GI Cowboy. Delores Fossen

      Parker stood at the window and studied him. “When he’s here, he has access to the entire building?”

      “Of course. Why?”

      “You trust him?” Parker fired back.

      Bailey was about to say yes, but she hesitated. “He moved to Freedom about four months ago so I don’t know him that well, but he had good references. And he hasn’t done anything to make me distrust him.” She noticed his alarmed expression, and that alarmed her. “Why all the questions?”

      Parker didn’t take his attention off the man. “I think he’s carrying a concealed weapon.”

      She jumped to her feet. “What?”

      “Look at the slight bulge around the ankle of his jeans.”

      She did look, and yes, there was a bulge. “You think that means he has a gun?”

      “Wait here,” Parker ordered, and he hurried out the room and toward the front door.

      Bailey had no intention of doing that. Ahead of her, Parker disengaged the security system and threw open the front door just as Sidney was coming up the steps. Even though Parker didn’t draw his own gun, Sidney stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened, and he volleyed glances between Parker and her.

      “I heard about the car everyone’s looking for,” Sidney said. “It’s all over town. I came over to check on you.”

      “I’m fine,” Bailey lied.

      Parker stepped out onto the porch and would have shut the door in her face, if she hadn’t caught onto it. Parker shot her a warning glance over his shoulder, probably so that she would go back inside, but Bailey went on the porch with him.

      “This is Parker McKenna,” she said, trying to make it sound like a casual introduction.

      Parker didn’t wait for Sidney to respond. “Are you carrying a gun?”

      Sidney pulled back his shoulders. “What business is that of yours?”

      “Are you carrying a gun?” Parker repeated. He took a single step closer to Sidney, but that step along with his expression had a menacing feel to it.

      “Yeah.” Sidney’s expression took on a menacing feel, as well. “I am. But I have a permit to carry concealed.”

      Since Bailey’s emotions were already running high, she forced herself to put this in perspective, though she didn’t like the fact this man had been in her day care with a weapon strapped to his ankle.

      Except Parker had a weapon too, she reminded herself.

      “Why carry a gun?” Bailey asked.

      Sidney shrugged and softened his glare when he looked at her. “My house isn’t in town, and a time or two I’ve come home to find coyotes in my yard. It’s easier to have the gun on me than in the glove compartment of the truck.”

      She nodded, accepting that. “I’d prefer if you didn’t wear it in the building,” she simply stated.

      Sidney’s mouth tightened. “If that’s the way you want it.”

      “It is,” Parker answered for her.

      For a moment she thought Sidney might argue with that, but he finally smiled and tipped his fingers to his forehead in a mock salute. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

      For some reason, that sounded like a threat. Or maybe it was just the nerves getting to her. Parker and she stood there and watched Sidney walk away. The man got into a blue pickup truck and drove off.

      “You should call Bart and ask him to run a background check on this guy,” Parker suggested.

      That was a good idea, and Bailey made a mental note to be more careful about the people she hired. When had her life gotten so complicated?

      Her phone rang, and even though she’d been expecting and even praying for this particular call, her heart began to pound when she saw the sheriff’s name on the screen. Her hand was shaking too, but she pressed the button to answer it and put it on speaker so Parker could hear.

      “Did you find the car?” Bailey immediately asked.

      “No,” Sheriff Hale said after several snail-crawling moments. “We looked hard, Bailey, but that car isn’t on any road in this county. I figure the guy knows we’re onto him, and he’s long gone.”

      Bailey tried not to react, and on the outside she probably didn’t. Inside was a different matter.

      “We’ll keep looking, of course,” the sheriff continued. “I’ll review each new security tape. And I’ll have one of the deputies drive by Cradles to Crayons at least every hour. We got this situation under control, Bailey, and I don’t want you worrying about it.”

      “Thank you,” she told him, and she clicked the end call button.

      She didn’t move. Bailey just stood there, even though the July heat was brutal. Sweat was starting to trickle down her back.

      “Okay,” Parker mumbled. “That’s that, then.” He extended his hand for her to shake.

      A farewell shake, no doubt.

      Bailey stared at his hand. Then at Parker himself. And she had the sickening feeling that her life depended on the decision she was about to make.

       Chapter Four

      Well, it was a victory, but Parker didn’t feel like celebrating.

      Yes, Bailey had told him that he could continue to be her bodyguard, but since she’d snarled when she said it, Parker didn’t think this was an employer-employee match made in heaven.

      She drove ahead of him in her BMW and pulled into her neighborhood, an area Parker knew well since he’d been watching her for days.

      But who else had been watching her?

      Parker had been careful and observant, and he hadn’t seen anyone suspicious, but those surveillance tapes proved otherwise. He hoped like hell that the driver of that mysterious black car didn’t have some kind of insider information about Bailey’s schedule, but then she was pretty predictable.

      During the workweek, Bailey went to the day care at six forty-five and came home around seven p.m. Sometimes later. She often took meals with female friends or members of her staff at the diner, Talk of the Town, but other than that, she didn’t have much of a social life.

      Was that because she was nursing a broken heart?

      Since Parker had already done an extensive background check on Bailey, he knew about her failed relationship with the Dallas real estate tycoon Trey Masters, who’d been downright chatty with the tabloids about what it was like to date the governor’s daughter. It hadn’t been pretty, and since that happened only four months ago, that might explain the no-male company in Bailey’s life.

      Parker also knew other things. Personal things. For instance, on Saturday, Bailey had visited a fertility clinic in Amarillo. He knew because he’d followed her there and had seen her collect their literature on artificial insemination and single parenthood. He wondered if the governor knew about her daughter’s possible plans to become a mother.

      Having a child of her own would suit Bailey all right. He had seen her with the children at the day care, and she was a natural.

      Ahead of him, Bailey pulled into the driveway of her prairie-style house. It was homey, not at all what he’d expected when he’d first seen it a week earlier. Across the entire front of the house was a porch, complete with hanging plants, rocking chairs and even a swing.

      She got out and immediately looked back at him as he brought his truck to a stop behind her. Even though she was wearing dark sunglasses now, she was no doubt still glaring. And probably hating that she had no other choice but to rely on him for her personal safety.