factor in many elements. The fact that Joseph’s birth mother was dead. The fact that his biological father likely wouldn’t challenge her for custody. But Kelly couldn’t discount that Nick Lattimer loved this child as his own.
A child that was almost certainly hers.
That love for William was the ultimate obstacle that wouldn’t be easy to overcome. But she would.
Somehow.
Kelly was resolute about that. But that didn’t mean she was immune to that loving, fatherly look in Nick Lattimer’s eyes.
“I should go,” Kelly managed to say. Mercy. Now, she was really feeling guilty. “I need to get home to Joseph.” She didn’t wait for Lattimer’s response. She headed out the way they’d come in.
He followed her. Of course. And he caught her arm just before she made it to the door. “I don’t want you to say anything about this to anyone,” he insisted. “Understand?”
“Of course.” Probably because he didn’t want Joseph’s biological father or anyone else to get word of it before they could figure out what to do. And then there was the issue of Eric. She definitely didn’t want his creepy brother thinking there was a competing heir.
She stood there a moment. Their gazes connected. Those gunmetal eyes no longer seemed as lethal as they had minutes earlier. Even though she figured it was temporary. Lattimer hadn’t gotten his steely reputation by accident.
“Thank you,” she told him. “I think.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. Just slightly. And for only a split second. It wasn’t an expression of amusement but more of irony.
Since the moment quickly became awkward, she fluttered her hand toward the door. “I’ll just go.”
And she did. She hurried out of there before he could stop her. Kelly raced down the back staircase and grabbed her purse and keys from the kitchen. Thankfully, everyone was busy with the preparation for serving dessert, so no one said anything to her as she walked out.
The late-autumn rain pelted her as she hurried out of the house and to her car. She made it all the way off the ranch before the tears came. With them came the doubts and the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. With all his money and contacts, would Nick Lattimer fight her for custody even if she proved that William was her son?
Those questions repeated in her head, and Kelly began to think of all the things Lattimer could do to prevent her from assuming custody. However, even with the tears, the violent storm and the painful question, she didn’t miss the other car.
The black SUV appeared less than a minute after she drove through the massive wrought-iron gates that fronted Lattimer’s property. The vehicle stayed steady behind her on the country road. A safe distance away so that most people might not have noticed.
She noticed.
And it sent a deathly chill over her.
God, what had she done?
Chapter Four
Nick took the turn on Old Cypress Road, noted the parked dark-green car with the heavily tinted windows and let the bit of information he’d just learned sink in. Well, as much as information like that could sink in. Now the question was—was it relevant to Kelly Manning’s visit to the ranch?
“She was under psychiatric care at St. Mary’s Hospital a little over a year and a half ago,” Cooper added, his voice clear on the tiny speaker of Nick’s cell phone. “For severe depression. She was treated and released after just two days, but she still sees a therapist a couple of times a month.”
Nick moved those details around in his head, fitting them to the other facts he already had in place. “A year and a half ago. That was about the same time her husband was killed.”
“Yes. About a week after.”
“So, it’s reasonable that she might need professional care to get through something that traumatic. Especially since she was only a few weeks pregnant.”
“I suppose. But there’s the fact that it took me too many layers to find anything about this particular hospital stay. Someone buried her file, sir. Trust me, that’s not easy to do these days.”
Nick had no doubts about that. Especially since he had the resources to dig through layer after layer of anything that a person might want to hide. However, a brief stay in the mental ward of a hospital didn’t make Kelly Manning insane.
Nor did it exonerate her of anything.
She could still be a liar. An opportunist. Or a half dozen other unsavory things, including but not limited to Eric’s employee.
On the other hand, if she truly was an innocent party in all of this, then God help her. She’d just wandered into a viper’s nest.
And he was one of the very vipers that could end up getting her killed.
“Sir, I’m asking you to rethink this visit,” Nick heard Cooper say. “You shouldn’t go to see this woman alone.”
But that was the only way this visit would happen. It was too dangerous otherwise.
“I’ll be fine, Cooper. Besides, you have one of your men posted nearby.” It wasn’t a question. Nick had seen the security guard in the dark-green car and knew it was one of his vehicles and employees.
“I do. But he won’t be inside.”
“Nor do I want him there,” Nick insisted, making sure he got his point across. He appreciated Cooper’s concern, but this visit had to happen solo. The authoritative tone was a surefire way to make certain Cooper backed off.
Nick brought his car to a stop one block up from her house. He took his phone off the speaker function, got out of his car and, despite the crisp air from the cold front moving in, walked the rest of the way. Best not to announce to the world that he was there, by parking his car right in front of her house.
“Keep looking for more of Ms. Manning’s layers and whatever turns out to be beneath them,” Nick instructed Cooper. “If she’s hiding anything, or if you find even a remote connection to Eric, I want to know immediately.”
Nick ended the call and stopped in front of Kelly Manning’s house. It was an odd little place. Though it was still on the fringes of the city, it was almost like a fairy-tale cottage with its charcoal-gray-slate-tiled roof, pristine ivory exterior, pale yellow shutters and cobblestone walkway. There were now empty flower beds beneath the pair of front bay windows, but he imagined that in the spring those beds would be bursting with color.
The only thing missing was a white picket fence.
However, the picture wasn’t quite so pastoral to Nick. For one thing, the house was isolated on a huge lot choked with thick trees and shrubs. Securing it would be a nightmare. Yet it would have to be done.
And soon.
Nick checked his coat pocket to make sure William’s DNA sample was there. It was. He also had two other sterile buccal swabs enclosed in their equally sterile containers. One was for Kelly Manning. The other for Joseph.
