Chapter 50
The next morning, Micah stood in the backyard of the house where Good Boy had been tied up and stared at the area around him.
Whoever had been here had cleared out fast.
“Place was a rental,” Deputy Knox said from behind him. “Paid in cash through a third party. We’re still trying to trace it.”
“Keep trying.”
“Will do.” Knox headed back toward his cruiser.
Micah’s thoughts drifted to Naomi again—to finding her under that boulder in the woods in the distance.
That was the problem. She kept showing up in his thoughts without invitation, slipping in through the cracks he hadn’t realized he’d left open. Last night in that nursery, watching her with Grace, he’d felt something shift in a way he hadn’t felt in years.
That was on him. He’d let it happen.
He’d known better. He’d told himself he knew better. And yet he’d followed her inside without thinking.
Then he’d stood in that nursery holding someone else’s baby like it was the most natural thing in the world. And for about twenty minutes he’d let himself forget every reason why this was a bad idea.
Naomi had already been through enough.
He wasn’t going to be one more thing she had to recover from.
Instead, he’d focus on solving this crime.
He pulled out his phone and opened his notes. Three possible leads on the dog, each one feeling thinner than the last.
The Hendersons first. They had motivation—to make Naomi pay for taking the land.
Dale Harding was second. The man had resources and motivation and had already demonstrated he was willing to operate outside the law to get what he wanted. Using the dog as a tool—to get onto the property, to gather intelligence, to create a distraction—fit the profile.
Gio Moretti was third.
Micah’s jaw tightened at the name.
He didn’t have anything concrete on Gio. No evidence, no connection he could point to, nothing that would hold up to scrutiny. Just instinct, sharpened by fifteen years of reading people.
Gio had looked at Naomi, not like a man who missed someone but like a man taking inventory.
And that parting comment. I just hope you remember what’s important.
It had almost sounded like a threat.
Micah had poured everything he had into finding answers. Into finding Good Boy. Into making sure the people threatening Refuge Cove faced consequences.
And if staying relentlessly busy happened to keep his mind off the way Naomi looked at him last night when he’d said good night . . . then so be it.
Besides, he needed to keep his walls up. He couldn’t let himself forget that.
Grace had been fussy all morning.
Not sick-fussy or hurt-fussy. Just restless and particular, wanting to be held but not settled, interested in everything and satisfied by nothing. Naomi had walked her through every room in the house twice, bounced her, and sung to her.
Nothing stuck for long.
Naomi pressed a kiss to her temple. “Let’s try the porch.”
The morning air was cool but not cold, the mountains pale gold in the early light. Grace immediately calmed, her attention caught by something in the distance. A bird, maybe.
Naomi watched her and tried not to think about Micah.
She failed.
Something had shifted between them last night. She wasn’t sure when exactly—sometime between Gio leaving and Micah walking out the door.
Earlier in the day, he’d been warming up to her, letting down his walls. The kiss they’d shared had been incredible, one she’d never forget.
Then something had closed behind his eyes. His last words had been so clipped and careful that she’d felt the distance like a sudden drop in temperature.
That’s what I do.
She’d replayed the conversation three times since waking up, and his words still landed the same way. They’d been flat and professional, like he was recalibrating back to a role that felt safer than whatever had been happening before.
She understood his distance, but she didn’t have to like it.
She had other things to think about. Real, concrete, pressing things that had nothing to do with Micah Sutherland and his carefully maintained walls.
Their new resident was arriving in two days. A woman named Paula, referred through a contact in Roanoke. She was a single mother with two young kids and a beagle. Naomi’s mom had already prepared the room on the second floor.
But there were still practical things to sort out—supplies, schedule adjustments, making sure the kids would have what they needed when they arrived.
Naomi ran through the list in her head as she carried Grace back inside and got her settled in her bassinet. She was halfway through mentally reorganizing the supply closet when someone buzzed her at the gate.
She opened the app and saw . . . Deputy Knox there.
She let him through and met him outside.
Naomi saw the envelope in his hand as he walked toward her. Her stomach dropped.
“Naomi.” He looked uncomfortable, maybe even apologetic. “I’m sorry. I have to serve you with this.”
She took the envelope. “What is it?”
“There’s an emergency custody hearing. Dale Harding’s attorney filed it this morning.” He shifted his weight. “Micah doesn’t know yet. I just got the order twenty minutes ago.”
She opened it with numb fingers.
“Tomorrow?” she read aloud. “Nine a.m.?”
“Tomorrow?” she read aloud. “Nine a.m.?”
“You should call your attorney. And—” He hesitated. “You should probably tell Micah.”
Naomi stood without moving for a long moment after Knox had left.
Then she found Micah’s number and typed a quick text with shaking hands.
Served with emergency custody hearing. Tomorrow 9 a.m. Dale Harding’s attorney filed it. Paternity results aren’t even back yet. Can they do this?
His reply came faster than she expected.
They’re being aggressive. It’s procedurally premature, but you still have to show. Find a lawyer, and don’t panic.
Easy for him to say.
Then she hurried back inside to pick up Grace.
As she pulled her close, the baby locked onto her face with that intent, serious expression she got sometimes, like she understood more than she should.
She looked down at Grace—at the dark eyes and the small trusting face.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Naomi murmured.
But her heart was hammering.
Dale Harding was not taking this baby.
She didn’t know how she was going to stop him. Didn’t know what tomorrow morning would look like or what a judge would say or how this process worked.
But she knew with absolute certainty that man would not walk away with Grace.