Reining in Justice

Once the nurse had left, Reed walked closer, staring down at Emily. Every muscle in his body was tight, the pulse in his throat throbbing.

“Are you going to ask if she’s really yours?” Addison tossed out there.

The staring went on for several more long moments. “No.”

Maybe he could see the resemblance. Emily had his dark brown hair, and even though Emily’s eyes were closed now, they were the same shade of deep blue as Reed’s. There were times, like now, when Emily had that same intensity in her expression as Reed.

“I went to the storage facility with the nurse to pick up our embryo, and I was with the surrogate when it was implanted. If I’d thought I could harvest more eggs,” Addison continued, “I wouldn’t have used our embryo.”

She would have used donor sperm with newly harvested eggs so that Reed wouldn’t have been included in this process. Of course, her intentions meant nothing to him now. He’d just learned he was something he’d never truly wanted to be.

A father.

Nothing she could say to him would soothe that. Still, she tried.

“I didn’t intend to tell you,” she went on. “I knew all along this was my baby, not yours. I don’t expect or want anything from you.”

That sent a flash of anger through his eyes, but that anger faded when he looked at Emily. He reached down, brushed his finger over Emily’s cheek and turned away. “She looks like my mother.”

Addison wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Reed hadn’t talked much about his folks, and she’d never met them. However, from what Addison had gathered, Reed had been physically abused by his alcoholic father and left alone after cancer finished off his mother. He would have ended up in foster care if it hadn’t been for Roy McKinnon. Roy had taken him in when Reed was fourteen and raised him as his own, but by then the damage had been done, and Reed had wanted nothing to do with parenthood.

Damage that Addison had always thought she could undo and convince him that he would indeed make a wonderful father.

She’d failed big-time.

“Go ahead,” Addison insisted. “Yell at me. Tell me how wrong I was to do this to you.”

She braced herself for him to carry through on her offer, and maybe he strongly considered doing just that, but he glanced down at his badge. The thing that’d always anchored him.

“You hired a surrogate,” Reed said. The emotion was still in his voice, but at least he wasn’t yelling. “From this Dearborn Agency. I don’t remember them coming up in the baby farm investigations, but it’s possible they did.”

That sent another chill through her even though it was something Addison had to consider. Those kidnappers had come after her for a reason, and the reason might have something to do with Dearborn or even the surrogate herself.

“I need to contact Cissy Blanco, the surrogate,” Addison said. “To see if she knows anything about this.”

“I’ll contact her.” Reed didn’t leave any room for argument, either. He was taking charge of getting to the bottom of this. “Is it possible the surrogate developed a strong attachment to the baby and she didn’t want to give Emily up?”

Addison was about to jump to say no, but then she remembered something. “I don’t think she developed an attachment, but about midway through the pregnancy, something about Cissy changed. She was moody. Maybe even scared.”

“Scared? About what?”

“There was a question about some mix-up with embryos, and the doctor at Dearborn gave Cissy an amnio test to make sure the baby she was carrying was ours. It was. But I think having the test was the start of her being upset.”

“The start? There was more?” Reed snapped.

Addison nodded. “She’d mentioned being worried about her sister, who was also a surrogate at Dearborn, but when I brought it up again at our next visit, Cissy said everything was okay, that I should forget she even said anything about it. I blew it off, thinking she was just going through pregnancy hormones.”

But Addison couldn’t be sure of that now.

“Maybe not all of Dearborn’s surrogates were legal,” Reed said. “Maybe some of them were involved with the baby farms.”

That put Addison’s heart in her throat. Was that true? If so, it would perhaps explain why the attack had happened.

“We should do a DNA swab on Emily just in case the question of her paternity comes up,” Reed suggested.

It wasn’t even something she wanted to consider, and Addison had been there with Cissy for the in vitro procedure. She was positive Emily was Reed’s and her baby. Still, Reed was right. They needed to have proof in case there were arrests made at Dearborn.

“When’s the last time you had contact with Cissy?” he asked.

“Not since Emily was born seven weeks ago. I was in the delivery room with her, and a few hours afterward I went in to thank her again, but Cissy was already gone. She checked herself out of the hospital.”

That got Reed’s attention. “And you didn’t think anything was wrong with that?”

Sadly, Addison had to shake her head again. “I wasn’t thinking of anything but the baby. I sent the last of Cissy’s payments to Dearborn and figured that was the end of it.”

Of course, Addison hadn’t even attempted to get in touch with the woman. In a way, she’d wanted to put the whole surrogacy behind her and get on with her new life. That could have turned out to be a mistake.

“What do I do now?” she asked, kissing Emily’s forehead.

That got his muscles working hard again. “The baby and you will need protective custody until I can find out why those men came after you, and...” But his explanation ground to a halt. “I need a minute,” he said, and reached for the door.

Addison figured it’d take a lot more than a minute for Reed to come to terms with what he’d just learned. Heck, maybe a lifetime wouldn’t be enough. However, he hadn’t even made it out of the room before his phone rang.

He glanced down at the screen, and when he pulled back his shoulders, Addison got up so she could see what’d caused that reaction.

Unknown caller.

“It could be just a telemarketer or wrong number,” Reed reminded her.

Maybe, but after the hellish morning they’d had, Addison doubted it. Reed hit the answer button and put the call on speaker.

“Don’t bother to trace this, cowboy,” the caller said. “I’m using a burner cell.” It wasn’t a normal voice but had been disguised with a scrambler.

One of the kidnappers, no doubt.

“You need to tell your ex that this isn’t over,” the caller continued.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Reed demanded.

“Addison knows what we want. The names of everyone she told.”

“Told what?” Addison said, rushing closer to get to the phone.

“You know. If you want to see what’ll happen to you, then look at the surprise we left for you at your house.”

“What surprise?” Reed and she asked together.

“You’ll see,” the voice taunted. “You’re a dead woman, Addison, and this time that cowboy won’t be able to save you.”

Chapter Five

There was so much going on in Reed’s head that he thought he might explode. How the devil had things gotten this crazy in such a short time?

He was a father.

Him!

Reed bit back another groan and tried to force himself to think. Not about Emily. Or Addison. Hard not to think about them, though, when the two were right in front of him, seated at his desk at the sheriff’s office. Every time he looked at the baby’s face, he was reminded that Addison had gone behind his back and done the very thing he hadn’t wanted her to do. Still, his ex’s betrayal had to go on the back burner for now.

Because of the threat.

“You’re a dead woman, Addison, and this time that cowboy won’t be able to save you.”

That in itself was bad enough, but there was the kidnapper’s other comment about the surprise at Addison’s house. Or rather what was left of her place. According to Colt, who was on the scene, the place had indeed been burned to the ground.

“I can’t get a good look at the rubble yet,” Colt said from the other end of the line. “The fire department’s still hosing it down.”

Both Colt and Reed cursed. For a good reason. The water was necessary to make sure the fire didn’t spread, but it would also likely destroy any evidence. Of course, there might not be any evidence to find.

The surprise could just be an empty threat. A ploy to put the fear of God into Addison. If so, it was working.

“Anything?” Addison asked the moment Reed ended the call with Colt. As she had been doing once they arrived at the sheriff’s office, she was nibbling on her bottom lip. Clearly panicked by all this.

Not Emily, though.

Now that she’d finished her bottle, the baby was sleeping in Addison’s arms. Even though Reed had said he wouldn’t focus on the little girl now, it was hard to ignore the tiny bundle that was causing such an avalanche of emotions inside him.

She was his daughter.

They’d done the DNA test, just in case her paternity came up, but Reed was certain what the test results would be.

“Nothing yet,” Reed answered. “But if there’s anything to find in the house, Colt will find it.”

He hoped. They had enough unanswered questions without adding this so-called threat to the list.

Cooper and the other deputy, Pete Nichols, were on their phones trying to track down that black SUV so Reed figured he’d better push aside the emotional avalanche and get to work on other things.

Like finding a safe place for Addison and Emily.

He seriously doubted she wanted to spend the rest of the day at the sheriff’s office. Or with him for that matter. But Reed couldn’t let her out of his sight until he knew both Emily and she would be safe.

“Why is this happening?” Addison asked on a rise of breath.

That was one of the big questions on Reed’s mind, too. So he sank down in the chair across from her to see if they could come up with something, anything that would help him catch the people responsible for this.

Of course, first he had to figure out what this was.

“I don’t believe the kidnappers actually wanted the baby,” Reed said, testing a theory that he’d been tossing around in his head with all the other jumbled thoughts. Maybe if he talked it out with her, it’d make more sense. “I believe they only took her to get you to cooperate with them. Think about it. They handed her to me, but they were going to take you.”

Addison’s eyes widened. “You’re right. It’s me they’re after.”

The kidnappers probably hadn’t wanted to have to take care of a newborn. That’s why they’d intended to make such a fast trade of Addison for the baby. Now that their plan had failed, they probably wouldn’t hesitate to use the baby to get Addison again.

But Reed didn’t intend to let them do that.

“Cooper ran a check on the baby farm investigation, and the Dearborn Agency didn’t come up,” Reed continued. “But there were some surrogates in the baby farms that have been found and interviewed. Ones who’d been hired by less than sterling prospective parents. In some cases the surrogates had been kidnapped, or at least pretended to be kidnapped, and the babies held for ransom from the couples who’d hired them.”

“You honestly think some of the surrogates were in on a scheme like that?” Addison asked.

“Possibly. Did Cissy try to get any extra money from you?”

Addison quickly shook her head. “No.” Then she paused. “But she knew I’d used most of my savings to pay for the surrogacy. And I didn’t inherit my aunt’s house until the week after Emily was born.”

That was right. Reed remembered it’d been held up in probate court for nearly a year because Addison’s aunt hadn’t left a will. Addison had eventually been given the house after it was determined that she was her aunt’s only legitimate heir, but neither anyone at Dearborn nor Cissy would have known for certain Addison was getting the place.

“Besides, if milking more money from me was the motive, then why wait seven weeks after the probate court’s ruling?” Addison asked. “Why not just kidnap Emily then and demand a ransom?”

Those were the reasons Reed had dismissed that particular part of the theory, too. But it brought him back to the surrogate angle itself.

“Even though Dearborn didn’t come up in the investigation, they could have been involved with the baby farms. They’d probably do anything to make sure the surrogate doesn’t say a word to you about the baby farm operation.”

Addison gave a quick nod. “We have to find out who owns the Dearborn Agency.”

“I’m working on that,” Cooper said, sliding his hand over the phone receiver. “So far, it’s like digging through a very big haystack.”

Oh, man. That wasn’t good at all. People with nothing to hide generally put their names on businesses they owned.

Cooper opened his mouth to add something to that, but he stopped, his gaze going to the glass door. Reed whirled in that direction to see what’d gotten the sheriff’s attention, and he immediately spotted the two men making their way from the parking lot.

Not the kidnappers, but Reed didn’t recognize them, so he slid his hand over his gun.

The man in the lead was tall and thin with dark hair. He was wearing a bright blue suit that was fitted close enough to his body that Reed didn’t think he was carrying concealed. However, he could have a weapon in the briefcase gripped in his hand.

The other man was a different story. Early forties. Bulky around the middle, and he was wearing a coat over his suit jacket. Plenty of places for him to hide a weapon.

“It’s Rooney, the P.I., and my attorney, Dominic Harrelson,” Addison said, getting to her feet.

She clutched Emily even tighter to her. That body language didn’t cause Reed to relax any, and he kept his hand on his gun.

“Good.” Cooper stood, too. “I called them both and told them to get in here.”

Reed stepped in front of the baby and Addison when the pair stepped into the building. Cooper and Pete moved next to him, all three protecting Addison just in case one or both of their visitors turned out to be a threat.

“Addison,” Dominic said, his attention going straight to her. He would have walked to Addison if Reed hadn’t blocked his path. “Are you all right? It’s all over the news about the kidnapping attempt.”

“We’re okay,” Addison answered.

Dominic flinched, maybe surprised Addison hadn’t given him a warmer greeting. Or maybe because Addison had stayed behind Reed. Of course, that nasty bruise on Addison’s forehead might have something to do with Dominic’s response, too, because along with the kidnapping attempt, it was obvious that Addison wasn’t anywhere close to being okay.

“You wanted to see me,” Rooney said, extending his hand first to Reed, then to Cooper. Reed kept his grip on his gun, but Cooper shook hands with the P.I.

“Did you two come together?” Reed asked, just so he’d know if these two were chummy or not. He definitely wasn’t picking up on any friendly vibes, but he wanted to know the dynamics here before they got started with the questions about the investigation.

“No,” Rooney assured him. “I’ve taken a hotel room here in town, and we just happened to drive up at the same time.”

Reed hoped that was a coincidence, and one wasn’t following the other. Of course, at this point, he suspected nearly everybody of doing something wrong. Hard to rid his mind of that possibility after what’d happened.

“I understand Addison hired you to do some background checks,” Reed said to the P.I.

Judging from the surprise in his eyes, Dominic didn’t know about that, and judging from Rooney’s scowl, this wasn’t something he wanted to discuss with Reed or Dominic.

Tough.

Rooney was discussing it.

“It’s okay,” Addison assured the P.I. “I’ve told Reed and Sheriff McKinnon everything.”

Everything, including the fact that Reed was a father. But again, he shoved that thought aside.

“Background checks?” Dominic questioned. “On who?”

“You, for one,” Rooney readily admitted. He shucked off his overcoat, then his jacket, but the P.I.’s shirt was still bulky enough to have hidden a gun. Which he probably had. After all, Rooney had a license to carry a concealed weapon.

“A background check on me?” Dominic snapped.

Addison nodded. “The Dearborn Agency, too. After all the news about the baby farms, I thought I should just make sure everything was aboveboard,” she added, though Dominic’s mouth had dropped open.

“You thought I had something to do with all that baby farm mess?” Dominic continued, and after glaring at Addison and Rooney, he turned to Cooper. “I didn’t. I was Addison’s attorney for the surrogacy agreement, that’s all.”

“I’d like to see the agreement,” Reed said quickly.

There’d been a lot of color in Dominic’s cheeks, but some of that color faded after Reed’s demand.

“The agreement was stolen, right?” Rooney asked.

Dominic nodded. “I’m not sure when it happened. I looked for it after the sheriff called, but it wasn’t there.”

Not that Reed needed proof this was a bad situation, but if he did, that was it. Reed turned to the P.I. “How’d you know it’d been stolen?”

“I guessed, that’s how. Someone stole all the surrogate files from Dearborn, too. They also ransacked Addison’s apartment. I found that out on the drive over.” Rooney shifted his attention to her. “The San Antonio cops will be calling you soon about it.”

“Sweet heaven,” Addison mumbled. “The kidnappers likely took the copy from my aunt’s house, too.”

Yeah, and even by some miracle they’d missed it, the fire would have destroyed it. Someone wanted to be thorough about this, which made Reed wonder what exactly was in that surrogacy agreement.

Someone obviously had something to hide.

But what, exactly?

“What about the surrogate Addison hired? Any chance she could be involved in this?” Cooper asked.

“No,” Dominic said as Rooney answered, “Possibly.”

Reed gave each of them an explain that look.

It was Dominic who continued first. “I read a report on Cissy and several of the other surrogate possibilities from Dearborn. There was nothing in any of their reports to indicate criminal activity on her part.” Then he shook his head and lifted his shoulder. “Of course, someone could have falsified the reports I read.”

The lawyer was right. And heck, maybe it wasn’t just the report that was fake. It was possible that Cissy Blanco wasn’t even the surrogate’s real name.

“I’m on it,” Cooper volunteered, and he headed back to his desk, no doubt to make calls about the surrogate.

“You think Cissy was possibly involved in this,” Reed said to Rooney.

Even though the room wasn’t that warm, there were beads of sweat on his face, and Rooney wiped them away with the back of his hand. “I don’t have anything specific, but something’s not right with the Dearborn Agency itself.”

It meshed with what Cooper had said, too. “What have you found?” Reed pressed.

“That’s just it. I haven’t found much of anything. It’s a corporation, but it’s buried under layers of paperwork, and I can’t find out who actually owns it. When I asked the office manager about the owner and the board of directors, all I got was the runaround.”

That brought Addison out from behind him, but she turned toward Dominic, not Rooney. “And you didn’t know any of this?”

Dominic threw up his hands. “Why would I? You contacted Dearborn before you ever asked me to do the surrogacy agreement. I just assumed you had vetted them and trusted them.”

Reed looked at Addison to see if that was true. Apparently, it was. “A woman at the fertility clinic I used recommended Dearborn. So did my fertility specialist. I hired Dominic to make sure there were no holes or discrepancies in the contract I had to sign with them.”

It was a smart move on Addison’s part so she could ensure that she actually got the baby if the surrogate managed to become pregnant. However, the discrepancies might not be with the contract but with the agency itself.

Or with the lawyer who’d blessed the agreement.

“Who do you think tried to kidnap Addison?” Reed asked.

However, before their visitors could answer, a sound distracted Reed. Emily’s soft whimper. When he looked back at the baby, he realized she was staring at him. Studying him as he’d done to her earlier. Reed didn’t want to feel anything, not right now anyway, when he had so many questions to ask their visitors.

But he did.

He felt as if someone had knocked the breath right out of him. And maybe someone had. Emily. That tiny baby bundled in Addison’s arms had nearly brought him to his knees.

“Are you all right?” Addison whispered.

No, he wasn’t, far from it, but he needed to finish these interviews so he could sit down and try to process everything that’d happened.

Reed must have looked sick to his stomach, because Rooney took out a foil roll of antacids from his pocket and offered him one. When Reed shook his head, declining, Rooney popped two of them into his own mouth.

“I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here,” Rooney concluded, “but I don’t want to be caught up in the blame game. For the record, I only did the job that Addison hired me to do, and I’ll continue doing it unless she tells me to stop.”

“You might want to rethink that. All of this could be dangerous,” Addison said. Not exactly firing the man, but the warning was definitely warranted.

“Yeah, I’m gettin’ that. Kidnapping attempts, your place burned down and it all seems to lead back to either you...” He motioned toward Dominic before putting his thumb against his own chest. “Me. Or Dearborn. My money’s on the agency.”

Addison shook her head. “But who in the agency? The only person I dealt with there was the office manager, Donna Cannon.”

“She’s gone,” Rooney explained. “She quit about a month ago, and they’ve been using a temp ever since.”

Well, that explained why Cooper wasn’t getting a lot of answers. “Who do you think is behind Dearborn?” Reed asked.

“Gunther Quarles,” Rooney said without hesitation.

Dominic looked at the P.I. as if he’d gone mad. “Quarles is a judge.”

Reed knew the name. Not just a judge but a rich, respected one. In addition to his being a judge, Quarles’s family had a charity foundation for underprivileged kids.

“I know exactly what he is,” Rooney said. “But I don’t like the way his name keeps popping up in my investigation. He signed at least five of the recent adoption decrees from Dearborn.”

Now it was Reed’s turn to shrug. “I’d imagine he’s signed dozens of decrees like that. It’s his job.”

“I thought that at first, too, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find at least three of the birth mothers were teenagers and had spent some time in facilities run by Quarles’s foundation.”

“That doesn’t mean anything, either,” Dominic insisted. The attorney had never looked comfortable with this interview, but his discomfort went up a significant notch. He fingered his collar and then moved those fidgety fingers to the back of his neck. “It’s not a good idea to antagonize a man like Quarles.”

The lawyer checked the time on his phone. “I have another appointment.” Dominic spared Addison a glance. “I’ll be in touch.”

Reed moved in front of Dominic when he reached for the door. “Sorry, but I’ll need both you and Rooney to stay and give statements. We need to find out everything you know about this investigation.”

Dominic huffed. “But I’ve already told you everything.”

“Then you won’t mind writing it down.” Reed didn’t give either of them a chance to refuse, either. He pointed toward the two interview rooms just up the hall. “Rooney on the right. Dominic, you can take the left one.”

Rooney headed in the direction he’d been instructed, clearly cooperating. About this anyway. But Reed had been a deputy long enough to know that sometimes the most cooperative suspects were the guiltiest. Rooney could be here to manipulate the investigation or at least try to figure out what Reed knew.