Page 63 of An Unexpected Claim

I chuckled but kept it soft so I wouldn’t jostle the sleeping cub as I lowered myself into my favorite chair.“I’m so sorry I missed his birth.”

“We understand,” Sam said with a wave of his hand. “We’re just glad you’re safe.”

“What’s going on with the investigation, anyway?” asked Linette.

I shrugged. “Nothing as far as I know. I’m not sure they’ve gotten anywhere with it.”

“That’s odd.” Sam scratched his chin thoughtfully. “When I called Nathan to ask if we could bring the baby to see you, he said they thought they finally had a break in the investigation.”

My heart skipped a beat. I must have heard him wrong. “He said what?” I asked in a mild tone, not wanting to tip Sam off that he obviously wasn’t supposed to share this with me.

“I guess Tanner finally came across a connection or something.”

It was a good thing I had a baby in my arms, or I would have jumped to my feet and taken off to find Nathan so I could kill him.Nothing to share? I call bullshit, Mr. King.

“Anyway, he also asked me to run by your place and see if it was still being staked out by the police. Which it is, by the way.”

“Why?” This news distracted me from the elaborate murder I was plotting in my head.

Sam shrugged. “My guess is because you are the only witness they’ve ever had for this guy. They are probably hoping you’ve gone into hiding and they’ll be able to bring you in if you try to sneak back to your apartment. Just a guess though.”

“How do they know…shit!” I exclaimed the curse and immediately froze, afraid I’d scared the baby.

Linette laughed. “He could sleep through a freight train blowing their horn in his room. Don’t worry about him, but what’s wrong?”

“With everything that happened, I never had a chance to wipe out my digital records at the hospital. My nurse shredded the paper files for me and put off the police interview for me, always telling them I was too ill. So I forgot about their records.”

“It’s understandable that you forgot about it when you got here,” Linette sighed. “Give yourself a break, Peyton. You can do it when we leave.”

“I don’t have my computer, tablet, or even my phone.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of you leaving everything behind,” Linette mused. “Nathan doesn’t have one you could borrow?”

I must have been too wrapped up in all the other stuff to notice it before that moment, but once I sat and thought about it, I realized it was a little odd that Nathan had never offered me the use of a phone or computer.

“Does he know what you do for a living?”

“Of course not,” I denied, wrinkling my nose. “I barely know him.”

“And yet you’re carrying his cub,” Linette remarked dryly.

“Why do you think he’d try to keep me from a phone or computer? I haven’t seen a tablet around, and his computer…damn, there are so many layers of security on there, if I didn’t have an eidetic memory, I might have wondered if I’d designed it and forgot.”

“Well, that makes sense though,” Sam said as he settled back into the couch and pulled his mate into his side.

“What does?” I certainly didn’t understand.

“The security. Between the security company and council responsibilities—”

“Security company?”

Sam’s head reared back a little and he gawked at me. “What the hell have you two talked about in the last week? It’s like you know nothing about each other.”

“I guess we don’t.” I wasn’t sure why that bothered me so much.

“Oh! I have my laptop in the car!” Linette exclaimed.

“I don’t know, babe,” Sam hedged, glancing at me. “If Nathan doesn’t want her to—”

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