in touch with her brother, Brayden, declaring her innocence. She texted him on a burner phone that the baby was fine and that she’s working to find the real killer. If she’s so innocent, then why is she on the run? Why do so many clues point to her?”
She placed the baby back in the cradle and then faced Anders once again. “Demi isn’t exactly a shrinking violet. She’s a bounty hunter and is known to have one heck of a temper. She thought Bo was going to be with her, but then he dropped her to marry Hayley.”
Anders considered what he’d heard and read about the murder. There was no way his cousin was capable of such violence against another human being. “Despite some of the evidence to the contrary, I still believe she’s innocent, but I’ll leave the investigation to the authorities,” he replied.
“Right now this authority is going to take her partner and do a sweep of the area. We’ll be back when we’re finished.” She headed for the door with the sturdy brown-and-white bulldog at her heels.
Anders released a deep sigh as they went out the front door. Was it really possible the baby was Demi’s?
The answer was easy. Absolutely it was possible. Everyone knew that Demi was pregnant—and very likely with Bo Gage’s baby—when she went on the run six months ago, and the timing was right for her baby to have been born within the last couple of weeks. And even though Anders and Demi had never been close, she definitely would have trusted him to take care of the infant. Demi had been close with Anders’s sister Serena, and though Serena had sworn multiple times she hadn’t heard from Demi, who knew if she had or not? Serena was romantically involved with Detective Carson Gage, so it wasn’t as though Demi could ask Serena to hide her or for help with the baby. But if Anders’s name had come up in their conversations, Serena would have told Demi that if she needed someone to count on, Anders was the guy.
Unfortunately Elle was right about clues pointing to his cousin’s culpability in Bo’s murder.
The rumor mill was rife with stories that Demi had snapped in a fit of rage over being dumped by Bo. Anders didn’t listen to gossip, but he’d heard that Bo had written Demi’s name in his own blood at the crime scene. He shivered at the thought. Plus, a gold heart necklace with Demi’s engraved initials had been found near the crime scene and a witness had put her there, as well. When a warrant had been issued for her arrest, she’d run.
It was much easier to be on the run from the law without a newborn baby in tow. A surge of unexpected protectiveness welled up inside him as he looked at her. She was so tiny, so achingly vulnerable.
And it was also a possibility that the baby could be his. He’d always tried to make sure he had protected sex; however, he also had occasionally trusted when a woman told him she was on the pill and didn’t want him to wear a condom.
He would make a good target for a woman to trick. Although his uncle Fenwick Colton and his branch of the family were filthy rich, Anders’s father had done all right, too, and Anders certainly didn’t have to worry about money.
Yes, he’d make a good target for an unscrupulous woman to intentionally get pregnant in anticipation of some sort of a big payoff. He looked back at the baby.
He had to figure out something to call her besides “the baby.” Even though he intended to give her a name and despite the protectiveness that had welled up inside him, he refused to be drawn into caring or loving the baby in any way.
For just a moment his thoughts threw him back to a place when he’d been so happy. It had been a time when he had loved with all his heart, when baby giggles had been the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
Damn, he couldn’t even think about that time without grief pooling inside him.
He sank down on the sofa, his thoughts turning to Elle Gage. He’d occasionally seen her around town but had never really noticed how attractive she was.
It had been acutely obvious that she didn’t particularly like him and she definitely didn’t trust him. Of course, he was a Colton and she was a Gage. Forbidden fruit, so to speak. Not that he was interested in a romantic relationship with anyone at the moment. He’d loved once and had been devastated. He certainly wasn’t eager to go there again. He had a ranch to run and plenty of work to keep him occupied.
A little cry alerted him that the baby was awake once again. He froze and waited to see if she would go back to sleep, but her cries got louder.
He picked her up in his arms and began to rock her, hoping that the motion would calm her down as it had before. It didn’t. Her little face screwed up and grew more and more red as her wails filled the cabin.
He could handle a bucking bronco or an enraged bull, but the crying baby in his arms scared him half to death. Why was she crying so hard? What was wrong with her?
The door opened and Elle and her dog came back in. “I can’t make her stop crying,” he said with an edge of panic. “I’ve tried rocking her, but that isn’t doing the trick.”
“Has she been fed? Have you checked to see if she needs a diaper change?” Elle walked over to the sofa and opened the tote bag. She pulled out a diaper, a bottle and a can of powdered formula.
“Give her to me. I’ll change her diaper while you make her a bottle.” She took the wailing baby from him and handed him the formula and the bottle.
“But I don’t know how to do this,” he protested.
“Read the side of the can. It isn’t rocket science.” She turned around and placed the baby on the sofa. “And make sure you warm it.”
He hurried into the kitchen where he managed to make a bottle and warm it in the microwave. He carried it back into the living room where she was seated on the sofa and rocking the still-sobbing baby.
He handed Elle the bottle and noticed the exotic, floral scent of her, a scent he found wildly attractive. The baby latched onto the bottle’s nipple and drank greedily.
“Poor little thing must have been starving,” she murmured.
An edge of guilt filled him. He should have thought about the baby being hungry. “I’m assuming you and your faithful companion didn’t find anyone outside,” he said.
He moved to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. It was easier to concentrate if he was far enough away from her that he couldn’t smell her evocative fragrance.
“No, but we both know somebody was here to leave the baby.”
“You know, it is possible she could be mine.”
Elle’s dark eyes studied him solemnly. “If that’s the case then you should know who her mother is.”
“Actually, it could be any one of several women.”
The look she gave him made him believe he should feel some sort of shame. He was thirty-three years old and he’d be damned if he’d let some hot canine cop make him feel guilty about his past relationships or any future ones he might enjoy.
“But she could also still be Demi and Bo’s baby,” she replied.
“We have to stop calling her ‘she.’ She needs a name, at least for tonight, because I intend to keep her here through the night,” he said.
She
