One Night Standoff. Delores Fossen

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СКАЧАТЬ office the morning of the visit, but he hadn’t been privy to what Lenora and he had discussed. Too bad. Because Clayton had the feeling that it was more than important, and he wasn’t letting her out of his sight until he had answers.

      Clayton hit Play on the video, and they watched in silence. Well, verbal silence anyway. Lenora was glancing at him from the corner of her eye. He was doing the same, trying to remember anything and everything about her. She certainly didn’t feel like a stranger. And her scent...

      That was familiar, too.

      Maybe it was his imagination, but that scent seemed to trigger other things. Like the memory of her taste. But that couldn’t have happened. According to every report he’d read, the first time he met Lenora and her friend Jill was when they’d been placed in his protective custody. He wouldn’t have kissed a woman on the job.

      Maybe afterward.

      After Jill had been murdered. After her shooter had been arrested and put behind bars. Yeah, he could maybe see it happening then, if Lenora had landed in his arms so he could comfort her.

      But had they done that?

      And if so, why hadn’t Lenora admitted it?

      He heard the slight shiver of her breath and looked down at the screen. Their recorded conversation was over, and both had noticed the approaching black truck. Though it was damn hard to watch, Clayton did. And he saw the impact of the bullet as it slammed into his head.

      Lenora turned away, or rather started to do that, but Clayton caught her arm, keeping her in place. “Watch,” he insisted.

      She did, but from the corner of her eye, and it seemed as if she was genuinely horrified by what she was seeing. Him, slumped against the table, and her, grabbing his gun to return fire.

      Clayton hit Pause again the second she pulled the trigger.

      It was a clear image of not just the truck but of Lenora. The way she was holding the gun. The expression on her face. The precision with which she returned fire.

      “There are only two types of people who react that way in a life-or-death situation,” he said. “Law enforcement and criminals.”

      She didn’t ask which he thought she was and didn’t deny his conclusion. Lenora mumbled something, shook her head and walked away from him.

      “I need some air,” she said. Before he could stop her, she went to the side door just a few feet away and threw it open.

      The hot July sunlight speared through the tiny church.

      Clayton couldn’t quite choke back a groan, and he shoved on his glasses. Too late, though. The pain came.

      “What’s wrong?” Lenora immediately asked.

      He turned away, fought back the throbbing in his head. Maybe it wouldn’t turn into a full-blown migraine.

      “The sunlight,” he managed to say. “I get headaches.”

      She jerked the door closed and hurried back to him. “From the gunshot?”

      He nodded and forced out some hard breaths. Sometimes it helped.

      “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t know. That wasn’t in any of the reports I read about you.”

      Even through the blinding pain that got his attention, and he stared at her.

      “Yes, I read reports about you,” she verified. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

      “You could have just asked. Or stayed at the hospital until I came out of surgery. Instead, Harlan said you bolted from the ambulance the second it stopped.”

      “I did.” She looked away, repeated it. Lenora turned again, as if looking for a way out, and the movement caused her coat to shift to the side.

      Despite the pain, Clayton pulled off his glasses so he could make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. They weren’t. He saw her belly.

      Or rather, the baby bump.

      It wasn’t huge, but it was there. And even more, Lenora followed his stunned gaze and pulled the coat back over her. The little gasping sound she made didn’t help steady his nerves, either.

      “You’re pregnant,” Clayton said.

      She nodded.

      “How far along are you?” he asked when she didn’t volunteer anything else.

      Lenora didn’t jump to answer that, either. “Second trimester.”

      He stared at her. “That’s what—four or five months?”

      Another hesitation. “Nearly five.”

      The brain injury might have robbed him of some of his memories, but he could still do basic math. Nearly five months ago put it just about the time she’d been in his protective custody.

      The time frame that was a blank spot in his mind.

      “How much do you remember about me?” she asked before he could say anything.

      “Not much. Nothing,” he amended. “Everything I know about you I learned from the reports and surveillance videos. And from Adam Riggs.”

      Clearly, she hadn’t been expecting that last part, because she sucked in a quick breath. “What did Riggs tell you about me?”

      Not as much as Clayton had wanted. And while Clayton would answer her questions about Riggs, he wasn’t forgetting about that baby bump. He would get answers about that before this conversation was over.

      “I went to visit Riggs in jail,” Clayton explained, “to try to figure out if he was responsible for shooting me. Of course, he said he wasn’t.”

      “Of course.” She huffed. “Anything that comes out of his mouth is a lie, because he’s a cold-blooded killer.”

      Clayton couldn’t argue with that. He didn’t remember Riggs gunning down Jill Lang, but he’d seen the crime-scene photos and read the reports. The man was indeed a murderer.

      One behind bars.

      And one that shouldn’t have had the access to hire a gun to come after Lenora and him.

      “Riggs said you ‘had secrets,’ and that’s a direct quote,” Clayton finished. “Any idea what he meant by that?”

      He purposely dropped his gaze to her stomach. He doubted that bump had anything to do with Riggs’s cryptic comment, but Clayton figured Lenora definitely had some secrets that needed to be spilled.

      She opened her mouth, closed it and then groaned. “I did you a favor by leaving Maverick Springs. My advice—let me keep doing you that favor.”

      Clayton stepped in front of her when she tried to leave. Yeah, he could restrain her, but if she opened a door, the sunlight was going to cause the pain to spike again and maybe send him to his knees. СКАЧАТЬ