Daddy Devastating

“Burke,” she said, placing the call on speaker. “You have something for me?”

“Julia, he’s telling you the truth. Russell Gentry is an FBI agent.”

She pulled in a hard breath. “Thank you, Burke.”

“I’m sorry about this, Julia. We dug as deep as we could go, and we didn’t find his FBI records.”

Russ cut off what sounded like just the beginning of an apologetic explanation. “Silas Duran will clear up loose ends with you,” Russ informed the security specialist, and he reached over, took her phone and clicked it off.

“I’m sorry—” Julia began.

But he cut her off, too. “Sorry won’t help. The only thing that will help is damage control, and that’s about to get started.”

Julia nodded and handed him back the picture.

“What can I do?”

“For now, you can go back to your hotel, take the baby and return to San Antonio. Did you fly or drive here?”

“I drove. Emily’s only two weeks old. She’s too young to fly.”

Well, in some ways that made it easier. No trip to and from the airport, but that meant she had to go about a hundred and fifty miles to get home safely.

“You have some kind of security system, I assume?” he asked.

Another nod, but her eyes widened with alarm. “You think Emily could be in danger? “

She shoved the car in gear and darted out of the parking lot. The tires squealed and kicked up bits of rock that spattered against the car. She didn’t stop there. She grabbed her cell and made another call.

“I need to speak to the nanny. Don’t worry. I won’t mention you,” she explained. “Zoey,” she said, when the nanny answered. “I need you to make sure the door is locked. Don’t let anyone in until I get there.”

Julia ended the call, but she continued to mumble to herself.

Russ actually welcomed this high level of concern. It might get her to cooperate. “The baby’s probably not in danger … probably,” he emphasized. “But I don’t want to take any chances.” He carefully placed the photo back in his wallet and put it in his pocket. “After all, she’s my niece.”

Russ mentally repeated that. He was an uncle.

Later, he’d come to terms with that and the fact that RJ had fathered a child he’d never seen, never even known about. But that had to wait.

“I have a security system,” Julia explained. “Supposedly, it’s the best money can buy. And I can hire bodyguards. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Emily safe.”

Russ nodded. “I’ll arrange to have an agent or a cop follow you home. And once I’ve wrapped up things down here, I’ll contact you.”

She had a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. “Milo can’t hurt her.”

She was taking his warning very seriously, but there was no reason for Milo to go after Emily.

Because she looked ready to lose it, Russ reached over and skimmed his hand down her arm. Why, he didn’t know. After everything she’d just learned about him, his touch probably wasn’t very comforting.

“How badly did I mess up your investigation?” Julia asked. She stopped when the light turned red and drummed her fingers impatiently until it turned green. She gunned the engine.

“I can salvage it,” he assured her.

But Russ wasn’t certain of that at all. Still, he had no choice but to try.

Julia pulled to a quick stop in the parking lot of the Wainwright Hotel. Even though it had three floors, it was a fairly small building and only had about two dozen rooms. He’d already guessed that that was where she’d be staying, since it was the nicest hotel in a town that was seriously lacking nice things. The outskirts of the town were okay—more family oriented; and more likely than not, if you were in downtown San Saba, you were looking for trouble.

“Let me call my partner, Silas Duran,” he told her. “He can make the arrangements for a security escort, and I can wait with you until everything is in place, so you can leave.”

“You trust this Silas?” she asked.

Russ nearly gave her an automatic yes—but stopped. He settled for a nod.

Silas was a fellow agent and probably well trained. But Russ didn’t like that Silas had only been on this case for a couple of days. He also didn’t like that Silas might have pulled strings to get the assignment. That’s the way it seemed to Russ, anyway. But that was a problem for him to mull over when he had more time.

She opened her door and looked at him. She nibbled lightly on her bottom lip, caught it between her teeth for several seconds. “I suppose you want to see Emily?”

He did. But the timing was all wrong.

Or was it?

Russ didn’t know how long it would take to get this investigation back on track, and he couldn’t leave San Saba until Milo put him in touch with the head honcho—the slimeball only identified as Z. Russ wanted to find Z and lock him away for a long, long time for what he’d done. If it took him weeks or longer to do that, it would be weeks before he first got to see his niece.

“Yeah,” Russ heard himself say. “I’d like to see her. I won’t stay long.”

He had to pay an uncle’s tribute to his dead brother’s child and give Julia a promise that he would be back as soon as he could.

Since Julia was obviously too anxious to stay put any longer, Russ took out his phone and called Silas while they made their way into the hotel. He also kept watch around them, and breathed a little easier, once they made it into the lobby.

“Russ,” Silas answered, “I was just about to call you.”

Oh, no. Even though he’d only been working with Silas a short time, he knew that tone, and this wasn’t good news.

“Where are you now?” Silas asked.

“With Julia Howell.” Ahead of him, Julia made it to the elevator and jabbed the up button. “She’s about to leave for her estate, but I need to request a security detail for her.”

“We have a problem. She can’t leave,” Silas said.

Russ hoped he’d misunderstood. “What do you mean?”

“I mean she can’t leave. If she does, this investigation is over, and you get to start it from scratch.”

Because he might lose signal in the elevator, Russ clamped onto Julia’s arm to stop her from stepping into it.

“I need to check on Emily,” she insisted.

Russ pulled her to the side so he could continue this conversation, a discussion that he was positive he wasn’t going to like.

“Explain,” Russ told Silas.

“Milo just called his contact to set up another meeting for tomorrow afternoon. We can choose the exact time and the location.”

Russ relaxed a little. Maybe the investigation hadn’t been ruined. Maybe he could rescue that baby after all. “Well, that’s good. The meeting’s critical.” And it was critical they control the location so they could set up security.

“No, it’s not good.” Silas said, cursing. A first. He had never heard Silas use even mild profanity before.

Russ listened to Silas’s news. Yep, it was bad all right. And a few moments later, he was doing his own cursing. “Can we change Milo’s mind?” Russ asked.

“No. Believe me, I tried, but he was adamant. We can take extra precautions. We can even bring in a few more agents. So the question is, do you think you can talk Julia Howell into cooperating?”

Russ looked over her at and saw the nerves right there at the surface. He could possibly convince her to do what Milo wanted. Possibly. But even if they controlled the security and the meeting place, it didn’t mean something wouldn’t go wrong. Julia could ultimately be in more danger than she already was. If that was possible.

Milo would dig to find out who she was, and then he’d wonder why an heiress worth fifty million would get involved with a lowlife like Jimmy Marquez. By doctoring her records, they could make it work.

Well, maybe … if they could convince Milo that Julia had a thing for slumming or bad boys.

“The stakes are too high to fail,” Silas reminded him.

Yeah. And that was the real bottom line.

One way or another, even if he had to resort to begging, even if he had to put her in more danger, Russ had to bring Julia deeper into this.

Because a baby’s life depended on it.

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