by Elle Kennedy
She couldn’t help but smile at the way he had one arm flung haphazardly over the side of the sofa. He’d always had the habit of stretching out in his sleep. She couldn’t count how many times she’d woken up curled into a tiny ball at the very edge of the bed while Finn monopolized all the space.
Deciding not to wake him, she went into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee, her smile fading when she noticed Lucy’s bouncy seat on the table. Pain somersaulted inside her chest. God, why hadn’t they found Lucy yet? Finn had assured her that Parsons and the other agents were doing everything they could. Apparently the Bureau’s kidnapping unit had alerted all the major airports and border crossings, providing photos of Lucy and ordering officials to keep their eyes out for anyone traveling with a child matching Lucy’s description. But other than the tip from the boutique owner in Grayden, none of the leads that had come in had amounted to anything.
Sarah poured herself some coffee, but the hot liquid didn’t erase the chill in her body. She wanted her baby back, damn it. Her gaze dropped to her ankle monitor and she experienced a burst of anger. She couldn’t even search for Lucy outside Serenade. She’d never felt so powerless before, not since she’d lost Jason.
Footsteps came from the hallway and then Finn appeared, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He’d put on his jeans and the gray sweatshirt he’d had on yesterday. “Morning,” he murmured. “Will you pour me a cup while I go wash up?”
“Sure.”
He left the kitchen and she stood there, staring at the empty doorway. She wasn’t sure why he’d even stayed the night, especially after the exasperating heart-to-heart they’d shared, but Finn had insisted he didn’t want her to be alone. She didn’t like admitting it, not even to herself, but she’d felt comforted when she slid into bed last night, knowing he was right downstairs.
Not that she’d slept. She’d tossed and turned the entire night, thinking of Lucy and Finn and Jason and everything she’d lost.
“Jamie and Cole are on their way over,” Finn announced when he strode back into the room ten minutes later. He accepted the mug she handed him and took a long sip.
Sarah’s heart dropped. “Why? Did Cole’s P.I. find something?”
“Jamie didn’t say. She only said they were coming.”
Putting down her cup, she ignored the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach and headed for the door. “I guess I’ll shower and dress, then.”
She quickly hurried upstairs and showered, then slipped into a pair of black yoga pants and a stretchy green V-neck sweater, not bothering with a bra. Panic rose inside her as she dressed. Her hands wouldn’t quit shaking, making it tough to roll on her black ankle socks. Why were Cole and Jamie coming over? What had they found out?
She’d been trying desperately not to think about what they’d told her yesterday, but now the frightening prospect returned in full force, causing her hand to tremble even harder as she ran a brush through her damp hair.
What if Teresa was Lucy’s biological mother?
The brush dropped from her hand and fell onto the vanity table as she contemplated the outrageous thought. She’d despised Teresa Donovan. Teresa had been the cruelest woman Sarah had ever met. She slept around, went after other women’s husbands, mocked people for the fun of it. Sarah had always believed that every human being possessed one redeemable quality, had something good about them, but not Teresa. That woman hadn’t been human.
She’d been a monster.
Sarah stared at her reflection in the mirror, finally finding the courage to ask the one question she’d been avoiding since Cole and Jamie had shared their suspicions.
Would she love Lucy less if Teresa turned out to be the baby’s birth mother?
The second the thought entered her brain, fury rose up her chest and clamped around her throat. No. No. She would love Lucy just the same, and that revelation grabbed the anger and transformed it into soaring liberation.
Lucy was her daughter. It didn’t matter who gave birth to her. She was hers.
Squaring her shoulders, Sarah went back downstairs, picking up on the murmur of voices coming from the kitchen. Cole and Jamie were here. So was Agent Parsons, she discovered in dismay when she walked into the room. The fair-haired man was helping himself to a cup of coffee, and he greeted her with a smirk when she entered.
“Good morning, Ms. Connelly.”
“Morning,” she muttered before turning to the couple sitting at the table. “What did you find out?”
“I’m wondering the same thing,” Parsons said. He frowned at Finn. “I see you’ve been running some sort of side investigation, and I don’t appreciate being kept out of the loop.”
“Oh, relax, Mark,” Jamie grumbled with a frown of her own. “Finn had nothing to do with this. Cole and I ran this lead all by ourselves.”
“And why is that?” Parsons asked, his nasty stare now directed at the auburn-haired profiler. “As I recall, you took a leave of absence. You have no business interfering with this case.”
Sarah tried not to raise her eyebrows. The animosity between Jamie and Parsons was palpable. She hadn’t noticed it before, when they’d both been here the morning after Lucy was taken. But now it was obvious there was no love lost between the two of them, and Jamie’s hostile reaction to the man only reaffirmed Sarah’s own dislike. Jamie was the most levelheaded person she’d ever met; if she didn’t like Parsons, then that meant he truly was the pompous jerk Sarah had pegged him to be.
Jamie scowled. “Mark, why don’t you just drink your coffee and let Cole tell everyone what we found out, okay?”
Parsons looked like he was inwardly seething, but he kept his mouth shut, gesturing for Cole to take over.
“My private investigator visited the adoption clinic yesterday evening, but as expected, they refused to divulge any records without a warrant.” Cole spared a glance at the federal agent. “Perhaps you can arrange for one, if you see fit. Anyway, after my guy struck out, he visited several hospitals in the area and did some digging.”
Sarah bit the inside of her cheek. “And?”
“And he found a record indicating that Teresa was admitted into St. Mary’s Hospital on June 23.” Cole paused in discomfort. “She gave birth to a baby girl.”
Sarah gasped, leaning against the counter for support. June 23. That was the birth date the adoption clinic had provided her for Lucy. Oh, God. It was actually true.
“There was a birth certificate on record, listing Teresa as the mother, though she used her maiden name. The father was unknown. After that, my guy worked backward, tracking down the clinic Teresa visited during her pregnancy. She had monthly checkups and apparently took good care of herself. She put her own name on the birth certificate, but everything else she did while using the name Valerie Matthews.”
“Are we sure it’s Teresa then?” Finn said in a clipped tone. “Maybe Valerie is the one who gave birth.”
Cole shook his head. “It’s not possible. Valerie was here in town when Teresa moved to Raleigh. I ran into her several times.” He scowled. “She loved to yell at me about divorcing her sister.”
Finn let out a breath. “Yeah, you’re right. I remember seeing her around, too, and she definitely wasn’t pregnant.”
“Ahem.”
Everyone turned toward Parsons, who was angrily setting down his mug, his eyes flashing with irritation. “Are you saying that Teresa Donovan was the biological mother of Ms. Connelly’s child?”
Jamie shot him a duh look. “Yes, Mark, that’s what we’re saying.”
He went silent for a moment, then twisted around in his chair. Sarah found a pair of ice-blue eyes staring her down.
“Is that why you killed her?” he asked pleasantly.
The air swooshed from her lungs. “What?”
Finn was already scraping back his chair. “What the hell—”
Parsons stood before Finn could even finish the outraged exclamation. Crossing his arms over his chest, the agent glanced at Jamie wi
th a cold smile. “You realize you’ve only succeeded in strengthening my case, right, Crawford?”
Her lavender eyes blazed. “What are you talking about?”
“Motive, Crawford.” Parsons turned to bestow that same reptilian smile on Sarah. “You found out Mrs. Donovan was your child’s mother, didn’t you, Sarah? Was she regretting the adoption? Did she want her baby back?”
Sarah felt as if someone had slapped her. “What? No!”
“Did you kill her when she threatened to fight for her child? With your mental illness, you probably just snapped, didn’t you, Sarah? She wanted her kid back, and you shot her in the—”
“Enough!”
Finn’s roar reverberated in the kitchen. Before Sarah could blink, he had Parsons by the collar and was slamming the other man against her bright yellow wall. The anger rolling off Finn’s big body spiked the temperature in the room by a hundred degrees, and she suddenly couldn’t tear her eyes off him. Here he was, the sexy macho jerk she’d fallen for all those years ago, with that possessiveness that made her want to clobber him and at the same time melted her heart.
“Watch your mouth, you son of a bitch!” He shook Parsons hard, and Sarah’s eyes widened. “She didn’t kill anybody.”
Parsons’s face was beet red, his breaths coming in harsh pants. With his palms pushed against Finn’s chest, he sidestepped his hold, his eyes wild as he glared at the man who’d just accosted him. “I’ll have your damn badge for this, Finnegan! How dare you lay a hand on me!”
Finn was breathing just as hard. “You were out of line, Parsons.”
“Why, because you’re sleeping with her?” the other man spat out. “That’s another reason I’ll fight to get your badge taken away.”
Finn looked ready to launch himself at the agent again, and this time Sarah refused to let him do it. It might have brought a tiny spark of pleasure, watching him defend her like that, but she wasn’t going to let him throw away the career he’d worked hard to obtain because of some slimy jerk.
“Stop it,” she ordered, her sharp tone snapping in the air like a whip. “I won’t have you brawling in my kitchen like a bunch of damn teenagers. My daughter is missing!”
Both men went shamefaced, though she noticed neither one apologized. To each other, anyway. But Finn did shoot her a sheepish look and murmur, “I’m sorry.” He slowly unclenched his fists. “You’re right. Lucy is all that matters. The only thing we should be doing right now is finding her.”
“And I think I have an idea about who may have taken her,” Jamie spoke up from across the room.
Sarah spun around. “Who?” she demanded.
“Yes, Crawford,” came Parsons’s mocking voice. “Who took the child?”
Jamie got to her feet and approached the tense group. “You said so yourself, Mark. In child abductions, a family member is usually the perpetrator.”
The agent’s eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting the child’s biological father is responsible?”
“He could be, but that’s not who I had in mind.” Jamie gave a wry shrug. “Seeing as Teresa had more lovers than Hugh Hefner, I doubt she even knew who the father was, and if she did, I can’t see her informing him that he was going to be a daddy.” She slanted her head. “No, I’m thinking a different kind of family member.”
Sarah gasped, the thought slicing into her brain just as Jamie voiced it.
“I think Valerie Matthews did it. Lucy’s aunt.”
Chapter 12
“No answer,” Finn said grimly, striding up to the Jeep where Anna waited.
They were parked in front of Valerie Matthews’s small townhouse, located in a residential area a few blocks from Main Street. Valerie hadn’t come to the door when he’d rang the doorbell, and from the days’ worth of mail piled up on her front stoop, it was clear she hadn’t been home in a while. According to the law office she worked at, Valerie had taken a leave of absence one week ago. Personal time, she’d told the senior partner at the firm, claiming she planned on traveling for a couple months. But Finn didn’t buy it. Not one bit.
Valerie had taken Lucy. They might not have proof of it, and hell, no evidence that Valerie had even been aware of her sister’s pregnancy, but Finn’s instincts rarely failed him and they were pointing all sorts of fingers at Valerie Matthews.
“She’s not there, huh?” Anna said quietly.
“No, I think she’s already skipped town.”
“With Lucy?”
He gave a harsh nod. “I’d bet my life on it.”
They both grew silent, frustration building in the air. And tension. He was suddenly aware of that, too, and guilt prickled his skin as he met his deputy’s eyes.
“Anna,” he started roughly, “I wanted to—”
“Apologize?” she filled in, her dark eyes twinkling.
Her playful expression caught him off guard. “I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am that I had to question you,” he said. “I never thought for a minute you had anything to do with Lucy’s kidnapping.”
The young woman sighed. “You were covering all your bases. I know that, boss. Can’t say it didn’t sting a little, though.”
His guilt deepened, filling his belly. Lord, he was just alienating everyone around him, wasn’t he? Arresting Sarah, interrogating Anna.
“You’ve definitely had a streak of bad luck,” Anna said, as if reading his mind. “First Cole, then Sarah, now me.”
He swallowed down a gulp of anguish, but she hurried on before he could apologize again. “Nobody thinks it’s your fault, boss. A woman was murdered. A baby was abducted. I know you have a job to do, no matter where the evidence takes you.”
Her gentle reassurance brought a rush of peace. He’d needed to hear that. He’d worked damn hard to get to where he was, going from a punk with a chip on his shoulder to a devoted deputy under the former sheriff. When he’d been elected to serve his townspeople, he’d never felt prouder. For years, he’d been sullen, miserable, lashing out at anyone in his path because the one person he really wanted to strike out at—his mother—was too fragile and messed up, already a victim of something completely out of her control.
But he’d battled the anger and bitterness and turned things around for himself. Being Serenade’s sheriff gave him a sense of worth, a sense of belonging. Yet it didn’t give him the sense of sheer completeness that Sarah did.
He loved his job, but Sarah…that was a whole different kind of love. She brightened his life in a way nobody ever could. She was so damn smart, so kind and patient. She could light up a room with her smile, and when she was happy, that happiness soared outward and made him feel as though he’d been touched by a ray of sunshine.
He was determined to win her back. Now that he knew the reasons holding her back, her fear that he’d abandon her and her daughter, he was determined to prove her wrong.
“So, what now?” Anna asked, interrupting the detour of his thoughts. “How do we track down Valerie?”
Finn’s phone came to life then, and he quickly pulled it out of his pocket. He glanced at the caller ID and nodded in satisfaction. “Hopefully this will point us in the right direction.”
“Finn, my investigator just left the adoption clinic in Raleigh,” Cole barked in his ear, getting right to the point.
“And?”
“Valerie knew about Lucy.”
The confirmation sent a streak of triumph through him. “You sure?”
“Oh, yeah.” Cole made an unintelligible sound. “I swear, those Matthews women know how to get what they want. My P.I. flashed her picture to the employees—this time the director let him inside the clinic. Apparently she realized a missing child was more important than red tape. She claims that she never released Lucy’s file to anyone, but my guy got a suspicious feeling about one of the lab techs working there.
“He talked to the kid alone, got him to admit that he’d let Valerie into the records room about a month after Teresa was killed.” Cole swore in annoyanc
e. “She seduced the poor guy, right in the damn file room. He left her alone for ten minutes, and when he came back, she was gone. He couldn’t be sure she got a look at any of the files, but I’m inclined to think she did.”
“Me, too,” Finn said with a sigh. He mulled it over. “So somehow she figured Teresa had been pregnant, and she got her confirmation by checking the adoption files. She found out Sarah was the adoptive mother, and took it upon herself to steal the baby.”
“Or she had help,” Cole offered. “Jamie wasn’t sure if the attacker was a man or a woman. Valerie could have arranged for someone to take Lucy.”
“Maybe, but at the moment, Valerie’s the only one we’re certain about.” Finn’s lips tightened. “She has the baby, Cole. What’s your investigator doing to track her down?”
“He’s going over her credit card records as we speak, but we’re not hopeful about it. She wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave a paper trail.”
“You never know. Another thing about the Matthews women—they act first, think later. We just need to pray that she slipped up.”
“I’ll keep you posted.”
Finn hung up and tucked the phone away, turning to Anna with a hard look. “Valerie knew about Lucy.”
“I got that much from your side of the conversation.” She was already moving to the passenger side of the Jeep. “What do we do now?”
He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “I’ll drop you off at the station, and then I’m heading to Sarah’s. I’ll call you once I hear from Cole. If we find out where Valerie’s hiding, I want you and Max with me.”
Anna’s brown eyes shone with pleasure. “Really?”
He took his hand off the gearshift and lightly touched her arm. “I already told you once, but I’ll say it again. Neither Sarah nor I thought you took that child. You’re a terrific cop, Anna, and I feel better knowing you have my back.”
She murmured a soft thank-you, and Finn could feel the tension leaving her body. At least one woman in his life was capable of forgiving him.
