Houston was as obviously stunned as she was, because they both just stood there and listened.
“That’s why I’ve been following her,” Mack continued. “Or trying to, anyway. That woman’s like a cat with nine lives. She kept getting away from me. But I learned that SAPD had done DNA tests on the babies after that hostage mess, and I figured it was a matter of time before
the cops figured out the boy was yours. Then, I knew I could bargain with Gabrielle.”
So it hadn’t been her imagination, as Houston had suggested. Someone
had
followed her since she’d left the hospital. That twisted the knot in Gabrielle’s stomach even more.
“There’s not enough money in the world to make me give up my baby to you or anyone else,” Gabrielle told him.
She blinked back the tears, turned and hurried toward the door. She had to get out of there and back to Lucas.
“The boy belongs to Houston,” Mack shouted out to her. “He’s a Sadler and should be here with us.”
Mack added something else, but Gabrielle couldn’t make out his words. However, she could hear the footsteps behind her. It was no doubt Houston. But she didn’t care to speak to him, either.
She started to sprint toward the front door. Her car was seriously damaged, but somehow it’d have to get her away from the ranch and back to San Antonio.
Gabrielle made it all the way to the foyer before Houston latched on to her arm and whirled her around to face him. The tears were blurring her vision but not enough that she couldn’t see his stunned expression. It was identical to the one he’d had earlier when he learned that Lucas was his biological child.
Neither of them were having anything close to a good day, and under normal circumstances, Gabrielle might have actually felt sorry for him. But she had more to lose here. She’d carried Lucas, given birth to him and had
taken care of him for the past six weeks. As cold and hard as it sounded, Houston didn’t even know the baby.
She wanted to keep it that way.
“I had no idea my father knew about this,” he said, the emotion straining his voice.
“I don’t care.” She tried to throw off his hand, but Houston held on. “None of this matters. Lucas is my son, not yours.”
“But he
is
mine,” Houston reminded her. “And even though I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to you, I can’t just let you walk out.”
Gabrielle tried again to break free from him, but it was hard to do with the tears streaming down her cheeks. The raw sensations didn’t help, either. She felt totally drained and defeated. But that couldn’t last. She had to dig deep and fight her way out of this situation.
“I have to go,” she insisted.
Gabrielle threw her weight back, so she could wrench herself out of his grip. And she succeeded. For a few seconds, anyway. Then Houston grabbed her by the shoulders and put her against the wall.
“I can’t just let you walk out,” he repeated.
A dozen different emotions went through her, and she pounded her fists against his chest. But Houston held on, pinning her in place with his body. He took every one of her punches. He just stood there and waited her out.
It didn’t take long before Gabrielle spent what little energy she had left. The tears came harder now, and her hands dropped to her sides.
“I can’t lose Lucas,” she managed to say. “I love him. He’s my life.”
She waited for Houston to counter that with his own
argument, but he didn’t. He stood there staring at her, and then he did something that shocked her.
He reached out and pulled her into his arms.
Gabrielle put up a token resistance. She pushed her shoulder against his, but she was too exhausted to fight him anymore. Her legs gave way, and if it hadn’t been for Houston holding her, she would have slid straight to the glassy marble floor. She didn’t want to take this comfort from him, but she did.
“You look like you’re ready to pass out,” he told her, his voice barely a whisper.
She was. Everything in the room started to spin. Gabrielle leaned into him and let him support her. For just a moment, she assured herself. This didn’t mean anything, even though it was hard to forget that Houston Sadler was a man.
An attractive man at that. A man who was essentially her enemy. She forced herself to remember that. She couldn’t rely on Houston for anything.
“My life is falling apart,” she mumbled. “And someone tried to hurt us. Or worse.” She stopped and considered that a moment. “Your father—”
“He didn’t try to kill us today,” Houston said. “That’s what he was trying to tell you when you ran out of his office. He didn’t hire the men who were in that black car.”
Gabrielle shook her head. “He could be lying.”
“Why would he lie about that? He told us the truth about what happened at the Cryogen Clinic.”
“Only because I had proof that he’d followed me in the Range Rover. And because he must have guessed you would get to the bottom of this by going to Cryogen. You
would have eventually learned what happened. Besides, if your father’s plan was to try to buy the baby from me, then he would have had to come clean with you, once he had Lucas.”
In fact, that’s probably what Mack had been trying to do when he was following her. But Gabrielle had thwarted his plan because she’d managed to lose him and then move to a different hotel.
Losing him had been blind luck, though.
A minor car accident behind her vehicle and in front of the Ranger Rover had given her just enough time to turn onto a side street and then speed out of the area.
Houston met her eye-to-eye. “Look, right now I’m not sure I can ever forgive my father for what he did, but I don’t think he wants me hurt or dead.”
“No, he only wants a Sadler heir,” she fired back.
He hissed out his breath. “If I had known about the embryo mixup, I would have told you.”
“Would you have?” She didn’t intend to give him any sympathy, though she wasn’t totally untouched by the grief she saw on his face.
“I would have,” he insisted. “I would have gone to you and worked something out.”
That stayed between them for several moments. So did the eye contact. And Gabrielle cursed herself. Houston was pulling her in, and that couldn’t happen.
He stepped back, away from her, and she immediately felt the loss. And his physical support. She had to brace her back against the wall to stop herself from falling.
Houston scrubbed his hand over his face and continued to stare at her. “Look, I’m as messed up as you are right now, but we have to think this through. Maybe the
people who came after us today in that black car have to do with the person my father made the deal with at Cryogen. Maybe this guy is trying to put a lid on all of this.”
Great. Another possible suspect.
Gabrielle started to shake her head but stopped. She’d assumed this had to do with the hostage situation. Or maybe it was someone who wanted to kidnap Lucas for ransom. But Houston was right. This could be related to the Cryogen Clinic. After all, the clinic head had committed a crime when he doctored her records and conspired with Mack to keep the truth about the illegally used embryo from Houston.
“I need to check and see where this threat is coming from,” Houston said.
She considered telling him that she could do it herself, but she couldn’t. Gabrielle didn’t have the resources, and she couldn’t very well go out in public and conduct her own investigation. Still, it was a risk to have Houston run this particular show. Mack was his father, and God knows what Houston would do to protect him.
“If you discover that your father is indeed behind this attempt to run us off the road—”
“Then I’ll have him arrested. That applies to anyone else who tries to come after us again.”
His words were suddenly so calm that Gabrielle studied him to make sure he was telling the truth. She wanted to believe he was. She wanted to believe that the danger and harassment might finally come to an end. But while his words were calm, Houston’s expression wasn’t.
His eyes were a dark, stormy blue.
“I swear, I’ll get to the bottom of this,” he promised. “But first you have to do something.”
Gabrielle shook her head because she knew where this was leading.
He caught on to her face to stop the movement. “I’m not giving you a choice here, Gabrielle. You will take me to my son
now.
”
Houston forced himself to concentrate on the drive to the motel where Gabrielle had said Lucas and the nanny were staying.
Of course, she could be lying.
But a lie wouldn’t stop him. If necessary, he’d bring SAPD and an entire team of private investigators into this. One way or another, he would see his son.
“Take this exit,” Gabrielle instructed.
Her voice was practically hoarse, probably because she’d been fighting tears since they left the ranch. She had also said as little as possible. She was no doubt trying to decide the best way to get out of this.
Houston wanted to tell her there was no way out. Now that he knew the truth, he wasn’t going to disappear into the woodwork. He would find his baby and get custody of him.
Hopefully.
He couldn’t dismiss the fact that Gabrielle had been wronged in all of this. God knows how a court of law would interpret his father’s involvement, but Houston would fight as long as it took to get his son.
“My son,” he mumbled.
It didn’t seem possible. All those months, Lizzy and he had tried to have a child, but after she’d gotten sick, they had given up. Truth was, he had given up on a lot of things after her diagnosis of terminal cancer. His father was right about that. He hadn’t moved on with his life, but he would now. This baby was a miracle that he needed to put him in the right direction.
Lizzy’s and his miracle.
Houston took a deep breath absorbing that, and then he glanced at Gabrielle out of the corner of his eye. She was slumped in the passenger’s seat, leaning her head against the window, and she was staring at the side mirror.
She was obviously keeping watch, to make sure no one was following them. She was also upset, probably suffering from an adrenaline crash, too. While Houston was sympathetic to that, and to what his father had done, he couldn’t let sympathy play a part in this.
Nor would he let Gabrielle take control of the situation and convince him to do things he wasn’t ready and willing to do.
Despite her suspicions that his father might be responsible for the attempt to run them off the road, Houston didn’t believe that for a minute.
No, there was something else going on here, and that was the reason he’d slipped a handgun into his jacket pocket. If those SOBs came at them again, Houston wanted to be prepared. That meant staying as close to Gabrielle as possible.
And staying close wasn’t exactly comfortable for him.
He glanced at her again. At the way she’d tangled her
fingers into her hair. At the way her breathing strained her breasts against her top. At the way the sunlight danced off her pale skin.
Houston cursed himself and took his phone from his jacket pocket so he could call Dale. He needed to be thinking about more important things than hair and sunlight. Thankfully, Dale answered on the first ring.
“Any update from the ranch hands following that black car?” Houston asked.
“Not yet. The driver’s just meandering around, and our men are following.”
Houston hoped his men hadn’t been spotted. “Meandering where, exactly?”
“South side of San Antonio.”
That caused him to breathe a little easier. Gabrielle and he were on the opposite side of town. Of course, that didn’t mean the baby wasn’t on the south side, as well.
“Remember, if the car stops, I want to know about it,” Houston reminded Dale, and they hung up.
“They still haven’t caught the men in that black car?” she asked.
“No. And I don’t want them caught just yet. I want to see where they’re going. If it’s anywhere near Lucas, my men will stop them.” Houston waited but got no response. “Or maybe you think I should call the police and turn this whole matter over to them?”
She wearily shook her head. It was the reaction he’d expected. Gabrielle didn’t want anything to do with SAPD, because, according to the sheriff, they thought she might be a suspect in the illegal surrogacy. She wasn’t. But it would take time to clear that up, especially if the clinic head, Salvador Franks, had altered
her records so that Gabrielle would get the blame for his clinic’s screwup.
“Take the next left,” Gabrielle told him.
Houston turned onto the street in a northeast neighborhood that was littered with budget hotels and fast-food restaurants. He caught the red light, the first of many that was at every intersection.
“The motel is one block up on the right. The Starlight Inn. But you should drive around for a couple of minutes,” she insisted. “Just in case.”
“That was my plan.” Though he had been keeping watch, and Houston didn’t think anyone was following them—including anyone his father might have sent— he wanted to be sure. That was one of the reasons they hadn’t used Gabrielle’s car, but rather one from the ranch.
The light changed to green, and Houston drove past the hotel. It wasn’t easy to keep going. His son was inside—so close. But he forced himself to take the necessary precautions to keep the baby safe.
“What happens now?” Gabrielle asked.
Houston knew she wasn’t talking about the drive. “I go in and meet my son.”
She drew in a long breath. “Then what?”
He considered several possible answers but settled for “Then we talk.”
Gabrielle blinked and eased her head in his direction.
“Talk?”
Houston nodded and left it at that. Best not to bring up the whole subject of custody. He only wanted to focus on Lucas right now.
When Houston was certain they weren’t being fol
lowed, he pulled into the parking lot of the Starlight Inn and stopped.
“Lucas is really here?” he asked Gabrielle.
“He’s really here,” she confirmed.
Houston looked at her. The emotion was still there, etched on her face. But something else was there, too.
That damn attraction simmering just below the surface.
He just couldn’t get his mind off those brown eyes. Or that full mouth. Sheez. No woman should be allowed to have a mouth like that. It was a mouth that reminded him of kissing and other things he shouldn’t want to do with her.
What the devil was wrong with him?
He couldn’t let attraction or anything else play into this. The stakes were way too high for him to be thinking with any part of his body other than his brain.
“What?” she questioned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
But Houston didn’t even attempt to answer her question. He opened the car door and got out. “Which room?”
Gabrielle got out, as well, and walked to a room on the ground floor. All the rooms had exterior entrances, which meant they didn’t have to go through a lobby.
She stopped in front of room 112 and lifted her hand as if she were about to knock, but then she stopped and stared at him.
“This is just a visit, understand,” Gabrielle said. It wasn’t a question. “You’ll see him for a few minutes, and then you’ll leave.”
Not a chance.
But Houston kept that to himself.
However, there was something he needed to clarify. “Why did you bring me here? Why didn’t you just try to run again?”
She glanced away, paused. “I wanted to run and get as far away from you as possible,” she admitted, “but after what happened with that black car today, I don’t think I can outrun the danger, the cops, your father and you all at the same time. Right now, you’re the lesser of the four evils, because at least I don’t believe you’re trying to hurt me or arrest me. Not yet, anyway,” she added, in a mumble.
“I have no intention of hurting you,” he promised. But kissing her and trying to protect her, well, that was a different story.
“Maybe not physically, but you and I both know you’re in a position to destroy me. I can delay that. I can fight it. But I can’t stop you from trying.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond to that heart-wrenching admission. Gabrielle gave three short knocks on the door. “It’s me,” she said, still looking over her shoulder.
Houston glanced over his, as well, and he heard someone undoing the locks. His heart rate and breathing instantly sped up, but he tried to rein in his emotions in case this was some kind of trick. He still wasn’t convinced that Gabrielle had led him to the right place.
The petite Hispanic woman who opened the door was middle-aged, with graying black hair and wide brown eyes. Those eyes first went to him and then Gabrielle. She gripped on to the door as if she might slam it shut.
“It’s okay,” Gabrielle assured her, but her tone was
far from reassuring. “This is Houston Sadler. Houston, this is Lucas’s nanny, Lily Rose Torres.”
“Houston Sadler?” the woman repeated, with a gasp. “Why is he with you?”
“I had no choice but to bring him here,” Gabrielle explained, in a whisper. “It’s all right. Let him in.” She moved past the nanny and into the room.
For a moment, Houston thought that Lily Rose might ignore Gabrielle’s request and try to block him from entering, but the nanny finally stepped aside and locked the door once he was inside.
He walked into the room and glanced around. Two double beds divided by a nightstand, and a TV plopped onto an outdated dresser. There were baby clothes on one of the beds.
But no baby.
Houston was about to turn to Gabrielle and blast her for the deception, but then he heard the sound coming from the bathroom.
“I put Lucas in there when I heard someone knocking on the door,” Lily Rose explained, and she headed in that direction.
The sound got a little louder, and it only took a few seconds before it turned until a full-fledged cry.
Definitely a baby.
That got Houston moving, and he trailed right along behind Lily Rose. Gabrielle did, too, but she pressed her forearm over her breasts.
“I have to nurse him,” she mumbled. “My milk just let down.”
Houston didn’t have a clue what that last part meant,
but it was obvious that Gabrielle intended to breast-feed the baby.
Lily Rose stepped out of the tiny bathroom, holding an infant carrier in her right hand. Houston saw the movement then, the tiny kicks and squirms beneath the pale blue blanket.
“He’s hungry,” the nanny announced, grinning down at the baby. “I fed him a bottle about an hour ago, but I guess that wasn’t enough for our growing boy.” Still grinning, she brought the carrier toward Gabrielle.
And he got the first glimpse of his son’s face.
It nearly brought Houston to his knees.
Oh, mercy.
He’d seen pictures of himself as a baby, and Lucas was his spitting image. The dark brown hair, the shape of his face, that chin. He couldn’t see the baby’s eyes, but he was betting they were Sadler blue.
Houston had expected his first glimpse to pack a wallop, and it did. He looked into the carrier and saw that precious little face. It wasn’t exactly one of those picture-perfect moments, because his son’s face was flushed from crying, and it was obvious he wasn’t happy. His sobs got even louder.
Gabrielle stepped in front of Houston and eased the baby from the carrier.
“It’s all right,” she murmured. “Mommy’s here now.”
She kissed the baby’s cheek and carried him to one of the beds, where she sat and leaned back against the headboard. She smiled at Lucas. Really smiled.
Man.
It lit up her whole face. Gabrielle was a knockout,
even when she was glaring at him; but with that smile she was beautiful.
Houston shook his head to clear it. His brain was obviously turning to mush.
Gabrielle had already reached to pull up her top, but then her gaze came to his. “Uh, could you turn around?” she asked.
It wasn’t an unreasonable request, but Houston hated to take his eyes off his son, even for a couple of minutes. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and take him. To kiss him the way Gabrielle had. He wanted to know what it felt like to hold that precious life in his hands.
But his son obviously preferred dinner.
Houston turned to the side and tried to keep his attention elsewhere. Still, the room was small, and he caught the movement from the corner of his eye when Gabrielle lifted her T-shirt. He also heard his son begin to nurse.
Houston had to take a deep breath.
Here he’d been so certain that he could just take Lucas and get custody of him, but the breast-feeding was a stark reminder that, while Lucas’s DNA might be a match to Lizzy’s, Gabrielle was the mommy he knew.
“I was worried about you,” Lily Rose told Gabrielle, “so I checked for messages on the cell phone. I got your voicemail about you arriving at the Sadler ranch. There was also another message from your brother, Jay.” She motioned to the notepad and the phone on the nightstand.
That got Houston’s attention, and he looked at Gabrielle. Her top was still shoved up, but he couldn’t see her breasts because Lucas was in front of them.
Gabrielle glanced at the notepad and then at Houston.
Before today, Jay was the only thing they had in common, and it wasn’t a good connection to have. Houston figured any man who would abuse an animal wasn’t someone he wanted within a hundred miles of his son.
“Jay calls you often?” Houston asked.
“Not really. Before I got pregnant, he hadn’t spoken to me in months, but since the birth, he’s called me nearly every day.”
Houston didn’t like the man’s timing. “What does he want?”
“To see me, and Lucas,” Gabrielle said, with a heavy sigh. “I told him I didn’t have time to visit.”
That was a massive understatement. But it got Houston thinking. “Is it possible Jay might have had something to do with those men in the black car?”
“No.” But then she lifted her shoulder. “I don’t think so, anyway.”
It was yet something else that Houston needed to check out.
He glanced at the notepad on the nightstand. The nanny had written a phone number with the message: “Call your brother immediately. He says it’s important.”
Houston picked up the cell next to the note. “Why did Jay call you on this phone, rather than the one you had with you at the ranch?”
“Because that’s the only number he has. It’s the phone I used for business. I’m on maternity leave, but I still needed a way for the legal staff to contact me if a problem arose with one of my clients.”