The Baby's Bodyguard. Alice Sharpe

the baby’s father from someone else. You won’t tell me much about him.”

      Hannah must have made a strangled sound in her throat because both her grandmother and Jack glanced at her. “I know we’re not supposed to talk about him,” Mimi said with a defiant tilt to her chin. “I know you said he was a giant mistake, but I just thought—”

      “Jack didn’t know him,” Hannah said, praying for some kind of diversion. It was the West Coast, for heaven’s sake. Where was a 6.0 earthquake when you needed one?

      “I didn’t know you had a baby,” Jack said.

      Mimi, looking perplexed, muttered, “I told you Hannah was in with Aubrielle when you got here.”

      “I assumed Aubrielle was another adult.”

      Mimi’s defiance was melting into contrition. “I’ll go see to dinner,” she said.

      As soon as she was out of the room Jack cleared his throat. “You have a baby.”

      Hannah took a gulp of wine and sighed. “Yes.”

      “How old?”

      “Three months.”

      “Three months. Funny, I don’t recall a French expatriate.” His eyebrows raised up his forehead, his eyes narrowed. “Three months. Oh, God, Hannah—is this my … my baby?”

      He looked horrified at the thought. Good. She said, “Aubrielle is not your baby.”

      “But the timing—”

      “No.”

      “Is she David’s?”

      After a moment, Hannah nodded.

      “Why wouldn’t you tell your grandmother that your baby is your boyfriend’s child?”

      “It’s complicated.”

      “Try me.”

      “There were rules at the foundation about dating and David and I broke them. David is gone now, there’s nothing to be gained by bringing all this up. I might even lose my job and I need it.”

      “It sounds like a lot of justifying,” Jack said.

      “Of course it is. That’s what happens when you mess things up. You do your best to make them better.” She took a deep breath, smoothed her jeans over her thighs and added, “My grandmother didn’t know David well and certainly never knew anything about us being a couple. As you can see, she’s not much for secrets. And then there was David’s family to consider. His parents have about twelve other grandchildren and live thousands of miles away. They know nothing about me. I just decided to tell a select few people Aubrielle’s father was a man I met when I was in South America who is totally out of our lives.”

      “Then you were pregnant when we met?”

      She looked him in the eye and nodded.

      “If she’s three months old, it must have happened—”

      “The last night David was alive, yes.”

      “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t part of the reason you were grieving so much that you felt bad you’d been about to break up with him?”

      “You never had sex with someone you weren’t sure about?” she countered.

      “Point taken. He died the next morning on his way to work, right?”

      “He was riding his bike. The truck driver said David hit a patch of loose gravel and fell right into the road.”

      Jack stared at her for a few dozen jumpy heartbeats and then nodded. “You know, I’ve decided to believe your claim that you had nothing to do with what happened down in Costa del Rio.”

      She blinked at the change of subject before saying, “Good. Why?”

      “I’m not sure. You’re smart enough and clever enough and maybe even sneaky enough, but you’re not ruthless.”

      “That’s true. I’m relieved to hear you say it.”

      “But you do know or suspect something. Who are you protecting?”

      She drained the wine from the stemmed glass and set it down. It was time to put this matter to rest. Her voice a little on the stern side, she leaned toward him. “Let’s get this straight. You’re a stranger I spent one amazing night with a year ago. Like you so graphically pointed out this afternoon, it was sex and nothing more. I’m not going to offer excuses, but seeing you again is embarrassing—it wasn’t exactly my most shining hour. Is that blunt enough for you?”

      “It’s excellent. If I was capable of being shamed, that would have done it.” He paused a second and added, “An ‘amazing’ night, huh?” the skin crinkling around his eyes as he smiled.

      She glared at him.

      Mimi yelled from the kitchen, “We’re having stir-fried tofu and veggies.”

      “My grandmother thinks she can cook,” Hannah said softly. “She can’t.”

      Jack shrugged. “I never turn down a meal.”

      When she didn’t smile, he added, “I’d like to see David’s kid and I really am hungry.”

      She stood up. He was a danger to her, to her baby, to the future. He needed to go away so she could figure out what if anything to do with her ever-growing suspicions. Maybe in the end he’d be the one to share them with, but not now. What would happen if she convinced him to leave for a week or so with the promise she would poke around a little when she went into the office? Maybe Fran knew something. As the head of HR, she seemed to know something about everyone.

      “You’re suddenly a light-year away,” Jack said, coming to stand in front of her.

      She pushed her hair back from her forehead. “It’s been a terrible day, Jack. I feel like I’m being stalked by the invisible man and now you’re accusing me of helping a killer. Give me a number where I can call you should something come to mind. For now, I’m going to go wash up for dinner and when I get back, I would really like to find you made your apologies to my grandmother and left. Is that too much to ask?”

      “Yeah, it is,” he said. “I already lost a few days with my family. Time is passing.”

      “The ambush happened almost a year ago. Another week or two won’t matter.”

      “It’s not that simple,” he said. “I told you this isn’t just about revenge.”

      She stared at him and he stared at her. They were at an impasse. This was crazy, this was her house, well, her grandmother’s house. What made Jack Starling think he could just refuse to leave?

      When his gaze strayed past her face to the plate-glass window behind her back, she wondered if he was looking at their reflections. In the next instant, he lunged at her. She gasped at the unexpectedness of it. He wrapped his arms around her and spun her around to the floor where she landed on her back with a crash. He flung his body on top of hers, using his arms to surround her head. She pushed on his solid chest but he held tighter.

      A loud popping sound was followed by a distant scream and other unidentifiable sounds that rumbled in Hannah’s brain. Ragged cubes of glass rained down on them like pebbles, bouncing on the furniture, skittering across the hardwood floors.

      Jack held her even tighter. She swallowed a scream as her thoughts went to Aubrielle.

Chapter Three

      “What in the hell is going on?” Jack demanded. He’d pulled Hannah to her feet, safety glass tumbling from both their clothes.

      “I don’t know,” Hannah said, eyes wide with fear.