Cox, Suzanne - Unexpected Daughter Read online

  “You think my truck will be safe here?”

  She lifted an eyebrow at his question. “Unless the thief has a new battery or a tow truck, you should be fine.”

  He smiled, climbing into the passenger seat. “I guess you’re right.”

  As she pulled onto the street Cade asked her about a patient, but before she could answer, her cell phone rang. Expecting Dylan, she groaned when she saw the number.

  “Sheriff’s office,” she said to him as she punched the button to answer the call.

  Jackson Cooper’s voice boomed in her ear. “Brij, can you get to the old Johnson place on River Road? We need you to track. Now.”

  She paused. “I kind of need to take Cade home. His truck wouldn’t start.”

  “Bring him. We need you here ten minutes ago.”

  Pushing the end-call button, she drove her SUV away from the direction of their homes. “I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me, or I’ll let you stay here in town and you can try to hitch a ride.”

  “I’ll go with you. Is it a missing kid?”

  “I don’t know. They didn’t say.”

  She punched the button set to dial Norma’s number and told her she’d be late getting Dylan. They drove the next few minutes in silence until Brijette pulled into the driveway of an old weathered house.

  “This can’t be a missing kid,” Cade said.

  Brijette contemplated the sheriff’s officers in their bulletproof vests, guns slung at their sides. With them were Cypress Landing’s city police, which indicated that whatever was going on required more manpower than the sheriff’s office alone. “I think you’re right.”

  Jackson met them at the front of her vehicle. He tossed Brijette a vest and she saw Cade’s eyes bulge.

  “We’re after an escaped prisoner from Parchman.”

  “What’s Parchman?” Cade asked, stepping nearer to Brijette.

  She grinned at him. “It’s a prison in Mississippi.” She focused her attention on Jackson as she finished fastening the vest. “What’s he in for?”

  “Life sentence for multiple murders.” She tried not to smile as Jackson ignored Cade, who appeared shocked.

  Cade’s fingers closed around her shoulder. “You can’t go running around in the woods after a killer. Brijette, you have a child at home. What if something happens to you?”

  She patted his arm and winked at Jackson. “I’ll be fine. This huge cop will be with me. He blocks all bullets that come my way.”

  Jackson chuckled, but Cade tightened his grip. “Why are you doing this? Are you trying to rectify things you did in the past by being a volunteer hero?”

  She couldn’t believe Cade could nail her so squarely with a truth she’d never really admitted to herself. Extracting herself from him, she started after Jackson, who strode toward the house. “You don’t know what you’re saying, Cade Wheeler.”

  “Yes, I do, and you know it.”

  They stopped at the rear of the house.

  “Officer Cooper, why can’t you bring in a dog to track this person?”

  Jackson glared at him, but Cade didn’t waver, though he hoped he’d never actually have to tangle with the man. He knew Brijette volunteered for the search-and-rescue team, but surely chasing escaped murderers was not part of the job description.

  Finally, Jackson sighed and decided to answer. “We’ve got three people who took off from this house in different directions. Only one of them is the one we want to follow. We know his shoe size and that he got shot in the leg. I can’t really explain all that to a dog, now can I? Besides, Brijette’s right here and the nearest dog team is hours away.”

  Cade frowned. “I’m going with you.”

  Brijette snorted and Jackson actually rolled his eyes, which kind of made the big man a little less intimidating. “No, you’re not. No private citizen is going with us. I’ll cuff you to the car if I have to.”

  Sheriff Matt Wright stepped over to them. “Why isn’t Brijette on the trail already?”

  Jackson poked a finger at Cade’s chest. “’Cause this guy is holding us up. He wants to go with us.”

  Matt stared at Cade, not responding immediately, which he hoped was a good sign. “Throw a vest on him. He’s a doctor. If someone gets shot he might come in handy.”

  Jackson groaned. “But, Matt, what if he’s the one who gets shot?”

  “It’s his choice. We’ll automatically induct him into the search-and-rescue team.”

  “As what?” Brijette asked. Cade could tell she didn’t want to have to deal with him a minute longer.

  Matt grinned. “Tracker’s assistant, I guess.”

  Cade pulled on his vest while trying to follow Brijette and Jackson. Ahead of him, Jackson stopped as Brijette moved forward. When Cade tried to pass, the big man gripped his arm.

  “We wait here until she decides which trail to follow. We don’t want to ruin the tracks for her, do we, tracker’s assistant?”

  “Look, I’m worried about her.”

  “I know. That’s the only reason you’re here and not handcuffed to the steering wheel of my car.”

  Cade crossed his arms and waited, watching Brijette. She moved slowly, staring at the ground. Here and there she stopped, touched the dirt, placed her fingers to the earth and appeared to measure. Then she’d start again, periodically taking strides longer than her natural one. After a few minutes, she waved at them from the edge of the woods and they both hurried toward her.

  “You know, Jackson, we’d have saved a lot of time if you guys would’ve noticed this blood.” She pointed to some leaves on the lower part of the trees. “I wouldn’t have spent all this time deciding where to start.”

  Cade grinned as the sheriff’s officer had the decency to be embarrassed.

  “Come on.” She smiled and winked at Cade. “Let’s get going. This should be quite an adventure for you, city boy.”

  “Just so long as no one shoots at me.”

  “I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. At least, it never has before.”

  “And how many murderers have you tracked before?”

  She glanced at Jackson as they pressed deeper into the woods. “We’ve done two, right, Cooper?”

  Jackson nodded. Cade kept quiet and followed them. What was Brijette thinking, doing this when she had a child at home?

  From that point forward, Cade kept quiet, more because he was in awe of Brijette than because he feared he would attract the escaped prisoner’s attention and get shot, although he didn’t want that to happen, either. He didn’t really see much on the ground or in the tree limbs that would indicate which direction they should go, but Brijette must have had a built-in device in her brain that spotted the trail, because she watched the ground and knew exactly when to turn left or right.

  The trees began to thin and they made their way onto what appeared to be a dry creek bed, with the banks on either side rising well above his head. Still in the lead, Brijette started to climb the embankment. Jackson caught her halfway and shook his head. Thankfully, one of the two had a bit of sense. Cade joined them as the officer bobbed his head above the edge for a fraction of a second. Shots split the evening air, spraying dirt in their faces as the bullets tore into the ground. Pushing Brijette, Cade rolled with her to the bottom of the creek bed. Jackson landed in a heap beside them, blood trickling at the side of his temple.

  “Jackson, are you okay?” Brijette called out in a low voice.

  He sat up, wiping at the blood. “It’s a scratch.” With a quick call on his radio he notified the sheriff of their location.

  “He’s in a deer stand, there,” Jackson motioned toward the top of the creek bed. In the sky, they heard a helicopter, and in a few minutes officers came running.

  “All right, you two, we’ve got this area blocked off now and he’s not coming in this direction, so y’all can head back the way we came.”

  Cade got to his feet, pulling Brijette with him. They passed through a line of officers.


  “Never get shot at, huh?” Cade said as they trudged along.

  Brijette shrugged. “First time for everything.”

  “Only takes one time to get killed, though.”

  She kicked at a stick. “We can’t all live our lives in a safe little vacuum.”

  “I’m telling you to stay alive so you can raise your child.”

  “This is important to me. Dylan understands that, and she understands the risks—though to date there haven’t been many risky situations.”

  “Dylan’s a child. It’s not for her to understand.”

  She didn’t answer him but marched faster through the woods, making him nearly jog to keep her in sight. Occasionally, she let a limb go at the right moment so that it would smack him. He had no choice but to follow her, otherwise she’d have to track his lost butt in these woods. Of course, she’d probably refuse, saying it was much too dangerous.

  They got in her car and she started the engine before she finally looked at him.

  “I know what you’re saying—that I could get hurt. But I could get killed on our way home, too. Cade, I can’t live my life always worrying that something might happen to me so I can’t take care of Dylan. I grew up afraid of everything, afraid of what people would say, of how we would make ends meet, of where money would come from. It led me to make a few bad choices. I can’t do that anymore. I’ve got a talent—tracking—and I have to use it to help people. What’s more dangerous, me helping catch this guy or him being loose to possibly hurt other people, maybe the mother of another child?”

  He leaned his head against the seat. At times like this, when she made so much sense, he didn’t know whether to argue with her or kiss her. It had always been like that. He made up his mind and reached across the seat, catching her neck beneath her hair, pulling her forward. His lips met hers before she could protest and before he could consider the consequences of his actions. But that one touch flooded him with years of past emotions and all the same wanting he’d known in his early twenties. He hadn’t expected to kiss her so long, with so much passion. He’d half expected her to stop him. But she hadn’t and he pulled her closer. He slid the fingertips of his other hand lightly across her cheek, down the side of her neck, to feel the pulse hammering at her throat. Her knuckles rubbed his chest as she knotted his shirt in her fist. Outside, a car door slammed and she faltered, her palms flattening against his chest, shoving him away from her. She pressed herself against the door on her side, her lips still parted, and he nearly went to her again, but she held up her palm as if to ward him off.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  “I don’t know.” And he didn’t. He watched people moving in the dark by the house. Night had fallen and he hadn’t noticed.

  “We need to go.”

  He didn’t answer, and neither one of them spoke as she drove to his house. When she stopped in his front drive, he reached for the door handle. Something needed to be said.

  “Don’t do that again.”

  Not exactly what he’d had in mind, but it would suffice. He opened his mouth to tell her he might not be able to help himself, but instead he got out of the car. From the porch, he watched her taillights disappear down the long winding drive. He should never have left here, should never have deserted Brijette, even if she had been guilty of making a very bad decision and even if she’d asked for money to stay away from him. Most of all, he should never have promised his father he would stay in Dallas. He knew now those mistakes had become obstacles to his happiness. He hadn’t come to Cypress Landing to make all these realizations, but that was what had happened. Now, what was he going to do about it?

  CHAPTER NINE

  WHEN SHE HEARD Alicia call the patient’s name, Brijette hurried to finish straightening the room she’d used. The young girl holding a baby, accompanied by her husband, followed the nurse into the exam room across the hall and Brijette entered right behind them.

  “Regina, T.J., it’s good to see you.” She opened her arms and the girl handed the small bundle to her. “She’s perfect.” Cuddling the infant closer, Brijette decided she’d have to follow this family—her first, and hopefully only, delivery at her free clinic.

  “Are you seeing us today?” Regina asked as Brijette gave the child to the girl’s husband.

  “No, Dr. Wheeler will be seeing you. I just wanted to say hi and to see if y’all are doing okay.”

  T.J. seemed very comfortable holding the baby, which relieved Brijette. She’d been a little worried that the scared kid she’d seen in the clinic that day might run out on this very big responsibility. “We’re doing fine,” he said, laughing as Alicia slipped into the room and took the child away from him.

  “I want to show her to Emma,” she said.

  “Regina wants to go to school,” T.J. continued. “We’re trying to get a place here in town. That way she can take classes toward her General Equivalency Diploma since she didn’t ever finish high school.”

  Regina nodded. “I did good in school. So did T.J. I’m trying to talk him into getting his GED, too. I met with a counselor at the college and she said if we had the GED we could take developmental college classes that wouldn’t count toward a degree but would help us pass the real courses later on.”

  Brijette noticed Cade standing in the doorway, waiting impatiently, since he had a long list of patients to see. But he’d have to wait. This would be an important lesson for Cade in working at a small-town clinic. Here, you didn’t run in and see your patients, then shoo them on their way. She and Doc Wheeler took time to talk to everyone, especially people like Regina and Theodore Jerome Broussard. A young couple wanting to get educated to create a better life for their baby deserved their attention and help.

  “Do you have an idea what you’d like to study?”

  “I’d like to be a nurse.” Regina turned to T.J., whose cheeks pinked with a bit of embarrassment at the fact that he had aspirations beyond the backwaters, when he had quite a distance to go.

  He shrugged slightly. “I’ve worked in construction and I think I’d like to maybe be an engineer.” He glanced at Cade. “But we got a lot to do first.”

  “We need to get this checkup done,” Cade said from the door, and shouted for Alicia to bring the baby.

  Brijette hurried from the room, knowing that she had indeed taken a good bit of Cade’s time. “Sorry, I know we’re busy,” she whispered as she went by him.

  He only frowned as she passed him, then shut the door.

  REGINA AND T.J. HAD LEFT by the time Brijette had finished seeing the two patients she had waiting. At the front desk, she leaned over Emma’s shoulder, scanning the computer screen. Cade stood at the counter, holding a big brown bag that smelled like lunch.

  “Sandwiches are here from the Main Street Coffee Shop,” he said, but she ignored him.

  “Emma, did we bill that young couple?”

  The older woman tapped the computer keyboard. “They had a baby checkup and they’re getting assistance. They paid their part, which wasn’t much.”

  “Okay, I only want to be sure they don’t have a huge medical bill. Can we see if they have a hospital bill?”

  “No, we can only get that information from them the next time they come. Do you want me to?”

  Brijette chewed her lip. “No, it would embarrass them, I’m sure. We’ll see what happens.”

  “Brijette, come eat your sandwich.” Cade took her by the wrist, dragging her down the hall before she could say any more.

  In the small kitchen, he set the bag on the counter and rested his hip against the cabinet. “What are you doing?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “With this couple. What are you doing? Finding their personal information, making sure they don’t have a bill here—we’re not going to make this a free clinic, you know.”

  She gritted her teeth. “I’m not trying to make this a free clinic. You’ll find that we don’t run our patients through here like a bunch of cows. Most
of them are our neighbors and friends, and we treat them that way.”

  “How helpful is it to encourage those two to go to college? Do you know how hard that would be for them? Shouldn’t you help find them a good job? Or better yet, stay out of it, because it’s their life.”

  “I know exactly how hard it would be,” Brijette said, clenching her fists at her sides.

  The anger that came over her made Brijette’s face hot. When a difficult situation appeared, the real Cade emerged, the rich kid who had no idea what it took to go to college and build a life for yourself without money from your parents. A niggling voice in her brain questioned if she really knew, either. She had, after all, had help from a chunk of Wheeler money. But that had been different, she told herself. She’d still had plenty of struggles even with the money, not to mention what she’d endured to get it. With a good bit of effort, she quieted the guilty voice that said she really should have found another way, done it on her own, not taken the damn Wheeler money.

  “I think you shouldn’t expect too much when trying to get them to go to college,” Cade continued.

  “And I think you’re a rich ass, who doesn’t know what it means to help people who haven’t been born to money and who don’t have the advantages that come with it.”

  She raced past him, bumping into Alicia, who paused at the door with her eyes wide, obviously thinking that, once again, Brijette had ruined her chances with the rich doctor. If she only knew all Brijette’s chances with Cade had been ruined with a lie that she kept hiding behind.

  THE SOUND OF THE PHONE ringing jolted Brijette from a deep sleep. Disoriented, she struggled to a sitting position in her bed, realizing that closing her eyes for a minute after her bath had turned into good night lady. The clock on the nightstand read nine, early for a summer night. Dylan was still watching television.

  “Mom, the phone’s for you.” The girl pushed the bedroom door open, holding the phone in one hand, a pair of tennis shoes in the other. “It’s Mr. Cooper at the sheriff’s office,” she added, sitting in the middle of the floor to put on her sneakers.