Slade's Secret Son. Elizabeth August

to precede him into the house and Lisa obeyed. Like a physical contact, she could feel his eyes on her back. A warm tingling started at the nape of her neck and began to work its way through her. Silently she cursed. She wanted to be as immune to him as he was to her.

      In the living room, the exhaustion from her trip mingled with her anxiety over facing Slade caught up with her and she sank down onto the couch while Slade punched numbers into the phone. Watching him, she was certain that once he got over the shock of being a father, his determined allegiance to Claudette would cause him to lose interest in a child that wasn’t hers.

      “We heard you come in…” Katrina’s cheerful greeting died in her throat as she and Boyd entered the living room and she saw Lisa. Concern spread over her features. “Are you all right? You look pale.”

      “I’m still recovering from a bullet wound,” Lisa replied, not wanting them to guess that Slade’s presence had anything to do with how shaken she was feeling.

      Boyd took a stride closer. “You suffer any serious damage?”

      “No.” She’d always liked Boyd. He was a kind man, strong and dependable…like Slade in a lot of ways, but without the dark brooding side created by Slade’s haunting past.

      Boyd smiled with relief. “Glad to hear that.”

      “You look like you could use something to eat. I’ve got a pot roast ready to be served. There’s plenty. Come join us,” Katrina coaxed.

      Lisa considered refusing. But her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten all day. Reasoning that some of the effect Slade was having on her could be due to light-headedness caused by lack of food, she nodded gratefully. “Thanks. I’ll take you up on that invitation.”

      Boyd had been catching bits of Slade’s conversation. As his brother hung up, he turned to him. “Heard you tell the commander you were going to take some time off. What’s going on?”

      Slade’s gaze came to rest on Lisa. “It seems I have a son I’d never have learned about if Lisa hadn’t had her brush with death.” His jaw hardened into a grim line. “I would have married you.”

      Ignoring the surprised looks on Boyd’s and Katrina’s faces, Lisa met his gaze with defiance. “I wanted a man who loved me, not one who prefers to live with a ghost and would only marry me because I was pregnant with his child and he felt it was the only honorable thing to do.”

      For a long moment Slade regarded her in stoic silence. Then, heading to the doorway, he said curtly, “I’ve got reservations to make and a bag to pack.”

      Chapter Two

      Seated on the plane a few hours later, Slade recalled how Boyd and Katrina had reacted to his news. They’d been shocked, but he’d seen the understanding in their eyes when Lisa had said she didn’t want a man who preferred to live with a ghost. His jaw tensed. He had his reasons.

      Returning his thoughts to his brother and sister-in-law, he pictured them and Lisa at the dinner table. Lisa had been obviously uneasy, but Katrina and Boyd had done their best to make her feel less awkward. They’d even expressed excitement at having a nephew. His expression hardened. And the rest of his family had better behave as well or they’d be answering to him.

      Pushing his family to the back of his mind, Slade studied Lisa covertly as the plane taxied down the runway, then rose into the sky. She was more pale than normal and he recalled how she’d winced when he’d pulled on her arm. “How did you get shot?”

      She’d begun to wonder if he was even going to ask or if his feelings toward her were so shallow, he really didn’t care. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I moved to Seattle, I decided to not join the police force. I wanted more flexible working hours so I started my own detective agency and hooked up with a couple of groups of lawyers, doing investigations, serving subpoenas…the legwork kind of stuff.

      “Anyway, I was serving divorce papers on a guy named Tommy Cross. He was a medium-class hood who’d been caught in a sting operation. People were distancing themselves fast and furiously from him. Even though the man’s Mr. Stonewall himself, someone must have been worried that he might cut a deal and name names. They took a shot at him, missed and hit me instead.”

      Abruptly she grinned dryly. “Talk about a ‘shot heard’ round Seattle and further.’ Tommy didn’t take well to being a target. But I think what bugged him the most was that he’d given his word that he’d be silent and he hadn’t been believed. Tommy always prided himself on keeping his word. The next thing the locals knew, he was talking his head off. He knew so much, it crossed state lines and they had to bring in the Feds.”

      Slade recognized the glitter of excitement in her eyes. She liked action, especially when it went well. He recalled the way his stomach had knotted when he’d heard about some of her exploits in the field. She believed in getting her man, even if it involved personal injury. Anger that she took placing her life in jeopardy so lightly built inside of him. “You have a child. And until today, you were raising him on your own. I can’t believe you are still being so cavalier about risking your life.”

      Lisa glared at him. “I was never cavalier about my life. I was doing my job, the same as you and every other lawman.”

      Maybe he was being unfairly critical, Slade admitted to himself. Law enforcement was innately a dangerous occupation. Still… “The problem is that if there’s trouble anywhere in your vicinity, you seem to find it.”

      “I do not.” When they’d been dating, he’d said that he accepted her being in danger as part of her job, but there had been a couple of times when he’d come close to overreacting when she’d had a close call. At those times, a shuttered look had descended over his features and she’d wondered if maybe he did care for her more than he’d wanted to admit. Stupid girl. It was fantasies like that that had caused her to think he might fall in love with her. But he hadn’t. He would never betray his precious Claudette.

      Slade told himself to drop the subject, but he couldn’t. That she’d had such a close brush with death continued to taunt him. “I’d have thought that with a child depending on you, you’d have found a less dangerous occupation.”

      “And I thought I had found a safer venue,” she snapped back, angered by the accusatory tone in his voice. “The jobs I took were mostly paperwork type of investigating…going through state, federal and county records, checking out phone bills, bank records, that kind of stuff. There was some surveillance, but nothing anyone would consider dangerous.” Her jaw tensed defensively. “I didn’t want to burden you with a child you didn’t want so I ignored the fact that no one’s life is guaranteed.”

      “I thought you knew me better than that. I would always want to be involved in the life of any child I fathered,” Slade returned curtly.

      To herself, she admitted that she had known that. It had been her pride that had kept her from telling him until now. That, and one other worry. “There is one thing I won’t abide. I won’t allow you to make my son feel second best to the child Claudette was carrying when she died. Even if you think that, you’d better keep it hidden from him or you’ll have me to answer to.”

      As angry as he was for having been kept in the dark about his son, Slade knew he had to accept some of the blame. He had been adamant about never loving anyone except for Claudette. It was only reasonable for Lisa to assume he might feel the same about his and Claudette’s unborn child. But she was wrong. Any child he fathered would be special to him. With every passing moment his need to see his son, to hold him, was growing in intensity. “I promise you, he will never be made to feel second best. I was raised to believe that every child is uniquely special.”

      He sounded sincere, but although she would have accepted his word on anything else, her son was too important to her. She’d keep a close eye on Slade. At the first sign that he was comparing Andy to the child he’d envisioned having with Claudette, she’d boot Slade out of their lives. Giving