Newborn Conspiracy by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online

present and future nightmares. It would stay with her.
    And him.
    The only good thing he could see in all of this was that Tanner was too young to remember what they’d just experienced.
    Logan heard the sirens in the distance. It wouldn’t be long now before the police arrived and before Collena could get the medical treatment she needed.
    “Someone doesn’t want us to learn the truth," Collena whispered.

    Logan had to agree with her about that."We need to know who." So he could go after this idiot with every ounce of the rage he was feeling for the person who’d endangered his child.

    “I’m close to getting that name " Collena added."I’ll have it soon"

    “I don’t doubt that we’ll find the truth. But for now, just stay quiet. Conserve your energy."

    Collena shook her head and ran her tongue over her chapped bottom lip. Her breath was ragged and thin."The police found two sets of files at Brighton—the legal set the Brighton owners and investors created for the world to see. The real files were encrypted with different codes for different files. This afternoon, I finally broke the code on Mia Crandall’s file."

    That got his attention. Mia’s, too. She peered over the seat at the woman.
    “There’s one notation that really stood out," Collena continued. She waited until she took a deep breath."In Mia’s file there was a notation about a surrogate request. A client paid a huge sum of money for the use of a surrogate with red hair and brown eyes, I don’t know who this person is yet—they were identified by yet another code."

    Logan got a really bad feeling about this.
    “What was that doing in my records?" Mia asked.

    Collena wearily shook her head. "I’m not sure, exactly. And it’s more complicated."
    The sounds of sirens drew closer and Logan spotted the ambulance when it turned into Mia’s drive, “Complicated," Collena repeated. "Because Brighton took money from both you and this other person who made the request. In fact, this person paid nearly ten times what you did, and I think the reason for that was the surrogate wasn’t supposed to know she was a surrogate. The client wanted to keep the arrangement a secret."

    Mia shook her head. "Why?"

    “No reason given. At least, no reason that I’ve been able to get from the encrypted files."

    Logan groaned.
    Because he knew the reason.
    He knew.

    MIA WAS STILL SHAKING. Just as she’d done at the police station. And while giving her statement to the sergeant about the shooting. The shaking had continued on the ride from the police station to the hospital to check on Collena.
    Of course, it’d only been three and a half hours since she’d seen a woman gunned down in front of her own house. It might take weeks before the shaking stopped and her body returned to normal.
    Thankfully, Tanner wasn’t having the same panicked reaction she was. He was sleeping soundly after his second nursing since the ordeal. She hadn’t minded the extra feeding. In fact, Mia had welcomed it. It got her out of the hospital waiting room and into a private lounge off the nurses’ station where she could finally have some downtime and try to smother the brutal images of that gunman.
    Mia heard the sound of someone moving around in the nurses’ station so she snapped up the cup to her nursing bra and lowered her sweater, just in case someone walked in, but she didn’t put Tanner back in his carry seat. She needed to hold him a few moments longer because he was the ultimate reminder that she couldn’t fall apart. Nor could she give into old fears and panic. She’d have to stay strong for her son.
    She checked Tanner’s diaper and discovered he was still dry. Then Mia reached for her diaper bag, so she could get ready to leave her temporary’ sanctuary, only to realize she didn’t have the bag with her.
    Oh, mercy. Not only were Tanner’s extra diapers in there, so was her wallet and cell phone.
    She got up, searched around the fold-up chair where