Delores Fossen - Sawyer

“She’s what...about a week or two old?” Sawyer asked no one in particular. “Any reports of a missing newborn?”

Mason shook his head. “None in this area. There was a newborn boy taken in San Antonio, but that was a custody dispute.” He checked the time. “I’ll see what’s keeping Dr. Michelson. He said he’ll examine Cassidy, but if she’s hurt, you’re to take her over to one of the E.R. docs right away,” he added.

“I’m not hurt,” she insisted.

“Then I’ll let the doc know that,” Mason answered. “Right now, he’s dealing with Social Services. They’re supposed to come and get the baby.”

Sawyer’s head whipped up, as if he might challenge that, but he didn’t. Cassidy thought she might challenge it, too. She’d been in the Social Services system briefly when her parents died, but she had been sixteen. And could fend for herself. Plus, a huge inheritance had helped pave the way to her emancipation, but it cut her to the core to realize this baby could be handed over to strangers while the truth was sorted out.

And speaking of sorting, Sawyer looked to be doing just that. He took out his phone and scrolled through the numbers. Since that wasn’t easy to do with the baby in his arms, Cassidy took the child, easing her into the crook of her arm. It didn’t exactly feel natural since she didn’t have much experience with babies, but it didn’t feel wrong, either.

Not the best time for her biological clock to start ticking.

Sawyer clicked on one of the numbers, waited. “Laurie,” he said when the woman obviously answered.

Cassidy felt an emotion of a different kind. A punch of jealousy, and she would have laughed at herself for feeling it, but laughter at this point would no doubt make Sawyer think she was insane. Maybe she was, for still feeling attracted to a man who clearly hated her.

“Yeah, I’d like to catch up, too,” he added a moment later, “but maybe some other time.” Sawyer paused, his forehead bunching up. “Uh, did you recently have a baby?”

Unlike in the truck, Cassidy couldn’t hear what the woman said, but judging from Sawyer’s reaction it wasn’t good. “Sorry to have bothered you,” he added a moment later and ended the call.

“Well?” Cassidy asked when he didn’t say anything to her.

However, all she got from Sawyer was another shoulder lift. “It’s not Laurie’s baby.”

Which meant it wasn’t Sawyer’s.

“Then, who is she?” Cassidy looked down at the baby. So precious and little. She touched her finger to the baby’s hand, and the little girl grabbed on to it. “And why hasn’t someone reported her missing?”

“I don’t know, but if she were mine,” he said under his breath, “I’d definitely be missing her.”

She had to do a mental double take at that. Sawyer was the ultimate bad boy, the reason she’d been attracted to him in the first place. But this was a side of him that she’d never seen, and he suddenly looked uncomfortable that he’d let her get a glimpse of it.

“Is there anyone else that you could have gotten pregnant?” she came out and asked.

“Other than Laurie or you,” he said, stating the obvious. “There’s one other woman. I barely knew her. It was a hookup-at-a-party kind of thing. I’m not sure how to get in touch with her.”

“With your FBI resources, you should—” But she stopped. Rethought that. “You don’t remember her name.”

Sawyer scrubbed his hand over his face. “No. But I doubt she remembers mine, either. And if you think I’m proud of that, I’m not.”

He stood, as if ready to take the baby from her, but then they heard footsteps. Clearly, they were both still on edge because Sawyer stepped protectively in front of her and the baby. But it wasn’t a threat.

Well, not a real one anyway.

It was Mason.

“Just got off the phone with Gage,” he said.

“Did they find Bennie?” Cassidy immediately asked.

Mason shook his head. “They’re still looking. The doc’s still working on the papers for Social Services, and then he’ll examine you.” Mason turned his attention to Sawyer. “But Gage found out the dead woman, April Warrick, was a con artist with a mile-long rap sheet.”

“Any kidnapping charges on it?” Sawyer wanted to know.

“None.” Mason shifted his attention to the baby. “But April gave birth about ten days ago. She had a girl. We don’t know much more than that, but she was a criminal informant for the San Antonio P.D. Nate’s looking into it now and should be calling you any minute.”

“Nate and Gage are Mason’s brothers,” Sawyer explained to her, but she could tell his mind was on other things.

Mason reached for the baby. “Why don’t I go ahead and take her to the hospital nursery. It could take a while for Social Services to get here.”

“No,” Cassidy jumped to say. It was crazy, but she wanted to keep the baby with her as long as possible.

Mason looked at Sawyer, obviously waiting for his say in the matter, and Sawyer finally nodded. “After the doc’s checked out Cassidy, I’ll bring the baby to the nursery and then head to the sheriff’s office so we can write our reports.”

Mason didn’t question that, though it probably did seem strange to him. He made a sound that could have meant anything and strolled away.

“You can’t keep her, you know,” Sawyer said, standing. He went to her, looking down at the baby, and he touched the little girl’s cheek with this finger.

The corner of the baby’s mouth lifted as if she was smiling.

And that caused Cassidy to smile, too. Well, for a few seconds anyway, and then reality hit her.

“If April was her mother, then her next of kin is her father.” She hated to say it aloud, but she figured Sawyer was thinking it, too. “What if her father’s the other kidnapper?”

“It’s possible,” Sawyer readily admitted. “That’s why we need to catch him and then get the results from the DNA and blood tests. We might be able to exclude him on the blood test alone.”

Yes, but it wouldn’t solve her other problem of finding Bennie. If the kidnapper had murdered his own lover, the mother of his child, and used that child in some kind of kidnapping scheme, then she wanted her brother far away from this monster.

Sawyer’s phone buzzed, and because he was so close to her, she saw the name on the phone screen.

Nate Ryland.

His cousin and the cop from SAPD that Mason had mentioned. Sawyer stepped away from her, but he did put the call on speaker.

“Mason said you wanted some info on April Warrick,” Nate started. “Well, that’s her body you found in Silver Creek. Grayson sent me a photo, and I was able to confirm it with Doug Franklin, the detective who used her as a criminal informant.”

Cassidy was glad the baby was too young to understand the news they’d just gotten.

“Did April really have a baby?” Sawyer asked.

“Yeah. A girl, but I can’t confirm if it’s the baby that the kidnappers had. Still working on that. But we do have a lead. Doug said last year April was involved with a real hothead. A guy named Willy Malloy.”

Sawyer took a notepad from his pocket and wrote down the name. “I want to talk to him.”

“Figured you would. I’ll track him down and get him out to Silver Creek so Grayson and you can question him.” Nate paused. “There’s someone else you’ll want to talk to. A couple of months ago, April was ordered to see a court-appointed therapist, Dr. Diane Blackwell. She’s already called here looking for April, and I told her to get in touch with you.”

A therapist could definitely give them some info. If she’d talk, that is. Cassidy hoped she didn’t play the client-confidentiality card, especially now that her client was dead.