Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Dana Mentink (novels to improve english txt) 📗

She went stock-still. “You’re not staying.”

“Not permanently, but I’m here until you’re safe. I told you and I wasn’t kidding.”

She glared. “I don’t want you shadowing me like some sort of bodyguard.”

His lips quirked with the hint of a smile. “I’ll be subtle…like a bull in a china shop.”

It was their joke from years before when he had dropped an entire tray of dishware in the middle of a dinner service and broken every single piece. Beckett had always said he was not built for interior spaces. He proved it by breaking things with regularity until she’d put her collection of porcelain animals up on a high shelf. She would not allow herself to be caught up in nostalgia.

“I don’t want you here, but what I want isn’t going to change your mind, is it?”

She saw him struggling to compose an answer.

“Nope,” he finally said. “Sorry.”

She heaved a sigh that felt like it came all the way from her toes. “All right, but remember, Beckett, this is temporary. We are getting a divorce. When Kenny is captured, one of us is leaving this hotel.”

“It’s going to be deeded to you, just like I said, Laney.”

“You don’t have to do that. You’re out of jail now. You can run it, and I’ll go.”

“It’s yours and…” He took a breath. “Yours and the baby’s.”

The way he said it made her eyes pool, but she would not let them spill. Silently, she nodded.

“Is it…? I mean…do you know if it’s a girl or boy?”

Pain circled through her in burning waves. Somehow, she got the words out. “I don’t know. Aunt Kitty thinks it’s a girl.”

For a moment, his smile stripped the weariness from his face, and the wonder of their child danced between them. “A girl.” His gaze roamed her face hungrily. “She’ll be every bit as amazing as her mother.”

His comment struck her as almost cruel. Amazing? The woman he’d decided to divorce? Before she could reply, Beckett was striding away, shoulders hunched, a long, tall silhouette against the setting sun.

CHAPTER FIVE

Beckett didn’t return to the tent. After he retrieved Laney’s phone from between some rocks near the spring, he settled in at the battered table in the dining room where he had a clear view of the front parking lot. Rita Brown would return eventually. She’d have to enter through the front or take the long route around to her room, but either way, he’d spot her.

He shifted to ease the ache in his battered ribs. The dining room was finally starting to cool as the heat of the day dissipated. His view out the front window pained him. Though the wide vista of multihued rock was gorgeous, it reminded him of what he’d held most dear and lost. A swirl of tiny shadows danced along the horizon, bats on their evening forage. The sun finally surrendered and sank fully behind the distant cliffs.

Jude had settled himself in the kitchen to return phone calls. Beckett made use of the time to do some investigation on his own, texting his cousin Willow to check if Rita had been on her starlight tour. Jude would not approve of him making inquiries, but Beckett was past caring.

I’m out with Tony, she texted back. No tour tonight. Too cloudy.

Tony Ortega was the navy pilot Willow had been dating for almost a year. As far as Beckett could tell, the single father was good for his gregarious cousin, who had been hurt too many times in the love department. So…there had been no starlight tour for Rita. Willow was the only one offering organized photography excursions in and around Death Valley, as far as he knew. So where had Rita been? Too cloudy for good photo ops. Nightlife was next to nil in Furnace Falls. Neighboring Beatty, with a population just over one thousand, offered a few restaurants, a historical museum and a handful of small shops, so it was possible she’d taken a quick trip there, but most everything would have been closed hours earlier. The roads were long and isolated, and it would be easy for an out-of-towner to become disoriented. Not smart to go out exploring alone.

Beckett sat quietly, arms folded, the picture of patience. He imagined how his father would laugh looking at him now. As a teen, Beckett had resented working long hours at the hotel. Like most of his peers, he’d wanted to be out riding horses, practicing football, basketball and playing arcade games. Beckett had fancied himself a skilled athlete with a possible professional career. Instead, he’d been required to change linens, take out trash and carry luggage, tasks he’d felt were beneath him. What a fool he’d been.

It pained him to think of his teenage personality, restless and selfish. Life had steamed the impatience out of him. A day spent emptying trash cans and changing bed linens now seemed like what his father used to tell him was God’s work. After his train wreck of a life, he wasn’t sure anything he did would be valued by God. God watched over other people, not Beckett.

Waiting did not bother him at all now, not if it meant he could poke the bushes to shed some light on who’d thrown a rock at Laney. In order to do that, he could be as patient as a stone statue and just as still.

Clouds hemmed in the moonlight so it only shone in patches over the dry ground. In the past they’d keep the front windows open to allow the precious fall cool to seep in, but he’d closed and locked them, the entrance doors, as well. He would take no chances with Laney and the baby’s safety. A baby… The realization hit him afresh that there was a little life wrapped snugly inside his wife. Almost your ex-wife… He swallowed, his throat suddenly dust dry.

The room was stuffy, but still he sat.

When Rita finally let herself into the lodge at a few minutes to nine, he was ready. She