One Night Standoff by Delores Fossen

he didn’t wait until James was out of earshot, either.
    “Maybe. I need you to make sure he leaves the ranch. I have to talk to Lenora.”
    Wyatt pinned his attention to James, who started his car and pulled away. “Harlan told me she’s pregnant.”
    “Yeah. The baby’s mine.”
    It wasn’t surprise, exactly, that went through Wyatt’s eyes. Envy, maybe. Now that he was a widower, Wyatt was again the hot catch of Maverick Springs. The one all the single women wanted. A few married ones, too. But Clayton knew that this particular hot catch wanted to be a father, and he wanted it bad. So far there hadn’t been any baby reminders at the ranch, but there would be now.
    Well, there would be if Clayton could keep Lenora safe and somehow convince her not to run out of his life again.
    “See to Lenora,” Wyatt said, his jaw muscles stirring. “I’ll make sure the potential scum isn’t a threat.”
    Clayton went back inside, welcoming both the semidarkness and the A/C. There was sweat trickling down his neck, and his mind was racing with all the things he had to do. First on his list, though, was Lenora.
    She wasn’t in the entry, where he’d expected her to be waiting, so Clayton checked the den. Not there, either. He went through the formal dining room and into the kitchen, where Stella was seated at the table.
    “She’s out there,” Stella volunteered, pointing to the sunroom that stretched across the side of the house. The worst place possible for him because of the light. Stella had added heavy blinds and drapes to the other rooms in the house, but the sunroom had been left as it was.
    Clayton took a deep breath, walked out to the sunroom and found her seated in a white wicker chair.
    She was crying.
    The second she spotted Clayton, however, Lenora swiped away the tears, jumped to her feet and went to him. She backed him out of the bright light and into the laundry room off the kitchen. The overhead light was on there, but she slapped it off.
    “I’m so sorry, Clayton.”
    Hell. He didn’t want an apology. He took off his glasses, hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. “We don’t even know if Quentin had any part in this. Everything’s speculation at this point.”
    Well, everything except that she felt pretty darn good in his arms. He didn’t need any more reminders of why the two of them had landed in bed, but he got one anyway.
    A short reminder, because she pulled away from him.
    “I need to leave, to put some distance between us,” she whispered.
    He would have bet a year’s salary she would say that. “Not a chance. Again, no guarantees that you and you alone are the target. If we’re not together, it might make it easier for someone to pick us off.”
    Harsh but true.
    “Plus, there’s the baby,” Clayton continued. “I want to protect him or her. And don’t start talking about how I don’t remember you, how I don’t remember the night the baby was conceived. That doesn’t matter.”
    “Of course it does. I read your background, Clayton, and there’s nothing in it to indicate you ever considered having children.”
    “True,” he readily admitted. “I didn’t exactly have a stellar childhood, so it didn’t make me eager to be a father.”
    Even though it was dark and he could barely see her expression, Clayton figured he hadn’t convinced her.
    Nope.
    She’d run first chance she got. But before he could try to say something else that would prevent her from running, his phone buzzed, and when he saw Harlan’s name on the screen, he knew it was a call he should take.
    “This conversation isn’t over,” Clayton told her, and he pushed the answer button. “Please tell me you have good news, Harlan.”
    “Well, it’s news. Don’t know how good it is, though. I just had an interesting conversation with a friend who’s an FBI agent and did a lot of deep-cover work. He cut through some red tape and got us fast answers about Agent James Britt.”
    Good. It