The Rancher and the Baby Read online

  Not wanting to be lumped together with Laredo, Cassidy changed the subject. “It might have partially been my fault that your husband didn’t get home until late last night,” she told Olivia.

  “Your fault?” Olivia repeated. Amusement curled the corners of her mouth. Enrique Santiago was as honorable a man as she had ever met, and she trusted him implicitly. She wasn’t one of those women who jumped to conclusions even under the worst of conditions—and this was not one of those occasions, even though her intern had worded her sentence rather badly. “Why’s that?”

  “I reported where we first saw Adam, thinking that maybe his parents might be around there somewhere, looking for him,” she stated.

  Olivia nodded, filling in the missing pieces. “Knowing Rick, he probably went to check it out and scoured the area himself.” She shook her head, a fond expression slipping over her face. “My husband delegates but also can’t help getting involved. He takes a lot of pride in saying that this is his town, and he can take care of whatever needs doing.”

  Olivia went around to the other side of her desk and took her seat. “Since he didn’t get in touch with you, my guess is that he couldn’t find any sign of the baby’s parents or their car.”

  “Maybe there was no car,” Cash suggested, turning the thought over in his mind.

  “Adam’s too little to have walked to the creek,” Cassidy pointed out. “According to Dr. Dan, he’s maybe three months old.”

  “But it wasn’t a creek yesterday, was it?” Olivia said, picking up on what her partner was driving at.

  “No,” Cassidy agreed. “Yesterday it was more like a river,” she recalled. She tried not to think about it. It had all been rather frightening how quickly everything had evolved.

  “How far back did the ‘river’ go?” Cash asked her. “Did you happen to notice?”

  Cassidy shook her head. “All I noticed was the baby. I was about to take shelter in that old run-down cabin on Laredo’s property when I heard Adam crying. Once I realized it wasn’t my imagination—that I was actually hearing a baby—I really didn’t take any notice of anything else,” Cassidy confessed.

  “Consciously,” Olivia stressed. When Cassidy looked at her curiously, the woman went on to say, “But we notice more things than we realize.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “I think that this little guy just might be from around here after all,” Olivia suggested. She exchanged glances with Cash. “You go out far enough from town, you wind up at the reservation.”

  “You think that this is a Navajo baby?” Cash asked.

  “I think that it’s possible he might be from around that area.” She looked at Cassidy. “Why don’t you go talk to Joe Lone Wolf?” she suggested, mentioning her husband’s senior deputy.

  She thought of checking in with the sheriff later, during her lunch break. This was hardly past breakfast. “But I have work to catch up on,” Cassidy protested.

  Olivia smiled. “Honey, it’s not that I don’t appreciate your dedication, but we’re a small firm in a small town. There’s nothing here that can’t wait for a few days if it has to. But his mother might be beside herself if she has to wait that extra time,” she pointed out.

  “As long as it’s all right with you,” Cassidy said, picking up the baby and his car seat from the floor.

  “It’s my suggestion. Of course it’s all right with me.” She waved Cassidy out of her office. “Just let me know what happens,” she called out after Cassidy.

  “Absolutely,” the younger woman promised.

  Cash went out in front of her to hold open the door as she carried Adam out in the car seat. “Thank you,” she told him as she passed by.

  Cassidy could feel her arms aching in protest as she went back to her vehicle. “I am going to have really large biceps by the time we find your mama,” she told the baby. Opening the door to the truck’s rear seat, she felt as if she’d only taken the restraining straps off the baby seat a minute ago, and here she was, putting the straps back around the car seat as she got Adam situated again. “I guess that comes in handy when you’re working on a ranch, but it doesn’t look all that attractive for a legal intern working at a law firm.”

  Adam gurgled, as if he was making a response to her observation. Bubbles cascaded from his tiny lips, making Cassidy laugh. She closed the rear door and then got in behind the steering wheel.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she told the baby cheerfully.

  It took Cassidy next to no time to arrive at the sheriff’s office. The latter was located several streets down from the law firm.

  After getting out of the vehicle again, she went through the tedious process of removing the restraining straps and then taking the baby and the car seat out for the second time in half an hour. She thought of her sister-in-law and wondered how Devon could put up with having to do that over and over again without going crazy.

  Some women were cut out for motherhood, but she didn’t think she numbered among them.

  Cassidy used her back to push open the front door to the sheriff’s office, which was why she didn’t see him immediately. But once she and the baby were inside, she not only saw the bane of her existence, she heard him, as well. The sound of his deep voice cut straight to the bone.

  On any other day, she might have just turned and walked right out, but this wasn’t any other day. And besides, this wasn’t about her. This was about the baby. A baby who needed answers more than she needed to avoid Will Laredo.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded the moment she crossed the threshold and noticed Will talking to both her brother Cody, as well as Joe Lone Wolf. From the looks of it, the sheriff wasn’t around.

  “Last I checked, this was a public office,” Will replied. “And not that I need to answer your questions, but I came in to find out if any progress was being made in locating Adam’s mother or father.”

  “I just saw Cody last night,” she reminded Will, waving a hand impatiently in her brother’s general direction. “If any headway had been made, I would have known about it.”

  “Yes, but you’re not exactly inclined to share that kind of information with me, are you?” Will asked. “And since I’m involved here, I have an equal right to know, same as you.”

  Joe frowned as he looked at the squabbling duo. “You two keep going at it, you’re going to make this kid cry, not to mention me,” he told them in his low, calm voice.

  He nodded toward Will and said, “Will here thinks that maybe the baby might be from the reservation.”

  Cassidy made no comment about Will’s thinking one way or another. She certainly didn’t like sounding as if they were on the same side, but she had to ask, “Is he?”

  “If you’re asking me if I recognize him, I don’t,” Joe said. “But I haven’t been up around the reservation for months, so I really couldn’t say for sure. What I am willing to do is go up there and ask around.” He looked at the baby and just the barest hint of a smile crossed his lips. “Might not be a bad idea to take this little guy with me, see if anyone recognizes him. So whenever you two feel like calling a truce, I’m ready to go with you and your foundling to the reservation.”

  Cody laughed as he shook his head. “If you’re waiting for them to call a truce, the kid’ll be ready for college by that time. Maybe even older.”

  Cassidy gave her brother a dirty look. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

  “There aren’t supposed to be any sides,” her brother informed them matter-of-factly. “The only thing that’s supposed to matter here is finding this baby’s parents—or at least one of them,” he reminded the couple he was looking at.

  “He’s right, you know,” Will said to her.

  Cassidy found it rather difficult to be agreeable or even docile when she could feel her back going u
p because of something Will was saying to her. “So now you’re lecturing me?”

  “No, what I’m trying to do is bring about that truce,” Will told her.

  Right, she thought, like he thought he was going to accomplish that by talking down to her in front of the others.

  “You’ve got a funny way of showing it,” she informed him coldly.

  Will bit back a few well-chosen words. Getting into it with her wasn’t going to do any of them any good, and he was tired of squabbling with Cassidy. Besides, they were wasting time.

  “Why don’t I just start over again and say I’m sorry?” he said.

  The offer caught her off guard. She just stared at him. Exactly what was he up to? “Sorry about what?”

  “Sorry that I keep setting you off all the time. Look, we can pick this up later if you want,” Will said. “But right now, since Joe’s free, why don’t we take him up on his offer and bring Adam up to the reservation? Who knows? Maybe we’ll finally get some answers about who he is and what happened.”

  In Cassidy’s eyes, agreeing with Will was like capitulating. She turned toward Joe. “I’m ready to go anytime you are.”

  “Hallelujah,” she heard Will murmur behind her.

  Chapter Ten

  All four of them rode to the reservation in Joe’s all-terrain vehicle. He felt it kept things simple—having two to three vehicles arrive on the reservation at the same time would call undue attention to them and definitely put the local residents on their guard.

  Because he was a representative of the law in the area, there were those on the reservation who viewed Joe as an outsider despite the fact that he had grown up there. They felt he had turned his back on his people. Those were the ones who refused to accept any help from anyone who lived outside the reservation’s borders.

  However, not everyone thought that way, and conditions on the reservation were improving. Not fast enough in Joe’s opinion, but at least they were better now than they had been when he was growing up there. Homes were no longer in disrepair, and the reservation school had been built up over the last decade, going from a small, old-fashioned single room facility to one where all the grades, from the first to the twelfth year, were now being taught.

  Just recently a kindergarten had been opened, along with a small day care so that working mothers who were employed both on and off the reservation had somewhere to leave their children while they worked.

  “It looks better than the last time I was here,” Will commented as he looked around.

  “It has taken a lot to improve things here,” Joe said honestly. “Efforts to help the locals aren’t always welcomed with open arms. Some see an extended hand as a handout and take it as an insult.”

  “Can’t you say anything to change their minds?” Cassidy asked. To her, Joe represented a success story, as did the two brothers who ran The Healing Ranch, a ranch that used horses as a way to get through to troubled teens.

  “Not easily,” Joe said quietly. “A lot of people on the reservation think I’ve sold out.”

  In those people’s opinions, there was no such thing as being able to walk in both worlds. It had to be either one or the other, and since he was a deputy sheriff, that meant that Joe had made his choice and turned his back on his heritage.

  Cassidy was surprised to hear the deputy admit to that. She knew him to be a decent, hardworking man who was always ready to lend a hand, but he was also very private and closemouthed when it came to his personal life. To have him say that some of the same people he’d grown up with now took a dim view of him was surprising.

  She also knew it had to hurt.

  “Do these people even know you?” she asked incredulously, becoming indignant on Joe’s behalf. It really didn’t take much to arouse the crusader within Cassidy.

  “Apparently not,” Will commented.

  “They’re not all like that,” Joe told them, and then was forced to admit, “But enough of them are.”

  Joe pulled up in front of a small, single-story wooden building that, although relatively new-looking, seemed to have come out of a bygone era, one that clearly belonged in the middle of the last century. The building was what passed for a general store on the reservation.

  Joe got out, explaining, “I thought I’d ask Smoky if he’s heard anything about a missing baby.”

  “Smoky?” Cassidy repeated uncertainly. It seemed to her like an odd name for someone who lived on the reservation.

  “It’s obviously not his real name,” Joe told her. “But he likes it. To tell the truth, I don’t remember what his real name actually is. As far back as I can remember, everyone always called him Smoky.”

  Getting out, Cassidy rounded the back end of the vehicle in order to get Adam out of his car seat more easily. But by the time she got to the other passenger door, Will had beaten her to it and had already taken out the baby.

  Cassidy stopped short. Her eyes swept over the rancher and child. Although she wanted to find some kind of fault with what Will was doing, she couldn’t. “You don’t look awkward holding Adam,” she told him grudgingly.

  He was accustomed to hearing nothing but criticism coming out of her mouth. Her compliment threw him off balance. Recovering, he responded, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “No,” she was forced to admit, “it’s just that most bachelors hold babies as if they were holding a sack full of rattlesnakes.”

  Will’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Maybe being around you has taught me to be unafraid around everything else.”

  Cassidy didn’t take that as a compliment. “Give me Adam,” she ordered.

  “Don’t worry, kid,” he told the baby, “she doesn’t bite. Usually,” he added as he handed Adam over to Cassidy.

  “I take it the truce is over,” Joe observed.

  “It never fully went into effect,” Will answered. “Cassidy can’t bring herself to be civilized around me for more than a couple of minutes at a time—and even that’s hard for her.”

  “That’s because I can ignore you for only a couple of minutes at a time,” Cassidy countered.

  Joe gave her a long, penetrating look. “Well, for the sake of the kid, you two might want to consider giving it another shot while we’re inside the general store talking to Smoky.”

  Will offered her a wide grin. “You heard the man, ‘Sweetness,’” he said, placing one hand to the small of Cassidy’s back as he ushered her and the baby into the general store.

  Cassidy stiffened. Because she was holding the baby, she was forced to go along with Will’s behavior. But it didn’t keep her from fervently wishing she could elbow him in the ribs just once.

  The man stacking a new inventory of wax beans glanced up when he heard the front door opening.

  Recognition brought with it a welcoming smile, but Cassidy thought he looked a little wary, as well. “Hey, Joe, what brings you here?” Putting down the can he was about to arrange, Smoky wiped his hands on the apron tied around his waist and came forward. “Haven’t seen you in a long time. Crime waves keeping you busy?” he asked with a dry laugh.

  The man everyone called Smoky was shorter than Joe by a few inches. He was also heavier than the deputy by a good twenty pounds or so. His face appeared to be somewhat weathered, but taking a closer look at him, Cassidy guessed that Joe and the general-store clerk were probably around the same age.

  “Same old stuff,” Joe replied noncommittally. “How’s your mother?” he asked politely.

  “Still complaining because I’m not married,” Smoky answered with a good-natured shrug. Midnight-black eyes swept over the two people and the infant beside Joe. “Bringing your friends around on a tour of the rez?” he asked.

  Cassidy was about to tell the man why they were there when she felt Will’s hand, which was still up against
her back, press against her spine lightly. He was signaling for her to remain silent.

  Ordinarily that would have the complete opposite effect, but they weren’t on their own territory right now. Though it had always been there, the reservation was considered to be a different world, and, as such, she and Will were there as visitors. It was up to Joe to conduct the conversation, so, hard as it was for her, Cassidy bit her tongue and kept quiet.

  “Actually,” Joe told the shopkeeper, “we’re here to ask if you heard anything about a baby going missing from the reservation.”

  It wasn’t difficult to put two and two together. “Your question have anything to do this little guy?” Smoky asked, nodding at the baby that Cassidy was holding.

  “Yeah.” Joe kept his eyes on the other man’s face. “You recognize him?”

  Smoky returned the deputy’s gaze. “Nope. Afraid I can’t say that I do. I could ask around if you want,” he offered.

  Joe nodded. “I’d appreciate it.”

  “So what’s the kid’s story?” Smoky asked, apparently curious—or at least he seemed to feel the need to appear to be.

  “He was found him in the creek yesterday—it had swollen up to a river by then,” Joe said, still closely studying his childhood friend for some sort of indication that he recognized the baby—or knew more than he was saying.

  “Swimming?” Smoky asked mildly.

  The man couldn’t be serious, Cassidy thought. She just couldn’t keep quiet any longer. The words all but burst out of her mouth. “No, floating. Someone had put him in a pink tub.”

  Rather than act surprised, Smoky seemed interested and asked, “Where?”

  “Halfway between town and the reservation,” Will answered.

  Smoky gave no indication that the story rang any bells for him.

  “Like I said, I’ll ask around.” Just then, someone else walked into the general store. “I’ve got a customer,” he told Joe. It was meant to signal the end of the conversation between them.