Judging from the way his forehead bunched up, Drury clearly wasn’t on board with this. “Then why would Melanie have demanded a ransom? Why even let you know that the child existed?”
Caitlyn had to shake her head. “Unless she just wanted the money to raise the baby. Of course, that doesn’t explain why that thug Ronnie had her.”
“Maybe that wasn’t Melanie’s choice. If she hired him to extort the ransom, he could have double-crossed her and kidnapped the baby.”
Mercy. Caitlyn hadn’t even thought of that. Maybe this was a sick plan that had gone terribly wrong.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen Melanie?” Drury asked. “Is it possible she carried the baby herself, that she’s the surrogate?”
It was yet something else Caitlyn hadn’t considered, but she had to nod. “I haven’t seen her in over a year. For a few months after Grant died, she stalked me. Followed me, kept calling, that sort of thing, but that all stopped about a year ago.”
Perhaps around the time Melanie would have been arranging for the procedure to have the baby.
Caitlyn didn’t have to ask how Melanie would have gotten the fertilized embryo from Conceptions. She could have bribed someone in the clinic, possibly even the former clinic manager who’d orchestrated several births just so she could extort money from the babies’ biological parents. Something that Drury knew all too well.
Since two of those babies were his twin niece and nephew.
The clinic manager was dead now, killed in a gunfight with Drury’s brother Holden so she couldn’t give them answers, but it was possible that Melanie could.
Drury stood. “I’ll make some calls and get Melanie in for questioning.”
He took out his phone, but before he could do anything, Grayson stepped into the doorway. One look at his face, and Caitlyn knew something was wrong.
“Ronnie called Child Protective Services,” Grayson said. “He wants the baby in their custody.”
That robbed Caitlyn of her breath, and she stood, as well. She also pulled the baby even closer to her. “It’s some kind of trick. Ronnie probably figures it’ll be easier to snatch the baby from foster care than from me.”
Grayson made a sound of agreement. “But that won’t stop CPS from taking her. They’re on their way here now.”
Caitlyn would have bolted for the door if Drury hadn’t stopped her. No. This couldn’t be happening.
“If I let them take the baby, it’d be like giving her back to Ronnie,” Caitlyn pleaded. “I can’t do that.”
She braced herself for an argument, but one didn’t come.
“Ronnie tried to kill me,” Drury reminded Grayson. “Anything he does is suspect, and Caitlyn is right. He or one of his thug friends would have a much easier time getting the baby from CPS. In fact, the plan could be to kidnap her as soon as she’s taken from the building.”
Still no argument from Grayson, but he did stay quiet a moment. Before he nodded. “I don’t trust Ronnie, either. Or rather I don’t trust the person he’s working for.” Grayson looked at Caitlyn. “That still doesn’t mean I can give you a blank check on this. How much time will you need to prove she’s your daughter?”
Caitlyn had to shake her head. “How much time for you to arrange another DNA test, one that would hold up against a court order?”
“Forty-eight hours, maybe even sooner, if we put a rush on it,” Drury answered. “We’ll need the lab you used to process Grant’s DNA, though.”
Yes, because she didn’t want to take the time to try to find another hair sample. “I used Bio-tech in San Antonio. They’ll have both Grant’s and my DNA on file there.”
She could see the debate Grayson was having with himself. He was a lawman. A good one, judging from everything she’d heard. And it likely didn’t set well with him that this would essentially be an obstruction of justice since he was allowing Caitlyn to walk away with the baby rather than turning her over to CPS.
“All right,” Grayson finally said. “Forty-eight hours. I’ll get the DNA test kit. After that, go ahead and get Caitlyn and her out of here.”
The relief was instant, and it left her just as breathless as the news of Ronnie calling CPS. She wasn’t going to have to give up the baby. Not just yet anyway. But that didn’t mean she had a safe place to take her.
“Where?” she asked Drury and hoped he had some idea.
“Don’t tell me where you’re going,” Grayson quickly added. “I don’t want to have to lie to CPS. Oh, and figure out how the baby can get a checkup from the doctor.” He walked away, no doubt to get that kit.
She certainly hadn’t forgotten about the checkup but didn’t know how to make it happen.
“It’s not a good idea to go back to my place,” Caitlyn insisted before Drury could say anything. “Or yours.”
“Agreed. But there’s a guesthouse on the back part of the ranch. It’s out of sight from the other houses, including Grayson’s, and we can use it just for tonight. Since my cousins have lots of babies, it’ll be easier for us to get supplies.”
“It’ll also make them a target if Ronnie and his goon friends attack again,” she quickly pointed out.
“We can lock down the ranch, close the security gate and use some of the hands for extra protection.”
Maybe, but Caitlyn still wasn’t sold on the idea. Think. Where else could she go? And preferably some place that didn’t put others in danger.
“It’s just for tonight,” Drury said as if he knew what was going through her mind. “The baby will need to be fed soon, and it won’t be long before CPS arrives.”
True. Still, Caitlyn didn’t like it one bit.
“Are you, uh, okay with this?” But she immediately waved off her question. “Of course you’re not okay. First thing in the morning, I promise, I’ll start looking for bodyguards.”
He didn’t give her his opinion on that. “I’ll pull an unmarked car to the back of the building.”
Drury headed out as Grayson came in with the DNA test kit. He’d obviously done this before because he did the cheek swab in just a few seconds. The baby still stirred a little and made a whimpering sound of protest, but she went right back to sleep.
“I’ll have this couriered to the lab,” Grayson explained as he started toward the door again. But he stopped. “If the child’s not yours, I’ll expect you to turn her over to CPS. Got that?”
She nodded. Caitlyn understood that’s what would have to happen. Well, she understood with her head anyway. It was her heart that was giving her some trouble because Caitlyn felt as if this baby already belonged to her. It would crush her to learn differently.
Caitlyn heard the footsteps in the hall and automatically tensed, but it was just Drury. He glanced at the DNA packet.
“I’ll call you as soon as we have the results,” Grayson assured them.
Drury took her by the arm and led her to the back of the building and through a break room. He paused at the exit, opening the door and glancing around. He also drew his weapon before he helped her out and into the backseat of the waiting unmarked car.
Which wasn’t empty.
Drury’s brother Lucas was behind the wheel.
“Lucas came when he heard about the attack,” Drury said.
Since Lucas was a Texas Ranger, it made sense that he would know about the attack, but it surprised her that he would involve himself in this. Like most of the Rylands, Lucas disliked her, maybe even hated her, because of the nasty breakup between Drury and her.
Lucas didn’t say a word to her, though he did spare her a glance in the rearview mirror. He took off as soon as Drury had shut the door.
Drury kept his gun drawn, and he looked all around them. No doubt for any thugs who might be watching for them to leave.
Suddenly, a new wave of fea
r crawled through her. As bad as it’d been inside the sheriff’s office, this was worse.
“Is the car bulletproof?” she asked, and she hated the tremble in her voice.
“Bullet resistant,” Drury corrected.
She wasn’t certain, but Caitlyn thought that meant they could still be shot. Drury was certainly aware of that possibility, too. And this had to be bringing back god-awful memories for him.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
There was no way Drury could have known what the blanket apology meant. Or at least she hadn’t thought he would know, but when he glanced at her, she saw it in his eyes. The memories.
Or rather the nightmare.
Of his wife. Lily. She’d been killed by a gunman’s bullet in a botched store robbery, and while Caitlyn didn’t know all the details, she knew Drury had still been grieving her loss when they’d met. Heck, he probably still was.
And she hadn’t helped with that.
Just as Drury had started to risk his heart again, she’d stomped on it. It didn’t matter that she thought she had a good reason. Several of them in fact. No. It didn’t matter.
Drury’s phone buzzed, and Caitlyn prayed this wasn’t another round of bad news. However, that wasn’t a bad news kind of look on Drury’s face when he looked at the screen.
“Don’t say anything,” he warned her. He pressed the answer button and put the call on speaker.
It didn’t take long for her to hear the caller’s voice. “What the hell did you do?” the man asked.
Caitlyn immediately recognized the voice, and it only tightened the knot in her stomach. Because it was her former brother-in-law and one of her suspects.
Jeremy.
“Well?” Jeremy snapped when Drury didn’t immediately answer.
“Well what?” Drury snapped right back.
“You know. You damn well know.”
Drury huffed. “I’m giving you one more chance to make sense, and if you don’t, I’m ending this call. Then you can bother someone else. What is it that you think I did?”
“You sent those men after me,” Jeremy insisted.
Drury looked at Caitlyn, no doubt to see if she knew anything about this, but she shook her head.
“What men?” Drury questioned.
“The men who want money. A ransom, they said. They want me to pay them for Grant’s kid.”
It took Caitlyn a moment for that to sink in. Had the kidnappers really contacted Jeremy? If so, they’d probably done the same to his mother, too. Of course, that was assuming that Jeremy was telling the truth, but Caitlyn didn’t trust him. Trusted his mother even less.
Drury cursed. “Start talking, and tell me everything,” he ordered Jeremy.
“I’ve already told you everything. Two men showed up at my office a couple of minutes ago. Or rather the parking lot at my office. They accosted me, showed me a picture of some kid that they claimed was Grant and Caitlyn’s.”
“Who were the men?” Drury pressed. “And where are they now?”
“I don’t know. Never saw them before in my life. But they said something about the kid being born through a surrogate and if I wanted the kid that I was to pony up a million bucks. They said I had one hour to get the cash, and they left. They drove off in a black SUV.”
“I’m still trying to figure out why you think I had anything to do with this,” Drury said.
Jeremy made a sound to indicate that the answer was obvious. It wasn’t. “The men told me to pay the money to you.”
Because Drury’s arm was touching hers, she felt his muscles tense. “Me?”
But Jeremy didn’t jump to verify that. Instead, he cursed. “The men are back.”
Caitlyn heard some shouts, one of them belonging to Jeremy. “Stop!” he yelled.
“Get someone out to Jeremy Denson’s office,” Drury told his brother. “Jeremy, are you there?”
No answer.
The line was dead.
Chapter Five
Drury waited. Something he’d been doing all night.
Patience had never been his strong suit, and that was especially true now. He wanted answers. Answers that he wasn’t getting. Well, he wasn’t getting the right answers anyway.
He’d certainly gotten a string of wrong ones.
No news on Jeremy. Nothing else on the kidnappers, either. Ronnie was sticking to his story about Caitlyn stealing his child. And CPS was pushing Grayson to disclose the location of the baby.
Grayson was staying quiet for now on anything about the baby, though he almost certainly knew that they were at the ranch. Drury wasn’t sure how long Grayson’s silence would last. Especially since CPS had said they would get protection for the little girl. If they did that, Drury wasn’t even sure it was a good idea for Caitlyn and him to keep her.
Unless the child turned out to be hers, that is.
If the baby was indeed her child, then there was no way Caitlyn would give her up. A match wouldn’t mean the baby was safe, though. Caitlyn, either. And that left Drury with another question for which he didn’t have an answer.
What then?
The logical part of him was saying he should step away from this. That his past with Caitlyn was just that—the past. But the illogical part of him put up an argument about it. Drury figured it had plenty to do with the old attraction. The one that was still there.
He threw back the covers and got off the sofa where he’d spent the night. Not sleeping, that’s for sure. The sofa was about six inches too short for his body, and the thoughts racing through his head hadn’t exactly spurred a peaceful sleep. He could still hear the shots. Could still see that look of terror on Caitlyn’s face.
Of course, the shooting had brought back the old memories. Of that same look of terror on Lily’s face before she’d died in his arms. Memories that he pushed aside. Like the attraction for Caitlyn, he didn’t want to cloud his mind with things from the past that he couldn’t change.
Since he didn’t hear Caitlyn stirring in the bedroom, he tried to be quiet when he went to the kitchen and made some coffee. The small counter was dotted with baby formula and other supplies. Something Lucas had managed to get for them before he’d left the guesthouse shortly after midnight. Later, Drury would need to thank him for helping. Grayson, too.
And that thanks would include them not mentioning that he shouldn’t be under the same roof with Caitlyn.
Drury sipped his coffee, went through his emails on the laptop that Lucas had also provided. No updates since the last time he checked other than Grayson was going to have the deputy at the hospital talk to Ronnie again. Maybe the man would cave on his story so that there’d be no question about Caitlyn’s innocence.
She already had enough strikes against her with his family of lawmen without adding that.
He heard a slight thudding sound in the bedroom, and Drury practically threw his coffee cup on the table and hurried to find out if anything had happened. Not that he had to go far. It was literally only a few steps from the kitchen. He drew his gun from his shoulder holster and threw open the door, bracing himself for the worst. But it wasn’t the worst.
Caitlyn was standing there naked.
Almost naked anyway. She was putting on an oversize bathrobe, and he got a glimpse of her body before she managed to yank the sides together and tie the sash.
“Sorry,” she whispered. Maybe an apology for the peep show. Or maybe because she’d clearly startled him. Caitlyn picked up the plastic baby bottle that she’d obviously dropped. “I’m on edge, too,” she added.
No doubt, but at the moment she didn’t exactly look on edge. Their gazes connected. Held. And he saw in her eyes something he didn’t want to see. The old heat.
Drury looked away and reholstered his gun. Since he was alre
ady there, he also checked on the baby. There’d been no time to get a crib, so the little girl was sleeping on the center of the bed where she’d likely spent most of the night. The covers on the floor told him that Caitlyn had probably slept there.
“I was afraid of rolling onto her during the night,” Caitlyn said. “She’s so little.” There was some fear in her voice, but he didn’t think it was from the danger but rather because it was true. The baby really was tiny.
“Did she sleep okay?” he asked.
Caitlyn nodded, then shrugged. “I guess she did. I don’t really know how often a baby should be waking up.”
Neither did Drury, but Caitlyn had gotten up twice in the night to warm bottles. Drury had asked if he could help. Especially since Caitlyn had had to walk right past him to get to the kitchen. But she’d declined his offer.
“Please tell me you have good news. Any good news,” Caitlyn said.
It took Drury a couple of moments to come up with something that could possibly be considered good. “Grayson is bringing in both Helen and Melanie for questioning.”
Caitlyn flexed her eyebrows. “I’m betting neither was happy about that.”
“They weren’t. Especially Helen. Grayson said she didn’t seem too concerned when he told her about the call we’d gotten from Jeremy.”
“She wouldn’t be. Jeremy and she haven’t been on friendly terms in years. Jeremy’s a hothead.”
Yeah, Drury had figured that out from the brief phone call. But the “hothead” was about to be labeled a missing person if they didn’t hear from him soon.
“Someone had tampered with the security cameras in the parking garage where Jeremy made that call,” he explained. “There’s no footage for fifteen minutes before the call or for a half hour afterward.”
She stayed quiet a moment. “You think Jeremy could have really been kidnapped?”
Drury had to lift his shoulder. “You know him better than I do. Would he fake a disappearance?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn said without hesitation. “If it benefited him in some way. And this possibly could if he thought he was a suspect in the attack last night.” But then she shook her head. “Of course, he wouldn’t have had any part in her birth.” She glanced at the baby.
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