The Cowboy's Son. Delores Fossen

of answers that weren’t making sense, Dylan decided to cut to the chase. “Did you kill my sister and my fiancée five years ago?”

      Her eyes widened. “No. God, no.”

      Collena Drake sounded adamant enough, but it didn’t satisfy Dylan. “Are you telling me that you didn’t know about their murders?”

      “I knew. I mean, I ran a background check on you. Their deaths popped up on the computer records. But the computer records didn’t say anything about murder.”

      “Trust me,” he snarled. “It was murder. Now, I want to know what you had to do with that.”

      “Nothing. Until three days ago, I’d never even heard of you.”

      Yet something else that didn’t make sense, especially since she’d said she’d been looking for him for a long, long time. “So, what changed three days ago?”

      “Everything.”

      The single word that left her mouth was more breath than sound.

      Dylan didn’t need the winter to chill him, because that comment put some ice in his blood. He stood and stared down at her. Waiting for an explanation. And not at all sure that he really wanted to hear it.

      “I’m a cop,” Collena Drake said, getting to her feet.

      It was another crazy twist in this crazy encounter. “If you thought that would stop me from having you arrested, you thought wrong.”

      “I have no expectations about how you will or won’t react to me.” She hugged the blanket tighter to her chest and waited a moment until her teeth stopped chattering. “Last year I took a leave of absence from the San Antonio PD so I could work full-time on the Brighton case.”

      “Brighton?” he repeated. Dylan shrugged. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

      “You should. I’m talking about the Brighton Birthing Center investigation. Last year, the police discovered that the center was a front for all sorts of illegal activity.” She paused. “Including illegal adoptions.”

      His heart felt as if someone had clamped a meaty fist around it. Because last year he’d adopted his own precious son, Adam. And he wasn’t just a part of Dylan’s life, Adam was his life.

      “I didn’t go through Brighton to get my son,” he informed her.

      “No. But Brighton still supplied the newborn that you adopted through the law firm you used.”

      “What makes you think that?” Dylan fired back.

      Her jaw muscles stirred. “Because for months I’ve investigated every detail, every file and every person who had any association whatsoever with Brighton. Then, three days ago, all the pieces finally came together, and I was able to figure out what’d happened.”

      The siren grew closer, and Dylan knew that the sheriff was now on the ranch itself and headed straight for the birthing stable.

      “Are you saying you believe that my son was illegally adopted?” Dylan asked.

      “Yes,” she answered without hesitation.

      Oh, the thoughts that went through his mind. Nightmarish thoughts. Had the birth parents changed their minds about the adoption? Did they want Adam back? If they did, it wasn’t going to happen. Adam was his son in every way that mattered, and he wasn’t going to give him up.

      Dylan pushed aside all the emotion he was feeling and focused on one glaring hole in her theory. “If you thought the adoption was illegal, then why did you come? Why aren’t the San Antonio police here instead?”

      She met his regard head-on. “I came because I have a personal stake in this.”

      Outside, the siren fell silent. Dylan heard the tires crunch on the frozen ground as the patrol car braked to a sudden stop.

      “Is this your case?” he clarified.

      Collena Drake shook her head. “It’s not just that I’m the investigating officer. I, too, was a victim of the Brighton Birthing Center. After giving birth there, my baby was stolen.”

      Dylan was about to ask what that could possibly have to do with him, but the doors burst open. It wasn’t the sheriff but Deputy Jonah Burke, a hulk of a man who was armed with a semiautomatic. The deputy definitely wasn’t the person that Dylan wanted to see and, judging from Jonah’s expression, he felt the same about Dylan.

      “Everything okay?” the deputy asked, his attention nailed to Collena Drake.

      She let the blanket fall to the floor so that she could again lift her hands in a show of surrender. However, she kept her gaze pinned on Dylan.

      “Sixteen months ago, I gave birth to a son,” she continued. Her voice cracked on the last word and her bottom lip began to tremble.

      Dylan wasn’t trembling, but he felt some of that raw emotion himself.

      “So?” he challenged.

      “So, you illegally adopted him. I’m Adam’s mother.”

      Chapter Two

      Collena held her breath and waited for Dylan Greer’s reaction to what she’d just told him.

      She’d braced herself for just about anything. Shouts, accusations, violence, perhaps even an arrest. But neither violence, nor an arrest would stop her from making him understand the truth.

      Dylan Greer had her son.

      Just silently saying the words made Collena’s heart ache. Yes, she’d found her baby—finally—but the man who’d adopted him was a massive obstacle who stood in the way of her becoming a real mother to her child.

      Collena was prepared to make any and all compromises to be a mother. What she wouldn’t do was walk away and not be part of her son’s life. No way. She wouldn’t do to her child what her own mother had done to her.

      “Well?” the deputy prompted. “Is someone gonna tell me what in the sam hill is going on here?”

      With their eyes locked, Collena waited to see what Dylan would say. He didn’t make it easy on her—she had to wait several long moments.

      “I’m not sure,” Dylan answered. “But I’ll find out.”

      The deputy turned up the collar on his thick wool coat. “Mind if we ‘find out’ someplace warmer? I’m freezing my butt off out here. And if this is some kind of lovers’ quarrel—”

      “It’s not,” Collena and Dylan said in unison.

      But she did agree with the deputy on one thing. She was freezing, too. And she was dizzy. How could she have been so stupid not to eat before she set out to try to get a glimpse of her child? It was an understatement to say she’d been preoccupied with seeing her son, but fainting and feeling weak weren’t good bargaining tools for what would no doubt be a major battle with Dylan Greer.

      “How about we take this to the house?” the deputy suggested. “I can have a cup of Ina’s coffee and you two can decide when you’re going to let me know what’s going on.” He aimed his index finger at Dylan. “But I warn you, if you brought me all the way out here on Thanksgiving for nothing, then even Ina’s coffee won’t improve my mood.”

      The ruddy-faced deputy added a lopsided smile to indicate he was only partly joking. Dylan didn’t return the smile. The tension between them was almost as thick as it was between Dylan and Collena.

      Almost.

      “Can you walk on your own?” Dylan asked her. He waited just long enough for her nod before he headed out of the stables and in the direction of his house.

      Where her son was.

      That sent Collena’s heart racing, and it was for all the right reasons. She