His Child. Delores Fossen

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      Jessie tried not to roll her eyes. The icing on the cake. A fan of Jake McClendon’s. It was bad enough that she had to be here with him, but now she had to experience some woman who was neck-deep in hero worship, as well. That sexy mouth of his must have the same effect on all females.

      Apparently he didn’t want to indulge too much in the adoration, either, because he got right to the point. “I need to speak to Dr. Radelman.”

      “Oh. He doesn’t work here anymore.”

      “Since when? He’s the man who contacted me after my vials were destroyed.”

      “Yes, and he left, um, let me see when…” She flipped through her calendar. “About two weeks later.”

      Two weeks after the vials were destroyed and about two weeks before someone kidnapped her. Jessie didn’t think that was a coincidence. A doctor probably would have been the one to do the actual insemination.

      “Why did Dr. Radelman leave?” Jake demanded.

      “He transferred to another job.” She snapped her fingers as if trying to recall something. “Harvest Place, I think it’s called. Something like that, anyway. It’s not connected with Cryogen.”

      Jessie started to ask if the woman had the address or phone number of the place, but Jake spoke before she could. “There was a nurse who worked here. She had a soft voice and she was tall. Red hair. She wasn’t the one I spoke to on the phone a couple of days ago.”

      Soft voice. That got Jessie’s attention. The woman who held her captive had had a soft voice. And she’d no doubt been a nurse, since she was the one who had administered the injections. She was tall, too. Jessie remembered that about her, even though she’d never seen the woman’s face. Nor her hair. Her hair had always been bundled under a surgical cap. But the eyes. Yes, she’d seen her eyes. And they were dark green.

      “You must mean Marion Cameron,” the blonde said with a grin. “But she doesn’t work here anymore, either. She left the same time Dr. Radelman did.”

      Jake shook his head in apparent frustration. “To take another job?”

      The woman shrugged. “A sabbatical. She’d been under a lot of stress. Her husband walked out on her, so she was going through all this emotional stuff.”

      “Does she have green eyes?” Jessie asked.

      Jake looked at her.

      So did the blonde, who said, “Yes, as a matter of fact she does.”

      Jessie didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. Finally, there was some proof, little though it was, to back up what she’d been saying.

      “Thank you for the information,” Jake told the woman. “By any chance do you have addresses for Marion Cameron and Dr. Radelman?”

      “Sorry.” The blush on her cheeks deepened. “I’m not allowed to give that out.”

      Jessie thought he might argue, but he didn’t. That was probably because he knew his people could easily come up with that kind of information. He took her by the arm and led her out of the building.

      “Still think I’m lying?” she asked briskly, as they walked across the parking lot.

      He didn’t answer for several seconds. “Yes.”

      Of course. What had she expected? “But what about the missing doctor and nurse? You can’t believe it’s a coincidence they would leave right after your vials were supposedly destroyed.”

      “I don’t know what to believe yet—not until I’ve spoken with them.” He put his hand on the car door, but didn’t open it. “I’ll make some calls and find out where they are.”

      “And then what?”

      His mouth thinned. “Well, I won’t be buying cigars anytime soon. Even if by some miracle these people were involved in a plot to kidnap you, it doesn’t mean you’re carrying my baby.”

      Jessie would have returned verbal fire, but she caught some movement out of the corner of her eye. A late-model, white, four-door sedan. And it was going much too slowly. She turned toward it, her own body seemingly moving in slow motion, as well. Before she could respond, before she could brace herself, there was a deafening blast. The back window of Jake’s car shattered and the pebbled sheet of safety glass crashed onto the seat with a walloping thud.

      “Get down!” she yelled. Jake shouted something similar at the same time, but he punctuated it with some vicious profanity.

      A rapid fire of bullets sizzled across the roof. Just like that, in the span of a heartbeat, Jessie’s anger evaporated. In its place, her instincts kicked in. And her fear. A sickening fear that clawed away at her. God, she didn’t want to die this way.

      She hit the pavement, her knees catching the brunt of the fall. Jake shoved her the rest of the way down and followed on top of her, sheltering her body with his. She got only a glimpse of a man in the white car.

      “Someone’s shooting at us.” But it wasn’t necessary for Jessie to relay that information. Jake apparently knew exactly what was happening.

      It was an awful time to say that she told him so, but blast it, she had told him so. Nothing bad will happen while you’re with me. Yeah, right. She’d warned him that somebody wanted her dead and he hadn’t believed her. Well, maybe this would finally convince him.

      If they lived long enough for it to convince him.

      A bullet, then another, tore into the car. The sounds of lead ripping through metal were all around them. Her heart was in her throat. And her pulse pounded violently. Her every instinct screamed for her to fight back. To protect herself. But there was no way to do that in an open parking lot.

      A thousand thoughts crossed her mind. None good. This was the culmination of her worst fears. She was unarmed, with a gunman after her. This time, he just might succeed in killing her. Maybe even killing Jake, as well. They could both die right here, right now, and she wouldn’t even know why she’d been murdered.

      There was the squeal of tires, followed by another shot. She didn’t dare hope the gunman was leaving. From the sound of it, he was simply circling around to get a better angle. Jessie sucked in a hard breath, trying to keep the veneer over the panic that was so close to the surface she could taste it, fiery and bitter in her mouth.

      Jake pressed himself against her, a reminder that he had placed himself right in the path of those bullets. Like hers, his breath came out in short, fast spurts. Jessie could feel the knots in his muscles. The hot scent of adrenaline and scorched metal was all around them.

      When the white car momentarily darted out of her line of sight, Jake reached up and fumbled around until he located the handle. He popped open the door. “Stay down and get on the floor.”

      He rolled to his side so she could slip into the car. Doing so, he put himself in even greater danger. Jessie wouldn’t let herself consider why he did that. No use thinking about him as a Boy Scout.

      She crunched herself as far under the dash as she could and latched onto his shirt. “Get in!” she yelled.

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