Stockyard Snatching (21 page)

“You sure? I make the best coffee on the ranch,” he said persuasively.

She held out a hand and pretended to let it shake. “Already had half a pot. If I drink any more we’ll have an earthquake going.”

“Keep me posted if anything happens at the main house,” Dallas said.

“I have a few appointments scheduled, planning for the Halloween Bash. Should I have them rescheduled, or plan to meet those individuals for lunch in town?” she asked.

“Off property might be best for now,” he agreed. “Until we can sort out everything that’s happening and be sure everyone’s safe.”

“I thought you’d say that,” she added, as she excused herself and moved to the front door and then looked at Kate again. “He’s an awfully gorgeous baby. Don’t you think so, Dallas?”

“As far as babies go, this one’s all right,” he said with a wink to Kate. He set her coffee mug next to her and looked at mother and child.

Could the three of them, and possibly four, if he was a father, ever be a family?

He’d known Kate Williams for just a few days and was already thinking about a future with her?

That made about as much sense as salting a glass of tea.

Dallas mentally shook off the thought. He’d gone without sleep for two nights and it had him off balance. Plus there were the holidays and the recent news about his parents. He was grateful his ringtone sounded, providing a much-needed distraction.

It was Tommy.

Dallas answered. “I’m putting the call on speaker so Kate can hear.”

She looked up from where she sat on the floor playing with Jackson.

“I have news about Susan,” his friend said.

“What did you find out?” Dallas moved closer to Kate.

“Your guy was right. She disappeared. As in cleaned out from the system,” Tommy revealed.

“What does that mean? A person can’t just vanish, can they?” Kate asked, astonished.

“There’s only one way I can think of,” Dallas said. “Could she have been placed in a witness protection program?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Tommy agreed. “I should be able to pull up some record on her, but they just stopped right around the time her baby would have been born. And there’s no report of her hospitalization.”

“So she knew she’d be going into the program during the pregnancy,” Dallas said, realizing that was most likely why she’d wanted to get married. She wanted the baby to have a normal life, and Dallas was the only person capable of protecting her son. Which brought him back to his initial question… Was he the father?

“Seaver’s missing. We’ll bring him in for more questions as soon as we locate him,” Tommy added.

“Wait a minute. I thought you put a tail on him.” Dallas took a sip of coffee, needing the jolt of caffeine. If he understood things correctly, finding Susan was a complete dead end. People in the witness protection program didn’t randomly show up again. The only way to figure out if he was the father of her child would be a DNA test of the baby, but he had no idea where the little tyke was or whom he was with.

Speaking of Susan, she’d said a few things to him that made Dallas think she must’ve wanted a normal life for her child, and that was why she’d given him up for adoption. Dallas would bet money that she’d used Harold Matthews at Safe Haven to handle the paperwork for her or handle the adoption without paperwork. Even if Tommy could get a subpoena for Safe Haven’s records, which was highly doubtful, that paperwork most likely wouldn’t exist. The agency administrators would be smart enough not to keep records for an under-the-table adoption, especially if the Feds were somehow involved.

Seaver must know something about Susan, and that was why he was involved.

Pieces started clicking together in Dallas’s mind.

“I have a theory about what might’ve happened,” he said. “Susan was in over her head with someone. This person was involved in illegal activities and she decided to turn state’s evidence against him, putting her and her baby’s lives in danger. She didn’t want that for her son, so she arranged an adoption through Safe Haven.”

“Why Safe Haven?” Kate asked. “Why not somewhere far away?”

“She loved this area, grew up here. When she asked me to marry her, she wanted to move back home with the baby. I’m guessing she wanted her son close to her hometown so she could keep an eye on him when she returned at some point later down the road,” Dallas theorized.

“Makes sense,” Tommy agreed. “She might’ve given the stipulation to her handler that her son would be allowed to grow up in or near Bluff, Texas. If the guy she was involved with found out about the adoption, he could be targeting babies here.”

“To get back at her or draw her out of hiding,” Dallas finished. The one bright spot in this crazy scenario would be that Susan was alive and doing well in the program.

“There’s another possibility worth considering. The bad guy might be the father, and he found out about the baby,” Tommy said. “The recent spate of kidnappings could be him or his henchmen looking for his son. There was a child discovered in his carrier in the baby-food aisle of a Piggly Wiggly last night. A DNA test this morning confirmed he was one of the boys abducted from an adopted family.”

“Which means that all the boys who were kidnapped have been returned home safely?” Dallas said, glancing at Kate.

He wasn’t quite ready to let himself off the hook with Susan just yet. Sure, she might’ve been grasping at straws in telling him he was the father, but there was still a slight chance that it was true. He hoped that she was alive, thriving somewhere else, and that her baby was safe. “Until we know for sure, I’m going to stay with the assumption that the boy could be mine.”

“I understand your position,” Tommy said. “And that’s fine to think that way. I’m looking at the facts and I have to disagree.”

“What’s the next step?” Dallas asked. He appreciated his friend’s perspective, hoped he was right.

“Locate Seaver. Get him in for questioning and try to trip him up,” Tommy replied. “I already sent someone to pick up Harold Matthews. You mentioned before that you knew Susan was seeing someone else when you two dated. Think you can work with a sketch artist to give me a visual of the guy?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I don’t like you leaving the ranch, so I’d rather send someone to you with a deputy escort.”

“What time do you think you can have someone sent over?” Dallas asked. He had a few things he needed to take care of in the meantime. Top of the list was calling his brothers together for a family meeting.

“I can probably have someone over by lunch,” Tommy said.

“Let me know if you get Seaver in for questioning between now and then. I’d like to be on the other side of the glass when he’s in the interview room,” Dallas said.

Tommy agreed and they ended the call.

“I’d like to go see myself what Seaver has to say,” Kate said, holding Jackson. “I just wish there was something to identify him at the scene of Wayne’s murder or connect him in some way.”

“So do I. Speaking of which, I want to check on Stacy this morning.” Something was gnawing at the back of Dallas’s mind.

Kate nodded. “I need to check in at work afterward. Make sure everything’s going smoothly at the kitchen. I can’t relax, because I have the feeling that I’m dropping the ball somewhere.”

“The curse of leading a busy life. It’s hard to slow down long enough to notice the roses, let alone stop long enough to smell them,” Dallas agreed.

“Do you work all the time when you’re not helping strangers?” she asked with a half smile.

Kate was beautiful and her looks had certainly made an impression on Dallas. There was so much more to her. She was kind, genuine and honest to a fault. Intelligent.

There wasn’t much she couldn’t accomplish if she set her mind to something.

“Do you have any idea how amazing you are?” He kissed her forehead, wishing he could whisk her into the bedroom again. Not an option with the little guy around. Besides, Dallas needed to get his brothers together and then work until the sketch artist arrived.

She rolled her eyes and smiled up at him. “I doubt it.”

She’d built a successful company from the ground up. She ran a successful nonprofit while taking care of one of the cutest darn kids Dallas had ever set eyes on.

He had a hard time believing that she could feel inadequate in any way.

If he had to describe her in one word it would be…
remarkable
.

“You’re kidding me, right?” he asked.

“Growing up in my childhood home didn’t inspire a lot of confidence.” She rolled her shoulders in a shrug.

“Then I wish you could see the person I see when I look at you.” And Dallas needed to figure out how she fit into his life when this was all over.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kate made a few calls to check on work and then spent the balance of the morning playing with her son. She had always believed that she needed work to keep her busy, to feel fulfilled, and was surprised to realize that being with Jackson was enough.

Maybe once she got her donor base full, she’d consider cutting back to working half-time. She couldn’t imagine stopping altogether. Being a mother was incredibly rewarding, but feeding people filled another part of her heart.

The one thing she’d realized when she’d cashed out of her start-up was that wearing the best clothes or paying two hundred dollars to have her hair colored and cut did nothing to refill the well. Did she enjoy looking good? Of course. She still thought it was important to feel great in what she wore and how she took care of herself. But she’d figured out that she could still look pretty amazing with just the right color sweater. And a ponytail and pair of sweats were all she needed to impress the little man she was holding. Jackson didn’t even care if her socks matched, which some days they probably didn’t since he’d come into her life.

Her work at the kitchen was important. It felt good to make sure people were fed, to know she was making a difference for others on a most basic level.

Then there were other feelings she was having a harder time getting under control, feelings for Dallas O’Brien.

The rich cowboy was smart, handsome and successful. And he did things to her body that no man before him had come close to achieving.

It was more than great sex with Dallas. There was a closeness she felt with him that she’d never experienced with anyone else.

And yet a nagging question persisted. What did she really know about him?

Like what was his favorite color? Was he a lazy Sunday morning person or did he get up early and go out for a jog? When did he have time to work out between running the ranch and taking care of his business in New Mexico? A body like his said he must put in serious time at the gym. Heck, she didn’t even know his favorite meal, dessert or alcoholic beverage.

All the little details about each other that added up to true intimacy were missing.

The one thing she knew for certain was that if she was in trouble, then he was the guy she wanted standing beside her. Dallas O’Brien had her back. And he was capable of handling himself in every situation.

Kate placed Jackson on his belly on the blanket Dallas had spread out on the wood floor. The few toys Janis had brought were keeping her son entertained.

And she wondered how long she could keep him safe like this.

The reality of their situation hit fast and hard, like lightning on a sunny day. They were in hiding in a near stranger’s house. Her mind argued that she and Dallas couldn’t possibly be strangers anymore, but she pushed logic aside.

She focused on her boy, shuddering at the thought someone could want to take him from her. Rather than give in to that fear, she sipped her coffee.

There were so many facts and theories rolling around in her head. If what they’d talked about earlier was true, then she had to consider the possibility that Jackson’s father was a criminal. She wouldn’t love her son any less either way, but that would complicate their lives, given that this criminal seemed intent on finding his son.

If he found Jackson, and Jackson turned out to be his, she wouldn’t have to worry about courts and judges, because this guy could take Jackson and make a run out of the country. He’d eluded law enforcement so far.

Kate’s chest squeezed as she thought about the possibilities.

There was another option. Dallas could be Jackson’s biological father. That thought didn’t startle her as much as it probably should.

“Don’t do that to yourself.” Dallas’s voice startled her out of the dark place she’d gone.

“You scared me,” she said, avoiding the topic.

“Sorry. The deputy and sketch artist are on their way here.” He sauntered across the room toward the kitchen with his coffee mug in hand and Kate couldn’t help but admire his athletic grace. She also thought about what he looked like naked and that sent a different kind of shiver down her back.

“Don’t get tied up with what-ifs,” Dallas said, pouring a fresh cup of coffee. He held up the pot. “Want more?”

She shook her head.

“It’s hard.” She looked at Jackson. He was such a happy baby and her heart hurt at the thought of him being taken away, let alone never seeing him again.

“My mother used to tell me that it was her job to worry,” Dallas said.

“Then I’m overqualified,” Kate quipped.

He smiled and it was like a hundred candles lit up inside her.

“It would be impossible not to worry under the circumstances,” he conceded. “And I think it comes with the territory of parenting.”

She locked on to his gaze. “I can’t lose him.”

“If I have anything to say about it, you won’t.” The sincerity in his voice soothed her more than she should allow, because nothing about their current situation said that Dallas could protect them forever.

There was a comfort in being with him that she’d never known with anyone else. “How’s work? I can’t help but feel we’re keeping you from your own life,” she said, trying to redirect her thoughts.

Dallas eyed her for a minute before he spoke. “It’s no trouble. I have everything covered here and in New Mexico.”

“I appreciate all you’re doing for us,” she said, stiffening her back. “In case I haven’t told you that lately.”