Texas Baby Conspiracy

by Barb Han

  “What’s up?” Aaron was all business. He was also a mutual friend of Blake’s and Liz’s.

  “Everything’s good. I just have a question and it may come off as out of the blue.” He couldn’t help but feel like he was missing something with Liz.

  “Shoot.”

  “You’ve been around Liz.”

  “Yeah, we’ve been friends for a long time. Why?”

  “Ever notice anything different when she was around me than with other officers?” He was tap dancing around the subject.

  “Like, what? The fact that she took a shine to you?”

  “When you say shine, do you mean—”

  “She had it for you bad. It was plain as the nose on my face. Why? Did she finally make a move? Because her timing couldn’t be worse if you ask me.” The way he spoke about the crush she had like he was reading last year’s news made Blake realize how obvious it must have been to everyone but him.

  “No. No move. Nothing like that. Alyssa mentioned Liz has given her the cold shoulder and I couldn’t figure out why.”

  “Now you know. Liz pined over you after...” His voice trailed off and Blake knew exactly what he was referring to. The divorce. “But it’s all good. She hasn’t said anything in a long time. Not that she ever confided in me about her love life. I could just tell by the way she talked about you and especially Alyssa. So, I’m not surprised Liz hasn’t exactly been easy on her.”

  “I didn’t just miss the boat on that one, I didn’t even see the ship in the harbor.”

  Aaron laughed. “It’s all water under the bridge now, right? I mean, you and Alyssa are getting back together and starting a family.”

  “The only thing we’re planning right now is figuring out how to be parents together. That’s enough for the time being.” He didn’t feel a lot of conviction in those words. There was a whole lot going on in the back of his mind when it came to his relationship with Alyssa. Part of him was waiting for the truth to come out. If she’d left him to protect him like she mentioned, like she’d convinced herself, could he give their relationship a second chance?

  Not without change. Not without knowing she would come to him to talk about a problem rather than try to solve it herself, leaving him in the dark. Relationships didn’t work that way. Clearly.

  “Whatever you want. You know I’m here for you.”

  “Thanks. Same if you ever need a favor.” Blake would miss Aaron.

  They exchanged goodbyes and ended the call.

  How had Blake missed something right under his nose? If Aaron had picked up on it, others had to have too. Was that also the reason she was going above and beyond on the investigation? Was she hoping to win him over?

  The last thing he wanted to do was give her false hope because he would only ever see her as a buddy, as a sister figure. There could never be more between them and it had nothing to do with Alyssa, who was more his type. He was attracted to intelligence. It was the first thing he noticed about someone once he got past the external. Then it was sense of humor. Strength and vulnerability. Too many people confused being strong with never showing their flaws. On the contrary, it was flaws that made a person unique. Perfectly imperfect. Easy to see and yet hard to pinpoint. Alyssa had the kind of strength that allowed her to be vulnerable to someone, to Blake.

  He could never see himself with someone who didn’t value family. His was at the center of his world despite the fact he hadn’t been showing it in recent years. He’d become obsessed with finding out what happened to his sister. Then the job had taken on a life of its own, keeping him busy and tired. The search got harder and he went home less often. His biggest regret would be not spending more time with his father in his last years.

  Blake had no plans to repeat the same mistake when it came to his mother. He needed to have a conversation with Alyssa about where their child would be brought up and how. His head started spinning with questions that would need answers. Since easy answers wouldn’t come, he needed to regroup. They had a little time before the baby came to get on the same page, but the amount of decisions that needed to be made were already mind-numbing.

  Picking up the remote and Alyssa’s belongings, he hoped she’d find some answers on her laptop. Or at least a better direction. They had plenty of resources on this case and didn’t seem to be making any progress. So far, they’d been one step behind. And for the first time in Blake’s professional career, he didn’t know how to turn it around.

  * * *

  ALYSSA MUST’VE NODDED off again. She woke to the smell of pizza. Pepperoni. Pushing up, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

  “Hey.” Alyssa’s voice had the rough, sleepy quality.

  “Did I wake you?” he asked.

  “Nah.” She sat up.

  “Are you hungry?” He was by her side in two steps, offering an arm for her to leverage and pull herself up.

  “Starving. If the pizza tastes half as good as it smells, I’ll be in heaven.”

  “It’s ready and waiting.”

  She pulled herself up to standing, and then took off down the hallway where she remembered seeing a bathroom. A person could easily get lost in a house this large, so she figured she would stick to the couple of rooms she knew.

  After using the facilities and washing up, she joined Blake in the kitchen.

  He shook his head the minute she entered the room.

  “Right. Bed rest.” She rubbed her belly. Slowing down wasn’t going to come naturally to her by any means. She’d always been on the go.

  This was important and nothing mattered more than her baby’s health, so off to the TV room she went.

  Blake joined her with two plates. He handed one over and produced a bottle of water that had been tucked underneath his arm.

  “You didn’t eat yet?”

  “I waited.”

  “You must be starving.”

  He smiled. “I could eat.”

  The next few minutes were spent in silence, another sign of just how hungry they both were. Once he set his empty plate on the coffee table, he retrieved a drink for himself from a mini fridge in the corner of the room.

  “I owe you an apology,” he said.

  “For what?”

  “Liz,” he started. “I don’t know if I’ve misled her in some way, but I definitely didn’t get the memo about her wanting more than a friendship until it was pointed out to me. I never would have brought her around you if I’d known that was the case.”

  “You finally picked up on that, huh?” It had been painfully obvious to Alyssa and she’d gotten jealous despite not having any right to.

  “We just didn’t see our friendship in the same light.” He motioned toward a couple of objects on the massive coffee table. “She dropped those off earlier.”

  “My purse. And my laptop.” Those would come in handy. She had a quick thought about seeing if her passport was in her wallet. Maybe a trip out of the country was in order. Then, she glanced down at her belly and remembered that she couldn’t even go more than a handful of miles away from the hospital.

  At least she could log into her work files and dig around. Something told her to log in using her father’s credentials. He’d given them to her in case she got locked out trying to use her own. After finishing up the last of the water bottle, she grabbed her laptop and booted up the system.

  Without knowing what she was looking for, this felt a lot like digging around for a needle in a haystack. Thinking of her dad reminded her of her mother.

  “I should probably use your phone and check in on my mother,” she said. Not having her cell made her anxious.

  “She’s on her way to the ranch. I texted Colton earlier and he arranged to have her picked up,” Blake said. He checked his watch, which was not, by the way, a Rolex. “In fact, she might already be there by now. I’m guessing there ha
ven’t been any hiccups or I would have heard from one of my brothers by now.”

  “Thank you for taking care of her.”

  “Last I checked, you’re still family.” He seemed to regret those words as soon as they came out of his mouth. “I didn’t mean what I said earlier about me only helping because of the baby. Once family, always family in my book. I’m always available to help if you need me. I didn’t make that clear before.”

  “It’s fine. Our situation is...complicated.”

  “You could say that all right.” His laugh was a low rumble. It was sexy and reminded her how long it had been since she’d been intimate with anyone.

  That ship had sailed as far as she was concerned. Trying to date with a newborn in tow meant she was pretty much saying goodbye to any semblance of a love life for the foreseeable future. She would miss sex. She already did.

  What was that saying? Can’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

  Why was anyone trying to throw out the baby in the first place? She laughed at her own internal joke.

  Okay, she was getting campy. So, bed rest was going to be awesome. If by awesome she meant a nightmare.

  “What am I looking for?” She refocused on the laptop.

  “Finances are always a good bet. Shipping or logistics records is next.”

  “Dad was constantly in and out of Mexico for business.” As a supplier to a popular chain of World Market–type fare, he was in and out of the country. He worked with a couple of suppliers near the border.

  “What about known associates?”

  “He took me to meet a couple of his contacts last year. He was pushing me to take over because he was thinking about retiring.” Her parents needed an income to survive, so her father was grooming her to step into his shoes. He’d stay on part-time, but she would meet with the customers stateside. He joked she was young and pretty—the combination would get more orders than if they dealt with a decrepit old man.

  “What did you think about the people you met?”

  She shrugged. “They seemed nice. Nothing sticks out as out of the ordinary.”

  This was frustrating. The memories were right there, just out of reach. Did she have the answers to their questions locked inside her brain? Was the trauma the only reason she couldn’t access the vault? They were her thoughts for crying out loud. Who couldn’t remember their own thoughts?

  “Don’t try to force it. You’re not the only way to get to the information.” He refrained from saying who was.

  “Liz?”

  “It’s a little late to remove her from the case now.”

  “I wouldn’t want to. I need all the help I can get. And, believe me, I realize she is only doing this to help you. But it’s going to help me, so I won’t complain. I’d prefer not to have to see her, but that’s a whole different story.”

  At least he laughed this time. The two of them were on better footing. At the end of the day, that was all that mattered to her. It didn’t hurt that he’d finally figured Liz out.

  Liz?

  Why did Alyssa have a bad feeling about the woman? This ran deeper than the situation with Blake.

  She logged on to her father’s email, skimming the names and subject lines. She ran a search for Mexico and found a vacation he’d been planning. Apparently, he was putting together a surprise trip for his anniversary. He’d had no idea how sick he would become or that pneumonia would leave his life feeling unfinished. He should have taken better care of himself. She’d gotten on him countless times for eating junk on the road when he drove back and forth across the border. And smoking.

  “He’d been spending more time on the road before he got sick. I remember that now,” she said. Bits and pieces were coming back to her.

  “Could he have been having trouble with a supplier?”

  She ran a search for the names of the business contacts she’d met. Jose Ramirez. Raul Espinosa. Alex Rodriguez. She skimmed their email exchanges. All the messages were polite. No sign of trouble in paradise.

  Email was netting a big zero. Of course, if her father was involved in something illegal... Hold on. Her father had told her something. Had her sign something. What?

  Trying to remember made her brain cramp.

  She blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s right there in my mind. Why can’t I access it?”

  “It’ll come. I know this is easier said than done but if you try not to focus on it, the answer might come to you.”

  “I’ve given that same advice dozens of times. Being on the other end of it doesn’t feel so great.” In fact, she decided right then and there never to utter those words again. She wasn’t mad at Blake. He was trying to help. He was also right even though it didn’t help with her frustration. And it wasn’t like she could take a walk or exercise to work off some of the tension she felt. Bed rest.

  She pecked away at the keyboard of her laptop, pulling up the most recent balance sheet. Hmm. There was nothing out of the ordinary there. What about the bank account? Blake made a good point when he mentioned money. If something illegal was going on, money was a good place to start looking for a trail.

  She logged on to the corporate bank account and searched for any sizeable withdrawals. Theirs was a small office, consisting of an administrative assistant, who was basically a jack-of-all-trades, and a customer service representative who was more problem solver than anything else. Trish Callum had been her father’s right hand and he’d hired her niece for the customer service job two years ago. Delaney Rhinehart was a single mother to a four-year-old boy.

  Being a small family office, everyone got along, which didn’t necessarily mean there weren’t secrets. Still, wouldn’t Alyssa know if either were involved in illegal activity? And even if they were, why come after Alyssa? Why not go after one of them?

  She decided neither one was involved or knew anything about her father’s activities despite Trish having worked for her father for almost ten years. She stayed in her lane, helping set up computer files and making sure documents made it into the appropriate folder. She helped keep the office running smoothly. Besides, no alarms sounded when Alyssa thought of either of those two. Her father, however, was another story.

  When she thought of him, a warning flared deep in her chest.

  “I’m not seeing anything strange going on with money.” Her eyes stopped on a withdrawal the minute she said that. “Hold on.”

  Blake moved beside her, causing her heart to hammer a little faster against her rib cage. Heat climbed up her neck, spreading to her cheeks. She could feel the flush as it crawled over her. So much for not giving away her body’s reaction to him.

  “See this.” She pointed to the screen.

  “That’s a sizeable cash withdrawal.”

  “I didn’t see anything like this on the balance sheet.” She pulled it up again for reference. She’d learned not to take her memory for granted here in the third trimester when she could literally walk into a room and forget why. Granted, those incidents happened to everyone at times. For her, it was happening regularly.

  A cramp stopped her cold. She did the breathing technique she’d been taught and was able to manage the pain.

  “This little munchkin seems determined to show up early,” Blake said. The term was endearing. “Asking if you’re okay seems like it qualifies as a stupid question.”

  “It was a little rough but seems to be calming down now.” For the second time in the last five minutes, she needed to eat her words.

  Alyssa gasped and grabbed Blake’s hand, wishing he could stop the pain threatening to consume her. Was this baby about to force her way into the world?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Blake couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt helpless and useless at the same time. Watching Alyssa suffer through another cramp brought on both full tilt. She breathed her way through the pain, an
d he figured she was the bravest person in the room.

  “What can I do?” he asked, impressed by her calm demeanor considering she was in an enormous amount of pain, and how willing she seemed to do whatever it took to keep the baby safe.

  “For a second there, I thought we might be making a trip to the hospital.” She let go of his hand and rubbed her belly. “I’m not ready to make the call just yet.”

  “You’re going to be an amazing mother.” He couldn’t keep the awe out of his voice.

  “How do you know?”

  “It’s obvious to me how much you love her already. You’re warm and compassionate. You’re devoted to her. She’s going to be one lucky kid.”

  The flush to her cheeks made her even more beautiful but he wasn’t trying to embarrass her.

  “Thank you, Blake. It means a lot to hear you say that. Especially after...” Her voice trailed off and was filled with so much regret at those last words.

  “Water under the bridge,” he quickly countered.

  “Really?”

  “As far as I’m concerned.”

  “Even though—”

  “I have no interest in looking back or measuring mistakes. I especially don’t care to point fingers or assign blame. What’s in the past is in the past. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to move forward.” He wasn’t asking her to forget the past and neither would he. He was far more interested in learning from it, and then moving on. “We have a child to get ready for. You were right about our situation being complicated before. There’s no denying it with our history.”

  Her lips compressed like she was stopping herself from saying something.

  “That same history allows us to know each other. I realize it’s not the same. Before, it was like we could read each other’s thoughts. That’s asking too much now. Because of our past, I know you like long drives on the property. Your favorite color is green, the exact color of grass. You love peperoni pizza and would trade your family business for a good fish taco.”