Chapter Two
Lana had to fight hard to stop herself from breaking down. She couldn’t do that. She had to stay strong. Once she figured out what was going on and the baby was safe, then she could grieve for her sister.
“Murdered?” Slater repeated, automatically taking out his phone. “When and where was Stephanie killed?”
She had to clear the tightness in her throat before she could answer that. “This morning at a hospital in Austin.”
That was apparently enough info for him to fire off a text to someone. No doubt to get details of the investigation. “Before you tell me how the hell Stephanie was murdered in a hospital, explain why you keep looking out the window. Is someone after you?”
“I believe so. And I don’t know why. Or who,” Lana quickly added. “I don’t know a lot of things right now, but I need to fix that. It’s why I came here. I need answers. I have to know if the baby is in danger.”
Slater leveled that intense gaze on her. She’d known him most of her life, but she’d never seen him in cop mode. Before tonight, he’d always been the hot cowboy that her sister had dated in high school. The hot cowboy she’d had a secret crush on. But now, Slater was simply the person she needed to keep her nephew safe.
If he was her nephew, that is.
Lana still didn’t know if this was Stephanie’s biological child or if she had indeed been carrying the baby for someone else.
“Tell me what happened leading up to Stephanie’s death,” Slater said when he finally broke the silence.
The explanation wasn’t going to be easy, and Lana knew each word would give her a slam of memories. A slam of fear, too, and that’s why she took another look out the window. Thankfully, she didn’t see anyone or anything suspicious.
“Like I said, Stephanie was living at the safe house I set up for her, and she was using an alias, Melody Waters,” Lana started. “She called two days ago to tell me she was in labor, so I drove straight to Austin and was with her when she gave birth. Everything went well with the delivery, and I could tell Stephanie loved the baby. Since she was calling him Cameron and didn’t say a word about surrogacy, I figured she’d tell me the truth.”
“You doubted her surrogate story?” he was quick to ask.
“I did, right from the start,” Lana admitted, “and it didn’t help when she refused to tell me who’d hired her to have the baby. She didn’t give me your name until...” She stopped after realizing she needed to back up and tell him something else first. “This morning, Stephanie got a call. I don’t know who it was from, but I could tell it terrified her.”
Lana could still see how the color had drained from her sister’s face. How her hands had trembled. And the fear had burned in her eyes.
“The phone she was using was a burner, one that I’d given her when she went into hiding,” Lana explained. “And to the best of my knowledge, she only used it for making her OB appointments. That’s why I was surprised when someone called her on it.”
“Did you hear any part of the conversation?” he wanted to know.
“No. Stephanie didn’t say anything to the caller. She just listened. Then she told me to take Cameron to you, that he was your son and that she’d been your surrogate,” Lana continued. She had to swallow hard before she continued. “She even gave me this.”
Lana took the folded envelope from her jeans pocket, handed it to Slater and watched as he read it.
A muscle flickered in his jaw. “This first page is an Acknowledgment of Paternity, naming me as the baby’s father. The second page is a surrogacy contract.”
“Yes, I read them,” she admitted. Her sister had used her real name and had signed both documents. Since Slater’s signatures were there, too, Lana figured they had been forged. “I have to believe Stephanie had a good reason for doing that.” She paused. “The last thing Stephanie said to me was for us to keep Cameron safe.”
His attention whipped away from the document and to her. “Safe?” he questioned.
She nodded again. “Trust me, I grilled Stephanie about that, and she said she thought someone had found out about her having a baby. Someone who might not have his best interest at heart.”
“Was she talking about your parents?” Slater asked.
“I’m not sure, but I have a hard time believing they’d hurt a baby. It’s true they would be riled to the bone at Stephanie having a child, but I can’t see them taking out their anger on Cameron.”
Slater made a sound that could have meant anything. He certainly didn’t jump to agree with her, and she recalled that years ago her parents had moved the family from Saddle Ridge because Slater’s father, then Sheriff Cliff McCullough, had been investigating her parents for the disappearance of a teenage boy, Jason Denny. Lana had only been eleven at the time, but she knew Jason had been dating Stephanie and that her parents hadn’t approved of the relationship.
No criminal charges had come out of the investigation, and later when Jason had resurfaced, he’d claimed someone had threatened him and that’s why he’d run away. Jason refused to say who’d done the threatening, but maybe Slater’s father believed her parents had been responsible.
And they might have been.
Lana didn’t know the scope of her parents’ dirty dealings, but she was well aware they were ruthless. It was the reason she’d cut them out of her life.
“I didn’t push Stephanie nearly hard enough to tell me the truth about what was going on,” Lana continued. “I thought there’d be time for that later, especially since Stephanie was insisting that I go ahead and take Cameron to you. I left the hospital and drove around for about an hour before I decided to return and talk to Stephanie. Just to make sure she was certain about handing the child over to you.”
Now she had to pause again and remind herself to breathe. All the grief and fear were smothering her, and she had to look at the baby to try to steady herself. Lana had never needed an anchor to stave off panic, but she needed it now, and the baby was the ultimate reminder of what was at stake here.
“When I got back to her hospital room, there was chaos,” she muttered. “I heard one of the nurses say that Stephanie had been smothered. I glanced in the room and...well, I saw her lifeless body before a nurse shooed me away and insisted I leave the area. She didn’t seem to realize that I’d been with Stephanie earlier.”
Lana figured she’d been in shock, because she had mindlessly walked away with Cameron cradled in her arms.
That’s when she had spotted the man.
“I believe I saw Stephanie’s killer,” Lana spelled out. “He was peering out from one of the other rooms, and he set off every alarm in my body. I knew there was nothing I could do for Stephanie so I immediately turned around and hurried out another exit. He followed me, but once Cameron and I were in my car, I managed to lose him on the highway.”
“And you came here and left the baby on my doorstep,” Slater stated, clearly not approving of that.
Lana groaned. “I was worried about Cameron’s safety, so I dropped him off and left only after I saw you open the door. Then I quickly drove away to make sure the man hadn’t found me. If he had, I planned to lure him from the baby by having him follow me. I was never far away, and I had every intention of coming right back for him. I just didn’t want him with me if I met up with that man.”
“At any point did you consider calling the cops for help?” he asked, and there was a snarl in his voice now. Of course there was. The lawman in him probably didn’t allow for gut feelings.
Lana needed yet another breath to finish this. “The man at the hospital was a cop.”
Slater stared at her and looked ready to curse. Or to challenge that. “Name? Description?”
Lana had no trouble recalling these details since they were fixed in her mind. Just like that image of her dead sister. “About six-two. Brown hair, brown eyes, muscular build. The surname Johnson was on his uniform.”
“Austin cops have their badge numbers next to their names,” he pointed out.
“Yes, but I couldn’t see his. He had his communication radio positioned in front of it.” Probably intentional.
Well, maybe it was.
If he’d wanted to conceal his identity and murder a woman, he probably wouldn’t have shown up in uniform. Not unless he was cocky or totally sure he could get away with murder.
Slater didn’t get the chance to fire any more questions at her because his phone dinged, the sound shooting through the room. He silently read the text before his gaze slid back to her. She figured those intense blue eyes had unnerved plenty of suspects.
“Austin PD is investigating the suspicious death of a thirty-three year old woman, Melody Waters, aka Stephanie Walsh,” he relayed to her.
So they knew who Stephanie really was. Lana wasn’t sure how they would have come up with that info since Stephanie had insisted on using the alias for all of her medical appointments. It was possible, though, that Stephanie had had her real driver’s license in the overnight bag she’d taken to the hospital.
“There’s no officer named Johnson assigned to the case,” Slater added while he continued to read. “The initial report is that next of kin has been notified.”
So that’s why her mom had called. A rarity for her. Lana took out her phone and showed him the two missed calls from her mother, Pamela. She hadn’t left a voicemail, and Lana hadn’t returned the calls yet since she’d been focused on keeping Cameron safe.
“There’s no mention of you in the report,” he continued, “only that Stephanie had informed the medical staff that she’d arranged for someone to take the baby to his father as per a surrogacy agreement.” He lifted up the contract that had been in the envelope she’d given him. “Did you do this for her?”
“No. Not the other document, either. I didn’t know she had them until she gave them to me at the hospital.” Lana tipped her head to the contract. “That one might have come from an actual surrogate clinic. During that background check I mentioned that I did on Stephanie, I found out she’d visited a surrogacy clinic eight months ago. She would have been pregnant with Cameron by then, but it’s possible she had a prior appointment there that I wasn’t able to find.”
“So Stephanie might have truly been a surrogate?” Slater muttered, glancing at the baby.
Lana had to shrug. “Maybe, but then why would Stephanie tell me you were the one who hired her?”
He didn’t get a chance to speculate about that because her own phone rang, and she saw her mother’s name on the screen. Slater must have seen it, too, because he said, “Are you going to answer it?”
She automatically shook her head. Her default response when it came to her parents, but she knew this had to be about Stephanie, so she stepped aside to take the call. While she did that, Slater stepped away as well, muttering something about updating the sheriff.
“Mother,” Lana answered, trying to keep her voice low so she wouldn’t wake the baby or disturb Slater’s call.
“Your sister is dead,” her mother blurted. “Murdered.” A hoarse sob tore from her throat. “What do you know about it? Why didn’t you stop it?”
Lana wasn’t surprised by her mother’s response. Even though Stephanie was the older sister, their parents had always blamed Lana for Stephanie’s failures. It was yet another reason Lana had cut them from her life. But she wasn’t immune to the accusation.
Why didn’t you stop it?
That was a question Lana figured she’d be asking herself for the rest of her life. Over the years, she had been there for Stephanie countless times, but she hadn’t been there when Stephanie needed her most. And worse, she was a cybersecurity specialist at Sencor, a company that specialized in personal protection. She had bodyguard training. That hadn’t been enough, though, to stop what had happened.
“Do the police know who killed her?” Lana asked.
“No,” her mother snarled. “They’re idiots, all of them. Your dad and I hired a team of private investigators. Not from that place where you work, either. We wanted the best.”
Of course her mother had thrown in that dig, and Lana didn’t even bother trying to convince her that Sencor was one of the highest-rated security companies in the state. Obviously, though, ratings didn’t matter with Stephanie dead.
“The PIs will get to the bottom of it,” her mother insisted, “and you’re going to help them. I know you hid Stephanie from us all this time. There’s no way she could have managed that on her own. I just didn’t know why until the cops said Stephanie had been a surrogate. A surrogate!” her mother spat out as if it were the worst of felonies.
So her parents knew that as well.
“Did this so-called surrogate parent murder her?” her mother pressed.
“I don’t think so,” Lana said, but she had no idea if that was true. Slater hadn’t murdered Stephanie. She was now certain of that. But that didn’t mean her sister hadn’t connected with her killer at the surrogacy clinic.
“You need to come home, Lana,” her mother went on. “You need to help the PIs sort all of this out so we can punish the person who killed Stephanie.”
Lana waited for her mom to mention the baby. But she didn’t. Certainly, if the hospital had learned Stephanie’s true identity, they would have mentioned the baby as well. Maybe, though, the baby didn’t mean anything to her mother, since she was dismissing Cameron as she’d dismissed the surrogacy itself.
“Did you hear me, Lana?” The venom in her mother’s voice went up a notch. “Come home now. Your father is beside himself. So am I. And Marsh, too. He’s ripped to pieces.”
Lana knew that Marsh Bray was the man her parents had chosen for Stephanie to marry. A merger of two rich families who cared more about the business and social benefits of the union than they did their kids’ happiness. That said, Marsh had always seemed on board with marrying Stephanie. The same couldn’t be said for Stephanie, though. Lana didn’t think her sister despised Marsh, but she definitely hadn’t been eager to become his wife.
She heard Slater end the call with the sheriff, and since she wanted to know what Slater had told him, Lana quickly made her excuses to her mother. “I’ll call you soon,” she said, and hung up.
“Duncan will be speaking to the lead detective in charge of the investigation of Stephanie’s murder, and he’ll try to obtain footage from the hospital cameras,” Slater said. “He’ll also get us a list of all Austin cops named Johnson. It’s possible, though, if this guy truly did kill Stephanie, then he was wearing a fake uniform.”
Yes, that had already occurred to her, and part of Lana wished she’d confronted the man then and there. But she’d been too broken for that. Too worried about Cameron. Now that she was thinking more clearly, she realized she’d let him get away.
“My parents have hired PIs,” she told him, only so he wouldn’t be blindsided if one of them showed up in Saddle Ridge. “I have no idea who knows about that surrogacy contract or the Acknowledgment of Paternity, but if and when it comes to light, my parents will believe you’re Cameron’s father. In their eyes, that’ll make you a top suspect for Stephanie’s murder.”
“I’m not going to keep the papers a secret,” Slater was quick to say. “In fact, I’m taking you and the baby to the sheriff’s office so we can both do statements that’ll then be turned over to Austin PD.”
She was shaking her head before he even finished. “But what about Johnson? If he knows where the baby is, he might try to come after him.” If that’s what the cop wanted, that is. Lana had no way of knowing if he did.
“You and the baby will be protected,” Slater said with absolute confidence that Lana didn’t feel, and she would have voiced plenty of disapproval about his plan if her phone hadn’t dinged with a soft alarm.
Lana’s heart dropped to her knees.
“It’s not a text,” she rattled off while she unlocked her phone screen. “It’s an alert from my security system. Someone’s broken into my house in San Antonio.” She’d set up the security system more than a year ago, and this was the first alert she’d ever gotten.
“Will the system notify the security company or SAPD?” Slater asked, moving closer to her as she pulled up the feed from the cameras she had positioned both inside and outside the house.
“The company will be the one to notify me,” she supplied just as she got a second ding from the automated monitor. Lana ignored it and adjusted the camera angle until she saw the person, the man, who was now in her living room. His back was to the camera, but there was no mistaking the cop’s uniform he was wearing. He had his gun gripped in his hand.
“Johnson?” Slater asked.
“Maybe,” she muttered and kept watching. The breath stalled in her throat when he turned, and she saw his face and name tag. “It’s him.”
“I’ll text Duncan to call the Austin PD detective in charge of your sister’s murder,” Slater said, though she heard the doubt in his voice. Like her, Slater probably figured Johnson would be long gone before a detective showed up.
But why was Johnson there?
The drawn gun was a sign that he probably hadn’t come for a friendly chat. Had he gone there to kill her? To take the baby? What the heck did he want, and had he truly been the one to kill her sister?
Lana continued to watch as the man made a quick check of the other rooms, and then he took out his phone. Lana automatically thumbed up the audio so she could hear, and after, Slater finished his text and moved back closer, no doubt so he could listen as well.
“She’s not here,” Johnson snarled to the person he’d called. Lana tried to shift the camera so she could see his phone screen, but the glare made it impossible for her to decipher the number. “She probably went to the deputy in Saddle Ridge.” He paused, listening, and Lana wished she could hear the other side of this conversation. “All right. I’ll go to Saddle Ridge, to the deputy’s place now, and take care of the kid and her.”
Her heart had already been racing. Her breathing, too, and that certainly didn’t help. This man was coming for Cameron and her.
Lana watched as Johnson slipped back out her front door and disappeared from view before she looked up at Slater. “We have to leave. I’ll take Cameron—”
“No,” he interrupted, taking out his phone again.
Again, she was ready to argue, but then Slater spelled out exactly what he intended.
“I’ll have someone take him and you to the sheriff’s office where you’ll both be safe, but I’m staying put. When Stephanie’s killer comes here, he’ll be walking straight into a trap.”