Every question Cassie had for the man flew through her head in quick succession. She knew what she wanted to ask, yet, as she stared up into eyes that cooled the Alabama heat that had followed them inside, all she wanted in that moment was to be in his arms. To touch him. To kiss him. To know what she had felt all those months ago was real.
Yet he didn’t give her the chance to utter a word.
“I can’t do it right now. But before I can leave this house, I have to ask—” Henry broke his invisible mold long enough to take a step closer.
Cassie’s thoughts scattered, leaving her utterly unprepared for the one question she should have seen coming.
Henry squared his shoulders and, with a look that was nothing but vulnerable, he finally asked it. “Cassie, am I the father?”
So, standing in her entryway with what felt like a town-size number of questions just outside her door, Cassie decided it was time for them to have at least one answer. Even if she had to give it herself.
“Yes.”
Chapter Nine
One word.
That was all it took.
One word turned Henry’s mind from worries about the surprise that was Calvin, from worries about the two men who were still at large for crippling communications at the department, and even from thinking certain charged thoughts about the woman standing in front of him.
The woman carrying his child.
A son.
Henry liked to think he was an honorable man. One who would say the right thing, do the right thing. Or at least who had the workings where he could eventually be that person. When he was younger he thought he knew what he wanted in the future. To be a cop, to fight for the people who couldn’t, to meet a great woman, settle down and have a family.
Since then none of that had changed. Instead the only thing that had shifted was his belief that he deserved any of it. Henry had spent the last several years in between long stints of working as an undercover cop.
He’d toed the line between right and wrong, all in the name of trying to get justice. He’d seen bad and he’d seen worse. He’d done some of his own to keep his cover intact, turning his back on the lesser crimes to help build a case against the bigger ones. Calvin had been there, too, making the same day-by-day choices, weighing the good against the bad. The bad versus the greater good.
Sometimes it had torn Henry up to pretend he was just like the people and groups he’d had to infiltrate. Mean men and women. Greedy and selfish. Angry.
Sometimes he’d felt like he was losing himself, drowning in grown-up make-believe where every action had a potentially dangerous consequence.
Other times it had been easy.
He’d been able to play the role of “bad guy” even better than some of those he was trying to take down.
Too easy.
It was because of those times that Henry now felt shame burning in his chest. He didn’t have to have known Cassie for years, like her friends did, to know she was one of the good ones. She knew where the lines were and stayed on the right side of them.
Soft skin, pink lips and green, green eyes that probably tried to see the best in everyone.
Cassie Gates was too good for him.
So how could he be good for their child?
The internal war of thoughts Henry’s mind exploded with only took seconds. If he was being honest with himself, he had already known the moment he’d seen her protruding belly. Getting confirmation from her had only given him permission to finally listen to what he’d already thought about the night before.
Still, he let the silence almost suffocate them until Cassie had had enough. Her expression pinched, her nostrils flared and the very lips he couldn’t get out of his mind thinned.
“I would have told you, but as it turns out, I don’t know you.” With one graceful movement she reached around him and opened the front door again.
Henry should have said something—anything—but the words never came. He took Cassie’s lead and left, chest filled with regret this time.
* * *
TRAVIS NEWMAN WAS caught trying to shimmy down a drainpipe off an office building like some kind of trained monkey. All Deputy Maria Medina had had to do was reach out and grab the man’s pants before slinging him to the ground. There he’d put up a fight, but it had only been a halfhearted one. It was hard to tussle with your pants ripped right across the backside.
The excavator Travis had stolen and then used at the sheriff’s department had been linked to a construction company in the town of Darby, just beyond the town limits. The office manager had been able to get footage of the nighttime robbery off a well-hidden security camera. It had been the lone one not destroyed by Travis’s accomplice, a woman wearing a ski mask and boots. She had stood on the outskirts of the property while Travis did the heavy lifting, so to speak.
From there tracking down Travis had been easy enough. He was what the sheriff’s department called a frequent flier. They knew his face, his name and where he lived. Not including or limited to his predilection for prescription pills, public intoxication and domestic violence when it came to his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Sara.
“And now suddenly he wants to take an excavator to the back of the sheriff’s department?” Henry shook his head. “Doesn’t seem to fit with what you all have told me about the man.”
Henry was leaning on the edge of his desk in the bull pen, one of three deputies making up a half circle around him. Caleb Foster was the most severe of them. Henry had no doubt he knew things weren’t adding up. He turned to his partner, Dante Mills, with a frown. “I know I haven’t been here as long as you, but am I wrong to say that I didn’t think Travis even knew what fiber optics were? Let alone where to dig to get to them and cut them?”
Dante shook his head.
“That’s some out-of-the-box thinking for a Newman,” he confirmed. “His lady might know a thing or two more.”
Caleb’s eyebrow rose at that. “Last I heard, Sara left Travis high and dry for that McGinty kid over in Bates Hill. You know, the one who got naked and ran through the parade last year.”
Dante shook his head again. “My grandma said Rebecca, over at the salon, heard that her sister talked to someone who saw Sara necking with one of the Marlow brothers at the drive-in in Darby.”
“Oh, you mean the ones who opened that new hardware store in Kipsy?”
Dante gave him a thumbs-up. “That’s them.”
Caleb looked impressed.
“Good for Sara,” he said approvingly. “I heard both brothers are good guys. Alyssa had to meet them for work and said they were really respectful and seemed to know their stuff.”
Henry watched their back and forth like a tennis match. Other than Alyssa, Caleb’s wife, he didn’t recognize the other names. That wasn’t unusual for a community like Riker County. Small towns, tight-knit communities and gossip that stayed as strong and steady as a river’s current. One day he’d be able to get into the lingo with the best of them, but for now it made him feel very much like the new guy he was. The useless, beneath-par new guy who had already broken protocol that morning, getting the pregnant dispatcher to chase danger.
Though Henry doubted he could have stopped Cassie from doing just what she had done.
Then again, he should have at least tried.
Henry cleared his throat and pushed off his desk.
“So, guessing that Travis was given orders to follow isn’t a far-fetched notion,” he offered. Both men shook their heads.
“He has a sister, but she lives out of state. Tennessee, I think,” Caleb said. His attention caught on Captain Jones across the room. While the sheriff was openly charismatic and personable, the captain was openly gruff and introspective. He carried a box now, head bent and eyes not caring to take in the bustle of deputies and personnel around him. His mind was clearly
on something else. Caleb seemed to be interested in that unknown topic. He was already turning his body away as he finished his thought. “Matt is tracking her down, though. I think Maggie is helping from home, too, since our internet and phones are on the fritz. Hey, Jones!”
Caleb took off, Dante on his heels. Henry surveyed the bull pen, but his thoughts went straight out of the building and to a small box house on a street with five other small box houses.
Cassie Gates. Soft skin, lips that tasted as good as they felt, and hair that he’d been happily tangled in. A woman who had wielded humor, compassion and a quick wit with ease the night they had met.
A woman who had taken a grieving man and given him hope that he could still find some happiness.
If only he deserved it.
Henry shook his head, growing angry at himself. Not only did he think he didn’t deserve the touch of a woman as pure as Cassie, but he didn’t need to even think about that touch. Not right now. Not when the department he had pledged himself to was going to hell in a handbasket.
He needed to focus. Distractions had already cost him his best friend and partner. Though, after running into that same best friend and partner, Henry wondered what else he had missed about the man while they were undercover.
Thunder grumbled above the building. The sound of heavy equipment and ground crews outside trying to restore what Travis had destroyed didn’t waver. All calls from the sheriff’s department jurisdiction had been temporarily rerouted to the local police departments in each town while deputies on patrol kept their cell phones close at hand. Still, even the workers outside knew the precarious situation they were in.
Having no communications was one thing.
Having your trusted law enforcement have no communications was another.
“Hey, Ward.”
Detective Walker stood in the open door of his office and waved him over. He was shaking his head already.
“Detective Ansler just finished his sweep of Westbridge with a few other deputies,” Matt told him as he neared. “The only person they found was a female squatter we’re familiar with. She said she didn’t see anything or even know you and Cassie were there earlier. I’m inclined to believe her, since we’ve never had an issue with her honesty before. But Ansler is bringing her in anyways. She might know something she doesn’t even know.” Matt shifted his attention to the cell phone in his hand. “Suzy should be bringing our friend Travis back to the interrogation room for round two right about now. I couldn’t be present for the first time, but for this one I want to see his reaction when Suzy asks him about Calvin.”
“She hasn’t asked if there’s a connection there yet?” Henry was surprised at that.
“No. Suzy has her own system when it comes to getting answers, though.” Matt clapped him on the shoulder reassuringly. “She’s a grade-A button pusher. I’m pretty sure she learned half of her interrogation skills from her nine-year-old.” He smiled at a memory Henry wasn’t privy to, but then sobered. “Why don’t you come along and watch with me? I’d like to have you in there when she throws out Calvin’s name. Him showing up at the same time a no-brain like Travis attacks the department is a coincidence I don’t like or accept. If there’s a connection, I want to make sure we’re looking at it from every possible angle.”
“Yeah, I’d like to come,” Henry agreed. “Thanks.”
Matt gave him a smile as they moved back through the bull pen. It was brief but true enough. “I don’t know how you’re used to working in your undercover stints, but here we rarely go lone wolf to get a job done.”
A laugh bubbled up behind them.
“Yeah, none of us has ever gone lone wolf in this department,” Suzanne Simmons deadpanned. A look passed between the chief deputy and Matt as she fell into step at their side. “I can’t even recall any one instance where one of us decided to figure out things by ourselves.”
Matt put his hands up, obviously guilty.
“Okay, so sometimes a few of us have decided to err on the side of keeping information close to our chest until we get better bearings,” he admitted. He pointed at Henry, mock sternness pulling his brow tight. He shook his finger like a teacher would when instructing a student. “But when things got too hairy, we always knew to call in the cavalry. Standing alone in the face of danger when you have a building full of people to back you up isn’t always the smartest decision.”
Henry couldn’t help grinning. “That sounded like something you would read in a fortune cookie.”
Suzy snorted. Matt shrugged.
“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Matt said.
The moment they walked into the hallway that led to the interrogation room, the humor dissipated. Like they’d shucked invisible coats and were about to be forced to enter the cold.
“Travis’s lawyer should be here by the end of the hour,” Suzy said, voice lowering the closer they got. “Pay attention to everything and anything. He’s not the smartest guy in the county, but after what he pulled, maybe we haven’t been giving him enough credit the last few years.”
Henry had started to agree when voices and footsteps pulled their attention to the end of the hallway. Deputy Medina rounded the corner, directing a man who must have been Travis at her side. She nodded to them, totally unaware of the change in her perp’s expression.
A shock of adrenaline charged Henry’s system as the man met his eyes.
“Gage?” the man called Travis rasped.
No hint of suspicion, betrayal or anger colored the twenty-something’s face. All Henry could read was surprise. Sincere surprise.
It was because of this surprise that several things happened at once.
First and foremost, Henry’s thoughts went to his clothes. He was wearing a pair of jeans his brother had often said made him look like some kind of cowboy doing a Levi’s ad. Women in the past had more or less given him the same comment, though their attention to the details had been less analytical and more on the sensual side. Henry wasn’t above trying to entice the opposite sex using a pair of jeans, but that wasn’t why he loved them. They fit well, were the color of worn denim, and always made a pair of boots look good.
He’d had them for years but hadn’t thought to break them out at his new job. That had been Cassie’s fault. Or, at least, her lasagna. Once he’d gotten back to the department, he’d changed out of his soiled uniform and into his plain clothes. Since there were more important issues being addressed, no one had ordered him to change.
Which was good, considering that what he was about to try to do required him to not be in uniform.
The second and third things that happened next did so in quick succession. Henry stopped in his tracks so suddenly that Matt bumped into his elbow. Suzy, a step behind, stepped on the back of his boot.
There was no time to explain himself.
He just hoped he wasn’t about to get fired.
Or worse, shot.
Riding the wave of confusion, Henry turned on his heel and fisted his hand.
Matt never saw the punch coming.
Chapter Ten
“What?”
Kristen Gates’s mouth hung open like she was trying to catch something. A few seconds before, a noise escaped the open trap that Cassie couldn’t easily define. It wasn’t exactly a shriek but not a yell, either.
Maybe screech was a more applicable descriptor.
Either way it made Cassie fight the urge to cover her ears.
Maybe telling someone about her day hadn’t been the best idea.
Or, maybe, it was her choosing her older sister to tell that hadn’t been the right call. Kristen was already dramatic in her own right. Never mind adding actual drama to the mix.
“I’m fine,” Cassie reassured Kristen again. They were sitting in her living room, untouched sweet and decaf tea beside them. The rain had stayed away from the
ir houses, but Cassie had a feeling nothing now would have stopped Kristen from crossing the street to get to her. It was like she had a sixth sense for excitement. Even if it hadn’t happened to her.
Cassie made a sweeping gesture to include her stomach. “Again, we’re fine,” she said.
Kristen, a woman made up of long limbs, wild blond hair and a nose that had earned her the nickname of Mrs. Beaks in middle school, was notably trying to hold in the rushing waters of sibling protectiveness. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again and started to turn red.
Cassie mused that the older woman looked like she was sucking on a lemon while simultaneously trying to scold an errant child.
She didn’t know if she should be afraid or flattered.
Or both.
However, she felt neither reaction.
If Cassie hadn’t been emotionally gutted hours before by the brooding Deputy Ward and his utter lack of response when learning he was the father of her child, she might have been amused by her sister’s overreaction. As it was, she sank even farther back into the plushness of her living room chair and waited out the storm.
“What makes you think that going after those men was all right?” Kristen finally said, landing on anger again. “They could have had guns! They could have shot at you! And chasing them in your crappy little Honda, too! That in itself is bad enough. Did you forget about that one time when it caught fire? And that was when it was going through Mom and Dad’s neighborhood! Where it’s like ten miles an hour! It’s a miracle it didn’t combust pushing eighty!”
Kristen’s face reddened into a dangerous shade of crimson. Her chest began to heave. She had officially entered into angry-worried, an emotional state that Cassie was used to being on the receiving end of thanks to being the baby of the family. Her brothers entered that state every time she’d dated a boy they didn’t like or been caught sneaking off to a party. Who needed parents when your big brothers were always ready to give you a stern talking to?
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