Page 3 of Innocent Target

James laughed. “What about you, Merc? Does this get your motor running?”

“Haha! Not sure this is in my future.”

James saw pain cross her eyes and a longing she couldn’t hide as she watched them. So many women in his life were hiding shit from him. “Well, little miss, let me show you some beautiful big airplanes.”

Mercy grinned. “Not sure that’s going to impress her much at this stage.”

“I know, but it stops my mind from going in a hundred different directions as to what’s going on right now.”

Mercy sat beside him and turned the chair to face him. “I take it you didn’t know about Abbie.”

“No fucking clue about her birth or that my baby sister was pregnant. We haven’t exactly seen eye to eye since she shacked up with some biker gang up north.”

Mercy rubbed her lips with her thumb, and James bit back the desire it evoked as he imagined her soft lips against his. “Wonder if the father is a biker?”

“No clue, but I’m going to find out. Talking of which, where the hell has Beth got to?”

James stood with Abbie in his arms, a sudden urgency flowing through him as a terrible thought pinged into his brain, making him fear the worst. Mercy must have thought it too because she stood and rushed toward the door with him.

He hit the ladies’ room just after her, but he knew. The silence was deafening as Mercy searched the stalls. The only thing they found was a note with one word on it. “SORRY.”

His sister had run, leaving him holding her two-week-old baby in his arms.

Chapter Two

Mercy sighed as she locked the Agency’s door behind her. Despite having dashed out after Bethany, James’s sister had vanished from the area.

As she walked back to the conference room, she found herself distracted by James’s deep voice coming from the command center.

The sight in front of her made Mercy halt on the threshold; James, tall, muscular, dangerous, holding the tiny infant in his arms like she was the most precious treasure in the world. He was deep in conversation on the phone, probably with one of their bosses, Emme or Shane, walking back and forth in front of the computer screen, caught up between his conversation and his niece.

Heat wrapped around her heart before settling deep inside her belly. It took all of her might to mentally shake herself from the fog of desire she suddenly found herself in. Even though it would be easy to let herself be swept away by passion and fantasy, Mercy had to remember the reality of her situation.

The man before her was not only a co-worker but obviously a man who aspired to have a family one day. They could indulge in their attraction, have a burning fling, but it would cause more pain than contentment in the long run.

At that moment, James glanced up at her and frowned in question, before returning to his call. “Yeah, I know. Thanks, Emme.”

He hung up, never stopping the side-to-side motion as he rocked Abbie. “Emme is calling Alex and Imari for help. They both have computer skills, especially Imari. They’ll be much quicker scanning the cameras around the area than I will.”

Imari was new to the team, the latest recruit to join the Alliance family, at least Mercy thought of them as a family. Imari was a hacker who’d previously worked on the dubious side of the law, but that only made her that much better at what she did.

“Me too. And we’ll need help because I didn’t find a trace of Beth outside. I guess she came by car, but the surveillance cameras can confirm that. And if she did, the plate might give us the lead we need.”

James nodded. “That’s another thing to check.”

Mercy was about to offer her help when Abbie stirred. She went from a faint whimper to her little voice exploding in a full-blown cry.

“Whoa, easy, little one. What’s going on?”

With a faint air of panic, James went back to the conference room where the bag Bethany had left still sat.

Mercy picked it up, placing it on the table. “What do you need? A diaper?”

After a sniff, James shook his head. “Nope. She’s probably hungry.”

Mercy found the baby formula and began to read the instructions when James stopped her. “I know how it works. It’ll be faster if I do it. Let’s switch.”

And just like that, Mercy had an armful of screaming cherub, her little face red and angry as if she was being boiled alive. James disappeared, and panic replaced him as Mercy’s heart raced as if she held a live nuke. Her childhood hadn’t included even one baby, her unusual life keeping her away from them as a child. For the first time in a very long time, she felt helpless as she rocked Abbie, walking around as James did earlier to soothe the infant. Her body took on that natural rocking motion she’d seen countless people do when holding a child, her voice high pitched as she talked to the baby like she could possibly understand her desperation.