Helen didn’t fire off a quick answer that time. “My son is dead, and this baby is part of him. Part of me. You can’t stop me from seeing her.”
“I can and will if it means keeping her safe,” Drury insisted.
“You can’t mean that. You really want to protect Grant’s child? Any child for that matter.”
Caitlyn saw Drury’s old wounds rise to the surface. Helen probably knew all about Drury’s past. Knew that her comment would pick at those old wounds. And Caitlyn hated the woman for it.
“I’m an FBI agent,” Drury finally said. “I’ll do my job, and right now my job is protecting Caitlyn and the baby. A baby whose paternity doesn’t matter to me because it won’t stop me from protecting her. You won’t stop me, either.”
Helen flinched. “What does that mean? I told you that I want this child. I wouldn’t hurt her.”
“Then who would?” Drury snapped. “Who would hire a man like Ronnie to kidnap her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then guess!” His voice was so loud that it startled the baby.
Drury mumbled an apology, and Caitlyn gently rocked the carrier so the baby would go back to sleep.
“Jeremy,” Helen said.
It didn’t take Caitlyn any time at all to realize that Helen had just accused her son of some assorted felonies. Or rather she’d guessed he was involved.
“You have proof?” Drury asked.
“No.” The woman’s shoulders dropped. “I’m sure Caitlyn told you all about how much Jeremy hated Grant. I’m sure Caitlyn told you a lot of things. Pillow talk reveals lots of secrets.”
Caitlyn had to bite her lip to keep from shouting out a denial that Drury and she were involved again. Besides, Helen wouldn’t believe her no matter what she said, especially since Drury and she were under the same roof.
For the moment anyway.
“Why don’t you tell me more about Jeremy?” Drury countered. “Is he really missing or did he fake his disappearance?”
“Who knows?” There was no concern in her expression or her tone. She could have been discussing the weather. “I gave up trying to figure Jeremy out a long time ago.”
Drury made a sound of disagreement. “And yet you just accused him of attempted murder. Are you sure you’re not trying to put the blame on your son so you won’t look guilty?”
Helen glanced around, and when she looked back at the camera, Caitlyn could see new resolve in the woman’s eyes. “I’m done with this conversation. If you don’t let me see my granddaughter, then I’ll call your boss and tell him exactly what you’re doing.”
“Call him,” Drury responded.
Obviously, that wasn’t the reaction Helen expected because she shot a glare into the camera. “This isn’t over,” Helen said, and she stormed back to her car, slamming the door once she was inside.
“She means it.” Caitlyn eased the baby carrier back onto the table. “Helen will make trouble for you.”
Drury kept his attention focused on the screen where they could see Helen driving away. “She’ll try.”
Yes, and Helen would keep trying until she got what she wanted. But she wouldn’t just want the baby if it turned out that she was her granddaughter. Helen would want the baby without Caitlyn in the picture.
Drury glanced at her and no doubt saw that she was trying to blink back tears. “Don’t apologize again,” he warned Caitlyn.
She did anyway, but she doubted it would be the last of the apologies that she would owe him. Caitlyn sank down in the chair next to him.
“If you’re going to talk about those things Helen just said about us, don’t bother,” Drury added. He dismissed it with a shake of his head.
However, it dismissed nothing for Caitlyn. “I was in love with you when we were together,” she said.
Drury didn’t dismiss that, but he did stare at her for a long time before he looked away. “Do you really want to dig up these old bones?”
No. But she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “We didn’t really talk when things ended between us.” In fact, Drury hadn’t said a word when she’d told him she was leaving. He wasn’t saying a word now, either. “I left because I couldn’t be there, not after what happened.”
There was no reason for her to explain that. Because Drury hadn’t forgotten that he’d nearly been killed just the day before she’d ended things. Nearly killed while doing his job.
A job he would never give up.
“I saw the pictures of the attack,” she went on.
Again, she didn’t need to add to that because he knew which pictures she meant. Drury had been caught in the middle of a gunfight while on a task force to arrest a serial killer, and there’d been bystanders around who’d taken photos that had appeared in every news outlet in the state. On social media, too.
Everywhere she looked, she’d seen Drury on the ground after taking a bullet to the chest. Thankfully, the Kevlar had prevented him from being killed, but he’d had several cracked ribs. Along with escaping death by only a couple of seconds. The killer had taken aim at Drury again, but Drury’s partner had stopped him before he could pull the trigger.
In Caitlyn’s mind, however, she saw the trigger being pulled. She felt the pain of losing yet another man she loved.
Drury’s gaze came back to her. “Is there a reason you’re going through all of this now?”
“Yes. I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t you. It was me.”
For a moment Caitlyn wasn’t even sure he was going to acknowledge that. But then he huffed, got to his feet and went to the window.
“We were both in a bad place at that time,” he finally said.
Yes, because he was trying to get over the loss of his wife and unborn child. Heck, he was no doubt still trying to get over that. Losing them wasn’t a wound that was ever going to heal.
“Does that mean you can forgive me?” she asked.
“No.”
Caitlyn had steeled herself up for that answer, but it still cut to the bone. Because it was true.
But Drury waved it off, spared her a glance. “I don’t want to forgive you,” he amended. “It’s easier to hang on to the hurt than it is the pain.”
She nodded, and while it wasn’t exactly a truce, it was a start. A start that she would take.
His phone buzzed again, and Caitlyn automatically checked the computer screen to make sure Helen hadn’t returned. Or that kidnappers hadn’t shown up to storm the ranch. But other than the ranch hands, there was no one else at the gate.
“It’s Grayson,” Drury relayed.
Unlike some of the other calls, he didn’t put this one on speaker, and since the air was practically zinging between them, Caitlyn didn’t go closer. Best not to risk being so close to him when everything felt ready to explode.
Caitlyn couldn’t hear a single word of what Grayson was saying, but she had no trouble interpreting Drury’s response. He cursed.
Mercy, what had gone wrong now?
“How did that happen?” Drury snapped.
Again, she couldn’t hear Grayson’s response. Whatever it was, though, it didn’t help Drury’s suddenly tight muscles. It seemed to take an eternity for him to finish the conversation and another eternity before he turned to her.
“Ronnie’s gone,” he said.
“He escaped?” And her mind automatically thought the worst. That he’d gotten away and was coming after the baby and her. “We should leave now.”
Drury shook his head. “He didn’t escape. Two men sneaked into the hospital, knocked out the deputy and took him at gunpoint. According to several eyewitnesses, Ronnie’s been kidnapped.”
Chapter Seven
“I don’t like being here,” Drury heard Caitlyn say under her breath. She probably ho
ped that would make the doctor speed up the exam that he was giving the baby.
Drury hoped that as well, but Dr. Michelson sure didn’t move any faster. Too bad because being in the hospital was an in-your-face reminder that only a couple of hours earlier, those gunmen had stormed in.
And kidnapped Ronnie.
Well, maybe that’s what had happened. But Drury wasn’t about to buy it just yet. It was just as likely that Ronnie’s comrade-thugs had pretended to take him by force. Or maybe the person who’d hired Ronnie had done that. Not necessarily to rescue him, though, but to silence him after he’d failed to get his hands on the baby.
“There are two deputies outside the door,” Drury reminded Caitlyn.
He hadn’t figured that would erase the worry on her face. It didn’t. Maybe because she remembered that a deputy had been outside Ronnie’s room as well, and that hadn’t stopped the attack. In fact, the deputy had been hurt. Not seriously. But it could have been a whole lot worse.
“Well, she appears to be fine,” the doctor finally said. “Since you don’t know the exact day of her birth, I’m estimating that she’s at least a week old. She’s been well fed, no signs of any kind of injury or trauma.”
Caitlyn released the breath that she must have been holding. Of course, Drury had expected the child to be in good health since he hadn’t seen any signs to indicate otherwise.
“Can you tell if she was born with a C-section?” Drury asked. “It might make it easier for us to find the surrogate who carried her.”
“It’s hard to say in her case. Her head is well shaped, which could mean a C-section delivery, but the surrogate could have also had a very short labor. Therefore, the baby wouldn’t have been in the birth canal that long.”
This seemed like way too much personal information. And it brought back the memories.
Always the memories.
His wife, Lily, had been only three months pregnant when she died, but she’d started reading books about pregnancy and delivery even before they’d conceived. What the doctor had just told him rang some bells. But Drury pushed those bells and memories aside and forced himself to look at the situation from a lawman’s point of view.
Basically, the information didn’t help at all because it didn’t rule out any woman who’d given birth within the past couple of weeks. Plus, Drury figured whoever was responsible for this hadn’t delivered the child in a hospital. Too much of a paper trail.
Caitlyn made a sharp sound, and it not only grabbed Drury’s attention. It caused him to reach for his gun. False alarm. The sound was the doctor giving the baby a blood test. The baby didn’t like it much and kicked and squirmed. Drury figured it was necessary, but he had to look away. Yeah, he was plenty used to seeing blood, but it was different when it was an innocent baby.
“I’ll get this to the lab,” the doctor said when he finished. Caitlyn immediately got up and scooped the child into her arms.
“I thought you said nothing was wrong with her,” Drury reminded him.
“This is just routine, something all newborns have done.” Dr. Michelson headed for the door but then stopped. “I won’t put your name on it,” he said to Caitlyn. “I’ll just list it as Baby Ryland. There are enough of those around here that it won’t raise any suspicions.”
He was right about the sheer number of Rylands, but Drury figured it still might get some attention. The wrong attention, too. That’s why Drury didn’t want to stick around the hospital much longer. Even though they were in the clinic section, on the other side of the building from where Ronnie had been, that didn’t mean someone didn’t have the place under surveillance.
“How soon can we leave?” Drury asked the doctor.
“Soon. I just need to get the paperwork for Caitlyn to sign.” He headed out, shutting the door behind him.
The baby didn’t fuss for long. Probably because Caitlyn was rocking her and looking down at the baby’s face with an expression he knew all too well. Love. She’d gotten attached to the child, and that could turn out to be a bad thing if the DNA tests proved the baby belonged to someone else.
But who else?
There’d been no reports of missing newborns in the area, and if the child had been kidnapped from her parents, someone would have almost certainly reported it. If they were still alive, that is.
Caitlyn glanced at him. “I’m sorry about the doctor putting Ryland on the lab test.”
They were talking about those blasted memories again. The ones Drury didn’t want to discuss with her. With anyone.
Instead he took out his phone to make a call about the safe house, but before he could do that, Caitlyn sat down beside him. “I really think you should just walk away from this,” she said. “I know how hard this is for you.”
Yeah, it was hard, but that pissed him off.
“Walk away? Right. I’m a lawman, and even if I weren’t, I’m not a coward. There’s someone after the baby. Someone who’s free as a bird right now.” He had to get his teeth unclenched before he could continue. “No, I won’t walk away until I’m sure she’s safe.”
Drury hadn’t intended to blurt all that out. Hadn’t intended to make a commitment that would keep Caitlyn right by his side. And she would be. Because the baby and Caitlyn were a package deal. At least until the DNA results came back anyway and the person responsible for the danger was caught.
He looked at her and saw that she was staring at him. He also saw just how close they were to each other. Close enough for him to draw in her too-familiar scent. That scent had his number because it slid right through him. Silk and heat.
Apparently, this was his morning for doing things he hadn’t planned on doing because he made the mistake of dropping his gaze to her mouth. He remembered how she tasted, knew how it felt to kiss her long and deep.
Worse, his body remembered it, too.
She took in a quick breath, and he saw the pulse flutter on her throat. There was some of that heat in her eyes. Her body seemed to be remembering, as well.
Drury suddenly wanted to kiss her. Or maybe it wasn’t so sudden after all. Kissing, and other things, had a way of coming to mind whenever he saw Caitlyn.
He was so caught up in the notion of that kiss that Drury nearly jumped when the sound of his phone startled him. Great. Talk about losing focus.
Grayson’s name was on the screen, and Drury pressed the answer button as fast as he could. Maybe his cousin had found something to put an end to all of this.
“Are you still at the hospital?” Grayson asked right off.
“Yeah. But we’re nearly finished.”
“Good. How would you feel about leaving the baby with the deputies and coming here to the sheriff’s office for a short visit?”
“I wouldn’t feel good about it at all,” Caitlyn answered, which meant she’d heard every word.
Drury put the call on speaker anyway. “What’s going on?”
“Melanie’s here, and she’s in a very chatty mood. Well, up to a point anyway. She’s been telling us about Helen’s visits to Conceptions, and she claims she knows who Helen might have hired to steal Grant and Caitlyn’s embryo.”
“She has a name?” Drury quickly asked.
“Says she does, but she’s insisting on talking to Caitlyn face-to-face. She says she has questions for her.”
Drury didn’t want to speculate as to what those questions might be, but he was plenty skeptical that Melanie had any information that would help.
“This could be a ploy to get Caitlyn out into the open,” Drury reminded him.
“I know. I could give you a protection detail to get here. A second detail for the baby so she can be taken back to the ranch. But I can’t tie up that kind of manpower for long.”
No, because that would include four deputies, and that was a third of the lawm
en working there.
“You really think my seeing Melanie would help anything?” Caitlyn asked. “And what if CPS finds out I’m there?”
“I can’t guarantee you that CPS won’t show up, but if they do, I could stall them. As for whether or not Melanie can help, who knows? Right now, I’d like nothing more than to charge her with obstruction of justice for withholding possible evidence, but I doubt I could get the charges to stick. Melanie could just claim she doesn’t have any real info and that she was bluffing so she could speak to Caitlyn.”
Drury agreed, and it would also likely rile the woman to the point where she wouldn’t give them any info.
“It’s your decision,” Drury told Caitlyn.
She glanced at the baby, then at Drury before she nodded. “Let’s do it,” Caitlyn said, getting to her feet.
Drury certainly didn’t feel any relief over that decision. Even if Melanie did manage to give them something, it could come at a very high price.
“Go ahead and send the protection details,” Drury told Grayson.
“All right... Wait, hold on a second.”
Even though there wasn’t any alarm in Grayson’s voice, Drury went on instant alert. Caitlyn, too. And they waited for several long moments before Grayson finally came back on the line.
“This is apparently the day for surprises,” Grayson said. “The cops just found Jeremy.”
* * *
THE DAY FOR SURPRISES.
Caitlyn hoped Grayson’s comment didn’t come true in a bad sort of way. It sickened her to think of leaving the baby, even for a short period of time, but that wasn’t even her biggest concern.
There could be another attack.
Not only on her, either, but someone could go after the baby while the protection detail was taking her back to the ranch. She hoped they were keeping watch as well as Drury was right now. Though Drury’s and her ride was only a short distance, and the ranch was miles away.
“My cousins will protect the baby with their lives,” Drury reminded her.
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