Free Against the Heart by Kat Martin Page B

opportunity to talk to her, convince her to stay.
    "So you’re just going to let her go?" Daniel asked darkly.  Ian wasn’t sure what time his father had come home from Heddy’s, but it was late, sometime early this morning.  By then, Meri had returned to her own room down the hall.
    "You think I want her to leave?  She’s in trouble, Dad.  I knew it when she came.  I don’t want her to leave anymore than you do.  I want her to stay here where she’ll be safe."
    Ian dug out his iPhone, showed his father the email he had received that morning from L.A.  "I ran a background check, started doing some digging.  I didn’t like doing it, but I was out of alternatives."
    "What is it?  Is Meri a criminal or something?  Because if that’s what you’re saying, I don’t believe it."
    "She isn’t a criminal.  From what I can tell, she’s exactly what she seems.  She was born in San Bernardino.  Her folks were killed in a car wreck when she was ten.  After that, she was raised in a series of foster homes.  She got in trouble a couple of times, shopping lifting once, vandalism--though she claimed she was trying to stop the kids who were actually doing it."
    "Sounds like our Meri."
    He looked down at the email message.  "At sixteen, she was sent to a foster home run by a woman named Eleanor Vandermeer.  Apparently the two of them connected.  Vandermeer helped her get through high school and two years of city college before Meri went off on her own.  She was working as a bookkeeper for a guy named Arthur Battistone, an attorney in LA, when she got pregnant.  She was twenty-three."
    "If you called L.A, you must have been talking to Ty."
    One of his cousins was a P.I. in Los Angeles and damn good at his job.  Ian had a lot of Brodie cousins scattered around.  The men tended to be ex-military, or work in some kind of law enforcement.  And with all of them, family came first.
    "I talked to him.  He sent this email an hour ago.  According to Ty, a guy named Joey Bandini is listed as Lily’s father on her birth certificate.  One of Meri’s friend said he was a good-looking guy she met on a too-much-tequila night, a one-night stand she’s regretted ever since--except for Lily, of course."
    "So this is the guy giving her trouble?  This Bandini fellow?"
    Ian nodded.  "Apparently Meri and Mrs. Vandermeer stayed close over the years.  When she died six months ago, she left Meri a small inheritance.  Bandini showed up a few weeks later.  According to this friend Ty talked to, the guy figured there was a lot more money than there actually was and started harassing her, demanding money, threatening to take Lily away from her if she didn’t give him more of the cash she’d received.  Meri took off.  Spokane is as far as she got before she ran out of money."
    "So she’s running from this, Bandini.  What’s his story?"
    "A total loser.  Drug user.  Got out of jail about a year ago for selling crack cocaine.  He’s got a record for assault but it’s always been against women.  I guess Meri figures if she can get far enough away from him, she can have a normal life."
    "You’ve got to stop her.  You’ve got to help her before this guy hurts her, maybe even hurts Lily."
    Ian’s gaze went to the window.  "I need to talk to her, but I’m afraid if I push her, she’ll run again, and I won’t be able to find her."
    "Why don’t you just marry her?  You’re in love with her.  I can see it in your face every time you look at her.  Or maybe you don’t think she’s good enough for you."
    Ian felt the words like a knife in the heart.  "Her past has nothing to do with it.  I’m just...I’m not ready to get married.  I’ve never even thought about it."
    "You don’t think you could be faithful to one woman?"
    He thought of Meri in his bed last night, how right it had felt, how perfectly they fit together.  How he wanted her again right now, right this very minute.  The idea of sleeping with