Assumed Identity - By Julie Miller Page 0,40

and Bill Houseman apparently wasn’t going to leave her alone.

“Ms. Carter, you and your daughter are in great danger.”

The matter-of-fact statement stopped her in her tracks. “Is that a threat?”

“Why? Do you feel threatened?”

With a strange man following her? She took off again. “What do you think? Do you know something about what happened to me last night?”

“I think you’ll want to have this conversation in private.” He didn’t slur his words or ramble the way the woman on the phone had. Yet the effect was the same. This man was a stranger—and he knew a lot more about her than any stranger should.

She’d already passed a couple of buildings, but the intersection up ahead and her shop half a block beyond that seemed miles away. What would be her closest escape route? Going on to her shop? Back to the bar? Straight out into the middle of traffic where he couldn’t follow? With no promising option in sight, Robin spun around, trying a more confrontational tactic to get rid of the man strolling behind her. “Did you read about me in the paper? How did you find me?”

“I knew you long before you made the headlines, Ms. Carter.” He called her bluff, smiling as he walked past her. But he stopped and turned in front of the stroller. “That’s a beautiful baby. What did you name her?”

When he knelt in front of Emma, Robin jerked the stroller back. “Get away from her.”

He smiled and rose to his feet. “I think she looks like a Hailey.”

“What did you say?” The blood drained from Robin’s body, leaving her ice cold. That was Emma’s birth name—before the adoption. He did know her daughter. This wasn’t supposed to happen. “She isn’t Hailey anymore. She’s my daughter. If you want to talk to me, call my attorney and make an appointment.”

With fear flagging every step, Robin pushed the stroller around him.

He grabbed her arm as she hurried past, tightening his grip when she tried to shake him off. “This can’t wait. I have a favor to ask.”

“Let go. If you’re who I think you are, you’re not supposed to have any contact with me. I’ll call the police. I know a detective back in the Shamrock Bar. He’s there right now.”

“Do you really think you ought to be taking your daughter into a bar?” She could smell the cigarette smoke on his breath as he whispered against her ear. “What kind of mother does that? Do you really have this child’s best interests—?”

“The lady said to let her go.” Jake Lonergan’s deep, menacing voice filled the air, washing over Robin like a protective hug and silencing the accusation in Bill Houseman’s voice.

Houseman’s grip tightened before he released her and stepped back. “I have business with Ms. Carter.”

“Not today, you don’t.”

Robin wasted no time asking why Jake was here. She quickly pulled Emma back and stood beside him.

Houseman straightened his cuffs beneath his suit jacket. Betraying either nerves or a sudden fastidiousness about his appearance, he adjusted his tie and collar, too. “One way or another, we will have this conversation. Preferably without your Neanderthal friend here. It’s important. A matter of life or death, I’m afraid.”

“Whose? My baby’s?”

Jake shifted at the possible threat, standing tall and immovable, his strong arms crossed over his chest. He’d shed the green apron he’d had on in the bar and looked like some sort of human tank blocking the sidewalk. He’d come to Robin’s rescue. Again.

“No. But it’s important. In a way, I’m trying to save you, too.”

“From what?”

Houseman seemed to consider continuing the conversation for about three seconds. His gaze skipped over Jake and he looked at Robin. “Please give me a call.”

With a subtle shift in his stance, Jake was suddenly positioned between her and Houseman. He’d even barred Emma from the man’s direct line of sight. Although there seemed to be more that Houseman wanted to say, the man clearly didn’t want to push his luck with Jake there. After a nod to Robin and a ‘Bye, little one’ to Emma, he returned to his car, started the engine and drove away.

“Thank you.” Robin flattened her palm against Jake’s back and felt him shiver at the unexpected touch. He moved away far too quickly to think she’d done anything more than startle him. Swallowing her pride, she let him put the distance between them that he apparently needed. “I didn’t handle that very well. I couldn’t think. I panicked. I guess I’m still rattled from