Lullabies and Lies - By Mallory Kane Page 0,38

own involvement in the Loveless infant case.

But after it had started raining he’d holed up in his car, waiting for the deluge to stop. After about a half hour, he’d been ready to give up for the night. But just as he reached for the ignition switch, the agent had come running out.

At first Hiram had slunk down in his seat, scared silly that the man had spotted him and was coming after him. But he’d headed straight for his car, jumped in and taken off.

Hiram looked at the clock on his dashboard. It was late. Where was the agent going? After a moment’s hesitation while he debated whether to follow or sneak into his room while he was gone, Hiram’s curiosity won out. He started the car and tailed the agent.

It didn’t take long for Hiram to realize that he was headed toward Sunny Loveless’s house. Hiram’s blood pressure rose, and he could hear his pulse hammering in his ears.

To avoid being seen, Hiram parked several houses away.

After watching for a while, he figured out that the agent had surprised an intruder at Ms. Loveless’s house. Then the police showed up with their sirens blaring, and lights popped on up and down the street. Hiram nearly fled, but all attention was concentrated on Sunny Loveless’s house. Nobody noticed his old car.

If he had to guess, he’d bet that the man the police hauled away was Burt Means, the baby’s biological father.

Then, the police took off, but the FBI agent didn’t.

Afraid to move any closer, Hiram waited, squinting through the rain and wiping the fogged window glass with his handkerchief. He could barely make out shadowy movements behind the home’s sheer curtains. Movements that indicated that the two people in the house were close—very close.

Hiram settled in and smiled. The tall, good-looking FBI agent was going to stay all night with the lovely, grieving mother. Hiram licked his lips and hoped there were sheer curtains in Ms. Loveless’s bedroom.

But after a few minutes, to his amazement, the agent and Ms. Loveless came out, got into the agent’s car and drove off.

Wondering if they were headed back to the agent’s hotel, Hiram pulled out and followed them.

GRIFF RUBBED HIS NECK and yawned, trying his best to stay awake. He could barely keep his eyes open. He glanced at the dashboard clock. Almost three o’clock in the morning. He’d been up for twenty-four hours straight. He wasn’t going to make it much farther without sleep.

The rain had stopped an hour or so before, but dense fog hung over the interstate, making misty haloes out of headlights and increasing the tendency toward road hypnotism.

He itched to call Natasha again, to see if she’d come up with anything on the two phone numbers Sunny had given him—the number the mysterious woman had used to call Sunny, and the number she’d been instructed to call once she got to Philadelphia. But he knew when Nat had information, she’d call him.

He glanced over at Sunny. She’d done her best to stay awake, but it was obvious how tired she was.

She had eyed him suspiciously until they’d driven out of the city on Interstate 40, fighting to keep her drooping eyelids open until she’d finally given in.

He couldn’t blame her for having trouble believing that he was really skipping town with her in the middle of the night. He hardly believed it himself.

Watching her sleep replaced the seductive pull of road hypnotism with an uncomfortable if pleasurable ache of longing, so for four hours he’d been dividing his attention between the rain-soaked road and her. She dozed fitfully, her body stiff with tension, her beautiful face marred by sadness.

She’d changed into snug-fitting jeans and running shoes, but she’d refused to take the time to dry her hair. Instead, she’d tucked it up on top of her head with some kind of barrette, and a few graceful waves had escaped to frame her face.

He reached over and brushed one long honeyed strand out of her eye, the tips of his fingers sliding over her petal-soft cheek.

The blare of a car horn jolted him, sending his heart slamming against his chest wall. He jerked the wheel, cursing under his breath. He’d almost drifted into the other lane.

Sunny sat up with a gasp. “What happened?” Her voice was low and husky.

“Nothing,” he said shortly, willing his heartbeat to slow to normal as he rubbed his eyes. That was too careless. He had to have a couple hours’ sleep.

“You’re falling asleep