Buch lesen: «Just Eight Months Old...»

Chapter One

The dog days of summer in New York City held little appeal for Hannah McGee. Never mind the bittersweet memories they brought drifting back. The heat and humidity wreaked havoc on her pale, lightly freckled skin and turned her brick-red corkscrew curls into a Panama hat of frizz.

Standing on the sweltering asphalt, she closed the car door then wiped at a one-inch spot on her vest, a little memento her eight-month-old daughter, Bonny, had bestowed upon her that morning. Giving up, she pulled the vest closer to her torso, the weight of the stun gun she called The Equalizer and a small canister of pepper spray she had tucked into a belt just inside the waist of her gauze skirt reassuringly familiar. For the past few years she’d never needed anything more to protect herself. Which was good, because even when she was a NYC police officer, she’d never much liked carrying a revolver.

After today she wouldn’t need any of this paraphernalia at all.

Still, goodbyes were something she’d never much liked. Saying adios to rusty rental cars, meals caught on the run and chasing bail-jumpers wasn’t that big a deal. But bidding adieu to her boss, Elliott Blackstone, was going to be a little bigger. She’d worked with him for the past three years. In an indirect way, he’d made it possible for her to switch career paths to trade in her bounty hunter title for that of private investigator. After today, that’d be official. She eagerly looked forward to planting her feet firmly on that new path just as soon as she closed the gate to this one.

She pulled open the glass door to Blackstone Bail and Bonds and welcomed the swell of cold, air-conditioned air that swept over her.

Five minutes later, she wondered if the obstacle that had just plopped down in the middle of her path came any larger—and that by no means referred to Elliott’s considerable size.

“I can’t pay you, Hannah.” Elliott Blackstone hovered somewhere in his mid- to late-forties, his passionate dislike of parting with anything green that had a picture of a president on it one of his defining traits. She understood this about him. In fact, after the first few occasions, she’d come to look forward to their little tugs-of-war. But this wasn’t the usual Elliott pleading poverty even though his posh office could easily match that of a banker. No, Hannah had the piercing sensation he was serious.

“El, I’m already late picking up Bonny because you sent Jack Stokes out on the same run. Can’t we just finish up here and call it a day?”

Blackstone cleared his throat. “Where is Stokes, anyway?”

Hannah remembered the dim interior of The Bar in South Jamaica, Queens, where she had picked up bail-jumper Eddie Fowler an hour before. “Probably still handcuffed to a bar rail. Unless someone took pity on him.” She smiled. “Though that’s highly unlikely.”

Elliott tugged a handkerchief from the front pocket of his silk-blend suit and mopped his forehead.

Hannah glanced at her watch, then sat in the visitor’s chair opposite him. “Okay, why don’t you start from the beginning.”

He fell silent for a good thirty ticks of the antique grandfather clock in the corner. “You know I wouldn’t mess you around on something like this, Hannah. I always pay you on time.” He sighed.

But this time was different. She’d just completed her last run and her new business waited. She needed the money now.

“El—”

He shifted his bulk in the leather chair. “You been watching the news lately?”

“I haven’t turned on the TV or picked up a newspaper since last week.” She wanted to add it was because she was setting up her new business in a rented office downtown, but didn’t. “Are you telling me you did something newsworthy and I missed it?”

Elliott laughed without humor. “No, not me. Two of my clients.” He regarded her as if gauging her disposition then pursed his fleshy lips. “Would you mind if I introduce someone else into our discussion? There’s someone else waiting in the connecting office. Someone I need on this case as much as I need you.”

Case? Before she could ask him what he meant, he got up then crossed to open a door. “I think it’s safe.”

The moment the visitor strode into the room, Elliott’s warning made sense.

Oh, yes, the obstacle in her path could get bigger. And had. By two times.

Hannah looked at the man who had walked out of her life fifteen months ago without a second glance. The man she had loved and wanted to marry. Only it wasn’t Chad Hogan who had needed Blackstone’s warning. Chad had nothing to fear from her.

She, on the other hand, had everything to fear from him.

Chad’s gaze slid over her body, making her skin grow markedly warmer. Her vest and skirt more than adequately covered her, but the open way Chad looked at her made her feel as if she wore very little.

Elliott stepped between her and her ex-partner. “I know this must come as a shock, Hannah. But I think once I explain, you’ll understand why I flew Chad in from Florida.”

She barely heard Elliott’s words. She swallowed back a year’s worth of memories, hardly aware of the interrogation-like silence that had settled over the room.

“I can’t believe you did this, Elliott.” Hannah’s voice sounded like it had spiraled from the bottom of a barrel.

“Listen to me for a minute,” he pleaded. “I need you both—”

“I think you need your head examined,” she snapped. Reluctantly she looked at Chad, as if silently asking him to confirm her assessment of the situation. When he spoke, the deep timbre of his voice was as powerful as his presence. “You look great, Hannah.”

That was the last thing she’d expected him to say.

Through the door to the reception area, Hannah overheard someone arguing with the receptionist. In a corner of her mind that still worked, she distantly realized it was Stokes.

Elliott sighed. “Why don’t I leave you two alone to iron out your differences, huh? I’ve got to go straighten out…whatever is going on outside.”

The door closed behind Elliott. Like a spinning carnival ride, the room seemed to grow distinctly smaller. The distance Hannah stood away from Chad seemed to lessen by inches, though neither of them had moved. Chad was gazing at her with that…look. That half-lidded look that said so much, yet promised so little.

“How are you doing, Hannah?”

She absently rubbed the goose bumps spreading over her skin. “Doing? I’m fine, I guess. You?”

Often, she’d wondered what she would do on the off chance she ever saw Chad again. She’d rehearsed what she might say. Or rather, what she wouldn’t say. But now…now she realized all her preparations were for naught. Nothing could have prepared her for facing a man who commanded a room merely by standing in it. And time certainly hadn’t changed that trait, even if he displayed some other more noticeable changes.

“We never were very good at small talk, were we?” She thought she detected a measure of uneasiness in his question. Chad, uneasy? She walked to the wet bar in the corner of the office, needing to put distance between not only her and Chad, but between the present and the past. She picked up a delicate porcelain cup and poured herself some coffee, the shaking of her hands preventing her from pouring more than an ounce.

“I think any kind of verbal communication was a problem with us.” She took a deep sip of the hot liquid, barely recognizing it was bitter.

Fight or flight. Hannah’s heart beat double-time. She recalled the term she learned at the academy. Fight or flight was the immediate reaction you experienced when faced with a difficult and/or dangerous situation. And despite the time that had passed, the emotions that had dimmed, the obvious and inconspicuous changes in each of them, Hannah wished for the world that she could take flight.

“So…” She clutched her purse closer to her side. Where was Elliott? Her gaze flicked to the desk, the bookcase, anywhere but Chad’s face. Still, time and again it wandered to forbidden territory.

The filing cabinet…Chad. Had the slight crinkles around his eyes deepened, intensifying the mercurial gray of his eyes? The picture on the wall…Chad. Was that a little gray in his sandy brown hair, adding a hint of the distinguished to his rugged appearance? The closed window…Chad. Oh, God, why did he have to look at her that way?

Flight.

“Look, Chad, I don’t know what Elliott had in mind, but…” But what? Did she tell him she was hanging up the “out of business” shingle as far as skip-tracing went? Did she share that tomorrow she was going to open the doors to Seekers, a business they had once planned to run together? Or did she tell him she couldn’t possibly work with him because at a baby-sitter’s house in Brooklyn Heights waited her eight-month-old daughter. A child he didn’t know existed.

His daughter.

She chewed on the soft flesh of her bottom lip. “Why don’t you go ahead and hear Elliott out? I’m overdue for a vacation anyway.” Liar, she called herself. She moved to leave.

Chad stepped forward and grasped her wrist. She faced him, her heart surging up into her throat. “Hannah, I…”

She swallowed with difficulty, her gaze fastened on his mouth, waiting for the rest of his sentence to emerge, sure she wouldn’t hear it over the rush of blood past her ears.

He suddenly dropped his hand, then straightened. “You don’t have to leave. I’m the one real good at walking out, remember?”

She did remember. All too well. But why did she get the impression that wasn’t what he’d wanted to say? “Walking really isn’t the word for it,” she found herself whispering. “You ran. So fast you would have thought I was threatening a death sentence instead of proposing marriage.”

Chad stuffed his hands into the pockets of his well-worn jeans. “I see you haven’t thought about this as much as I have. Not that I blame you. If our positions were reversed, I’d probably have forgotten me the instant the door catch slipped home.”

Inexplicable tears burned the back of her eyes. She would never have expected this from him. She didn’t quite know what to do with this kinder, gentler Chad Hogan.

“Maybe you’re right, Chad. Maybe I haven’t thought about it much.” She slowly drew her shaking fingers through her hair, then dropped her hand to her side. “Anyway, none of that makes any difference anymore, does it? Things have changed, Chad. Everything has changed.”

She grasped the door handle.

“Has it, Hannah? Because from where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like much has changed at all.”

If you only knew.

“Hannah…I made a commitment to you. We lived together for over a year. Certainly I get points for that.”

“Yes, Chad, you do. And when combined with your other scores, you’re way in the hole.” She cleared her throat. “You know, once I believed we had a future together. I even believed you loved me. But it was nothing more than wishful thinking, wasn’t it?”

His gaze was intense. “Wishful thinking? Is that how you see our time together? Wishful thinking?”

Hannah tried to deny the ribbons of memories that unfurled in her mind. Images of him training her up close and personal in the finer points of skip-tracing after she’d quit the force and Elliott had matched them up. The long, intense way he used to watch her before they got involved. Their first, hungry kiss and the countless stolen moments thereafter while they chased bail-jumpers across the country. Their uncomplicated lifestyle, until—

Hannah shivered. Until she got pregnant.

“Look, just because my idea of commitment wasn’t the same as yours doesn’t mean that we can’t work on this case together,” he said.

A spark of disappointment mixed in with the pain already pressing against her chest from the inside. “Don’t try to fit what happened into one little sentence, Chad. Things between us were more complicated than that.”

He took a step toward her, bringing him altogether too close. He gently curled his strong fingers around her arm. She swallowed hard, the clean, warm smell of his flesh filling her senses, her pulse drumming loudly in her ears. His attention lingered on her mouth and she caught herself running her tongue over her lips.

Oh, it had been so very long since she’d kissed him. Felt the dark intensity of his touch. For one long, desperate moment, she wanted to feel it again. To turn the hands of time back to when his mouth was hers to claim. When she’d have willingly given everything that was hers over to this man whom she had loved as deeply as she’d known how.

But she’d learned how fleeting that type of passion was. And realized it wasn’t what she wanted anymore. Wasn’t what she needed. If, indeed, she had ever truly wanted it for herself. She’d always longed for more. And it was for that reason their relationship failed.

Curiosity lay in the depths of Chad’s eyes as he moved closer still. A tiny cry erupted from Hannah’s throat, her traitorous body responding to the physical need vibrating through her at the feel of his body against hers, chest to chest, hips to hips.

She tugged herself free from his grasp. “No,” she whispered.

She quickly turned away, seeking to put not only physical distance between them, but emotional. And the only way to do that was to leave.

She opened the door to find Elliott standing there waiting for her.

Hannah tried to navigate her way around him. “Sorry, El, but I can’t do this.”

“Wait a minute.” Elliott’s thick hands grasped her shoulders, holding her in place. “I didn’t call you two here because I had some illusions about you reconciling. I did it because I need you. It’s your business if you don’t want to tell him—”

Fear eclipsed Hannah’s confusion. In a moment’s span Elliott could upset fifteen months’ worth of rebuilding. She shook her head as inconspicuously as possible.

Elliott sighed. “Anyway, that’s your business.” He dropped his arms but refused to let Hannah pass through the doorway. “If you walk out of here, McGee, Blackstone Bail and Bonds will cease to exist.”

Elliott glanced over his shoulder at the receptionist in the outer office, then stepped inside, closing the door after himself. “Look, just listen to me. There could be a great deal of money in it for you. Enough for you to…see through your plans more solidly.”

She remained silent. He stared down at something he held in his hand. “Here, my secretary took this call for you.” He handed her a small slip of paper. She read it, then slid it into her skirt pocket. Elliott glanced at Chad. “Hogan, why don’t you and I go outside and give Hannah a few minutes to think?”

Chad brushed her as he passed. Heat rippled over her skin. It wasn’t fair that after so much time, after all that had happened between them, she should still be so powerfully attracted to him. Or maybe it was because so much had happened between them that her body took on all the characteristics of a blanket longing to cover him.

The door closed after Blackstone, and Hannah found herself alone. She tugged the message from her pocket and crossed to the phone. The door opened again. Her stomach tightened, but when she turned, it wasn’t Chad staring at her from the doorway, it was Jack Stokes. Her anxiety melted into exasperation.

The bounty hunter was attractive what with his craggy, blond good looks. But at the moment, men in general didn’t appeal to Hannah.

She replaced the telephone receiver.

Stokes quickly closed the door. “Hey there, Hannah, luv, remember me?” The Australian held up his right wrist where her handcuffs were still solidly attached to his wrist.

Hannah closed her eyes. This wasn’t happening….

“I owe you big-time for this one, McGee,” Stokes said in his heavy accent.

“Yes, well, if you had been a little nicer to me, you wouldn’t be sporting that particular bit of jewelry, would you, Jack?”

“You always were a piece of work, Hannah.”

“I’m really not up for this.” She dug in her skirt pocket, then gave him the key to the handcuffs.

He made a show out of unlocking himself. “Tell me, Hannah, what’s our old pal Hogan doing back in town?”

Ah, now she knew the real reason he’d sneaked into the room. And sneak was exactly what he’d done because Hannah doubted time would have dulled Chad’s dislike for the wily, easygoing Aussie.

“That’s something you’ll have to ask him,” she said, pretending a nonchalance she didn’t feel.

Jack stepped a little closer, turning on what Hannah knew was his best charm. Only it had never really worked on her. “Come on, luv, you can be straight with me. What’s Blackstone up to? Tell me and I’ll call it even.”

“Even?”

He tossed her the cuffs.

Hannah tucked them into the holder on the back of her concealed belt. “I really wish I could tell you, but I don’t know what Elliott’s up to.”

“Come on, McGee. Admit it, you wouldn’t tell me if you did know. Which leaves us off at the same place we started, doesn’t it?”

“Which is?”

“I owe you one.”

Finally, the door closed behind him and Hannah leaned against the desk and rubbed her forehead. What, exactly, did she do to deserve today?

It seemed that no sooner had the door closed, it opened again.

She glanced at the message in her hand, then at Elliott Blackstone. While she didn’t think she’d ever completely recover from the shock of seeing Chad again, now that she’d had a little time to collect her thoughts, she couldn’t help wondering how much money was involved. Start-up costs for Seekers had drained more of her savings account than she’d expected. Then there was the plumbing that needed to be replaced; wiring that needed to be brought up to code. If this trace was as important as she was coming to suspect, then it could mean some much-needed earnings.

“Give me five minutes, Hannah. That’s all I ask.” A breath expanded Elliott’s cheeks.

She caught herself absently running her fingertip along the name listed on the phone message then nodded.

Elliott immediately seemed to relax as he said, “Okay. Two weeks ago I extended bail to two people. Normally that wouldn’t be important, but one thing makes these two different from the rest. Enough that they made the news.” He paused for a moment. “Money.”

Hannah tried to concentrate. To forget Stokes had thrown down a professional gauntlet she had no intention of picking up. To wipe from her mind that Chad waited on the other side of the door. “You deal in five-and-dime cases, Elliott. Small time.”

“Normally, yes, but no one else would take these two, so I made an exception.”

She latched on to the critical tone in his voice. “Who are they?”

“Two employees of PlayCo arrested for grand larceny.”

“Grand larceny?” She pushed her hand through her hair. “PlayCo’s a toy company. What did they take? Mickey Mouse’s pants?”

Shaking his head, Elliott tried for a smile, and failed miserably. “I wish it were that simple. My brother-in-law is the attorney for these two. I made bail as a favor to him. They were due for a preliminary hearing this morning and…well, you know the rest.”

“How much do you stand to lose?”

Elliott swallowed visibly and named an amount.

Hannah dropped her arms from where they were crossed over her chest. She didn’t know what shocked her more: the reappearance of Chad in her life or Elliott’s atypical behavior. She decided Chad definitely came out a painful first.

“Like I said, it was a favor.” Elliott glanced at his recently chewed fingernails. “Look, I could go on all day about how this was a first offense. About how they had worked for the company for ten years and all that, but I won’t.” He paused. “The fact is I put up the bond and they skipped.”

Hannah drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened in the past ten minutes. Ten minutes. Six hundred seconds. Such a short time, really. A short time she was afraid would affect every minute of her life thereafter.

Elliott wasn’t joking when he said he was in danger of closing down. If made to pay the amount of the bond, not only would his office be history, but Elliott himself would probably be paying off the debt for his next two incarnations.

“Why call Chad in?” She recrossed her arms over her chest.

“He’s the best there is, aside from you.” His expression was earnest. “Hannah, I need every ounce of manpower I have for this one. I swear, if I lose this place you might as well dig a hole for me six feet under. And don’t think I’m exaggerating. As much as I complain and manipulate, this business is my life.” Elliott shifted uneasily. “So…what do you say? Will you postpone your plans for Seekers and take this last one on?”

Hannah thought about her daughter, the cost of the day-care center she’d wanted to enroll her in and the one she’d chosen instead because it was more reasonably priced. If she succeeded in this trace, she’d be able to afford to send Bonny to the other one…plus a whole lot more.

“Does it mean working with Chad?”

Relief colored Elliott’s ruddy features. “That’s up to you.”

“You have files on these guys?”

He pushed a thin manila folder across the desk. “Here. Only they’re not both guys.” Hannah looked at him. “One is a woman.”

“What is this?” She examined the single sheet of paper in the file. The application form was skimpy at best, half the blanks left empty.

“Like I said, this was a favor.”

“Yes, you said that. What did you do? Just sign the bond without the normal paperwork? This isn’t like you, Elliott.”

“Believe me, if I had known this was going to happen, I would have got more.”

“It says here that the jumpers put their houses up.”

“Expensive houses, too. The only problem is they’re mortgaged to the hilt. Not worth the dirt they’re built on to me.”

“I don’t know, El…” She stepped away from the desk and chairs, pulling down the front ends of her vest. “Finding these two would be like finding—”

“I know, I know. Like finding needles in a haystack the size of Europe.”

Accepting the case meant more than postponing the opening of Seekers. It meant working with Chad again. A very risky prospect indeed. She wouldn’t even consider working against him. She might be afraid of what the man could do to her personal life, but she wouldn’t make the mistake of misjudging his professional talent.

She slid her hand into her pocket, fingering the message inside. Anyway, maybe it was time Chad knew the truth. The thought alone choked off her breath.

“Exactly how much money did you say there’d be in it for me?” she asked.

Elliott named an absurdly high figure.

“I’m in.”

“Good.” Elliott leapt to his feet. “You have four days.”

“Four days?”

“If you don’t bring them in within four days, you miss out on the money and I lose my business. Hell, I’m lucky the judge even rescheduled the hearing.”

Four days wasn’t much time, Hannah thought. That came out to two days apiece to find each bail-jumper.

“No problem.”