Stockyard Snatching

“You don’t have family in this part of Texas?” Tommy asked.

“It’s just me and Jackson.” She shook her head. “My brother and I are close, but he lives in Richardson, which is a suburb of Dallas. He works nonstop. We started a tech company together after college and made enough to do okay. I sold my interest in the business to have a baby, and now he’s running it alone.”

“Forgive this question...” Tommy hesitated before continuing, “But how did your brother take the news about you leaving the business the two of you started?”

“Carter? He was fine with my decision. He knew how much I wanted to start a family,” she said defensively, a red rash crawling up her neck. And if he hadn’t been the most enthusiastic about her choice at first, he’d come around.

“Again, I’m sorry. I had to ask,” the sheriff murmured, taking a seat across from her in the sitting area of the office.

“Mind if I ask why you decided to move to Bluff?” Dallas asked.

“There was a need for a soup kitchen, and it’s one of the most family-friendly towns in Texas three years running, according to the internet,” she said with a shrug. “I thought it would be a good place to bring up a baby.”

“Even without family here?” Tommy asked.

“My parents didn’t approve of my decision to have a child alone.” She didn’t really want to go down that road again, explaining the quirks of her family to a stranger. The one where her mother had flipped out and pretended to have a heart attack in order to alter Kate’s course.

She glanced at Dallas, ready to defend herself to him, and was surprised by the look of sympathy she got instead.

“I guess I don’t understand that particular brand of thinking. It’s my personal belief that families should stick together even if they don’t agree with each other’s decisions,” Dallas said, his steely voice sliding right through her.

The sincerity in those words nearly brought her to tears.

Why did it suddenly matter so much what a stranger thought about her or her family?

* * *

DALLAS NOTICED KATE’S emotional reaction to what he’d said about family. If she really was at odds with hers then they couldn’t rule them out as suspects.

“If you’ll excuse us, I’d like to speak to the sheriff in the hallway for a minute,” he said to her.

“Do we have to wait around? Can we go home now?” she asked, clearly rattled from their conversation.

“I don’t think it’s safe,” Dallas said, before Tommy could answer. “This attack was ambush-style and planned.”

His friend was already nodding in agreement. “The kidnapper had a knife and a getaway vehicle,” he added. “This indicates premeditation. I’ll need to run this scenario through the database and see if there are similar incidents out there. In the meantime, I’d like to send a deputy to your house to take a look around.”

Kate gasped and the baby stirred. She immediately went into action, soothing the infant in her arms. He was such a tiny thing and looked so fragile.

“You think they know where I live?” she asked when the baby had settled into the crook of her arm.

“It’s a possibility we can’t ignore, and I’d rather be safe than sorry,” Tommy said.

“Can I see you in the hallway?” Dallas asked Tommy as his friend rose to his feet. Dallas’s protective instincts were kicking into high gear.

“If you’re going into the hall to discuss my case, I have a right to know what’s being said.” Kate’s gaze held steady with determination.

Dallas paused at the doorjamb. He couldn’t deny that she was right, and yet he wanted to protect her and the baby from hearing what he needed to ask Tommy next.

“Whatever it is, I deserve to hear it,” she insisted.

A deep sigh pushed out of his lungs as he turned toward her and stepped back inside, motioning for Tommy to do the same. “The person who did this could be someone who sees Jackson as in the way of being with you,” Dallas said, and it seemed to dawn on her that he was talking about Allen.

“Is that why you zeroed in on Allen when I called him earlier?” she asked Dallas pointedly.

“Yes,” he answered truthfully.

“We won’t stop searching for whoever is behind this,” Tommy interjected. “And we’re considering all possibilities.”

She sat there for a long moment. “What about those other possibilities, Sheriff?” she finally asked.

“It could be that someone wants revenge against you. It’s obvious that your child is very important to you and that snatching him would be one way to hurt you,” Tommy said. “Or a teen mom has changed her mind about giving up her child. She might’ve figured out who you were and told the father.”

“The adoption was sealed based on the mother’s request. However, I made sure of it to avoid that very circumstance. How on earth would she know where Jackson is?” Kate asked.

“You can find out anything with enough money or computer hacking skills,” Dallas answered, even though he knew firsthand either option could take time. And in this case, maybe it had. Jackson was nearly three months old, so that would give someone plenty of time to find the two of them. Grease the right wheels and boom.

“I have to think that if this was a teen mother, then she’d be destitute. Wouldn’t she? If she had money or family support, would she really be giving up her baby in the first place?” Kate asked.

Good points.

“How well did you vet this adoption agency before you used them?” Dallas asked.

“They’re legitimate, from everything I could tell. I hired a lawyer to oversee things on my end and make sure everything was legal,” Kate stated.

“I’ll need the name of your lawyer,” Tommy said.

“William Seaver.”

“Is he someone you knew or was that the first time you’d dealt with him?” Tommy asked.

“My brother connected us. He’d heard of Seaver through a mutual friend. I’m sure he checked him out first,” Kate replied.

“I’ll run his name and see if we come up with anything in the database,” Tommy offered. “We’ll be able to narrow down the possibilities once I get all this information into the system and talk to a few people. Also, I’d like to send someone to take a look at your work computers. I need permission from you in order to do that.”

Kate gave her consent even though she seemed reluctant. Her reaction was understandable given the circumstances. Dallas would feel the same way if someone wanted to dig around in the ranch’s books.

Tommy called for Abigail.

The older woman appeared a moment later and he asked her to send someone to Kate’s house to look for anything suspicious, and after that to run information through the database to see if she got a hit on any similar crimes.

As soon as she left, Dallas turned to Kate. “That’s everything I wanted to ask or say about your case. If you’ll excuse us, I need to discuss a personal matter with the sheriff.”

Dallas motioned for his friend to follow him down the hall and into the kitchenette.

“I’m sorry we lost the guy earlier,” Tommy said once they were out of earshot. “If we’d caught him, this nightmare could be over for her.”

“Whoever it was seems to know how to disappear pretty darn quick,” Dallas commented.

“It’s difficult to hide something that weighs more than four thousand pounds,” Tommy agreed, obviously referring to the minivan.

“You think this whole thing might’ve been a setup to scare her out of town?” Dallas asked, unsure of how to approach the subject of his possible fatherhood to his friend.

“I thought about that, as well,” he admitted. “It’s too early to rule anything out even though it’s not likely. I’m anxious to see if we find similar crimes in the database. And, of course, we’ll look at her personal circles.”

Dallas leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve been looking into adoption agencies myself lately.”

“Come again?” Tommy’s eyebrows arched and Dallas couldn’t blame his friend for the surprised glance he shot him. “I know you’re not looking to adopt.”

“You remember Susan,” Dallas began, uneasy about bringing this up. Susan had grown up in Bluff, so Tommy knew her well.

“So glad you finally saw through her and moved on.” His friend rolled his eyes. “She was a head case.”

Dallas couldn’t argue. His judgment had slipped on that one. As soon as he’d figured her out, he’d broken it off. “She might be more than that. She might be the mother of my child.”

The possibility that Dallas could be that careless had never occurred to his friend, a fact made clear by the shock on his face. “There’s no way you could’ve done that!” he declared. “Have you considered the possibility that she’s lying?”

“Of course I have,” Dallas retorted.

“If this is true, and I’m not convinced it is, where is she? And why didn’t you come to me before?” Tommy asked.

“Those are good questions,” Dallas admitted. “As far as where she went, I’m looking to find an answer. She disappeared from New Mexico and not even her family here in Bluff has seen her since. We both know that she loved it here. Why wouldn’t she come back?”

“She didn’t say anything to you before she left?” Tommy folded his arms, his forehead wrinkled in disbelief.

“And I didn’t get a chance to ask where she was headed before she disappeared.”

“What makes you think she used an adoption agency?” Tommy said, after carefully considering the bomb that had just been dropped. “And why didn’t you come to me sooner?”

“She told me she was pregnant and said we should get married right away,” Dallas said. “I told her to hold on. That I would be there for my child, but that didn’t mean we needed to make a mistake.”

“That probably went over as well as a cow patty in the pool.” His friend grunted. “She seemed bent on signing her name ‘O’Brien’ from when we were kids.”

Dallas had been an idiot not to see through her quicker.

“But that still doesn’t answer my question of why you didn’t come to me right away,” Tommy said.

“I needed answers. You have to follow the letter of the law,” Dallas said honestly. “I wanted someone who could see those lines as blurry.”

Tommy took a sip of his coffee. “That the only reason?”

“I knew you’d want to help, and you have a lot of restrictions. I wanted fast answers and I wasn’t even sure there’d be anything to discuss,” Dallas said. “Plus I didn’t want to tell anyone until I was sure.”

“Didn’t you suspect she was seeing someone else?” his friend asked.

Dallas nodded. “I’m certain she was. I figured she was making a bid for my money when she played the pregnancy card with me.”

“She probably was.” Tommy grimaced. “Which was a good reason for her to disappear when you refused to marry her. She couldn’t get caught in her lies.”

“I thought of that, too. There’s another thing. I used protection, but it’s more than that. We didn’t exactly... It’s not like...” Hell, this was awkward. Dallas didn’t make a habit out of talking about his sex life with anyone, not even his best friend. “There was only the one time with Susan and me. Afterward, she got clingy and tried to move into my place. Started trying to rearrange furniture. I caught her in lie after lie and broke it off clean after I witnessed her in the parking lot with that other guy, looking cozy. I’d suspected she was seeing someone else and she got all cagey when I confronted her and asked her to leave. I couldn’t prove my suspicion, though. But when she called a few months later and said she was pregnant with my child, I didn’t believe her.”

“I can’t blame you there,” Tommy said. “I wouldn’t have bought it, either.”

“But I can’t turn my back until I know for sure.” If what Susan said was true, then he’d already messed up what he considered to be the most important job in life—fatherhood.

Dallas had known Susan could be dishonest, and that was the reason he’d broken it off with her. He couldn’t love someone he couldn’t trust. But he never imagined she’d lie about something this important.

“If there was another guy involved, and I believe you when you say there was, then he could be the father of her child.” Tommy sipped his coffee, contemplating what he had just learned.

“You know I can’t walk away until I know one way or the other,” Dallas said. “This isn’t something I can leave to chance.”

“And there was that one time,” his friend finally said, his forehead pinched with concentration. “So, there is a possibility.”

“If I’m honest...yes.”

“But it’s next to impossible. I know you. There’s no way you would risk a pregnancy unless you were one hundred percent sure about a relationship staying together,” he stated.

Dallas nodded.

And then it seemed to dawn on Tommy. “But she could’ve sabotaged your efforts.”

“Right.”

“Well, damn.” His friend’s expression changed to one of pity. “I’m sorry to hear this might’ve happened. Any idea how old the baby would be now?”

“According to my calculations...about three months old.” And that was most likely the reason Kate’s case hit him so hard. If he had a son, the boy would be around the same age as Jackson.

“Any idea where Susan and the baby may be? It’d be easy enough to get a paternity test once you find them.”

Tommy said the exact thing Dallas was thinking.

“I don’t know. Neither does the man I hired to find them. She literally disappeared.” Ever since hearing about a possible pregnancy with Susan, Dallas had found his world tipped on its axis and he didn’t exactly feel like himself.

“There might not even be a baby,” Tommy said.

Dallas’s phone buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket and then checked the screen. “Susan had a boy,” he said, focusing on the message from his private investigator’s assistant, Stacy Miller. “And Morton was able to link her to an adoption agency.”

Tommy rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

Yeah, Dallas felt the same way right about now. Especially when the next text came through, and he learned the adoption agency was named Safe Haven.

Chapter Four

“I’d say that’s a strange coincidence, but I know Safe Haven is the biggest agency in the area, so I guess I’m not too surprised to hear their name again,” Tommy said. “And just because Susan had a baby doesn’t mean it’s yours.”

“That kid in there is around the age Susan’s baby would be,” Dallas supplied.

“Doesn’t mean he’s Susan’s,” Tommy said. “Odds are against it.”

“I know.” Dallas nodded, still trying to digest the news. His plans to help Kate Williams get settled with the sheriff and then head back to the ranch to start a busy day exploded. They had a record number of bred heifers and there’d be a calf-boom early next year that everyone was preparing for. But nothing was more important than this investigation.

“In fact, I’m inclined to think that’s the closest thing we have to proof that the baby isn’t yours.”

Dallas made a move to speak, but his friend raised his hand to stop him. “Hear me out. If Susan was telling the truth and the baby was yours, she would stick around for a DNA test. If she couldn’t have your last name, then at least her son would, and he’d have everything that comes with being an O’Brien, which is what we all know she’s always wanted anyway.”

Dallas thought about those words for a long moment. “I see your point.”

“And I’m right.”

“Either way, if she used Safe Haven, then everything should be legit, right?” Dallas asked, hoping he’d be able to gain traction and get answers now that a child had been confirmed and he had the name of an adoption agency. His investigator was making good progress.

“They’ve been investigated before and came up clean.” Tommy took another sip of his coffee. “That doesn’t mean they are. They could be running an off-the-books program for nontraditional families. Kate’s case gives me reason to dig into their records. I’ll make a request for access to their files and see how willing they are to cooperate.”

“Will you keep me posted on your progress?” Dallas asked, knowing he was asking a lot of his friend.

Tommy nodded. “I’ll give you as much information as I legally can.”

“As far as Susan goes, you’re the only one who knows, and I’d appreciate keeping it between us for now.”

“You haven’t told anyone in the family?” Tommy asked in surprise.

“Everyone’s had enough to deal with since Mom and Pop...” Dallas didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. Tommy knew.

“If you have a child, and I’d bet my life you don’t, we’ll find him,” Tommy said, and his words were meant to be reassuring.

He was the only person apart from Dallas’s brothers who would know just how much the prospect would gnaw at him. And if his brothers knew, they’d all want to be involved, but Dallas didn’t want to sound the alarm just yet. There might not be anything to discuss, and he didn’t like getting everyone riled up without cause.

Another text came through on his phone.

“Looks like my guy left to investigate Safe Haven last night and hasn’t checked in for work this morning,” Dallas murmured. “His assistant said he’s always the first one in the office. She’s been texting and calling him and he isn’t responding.”

“We need to talk to her,” Tommy said. “You know I’m going to offer my help investigating Susan’s disappearance. She’s originally from here and that makes her my business.”

“And I’ll take it,” Dallas declared. He wouldn’t rely solely on Tommy, because his friend was bound by laws. Dallas saw them more as guidelines when it came to finding out the truth. “We can work both cases and share information. As far as Kate’s goes, I’m not sure I like Allen Lentz.”

The sheriff leaned against the counter with a questioning look on his face.

“He sounded possessive of her when she called him this morning, and I got the impression he sees the kid as an obstacle to dating her,” Dallas explained. The news that Susan had had a boy was still spinning around in the back of his mind.

“I’ll have one of my deputies bring him in for questioning this morning,” Tommy said. “See if I can get a feel for the guy.”

“I’d be interested to hear your take on him,” Dallas stated. “I told her not to clue him in to what had happened this morning when she phoned him to open the kitchen for her. And I asked her to put him on speaker so I could hear his voice.”

“What was your impression of how he sounded?”

“I didn’t like the guy one bit.” Dallas would keep the part about feeling a twinge of jealousy to himself.

“Wanting the kid out of the way would give him motive,” Tommy said. “I’ll run a background check on him when I bring him in. See if there’s anything there.”

Tommy’s phone buzzed. “This is my deputy,” he said, after glancing at the screen.

Dallas motioned for them to return to Kate as his friend answered the call.

She was cradling the baby and Dallas got another glimpse of the little boy’s black curly hair—hair that looked a lot like his own—as they walked into the office. Dallas wasn’t quite ready to accept that possibility completely as he moved closer to get a better look at Jackson. There was no way that Kate’s son could be Susan’s baby.

Right?

Tommy was right. All of this would be way too much of a coincidence. The adoption agency was large and there had to be dozens of dark-haired baby boys who had been adopted around the same time. Not that logic mattered at a time like this.

Plus, Dallas hadn’t considered the fact that if Susan had had his baby, then wouldn’t she sue him for support? Or blackmail him to keep the news out of the press?

Until he could be certain, would Dallas look at every boy around Jackson’s age with the same question: Could the child be his?

Not knowing would be mental torture at its worst. Every dark-haired boy he came across would get Dallas’s mind spinning with possibilities. What-ifs. Was he getting a glimpse of the torment he’d endure for the rest of his life if he couldn’t find Susan?

Morton had confirmed there’d been a child, which didn’t necessarily mean Dallas was a father. And Morton had been able to link Susan to Safe Haven Adoption Agency. Dallas had every reason to believe that his PI would figure out the rest and Dallas would get his answers very soon. Being in limbo, not knowing, would eat what was left of his stomach lining.

Kate was watching him with a keen eye as Tommy entered the room.

“Can I go home now?” she asked, cradling Jackson tighter.

“This might sound like an odd question, but do you close and lock your doors when you leave your house?” Tommy asked.

“Yes. Of course. I’m a single woman who lives alone with a baby, and I wouldn’t dream of leaving myself vulnerable like that,” she said, and her cheeks flushed.

Embarrassment?

Dallas noted the emotion as his friend moved on. “Well, then, your place has been broken into,” Tommy said.

“What happened?” Kate’s face paled.

Dallas’s first thought was Allen. But wouldn’t he already have access to her house?

Not if she never let him inside. Maybe the date bit was a ruse to get into her home.

“The back door was ajar and the lock had been tampered with. My deputy on the scene said that nothing obvious is missing inside. All the pictures are on the walls and the place is neat.” Tommy listened and then said a few “uh-huh”s into the phone.

“Do you have a home computer?” he asked Kate.

“A laptop on my desk,” she answered.

Tommy repeated the information to his deputy and then frowned.

So, someone took her laptop?

“Are you sure it was on your desk the last time you saw it?” Tommy asked.

“Certain. Why? Is it gone?”

He nodded. “The cable is still there.”

That same look of fear and disbelief filled her blue eyes.

“Can you think of anything on your hard drive someone would want?” Tommy asked. He also asked about work files, but Dallas figured whoever broke into her house wasn’t going after those. This had to be personal, especially after the failed kidnapping attempt.

If someone was trying to scare her, then he was doing a great job of it, based on her expression.

“No. Nothing. I keep all my work stuff at the office. I vowed not to work at home ever again once I left the corporate scene. I have a manila file folder in the drawer, right-hand side, about Jackson’s adoption,” she added, holding tighter to her baby. “Is it missing?”

Once again Tommy relayed the information and then waited. “There’s nothing labeled Safe Haven or Adoption,” he said at last.

“Then that’s it,” she murmured, almost too quietly to hear.

Tommy thanked his deputy and ended the call. “How did you get connected with Safe Haven?”

“Through my lawyer. He was the one who arranged everything,” she said, and based on her expression, Dallas figured her brain was most likely clicking through possibilities.

He made a mental note that they needed to speak to her brother, and the rest of her family, as well. Dallas didn’t like to think that her family wouldn’t be 100 percent supportive of her choices, but he wasn’t stupid. He couldn’t fathom it, but if her mother was really against the adoption, then she could be trying to interfere by shaking Kate up. Maybe even hoping that she’d realize she’d made a mistake.

If that were true, then Kate’s mother hadn’t seen the woman holding Jackson.

A family intervention, albeit misguided, would be so much better than the other options Kate faced. Such as an employee’s fixation or the fact that this could’ve been a shady adoption gone bad for Safe Haven.

* * *

KATE HELD ON to Jackson as if he’d drop off a canyon wall if she let go. She’d walked away from the only life she’d ever known to have a chance at a family. Her husband, Robert Bass, had filed for divorce within weeks of learning that she had a 4 percent chance of ever getting pregnant. Four percent.

Half the reason she’d worked so hard at the start-up was so she could sell her interests when she became pregnant and be home with the baby. And then suddenly that wasn’t going to be an option, ever.