Page 41 of Unlikely Guardian

Was Erica bitter enough to do something to get rid of Lilly?

Maybe even bitter enough to want to kill her?

“The day that Corinne’s car was at the security gate, Erica was here inside with us and couldn’t have done it,” Lilly pointed out.

Jason had already considered and dismissed that. “It doesn’t mean she’s innocent, though. She could have hired someone to do the job.”

“You mean a hit man?” Lilly shook her head. “No way. She wouldn’t have risked that, not with Megan in the house. I might not be on her list of favorite people, but she loves Megan, and she wouldn’t have put her in harm’s way.”

He couldn’t dispute that. But there was another angle to this. “Maybe the person in that car was never meant to come inside and hurt you. Maybe it was simply a scare tactic to send you running so that Erica could have Megan all to herself.”

“I’m sorry you believe that,” he heard Erica say.

Oh, sheez. Open mouth, insert size-twelve boots. And here he hadn’t thought this could get any harder.

Erica was at the end of the hall, her suitcase in her hand, and she had a fierce grip on the handle. She didn’t come any closer, but her eyes darkened when she looked at Lilly. “You might have won this round, but this isn’t over.”

“This round?” Lilly repeated. “This isn’t a competition, Erica.”

“Isn’t it? You think because you share DNA with Megan that it’ll make you her mother? It won’t.”

“DNA is just for starters,” Jason countered. He maneuvered himself in front of Lilly in case Erica decided to go berserk. “The rest will come with time. Lilly has a right to be with her daughter.”

He hadn’t choked on the words, either. And he wasn’t especially shocked that he’d meant every word.

Erica stared at him. “Does she?”

Well, it wasn’t the pseudo-cool goodbye that she’d issued just minutes earlier. “I’m ready to go now,” Erica said to the officer in the living room. She didn’t wait for him. She practically stormed toward the front door.

The detective followed Erica, and from over his shoulder, he issued Jason a nod. Probably of sympathy. Man, he’d really gone about this the wrong way. Of course, maybe there was no correct way to dissolve a relationship like the one that Erica had with Megan.

Erica didn’t look back at him when she left, and Jason stood there and watched as the officer shut the door behind them.

“I’m sorry,” Lilly repeated.

“So am I, but this had to be done. It’s bad enough having suspects out there in the city. I couldn’t have one under the same roof.”

“Still, that didn’t make it easier.”

No. It didn’t. But he thought his decision might allow him to sleep a little easier tonight.

“There’s another problem with Erica being a suspect,” Lilly continued. She went to the door, locked it and reactivated the security system. “Wasn’t she here at the house with Megan the night someone tried to smother me?”

Since he’d already mentally gone over this info, he knew the answer to that one. “Erica had the night off, and my neighbor was here to watch Megan.”

“Oh.” She leaned her back against the door. “Okay, so that really could mean that Erica’s a suspect.”

It did. And it completely changed the motive for what was happening. Of course, that didn’t mean Erica was the sole culprit. Jason simply couldn’t picture Erica perched on a rooftop shooting at them with a high-powered rifle. So, did that mean there was more than one person after Lilly? Was this some conspiracy, or was it simply two people with two totally different sinister agendas?

“You look exhausted,” Lilly observed.

Maybe because he was. Past exhaustion, really. He kept that to himself and switched to a more comfortable topic. “What did Megan and you do all morning?”

Her mouth curved slightly. A brief, amused smile. And she took a step toward him. Slowly. Not some calculated saunter, either. The limp threw off any chance of a seductive stance, and yet that limp, that slight imperfection, made her look all the more human.

As if he needed anything to do that.

“Hmm. Is that question a ploy to distract me from telling you that you look exhausted, or do you really want to know?” Lilly asked.

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