Unexpected Father. Delores Fossen
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leaned back, rested her head against the stack of pillows. “I wish I’d at least gotten a glimpse of the person who tried to smother me. Maybe I would have recognized him so you could arrest him.”
Jason almost blew out a breath of relief at the change of subject. The right change. Too bad he hadn’t thought of it sooner. Which only showed how dangerous distractions could be. Instead of pondering the effect of his hormones, he should be questioning her and digging for any clues to help them find the perp.
“A visual isn’t the only way to recognize someone,” he reminded her. “Was there anything familiar about his scent or his clothes?”
She immediately shook her head. “No.”
Jason continued to press. “How about his voice? Did he say anything?”
“No to all of those. No scent. I wasn’t able to touch his clothes. And if he said anything, I didn’t hear it.” Lilly paused a moment. “I can’t even be sure it was a man. All I know is the person was a lot stronger than I am.” She flexed her eyebrows. “But then, I’m not exactly a menacing threat with my superheroine strength, am I now? It didn’t take much to subdue me.”
So they weren’t necessarily looking for a male, strong or otherwise. Just someone who had a reason to kill her. And Jason knew for a fact there were people who fit right into that category. “This has to be connected to your father. To his dirty business dealings.”
“I agree. He was involved in so much. Falsifying paperwork and bids so he’d get contracts for services that he then only partially provided…if at all. He scammed a lot of people with bogus agreements to do everything from audits to major construction.” Lilly grabbed a handful of the blanket and fisted it until her knuckles whitened. “He’s been dead for two and a half years. You’d think the fallout would be finished by now.”
It wouldn’t be finished until this SOB was caught. “We still have the same suspects. Names we’ve gone over hundreds of times.”
“And it could also be any one of the dozens of former business associates that my father scammed or involved in his illegal schemes. Once I’m back on my feet, I want to go through my office and my house—” Her eyes widened. “I still have an office and house, don’t I?”
He nodded. “Your attorney’s been taking care of that with money from your personal and business accounts. But it probably won’t do any good to visit your house and office. The police went through them and didn’t find anything.”
“Maybe they missed something.” She froze, and her gaze whipped back to his. “Oh, my God. Megan. What if this person tries to go—”
“There’s a cop at my house.” One he could trust not to fall asleep. He wasn’t about to risk Megan’s life.
Lilly’s breath was racing now and she placed her hand on her chest. “Thank you, again.”
Jason decided it was a good time to get to his feet and put some distance between them. Unlike Lilly’s other thanks, this one didn’t feel so warm and fuzzy. Nothing he did for Megan required gratitude. What he did for her was totally out of love, and it riled him that Lilly even felt that she had a right to thank him.
Yes, it was stupid. Petty, even. But every paternal instinct in his body screamed for him to latch on to Megan and not let Lilly anywhere near her. He would have to override his instincts, though.
His lieutenant hadn’t given him much of a choice about that.
“I’m making arrangements for you to be transferred to another hospital,” Jason advised her. “Logistically, this one just isn’t that easy to secure.”
“And then what?” she asked, her voice thin. “I’d planned to be discharged in a day or two.”
He’d already considered that, along with the lieutenant’s order. “Once the doctors release you, you’ll be placed in protective custody. My protective custody.”
“Oh.” Something flickered in her eyes and she stayed quiet a moment. “Let me guess—that wasn’t your idea?”
“My lieutenant’s,” he admitted.
Another Oh. “How in the world did he convince you to agree to that?”
“Quite easily. He reminded me that Megan might need protection, as well, and that I’d no doubt want to be the one to provide it.”
She examined him with her firm gaze. “This way, you kill two birds with one stone.”
The word “kill” turned his stomach. “I don’t like that analogy.” But to protect both Lilly and Megan and to minimize the disruptions to Megan’s life, the thing to do was for Lilly to move in with him.
It was logical.
Mercy, he hated that frickin’ word.
The move was logical, but nothing else about this was. This was the next step in the nightmare he’d dreaded since the moment he’d heard that Lilly had come out of the coma.
He would literally put Lilly under the same roof with the daughter he loved more than life itself.
The daughter she’d no doubt try to take from him.
Lilly shook her head. “You know this protective custody won’t work, right?”
Jason shrugged. “We don’t have a choice.”
“Maybe we do. I could always use a private bodyguard.”
Jason was about to give her an opinion on that, and it wasn’t a good opinion, but something—or rather someone—stopped him.
“I will see her now!” someone yelled from the hall. It was a man’s voice. One that Jason didn’t immediately recognize. That angry shout had him moving and reaching for his weapon.
“Take another step,” he heard Detective O’Reilly warn, “and I promise you’ll regret it.”
With his gun ready and aimed, Jason hurried to the door and looked out. Hell. While he hadn’t recognized the voice, he certainly recognized the man.
Wayne Sandling.
The former prominent attorney who’d done business with Lilly’s father. Lots of business. And it hadn’t all been aboveboard, either. Sandling was the last person on earth Jason wanted near Lilly.
“He barged his way in through the front desk,” O’Reilly told Jason.
That didn’t please Jason, but he would deal with the lax security once he’d finished with Sandling. “What are you doing here?” Jason demanded.
Sandling obviously recognized him, as well, because the man’s mouth practically curled into a snarl. “Detective Lawrence. Long time, no see.”
It wasn’t nearly long enough.
Though the former attorney had no doubt climbed out of bed to make this visit, he somehow managed to look as if he were ready for the courtroom. He wore a navy suit, complete with a tie. A tie! At this hour of the morning. His ink-black, conservative-cut hair had been combed to perfection. Not even a hint of sleep was in his eyes. For someone that meticulous, it made Jason wonder how he’d managed to get caught doing anything illegal in the first place.
“You didn’t answer my question, Sandling,” Jason pointed out. “Why are you here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Not really.” Jason used his best badass-cop voice and added a glare. “Clarify it for me.”
If Sandling had an unsavory response to Jason’s tone and glare, he didn’t show it. “One of your fellow officers called me tonight. About an attack on Lilly Nelson. He wanted to know if I had an alibi.”
“Do you?”
“That’s not the point. The point is I was awakened and questioned.”