Jim resisted the urge to shake the confusion from his head. Had hell frozen over?
Three heads jerked up at his abrupt entrance.
“Jim?” Hank said in surprise, the sudden shift of his body causing the ice cubes in his glass to clink together like marbles.
Jim didn’t bother with pleasantries. “What the hell have you done?”
Hank flinched as if he’d been shot. A stunned silence descended on the room.
“Your mother told you about Lana,” Hank finally said in a resigned voice.
“She did,” Jim confirmed coldly. “I shouldn’t be sur prised that you didn’t call me yourself. You’ve always let Mom clean up your messes.”
The barb got him another flinch, along with a surprising frown from Cole. “Cool it, Jimmy.” Cole set his beer bottle on the coffee table and slowly got to his feet, squaring the broad shoulders of his six-foot frame.
“You’re defending him?” Jim said in disbelief.
His brother sighed. “Trust me, we’ve all given him a lot of grief over the past couple of months. It’s nothing he hasn’t heard before.”
Jim shook his head, a wave of frustration swelling in his gut. “And he should keep hearing it,” he shot back. “Christ! What are you guys doing, sitting around sipping on beer and bourbon? Lana is out there somewhere! Alone. Scared. Why isn’t this place crawling with Feds?”
“A couple of agents are coming tomorrow morning,” Cole explained in a low voice. “They’re coordinating the exchange.”
Jim went momentarily speechless. “Exchange?” He hissed out a breath, turning to his father. “Mom was right. You’re planning on sacrificing yourself for Lana.”
His father stared at him with remorseful eyes. “Do I have any other choice?”
“Yes,” Jim snapped. “You stay out of it and let the Feds do their thing. Have you offered the kidnappers a ransom?”
“They don’t want one.” Gage spoke from his perch by the bookshelf.
“They want Dad,” Cole answered flatly.
“Why?” Jim ran a hand through his dark hair. “What the hell is going on here?”
The three men exchanged somewhat cryptic looks, and then Cole let out a heavy breath. “You might as well sit down, little brother. This will probably take a while.”
“I’m not sure I like being on the run,” Lana declared as she stepped out of yet another miniscule bathroom, Deacon’s T-shirt sagging down to her knees.
Deacon glanced up from the brochure he was reading and offered a wry look. “Not quite as exciting as the movies portray, huh?”
“You got that right.”
After three days of non-stop driving, and three nights in motels that only seemed to get more dilapidated, Lana longed for her brother’s house in Maple Cove, for the mouthwatering scent of Hannah’s cooking. Even more, she wanted to hear a familiar voice, but Deacon repeatedly warned her it could be dangerous if they contacted any member of her family. Fortunately, they didn’t have much farther to go. Tomorrow morning they’d make the nine-hour drive to Maple Cove, and by tomorrow night, she’d be with her family. Safe and sound.
And Deacon would be gone.
“Did you know there’s a Steamboat Warehouse near here?” Deacon asked, holding up the tourism pamphlet he’d taken from the motel lobby. “It was built in 1883.”
She bent over to towel-dry her wet hair, peeking out from under the towel to scowl at him. “Gee, that sounds so exciting. Please take me there, Deacon.”
He laughed.
Lana nearly dropped the towel. He’d actually laughed. Ever since the night they’d made love, she’d noticed him making a tiresome effort to remain aloof. He spoke in short sentences, avoided her eyes whenever he could, slept on the floor every night.
And although his detachment annoyed her, it had also given her time to think about the shocking realization she’d reached in the truck the other day. The whole L-word di lemma. She’d finally decided that she was being silly. Of course she wasn’t falling for Deacon. So what if the sex had been out of this world? So what if she melted just a little each time he smiled or laughed or showed a sliver of emotion?
That didn’t mean she was falling in love with him. It just meant she liked him. Which was totally natural. A woman ought to like the father of her baby, right?
She finished drying her hair, then headed into the bathroom to hang the towel on the rack. Just as she came out, Deacon was coming in. Their bodies collided, sending an instant jolt of heat through her. Her nipples tightened against the material of her shirt, a reaction that Deacon didn’t fail to notice.
“I…was going to hop in the shower,” he said roughly.
She swallowed. “Okay.”
Neither of them made a move to pull back from the chest-to-chest contact. Her breasts swelled, growing heavy with need at the feel of his defined pecs pressed against them.
“Uh…” Deacon trailed off.
Their eyes locked. Awareness sizzled between them like an electric current.