Running Scared by Lisa Jackson Page B

you liked snobby bluebloods. He didn’t. Not anymore. But there had been a time…
    She slid into the seat across from him and pulled the collar of her coat closer to her throat. Shivering, she motioned to the waitress. “Jesus, this is a gawd-awful place.”
    He grinned. Bibi never had been one to mince words.
    “I thought you might not show up,” she said with a brittle smile, then gave him a quick once-over with interested eyes. “God, Daegan, it’s indecent how good you look.” The waitress came over, and without glancing away from him, Bibi said, “Vodka collins. With a twist.”
    “Slumming, Bibi?” he asked, once the waitress had disappeared.
    “On my way to San Francisco.” She fumbled in her purse and pulled out a gold case. Her hands were shaking as she slid out a cigarette and reached for her lighter. Little lines of strain etched the corners of her mouth.
    “Montana—any part of it—isn’t generally a layover between the coasts.”
    “I needed to see you, all right?” She lit up, clicked her lighter shut, and with a sigh, let a cloud of smoke filter out of her mouth and nose.
    “Better?” he asked.
    “Yes,” she snapped back. “Much. Not that you care.”
    He didn’t answer that one. Didn’t want to lie. He’d had it with lies a long time ago. Tipping up the bottle, he took a long pull. “It’s been a while,” he finally said.
    “Yeah, and I’ve missed you, too.” A drink was deposited in front of her and she fished in her wallet, withdrew a twenty, and said, “Keep the change.”
    “Thanks!” The waitress, fresh out of college from the looks of her, smiled broadly.
    Bibi didn’t seem to notice, just took a hasty sip from her drink, as if to settle her nerves, swallowed, then sucked hard on her European brand of cigarette. Swirling her drink, she leaned back against the tufted cushions. “I can’t believe I’m here.”
    “That makes two of us.”
    Her eyes, a dusky shade of blue, found his and he felt a sudden chill. Bibi had always been the most lighthearted of all his relatives, a girl who had been more daring than the rest of her stuffy family and hadn’t let her wealth or social position discourage her from having a little fun. She had accepted Daegan, her bastard of a cousin, the black sheep of the family. Whereas his own half-brother and sisters had detested him, Bibi found him amusing, a ruffian whose blatant irreverence for all things Sullivan fascinated her. Her brother, Stuart, the great manipulator, had used Daegan when he needed him, just as he’d used everyone, including his sister. But that was all a long time ago. Before everything had changed forever. Before they’d crossed the invisible, forbidden line. Now, as she stared at him with pained eyes, he knew that whatever she was going to tell him was bad news. He steeled himself and took another swallow from his bottle.
    “I wouldn’t have come unless it was important,” she said, drawing on her cigarette as if for comfort, then spewing a jet of smoke from the side of her mouth. “I, um, oh, Christ, this is hard.” Sighing loudly, she avoided his eyes. “You remember what happened between us?”
    A cold lump settled in the pit of his stomach. “I try not to.”
    “Yeah, I know, me too, but it wasn’t that easy for me.” Leaning forward, she dropped her head into her hands, her polished nails digging against her scalp, her cigarette burning slowly between her fingers. “Daegan, I don’t know how to tell you this…”
    “Just spit it out.” He finished his beer in one long swallow. Every muscle in his body was drawn taut as a bow string and he could barely breathe. He counted off the seconds with the quickened pace of his heart.
    “We have a son.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
    “What?”
    “I said, we had a baby together.”
    “Jesus, Bibi! Are you out of your mind?” There was a ringing in his ears, a roar of denial thundering through his brain. As if a raw winter wind blowing through