Page 99 of The Cowboy and the Baby

“It doesn’t make sense,” Cora breathed, her nose scrunched. “Why take her? You said they weren’t really interested in her before, right?”

I laughed without humor. Dad’s lust for success ran deeper than I ever expected.

“It makes sense if you know my job. I was the one keeping his oncology trial audit-ready. There’s an FDA inspection coming up, and if that falls apart, he stands to lose millions. Tens of millions, in fact. I think he’s removing Lily from my care to either blackmail me, or force me to return in time for the next audit.”

The robotic words came out with all the emotion of a tin can, but they belied the livid ferocity deep in my stomach. In my core, I knew my mother wouldn’t let harm come to Lily. She might be willing to sneak her out a window and take her home to comply with Dad’s demands, but harm?

No, she wouldn’t go that far.

But Dad?

Him, I wasn’t sure about. And that made me sick to my stomach. In the background, Hawk’s quiet voice came from my bedroom. He’d retreated there, and closed the door. Cora said something about him updating Channing. My brain crossed trying to figure out if having Channing here would even help. There was so much more nuance to this than I expected, and the helpless, tied-hands feeling was infuriating. Terrifying.

Cora released a noisy breath through her nose. “You know,” she drawled, head tilting. Her auburn strands swayed around her ears. “There might be something that you and I can do.”

“Oh?”

A sly smile stole across her face. With a hand decorated by glitzy rings and a tinkling bracelet, she waved me into the kitchen.

“I know just who to call. C’mon. We need your computer, stable internet, and somewhere both of us can sit side-by-side.”

Ten minutes later, Cora set her hands on my shoulders and plopped me into a kitchen chair.

At the same moment, a video chat began to ring on my open computer screen. The obnoxious sound buzzed for three seconds before revealing a large man who looked just like Hawk. Except this man had refrigerator-sized muscles. They shared the same bright and easy smile, dark skin, broad nose.

“Cora, Cora,” he sang with a smooth voice like fresh-brushed velvet. “It is good to see you. Hello, Cora’s friend.”

I gave a weak smile.

Cora took up half the screen and all the conversation power.

“Hello, Noah.” She lifted an open palm toward me. “Noah, this is Noelle. Noelle, this is Noah, Hawk’s brother. The two of you are practically name-twins, and destined to be good friends.”

He chuckled, a bass purr. “Nice name. The no part really rings of power and authority.”

Cora rolled her eyes.

“Same,” I replied, smiling. I liked Noah immediately. He set me at ease, and I didn’t know why. He would make more sense on a football field terrifying wide receivers than on a video call with us on a blustery winter evening.

Cora leaned in. “Listen, Noah. I need you to step up and be a hacker extraordinaire. We have a real situation on our hands, and I think you’re the one to help us with it. And we have nothing else to do, and you need to keep us distracted.”

Noah adjusted, and I realized that he stood at his computer. A blank wall filled the place behind him, and to the side were wide windows overlooking a white sand beach and a rolling, wave-capped ocean. The idyllic, warm day sent jealous shivers through me. Blizzard-level winds whipped by so fast they might crack the windows here in Wyoming, and I worried for Cade and Wyatt, chugging farther into the storm.

Noah brushed his palms together with a gleam in his eye. He asked, “Oh, really? What do you have for me? It’s been a while since I had a good challenge.”

Efficiently, but with grave tones, Cora explained the situation with Lily, my parents, the other grandparents vying for custody, and touched lightly on Naomi’s death. The experience of hearing someone else recount my life was a gut-clenching minute. I caught sight of what I looked like in the corner camera. What I saw struck me.

Not fear.

Not wilting desperation.

Not tear tracks.

I saw rage. Determination. I saw a woman who had been through everything Cora said, and more. Mom and Dad may have surprised me, put Lily at risk by dodging into a snowstorm while they weren’t prepared, and attempted to take control of her, but that didn’t mean I was going to take it lying down.

My shoulders pulled back, chin elevated. A few deep breaths cleansed the muddled feeling in my head, and suddenly, this video call seemed like more of a gift than I had expected.

Cora turned to me with a devilish sparkle in her eyes. “Cora, Noah is very low-key and phenomenal, but he’s also ridiculously intelligent, quiet, and can work a computer like Rembrandt worked a canvas.”