Sawyer (14 page)

“You’re playing dirty,” he mumbled, and he dragged her back to him so he could take her mouth again.

Sawyer was the one who was playing dirty. She was already well past the foreplay stage, and he still wasn’t taking her to bed. Cassidy did something about that. She got them moving in that direction. Not easily. Because with each new frantic wave of kissing, she lost her breath. Maybe her mind, too.

She was wearing just bra and panties as he eased her onto the bed. Finally! The overly soft mattress gave way to their combined weight. “Now,” she insisted.

Sawyer was in the process of ridding her of her bra when he looked at her. Not at her breasts. But at her face. And that wasn’t a hazed, passionate look he was giving her.

“I don’t have a condom,” he said.

That didn’t cool the fire one bit, but it caused them both to curse, and they began a frenzied search through the nightstand drawer. The relief was instantaneous when she spotted the foil wrappers. She silently thanked his cousins for putting them there.

The urgency soared all over again, and Cassidy and he fought to get rid of the few items of clothing they were still wearing. They fought with the condom, too, and it seemed to take an eternity to get it on.

It had been nearly a year since she’d had Sawyer as a lover, but the memories were still fresh. Still fiery hot. And Cassidy got a fresh reminder of that heat when he slipped inside her. She only had a moment to savor every sensation, and him, before he started to move.

Just like that, she was lost.

In the back of her mind, she knew it shouldn’t be this good. This right. Sawyer certainly wasn’t hers for the taking, but she had no choice but to let him do just that—take her.

Her body gave way. Surrendering. And Sawyer’s face was the last thing she saw before the heat blinded her and sent her over the edge.

Chapter Sixteen

Sawyer felt the release slam through him. In that moment the only thing he could feel was Cassidy. She was the only thing he wanted to feel. And with the taste of her in his mouth and her body trembling beneath his, Sawyer gathered her into his arms and held her close.

Neither of them said a word, but he could practically hear the doubts going through her head. The timing for this sucked. A lot like the last time they’d landed in bed. That time had come on the heels of his investigation into Bennie’s wrongdoing.

A lot like now.

Except
now
felt different.

That was probably a bad thing. Every second he spent with her like this only put his mind further away from the investigation. The reminder was enough to get Sawyer moving, but then he looked down at Cassidy. At her bedroom hair. Her eyes.

Yeah, and her body, too.

Hard to miss a beautiful naked woman in his bed. And he suddenly wanted her all over again.

“Don’t regret this,” she said, her voice all silk and hardly any sound.

He was sure that voice could lure him right back for another round despite the heart-to-heart chat he’d just had with himself. And the lure might have worked just fine if his phone hadn’t rung. One glance at the screen, and it was yet another reminder of why he shouldn’t lose focus.

“It’s your brother,” Sawyer let her know, and he tugged on his jeans while he put the phone on the nightstand and hit the speaker button.

“Where’s Cassidy?” Bennie immediately asked.

“Safe, with me. Why?” But then Sawyer groaned. “This isn’t bad news, is it?”

“You tell me. I just got a call from Willy, and he claims someone tried to kill my sister again while she was with you at the sheriff’s office. Any reason I didn’t hear about this from Cassidy or you?”

It was a reasonable enough question, but Sawyer didn’t care for Bennie’s tone. Of course, it could also be because he didn’t care for Bennie himself.

“I haven’t had time to call you,” Cassidy answered. She, too, got up and started dressing. Sawyer got an even better look at her body and felt another punch of heat.

Oh, man.

He was toast when it came to Cassidy.

“Haven’t had time?” Bennie repeated. “According to Willy, the attack happened over half an hour ago. You had plenty of time to call me.”

“Willy’s just chock-f of info today, isn’t he?” Sawyer grumbled. “How the heck did he know about the attack anyway?” He already knew the answer, but he wanted to see just how much Bennie knew.

Bennie didn’t jump to answer Sawyer’s question. Maybe because he knew the reason or maybe because he’d just realized that Willy could have known about the attack because he’d been the one to orchestrate it.

“How did Willy say he’d heard about the shooting?” Sawyer pressed.

“He didn’t. And I forgot to ask.”

“Convenient,” Sawyer mumbled, and he didn’t bother trying to sound civil. Cassidy was still partly naked, and he was riled to the core at himself for thinking only about sex at a time like this.

What he should be thinking about was the suspected kidnappers, Bennie and Willy. Willy had been near the sheriff’s office just minutes before the shooting, so that would have explained why he’d heard about it. He might have been close enough to hear the bullets flying.

Maybe Willy had even been the one to fire the shots.

But it was interesting that Willy had called Bennie with the news. Maybe he’d done that to stir the proverbial pot. After all, Willy hated Bennie and likely didn’t want him to have a peaceful moment in his life. However, it was also interesting that Willy hadn’t come into the sheriff’s office to tell them anything he might have seen or heard during the attack. Either Willy had something to hide or he didn’t want to help them catch the kidnappers.

“Cassidy, what’s going on between Sawyer and you?” Bennie came out and asked. “Are you two involved again?”

A muscle flickered in her jaw, and Cassidy paused a moment before she continued to put on her bra. “That’s none of your business.”

“To hell it’s not,” Bennie said. “I’m your brother. I care what happens to you, and Sawyer’s bad news.”

Sawyer had to get his teeth unclenched. “Funny, I feel the same way about you. The difference is—I’m on the right side of the law.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t breaking her heart all over again.”

A broken heart? This was the first Sawyer was hearing about that. But one look at Cassidy’s face, and he thought there might be something to it. Bennie had definitely hit a nerve, but still that didn’t mean he would discuss it with her brother.

“Is there a point to this call?” Cassidy asked Bennie at the same moment she dodged Sawyer’s gaze.

“No point. Just a warning. You know what you went through last time—”

However, Bennie didn’t get a chance to finish. Cassidy reached over and hit the end call button. She continued to dress, with her back to him. And she didn’t say a word. So, Sawyer went to her, took her by the arm and turned her around.

“Is he right?” Sawyer asked, but he left off that broken-heart detail that Bennie had mentioned. If it was true, then maybe Cassidy would be the one to spell it out.

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Looked away again. “Does it matter?”

“Yeah.” But Sawyer wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

They’d parted ways in a fit of anger, but he’d figured that Cassidy hadn’t given him another thought. Certainly, she hadn’t had a broken heart.

Had she?

“Drop the subject,” she insisted.

Mercy, the sex must have turned his brain to mush because he didn’t want to do that even if this was a conversation he was pretty sure he should avoid. However, Sawyer didn’t get a chance to press her. His phone rang again, and he snatched it up, prepared to tell Bennie to take a hike. But it wasn’t Bennie.

It was Grayson.

“I just got a call from the tech at the lab,” Grayson greeted. “About a half hour ago, someone stole Bennie’s DNA sample.”

A theft at the lab? Well, there was only one person who’d want to do that.

Bennie himself.

No one else would care if Bennie’s DNA proved that he was Emma’s father.

“The lab has surveillance,” Grayson continued, “and they’re emailing me the footage now. Thought you’d like to see the thief.”

“I would,” Sawyer said reaching for the rest of his clothes. “I’ll be right down.”

* * *

C
ASSIDY
HAD
TO
HURRY
to keep up with Sawyer as he barreled down the stairs from the apartment. She totally understood the reason for rushing. The person on the surveillance footage was likely the person behind the attacks. But Cassidy wished she’d had a little more time to come to terms with it.

Especially since it might be Bennie’s face they were about to see.

She rethought that and took out the
might
. It was
likely
that Bennie had stolen his DNA sample, and the most obvious reason for doing that was because he suspected he was Emma’s father. And if he was and was trying to hide it, then Bennie himself might have been the one who set up the kidnappings.

That stalled the air in her lungs.

If Bennie had been the one to try to kill her, then he’d partly succeeded. Something like that would crush her heart. And where would it leave baby Emma? With a dead mother and perhaps a father who’d commit murder so that no one would know he was her father.

“Are you okay?” Sawyer asked, glancing at her over his shoulder.

Because his gaze dropped to her mouth, Cassidy touched her fingers to her lips. It was an instant reminder of the kisses that had led to them falling into bed. And she hoped Sawyer’s cousins couldn’t see the telltale signs of how she felt. She had enough to deal with without their questioning glances.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled.

Even though it was an obvious lie, it was enough to get him moving again to Grayson’s office, where the sheriff and his brother Mason were peering at a computer screen.

“Nothing yet,” Grayson immediately let them know. “It’s not actual footage but rather pictures taken at three-second intervals.” He paused, looked at Sawyer. “We’ve learned it wasn’t just Bennie’s sample that was taken. The baby’s was, too. And so were your DNA results that Quantico sent over for comparison.”

Sawyer pulled back his shoulders. “Why the heck would someone steal mine?”

Grayson shrugged. “Maybe to make you look guilty.”

He was right, but Cassidy knew that Sawyer hadn’t been involved in the theft because he’d been with her nonstop for the past two days. Besides, he wouldn’t do anything like that. If Emma was his, he’d want to know. He darn sure wouldn’t be trying to hide it.

“We have to go through the surveillance frame by frame,” Mason added in a grumble. He checked his watch, mumbled something else that she didn’t catch.

They stood there, watching, waiting, as the photos scrolled past on the screen. “Where are the others?” Sawyer asked, tipping his head to the deputies’ offices that lined the hall.

“Dade’s up front, working the desk and making sure no one gets inside here. Bree’s out with the Texas Rangers, looking for Diane and those gunmen. I also sent Gage to the safe house. I figured after the attack here, it wouldn’t hurt to have the extra security.”

“Thank you,” Cassidy and Sawyer said in unison. With everything going on, she certainly hadn’t forgotten about Emma’s safety, and she was glad Grayson was doing everything to make sure those gunmen didn’t find the safe house.

Or return to the sheriff’s office for another attack.

“Bennie called right before we came downstairs,” Sawyer said. “He claimed Willy told him about the shooting. Any chance Willy was still nearby when those shots were flying?”

“It’s possible. And it’s possible he knew about the shooting because he’s the one who hired those men. I haven’t ruled him out as a suspect.”

Cassidy held on to that hope. Because it would mean Bennie was innocent. Plus, Willy did indeed have motive if he’d wanted to collect that steep ransom and get revenge on Bennie and April for their affair. Willy could do that all at once by setting Bennie’s kidnapping in motion.

But even Willy couldn’t have anticipated the problems.

And there were definitely problems because the attacks had continued. Cassidy was so tired of Emma and everyone being in danger that she considered trying to negotiate with Willy.

Briefly considered it, anyway.

She could offer him the rest of the ransom to back off, but if it turned out Willy was innocent, then she wouldn’t have the money to pay off the real kidnappers if they managed to take Emma or her. She prayed it didn’t come down to that, but not many things had gone her way.

A phone rang, and Mason jumped. He scrambled to take the cell from his jeans’ pocket and nearly dropped it when he managed to retrieve it.

“Yeah?” he answered.

Grayson stopped everything and watched his brother. The conversation didn’t last long, and Mason headed for the door, nearly plowing into them.

“Abbie’s in labor,” Mason called back to them. And a split second later, he disappeared out the back exit.

Despite everything else going on, Grayson smiled. So did Sawyer.

“We’ve never thought of Mason as the fatherly type,” Sawyer explained to Cassidy. Then he lifted his shoulder. “Like me. People always said Mason and I were a lot alike.”

Maybe it was her imagination, but there seemed to be a warning in the mix. Maybe he was telling her that sex hadn’t changed things between them.

And it hadn’t.

Okay, it had.

It had changed things for her anyway. It had only deepened her feelings for him. But she couldn’t let Sawyer know that. The last thing she wanted was to pressure him into a relationship that he obviously didn’t want. Maybe because he still didn’t fully trust her. Or maybe because he truly wasn’t the relationship/father type.

Cassidy was in such deep thought about that, and it took her a moment to realize the air had changed in the room. That’s because something on the screen had caught Sawyerʼs and Grayson’s attention. Except it wasn’t something.

It was
someone
.

The lab door opened and a person dressed in dark clothes stepped inside.

“Why didn’t a security alarm go off?” Sawyer immediately asked.

“Someone disabled it,” Grayson answered, obviously not pleased about that. “We’re lucky it was discovered so soon. The lab supervisor realized he’d forgotten something at work, and he went back in to get it. That’s when he noticed that someone had tampered with the security system and stolen the DNA samples. He did a quick check of the security feed and figured out it had happened about a half hour earlier.”

Sawyer mumbled some profanity. “It’s an inside job then. Someone was paid off to make this happen.”

“Yeah,” Grayson verified. “The supervisor’s questioning everyone now. Someone might confess, and if they don’t, he might be able to use their badges to determine where everyone was. All the employees have badges, and the system registers their comings and goings.”

That meant they might find out who’d orchestrated this break-in at the lab. Of course, they might learn that themselves if they could see the intruder’s face.

So far, that hadn’t happened.

The person kept his head down as if he knew the placement of the camera. Probably did since an employee could have given them that information, as well.

Cassidy held her breath when the intruder moved closer to the camera and toward what appeared to be a storage locker. Still no view of the person’s face, and because he was wearing a bulky black coat, she couldn’t even get a sense of his size.

But it could be Bennie.

She wasn’t sure which would be worse—not seeing the face at all or seeing it and knowing it was her brother who was trying to obstruct justice.

“There,” Grayson said, and he froze the screen. Finally, they had a partial view of the face, but it was grainy, and the angle didn’t help.

With some clicks on the laptop, Grayson zoomed in. It still wasn’t enough, so he went to the next shot and zoomed in again. Little by little, the image became clearer.