any competition for his mother’s estate.”
The last time he’d tangled with the Densons, he hadn’t fared so well. Drury had ended up with a black mark on his reputation for getting involved with Caitlyn, a woman who’d clearly double-crossed him and had almost certainly been sleeping with him to get info about his investigation.
Of course, that hadn’t stopped Drury from trying to go after the Densons again. Until his boss had finally gotten him to back off when Helen had threatened a lawsuit for harassment. Drury hadn’t wanted to hurt the Bureau for what had essentially become a personal vendetta on his part.
“I hate being drawn back into the viper pit.” He hadn’t intended to say that loud enough for Caitlyn to hear.
But she heard. Because she gave him another “I’m sorry.”
He kept the next comment to himself. Was she sorry she’d dumped him for Grant? Or sorry that she hadn’t gotten that safe fairy tale that she wanted?
Drury wanted to tell her that she couldn’t create “safe.” The cut on her head and baby in her arms were proof of that. Still, he couldn’t fault her for trying. After all, she’d seen her own father—a Texas Ranger—gunned down right in front of her when she was only eight.
Hard to get past memories like that.
Drury took the final turn toward town, and he tried to shut out everything so he could focus on their surroundings. It was late, nearly midnight, and with the rain there wasn’t anyone out and about. Still, those thugs could be waiting on a side street, watching for them.
He held his breath and didn’t release it until he saw the sheriff’s office. And Grayson in the doorway. The moment Drury had brought the car to a stop, Grayson hurried Caitlyn inside, and Drury followed right behind her. He got her away from the windows—fast. Even though they were bullet resistant, he didn’t want to take any chances.
After everything that’d gone on, Drury hadn’t expected a warm greeting from Grayson and Mason. And he didn’t get one. Mason was on the phone, scowling. But then, that was something Mason did a lot.
However, Grayson was scowling, too.
At Caitlyn.
“Is there any part of your story you want to rethink?” Grayson asked her.
That put some alarm in her eyes, and Caitlyn shook her head. “No. Why?”
“Because I just got off the phone with the doctor who’s patching up Ronnie Waite, and Ronnie says that’s his daughter and that you kidnapped her. He’s demanding a warrant for your arrest.”
Caitlyn felt as if someone had knocked the breath right out of her. She shook her head, tried to deny what Ronnie had claimed, but the words were trapped in her throat.
“Is it true?” Grayson snapped.
It was more of an accusation than a question, and Caitlyn was thankful it had come from Grayson and not Drury. Still, that didn’t mean Drury believed she was innocent. He was staring at her, clearly waiting for her to say something.
“Everything happened just the way I told you,” she insisted.
Drury just kept staring, but Grayson made a sound, one to let her know she was going to have to do a whole lot better than that if he was to believe her.
“The baby isn’t his,” Caitlyn tried again. “I paid him one ransom, and he demanded a second one. Since I figured he wasn’t just going to hand over the baby, I hit him with a stun gun and took her from him.”
“I don’t suppose you recorded any of that encounter?” Grayson, again. And he used the tone of the lawman in charge. Which he was. He also made this sound, and feel, like an interrogation.
Mercy. If she couldn’t convince him of her innocence, he might take the baby. He might arrest her. That couldn’t happen because if she was behind bars, she wouldn’t be able to protect the baby.
“He clubbed me on the head,” Caitlyn added, and she looked to Drury for help. She held her breath, hoping that he would back her up, and he finally nodded.
“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.