Anger.
There was plenty of it, too, along with the shock of having her pull a gun on him. This certainly wasn’t the way Lauren had wanted all of this to play out, but she hadn’t exactly had a lot of options. The seconds were ticking away.
“Move,” she ordered Cameron in the strongest voice she could manage. Which wasn’t much. She didn’t feel strong at all. Just terrified.
This couldn’t be happening.
Over the past decade, she’d accepted that she could be in danger from the lunatic who kept sending those threatening letters, but she couldn’t accept that two innocent babies could now be in harm’s way.
“Put down the gun,” Cameron warned her. And it was indeed a warning. Unlike her, he had managed the strong tone, and it had a dark edge to it. An edge that reminded her that she was holding a cop—an experienced one—at gunpoint.
“I can’t.” She tried to make that sound like an apology and failed at it, too. “I need to see Isaac.”
Of course, Cameron would want to know why, and Lauren would tell him. First, though, she had to see the baby.
“Can’t?” he repeated, that edge in his voice going up a notch. It went up in his smoke-gray eyes, too.
When she’d been a teenager, the girls had called them bedroom eyes because he was so hot. Still was. With that dark blond hair and natural tan, he’d always had rock-star looks. Those looks were still there in spades, but there wasn’t a trace of his bedroom smile.
“Please,” Lauren tried. “Just let me see him, and I might be able to clear all of this up.”
“You’ll clear it up now.” Again, it was a warning. “And if you don’t, you won’t get anywhere near my nephew. However, you will get to see the inside of a jail cell.”
She had no idea if that was a threat or not. He certainly had grounds to arrest her, and the fact that they’d once been lovers might not be enough leverage to stop this situation from snowballing.
Cameron still had hold of his gun, but he used his left hand to reach for his pocket. For his phone, she realized. He was going to call one or both of her brothers, and she didn’t want them involved in this yet. Not until she could at least try to make things safe.
“No!” she said.
It was the only thing she managed to get out of her mouth, though, because Cameron didn’t take out his phone. He lunged at her. Fast. Before Lauren could even react and get out of his way, he rammed into her and sent them both to the ground. While they were still falling, he knocked her gun from her hand.
“Start talking right now,” Cameron growled, and he pinned her hands to the ground so she couldn’t reach for her gun. He pinned her, too, with his body since he was on top of her.
Lauren’s heart was racing. Along with that, she got a new hit of adrenaline. Something she definitely didn’t need since her nerves were already firing in every inch of her.
She looked at Cameron, their gazes colliding, and for a moment she remembered what had once been between them. The intimacy.
The love.
Yes, once she’d loved him, and she thought maybe he’d felt the same way about her, but it was obvious those emotions were long gone. Well, maybe not the heat that had first drawn them together, but he definitely wasn’t having any warm and fuzzy feelings about her now.
Lauren struggled, trying to force him off her, but when it was obvious this was a losing battle, she knew she had to say something.
And that something was going to shatter the life Cameron had built here.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked, the question surprising her.
Only then did she remember the wound on her shoulder. That part of her hadn’t hit the ground, thank goodness, and since it was a constant throbbing pain, it had become a sort of white noise. Something she was trying to push aside so it wouldn’t cause her to lose focus.
“No. I’m not hurt.” But in hindsight, she probably should have lied. Maybe then, Cameron would have let her go.
“Talk to me,” he snapped. Obviously, he was over his concern for her injury. Of course, she couldn’t blame him when there were so many other things for them to discuss.
“We’re in danger,” she started. Lauren had to clear her throat and repeat it so it’d have some sound. “Those men who tried to kill me got away, and I believe they’ll be looking for me. Maybe for you, too.”
Because he was right in her face, it wasn’t hard to see the doubt go through his eyes. Despite the doubts, though, he still had a look around them. A cop’s look. Good. Lauren didn’t want anyone sneaking up on them. Or worse—trying to sneak into the house.
“What do those men have to do with me?” he snarled.
“Maybe everything.”
She tried to gather her breath. Couldn’t. Cameron wasn’t overly muscled, but he wasn’t a lightweight, either, and with his chest pressing against her, she couldn’t get enough air. He must have realized that, but he didn’t move. Probably because he thought she would go for her gun again.
Which she would.
Since there was no easy way to say this, Lauren just blurted it out. “I believe someone swapped my baby with Gilly’s.”
She gave him a moment to let that sink in, but she couldn’t give him the time he needed. She also continued to keep watch as best she could. Hard to do that, though, while on the ground.
He shook his head. “Why would anyone do that?”
“I’m not sure. Please, let’s just check on Isaac, and then we can go over all of this.”
Cameron didn’t answer. Not with words anyway. But his cold, hard stare told her that wasn’t going to happen.
“Someone started following me days ago. Two men in a dark car,” she added. “I believe those were the same men who broke into my house.”
“The men who tried to kill you.” Cameron said it as if he didn’t believe her. She couldn’t blame him. She’d had hours to try to come to grips with it, and part of her still wasn’t ready to accept it.
She nodded. “Before they found me, I heard them talking to someone on a communicator, and that’s when they said they were cops.”
“They could have lied,” he reminded her again.
“True. But they still broke in for a reason. And that reason was my son, Patrick. They wanted to kill me and take him.” She huffed in frustration because his skeptical look was only getting worse, and she wasn’t explaining this well at all. “Just please move off me so we can both keep watch.”
She saw him debate that for several moments. Lauren had lost track of how long she’d been out here with him, but Dara, the nanny, would be getting even more worried than she already was.
“If you try anything else stupid, I will put you right back on the ground,” Cameron growled.
He finally shifted his body to the side, rolling off her. He also snatched up her gun as he stood. Lauren didn’t like not being armed, but at least when she got up, she was able to better keep an eye on the trail behind them.
“Does your nephew look like your sister?” she came out and asked.
He stopped glancing around long enough to shoot her a glare. “That proves nothing. He could have inherited genes from generations ago.”
Lauren hesitated a moment. “Does he look like me?”
His quick glare intensified, but what he didn’t do was deny it. “First, you have to convince me that a swap even took place before