Chapter Eleven
Lauren sat at Gabriel’s desk and waited. Something she’d been doing since they’d arrived at the sheriff’s office over an hour ago. There wasn’t much else she could do until Cameron called with news from the hospital.
Maybe the news would be good. Maybe Maria would survive surgery and be able to tell them what was going on. Until then, Cameron had no plans to leave.
At least the boys weren’t anywhere near the danger and the aftermath. Lauren hadn’t been able to stop herself from calling Dara three times to make sure all was well there. It was. And now she had to pray it stayed that way.
She heard the footsteps heading toward her, and Lauren practically jumped to her feet. But it wasn’t Cameron. It was Gabriel. He had a foam box in one hand, a bottle of water in the other, and he was sporting a very concerned look.
“A sandwich from the diner,” he said, putting the box and water on the desk in front of her. “You need to eat.”
Yes, she probably did, but she wasn’t hungry. In fact, her stomach was churning. Still, she would try to keep something down. It wouldn’t do any of them any good if she got light-headed.
“Anything from Cameron?” she asked, but she already knew the answer. If there had been, Cameron would have texted her. He knew she was on pins and needles while she waited.
He shook his head and opened the foam box when she didn’t touch it. Lauren sat down and took a small bite of the BLT. There wasn’t just one sandwich, though, but two. Gabriel must have thought she was starved. Or just eager to sample something she hadn’t had in a long time.
“You remembered this was my favorite,” she said. He’d even gotten a bag of her favorite chips to go with it.
“Of course I remembered. You’re my sister.”
There was some emotion that went with that comment, and Lauren knew they were talking about a lot more than just the sandwich.
She looked up at him, their eyes connecting. “I can’t apologize for leaving Blue River. I had to go.”
If he agreed with that, he didn’t show any signs of it. “Now you’re back.” He paused, a muscle flickering in his jaw. “With plans to marry Cameron.”
There was definitely no hint of agreement for that, either. “We don’t want any chance of the boys being sent to foster care.”
Gabriel nodded. Finally, they’d found some common ground. “And then what? What do you do when we stop the person behind the attacks?”
At least he’d said when and not if. This had to stop. They couldn’t keep going on like this.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “When the DNA tests prove there’s been a swap—”
“There was,” Gabriel interrupted. “I just got the results back. I texted Cameron, too, so he knows.”
Obviously, Lauren had known the swap had taken place, but it still felt like a shock. A violation, really. Someone—Maria, probably—had swapped the babies, and in doing so had robbed Lauren of being with her son for the first year of his life. She’d done the same to Cameron.
“I love Patrick just as much as I do Isaac,” she said, pushing the sandwich aside. No way could she take another bite.
“I know. Cameron feels the same way.”
He did. Lauren had no doubts about that, either. “That’s another reason for the marriage. Neither of us can give up the babies we’ve been raising.”
Gabriel stayed quiet for a moment. “So you...what? Try to make a real go of it?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Because if you’re not, then that’s not right for Cameron or you. Especially Cameron. You’ve had a marriage, a real one, but Cameron’s never had that. He deserves it.”
Lauren was already reeling from the DNA news and everything else that’d happened, but that only added to the feeling. She hadn’t expected her brother to have that objection.
But he was right.
Cameron did deserve better. He deserved a real wife who loved him and wanted to build a family with him. Lauren could give him the family—that was already in place—but she wasn’t sure she could handle the rest. A real marriage to Cameron would mean her staying in Blue River. It would mean forgetting her past. And she wasn’t sure she could do that just yet.
“What are you suggesting?” she came out and asked.
“That you hold off on saying I do at least for a day or so until you’ve had time to give it more thought.”
Good advice. But it wasn’t advice she could take. “It would crush me if the boys were taken away. In fact, I couldn’t let that happen, and that means Cameron and I could end up breaking the law.”
Gabriel gave her a snarled look that only a lawman big brother could manage, and he made a suit-yourself sound. Since she’d obviously ruffled his feathers, Lauren went to him and brushed a kiss on his cheek. She hadn’t expected it to help and was surprised when it did. It soothed his expression a bit anyway.
“I love you,” he said. “I only want the best for you. For Jameson, Cameron and Ivy, too.”
She knew that. So did they. But there were no easy ways for her to get “the best.” Right now she’d just settle for keeping the babies and the rest of them safe.
“I love you, too,” Lauren answered.
They had a nice moment, one that felt like old times before Gabriel tipped his head to the sandwich. “You should finish eating. You’re going to need your strength. Duane and Julia are on their way here now.”
That wouldn’t be fun, but it was necessary. “They agreed to come?”
Gabriel gave her a flat look. “I didn’t exactly ask. I told them I’d put out warrants for their arrests if they didn’t show up. I want to question Julia especially.”
Yes, because Maria had kept repeating the woman’s name.
“I thought if I had Julia and Duane here together, that one of them might blurt out something when they started arguing with each other,” Gabriel went on. “There seems to be enough bad blood between them that it brings out the fangs.”
It did. And the two had had no trouble incriminating each other in their other conversations. Too bad nothing had panned out on those so Gabriel could make an arrest. There’d been no proof that Julia had hired those gunmen, and the Rangers hadn’t had any luck confirming that the files Julia gave them were real and not some attempt to set up Duane.
“And Evelyn?” she asked. “Are you bringing her in, too?”
Gabriel got that hard look again. “She’s not answering her phone, and according to her housekeeper, she didn’t come home last night.”
Lauren thought about that for a moment. “Could she be with her friend, Judge Olsen?”
Gabriel shook his head. “I called him. He didn’t know where she was, either. I pressed him for some info about his relationship with Evelyn.” He put relationship in air quotes. “But he got huffy and reminded me that I was a small-town cop who had no right to question him.”
“That sounds like something a guilty man would say. Please tell me there’s something that proves Evelyn has bought off Judge Olsen?”
“Nothing. So far,” he quickly added. “I’m hoping either Julia or Duane will have something to say about that, too. All three—Duane, Julia and Evelyn—seemed to be coiled around each other like a family of snakes.”
They did. And that was unsettling. It was bad enough if only one of them was behind this, but if they’d teamed up...well, Lauren didn’t want to go there.
She heard more footsteps, and Lauren hurried to get past Gabriel so she could peer out into the hall. Gabriel didn’t let her get far, though. He stepped in front of her, probably because he thought it was one of their suspects. It wasn’t.
It was Cameron.
He was wearing a bandage on the side of his head near his right temple, but even seeing that didn’t diminish the relief she felt. It flooded through her, and Lauren practically ran to him. She hadn’t intended to do it, but she put her arms around him and kissed him.
Cameron’s muscles tensed, probably because he hadn’t been expecting it. And because Gabriel was almost certainly watching them. Still, Cameron didn’t push her away. He let the kiss linger until Lauren eased back.
And that was when she saw the weariness in his eyes. Lauren was pretty sure she knew what it meant, too.
“Maria’s dead?” she asked.
He nodded and brushed a kiss on her cheek. Not a kiss of relief as hers had been. Also not one of passion. That had been meant to comfort her, and much to her surprise, it worked.
She’d been right about Gabriel watching them. He was in the doorway, but he walked out, stopping directly in front of them. “Did Maria say anything else?”
“No.” Cameron scrubbed his hand over his face and blew out a long, frustrated breath. “She was unconscious by the time she went into surgery, and she died on the operating table.”
Lauren reminded herself that the woman’s chances of surviving hadn’t been that good, but it was still a blow. Not just because they wouldn’t be able to get answers from her but also because a woman was dead. Maria hadn’t exactly been innocent since she was the one who’d switched the babies, but she didn’t deserve to die because of what she’d done.
“Whoever’s behind this can now be charged with murder,” Gabriel said.
He was right, but the trick would be to catch the person.
As if waiting for something, Gabriel glanced at both Cameron and her. Maybe he wanted to discuss the marriage, but he didn’t get a chance to do that. That was because his phone rang. When he glanced at the screen, he mumbled something about having to take the call, and he went into the squad room.
“Make sure she eats,” Gabriel told Cameron from over his shoulder. “Her lunch is on my desk.”
Cameron immediately took her back into her brother’s office, and she was about to remind him that he needed to eat, too, but he sat across from her and helped himself to some of the chips. She handed him half the sandwich, and he started in on that, as well.
“You know about Duane, Julia and Evelyn?” she asked.
He nodded, then drank some of her water, too. It seemed...intimate or something. Which her body thought was good. Of course, her body often had thoughts like that around Cameron.
“SAPD is looking for Evelyn,” he explained, which meant Cameron had been keeping up with the case even when he’d been at the hospital. “The justice of the peace will be here soon, too.”
He took something from his shirt pocket and handed it to her. A marriage license.
“I had the clerk bring it to the hospital,” Cameron added. He ate more of the chips and stared at her. “Having second thoughts? Or did Gabriel talk you out of doing this?”
“He tried,” she admitted. And paused. “FYI. You deserve better, though. Better than a marriage of convenience.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up in a slight smile, and he leaned across the desk to drop a kiss on her cheek. “Lauren, there’s nothing convenient about you,” he drawled.
There it was. The heat that always went to flames. It set off red flags in her head. Because the heat could lead her to do things that shouldn’t be happening. At least not now anyway. Cameron and she had too much without adding sex to the mix.
The heat faded considerably when she heard the voices in the squad room. Julia and Duane had arrived. And they’d brought their lawyers from the sound of it. Someone—a man—was talking about this being harassment.
“I haven’t started to harass you yet,” Gabriel growled, his voice low and dangerous as only Gabriel could manage. “Trust me, you’ll know when I’ve started.”
Cameron and she stepped into the hall just as she saw Gabriel motioning for Duane and Julia to follow him. Lauren had been right about the lawyers. There was a man and woman, both wearing business clothes, and they fell in step behind Gabriel as he led them toward the interview room.
Julia stopped to give Lauren a glare.
Lauren glared back and hoped she wouldn’t lose her temper and punch the woman. Julia had been a thorn in her side for years, and Lauren had reached her limit. So that her brother wouldn’t have to arrest her for assault, she stayed just slightly behind Cameron when they went into the interview room with the others.
“They’re going to stay for this?” the female lawyer balked.
“Yes,” Gabriel said without hesitation. “And rein in your attitude. Just a short while ago, the three of us had thugs shoot a lot of bullets at us. They killed a woman. And before that woman died, she said one thing—the name of your client. I think Cameron, Lauren and I deserve a few answers about that.”
“What?” Julia had just sat down, but that brought her right back to her feet. “That nurse said I did this?”
Obviously, Julia knew plenty about this situation, and judging from her lawyer’s scowl, she didn’t like that her client had just admitted as much.
Gabriel put his hands on the metal table and leaned in, his face getting very close to Julia’s. “Tell me everything you know about that nurse.”
Duane huffed. “I don’t know why I got called in for this. Obviously, this is Julia up to her old tricks again.” He got up to leave, too, but Cameron shot him a glare that could have frozen Texas in August.
“Sit,” Cameron said through clenched teeth.
Duane sat, but his lawyer—the bald guy in a gray suit—rattled off a legal protest. He didn’t mention the word harassment, though.
“Your client has the means, motive and opportunity to be behind that attack,” Gabriel reminded the lawyer. “That’s why he’s here. And that’s why he’s staying here until I get answers. Don’t,” he added when the lawyer opened his mouth. “I have enough to arrest your client, and I’m in a bad enough mood to do it. Just let Deputy Doran and me ask the questions, and we might be able to get to the bottom of this.”
Maybe it was the badass looks on Cameron’s and her brother’s faces, but the lawyers, Duane and Julia didn’t say anything.
Gabriel waited a couple of seconds, and he turned back to Julia. “That nurse,” he repeated. “Start talking.”
Julia didn’t do that right away. She took a deep breath first. “I went to see her. You already knew I was suspicious about Patrick. Because he doesn’t look like Alden or me. Or Lauren, for that matter. I’d hoped Lauren had cheated on my brother, that the baby was someone else’s. Like his.” She motioned toward Cameron. “It’s obvious Lauren still has feelings for him.”
It probably was obvious. Lauren sighed. This old attraction was hard to hide.
“Anyway, Maria didn’t admit it at first,” Julia went on, “but she finally said she’d switched the babies. She claims she did that because of his sister, Gilly.” She pointed to Cameron again. “Gilly was afraid of her baby’s father, Trace Waters. Well, I thought that was a stupid reason to do the switch because Trace could have gone after the wrong kid. He could have gone after my nephew.”
Julia probably wanted them to think that she cared if that happened or not. She didn’t. It would make Julia’s lawsuit a little easier if Alden’s son wasn’t around to be his rightful heir.
“Did Maria happen to say how she did the switch?” Cameron asked.
“I didn’t ask about that, but Maria claimed she never intended to put my nephew in danger. She said Gilly had told Trace that the baby wasn’t his, and that she would prove it with a DNA test. She had Maria do a test on Alden’s son and was having the results sent to Trace. That way, he wouldn’t try to take the baby.”
That helped soothe Lauren’s nerves a bit. At least Gilly had had a plan to protect Isaac. And if Trace had insisted on repeating the DNA test, he would have assumed Gilly had been telling the truth about the boy not being his. Still, there was something not right about this.
“Why didn’t Maria tell us what she’d done after Gilly’s boyfriend was killed?” Lauren pressed.
“How should I know?” Julia snarled. “I only saw the woman once.”
“Yet she kept repeating your name when she was dying.” Gabriel stared at her, clearly waiting for an explanation about that.
But an explanation didn’t come from Julia. It came from Duane.
“Julia met with Maria more than once,” Duane said. Julia opened her mouth as if to shout out a denial, but Duane added, “I have proof.”
“You can’t possibly have proof—” But Julia stopped, her eyes narrowing. “You had me followed.”
“I did,” Duane readily admitted. “I wish I’d had you watched 24/7 because that way you wouldn’t have had the chance to set up those fake books to try to get me in hot water.”
“You had no right,” Julia spat out as if she was completely innocent in all of this, and she looked ready to launch herself at Duane.
Cameron got in between them. He pointed to Julia. “How about telling us the truth? Not just about Maria but everything else.”
“I have told the truth,” she insisted. She paused. “Other than the number of times I met with Maria. What does it matter if I met with her once or three times? It doesn’t,” she quickly concluded.
Cameron huffed. “It matters because you lied. Now, I want to know why.”
Julia made a sound of outrage, and she pushed away her lawyer when she tried to whisper something to Julia.
“I didn’t see the point in Maria telling Lauren and you what happened,” Julia finally explained. “I mean, you were both raising the babies, and it would only send things into a tailspin.”
It didn’t take long for Lauren to figure out what Julia had done. And what she’d intended to do. “You paid Maria hush money. Or you could have silenced her by threatening to turn her in to the cops. Of course, you didn’t plan to keep it a secret. My guess is you were going to spring the DNA results during the lawsuit. That way, it would negate Patrick’s claim to Alden’s money.”
“Bingo,” Duane agreed. “And the reason Julia didn’t spill the news sooner was because she didn’t want to give you time to figure out what was going on. She was counting on you being stunned enough to just hand over the money to her.”
“And it might have worked,” Lauren said over the profanity Julia was aiming at Duane. “Except I also got suspicious and had a DNA test done. I would have known the results and had time to figure out what they meant long before the lawsuit.”
“That’s why Julia hired the gunmen.” Duane, again.
Julia went after Duane, this time slamming into Cameron. Her lawyer caught on to her, and between Cameron and her, they managed to get Julia back in her seat.
“My client shouldn’t have to sit here and listen to these allegations,” the lawyer snapped.
“They’re not allegations,” Duane responded without hesitating. “Julia came to me months ago and wanted us to team up against Lauren. She thought there was something I could do to drive Lauren back into Cameron’s bed. That way, Lauren might decide the lawsuits weren’t worth fighting. I mean, it’s not like Lauren needs the money or anything.”
Gabriel glanced at Lauren, and even though he didn’t come out and say it, this was probably what he’d had in mind when he wanted them all in the room together. Obviously, Duane and Julia had been trying to figure out how to get their hands on Alden’s money and company.
Julia was glaring. Not just at Duane, either. She shared that glare with Cameron and Lauren. “You have no proof I’ve done something wrong.”
“But we do,” Cameron assured her. “You met with a criminal suspect—Maria. You knew she’d committed a crime, and you didn’t tell the cops. That definitely falls into the ‘done something wrong’ category.”
Julia sputtered out some angry sounds and slid back her chair, scraping the metal legs against the floor. She got to her feet. “Duane doctored the company books, and I don’t see you harassing him like you’re doing to me.”
“Oh, I’ll get to him,” Gabriel said. His phone dinged with a text message, and he glanced at the screen before returning his attention to Julia. “Duane knew about Maria’s crime, too, and didn’t report it. That means both of you are going to stay for a while as my deputies take your statements. I’ll have a little chat with the DA to see if he wants me to go ahead and arrest you.”
That started more protests from Julia, Duane and their attorneys. They were all so loud that it was nearly impossible to hear what any of them were saying. Gabriel ignored them all and turned to Cameron and her.
“Wait here,” Gabriel added to Julia and Duane, and he motioned for Cameron and Lauren to follow him into the hall. Her brother didn’t say anything, though, until he’d shut the interview room door. “Maybe they won’t kill each other before I get Jace in there to take their statements.” He tipped his head to the squad room. “By the way, you two have a visitor.”
So that was what the text had been about. And Lauren soon saw who the visitor was. Henry McCoy. He’d been the justice of the peace for as long as Lauren could remember.
Cameron looked at her. The kind of look that implied he was trying to figure out what she was thinking. Was she still up for this? Or was she having second thoughts?
The answer to both questions was yes. Lauren wasn’t sure this was the right thing to do, but she was going through with it. She gave Cameron a nod. Her brother must have known what that meant because he huffed. However, Gabriel didn’t try to talk her out of it. He walked on ahead of them, making his way to Jace’s desk. No doubt to tell the deputy to get started with those statements.
“Thank you for coming,” Cameron told Henry. He went to the man and shook his hand.
“Cameron, Lauren,” Henry greeted. The man was in his early seventies now, and he seemed frail in a suit that practically hung off him. His smile seemed genuine, though. “Always figured you two would tie the knot.” His smile faded. “I hate that it’s under these circumstances, though.”
It didn’t surprise Lauren that Henry knew about the attacks. Or that Cameron and she had once had a thing for each other. Heck, he might even know about the baby swap.
Henry looked around. “You want to say the vows out here or in one of the offices? Oh, and you don’t need a witness, but maybe you’d like Gabriel to be there.”
Lauren wasn’t so sure Gabriel would want to do that, but she turned to ask him. Before she could do that, though, Cameron’s phone rang, and she saw Jodi’s name on the screen. It gave her another jolt of adrenaline, and it must have done the same to Cameron because he quickly answered it and put the call on speaker.
“Cam, you need to get back to the ranch ASAP. There’s been some trouble.” Jodi paused. “Evelyn’s here.”