Tara Taylor Quinn - Mother by Fate

“Look, I’m not in this for the money,” he said, out of water and babbling. “I need you to understand. I’ve got my doctorate degree in psychology. I just put it to use in a different way than most.” Far different. “I only go after dangerous warrant jumpers. They, more than most criminals, are a threat to society because they’re desperate. You know the runner mentality... They’re in survival mode. Every one appears to be an enemy. They’ll do whatever it takes...”

“And you think this woman I was supposedly with is in that mode.”

“I know she is. I’ve talked to the police. I visited her husband. I met her son.”

“Who did you talk to from the police?”

“Detective Miller with the LAPD. He was the arresting officer. He issued the warrant when she jumped bail, too.”

“Did you talk to anyone else?”

She was very clearly squeezing him. If he hadn’t been so good at it himself, he might not have noticed.

She might be playing him, but he needed her. And the answer to her question wouldn’t hurt anything.

“Yes. I’ve spoken with other officers about this case, as well. I know a lot of them. I’ve been at this gig, full-time, for three years.”

“And you’ll do anything to get your man. Or woman.”

“Within the law, yes.”

“Including lie to me.”

He’d already admitted to doing so.

“So how do I know you aren’t lying now?”

“You don’t.”

Sara leaned forward then. “Tell me, Mr. Bounty Hunter, what do you want from me?”

He missed the woman he’d sat with in the hot tub. The one he’d met at the pool. He knew she was the real Sara Havens. And that it was his fault she was no longer present in his company.

The job was more important than he was.

“I guess we both know we’re talking about Nicole Kramer.”

Her face gave away nothing. “If I had a client named Nicole, I wouldn’t be at liberty to speak about her.”

He leaned forward. “This woman doesn’t deserve your protection.”

She didn’t say a word.

“Do you have any idea what she’s done?”

“I don’t have any idea who you’re talking about, but I guess you’re about to tell me what this woman you’re after has done.”

She looked at her phone. For the second time.

She might know. She might not. He couldn’t take the chance. “This warrant is for jumping bail on two counts of attempted kidnapping with a loaded gun. Two armed B and Es. And attempted assault with a deadly weapon. She shot at a man.”

“If she’s as dangerous as you say she is, she’d have shot him, rather than just shooting at him, wouldn’t you think?”

Was she telling him something? Because she knew something? Or was she humoring him?

“Nicole weighs about a hundred pounds,” he said. “She’s a meth addict. She was high when she took the shot.”

“Why didn’t the warrant include use of an illegal substance?”

“She wasn’t tested.”

“So there’s no proof that she was under the influence.”

More statements. More fishing?

“No.”

She nodded.

“Her previous record is pages long,” he blurted. If nothing else, Sara Havens had to see that she was associating with an incredibly dangerous person.

He cared, only because he needed Sara to see the danger so that she’d help him. At least that was what he told himself. He had no jurisdiction over Sara’s private life.

Though, for a few brief minutes, he’d thought he did. Those minutes had made him want things he hadn’t thought about in a long time.

It was possible that if Sara had known Nicole in the past, then maybe the runner had changed a lot. If she’d just met Nicole, he’d give the fugitive marks for her acting skills. His instincts were telling him that Sara Havens was a decent person.

She didn’t deserve to die because some jumper got desperate.

She also wasn’t going to trust anything he had to say at the moment. That much was clear.

Glancing at her phone again, Sara appeared to come to some kind of decision.

“Did you follow me to work?”

“No.”

“Do you know where I work?”

“No.”

But he knew the vicinity. He was certain of that. Someplace behind a huge forest of trees. He’d found a private drive off the road she’d traveled. The drive had been secured with a ten-foot-high iron gate, surveillance cameras and what appeared to be a fingerprint recognition pad, and led back to what appeared to be some kind of plush resort.

“Were you on that street this afternoon? The one you say you saw me on yesterday?”

“Yes.”

She sat back, chewing on her lower lip. Glancing at her phone.

“Will you excuse me for a minute?”

His instincts shouted a resounding “no!”

She was going to alert someone. Nicole?

Was she going to let the other woman know that he was sitting at the pool with her, allowing Nicole the time to jump on a ship and sail away?

“Are you going to call Nicole?”

“No.” Her gaze was straightforward.

She wasn’t the liar here.

“Then take what time you need.”

What choice did he have? Keeping her happy was the only way he’d have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting her to cooperate with him.

He’d made a second error in judgment on this case. Telling Sara the truth hadn’t been enough to win her understanding. Sara Havens was more trusting of a fugitive woman than she was of a licensed bounty hunter who’d lied to her.

* * *

“HI, IT’S SARA.” Standing on the other side of the pool, with the hot-tub jets she’d just turned on rumbling in the background, Sara spoke softly to ensure that she wasn’t overheard.

“I know.”

“I’m sorry to bother you so late, but...” She glanced toward Michael. He waved.

“I wasn’t asleep, as I’m sure you guessed. What’s up?”

It wasn’t all that unusual for her and Lila to have these kinds of midnight conversations. They had difficult jobs that led to isolated lives.

“I’ve only got a couple of seconds,” Sara half whispered. “I’ve got someone waiting for me.”

“Are you okay?” Lila’s tone was suddenly sharp. “Where are you? Home? Should I send someone?”

“No!” Though there was always that possibility that an abuser would make an attempt on the life of the woman perceived to be leading his victim away from him. “I’m fine. But I need to talk to you. I know why Nicole left this afternoon. And I think I know the quickest way to get her back. Safely. I just need your buy-in before I do this.”

“What are you doing? Of course you have my buy-in, whatever it is, but I won’t have you risking your life, Sara. We need you.”

It came down to that sometimes. Most particularly with Lila. She made decisions that affected the entire Lemonade Stand complex, including the two blocks of small businesses the Stand owned and ran. She had to think about all of the women they currently served, had served and would serve in the future. She couldn’t put all of them at risk to save one.

“Someone in the LAPD put a bounty hunter on her,” Sara said now, still watching Michael. He didn’t wave again, but he was watching her, too. Sitting back laconically, his elbows on the arms of the chair, his fingers steepled at his mouth, he wasn’t going anywhere.

And she had to wonder why.

What more did he want from her?

Unless he thought she still had contact with Nicole. Which made her of use to him.

She needed him to think she was of use to him for her plan to work.

“It’s probably from the dismissed warrant.”

“That’s what I thought, too, at first. I asked him the last time he verified his paperwork. It was this afternoon. He was in touch with that Miller cop...”