the interruption but knowing it could be critical, Luke answered the call. “Agent Buchanan.”
“It’s me, Rusty,” he heard his friend say. “We made it to the jail without incident. The sheriff is booking the guys now. This is all just preliminary, but I checked their IDs. Their names are Damien Weathers and Simon Foster. Neither have a permit to carry concealed weapons so we can hold them. I ran their priors. Both also have records for burglary and some outstanding traffic tickets, but that’s it.”
That didn’t mean the two were innocent of this particular count. Whatever this count was. And it didn’t mean they weren’t the ones who’d tried to hurt Elaina a year ago.
“I’ll come down for the interviews,” Luke insisted.
“There won’t be any, not for a while at least. Both lawyered up, and both are giving us the silent treatment. You’re not getting anything out of these guys.”
Luke mentally cursed. “When will the lawyer be there?”
“Not until morning. No interviews, no interrogations until then.”
He mentally cursed even more. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear. But on the upside, as long as the men were behind bars, then Christopher was probably safe. Still, Luke wasn’t about to take any chances.
“You take care of things there with your little boy,” Rusty insisted. “I’ll arrange to install the security equipment we discussed.”
Luke had nearly forgotten about that. Not good. He needed to be totally focused because that equipment was a necessity. He wanted it installed in the wooded area behind Elaina’s house. With a motion- activated silent alarm, it would warn in advance if someone tried to sneak onto her property.
“I can get one of the agents from the Austin office to install it,” Rusty explained. “We’ll connect it to your cell phone signal so we won’t need to put any equipment inside Elaina’s house.”
“That’d be a big help,” Luke assured him.
“No problem. I’ll spend the night here at the sheriff’s office. In the mean time, I’ll keep digging and see if I can find any outstanding warrants on them. I’ll have their car impounded, as well. Something might turn up that we can use to put these guys away for a long, long time.”
“Thanks, Rusty.”
Elaina was staring at him when he ended the call. “What happened?”
“The men are in jail. I’ll interrogate them tomorrow after their lawyer shows up.” But no lawyer was going to stop him from getting answers.
“So, what do we do until then?” she asked.
It would not be an answer she liked, but it was the only answer Luke was going to give her.
“We take Christopher to your house,” he said. “Together. I’ll start getting acquainted with my son.”
She swallowed hard. “Does that mean you’ll be staying the night?”
It was yet another answer she wouldn’t like. Actually, Luke didn’t like it much, either. “Of course. That’s been my plan all along,” he reminded her.
But he’d come up with that plan before he’d ever met Elaina face-to-face. Before he’d had these stupid lustful thoughts about her.
Luke definitely hadn’t counted on the attraction.
Now, he had to figure out how to get past it. Because if he didn’t, it was going to be a very long night.
SHE COULD RUN AGAIN.
That was the one thought that kept going through Elaina’s mind. She could wait until Luke was asleep and try to sneak out with Christopher. Yes, she’d probably be breaking the law, but she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her son.
Elaina unlocked the front door of her house, and as she always did, reset the security system. She motioned for Luke to walk in ahead of her while she aimed a few daggers his way. Not that it would do any good. He obviously wasn’t going to change his mind about this asinine plan.
Luke had a sleeping Christopher cradled in his arms. The baby obviously hadn’t finished his nap because he’d fallen sound asleep on the short drive from Theresa’s to the house. It wasn’t unusual for him to do that, but because Christopher wasn’t awake, that meant she’d have to spend time alone with Luke. Elaina was not looking forward to that.
“His bedroom is at the end of the hall,” Elaina explained. She showed Luke the way, but she didn’t give him a tour or even a friendly expression. She simply opened the door to the nursery and pointed to the crib.
Luke gently lay the baby down and covered him with a pale blue quilt. What he didn’t do was leave. He stayed right there, looking down at Christopher.
Elaina didn’t want to speculate about what he was thinking, but she couldn’t help herself. Luke was no doubt realizing how much he loved this child. That love would only make him more adamant about taking Christopher.
Unless she did something to stop it.
She had to either sneak away with Christopher, or convince Luke to give up his plan.
“How long will you be staying in my house?” she demanded in a whisper.
He turned, frowned and walked toward her. Elaina automatically backed up to keep some distance between them, but he closed that distance.
Luke leaned in and practically put his mouth right against her ear. “First things first—how good is your security system?” he asked.
She’d anticipated that he might say a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them. Though she should have anticipated it. Because after what’d just happened with those men, it was relevant.
“It’s an excellent system,” she explained. Elaina whispered, too, and then she inched back away from him. “I had it installed right after I moved here. It’s monitored through the sheriff’s office and covers all the windows and doors.”
“What about the backyard and those thick trees that divide your house from your neighbor’s property?”
That’d been her concern when she moved in, as well. The lots were huge, at least an acre each, so there was plenty of space in between the individual homes. “There are motion-activated lights that come on in the front and back porches if someone approaches at night.”
He nodded, and it seemed to be an approval. “Make sure the system is on at all times. A fellow agent will be adding some extra equipment in the wooded area. If someone trips the system, I’ll be alerted through my cell phone.”
That hiked up her blood pressure. “You think those men are going to get out of jail tomorrow?”
He whispered again and closed the already narrow space between them. “Not if I can help it. I just need you to be cautious.”
For
