told you everything,” Jennifer said. “There’s another reason we need to go to San Antonio.”
Ryan raised his eyebrow, then stepped away from her, shoving his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans to keep from touching her. “You mean, there’s more?” he asked, a sarcastic edge to his voice. He wandered over to his desk and idly began to flip through a stack of geological surveys. “Let me guess. There’s probably a case of amnesia involved. Maybe some family insanity, a few underworld connections. Hell, according to you, my life has suddenly become a cheesy soap opera.”
She grabbed his elbow and gently turned him until he faced her. “This isn’t some silly television show. This is real life. Ben Mulholland has a five-year-old daughter who has been diagnosed with leukemia. She needs a bone marrow transplant and the doctors haven’t been able to find a donor match through the network. Her father can’t donate because of a bout with malaria. If worst comes to worst and the right donor can’t be found soon, they’re hoping you might agree to help.”
He stared at her for a long moment, saw the emotion in her eyes, the hopeful expression. He’d always known someday a woman would walk into his life and change him forever. But he’d expected to fall madly in love and get married. He didn’t expect her to turn his whole world upside down and make him question who and what he was!
His gaze dropped to her mouth and he fought the temptation to kiss her. It had been so long since he’d kissed a woman, but he hadn’t forgotten how easy it was to lose himself in a warm and willing female. All the confusion that muddled his brain would slowly dissolve and he’d be left with only desire and the sweet taste of her mouth.
“She’s your sobrina,” Jennifer said quietly. “Your niece.”
“That, Miss Rodriguez,” he murmured, letting her name linger on his lips, “is yet to be determined.”
“Then come with me,” she urged. “If you’re sure it’s a mistake, we’ll prove it and you can get back to your life.” She reached into the pocket of her purse and produced a plane ticket. “We’ve got a flight out of Midland in two hours.”
“You were awfully certain I’d agree to come with you.”
A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth, charming, enticing, revealing an impish streak that she’d kept hidden until now. “If you didn’t come willingly, I was going to knock you senseless and stuff you in the trunk of my car.” She turned and started toward the door of the trailer.
“You must be getting paid very well by Mr. Mulholland,” he said.
She turned back, her expression suddenly cool, but her eyes betraying a startling depth of determination. “This isn’t about money, Mr. Madison. This is about a little girl’s life.” With that, she stepped outside into the blazing sun, heat pouring into the air-conditioned trailer like a blast furnace.
Ryan smiled and smoothed his hands over the front of his sweat-stained T-shirt. He was tempted to slam the door behind her and refuse to follow her to San Antonio. But something in the way she looked at him, in the stubborn set of her mouth and trusting look in her eyes, made him want to do as she asked.
“I guess I’m going to San Antonio,” he murmured.
And even if he did prove Jennifer Rodriguez wrong, he’d still manage to come away with something worthwhile. He’d have spent the day with an incredibly intriguing and beautiful private investigator.
CHAPTER ONE
JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ stared up at the office building in downtown Midland. Inside was her salvation, the only person in the world who might be able to help her in this time of crisis. Though she hadn’t seen him since that day almost a month ago, she was hoping Ryan Madison remembered his promise to her as she’d left him at the hospital in San Antonio.
If there’s ever anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to call.
He’d taken her hand as he thanked her, though she couldn’t understand his gratitude. She’d walked into his life, dropped a bombshell of atomic proportions, then walked away. The chaos she’d wreaked on Ryan Madison’s life would reverberate for years to come. Jennifer sighed softly. The only satisfaction she’d found in the completed assignment was that she’d tried to help a little girl who wanted nothing more than to grow up strong and healthy. Ryan had been tested but was only a remote match.
But then just days later, a compatible donor had unexpectedly been found, a nearly perfect match for Lucy. Yesterday, Carolyn St. Clair had called from the San Antonio office of Finders Keepers, her voice filled with excitement, to say Lucy was so much better that she would be going home the very next day. She also passed on the good news that she and Ben Mulholland had exchanged wedding vows in Lucy’s hospital room. They’d be a real family now.
Jennifer thought back to the day she met Ryan, a day so full of startling revelations. She’d never expected to become so emotionally entangled in a case, her concern for both Lucy Mulholland and Ryan Madison weighing heavily on her mind. In truth, she hadn’t had a case of such magnitude since she’d started working in the tiny private investigations firm in downtown Odessa. That was probably because the Mulholland case had been her first real case—sort of.
She’d begun work at Budnicki-Morales Private Investigations a week after she’d graduated from the University of Texas-El Paso, leaving her family and hometown for an exciting life of her own in a brand-new city. The two veteran investigators had advertised for a bookkeeper and office manager at the campus job placement center and she’d found the possibility of working for private investigators intriguing. And Odessa was just far enough away from El Paso-282 miles to be exact—that her parents’ interference in her life was minimal.
Carmen and Diego had been so proud. She was the first Rodriguez to graduate college. And with a degree in accounting, she’d always be able to find work, setting a fine example for her four younger siblings. But from the first time she’d balanced the books for the two crusty old P.I.s, she’d known that she wasn’t cut out to simply count the company’s pennies. She wanted to be an investigator, just like Ralph Budnicki and Roy Morales.
She got her first break when Lily and Dylan Garrett started referring work from Finders Keepers in San Antonio. The workload doubled almost instantly with missing persons cases for the two licensed P.I.s and Jennifer found herself doing more and more investigative work. Recently she’d been promoted to assistant investigator by Ralph and Roy and had begun taking night classes to get her P.I. license.
She’d worked the Mulholland case from start to finish, and though a licensed investigator should have been the one to approach Ryan Madison, both Ralph and Roy thought Jennifer better suited to handle such a highly charged emotional situation. There was a benefit to being the only woman in the office.
Right now, Jennifer was thankful for the fates that had put her in Ryan Madison’s path. She smoothed her palms over the bodice of her cotton dress, ran her fingers through her perpetually windblown hair and started toward the front entrance to the office building. She’d reviewed her strategy over and over again, planning the exact words she would say to him, the perfect way to convince him to go along with her plan.
But there was one part of her plan she still hadn’t refined—the exact moment to tell him she was pregnant. Should she just blurt it out at the start or should she chat for a few minutes before carefully steering the conversation in that direction? Should she offer an explanation about the baby’s father or would it be better to gloss over that particular lapse in judgment?
At
