Maverick Sheriff (12 page)

And finally, the attraction between Jessa and him.

He seriously doubted it was just going to vanish when the danger ended. It certainly wasn’t going anywhere now.

“Let’s just get it over with,” he said.

Her gaze snapped to his, and before she could ask if he’d lost his bloomin’ mind—which was a strong possibility—Cooper put his mouth on hers. He caught the slight sound of surprise she made. Caught her scent and taste, too. All in all, it was enough to prove he was stupid to play with this kind of fire.

Did that stop him?

Nope.

He just kept on kissing her. Kept on reining her in, closer and closer, until Jessa was plastered against him.

Cooper deepened the kiss. Waited for her to stop him. And waited some more. During that wait, he didn’t let up, and when he had Jessa gasping for air, he dropped some kisses on her neck.

And got a darn good response.

Well, it was a good one if his intentions were for this to continue. She made a sound. A silky little hitch in her voice that came from deep within her throat. But that wasn’t all. She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him down so she could do some kiss deepening of her own.

Oh, man. They’d both lost it.

Not good. Cooper had figured the attraction would get the best of them, but he’d hoped that the craziness would be limited to one at a time. So the other could do something to stop it.

Neither of them was stopping anything.

Somewhere way in the back of his mind, Cooper reminded himself that they were in the hall. Where they could easily be seen. He wanted to keep kissing Jessa. Hell, he wanted to haul her off to bed. Not only was that a really bad idea, but the timing also sucked.

Obviously coming to her senses, too, she stopped kissing him at the same time he stopped kissing her and they backed away from each other.

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again and then shook her head. “Why?”

Since that could encompass a lot of different areas, Cooper just shrugged. And waited. Jessa would no doubt lecture him on why kissing was totally inappropriate and a judicial conflict of interest.

But she didn’t.

She swallowed hard. “You read what happened in my last relationship, and you know I’m not ready for this.”

He nodded and rubbed his thumb over the back of his left ring finger, where he used to wear his wedding band. It wasn’t there now. Not physically. It was in the nightstand drawer next to his bed. But there were times when he still felt plenty married.

Not now, of course.

But other times.

Funny though—those times seemed farther and farther apart since Jessa had stormed into his life.

“We should make a pact or something,” she said. “To make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Cooper lifted his eyebrow. He was about to remind her that no pact would have prevented what just happened when his phone buzzed. Maybe this time it’d be Colt with news that they’d found Peggy or that Donovan had confessed to a felony or two.

But it wasn’t Colt.

It was Dr. Howland.

“Cooper,” the doc said the moment Cooper answered. But then he paused. “There was a break-in at the lab where I sent Liam’s and your DNA. There’s security footage, so you might be able to find out who did it, but the bottom line is the samples were destroyed. Someone set fire to them.”

Hell. He didn’t want to go through asking Jessa for another sample, but that was minor compared to the big picture. The person who’d destroyed the samples had likely done so in order to cover something up. And that brought Cooper right back to Peggy, Hector and Donovan.

Jessa, too.

She probably hadn’t heard exactly what Dr. Howland had just said, but she could no doubt see the change in Cooper’s body language. She knew something was wrong.

“We’ll need to repeat the DNA test,” Cooper said to the doc.

Jessa made a soft, helpless sound and touched her fingers to her suddenly quivering lips.

“No need to repeat it,” Dr. Howland insisted. “I sent out two sets of samples. The first was the one that was destroyed. I used fake names on the second set and sent them to a different lab. Considering everything that was going on with Jessa and that car accident, I thought it was for the best.”

Everything inside Cooper went still.

“And?” Cooper asked the doctor, though he wasn’t sure how he was able to speak now that his throat had clamped shut.

Dr. Howland cleared his throat. “I just got back the DNA results....”

Chapter Ten

Jessa watched as Cooper staggered back a step. His breath was gusting now, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“You’re positive?” Cooper asked the caller, his voice hoarse and raw.

She’d seen Dr. Howland’s name on the phone screen and had thought he was calling to check on Liam. No such luck. There was only one thing that could have caused Cooper to react like that.

The DNA test was back.

Jessa waited, her own breath racing. Cooper finally hit the end-call button, but it took a moment for his gaze to come to hers.

And she knew in her heart what the doctor had just told him.

That Liam’s DNA was a match to his.

“No!” Jessa frantically shook her head and kept repeating it because she didn’t know what else to say.

She turned to bolt away from him so she could take Liam...and do what, exactly, she wasn’t sure. However, everything inside her was screaming for her to run, and that was exactly what she would have done if Cooper hadn’t caught her arm.

“You can’t go,” Cooper insisted.

The emotions slammed into her all at once. The fear. Denial. The sickening dread. “You’re lying. The doctor’s lying. Liam can’t be yours. Because he’s mine!”

She tried to bolt again, and this time Cooper took her by the shoulders and put her against the wall. He got right in her face.

“Think this through,” he said, not easily. Like hers, his words sounded strangled. “Doc Howland did the test, not me, and he has no motive for lying about the results.”

“He’s your friend!”

“And he’s honest. He wouldn’t even do the test without a court order.”

That tore at her heart like jabs from a razor-sharp knife. Jessa didn’t want logic. She wanted the results to prove that Cooper’s suspicions had been wrong. Because if they were right...oh, God.

Then he would have a claim to Liam.

The sob made its way up her throat, and Jessa batted away Cooper’s hands when he tried to hold her in place.

“Just stop a minute,” Cooper said.

Her gaze snapped to his, and that was when Jessa saw something that she didn’t want to see. The emotions rifling through him, too. His were a different kind, though. While he was coming to terms with learning his son was alive, she was faced with the nightmare of losing Liam.

“You can’t take him from me,” she argued. But she was arguing with herself.

Cooper’s grip melted off her, and, forcing out several deep breaths, he leaned against the wall. Probably because his legs looked ready to buckle. He had his attention fastened to Liam, who was thankfully still asleep.

He shook his head. “I’d given up. But I shouldn’t have. I kept feeling something.” He rapped his fist against his heart. “Something kept telling me he was alive. I couldn’t allow myself to believe it.”

Each word crushed her. “I’ve been his mother since he was three months old,” she said in a whisper.

“I know.” He drew in a long breath and walked to the doorway, no doubt so he could get a better look at Liam.

Sweet heaven.

Cooper no doubt saw himself in Liam’s face.

Jessa didn’t want to see it. Just as she hadn’t wanted to question why Liam had Cooper’s rare blood type. She hadn’t wanted to question anything.

She’d only wanted her son.

“He’s awake,” Cooper said a split second before she heard Liam stirring in the crib.

Both Cooper and she moved toward him, but Jessa made it to him first and scooped him up in her arms. She held him to her as if her life depended on it. Because that was exactly how she felt.

“How could this have happened?” Cooper mumbled.

Jessa had to shake her head again. “I got references for the adoption attorney. I followed the rules. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, either.” Cooper reached out, skimmed his finger down Liam’s cheek. Liam smiled, breaking her heart even more. “But someone did.”

“Maybe not.” Her heart was pounding, and she was still breathing too fast. So fast she might hyperventilate. Jessa tried to tamp down her emotions so she could think of a way out of this.

She couldn’t lose Liam. That wasn’t an option.

But the tears and the doubts came, anyway. And she cursed them. Silently cursed, too, the footsteps she heard in the hall. She didn’t want to see anyone right now, including Cooper, though she figured he wasn’t going away.

Tucker stepped into the doorway, his attention going straight to his brother. “You okay?” His gaze swept from Cooper to Liam to her.

“I had a DNA test run on Liam,” Cooper said. “It’s a match to mine.”

She had no idea how much he’d told his brother, but apparently not much, since Tucker seemed genuinely surprised. He gasped and caught the doorjamb. “But how? Molly and Cameron washed away in the flood.”

“Only Molly.” A moment later, Cooper repeated it.

“Well, that explains the phone call I just got from Colt,” Tucker went on. “He said he’s reviewing some security feed for a break-in at Merritt Labs. He’s already got the footage, thanks to Doc Howland.”

Cooper nodded. “Someone destroyed the samples of Liam’s and my DNA at that particular lab.” He paused. Touched Liam’s cheek again. “Whoever destroyed those samples is no doubt trying to cover up their part in the illegal adoption.”

Oh, God. And it was maybe the reason the kidnappers had tried to take Liam from the hospital.

“Help Colt go through the footage,” Cooper told his brother. “Find out who did this.” He turned his head, his eyes meeting Tucker’s. “We might be looking for a killer.”

Tucker nodded as if he’d already figured that out, but Jessa had to shake her head. “You think this person murdered Molly?”

“He or she got their hands on Liam somehow.” Cooper’s jaw tightened. “No way would Molly have just let someone take him from her.”

He hadn’t said that easily, and despite the emotional pain crushing her chest, Jessa could practically feel Cooper’s pain, too.

“The autopsy proved that drowning was the cause of her death,” Tucker reminded him. He came closer and put his hand on his brother’s arm. “And there were no signs of foul play.”

“Maybe because the foul play was the drowning itself. Someone could have kidnapped Liam...Cameron,” Cooper corrected, “and then restrained Molly somehow and moved the car to the bridge so it’d be swept away with her inside.”

Jessa couldn’t argue with that. Though she wanted to. She wanted to dismiss all of this, but she couldn’t.

She looked at her son. Really looked at him. At his eyes. His hair. The shape of his face. Liam seemed puzzled by the intense scrutiny he was getting from all three of them. Well, for a few moments, anyway.

“Horsey,” Liam said, and he motioned toward the plastic horse in the toy box. The last thing Jessa wanted to do was let go of him, but when Liam continued to twist and squirm, she set him on the floor and he made a beeline for the toy chest.

It hit her then. The toys and the crib had almost certainly belonged to Cameron. When she’d first arrived at the ranch, she hadn’t even questioned why these things would be there.

“I can’t stay here,” Jessa blurted out.

The brothers exchanged a quick glance, and Tucker headed for the door. “I’ll see if Colt’s making progress with the security footage from the lab.”

Cooper didn’t say a word to her until Tucker had left. “We need a truce. Right now our focus has to be keeping Liam safe, agreed?”

Jessa didn’t have to think about that. She nodded. “But you can’t take him from me,” she repeated, positioning herself between Liam and him.

It didn’t work. Cooper just moved around her and sat on the floor next to Liam. Her son obviously enjoyed having a new playmate, because he smiled and handed Cooper a toy from the box.

“A truce,” Cooper repeated. “You won’t try to take him from this house, and I won’t do anything to take him from you.”

Not now, anyway.

Cooper hadn’t actually said those words, but she could hear them in his voice.

“Say that you’ll agree to a truce,” Cooper added. Even though it was an order—she had no doubts about that—he smiled back at Liam.

It was the last thing she wanted to say, but the only thing she could do. If she tried to leave with Liam, Cooper would stop her. Legally, Liam was still hers, but Cooper could change that by filing a motion for custody.

Which he would no doubt do once Liam was safe.

“Truce,” Jessa finally managed to say, just as Cooper’s phone rang.

Cooper continued to play with Liam while he took out his phone. Jessa saw Colt’s name on the screen, and even though Cooper took the call on speaker, she sank down next to him so she could hear better. And so she could better monitor this playing session. Yes, she was being petty again, but it was the only control she had over this nightmare of a situation.

“I’ve got good news and bad,” Colt started. “The bad is that whoever broke into Merritt Lab also disabled the camera. Not sure how, but it looks like some kind of electromagnetic device.”

Cooper looked ready to curse. He didn’t. Probably because of Liam. “You said there’s good news?”

“Yeah. There’s no footage of the person in the lab, but I got a picture of him or her stepping from the vehicle. It’s just the one shot because the camera was disabled immediately afterward.”

“Please tell me you got the license plate numbers,” Cooper said.

“No, it was obscured with something, but I have a good description of the vehicle. A late-model black Jeep Cherokee with some damage to the front right fender. That’s a match to the paint chips that I found near Donovan’s place.”

So the person who fired those shots had likely broken into the lab.