Laying Down the Law (11 page)

But she certainly thought about it now. Had it really been a journal? With perhaps something in it about the money laundering?

Jericho’s phone rang, and he was cursing the interruption before he took out his phone. However, the cursing stopped when he looked at the screen.

“It’s the prison,” Jericho said.

He didn’t put the call on speaker, and Karina wasn’t close enough to him to hear what the caller was saying. However, she could tell something had happened.

Probably something bad.

That’s the way their luck had been running since this whole ordeal had started.

Karina tried to rein in her fears, but she failed. Thankfully, the conversation didn’t last long, only a few seconds, but even after he pressed the button to end the call, Jericho continued to stare at his phone.

“That was the prison hospital,” Jericho finally said. “Willie Lee just came out of his coma.”

Chapter Twelve

Cord still wasn’t sure that coming to the prison hospital was the right thing to do. Not with Karina anyway. But he hadn’t been able to talk her, or himself, out of letting Jericho handle this.

He had to face his birth father. And get some answers to all those questions that’d been haunting him for years.

Well, he’d get answers anyway. But Cord wasn’t sure he could believe anything Willie Lee told him.

Of course, Willie Lee wasn’t the only elephant in the room. There was the question of Karina’s safety. That’s why Jericho had told Mack to follow them in a cruiser. It was broad daylight so maybe they wouldn’t be ambushed, but the earlier attack had happened in broad daylight, too. Better to be safe than sorry, so Mack was waiting outside in the prison parking lot and would follow them back to Appaloosa Pass when they were done.

Without saying a word to each other, Karina and he made their way through security and the maze of corridors, each closed off with its own bars. An in-the-face reminder that this was maximum security. And that Willie Lee was here for a darn good reason.

They made it all the way to the hospital section before Karina stepped in front of him, stopping Cord in his tracks. Cord had been waiting for this, waiting for her to say that no matter what happened, they’d get through this. Or else she’d put a different spin on that pep talk.

But she didn’t.

She just leaned in and kissed him. “I think we should sleep together.”

All right. Well, he sure as heck hadn’t seen that coming. “Now? Here?”

Karina smiled, making him smile, too. Though there really wasn’t anything to smile about. Except for her. For some reason, she just kept making him smile.

Kept distracting him, too.

“Well, I was thinking later would be better timing,” she answered. “You know, after we’ve survived this.”

Survived
. That was a good word for it. She’d survived three physical attacks, a whole host of verbal ones, too. Now, this chat with Willie Lee. If the man confessed to being the Moonlight Strangler, it would tear her world apart.

“We’re still not on the same side here,” Cord reminded her.

She kissed him again. “We don’t have to be. We just have to get through this.” She slipped her hand in his.

And Cord knew she was right. One step at a time. Get through this. Put an end to the danger. Then, he’d definitely haul her off to bed. Even if it meant complicating the hell out of things.

Which it would.

Maybe this fire he felt for her would cool some after their chat with Willie Lee. Or not, Cord amended when he glanced at her.

He finally got them moving again, and when they reached the next security checkpoint, a woman wearing green scrubs was there to greet them. According to her name tag, she was Dr. Dana Kenney.

“I wasn’t sure you would come,” the doctor said to Cord. “I understand you’re his son?”

“Biological son,” Cord automatically amended. He tipped his head to Karina. “And Willie Lee has worked for Karina for years.”

“He’s a friend,” Karina said. An automatic correction for her as well that had the doctor staring at them and then clearing her throat.

“Well, I have good news and bad,” the doctor continued. “Yes, Willie Lee is awake, and he’s nearly healed from the gunshot wounds to his chest.”

Wounds that Cord had given him. The doctor didn’t mention that, but she likely knew. If they wanted to swap stories, Cord could have shown her his own scars from that day.

“And the bad news?” Karina prompted when the doctor paused.

“His blood pressure is way too high, and his memory is all muddled. The medical term for it is dissociative amnesia, probably brought on by the trauma of being shot.”

Cord cursed. “Or he could be faking it.”

The doctor didn’t hesitate before she nodded. “And it’s also possible the medications he’s been receiving are contributing to the problem. We’re weaning him off the meds now so we might see an improvement in a day or two.”

Cord could see the frustration in Karina’s eyes. “Please tell me we don’t have to wait that long to see him,” Karina said.

“No. You can see him. This way.” The doctor began to lead them down yet another corridor. “Just don’t expect too much. And you can always come back later this week.”

Cord didn’t want to wait another second, much less days. Willie Lee had to give them something to stop these attacks. They might not get so lucky if there was another one.

“Has Willie Lee said anything to you?” Karina asked the doctor.

“Nothing about his arrest if that’s what you want to know. But then he just started talking right before you got here. He’s had a tube down his throat so he might be still experiencing some pain when he moves any of the muscles required for speech.”

Cord felt the anger swell inside him. Each thing the doctor said sounded like some kind of excuse. Of course, his anger was mixed with a whole laundry list of other things that Cord wished he didn’t feel.

The doctor took them into a large room. Not a usual hospital room, either. This one had multiple beds, all empty, and along with some cameras, there was also a guard. Standing right over the sole prisoner in the room.

Willie Lee.

“I’ll wait here,” the doctor said, motioning for them to go closer. “Don’t touch him and keep at least two feet away from the bed.”

Rules. But Willie Lee didn’t look in any shape to attack anyone. Of course, maybe the doctor was worried about Cord doing the attacking.

Willie Lee was in the bed, machines all around him, covered from neck to toes in bleached white sheets. The man didn’t have much more color in his face, either.

Cord had never actually gotten a good look at him. When he’d shot Willie Lee a month ago, it had been from a distance while Cord had been drugged and bleeding. After the shooting, Cord had been whisked away in one ambulance, Willie Lee in another.

But Cord sure saw him now when he went closer to the bed.

His first thought was the man looked a lot older than fifty-nine. His hair was threaded with gray, and his face was hollow. Cord couldn’t see a bit of himself in the man.

Until Willie Lee opened his eyes.

Ah, hell. There it was—that punch of recognition. Because both Addie’s and his eyes were a genetic copy of Willie Lee’s.

Willie Lee blinked several times as if trying to focus, and his attention landed on Karina. He smiled. Tried to speak. But it was definitely recognition that Cord saw in those troublesome eyes. If Willie Lee did indeed have amnesia, then it was pretty darn selective.

“Karina,” the man finally said. He winced, maybe in pain. Maybe pretending.

Cord wasn’t giving him the benefit of the doubt just yet, though there were times when Cord’s wounds still gave him more than a twinge or two.

Willie Lee’s wincing turned to a frown, and he reached out toward her as if to touch her cheek. He didn’t make it far because his hands were in restraints. Puzzled, he looked at those, too.

“What happened to you?” Willie Lee asked. “Who hurt you?”

“I’m fine. It’s just a scratch. How are you?”

That last part was the usual question someone would ask when visiting a friend in the hospital, but she was blinking, too. Not to get her focus but to fight back the tears.

Willie Lee shook his head. “Why am I here?”

“You were shot. Do you remember?”

“No,” he answered after a long pause. “Are the horses okay? Did something happen to them? You look really sad.”

Karina moistened her lips before she said anything. “I’m sad because you were hurt. And because you’re here. You’re in a prison hospital,” she added a heartbeat later.

His forehead bunched up. Willie Lee glanced around the room as if seeing it for the first time, and then his gaze finally settled on Cord. “Who are you?”

Easy question. Tough answer. Especially now that Cord had a blasted lump in his throat. Best not to sugarcoat this. Cord just put it out there. “According to a DNA test, you’re my biological father.”

Willie Lee shook his head again, his stare never leaving Cord. Then, the head shaking stopped. Like Karina, his eyes filled with tears. “You’re actually my son?”

Best to add this, as well. “Yeah, and you have a daughter. Her name is Addie, and someone—probably you—abandoned us when we were only three years old. But I guess you’re going to say you don’t remember her, either?”

Willie Lee didn’t jump to respond, but he did close his eyes, and he groaned. Even Cord had to admit it was a pitiful sound. However, he didn’t let it get to him. He needed to ask some questions.

Well, one big question anyway, but Willie Lee spoke before Cord could even continue.

“Your mother,” Willie Lee said. Not a question. And the tears weren’t just in his eyes now. They were streaming down his cheeks. “She’s dead?”

Now, that last part was definitely a question.

“I believe she could be,” Cord answered. If those photos weren’t fake, that is. “Did you kill her?”

“No.” Willie Lee’s chest dropped with a heavy sigh, and he repeated, “No.”

He made another sound. Pain mixed with grief. Maybe the real deal since it seemed like something too intense to be faked. Of course, the grief could be there because Willie Lee regretted murdering her.

“I loved her,” Willie Lee said a moment later. “She was a good woman. Her name was Sarah.”

Cord latched on to the name as if it was a lifeline. He knew so little about her, and other than her name and those two pictures, he still didn’t know much. Later, there’d be time to question the man about that.

“Are you the Moonlight Strangler?” Cord asked.

Willie Lee’s eyes widened. “I don’t think so. Am I?”

“I’m the one asking you,” Cord returned.

But if the comment even got through to him, Willie Lee showed no signs of it. “Your mother was murdered, wasn’t she?” he went on. A sob tore from his mouth, and he broke down, crying.

Since the man’s memory seemed to be pretty good on the subject of his dead wife, Cord figured it was time to repeat the real question.

Are you the Moonlight Strangler?

The words seemed to freeze in his mind, though, when Willie Lee opened his eyes and looked at him. “You’re the one who shot me,” he said. “I remember that now. But why?”

Cord decided to show him. He unbuttoned his shirt but didn’t need to look down to know what Willie Lee—and Karina—was seeing. The two scars. Nowhere near healed, but they weren’t the raw mess they had been. Still, he’d carry them for life.

“Mercy,” Karina whispered, and she’d gone almost as pale as Willie Lee.

Cord hadn’t intended to shock her like that. Heck, he hadn’t intended for her to see them, period, and he gave her a whispered apology.

However, he had no apology for Willie Lee.

“You did that to me,” Cord snapped, yanking the sides of his shirt back together with far more force than necessary. “And now you say you don’t remember cutting me and tying my leg with a rope?”

“I don’t think he’s lying about that,” the doctor interrupted. She walked toward them. “According to the tox screen sent from the Appaloosa Pass Hospital, Willie Lee had been pumped full of barbiturates when he was admitted.”

Cord dropped back a mental step. He hadn’t known that about Willie Lee. Hadn’t bothered to ask once he found out that the man hadn’t regained consciousness before he was taken into custody.

“That could affect his memory?” Karina asked.

The doctor nodded. “Especially with the large amount he had in his system.”

Yeah, it could. And Cord knew that firsthand because his captor had dosed him with barbiturates, too. A boatload of them. It’d been a miracle that Cord had managed to take aim at, much less shoot Willie Lee.

Karina looked at Cord. “You said you had broken memories of that day, too.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “There aren’t many details between being hit with a stun gun and then turning up by the old church where I shot Willie Lee.”

“And you don’t think it’s strange that both of you were drugged?” Karina queried.

“Of course I do, but Willie Lee could have drugged himself when he realized he was about to be captured.”

Or maybe someone else had done that to him. There was only one way to find out.

Cord didn’t hesitate with the question this time. “Are you the Moonlight Strangler?”

It was as if the world exploded. The machines started beeping like crazy, and Willie Lee threw back his head, his body going stiff and his face stretching like some kind of sick death mask.

“He’s having a seizure,” the doctor said, urgency in her voice and movements. She shoved Cord and Karina to the side so she could get to her patient. “You two need to wait in the hall. Go, now!”

But Cord’s feet seemed glued to the floor. Was Willie Lee faking this? If so, it looked darn real.

“Come on.” Karina took his hand and got them moving out of there.

They went back into the hall, and Cord hoped he didn’t do something wussy, like lose his lunch. He could feel every nerve inside him, and even though he’d never remembered having his mother in his life, her loss had hit him hard. Much as it had done to Willie Lee.

Cord hadn’t forgotten that all of this had to be affecting Karina, but he didn’t realize just how much until their gazes met. Hell. She was crying and no doubt on the verge of losing more than her lunch. She loved Willie Lee, and it must have cut her to the core to see, and hear, all of that.

“I’m sorry,” Cord said, pulling her into his arms.

She didn’t break down exactly, but she made some hiccupping sounds when she tried to gather her breath. “If he’s the one who cut you like that...”

Karina didn’t finish. No need. But it did let him know just how much his scars had affected her. He’d curse himself for that later, but for now he just held her and tried to undo the damage.

“I’m fine,” he assured her. And that was only a partial lie. “I’ll be returning to duty in a week.” Once he cleared the Justice Department shrink who’d be assigned to evaluate him. “They wouldn’t let me go back to work if I wasn’t a hundred percent.”

She pulled back, looked at him again. There was a new set of trouble in her eyes. “I didn’t realize you’d be leaving so soon.”