Page 4 of Protecting the Newborn

Ruston wanted to curse again. And pull her into his arms. Not because of the heat, though that was still there. No, he wanted to try to ease some of that fear. But after what had happened between them, he seriously doubted a hug from him would give her much comfort.

“What about your sister, Allie?” he asked. “Does she know where you are?”

Allie was the only family Gracelyn had. Well, other than the baby. And while Allie and Gracelyn hadn’t been especially close, just the opposite actually, anyone wanting to get to Gracelyn could use Allie to do it. Allie had been pretty much a screwup most of her life, and Gracelyn had had to pull strings and call in favors several times to get her kid sister out of a jam.

“Allie doesn’t know,” Gracelyn answered, and then she swallowed hard. “And I don’t know where she is either.” She paused. “I’m not sure if she’s safe or not.”

Hell. Of course, she’d be worried about Allie. Worried about someone using her sister to get to her.

“You should have gotten in touch with me,” he said. “You should have told me. I could have helped.”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. It was dry as West Texas dust. “Right. The man with one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. The last person I wanted to contact was you.”

Ruston’s stomach twisted. But he couldn’t deny what she’d just said. That last op they’d been on together, the one that had nearly gotten them killed, had obviously sent them in opposite directions. He’d kept up the deep-cover work, and she’d chosen to make her world as safe as possible. The pregnancy and the baby had no doubt factored into her lifestyle decisions.

And that brought him back to her newborn.

Two weeks old, which meant Gracelyn had hooked up with her baby’s father six or seven weeks after she’d resigned from the force. Since they’d been partners, Ruston knew plenty about Gracelyn’s personal life. And vice versa. She hadn’t been involved with anyone when they’d had their one-off, and even though that night had been the culmination of the worst of circumstances, he’d thought it would be the beginning of a relationship since there’d always been an intense attraction between them.

Clearly, he’d been wrong about the relationship.

But not wrong about the attraction. It was still there, even now. Or maybe he was reading way too much into it. After all, Gracelyn had been with her baby’s father roughly nine and a half months ago, which meant that was a month after Ruston and she had had that one night together.

“Is your baby’s father in the picture?” he asked. Ruston watched her face to see if that was playing into this. Relationships went south all the time, and this man could be the threat to Gracelyn and her daughter.

It seemed to him that she tensed even more. Something he hadn’t thought possible. After a long pause, Gracelyn opened her mouth but didn’t get a chance to answer.

Because of the soft beeping sound.

Her gaze flew from his and went to the laptop monitor. “Someone or something just triggered the security alarm.”

Chapter Two

Every nerve in Gracelyn’s body was already on high alert, but that little beep of her security system gave her a fresh surge of adrenaline. She cursed herself for not having already moved. If she had, then the nightmare wouldn’t have found her.

Maybe Ruston wouldn’t have found her either.

She’d have to deal with him. But first, she had to handle this threat that could put the baby, Abigail, in danger.

While she hurried through a mental checklist of her security, Gracelyn went closer to the laptop monitor. She already knew all the windows and the doors were locked, and that every possible point of entry was equipped with sensors.

It hadn’t been any of those that’d gone off, though.

That would have been a much louder beep. This softer sound had been because someone or something had moved past one of the sensors set up around the entire perimeter of the house.

She glanced through the various camera feeds and soon spotted the culprit, and she relaxed just a little. “A deer,” she muttered. “There are dozens of them around, and they often set off the sensors.”

Ruston moved closer to her, looking at the laptop screen as well. So close that she caught his scent. It stirred through her in a totally different way than the adrenaline and nerves.

A bad way.

Because it reminded her of the heat between them.

Reminded her of why they’d landed in bed. That couldn’t happen again. Still, it was hard not to notice that face, that body that had drawn her to him in the first place. Ruston was very much the cowboy cop, though his dark brown hair was longer than most cops’. The length was no doubt to go along with his undercover persona. Ditto for the scruff that made him look like an Old West outlaw.

She kept her attention on the screen, looking for anyone or anything else that the deer’s movements could have masked. When she’d set up the security, it had occurred to her that an intruder could sneak in behind a deer or some other animal, so she always looked for that. Always.

The seconds crawled by, turning into minutes, and she still didn’t see any signs of an intruder. Gracelyn couldn’t breathe easier, though. Not with Ruston standing next to her. She had to get rid of him fast so she could get out of there with the baby.

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