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“My disappearance?”
    “More like your escape,” Jack clarified. “Alana, you were declared insane. For the past eight months you’ve been confined to a private mental institution.”

Chapter Four
    Alana didn’t have much color in her cheeks, but Jack’s announcement drained what little she did have. She swallowed hard and eased her head back onto the pillow. Her eyelids fluttered down.
    She looked beaten and overwhelmed.
    Jack knew exactly how she felt.
    For eight months, he’d dreaded Alana’s return, but with each passing day, it’d been easier and easier for him to convince himself that she wouldn’t come back. That she wouldn’t fall back into his life and try to claim Joey.
    Yet here she was. A force to be reckoned with. A woman to fear. He should be bracing himself to do battle. But unfortunately, like her he was feeling overwhelmed himself. And empathy was starting to creep into this equation. But that wasn’t the only problem.
    There was this physical pull he had for her.
    He was sure those two emotions were connected. That, and the fact that Alana was attractive. It would have been hard not to notice that about her. But empathy and attraction could cause him to lose focus. That, in turn, could cause him to lose Joey.
    “So now I’m crazy,” she mumbled. Alana chuckled, but there was no humor in it. She opened her eyes and blinked back tears. “I’m not crazy, Jack. I’m not.”
    He didn’t want to offer an opinion on that. Instead, it was best to go ahead and put everything out in the open. “There was a court order committing you to the institution.”
    Her gaze slashed to his, and she swiped the tears from her face. “I want to see it.”
    He nodded. “It’s being faxed.” He wanted to see it, as well.
    “And I want to speak to Ted Moore and Margaret Vargas. I want them to explain why they gave me a date rape drug. That’s hardly the medication a reputable institution would dispense to a so-called patient.”
    Jack knew about the drug. Dr. Bartolo had already told him. He wanted to ask that same question himself. In fact, he wanted to ask Ted and Margaret a lot of questions.
    Because something wasn’t adding up.
    More than anything, he needed Alana’s situation to make sense. If she was legally insane, then he could send her back to an institution. She wouldn’t be able to take Joey. He didn’t relish the thought of Alana being crazy, but he was desperate to hang on to his son.
    But as a lawman, he also needed the truth.
    He cursed himself. This need for justice had been an obsession most of his life, and it’d had devastating consequences. His own father was in prison because of it, and while most would say that the man deserved to be behind bars, Jack would always remember that it was his testimony that had turned the key to his father’s prison cell.
    “Margaret was the one who had the authorities put out an APB on you,” Jack explained. “She’s also the one who’ll be faxing the court order.”
    She stared up at the ceiling, and her mouth tightened. “Let me guess. My brother initiated that court order? He’s the one who had me sent to that place.”
    “I’m not sure.” But it was a darn good guess. When Jack had met Sean eight months earlier, the man had made it crystal clear that he didn’t want Alana raising Joey. Sean thought she was not “emotionally equipped” to be a single parent. Still, it seemed extreme that Sean would have his sister committed. Unless he truly thought she was insane. Then, Sean might have wanted to hide her away so she wouldn’t be a liability to their business and so she could discretely get some help.
    “Margaret didn’t know where Ted was,” Jack added. “She said she hasn’t seen him since last night when he went after you.”
    “Well, I know where he was. He was in that alley. He tried to hurt me.”
    Jack didn’t dispute that. But he was sure, though, that his body language was suggesting some doubt. “See, that’s one