Accidental Parents Read online

  Shock at what she’d seen—obvious evidence of abuse—gave way to anger as Jade carefully put Tim’s grubby T-shirt and jeans on again. He wore no undershorts. She’d already noticed the holes in the heels on his socks and in the toe of one of his tennis shoes. Neglect was bad enough, but only a monster would mistreat a child.

  By the time Nathan returned to the room, she was fuming.

  “He has a healing hairline fracture of one of the ankle bones,” he said. “At this point, an elastic bandage ought to be enough.”

  “Healing?” she repeated. “You mean it’s an old fracture?”

  Nathan nodded. “Goes along with the scars and bruises, none of which are fresh. Old injuries, probably from abuse.”

  How could he take it so calmly? He’d spoken without inflection, without any sign of indignation at whomever was responsible for hurting this poor little boy.

  “How can you—?” she began, when three sharp rings broke into her beginning tirade.

  “Emergency bell—must be the cops,” Nathan said as he left the room.

  Moments later two deputy sheriffs followed him back into the room, a hefty young male and an attractive, older female. After quick introductions, the man, Deputy Jennings, asked, “This the boy from the accident? What’s your name, son?”

  Tim scrinched up against Jade, staring at him with wide, frightened eyes, not uttering a sound.

  “Here’s all we know,” Jade said. “His name is Tim, he’s five and the injured woman’s not his mother.” Aware these cops weren’t responsible for what had happened to Tim, she reined in her anger, though with some difficulty. “If you feel you must question him, Deputy Danvers should do the asking, because he’s afraid of men.”

  “Any questions can wait,” Deputy Danvers said. “Is the boy badly injured, doctor?”

  “No.”

  “In that case we’ll bring him back with us,” Danvers said.

  “No!” Jade cried. “You can’t. He’ll be terrified.”

  “Ma’am, we’re only following regulations. We have a foster family available for emergencies like this. Tim will be well cared for.”

  Jade quelled her impulse to flee with Tim, knowing it would do no good. “He’s used to me,” she said, struggling to keep her tone reasonable. “Why not let me take care of him temporarily?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but—” Danvers began.

  Nathan cut him off. “You misunderstood me,” he said. “Tim isn’t badly hurt, but he’s not going anywhere with a broken left ankle. I’ll have to take care of his injury first. Which will take some time. Once I’m sure the ankle’s stabilized, I’ll run him in to the sheriff’s station myself.”

  The two deputies looked at each other, then Danvers shrugged and nodded. “Okay, Doc. No problem. We’ll need some information about the accident from you and Ms. Adams before we leave, though.”

  Once the brief questioning was over, Jade and Nathan signed the forms the deputies had filled out. With mixed feelings Jade watched them leave the clinic. Nathan had surprised her by preventing them from taking Tim, but he’d only bought some time, not a permanent solution.

  “You said an elastic bandage would do it,” she reminded him. “That can’t be a complicated procedure.”

  Removing a tan bandage from a drawer. he began wrapping Tim’s ankle. “As you can see, it’s not. But this way you can come with me when we bring Tim to the station and they’ll probably let you stay with him until the foster family...”

  “No, that’s not enough.” Jade looked around, her mind made up. As a business, Northern Nevada Drilling had done its share of local pro bono work, making the Adams name well-known. She’d use the time to call in a favor or two. “Where’s a phone?”

  After wrapping Tim’s ankle, Nathan led Jade to his office, where she sat in his chair behind the desk with Tim in her lap and picked up the phone. He watched while she punched in one number, then another and another until she finally reached the person she’d been trying to get—a judge named Robinson.

  “How are you, John?” she asked. “Still cutting deals with the good old boys?”

  Nathan raised his eyebrows. Evidently she knew Judge Robinson well enough to slice close to the quick. As he listened to her banter and joke, an unpleasant sense of déjà vu gripped him. She reminded him of Gloria wheeling and dealing, manipulating for all she was worth, out for all she could get and to hell with the other guy.

  His three years of marriage to Gloria had made him dislike and mistrust manipulative women. Their bitter divorce had done nothing to change his opinion.

  Never mind how attractive Jade Adams was on the outside, or even that her motive wasn’t mercenary—this time. He wanted no part of a woman like that. Never again.

  Distasteful as he found it, he forced himself to stay and listen to the entire conversation. When she finally set down the phone, he knew she had what she wanted. Judge Robinson was arranging for her to take temporary custody of Tim.

  “He heads the children’s court,” she said. “I knew he’d help me.”

  Nathan didn’t trust himself to speak since he wasn’t sure what might come out.

  “Tim will be better off with me,” she went on. “We’ve already bonded. He’s beginning to trust me. What would he think if I abandoned him? I just couldn’t do that—he’s had more than his share of abuse and neglect already.”

  Nathan managed to nod. Tim probably would be all right with Jade. Happier than in some generic foster home. If he didn’t think so, he wouldn’t let her get away with this. But though she might be the best bet for the boy, it didn’t change the way he felt about women like her.

  Another thought struck him. “Will it be all right with your husband?” he asked.

  “I’m not encumbered with one,” she said sharply. “And if I were, why should you think that would make any difference? If you wanted to befriend a helpless child, wouldn’t you go ahead and do it, wife or not?”

  Touchy, wasn’t she? “No wife,” he said tersely, imagining Gloria’s reaction if he’d ever brought home an abused child. She’d have been on the phone arranging to get rid of the kid before he had the door closed.

  Jade took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm herself. “Where were we? Oh, yes, about the sheriff—John’s notifying him.”

  John? Oh, yeah, the judge. “Bully for him,” he muttered under his breath.

  Jade frowned. Although she hadn’t caught what Nathan said, he sounded angry. At her? That didn’t make sense, so she shrugged it off, turning her attention to Tim.

  “You’re going home with me,” she told the boy. “I’ll take care of you while your ankle heals.”

  He gazed at her without speaking.

  “You know what’s at my house?” she went on. “A black-and-white cat named Hot Shot. Do you like cats?”

  Tim blinked, looking confused.

  “Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” she said, rising with Tim in her arms. “On the way home, how about telling me what you like to eat?”

  “Pizza,” he said immediately, surprising her. “Hot dogs.”

  “Guess we can manage that.” Glancing at Nathan, she said, “I suppose you’ll need to see him again.”

  “Day after tomorrow,” Nathan told her. “Bring him by about noon.” He reached a hand toward Tim. “Want to shake on that, cowboy?”

  Tim stared from the hand to Nathan’s face, looking directly at him for the first time but making no move.

  Nathan smiled at him. “Okay, I understand. We need to be friends first, right?”

  The smile, Jade noted, was entirely for the boy, none left over for her. A genuine smile, not merely a professional one, it reached Nathan’s blue eyes, warming his face and increasing his attractiveness. Whatever she’d done to annoy him, at least he wasn’t allowing it to affect his relationship with Tim. And, no, she wasn’t imagining things. He was far cooler toward her now than he’d been originally.

  Not that it made any difference, she tol
d herself as she carried Tim along the corridor, following Nathan as he opened doors for her, the last being on the passenger side of her pickup. She had no interest in this man other than seeing that he took care of Tim.

  Nathan, disgusted with himself, watched her pull out of the parking lot before he went back inside. Why in hell had he told her to bring the boy back in two days? A week or ten days would have been sufficient. He tried to convince himself his slip was due to concern over Tim but failed. The boy’s ankle was healing nicely and he had no discernible injuries from the accident.

  Nathan’s fists clenched as he recalled the evidence of abuse he noted during his exam. Another sick slimebag taking it out on a helpless child. The woman in the van? Impossible to judge at the moment, but if he had even a glimmer of suspicion she was responsible, he’d fight forever to keep Tim away from her.

  Provided she lived. He thought she had a fair chance unless her head injury proved to be more extensive than he’d been able to determine.

  Entering the kitchen, he filled a mug with cold coffee and shoved it in the microwave, his mind fastening once again on Jade Adams despite his efforts not to think about her. Damn those intriguing green eyes of hers. Not to mention the enticing rest of her. Admit it, he’d told her to return in two days because he badly wanted to see her again.

  Which went to prove that fools never learned.

  Chapter Two

  Jade had stopped at a pizza place in Carson City on the way home, so dusk was settling in by the time she reached the curving road up the mountain toward Incline Village. She switched on her headlights and continued to talk to Tim, as she’d been doing off and on along the way. Not that she got any answers.

  “I can’t help wondering when you last ate. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a five-year-old boy put away quite so much food in one sitting. You really meant it when you said you liked pizza.”

  Tim’s eyes, she saw, were drooping, reminding her of the way her cat got drowsy after she fed him.

  “I hope you and Hot Shot get along,” she said. “He dislikes men and doesn’t take to everyone else, either. Especially kids, now that I think about it. Not that he’ll bite or scratch you—he’s not into that. He’s exceptionally talented at ignoring people, though. He just looks right through you with those amber eyes of his.

  “Speaking of eyes, I wish I could pin down the exact shade of blue Nathan’s eyes are. Not cobalt, exactly. Sometimes the blue of the lake is the very same color.

  “So what do you think of Dr. Walker? Competent, of course. As well as attractive. Pretty laid-back, though, I’d say. Maybe too much so. This is May, after all. Imagine leaving that snowplow attached to his Jeep when the valley hasn’t seen one flake of snow since February.”

  Glancing at Tim, she saw he was angled to one side, sound asleep.

  “Guess my conversation isn’t as scintillating as I thought,” she said wryly, secretly pleased that the boy felt secure enough with her to sleep. Or maybe he was just too worn-out to stay awake. Or bored with her discussion of Nathan.

  Why was she thinking about the man, anyway? He wasn’t her type, not at all. How ridiculous to be musing out loud about him.

  What she should be worrying about was Tim. He seemed to trust her, but why was he so reluctant to speak? He hadn’t said one solitary word on the ride from Tourmaline to Tahoe. He’d even eaten in silence.

  When she swung into the village road leading to her street, her headlights picked up the shiny, startled gaze of a mule deer grazing at the verge of the road. Jade slowed, edging past warily—with deer you never knew which way they might decide to leap. Or how many there were. This one fled back into the safety of the pines as she passed.

  Tim reminded her of a deer—timid and wary, not knowing what was safe and what wasn’t. Had he ever seen a deer?

  She’d have to find out—among other, more important information. Such as, if the injured woman wasn’t his mother, who was? And where was she? Did he have a father? Where had Tim lived before the accident? With whom? She knew Tim wasn’t likely to give her answers to these questions right away, yet it was vital she know.

  The injured woman must have the answers, but she was unconscious. When would she come out of it? Soon? Maybe never? Best to remain optimistic about the woman’s recovery, Jade told herself.

  Reaching her driveway, she pressed the opener and eased the pickup into the garage, although she often left it out. Her brother Zed didn’t believe this and teased her about the attention she bestowed on the truck, treating it with far more tender, loving care than his twin gave his foreign sports car. Cars, actually. Talal had more than one stowed here and there about the U.S. And maybe his country, too, for all she knew.

  When they saw Tim, her brothers would undoubtedly regard him as another one of her rescued strays. Like Wyatt. But Tim was different. Wyatt had been a teen who needed to find himself. All she’d done was show him the way until, out of the blue, his father had shown up to rescue him. Tim needed to be nurtured. She was determined to do her best to make up for the abuse he’d had to endure.

  Luckily she had nothing pressing at the office. The crews were busy, no major problems had erupted and there were orders already in. At the moment she didn’t have to go out to assess possibilities to bid on. The time to spend with Tim was there for the taking.

  He didn’t rouse when she lifted him from the truck and carried him into the house. She hesitated a moment, then decided for this night, at least, she’d put him in the bedroom with the twin beds and sleep in there herself so he wouldn’t wake up alone and frightened in a strange room.

  Hot Shot appeared in the doorway as she was laying Tim on one of the beds. He jumped up and gave the boy the once-over as she eased off Tim’s shoes and socks. The cat seemed to approve, although he regarded the elastic bandage with distaste. Tim, groggy, not entirely awake, seemed unaware of the cat.

  Jade rummaged in the closet and found a pair of her nephew Danny’s pajamas left behind from the last time he’d slept over. Danny was younger but at least as big as Tim, and the pajamas fit. She tucked Tim in, then bent and kissed his cheek before bundling his clothes together to throw in the washer.

  She turned on the night-light and glanced around for Hot Shot before she left the room. To her surprise he was curling himself up at the foot of the boy’s bed. Strange. When Danny and her niece Yasmin visited, the cat wouldn’t have anything to do with them, usually vanishing until they left.

  When she looked in a few minutes later, both boy and cat were sound asleep.

  By ten Jade was ready for bed. She undressed in her own room and donned a sleep T-shirt. When she came into Tim’s room, he stirred, his eyes opening. He blinked when he saw her. Hot Shot yawned, jumped off the bed and looked up at the boy.

  “I gotta go,” Tim whispered.

  As though he’d known this all along, the cat led the way to the bathroom shared by the two guest rooms. He leaped onto the sink, supervised the proceedings, then returned with them and rejoined the boy in bed.

  Tim reached out a tentative hand to touch him. “Hot Shot,” he murmured, and was rewarded with a lick of the cat’s tongue across his palm.

  “I like you,” Tim told the cat before he sank back into sleep.

  Jade shook her head. Tim had said almost as many words to Hot Shot as he had to her. And voluntarily. Too bad Hot Shot couldn’t ask the questions she needed answered. She settled herself in bed, intending to sleep lightly in case Tim woke again, but when she opened her eyes, the room was streaked with light coming through half-closed blinds.

  She sat up, looking toward Tim’s bed. Empty. Leaping up in alarm, she hurried toward the door, relaxing when she heard childish laughter. The sound came from the kitchen, accompanied by the tiny tinkle of a bell.

  Tim was sitting on the floor in front of the refrigerator watching Hot Shot bat the belled toy attached to its door handle—one of his ways of announcing it was time to feed the poor hungry cat.

  After breakf
ast she persuaded Tim to take a bath, trying not to wince at his scars and bruises as she helped him wash. As she rewrapped his injured ankle in the elastic bandage afterward, she vowed fiercely: He’ll never go back to his abuser. I won’t let that happen, no matter what I have to do to prevent it. He wore the same jeans and T-shirt, freshly washed, but she’d thrown away the socks so the ragged tennis shoes had to go on his bare feet. Number one on her list was new clothes for him.

  Shopping in Reno took up the rest of the morning. Jade thought about stopping by Washoe Med to ask about the injured woman, but gave up the idea, aware she’d probably learn nothing. Tomorrow she’d ask Nathan.

  Tim was his usual silent self in the department stores, edging closer to her every time a man came near. Even when they entered a toy store, he didn’t speak, although his eyes lit up. Jade was reduced to holding up items she thought he might like and, if he nodded, buying whatever it was.

  Once they returned home, though, and Hot Shot greeted them, Tim began showing the cat his new toys and telling him all about the trip. She was touched when she realized one of the. colorful balls he’d chosen was a gift for Hot Shot.

  Late in the morning of the next day, Jade reminded Tim they were going to see Dr. Walker so he could look at the boy’s sore ankle.

  Tim’s face tightened. “It don’t hurt no more,” he muttered.

  Since he still favored that foot, she knew he wasn’t telling the truth, but she didn’t say so.

  “You’ve already met the doctor,” she said. “He didn’t hurt you before and he won’t hurt you today.”

  Tim bit his lip. “Can Hot Shot go?”

  Although pleased the boy was talking to her, Jade shook her head. “He hates to ride in my truck—or any car—so we have to leave him home. But you can pick one of your toys to take.”

  Tim chose a picture book about frogs and toads, the only thing he’d actually picked out for himself in the toy store. As he turned the pages, the book made frog sounds, which seemed to fascinate him.