Secret Surrogate. Delores Fossen

examine her. But since examining her means making sure she doesn’t have any injuries beneath her gown, I don’t think Kylie will want you to be in the room for that. Doubt you’ll want to be there, either.”

      No. He didn’t. And it made Lucas more than a little uncomfortable to think of Kylie and what was beneath that gown. Best to think of her only as his former deputy.

      As his enemy.

      As his most recent 911 call.

      Unfortunately, it was impossible to leave out the part about her being pregnant and apparently in a whole boatload of danger.

      “I need to bag her clothes,” Lucas reminded Finn. “I can send them to the crime lab in Austin to see if they recover any trace evidence.”

      “Yes, I figured that out, too.” Finn pressed a little harder on Lucas’s back. “Don’t worry. Clothes will be bagged and tagged, and I’ll scrounge up something around here for her to wear.”

      Lucas nodded and stepped into the reception area. He hadn’t really noticed it on the way in—mainly because his brain had been too occupied with Kylie and her need for medical attention—but he saw the recent changes Finn had made in the office. A wall mural of a serene pasture dotted with bluebonnets and longhorns. A children’s corner stocked with all sorts of toys and books. Gone was the old loveseat, and in its place were four navy leather chairs. Nice ones. But Lucas was too antsy to make use of the chairs. And he was too tired to pace. So, he leaned against the wall and waited.

      He glanced at the tiny screen on his phone to determine if he was still on hold. He was connected, which meant Sheriff Knight was no doubt trying to come up with a situation report on the crime scene, so Lucas used the downtime to try to figure out what the heck was going on.

      Two men, both armed, had tried to kidnap Kylie.

      Why?

      They hadn’t wanted to kill her, that’s for sure, or she would have been dead before he could have gotten to her. Not exactly something he cared to admit. But he knew it was true. After mentally reconstructing the possible scenarios, Lucas figured the kidnappers had had more than ample opportunity to murder Kylie while she was still inside her house. But instead, they’d taken her outside. Toward the lake. Probably to some waiting vehicle.

      And that’s where his scenario reconstruction dropped like a sack of rocks.

      Once he’d carried Kylie to his truck so he could get her to the doctor’s office, he’d called Dillon Knight, the sheriff from the neighboring town, and asked him to proceed with backup to Kylie’s house. Knight’s initial report was that there were no signs of the kidnappers or a ransom note. Plus, Lucas knew Kylie wasn’t a good candidate for a ransom demand since she wasn’t wealthy.

      That ruled out kidnapping for money.

      It didn’t rule out kidnapping for other reasons.

      Revenge. Criminal intent. Perhaps even a way of silencing or punishing her. He’d need to narrow down the possible motives so he could narrow down the list of possible suspects.

      “How far along are you in the pregnancy?” Finn asked Kylie.

      Even though Lucas didn’t hear Kylie’s softly delivered answer, the question sent Lucas’s blood pressure up a significant notch. He glanced into the examining room. Finn hadn’t shut the door all the way—it was open just a few inches—but it gave Lucas a much clearer view than he wanted.

      Kylie had her gaze fastened toward the ceiling, and her left arm was angled so that the back of her hand rested against her forehead. Finn had indeed pushed her gown up to her waist, exposing her bare legs. And her panties. Cotton. Nothing provocative.

      Lucas mentally repeated that to himself.

      And wondered why it didn’t sink in.

      Finn had a stethoscope pressed to Kylie’s stomach, which was also bare, and after a couple of moments, he gave an approving nod.

      Finn’s gaze met Lucas’s and with that brief look, Finn conveyed his concern. His empathy.

      And his questions.

      Finn knew the hell that Lucas and Kylie had gone through. And he also knew that Kylie had had a huge part in creating that particular hell. Now, Finn was probably wondering how Lucas was dealing with the fact that Kylie was pregnant.

      Lucas wasn’t dealing with it well.

      “Is the baby okay?” Kylie asked.

      Finally, she was speaking normally. No slurred words. No mumbling. Lucas felt relief. Then anger for feeling relief that she was apparently all right. Then guilt for feeling the anger.

      Oh, man.

      Much more of this, and he’d need therapy.

      “The baby’s got a steady, solid heartbeat,” Finn relayed in a voice loud enough so that Lucas could hear. “Your heartbeat’s solid as well, Kylie. No visible signs of injury other than a few bruises and scrapes.”

      So she wasn’t seriously hurt. That was something at least.

      “Lucas?” he heard the person on the other end of the phone line say. Sheriff Dillon Knight. Lucas welcomed the intrusion. Heck, at this point he’d welcome anything as long as he didn’t have to think about Kylie, her baby and what was going on in that examining room.

      “You found something?” Lucas asked, tuning out what Kylie was now saying to Finn.

      “Nothing good. It looks as if the men made a getaway on the old lake road.”

      That’s what Lucas had figured, too. “There will be tire tracks. And blood. I used my knife on one of them, and he probably left a trail of his DNA all the way to the lake.”

      “I saw that. We’ve got the area cordoned off so the county forensic guys can come out and have a look. Maybe they’ll find a print or two. Or else they can run the blood and find a match in CODIS.”

      CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. A data bank of sorts. But the only way there’d be a match would be if the wounded would-be kidnapper’s DNA was already on file in the system.

      Which wasn’t too much of a long shot.

      After all, neither man had been tentative about committing a felony. They’d probably done something criminal before. Or at least, Lucas hoped they had. Because a match in CODIS would give him a name. And with a name, he might be able to figure out why this had happened. That was vital; he needed to solve this case so there’d be no reason for him to be around Kylie.

      “I’ll keep you posted,” Sheriff Knight told him as he ended the call.

      Lucas slipped his phone into his jacket pocket, turned back to the doorway and saw Finn standing there, his hands bracketed on each side of the jamb. In physical appearance, they were practically opposites. Finn, with his moon-blond hair, blue eyes and his natural surfer-dude tan. Definitely not a typical Texas cowboy. Lucas knew the man didn’t even own a pair of boots. No Stetson, either. And Finn liked to boast that he’d never been within ten feet of a horse. Even when he wore green scrubs, like now, he still managed to look as if he’d just stepped off a surfboard.

      “She’ll be okay,” Finn let him know. He handed Lucas a clear plastic bag that contained Kylie’s clothes. “I drew some blood so I can figure out what they used to sedate her. But she should have a checkup by her regular OB. She should have an ultrasound, too.”

      Lucas glanced over Finn’s shoulder and saw Kylie. She was now wearing a set of Finn’s scrubs. And yet another pair of socks.

      “You can’t do the ultrasound here?” Lucas asked.

      “Sorry. Don’t have the equipment.” Finn hooked the stethoscope around his neck, yawned and rubbed his eyes. “There are a lot of advantages to living in a small town like Fall Creek, but we’re Podunkville as far as that type of medical service. She’ll have to go to a larger facility for it.”