Harlequin Romantic Suspense January 2021 Read online

  January unconsciously chewed on the inside of her bottom lip, thinking the matter over. “Well, I’ve got those two weeks coming to me that I have to take.”

  “Yeah, so you said. The two weeks you told me you were using to go away on vacation,” Sean recalled.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “I am supposed to be on vacation, but there’re no rules about where I take my vacation—or how.” She could see that she had lost the detective. With effort, she tried to be clearer, even though her own thoughts were jumbled up. “I can temporarily take Maya home with me and foster her. At least until things can be straightened out and you find her parents—or her father, since that’s who she’s been asking for.” She looked at the detective’s face to see if she had cleared things up for him.

  “Can you do that?” he asked doubtfully. “Just take her in and be her foster parent?” he asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be qualified for that or something?”

  Sean hated admitting his ignorance about these matters, but in this case, there were huge gaps in his education when it came to knowing things about the foster system. In his defense, he thought, he’d never had a case like this before. The people he dealt with were usually a lot taller—and came with criminal records.

  “I do,” she said, surprising Sean.

  “You’re licensed to be a foster parent?” he asked.

  January nodded. “Thinking that this might come up as a possibility someday, I became approved to be a foster parent in case the need ever arose. This is the first time that it has,” she admitted. “Right now, to complete this temporary arrangement, I just have to get my boss’s approval.”

  “Why don’t you call Blackwell, then?” Sean suggested.

  They needed to resolve this. He didn’t want to see Maya get passed around and possibly traumatized any further. The little girl responded to this woman, and as the social worker had already pointed out, feeling safe could go a long way in getting Maya to trust her.

  That also meant that if there was any information to be obtained from her, they would be able to—at least eventually.

  But, information or not, Sean had to admit that his first priority was to make sure Maya was safe and felt safe. In this case, apparently January was his instrument to help him do just that.

  January had crossed to the far end of the room and taken out her phone. It rang five times on the other end before she heard it being picked up.

  “Blackwell.”

  Good, she had caught him. “Hi, Sid, it’s January Colton. I know it’s late, but there’s a problem with the case you wanted me to look into,” she told her boss.

  “What kind of a problem?” he asked. “And what are you still doing there? I figured that you’d just see what you could find out from the little girl and then have Susan take over.”

  “Well, that’s part of the problem,” January admitted, keeping her back to the detective and the little girl. “I sent Susan home.”

  She could tell by Blackwell’s tone that he wasn’t exactly overjoyed with her news. “Oh? And why would you do that?”

  “Because she was in completely over her head in this case. There wound up being extenuating circumstances. Look, I can fill you in on those in the morning if you’d like,” she offered. “Right now, I’m just calling to get your approval.”

  “My approval. Regarding anything in particular?” her supervisor asked, a partially amused note in his voice. January was one of the best people he had, but she didn’t exactly do things by the numbers.

  In general, Blackwell was a decent man. January went with that thought, hoping he wouldn’t give her an argument about this. In the very short amount of time she had been here, she felt she had managed to forge a bond with Maya. She found herself caring about this child. Her tendency to become personally involved was what more than one person had predicted would wind up being her undoing someday.

  But someday wasn’t now.

  “That little girl the police found in the warehouse, the one that you asked me to communicate with,” January began to explain.

  “What about her?” Blackwell asked.

  January couldn’t gauge his mood by his tone, but she pushed ahead anyway. “She needs to be placed with a temporary foster parent until things can get further straightened out.”

  “And?” Blackwell prodded impatiently when January paused.

  “And I’d like to volunteer to be that foster parent,” January told him, talking quickly as she added, “I have been vetted and I do have my foster parent license.”

  She heard Blackwell blow out an annoyed, frustrated breath. “You can’t take her on vacation with you, January.”

  “I know that. I’m not going on vacation, at least, not to that spa and not now. I’ll be staying at my town house with Maya instead of going away.”

  “Maya?” Blackwell asked.

  “Maya’s the little girl’s name. I got her to tell me that,” January replied.

  “Very good. Progress. So what’s her last name?” he asked.

  “I haven’t gotten that far yet,” January admitted. “She’s only about five and the police didn’t find anything on her or in the area that would give us her last name or her address. But she trusts me, Sid.”

  “And this is why you want to foster her?” he questioned.

  “I know we’re shorthanded. The child is deaf and I want her to get special care. Look, Sid, I’m the best hope she has of being reunited with her family which is, after all, our end goal.”

  “Then there is a family?” Blackwell asked, his interest piqued.

  “Detective Stafford and I think so,” she said, thinking that adding Sean to her side might help tip the scale in her favor. “Maya keeps asking for her father, so I’m hoping that means that he’s actually out there somewhere and that we can find him.”

  Blackwell sighed. “I guess you make a good point. All right, I’m going to grant you temporary custody. But I’m going to have this case monitored by another social worker.”

  “Of course, Sid. Whatever it takes,” January said, relieved that she had won the man over. She saw that Sean was watching her even though her voice was low. She gave him a thumbs-up sign.

  “All right. Come in tomorrow, January, and we’ll make it official. I’ll have you fill out all the paperwork and sign it,” her supervisor told her.

  January smiled even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “I know the drill, Sid.”

  “Yes, I imagine that you do. One question for you, January,” he said before she could terminate the call.

  “Yes?” She had no idea what he could think of to ask her. They had already gone over all the important points.

  “Don’t you know how to relax?” he asked her.

  January laughed. “You’re the one who sent me here, Sid.”

  “I was just sending you in as a temporary measure to see what you could ascertain. I didn’t realize you were going to use it as another excuse to keep on working.”

  She didn’t want Blackwell pretending to be her conscience. “Goodbye, Sid. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Good,” he told her, adding, “I’m looking forward to you telling me how your sisters reacted to this.”

  Oh Lord, my sisters, January suddenly thought. She had forgotten all about them. She needed to notify them as soon as possible.

  This wasn’t going to be easy.

  “I’ve got to go, Sid,” January said, terminating the call.

  “Problem?” Sean asked. He noticed that she was still clutching her cell phone instead of putting it away.

  “With my supervisor?” she asked, thinking that was what Sean was referring to. “No, everything’s fine there. He signed off on my being Maya’s foster mother.”

  There was more, he could tell. “But…?”

  “But?” January asked.

  “Th
ere’s a definite but in your voice,” Sean told her. “Something’s bothering you about this,” he guessed. “What is it?”

  “Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with my supervisor, or with Maya,” she said, answering his question slowly.

  “But there’s someone who isn’t going to be happy about this sudden change in your life, even though it is temporary?” the detective guessed.

  His immediate thought was that there was either a husband, or at least a significant other, in the picture and that he wasn’t going to be happy about this.

  “Oh yes,” she answered. “Actually, two someones.” January thought of Simone and Tatum.

  “Two someones?” Sean repeated. “Well, that seems rather ambitious.”

  “Ambitious?” she asked. She didn’t see the connection. “That’s rather an odd way to put it.”

  She was kidding, right? “Well, it isn’t every day that I meet a woman who is openly juggling two guys—”

  “Two guys?” she echoed, totally confused.

  “My mistake, two women,” Sean corrected his previous statement. Apparently, his mistake was even bigger than he had thought.

  Damn. First time he found himself attracted to someone in longer than he could remember, and it turned out to be someone wouldn’t give him a second glance.

  “Yes,” January acknowledged, wondering what his problem was. “Two women. My sisters, both of whom are going to give me endless grief over my bowing out of our vacation, especially since it was planned around my choice of location.”

  “Your sisters?” he asked. Why did that piece of information suddenly make him feel happy?

  He had no explanation for it, yet there it was.

  “Both older and both are going to relish saying, ‘I told you so’ to each other—and to me.” She took a deep breath, still clutching her phone. “I’ll be right back,” she promised. Then she repeated the message, signing it to Maya, just before she slipped out of the room.

  CHAPTER 6

  January looked down at the cell phone in her hand, debating which sister to call. Tatum had always been the more easygoing of the two to deal with, but Simone was the one who had made all the plans and consequently had booked the spa as well as the plane tickets. She knew that telling Simone that she had to bow out because of a work commitment would be the more respectful thing to do.

  On the other hand, Tatum wouldn’t lecture her and Simone would.

  Both sisters loved her, there was no question about that. But Simone was more sharp-tongued and did, on occasion, wind up assuming a superior air when she talked to January.

  This is ridiculous, January thought. She decided to face the music and not put off the inevitable. Because even though she might call Tatum instead of Simone to tell her sister that plans have been changed, somewhere along the line, Simone would call her and let her know that she had “expected this all along.”

  Just before she dialed Simone, January glanced at the little girl who was the reason she was doing this in the first place.

  She was right to do this. There would be other vacation getaways with her sisters, but Maya needed her right now.

  Taking a deep breath, January placed her call.

  The cell phone on the other end was picked up before the second ring had completed.

  “I had a feeling I’d be hearing from you, Jan,” Simone said. There was that touch of smugness, January thought, pressing her lips together. “So, what excuse are you going to give us?”

  “No excuse, Simone,” January replied. “Just the truth.”

  “And that is?” Simone asked, waiting.

  January didn’t hesitate. She gave her sister the story straight. “There was a little five-year-old deaf girl found crouching behind some crates in an abandoned warehouse. There were three men found in that same warehouse. They had been killed execution-style. It turns out that I’m the only one here who can communicate with her. So instead of going on vacation, I’m taking Maya—that’s her name—home with me so I can try to make her feel safe. Do you have a problem with that?”

  For a moment, Simone didn’t answer. And then, using a very different tone, her sister said, “Well, if you put it that way, no. We’ll just postpone our vacation and go to that spa some other time—”

  “Don’t you dare,” January cried. She didn’t want to ruin everyone’s vacation because of something she felt she had to do. “I want you and Tatum to go and have fun for all three of us, do you hear me?”

  “While you’re getting fitted for your angel wings?” Simone asked.

  “No angel wings, Simone,” January replied. “I swear, if you saw this little girl’s face and thought you could help her, you’d be doing the same thing I am. Now I want you to promise me that you and Tatum are going to be on that plane tomorrow, flying to that spa getaway. Okay? I don’t need to feel any more guilty about not being there for this vacation with you than I already do. Now go!”

  “Are you sure?” Simone asked her.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” January assured her sister with feeling.

  She heard Simone pretend to sigh. “Okay, we’ll do our best. But you’re not off the hook by a long shot, little sister,” Simone told her. “You owe us a sister getaway, and Tatum and I intend to collect.”

  “You got it,” January promised. “Now I’ve got to go. But tell Tatum I’m sorry.”

  “Will do.” Simone began to talk quickly before January hung up. “To tell you the truth, I half expected you to call her and not me. Why did you call me?”

  So Simone was aware of the way she could sound sometimes, January thought. Apparently, there was hope. “Because it was the right thing to do, Simone,” January told her.

  “You know, someday those merit badges of yours are really going to start weighing you down, Jan. Take care of yourself—and try to let someone else save the world once in a while,” she told her baby sister.

  If she argued over Simone’s assumption, January knew she wouldn’t be able to get off the phone, so she just promised, “Will do.”

  “Uh-huh,” Simone murmured. But before she could say that she knew January was just humoring her, January terminated the call.

  January sighed as she shook her head.

  “So, did you wind up managing to placate everyone?” Sean asked when she reentered the interview room, putting her cell phone away.

  Her head jerked up. January had almost forgotten that he was there. “Yes. For the time being,” she told the detective.

  Sean had another point he wanted to raise with her. He decided that now was as good a time as any. “Listen, I heard you tell your supervisor, that Blackwell guy,” he added for good measure, “that you were planning on taking Maya home with you.”

  Dealing with Simone had taught her to recognize the signs that she was about to be ambushed. “I am,” she answered guardedly.

  “Well, to be honest with you,” he began, sensing that if he just flat out told her he didn’t want her doing something, she was the type who would just roll right over him. “I’m not really very thrilled with that idea.”

  “I didn’t realize that was a requirement, having you thrilled over my taking her into my home,” January told the detective.

  Okay, maybe he would have better luck being direct, Sean thought. “Look, everything points to this being a dangerous situation.”

  January stopped him right there. “No kidding, Sherlock,” she said. “Isn’t that why it was decided that she needed someone to take her in the first place? Because she could be in danger?”

  “Yes, but—” Sean began to answer, but got no further than he had the first time.

  “Tell me, were you planning on keeping Maya at the police station indefinitely? Because if not,” she said, answering her own question before he had a chance to, “then I’m going to take her with me to my town house so I can look a
fter her.”

  Sean found himself struggling to keep his temper. “Damn but you are one stubborn woman,” the detective told January, annoyed.

  She met his glare, and for some reason, the expression on his face made her laugh. “You’re just finding that out?”

  After a moment, Sean’s mouth curved. He knew he had one of two choices. He either had to see the humor in this or strangle the woman. Sean decided to see the humor in it, as well as give her credit for having a bigger heart than he had expected.

  “No, I kind of figured that out earlier,” he admitted. Well, if she was taking Maya home with her, he was going to have to know just where home was. “Look, I’m going to need your address,” he began.

  January placed her hand over her heart like a Southern belle in an old-fashioned melodrama. “Why, Detective Stafford, this is all just so sudden.”

  Sean never skipped a beat as he ignored her sarcasm. “So I can have a police car patrol the area every half hour,” he told her. He was not about to get sucked into a discussion he had no place taking part in, especially since he found himself reacting more strongly to this woman than he felt was wise on his part. “Unless you have some kind of objections to that,” he added.

  She surprised him by smiling up into his face. “As a matter of fact, I don’t. I appreciate the fact that you are going to be looking out for Maya—and for me,” January added after a beat.

  He wasn’t sure how to respond to that and said the first thing that came to mind. “Yeah, well some things can’t be helped.”

  January suppressed the laugh that rose to her lips, then fluttered her lashes at him. “You mean, like your winning personality?”

  He didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he reminded the social worker, “Just remember that you were the one who wanted in on this, Ms. Colton.”

  January’s deportment changed right before his eyes and she became serious as she admitted, “Yes, I know, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Maya is the important person in all of this.”

  “Not losing sight of that even for a moment,” Sean assured her. “Okay, give me your address and I’ll see to it that a patrol car will be out in your area, keeping an eye on things. In the meantime, I’m going to escort you home.”