to run us off the road,” Gabrielle said. “Maybe this time he didn’t use the green Range Rover. Maybe Mack used another vehicle from the ranch.”
“My father had nothing to do with what just happened,” Houston snapped. He had his attention fastened to the road ahead, and every muscle in his face was iron hard.
“Right,” she mumbled. “Then who was it?”
His jaw muscles tightened even more, something she hadn’t thought possible. “I don’t know, but I sure as hell intend to find out.”
She didn’t doubt that he would try to do that. Houston was invested in this now. Unfortunately.
He knew about Lucas, and he wasn’t just going to forget that he had a biological son. That meant Gabrielle would have to go on the run again. Somehow, she’d have to hide.
A pang of guilt hit her harder than she’d expected.
Lucas was indeed Houston’s son, and that perhaps did give him some legal rights, but she couldn’t let him be part of her baby’s life. The incident with the black car was a stark warning that Lucas’s safety had to come first.
The problem was, how could she outrun the danger?
Gabrielle had some savings, but it wasn’t unlimited, and it would be eaten up quickly if she had to use it for hotels and travel. She didn’t have any rich relatives, either. Her brother, Jay, lived from paycheck to paycheck, when and if he was working, and he wasn’t what anyone would consider responsible.
She was on her own, and obviously in deep trouble.
“My father wasn’t in that black car,” Houston mumbled. “He also wouldn’t have done anything to make you an unwilling surrogate. And he would have no reason to follow you three days ago. Whoever took that photo of the license plates made a mistake.”
Was it her imagination, or did he seem to be trying to convince himself?
Still, it didn’t make sense that Mack would risk hurting his own son in a car crash. For that matter, Mack’s possible involvement with her didn’t make sense, either. She’d never met the man, and he’d had nothing to do with the lawsuit involving her brother.
So, did that mean someone had set up Mack to make him look guilty?
It was a good theory, except that Gabrielle couldn’t think of a reason for that, either. If this had something to do with a possible accomplice of the gunmen who’d taken her hostage, then how did that connect back to the Sadlers?
Maybe it didn’t.
But Gabrielle wasn’t about to declare either of them innocent just yet. The only thing she knew was that her routine request for a donor embryo had somehow turned into a nightmare—a nightmare that had produced a baby she loved more than life itself.
Houston turned into the driveway that led to the front of the ranch house. Except, it was really more of a sprawling mansion than a mere house. It was three stories, all pristine white, with porches and columns that stretched across the front on all three levels. It was yet another reminder that, if it came down to a custody battle, it wouldn’t be easy to fight Houston and his money.
Dale was waiting for them on the first-floor porch, and he hurried out to the car the moment Houston brought it to a stop. “Are you okay?” he asked Houston, and then looked at Gabrielle, as well.
She nodded, but Houston didn’t respond, and instead asked, “Where’s Dad?”
“Inside his office, waiting. I told him you’d asked about the Range Rover.”
Houston shoved her gun into the glove compartment and slammed the car door, perhaps not pleased that Dale had even brought up the subject with the senior Sadler. Or maybe that was just Gabrielle’s take on things. Houston’s reaction could have stemmed from the fact that he was still fuming from the attack.
No fuming for her, but she was still shaking. Gabrielle hoped she could hold herself together long enough to get the heck out of there.
First though, she was apparently about to see Mack.
Then, when she was away from the ranch and the Sadlers, she could fall apart and have a good cry.
“I didn’t call the sheriff, just as you asked, and I sent the two ranch hands after the black car,” Dale explained, as they stepped onto the porch.
“Did they find it?” Houston asked.
“They did, and they’re keeping a close watch on it.”
Gabrielle groaned softly. She didn’t want them to keep a close watch. She wanted the driver of that vehicle apprehended, so she could finally learn why she’d been followed and harassed in the six weeks since Lucas’s birth. Of course, if the sheriff arrested the men in that car, she would have to come out of hiding to give her statement about what they had done.
Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Either decision could be a dangerous one.
Houston opened the double front doors and ushered her inside. The entrance was just as grand as the rest of the house, as was each room they passed along the way to his father’s office. Houston stopped outside a closed door, and he glanced at her, then Dale.
“Why don’t you take Gabrielle to the kitchen and fix her a cup of tea or something?” Houston asked his foreman.
Gabrielle was shaking her head before Houston even finished. “I don’t want any tea. I want to hear what your father has to say for himself.” She made certain that her tone left no room for argument. The sooner they had this conversation, then the sooner she could leave.
Houston stared at her for several moments. “Call the ranch hands and find out the latest on the car they’re following,” he instructed Dale. “I don’t want the driver of that vehicle to make any stops anywhere near the baby. Understand?”
Dale assured him that he would, and the man walked away, leaving Houston and her still staring at each other. She braced herself for him to open the door and confront his father, but he didn’t.
“Are you okay? “ he asked.
Gabrielle blinked. His expression was so different than it had been on the drive over. No more iron muscles in his face, and his eyes no longer seemed so icy.
“I wasn’t hurt,” she clarified.
“Not even when I wrestled the gun away from you in the stables?”
She thought of that contact between. Yes, he’d been rough, but it could have been a lot worse. Maybe it was her imagination, but Houston seemed to have treated her with kid gloves. Gabrielle wasn’t sure she would have been that gentle with him if their positions had been reversed.
“When I came after you like that,” he continued, “I didn’t know you’d recently given birth.”
He was worried about hurting her, which was considerate. After all, she’d pulled a gun on him—something she would regret for the rest of her life. But she wouldn’t regret the anger if she learned Houston was behind all of this. If he had done this to her on purpose, then she would somehow make him pay.
