Jennifer Greene - The Baby Chase

Together at last! I’ve missed my whole family so much over the past months. It’s nice to finally be able to share in their happiness. Many things have happened in their lives. Several weddings have taken place, many babies have been born and estranged couples reunited. I’m glad that some of my special gifts worked their magic and brought each child and grandchild love and joy. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but I wouldn’t have missed it for all the world. I can’t wait to see what the next fifty years bring!

Dear Reader,

I was tantalized by the whole concept of our FORTUNE’S CHILDREN series from the very beginning. We all had fun developing our different suspense and danger elements, but the heart of each story is linked to the Fortune family. Although the Fortunes amassed a giant financial dynasty, the true legacy they passed on to each other was wealth of a different kind. This is a family who knows what love is, and who sticks together through thick and thin.

The series ends with Rebecca’s love story. She’s not one to be impressed with champagne and a candlelit dinner. She wants babies. She wants a hearth and home. She learned the power of love from the nest of her own family, and there’s no way she’s willing to settle for less. Her hero despairs that she’s a hopeless romantic…but I tend to see her as a hard-core realist. It takes a tough, strong cookie to fight for what really matters, and she believes in families.

Me too.

I hope you enjoy The Baby Chase and am enclosing my best wishes to you and all your families—

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my fellow PT’ers…who else would have put up with all the petunias? Thanks from my heart for all the support.

lives near Lake Michigan with her husband and two children. Before writing full-time, she worked as a teacher and a personnel manager. Michigan State University honored her as an “outstanding woman graduate” for her work with women on campus.

Ms. Greene has written more than fifty category romances, for which she has won numerous awards, including two RITA ®Awards from the Romance Writers of America in the Best Short Contemporary Books category, and a Career Achievement award from Romantic Times.

Meet the Fortunes—three generations of a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they unite to face an unknown enemy, shocking family secrets are revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.

REBECCA FORTUNE: The nurturing and loving author is still single, but she wants to be a mother. She’s decided she will do anything to have a baby—even if she has to seduce the man who won’t accept her for who she is….

GABRIEL DEVEREAX: The wary private detective doesn’t believe in love or family. But after one steamy night of passion with Rebecca, he hadn’t counted on what would happen next—he was about to become a father!

KATE FORTUNE: With the Fortunes reunited, matriarch Kate is encouraged by the fulfillment and happiness in her children’s and grandchildren’s lives. Is Kate destined for a romance of her own now that the family crisis is resolved?

STERLING FOSTER: Kate’s attorney and closest confidante has stood by her through decades of family turmoil. Was it just professional loyalty or is there something more to the sparring relationship between Kate and this charming man?

LIZ JONES — CELEBRITY GOSSIP

Staff writer

In an unprecedented comeback, the Fortune family is back—and stronger than ever! Their mighty cosmetics empire has launched a new youth formula that women around the world are buying by the case, which firmly reestablishes Fortune Cosmetics as the number one international makeup company.

The Fortune family has also broken into the media business. They’ve purchased a television station as well as this very newspaper. There have been no staff changes except for one—Liz Jones has been relieved of her column. According to Kate Fortune, “There’s no room in a serious paper for a rumor-spreading gossipmonger.”

This is the last week for the column to run. For those still interested in celebrity gossip, you may want to try The Tattletale. From now on, this section will be “Kate’s Korner,” featuring helpful tips on matchmaking, planning your wedding, raising your babies and home-decorating ideas.

We hope you enjoy the new direction of the column. Happy reading!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

The entire view offended Rebecca Fortune. It was a dark and stormy night—how trite was that? Lightning speared the midnight sky, haloing a big, gaudy, ostentatious mansion that looked like a fake set in a grade B Hollywood movie. Worse yet, she was about to break into the mansion.

Rebecca wrote mysteries. She’d thrown her heroines into every dangerous situation her devious mind could come up with—and her imagination was considerable. But she’d throw her word processor in the trash before forcing a heroine into a stupid, clichéd plot setting like this.

Rain sluiced through her curly red hair, dribbled down her neck and splashed off her eyelashes. She was shivering all the way down to her squishy wet sneakers. March was usually chilly in Minnesota, but the whole day had been unseasonably warm, almost springlike. Before leaving home, she’d heard the storm forecast, but her raincoat was a neon yellow slicker—hardly suitable burglar attire—so she’d dressed for success in a black sweatshirt and black jeans. Both were clinging to her like soggy glue.

She must have been more miserable sometime. She just couldn’t remember when. Her extensive experience with crime—including a wide range of burglary techniques—had been acquired in her nice, safe, warm office, in front of a keyboard and all her research books. Reality was proving to be a teensy bit more difficult than theory.

She’d thought she’d planned this out so well.

The tall iron fence protecting the property was locked, but she’d just vaulted the fence. That was no sweat. Right after Monica Malone’s murder, police and investigators had swarmed around the place. Now, though, there was little chance of anyone discovering her. The house was as closed up and quiet as a tomb, totally deserted—no sign anyone had lived or been around in weeks.

She’d brought a backpack full of helpful tools. The mansion had five outside entrances. Rebecca had tried a skeleton key on all the doors—she’d bought the key from one of her writers’ catalogs—and that had been when things started going wrong. The key didn’t work on any of the locks. She’d also brought a crowbar, because every resourceful heroine she’d ever written had found some use for a crowbar. Not her. She’d circled the whole blasted house, checking every window on the first floor. None of them were boarded up, but they were all locked tight. All she’d managed to do with the crowbar so far was chip some paint.