Shattered. Joan Johnston

what?”

      “Don’t play dumb. Did you tell him the twins are mine?”

      “No, I didn’t.” But she’d come very close.

      “Thank God for that.”

      Kate blanched as she realized why Shaw was so upset. He thought Dante D’Amato had also discovered the truth about who’d fathered the twins and sent Jack here to get Kate to confirm or deny what he’d heard.

      “By the time my father knows for sure that Lucky and Chance are my sons,” Shaw said, “I’ll have you all somewhere he can’t get to you.”

      “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Kate said, her voice sharp with fear. “Neither are my sons. Why should your father be any threat to us? I would think he’d be glad to know he has grandchildren.”

      “You don’t know Dante D’Amato.”

      Kate glanced toward where she’d last seen Jack, but his SUV had already disappeared down a small hill under a canopy of live oaks. Why had he abandoned her with Shaw? Was protecting his cover more important than protecting the woman he loved and her children from someone with Wyatt Shaw’s reputation?

      It must be.

      Or maybe the best way to protect her was to pretend not to be romantically involved with her. Which gave her way too much food for thought.

      Kate stood with a hand on either side of the doorway, blocking Shaw’s entrance, and said in a cold voice, “I told you not to come back.”

      “Let me in, Kate.”

      It was a command, pure and simple. Kate’s neck hairs rose. “Go away. I don’t want you here.”

      “I know the twins are home. I intend to see them.”

      She tried slamming the door in his face, but he caught it again with his hand.

      “We’re not going through this again, are we?”

      Kate realized she wasn’t physically capable of keeping him out. She was trying to think of an argument that would convince him to go away when Lucky and Chance came barreling into the living room.

      “Mom! Chance is cheating at Mario Brothers Galaxy on the Wii!” Lucky complained. “He won’t give me my turn.”

      “I was not!” Chance said, shoving Lucky in the back. “You’re just afraid I’ll beat you.”

      Lucky turned and socked Chance in the shoulder.

      Kate left Shaw standing where he was to intervene between her sons. “Chance! Lucky! Stop that right now!”

      Shaw moved into the open doorway behind her, where she knew he could see the fracas.

      Kate grimaced. Her sons weren’t making a very good first impression on their father. “We have company,” she announced.

      But Chance had already tripped Lucky, who turned and grabbed Chance’s school uniform shirtfront on the way down. Both boys landed hard on the floor. They rolled, hitting at each other with their fists and knocking into the furniture with their thrashing feet.

      Kate wished she could tell Shaw that this behavior was unusual. But ever since she’d come home from rehab, they’d roughhoused like this at least once a day. She supposed Jack must have tolerated this sort of behavior over the past four months while the boys had been living at his ranch house.

      “That’s enough.”

      Kate watched as her sons’ heads snapped toward the door. She wondered whether it was the mere sound of a male speaking, or the stern, no-nonsense tone of Wyatt’s voice, that had gotten their attention.

      They untangled themselves and sat up, staring at the stranger who’d spoken.

      Wyatt closed the door behind him and crossed to stand beside her. She knew he was waiting for her to introduce him to her—their—sons. “Come over here,” she said gently. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

      That wasn’t true. She didn’t like anything about this situation. But she figured this traumatic moment in her sons’ lives would be less devastating if she orchestrated it.

      The twins never took their curious gazes off Shaw. A quick glance at Shaw revealed that his gray eyes were focused intently on Lucky and Chance. His impenetrable gaze gave nothing away, but Kate could see the tension in his shoulders, the muscle that worked in his jaw. She felt a moment of guilt for depriving him of knowing his sons and quickly squelched it.

      Wyatt Shaw was a ruthless man capable of anything, maybe even murder. Just because the police hadn’t found enough evidence to arrest him didn’t mean he wasn’t guilty of strangling that poor woman with his bare hands. Could he possibly be as innocent as his expensive lawyer had told the press he was? If Shaw hadn’t killed that woman, who had? And why had she been found in his bed?

      Kate couldn’t believe the direction her thoughts had taken. She was realizing, far too late, that just because this stranger had been gentle with her during the night they’d spent together, didn’t mean he wasn’t a killer.

      “Mom?” Chance said anxiously.

      Kate flushed when she realized she’d been staring at Shaw—perhaps with the fear she was feeling showing in her eyes. She took a deep breath and said, “This is Wyatt Shaw. Mr. Shaw is…”

      Kate’s throat suddenly constricted. How was she supposed to introduce him? It seemed too abrupt to baldly announce to her sons that this man was their biological father. She turned to Shaw, looking for help. She found no sympathy in his steel-gray eyes. She realized she would rather tell the boys herself than have Shaw say the words, which he surely would, if she didn’t speak them soon.

      Kate turned back to her sons and saw the innocence Shaw was forcing her to steal. She took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Shaw is—”

      “I’m an old friend of your mother’s,” Shaw interrupted.

      Kate shot a surprised—and grateful—look in Shaw’s direction.

      “I’m Lucky,” Lucky said, holding out his hand to be shaken.

      Kate watched as Wyatt solemnly took his son’s hand. Shaw’s hand completely enveloped the smaller one. His hold lingered long enough that Lucky pulled free.

      “I’m Chance.” Chance thrust his hand out to be shaken.

      This time Wyatt let go before the boy felt the need to pull away.

      “Is it all right if we go play on the Wii again, Mom?” Lucky asked.

      Kate turned to Wyatt, wondering if he wanted to talk further with the boys. He met her gaze, the look in his eyes still obscure, and gave the slightest nod of agreement. She turned back to her sons and said, “Can you do it without fighting?”

      The twins exchanged grins, then turned to her and simultaneously said, “You bet.”

      “All right. Another half hour. Then you need to go wash your hands for supper.”

      Kate waited for the boys to disappear before she turned back to Shaw. “You’ve met them. Now I’d like you to leave.”

      “Is that normal behavior?”

      Kate bristled at the implied criticism but forced herself to stay calm. She refused to care what Wyatt Shaw thought. He wasn’t going to be around long enough for it to matter. She shrugged and said, “They’re boys.”

      “You allow them to fight like that in the house?”

      She opened her mouth to explain that the twins’ behavior was more rambunctious now than it had been before her accident and snapped it shut again. She would not apologize to this man for anything her sons did.

      “I’ve made arrangements to fly the three of you to Houston tonight,” he said. “You’ll be living with me. You should