Just Eight Months Old... Read online

  Fear eclipsed Hannah’s confusion. In a moment’s span Elliott could upset fifteen months’ worth of rebuilding. She shook her head as inconspicuously as possible.

  Elliott sighed. “Anyway, that’s your business.” He dropped his arms but refused to let Hannah pass through the doorway. “If you walk out of here, McGee, Blackstone Bail and Bonds will cease to exist.”

  Elliott glanced over his shoulder at the receptionist in the outer office, then stepped inside, closing the door after himself. “Look, just listen to me. There could be a great deal of money in it for you. Enough for you to…see through your plans more solidly.”

  She remained silent. He stared down at something he held in his hand. “Here, my secretary took this call for you.” He handed her a small slip of paper. She read it, then slid it into her skirt pocket. Elliott glanced at Chad. “Hogan, why don’t you and I go outside and give Hannah a few minutes to think?”

  Chad brushed her as he passed. Heat rippled over her skin. It wasn’t fair that after so much time, after all that had happened between them, she should still be so powerfully attracted to him. Or maybe it was because so much had happened between them that her body took on all the characteristics of a blanket longing to cover him.

  The door closed after Blackstone, and Hannah found herself alone. She tugged the message from her pocket and crossed to the phone. The door opened again. Her stomach tightened, but when she turned, it wasn’t Chad staring at her from the doorway, it was Jack Stokes. Her anxiety melted into exasperation.

  The bounty hunter was attractive what with his craggy, blond good looks. But at the moment, men in general didn’t appeal to Hannah.

  She replaced the telephone receiver.

  Stokes quickly closed the door. “Hey there, Hannah, luv, remember me?” The Australian held up his right wrist where her handcuffs were still solidly attached to his wrist.

  Hannah closed her eyes. This wasn’t happening….

  “I owe you big-time for this one, McGee,” Stokes said in his heavy accent.

  “Yes, well, if you had been a little nicer to me, you wouldn’t be sporting that particular bit of jewelry, would you, Jack?”

  “You always were a piece of work, Hannah.”

  “I’m really not up for this.” She dug in her skirt pocket, then gave him the key to the handcuffs.

  He made a show out of unlocking himself. “Tell me, Hannah, what’s our old pal Hogan doing back in town?”

  Ah, now she knew the real reason he’d sneaked into the room. And sneak was exactly what he’d done because Hannah doubted time would have dulled Chad’s dislike for the wily, easygoing Aussie.

  “That’s something you’ll have to ask him,” she said, pretending a nonchalance she didn’t feel.

  Jack stepped a little closer, turning on what Hannah knew was his best charm. Only it had never really worked on her. “Come on, luv, you can be straight with me. What’s Blackstone up to? Tell me and I’ll call it even.”

  “Even?”

  He tossed her the cuffs.

  Hannah tucked them into the holder on the back of her concealed belt. “I really wish I could tell you, but I don’t know what Elliott’s up to.”

  “Come on, McGee. Admit it, you wouldn’t tell me if you did know. Which leaves us off at the same place we started, doesn’t it?”

  “Which is?”

  “I owe you one.”

  Finally, the door closed behind him and Hannah leaned against the desk and rubbed her forehead. What, exactly, did she do to deserve today?

  It seemed that no sooner had the door closed, it opened again.

  She glanced at the message in her hand, then at Elliott Blackstone. While she didn’t think she’d ever completely recover from the shock of seeing Chad again, now that she’d had a little time to collect her thoughts, she couldn’t help wondering how much money was involved. Start-up costs for Seekers had drained more of her savings account than she’d expected. Then there was the plumbing that needed to be replaced; wiring that needed to be brought up to code. If this trace was as important as she was coming to suspect, then it could mean some much-needed earnings.

  “Give me five minutes, Hannah. That’s all I ask.” A breath expanded Elliott’s cheeks.

  She caught herself absently running her fingertip along the name listed on the phone message then nodded.

  Elliott immediately seemed to relax as he said, “Okay. Two weeks ago I extended bail to two people. Normally that wouldn’t be important, but one thing makes these two different from the rest. Enough that they made the news.” He paused for a moment. “Money.”

  Hannah tried to concentrate. To forget Stokes had thrown down a professional gauntlet she had no intention of picking up. To wipe from her mind that Chad waited on the other side of the door. “You deal in five-and-dime cases, Elliott. Small time.”

  “Normally, yes, but no one else would take these two, so I made an exception.”

  She latched on to the critical tone in his voice. “Who are they?”

  “Two employees of PlayCo arrested for grand larceny.”

  “Grand larceny?” She pushed her hand through her hair. “PlayCo’s a toy company. What did they take? Mickey Mouse’s pants?”

  Shaking his head, Elliott tried for a smile, and failed miserably. “I wish it were that simple. My brother-in-law is the attorney for these two. I made bail as a favor to him. They were due for a preliminary hearing this morning and…well, you know the rest.”

  “How much do you stand to lose?”

  Elliott swallowed visibly and named an amount.

  Hannah dropped her arms from where they were crossed over her chest. She didn’t know what shocked her more: the reappearance of Chad in her life or Elliott’s atypical behavior. She decided Chad definitely came out a painful first.

  “Like I said, it was a favor.” Elliott glanced at his recently chewed fingernails. “Look, I could go on all day about how this was a first offense. About how they had worked for the company for ten years and all that, but I won’t.” He paused. “The fact is I put up the bond and they skipped.”

  Hannah drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened in the past ten minutes. Ten minutes. Six hundred seconds. Such a short time, really. A short time she was afraid would affect every minute of her life thereafter.

  Elliott wasn’t joking when he said he was in danger of closing down. If made to pay the amount of the bond, not only would his office be history, but Elliott himself would probably be paying off the debt for his next two incarnations.

  “Why call Chad in?” She recrossed her arms over her chest.

  “He’s the best there is, aside from you.” His expression was earnest. “Hannah, I need every ounce of manpower I have for this one. I swear, if I lose this place you might as well dig a hole for me six feet under. And don’t think I’m exaggerating. As much as I complain and manipulate, this business is my life.” Elliott shifted uneasily. “So…what do you say? Will you postpone your plans for Seekers and take this last one on?”

  Hannah thought about her daughter, the cost of the day-care center she’d wanted to enroll her in and the one she’d chosen instead because it was more reasonably priced. If she succeeded in this trace, she’d be able to afford to send Bonny to the other one…plus a whole lot more.

  “Does it mean working with Chad?”

  Relief colored Elliott’s ruddy features. “That’s up to you.”

  “You have files on these guys?”

  He pushed a thin manila folder across the desk. “Here. Only they’re not both guys.” Hannah looked at him. “One is a woman.”

  “What is this?” She examined the single sheet of paper in the file. The application form was skimpy at best, half the blanks left empty.

  “Like I said, this was a favor.”

  “Yes, you said that. What did you do? Just sign the bond without the normal paperwork? This isn’t like you, Elliott.”

  �
��Believe me, if I had known this was going to happen, I would have got more.”

  “It says here that the jumpers put their houses up.”

  “Expensive houses, too. The only problem is they’re mortgaged to the hilt. Not worth the dirt they’re built on to me.”

  “I don’t know, El…” She stepped away from the desk and chairs, pulling down the front ends of her vest. “Finding these two would be like finding—”

  “I know, I know. Like finding needles in a haystack the size of Europe.”

  Accepting the case meant more than postponing the opening of Seekers. It meant working with Chad again. A very risky prospect indeed. She wouldn’t even consider working against him. She might be afraid of what the man could do to her personal life, but she wouldn’t make the mistake of misjudging his professional talent.

  She slid her hand into her pocket, fingering the message inside. Anyway, maybe it was time Chad knew the truth. The thought alone choked off her breath.

  “Exactly how much money did you say there’d be in it for me?” she asked.

  Elliott named an absurdly high figure.

  “I’m in.”

  “Good.” Elliott leapt to his feet. “You have four days.”

  “Four days?”

  “If you don’t bring them in within four days, you miss out on the money and I lose my business. Hell, I’m lucky the judge even rescheduled the hearing.”

  Four days wasn’t much time, Hannah thought. That came out to two days apiece to find each bail-jumper.

  “No problem.”

  Chapter Two

  Heat pressed in on Hannah from all sides as she left Blackstone Bail and Bonds. But the external heat didn’t concern her half as much as the emotions expanding inside her. She drew to a stop, as much to adjust to the change in temperature as to face Chad where he leaned against the building.

  It was like someone had clipped an image from her memory and pasted it right in front of her: his right shoulder casually propped against the brick of the building; his hands stuffed into the pockets of his faded jeans; his legs crossed at the ankles, emphasizing the dusty cowboy boots he always wore.

  Even as she compared him to the image, she noticed some changes that didn’t match up. Details that went beyond the physical.

  When she’d known him before, there had been a sadness about him, a grief she’d later learned stemmed from the death of his wife and child in a car crash he’d refused to go into detail about. Now? Well, now he looked…more distant, somehow. Harder.

  “Elliott really bought himself one this time, didn’t he?” Chad’s gray eyes focused on the cars streaking by on the ten-laned Queens Boulevard. “What was he thinking?”

  The sun slowly sank behind the western skyline. Hannah gazed at it, then at him again. “Obviously he wasn’t.”

  Hannah walked toward the battered Ford LTD. Chad picked up his duffel bag and followed, grasping on to the passenger’s door handle at the same time she opened the driver’s side. Her hand froze on the hot metal.

  “Where are you going, Chad?” Her voice came out little more than a whisper.

  “With you, of course.”

  Her stomach plunged to her feet. “I don’t recall inviting you.”

  He squinted at her against the sunlight. “Since you agreed to take the case, I thought we’d be working together. Are you saying you want to go out on your own?”

  She wondered why her throat suddenly felt like sandpaper. “And what if I am?”

  “I know you better than that. We each know exactly what the other is capable of. I’m certainly not interested in working against you.”

  Hannah recognized her own thoughts only minutes earlier.

  Chad drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Look, I just got in from Florida and took a taxi from the airport. If you want me to catch another one, let me know.”

  Hannah remained silent, half tempted to take him up on his offer. She could do without him slipping back into her life right now. She wanted, needed time to grow accustomed to his being back, even if it was only in an official capacity.

  But time was something she didn’t have. Besides, she suspected no amount of time would lessen the empty ache in her chest…or change the reality standing in front of her in the shape of Chad Hogan.

  She leaned against the car.

  “Okay, Chad, I’ll work with you.” She ignored his probing gaze. “But it doesn’t mean side by side, night and day. I just mean I won’t work against you.”

  He spread his hands on top of the roof and drummed his thumbs against the hot metal. “You’re telling me aside from sharing information, you would rather not lay eyes on me. Is that it, Hannah?”

  “Yes.” She gripped the door handle again. The squealing of tires ripped through the thick air.

  She spotted the rusted monster of a car bearing down on her a nanosecond before Chad clutched her wrists and hauled her toward the curb and into his arms. She stared at the darkly tinted windows of the Monte Carlo as it sped down the street, the back end fishtailing as it turned right at the first intersection.

  “Damn New York drivers,” Chad murmured, his breath disturbing the hair over her ear.

  Tugging her gaze away from the empty street, Hannah became instantly aware of her position in Chad’s arms. She shivered at the solid feel of her breasts against his chest, took a breath of the familiar, tangy smell of his clean skin, wriggled to free herself from the hot, electric touch of his hands against her back.

  “Let me go, Chad,” she whispered, uneasy with the knowing shadow in his eyes.

  He released her.

  Hannah turned on watery knees and got in the car. She watched him stow his duffel in the back then climb in next to her.

  “Where did you get this rust bucket?” he asked.

  If the heat outside was stifling, the stagnant air inside the car was even worse. Hot sweat trickled between Hannah’s breasts even as awareness continued to surge through her veins from their brief contact.

  He ran his hand across the dust-covered dash. “A rental?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I had to, for conspicuousness’ sake. I was just about to take it back in exchange for my own.”

  Chad’s face was unreadable in the fiery hues of the setting sun. “You kept the Alfa?”

  Longing swelled in her stomach. She had not forgotten the Alfa Romeo had been a thirtieth birthday gift from him. She turned the key in the ignition. The only gift he had given her during their two years together. An expensive gift—not only for the money, but it had been one of many things that had cost them their relationship.

  “Yes, I kept the Alfa,” she said quietly.

  She stared ahead at the sparse traffic. “Uncle Nash says my old room over the dry cleaners is empty, so let’s head there.” Chad’s voice cut through the thick air. “We’ll pick up some Chinese and—”

  Hannah shifted the car into drive. “I am not going to Coney Island with you, Chad.” She pulled away from the curb, then remembered she hadn’t intended to take him with her.

  “You’re being unreasonable, Hannah. You lived there…we lived there together. You’re as familiar with the place as I am. All I’m suggesting is we get out of this heat and get an early start in the morning. The last thing on my mind is getting you into bed.”

  She took a corner a little too quickly. “Interesting you should say that. It’s one of the things you were very good at,” she said quietly. “Look, Chad, there’s no going back. Not to Coney Island. Not to the way things were between us, either professionally or personally.”

  Despite her argument, the months they’d been apart began to fade into the background, leaving her feeling insecure and defensive. Which didn’t make any sense, really. She and Chad were no longer a couple. They no longer shared the same apartment. Their lives were completely separate. Still, that didn’t change the fact that one important thing connected them and always would.

  Bonny.

  Gripping the steering whee
l, she concentrated on this important detail.

  “I have something I need to do,” she said. “If you want me to drop you off, let me know. If not, you’re welcome to come along for the ride for now.”

  “I’ll come along for the ride.”

  “And after that, you’re on your own. Right?”

  “Right.”

  Something in Chad’s voice compelled her to look at him. She winced at the shuttered expression he wore.

  “Why don’t we forget about the past and start from scratch, okay, Hannah? I don’t need the hassle any more than you do. We’re both adults. Why don’t we approach this like the professionals we are and forget the rest?”

  Her hand shaking, she switched on the radio, the only part of the car that worked properly. The interior filled with the neutral sound of country music.

  What would he say when he found out a reminder in the shape of an eight-month-old little girl made it impossible for her to forget?

  Chad studied Hannah from beneath half-closed lids, then pulled at his collar. It was hot. But whether his new sense of discomfort had to do with the August heat or how right Hannah had felt in his arms again was unclear. He glanced at her slender ankles visible below the hem of her gauzy skirt, then budged his gaze up her long, almost too slim body to her blue, blue eyes. Everything about her spoke of freshness, strength and a love for life.

  Face it, Hogan, you missed her.

  While the admission didn’t come easily, he’d always known Hannah struck an unnamed chord in him. He watched the freckled backs of her hands as she gripped and released the steering wheel, and fought the urge to reach out, take one of those hands in his. It had taken a lot to walk away from her nearly a year and a half ago. But he’d had no choice. She had made that clearer than a Florida sunrise. He forced his glance away from where the humid breeze stirred her curly red hair. Why did he feel like someone had just taken a paintbrush to his gray, cynical life? And why did he feel that her vital presence was exactly the reason he had to freeze her out?

  Because, he told himself, whatever primal urges made him ache to touch her, to lose himself in the taste, the feel of her, he couldn’t risk letting her in again. She had come too close the last time.