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anything from you,” Jaycee firmly stated. Giving him another out that he looked like he desperately needed. “I just wanted you to know because, well, because.”
    No reason to get into her old baggage. Or tell him that her own mother hadn’t told her birth father that she was pregnant with Jaycee. Not until it’d been too late anyway. Jaycee had never had the chance to know her dad, and even though he was a less-than-stellar person, she’d sworn she would never do that to her child.
    Even if the pregnancy was unplanned, like this one.
    Josh’s mouth tightened. His nostrils flared a bit. “It’s my baby. Expect something.”
    That didn’t sound like an offer of child support or shared custody.
    It sounded like a threat.
    And maybe it was.
    Josh hated her. But she couldn’t go back and undo this baby, and even if she could, she wouldn’t. Though Josh might not believe her if she told him, she loved this baby with all her heart and would do anything to protect it.
    “Expect something?” she repeated.
    “Yeah,” he snapped. And that was all he said for several moments. “Don’t expect me just to walk away. I slept with you knowing there could be consequences, and I’m man enough to accept it.”
    She lifted her shoulder, ran her hand over her stomach. “But you probably didn’t expect this consequence. We did use protection.”
    And clearly something had gone wrong. Jaycee had had a lot of time to think about every detail of that weekend, and while becoming pregnant had been the last thing on her mind, Josh was right. Sex, even safe sex, could make babies. And in this case, it had.
    She waited to see if he intended to say more about consequences and expectations, but he didn’t. He just kept staring at her and looking far better than he should have. His good looks weren’t something he worked at. They were just there. And even now, she felt that little tug that she always felt when she looked at Josh.
    Even when he was glaring at her.
    “How are you?” she risked asking. Normally it was a polite, rote question, but this time, she truly wanted to know. And she figured he wouldn’t want her to know.
    “Fine,” he snapped.
    Translation: he was not going to talk about this. But she had five months of catching up to do.
    She glanced at the badge clipped to his rawhide belt. “You left the FBI?”
    “For a while.” His jaw muscles went crazy again. “I’m on a leave of absence.”
    “Because you’re recovering from the gunshot wounds,” she finished for him.
    He made a sound, a rumble deep in his throat. No doubt a back-off warning. But Jaycee didn’t listen to that warning. “You’re a deputy sheriff?”
    He nodded.
    Getting information from him was like pulling teeth. “Well, the job seems to suit you.”
    The clothes, too. She’d known about his cowboy roots but had usually seen him in a suit or his undercover outfits. Now he wore jeans, a black T-shirt and boots. He had his Stetson in his left hand as if he’d always carried it there.
    “Something wrong?” he asked. Definitely not a friendly question. “You’re looking at my clothes.”
    Actually, she’d been looking at the man in the clothes, but it was best to keep that to herself. “I want to thank you again. If you hadn’t discovered where the baby farm was—”
    “I didn’t discover it.” His words were clipped. Almost angry. But Jaycee got the feeling that this particular anger was aimed at himself and not at her. “I got lucky, that’s all. But I didn’t get lucky enough to save those other women that the guards took.”
    No. But maybe that’d be remedied soon if the sheriff could find something at the now-destroyed ranch. Yes, it was a long shot, but it was the only shot they had unless the woman in labor could give them some much-needed answers.
    Before Jaycee had a chance to rile Josh further with more questions, a nurse came back in. According to her nametag, she was Lillian Renfrew. She took Jaycee’s blood