Chapter Three
Brody’s gaze was pinned to the picture. Two newborns, and while they weren’t exactly identical, the resemblance was close enough to see they were related. They had the same spattering of black hair. Same-shaped face.
Twins.
His grip on the phone tightened, and his pulse started hammering in his ears, so loud that it shut out any other sounds in the exam room.
The baby lying in the bassinet in front of him wasn’t just some cruel trick of fate.
He had a brother. And whoever had sent this message obviously planned to use the child.
Remi and you will do exactly as you’re told.
“Hell,” he muttered. His voice came out rough, barely above a whisper. His stomach churned, a sick mix of fury and fear flooding through him.
Whatever was going on, the SOB had wanted Remi involved. Of course they had. That’s why she’d been contacted and told to go to the cemetery. But why? Brody had no idea, but he had the feeling that he would soon find out.
His mother must have realized something was wrong, because she stepped closer. “Brody? What happened?”
He turned the screen toward her, and she sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, God.” Her fingers flew to her lips. “There’s another baby. Could they be yours?”
Brody had no DNA proof, not yet anyway, but in his gut he knew the answer. And it was yes. They were his.
His sons.
Whoever had set this in motion wouldn’t have left just any baby at Miranda’s grave. The person had left Brody’s child. One of them, anyway, knowing that Brody would soon be able to get the DNA confirmation he needed.
Now he understood why this one had been left for them to find. The first baby was proof. A warning.
The second was leverage.
But leverage for what? Other than that cryptic Remi and you will do exactly as you’re told, there were no orders. No instructions for what he needed to do to get his other son. However, there was someone in the room who might know the answer to that.
His gaze snapped to Remi’s. “Why is this happening?”
“I don’t know.” She swallowed hard. “Like I said, in the other two cases, demands were made first. Specific ones that required the parents to break the law.”
Brody stayed quiet for several seconds. “And one of those parents was murdered.”
“Yes,” she answered, the dread coating her voice.
Brody didn’t have time to respond before the door swung open, and Dr. Patel walked in. She was brisk and efficient, her sharp gaze sweeping over the baby as she adjusted her stethoscope.
“Sheriff, Sandra, Remi,” the doctor said in greeting. It wasn’t a surprise that she remembered Remi, even though Remi hadn’t lived in Lost Canyon since Miranda’s death six years ago. But Dr. Patel would have no doubt recalled Remi being at Miranda’s bedside when she’d passed away.
“I understand you found this baby in the cemetery?” the doctor asked, already reaching for the chart the nurse had left behind.
Brody forced himself to focus. “Yeah.” His voice came out rough. “Left on a grave, wrapped in a blanket.”
Dr. Patel’s frown deepened as she carefully unwrapped the baby. The little boy squirmed but didn’t cry, his tiny fingers curling into the fabric of the hospital bassinet. She ran her hands gently over his arms and legs, checking for injuries.
“No signs of trauma,” she murmured, tilting the baby’s chin to check his reflexes before moving him to a scale. “He’s about a week old but underweight, barely six pounds, so maybe he was a preemie.”
“A twin,” Brody supplied.
The doctor nodded. “Then, he’s a good weight for a multiple,” she remarked, moving him back to the table and continuing the exam.
“Not even an insect bite. It’s a miracle, really.
If it were summer, the heat could have been deadly.
Winter, the cold just as bad. But spring…
” She shook her head. “Whoever left him there must have known he wouldn’t be in immediate danger from the weather.
Still, other things could have happened.
He’s lucky, though, that you found him so quickly. ”
Maybe luck had played into it. But probably not.
Even if Brody hadn’t been driving by the cemetery after his shift, Remi would have likely found him.
Or else that John Smith would have alerted someone.
Because it was obvious to Brody that it had been an integral part of the plan for Brody to find the child.
And for him to realize just what was at stake here.
Dr. Patel straightened, her gaze shifting from Remi to Sandra and him. “What about the baby’s identity? Do you have any idea who he is? And where’s the twin?”
Brody hesitated. This was where things got complicated. He scrubbed a hand down his face, exhaling hard. “I don’t know where the twin is. And I think…he…they might be mine.”
Dr. Patel’s eyes widened in surprise, but she recovered quickly. “Might be?”
“You know my wife and I went through fertility treatments before she passed away. There were two stored embryos that I recently learned are missing from the clinic,” Brody admitted. “This baby could be one of them.”
Dr. Patel’s brows knitted together. “I see. I don’t have to ask. You will investigate this and report any illegal activity. But have you also contacted Child Protective Services?”
Brody stiffened. “Not yet.”
“You realize they’ll need to be involved,” she said. “A newborn abandoned in a cemetery. It’s standard procedure.”
His jaw tightened. “I get that.” And he did. CPS would need to place the baby in temporary care. But none of that would stop whoever had sent him that picture.
Someone still had one of his sons, and both boys were likely in extreme danger.
Remi stepped forward. “Since Brody’s the sheriff,” she said to Dr. Patel, “this baby’s in the best possible hands right now. He needs to be in protective custody in case the person who had him comes back for him.”
Dr. Patel looked alarmed and still hesitant, but she finally nodded. “I’ll finish the exam. In the meantime, you should think about getting a DNA test. If he is your son, you’ll need proof to keep him in your custody.”
Proof. Yes, he needed that, but he had a bad feeling that proof wouldn’t be enough to keep either of his sons safe.
“I’ve already ordered a DNA test,” Brody explained. “But it might be faster for you to go ahead and do one since I don’t have a DNA sample from the baby yet.”
“All right,” the doctor said. “I’ll get the nurse back in to draw some blood. I need to do the routine screenings normally done on a newborn. Also, I have to rule out any possibility that he’s been given something he shouldn’t have.”
Hell. Brody hadn’t thought of that. But he thought of it now, and the possibility of someone drugging his baby shot pure hot anger through him. If someone had done that, they were going to pay and pay hard.
“I’ll put a rush on it and will call you when I have the results,” the doctor assured him.
Brody thanked her, and when Dr. Patel left, he took out his phone to text Jolene to arrange for the baby to be placed in protective custody. His baby. And while he was guarding the child, he and Remi would work on finding who was responsible.
“What can I do to help?” Sandra asked, and Brody had no trouble seeing the fear and alarm all over her face. This was eating away at her, too, because this was probably her grandson.
“You can go to my place,” he said, fighting through the tornado of thoughts whirling in his head.
“I’ll have a deputy go with you.” He was already texting the station to arrange it.
“I need you to set up a makeshift nursery. Uh, there are lots of baby things in the big closet in the guest room and in the storage room.”
Baby furniture and clothes that Miranda had bought when they’d been trying to conceive. After her death, Brody hadn’t been able to get rid of them, so he’d shoved the items away, closed the doors. And hadn’t looked at them again.
His mother nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” She shifted to Remi. “And what about you? Do you need anything?”
“Just a whole lot of answers about this baby,” Remi muttered.
“Yes, I want that, too.” She slid a glance at both of them. “But please be careful.”
“We will,” Brody assured her, and it was partially true.
When it came to the baby, the utmost caution would be taken. Brody would make sure he was guarded and protected. But he wasn’t sure he could take those kinds of measures when it came to himself. There was no telling what the sick twisted SOB who’d orchestrated this had in store for him.
Brody’s phone sounded with a text, and he got another shot of dread and worry before he saw it was from Jolene. And it was good news.
“Deputy Holt Callahan will meet you outside the hospital and will drive you to my place,” Brody relayed to his mom. “He’ll stay with you until I can get there.”
More alarm went through her eyes, and again there was nothing he could do to lessen it. The danger was there. He could feel it. And he needed his mother safe in case someone wanted to use her as a pawn, too.
Brody kissed his mother’s cheek, and they said their good-byes. When she was out of the room, he turned to Remi. “Go over the details again of your missing-baby case from a year ago. It has to be connected, or why else would that John Smith have demanded you bring the notes and files?”
She took out her phone and accessed something. “I just texted you the whole file so you can go through it for yourself. I’ll do the same, again,” she assured him. “For now, here’s the nutshell of what happened.”
Remi opened her mouth but then stopped and took a couple of ragged breaths. A reminder that this was twisting her up inside as well. A reminder, too, that she might still be in pain from the punch she’d taken.
“A year ago, Tarrant Eddington contacted his ex-wife, Grace, and told her he’d arranged for a surrogate to have their child,” Remi began.
“He showed her a DNA report and pictures. But Grace thought he could have faked them, especially since Tarrant said he’d only give her the baby if she destroyed some evidence for his upcoming manslaughter trial. ”