The Cradle Mission Read online

  “APD found Eric’s fingerprints on the door inside Banks’s apartment.”

  “He didn’t do it,” Cain insisted. “My brother might have been a vigilante, and he may have crossed the line a few times, but he wasn’t a murderer.”

  “Listen, Cain, it could have been self-defense.”

  “No.” Cain dropped his head into his hands. “Has the murder weapon been recovered?”

  “No. Coroner said the stab wounds look like they’re from a kitchen knife. Probably took it with him and threw it out.”

  “Dammit, Wakefield, it wasn’t Eric.”

  “I’m just keeping you updated.”

  Cain clenched his hands into fists. “Thanks. Have Wade and Pirkle dug anything up on the people after Palmer?“Feds aren’t offering up any information.”

  That didn’t surprise him. They certainly wouldn’t care about Eric’s death, especially if they thought he’d interfered with their case.

  “Keep me posted.” His partner agreed and Cain hung up, automatically digging Eric’s gold cross from his pocket. Clutching the cross in his fingers, he removed the photo of him and Eric from his wallet. Unfortunately he and Eric had grown up to see more bad than good, Eric with his work and Cain with the police force.

  Was Alanna part of that good?

  ALANNA STOOD in the middle of the doorway, her heart breaking at the pain in Cain’s face. She ached to go to him and offer him comfort, but she had no right.

  Not if she had caused his brother’s death.

  But she couldn’t stand still and do nothing.

  She moved toward him slowly, the object he held in his hand glittering in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the room. He was also looking at a photograph. Her footsteps clicked in the silence and he turned to look at her, the emotions in his dark eyes so intense her breath caught.

  Then she glimpsed the photograph and recognized a younger Cain and another man who resembled him. “Is that your brother?”

  He nodded and pushed the picture toward her. “A couple of years ago.”

  She took the picture and studied the men, her pulse throbbing. Eric stood about an inch shorter than Cain, his hair a fraction of a shade lighter, and he had the same deep sadness in his eyes. But he also had an angry glint to his jaw that spelled attitude and defiance.

  “Were you close?”

  “Sort of.” His fingers tightened around the object in his hand, which she recognized as a gold cross.

  “Did the cross belong to Eric?”

  He nodded. “My partner found it beside the car after the fire. My mother gave it to Eric on his thirteenth birthday. He never took it off.”

  “I’m so sorry, Cain. How’s your mother taking the news about Eric?”

  A hardness settled onto his face, masking his emotions. “My mother’s dead. She killed herself. Old man left after that. Guess he figured he’d lost his punching bag.”

  Alanna winced at the bitterness in his voice.

  “What about you, Alanna?” Their fingers brushed as she handed him back the photograph, a spark of electricity rippling between them. She wanted to reach out and comfort him, take away that bitterness. His husky voice washed over her. “Don’t you have family out there somewhere wondering where you are?”

  “I guess we’re both pretty much alone.” She dropped her hand, desperately wishing to hide the fact that he affected her. “My parents died in a car crash when I was twelve. My grandmother raised me.”

  “Is she gone, too

  “She has Alzheimer’s. She’s in a nursing home now.” His look of sympathy unnerved her. “Sometimes she recognizes me, some days not.”

  “That’s tough.”

  Alanna shrugged. At first, she’d been devastated but she’d soon learned to live alone. Then she’d met and married Donald and thought her life was going to be a fairy tale. Instead it had been a nightmare.

  Cain must have sensed her agony because he brought a hand up and gently brushed a water droplet from her cheek. She’d towel-dried her short hair; it had been so long since she’d worried about her looks that she hadn’t given it a second thought.

  Now she wondered what Cain thought. Did he find her unattractive? Did he see her inability to have a child as a defect like her ex-husband had?

  “In some ways I guess we are alike,” he said in a quiet voice. He brushed his knuckles gently across her bruised cheek. “Who did this to you?”

  “The guards who held me captive after they found me snooping around,” she said in a shaky voice. “One of them seemed to take pleasure in his job.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw and she remembered his declaration about his father.

  “You said they tried to kill you?”

  “Yes.” She could feel his breath on her face. “The guards locked me in a lab storage room. Paul rescued me just before the building blew up.”

  “There was a bomb?”

  “I guess so, the building exploded.”

  “A bomb blew up Eric’s car, too.”

  Alanna froze. She knew exactly what Cain was thinking. “I’m s-so sorry, Cain. I never meant to get anyone else hurt or involved.”

  ALANNA’S GUILT-STRICKEN expression forced Cain’s anger at bay. If she was telling the truth, then she wasn’t at fault, but the bastards who had started this whole sordid chain of events had to be punished.

  And if Eric had died because of his commitment to help Alanna and baby Simon, he owed it to his brother to protect them.

  Only he was starting to think of Alanna as more than a job.

  Her eyes seemed huge in her pale face, her small pink lips quivering with sadness. Yet, when he’d touched her cheek, he’d felt a shiver of awareness course through her that affected him.

  Unable to stop himself, he tilted her chin up with his hand, lowered his mouth and brushed his lips across hers. He only wanted to offer her comfort.

  Or maybe he wanted it for himself….

  “YOU FOUND CALDWELL?”

  He stretched out his legs, twisting a toothpick in his mouth as his partner tossed his fishing over the side. “I’m right outside his cabin, in a fishing boat on the lake.”

  “I didn’t send you on a damn vacation.”

  “It’s the best place to watch the cabin. You don’t want us to get spotted stalking a cop, do you?”

  “No.” His boss grunted, the hiss of his breath cutting over the telephone line. “Just hurry up and bring the baby back to me. The more time she has, the more likely she’ll talk to someone. In fact, I’m putting a man at the nursing home where the grandmother is just in case she shows up there.”

  He bristled. His boss didn’t trust him to do the job.

  They wouldn’t need anyone at the nursing home; he’d make sure of that. “We’ll make our move tonight.” He glanced at the dark, murky water.

  It was the perfect burial spot for the cop and the woman.

  Chapter Ten

  Alanna sank into Cain’s arms, the touch of his mouth on hers irresistible. It had been so long since anyone had offered her comfort, much less tenderness, that tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Other emotions welled inside her, too.

  Cain pulled her against the hard wall of his body, his hands slipping into her hair. He nibbled at her lips, then slid his tongue inside her mouth. She moaned softly and clung to the corded muscles in his arms, her heart fluttering with feelings left dormant for so long she’d forgotten she even possessed them.

  Surrendering to the need building within her, she ran her hand down his back. The low sound that rumbled from his throat sent warmth pooling inside her. Deepening the kiss, he trailed his fingers over her shoulders, beside her breasts, then down her waist, where he let them linger momentarily before he cupped her buttocks and rocked her closer to him. Desire surged through her, her nipples hardening to peaks as his chest crushed her sensitive breasts. His sex hardened and pulsed against her stomach, the realization that his hunger for her was real igniting her senses to a fever pitch.
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br />   Simon’s cry tore through the passion engulfing Alanna, the reality of their situation splintering the hunger. She pulled away at the same time he did, his face a mask of ironclad control, although the rapid rise and fall of his chest belied his calm.

  He had wanted her physically.

  But she could read the doubts and uncertainty in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry. That was a mistake.” He shoved a hand through his hair, backing away, his gaze aimed toward the bedroom where Simon’s cry escalated. Alanna saw the picture of his brother on the table as she scrambled away, and remembered their earlier conversation.

  They both thought his brother might have been killed because of her and Simon. Even if Cain didn’t blame her for Eric’s death, he wanted to catch the killer. Just how far would he go?

  Would he seduce her to get her to confide in him? Would he use her and Simon to catch his brother’s killer?

  THE SHARP END of Eric’s cross cut into Cain’s fingers, reminding him of all the reasons he shouldn’t get involved with Alanna.

  Still his body pulsed with need, the hunger so strong he’d almost reached out and pulled her back into his arms instead of letting her go.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  He never allowed his emotions to interfere with his job. No shades of gray for him, only black-and-white. But black-and-white urged him to call the feds and turn Alanna and the baby over to them.

  And after that kiss, he had no intention of doing that.

  But he would dig deeper and find the truth.

  Alanna returned seconds later with Simon snuggled to her, the little boy’s face aglow with adoration as she cooed baby talk to him. The tension in Cain’s body slowly dissipated at the sight of her smile. The rarity transformed her into an elegant beauty.

  It was enough to make a man forget his mission.

  But not the fact that he’d just lost his brother.

  Or maybe his grief had thrust him into a pit of despair, fueling his hunger more. He needed comfort to ease the hollow pain inside him and she just happened to be available.

  He knew the dangers in letting a pair of pretty blue eyes lead him astray. But still he wanted her.

  Alanna walked Simon to the window and propped him in her arms so he could see outside into the darkness. “It’s nighttime now, Simon,” she whispered. “See that yellow sliver in the sky. That’s the moon.”

  Cain grinned as memories of his mother surfaced, the old rhyme about seeing the moon playing over in his head. She used to tuck him and Eric in bed and tickle them, then sing them to sleep.

  Those sweet, happy memories had gotten lost in the grief he’d experienced after her suicide.

  He walked to the window and stood beside Alanna, taking in the bond between her and Simon. Was she a desperate woman who’d kidnapped him or a courageous one who’d saved him from spending his life under scientific scrutiny?

  Either way, he had to know. And he had to figure out if someone was still after her and Simon. If so, they wouldn’t be safe until things were resolved.

  “Did Polenta ever mention Denise Harley’s research?”

  Alanna frowned and rocked Simon back and forth. “No. I read something about it, though. Apparently she’d been experimenting with gene therapy to alter intelligence.”

  “Trying to create the super human, huh?”

  “I don’t think so. I got the impression from some of the other doctors at the center that she intended to use it to help prevent mental defects in infants at risk.”

  “But someone else had other ideas?”

  Alanna nodded. “I heard that was the reason she destroyed her files.”

  “hat if the files weren’t destroyed? What if someone resurrected her work and took it a step further?”

  Alanna’s gaze swung to his. “You mean with Simon?”

  “I’m just speculating.” Cain shrugged. “But it’s worth checking out.”

  She nodded, the faint despair in her eyes replaced with wariness. And the memory of that kiss.

  He swallowed and ignored the simmering attraction, afraid he’d get burned if he touched her again. Afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop until he made love to her. “Did Polenta tell you Simon’s mother’s name?”

  She shook her head. “I was trying to access his birth records when the guards caught me.”

  “Did the doctors ever mention that Simon had special needs?”

  “No. But just before I left with Simon, Polenta warned me not to go to the press. He said they’d ruin Simon’s life. And when I was tied up, I heard another man mention that the Russians wanted their research.”

  Cain stewed over the information. “And you don’t know if Simon’s mother is dead or alive.”

  “No.”

  “If the doctors wanted to keep Simon to themselves, then they wouldn’t want the mother around.”

  “What?”

  “Say that Simon is a product of some kind of research. Maybe the mother was an innocent chosen to carry the fetus and had no idea they were conducting an experiment on her baby, or she could have been a paid surrogate.”

  Alanna nodded.

  “Then Simon is born and the scientists want him kept near the lab so they can monitor him. There are several possibilities. One, if she was a paid surrogate, she might have taken the money and run. Two, she could have died accidentally in childbirth. Or…”

  “Or what?”

  “Or the scientists could have killed the mother to protect the project.”

  Alanna’s legs wavered and Cain steadied her.

  “It’s also possible that the mother might have abandoned Simon, or they could have lied to her and told her the baby had died. Then she might not know Simon is even alive.”

  ALANNA COULDN’T BELIEVE what Cain was suggesting. Yet, she knew someone from the center had tried to kill her, so the idea that they might kill Simon’s mother and cover it up, or lie to her about his birth wasn’t so farfetched.

  “Alanna, I’m sorry.” Cain’s low voice sounded soothing, but nothing could alleviate the fear pounding in her head. “I know you don’t want to think about the possibility and it may not be true—”

  Alanna met his worried gaze directly. “If Simon’s mother didn’t abandon him, if she finds out he’s alive, she might want to claim him.”

  “There are things we can do to find out.” He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’ll check into records. See what I can dig up.”

  Alanna nodded, too distraught to reply. Simon tugged at her shirt and she glanced down into his trusting face. She loved him as if he was her own. But did he have a mother out there somewhere looking for him? A mother that had not willingly abandoned him and never intended to let him go?

  She couldn’t shake her anxiety as she went through the motions of feeding Simon and forcing down a few bites of the dinner Cain had prepared. Finally she gave up and laid down her fork.

  “You didn’t eat much.”

  Alanna shrugged.

  “I know I’m no cook, but—”

  “It’s not the food, Cain.” The prepackaged spaghetti sauce had been fine.

  His silent perusal made her squirm. He understood. Maybe too much.

  Her earlier plan to call the monasteries and find someone to help her escape came rushing back. But if Simon did have a mother somewhere who wanted him, could Alanna live with herself if she went into hiding?

  There’s no proof his mother is alive or that she didn’t abandon him.

  “Mama. Mama.” Simon babbled from the quilt on the floor and Cain surprised her by standing. “I’ll get him. You look exhausted.”

  Alanna ran a finger down the glass of tea, wiping away the condensation. Cain knelt and scooped Simon up, his big body even more massive with the baby cradled in his arms. Simon quieted instantly, his innocent gaze surveying Cain’s features as if deciding whether or not to trust him.

  Alanna still hadn’t decided herself.

  She certainly didn’t trust her
self with him.

  Suddenly nervous, she began to clear the dishes.

  “You don’t have to do that. I can get it later.”

  “It’s all right.” She forced a smile she didn’t feel and tried not to watch Cain cradle Simon in his arms. The entire scene felt too domestic, too much like the fairy-tale life she’d dreamed about. Sharing a house, dinner, a baby. And later, a bed…

  But their situation was only temporary and she had to remember that. She would not share her bed with Cain.

  In fact, she’d never have a permanent relationship with Cain. They would both always know that her appearance in his life had meant his brother’s death.

  “Hey, buddy,” Cain said.

  Cain carried Simon to the door, then stepped outside. “Let’s see if we hear the frogs.”

  Alanna smiled, although an emptiness swelled inside her when they disappeared out the door. She watched him with Simon as she loaded the dishes into the dishwasher and scrubbed the spaghetti pot. When she’d finally finished, she headed outside to join them.

  Simon’s gur and Cain’s gruff voice echoed through the wind as Cain pointed out the night sounds and the constellations in the sky. Alanna turned her head upward and searched for the brightest star she could find. But even as she closed her eyes and made a wish, she doubted it would come true.

  She had learned long ago that it was always calmest before the storm. And with the mystery surrounding Simon and all the questions about his birth and his mother, a major one was brewing on the horizon.

  Finally they walked side by side on the path back to the house. Shadows flickered from the leaves above, the moon peeking through the bare limbs. Alanna reached for Simon. “I should give him a bath before his next bottle. Then he’ll probably go down for the night.”

  Cain nodded. Their fingers brushed as he placed Simon into her arms and heat spiraled through her. Shaken already by the earlier kiss, she ignored the sensations pulling at her and hurried inside.

  An hour later, she tucked Simon into bed and curled up beside him. But even though the baby slept peacefully beside her, sleep eluded her, and she stared into the darkness, feeling cold and alone.