The Texas Lawman's Last Stand (12 page)

But she wasn’t scared of Bo.

Mattie was more frightened of her own reaction.

She had no intentions of giving up her child to this man, to anyone, but she couldn’t deny this pull between them. It was too strong.

“Don’t,” Bo warned, but she had no idea what he was specifically warning her about.

Maybe she was giving off a signal of her intentions. And her intentions were apparently to kiss him, because that’s what she did. Mattie came up on her toes and put her mouth to his.

Bo was stiff at first, and she thought he might pull away again. But he didn’t. He ran his hand into her hair and jerked back her head so he could deepen the kiss. It was brutal and punishing, his mouth pressing hard and desperate while his body did the same to hers.

He didn’t stop there.

He grabbed both her wrists in his other hand and pinned them against the door. He pinned her, too, giving her all his weight.

And all his anger.

While the kiss raged on, the middle of his body ground against hers. In the back of her mind, Mattie considered that she should be stopping this. Anger and kissing shouldn’t be mixed, but with Bo, the mixture worked just fine. Yes, she was reeling from the news about her daughter. Yes, she was worried about the danger.

But she was also aroused beyond belief.

She wanted Bo, and she wanted him now.

Her body was on fire, and the kisses and body contact made her feel like a pressure cooker ready to go off. Until that moment, she hadn’t been sure that Bo and she would become lovers, but she was certain of it now.

But
now
would have to wait.

She tore her mouth from his at the exact moment that someone knocked on his door. Bo stepped back, repeated some profanity and stared at her as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened. Mattie was having trouble believing it, too, but she hoped it would happen again. And that made her very stupid. She shouldn’t be playing around with Bo. No. He was too dangerous for that.

She moved to the side and tried to level her breathing before he threw open the door. It was the captain, and he gave them the same look as when he had caught them embracing in the interview room several hours earlier.

“I told Mattie,” Bo admitted.

“And?” the captain asked when Bo didn’t add anything else.

“We’ll work it out.” Bo seemed to issue that as some kind of challenge to her and to himself. “Are you here about the safe house?”

The captain shook his head. “I need you to come down to my office. Larry Tolivar just showed up, and he’d like to talk to both of you. Especially you,” he said, looking at Mattie.

Well, Mattie wanted to talk to him, too. She wanted the truth about Kendall’s accusation that the marshal had sold information about her in the Witness Protection Program.

“By the way, Tolivar already knows we’re digging into his background,” the captain explained. “And he’s not very happy about it.”

“He’ll be even less happy about it when he talks to me.” Bo started down the hall, and the captain and Mattie followed.

She considered asking the captain to postpone this little chat. After all, Bo was dealing with the fact that Holly wasn’t his daughter. Hardly the time to be interrogating a suspect, but Mattie knew she stood no chance of stopping him. He needed somewhere to aim the emotions brewing inside him, and he might as well aim them at Tolivar.

The marshal was indeed in the captain’s office, and he was pacing.

“Still alive, I see,” Tolivar grumbled.

“Yes.” She made sure her voice didn’t waiver. Hard to do with everything she’d been through in the past twenty-four hours. “SAPD’s taking good care of me.”

Tolivar made a grunt of disagreement and aimed his glare at Bo. “You’re having me investigated. Bad idea, Duggan. You don’t want to play games with me.”

“You’re right. No games. I just want some answers. Did you send an explosive device to my house this morning?”

“I won’t dignify that with an answer,” Tolivar snarled.

“But you will,” the captain insisted. “Answer Lieutenant Duggan’s question.”

That earned the captain a glare. “No. Of course not. I’m a peace officer, just like you, except I’m not some local yokel. I work for the federal government, and Mattie is in my protective custody.”

“Not any longer,” Bo said. “She left the program. I called your boss and let him know that about two hours ago.”

Mattie hadn’t heard him make that call, but then he’d apparently made some before he moved her into his office. Good. She didn’t want any association with Witness Protection or this man.

“Kendall Collier’s hired someone to kill you,” Tolivar insisted. “Investigating me or leaving protective custody isn’t going to stop that.”

“It might if we learn you have a connection to him,” Mattie quickly pointed out. Suddenly all eyes were on her. “Kendall and perhaps someone close to him are the only ones who would have wanted to know my new identity and location. And you would have had access to it.”

Tolivar aimed his index finger at her. “Someone hacked into the system. If you want to start assigning blame, then look to your uncle. He paid someone to do it, and it wasn’t me.”

“Then who?”

“Somebody close to Kendall Collier. Maybe his lawyer, Ian Kaplan, or maybe one of his hired henchmen.”

“Funny,” Bo remarked. “Kaplan said you were responsible for hacking into those files.”

Tolivar flinched, obviously not expecting that. “Then he’s lying through his teeth.”

Bo shrugged. “Somebody is. That’s why we’re investigating anyone associated with this case. If you’ve got nothing to hide, then why don’t you give us access to all your computer and financial records?”

The room got so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop.

“I don’t share personal information with local cops,” Tolivar finally barked. “And my advice is to back off, or I’ll bring some heat down on SAPD.”

The captain put his hands on his hips. “Is that a threat, Marshal?”

Maybe it was the steely look in the captain’s and Bo’s eyes, but Tolivar seemed to back down. “I just want to do my job and keep Mattie alive.”

“She’s no longer your job,” Bo countered immediately. “In fact, you have no reason to be anywhere near her. Got that?”

The staring contest started, and Tolivar even took some steps so he’d be in Bo’s face. “Yeah, I got that, Lieutenant. And when somebody blows her brains out, don’t come crying to me.”

With that, the marshal muscled his way past them and headed out.

“I want him followed,” Bo said to the captain.

“Legally, we can’t do that.” The captain watched the marshal walk away. “But there’s nothing that says I can’t have an officer in Tolivar’s general vicinity. I’ll get someone on him.” He took out his cell and made a call.

“Thanks.” Bo put his hand on the small of Mattie’s back and got her moving toward his office. They hadn’t gotten halfway there when Bo’s phone rang.

She held her breath, as she did with all the calls he received, but she always thought of the children. Of the danger. And Tolivar’s visit had drilled home just how close that danger could possibly be.

“Everything’s there?” Bo asked the caller. Whatever the answer was, it caused his forehead to bunch up. “Yeah. I’ll tell her.”

When Bo hung up, Mattie tried to brace herself for more bad news. “What now?”

It took him several moments to answer. “The safe house is ready. The twins… The children,” he corrected, “are already en route.” He motioned for her to follow him, and they reversed direction. “There’s a car waiting to take us there so we can be with them.”

It hit Mattie then as she was following Bo up the hall. This wasn’t about the danger or the investigation. It wasn’t even about the move to the safe house. It was about what would happen at the safe house.

“Yes,” Bo said, as if he could read her mind.

Tear sprang to her eyes, because Mattie knew that soon, very soon, she would finally have her baby in her arms.

Chapter Ten

Bo felt sick to his stomach. Since Nadine’s death, he’d worked so hard to give his children a normal, happy life. Hell, he’d worked to give himself that, as well.

Now everything was unraveling.

Mattie had DNA on her side. Ironic that a test he’d used to get convictions for killers and rapists was now a test that could cause him to lose his little girl.

He checked the rearview mirror again, something he’d done a lot on this half-hour drive. He had to make sure no one was following them, and that’s the reason he’d driven all over the city. The safe house was only about ten minutes from police headquarters, but for safety reasons, he hadn’t taken a direct route.

“It’s going to rain,” Mattie mumbled, looking out the car window and up at the sky.

Yeah, the clouds were heavy and gray, which suited his mood to a T.

“You think it’ll storm?” she asked. Mattie had a firm grip on the remote control for the safe-house garage, and she’d had that grip on the small device since they’d picked it up earlier from police headquarters.

“I don’t know.” And he was more than a little surprised they were discussing the weather when they were just minutes from arriving at the safe house. Minutes away from Mattie taking the next step to claiming Holly. “Why?”

“I’m scared of storms,” she answered.

He gave her a flat look. “You have a killer after you, Mattie. I think a storm is the least of your worries.”

She nodded. Nodded again. And didn’t say anything for several moments. “How are you handling this?”

Bo nearly laughed. “How do you think?”

Her gaze slid over him. “You look calm.”

“Well, yeah. Looks can be deceiving. I’ve spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to stop this from happening.” He paused. “I can’t stop it, can I?” he added in a hoarse grumble.

“No.” Now, she paused. “I wish Nadine had been able to tell you the truth that day. Something more than ‘Protect her.’ There’s no way you could have known what she meant by that.”

Bo wasn’t sure he wanted to open this can of worms, but he couldn’t just let it go, either. “Did you know Nadine was dying when you left?”

“No. We were both weak from our deliveries, and we both kept nodding off. But when I left her, she was very much alive.”

But already dying from the internal bleeding. Mattie couldn’t have known about that. Nadine probably didn’t, either. If she had, Nadine would have found a way to leave him a note or something.

“Nadine loved you very much,” Mattie added.

Yes. He never doubted that. But that didn’t make her death hurt any less. And now losing Holly was another cut, another wound that would never heal.

Bo pulled into the driveway of the safe house and took the remote from Mattie so he could open the garage door. There was another unmarked car with two officers parked just up the street, but now that he had arrived, they would probably leave. There wasn’t enough manpower to devote three officers to protecting Mattie, but with the security measures in the house itself and his own abilities, Bo prayed he could keep everyone safe.

“It looks like a typical suburban house,” Mattie remarked. She tapped her fingers on the armrest, apparently impatient that it was taking so long for the garage door to fully open. “You’re sure it’s okay to be here right in the heart of the city?”

“Hiding in plain sight is the best way.” He hoped. This particular place had a For Rent sign out front, and SAPD had used it before as a safe house for holding witnesses.

“Don’t the neighbors suspect anything?” Mattie wanted to know.

“No. We had a cop posing as a property manager go around and tell everyone that this place would be for short-term rentals.” Still, that didn’t mean Bo wouldn’t be on guard. After all, the children were inside.

“Wait until the garage door closes before you get out,” Bo warned her. He pulled inside the garage, turned off the engine and hit the remote control again to shut the door.

Mattie looked as if she were preparing for a sprint, and the moment the door closed, she was out of the car. She raced to the entry, but as Bo knew it would be, the door was locked.

“Hurry,” she insisted.

He unlocked the door and stepped back. Mattie ran inside. He followed her and hoped this wouldn’t be traumatic for Holly. Bo already knew it would be traumatic for him.

Mattie hurried through the kitchen and into the living room. No kids. But he heard laughter coming from one of the bedrooms, and they headed in that direction. Rosalie was sitting on the floor playing building blocks with the kids. Thankfully, Mattie didn’t go barging in. She held back, waiting, watching and crying.

Yeah, there were tears in her eyes.

Rosalie looked up, a smile on her face, but that smile faded when she spotted Mattie. “What’s wrong?” she immediately wanted to know.

Even though Holly and Jacob were way too young to know what any of this meant, Bo didn’t want to tell Rosalie in front of them. He motioned for the nanny to join him in the hall.

“Da Da!” Holly and Jacob called out in unison. Bo went into the room, scooped them up in his arms and gave them each a kiss. He kissed them like this every day, but today felt bittersweet.

Rosalie stood, hesitantly, and Bo put the babies back on the floor so he could step outside the room with Rosalie. Mattie stayed in the room and eased down on the floor, as well. She didn’t get too close, but Jacob noticed his new
playmate.
He grabbed one of the plastic building blocks and brought it to her.

“Ta Ta,” he said, meaning “thank you.”

When Mattie smiled and repeated it, Jacob brought her even more of the blocks. Soon, Holly joined in on the game, but she wasn’t nearly as adept at walking as Jacob. She wobbled and would have fallen if Mattie hadn’t caught her in her arms.

The moment seemed to freeze.

Holly giggled and looked at Mattie. Bo could feel the love and emotion radiating from Mattie. This was the moment she’d no doubt dreamed about, a moment that had probably kept her alive and fighting.

The moment was a nightmare for Bo.

Holly had no idea that this woman was her biological mother, but she would soon grow to love Mattie. And that meant he would lose his baby girl.