Delores Fossen - Mommy Under Cover

“Do you plan to mention that part about Phase One of Project Ideal Baby?” Riley asked her. “Or should I?”

That earned him another of her lethal glares. However, her glare relaxed significantly when she turned back to the screen to face her father.

“Our suspect indicated that he’d be performing a routine, nonanesthetized procedure on me when we arrive at the first location.”

Man, talk about breezing right over the problem. “What Tessa’s trying to sugarcoat is that the doctor wants to inseminate her before he takes us to the second location.”

If her jaw tightened any more, she’d probably chip her pearly whites. “And what Riley and you both know is that there is no chance of my becoming pregnant. Without the insemination, we won’t be able to get inside Fletcher’s organization or gather evidence about the murders. In other words, our mission will fail.”

“I don’t want that any more than you do,” Riley firmly reminded her. “But your father needs to know what you’re up against. It’s still a medical procedure. And even though I suspect Fletcher’s whole operation is a scam, you have no idea what he might do to you, all under the guise of inseminating you. You’ll be at his mercy, and believe me, I don’t think you’ll care for Fletcher’s brand of mercy.”

“Is the operation a scam?” Abbot questioned.

Tessa nodded.

So, she’d picked up on the inconsistencies, as well. No surprise there. She was smart and probably better versed in fertility issues than he was.

“Evade the insemination if possible,” her father instructed. There wasn’t any change in his tone to indicate he was even slightly concerned about his daughter’s well-being. “If the suspect insists that it be done, then it’s your call as to whether or not to continue the mission.”

Your call. Translation? You’re a serious wuss if you wimp out because of an almost-nil risk. Even if “almost nil” amounted to something significant because Fletcher would be able to do pretty much anything to her under the guise of a simple insemination.

Tessa wouldn’t wimp out.

That full-steam-ahead, push-for-success mentality would have normally pleased Riley. But there wasn’t much that was normal or pleasing about this. That said, it wouldn’t stop him from doing this job, either.

So, the number-one solution was to avoid the insemination.

Somehow.

Even if it meant calling Fletcher and renegotiating the whole deal. Maybe he could convince the doctor that Tessa had a phobia about such things. After all, the Tates were supposed to be neurotic and self-absorbed, so he’d try to get some mileage out of that.

“Contact me with your situation report at 0800 tomorrow,” Abbot concluded, and the screen went blank.

“How did you know Fletcher was running a scam?” she asked Riley when she clicked off the phone.

“Lucky guess.” He waited a moment. “But yours probably wasn’t a guess, huh?”

“Not really. Fletcher’s procedure of flushing and then replanting an embryo is possible, though illegal in this country and most others. But the technology to genetically manipulate a human embryo doesn’t exist. So I doubt he’d bother with the former when he can’t do the latter.”

Riley nodded. That was his theory, too. “So, basically he just uses insemination to impregnate his clients and pretends to do his DNA manipulation thing. The women walk out of his facility with a lot less money than they had when they entered, and they’re pregnant with babies they could have conceived the old-fashioned way.”

He winced at his choice of words, but Tessa merely dodged his gaze and resumed combing her hair. “By the time the couples realize they don’t have the perfect child,” she said, “it’ll be too late. Fletcher will have closed up his operation and skipped town.”

Or else the couples would be so attached to the kids that perfection no longer mattered.

Riley kept that part to himself. And he didn’t get to renew the insemination argument, either, because there was a knock at the bathroom door.

“We have a visitor,” Agent Ingram relayed through the closed door. “It’s Dr. Fletcher. He’s here.”

Adrenaline slammed through Riley. Not good adrenaline, either. “What does he want?”

“He says there are some questions about your records and he needs to see you right away.”

Great. Just great.

“Oh, and he’s not alone,” the agent added. “There are two men with him and both are carrying concealed weapons.”

Riley cursed

So did Tessa.

And they both reached for their guns.

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