That brought on a new round of profanity, and one of the suited men on the porch tried to pull Darren aside. Probably to tell him to say nothing else. But Darren only threw off the man’s grip and came down the steps. Tucker adjusted, keeping himself in front of her.
“I don’t need to take suspicion off myself,” Darren said, his teeth coming together. “Because I didn’t do this.” He glanced at the body, and the color blanched from his face, making the dark stubble seem even darker.
If her ex was guilty, he was certainly putting up a convincing act of being innocent.
“I need you to come in for questioning,” Tucker said, using his Ranger’s voice now. It wasn’t a suggestion. “You can follow my brother to the Sweetwater Springs sheriff’s office.” He motioned toward Colt, who was next to the body.
Darren just stared at Tucker. “And if I refuse?”
“You won’t, because if you’re really innocent as you say you are, you’ll want to help us catch whoever did this to Dawn.”
The staring contest went on for several moments, and Darren finally nodded. “I do want to catch this SOB. And I want to know what happened to the baby Dawn was carrying.”
Laine nearly blurted out the question that was on her mind. Were the babies his? But Tucker had already told her to stay quiet. Tucker stayed quiet, too, but he aimed a very intense glare at Darren.
“I have a right to know,” Darren insisted. “Because the baby’s mine.”
“You’re sure?” Tucker asked.
“Positive. Dawn told me she was carrying my child, and then she disappeared.”
“Maybe Dawn lied,” Laine said, and she got a dose of Tucker’s glare. Darren’s, too. This wasn’t exactly a neutral subject for her, so she matched their glares.
“Dawn didn’t lie,” Darren fired back. “And that means I have a right to the child.”
Tucker shook his head. “I’m guessing Dawn wasn’t your usual type of woman. I’m also guessing you knew she had a record.”
“Yeah, and she was a criminal informant or something.”
“She told you that?” Tucker snapped.
“In a roundabout way.” Darren paused, and Laine could see the muscles tighten in his body. “What did Dawn have, a boy or a girl?”
Even now, that was important. Maybe more than the dead woman lying just yards away. There was only one person Laine knew who wanted a child more than she did.
Darren.
And he just might have gotten his wish.
It wasn’t out of pettiness that she hesitated, even though Darren was perhaps getting the very thing she’d longed for. This was about the babies’ safety. She wouldn’t have wanted to hand them over to anyone unless she knew they would be safe from danger.
Tucker paused a moment, too. “Just how much did Dawn tell you about the pregnancy?”
That improved Darren’s posture. His shoulders snapped back. “That the kid was mine. She was five months pregnant last time I saw her.”
“And you didn’t think to report to the police that she was missing?”
“I didn’t know she was missing!” he practically shouted. Again, one of the suits tried to pull him back, but Darren threw off his grip with far more force than was necessary. The force of a man who was used to getting his way. “Dawn and I had an argument, all right? She left.”
“What’d you argue about?” Tucker pressed.
There it was again. That flash of anger in Darren’s dust-gray eyes. “A few of my friends had insulted her. Had called her a gold digger. She wanted me to prove my feelings for her by marrying her.”
Judging from his renewed scowl, Dawn’s demand hadn’t gone over well. Darren wasn’t the sort of man who would look kindly on blackmail. Or marrying beneath him. He came from old money, his family practically royalty in the county, and she was betting his parents wouldn’t have approved of someone like Dawn.
Heck, they’d barely approved of her, and her family had money, too.
“After Dawn left, I looked for her so I could pay her medical expenses, but I didn’t find her.” Darren walked closer to them. “And now I want to know if I fathered a boy or a girl.”
“I’ll let you know when and if we get paternity test results. That’s something else you can do when you come to the sheriff’s office—give a DNA sample for us to compare. The sooner you get down there, the sooner the test can be done.”
One of the suits came forward. “My client has said he fathered this child, and you have no proof to the contrary. He should be allowed to see the baby.”
“Normally, he would,” Tucker agreed, and then tipped his head to what was left of Dawn. “But in this case, your client could be responsible for that dead body over there.”
“I don’t have a motive for killing Dawn!” Darren snapped.
“She was your former lover. You admit to arguing with her. And she left you. Now she’s dead on your property, and you’ve got more than enough in your bank account to have hired someone to kill her. That’s means, motive and opportunity, and I wouldn’t be much of a lawman to dismiss it just because you’re telling me to.”
Darren’s gaze slashed to Laine. “You believe this?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Or is this your way of getting back at me? Were you that jealous of Dawn?”
“I didn’t even know you were involved with her until today.” That made it even more ironic that Dawn had escaped the baby farm and come to her.
Or maybe not so ironic at all.
“Did you tell Dawn about me?” Laine asked.
Darren made a dismissive sound. “She knew you and I were once engaged. She saw pictures of us around the house.”
Laine and Tucker exchanged glances, and they didn’t have to say it aloud to know where this was going. Maybe Dawn hadn’t come to Laine because she’d seen her at the baby farm. Maybe she had come to Laine because of her connection to Darren, her babies’ father.
Maybe.
“Why wouldn’t Dawn have come to you?” Laine asked Darren. She left out the part about Dawn being held captive at the baby farm and her escape. Laine thought she still might learn something.
And she did.
She saw the pain flash through his eyes. She knew Darren well enough to know that this hadn’t been some causal relationship. Too much emotion for that. But was the pain for the death of a woman he’d loved, or for the child he couldn’t quite claim?
“I guess Dawn couldn’t forgive me for not marrying her,” Darren said, shaking his head. “That’s why she didn’t come here.”
“Or maybe she was scared of you,” Tucker challenged. Darren howled about his innocence again, but Tucker ignored it. “Be at the sheriff’s office in one hour. If not, I’ll issue a warrant for your arrest.”
“Wait,” Darren said as they started to walk away. He waited until they’d turned back around before he continued. “You two aren’t together, are you?”
Tucker huffed. “Not like you’re thinking. Laine’s helping with the case.”
Heaven forbid, it sounded like a lie.
Felt like one, too.
Darren kept staring at them, and his mouth tightened. “Just make sure she doesn’t help you railroad me straight into jail.”
“Has Laine got a reason to railroad you?” Tucker asked. “Or was that just a dig for the sake of slamming an old flame?”
Darren got another look that she knew too well. Cocky, with a mean streak. “She was your old flame, too. At least you had a thing for her when you two were kids. How’d that work out for you?”
“Yeah, it was a slam, just like I thought,” Tucker concluded. He tapped his badge again. “One hour. Personally, I’m hoping you’ll be late so I can cuff you and haul your butt in.”
Maybe because Darren’s slam had made him ornery, Tucker
slipped his arm around her waist. No doubt it was just to get her moving, but Darren wouldn’t have missed the little gesture. He probably thought they’d put their differences aside and joined forces against him.
While landing in bed.
Darren had no idea just how much tension there still was between her and Tucker. Tension that would always be there. Except, of course, when there was a different kind of tension from the touching and long looks.
Like now, for instance.
It was all part of the “rile Darren up” act, she assured herself, but her body kept nudging her to do something more than just look at the man who had her hormonal number.
“You think he had her killed?” Tucker asked.
It took Laine a moment to switch gears and get back to the only thing that should have been on her mind. Finding Dawn’s killer. “I don’t want to think it could be true. It’s easier to believe her death’s just connected to the baby farm.”
“But Darren could be connected to that, too. A man who wants a baby as badly as he does could have done some desperate things. Maybe when Dawn tried to run away from him, he had her kidnapped and taken to the baby farm until she delivered. If she escaped, he wouldn’t have liked that much.”
Laine had to process it first, but eventually, she nodded. “It’s possible. Darren has a temper, and if he thought Dawn had betrayed him in some way, he could have struck out in anger.”
Tucker mumbled some profanity. “And you were going to marry that jerk?”
“Yes.” But then she shook her head. “Maybe.”
He looked at her as if she’d sprouted wings.
“I wanted a family,” she explained. “You know, mom, dad, babies. He wanted the same thing.”
Yet another sprouted-wings look. “What about love?”
Here was where things got a little tricky. “I’d just turned thirty, and I thought time was running out for having that family. And Darren was there, pushing for the very life that I desperately wanted. For a while I thought that was enough.”
Tucker mumbled some profanity, shook his head. “My advice—never settle for enough.”
Laine nearly smiled at Tucker giving relationship advice, but she didn’t have a chance to respond because his phone rang. They got into the truck before he took it from his pocket and looked at the screen.
“It’s Rosalie,” he said.
That put Laine on instant alert. “The babies,” she managed to say.
All sorts of bad things started running through her head. Obviously through Tucker’s, too, because he fumbled with the phone, trying to answer it quickly.
“Tucker, you need to get back here right away,” Rosalie said the moment she came on the line. “Martin Hague’s here with a court order, and he’s taking the babies.”
Chapter Nine
Thank God the roads were no longer wet, because Tucker knew he was driving way too fast. Everything inside him was racing, too, and even though he’d sworn to uphold the law, there was no way he was going to let Hague use that court order to take the babies.
The trouble was, he didn’t know exactly how to stop him.
It was hardly legal extenuating circumstances for Tucker to say he wouldn’t hand over the babies because he didn’t trust the social worker.
But he didn’t.
And it wasn’t just all that unexplained money that Reed had uncovered, or the fact that one of the women rescued from the baby farm was Hague’s cousin. It was something else.
Something that Tucker couldn’t quite put his finger on.
He’d already called Hague’s boss, Rita Longley, as soon as he’d left Darren’s ranch, and Tucker had told the woman to back off on the court order. He hadn’t outright accused Hague of wrongdoing, but he’d warned Ms. Longley that Hague could have a conflict of interest and that he should be pulled from this particular case.
Tucker hadn’t gotten a resounding yes from Hague’s boss, so she might not agree with Tucker’s demand. But even if she did, it might not be soon enough to stop what Hague had already set into motion.
“Hurry,” Laine repeated.
She was obviously just as distressed about this as he was, maybe more. Tucker hoped like the devil that all their concern was for the babies’ safety and not for the babies themselves.
There was a difference.
And it wasn’t a good thing for a lawman to lose his objectivity, especially when the babies could belong to a man—Darren—who was just as desperate to get his hands on them as Hague apparently was.
Tucker turned onto the ranch road and immediately spotted Hague’s car parked directly in front of the house. Like his other visit, he had a Department of Public Safety officer with him, and the guy was on the steps, along with Hague, Rosalie and Mary. The women each had a baby in their arms, and it was clear from their body language that there was a full-blown argument going on.
The moment Tucker brought his truck to a stop, Laine and he barreled out and headed for the porch.
“You’re not taking them,” Tucker insisted. “I still don’t have the DNA results back yet.”
“Then they’ll be in foster care while we’re waiting for those results,” Hague argued. He reached for the baby that Rosalie was holding, and she darted away from him. She no longer had a sweet smile on her face. She looked like a mama hen protecting her chick.
“Does he have the right to do this?” Rosalie asked Tucker.
Yeah, Hague did. But that didn’t mean it was going to happen.
Tucker walked past the DPS officer, sending him a back-off glare. Whether he would was anyone’s guess, and since the guy was armed, it was a huge concern. If Hague was dirty, then this guy could be, too, and Tucker didn’t want any more shots fired.
Laine hurried onto the porch, putting herself between Hague and the others. A maneuver that Hague obviously didn’t like, because his cheeks turned to flames.
“I don’t understand why you won’t let me do my job,” Hague argued.
“Because you’re a suspect in a murder investigation,” Tucker informed him.
Clearly, Hague hadn’t been expecting that little bombshell, because he stopped reaching for the baby and snapped toward Tucker. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” His eyes widened. “You don’t think I had anything to do with their mother’s death.”
“Did you?” Tucker fired back.
“Absolutely not, and I can’t imagine why you’d think there was a connection between Dawn Cowen and me.”
“The connection’s there. Both your cousin Rhonda and Dawn were held captive at makeshift prisons where their babies would have been sold. Those baby farms were likely run by the same person, or were at least connected to each other.”
Hague blinked as if he was hearing this for the first time. And maybe he was, but Tucker wasn’t about to take anything he said or did at face value. Not after the attack on Laine and the babies.
“You know where Rhonda is?” Hague asked. “She’s been in touch with you?”
Tucker had to shake his head to both, but now he was the one who was confused. He wasn’t faking it, either. “Rhonda’s missing again?”
Hague nodded, then sighed. “She’s always been a troubled girl. Always disappearing and then showing up when she needs money.”
That had made her a prime candidate for the baby farm. No one was out looking for her, and no one would alert the authorities that she was missing. This time there was a reason to send up the red flag.
“Are you telling me you honestly don’t know where she is?” Tucker demanded.
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen her in weeks.”
Hell. Weeks. Tucker wasn’t sure who groaned louder, him or Laine.
“Did it occur to you that someone from the baby farm could have kidnapped
her again?” Laine asked.
There was no sign that he was the least bit concerned about that. “Why would they take her again? She’s not pregnant. She gave birth to a baby less than four months ago and then gave him up for adoption. There’s no reason for her to be kidnapped.”
Tucker’s hands moved to his hips. “Maybe the kidnappers consider her a loose end and want her dead. Maybe you consider her a loose end.”
That put some venom back in his eyes. “There you go again, accusing me of assorted felonies. Well, I’m not guilty of anything other than trying to do my job.”
“Then explain your bank account,” Tucker fired back. “Explain where you got the cash to buy a house and pay off your student loans.”
He pulled back his shoulders. “You’ve been sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Yeah, I tend to do that when I’m looking for the truth.” Tucker leaned in, violating the guy’s personal space and then some. “Like now. Maybe you’re as pure as a saint, but if you’re not, it wouldn’t be wise of me to hand over those newborns to you. You might just turn around and sell them on the black market.”
“I wouldn’t do that!” Hague’s voice was so loud it caused the babies to jump. Even more reason for Tucker to get this guy off the porch.
“Then explain your bank account,” Tucker countered.
“I’ll explain nothing to you—” Hague was cut off when his phone rang. Tucker was still close enough to see Rita Longley’s name appear on the screen. He hoped Hague’s boss was reining him in and not giving him the green light to take the babies.
Hague went to the other side of the porch to take the call. Tucker couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he used the time to regroup. “Go ahead and take the babies back into the house,” Tucker told Mary and Rosalie.
Both women eagerly nodded, and even though Hague shot them a glare, he didn’t stop them. He just continued his whispered conversation with his boss. However, the DPS guy looked ready to intervene.
“There’s an escaped gunman on the loose,” Tucker reminded the lawman. “It’s not safe for the newborns to be out here. Not safe for you, either,” he added to Laine.
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