Out of Uniform (Wingmen Warriors 14)

Even the thick swaddling of a bedspread couldn’t ease the cold that thought brought.

She bit her lip to keep from asking questions. If she interrupted him, the information would only come slower from whoever had called.

Jacob extended the phone toward her. “It’s Spike.”

“The border patrol? He found something?” She could barely allow herself to hope everything could be resolved this quickly.

He shook his head. “Your home phone. Someone called and left a message, someone claiming to be Evan.”

She forgot to breathe. Something she didn’t realize until the room grew dim and Jacob grasped her arm. She gasped in air.

“Spike wants to play the tape over the phone for you to identify the voice.”

Dee grabbed for the receiver and cradled it to her ear, a lifeline to her son. Please, please, please. “Agent Keagan? This is Dee Lambert. I’m ready whenever you are.”

She kept her eyes focused on Jacob’s face, needing the contact. The strength. Oh God, she couldn’t face another letdown if this wasn’t her baby boy.

“Yes, ma’am, hold on just a second while I patch through the recording.”

A crackle sounded then cleared. “Mommy?”

The one word squeezed the air from her lungs. She gripped the phone as if she could somehow strengthen the connection.

“Mommy? I don’t feel so good. Please come and get me….”

A dial tone echoed as the call faded away. A click sounded, followed by Keagan coming back on the line to ask her a question she could barely hear over the roaring in her head.

Now she couldn’t stop breathing, gasping, shaking. She forced her lips to move. “It’s him. It’s Evan.”

Chapter 16

H e stared out his bedroom window at his parents’ silver Suburban and wished like hell he could just drive away from here.

Chase punched his pillow and imagined he could sock Jacob Stone for putting him in this crappy situation. He flung the goose down lump away, envisioning it was Emily, getting the hell out of his life once and for all. No more trying to trap him with her clingy demands to spend time with her. He liked the kid, sure, but he just wasn’t ready to be a dad yet. He wanted to play the field awhile longer. He was only just turning eighteen tomorrow, for God’s sake. There were so many women out there.>Dee shoved away from the wall, pacing restlessly, straightening a basket with coffee essentials, nudging the duffel upright with her toe, straightening the bedspread. “I used to mourn having lost out on the childbirth experience. Now I thank God for that scar.” She turned to Jacob. “It made me work harder at regaining my memory. Who knows how long I would have floated otherwise?”

“You’re a stubborn lady.” He admired the fortitude she had to possess in order to trudge through biting Rockfish winds to get back to the hotel after her ex had left her for dead on a deserted road. “I think you’d have punched through the fog before long.”

Dee paused from evening out the mini-blinds to smile. “Thank you again for all you’ve done.”

He didn’t want her gratitude. What did he want? She was important to him. A couple of weeks ago he would have said too important and run like hell. “No thanks needed. And, Dee? We’re going to find your son.”

“You say that with such confidence. I envy your self-assurance.” She crossed to the sofa and dropped to sit beside him. “I’ve made so many mistakes, Jacob—big screw-ups. I can’t help but wonder if this is my punishment, that I’ve somehow brought this on myself and Evan’s the one who will pay.”

“We all make mistakes.” He’d made his own fair share in not connecting with his sister. Hell, look at how he’d never managed a serious relationship in thirty-two years. “Worry about your child, cry for him, shout out your frustration. That’s normal. But put the blame where it belongs. On Blane.”

She shook her head in mute denial.

Jacob silently damned Blane Lambert to hell for making Dee so wary. Evan and Dee, and even Jacob, were all having to pay. “Mistakes are tough to accept, especially when the stakes are so high. I’m not giving up until I find him. You have to trust me to do this with you.”

A spark fired in her eyes. “That’s all great—” she held up a firm finger “—as long as I get to be an equal partner in reclaiming my life and my son. While I’m grateful for your help, I can’t sit back and count on you to do everything for me. I need to take charge, to have some control.”

She flattened her hand against his chest. Memories of making love to her rolled through his mind like a video on fast-forward. He wanted her again, but needed to think about her. She was going through hell right now, had to be suffering from huge emotional fallout after all they’d learned at the police station and from Spike.

Jacob stared at her hand on his chest. She might need him to lay off, but then again, she might need the comfort after hearing about the Suburban in the water, the body near it.

He didn’t even want to think about the implications himself, so he couldn’t imagine how torn up she had to be. The air hung heavy between them as he looked back down at her. “Do you want me to sleep on the sofa?”

A smile, her first today and not much of a smile at that, but a definite tilt to her lips tipped into her cheeks as she swayed toward him. Then he saw the heat, the desire, the need to escape firing into her eyes.