Page 13 of Edge of Danger

“How is he?” Maci whispered with a smile.

“Fine. Calm now.” Tessa stopped short of thanking Maci for taking care of him. That would be a dead giveaway. Ally or not, Tessa had no way of knowing how much she could get away with.

“Good. He’s a sweetheart. Just unhappy, I think. But he’s happier now that you’re here.”

“I’m glad that’s true.” Tessa nodded past Maci. “What’s the story here? Who are these men? It seems like they care a lot about a strange baby.”

Maci smiled fondly as she took a seat across the table. “Brax’s brother Robert gave him legal custody of Walker.”

Tessa swallowed her fury. Why would Robert take Walker from her, then leave him with his brother?

“They’re good men,” Maci continued. “Private investigators. I think all of them were born with stronger protective instincts than most people. The work comes naturally to them.”

That would partly explain why they took Walker’s well-being to heart. But were they trustworthy?

“They’re brothers?” she asked.

“Adopted, yes. All of them.” Maci leaned in, whispering more softly now. “They were all foster kids, lost in the system until the Pattersons took them in.”

That explained things, while somehow boosting Tessa’s opinion of them. Was that why they wanted to take care of her baby? So he wouldn’t get lost too?

Maci muttered a mild curse as she hustled to her desk to answer the phone, but Tessa was glad to be alone again so she could think.

They did security and private investigations. That meant the odds of her getting away with Walker were slim to none. They’d track her down without breaking a sweat, especially since she had no money and no friends in San Antonio.

Or anywhere.

“Hey.”

Her head snapped toward the sound. Brax. Her cheeks flushed, though there was no way he knew what she’d been thinking. Guilt prickled under her skin, which made no sense. Walker was her son. Why should she feel guilty about wanting to keep him?

“Hi.” She forced a smile. “I don’t want to put him down. He might wake up.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I understand. My arms are still sore from carrying him.” He stretched them, bending at the elbows.

I seriously doubt arms that size could tire so easily.

What a weird thought to have.

“Where’d you go just then?”

The question stirred her from the strange, oddly aroused thoughts Brax’s body stirred in her subconscious. “Hmm? Nowhere. I’m just...”

He came into the room and sat across from her. His body language was easy, friendly. One of the skills she’d learned waiting tables was how to read a customer’s body language. Whether a guy was feeling particularly handsy that day, whether it would be better to put a little extra space between her body and his if she wanted to avoid having her rear end pinched.

Or worse.

Brax wasn’t suspicious of her, which struck her as both touching and painfully naive. He didn’t know who she was. He’d assumed. And every second she held her son, she was taking advantage of that assumption.

“Are you okay?” he asked, lowering his brows over his brilliant, penetrating eyes that seemed to look right through her. Was that a tingle running down her spine? Or a flash of guilt?

She shifted Walker to her shoulder. “Sure.”

“It’s just that when you first walked in earlier, I had the feeling you were in trouble somehow. Call it a professional habit, but I tend to pick up on those things. I honestly figured you for a client.”

She nodded slowly, though her brain moved at top speed. Trying to figure out whether he was for real or if he was taunting her the way Robert had. Torturing her like a cat that had cornered a mouse.

Brax would never believe it if she told him what his brother had done to her. After all, she was a nobody. A stranger.

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