A Baby For Lord Roderick. Emily Dalton

deaths of his wife and child. And the baby would be needing a home…. But Liam wasn’t even an American citizen. And with the circumstances of the baby’s birth and the crime committed still unknown, he’d be crazy to get involved. He’d done his part by fishing the baby out of that rubbish bin and now they must part ways.

      “It doesn’t work that way, Bea,” he finally answered. “But we’ll talk about it again tomorrow, if you want. Right now Gran’s waiting for us. Let’s go say goodbye to Doctor Lockwood.”

      Bea struggled up from the couch and looked so pale and weary, Liam picked her up in his arms, keeping the blanket snugly wrapped around her.

      Bea giggled. “I’m not a baby, Daddy. You don’t have to carry me.”

      “But just this once, you don’t mind, do you?”

      She put her arms around his neck and tucked her head under his jaw. “No, I don’t mind.”

      Liam walked to the door of the examination room and looked inside. Allie stood with her back to them, gently swaying back and forth. One elbow was in the air, as if she was holding a bottle. Good. The baby must be taking the formula.

      “Doctor Lockwood?”

      Allie turned around and the radiance on her face startled Liam.

      “Oh, you’re leaving?” she said. She looked and sounded pleasantly dazed, and not at all displeased that they were about to depart. It struck him then that her attachment to the baby was unnaturally quick and unprofessional.

      In fact, if looks could kill, he’d have been dead the minute he suggested giving the baby the bottle instead of her. But all Liam had wanted was to hold him just once more, now that he was safe. To hold him without that awful feeling that he might die in his arms at any moment. Was that so much to ask?

      As he stared at Allie Lockwood and the baby he’d fished out of a rubbish bin, Liam suddenly realized that it wasn’t going to be possible to simply part ways with this child. And he wasn’t going to wait for God to fix things and make them fair, either. It was impulsive and possibly stupid, but Liam determined at that moment that he would play God for once and try to bring about a little justice of his own.

      “I’m leaving, but I’ll be back,” he told Allie. “I care about that baby and I want to be involved in any and all decisions made about him.”

      Before Allie could answer he turned and left the room, but her radiant look had been replaced by one of suspicious dismay. He knew he’d come across as arrogant and had undoubtedly overstepped his bounds…especially considering he had no rights whatsoever in the matter. In fact, he knew his whole manner from the moment they’d arrived with the baby had been abrupt and rude. He supposed his painful concern for the baby’s welfare was the reason he’d behaved so badly, and he shouldn’t have taken it out on Allie Lockwood.

      But, he admitted, there was another reason he’d reacted to the doctor the way he had. The thing was, Allie Lockwood seemed to be finding it just as impossible as he was to be emotionally objective about this baby. She was so proprietary. Too proprietary. Did she want the baby, too?

      Liam set his jaw. Too bad if she did. Besides, what was stopping her and her Sheriff boyfriend from making babies of their own? They had to be an “item.” What other explanation was there for Sheriff Renshaw’s familiarity with Allie’s house?

      DOUG HAD NEVER SEEN such a bloody mess in his life. It was all he could do to keep his dinner down. Sure, Annabella wasn’t known for its violent crime and he’d only been on hand for a couple of domestic disturbances that involved shootings, but not even Homer Bledsoe’s gushing neck wound had prepared Doug for the women’s bathroom at Johnsons’ Gas ’n Go.

      Whoever had given birth to that baby had lost a lot of blood doing it. Which made him wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to check the hospital at Kamas for recent admissions. He’d better check the morgue, too.

      “I smell like hell.” Lamont Johnson, the county’s one and only full-time Crime Scene Technician, was standing in the Dumpster in waist-high garbage. “Kelly’s not going to let me in the house tonight.”

      “Why should tonight be any different, Lamont?” Doug stripped off the latex gloves he’d been wearing and carefully put them in a plastic bag, tied it off and stuffed it back inside the pouch on his belt.

      Lamont snorted. “You’re one to talk. Allie’s still lockin’ you out, I hear.”

      “You shouldn’t listen to gossip. Besides, my situation with Allie is different. We’re not married anymore.”

      “Just wished you were, eh?” Lamont straightened up, pressing his knuckles into the small of his back. “I’m done here. There’s more than enough evidence in the blood samples I collected to match DNA to a likely suspect.”

      Doug grabbed the tight muscles at the back of his neck and grimaced up at the dark sky. It had finally stopped raining, but the clouds still blocked any hint of stars and moon.

      “There’s the rub. We haven’t got any suspects. And besides the blood, all we’ve got is that ratty old quilt.”

      Lamont struggled out of the Dumpster. “Think Captain Hightower will send you some help?” he asked on a grunt as his feet hit the asphalt.

      “Maybe if I ask for it. But I’m not going to ask. This is my town and I know it better than any of those jokers Hightower might send me from the main office. I know the people and I know how to talk…and not talk…to them. I’ll have better luck with this investigation if I do it on my own and in my own way. Besides, if news of this got beyond Annabella that that royal pretty boy, McAllister, found the baby, the national media might grab hold of it and the town could be overrun with paparazzi. It’s best if we try to keep this local, and Hightower agrees.”

      Lamont nodded and hiked up his drooping pants. “Well, that makes sense. But you’re taking on a lot, Doug. If you don’t have a clue who the perpetrator is, you’re goin’ to be doing a helluva lot of overtime.”

      Doug shook his head and gave a ragged sigh. “Lamont, when I think about how hard Allie and I tried to have a baby, then someone just throws one away like that…The whole damned thing just makes me want to puke.”

      Lamont snapped off his gloves and gave Doug a keen look. “I guess you really want to solve this case?”

      Doug nodded grimly. “Yeah, Lamont, I guess I sure as hell do.”