Page 26 of Protecting the Newborn

Ruston held his breath when no shots came, and he rushed back in, mainly so he could get Gracelyn fully back inside. He expected her to still have that shell-shocked look on her face, but she had shaken that off.

“I need to try to call Allie,” she insisted.

“You know how to get in touch with her?” Duncan asked, shutting the door and resetting the security system.

Gracelyn nodded, then lifted her shoulder as if not so certain of her response. “I gave her a burner before she left and told her if I needed to contact her, I’d call her with a burner I keep in my go bag. Or that I’d message her through a private Facebook page I’d set up. I’ll try the phone first.”

“I’ll get your go bag,” Duncan offered when she started for the stairs. “I want to check on Joelle anyway.”

“And I need to text one of the ranch hands to see where they are in their search for the sniper,” Luca explained, taking out his phone and moving away from them.

Ruston had no doubts that Duncan did want to check on Joelle and that Luca needed to make contact with the ranch hands, but he also figured this was about giving Gracelyn and him a moment alone. Gracelyn clearly needed it, because she went straight into his arms.

“Oh, God,” she muttered. “I’m so sorry.”

He’d expected this from her, but it still riled him. “You aren’t going to take the blame for anything your sister might have done. If she did anything at all,” he tacked on to that. “Someone could have lured her there to Marty’s.”

Gracelyn made a half-hearted sound of agreement. “But even if she had been lured, it means someone used her to get to you. To try to kill you.”

“And you,” he pointed out. As good as it felt to hold her, and it felt darn good, he pulled back just enough so he could look her straight in the eyes. “Play this through while thinking like a cop and not like the sister of a woman who’s screwed up time and time again.”

She stared at him, and he saw the shift. He saw Gracelyn tucking away some of the raw emotion that had to be eating away at her. “All right.” She repeated that several times. “I don’t recall Allie ever mentioning anyone named Marty, so she might not have even known him.” She paused. “And she might not have been in that area because of him.”

Bingo. “Where does Devin Blackburn live?” he asked.

“One of those upscale apartments on the River Walk in San Antonio. I’ve never been there, and he also owns a house in a gated community on the north side of the city. I’ve never been to it either,” she was quick to add. “But after Allie told me some of the things he’s done, I researched him.”

“Are either of those two places anywhere near Marty’s?” He pulled out his phone and showed her first the location of Marty’s office and then the man’s house, where he’d been murdered.

She looked at the addresses on the map, sighed and shook her head. “No.”

“But maybe Allie is staying near there,” he pointed out. “You don’t know for certain she’s with Devin.”

That put some hope in her eyes. “True. Things might not have worked out between them.” She paused, huffed. “Of course, that doesn’t explain why Allie wouldn’t have tried to come back to get Abigail.”

No, it didn’t. But there was something else that had to give Gracelyn hope. “Allie’s alive, and she didn’t appear to be hurt.” He wanted to see the actual surveillance footage, though, so he could try to determine what direction she’d come from and if anyone had been with her.

Since Noah was one of the detectives investigating Marty’s murder, Ruston sent him a text to request a copy of the security feed. Of course, Noah would almost certainly scour that feed for himself, looking for anything that would help him find Marty’s killer.

“I swear, I won’t fall apart,” Gracelyn muttered.

Ruston looked down at her. They were still close. Very close with their bodies touching. “I never thought you would,” he let her know.

She shook her head. “I fell apart nearly a year ago when we were almost killed.”

“No.” He pulled her back into his arms, creating even more contact, but hopefully giving Gracelyn something she needed right now. “You never fell apart. If you had, you wouldn’t have been able to put together a plan to disappear the way you did.”

Even though he could no longer see her face, Ruston suspected she was sporting a very skeptical expression. “I disappeared,” she stated.

“Because you needed time to process what’d happened,” he spelled out. “And while I would have preferred you process that with me around, I understand why you had to have that time, that space.”

She lifted her head and looked up at him as he looked down at her. “Yes,” she muttered. “You understand because of your father.”

Yeah, he did. And Ruston was well aware that his father’s life had ended just a few yards from where they were standing right now. Ruston had done his own version of disappearing in the weeks following that. He’d thrown himself into the investigation. He’d become obsessed with finding his father’s killer. That obsession was still there. Maybe it always would be until his dad finally got the justice he deserved.

First, though, he had to unravel who was after Gracelyn and him. That was the only way to keep the baby and her safe.

She groaned softly, causing Ruston to look at her again. Not that his attention had strayed too far. And it didn’t stray now either. With their gazes locked, things passed between them. The worry. The urgency to find their attacker.

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