he felt the same about Dylan.
“Everything okay?” the deputy asked, his attention nailed to Collena Drake.
She let the blanket fall to the floor so that she could again lift her hands in a show of surrender. However, she kept her gaze pinned on Dylan.
“Sixteen months ago, I gave birth to a son,” she continued. Her voice cracked on the last word and her bottom lip began to tremble.
Dylan wasn’t trembling, but he felt some of that raw emotion himself.
“So?” he challenged.
“So, you illegally adopted him. I’m Adam’s mother.”
Chapter Two
Collena held her breath and waited for Dylan Greer’s reaction to what she’d just told him.
She’d braced herself for just about anything. Shouts, accusations, violence, perhaps even an arrest. But neither violence, nor an arrest would stop her from making him understand the truth.
Dylan Greer had her son.
Just silently saying the words made Collena’s heart ache. Yes, she’d found her baby—finally—but the man who’d adopted him was a massive obstacle who stood in the way of her becoming a real mother to her child.
Collena was prepared to make any and all compromises to be a mother. What she wouldn’t do was walk away and not be part of her son’s life. No way. She wouldn’t do to her child what her own mother had done to her.
“Well?” the deputy prompted. “Is someone gonna tell me what in the sam hill is going on here?”
With their eyes locked, Collena waited to see what Dylan would say. He didn’t make it easy on her—she had to wait several long moments.
“I’m not sure,” Dylan answered. “But I’ll find out.”
The deputy turned up the collar on his thick wool coat. “Mind if we ‘find out’ someplace warmer? I’m freezing my butt off out here. And if this is some kind of lovers’ quarrel—”
“It’s not,” Collena and Dylan said in unison.
But she did agree with the deputy on one thing. She was freezing, too. And she was dizzy. How could she have been so stupid not to eat before she set out to try to get a glimpse of her child? It was an understatement to say she’d been preoccupied with seeing her son, but fainting and feeling weak weren’t good bargaining tools for what would no doubt be a major battle with Dylan Greer.
“How about we take this to the house?” the deputy suggested. “I can have a cup of Ina’s coffee and you two can decide when you’re going to let me know what’s going on.” He aimed his index finger at Dylan. “But I warn you, if you brought me all the way out here on Thanksgiving for nothing, then even Ina’s coffee won’t improve my mood.”
The ruddy-faced deputy added a lopsided smile to indicate he was only partly joking. Dylan didn’t return the smile. The tension between them was almost as thick as it was between Dylan and Collena.
Almost.
“Can you walk on your own?” Dylan asked her. He waited just long enough for her nod before he headed out of the stables and in the direction of his house.
Where her son was.
That sent Collena’s heart racing, and it was for all the right reasons. She might get to see her child.
Ahead of her, Dylan took out his phone and Collena heard him make a call. He told whomever answered to unlock his office door and to make sure Adam stayed out of there for a while.
Collena wouldn’t be able to see him. Part of her understood that. Dylan Greer didn’t know her at all. Judging from the questions he’d barked at her, he thought she might be a killer.
Now, that brought on more than just raw nerves. What had happened to this man to make him think a trespasser was out to murder him? And were his suspicions valid? Collena certainly intended to look into the matter, because if it was true, her son might also be in danger.
“Some advice?” the deputy drawled. “It’s not a good idea to trespass on Dylan’s property. Since he adopted that little boy, he doesn’t pull any punches about stuff like that. He’ll have your butt arrested in a New York minute.”
Collena ignored the warning and brushed some snowflakes off her face. “Is he a good father?”
The deputy glanced at her as if she were mentally a little off. “Yeah. He is. A surprise, if you ask me. When the two of us were growing up, I never took Dylan for the fatherly type.”
Well, the deputy was apparently the only person surprised with Dylan’s fatherly attributes. In the past three days, Collena’s team of investigators had dug up everything they could on the man, and from all accounts Dylan wasn’t just a good father, he was an outstanding one. In addition, he had a sterling reputation and was considered to be an honest, dependable man if not a little ruthless when it came to running his business.
And it was all those things combined that had made Collena come up with her plan.
A plan that had to work. Even though she had no idea how she was going to convince Dylan Greer to do what she needed him to do.
She studied the man ahead of her. He had the looks to go along with that sterling reputation. He was, for lack of a better word, golden. Bronze-colored hair that fell low on the back of his neck. Naturally tan skin. And those sizzling green eyes. Amazing eyes to compliment his amazingly rugged face.
Collena hated that she noticed the last part, but it would have been impossible to ignore. If the world ever needed a cowboy cover model, Dylan Greer would be the perfect man for the job.
She’d expected to feel insecure and inferior around him, what with his money, education and power. There would always be some of that. But Collena hadn’t expected to feel the slight tingle inside that reminded her she was a woman.
A hungry woman.
The tingle couldn’t have anything to do with Dylan. Low blood-sugar levels were to blame. And Collena refused to believe otherwise. She had a job to do here, and she couldn’t let tingling feelings get in the way.
“I take it there’s a history between Dylan and you?” The deputy didn’t wait for her to answer. “Were you two lovers and then you gave up your baby for adoption?”
“Nothing like that,” she muttered. So she wouldn’t have to continue this interrogation, she hurried to catch up with Dylan. “Did you hear what I said about being Adam’s mother?”
It was a rhetorical question, a way to get the conversation started. Because Collena was dead certain he had heard every single word she’d said back there in the stables.
He spared her a glance and kept walking through the pasture. “There was no reason to respond because I don’t believe you.”
Ah, skepticism. She’d expected that, too. “It’s the truth. I have proof.”
Another
