Landon

Landon dropped back a step, no doubt taking a moment to absorb that. Those details were still fuzzy, and Tessa was actually thankful for it. She wasn’t sure that right now she could handle remembering a man being murdered. Especially so soon after nearly dying in that barn fire.

“You were close to Emmett?” she asked but then waved off the question. Of course he was. And apparently she had been, too.

After all, Emmett had been at her house.

“I think his killer might have been a cop,” Tessa added.

Landon huffed. “First a burglar, now a cop?”

She didn’t blame him for being skeptical, but her mind was all over the place, and it was so hard to think, especially with that warning that kept going through her head.

That it wasn’t safe here. That she couldn’t trust anyone.

That she was going to get Landon killed.

“The killer held his gun like a cop,” she explained. “And he had one of those ear communicators like cops use.”

“Criminals use them, too,” Landon was just as quick to point out.

True enough. “But he said something about a perp to whoever he was talking to on the communicator. That’s a word that cops use.” Tessa paused. “And when I saw your badge, I got scared. Because I thought maybe... Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought.”

“You thought I had killed Emmett,” he finished for her. Landon added a sharp glare to that. “I didn’t, and I need you to remember a whole lot more than you just told me.”

So did she, but before Tessa could even consider how to make that happen, she saw some movement in the hall. Landon saw it, too, because he moved in front of her. From over his shoulder, Tessa saw Dr. Michelson and a security guard. But there was another man with him. Tall and lanky with blond hair. Wearing a suit. It took her a moment to get a good look at his face.

Her heart jumped to her throat.

“Joel,” she said. Even with the dizziness, she recognized him.

Landon looked back at her, a new round of displeasure in his expression. “So you remember him now?”

She did. And unlike the other memories, these were a lot clearer.

Oh, God.

This could be bad.

Joel kept his attention on her, obviously studying her dyed hair, but she soon saw the recognition in his eyes, and he picked up the pace as he made his way toward her.

“Tessa?” Joel called out. “Are you all right?”

Landon didn’t budge. He stayed in front of her. “Someone tried to kill her. What do you know about that?”

Until Landon barked out that question, Joel hadn’t seemed to notice him. But he noticed him now. “What are you doing here?” Joel snapped.

Landon tapped his badge. “What I’m doing is asking you a question that you will answer right now.”

Despite the fact that Landon’s tone was as lethal as his expression, Joel made a sound of amusement when he glanced at the badge. “What happened? Did you lose your job as a Houston cop and have to come begging your cousin for work?”

That jogged her memory, too. Yes, Landon had been a detective with the Houston PD, but Tessa doubted he’d lost his job. He had likely come back to Silver Creek to solve Emmett’s murder. Good thing, too, or else there might not have been anyone to save her from that barn fire.

But he couldn’t help her get out of this.

“How did you know I was at the hospital?” Tessa asked Joel.

Obviously, that wasn’t what he wanted to hear from her. He probably expected a much warmer greeting, because he stepped around Landon and reached out as if to hug her.

Landon, however, blocked his path. “How did you know she was here?” he pressed.

Joel looked at her. Then at Landon. And it must have finally sunk in that this was not a good time for a social visit. If that was indeed what it was.

“What happened to you?” Joel asked her.

“I’m not sure.” That was only a partial lie. “Someone drugged me and then tried to kill me.”

Joel nodded. “In the barn fire. My assistant got a call from a friend who works at the fire department. He told her that you’d been brought here to the Silver Creek Hospital. I came right away.”

“Why?” Landon demanded.

Joel huffed as if the answer were obvious, but he snapped back toward Tessa when the baby made a whimpering sound. He peered around Landon, and Tessa watched Joel’s face carefully so she could try to gauge his reaction.

He was shocked.

She hadn’t thought for a second that the baby was his, because Tessa was certain she’d never slept with Joel. She definitely didn’t have any memories of him being naked in her bed. But she’d considered that he might have known if she’d had a child.

If she had, that is.

Joel stepped back, the shock fading, and in his eyes, she saw something else. The raw anger, some directed at her. Most of it, though, was directed at Landon.

“You two had a baby,” Joel snapped. “That’s why I haven’t heard from you in months.”

Months? Had it been that long? Mercy, she needed to remember.

“I didn’t think things were serious with you two,” Joel added. “You said it was just a one-time fling with him.”

She figured Joel had purposely used the word fling to make it seem as if what’d happened between Landon and her had been trivial. Of course, that was exactly what she’d led Joel, and even Landon, to believe.

Tessa needed to settle some things with Joel, but she couldn’t do that now. Not with the baby here. And not until she was certain that this jumble of memories was right.

“I want the name of the person from the fire department who contacted your assistant and told her about Tessa,” Landon continued.

It took Joel a few moments to pull his stare from her and look at Landon. “I’ll have to get that for you. My assistant didn’t mention a name, and I didn’t think to ask.”

Well, it was a name that Tessa needed so she’d know if Joel had someone in the Silver Creek Fire Department who was on the take.

“I’ll want that information within the next half hour,” Landon added. “And now you’ll have to leave because Tessa and the baby have to be examined by the doctors.”

Joel turned to her as if he expected her to ask him to stay. And she might have if Tessa had had the energy to keep up the facade so she could try to get what info she could from Joel. She didn’t. It was time to regroup and tell Landon what she’d remembered, but she couldn’t do that in front of Joel.

“Landon’s right. The baby and I need to be examined,” Tessa stated to Joel. “Please just go.”

She could see the debate Joel was having with himself, but Tessa also saw the moment he gave in to her request. “Call me when you’re done here,” Joel said. “We have to talk.” And he walked away as if there were no question that she would indeed do just that.

Tessa and Landon stood there watching him, until Joel disappeared around the hall corner.

“I’ll need a minute with Tessa,” Landon told the doctor and security guard.

The doctor hesitated, maybe because Landon’s jaw was clenched and he looked ready to yell at Tessa. But Tessa gave the doctor a nod to let him know it was okay for him to leave. As Landon and she had done with Joel, they waited until both men were out of sight.

Since she knew that Landon was about to launch into an interrogation, Tessa went ahead and got started. “I don’t think the baby is ours,” she said. “And I’m certain she’s not Joel’s.”

“How would you know that?”

She got another image of Landon naked. Good grief, why was that so clear? It was a distraction she didn’t need. Especially since the man himself was right in front of her, reminding her of the reason they’d landed in bed in the first place.

“I just know,” she answered. An answer that clearly didn’t please him.

“Then whose baby is that?” Landon snapped.

Even though Landon wasn’t going to like this, she had to shake her head. “Memories are still fuzzy there, but I don’t have any recollection of being pregnant. I think I would have remembered morning sickness, the delivery...something.”

“And you don’t?”

“Nothing.” She wasn’t certain if he looked relieved, disappointed or skeptical. But she wasn’t lying.

“The doctor will be able to tell once he examines you,” Landon reminded her.

She nodded. “I do have plenty of memories about Joel, though.” Tessa had to lean against the wall when a new wave of dizziness hit her. “And some memories about me, too. I’m not a real PI.”

Landon stared at her as if she were lying. “But you have a PI’s license. A real one. I checked.”

Of course he had. Landon probably wouldn’t have asked her out unless he’d run a basic background check on her. And he definitely wouldn’t have slept with her.

Then she rethought that.

The sex hadn’t been planned, and it’d happened in the heat of the moment. Literally.

“Yes, I have a license.” Best just to toss this out there and then deal with the aftermath. And there would be aftermath. “But I had it only because of Joel. He said he wanted me to get it so I could help him vet some of his business associates. It’s easier for a PI to do that because I had access to certain databases.”

She got the exact reaction she expected. Landon’s eyes narrowed. Tessa wasn’t sure of all of Joel’s activities, but there were enough of them for her to know the kind of man she was dealing with. Landon had called him scummy, but he was much worse than that.

Because Joel was a dangerous man.

With that reminder, she looked around them again. Tessa could still see the parking lot and the hall, and Landon made an uneasy glance around, too.

“You’ll want to keep going with that explanation,” Landon insisted. “But remember, you’re talking to a cop.”

The threat was real. He could arrest her, but it was a risk she had to take right now. She needed Landon on her side so he could help her protect this baby. Maybe from Joel.

Maybe from someone else.

Mercy, it was so hard to think.

Tessa had to clear her throat before she could continue. “I think Joel might have murdered someone.”

His eyes were already dark, but that darkened them even more. “Who? Emmett?”

But she didn’t get a chance to answer.

Landon stepped in front of her, drawing his weapon. That was when she saw the man in the hall.

He was coming straight toward them.

And he had a gun.

Chapter Five

Landon had a split-second debate with himself about just shooting at the armed man who was coming right at them.

But he couldn’t.

It would be a huge risk to start shooting in the hospital around innocent bystanders.

A risk for Tessa and the baby, too.

The man obviously didn’t have a problem doing just that. He lifted his gun and took aim. Landon hooked his arm around Tessa and yanked her out of the line of fire.

Barely in time.

The bullet smacked into the concrete block wall where they’d just been standing. The noise was deafening, and the baby immediately started to cry.

Landon pulled Tessa and the baby to the side so that he could use the wall for protection, but it wouldn’t protect them for long, because the idiot fired another shot and sent more of those bits of concrete scattering.

“Tessa?” the man called out. “If you want the bullets to stop, then hand the kid to the cowboy cop and come with me.”

Because Landon still had hold of her, he felt her muscles turn to iron, and she held the baby even closer to her body.

“Oh, God,” she whispered.

Landon mumbled something significantly worse. This was not what he wanted to happen.

Of course, Landon had known there could be another attack since someone had tried to kill Tessa in that barn fire, but he hadn’t thought a second attempt would happen in the hospital with so many witnesses around. Plus, the guy wasn’t even wearing a mask. That meant he either knew no one would recognize him or didn’t care if they did. But whoever he was, one thing was crystal clear.

This thug wanted Tessa.

Later, Landon would want to know why, but he figured this had something to do with one of the last things she’d said to him before the guy started shooting.

I think Joel might have murdered someone.

Landon didn’t doubt it for a second. Nor did he doubt this armed thug was connected to Joel. But why exactly did Joel want her? Had she learned something incriminating while she was working for him vetting his “cattle broker” associates?

“Tessa?” the man called out. “You’ve got ten seconds.”

“He knows you,” Landon whispered to her. “You recognize his voice?

“No,” she answered without hesitating.

“Think about it,” the guy added. “Every bullet I fire puts that kid in danger even more. Danger that you can stop by coming with me.”

“He’s right,” Tessa said on a rise of breath.

She moved as if preparing herself to surrender, but Landon wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Stay back,” he warned her.

Landon leaned out, trying to time it so that he wouldn’t get shot, and glanced into the hall. The guy was no longer out in the open. He’d taken cover in a doorway.

Hell.

Hopefully, there wasn’t anyone inside the room where this man was hiding or he would no doubt shoot them.

On the second glance, Landon took aim and fired at the moron. The guy ducked back into the room, and Landon’s bullets slammed into the door.

He couldn’t stand there and trade shots with this guy, because sooner or later, the gunman might get lucky. Certainly by now someone had called the sheriff, and that meant Grayson would be here soon. Although it might not be soon enough.

“Let’s go,” Landon told her.

He leaned around the corner and fired another shot at the man, and Landon hoped it would pin him in place long enough to put some distance between those bullets and Tessa.

Staying in front of her while trying to keep watch all around them, Landon maneuvered her down the back hall toward the other end, where there was another line of patients’ rooms. He prayed that all the patients and staff had heard the shots and were hunkering down somewhere.

The baby was still crying, and even though Tessa was trying to comfort it, her attempts weren’t working. Too bad. Because the sounds of the baby’s cries were like a homing beacon for that shooter.

Landon had no choice but to pause when he reached the junction of the halls, and he glanced around to see if there was a second gunman waiting to ambush them.

Empty.

Thank God.

But his short pause allowed the shooter to catch up with them. The guy leaned around the corner where Landon had just been, and he fired at them.

Since it was possible for the gunman to double back and come at them from the other end of the hall, Landon needed better protection. Again, it was a risk because he didn’t know what he was going to find, but he opened the first door he reached.

Not empty.

And the young twentysomething woman inside gave him a jolt until he noticed that she wore a hospital gown and was hanging on to an IV pole. She was a patient.

He hoped.

“Go in the bathroom,” he ordered the woman. “Close the door and don’t come out.”

She gasped and gave a shaky nod but followed his instructions. Landon would have liked to have sent Tessa and the baby in there with her, but he couldn’t risk it. Anyone bold enough to send this gunman could have also planted backups in the rooms.

“Keep an eye on the woman,” Landon whispered to Tessa.

Tessa’s eyes widened, probably because she realized this could be a trap. Of course, that was only one of their problems. The baby was still crying, the sound echoing through the empty hall.

Landon heard the footsteps to his right. The gunman, no doubt. And he readied himself to shoot when the man rounded the corner. But the footsteps stopped just short of the hall junction.

He glanced back at Tessa to make sure she was staying down. She was, and she was volleying glances between him and the bathroom door. In those glimpses that Landon got of her face, though, he could see the stark fear in her eyes. He would have liked to assure her that they’d get out of this alive, but Landon had no idea how this would play out.

“Tessa?” the guy called out. “Time’s up.”

Landon braced himself for more shots. And they came, all right. The guy pivoted around the corner, and he started shooting right at Tessa and him. Landon had no choice but to push her deeper into the room.

“Deputy Ryland?” someone called out. It was the security guard, and judging from the sound of his voice, he was on the opposite end of the hall from the shooter. “The other deputies are in the building. They’re on the way now to help you.”

Good. Well, maybe. It could be a bluff since it’d been less than ten minutes since the shooting had started, and that would be a very fast response time for backup. Still, even if it was a bluff, it worked.

Because the shots stopped, and Landon heard the guy take off running.

His first instincts were to go after the guy, to stop him from getting away, but Landon had no way of knowing if the security guard was on the take. Hell, this could be a ruse to lure them out of the room so that Tessa could be kidnapped or killed.

Landon waited, cursing while he listened to the thug get away, but it wasn’t long before he heard another voice. One that he trusted completely.

Grayson.

“Landon?” his cousin called out. “Don’t shoot. I’m coming toward you.”

It seemed to take an eternity for Grayson to make it to them, and when he reached the door, Landon could see the concern on his face. Concern that was no doubt mirrored in Landon’s own expression.

“Come on,” Grayson said, motioning for them to follow him. “I need to get the three of you out of here right now.”

* * *

TESSA’S HEART WAS beating so hard that she thought her ribs might crack. Her entire body was shaking, especially her legs, and if Landon hadn’t hooked his arm around her for support, she would have almost certainly fallen.

She hated feeling like his. Helpless and weak. But at the moment she had no choice but to rely on Landon and Grayson to get the baby and her away from that shooter.

The sheriff led them up the hall, in the opposite direction of where the gunman had fired those last shots. Since that back hall also led to the parking lot, Tessa suspected he was getting away.

That didn’t help slow down her heartbeat.

Because if he escaped, he could return for a second attempt. But an attempt at what? He obviously had wanted her to go with him. Or maybe that was what he had wanted her to believe. If she’d surrendered, he could have just gunned her down, done the same to Landon. Heaven knew then what would have happened to the baby.

“This way,” Grayson said, and he didn’t head toward the front but rather to a side exit.

The moment they reached it, Tessa spotted the cruiser parked there, only inches from the exit and apparently waiting for him. When Grayson opened the door, she saw Dade behind the wheel.

Even though she now believed she could trust the Ryland lawmen, seeing him and Grayson still gave her a jolt. If she’d been right about Emmett’s killer being a cop, then it was possible the killer worked at the Silver Creek sheriff’s office.

Landon hurried her onto the backseat, following right behind her, and the moment he shut the door, Dade took off.

“Are you all okay?” Dade asked, making brief eye contact in the rearview mirror.

Landon nodded but then checked her face. Tessa did the same to the baby. The newborn was still making fussing sounds, but she wasn’t hurt. Thank God. That was a miracle, what with all those bullets flying.

When she finished examining the baby, Tessa realized Landon was still looking at her. Or rather he was staring at her. No doubt waiting for answers.

Answers that she didn’t have.

Someone had attacked her twice in the same day. Heck, maybe even more than that since her memories were still hazy.

“Maybe he’s one of Joel’s hired thugs?” Landon asked.

She had to shake her head again. Then Tessa had to stop because a new wave of dizziness came over her. It was so hard to think with her head spinning. “I only got a glimpse of him before you pulled me back, but he didn’t look familiar. I don’t know why he came after me like that. Do you?”

“No,” Landon snapped. “But I want you to guess why he attacked us. And the guessing should start with you telling me everything you know about Joel. The baby, too.”

His tone wasn’t as sharp as it’d been before, and his glare had softened some. Maybe he was starting to believe that this wasn’t her fault.

Well, not totally her fault, anyway.

Tessa tried to concentrate and latch on to whatever information she could remember. It was strange, but the memories from years ago were a lot clearer than the recent ones. In fact, some of the recent ones were just a tangle of images and sounds.

“Tell me about Joel,” Landon pressed, probably because she was still trying to figure out what to say.

“Joel,” she repeated. And Tessa went with what she did remember. “I started working for him two years ago as a bookkeeper. I didn’t know what he was,” she added. “I was an out-of-work accountant, and he offered me a job. Later, he wanted me to be a PI so I could run background checks for him.”

“But you soon found out what he was,” Landon finished for her.

Another nod. “But I didn’t know how deep his operation went, and he was hiding assets and activities under layers of corporate paperwork.” Tessa had to pause again, brush away the mental cobwebs. These next memories were spotty compared to the ones of her starting to work for Joel.

“Back at the hospital, you said you thought Joel had killed someone,” Landon reminded her. “Who? Emmett?”

Tessa closed her eyes a moment, trying to make the thoughts come. Finally, she remembered a piece of a memory. Or maybe it was just a dream. It was so hard to work all of this out.

“No. Not Emmett. I think the murder might have had something to do with the baby’s mother,” she said. “But...no, that’s not right.” She touched her fingers to her head. “It’s getting all mixed up again.”

“Her mother?” Landon questioned. “So you’re positive she’s not yours...ours?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

She couldn’t tell if Landon was relieved about that or not. He didn’t seem relieved about anything. Neither was she. The child might not be theirs, but Tessa still needed to protect the newborn.

But who was after the baby? And why?

Her gaze dropped to the baby. “I think I know the reason I have her, though. Because a killer was after her mother, and she left the baby with me for safekeeping.”

“A killer,” Landon said. “You mean Joel?”

“I just don’t know.” Tessa groaned softly. “If I could just rest for a while, maybe that would help me remember?”

“You’ll get some rest later. For now, tell me what happened to the baby’s mother,” Landon demanded.

Tessa had no idea. But this wasn’t looking good. If all of this had happened four days ago, then the mother should have come back by now. If she was able to come back, that is.

Landon cursed. “Is the mother dead or hurt?”

But before she could even attempt an answer, Dade was on the phone, and she heard him ask if there was any information on the baby’s mother that would match the sketchy details she’d just given them.

“Is it possible the woman who had this baby didn’t have anything to do with Emmett?” Landon pressed.

“I just don’t know.” She paused. “But maybe Emmett was helping me find some evidence against Joel?”

As expected, that didn’t go over well with Landon. He didn’t come out and say that she should have contacted him instead of Emmett, but she knew that was what he was thinking.

“But why would Emmett have been helping me?” Tessa asked.