Jeremy didn’t jump to verify that. Instead, he cursed. “The men are back.”
Caitlyn heard some shouts, one of them belonging to Jeremy. “Stop!” he yelled.
“Get someone out to Jeremy Denson’s office,” Drury told his brother. “Jeremy, are you there?”
No answer.
The line was dead.
Drury waited. Something he’d been doing all night.
Patience had never been his strong suit, and that was especially true now. He wanted answers. Answers that he wasn’t getting. Well, he wasn’t getting the right answers anyway.
He’d certainly gotten a string of wrong ones.
No news on Jeremy. Nothing else on the kidnappers, either. Ronnie was sticking to his story about Caitlyn stealing his child. And CPS was pushing Grayson to disclose the location of the baby.
Grayson was staying quiet for now on anything about the baby, though he almost certainly knew that they were at the ranch. Drury wasn’t sure how long Grayson’s silence would last. Especially since CPS had said they would get protection for the little girl. If they did that, Drury wasn’t even sure it was a good idea for Caitlyn and him to keep her.
Unless the child turned out to be hers, that is.
If the baby was indeed her child, then there was no way Caitlyn would give her up. A match wouldn’t mean the baby was safe, though. Caitlyn, either. And that left Drury with another question for which he didn’t have an answer.
What then?
The logical part of him was saying he should step away from this. That his past with Caitlyn was just that—the past. But the illogical part of him put up an argument about it. Drury figured it had plenty to do with the old attraction. The one that was still there.
He threw back the covers and got off the sofa where he’d spent the night. Not sleeping, that’s for sure. The sofa was about six inches too short for his body, and the thoughts racing through his head hadn’t exactly spurred a peaceful sleep. He could still hear the shots. Could still see that look of terror on Caitlyn’s face.
Of course, the shooting had brought back the old memories. Of that same look of terror on Lily’s face before she’d died in his arms. Memories that he pushed aside. Like the attraction for Caitlyn, he didn’t want to cloud his mind with things from the past that he couldn’t change.
Since he didn’t hear Caitlyn stirring in the bedroom, he tried to be quiet when he went to the kitchen and made some coffee. The small counter was dotted with baby formula and other supplies. Something Lucas had managed to get for them before he’d left the guesthouse shortly after midnight. Later, Drury would need to thank him for helping. Grayson, too.
And that thanks would include them not mentioning that he shouldn’t be under the same roof with Caitlyn.
Drury sipped his coffee, went through his emails on the laptop that Lucas had also provided. No updates since the last time he checked other than Grayson was going to have the deputy at the hospital talk to Ronnie again. Maybe the man would cave on his story so that there’d be no question about Caitlyn’s innocence.
She already had enough strikes against her with his family of lawmen without adding that.
He heard a slight thudding sound in the bedroom, and Drury practically threw his coffee cup on the table and hurried to find out if anything had happened. Not that he had to go far. It was literally only a few steps from the kitchen. He drew his gun from his shoulder holster and threw open the door, bracing himself for the worst. But it wasn’t the worst.
Caitlyn was standing there naked.
Almost naked anyway. She was putting on an oversize bathrobe, and he got a glimpse of her body before she managed to yank the sides together and tie the sash.
“Sorry,” she whispered. Maybe an apology for the peep show. Or maybe because she’d clearly startled him. Caitlyn picked up the plastic baby bottle that she’d obviously dropped. “I’m on edge, too,” she added.
No doubt, but at the moment she didn’t exactly look on edge. Their gazes connected. Held. And he saw in her eyes something he didn’t want to see. The old heat.
Drury looked away and reholstered his gun. Since he was already there, he also checked on the baby. There’d been no time to get a crib, so the little girl was sleeping on the center of the bed where she’d likely spent most of the night. The covers on the floor told him that Caitlyn had probably slept there.
“I was afraid of rolling onto her during the night,” Caitlyn said. “She’s so little.” There was some fear in her voice, but he didn’t think it was from the danger but rather because it was true. The baby really was tiny.
“Did she sleep okay?” he asked.
Caitlyn nodded, then shrugged. “I guess she did. I don’t really know how often a baby should be waking up.”
Neither did Drury, but Caitlyn had gotten up twice in the night to warm bottles. Drury had asked if he could help. Especially since Caitlyn had had to walk right past him to get to the kitchen. But she’d declined his offer.
“Please tell me you have good news. Any good news,” Caitlyn said.
It took Drury a couple of moments to come up with something that could possibly be considered good. “Grayson is bringing in both Helen and Melanie for questioning.”
Caitlyn flexed her eyebrows. “I’m betting neither was happy about that.”
“They weren’t. Especially Helen. Grayson said she didn’t seem too concerned when he told her about the call we’d gotten from Jeremy.”
“She wouldn’t be. Jeremy and she haven’t been on friendly terms in years. Jeremy’s a hothead.”
Yeah, Drury had figured that out from the brief phone call. But the “hothead” was about to be labeled a missing person if they didn’t hear from him soon.
“Someone had tampered with the security cameras in the parking garage where Jeremy made that call,” he explained. “There’s no footage for fifteen minutes before the call or for a half hour afterward.”
She stayed quiet a moment. “You think Jeremy could have really been kidnapped?”
Drury had to lift his shoulder. “You know him better than I do. Would he fake a disappearance?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn said without hesitation. “If it benefited him in some way. And this possibly could if he thought he was a suspect in the attack last night.” But then she shook her head. “Of course, he wouldn’t have had any part in her birth.” She glanced at the baby.
“Because he wouldn’t want to share his inheritance.” Drury remembered Caitlyn mentioning that. “But if he’s worried about splitting an inheritance, wouldn’t he try to smooth things over with his mom?”
“Helen
