Stockyard Snatching

“You remember Susan,” Dallas began, uneasy about bringing this up. Susan had grown up in Bluff, so Tommy knew her well.

“So glad you finally saw through her and moved on.” His friend rolled his eyes. “She was a head case.”

Dallas couldn’t argue. His judgment had slipped on that one. As soon as he’d figured her out, he’d broken it off. “She might be more than that. She might be the mother of my child.”

The possibility that Dallas could be that careless had never occurred to his friend, a fact made clear by the shock on his face. “There’s no way you could’ve done that!” he declared. “Have you considered the possibility that she’s lying?”

“Of course I have,” Dallas retorted.

“If this is true, and I’m not convinced it is, where is she? And why didn’t you come to me before?” Tommy asked.

“Those are good questions,” Dallas admitted. “As far as where she went, I’m looking to find an answer. She disappeared from New Mexico and not even her family here in Bluff has seen her since. We both know that she loved it here. Why wouldn’t she come back?”

“She didn’t say anything to you before she left?” Tommy folded his arms, his forehead wrinkled in disbelief.

“And I didn’t get a chance to ask where she was headed before she disappeared.”

“What makes you think she used an adoption agency?” Tommy said, after carefully considering the bomb that had just been dropped. “And why didn’t you come to me sooner?”

“She told me she was pregnant and said we should get married right away,” Dallas said. “I told her to hold on. That I would be there for my child, but that didn’t mean we needed to make a mistake.”

“That probably went over as well as a cow patty in the pool.” His friend grunted. “She seemed bent on signing her name ‘O’Brien’ from when we were kids.”

Dallas had been an idiot not to see through her quicker.

“But that still doesn’t answer my question of why you didn’t come to me right away,” Tommy said.

“I needed answers. You have to follow the letter of the law,” Dallas said honestly. “I wanted someone who could see those lines as blurry.”

Tommy took a sip of his coffee. “That the only reason?”

“I knew you’d want to help, and you have a lot of restrictions. I wanted fast answers and I wasn’t even sure there’d be anything to discuss,” Dallas said. “Plus I didn’t want to tell anyone until I was sure.”

“Didn’t you suspect she was seeing someone else?” his friend asked.

Dallas nodded. “I’m certain she was. I figured she was making a bid for my money when she played the pregnancy card with me.”

“She probably was.” Tommy grimaced. “Which was a good reason for her to disappear when you refused to marry her. She couldn’t get caught in her lies.”

“I thought of that, too. There’s another thing. I used protection, but it’s more than that. We didn’t exactly... It’s not like...” Hell, this was awkward. Dallas didn’t make a habit out of talking about his sex life with anyone, not even his best friend. “There was only the one time with Susan and me. Afterward, she got clingy and tried to move into my place. Started trying to rearrange furniture. I caught her in lie after lie and broke it off clean after I witnessed her in the parking lot with that other guy, looking cozy. I’d suspected she was seeing someone else and she got all cagey when I confronted her and asked her to leave. I couldn’t prove my suspicion, though. But when she called a few months later and said she was pregnant with my child, I didn’t believe her.”

“I can’t blame you there,” Tommy said. “I wouldn’t have bought it, either.”

“But I can’t turn my back until I know for sure.” If what Susan said was true, then he’d already messed up what he considered to be the most important job in life—fatherhood.

Dallas had known Susan could be dishonest, and that was the reason he’d broken it off with her. He couldn’t love someone he couldn’t trust. But he never imagined she’d lie about something this important.

“If there was another guy involved, and I believe you when you say there was, then he could be the father of her child.” Tommy sipped his coffee, contemplating what he had just learned.

“You know I can’t walk away until I know one way or the other,” Dallas said. “This isn’t something I can leave to chance.”

“And there was that one time,” his friend finally said, his forehead pinched with concentration. “So, there is a possibility.”

“If I’m honest...yes.”

“But it’s next to impossible. I know you. There’s no way you would risk a pregnancy unless you were one hundred percent sure about a relationship staying together,” he stated.

Dallas nodded.

And then it seemed to dawn on Tommy. “But she could’ve sabotaged your efforts.”

“Right.”

“Well, damn.” His friend’s expression changed to one of pity. “I’m sorry to hear this might’ve happened. Any idea how old the baby would be now?”

“According to my calculations...about three months old.” And that was most likely the reason Kate’s case hit him so hard. If he had a son, the boy would be around the same age as Jackson.

“Any idea where Susan and the baby may be? It’d be easy enough to get a paternity test once you find them.”

Tommy said the exact thing Dallas was thinking.

“I don’t know. Neither does the man I hired to find them. She literally disappeared.” Ever since hearing about a possible pregnancy with Susan, Dallas had found his world tipped on its axis and he didn’t exactly feel like himself.

“There might not even be a baby,” Tommy said.

Dallas’s phone buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket and then checked the screen. “Susan had a boy,” he said, focusing on the message from his private investigator’s assistant, Stacy Miller. “And Morton was able to link her to an adoption agency.”

Tommy rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

Yeah, Dallas felt the same way right about now. Especially when the next text came through, and he learned the adoption agency was named Safe Haven.

Chapter Four (#ue8a6b925-e7ec-5bb0-bce1-b9d6ce2c310a)

“I’d say that’s a strange coincidence, but I know Safe Haven is the biggest agency in the area, so I guess I’m not too surprised to hear their name again,” Tommy said. “And just because Susan had a baby doesn’t mean it’s yours.”

“That kid in there is around the age Susan’s baby would be,” Dallas supplied.

“Doesn’t mean he’s Susan’s,” Tommy said. “Odds are against it.”

“I know.” Dallas nodded, still trying to digest the news. His plans to help Kate Williams get settled with the sheriff and then head back to the ranch to start a busy day exploded. They had a record number of bred heifers and there’d be a calf-boom early next year that everyone was preparing for. But nothing was more important than this investigation.

“In fact, I’m inclined to think that’s the closest thing we have to proof that the baby isn’t yours.”

Dallas made a move to speak, but his friend raised his hand to stop him. “Hear me out. If Susan was telling the truth and the baby was yours, she would stick around for a DNA test. If she couldn’t have your last name, then at least her son would, and he’d have everything that comes with being an O’Brien, which is what we all know she’s always wanted anyway.”

Dallas thought about those words for a long moment. “I see your point.”

“And I’m right.”