Motive: Secret Baby

He was going to help her? She shivered. His touch did that to her. It made her furious that he affected her so easily. But then, he was the father of her child.

And the only man she’d ever loved.

Don’t even go there. She needed his help, nothing more. She couldn’t go back down that path.

“What’s that?” She fisted her fingers into the blanket and pulled it close.

“We will do this my way.” He held up a hand when she would have protested. “No negotiations.”

“Fine.” Anything. She only cared that they got started.

“We’ll start first thing in the morning.”

Tomorrow? No! “We have to start now.” Didn’t he get it? Her baby was out there. The idea that he hadn’t been fed…or bathed…tore at Camille’s heart. “Right now, Nicholas. No negotiations,” she reiterated, using his words.

“It’s after midnight,” he said quietly. “We can’t storm into a person’s house at this time of night and hope to achieve cooperation.”

Like she had done? She hadn’t considered the time. She’d come straight here as soon as she’d given her parents the slip.

“But—”

Banging on the front door made her jump. Her heart rocketed into her throat. Had her father tracked her here? He would not be happy. She hadn’t told her parents who the real father was yet…she’d let them believe the child was Grant’s. It was easier.

Now who was the coward?

Before she could mull over that idea, Nicholas had strode to the window next to the door and peered out past the curtain.

“It’s Chief Swanson.”

Goose bumps spilled across her skin. The chief thought she had hurt her baby. That she’d done the unspeakable. Had her father sent him here to bring her home?

More banging on the door jerked her from the troubling thoughts.

“Sterling, it’s Chief Swanson. I need to speak with you!”

Camille didn’t know what to do. Should she hide?

Nicholas held her gaze another moment. “Is there anything else I should know?” he asked.

She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but she shook her head.

He turned his attention to the door and opened it. “It’s late,” he said to the chief.

Swanson removed his hat and shook himself to send the water flying from his overcoat before stepping across the threshold. “This couldn’t wait.” His gaze landed on Camille and he blinked, clearly startled. “Miss Wells,” he said with a dip of his head.

“Chief.” She couldn’t keep the antagonism out of that one word. How could this man, a man who had known her for most of her life, believe she’d hurt or abandoned her child?

Nicholas closed the door and folded his arms over his broad chest. “What couldn’t wait?”

The chief turned his hat in his hands as if he didn’t look forward to passing along whatever he’d come here to say. “Someone has leaked your identity.”

The news sent a tremor of fear through Camille. Though Nicholas looked unfazed, she was certain he had to be worried as well.

“How did that happen?” he demanded. “Only you, Lagios and the village’s legal counsel knew.”

The chief pressed his lips together and moved his head solemnly from side to side before admitting, “I can only assume someone overheard a telephone conversation between me and Andrei.” He blew out a burdened breath. “I hate to think that any of my deputies would have done such a thing, but there’s just no other explanation. We both know that most folks around here, my staff included, aren’t going to feel any sympathy for you.”

Camille’s shoulders sagged with the weight of what this meant. The citizens of Raven’s Cliff would not be happy that they had again been misled by one of their own. Between her father’s betrayal, Fisher’s and Gibson’s, the whole village was overwhelmed. One more infraction might just send any number of normally good citizens over the edge. Battle-fatigued already from a serial killer, a mad scientist and a terrorist group, anything could happen.

“I received a dozen calls in the past two hours,” Swanson explained. He looked from Nicholas to Camille and back. “They’re already talking about the curse.”

The curse. Dear Lord. Camille closed her eyes and caught herself as she swayed again. This was too much. Nicholas needed to be focused on helping her find her child. He didn’t need this insanity right now.

“I appreciate your warning me,” Nicholas said, his tone resigned. “I don’t care what the people of Raven’s Cliff think of me. You know what I came here to do. I’ve waited far too long as it is.”

Judging by the chief’s grave expression, there was more bad news. “It’s not going to be that simple, Nicholas.”

Nicholas flinched at the familiarity. “What do you mean?”

“Some of them have put two and two together. They’ve reasoned that you’ve been here for the better part of the past five years. So have their troubles. That makes those who usually lend no credibility to the curse think twice.” He fumbled with his hat a bit more. “They want you gone. Now. Tonight.”

“No.” Camille didn’t realize she’d said the word aloud until both the chief and Nicholas turned to her. Her face flushed. “He…” She might as well say it. “He can’t leave.”

“Miss Wells,” the chief said patiently, “unless he’s broken a law I have no cause to run him out of town, so don’t mistake what I’m here to do.”

“What are you here to do?” Nicholas asked pointedly, drawing the chief’s attention back to him.

“I’m here to warn you. It’s a damned shame that some folks have to act this way, but it’s only human I suppose. The fact of the matter is, I can’t guarantee your safety, considering.”

Considering. Fury bolted through Camille. “That’s ridiculous.” She took a step in the chief’s direction. “When I was in the hospital, I had around-the-clock security. If you can do it for me, you can do it for Nicholas. Post a deputy outside.” She thrust her hand toward the front of the cottage. “I would think you would’ve already taken that measure.”

The chief shrugged. “I’ll do all I can, Miss Wells. But the people of Raven’s Cliff are pretty worked up. They’ve been through a lot. Some folks aren’t thinking rationally.”

“I appreciate your efforts,” Nicholas said. “But I can handle this myself.”

“I don’t—” Whatever the chief would have said was interrupted by his cell phone. He pulled the phone from his belt. “Swanson.”

Camille’s burst of adrenaline abandoned her, leaving her weak and feeling defeated. What did they do now? Finding her child had to be priority. If anyone got in the way—

The chief’s call ended and he tucked the phone back into his belt, dragging her attention to him once more. “Looks like we’re about to find out just how ugly this is going to get.”

The air in Camille’s lungs evacuated.

“There’s a riled-up mob headed this way. My deputies are trying to dissuade them, but they’re not cooperating.”

Before Nicholas or Camille could respond, the sound of angry shouts erupted outside.

The chief rushed to the window and looked out, then turned back to Nicholas. “They’re here.”

Chapter Three

Nicholas stepped back from the window. At least a dozen villagers had climbed out of the four vehicles parked haphazardly in front of his cottage. The darkness shrouded their faces and whatever weapons they carried. Two police cruisers, blue lights throbbing, had screeched to a halt in the narrow street. Judging by the angry shouts, cooperation wasn’t part of the plan.

“Nicholas, you and Camille stay inside and let me and my men handle this,” Swanson ordered.

Since Camille had apparently walked through the rain to get here, there was no vehicle outside to give away her presence. The last thing Nicholas wanted was for her to be dragged into what was likely to happen.

He pushed aside the news she had announced. Now was not the time to contemplate the unexpected emotions the revelation had evoked. There was an immediate decision to be made.

This could turn into a violent confrontation. Nicholas had no desire for any of the villagers, whatever their intent, to be hurt or arrested. This, all of this, was his fault.

He turned to the chief. “Obviously they have questions for me. Hiding won’t change how they feel. I need to give them the answers they seek.” He couldn’t change the fact that more than likely all of Raven’s Cliff now knew his identity. It was time to face the consequences of his secretive presence.

“Mr. Sterling,” Chief Swanson argued, his tone firming into one of judicial formality, “I’m certain that’s not a good idea. You just stay in here and I’ll get these folks settled down. You go out there and there’s no telling what might happen.”

“He’s right.” Camille moved closer, her expression worried. “Don’t go out there, Nicholas.”

Nicholas didn’t miss the frustrated look the chief sent in her direction. Did this man actually believe that Camille would be capable of abandoning, giving away or somehow hurting her own child? Impossible.

“Stay with the chief,” Nicholas instructed Camille.

“Sterling,” the chief protested as Nicholas reached for his overcoat, “whatever score you believe you have to settle with those folks would best be settled when emotions aren’t running quite so high.” As if to punctuate his statement, Raven’s Cliff’s official representative of the law stepped in front of the door.

Chief Swanson had no idea of the score, as he called it, Nicholas had to settle. “Unless you’re going to arrest me,” he said bluntly, “step aside and allow me to do what I must.”

“You can’t go out there,” Camille urged. “They’ve been through a lot, Nicholas,” she added gently, “we all have. Let them get used to the idea that you’re alive before jumping into a confrontation.”

Her tawny curls were still damp. Strands clung to her soft, pale cheeks. It would be easy to take her advice, but he’d taken the easy way out for far too long as it was. It was past time to do this right.

“Keep her in here,” he said to the chief. “I don’t think her parents would be too happy if you allowed her to get caught up in this.”

Nicholas pushed past the chief and walked out the door before further arguments could be raised. He knew what he had to do, and there was no putting it off. The truth was out now. As Camille said, the people of Raven’s Cliff had been through tremendous challenges.

He wasn’t going to drag this one out any longer than necessary. Careful to keep his right profile turned to the crowd, he moved a fair distance from the dim glow sifting through the rotting drapes of the cottage windows.

“That’s him!” a voice shouted from the dark perimeter of the yard.

Raven’s Cliff’s finest had kept the mob off Nicholas’s property to this point. The small crowd loitered at the roadside, the moon spotlighting their angry demeanors. Keeping them that far away couldn’t have been an easy task.

Murmurs and more shouts rumbled through the crowd, most directed to one another.

“You brought back the curse!” a man shouted as he pushed past the deputy struggling to restrain the crowd. “All of this is your fault!”

Others joined him, breaking the perimeter and daring to step onto private property. Property owned by the beast. Few of the villagers had gotten a close look at Nicholas, and he intended to keep it that way. The few who had had wasted no time in spreading the rumors of his hideous side.

At the first lull in the ranting, Nicholas spoke. “Legend would confirm your accusations,” he admitted. “But living in the past won’t change the future…or the present. I’ve returned to Raven’s Cliff, my home, to rectify my mistakes.”

“Considering all that’s happened, you’re a little late, aren’t you?”

Nicholas squinted to get a better look at the man who had stepped forward. Rick Simpson. The new mayor.

“Yes.” Nicholas didn’t bother defending himself. He was guilty. He had failed his grandfather and all of Raven’s Cliff. “I will—”

“There’ll be more trouble!” a woman shouted.

Nicholas didn’t recognize her but her accusation carried significant weight.

“The only way to be rid of the curse once and for all,” a man who looked vaguely familiar to Nicholas offered, “is to run him out of town for good.”

This was the reaction Nicholas had expected. “You don’t understand—”

“You folks should be helping with this situation, not adding fuel to the fire.” The chief surveyed the crowd. “Chapman, are you seriously taking part in this?”

Stuart Chapman, the owner of the general store. Nicholas had thought he recognized the man who had a reputation for always getting along and never taking sides. The mountain of a man was usually friendly…even to the beast.

“Look what he’s done, Chief,” Chapman argued. The crowd reiterated his assessment. “If he doesn’t go, more trouble will come. Haven’t we suffered enough? How many more friends and neighbors have to die before this monster is finished?”

Nicholas flinched in spite of being accustomed to being considered just that. A monster. The beast. He’d been called both names many times.

“Go home, Stuart,” the chief urged, his patience clearly at an end. “Take these good folks with you. Mr. Sterling has done nothing wrong. Unless he breaks the law, he has just as much right to be here as any of you.”

As if the new mayor had only just recognized the best interests of the citizens he represented, Simpson put up his hands. “Chief Swanson is right. We should all go home and ponder a way to make the best of this unpleasant situation.”

The crowd wasn’t easily persuaded, but after a few more shouts in Nicholas’s direction and some prompting by the deputies and the mayor, the exodus finally began.

Simpson was the last to climb into a vehicle. He stared at Nicholas from across the yard as if daring him to react. He might pretend to be going along with the chief, but he obviously wasn’t finished yet. Nicholas refused to rise to the bait. He would not give the bastard the satisfaction.

Nicholas had much larger problems.

“This is how it’s going to be from now on,” Swanson said wearily as the trucks and SUVs roared away. His deputies followed the caravan along the narrow, winding road that led back into Raven’s Cliff proper. “You might want to consider if this is really what you want to do, Sterling.”

Nicholas turned to the chief. “I know what I have to do. All I need is what is rightfully mine to start the process.”

Swanson nodded. “The village attorney, Mason Cates, is working on that.” The chief pushed up his cap and scratched his balding head. “We thought you were dead, Nicholas. Eventually the village had to do something with the property, but the legal kinks will be worked out and then you can take possession of your family’s estate. It’s just gonna take a little more time.”

Blake Monroe would need to be reimbursed for the work he’d done on the manor. Nicholas would make that right once the legalities were settled. All of it was taking far too much time. Time was the one thing Nicholas didn’t have. “The longer we wait,” Nicholas warned, “the worse things will get.” He didn’t bother bringing up the curse. The chief knew what he meant. The evil that Nicholas felt in the air was building in intensity. Soon, very soon, there would be more trouble.

And a few irate villagers would be the least of the chief’s problems.

Swanson exhaled a bothered breath. “Yep, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

“What’re you going to do about this, Chief?”

Nicholas and the chief turned at the sound of Camille’s voice. She’d stepped out onto the stoop, the blanket still wrapped around her.

“The only thing I can,” Swanson admitted. “Deal with whatever comes up as it happens.”

“You should go home,” Nicholas insisted. She had gotten soaked to the bone. Considering her recent health ordeal, walking here in the rain hadn’t been a rational idea.

Camille’s gaze collided with his. “You made me a promise, Nicholas. The longer we wait…”

She didn’t have to say the rest. He understood what he had to do. What she desperately wanted him to do. “I’ll call you in the morning. We both need a good night’s rest if we’re to be adequately prepared.”

The chief looked from one to the other, completely puzzled. “What’s going on?”

“My baby is missing,” Camille snapped. “No one in your office seems to care.”

“You know that’s not true, Camille,” Swanson argued. “We’re doing all we can to find some answers.”

Camille laughed, but the sound lacked any hint of amusement. “Oh, yeah. I know just how hard you’re working. You think I did something wrong.” The pitch of her voice got higher and the sound angrier with each word. “You’re not looking any further than that.” She started to shake. “While my baby is out there with some…some…” Emotion got the better of her then. Her hands went to her face and she sobbed.

Nicholas ached with the need to hold her, to comfort her. But the chief was watching, analyzing.

To hell with it. Nicholas strode to her, wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “We will find your baby. Whatever it takes.”

The reality that he couldn’t focus on restoring the lighthouse until he helped Camille find her baby haunted the fringes of his mind.

But that couldn’t be helped.

A child was missing.

Camille’s child.

His child.

“THANK YOU, CHIEF.” Camille said the words though she didn’t feel the slightest bit grateful to the man.

But he had given her a ride home.

That was something.

Though the rain had stopped, a chill had permeated the air, held close to the ground by the consuming fog. She shivered as she hurried up the sidewalk to the front door of her parents’ home.

She hadn’t been thinking when she’d sneaked out the back door and run through the storm to find Nicholas. She’d tried to sleep, but she just kept going over and over everything the chief had said earlier tonight. She’d heard him talking to her parents when he’d stopped by to give an update. He believed Camille had suffered some sort of psychotic break during the kidnapping and that she either knew what the kidnapper had done with her child or had abandoned the child herself in order to seize the opportunity to escape her abductor. That theory had likely come from the psychologist. He hadn’t laid that scenario out in a neat little line to Camille, but he’d hinted at the idea.

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