Free Sawyer by Delores Fossen

had sent over for her. The clothes didn’t fit her that well, and with her bedroom hair, she definitely didn’t look her usual polished and pampered self.
    “Anything from the kidnappers?” she immediately asked.
    But Sawyer had to shake his head. “It’s early. They’ll call.”
    Her nerves were showing again, but this time Sawyer didn’t go to her. That kiss the night before had been a huge mistake, and the way to make sure it didn’t happen again was for him to keep his distance.
    Not easy to do under the same roof.
    And especially since his body was still attracted to her. Sawyer mentally told that part of his body to take a hike. His life was already complicated enough without adding Cassidy to the mix.
    Cassidy walked closer to the baby and peered down into the basket. It hadn’t been that long since she’d last seen her because Cassidy had given Emma her 2:00 a.m. bottle. Sawyer wasn’t sure if he should be surprised by that or just confused. Because for a few brief moments, it felt just a little too right having both Cassidy and Emma in his kitchen.
    Sawyer’s computer dinged to indicate he had an email just as Cassidy helped herself to a cup of coffee. She snapped toward the screen, obviously hoping for news about her brother, but it was news of a different kind.
    “Gage is helping me look for Monica Barnes,” he said, reading through the message his cousin had just sent him. “That’s the woman I met at a party last year.”
    “Oh.” And that’s all Cassidy said while she took a long sip of her coffee. “The woman who may be Emma’s mom.”
    Sawyer settled for a shrug. If Monica was indeed Emma’s mom, then that meant he was almost certainly Emma’s dad. It would explain why the kidnappers had wanted a photo of him holding the baby. However, it wouldn’t explain what they’d planned to do with the picture.
    Or the baby.
    Unless they’d planned to blackmail Monica and him in some way. Monica had told him she wasn’t married, and she hadn’t worn a ring, but maybe there was some other reason she would want to hide a pregnancy.
    “Did you find this woman?” Cassidy asked.
    Sawyer finished reading the message and groaned softly. “Gage managed to track down her former boss. Monica quit her job about five months ago, and the guy hasn’t heard from her since.”
    Her forehead bunched up. “Was she pregnant?”
    Sawyer had to shake his head. “If she was, she didn’t say anything about it to her boss.” He paused. “But if she was carrying my child, why wouldn’t she have just called and told me?”
    Cassidy made a sound to indicate the answer was obvious. “She probably figured a bad boy like you wouldn’t be the diaper-changing type. Sorry,” she added in a mumble. “That wasn’t a nice thing for me to say.”
    But it was true. Unlike his brother, Sawyer had never wanted marriage and kids. Never wanted the kind of life that could be shattered by a bad divorce. Like his parents’. But he darn sure wouldn’t have turned his back on his own child.
    The way his mother had.
    Yeah, this was digging at some old wounds, but those wounds would never allow him to step away from parenthood, even in a situation like this.
    “So, what will you do? How will you find Monica?” Cassidy asked.
    “I’ll keep searching for her. In the meantime, the baby’s DNA is already at the lab, so finding Monica might not even be necessary. Since April and Emma have the same blood type, she might be her biological mother.”
    Which would leave them to find out the father’s identity. Because Sawyer was positive he’d never been with April.
    “Want some breakfast?” Sawyer asked, though Cassidy didn’t have time to answer him because his phone vibrated.
    He’d turned the ringer off so that it wouldn’t wake the baby, but the phone rattling on the wood table did it anyway. She started to fuss, and Cassidy put her coffee aside and picked her up while Sawyer took the call from Mason. Since Mason’s