Page 56 of Unlikely Guardian

“About me endangering Megan.”

Jason knew where this was going and tried to stop her, but Lilly was obviously determined to be heard.

“It’s not only irresponsible of me to stay at your house,” Lilly conceded, “it’s selfish. And it’s wrong.”

Oh, how a few days could change things. A week ago he would have jumped at the chance to have Lilly far away from Megan. Now he wasn’t jumping. Well, not that kind of jumping, anyway. “Please don’t tell me you’re even thinking about leaving.”

“I shouldn’t be just thinking about it. I should be doing it.”

“No, you shouldn’t.”

“You think I want to do this?” she asked. “It’d break my heart to leave, but if this is the way to keep Megan safe, then I’ll start packing as soon as we get back.”

Jason glanced at her. “And you’re letting Erica’s opinion convince you to do this?”

She turned in the seat to face him. “Erica only stated the obvious.”

Okay. He had some talking to do here. He only hoped he was persuasive enough. “Think this through, Lilly. If you leave, what’s to keep this monster from trying to use Megan to get to you?” Jason didn’t stop there. “And what if your ploy works? What if by leaving, the killer comes after you and succeeds? What then? Greg’s already dead, so you’ve essentially made Megan an orphan.”

“She has you,” Lilly pointed out after she swallowed hard.

“She has you, too, and it’ll stay that way. There’s no safe place. Not for Megan. Not for us. The only thing we can do is work together to catch this guy. That’s it.”

Lilly shook her head, turned back around in her seat so they no longer had eye contact. “I want to agree with you, because I want to be with my daughter, but I think we have to consider my leaving as the right thing to do.”

Jason didn’t miss that be with my daughter part. He couldn’t blame Lilly for not including him. Heck, he couldn’t even include himself.

Not for a real, permanent commitment anyway.

But maybe something else.

Less than a half hour earlier, Lilly had admitted that she was attracted to him. He was attracted to her. They even cared for each other. To what extent that caring was, he didn’t know. However, he did know that they both loved Megan.

Maybe that was enough.

Maybe with Erica’s legal threat, it had to be enough. This was definitely a united-we-stand kind of situation.

“We could get married. For Megan,” he suggested. Jason didn’t even look at Lilly. He kept his attention fastened to the road. However, he had no doubt he’d just shocked her to silence.

Unfortunately he didn’t know how to continue after that. Since they’d kissed and come close to having sex, such a proposal might seem an insult. Of course, offering her a real relationship would be a lie. He cared for her. But they weren’t in love with each other.

Still…

He glanced at her to see if she was dumbstruck at his pseudo-proposal, but instead she had her attention fastened to the side mirror. There wasn’t alarm in her eyes, but just the fact that she was staring at it had Jason whipping his gaze at the rearview mirror.

There was a car behind them.

Not a maroon four-door. Thank God. It was dark green, and it had heavily tinted windows so he couldn’t see the driver inside. It was the only other vehicle on the road. And it was following a little too closely for his comfort.

Hell.

Was this yet another threat? Was this the person who was after Lilly? And had he already let him or her get the advantage by getting so close?

Testing a theory he didn’t want to prove correct, Jason sped up a little. So did the other car. And then he knew for a fact that this was not going to be fun.

“Is your seat belt on?” he asked Lilly.

“Yes.” He didn’t have to see her face to know what she was feeling. He heard the fear and the concern in her voice. He tossed her his phone. “Call for backup and get down on the seat.”

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