Page 17 of His To Protect

Chapter Six

Jack carried Alexis, limp and spent from both her ordeal and their love-making, to the bed. Her eyes, still clouded with pleasure slipped closed the moment he laid her head on the pillow. The words, “Yours, Daddy,” brushed past her kiss-swollen lips as he put the blanket over her and smiled. His little girl looked damn adorable surrounded by those fragrant flower petals. His smile widened.

Jack Cole didn’t smile. He didn’t find his sassy clients adorable and he certainly didn’t fall in love. Except he did.

Jack knew they couldn’t stay here at this hotel even in the interim while they waited for a flight home. The Sanchez brothers would find them. It was only a matter of time. He needed to get her out of Colombia and soon. The El Dorado International airport wasn’t a safe option either. Maybe a smaller private plane or… he looked at the soundly sleeping Alexis and his brain shut off for a moment to watch her.

A few hours, he’d give her that. But then they had to leave. He wanted to curl up behind her and tuck her safely into him, cradle her body with his, but he still had some things to work out in his mind and he didn’t want to disturb her sleep, not when he could only allow her a short one.

As he settled on the couch, the information he had about her mother and the Sanchez brothers burned in him. He needed to keep it to himself a bit longer though. He wanted to know for sure before he stirred up her world and he hoped to have something positive to tell her too. And that’s when it hit him. Alexis was right, Samuel Sanchez was not her father, and that meant Litster might be. He’d have to get Pete to check on that, blood types or whatever. Although they’d probably need a DNA test.

Jack leaned back, sinking into the sofa. Glancing at the panties on the floor by the door, a vision of Alexis played in his mind like a movie a moment before he paused it for another time. She needed a change of clothes and they needed transportation. They also needed a plan. But first he’d just rest his eyes a minute.

Morning pouredin the windows warming Jack’s face, but it was the sound of a motorcycle roaring nearby that woke him. At first, he stirred slowly until his mind came fully awake, and then he bolted upright. What the hell time was it? He hadn’t intended to sleep more than a few hours and now it was morning. He forced the anxiety that flared, down. They were registered here under his name, not hers. They’d be hard to find. They had time.

Thankfully, Pete was already at the office when he called.

“You find anything?” This time Pete didn’t complain about the lack of greeting.

“I did actually. There were definitely no death records for Lilianna Riker, and I found a marriage record for a Samuel Ronaldo Hernandez and Lilianna Juliette Riker.”

Jacks brows furrowed. “What kind of woman would do this to her own child?”

“The same kind who would drop said newborn child on her parents’ doorstep and run away with a man she’d left her husband for.”

“How do you know that?”

“Asked around. Alexis might not know anything, but her grandmother’s garden club friends did.”

Jack was taken back. He was the leg work guy, not Pete.

“You left the office?”

“Hardee-har,” Pete replied.

“Was the Uber Eats app down?”

“I’m going to let that slide, Jackie.”

“So I’ve got this theory I need you to prove.” Jack emphasized the word because he knew Alexis had no one and learning her mother had been alive all this time, and didn’t care, would kill her. “I think Litster is the father.”

“Hmm.” Pete started clacking away again. “Okay, so Alexis was born a few months after the divorce with Litster became final and that could mean she was pregnant before she’d left him, but Lillianna was having an affair with Sanchez. Might need a paternity test on this one. Let me do some more digging though.”

Jack’s other line cut in “Got another call, Pete.”

The name Alexis Riker flashed on the screen and Jack almost dropped the phone. He switched lines quickly, leaving the conversation with Pete unfinished.

“Hello?”

“Are you the man who saved my Alexis yesterday?”

“Lilianna?”

“Yes,” she said breathily.

The yes held so much more than just the confirmation of her name. He heard it in her voice—she was Alexis’s mother.

“Listen, they’re coming for her.” Lilianna’s voice was an urgent whisper this time. “I just wanted the money. Why did she have to come here?” She let out a whimper and some quiet weeping followed before she spoke again, this time in a voice wet with emotion. “They’ll kill her for it and they know where you are. She left her phone behind and there are pictures on it—of the hotel. I hid the phone as long as I could, but they found it. You need to get her back home. Fast. Nicolas has gone to a dangerous man for help, a man he’s promised to pay his debt to with the money he’ll take from Alexis. He works for a cartel.”

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