Shattered. Joan Johnston
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glanced at the spot on her hip she was rubbing gently with her fingertips. He could remember what that exact spot of skin near her hipbone looked like. He’d kissed it. And caressed it.
He met her gaze and saw from the troubled look in her eyes that she remembered, too. She shook her head as though to deny what she was feeling. Or perhaps to warn him that she had no intention of letting what had happened between them once happen ever again.
She sank back down, but he could feel her eyes on him as he headed the few extra steps to the galley to get the plates of pizza Bruce had prepared for the boys.
He wondered if Kate would be more amenable to the idea of him being a father to Lucky and Chance if she knew that he intended to spend the rest of his life with her as his wife.
Probably not.
Everything she’d said or done had made it clear that the sooner she was shed of Wyatt Shaw, the better. So how was he supposed to woo her? How was he supposed to win her heart?
Especially when he’d been accused of murder.
He wondered what she would do if he told her who he believed had actually strangled the woman found dead in his bed.
Likely call him a liar.
Until he found enough evidence to cast a giant shadow on that other party, he was going to remain the prime suspect in a murder investigation. So he could understand how she might be leery of him. He was ready for the fight he knew was coming when she realized what their sleeping arrangements were going to be at his ranch.
“How did you know pepperoni’s my favorite, Mr. Shaw?” Lucky asked.
“It was a ‘Lucky’ guess,” he said, ruffling the boy’s hair. Amazing what a little detective work of his own had turned up about his sons. “And you can call me Shaw, without the Mister.”
Lucky pointed with his pizza, which he’d picked up in his hands and said, “Oh, I get it. A ‘Lucky’ guess. Very funny, Shaw.” He glanced at his mother and said, “That’s all right, Mom, isn’t it? He told me I could just call him Shaw.”
“It’s fine, sweetheart,” Kate said.
Her voice sounded choked to Wyatt, and when he looked, he saw tears had brimmed in her eyes. What was that all about?
“You’re missing the movie,” Chance warned his brother.
Wyatt crossed back to Kate and said, “Hungry?”
“I think if I ate anything right now I’d throw up.”
“How about something bubbly to settle your stomach,” he suggested.
“Club soda sounds good.”
He smiled wryly. “I was thinking of a glass of champagne.”
She looked at him stony-faced and said, “I can think of nothing—nothing—about this moment I want to celebrate.”
He leaned down and said through tight jaws, “There were two of us in that bed. You were as much responsible as I was for what happened there. We became parents that night. And you are not going to make me feel guilty for wanting to be a father to my sons!”
He stood up and said, “Bruce, pop open that bottle of champagne.” When he looked down, he saw her eyes were once more brimmed with tears. He swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat and said, “I feel like celebrating.”
8
The impressively high river-rock walls that separated Wyatt Shaw’s ranch compound from the outside world were every bit as daunting as Kate had feared they would be. Her sons seemed not to notice when the beautiful black wrought iron electric gates, with the elaborate S in the center, closed behind them.
Lucky and Chance sat on either side of Shaw in the black stretch limousine that had picked them up at his private airfield, talking a mile a minute as they quizzed him about what he had planned for their “vacation.”
“I have a stable full of horses,” she heard him tell the boys. “But we can have your horses—”
“Big Doc,” Lucky interjected.
“And Little Doc,” Chance supplied.
She watched Shaw smile indulgently as he finished, “Big Doc and Little Doc can be trailered here from San Antonio by tomorrow, if you’d rather ride your own mounts.”
“You’d do that? Really?” Lucky asked.
“Of course,” Shaw said.
As though it cost nothing to trailer a couple of quarter horses halfway across the state. It was nothing to a wealthy man like Shaw, Kate realized.
“Can we bring our dog here, too?” Lucky asked.
“And our cat?” Chance added.
Shaw glanced quickly at Kate. “You have a dog and a cat?”
“We got them for our birthday last year,” Lucky said. “We had them with us at Jack’s ranch while Mom was in the hospital. Jack’s mom and dad, Uncle Frank and Aunt Rose, have been taking care of them for us. Harley and Scratch were supposed to come home this weekend. They must be missing us like crazy—”
“Because we’re missing them,” Chance finished for his brother. “Please say they can come stay with us here.”
“I don’t see why that couldn’t be arranged,” Shaw said. “If it’s all right with your mother.”
“She doesn’t mind, do you, Mom?” Lucky said.
“She loves Harley and Scratch,” Chance said.
“Harley and Scratch?” Shaw repeated, eyeing Kate dubiously.
“Harley’s our black Lab,” Lucky said. “He runs really fast, like our dad’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle.”
“And Scratch…” Chance exchanged a chagrined look with Lucky, then glanced up at Shaw. “Well, you can guess how she got her name.”
Shaw laughed. “I can’t wait to meet them.”
Kate was beginning to understand there was far greater danger in having her sons spend time with Shaw than she’d ever imagined. He was going to spoil them rotten by giving them anything and everything their hearts desired. Including the attention from a father figure they were soaking up right now like sunshine.
He was going to make them love him.
They were never going to want to leave.
Several times since this journey had started, Kate had contemplated grabbing the twins and running as far and as fast as she could. But even now, the giant who’d introduced himself as the children’s bodyguard followed in a smaller black limo behind them. There was no escape from this nightmare.
At least, not yet. She wrapped her hand around the cell phone in her Levi’s pocket. She’d secretly tucked it there when she was packing. As soon as she had a moment alone, she was going to call Jack and tell him everything.
He would understand. And he would help her…if he could. Kate wasn’t sure how Jack’s undercover assignment was going to affect his ability to intervene. Especially in light of the fact the twins were Wyatt Shaw’s biological sons.
She and her sons were captives for the moment, but Shaw wasn’t going to be able to keep them behind these walls for long. The boys had to go to school. And Shaw had promised she could work. There would be opportunities for escape.
It might take some planning, but Wyatt Shaw would discover that she had weapons of her own with which to fight the war between them. Her grandfathers would help her. And her father and mother. And Jack would be there for her…when he wasn’t taking care of his wife and son.
Kate felt sick. Did she dare