The Texas Lawman's Last Stand by Delores Fossen

obligation to testify. But that meant Bo had to figure out what to do with her.
    “Keep an eye out. See if Tolivar comes back,” Bo told Mattie.
    She went over to the window, freeing him to keep an eye on the area where his children were. He also took out his phone, and this time he called his boss, Captain Shaw Tolbert. Since Shaw’s own wife had also been a maternity hostage, the captain had personal knowledge of what had gone on that day.
    Hopefully, not too personal.
    Hell. No one in SAPD better have known about Mattie leaving her baby behind while she went on the run.
    “Bo,” Shaw answered, obviously seeing his name on the caller ID. “I just got a call from a marshal over in Witness Protection.”
    They worked fast, and that meant Bo had to play catch-up. “Mattie Collier,” Bo started. He walked down the hall toward the nursery. “She’s here at my house. You happen to know why?”
    “If I’m to believe what Marshal Tolivar said, Mattie gave birth to a baby girl and left the newborn with Nadine.” The captain paused. “Is it true?”
    Bo cracked open the nursery door and peered inside. Rosalie was seated in the rocking chair and had a baby in the crook of each arm, much the way Nadine had been holding them when Bo had found her in the nurses’ lounge after the end of the hostage incident.
    Rosalie glanced up but continued to read a Dr. Seuss book to Jacob and Holly. There was nothing unusual about that. Rosalie and Bo both read to them a lot. It was part of their nightly routine.
    Tonight, it caused his heart to ache.
    He’d taken moments like this for granted. He had thought that because he’d endured Nadine’s death, there wouldn’t be any more nightmares to face.
    Well, he might be facing one now.
    He couldn’t lose his little girl. He just couldn’t. It would be like losing Nadine all over again.
    “Bo?” the captain said. “Is it true?”
    “I’m not sure,” he whispered. Bo stepped back and closed the door so his conversation wouldn’t disturb story time or alarm Rosalie.
    That obviously wasn’t the answer Shaw wanted to hear, because he cursed. “What do you want to do about it?”
    Nothing. Bo wanted to send Mattie on her way and pretend this night had never happened. But he couldn’t do that. Damn it. He couldn’t live his life with his head in the sand, even if that’s exactly what he wanted to do right now.
    “Mattie just gave me a sample of her DNA,” Bo continued. “I can use the cheek swab on Holly. The samples need to be compared.”
    Compared. That was such a benign word for something that could change his and his family’s lives forever.
    “I’ll have someone pick up the samples tonight,” Shaw concluded. “I can log them in under my name so that it won’t be connected to you or Mattie. The lab will put a rush on them, and you should know something by tomorrow.”
    Bo didn’t thank his captain because the words would have stuck in his throat. He was already dreading that the tests had to be run, but what he was dreading more were the results.
    He took a deep breath to try to steady his knotted stomach, and Bo forced his mind back on the next task at hand. Mattie was still by the front window, and she was volleying glances outside and at him.
    What are you going to do? she seemed to be asking.
    Bo was wondering the same thing.
    “If Tolivar is telling the truth, then there’s an assassin after Mattie,” Bo informed the captain.
    “It’s possible. I’ve been checking her records while we’ve been talking, and while she was in Witness Protection, her identity was compromised.”
    “How?” Bo wanted to know. “And who did it?”
    “As for the how, someone hacked into the computer database. They don’t know who was responsible, but the department believes this goes back to Mattie’s uncle, Kendall Collier.”
    Yeah. He certainly had the most to gain by finding her.
    Revenge.
    God knows what Collier would be prepared to do to find a niece who had, in