Clandestine Baby by Nicole Helm

Author:Nicole Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-05-17T18:48:35+00:00

* * *

NORAH STARED. It was the man from the pictures, though he looked older than he had in any of the photos she’d studied, looking for resemblances, memories, feelings.

He stared at her like she was a ghost. She supposed she was staring back the same way. And she was pointing a gun at him. She lowered it immediately.

Slowly, and with a very unreadable expression on his face, Cal dropped her father’s hands. Her father got to his feet carefully, like his body hurt. He took a halting step toward her, then as if he thought better of it, looked over his shoulder at the man who’d restrained him.

The color seemed to leech out of his face. “Cal.” His head whipped back to her, then to Cal again. “You...”

Cal didn’t make it, Norah. I’m so sorry.

But...

It was a freak accident. No fault of his own, of course. But they’re all gone. A shame. A loss for all of us.

He’d told her that. She could remember it now. Something about his voice, that look in his eyes. It brought back the scene in her mind. Her father, holding her hands, looking her right in the eye.

Lying.

“What’s going on here?” Cal said, in an authoritative tone that brooked no argument.

But it clearly ruffled her father’s superior military officer feathers, because some of his color returned and he straightened, smoothing out the sweater he was wearing. “I don’t answer to you, Young.” He turned his eyes to Norah. “Where’s...”

“Where’s who?” Cal returned, crossing his arms over his chest, a carefully raised eyebrow.

He was going to ask about Evelyn, but he didn’t. Her father—her father—said nothing, wouldn’t look Cal or Norah in the eye.

“I need some ice,” he muttered, moving his jaw tenderly and then striding down the hallway. He flipped on lights as he went. Cal frowned after him, but didn’t follow until Norah came to stand next to him.

“Any ideas?” he muttered.

Norah shook her head. She was still unsteady from the memory of her father telling her Cal was dead. Or was it a dream? Old or new. Maybe she’d made it up in the aftermath of everything that had happened as some sort of answer.

But it seemed so clear. So real. She gripped Cal’s hand, needing something to hold on to. Some steady force. “Cal...”

“Let’s see what he has to say before we say anything he might overhear,” he said quietly. He took her gun, and shoved it into the holster under his shirt. He kept his in his hand. Then he moved forward, pulling her along.

In the kitchen, her father stood by the freezer holding a bag of frozen vegetables to his face. When Cal and Norah entered, his eyes dropped to their hands.

He didn’t sneer—in fact, nothing on his face moved at all—but there was still something about the moment that felt like a sneer. Like she should drop Cal’s hand and step away.

But why on earth would she do that? When Cal was the one who’d found her and saved her, and she’d reported her father missing but he was here.

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