was actually having fertility treatments so that she could,” Sharon said, flinching as she remembered the judge’s mercurial mood changes. She had been so thrilled to get the position clerking for the infamous Judge Brenda Foster...until she’d actually had the job. But the job as clerk had turned into the nanny job when Brenda had been unable to keep any other nannies working for her.
He cursed again but under his breath. “I need to talk to her.”
“Good luck,” she murmured. “I haven’t been able to reach her for the past two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” he echoed in shock. “She hasn’t seen her child in two weeks?”
With all the hours the judge worked and socialized, two weeks wasn’t the longest she had gone without seeing her son. “She sent me and Ethan away with enough cash to stay in hotels for two weeks. She didn’t want me using credit cards to buy anything.”
“Because she didn’t want you to get tracked down,” Parker said, his blue eyes narrowing. “She must have known someone was after you.”
Sharon shook her head. “Nobody was after me.”
He clutched the paper in his hand so tightly that he crumpled it. “This newspaper article proves otherwise. And so does your car getting blown up in the hospital parking lot today.”
Sharon shuddered as she faced the reality that someone definitely wanted her dead. Why?
“What else did the judge tell you?” Parker asked.
Sharon sighed. “Just that if I hadn’t heard from her before those two weeks were over, I was to bring Ethan to you.” It wasn’t exactly what the judge had said, but he was already so angry with Brenda—and rightfully so—that Sharon didn’t want to make the situation worse.
But then, she wasn’t certain that it could get much worse...until she heard the creak of footsteps on the stairs. Parker heard them, too, because he reached for his gun. Obviously, he hadn’t been expecting anyone.
He had promised that they would be safe here. But Sharon was beginning to fear that they wouldn’t be safe anywhere—not with someone determined that they die.
The steps squeaked again. There was more than one person coming up the stairwell. While Parker was armed, he was outnumbered. And even if he had another gun, Sharon had never touched one, let alone knew how to use one. She could only watch helplessly as he moved toward the stairs—putting himself between her and Ethan and the threat to all their lives....
Curses echoed inside Parker’s head. He had been so certain that he hadn’t been followed. He’d been so certain that he had done everything necessary to keep his son and Sharon Wells safe. He hadn’t even told his family where he was bringing them, just that he had a place.
As a head rose above the stairwell railing, the curses slipped through his lips. “Damn you, Logan! I could’ve shot you....” His twin had admonished him many times for sneaking up on him. Why hadn’t the lesson applied to himself?
“I wasn’t sure if you knew about this place,” Logan said. “But Mom was insistent that I find you.”
And her head rose above the stairwell railing as she pushed past her oldest and rushed over to the youngest Payne. The new grandmother uttered a wistful sigh as she stared down at the sleeping baby.
She had known about her grandchild for only a few hours, but it was obvious she already loved him. Something gripped Parker’s heart, squeezing it tightly, and he realized he loved the baby, too. Ethan was a part of him.
And a part of Brenda Foster. She had lied to him. She had tricked him. Those tactics had made her such an effective district attorney that she had been one of the youngest judges ever appointed to the bench. And her ruthlessness had made her both one of the most respected and most hated judges ever.
Parker had been flattered that such a successful woman had been attracted to him. But while he’d been her bodyguard, he had refused to act anything but professional with her. So she’d fired Payne Protection. He had been attracted to her combination of beauty and brains, and once he no longer worked for her, he had acted on that attraction.
And, unbeknownst to him, they had created a child. She hadn’t just lied to him once; she had continued that lie with every day she had kept his baby’s existence from him. What had compelled her to finally have Sharon Wells bring the baby to him?
What kind of trouble was she in? Because of her ruthlessness as a judge, she had made many enemies and had constantly received threats to her life. But why would those criminals threaten the life of the father of her child and her nanny?
“I’m actually glad you showed up,” Parker begrudgingly admitted to his overprotective twin.
“What?” Logan reached for his gun and glanced around the condo as if looking for intruders hiding in the shadows. “Were you followed?”
“No. I was careful.” If he hadn’t been, he and Sharon would already be dead. “But I need to leave for a while. I need to go see someone.”
And find out what kind of game she was playing....
This was about more than a criminal with a grudge or the hit would have been on Brenda. Not on her nanny and the father of her child.
“So I need you to protect Sharon and...my son....” He could say those words that he thought he would never say because he couldn’t not claim that beautiful little boy as his. Like his mother, he already loved the child. “I need you to protect them while I’m gone.”
“Where are you going?” Logan asked.
Sharon just stared at him because she obviously knew where. She knew that he would have to go to Brenda. He would have to see her and maybe have a few choice words with her.... He couldn’t believe how she had lied and tricked him and cheated him out of Ethan’s first months of life.
“I’m going to see Judge Foster,” he admitted. “She’s part of this whole mess.” He wasn’t going to share that she was also a part of Ethan. He wouldn’t share that news with his family until he talked to the judge herself.
“Judge Foster fired us over a year and a half ago,” Logan recalled. “What would she have to do with anything going on with you and Sharon?”
“I work for her,” Sharon said. But like him, she didn’t divulge any more information. Maybe she was following his lead; maybe she didn’t want his family to know that Ethan wasn’t her son.
Logan dragged his hand through his hair in frustration and warned him, “You can’t just go traipsing off alone when you’ve got a bounty on your head.”
“I’ll be fine,” Parker assured him. “Nobody’s touched me yet.” Not for lack of trying, though.
“He won’t be alone,” Sharon said. “I’m going with him.”
Parker shook his head. “Nobody’s touched me,” he repeated. “But a lot of other people got hurt or worse because they were too close to me.”
So there was no way he would let her go along, no way that he would put Sharon Wells in any more danger than she already was.
* * *
SHARON SHOULDN’T HAVE left the baby...because she worried that she might never see him again. But at least she knew that he had a family—a real family. They would protect him and take care of him—not out of obligation but love.
Mrs. Payne had clearly fallen for her grandson. He wasn’t an inconvenience for her. Or evidence of her son’s mistake.
That was all Sharon had been to her grandparents—proof of their perfect daughter’s fall from grace. The mistake that had ruined and eventually claimed her life. After Sharon’s young mother had died, they’d taken