Drury. Delores Fossen

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       Chapter Two

      Caitlyn hadn’t expected Drury just to let her walk out of there, but she also hadn’t thought this insanity would go from bad to worse.

      This definitely qualified as worse.

      Now that he’d seen the baby, there was no way he’d willingly let her leave.

      “The baby’s yours?” he snapped.

      “Maybe.”

      She’d figured Drury wasn’t going to like that answer, and he didn’t. He groaned. Then cursed.

      “But I believe she’s mine,” Caitlyn went on. “And the man said she was. I figured I could have her tested later, but for now I have to go. That man who shot at you wants to kill me and take the baby.”

      “Yeah. I got that. According to Grayson, he had rope, tape, a ski mask and gloves in his SUV. All the makings of a felony or two.”

      Oh, God. Her stomach dropped. Even though Caitlyn had known the man didn’t have good intentions, it sickened her to hear it spelled out like that. It also confirmed what she’d felt in her heart.

      That he had no intention of giving her the baby.

      He’d had plans to kill her then and there. She doubted he had just stopped trying to do that, either.

      “The man will send someone else after me,” Caitlyn tried again. Tried also to move past Drury, but, like before, he stopped her.

      Mercy, she had to convince him to let her go. But how? Too bad her head was throbbing and she was dizzy because it made it hard to think.

      “Look, I know you don’t owe me any favors,” she said. “But let me leave.”

      An understatement about the favors.

      And the sound Drury made let her know that he didn’t owe her a thing. Not after she’d walked out on him four years ago. He’d been in love with her. Then. Definitely not now, though. There wasn’t a shred of love between them at this moment.

      However, Caitlyn could still feel the tug of attraction. The one she’d had for Drury the first time she’d laid eyes on him. That attraction was all one-sided now, on her part. Drury’s glare proved it.

      “Please just help me by letting me leave right now,” she begged.

      It seemed to take him a couple of seconds to get his jaw unclenched so he could speak, and he didn’t look at her when he did it. He volleyed his attention between the baby and the window. Drury was no doubt looking to see if the thug had indeed sent someone else to come after her.

      Good.

      Because Caitlyn was looking, too.

      “How’d you get the baby?” Drury asked.

      She huffed. There wasn’t time for all this talk, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to let her leave until he had some answers. Maybe not even then. That meant she had to get away at the first chance she got.

      “I took her from that man,” Caitlyn said, blinking back the tears that were burning her eyes. Her voice, like the rest of her, was trembling. “I really don’t know who he is, and I didn’t see his face. He was wearing a ski mask.”

      “Keep talking,” Drury insisted when she paused again.

      “I was meeting him to deliver another payment, but this time I brought a stun gun with me.”

      Mercy. It was hard to relive this. The memories were still so fresh and raw. The fear, too.

      “When I handed him the money,” she went on, “I reached for the baby. He smashed me on the head with his weapon, but I was able to hit him with the stun gun. He fell to the ground. I grabbed the baby and got away.”

      No groan this time. Drury cursed again instead. “You could have been killed.”

      “I could have lost her,” Caitlyn pointed out just as quickly. “Even if she’s not my daughter, she belongs to someone, and I had to get her away from that monster.”

      Drury didn’t seem swayed in the least by that. “You should have involved the cops.”

      “I couldn’t because the man said he’d know if I brought anyone with me.” In addition to the tears and trembling, Caitlyn had to fight the sudden tightness in her chest. “He said he would hurt the baby if I wasn’t alone. I couldn’t risk it.”

      She must have looked ready to fly into a million little pieces because Drury huffed. Then did something surprising. He touched her arm. It barely qualified as a pat, but she’d take it.

      Too bad he didn’t offer her a hug, or she would have taken that, too.

      The touch didn’t last long. Drury looked at her, his gaze lingering for a moment before it also slipped away.

      “During any of your conversations, did this clown say if he was working for someone or how he got the baby in the first place?” Drury asked.

      “No. But I’m not sure he’s connected to anyone at Conceptions Clinic.” She hesitated about adding the next part. Not because it wasn’t true.

      It was.

      But it wasn’t going to shorten this conversation.

      “I think the man might be working for Helen Denson.”

      There, she’d said it aloud. Her worst fear. Or rather, one of them. She had plenty of others at the moment, but at the top of that list was that her dead husband’s rich, manipulative mother could be the one who’d orchestrated this nightmare.

      Caitlyn could almost see the wheels turning in Drury’s head, and he was likely trying to work out why she’d just accused her former mother-in-law of such a heinous crime.

      “Helen hates me,” Caitlyn explained. “And she was furious when she found out Grant left his entire estate to me. I think she would do anything, including something like this, to get back the money.”

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