out the intensifying pain radiating from his knee upward. He didn’t have time for that now. He glanced down at the woman at his side. Whether she had a child and where that child might be was not his concern. He ignored the instant protest that tightened his chest. Taking her back to James Ed was all he came to do, Nick reminded himself. Laura had a brother, an influential brother, who could help her with whatever personal problems—real or imagined—she might have.
Nick opened the car door, intent on ushering Laura inside. Hell, it was too damned cold to stand outside and debate anything. He could calm Laura down once they were in the car. As if suddenly realizing that they were actually leaving, she twisted around to face him.
“I have to find Robby,” she said, her voice breaking on a harsh sob. “You have to believe me, Nick. I left him with Mrs. Leeton not more than an hour ago.” Another shudder wracked her body.
Nick pulled her close again, his own body automatically seeking to comfort hers. He forced himself to think rationally, ruthlessly suppressing the urge to take her sweet face in his hands and promise her anything. “Show me some proof that you have a son, Laura. Convince me.”
For the space of two foolish heartbeats Laura stared into his eyes, the blue of hers growing almost translucent with some emotion Nick couldn’t quite identify. Her upturned face too close for comfort.
“He’s real,” she whispered, her breath feathering across his lips, making him yearn to taste her, to hold her tighter.
“Prove it,” he demanded instead. “Show me pictures, a birth certificate, a favorite toy, clothing, any evidence that you have a child.”
She shifted, her body brushing against his and sending a jolt of desire through him. “My purse…” Laura frowned, then looked toward Mrs. Leeton’s house. “I left my purse and what few clothes we brought with us in there.”
Nick followed her gaze and studied the small white frame house for a moment. “We definitely aren’t going back,” he said flatly, then returned his attention to the woman putting his defenses through an emotional wringer. “I don’t want the local police involved.”
Instantly, Laura recoiled from him. Anger and bitterness etched themselves across the tender landscape of her face. Her eyes were still red-rimmed from her tears, but sparks of rage flew from their watery blue depths. “Of course not,” she spat the words with heated contempt. “We wouldn’t want to do anything that would bring the wrong kind of attention to the almighty Governor of Mississippi, now would we?”
“Get in the car, Laura.” Irritation stiffened Nick’s spine. He had no intention of making the Proctors’ domestic difficulties personal this go-around. “Now,” he added when she didn’t immediately move.
Her eyes still shooting daggers at him, Laura turned to obey, but suddenly whipped back around. “Doc,” she said. “Doc will back me up. He’ll tell you about Robby.”
Tired of beating a dead horse, Nick blew out a loud, impatient breath. “Who’s Doc?”
“My doctor,” Laura explained. “Robby was really sick. Doc’s the reason I came back here, I knew I could trust him,” she added quickly as she slid behind the wheel, then scooted to the passenger side of the car. “Let’s go!”
Nick braced his forearm on the roof of the car and leaned down to look her in the eye. He held her gaze for a long moment, some warped inner compulsion urging him to believe her. He straightened, taking a moment to scan the quiet neighborhood, then Mrs. Leeton’s house once more. Something about this whole situation just didn’t feel right. Maybe there was some truth to Laura’s story. Nick had always trusted his instincts. And they had never let him down…except once.
“Hurry, Nick, we’re wasting time!”
Still warring with himself, Nick dropped behind the wheel and started the engine. He turned to his passenger and leveled his most intimidating gaze on hers. “If you’re yanking me around, Laura, you’re going to regret it.”
LAURA STARED at the scrawled writing on the crudely crafted sign hanging in the window of Doc’s clinic. The breath rushed past her lips, leaving a cloud of white in the cold air as she read the words that obliterated the last of her hope. “Gone out of town, be back as soon as possible.” This couldn’t be. She shook her head as denial surged through her.
It just could not be.
Her pulse pounded in her ears. Her heart threatened to burst from her chest. Laura squeezed her burning eyes shut. Robby, where are you? Please, God, she prayed, don’t let them hurt my baby. Please, don’t let them hurt my baby.
“That’s rather convenient,” Nick remarked dryly from somewhere behind her.
Laura clamped one hand over her mouth to hold back the agonizing scream that burgeoned in her throat. How could she make Nick believe her now? Mrs. Leeton was lying or crazy, or maybe both. Doc had disappeared. Doc’s new nurse would be where? Laura wondered. The woman worked part-time with another doctor in some nearby small town. Where? Laura wracked her brain, mentally ticking off the closest ones. She couldn’t remember what Doc had told her. His longtime secretary had retired and moved to Florida months ago. He hadn’t hired anyone else, preferring to do the paperwork himself now. Who could Laura call? She couldn’t think. She closed her eyes again and stifled a sob that threatened to break loose. She had to keep her head on straight. She had to think clearly.
Who could have taken Robby?
Why?
Realization struck like lightning on a sultry summer night, acknowledging pain hot on its heels like answering thunder.
James Ed.
It had to be him, or one of his henchmen. They had found out about Robby and taken him to get to Laura. That would be the one surefire way to bring her home. She had realized that day two years ago at the cabin that her dear brother intended to kill her. She just hadn’t known why. But that epiphany had come to her eventually. The money. He wanted Laura’s trust fund. He was willing to kill her to get it. And now Robby was caught in the middle.
What about Doc? Could he be in on it? Was his sudden disappearance planned? Laura shook her head emphatically. No way. Doc loved her. And she trusted him. He wouldn’t do that. Laura read the sign in the window again. But where could he be? He had asked her to come to the clinic. He’d told Mrs. Leeton it was urgent. Had he somehow heard that someone was in town looking for her? Maybe he wanted to warn her. Could he have taken Robby somewhere to safety?
Laura prayed that was the case. But how could she be sure? Could she leave town without knowing that her son was safe? She swallowed tightly.
No. She had to find him.
“I know Doc’s here,” she said aloud, as if that would make it so. “He has to be.”
“Let’s go, Laura. I’m tired of playing games with you.”
Laura turned around slowly and faced the man who seemed to have set all this in motion. The man she still loved deep in her heart. The man who had given her the child that she could not bear to lose. But she could never tell him the truth.
Never.
Nick’s green eyes were accusing, and full of bitterness. Defeat weighed heavily on Laura’s shoulders as she met that unsympathetic gaze. Pain riddled her insides. She had lost her son and no one on earth cared or wanted to help her. She was alone, just as she had been alone since the day her parents had died when she was ten years old. Nothing but a burden to her much older brother, Laura had known from day one that he couldn’t wait to be rid of her. As soon as she had come home from college, James Ed had tried to push her into marrying the son of one of his business associates, but Laura had refused. Then the attempts on her life had begun.
She supposed that it was poetic justice of sorts. James Ed had considered her a nuisance her entire life, but being the responsible, upstanding man he wanted everyone to believe he was, he had offered Laura an out—marry Rafe Manning. Rafe was young, reasonably handsome, and rich. What