His Baby Bonus

“Be right back.” On her return trip to the kitchen, the rail-thin redhead sang along with the jukebox.

“Mind passing the ketchup?” the marshal asked.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Gracie said, careful to set the stupid bottle in front of him, rather than risk another touching encounter by passing it directly into his waiting hand. “How if I’m skitterish enough to jump when a waitress comes around, that I must be a real head case. But I’ll have you know I didn’t flinch just a second ago because I was scared or nervous or anything. Flinching is a natural reaction often encountered during the latter stages of a woman’s third trimester.”

“Uh-huh,” he said before taking a bite of his burger.

“You don’t believe me?”

He just sat there chewing.

She cut her burger in half, then took a bite, only to wince before swallowing. “I can’t eat this,” she said.

“Why?”

“It’s cold. I don’t usually eat foods like…” Making a face, she waved at the offensive burger. “Plus, I have a texture issue about cold grease. Feels funny on my tongue.”

“Take mine,” he said, switching plates. “It’s still good and hot.”

“I couldn’t,” she said.

“Afraid I’ve got cooties? Want me to cut off the part where I bit?”

“Of course not,” she said. And to prove it, she took a bite right beside his, only to then wish she’d have just stuck with her own cold burger.

The slow grin he cast her way made a mess of her earlier assumption that the man was her enemy. How long had it been since someone was truly nice to her? Sacrifice-his-own-hot-burger nice? A while. But that didn’t mean now she should suddenly go soft.

If she let this marshal take her back to Portland, she’d be stuck in some so-called safe house for who knew how long before Vicente’s case went to trial. Seeing how now that he’d vanished, he couldn’t exactly be put on the stand. Her chance for winning the CAI’s prize would be gone, along with her and her baby girl’s future.

Keeping this in mind, she concentrated on finishing her marshal’s burger and planning a new escape. She’d tried living in Chaosville and found it not to her liking.

“Hate to interrupt you,” she said while he downed the last of her burger. “But I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”

“Again?” He sighed.

“Sorry.” She flashed him her brightest smile. “Another pregnancy thing.”

“It’s okay,” he said, sliding out of the booth. “But just in case you’re thinking of trying anything, I’m going with you. Not only are you a key witness, but whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you’re in danger.”

“That’s just plain silly,” she said, thickening her accent. “Vicente would nevuh really hurt me. And now that you’ve found me, where could I possibly go? Now, be a good boy and please hand me my purse.”

He cautiously did as she’d asked.

“Thank you. I won’t be but a second.”

“That’s mighty considerate of you, darlin’, but just in case you get a hankering to take another drive, how about leaving me your keys?”

“Y-you can’t be serious,” she said. “After hearing about those other men trailing me, you honestly think I’d willingly leave your side?”

“Keys.” He held out his hand, wagged his fingers.

With a huffy sigh, she dug through her purse, handing them to him.

“Thanks.”

“You’re not welcome.”

While Gracie headed for the ladies’ room, Beau sat on the opposite side of the booth so he could have a better view. He chuckled to recall the expression on her face when he’d asked for her keys. Boy, he’d really caught her off guard with that one. Of course she’d been planning another escape. Running straight for that cooking thing.

Seeing her, being near her, brought to mind memories of how things had been with Ingrid. The luminescence of pending motherhood. The luster of her hair. The rattler-type snap when coming between her and her food. How long had it been since he’d recalled happy memories about that time?

Still grinning, Beau shook his head.

The waitress approached. “Need any pie?”

“You know,” Beau said, “that’d really hit the spot. Got anything chocolate?”

“Chocolate cream guaranteed to curl your toes.”

“In that case,” he said with a wink. “Better get two. My friend doesn’t like to share.”

She laughed. “When it comes to pie, I don’t blame her.”

The pie came, and in Beau’s case, went. The waitress had been right—it was damned good.

He eyed the bathroom. Gracie had been in there awhile. Should he call the waitress back over and ask her to check on his Southern belle?

He did just that.

And when the redhead returned with a funny look, telling him the ladies’ room was empty, if Beau had had three legs he would’ve kicked himself all the way back to Portland. How could he be so gullible?

How could Ms. Sherwood be so dumb?

He had her keys, so that left her sneaking away sometime during the thirty seconds in which he’d wolfed down his pie, then hitching a ride with a stranger. Surely he came across as more trustworthy than some of the scary-looking characters around here?

Leaving a twenty and ten on the table, Beau headed outside, shading his eyes against blinding sun.

Heat hovered in undulating waves above the blacktop. Not the best weather for a pregnant lady to be out hitching a ride.

The lot looked quiet. Three semis. Two off, one with the engine idling, stinking up the place with diesel exhaust. An assortment of eleven passenger cars lined the restaurant’s front. Two more passenger cars were filling up at covered gas tanks. On the access road running alongside I-5, a silver minivan whizzed by.

Beau looked to his own vehicle, to the big, pink Caddie, he’d blocked—

What the?

Gracie’s car was gone. The bushes in front of it flattened. His SUV’s grill all busted to hell. She’d even stabbed his driver’s side front tire. He knew it had been her because of the pink-handled metal nail file still stuck in the rubber.

When had she given him the slip? While he’d ordered pie? Common sense told him the bathroom’s location meant it was an interior room with only one exit. How was it a chirpy blonde who had tongue issues with cold grease had so effortlessly gotten away from him not once, but twice?

And how long was it going to take for him to get his tire patched so he could once and for all teach Gracie Sherwood who was boss?

More importantly, how long until he finally got it through his head that just because Gracie was pregnant, that didn’t mean he owed her special favors. He’d bent over backward trying to be kind to his wife, and look where that’d left him. He still hadn’t been able to right the wrong between them. The even sadder truth was that even if he’d wanted to, there was nothing he could’ve done.

Chapter Two

“Listen up,” Beau said to Gracie through a still chain-locked door, six frick-frackin’ hours later, standing on the covered porch of a kitschy, roadside motel just south of Oregon’s Bandon State Park. Surrounded by a brooding fir forest, the brown and gray strip motel with plywood castle towers on either end and a moat-shaped pool with more moss than water looked like some Brothers Grimm fairy tale gone wrong.

It was only seven at night, yet in the shadows, felt more like midnight.

Gracie had parked her pink Caddie in front of her room.

Odds were, Beau never would’ve found her without a tip from a local cop who’d spotted her car. The man had offered his assistance in bringing Gracie in, but after her latest slip, for Beau anyway, this case had gotten personal. Or maybe it had always been personal, he thought, swiping his fingers through his hair.

Seeing how the rest of the crew was scattered at least a hundred miles in all different directions, looked like he had the good fortune to be bringing Ms. Sherwood in all by himself. “It’s time you learned who’s leading this mission. There are a lot of things I’ll put up with, but this hide-and-seek game’s getting old, and—” What was that funny noise?

Was she crying?

Oh, man, if his momma had still been alive to see this, she’d thump him upside his head. His dad still could, for making this little bitty pregnant thing sob.

Ingrid never once cried. Not during the entirety of her cruelly sterile speech.

“T-that’s so—wait,” Gracie said, noisily unhooking the chain. “I can’t even speak.” Whatever kind of girly cry she had going, it grew steadily worse until Beau felt two inches tall. On his list of things he didn’t do, making women cry was at the top. “Oh my gosh, you’re funny. Thanks. I haven’t had a belly laugh like that in—well, since never. At least not in the recent past.”

Funny? She called that donkey braying laughter? At his expense?

Door open, he brushed past her and stormed into the room, wanting for some unfathomable reason to be put off by peeling, smoke-stained wallpaper and the busted-tile bathroom usually indicative of this sort of hole-in-the-wall establishment. What he got was a scene from Southern Living—MTV style.

She’d draped silky-looking scarves over lamps, lending the place an exotic glow. The germy motel bedspread had been replaced with faux fur. Mink? On top of that were a half-dozen pillows, all embroidered with quirky sayings like, Woman cannot live on chocolate alone…She needs shopping, too!

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the smell was…fantastic? Some heavenly concoction simmering on a two-burner kitchenette stove sent his ravenous stomach into a growling fit. Too bad he was here to drag her back to Portland and not to eat!

“You haul all of this stuff around with you?” he asked.

Stepping inside, Gracie shut the door. His one question turned her smile upside down. “This stuff, my cooking gear and a few clothes were all I brought into my marriage, so that’s all I took when it was over.”

“Sure,” he said with a nod.

“Sure?” She shook her head. “I tell you my life is over, and that’s all you have to say?”

She’d paraded spicy-smelling candles across the top of the TV, and he sliced his finger through the flames. “Sorry. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re returning to Portland with me. Now.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m exhausted. I’ve been driving all day. I still have a couple more sauce variations to try tonight. If you insist on dragging me back, I’ll go peaceably—but in the morning.”

“Fair enough,” he said, but was he a fool for taking her at her word?

Suddenly, standing there, looking at her, there wasn’t enough air in the room. Her candles and the rich sauce were eating it all.

The size of her stomach and glow of her skin were similar to Ingrid’s, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Ingrid had been out for Ingrid. Period. But Gracie, this drive of hers to win a contest was all for the sake of her baby—so that he or she could live a better life. A safer life. Beau admired the hell out of her. And wanted to know more about her than the bland fare found in her file.

“If you have to stay,” she said, “you might as well make yourself at home.” She was back in the tiny yet workable kitchen, dumping pasta she’d had bubbling on the back burner into a colander she’d already set in the sink. “The TV only gets five channels, but I guess that’s better than nothing.”

He shrugged.

Had she always been so pretty? Had so many curls? She’d cupped her hands to her big belly, cast him a half grin that lit her whole face. He wanted to stay mad at her, but she was like a too cute kitten—only she wasn’t a cat, but a woman. Had she been a cat, he would’ve just played with her. Stroked her fur and scratched behind her ears. Just thinking about what Gracie would do to him if he tried either of those activities made him smile.

His ex had been hard as nails. No petting allowed.

“Mind letting me in on the joke?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder while giving her brew a stir.

“Nah. But thanks for asking.” He winked.

She frowned. “Fine. Don’t tell me.” Back to stirring, she hummed a soft, nonsensical tune.

“I won’t.”

“Why do you have to be so obstinate?” she asked, wiping her hands on an industrial-type white apron, then crossing the room to switch on the TV with a remote.

“Wasn’t aware I was being anything.”

“You’re obviously uptight,” she said, switching past news, Wheel of Fortune and an infomercial, finally landing on a black and white movie. “What you need is a good meal. A nice bottle of wine. You’re all cranked up inside.”

“Cranked up?”

“Yeah, you know, stressed out. Uptight. At the very least, have a seat, or else it’s going to be a very long night.”

“Already has been,” he said, turning his back on her to peer behind curtains. All quiet save for his erratic pulse. If they were staying the night, he’d feel better if the cars were parked in back, out of casual sight. Odds were Vicente’s goons were miles from here, but better safe than sorry.

“Anything exciting going on?” she asked from her perch on the foot of the bed. “Parades? A tailgate party?”

“Give me your keys,” he said. “This time, your car keys.”

“Oops,” she said with a big, cheesy grin. “I’m bad.”

“Yes, you are,” he said. “So give me both sets.”

“I’d be happy to if you’d be so kind as to hand me my purse.”

He did, and she took her time fishing through the jangling contents, eventually catching two sets of keys, just as he’d requested.

“Here you go.” She dangled them.

Finally some cooperation out of the woman.

“Just one more thing,” he said. “Hate doing this, but in your case, it has to be.”

From his jeans’ back pocket, he withdrew cuffs.

“Oh, no,” she said, scrambling back into the pillow pile. “No way you’re cuffing me. I have to keep stirring my sauce. And anyway, I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ve done everything wrong.” Before she escaped again, he cuffed her left wrist, then secured the free cuff to the wall-mounted lamp. He hated doing this, hated using such a flimsy hold. Had she been a man—hell, if she hadn’t been so pregnant and vulnerable looking—he wouldn’t have thought twice about forcing her under the open kitchen sink counter to secure her to the pipes.

“I have every intention of testifying at my ex-husband’s trial,” she said. “But until then, I’ve got things to do. All I did in running from you was fight for my right to live life on my own terms. Is that so bad?”

“It is when you’re putting that life at risk. Now, sit tight for about three minutes, then I’ll free you. Look,” he said, turning for the stove. “To prove I’m a nice guy, I’ll even turn off the burner so whatever you’re cooking doesn’t burn.”

“Lucky me,” she said with a wag of her cuffed wrist. “Here I don’t even know your name and you’re already handy in the kitchen and getting kinky in bed.”

“For the record,” he said at the door, “I can get a lot kinkier than this. And the name is Beauregard Logue. Friends call me Beau.”

“That mean we’re friends?” she asked with a hopeful smile.

“You can call me, Mister Logue.”

“No,” Gracie said under her breath not five seconds after the beast strolled out the door. “I’ll call you out of my life.”

Easing upright, she used her free hand to turn off the lamp, unscrew the finial and remove the shade.

Ouch! The bulb was hot—took forever to get out seeing how she had to keep stopping for wince breaks. After yanking out the harp, freeing herself was a simple matter of lifting her arm eight inches.

Peering through the door’s peephole, she watched Marshal Beau drive around back.

Once he was out of sight, she flew into action. Running out the front door to her car, then grabbing the spare key from the magnetic box she kept under the driver’s side wheel well—she was awful about locking her keys in the car.

Now came the tricky part. Sure, she could head right back out on the road, but she’d be caught faster than she got gas after eating broccoli.

No, this time, she’d have to be more creative. And so instead of turning south on the highway, she turned north, pulling her car into an abandoned junkyard, camouflaging the pink in a sea of rust and primer gray. Thick, conifer-scented woods circled the cars, and in midday, she was sure the place had a quaint feel, but at the moment, she had a major case of the creeps.

She waited an hour in muggy dusk, the whole time swatting at whiny bugs until her entire body felt coated with grit and mosquito bites. Until dust and dirt ground between her teeth and she tasted it on her tongue. Only then, in rapidly fading daylight, did she figure it was safe to return to the motel for her stuff. Certainly Marshal Beau was long gone.

Everything that meant anything to her was in that room. Photos and diaries and recipes. Pricey pans and accoutrements. A few pieces of jewelry she hoped to pawn for the cash she’d need to get her the rest of the way to San Francisco. From there, her hotel room was prepaid, and with luck, she’d have the prize money to get her home.

She parked around back, trudged up to the front desk for another key, explaining to the clerk that she’d locked the first one in the room.

By the time she slipped the key into the lock, Gracie was beyond tired. Her feet were swollen, her lower back aching, and she could really have gone for a Caesar chicken salad and French onion soup. As for her cream sauce experiments, all she could do at this point was toss it all and start fresh wherever she stopped tomorrow.

In the room, she headed straight for the bathroom sink. It would take ten days to scrub all the junkyard grime from her face. She brushed her teeth, too. She needed a shower, but the mere thought seemed too energetic.

After securing her long mess of naturally curly hair in a scrunchie, she slipped off her shoes and headed for bed. Surely she’d feel better after a nice, long snooze?

Only after turning around and getting her first good look at the bed, she found that not only was her fuzzy faux-mink spread missing, but also the scarves she’d put over the lamps and her pillows and—she stormed to the bathroom. He’d even taken her ultra-fluffy pink towels and no, even he wouldn’t have sunk that low…

Running for the suitcase she’d stashed in a small closet, she yanked open the door and couldn’t have felt lower if the man had socked her in the stomach.

Shoulders sagging, the tears she’d been too stubborn to shed since the start of this whole ordeal finally spilled.

Her recipes.

The creep had taken her recipes—not only that, but also all of her cooking gear.

The CAI contest was unique in that you couldn’t fully prepare before arrival. There were one hundred and ninety-three chefs, each representing the globe’s countries—unlike the U.S., the CAI recognized Taiwan. In each of five rounds, the ethnic theme of her meals was determined by luck of the draw. She could draw Ethiopia. India. Greenland. In her recipe journal was years of research. Without it, she might as well not even go to San Francisco. What was the point when she didn’t have a prayer of winning?

Jeez, her back hurt. And now, her head and heart.

Why had Marshal Beau done this?

How could he be so cruel?

She sat hard on the foot of the bed, cradling her forehead in her hands.

Who was she trying to kid? Vicente’s capture had been big news. His spectacular prison break even bigger. As his ex-wife, the woman carrying his baby, Gracie had been in the news right along with him. For all she knew, the world-renowned Culinary Arts Institute might have rescinded her invitation without even letting her know. Hers was a type of publicity they didn’t want.

On the flip side, she owed it to this tiny life growing inside to at least try.

Freeing her hands to rub her bulging tummy, she looked up toward the dresser and TV. Sitting beneath her favorite bottle of perfume—the only non-essential item left in the room—was a note written on a yellow legal pad.

Want your stuff? Let’s make a deal.

Meet me at the Fish Tale Motel

in Orick, California. Noon tomorrow.

—Your Fave Marshal.

Instead of the customary signature at the bottom of his note, he’d drawn a smiling stick guy bearing a star-shaped badge on his chest. Of all the nerve…

He’d stolen everything she owned and thought she’d be happy about it? Oh—she’d meet him all right, but if he thought for one second she’d peaceably return to Portland with him, he had about as much brain power as his stupid, smiling stick man!

“’BOUT TIME y’all got here,” Marshal Beau said with a slow grin and that infuriating imitation of her accent. Granted, she’d poured it on thick the morning she’d locked him in that storage closet, but it hadn’t been that thick.

“Where’s my property?” she asked from behind the wheel, shading her eyes against blinding noon sun. Their appointed meeting spot was an even more tired establishment than the last one she’d stayed at.

The Fish Tale Motel was on the outskirts of the bustling tourist town of Ulmstead—located in the heart of redwood country. The towering redwood setting was spectacular, sweet-scented and warm; it was almost enough to make the giant log cabin, with its tattered green roof, charming. An abandoned mini-waterslide had been filled with pungent yellow marigolds.

“Get out,” Marshal Beau said, “then I’ll show you.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon you put it in my trunk.”

“And then you drive off into the sunset?”

She laughed. “It’s high noon. There’s a ways to go before nightfall.”

“You know what I mean.” He braced his hands on the side of her door. Strong hands, with long elegant fingers. His muscular forearms were tan, a few light hairs mixed among the dark, glinting in the sun.

Yes, she thought, licking her lips. A few seconds earlier she’d known exactly what he’d meant, but somewhere between his biceps and broad shoulders, she’d totally lost track of her thoughts.

“Get out,” he said. “Please.”

She sighed. “You, please, cut me some slack. I feel eighteen months pregnant, according to you, my husband’s trying to kill me and I haven’t had a decent meal in two days.”

“Wait just a sec,” Beau said, jogging the fifteen feet to his black SUV.

He soon headed back her way bearing a large grocery sack. “This is for you,” he said, “but only if you’ll at least get out long enough to talk to me.”

“I’m not stupid,” she said, thumping her forehead against the steering wheel. “I get out, you’ll slap cuffs on me. That’ll be it. My whole life instantly ruined.”

“Look—” he knelt, resting his forearms on her door “—I’ll level with you. You’re not going to like it, but for your own good, it has to be said.”

“What?” She made the mistake of raising her head to meet his eyes. They were amazing eyes. Deep walnut with flecks of mossy-green. Above all, they were kind, not the eyes of a man deadset on destroying her life.

“Gracie Sherwood, this isn’t a game. Your ex-husband wants to kill you—and your baby.”

“I have to get to that competition,” she said, refusing to let his words sink in. “And anyway, how would Vicente or his supposed hired thugs ever even find me?”

“I did. You’re a looker, driving a look-at-me car. Believe me, you’re not too hard to find.”

“Then why’d you have to steal my stuff to get me back?”

“I didn’t,” he said. “All I had to do was temporarily store your belongings in my car, then wait. I knew it was just a matter of time till you returned.”

“So all night and day you’ve been right behind me?”

“Pretty much.”

“Who else?”

He looked away.

“Tell me.”

“So far, one suspicious guy in a forest-green Hummer.”

“And?” she asked, looking toward the busy highway. “Where is he now?”

“He, ah, turned off around Fort Dick.”

“Uh-huh. Which only proves my point that Vicente’s no fool. He wants nothing more to do with me. What happened back in Portland was no doubt some last chance, desperation effort designed to scare me, which it did. I’ve left town—for all my ex knows, for good.”