it, too. So, I staked out Ward’s house and waited for you to show up.”
“You know me too well.”
She shrugged. “Lucky guess.”
Nick smiled wryly. “Luck had nothing to do with it. I always knew you were brilliant.”
“Are you going to let me use that brilliance to help you, now?”
He sighed. “I wanted to keep you out of this. I knew it could get dangerous, and I didn’t want you or the kids to get hurt.”
She winced at the faint note of reproach in his voice. He was right. She’d been an idiot to put Ellie in danger. But she’d only expected a nice, quiet stake-out. As soon as they were safe, she’d make other arrangements for the baby.
“I appreciate the sentiment, Nick, but it’s time to let me help you. I’m good at this sort of thing, and I want my children’s father alive.” She carefully avoided adding that she wanted her lover alive, too. She had no idea whether or not he planned to remain with her now that his true identity was out in the open.
The dirt road abruptly intersected a paved road. Nick turned west and in a moment the GPS popped up a road map. They followed the residential street for a mile or so and turned onto a larger road. As Nick accelerated into the desultory traffic, she watched carefully in the rearview mirror for any sign of followers. No lights or cars were hanging behind them acting like tails.
They’d made it.
Her hands started to shake, and then her whole body got into the act. Nick glanced over at her in concern. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“No, I’m not okay. Would you care to tell me why those men just tried to kidnap you again?”
Nick frowned. “It looked to me like they were trying to kill us.”
She shook her head in the negative. “They didn’t shoot at you when you were running across the lawn. They only fired at your car. They didn’t want you to leave, but they didn’t want you dead. In the woods, only a few of the shots came anywhere near us, and I think those were mistakes. They were trying to scare us into surrendering but definitely weren’t trying to kill you. Which means someone wants you alive. I can only infer that means someone wants something from you.”
Her declaration put a heavy frown on Nick’s handsome features.
She continued, “Why weren’t you killed six years ago? Why the elaborate kidnapping instead? I’ll bet that’s the same reason those men weren’t trying to kill you tonight.” Lord, it felt good to finally ask the question. “What’s going on, Nick?”
Nick sighed. Laura, of all people, deserved answers. Answers he was far from having, however. “I truly don’t remember anything of those five years. I swear,” he stated.
Laura nodded and crossed her arms expectantly, announcing silently that she wasn’t going to back off this time. Her child had just been put in mortal danger, and she was at the end of her prodigious patience. Not that he blamed her. He just hoped she’d forgive him when she heard the entire, sordid tale. Although, it wasn’t like he forgave himself.
He picked up the story reluctantly. “That trip I took a few days ago was to Boston to pay a visit to my old attorney, William Ward. It turned out he was able to fill in some pertinent details of the two years prior to my kidnapping.”
When Laura opened her mouth to ask about it, he raised a hand gently for her to let him continue. She nodded and subsided.
“I’ll fill you in on that in a minute. The morning after my face got splashed all over the news, William called me. He said he had important information to show me. He insisted I come up to his house on the Cape immediately.”
“What was it?” Laura blurted.
“I don’t know.”
Her hopeful expression fell.
“But when we get somewhere safe, I have a flash drive in my pocket that I took from the secret drawer in William’s desk. I’m hoping it’ll give us some answers.”
“How did you know about his house’s security code, not to mention this secret drawer?”
He made a face. “William was practically a second father to me. I spent a lot of time with him and his wife on the cape. He represented me when I turned eighteen and took over Spiros Shipping. He’s been my attorney ever since.”
“Who do you think killed him?”
“I have no idea.”
Laura mulled things over, and Nick let her. In his experience, she was eminently reasonable when left to her own devices to figure a thing out. He only prayed that reason led her to accept his words as truth.
They were off the Cape and approaching Boston proper before she finally asked soberly, “Why do you think someone killed your lawyer?”
“I can think of about a billion reasons,” he answered grimly.
She nodded in agreement. “I’ve been reading on the internet about the sale of Spiros Shipping after you dropped out of sight. I’m assuming someone faked your permission and sold it out from under you?”
“I don’t know if they coerced me into signing something or just forged my signature. I can’t imagine ever giving anyone permission to sell the family business.”
“Who hated you enough to steal your business?”
He briefly considered pulling off the road to address her question but decided she’d be less likely to attack him if he were at the wheel of a moving car with her and Ellie in it. He answered carefully, “When you arrived at William Ward’s house, I was browsing through the most recent documents on his computer.”
“And?” she prompted cautiously.
“And it turns out that shortly before I met you in Paris, I took a secret trip to Las Vegas.” Laura went still. She must see it coming. He continued grimly, “I wasn’t alone on that trip. It turns out I was secretly married there to a woman named Meredith Black.” The name felt strange on his tongue. Vaguely unpleasant, like the remembered taste of bitter medicine.
If Laura had been still before, she went statuelike now. Alarmed, he alternated between glancing over at her and keeping an eye on the highway.
Finally, he couldn’t stand the suspense of her complete nonreaction any longer. “Talk to me,” he urged.
“What do you want me to say?” Laura’s voice was hollow. Hoarse. Unlike how he’d ever heard it before. Guilt and self-loathing consumed him. He’d caused the woman he loved this pain.
He spoke in a rush. “I swear. I have no recollection of her whatsoever. I don’t know why I married her, and I surely don’t know why I got involved with you in Paris so soon afterward. I can only assume the marriage was an impulsive thing and
