RENEGADE GUARDIAN by Delores Fossen Page B

reception-security and to the sprawling office that was jammed with desks and cubicles.
    And people.
    All those people were chatting, and the room was a beehive of activity. But then everything stopped when Slade and she stepped inside.
    “Are you okay?” a woman immediately asked. The jeans-wearing blonde rushed toward them, and even though she didn’t pull Slade into her arms for a hug, she looked as if that’s what she wanted to do.
    “We’re fine.” Slade’s tone was slightly warmer than usual, and the woman seemed surprised when Slade brushed his hand over her arm.
    The blonde’s attention went to Maya, then Evan. “I’m Caitlyn Barnes.”
    “Maya Ellison.”
    Caitlyn hitched her thumb in the direction of a wide-shouldered man at one of the desks. “That’s Slade’s brother Marshal Harlan McKinney, my fiancé.”
    Maya recalled the name from her internet search and Slade’s earlier conversation. Harlan clicked a button on his phone and came closer. His dark eyebrow lifted when his attention landed on Slade’s unbuttoned shirt. Only then did Maya realize just how disheveled she probably looked. And maybe he thought that dishevelment wasn’t all from the quick escape they’d made from the safe house.
    “I’ve arranged to have formula and diapers delivered,” another man said.
    “My brother Clayton,” Slade clarified. “You remember Declan and that’s Wyatt.”
    Marshal Wyatt McCabe.
    If she were putting labels on them, Harlan looked like a pro-football linebacker. Declan, a rodeo rider. Clayton, a jeans-wearing lawyer. Slade, a vampire and not one with friendly intentions, either. But Wyatt, well, his looks seemed more like the kind a lead singer in a rock band would have. Except his clothes were pure cowboy. He even wore his gun in an old-fashioned hip holster.
    Wyatt’s mouth bent as if he might smile, but when he looked at Evan, the smile went south. He mumbled something about it being nice to meet her and strolled out.
    “Does he have a problem with me?” Maya whispered to Slade.
    He glanced at Wyatt, who was disappearing down the hall. “No. It’s the baby. Wyatt’s always wanted to be a father, and he hired a surrogate but something went wrong with the deal, I think. Nothing that he’s ready to talk about, though.”
    She gathered that wasn’t usual. Probably because they were family and discussed their lives with each other, but judging from Wyatt’s sullen reaction, something more than just wrong had happened.
    “It doesn’t help that the ranch is going through a mini baby boom,” Clayton said, taking up the explanation. “My son is due any day now. And our other brother, Dallas, and his wife, Joelle, are expecting.”
    Maya glanced at their faces and then around the room. “They all believe Evan’s your son?”
    Slade did some glancing, too. “Probably.”
    There it was. That unruffled response she was starting to know so well. But his answer didn’t need the heavy emotion for it to hit her hard. If Evan was indeed his child, Slade would have plenty of moral support. He had a family already in place to help him win a custody battle.
    Something she didn’t.
    Slade hesitated a moment. Looked down at Evan. “Come on.”
    He led her down the hall where Wyatt had disappeared minutes earlier. They passed several rooms, all with the doors closed, and she figured their suspects were in those rooms. Nadine and Chase Collier. Andrea, too. The two people who weren’t there were Randall Martin and Morgan Gambill, but Maya hoped that with Slade’s entire family seemingly working on this, it wouldn’t be long before they could bring them in.
    And get answers.
    Of course, those answers were just the beginning. Stopping the danger was a must. Finding the missing babies, too. Then she’d have to deal with the results of the DNA test Slade had ordered.
    Slade took her into what appeared to be a break room and had her sit in one of the chairs. “It won’t be long before the diapers