Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,1

a “safe haven” for leaving unwanted infants; that was usually reserved for fire stations and police departments. But it could have happened.

Still keeping watch in case someone was out there, Eli checked to make sure the little one was okay. There wasn’t a scratch on the baby that he could see, and he or she appeared to be clean. That was something, at least. And whoever had left the baby had tucked a bottle into the side of the seat. So someone had been feeding the kid.

“Who did this?” Eli shouted, trying again to get some kind of response from the person responsible for the baby.

But nothing. Well, nothing other than the baby, who started to whimper. Hell. That caused the adrenaline to spike through him, and while he took out his phone, he rocked the car seat a little, hoping it would soothe the child. It didn’t. The whimpering turned into a full-fledged cry.

He scrolled through his contacts to his brother Kellan, the sheriff, but before Eli could even press the number, he saw a slash of headlights as a vehicle turned off the main road and started toward his place.

Fast.

The car sped right at him, skidding to a stop in front of his house. His first thought was this was someone who was about to clear up the situation. Maybe someone frantic. A blond-haired woman wearing a gauzy white dress bolted from the car. She was armed, and she aimed the gun that she whipped up right at him.

And he groaned.

Because he knew his visitor—Ashlyn Darrow. As a lawman, he’d made enemies, had dealt with his share of bad blood, and Ashlyn was at the top of the bad blood list. In her mind she thought he was the bad guy.

He wasn’t.

But Eli doubted he would convince her of that—ever. Especially after what’d happened.

Despite him trying to push it away, pieces of the repeating nightmare came. Ashlyn was in that nightmare, but like now she was very much alive. The other woman wasn’t.

“Get away from her,” Ashlyn ordered.

If Eli had had on his badge, he would have tapped it to give her a reminder that she didn’t need. Ashlyn knew full well that he was a Ranger, and she had no badge and no right, legal or otherwise, to pull a gun on him. Still, he had no intention of trading shots with her, not with the baby right at his feet. Just in case Ashlyn pulled the trigger, though, he moved in front of the little girl. He seriously doubted she would do something like that if she knew there was a baby involved.

“Put down your gun,” he warned her. “Along with pissing me off, you’re endangering a child.”

A burst of air left her mouth. It was a humorless laugh. “You’ve already endangered her. Just like you did Marta.”

There it came again. Bits of the nightmares, and it always sickened him that the pieces could be just as potent as the real thing. Two years hadn’t toned down the bits, either, and despite the bad blood between Ashlyn and him, Eli thought maybe it was the same for her.

Since talking about Marta Seaver wasn’t going to help this situation, Eli went with a question that would hopefully give him the start of the answers he needed. “Put down your gun and tell me what you know about this baby. Were you the one who left her here?”

Even though it was dark, there was enough light coming from the porch that he saw the confusion go through her eyes. Brown eyes, he knew. And he knew them well. Or rather had known them.

She shook her head, lowering her gun just a little, but then he saw another emotion. Pure anger. “You know how the baby got here, because you were the one to take her,” she insisted.

Now he was the one who was no doubt showing some confusion. “I was in bed asleep.” He tipped his head to his lack of shirt and boots. “I heard a noise, came to the porch to check it out, and she was here. A couple of minutes later, you showed up with a gun.”

Ashlyn stared at him, repeated the headshake, and she started moving closer. Eli didn’t think he was the reason for that, though. The baby started fussing.

“Is she hurt?” Ashlyn asked, her thick breath gusting.

“She seems fine to me, but I didn’t pick her up for a closer look. I was about to call Kellan, and then I would

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