were collected later at your physician’s office and then transferred here.”
“And the number on that first vial?”
“Let’s see. That would have been 6837.”
The muscles tightened in his chest. Jake refused to allow himself to react beyond that. This meant nothing. There was a reasonable explanation. All he had to do was find it. “And where is that vial?” he asked.
“I’m afraid it was destroyed also.”
Not according to the woman in his hotel suite. But then, she was obviously a liar. Her story didn’t make a lick of sense. Nobody in his or her right mind would kidnap a woman, inseminate her and then try to kill her. Would they?
No. They wouldn’t.
He hung up the phone to confront his lying visitor. There was just one problem.
She wasn’t there.
And the door to his suite was wide open.
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