Delores Fossen - Drury

“When I found Caitlyn in my house, she was scared. And bleeding.”

Grayson lifted his shoulder, and even though he didn’t say the actual words, his expression was a reminder that she’d fooled Drury before. That’s the way the Rylands would see it anyway. But she hadn’t fooled him so much as she’d been fooled.

By Grant.

But that was an old wound of a different kind.

“Think this through,” Caitlyn continued because she clearly had some more convincing to do with Grayson. “Why would I steal a baby and run to Drury?”

Grayson stayed quiet, probably because there was no scenario he could come up with where she’d do that. Because she wouldn’t.

“So, the baby is really yours?” Grayson asked.

Caitlyn hated to hesitate, but she didn’t want to withhold anything. Considering her track record with the Rylands, it would be hard enough to get them to trust her if they caught her in a lie.

She looked down at the newborn. At that precious little face, and she got that same deep feeling of love that she’d gotten the first time she saw her. Of course, she’d been wrong about her feelings before, but Caitlyn didn’t think that was the case right now. In fact, she would stake her life on it.

“Other than the test I had run on the DNA sample the kidnapper sent me, I don’t have any proof,” Caitlyn admitted, “but she looks like the pictures of me when I was a baby.”

Grayson groaned, an almost identical reaction to the one Drury had had when she’d first told him.

“I can get the proof,” she insisted. “I can have her DNA tested again and compared to mine and Grant’s. I just need time.” She stepped closer to Grayson and looked him straight in the eyes. “But I’m not going to give her to you so you can hand her over to the very man who tried to kill us.”

Grayson’s attention shifted to Drury then. “You believe her?”

Drury didn’t answer for several long moments. “The guy shot at me when I pulled up in front of my house. If he was truly just after Caitlyn to get his child back, then why go after me like that?” He tapped his badge. “I identified myself, and he still shot at me. Plus, he had those items in his vehicle.”

No head shake from Grayson this time. He nodded. Apparently, that was enough to convince him that Ronnie was lying.

“I’ll post a deputy outside his hospital room and keep digging into his background to see what turns up,” Grayson said. “Why don’t you two wait in my office while I call the doctor and get him down here?”

Caitlyn wasn’t sure she could trust the doctor. Any doctor. But her options were limited. She couldn’t just go running out into the rainy night with the baby, and she didn’t even have any supplies.

“Could you please have someone get the baby some formula and diapers?” she asked.

Another nod from Grayson, and he got started on that while Drury led her to Grayson’s office. It wasn’t the first time she’d been there. Once when she’d still been seeing Drury, he’d brought her here to meet his cousins. Of course, they had been a lot friendlier to her than they were now.

Because her legs felt ready to give way, Caitlyn sank down into one of the chairs and looked up at Drury. “Thank you.”

He huffed, clearly not meant to convey “you’re welcome” because he probably hated her for getting him involved in this. Maybe soon she could convince him that she truly was sorry along with making plans to put some distance between them.

But how?

She didn’t even have a phone, and besides even if she had one, Caitlyn wasn’t sure who to call. Maybe a bodyguard, but at this point, she didn’t even know who she could trust.

Other than Drury, that is.

And that trust was on shaky ground. Yes, he would protect her because he was an FBI agent and it was his job, but she’d already put him in danger once and didn’t want to risk doing that again.

“Can you help me arrange for a safe house?” she asked.

A muscle flickered in his jaw, and he pulled a chair from the corner and sat where he was facing her. “Yes, I can do that, but I want you to do something for me. Tell me everything—and I mean everything—about who could be part of this.”

Caitlyn was certain she looked confused. Because she was. “You mean about the baby?”

“For starters. You didn’t have anything to do with what went on at Conceptions, did you?”

That put a huge knot in her stomach. Not because it was true. It wasn’t. But because he would even consider she’d do something like that.

“No. I gave up on having Grant’s baby months before he died.” And she made the mistake of dodging his gaze.

Drury noticed.

He put his fingers beneath her chin, lifting it and forcing eye contact. “Explain that,” he insisted.

Caitlyn hadn’t wanted to get into all of this now, but it could be connected. Could. Still, it would mean reopening old wounds that still hadn’t healed. Never would. Plus, it was hard to discuss any of this when she was holding the baby. Perhaps Grant’s and her baby.

“When Grant was killed, he’d been having an affair,” she said.

“Is that the reason you were divorcing him?”

“Among other things.” Caitlyn paused. “The only reason I’m bringing it up now is because his girlfriend, Melanie Cordova, could be responsible for at least part of this.”

Of course, he looked confused, and Drury motioned for her to continue.

Caitlyn did, after she took a deep breath. “Melanie was devastated after Grant’s death, and it’s possible she’s the one who arranged for the baby to be born. So she could have some part of Grant.”

“Even if that part meant the baby would be yours?” he questioned. “Because as a mistress, you’d think the last thing she would want around was her lover’s baby with another woman.”

“I know,” Caitlyn admitted. Obviously, there were holes in her theory about Melanie’s possible involvement. “But maybe Melanie was so desperate to have Grant’s child that she didn’t care if I was the biological mother.”

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.”