Page 39 of Saved by Him

Shit. Hehadbeen covering for someone. I hadn’t realized how little I’d believed my own hunch until I registered surprise that I’d been right.

“It gets better,” Clay continued. “Part of what Salome was supposed to do was handle things if Harry was away or sick. He’d officially put in for vacation time for two weeks around when Helen disappeared, and he didn’t show back up on the clock until his vacation was over, but the guy I just talked to said that Harry had been seen in Cheyenne halfway through the week even though he’d told everyone he was taking his wife to Niagara Falls.”

“He came back because Salome lost Helen.”

“That’s what I think,” Clay said. “The final nail in the coffin is what happened to Salome when Helen came back. Without any sort of explanation or warning, she quit her job and went back to school to be a nurse. She said she’d realized that healing people was her calling, not being a Marshal, but I think she couldn’t handle the guilt of betraying Harry and of being responsible for the loss of Helen’s baby.”

“I can work with guilt.” I said it mostly to myself, but it was loud enough that Clay heard.

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

“If we’re right about what happened, that means Salome aided a criminal in the black-market sale of a baby, then let her mentor hide what she’d done. She might have even helped Helen the second time Helen took off. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for her.”

I sounded harsh even to my own ears, but I meant it. I wasn’t here on a mission to get Salome in trouble. That wasn’t my business. My business was finding out what happened to that baby.

“I got her contact information,” he said. He pulled out a piece of paper and jotted something down. “My guy said that he heard she moved to South Carolina a couple years ago to work as a rep for some big pharmaceutical company, but her cell number should be the same.”

I took the paper and stuck it in my purse. “Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”

“I’ll always be here to help you,” he said. He leaned forward, his expression earnest. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you before. I should have listened to Jalen and Jenna instead of thinking I had to find you on my own.”

I held up a hand. “I don’t want to talk about that. I appreciate everything you did for me, but I want to focus on my case.”

He watched me for a moment, then nodded. “All right. I’ll drop it for now, but I don’t want what happened–”

“Please, Clay. I really don’t want to do this now.” I rubbed my forehead. “In fact, I need to go. I want to call Salome from my office.”

I kept making excuses as I waved the waitress over. Clay tried to interrupt, but I talked over him. Things had been okay when I’d kept it to business, but I wasn’t ready for anything personal. Not yet.

I was halfway home before my mind stopped racing back to Clay and the discussion that I knew was in our future. Finally, I was able to solidify my schedule for the rest of the day. I’d be back in Fort Collins before dinner, plenty of time to make my call before Jalen stopped by.

I’d been so caught up with finding a possible baby that I’d almost forgotten about theotherbaby. Jalen told me yesterday that he and Elise were going to the OB/GYN for their first ultrasound and the non-invasive paternity test he’d finally managed to convince her to take. With the holidays, the results would take a little longer to come in, but hopefully, by the first of the year, Jalen would know if the baby was really his or not.

I was in the middle of planning what I’d do for dinner when my phone rang.

“Hi.”

“Hey, where are you?” Jalen’s voice was tense.

“I’m on the way back from Denver. I needed Clay to get me some information for Jenna’s case. Is everything okay?”

“Not really,” he said with a sigh. “But I can wait until you get back. I don’t want to distract you.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “The roads are clear, and the traffic’s not bad. It’s actually a pretty nice day for a drive.”

The fact that he didn’t argue with me told me just how serious it was. “Elise canceled the appointment.”

I bit back the smart remark I wanted to make, telling him that I wasn’t surprised that Elise had managed to avoid the paternity test. I even had my doubts about the pregnancy itself. I didn’t say any of that though.

“What happened?”

“Apparently, she had the chance for a shoot, and since she wants to keep working as long as possible, she felt like she needed to take the job.” I heard the frustration in Jalen’s voice. “We had to reschedule for after New Year’s.”

Of course they did.

But I wasn’t going to say anything. It wasn’t my place. I would support Jalen’s choices, but I wasn’t going to add in my two cents. Not unless he asked. I’d listen and be there for him. No matter what.

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