She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Dr. Keyes lowered his voice to a whisper. “Your son’s embryo was cloned.”
She pulled in her breath. “Cloned?” The grip she had on the doctor’s jacket melted away, and Delaney’s hand dropped to her side.
“Yes. I only got a quick look at Dr. Spears’s records, but he claims to have taken the DNA from a six-week-old male infant who died two years ago right here in San Antonio in an automobile accident that killed both the baby and his mother.”
A sickening feeling of dread came over her.
Two years ago.
A car accident.
A child and mother left dead.
Delaney was positive there’d been plenty of other accidents, other deaths during that time frame. But only one incident came to mind.
“It’s possible that you might have received the cloned embryo from that infant,” Dr. Keyes said.
Delaney felt herself stagger, and because she had no choice, she leaned against a nearby car.
An experimentally cloned embryo.
The genetic copy of a child who had already been born.
And died.
Delaney tried to respond, tried to question that. She tried to accuse Dr. Keyes of lying. Yes, that was it. He had to be lying. But she couldn’t make herself say anything. Her throat clamped shut, and the tightness in her chest squeezed like a fist.
“If the information in that record is correct,” the doctor continued. He waited until Delaney’s eyes came back to his. “Then, the child you gave birth to is Ryan McCall’s son.”
Chapter Two
Ryan McCall cursed the storm. It was a brutal reminder of the gaping wound that just wouldn’t heal.
The rain had been relentless, going on for hours. And each new assault against the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of his office drew him out of the concentration that he was fighting hard to maintain.
Concentration he desperately needed tonight.
Ryan tried—again—to lose himself in the quarterly business projections for his company, McCall Industries. A vital report. One he needed to absorb and study so he could give input to his department heads. It worked. Well, it worked for a minute or two anyway. And then there was another wave of rain. Another burst of wind.
Another stir of painful memories he didn’t want.
It had rained the afternoon of the accident two years ago. Violent weather, violent consequences. The connection wasn’t logical, but it was there nonetheless. Ryan considered it a battle to fight, and win.
Eventually.
That’s why he didn’t close the curtains. One way or another, he would conquer this particular demon just as he’d conquered all the others in his life.
The buzzing sound of the intercom echoed through the room only seconds before he heard the familiar voice of his household manager, Lena Sanchez. “Sorry to interrupt you, boss, but you have a visitor at the front gate.”
Ryan automatically checked the antique Seth Thomas clock on the polished-stone-and-mahogany mantel. It was just after seven-thirty. Not late, but since his estate wasn’t exactly on the beaten path, it was hardly the hour for an unexpected guest. And an unwanted one. Ryan didn’t have to know the person’s identity to determine that. Anyone was unwanted at this point. He was not in a receiving-visitors kind of mood.
“It’s Delaney Nash,” Lena added, sounding concerned. “And she said it’s important.”
That captured Ryan’s attention.
Tossing the report aside, he reached over, accessed the security feed on his computer and zoomed in on the wrought-iron gate that fronted his estate. Even through the thick gray rain and the dusky light, he had no trouble spotting the blue car. Or the woman sitting behind the wheel. Her window was halfway down, and she was staring blankly at the intercom and security camera, apparently waiting for Lena to open the gate so she could visit.
Even though Ryan knew her name as well as his own, he’d yet to meet Delaney Nash, the woman he’d spoken to and corresponded with too many times to count. That didn’t mean he wanted their first meeting to happen tonight. Still, there was something about her ashen face and shell-shocked stare that had him reconsidering if he would let her in.
She looked upset. And her shoulder-length coffee-colored hair was plastered against her head and cheeks. She’d obviously had a run-in with the rain, and she didn’t look any more pleased about her encounter with the precipitation than he was.
“What does she want?” Ryan asked Lena.
“She said it was personal. That she urgently needed to speak to you.”
Of course it was personal. It couldn’t be anything but. Old scores to settle and all of that. And the urgent part? Well, that was expected, too. Things always seemed urgent when it came to the Nash family.
This little visit was no doubt about her father. Maybe he’d attempted suicide again. Or maybe Richard Nash had filed yet another frivolous lawsuit to right the wrong that he felt had been done to him. Either way, it couldn’t be good.
“She’s probably here to try to kill me,” Ryan mumbled under his breath.
And it wasn’t a joke.
A thought like that should normally have elicited fear or at least a sense of dread, but it’d been a while since he’d felt fear. That could happen when a man had lost everything: the woman he loved and their child.
There was literally nothing left for him to fear.
Or lose.
What he’d dreaded most had already happened.
“Open the gate,” Ryan instructed Lena. “Show her in.”
At least Delaney Nash would be a distraction from the storm. Sad but true. He preferred to face an irate, possibly homicidal, adversary than deal with the blasted conditioned responses caused by the weather.
“Lena, do a quick background check on Ms. Nash,” Ryan added, because, while he didn’t mind the distraction, he preferred to be informed. Especially if Ms. Nash had come with murder on her mind. “I haven’t kept tabs on her or her father in a while.”
“Sure, boss.”
Ryan watched as the gates slid open. Delaney Nash wasted no time. Once she had adequate space, she gunned the engine and started the half-mile uphill drive that would bring her to his doorstep.
He winced when she took one of the curves way too fast. Her tires skidded through slick asphalt, and for a second, one horrible gut-tightening second, Ryan thought she might lose control of her vehicle and crash into the massive oaks that lined the road.
She didn’t.
No frantic flash of brake lights. She simply slowed down until she finally came to a stop in the covered entryway of the main house.
“Delaney Elizabeth Nash,” Lena said through the intercom. One of the servants opened the front door and escorted his visitor inside. “She’s twenty-nine, lives in San Antonio. No police record. She owns a day-care center—small but apparently thriving.”
Nothing new. Ryan was already aware of those details. “Anything recent on her or her father?”
Ryan gave the security feed another adjustment so he could follow Ms. Nash’s little journey through the foyer and onto the wide spiraling stairs that would take her eventually to his office. Unlike other visitors, not once did she stop or even glance at her surroundings. She kept her attention pinned straight ahead. Zombielike.
Or so he thought.
Until