Because the other option was to give up and go home and that wasn’t going to happen.

  “And I’m telling you, I don’t have the information you’re seeking. I’ve answered your questions and now, if you don’t leave, I’m calling my lawyer, and the police.”

  Paul stared the doctor down. Or attempted to. The other man didn’t budge. He knew Paul didn’t have a warrant to be on the premises.

  He and Haley were wasting time they didn’t have to waste.

  Without another word, Paul turned toward Haley, and with a quick glance and a hand at her back, ushered her to the door.

  He did not thank the doctor for his time.

  * * *

  Haley wanted to go to the police. When she suggested as much on the way back to their vehicle, Paul shook his head.

  Until they had evidence of a crime, they couldn’t compel an investigation. And while they’d compiled a lot of circumstantial evidence, Paul told Haley that to turn things over to the police at this point was premature. With everything just being conjecture, the police might or might not prioritize the case. When Noah’s autopsy was done, he was sure they’d want to know not only what Paul had discovered, but also focus on finding a murderer. Not search for a baby who might or might not exist.

  “You’re not sure who you can trust, are you?” she asked as they sped away from Dr. Andrews’s office on their way to the first of many stops he had planned—assuming one didn’t turn up evidence that made the hunt no longer necessary—all tied to Maya’s credit card charges.

  “I don’t want the police interfering with my investigation,” he told her. And then added, “Because while I trust the department as a whole, I’m not sure who might or might not be on someone else’s payroll as well.”

  Immediately, thoughts of the officer who’d stopped them that first night on their way into town came to mind.

  “Because you think Gladstone is involved somehow.”

  “I know he was involved. And that there’s no evidence, other than his word, that he no longer is.”

  Glancing at him, sitting there with him, listening to him, having been practically glued to his side for almost three full days, Haley had a rush of memory of what it had felt like to be in love with Paul Wright.

  It had felt so right.

  And yes, it had gone horribly wrong.

  “What?” he asked, as she continued to watch him. She turned away then, keeping her own eye on the traffic around them, aware that they couldn’t relax, even for a second.

  “I was just...realizing that I know so little about you. About your current life.”

  “You know where I live. And what I do for a living. And I do it pretty much all the time.”

  “I don’t know if there’s anyone special in your life.”

  She’d told herself the night before, many times, that she was not going to say those words, or any even close to being like them.

  And there they were—hanging like the bang of a shotgun.

  Leaving a deafening silence in their wake.

  * * *

  Paul drove. The premapped route already in his memory bank. Next stop, an upscale hair and day spa, Delights, Maya’s card had frequented.

  Ten miles away. Chosen, not for proximity to the first stop—Dr. Andrews—but because of the number of times the credit had been used there.

  His mind was not staying completely on route.

  Haley wanted to know about his sex life. His life with women, yeah, his romantic involvements, but that boiled down to sex, didn’t it?

  The unwelcome words bumbled in and out of his work thoughts, disrupting vital focus.

  And they weren’t really even right. Or fair. She wanted to know about the state of his heart. His love life.

  Did she know how treacherous such a conversation could be for them?

  How could she not know?

  Of course, she knew.

  And if he could tell her all about the loving relationship he was in, tell her how happy he was with a wonderful woman who completed him, then the sexual tension building between them—the elephant on the table that she had to be aware of—would deflate without them ever having to deal with it. Or even mention that it had existed for a minute or two.

  He wasn’t going to lie to her.

  Ignoring that elephant wasn’t going to help, either.

  “I’m recently separated from the woman I’ve been living with for the past year,” he told her, and then immediately regretted the words.

  Her silence settled over him as a balm. Rescuing him from a mistake that could cost them much. And the dark car he’d thought was following them turned off. Into the parking lot of a grocery store.

  “Did you love her?”

  He wanted to glance her way. To read her face and know...

  What?

  What did he want to know?

  “I thought I did.”

  Another silence. Again, he hoped they were done.

  Most of him hoped. The one small part who wanted to know if she was in a relationship, who wanted to know if she’d ever had as serious a long-term relationship as she’d had with him, poked at him weakly from within, as he made an internal announcement that he hoped she was in a relationship. That she was committed and happy, and knowing the joy they hadn’t been able to find together.

  Mostly he wanted to not think of her in those terms.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Did she have to sound so damned sincere?

  Like she truly cared about the state of his heart.

  He shrugged. “I was pretty much over her before she moved out,” he said, trying for a nonchalance he wasn’t totally feeling. He hadn’t been in love with Sarah, but he’d wanted their relationship to work.

  “She left you?”

  The temptation to glance her way almost won out at the incredulous tone of her voice.

  Almost. He was stronger than any of his baser desires.

  “She said I wasn’t giving her what she needed, which I’m sure was true. And...she was having an affair, had been for at least half of the time she’d been living with me.”

  The irony of that one should give her some satisfaction.

  He turned, turned again and then circled around a block. The red sedan who’d been with them for a couple of miles did not follow.

  “Did you confront her?”

  Not a question he’d anticipated. Like she’d confronted him, did she mean?

  “No. I asked her once if she was seeing someone. She said no.”

  “So then...”

  This wasn’t going away. Like a dog with a meat bone, Haley was chewing the subject for all she was worth. Might be time to take away the treat.

  Her fondness for conversation about his love life, and his seeming inability to shut it down, could not be healthy for their futures.

  “She left because I wasn’t giving her what she needed,” he repeated.

  “But you did what you do and found out the truth...”

  “I hired someone else to do so.” And he couldn’t have her pitying him. “I did it for my peace of mind, not because I was mourning for her. I wasn’t in love with her. I wanted to be. I thought I could be. I wasn’t. She was right to leave.”

  He’d pulled into the parking lot behind Delights, unfastened his seat belt, pushed the start button to shut down the engine. Haley hadn’t moved.

  “That peace of mind...you get it...that someone might need that.”

  He couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t get that close. But... “Yeah.”

  “I was wrong to accuse you, Paul. I was young and emotionally inept and I have regretted that night ever since.”

  But she still needed the truth.

  He gave it to her. “I wanted you to believe that there was someone else. We were dying a slow death and I just wanted it over.”

  “Was there someone else?”

  He had a distinct impression then that Haley wasn’t trying to salvage, or even rehash, their past. Peace of mind was all she was after.

  “No.” With that, he opened his door and got out, heading into the salon with or without her. He had a job to get done. Sooner rather than later would be best on every level, for all concerned.

  * * *

  One word.

  No. Frozen, and yet...overwhelmed with emotional impact, she sat there in the stopped car, just...feeling.

  Pain. Relief. Tears that couldn’t fall. A love that had failed.

  A man who’d been faithful.

  Her entire body resonated with it all, as dimensions in her life changed again.

  Paul hadn’t cheated on her.

  Over the years...she’d wondered...so many times.

  It didn’t change the fighting. The problems that had led them to the point where she’d accused and he’d walked out.

  But...

  He’d left the vehicle. Was striding for the door.

  He wasn’t walking out on her again. Period.

  Out of the SUV, she chased after him. “When we part this time, we say goodbye and walk away at the same time,” was all she said when she caught up with him.

  He gave her a look—one that melted her bones and sent frissons of desire through her—and opened the door.

  She stepped inside the spa with him, needing to be with him, and needing the current episode in her life to come to an end, too.

  And as it turned out, the intense start of the day was only the beginning.

  They learned things. Kelsey, going as Maya, had been a regular customer at Delights until five months before her death. There’d been much more recent charges from the establishment on her card, though, which Paul had quickly pointed out, only to be told that she’d been on the recurring monthly product purchase plan and the merchandise was mailed automatically from their supplier.

  Without a warrant, they’d been loath to share the address they had file for her, even with Maya’s sister, executor and beneficiary. A stylist named Coletta had been called up, though, and when asked if Maya had ever mentioned anything about having a baby, Coletta shook her head, mentioning that Maya had talked about her fiancé almost nonstop, though. She’d said she was truly in love for the first time in her life.

  Information that grabbed at Haley’s heart—and that got them no closer to finding out what happened with Kelsey’s pregnancy.

  From a gym she’d attended—again until about five months before her death—they’d heard the same story about Maya being head over heels happy in love, but no one knew what the man did for a living, other than that he seemed to do a lot of work-related travel. He was gone a lot, but when he was in town he spent every minute with her. Never at the gym, though. They always knew the guy was in town when Maya missed her workouts...

  They visited restaurants, a grocery store and a furniture store, all within six miles of the Calypso house. It was as though Haley was living through glimpses of her little sister’s life, and yet not finding her. The truth they sought remained elusive, even as she grew closer to the sibling she’d lost.

  The last stop was a clothing store called Madonna’s. According to Paul, Kelsey had only used her charge card there once, which was why it was last on the list.

  But as soon as they pulled up to the exclusive boutique just after five that evening, Haley’s heart started to pound. The mannequins in the window were all...pregnant.

  Her chest tight, she knew such a myriad of sensations she couldn’t find herself for those seconds.

  “I can’t believe it,” she cried when she could. “It’s a maternity shop!”

  Kelsey had spent several hundred dollars at a maternity shop.

  The place was closing for the day, but when Haley introduced herself to the manager, and Paul showed his credentials, she agreed to speak to them.

  Thinking they were about to find the truth, Haley entered the quiet shop, shaking from the inside out.

  Only to find that while, yes, Kelsey had purchased enough clothes to get her through all stages of a pregnancy, she’d only been there the one time. The manager showed Haley a teddy bear Kelsey had purchased, and Haley bought an identical one for herself. Even if she looked emotional and drama driven, she couldn’t help it. At the moment, she needed something to hug.

  Most particularly as she heard that Kelsey had been gushing with love, the manager related, going on and on about how excited Kelsey and the baby’s father were. Kelsey had shown off her engagement ring, easily two carats, but the manager didn’t remember her ever mentioning the man’s name, or what he did for a living.

  It was like Kelsey had fallen in love with—and somehow become impregnated by—a mirage.

  As soon as Haley and Paul were back in the SUV she asked, “So what...did she end up pregnant by whoever paid her expenses through the shell company and then when he abandoned her, or refused to take responsibility for the baby, she made up the rest?

  “Could be the house, the credit card bills were payoffs,” she added. “His guilt money.”

  Frowning, Paul started the vehicle, pulled out into traffic.

  And she couldn’t pretend to herself anymore. She hoped that Kelsey had been in love. That the father had given her a huge engagement ring and that he adored Kelsey and had wanted to marry her.

  But if that was the case...where was the man? Why hadn’t he come forward?

  Even if he didn’t know that Maya had been Kelsey, surely he’d have made himself known in Maya’s life, somehow.

  Wait...

  “What if the father is mourning the death of his beloved fiancé, and is home raising their child?” she asked. “What if he doesn’t know that Maya was Kelsey and has a family and a whole other life?”

  “Noah had known.”

  Uh huh. And he’d known the baby was in wrong hands. Had likely been killed for knowing, or spreading what he knew.

  “The police knew or you wouldn’t have been contacted about her death.”

  Right. She couldn’t just keep clutching at straws that looked like she wanted them to look.

  “And there was no birth certificate with Maya’s name on it, either.”

  Yeah.

  “What if you were on the correct path in Pahrump?” she asked then, her heart seeming to clog her throat, as panic filled her anew. She’d known...some part of her had known... “What if she was working at Sister’s Ranch, or some other brothel, had gotten pregnant, and was somehow forced to give up the baby?” The brothel had to protect the client at all costs, right?

  “I never took the possibility off the table. Whether the father found out and this is all done at his hands, or the brothel had a part in it...it’s always been there.”

  Could Kelsey have signed something before she started working there, agreeing that if there was ever a contraceptive fail and she ended up pregnant, she’d give the child up for adoption?

  “Gladstone is still a consideration as well. He could have found her, forced himself on her again, and then become desperate to hide the evidence.”

  And there was another, horrible possibility. One she’d refused to consider. But was she going to hide her head in the sand and risk losing a chance to find the baby?

  “I’m going to be an aunt,” she said, hardly processing. Allowing herself to really believe. Before she traveled any further on the road her thoughts were taking.

  The love she felt for the child she’d never met was there to show her the way. It had been growing within her since the moment she’d read Noah’s note.

  “Are you also seriously considering a human trafficking angle?” She had to ask, had to look truth in the eye, this time around, not make assumptions and run with them, as she had with Paul’s supposed infidelity.

  She’d been unable to save her marriage, but there was still a chance to save the baby...

  “I believe that it’s possible that Kelsey was persuaded to sell the baby, either willingly...or not. And that, in the end, she balked at doing so.”

  Paul’s tone was strained, understandably so as he broached the deplorable subject with his ex-wife about her deceased sister, but he seemed distracted, too.

  They’d turned onto a road that led from the Calypso part of town back toward the Strip, and bypassed city traffic. He’d wanted to get into a room and on his computer. Was taking them to another resort—saying that the casino floors made it easier for them to blend in, as the places were swarming with guests who weren’t staying at the hotel as well as the ones who were and wherever there was a casino, security would be tighter. They were heading to a place just off Strip. Not out of the vicinity, though. No more places set on their own out in the desert.

  The firm set of his lips froze whatever words had been on her tongue. She knew not to make obvious a glance in her side mirror. Just sat quietly, facing forward. Waiting for him to find his opportunity to lose whoever he might suspect was following them.

  He turned several times, taking them to a lesser used mountain road at the edge of town. And sat back, as though more comfortable. Which automatically lessened her stress as well.

  The sun low in the sky, the peacefulness, the magnificent views of rock and hill that had endured for thousands of years, all brought her a measure of calm.

  Paul glanced her way. Unsmiling.

  “What?” she asked.

  Shaking his head, he said, “Just wrapping my mind around the fact that this is really happening. Kelsey. A baby. Me and you.”

  As if it was just hitting him?

  Or he was finally getting down to the heart of it?

  Another bend in the road appeared as they rounded one turn and she thought about how life was that way...taking you around one obstacle, to another unknown.

  Remembering their conversation early in the day...the fact that Paul wasn’t currently in a relationship, she was about to tell him that she wasn’t either, but a roar came up from behind them.