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care of Lucas on her own.
    “But you must have had some health problems,” he said, “or you wouldn’t have had to use a donor embryo.”
    “I’m sterile because of chemo I had to have when I was a kid.” Again, way too much information. “And I’d rather not talk about that.”
    The silence turned awkward in a hurry, and Gabrielle didn’t like that he suddenly seemed to be feeling sorry for her, or for what he’d done. This was essentially war between them, and she wanted to hang on to every dropof the anger, because it would fuel her for the inevitable battle with the Sadlers.
    Houston looked as if he might add something else, but then he shook his head, knocked once and opened the door.
    Mack was standing behind his grand oak desk with the bay windows framing him from behind. He had several shots of liquor in a cut crystal glass and took at least one of those shots in one gulp.
    “Dale said somebody tried to run you off the road,” Mack greeted. His attention landed on Gabrielle. “Was it because of her?”
    “We’re not sure,” Houston answered.
    “Well, son, we’d better find out because now that you know she’s got your boy, you can’t let anything happen to him.”
    Gabrielle had to bite her tongue. She hated that this arrogant man felt he had the right to dictate anything about Lucas. Lucas was hers!
    “How you handling things?” Mack asked Houston.
    By “things,” he no doubt meant Lucas. But Houston didn’t even address that.
    He put his hands on his hips and stared at his father. “Dale told you about the green Range Rover.”
    “He did. What’s that all about? Why does it matter if I drove it or not?”
    Gabrielle didn’t wait for Houston. She jumped right in with her answer. “Three days ago, someone driving a Range Rover followed me. A PI friend traced the plates to one of your ranch vehicles.”
    “I see.” Mack had another gulp of the liquor. “And you think it was me?”
    “Was it?” she demanded.
    Mack didn’t jump to deny it. “I used the Range Rover,” he calmly admitted. “It was the anniversary of my wife’s death, and I just wanted to get out for a while. I drove into San Antonio, to the Menger Bar, and had a few drinks. Last I heard, that wasn’t a crime.”
    He was denying his guilt, and that shot her anger through the roof. “You followed me. Why?”
    Gabrielle expected Houston to jump in and tell her to back off, that his father was innocent, but he didn’t. He, too, stared at his father and waited for an answer.
    Mack took a deep breath and eased into the chair behind his desk. However, he didn’t address Gabrielle’s question. Instead, he looked at Houston. “I was worried about you, son. It’s been three years since Lizzy died, and you haven’t moved on with your life.”
    Everything inside Gabrielle went still.
    Houston apparently had the opposite reaction. “What the hell does that mean?” he snarled.
    Mack dodged his son’s glare and slowly ran his finger around the rim of his glass. “It means I wanted to help you.” He paused. “And I did.”
    She felt the knot form in her stomach, and Gabrielle slid her hand over it. It didn’t soothe her. Nothing would at this point. Her entire body was bracing itself for what Mack was about to say.
    “How did you help?” Houston demanded.
    Mack finished his drink, taking the rest in one gulp. “Almost a year ago, when you were out, you got a call from the Cryogen Clinic, the place where Lizzy had stored those embryos y’all were using before she got the cancer. I was worried the call would upset you, so Ipretended to be you so they’d tell me what the problem was. They said there’d been a serious mixup.”
    Houston shook his head. “What kind of mixup?”
    Gabrielle could only stand there and listen. The knot tightened, and her breath began to race.
    “Lizzy hadn’t signed an agreement,” Mack continued, “but the only embryo of hers that was left was accidently donated to someone. So I