The Deputy's Baby

by Tyler Anne Snell

  “I was just doing my job,” Henry said dutifully, locking down any conflicting emotions that might be splaying across his expression. “Nothing the rest of you wouldn’t do in my place. I’m just glad we kept anyone else from getting hurt.”

  Matt nodded, accepting the statement as true, and started to walk off.

  However, Henry couldn’t help himself. “I actually wanted to talk to her,” he blurted out, surprising himself. “Cassie, that is. I never got the chance at a proper introduction.” It was a lie, but Henry wasn’t about to admit to the detective that he had already met the woman... At a bar before going back to his hotel room. Especially if the two were involved. “Do you know where she is? I haven’t seen her since we left the diner.”

  Matt’s brow furrowed. “She went to the hospital afterward, but now, if I’m not mistaken, she’s back at my place. I told her not to bother coming into the department tonight. Technically she doesn’t start back until next week.”

  Henry’s gut dropped more than it should have. He had just confirmed the theory that Cassie and Matt were involved. Some of that emotion must have showed in his expression.

  Matt gave a small smile. “You know, I’m about to head there myself but need a ride. If you give me a lift, I can trade you a home-cooked meal. I don’t think any of us has had anything to eat yet. Plus, I’m sure Cassie will want to thank you for earlier.”

  The offer felt genuine. Matt hadn’t picked up on any of Henry’s thoughts.

  But even those thoughts gave him little ground to argue with. Though Henry had to admit he didn’t like the idea of Cassie with someone else, he knew it was for the better.

  People around him got hurt. Plain and simple.

  But that didn’t stop him from accepting the offer.

  He still wanted to see her. If only to make sure she was really okay.

  They said goodbye to Suzy, asking again to be kept in the loop, and were on the road to Matt’s house within minutes. The detective gave directions, but other than that their conversation was light. Henry wanted to get to know more about him but decided he already knew enough. The lead detective was good at his job, nice to his team and loyal.

  He reminded Henry of Calvin, his old partner.

  A good man.

  A man that Cassie deserves.

  The thought popped into his head so quickly he couldn’t brace himself for it.

  How had a woman he’d known for such a short time affected him so much? It made no sense. And was dangerous. Henry needed this job. He needed a new start. Banishing any and all thoughts of Cassie Gates past professionalism wasn’t something he wanted. He needed it.

  Get a grip on yourself.

  Henry loosened his shoulders, put on a polite smile and was ready when they finally pulled up to the detective’s house.

  “Home sweet home,” Matt said over the hood of the car when they got out. “I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to eat a horse.”

  The house was a good size with a nice yard. Simple and quaint. Two cars were parked in the driveway. One Henry recognized as the detective’s personal vehicle, the other he’d not seen before. Lights were on in the dining room, the curtains open enough that Henry got a clear view of the table.

  And Cassie sitting at its end.

  She must have felt his stare. She looked out the window and met his eyes.

  She didn’t smile.

  Maybe coming hadn’t been a good idea.

  “I should also probably warn you,” started Matt, walking up the sidewalk that led to his front door. He paused at it, hand on the handle. “You’re about to meet a very loud, slightly intrusive woman. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love her, but sometimes she can be a little overpowering when you first get to know her.” There was a smile in his voice. “She calls it curiosity.”

  Henry didn’t remember Cassie being loud, certainly not intrusive. At the bar she hadn’t kept poking around when he’d said he couldn’t talk about his current job and, in fact, hadn’t asked too many really personal questions at all. He’d treated her in kind.

  Still, he had to remind himself he didn’t know her past their one shared night of passion.

  That passion.

  Even months later his body remembered it. Craved it.

  Henry cleared his throat and followed the detective inside. He was just about to agree with his earlier thought that coming had been a bad idea when they made it to the dining room. Cassie was staring up at them. She looked tired. It reminded him that there were more important things than their past. She’d been witness to one of her friends almost dying across from her.

  “I invited Henry to join us for dinner,” Matt greeted. “Since...well, today didn’t go as planned.”

  Cassie looked between them. It encouraged Henry to respond.

  “It’s nice to officially meet you,” he lied again. If she was with the detective, he didn’t want to make anything awkward. Not when Riker County was his chance to start over. He didn’t want to make enemies his first week on the job. And judging by the look she was giving him, he could only assume she was trying to figure out what to say herself. The least he could do was try to help her out.

  Cassie’s green, green eyes widened, but she didn’t get a chance to respond. Sound from the other room turned into a flurry of motion that converged on the detective next to him within seconds. Henry tensed, but Matt was laughing into the hair of the woman whose arms were wrapped around him.

  “My God, Maggie,” he said, reciprocating the embrace. “Ever think about playing football?”

  The woman covered his mouth with hers in a quick but strong kiss. She wasn’t smiling when she pulled away.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said. “If something had happened to you, I would have hurt you myself.”

  “Of that I have no doubt.” Matt reached up and squeezed her shoulder. He turned to Henry. “This is Maggie Carson. Apparently my linebacker of a fiancée. Maggie, this is our newest deputy I was telling you about. Henry Ward.”

  Maggie’s gaze lifted to his. Her handshake was firm.

  “Thanks for bringing him home,” she said, sincere. “My car’s been acting up and I stole his to pick Cassie up from the hospital.”

  Henry felt his eyebrow rise. He turned to Cassie. “I thought you said you were okay.”

  He wouldn’t have left her alone otherwise.

  She gave him a polite smile, one he’d seen when he first met her at the Eagle, and stood from her seat.

  Henry’s eyes zipped downward.

  Right to Cassie’s stomach.

  She placed a hand over it, protectively.

  “I was,” she said. “But I wanted to make sure he was, too.”

  Chapter Three

  “You’re pregnant.”

  It wasn’t a question but it wasn’t a statement, either. It felt like a confused in-between. Henry Ward had been thrown for a loop and was still trying to find his way back to solid ground. Cassie tried to help, even if she was also looking for some better footing herself.

  It wasn’t every day that the father of your child appeared out of thin air for the first time since the night he’d spent with you months before, then potentially saved your life and pretended he’d never met you before.

  It was all confusing.

  “I am,” she confirmed, though it wasn’t needed. “Seven months, give or take.”

  Cassie would bet Henry was doing some of the fastest math he’d ever done in his life. All while staring at her pregnant belly. Since she’d never had kids before, she wasn’t showing as much, but there was no denying the bump once she brought attention to it.

  The man wasn’t stupid. If his math was even in the ballpark, he’d guess that he was the father. However, he didn’t ask the question. Then again, she didn’t think he would. Not after he’d made it clear they didn�
�t know each other.

  You didn’t speak up, either, Cassie pointed out to herself.

  The weight of the day erased thoughts of Cassie’s personal life for the moment. She moved her hand across her stomach.

  “The doc gave the okay, though,” she said. If Maggie, the ex-reporter, or Matt noticed anything off about the two of them, they didn’t say a word. “But you can never be too careful. Plus, I wanted to be there for Mara.”

  Henry tore his eyes off her stomach.

  “That’s good,” was all he said.

  Matt put a hand on his shoulder and steered the deputy into the kitchen. Cassie settled back into her chair while Maggie followed the men. She was soon back with the dinner they’d just finished making. Nothing too fancy, just something to kill their hunger. Cassie doubted any of them could take any real pleasure from a meal until Billy could, too.

  Like her hand had a mind of its own again, it moved up and touched the scar at her neck. Maggie didn’t miss it. She took the seat next to Cassie and patted her back.

  “You’re okay,” Maggie whispered. “You both are okay. This will all get sorted out. Have faith.”

  Cassie felt herself nod.

  Maggie started a volley of questions as soon as the men were back and seated. More than anything Cassie wanted to pay attention, to learn more about Henry, a man at times she’d wondered if he was even real. Yet there was a rising feeling of overwhelming vulnerability in her chest. It tightened her stomach and pulled out some of the fear and anger she’d felt at the diner.

  She didn’t know if it was because she was pregnant, because the man she’d spent the last several months hoping would call had showed up, or because she just hadn’t had the time to process everything, but suddenly she couldn’t just sit there anymore.

  “If y’all hadn’t have been at my party, this wouldn’t have happened,” she said, cutting Matt off midsentence.

  He was quick to shake his head.

  “Cassie, you know as well as I do that you and your party had nothing to do with this,” Matt said in defense. “That man was angry, probably out for revenge. Location doesn’t deter someone stuck in the mind-set that they’re going to try to take on the law.”

  “But it did give the bastard the opportunity, didn’t it?”

  She felt the heat that surged through her words seconds before Matt’s eyes widened a fraction. She’d bet Maggie’s were probably wider, too. It wasn’t every day that Cassie Gates had an outburst. She was the sweet one. The Southern girl who always smiled and was agreeable. The one who stayed optimistic when things went badly.

  Her cheeks stung now that she’d broken out of her normal character. It didn’t help that Henry was there, staring at her with those eyes of steel. The same eyes that had traced her lips seconds before he’d kissed her for the first time. The same eyes that had traveled across her bare skin sometime later in the night.

  Cool, hard steel she hadn’t seen since.

  And she hated that she was thinking about that night right now. After the day they’d been through, it didn’t seem so important.

  Yet she could feel the tears of being rejected starting to push themselves forward.

  “Cassie...” Maggie began, but her tone was what finally broke the dam that Cassie had put up to keep herself sane after the diner.

  The chair scraped against the floor as she pushed herself back and stood. With one hand on her stomach, Cassie met no one’s gaze. “Sorry, I’m just tired and hormonal,” she declared. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I think I’d like to go home now.”

  Maggie, bless her, must have caught on that Cassie meant what she said.

  “Okay,” she said, a reassuring smile lifting her expression. “That’s fine. Let me at least make you a plate before we go, though, all right? Tired or not, you two still need to eat something.”

  There was force behind her words. A mother mothering a soon-to-be mother. Practically the lifeblood of the South. But she was right.

  Cassie nodded and collected her plate. “I’ll help.”

  Without looking at the men, or the one in particular, Cassie fled to the kitchen, a storm of emotions battling it out in her chest.

  * * *

  THE WOMEN WERE out and gone before Henry could think of a reason to pull Cassie aside, alone. Not that it would have changed anything. Cassie could have medaled at the Olympic sport of avoidance with how she’d skirted him on the way out.

  Instead of asking her the million-dollar question, he’d been left watching through the dining room window as she slid into Maggie’s car.

  Not that he blamed her.

  He’d just burned any normal bridge they could have had, announcing that he’d never met the woman before in front of her coworkers. Her friends.

  Henry resisted the urge to slam his fist down on the tabletop.

  Seven months give or take.

  That give or take could make the difference.

  Had she met someone after him?

  Or was he the father?

  How had he missed that detail at the diner?

  Why had he lied?

  And why hadn’t Cassie corrected him?

  Too many questions and no one to ask them of. At least, not right now.

  “I’m sure Billy already told you, but we’ve been through a lot as a department the last few years,” Matt said, breaking the silence they’d fallen into. He moved his food around on his plate before dropping his fork and taking up his beer. “Stuff that scars. But I guess with your last job you know that better than most of us.”

  It wasn’t a question. Few had been aware of the finite details that went along with his last job. The detective hadn’t been one of them, but Henry knew he wasn’t stupid. It was public knowledge that his partner, Calvin Fitzgerald, had died during an undercover operation.

  Henry took a long pull from his beer as thoughts about Cassie were momentarily replaced by the one part of his past he’d been forced to leave behind.

  “Scars are par for the course in this field,” he said. “Everyone seems to get them, no matter which side they’re on. And even if they aren’t on a side at all. A damn shame, if you ask me.”

  Matt picked up his beer and tapped it against Henry’s bottle with a clink. “Amen to that.” He paused, his bottle hanging in midair. “But some of us have literal scars. Ones that came from calls that were way too close. Cassie’s one of them. So I’m sure she’s swimming in a sea of bad memories right now. When the dust settles and when Billy heals up, you’ll see us all in a better light.” Matt smirked. “Until then, try not to take any general grumpiness personal.”

  “Deal.”

  Henry didn’t have the heart to tell the man that any ill feelings he might get from Cassie were more than deserved.

  Instead they finished their dinner just as Maggie returned to help clean up. The way she and the detective moved in tandem without even realizing they were doing it was refreshing to see. The only relationships Henry had been around in the last few years had been dangerous, toxic and unpredictable. Ones that were filled with uncertainty and almost always sank his world into trouble.

  Which was why he’d come to Riker County in the first place.

  He wasn’t looking for redemption and he sure as hell wasn’t looking for a second chance at his old life. He didn’t want to make things better. That was another bridge that had already burned.

  All Henry wanted now was a big heap of nothing.

  He wanted a clean slate.

  But could he do it? Could he start over? Or had his last job rubbed off on him too much?

  Henry sat heavily in the driver’s seat of his car after saying ’bye to the couple. He waved at Matt, who retreated into his house, Maggie at his side.

  What about Cassie?

  And her unborn son?

  * * *

&nb
sp; THE HEAT WAS THICK. Heavy. Unforgiving.

  He didn’t care.

  “What was that?” His voice wasn’t low. He was yelling. Again, he didn’t care. “You all had one job. One job!”

  With a flourish he swept his arm over the desk. Everything on its top flew off and crashed to the floor. The man across from him winced. The woman holding his hand did not.

  “We saw an opportunity and snapped at it,” she hissed, all venom.

  “You could have ruined everything,” he yelled back. The keyboard that clung to the desktop by its cord didn’t last long. He put more feeling into his swing and it, too, crashed to the floor. This time the computer went with it.

  The man across from him flinched again like he’d been the one struck. His woman didn’t bend.

  “We have been waiting for you to put your plan into action for months,” she retorted, fire in her words. In a detached sort of way he noticed the tension that had tightened her muscles. He’d bet she was doing everything in her power not to throw her entire body into her anger. Her rage. Under different circumstances he might have been impressed.

  At the moment he was not.

  “What we’re doing, what I’m doing, isn’t planning some stroll through the park or setting up some simple con,” he said, pulling some of his own frustration back into himself. With Darrel’s death he’d already lost one of his players. He wasn’t willing to lose any more. Not yet. Not when they were so close. He straightened his tie and ran a hand over his hair to smooth it down. “It isn’t a plan at all, really. It’s a vision. One that will only work if we don’t do whatever the hell we want to.”

  His calm shattered in an instant. He grabbed the lip of his desk and pulled up. If it had been his home office desk, it wouldn’t have budged, but this one was cheap. The desk flipped over without much resistance.

  Paula was quick. She was up and out of her chair in a flash, long legs graceful in their movement. Her poor excuse for a boyfriend, Jason, wasn’t as fast. The weight of the desk pinned the top of his foot. He yelled out in pain.

  Again, if it had been his personal desk, Jason’s foot would have been broken by the weight.