Secret Delivery

“Sorry.” But he kept staring at her. “Do the names Ted Moore and Margaret Vargas ring any bells?”

“No. Should they?”

“Yeah.” He paused. A long time. “They should.”

Mercy. Was this another blank spot in her memory? If so, it must be a critical one. “Do they have something to do with Joey?”

“Not really.” Jack nodded at the doctor, a gesture the two of them must have understood, because the doctor excused himself and left the room.

This conversation must be about to turn ugly.

And then it hit her. A horrible thought. “Did the man in the alley go after Joey?”

“No. Joey’s fine.”

But she didn’t believe him. “I have to see him. I have to make sure he’s okay. And don’t remind me about this virus. I don’t have to get close to him to make sure he’s safe.”

He clamped his hand on her arm when she tried to get up. “You aren’t going to see him, Alana.”

Alana pushed his hand away. “You have no legal right to keep my son from me.”

“Wanna bet?”

She froze. Because that didn’t sound like an idle threat. “What does that mean?”

“It means when you filled out the birth certificate, you listed me as the father.”

Had she? Yes. She had. Why, though, she didn’t know. “But you’re not his father and a DNA test will prove that.”

“Biologically, Joey’s not my son, but he is legally. When we couldn’t find you, I petitioned the courts for custody, and since your brother, Sean, was Joey’s next of kin, he agreed. He gave me sole guardianship.”

She clenched her hands tightly. Alana didn’t doubt that Sean had done this. He’d never wanted her to have the baby. “Well, I can change that. I can petition the courts, too—”

“No judge will give you custody, Alana.”

Again, it wasn’t an empty threat. He had something to back it up. “Why not?”

“Because you weren’t held captive. The guard and the nurse I mentioned. Ted Moore and Margaret Vargas. They’ve contacted law enforcement agencies to report your disappearance.”

Alana shook her head. She didn’t understand. “My disappearance?”

“More like your escape,” Jack clarified. “Alana, you were declared insane. For the past eight months you’ve been confined to a private mental institution.”

Chapter Four

Alana didn’t have much color in her cheeks, but Jack’s announcement drained what little she did have. She swallowed hard and eased her head back onto the pillow. Her eyelids fluttered down.

She looked beaten and overwhelmed.

Jack knew exactly how she felt.

For eight months, he’d dreaded Alana’s return, but with each passing day, it’d been easier and easier for him to convince himself that she wouldn’t come back. That she wouldn’t fall back into his life and try to claim Joey.

Yet here she was. A force to be reckoned with. A woman to fear. He should be bracing himself to do battle. But unfortunately, like her he was feeling overwhelmed himself. And empathy was starting to creep into this equation. But that wasn’t the only problem.

There was this physical pull he had for her.

He was sure those two emotions were connected. That, and the fact that Alana was attractive. It would have been hard not to notice that about her. But empathy and attraction could cause him to lose focus. That, in turn, could cause him to lose Joey.

“So now I’m crazy,” she mumbled. Alana chuckled, but there was no humor in it. She opened her eyes and blinked back tears. “I’m not crazy, Jack. I’m not.”

He didn’t want to offer an opinion on that. Instead, it was best to go ahead and put everything out in the open. “There was a court order committing you to the institution.”

Her gaze slashed to his, and she swiped the tears from her face. “I want to see it.”

He nodded. “It’s being faxed.” He wanted to see it, as well.

“And I want to speak to Ted Moore and Margaret Vargas. I want them to explain why they gave me a date rape drug. That’s hardly the medication a reputable institution would dispense to a so-called patient.”

Jack knew about the drug. Dr. Bartolo had already told him. He wanted to ask that same question himself. In fact, he wanted to ask Ted and Margaret a lot of questions.

Because something wasn’t adding up.

More than anything, he needed Alana’s situation to make sense. If she was legally insane, then he could send her back to an institution. She wouldn’t be able to take Joey. He didn’t relish the thought of Alana being crazy, but he was desperate to hang on to his son.

But as a lawman, he also needed the truth.

He cursed himself. This need for justice had been an obsession most of his life, and it’d had devastating consequences. His own father was in prison because of it, and while most would say that the man deserved to be behind bars, Jack would always remember that it was his testimony that had turned the key to his father’s prison cell.

“Margaret was the one who had the authorities put out an APB on you,” Jack explained. “She’s also the one who’ll be faxing the court order.”

She stared up at the ceiling, and her mouth tightened. “Let me guess. My brother initiated that court order? He’s the one who had me sent to that place.”

“I’m not sure.” But it was a darn good guess. When Jack had met Sean eight months earlier, the man had made it crystal clear that he didn’t want Alana raising Joey. Sean thought she was not “emotionally equipped” to be a single parent. Still, it seemed extreme that Sean would have his sister committed. Unless he truly thought she was insane. Then, Sean might have wanted to hide her away so she wouldn’t be a liability to their business and so she could discretely get some help.

“Margaret didn’t know where Ted was,” Jack added. “She said she hasn’t seen him since last night when he went after you.”

“Well, I know where he was. He was in that alley. He tried to hurt me.”

Jack didn’t dispute that. But he was sure, though, that his body language was suggesting some doubt. “See, that’s one of the things that doesn’t add up. The APB was out there. Plus, you were right next to a sheriff’s office. If it’d been Ted in that alley, he would have just walked inside and asked me for assistance.” He paused. “And I would have given it to him.”

“So, who do you think it was in the alley?” she demanded.

A hallucination caused by the fever and the drugs already in her system. Except Jack had seen that car with the mud-smeared plates. Still, a strange car didn’t mean this Ted had tried to grab her.

“If Ted had come to apprehend you, why would he have run?” Jack asked. “He had a court order to keep you confined. The law was on his side, not yours.”

Another punch of frustration rushed through her eyes. “Maybe that court order isn’t worth the paper it’s being faxed on.”

“Maybe. That’s one of the things I might be able to determine when I see the document.”

And when he questioned Ted and Margaret. Whenever that would be. The woman hadn’t exactly volunteered to come to Willow Ridge, which meant Jack would have to make a trip to the Sauder Mental Health Facility about an hour’s drive away. Margaret hadn’t been chatty about the exact location, claiming that the place was private to prevent the media from finding it and the occasional famous patients who entered the facility for drug rehab.

Margaret’s explanation had made him even more uneasy. But he couldn’t go until he had things stabilized with Alana. Fortunately, he’d already gotten Ted and Margaret’s photos from the online database of drivers’ licenses, and he’d run computer checks. Neither had criminal records, but Jack had asked his deputy to do a little digging to see if anything flagged.

“When the fax arrives,” Alana continued, “I want you to read that court order word for word. I’ll do the same. But first, I’ll have to battle my brother.” She lifted her head from the pillow again, and this time she pushed his hand away when he tried to stop her. “I need some clothes. I don’t want Sean to see me like this. I’m sure I look frail and weak. It’ll only give him more ammunition to try to have me recommitted.”

Jack couldn’t argue with that, but Alana wasn’t ready to be up and moving around. Still, he didn’t stop her. “I can’t guarantee the doctor will let you leave the hospital, but I’ll see what I can do about getting you something else to wear.”

She’d gathered up the blanket to drape around her. Her gaze met his. “Thank you.”

He didn’t want her thanks. He didn’t want empathy. He didn’t want to feel that she was getting railroaded.

But he did.

Damn it. He did.

Jack stepped outside the room, and welcomed the moment he had to himself. He didn’t usually have trouble being objective, especially since Alana was officially part of an investigation now. But she was also a huge threat to his happiness. That was coloring his objectivity.

When he spotted Sara Murphy, a nurse and a woman he’d known his entire life, he walked up the hall to her. “Could you possibly scrounge up some street clothes for the patient?” Jack hitched his thumb toward Alana’s door.

Sara nodded and shifted a pink wad of sugaryscented gum in her mouth so she could answer him. “Sure will.” She volleyed her doe-brown eyes between Jack and the door. “I heard what’s going on, and I’m sorry. She’s here to try to take little Joey, isn’t she?”

Jack settled for saying, “It’s complicated.”

“Not so complicated. You love that boy. Everybody around here knows that.” Sara patted his arm. “Have you learned anything more about the night she wandered out of the hospital?”

“No.”

Sara glanced around as if to make sure no one was listening, and stepped closer. “Look, I’m on your side. I don’t want that woman back here. But you know I’ve had my worries about her from the start.”

Yeah. He did. He’d interviewed Sara several times. “You don’t think Alana left the hospital voluntarily that night eight months ago.”

“And I still don’t. I saw her an hour before she disappeared, and she was fit as a fiddle. She talked about Joey, about their future together. She was talking about taking Mommy and Me classes, for heaven’s sake.” Sara shook her head. “And then bam! an hour later, she walks out into the freezing night without giving a second thought to leaving her baby behind.”

Since it’d been a while since those interviews, Jack asked the obvious. “You’re sure you didn’t see anyone go into Alana’s room that night?”

She flexed her eyebrows. “Just Doc Bartolo.”

There it was again. That same punch of doubt that had come eight months ago. Dr. Bartolo had been the last credible person to see Alana. She’d been fine, he insisted. Since the doctor had never given Jack a reason to distrust him, he’d believed him.

Except there was a niggling doubt in the back of his mind. Jack had discovered that looking at Joey had dimmed those doubts.

“You did the right thing, taking that baby the way you did,” Sara insisted.

Did I? Jack asked himself.

Thankfully, he didn’t pose that question to Sara. He spotted Deputy Reyes Medina making his way down the hall toward him. At six-three and well over two hundred pounds, Reyes was impossible to miss. He had the face and the coloring of his Comanche ancestors, but his expression was all cop. He walked, looked and talked as if he were ready to kick someone’s butt into the next county.

It took Jack a moment to realize Reyes wasn’t alone. He saw something behind the deputy, and after Reyes moved a little to the side, Jack got another surprise he didn’t want.

His aunt Tessie was there, and she was holding Joey.

Jack groaned some ripe profanity. This was not the place he wanted his son.

“I’ll get those clothes for Ms. Davis,” Sara mumbled, excusing herself.

Jack heard her, but he didn’t respond, instead making a beeline for his aunt.

“Is it true?” Tessie asked. She’d obviously dressed in a hurry. No makeup, not that she wore much anyway. Her salt-white hair was in disarray, and her Coke-bottle-green eyes were wide with concern. “Is that woman really here in the hospital?”

Jack caught her arm to stop her from moving any closer to Alana’s room. “She’s here. I was going to tell you, but I haven’t had a chance.”

Unlike Reyes and Tessie, Joey wasn’t showing much concern. He grinned from ear to ear and reached for Jack. Jack pulled his son into his arms and gave himself a moment to be a father. He could have sworn his blood pressure dropped to normal. The knot in his stomach eased up. And for a few precious seconds, all was right with the world.

“I told Tessie she shouldn’t be here,” Reyes grumbled.

Tessie started her defense before Reyes finished the last word of his sentence. “I wanted to see her. I want to make her understand that she can’t come back after all these months and take Joey.”

“It’s not a good time to do that,” Jack countered. He couldn’t tell Tessie that Alana would try to take Joey. Jack didn’t even want to say the words aloud.

There was a sound behind him, and judging from Tessie’s and Reyes’s reactions, Jack knew what it was. He quickly handed Joey to Tessie. “Take him home please.”

She nodded but kept her attention fastened to the other end of the hall. One glance over his shoulder confirmed that Alana was there, standing in the doorway of her room. She had the blanket draped around her like a robe and was looking at Joey. She started toward him.

“The virus,” Jack reminded her. “You’ll make him sick.”

Alana froze. Thank God. If it hadn’t been for her illness, Alana would have tried to wrench Joey from Tessie’s arms. Joey would have been confused. Frightened. And the contact would no doubt have given Alana even more determination to take the child she’d given birth to.

Tessie turned and hurried back toward the exit. Jack went to Alana, to make sure she stayed put. When he reached her, he saw her tears, even though she was doing her level best to blink them away.

“He’s so beautiful,” she whispered, her attention still focused over his shoulder where Tessie had been standing just seconds earlier. “Yes, he is.”

“Joey has my hair color.” She touched her fingers to her own saddle-brown locks. “What about his eyes? What color are they?”

“Blue.” Like Alana’s. Jack didn’t volunteer that, though. His heart already felt as if it were being crushed.

“Blue,” she repeated with a determined nod. “I’m seeing him tomorrow.” It wasn’t a request. “The medicine will have kicked in. I won’t be contagious. I’ll see my baby.”

Jack was already trying to figure out a way to stop that. Or a way for him to deal with what might be inevitable. Because even if Alana was sent back to that institution, it didn’t mean she was out of the picture when it came to Joey. She’d hire a lawyer. She’d fight. And now that she knew she had a son, she wouldn’t back down. But as the only father Joey had ever known, he wouldn’t back down, either.

Reyes handed Jack some papers. The first was a fax with the photo of a woman. The FBI had already sent him her picture, and it was on his desk. “Kinley Ford?” Jack read aloud.

“She’s the missing woman the Rangers and FBI are looking for. It’s possible she’s in the area.”

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. Nine months ago Kinley Ford had been in town, and even though she hadn’t been responsible, three people had been killed. It’d been one of the few murder cases Jack had ever had to handle, and he didn’t want to have to deal with her now. “Does she have anything to do with Alana?”

“Not that I can tell, but a lot of people are anxious to find her. The FBI wants us to put flyers with her picture around town.”

Jack intended to do that, but it would have to wait. He looked at the other papers Reyes had given him. Alana’s commitment papers. With them were two black-and-white pictures. When Jack glanced at them, he remembered that Joey wasn’t the only issue here.

“I got her commitment papers a little over an hour ago and made some calls,” Reyes explained. “I’m trying to track down the judge who signed them.”

Good. That was a start.

“I also showed those around.” Reyes pointed to the photos of Ted Moore and Margaret Vargas. The deputy glanced at Alana.

“And?” Jack prompted, giving Reyes permission to go on.

“They just arrived in town. So did her brother, Sean. All three are in the hospital lobby.”

“Here?” Jack and Alana said in unison. Apparently Margaret had decided to come to town after all.

Alana’s tone was laced with anger. She seemed to welcome this unexpected visit. Jack did, too, in a way. But he wanted this meeting to happen at the sheriff’s office since it would likely turn into an interrogation. Maybe even an arrest.

Reyes nodded. “Margaret said she left the institution as soon as she faxed the commitment papers to us. Said she figured it was best that she speak to Alana and you in person.”

Jack wasn’t so sure of that.

“I told them to wait in the lobby until I cleared everything with you,” Reyes explained. “According to the pair, they didn’t arrive with the brother. It’s a coincidence that they’re all here together at exactly the same time.”

Jack wasn’t a strong believer in coincidences. It could be that Sean had a reason to want to dissociate himself from the pair. Especially from Ted—the man might have crossed a legal line or two if he truly had gone after Alana the way she said he had.

“Before you see to them, I think you should know what I learned,” the deputy went on. “When I showed those pictures around town this morning, the new waitress that Bella hired over at the diner said she saw that man, Ted, late last night.”

“Where?” Jack asked, though he already suspected the answer.

“In front of your office. She said the guy came running out of the alley, jumped in his car and drove away. She said he looked like he was up to no good.”

“He was,” Alana assured them. She turned to him. “I told you.”

So she had. Jack would have liked to explain the man’s behavior. But he couldn’t. Unless Ted was trying to cover up the fact that a patient had escaped and he didn’t want to get in trouble for a security infraction. But that didn’t make sense. Once the man realized he hadn’t contained Alana, then why hadn’t he stayed? Why get in his car and leave without alerting someone in the sheriff’s office?

Jack heard the footsteps, looked up and realized he might not have to wait long for those answers. Sean and his guests hadn’t stayed put in the lobby despite the deputy’s order. They were coming up the hall, and

judging from their expressions, they were there to take Alana back to the institution.

Of course, that led Jack to another question.

Was he going to let them?

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