WANTED by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online Page A

did it.”
    She huffed. “Why would I do that? I don’t even know you, and I don’t have a personal stake in this investigation. Well, I didn’t until the shooting this morning.”
    Oh, yeah. It was personal now. “The only reason I could come up with was because you might be working with the person who wants the evidence altered.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t break the law.”
    Admirable, but as Kirby always said—never mistake the law for justice. Over the past couple of days, Wyatt had done a lot of law bending, but he’d done it to make sure justice was served.
    “So you’re not in on the plan,” Wyatt concluded, taking her glare as proof of her innocence. Besides, she didn’t feel guilty, and while a gut feeling didn’t sound good in a report, Wyatt always trusted his gut. “It means soon someone will contact you about what you’re supposed to do.”
    “And according to you, they’ll kill me if I don’t cooperate. Then they’ll kill me once they’re finished with me.”
    Wyatt didn’t have any doubts about that. “It’s why we need a fake relationship. And a legal marriage. I already have the license.” Best not to tell her how he’d come by that, but it’d required some string pulling, too.
    “A license already?” she challenged. “But why? You thought I was guilty before you showed up at my place. Heck, you still don’t trust me.”
    “I can’t let my trust issues keep you in the path of a killer. And you’re right—when I came to your place, I didn’t know if this was your plan or not. I don’t think it is,” he quickly added when her eyes narrowed, this time to slits.
    “How generous of you. Yet the point is, you didn’t trust me, but you got the license.”
    “Just in case. I was trying to plan for any contingency.” Because the stakes here were sky-high. “And I have a justice of the peace waiting for my call. As soon as you say yes, he’ll be out here to marry us. Once we have this dirtbag behind bars, then we can get a quick annulment.”
    She looked at him as if he’d grown an extra nose. “How will saying I do possibly stop this?”
    “Being married to me will exclude you from taking over the evidence in the investigation.”
    Ah. She got it. The light went through her eyes. Followed by some expected darkness. “Because you’re a suspect in Webb’s murder.”
    “My whole family, including a couple of sisters-in-law, are all suspects. No way would the governor allow you to stay on the case if you’re my wife. And if we can convince everyone that we made that baby the old-fashioned way.”
    She glanced at his zipper again. “No one will believe we’re lovers.”
    He had to disagree. “They will if we’re married. Maybe not so much if we just lie and say we’re together. That’d be a little harder to pull off, but marriage should convince even the person behind this.”
    “How?” she repeated.
    “By planting so-called proof of our secret affair. Hotel receipts, doctored photos. Remember that trip you took to Dallas last month?”
    She nodded. Then frowned. Probably because he’d invaded her privacy again. Of course, he’d invaded it so many other times that she should be getting used to it by now.
    “Well, I can come up with a witness who’ll verify we were in Dallas together.” She opened her mouth to object, but Wyatt moved on to the next point. “You didn’t tell anyone at work about the donor embryo.”
    “No.” She pulled in a long breath. “I’d planned to tell them once I started showing.”
    “Then lucky for us you’re not showing. Right now, the only people who know are us, your doctor—and he’s agreed to keep it quiet—and the person who orchestrated all of this.”
    She stayed quiet a moment. “And for him or her to dispute what we’re saying, they’ll have to come out in the open.”
    Bingo.
    Well, the person could just try to kill them because he or she was now riled that their plan hadn’t worked, but Wyatt kept that