Newborn Conspiracy (18 page)

Mia nearly laughed, not from humor, but from the insanity of it all.

Two fires in the same night.

And both had destroyed what could have been the evidence they needed to solve this case. It wasn’t a coincidence. The person responsible was trying to cover their tracks, “I have to go," Collena said. Her voice wasn’t just shaky, it was weak. Mia was feeling so skeptical, however, that she had to wonder if it was all an act. Maybe Collena wasn’t as weak from her injury as everyone thought. "I’ll call you when I get a chance."

With that, Collena hung up, leaving Logan and Mia with more questions than ever.

Logan sat there quietly for several moments before he picked up the baby monitor that was positioned so he could see Tanner sleeping in his bassinet. Mia knew what he was thinking. The stakes were so high, and the person responsible for the danger just kept eluding them.

“Is Genevieve capable of setting two fires?" Mia asked.

Logan nodded. "But she also could have hired someone to do it so she wouldn’t get her hands dirty."

“Or it could have been Royce who’s responsible. After all, Collena said she thought she saw him in the hall at the hospital."

Neither of them stated the obvious: that Collena could have been mistaken.

Or lying.

She could have left the hospital to set fire to Donnie’s house. But there was no motive for burning her own office. Just the opposite. From what Mia had learned about her. Collena was obsessed with finding out the truth of what’d happened to her own baby. Even if she was dirty, she wouldn’t have destroyed the very evidence that would help her with that search.

And that led them right back to Genevieve and Royce.

“We have the recording" Mia reminded him."Do you think the police can do anything with it?"

“Man. I hope so." He put the baby monitor aside and went to the CD player to retrieve it, “I’ll have one of my men drive it to the Ranger crime lab in Austin. There might be something we can use," Logan stood there staring at her."You’re exhausted. Why don’t you go ahead to bed and get some rest while Tanner’s sleeping? I’ll wake you as soon as Jason’s made the arrangements for us to leave."

She was beyond exhausted, but she was more interested in getting some things straight with Logan. Since they’d had sex, there seemed to be a distance between them. The problem was Mia didn’t know if or how she should address it. Maybe this was Logan’s way of backing off, to give himself some time to think.

She certainly needed time.

Things had moved so fast between them and there were times, like now, when she felt as though they were on a speeding train that was about to jump the tracks.

She’d been the one to initiate sex and she didn’t regret it. No, she could never regret it because it’d been one of the most memorable experiences of her life. But logically, she had to look at what this was going to do to them. And that’s why she, too needed to back off, to give them both some breathing room.

“Go ahead to bed," Logan insisted. He walked to her and slid his arm around her waist. He brushed a kiss on her temple."I’ll join you after I give this recording to Jason."

Just like that, her worries about derailing trains and breathing room vanished. The simple kiss, embrace and soft reassurance were stark reminders that she wasn’t in control here.

Her heart was.

That should have scared her to death. But it didn’t. This felt right.

And that’s what scared her, because there was nothing she could do to change the course her heart was taking.

She was falling in love with Logan.

He kissed her again, easing her closer to him. And the closeness and the kiss stirred her need for him all over again.

Mia pulled back to meet his gaze and was on the verge of insisting he go ahead and give Jason the disk so he, too, could come back to bed.

But then, without warning, the lights went out. The room was suddenly pitch black, “The storm" she whispered."It must have knocked out the electricity."

Logan pulled away from her and she felt him fumble around for something. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw what he had picked up from the coffee table.

His gun.

Her breath stalled in her lungs.

Because she knew this might not be a power outage after all. The person who wanted them dead might be responsible.

“Go to Tanner," Logan ordered."Stay there until you hear from me,"

He didn’t wait for her to respond. With his gun gripped in his hands, he hurried toward the suite door.

LOGAN BRACED HIMSELF for anything that might happen when he stepped from the suite and into the hall.

There was no chance he believed bad weather had knocked out the electricity. Not with their luck. Besides, the hotel would almost certainly have a backup generator, and since it hadn’t kicked in Logan had to assume the worst.

The gunman had returned to finish what he’d started.

With his gun ready, Logan opened the suite door and checked the hall. Dorien was there, obviously alarmed. She too was armed and looked ready to do battle. Good. He needed all the help he could get.

“Go in the bedroom and wait with Mia and the baby," Logan instructed.

He waited until Dorien had done that before he ventured a few steps down the hall and away from the door.

“Jason?" Logan called out in the darkness.

“I’m here by the stairs, I want to make sure no one gets up here,"

That was a start, “What happened? Why did the electricity go out?"

“The manager doesn’t know yet. I just got off the phone with him and he’s checking it out. I warned him that someone might have tampered with the main circuits."

Again, that was a good start, but it wasn’t enough. Of course, nothing might be enough with Tanner and Mia in danger."What about any other points of entry? I don’t want anyone getting up here."

“The elevators aren’t working. There’s a service entrance at the end of this corridor, but even if anyone comes up through those stairs, they’d still have to get past me to get to you."

“No one gets past you " Logan let him know. It wasn’t a suggestion. Jason was well trained and would have to use that training to stop the threat."How many men do we have in the hotel?"

“Five. Me, you, Dorien and two more downstairs. Those two are posted by the service entrance and the stairs."

So all points of entry were covered, In theory.

But Logan had to be ready just in case someone had found another way to gain access.

There was only one window, located at the end of the hall. Logan went to it and checked outside. It continued what he already suspected. The River Walk was all lit up. No power outages there, which meant whoever cut the power was already in the building and had disconnected the backup generator Hell.

He did not want to put Mia and Tanner through this again.

There was another problem with the window, too. Not just this particular one either, but all the windows. With the power out, Logan automatically assumed that their shooter might make a direct attack to the room, but cutting the lights could be a ploy; the attack could come from a sniper positioned in the hotel on the other side of the River Walk.

That’s why he needed to remind Mia to stay away from the windows.

However, before he could do that, there was a slight sound, and Logan whirled around. Ready to fire.

“It’s me," he heard Mia say as she opened the suite door."Your cell phone rang and I answered it. It’s Royce Foreman, and he says it’s important."

Logan cursed again, automatically suspicious. Was this call some kind of ploy? Or maybe Royce knew what was going on.

So that she wouldn’t have to come out into the hall and potentially be in the line of fire from that window. Logan went to her.

“Make sure you stay away from the windows" Logan whispered.

She nodded and handed him the phone."Dorien and I moved Tanner and his bassinet into the bathroom. There aren’t any windows there."

And that meant he was as safe as Logan could manage.

He hated that it didn’t seem nearly enough.

“McGrath," Logan answered. He didn’t launch into accusations or a verbal attack, though he wanted to do just that. He waited to see what Royce considered “important" enough to call him about.

“The police questioned me again," Royce started."About the shooting at the prison. I was in that dingy little interrogation room for more than two hours. They did that because you told them that I might have been the one who did it."

“Were you?" Logan didn’t take his attention off the corridor. He wanted to make sure that no one came up either set of stairs and got past Jason. He also eased Mia several inches back into the suite.

“No. And don’t bring up that lunacy about me wanting revenge for you rescuing that woman in South America. Killing you wouldn’t get me those shares and I prefer to concentrate my energies on my business."

“I wish I could believe that," Logan said, certain that he sounded disinterested."But I don’t.

And I don’t have time to rehash this now."

“You’re focusing on the wrong person, Logan, and that’s a deadly mistake."

That caused Logan to pause a moment."You mean Donnie or Genevieve? Oh, I suspect them too.

But that doesn’t let you off the hook. For starters, why were you at the hospital earlier and why were you skulking around outside Collena Drake’s room?"

Logan figured that Royce would launch into another adamant denial.

He didn’t.

“I wanted to see Collena. Because I think she’s linked to all of these attempts to kill you."

Logan groaned, “Have you been talking to Donnie Bishop?"

“No." Royce’s answer was quick, but maybe that was because he’d anticipated the question and was ready.

“Then why would you think Collena is connected with the attempts to kill me?" And why were both Donnie and Royce so eager to accuse a former cop of wrongdoing?

Probably to cover their own guilt.

At least, Logan hoped that’s what it was. He hated the doubts that kept creeping into his mind, but he was a man alive because of doubts. Because he questioned things that most people would have considered safe.

Was that what he was doing now?

“After you wrongfully accused me of the shooting and the car explosion" Royce continued, “I did some checking. Over the past five months, someone has attempted to kill several of the people associated with the Brighton Birthing Center."

“I know about that." Logan, too, had researched them. In all four cases, the culprits had been caught. "That doesn’t mean Collena had anything to do with those attempts,"

“Well, someone did and it’s not me. I want my name cleared."

“You should talk to Genevieve about that," Logan let him know, “If you want to do some finger pointing, her direction is always the best place to start."

“Genevieve and I aren’t on speaking terms anymore. I saw how she looked at you at the prison and I confronted her about it. It’s over between us. She lied to me—she’s still in love with you, Logan"

“Hardly. She’s obsessed with the fact that she can’t have me. That’s not love."

And this conversation was going nowhere. He was also starting to get the feeling that Royce might have ulterior motives for this call.

Was Royce using some kind of signal from Logan’s phone to pinpoint their location inside the hotel?

Equipment like that wasn’t easy to come by, but it was too big of a risk to take.

He didn’t say goodbye to Royce and didn’t give him any indication that he was hanging up.

Logan merely punched the end call button and turned to tell Mia that he wanted her inside the bathroom. For an extra measure of security, he tossed his phone on the floor so he’d put some distance between it and them.

Once he had her safely tucked away, he wanted to give his phone a more thorough examination.

He gently took her arm and in the darkness caught her gaze, “I just need to make sure you’re safe," he whispered.

She nodded. Stepped back.

Just as an explosion tore through the corridor.

One second Mia was standing and the next second Logan had shoved her back onto the floor of the suite. It wasn’t a moment too soon because along with that deafening blast came a cloud of dust and debris.

It took a moment to regain her breath and for her brain to register what was happening.

Someone had set off an explosive.

With her heart ramming against her chest, Mia looked at Logan to make sure he hadn’t been hurt. It was difficult to see him in the murky, darkroom, but his catlike movement to get back to the door told her that he was probably okay. And he was ready to strike back at whoever was responsible for this. Which made her think—just how much damage had been done to the hotel?

And to whom?

“Tanner." she managed to say.

“Check on him." Logan insisted. But he wouldn’t go. Couldn’t go. Because she knew he had to stand guard to make sure the bomber didn’t get into the room with them.

Mia raced through the sitting room and into the bedroom. Their son had to be okay. He just had to be.

Thankfully, the bathroom was at the end of the suite away from the explosion, and there were no signs of dust and debris in here.

“Is Tanner okay?" Mia called out. She listened for any sounds and couldn’t hear anything. No crying. No sound of any movement.

That didn’t make Mia feel better.

“He’s fine," Dorien assured her.

Mia was so overwhelmed with relief that tears sprang to her eyes.

Dorien opened the bathroom door just a fraction. She had her gun drawn and was obviously ready to defend Tanner."What’s going on?"

Mia peeked in to make sure Tanner was okay. He was."Someone set off a bomb. Stay put until we can sort things out."

“Do you need my help?" Dorien asked.

“No," Mia motioned toward the sitting room."But I need to check on Logan. I won’t be long.

And I’ll keep the hotel-room door in my line of sight to make sure that no one gets inside here."

Mia slide back into the sitting area. She pulled in her breath and smelled the smoke, “Is there a fire?" she called out to Logan. The possibility of it made her heart beat even faster.