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СКАЧАТЬ You slept with a stranger whose last name you never asked. You haven’t made an attempt to locate him in the intervening six weeks. Now, all of a sudden, you’re willing to hire a private investigator to find out about him. If you’d discovered he’d given you a sexually transmitted disease, you’d want him found so he could be notified. But you only want to find out about him. You’re pregnant. And you believe Todd is the father.”

      She sucked in a shaky breath, fighting desperately to quell a rising sense of panic and burgeoning nausea. This private investigator was good, all right—too damn good.

      “You’d best understand the ground rules,” he said. “I have a license to consider and, just as importantly, a conscience to answer to. I cannot take on a case without complete honesty from a client.”

      “I haven’t lied to you.”

      “Omissions are substantially the same thing. You weren’t planning to tell me about the pregnancy. Do you plan to tell Todd?”

      “I don’t know.”

      “So, it will depend on what I find out about him?”

      “I have a lot of decisions to make. Before I make any about him, I have to have more information.”

      “When did you discover you were pregnant?”

      “Last Friday.”

      “You had no suspicion before that?”

      “I thought I had the flu.”

      “No missed period?”

      “I’ve always been irregular.”

      “Why do you think Todd is the father?”

      “He’s the only one who could be.”

      “Ms. Carter, if there are any other pertinent facts regarding this case that you’re keeping from me, I need to know them now. Am I being clear?”

      “Yes.”

      “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

      “I have nothing to add.”

      “Who else could be the father?”

      “No one.”

      “Who else knows you’re pregnant?”

      “Just the doctor.”

      “You’ve told no one else?”

      “That’s correct.”

      “Is there anyone else who has a right to know?”

      “A right to know?” she repeated, wondering at the oddness of that question. “With the possible exception of Todd—and I haven’t decided one way or another about him—no one has a right to know.”

      David’s silent scrutiny did nothing but add to the queasiness in her stomach.

      “I’m sorry, Ms. Carter. I won’t be able to take your case.”

      “Excuse me?”

      He rose. “You will not be charged for this morning’s consultation.”

      Despite the deceptiveness of his calm expression and tone, there was an undercurrent of disturbance displayed in his blunt movements. Before she could take another breath, he had marched to his office door and swung it open.

      He stood expectantly beside it. “Have a pleasant day.”

      She felt her face go white with shock. She’d just revealed the most intimate details of her life to this stranger and—what was just as hard—had asked for his help. And he was throwing her out.

      Her icy hands gripped the arms of the chair as she rose shakily to her feet. Somehow she got to the door. She didn’t look at him as she slid past. The rush of air as the door closed swiftly behind her was like a blow.

      She shut her eyes tightly and fought desperately against the churning, sickening waves. It was no use. She started to run. She barely made it to the bathroom down the hall before she vomited.

      As she lay with her cheek pressed against the cold tile floor, she didn’t know what was worse—the morning sickness or the moment of temporary insanity that had led her to the White Knight Investigations’ offices.

      But something she did know for certain now. She had gotten herself into this mess, and she was going to have to get herself out of it. There were no white knights on sturdy steeds coming to her rescue.

      She had only herself to rely on. And just as she had throughout her life, she would have to find the strength to face whatever came and do whatever had to be done. Alone.

      CHAPTER TWO

      “OUR CLIENT IS VERY pleased, David,” Charles Knight told his son as he waved a check. “Getting a runaway to voluntarily return to her parents isn’t something we see often. How’d you pull it off?”

      Charles sat on the edge of his son’s desk. He was David’s height and still powerfully built at sixty-four, with the finely chiseled features of the men who swung tennis rackets and rode polo ponies in slick magazine ads.

      “Her boyfriend convinced our runaway to bail on her family,” David told his dad. “She imagined herself in love and was ready to give up anything for the guy, until I showed her some live-action video of the slimeball getting it on with another girl.”

      “Where did that video come from?”

      “The guy taped it himself. He gets his kicks filming his conquests of underage girls.”

      Charles shook his head. “What are you going to do about him?”

      “He’s twenty-one. Jared has all the evidence he needs to make an arrest. I just wanted to be sure our client’s daughter was home safe and out of the fray before the law got involved.”

      “Smart of you to bring your brother in on this, David. As always, you have thoroughly thought out every aspect of this case. So, why are you frowning?”

      David took the file in front of him and shoved it into his open desk drawer. “Didn’t realize I was.”

      “Something on your mind?”

      David closed the drawer and looked up at his dad. Those steel-blue eyes had him in their sights. Charles might have the look of a country club man, but David knew his dad had the keen instincts and cunning of a cougar.

      “I was just thinking about this woman who came by yesterday morning before the offices were open.”

      “You caught a cat burglar?” Charles asked with a smile.

      “Probably would have been better if she’d turned out to be one.”

      The teasing smile faded from Charles’s lips as he studied his son’s solemn face. “So, СКАЧАТЬ