LITMIR.BIZ

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repeated it, hoping it would spark some kind of recognition. It didn’t.

      “I’m having someone run a background on her now,” the sheriff added.

      “Good, we’re almost at the hospital. After Cassidy sees the doctor, I can help get all of this sorted out. What about the baby?” Sawyer asked. “Any calls about her? Is she okay?”

      “She’s still with Mason at the E.R.—where you told him to take her. He says the baby’s fine, that he’s just waiting on the paperwork.”

      That was something at least. Cassidy hated the thought of an innocent baby being put in the middle of this mess.

      “I told Mason to have the doctors do blood and DNA tests on the baby,” Sawyer added.

      Grayson stayed quiet a moment. “You want the DNA compared to yours?”

      “Yeah.” Sawyer paused, too. “And if I’m not a match, then I’ll run it through the system to see if we can find out who is.”

      She wasn’t sure what to hope for. At least if the child were Sawyer’s, then she would have him to protect her.

      “Any sign of Bennie?” Cassidy asked. She moved even closer to Sawyer, until they were shoulder to shoulder. He noticed, glanced down at the contact between them and scowled. But Cassidy stayed put.

      “Nothing yet,” Grayson answered, and with that, Sawyer did hang up. Another glance at her had Cassidy moving back to her side of the seat.

      “You still haven’t forgiven me,” she mumbled. No surprise there. Sawyer wasn’t ever likely to forgive her.

      “What do you think?” he mumbled back.

      His voice was a growl, and it should have unnerved her. Along with that steely glare he was giving her. But sadly, even now, her reaction to Sawyer was a different kind of unnerving.

      The images of them naked in bed flashed through her mind. Memorable images. But with bad timing. Then and now. She had been his one-night stand.

      His decision, not hers.

      She’d known him for months before that one-nighter. Months of lusting after him. And when Cassidy had finally run into him at a party, they’d left together to go back to his place for that one glorious night.

      “I was attracted to you,” she reminded him. Still was. “That’s why I slept with you, not so I could get information about the investigation you were conducting on my brother.”

      “Right,” he grumbled. “But it was a nice perk that you got that information.”

      Cassidy swallowed hard. “Only by accident, because I overheard your phone conversation with your boss.”

      “Worked in your favor, didn’t it.” Not a question. He spoke it as gospel.

      And it was something she couldn’t argue with.

      She had alerted her brother about the investigation into his possible involvement with money laundering. Not intentionally but only because she’d questioned Bennie about it. She hadn’t wanted to believe he was involved in something so awful. However, Sawyer was certain that Bennie had used that info to cover his tracks so he couldn’t be arrested.

      Maybe he had.

      But when she’d slept with Sawyer, she certainly hadn’t known that was going to happen. An investigation had been the last thing on her mind.

      Sawyer pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, and he made more of those glances around before he got out and ushered her inside and to the E.R. The first sound she heard was a baby crying, and they followed that sound to an examining room, where she spotted a dark-haired man holding the baby.

      Cassidy actually dropped back a step. This guy had a deputy’s badge clipped to his belt, but with his desperado stubble and hard eyes, he looked more outlaw than lawman.

      “Hope you have better luck with her than I have,” the man said over the baby’s cries. “She won’t hush. Won’t take her bottle, either.” And he eased the baby into Sawyer’s arms.

      Despite everything that had just happened, Sawyer looked amused. Well, for a split second he did.

      “Your wife’s due any day now,” Sawyer said to the man. “Better get used to it.”

      The deputy grumbled something Cassidy didn’t catch and put the baby’s bottle on the table next to Sawyer.

      “This is Mason, my cousin,” Sawyer told her. “And this is Cassidy O’Neal.”

      Mason made a sound deep in his throat that she figured was disapproval. It was possible Sawyer had spilled all about their brief affair, and even if he hadn’t, she was sure her reputation preceded her. Most people thought she was a spoiled heiress. She was rich but worked plenty hard to manage the real estate investment business that her late parents had left her and her brother.

      With his attention on the baby, Sawyer dropped into the chair and studied the baby’s face. No doubt trying to decide if she was his. At least the baby stopped crying, and she looked up at Sawyer, examining him with the same intensity with which he was examining her.

      “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

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