“You were working for a client.” He encircled her wrists with his fingers. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“But I knew those men were after her, and Lanier wasn’t responding to my texts. I should’ve figured out something was wrong.”
“So, we’re both going to sit here and blame ourselves for Jaycee’s death when the only people responsible are the ones who killed her. Sure, she made some bad choices, but not one of those choices deserved a death sentence. Now Wyatt—” Nash’s voice hitched in his throat “—he’s an orphan.”
“I’m going to have to call Lanier about this.”
“Or you can pretend you don’t know anything about Jaycee. We haven’t publicized her name yet. That story is not going to be released for at least a day. Sit back and see what Lanier has to say. See if he gives away the fact that he knows Jaycee is gone.”
“Lanier?” She dropped her hands to his thighs and curled her fingers into his flesh. “You think he had something to do with Jaycee’s murder?”
“I don’t know, Emily. If he did, that means you’re in danger, too.”
“After last night, I already figured that, but I have something Jaycee didn’t.” She pointed to her purse hanging over a chair with her .22 back in its pocket.
“You have something else she didn’t.”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “What’s that?”
“You have me.”
“Thank you.” She grabbed his arm. “I feel like I brought this danger to Jaycee.”
“Jaycee would’ve been in danger without you...or without me. At least she had the good sense to separate herself from Wyatt.”
“Now she’s permanently separated from Wyatt.” She glanced over her shoulder to look between the slats of the crib at the sleeping baby, unaware that he’d lost his mother for good. “Do you think she found Brett? That’s where she must’ve gone, right? She didn’t give you any hint? She must’ve left you a note with Wyatt along with all those instructions, right?”
“She did.” Nash massaged his right temple. “It was brief. Something along the lines of watch my baby for a few days, and here’s the baby manual.”
“What are we going to do now, Nash?” She clasped her hands, intertwining her fingers to keep from touching him. She wanted to smooth the lines of worry and sadness from his face. “If you hadn’t warned me about Marcus Lanier, I’d be headed to Phoenix right now to deliver his son to him.”
He met her gaze, his blue eyes still glistening. “You know I’d never allow you to do that—even if I’d never heard of Marcus Lanier. Babies can’t be transported around the country by strangers, delivered to people just because they say they’re the parents. You understand that, right?”
She lifted her shoulders to her ears. “You mean you have to follow the law, and in this case that means calling the Department of Child Services.”
“You can tell Lanier anything you like and maybe he’ll even allow you to keep your retainer.”
She sucked in a breath. “Is that what you think I’m worried about? Money?”
“Then you agree that we need to contact the proper authorities now? Wyatt doesn’t belong to you, he doesn’t belong to me and he sure as hell doesn’t belong to Marcus Lanier—at least not yet.”
“The proper authorities don’t always make the best calls.” She clenched her teeth. “We’ll be turning him over to strangers. He knows us. He belongs with us. We can protect him.”
“Emily, it’s called kidnapping. We can’t do it. If we take off with Wyatt and then he’s taken from us by force, that’ll be a whole lot worse. Think about it.”
“I—I see that.” She knew her way only led to trouble down the road. Hadn’t it gotten her fired? She stifled a sniffle. “Tomorrow? We’ll take him back to Paradiso tomorrow and call DCS.”
“I’m going to notify the station that we have Wyatt, and I’ll have them call DCS. I think that would be safer.” Nash scooted past her off the bed and crept to Wyatt’s crib. He leaned over and touched one finger to Wyatt’s cheek. “What are you going to do about Lanier, Emily?”
“I’m going to try him again today just to test the waters and to gauge if he knows anything he shouldn’t. Then tomorrow—” she swung her legs off the bed “—tomorrow I’m going to let him know that DCS has Wyatt because his mother was murdered and advise him to contact DCS to go through the proper channels if he wants custody of his son. And if he wants his damned money back, he can have it.”
“You’re going to have to make a statement to the police about the man who threatened you.”
She opened her mouth, but Nash held up a hand. “You don’t have to tell them everything. After all, the guy who accosted you didn’t know you had a connection to Lanier, right? He just thought you were a friend of mine who had access to Wyatt. We decided to take a trip to Tombstone to get out of town and heard the news about Wyatt’s mom.”
He spread his hands. “No covers blown.”
“I can do that.” She pressed a palm against her forehead. “I’m going to try calling Lanier again. Wish me luck.”
She strolled to the window and placed the call as she looked out on a cactus garden in the back of the house. The phone rang three times and then flipped to a message.
She held the phone in front of her and turned to Nash. “I can’t even leave voice mail because his box is full. I don’t get it.”
“Father of the year, unless they got to him, too.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Do you mind if we order food in for dinner? I don’t feel much like going out.”
“I don’t feel much like eating. Whatever you like, but that garden out back looks nice. Wyatt will probably want some fresh air when he wakes up.”
“He’d like that.” Nash sniffed and wiped
