Page 52 of Unlikely Guardian

If he hadn’t heard the words come from her mouth, Jason wouldn’t have believed them. Whoa. That was a powerful confession. Definitely not the earth-shattering revelation of the identity of a would-be killer, but it was earth-shattering still the same.

So, now he knew. She hadn’t been in love with Greg. Instead, she’d been attracted to him.

Him.

Now, the real question was, what was he going to do about it?

LILLY WASN’T HAVING much luck getting Megan to take a nap. Partly because she hated to lose even a couple of hours of time with her daughter—even if a nap was a necessity. On the other hand, judging from Jason’s somber mood, he was waiting for Megan to fall asleep so that they could discuss some things. Things she’d no doubt disclosed while under hypnosis.

On the drive back from the hospital, Jason had said something about Greg being connected to one or more of her father’s business associates. Before he could explain, he’d gotten a call. Then another. By the time he’d finished his conversations, they were at the house.

The interruptions hadn’t stopped there.

They’d barely made it inside when she heard Megan rather loudly demand a bottle and some attention. Lilly had given Detective Sarah Albright, the “on-duty” nanny, a reprieve and had taken the crying child from her arms. She’d then given Megan a bottle, changed her, had even sung her a lullaby, but her daughter was still whining and obviously exhausted, reacting to all the recent changes in her life and the stress.

As was Jason.

He wasn’t rubbing his eyes, but he had that surly, bruised expression. Mercy, she hoped she hadn’t talked about sleeping with Greg. Jason shouldn’t have been subjected to that.

Lilly pulled herself away from her mental browbeating and kissed her daughter’s cheek. Megan smiled. Not a bright-eyed grin as she often did. It was a lazy kind of smile that was a precursor to her eyelids drifting down. Lilly hummed softly to her, rocked her gently, and Megan finally surrendered to the dreaded nap.

Most would consider getting her daughter to sleep to be a small accomplishment, but for Lilly it was a huge milestone. There’d be many times like this. Milestones of all shapes and sizes, and she intended to be there for all of them.

Lilly struggled when she tried to get out of the chair in the nursery, and she silently cursed her still-weak legs. She was tired of being in recovery when she had so many important and dangerous things happening around her. Heaven forbid if she actually had to outrun a bad guy.

It wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

When Jason noticed that she was struggling, he came to the rescue. He gently scooped up the sleeping Megan and eased her into her crib. Lilly gave Megan one last kiss, one last look before she covered her with a blanket, and Jason and she stepped out of the room.

“Okay,” Lilly started, “what’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer her question. “Any leftover effects from the drug the shrink gave you?”

“I’m doing fine.” Not exactly the truth. She was exhausted, but she had too many things to do to nap, including the physical therapy appointment that they’d have to leave for within the hour. There’d be time for naps once this rifle-wielding psycho was caught. “I don’t think I can say the same for you, though. So, why the glum mood?” Rather than fishing for the answer, she went for the direct approach. “Did I say something about Greg that I shouldn’t have?”

He blinked and shook his head. A denial that didn’t quite convince her. “You said you thought maybe Greg had had some run-ins with your father’s former business associates.”

Not exactly news-at-five. Corinne had already said as much.

Jason looked around the hall and made a glance at the living room. “Let’s go to my office,” he insisted, already leading her in that direction. They passed through the living room where Detective Albright was taking a much-needed break on the sofa.

“I have the files we took from your office the other day,” Jason continued. “And I think I might have found the connection.”

Okay. So, maybe there was news, after all, and maybe this was the real reason for his puzzling mood.

Jason’s home office was on the other side of the house, next to the kitchen. Lilly had glanced in there a time or two, but she hadn’t gone in before now. It was a man’s room. Wood floors, ceiling beams, a darkly colored Turkish rug and a desk that dominated the space. She looked around and spotted the baby monitor on the corner of the desk. A little green light indicated it was on, which meant they’d be able to hear Megan if she woke.

“Here,” Jason said, pulling up a chair for her. She sat next to him, and he handed her a single sheet of paper. “It’s the police’s theory that the person who stole the disk from you after the car crash also went through your office and took the files you’d copied. I think the person missed this one. It’s a handwritten memo from your father to Wayne Sandling.”

She remembered the memo and remembered that she’d copied it onto the disk. It was one of literally hundreds she’d read when she’d been trying to determine the extent of her father’s illegal activities. It was basically a vaguely worded “suggestion” for Wayne Sandling to make sure that their latest bid for a municipal contract was accepted. In other words, do whatever necessary to insure no one else outbid them.

“Check the dates,” Jason prompted. “And then look at the date of this correspondence from Greg.”

Greg’s correspondence was a week after her father’s memo. Greg had written a letter to the city council, expressing his concern, and fury, over the selection process for a specific contract. A contract he’d lost, even though he’d insisted he’d put in a lower bid than the winning company—a business represented by her father.

Of course.

“There’s more,” Jason continued. “While you were in recovery from the hypnosis drug, I made some calls. I had one of the detectives read back through Greg’s accident report. An eyewitness reported that there was a maroon, four-door car with tinted windows in the vicinity.”

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