“I’ve practically been a cop the past few days. What are you talking about?” She tossed her fiery locks over one shoulder.
Nash rolled his eyes. “What we did? That was not police work.”
“Then I guess Tucson PD has a thing or two to learn from me.” She winked at Clay.
“To Nash and Wyatt, father and son.” April raised her glass and four rims clinked. Then she took a small sip and said, “Who was it that killed Jaycee? I was so sad to hear the news. That girl never got a break.”
“Crazy as it sounds—” Nash sat on a chair at the kitchen table “—with Lanier and the drug cartel guys after her, it was Brett that killed her. The cops discovered evidence that proves it. Apparently, she was pulling back on the idea to blackmail Lanier and Brett wouldn’t have it.”
“Aw, she wasn’t such a bad mom after all.” April downed the rest of her champagne, her eyes sparkling with tears.
“You and the underdog.” Clay shook his head at his new wife. “So, Lanier is Wyatt’s father?”
Emily pressed a hand against her stomach. She didn’t want to think that a father could put his baby at risk. “Actually, we’re not sure. A paternity test hasn’t been ordered yet.”
Clay grabbed the champagne bottle by the neck and topped off the four glasses. “Brett killed Jaycee, and Lanier’s guy killed Brett?”
Nash answered, “Killed Brett, found the drugs Brett had stolen from Las Moscas and took the baby on Lanier’s orders. By that time, Lanier had discovered that Jaycee left the baby with a Border Patrol agent and had found out that I also happened to be the one who’d received the financial information from Webb.”
Clay shook his head. “I can’t believe Webb turned like that.”
“He’ll lose his job, but he did have second thoughts. He’s the one who dropped a dime on Lanier to his wife. I’m not sure what he hoped to accomplish by doing that, but her presence at that house in Buckeye is what gave us our chance to rescue Wyatt.”
April drew her brows over her nose. “And who was the woman you...killed, Emily?”
“She was part of Lanier’s criminal empire. She did whatever he told her to do—and that meant killing Wyatt instead of giving him up.” She ran a hand through her hair. “When I broke in the back door of the house, she was going for a weapon.”
Nash rapped on the kitchen table. “Emily’s been cleared. It was a righteous shooting.”
“As was yours.” Clay clapped Nash on the shoulder. “It’s good to have you back at work.”
Denali came to the screen door and barked, and April lunged forward and hugged the husky. “Oh, I missed you, too—especially after I heard how these two treated you, shuttling you back and forth to Meg’s, getting you poisoned.”
“That dog is a hero.” Emily aimed a kiss in Denali’s direction.
April tipped her head. “Come out back with me, Clay. I want to dangle my feet in the pool.”
“You didn’t get enough water in Hawaii?”
April crooked her finger at him.
Clay shrugged, filled up his champagne glass and set the bottle between Nash and Emily on the table. “I think my wife wants me.”
As the two of them wandered toward the pool, hand in hand, with Denali at their side, Emily scooted back her chair and sat in Nash’s lap. “You’re sure you want to take on the responsibility of a baby?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
Tilting her head, she traced a finger along his jaw. “I thought I told you, you’re stuck with me with or without Wyatt.”
“I know that.” He curled an arm around her waist and drew her close. “While I can’t live without you, I also discovered I can’t live without Wyatt in my life, either.”
She cupped his face with her hands and planted a kiss on his lips. “Are you sure Paradiso doesn’t mean Paradise in Spanish?”
“It has no meaning in Spanish, actually, just some gringo’s butchered attempt at naming something in Spanish. Why?”
“Because I came out to Paradiso and found a man, a baby and a love I’ve never felt before. Seems like paradise to me.”
Nash kissed her back and proved her point.
Look for Unraveling Jane Doe, the next book
in Carol Ericson’s Holding the Line miniseries,
available August 2020.
And don’t miss the previous book in the miniseries:
Evasive Action
Available now wherever
Harlequin Intrigue books are sold!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Badlands Beware by Nicole Helm.
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Badlands Beware
by Nicole Helm
Chapter One
Rachel Knight had endured nightmares about the moment she’d lost the majority of her sight since she’d been that scared, injured three-year-old. The dream was always the same. The mountain lion. The surprising shock and pain of its attack.
Things she knew had happened, because what else could have attacked her? Because that was the truth that everyone believed. She’d somehow toddled out of the house and into the South Dakota ranchland only to have a run-in with a wild animal.
But in the dreams, there was always a voice. Not her father, or her late mother, or anyone who should have been there that night.
The voice of a stranger.
Rachel sucked in a breath as her eyes flew open. Her heart pounded, and her sheets were a sweaty tangle around her.
It was a dream. Nothing more and nothing less, but she couldn’t figure out why twenty years after the attack she would still be so plagued by it.
Likely it was just all the danger that her family had been facing lately. As much as she loved the Wyatts, both sturdy Grandma Pauline and her six law enforcement grandsons who owned the ranch next door, their connection to a vicious biker gang meant trouble seemed to
