by Julie Miller
Aunt Maddie, as she’d called herself when picking up the boy, was a natural talent in the maternal department. She’d cried when he first told her Tyler was Katie’s son. Tears of overwhelming emotions that couldn’t be contained. Tears that turned her eyes a deep shade of midnight-blue and made him squirm with the urge to say or do something to make her pain go away.
When she’d finally smiled, caught up in her grandnephew’s bright gaze, that tight fist of discomfort inside him released its grip. Then she’d cried some more before wiping her tears and getting down to the business of tending to the infant. She’d fed him a bottle, changed his diaper and soothed the little one to sleep with a gentle, husky tune that had pricked Dwight’s nerves into an uneasy state of awareness.
Sturdy was not, perhaps, the kindest—or most apt—word Dwight could have used to describe Maddie McCallister. This more mature, more vibrant version of the plain, quiet woman he remembered filled out the curves of her jeans and gauzy blouse. Yet she wasn’t poured into them, trying to pretend she was something she wasn’t. His eyes lingered longer than they should have on the plump breast where she cradled the infant as she answered the caseworker’s questions and asked a few succinct queries of her own.
“Who else would he be?” Maddie argued. “I don’t understand why I can’t take him home with me.”
Roberta Hays tucked her spiky salt-and-pepper hair behind her ears and shrugged an apology. “It’s a matter of proper identification. DFS needs irrefutable proof that this baby is Katie Rinaldi’s son before we can turn him over to a family member.”
Maddie adjusted Tyler onto her shoulder and patted his bottom. “What kind of proof?”
“Blood tests. DNA. A birth certificate would be nice.” Mrs. Hays packed the items Dwight had purchased into the diaper bag she’d brought with her. “You’d be surprised at how desperate some people are to have a child, Ms. McCallister.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“They’ll bypass legal-adoption channels and claim abandoned babies as their own.” She continued on when Maddie would have protested the veiled accusation. “Ever since that Baby Jane Doe’s body was found in the city dump last year, the demand for babies in the Kansas City area has skyrocketed. Everybody wants to save a child.”
“Baby Jane Doe was murdered,” Maddie pointed out through clenched teeth. Was she afraid that would be Tyler’s fate, too, if she let him out of her arms? “I would think you’d be glad that people are stepping forward to accept responsibility to keep our children safe.”
“Not if it means separating a child from his real family.”
“I am Tyler’s real family.”
Roberta shrugged. “Your last name’s different, your niece isn’t here to verify—”
“Because she’s in trouble.”
“You have to admit, dear. You look suspicious.”
“What?”
Roberta shook her head, then grimaced as if even that small movement made her weary. “You’re an unmarried professional woman. Childless. A little past your prime, if you’ll pardon the expression. Your biological clock must be ticking off the wall.”
“Excuse me?” Shock and frustration colored Maddie’s skin and Dwight shifted squarely onto his feet, half obeying the urge to join the fight.
“I’m just saying you fit the profile of someone who raises a red flag when it comes to custody and adoption. It’s not a flat-out no, but our policy is to do some extra research into the prospective caregiver in a situation like this. We don’t want the legal parents to show up and have to tell them their child is gone.” Raising her hands in a placating manner did nothing to soothe Maddie’s defensive expression.
“If Katie could be here, I’d give her Tyler in a heartbeat. In the meantime, I would hope that she’d be a little less worried about whatever she’s going through if she knew her son was safe with me.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but my hands are tied. You might get a judge to rule in your favor but not until the courts open on Monday. And then you have to get scheduled on the docket and get tests done and paperwork filed. In the meantime, Tyler’s in the custody of DFS. I have to place him in temporary foster care.”
“He’s already lost his mother—for the time being,” Maddie emphasized. “He shouldn’t lose the only other family he has.”
Maddie McCallister was a fighter. But she was losing an uphill battle.
Dwight stepped forward and interrupted the debate. If his conscience dictated that he be here, he might as well be doing something useful.
“Mrs. Hays.” The older woman faced him, her hangdog expression and fatalistic tone indicating a need for lunch, sleep or, perhaps, early retirement. Dwight offered her an easy way out of having to maintain her tough stance. “As Katie’s legal guardian, Ms. McCallister has the credentials to be a qualified foster parent.”
“Of course.” Maddie’s blue eyes perked up. “I was Katie’s foster mom before the court awarded me full custody after the trial.”
Roberta was slower to catch on to his logic. “That’s all well and good, Mr. Powers, but that doesn’t prove she’s family.”
“You have to place Tyler in temporary foster care—for the rest of the weekend, at least.” He tilted his head toward Maddie. “She’s your temporary solution.”
“Well, I suppose I could call my supervisor to check Ms. McCallister’s license. If her name’s already in the system—”
“It is,” Maddie chimed in. “My foster-care license should still be valid.”
“And I’ll vouch for her personally,” Dwight stated in a deep dare-you-to-contradict-me voice that had swayed juries and now prompted a pair of deep blue eyes to gape at him in surprise.
Roberta’s skinny frame seemed to gain strength at the prospect of someone else shouldering her responsibilities while she got the rest of her Saturday off. “I suppose.” She turned to include Maddie. “The boy seems to like you, at any rate. But just until Monday. Then I will have to insist that we do everything by the book as far as any long-term placement goes.”
“Sounds like a fair compromise.” Dwight nodded his agreement.
“Yes.” Maddie’s hopeful energy eclipsed the taller woman standing beside her. “I’ll contact a judge on Monday, do blood tests, whatever you need. Thank you. I promise I’ll take good care of him.”
“You’d better.” The hint of a smile subtracted years from Roberta’s face. She glanced from Maddie to the baby, then back to Dwight before grabbing the cellphone and a pack of cigarettes from her purse. “Just let me make a couple of calls. My supervisor, Mr. Fairfax, will be out on the golf course today. It’ll take me a few minutes to track him down.”
Dwight watched the older woman scuttle past him out the door, wondering how long it would take her to place the calls and get her nicotine fix before she returned. Wondering how long it would be before he could clear this crisis from his life and get down to some serious, solitary paperwork.
“Thank you, Mr. Powers.”
Dwight dragged his attention back to Maddie. She was smiling again. Not that weary expression of relief that had marked Roberta Hays’s features but a bold, full-lipped curve of unabashed gratitude. Her azure gaze boldly held on to his from across the room, and her wide smile transformed her plain features into something remarkable. A chink in Dwight’s defensive armor scraped open, exposing the strangest desire to smile back.
But, no, that would only encourage conversations and connections. And she was too into her momness for him to be able to handle anything other than this brief, businesslike transaction.
Dwight cleared his throat, breaking the expectant silence and flattening her unanswered smile. “Well, if that’s all you need, I’m out of here. It’s been a long night.” He thumbed over his shoulder to the door. “The detectives or Mrs. Hays will answer any other questions you have. Good luck with everything.”
Chapter Three
Good luck?
The man who’d come to her rescue four years ago
after Joe’s trial didn’t seem willing to play hero a second time.
But what kind of professional dismissed a frightened woman, an innocent baby and an unsolved mystery that had literally landed on the middle of his desk with a good luck? Maddie had been ignored by men more than once in her life. But she’d never had one so openly eager to escape her company.
She shifted Tyler into one arm, already falling in love with the precious weight of him and soft smells she inhaled with every breath. Dwight Powers’s broad, unyielding back triggered a different, more volatile reaction inside her as she followed him out into the hallway. She braced her hand to catch the door before he accidentally closed it in her face.
“Hey.”
A storm brewed in Dwight’s gray-green eyes as he turned to face her, despite his politely calm voice. “Was there something else?”
“We’re not finished here,” she insisted, tilting her chin and pretending there was nothing intimidating about the height and breadth and dour countenance of the man blocking the exit. “Aren’t you concerned at all about Katie? I was hoping you could tell me something more.”
He propped a forearm on the frame beside her head, bringing those turbulent eyes and that unrelenting jaw even closer. “Trust me, I know very little about how the mind of a teenage girl works.”
Maddie fought her body’s urge to retreat a step as Dwight’s shoulders filled her peripheral vision. Tyler stirred against her as if he’d absorbed her tension, even in his sleep. She slowly rubbed his soft, warm back, for her own comfort as much as his. “You’re the one she entrusted her son to. You must have some idea why.”
“Actually, I don’t.” He glanced down at Tyler, his nostrils flaring as if something about the baby’s sweet talcum-powder smell offended him. But his expression shuttered so quickly that Maddie wondered if she’d imagined his reaction. “I’m sure it was just an impulsive mistake. She’d want you to have him.”
“Mr. Powers.” In a bold move fueled by fear, frustration and way too little sleep, Maddie grabbed a fistful of Dwight’s lapel and tugged him back into the conference room. He was startled enough to let the door close, giving them privacy once more. When her thighs bumped into the table behind her, Maddie loosened her grip and brushed at the wrinkles she’d put in the summer-weight wool.
But just as the warmth and hardness of the body beneath that suit jacket registered through her fingertips, Dwight stopped her hand, pushed it away and retreated a step. “What do you want from me? Legal advice? Money?”
That warmth must only be skin-deep. “I want answers. I want my niece back. I need to know why she turned to you.”
“I wish I knew.”
He turned away and circled the end of the long, narrow table. Without missing a beat, Maddie mirrored his path, pacing along the opposite side. “I’m very grateful to you for convincing Mrs. Hays to let me keep Tyler. I didn’t even know he’d arrived. Believe me, I’m relieved to know that he’s all right. But now I’m really worried about Katie. Did she have a healthy delivery? Is someone taking care of her? What if…” Maddie paused. She didn’t know where all these words were coming from or when she’d developed the nerve to say them, but she refused to give voice to the possibility that Katie hadn’t survived Tyler’s birth. “She’s like a daughter to me. I won’t rest until she’s home safe, too.”
“Detectives Rodriguez and Bellamy can answer your questions better than I can.” He spared her an annoyed glance before pivoting back toward the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me—”
“No.”
He slowly turned and glared at her. “No?”
“No.”
As they faced off across the table, Maddie could see it. She finally understood why Katie had left Tyler with Dwight Powers.
The evidence was in Dwight’s massive shoulders and blunt, unsmiling features. It was there in the flecks of silver camouflaged in his trim, wheat-colored hair. The brawny lawyer radiated strength—not just the physical kind, but strength of will and character and life experience. It was there in the square set of his jaw, the succinct articulation of his voice, the keen intelligence and inexplicable shadows in his storm-cloud eyes.
The resentment Maddie felt, knowing Katie had more faith in Dwight Powers than in her own flesh and blood, ebbed, even as her pulse tripped into overtime under his intense scrutiny. It still hurt that Katie hadn’t trusted her enough to share whatever troubled her, that her niece thought it was smarter to run away than to rely on her. It broke Maddie’s heart to know that, despite her best efforts to be there for her, Katie had chosen to go through childbirth on her own.
Dwight Powers might be a grouchy old bear who needed a few lessons in PR and patience. His bold, intriguing face might need a shave and a smile to make it handsome. But an enemy would think twice about going after anything he held dear.
Katie would feel safe with Dwight Powers standing between her and whatever threat pursued her. He’d stand like a rock between the world and her baby.
If he was so inclined to take such a stand.
This hard-edged attorney had little in common with the hero who’d stood for a few moments between her and the monster who’d killed her sister. So far, Maddie had seen little evidence of this older Dwight caring enough about anything, except a speedy departure, to believe he would fight for her niece.
But Katie had faith in the ADA. Though Maddie was less willing to put her trust in such a hard, heartless man, she prayed that the teenager was right. “Detective Bellamy said Katie left you a note. Can you, at least, tell me what she said?”
Lines furrowed beside his gray-green eyes. “Ask Detective Rodriguez. He took possession of the letter.”
“I’m asking you.”
“You wouldn’t like what she had to say.”
“Tell me, anyway.”
His chest heaved in a mighty sigh. He splayed his hands on his hips and shook his head. “She wants me to call the baby Tyler Powers and tell him she loves him. She didn’t say a damn thing that would give us a clue as to where she is or what’s got her so spooked.”
Tyler Powers? Maddie fought to ignore the fateful implication that changing Tyler’s name meant Katie didn’t think she’d be back to claim her son. “So, you agree—Katie’s running from something.”
“If she shares any of your stubbornness, Ms. McCallister, I imagine that handing her baby over to me was a last resort. So, yeah, she’s scared of something. Of course,” he paused, but his gaze never flinched from hers, “the blood we found in my office might have something to do with that.”
“Blood?” Maddie’s own veins seemed to stop up. Then the blood rushed to her feet and her breath got stuck in her chest. Dwight’s face blurred in front of her eyes. Katie wasn’t coming back. “Katie’s hurt?”
Dwight reached straight across the table and gripped her shoulder. He grabbed the chair beside her and shoved her down onto it. “Easy, Red.”
Red? Maddie pressed a hand to her clammy forehead. She felt so dizzy that nothing made sense. “Of course, the blood would be red. What…what happened?”
The table groaned as it took Dwight’s weight. And then she felt something warm press against her arm, pushing Tyler closer to her chest. The warmth stayed, radiated across her chilled skin and woke her from her stupor.
She’d nearly dropped the baby!
Maddie blinked Dwight back into focus. She hugged Tyler tight with her own strength and apologized. “Sorry. I didn’t sleep last night and I skipped breakfast this morning—it’s hard to tell, I know. Katie’s been gone for a month and I’m just tired of being scared for her.”
“It’s okay.” He waved aside her rambling excuses. “Stuff happens. You’re tough.”
She glanced down at the large, battle-scarred hand still braced against her forearm. What Dwight Powers lacked in charm and subtlety he made up for in solid, steady strength.
“That’s what I keep telling myself.” Maddie’s self-deprecating laugh never quite left her throat. With a l
ast wishful look at Dwight’s blunt, masculine fingers resting against her sleeve, Maddie rose. It was nothing new to realize she had to stand on her own two feet. “I suppose I’d better put Tyler down before I get distracted again. Do you mind holding him for a minute while I get his carrier ready?”
Dwight jerked his hand away and shot to his feet when she lifted the baby toward him. His face creased with something like pain—shock, perhaps—as if she’d just asked him to strip naked to see if his chest and biceps were really as big as they looked under that jacket.
“I’m sorry. I…”
With a deep noise she could only describe as a wordless curse, he plucked the carrier off the table and tossed aside the blanket. He loosened the strap buckles, adjusted the stand and locked it into place with an efficiency that indicated he’d done the task before. He set the carrier on the table between them and folded the yellow blanket into a neat square before pausing for an audible breath. Maddie felt her own held breath seeping out along with his as the burst of physical activity ended.
“I’m the one who should apologize.” Now she could see that he was looking at the smeared drops of crimson that could be nothing other than blood on the corner of the blanket. He tossed the material aside and pulled out a clean cover from the bag Roberta Hays had brought. “I should have dropped that bombshell with a little more tact. We don’t know for a fact yet that it was Katie’s blood. The crime lab is going to do some checking. At any rate, they didn’t seem to think there was enough of it to indicate a serious injury. It could be related to childbirth—if it’s even hers.”
Maddie pressed a kiss to the crown of Tyler’s head, still trying to make sense of Dwight’s reaction—make that overreaction—to her request for a helping hand. “And that’s supposed to reassure me?”
“You wanted the facts. There aren’t many to share.”
Maddie nodded, corralling her fear the way she had for the past month. The way she had for so many years when she’d known Karen had been in danger and that every effort to help her had ultimately proved futile. She laid Tyler in the carrier and strapped him in place. Then she covered him with the blanket Dwight had set out. “I appreciate hearing at least that much information. It’s more than the police could tell me.”