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moment later. Then the seconds crawled by. She certainly couldn’t tell from Bo’s expression what exactly he was being told, but she doubted it would be good news.
    While he finished his conversation, Mattie glanced out the window to make sure all was well. There were cars parked in the pristine driveways. Her own vehicle was still in front of Bo’s house. Someone was walking a dog. But there were no menacing black vans or possible assassins lurking in the shadows.
    Not now, anyway.
    But they would come. She was certain of it.
    Bo ended the call and closed his phone, but he just stood there, staring at the cell.
    “You were right,” he finally said. He came back across the room toward her. “Kendall used the computer to search for babies born on Holly’s birthday.”
    Mattie wasn’t exactly relieved, because it meant Kendall was closing in fast, but at least now Bo might realize that they both wanted the same thing.
    To protect Holly.
    “You need to know the truth about her DNA,” Mattie pressed. She opened one of the kits and swabbed the inside of her mouth. She put the swab back into the plastic bag and handed it to Bo along with an unused one.
    More seconds crawled by, and Mattie could feel her heart in her throat. Everything hinged on this.
    Bo snatched the kits from her. “I’ll have the tests done, but I’m not giving up my daughter. Got that?”
    No. She didn’t get that. But now wasn’t the time to argue with a father on the verge of losing a child he loved. Even if arguing was exactly what Mattie wanted to do. She wanted her baby in her arms, right here, right now. But her need for her baby would have to wait. Holly’s safety had to come first, and since that safety depended on Bo’s help, she had to keep this as non-hostile as possible.
    “I probably don’t have to remind you to keep those results a secret,” she said. “Kendall has probably already bribed labs all over the city to alert him to something like this.”
    “I’ll use the police lab,” he mumbled. “And I’ll make sure the results come only to me.”
    Well, it wasn’t foolproof, especially considering how someone had hacked into her Witness Protection files, but Bo needed these test results so they could move on to the next stage. Plus, he was aware now of the danger and would hopefully be taking massive precautions.
    Mattie used the pen and notepad near the house phone to jot down her number. “I obviously use a prepaid cell these days. No way to trace it. But when you find out who the man in the black van is, I’d like to know.”
    Bo glanced at the paper but gave her no assurance that he would do that. Mattie would give him until noon the following day. If she could wait that long. And if she hadn’t heard from him, then she would call him.
    “I want you to move Holly and your son to a safe house,” she added. “If you can’t arrange that for tonight, then ask for officers to patrol the neighborhood.” She’d already noticed that he had a security system.
    “Don’t tell me how to protect my kids,” Bo snapped. “I’ve done all right so far.”
    “Yes, but you haven’t run up against the likes of my uncle.”
    He looked at her phone number and then the DNA kits before his gaze came back to hers. “The authorities want to talk to you.”
    “It’ll have to wait until I can figure out a way to neutralize my uncle and his hired guns.”
    “Neutralize?” he repeated, sounding very much like a cop again. “What are you planning to do?”
    “After I’m sure Holly is safe, I’ll call Kendall and see if I can negotiate a deal with him. I’ll tell him I won’t testify against him if there’s a new trial.”
    It cut her to the core to make that kind of compromise. After watching her family’s dirty dealings, the one thing that Mattie had always sworn was that she wouldn’t be like them. But her child was at stake. If she had any hopes of being a mother to her baby, she had to bring things to a peaceful end