It would. And that suddenly terrified her. If this was his baby, there was no chance this man would just back away. “I can call the doctor and ask for the results.” Even though that was the last thing she wanted to do.
She really had to get out of there, and she reached in her purse for her phone.
Wyatt stopped her again. “Your test results were stolen.”
Lyla looked up at him, blinked. “Wh-what?”
“Stolen,” he repeated. “The doctor hasn’t told you yet because I’m not sure he knows. The results went missing from the lab, but there’s another sample of the amniotic fluid. The thief didn’t manage to get that, because it was stored at a different location in case the doctor wanted it retested.”
Oh, God. All of this had gone on, and she hadn’t even known about it.
“I’m having that second sample of amniotic fluid tested,” Wyatt explained. But he wasn’t so calm and cool right now. A muscle flickered in his jaw. “And I should have the results in a day or two.”
“
I
should be the one to get those results,” she challenged.
But that was as far as her challenge got, because his phone rang. Maybe because he thought she might bolt, Wyatt kept his eyes on her while he took the call.
“Declan,” he greeted, and even though she couldn’t hear what his brother was saying, it caused his forehead to bunch up. “I’m putting you on speaker so Lyla can hear this.”
Please, not another death threat or news of some other violation to her privacy that she was just being informed about.
A moment later, his brother’s voice began to pour through the room. “As I said, the lab lifted a print off the camera, and we got a match. Nicky Garnett. He’s got a record a mile long.”
Lyla shook her head. The name meant nothing to her. “You know him?”
“We know him,” Declan confirmed. “He works muscle for a rich rancher, Travis Weston. No record for him, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have one. The man’s dirty and with plenty of money to cover his dirty tracks.”
Another head shake. “What does this Travis Weston have to do with me?” she asked.
Declan didn’t jump to answer that time. “I’ll let Wyatt finish the explanation, and I’ll get started on bringing Travis in for a little chat.”
“Do that,” Wyatt agreed, and he ended the call and looked at her. “Travis and Jonah Webb were old friends.”
Oh, she didn’t like the direction this was going. She’d just been put in charge of the evidence gathered from Webb’s murder, and now his old friend had ties to a man who’d not only spied on her but had fired shots at Wyatt?
“Webb used to send some of the boys from Rocky Creek to work on Travis’s ranch,” Wyatt continued. “Including me. At best the arrangement was shady, probably illegal, and there were rumors that Travis used some of the boys to move illegal weapons in and out of Mexico.”
She pulled in her breath. “He used you for that?”
Wyatt shook his head. “Probably because Kirby was looking out for me. Kirby was a marshal at the time. A good one. And they wouldn’t have wanted him to have an insider like me in on their schemes.”
Lyla tried to make sense of all of this, but she couldn’t. “So, maybe Travis wants to make sure I help prosecute his friend’s killer? Maybe he doesn’t want me dead after all.”
Wyatt made a soft grunt. “Webb and Travis had a falling-out. No one’s sure about what exactly, but they were bitter enemies before Webb was killed.” He paused. “Travis is a suspect in his murder, and the Rangers have been questioning him along with keeping any evidence they might have against him close to the vest. I’m sure Travis would like nothing more than the head CSI to clear him of any possible charges.”
She swallowed hard. Lyla had thought it would help if she had a name to go with this mess, but from the sound of it, that wasn’t a name she wanted associated with her.
“Travis is a killer?” she risked asking.
“Oh, yeah. If he hasn’t killed already, it’s only because he hasn’t had to. He usually hires muscle like Nicky Garnett to kill for him.”
It felt as if a chunk of ice had settled in her stomach, and Lyla pressed her fingertips to her mouth to try to steady the trembling. “How do we get out of this?”
“For starters, we lie. And not some little white lies, either. Big ones. We turn this con right on them and eliminate their reason for wanting you involved in any of this. That’ll keep you and the baby safe.”
Maybe it was the dizziness, but Lyla wasn’t following him. “How do I do that?”
Wyatt stooped down, going onto one knee so they were literally eye to eye. “You’ll marry me—
today.
”
Chapter Five
Wyatt had expected Lyla to be shocked. And to argue, of course. But what he hadn’t expected was to see the color drain from her face.
Clamping her hand over her mouth, she motioned toward the side door. “Is that a bathroom?” she asked.
He nodded, got up and opened it for her before Lyla ran inside. And she did run, fast, kicking the door shut behind her just seconds before he heard her throw up.
Wyatt wasn’t sure if that was a major insult or if it was part of the pregnancy. Either way, it was a reaction he hadn’t counted on. He needed her tough, asking all the questions that needed to be asked so they could move on to the next step in what he hoped wasn’t a stupid plan.
Too bad it was the only plan he had.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Morning sickness.” And he heard the toilet flush before she turned on the water in the sink. She splashed water for what seemed an eternity before she finally came back out. She was drying her face with a hand towel.
“You’ve lost your mind,” she said, brushing past him and heading back for the sofa. She gulped down some of the bottled water.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Her left eyebrow came up. “You make it a habit of proposing to strangers?”
“Not generally. But I’ll make an exception in your case.”
A burst of air left her mouth. A laugh, but not from humor. She shook her head, pushed away the strands of hair that’d slipped onto her face. “Men like you don’t even ask out women like me. So, needless to say, your proposal is more than a shock.”
Wyatt frowned. “Men like
me
and women like
you?
”
She made a sound to indicate the answer was obvious. It wasn’t. Of course, maybe he’d missed something.
“Men like you,” she repeated, waving her hand over his face. Then his body. She stopped waving when she got to his zipper area, probably because now that she was sitting down, it was sort of in her face.
He stepped back.
“Hot guys who know they’re hot don’t ask out bookworm tomboys like me,” she clarified.
Wyatt was flattered. Then riled.
Then confused.
“Don’t you dare say you don’t know you’re hot,” she added.
He had to shrug. Yeah, women seemed to find him attractive. The wrong women anyway. The only one he’d had any luck with was Ann, and the luck hadn’t lasted long. They’d had only three years of marriage before she’d passed away.
Lyla waved her hand over her own face. “And I know I’m the opposite of hot.”
“Oh, you’re hot, all right.”
And he so wished he hadn’t blurted that out.
He wasn’t a blurter. Or someone who used the word
hot
to describe a woman. He knew how to keep feelings under wraps, and he darn sure shouldn’t be saying something like that to Lyla. Especially since it was the truth. They had enough to work through without adding “hot” labels to each other.
Oh, man.
She glanced at his zipper again. And that stupid, brainless part of him decided it was time to give him a reminder that’d it had been way too long since he’d had a woman in his bed.
Well, he wasn’t getting this woman there.
Except the plan was for him to do just that. He wouldn’t be in his bed with her, of course. And that was no clearer than it was right now with them staring at each other and with the heat rising in the otherwise cool room.
“I think it’s time for a change of subject,” Lyla said, holding the damp towel against her throat.
Wyatt couldn’t agree more, and it wasn’t as if they didn’t have a whole boatload they had to discuss.
“I’ve done some damage control,” Wyatt started. “There are no official records around to prove you received a donor embryo.”
Her eyes narrowed a bit. “Do I want to know how you discovered that?”
“No.” And he waited to see if she’d challenge it. She didn’t, so he continued. “Of course, whoever’s behind this knows, because that’s the person who likely set it all up. Unless you did it.”
She huffed. “Why would I do that? I don’t even know you, and I don’t have a personal stake in this investigation. Well, I didn’t until the shooting this morning.”
Oh, yeah. It was personal now. “The only reason I could come up with was because you might be working with the person who wants the evidence altered.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t break the law.”
Admirable, but as Kirby always said—never mistake the law for justice. Over the past couple of days, Wyatt had done a lot of law
bending,
but he’d done it to make sure justice was served.
“So you’re not in on the plan,” Wyatt concluded, taking her glare as proof of her innocence. Besides, she didn’t feel guilty, and while a gut feeling didn’t sound good in a report, Wyatt always trusted his gut. “It means soon someone will contact you about what you’re supposed to do.”
“And according to you, they’ll kill me if I don’t cooperate. Then they’ll kill me once they’re finished with me.”
Wyatt didn’t have any doubts about that. “It’s why we need a fake relationship. And a legal marriage. I already have the license.” Best not to tell her how he’d come by that, but it’d required some string pulling, too.
“A license already?” she challenged. “But why? You thought I was guilty before you showed up at my place. Heck, you still don’t trust me.”
“I can’t let my trust issues keep you in the path of a killer. And you’re right—when I came to your place, I didn’t know if this was your plan or not. I don’t think it is,” he quickly added when her eyes narrowed, this time to slits.
“How generous of you. Yet the point is, you didn’t trust me, but you got the license.”
“Just in case. I was trying to plan for any contingency.” Because the stakes here were sky-high. “And I have a justice of the peace waiting for my call. As soon as you say yes, he’ll be out here to marry us. Once we have this dirtbag behind bars, then we can get a quick annulment.”
She looked at him as if he’d grown an extra nose. “How will saying
I do
possibly stop this?”
“Being married to me will exclude you from taking over the evidence in the investigation.”
Ah. She got it. The light went through her eyes. Followed by some expected darkness. “Because you’re a suspect in Webb’s murder.”
“My whole family, including a couple of sisters-in-law, are all suspects. No way would the governor allow you to stay on the case if you’re my wife. And if we can convince everyone that we made that baby the old-fashioned way.”
She glanced at his zipper again. “No one will believe we’re lovers.”
He had to disagree. “They will if we’re married. Maybe not so much if we just lie and say we’re together. That’d be a little harder to pull off, but marriage should convince even the person behind this.”
“How?” she repeated.
“By planting so-called proof of our secret affair. Hotel receipts, doctored photos. Remember that trip you took to Dallas last month?”
She nodded. Then frowned. Probably because he’d invaded her privacy again. Of course, he’d invaded it so many other times that she should be getting used to it by now.
“Well, I can come up with a witness who’ll verify we were in Dallas together.” She opened her mouth to object, but Wyatt moved on to the next point. “You didn’t tell anyone at work about the donor embryo.”
“No.” She pulled in a long breath. “I’d planned to tell them once I started showing.”
“Then lucky for us you’re not showing. Right now, the only people who know are us, your doctor—and he’s agreed to keep it quiet—and the person who orchestrated all of this.”
She stayed quiet a moment. “And for him or her to dispute what we’re saying, they’ll have to come out in the open.”
Bingo.
Well, the person could just try to kill them because he or she was now riled that their plan hadn’t worked, but Wyatt kept that to himself. Lyla had enough to deal with already. And besides, a marriage would give him a good reason to keep her right by his side so he could protect her.
The problem would be first and foremost the danger. It might not immediately go away. The next problem was this blasted heat. Lyla darn sure didn’t look like a tomboy bookworm, and an unwanted attraction created a distraction that could get them killed.
“If this person only wanted my cooperation with the evidence in the investigation, then why try to kill me?” she asked.
“I don’t think it was a planned attempt to kill you. The guy was probably supposed to keep an eye on you, to make sure you didn’t try to talk to me or any of the other suspects who could be burned by falsifying evidence. Then, when I showed up, he panicked and started firing.”
Lyla stared at him. “What stops them from
panicking
again?”
“Me.” Yeah, it sounded cocky, but he would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
She groaned, wiped her face again. “You can’t possibly want to go through with this marriage.”
“I don’t. But it’ll cover several hot spots. Other than saving you and the baby, you can’t be compelled to testify against me.”
That got her attention. “Testify against you? For what?”
“For all the corners I cut while trying to figure out what’s going on. Corners I’m cutting now to protect you.”
With that tossed out there, Wyatt waited for the rest of her argument. And there would be more. From everything he’d learned about her, Lyla was a cautious woman, and she wouldn’t just jump into this.
And that meant he had to push.
“You’re doing this for the baby,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
“The baby’s a big reason. I want him or her safe. For that to happen, I have to keep you safe, too.”
Ah, her eyes narrowed again. “Even if I have no intentions of sharing this baby with you.”
“Even then.” Though he’d have something to say about that sharing if the amnio results proved he was indeed the father. If he was, he’d challenge her for full custody.
And he’d win.
No way would he let someone else raise his and Ann’s child. But that wasn’t the reason he wanted this marriage. He had to put an end to the danger.
“There isn’t much time,” he pressed. “The sooner we get out the word that we’re married, the sooner you’ll be pulled from the case and the sooner this bozo will back off.”
She didn’t jump to agree. In fact, she didn’t jump to do anything, but he could see reality creeping into her eyes.
“Is there another way?” she asked.
“I haven’t been able to come up with one.” And he’d tried hard. Despite his player reputation, he didn’t take marriage vows lightly.
“We could pretend to get married,” Lyla suggested.
“I considered it, but it doesn’t take care of your testimony against me. Besides, if the governor finds out it’s fake, you could be charged with obstruction of justice.”
She groaned, but he talked right over the sound. “There’s also the concern that the person behind this could use a fake marriage to manipulate you.”
And that wasn’t exactly a long shot.
After all, the person had manipulated this pregnancy and had spent some big bucks to put all of this in place with Lyla’s boss’s new job, the surveillance and the gunmen. The only way to neutralize all of that was to take Lyla completely off the playing field. The culprit had to believe not only that she was involved with Wyatt, but that she was committed to him.
“You have to think of the baby,” he reminded her.
“I know!” she practically shouted. That seemed to sap the rest of her energy, and she looked up at him.
On the verge of saying yes. Wyatt was sure of it.
But his phone buzzed. Wyatt looked at the screen to see if he could let it go to voice mail, but the name that popped up had him doing a double take.
“Billy Webb,” he mumbled.
Lyla looked as confused as he was by this call. “Connected to Jonah Webb?”
“His son. And another suspect.” Well, in some people’s eyes. Billy’s dad had been an abusive jerk when he’d been the headmaster at the Rocky Creek Children’s Facility. Webb had beaten Billy enough times that if he’d retaliated against his father, Wyatt wouldn’t have exactly called it murder.
More like doing the world a favor.
Still, they were back to that justice-and-the-law conflict, and in the eyes of the law, Billy was a suspect. One who happened to be calling Wyatt.
“Marshal McCabe,” he answered. Best to keep this professional. And quick. He still had some convincing to do in the marriage department.
“I tried Dallas first, but he was out of cell phone range, so I decided to call you. I’m out at the Rocky Creek facility going through some of my mother’s things.”
Because his mother lived in the cottage on the facility grounds. Well, she had before she’d gone into a coma after being shot.
Wyatt froze.
“Did your mother come out of the coma?” he asked. That was the only reason he could think of that Billy would be calling him.
“No, but she’s improving. She’s even opened her eyes a couple of times and said something to me.”
“What’d she say?” Wyatt demanded.
“Just gibberish. Something about a tape, but I don’t remember her mentioning anything about a tape before she went into a coma.”
“Could she have recorded something? Like maybe a conversation?”
“Maybe. But if she did, the tape’s not at her cottage. I looked right after she mentioned it but didn’t find anything. I finally gave up the search and figured I could ask her once she wakes up for good. The doctors don’t think it’ll be long before that happens.”
Wyatt didn’t know whether to be happy about that or not. Sarah could clear him and everyone in his family.
Or she could name one of them as her accomplice.
Even worse, it was possible she had a taped conversation to prove it. Of course, the woman might be talking out of her head. After all, her injuries had put her in a coma. Injuries she’d gotten while trying to cover up the fact she’d murdered her husband.
“I didn’t call about my mother,” Billy went on. “I thought you should get out here and see what’s going on. There’s a new team of CSIs out here, and one of them found something.”
Though he wasn’t sure he wanted Lyla to hear this, she apparently did. She got up and came closer. Very close. And that was when Wyatt hit the speaker button.