And what if the worst was true? What if Troy had been involved in the kidnapping of Taylor Rollings? What if he had knowingly raised a child who belonged to someone else? If Josh was actually Taylor, Troy couldn’t have known that. Someone had fooled him into raising the child. Except... The Troy Hamilton he knew and admired was nobody’s fool. It didn’t add up or make sense.

Avery stepped out of the shower, dried off and got dressed in the same jeans and sweater he’d had on earlier. When he stepped into the bedroom, Shelby stirred, looking up at him.

“I need to run a quick errand.” He leaned over to kiss her cheek and then her lips. “I’ll bring something for dinner when I come home.”

Her eyes closed. “’K.”

He went downstairs to his office where he retrieved his badge and weapon from the locked desk drawer and headed out. Troy lived in a big house in the city’s Northwest quadrant, near the vice president’s usual residence. As everyone knew, the current vice president had chosen to remain in his Ninth Street residence so his wife could be close to her paralyzed father.

But he was not thinking about her right now. No, he was thinking about his director and his pregnant fiancée and his own damned life.

Avery had been to Hamilton’s house several times in the last year, most recently for the holiday get-together the director had held for the Bureau’s top people. He’d been amazed to realize he was among the top people, one step outside the director’s inner circle. He had admired Hamilton from afar long before he joined the Bureau. The dynamic director had been a big reason Avery had chosen the FBI over other agencies that had expressed an interest when he left the military after ten years as an Army Ranger.

Being handpicked by Hamilton to lead the Bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division had been the highlight of his career. Thinking back to the day he’d been summoned to Hamilton’s office reminded him that he’d intended to put in for a transfer far from D.C. and the beguiling detective. Hamilton had changed his plans with the offer to head up CID, and Avery’s path continued to cross hers on a regular basis.

With hindsight, he probably should’ve turned down the director’s offer and gone with his original plan. By now he’d be far away from the source of his continuing vexation. But he also wouldn’t be engaged to Shelby and preparing to be a father to her child.