“She’s here,” he says simply.
“Hey,” Kayley says softly, eyes scanning the space. “This looks very… bunker chic.”
“You should see it when we’re cleaning guns,” Rhett mutters, not looking up.
Eli steps forward, smiling gently. “Let’s check Aidan’s vitals again. How’s he been?”
“Sleeping mostly,” Kayley says, her arms tightening protectively. “No more fever.”
Eli gestures toward the leather couch. “Let me see him, if you’re comfortable.”
She hesitates. Then nods and carefully transfers the baby to Eli, who starts checking pulse, temperature, color. Kayley hovers, biting her lip.
“Still stable,” Eli says a moment later. “We’ll monitor him, but he looks good.”
Kayley exhales like she’s been holding her breath for a week.
I rest a hand lightly on her lower back. “You did good.”
She leans into it—just barely—but I feel the shift. The trust.
Rafe clears his throat. “We need to talk.”
I nod, guiding Kayley to the large table. It’s covered in files now—some hard copy, some digital—and a whiteboard we use for fieldwork notes.
She takes a seat, clearly uneasy.
Boyd sits across from her, arms crossed like a human lie detector. Harlan leans against the wall, watching. Rhett stays near the window. Chase is sipping coffee, but his eyes are sharp.
Wyatt looks up from his laptop. “We pulled what we could on you and your sister, Kayley. Nothing concerning. She was a nurse. You’re a bookkeeper, worked remote for a few companies.”
“Freelance,” Kayley says, voice quiet. “Mostly boring spreadsheet stuff.”
“Your sister—Sophie—passed away two weeks ago?” Rafe asks.
Kayley nods. “Car accident. She was coming home from a late shift. It was… sudden.”
“And the baby’s father?”
That one lands like a stone dropped into a quiet pond.
Kayley’s eyes flick up to mine, then drop again. “His name is Damon Ford.”
Rhett frowns. “Military?”
“Ex-military. Army. Now he works in… I don’t know. Private ops. Sophie didn’t say much. They weren’t together when she died.”
“What kind of ops?” Boyd asks.
“I don’t know,” she says again. “He was overseas a lot. Sometimes gone for months. Then out of the blue he’d show up. Sophie never trusted him, but she did love him once.”
“Did he know about Aidan?”
Kayley nods. “Eventually. But he never made an effort to be involved. He sent some money once, that’s it.”
Wyatt types something rapidly. “There’s no record of him at that name.”
“He’s real,” Kayley insists. “I met him once. He scared the hell out of me.”
