“Any sign of the men or the hostages?”

“None.” Josh put down his hands but didn’t move off the bed. He stayed right there looming over her.

And he was naked.

Jaycee did a double take.

Okay, not naked. Just shirtless.

She had a good view of not just those toned abs and pecs but also the scar. It was several inches long and gashed across his otherwise perfect body. Even though it was well healed, she figured the ashy white line would never go away.

The memory of it certainly wouldn’t.

Josh

Delores Fossen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why USA TODAY bestselling author and former air force captain DELORES FOSSEN feels as if she were genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force top gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.

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Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

EXTRACT

Chapter One

This was exactly the kind of homecoming that Deputy Josh Ryland had wanted to avoid.

Just the sight of the guy with the gun caused his head to start pounding, and his heartbeat crashed in his ears. The flashbacks came.

Man, did they.

Flashbacks of another surveillance, another gunman. And the three .38 jacketed slugs that the gunman had fired into Josh’s chest. The wounds had healed, for the most part anyway, but still the flashbacks came.

“You okay?” his cousin whispered.

His cousin was Grayson Ryland, sheriff of Silver Creek, Josh’s hometown where he’d been born and had spent his childhood. Not a town where Josh had expected to see a man carrying an assault rifle. It wasn’t exactly a standard weapon for a Texas cattle rancher.

“I’m fine,” Josh lied. And he tried to level his breathing. Tried also to ignore the healing gunshot wounds on his chest that had started to throb like a bad toothache.

“I can call one of the other deputies to come out here,” Grayson offered.

There was no shortage of them. Like Grayson, four of the deputies were Josh’s cousins, too. And if Grayson had thought for one second that he would encounter a rifle-toting man on what should have been a routine call, then he would have almost certainly brought one of the others and not Josh.

“You made me a deputy,” Josh reminded him. “This is part of the job.”

That sounded good. Like something a small-town deputy should say to his boss.

It was pretty much a lie, though.

The truth was, Josh had come back home after taking a leave of absence from the FBI so he could avoid gunmen. Assault rifles. Bullets to the chest. And the tangle of bloody memories that he fought hard to keep out of his head.

So much for that plan.

Using the binoculars, Josh watched the rifleman pace across the front porch of the two-story ranch house. He was clearly standing guard.

But why?

Too bad Josh could think of several reasons why a rancher would need a guard with an assault rifle, and none of those reasons involved anything legal.

Josh handed Grayson the binoculars so he, too, could have a look. “You think they’re hiding drugs in the house?” Grayson asked.

“Drugs or guns, maybe.”

Whichever it was, it had created a lot of traffic, because there were plenty of tire tracks on the gravel driveway in front of the ranch house.

It was that unusual traffic that had prompted someone to make an anonymous call to the sheriff’s office to report possible suspicious activity at the ranch. It didn’t help that no one knew the tenants. The place had recently been rented by a couple from nearby San Antonio who’d yet to turn up in town.

Josh could see the source of some of that traffic. There were four vehicles—two trucks, an SUV and a car, all parked around the grounds. No tractors, no livestock or any signs of any ranching equipment.

That didn’t help the knot in Josh’s stomach.

“The gunman’s not the new tenant of the place,” Grayson explained.

No. Josh had glanced at the couple’s driver’s license photos in the background info that he’d pulled up on them before Grayson and he had even started the half-hour drive from Silver Creek out to the Bluebonnet Ranch. A peaceful-sounding name for a place that was probably hiding some very unpeaceful secrets.

And speaking of hiding, the front door of the ranch house flew open, and Josh didn’t need the binoculars to see another armed man step into the doorway.

Yeah, this was definitely a bad homecoming.

Grayson and he stayed belly down on the side of the hill dotted with spring wildflowers that overlooked the ranch, and Grayson returned the binoculars to Josh so he could take out his phone and call for backup. Unfortunately, they were going to need it.

Josh zoomed in on the second guard who’d stepped onto the porch. Both men were dressed in dark clothes, and both carried the same type of assault rifle. Maybe they were part of a militia group, though Josh hadn’t heard of any reports of that kind of activity in Silver Creek.

The second man glanced around. The kind of glance that a cop or criminal would make to ensure he wasn’t being watched. Josh was pretty certain that Grayson and he were well hidden, but he ducked down lower just in case, and he watched the man motion toward someone else in the doorway.

A woman stepped out.

And Josh’s pulse kicked up a significant notch.

He adjusted the zoom on the binoculars. Hoping he was wrong. But he wasn’t.

Josh instantly recognized that pale blond hair. That face. Even the body that was hidden beneath a bulky pair of green scrubs and a gray windbreaker.

Jaycee.

Last time he’d seen Jaycee Finney was the morning of his shooting when she’d been half-naked and skulking out of his bedroom. He hadn’t stopped her, that was for sure, because he’d already figured out that a weekend affair with a fellow agent was a bad idea. After the shooting and after he’d realized what she’d done, Josh knew it hadn’t been just bad. It had been one of the worst mistakes of his life.

“You know her?” Grayson whispered when he finished his call for backup.

Obviously, something in Josh’s body language had clued Grayson in to that possibility. Probably the narrowed eyes or the veins that Josh could feel pulsing on his forehead.

“Yeah. She’s Special Agent Jaycee Finney.” And if Jaycee was here, that meant the FBI was already aware of something illegal taking place on the ranch.

Josh took out his phone and called his brother, Sawyer, who was an FBI agent in the San Antonio office. “You ready to come back to work, little brother?” Sawyer said the moment he answered.

“Not exactly. Fill me in on SA Jaycee Finney.”

Unlike his cheerful greeting, Sawyer didn’t jump to answer that, cheerful or otherwise, but Josh heard what sounded like keystrokes on a computer.

“Please tell me you’re not involved with her again,” Sawyer implored.

“Not like that.”

“Good. Because she’s bad news.”

Oh, yeah. No arguments from him on that.

Josh had learned his lesson when it came to Jaycee. She would do any-and everything for the badge, and while Josh had once put himself in that same super-troop category, he never would have risked another lawman’s life.

As Jaycee had done.

Josh kept his attention fastened to her and watched as the second gunman grabbed her by the arm. She didn’t fight back, though he knew she was capable of it. She didn’t appear to be armed, either. Jaycee just let the goon practically drag her off the porch and into the yard.

Even though Jaycee and he didn’t have a good history together, it still took everything inside him to stay put and not bolt out there to help a fellow law enforcement agent. This was obviously some deep-cover assignment, and playing knight in shining armor could get her killed. Grayson, too.

“Seems like you’re not the only one who wanted some downtime,” Sawyer finally said. “I just checked the computer, and it says Jaycee’s been on a leave of absence for nearly four months now.”

That didn’t mesh with what was playing out in front of him. Either Jaycee was doing her own rogue private investigation or else she’d been taken captive.

Josh watched as the guard shoved her in the direction of a barn that was almost the same size as the house. “Any ransom demands for her?” he asked Sawyer.

“Ransom? None. Why? What in the Sam Hill is this all about?”

“I’m not sure, but I’ll get back to you.” Josh pushed the end-call button and slipped his phone back in his jeans pocket.

The guard gave Jaycee another shove just as she reached the barn door. It was impossible to get a decent look at the interior even though there were overhead lights, but it appeared to be some kind of living quarters. The guard shut her inside the barn, slammed the door, engaged the slide lock and walked back to the house.

“Want to let me in on what’s happening?” Grayson asked.

“I’m not sure. That agent down there is supposed to be on a leave of absence like me. How long before backup arrives?”

“Twenty minutes at least.”

That was an eternity if those men were torturing Jaycee. And that was a strong possibility. The man hadn’t exactly handled her with kid gloves when he’d maneuvered her into that barn. It was highly likely that her identity had been blown and that she was being held and forced to give information.

Which she wouldn’t give easily.

Not Jaycee.

She wasn’t just married to the badge, it was her soul mate. The only thing she actually cared about. She’d die—and get others killed—before giving up anything that would compromise an investigation. Even an unauthorized one.

He knew a lot about that, too, when it came to her.

Josh cursed under his breath. “Cover me. I’ll move in for a closer look.” And then he remembered that he wasn’t talking to a fellow agent but rather his new boss. “I’ll stay low and out of sight.”

Grayson stared at him, his lips pressed together a moment, but then he nodded. “Call me if you spot trouble.”

His phone was already on vibrate, and Josh drew his gun. That simple gesture gave him another jolt of flashbacks, but he wrestled the images aside and made his way back down the hill. It wasn’t much of an elevation, but thankfully just enough to keep him hidden.

Grayson had left his truck parked on a ranch trail about a quarter of a mile away. That was no doubt where his brothers would park when they responded to the scene. They were all experienced cops and would know to do a quiet approach, but Josh wanted to finish his surveillance and be back in place with Grayson before they arrived. That way, they could discuss the best way to handle this.

Whatever this was.

He didn’t see any guards on the side of the barn that wasn’t facing the house, but he stayed low and used the vehicles for cover to make his way from the road and to the barn. No windows, of course. So he went to the back and spotted the door. It wasn’t the type that’d normally be on a barn. More like a house door with a padlock on the outside.

But it wasn’t locked now and was open just a fraction.

Still no sign of any guards, so Josh went closer and peered inside. It was dimly lit, the only illumination coming from an exposed bulb dangling in the center of the barn and a TV that’d been mounted high on a stall post. An old black-and-white movie flickered on the screen, but the sound was barely audible.

It took Josh a moment to pick through the darkness and shadows and spot Jaycee. She was sitting on an army-style cot, her elbows on her knees, her face buried in her hands.

She wasn’t alone.

Josh saw two other women, both also on cots. One was reading a paperback and the other was staring up at the ceiling. What he couldn’t tell was if there were any guards inside.

He didn’t make a sound or move, but Jaycee’s head snapped up, and as if she’d sensed he was there, her gaze zoomed straight toward him. Josh didn’t need a lot of light to notice the relief in her eyes.

Quickly followed by something else.

Fear, maybe.

She shook her head, barely moving it, and she looked down, her loose shoulder-length hair sliding forward to conceal the sides of her face. She put her finger to her mouth in a stay-quiet gesture.

At least that was what Josh thought she was trying to do.

“What the hell’s going on in there?” a voice boomed through the barn.

Josh glanced around and soon spotted the source. A large speaker mounted on one of the crossbeams. Next to it was a camera.

Hell.

Had they seen him?

Still no sign of either of the guards, but he got ready just in case he had to grab Jaycee and the others and run for cover.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Jaycee shouted. She stood, her back to Josh, and she put her hands on her hips. The sleeves of the bulky windbreaker billowed out like wings as she stared up at the camera. “What, I can’t scratch my nose now without getting interrogated?”

The tone was the same old Jaycee. Smart mouth. In charge. But Josh could see that her hands were trembling.

“It looked like more than scratching your nose to me,” the man on the intercom fired back. “You girls aren’t trying to plan something, are you? Like another escape attempt? Because the last one didn’t go so good, did it?”

So they were being held against their will. But why? And who was doing this?

“We learned our lesson about that already,” Jaycee said, and the two others bobbed their heads in agreement.

The women were at the wrong angle to see Josh, and Jaycee made it even harder for them to spot him by stepping to the side. Positioning herself and that bat-wing windbreaker between the camera and him.

“So do I have permission to scratch my nose?” Jaycee yelled.

“Yeah. For now anyway. But if you try to break any more cameras, this time your roommates are gonna pay for it.”

The moments crawled by, and there was a slight crackling sound. Jaycee’s shoulders slumped, and she blew out a barely audible breath.

“I’m getting some air,” she said to no one in particular, and she turned and headed toward the back door.

And Josh.

He saw it then. When she turned to the side and the windbreaker shifted. Her belly. Not flat as it’d been the last time they’d crossed paths.

Jaycee was pregnant.

Oh, man.

Josh forced himself to stay quiet and calm. And he also forced himself to think about the timing of all of this. It wasn’t hard to remember the only time Jaycee and he had slept together. Because that was the same day he’d nearly died.

Five months ago.

Like the flashbacks, that hit him darn hard, like a heavyweight’s fist to the gut. But he bit back any sound of surprise because if the guards heard him, it would likely get them killed.

Jaycee didn’t look at him. In fact, she gave no indication whatsoever that she knew he was even there. She strolled to the back door, eased it open several inches farther than it already was and took a deep breath—like someone indeed getting a little fresh air.

“Don’t move,” she mouthed, her chin still lifted slightly in her fresh-air pose. “I broke the lens a couple of days ago with a rock, and they haven’t gotten a replacement yet.” She tipped her head to the tiny camera mounted on the eaves. “Right now, you’re out of camera range for the one inside, and you need to stay that way.”

He nodded, didn’t move, except to drop his gaze to her stomach. “Whose baby is that?” he asked in a whisper.

She opened her mouth but then closed it just as quickly. Her attention sliced to the front door of the barn, and she whirled around to step in front of him.

Not a second too soon.

The door flew open, and Josh got just a glimpse of the armed goon as he rushed in.

And he pointed his rifle right at Jaycee.

Chapter Two

Jaycee cursed the panic that shot through her.

After months of being held captive, she should be used to having a gun pointed at her, but maybe that was something that never got old. Especially since each time one of the guards pointed a gun at her, they aimed at her stomach.

The one place that they knew would get her to cooperate.

She’d risk her own neck, but not the baby.

However, there was a new reason to do whatever they wanted so she could get the guard out of there. Josh’s life depended on it, and sadly, so did hers and the other two women’s, Marita and Blanca.

Her cell mates spoke only Spanish, but they understood enough English to know what they had to do. When the guard came in, they got to their feet, cowering. Both pregnant, like Jaycee, and both willing to do anything to protect the babies they carried.

“You sure you ladies aren’t up to something?” the man growled.

Jaycee didn’t know his name, but he was bald, ugly and big, which described every guard who’d been at the ranch over the past month.

This one came in at least several times a day, and he always made a repeat visit after bringing one of them back from the house. Maybe because he thought they were going to discuss whatever they’d seen or heard in there. Or maybe he thought they’d break some more cameras.

On each of these visits, Jaycee wished she could punch the guy in the face, take that rifle and get herself and the others out. But so far, escape had been impossible.

Maybe it still was.

She couldn’t risk verbally warning Josh to stay put, but hopefully he would. He was a good agent. At least he had been before the shooting that’d nearly left him dead. If they survived the next few minutes, maybe she would be able to ask him how he’d found her and how he planned to get them all out.

And he’d better have a plan.

A darn good one.

Keeping herself directly in front of the door, Jaycee lifted the leg of her scrub pants to remind the jerk that since her attempted escape, she had been wearing an ankle monitor. One that would alert him if she did manage to get out of the barn. So far, she’d had no luck in getting the monitor off or disabling the Big Brother camera inside that watched them 24/7.

The jerk stared at them awhile longer. Jaycee didn’t prolong his stay by glaring at him as she sometimes did. Her glare would rile him, she knew that for a fact, but a riled man just stayed longer.

She wanted him out of there now.

Finally, he mumbled something and got moving. So did Jaycee. She knew the angles of the camera and the blind spots. Well, one blind spot anyway. Even the bathroom that’d been added in the corner had no door. But she had learned that any time she moved into the remains of the horse stall just to the left of the back barn door that one of the jerks came running to make sure she was still there.

Definitely a blind spot.

“Stay low,” she whispered to Josh, “and go in there.”

Jaycee tipped her head to the stall. She had to get him out of the yard because the guard would soon be making a sweep of that area. Maybe he wouldn’t come upon the backup that Josh had hopefully brought with him. If Josh had come alone, well, they were in trouble.

Without making a sound, Josh slipped through the bottom part of the door and into the stall.

“Keep your voice at a whisper,” she warned him, angling her head away from the camera. She couldn’t do that for long, either, or it would prompt another look-see from the guard. “There’s a listening device on the post by the camera, but I’ve crammed bits of hay in it to muffle the sound.”

She was sure he heard what she said, but his smoky blue eyes were planted firmly on her stomach.

Oh, that.

She owed him an answer to his question.

Since she’d first eyed that little plus sign on the home pregnancy test over four months ago, she’d wondered how she would spill this news. Josh wasn’t exactly a family man. Thirty-four and had never even lived with a woman or been engaged. Jaycee didn’t consider herself a relationship expert, but she figured that meant he hadn’t planned on becoming a father this year.

And she didn’t care.

This was her baby. She’d spent the last three and a half months protecting it, and she didn’t intend to stop now. The only thing she needed from Josh was his help in getting them all the heck out of there.

Jaycee moved back to the door, propped her shoulder against the frame and pretended to examine the split ends on her hair. She spent a lot of time pretending to do mundane things that concealed her eyes and mouth just so the guards wouldn’t be alerted that she was looking for a way out of this Hades of a prison.

“Well?” Josh prompted.

Since an answer to that question would only waste time and distract him, Jaycee went in a different direction. One that would fully occupy his lawman’s attention.

She hoped.

“There are four guards total,” she explained. “At least two are on watch at all times. And right now, there’s a doctor inside. He’s already given me and the two women here checkups, but he’ll examine the other four women who are also being held captive in the house.”

She risked a glance at Josh, and judging from the way he looked at her—as if she’d lost her bloomin’ mind—he hadn’t known those details.

“You did know about the captives, right?” she asked. “And that this is a baby farm, and they’re holding us against our will?”

He shook his head.

That sucked the breath right out of her.

He didn’t know. So why the devil was he here?

Josh shucked off his black Stetson and generally looked as if he wanted to throw up in it. That only lasted a split second, and he became the tough FBI agent again.

Or rather the hot cowboy cop.

That wasn’t an FBI shield on his rawhide belt. It was some kind of local badge. And he was wearing jeans and a denim shirt that looked as if he’d been born to wear them. Ditto for the rumpled chocolate-brown hair. Definitely not FBI regulation length. Later, if she got the chance, she’d tell him that it suited him.

Later, she’d tell him a lot of things.

And maybe he would listen.

Josh eased his phone from his pocket and fired off a text. “Will these men kill you if you try to escape?” he mouthed.

“Oh, yeah.” She didn’t have to think about that.

Jaycee had had enough experience with killers to know one when she saw one, and the guards were killers. She figured their boss was, too, though she’d yet to lay eyes on him. What she wanted to do was put a gun to his head and pull the trigger a couple of times. Harsh, yes, but he’d put a lot of women and babies through way too much misery.

“They’ve had me for three and a half months.” She glanced at the other two women, who were pretending to do anything but look at her. “My Spanish sucks, but from what I’ve gathered, they were here about a month before I arrived.”

“How’d this happen? How did they take you? Why did they take you?”

All good questions. Too bad her answers were somewhat lacking.

She moved to another section of her hair for the fake split-ends check. “I was coming out of a clinic after an OB visit. Another woman was walking out with me. Someone I didn’t know. But she was close to her delivery date, and we were talking. Two men grabbed her. When I tried to help her, they hit us with Tasers.”

Those memories were almost too painful to recall, but Jaycee had tried to brand every detail into her brain so she could catch the monsters once she was able to get free.

And she would catch them.

“I don’t know what happened to the other woman,” Jaycee continued. Again, a painful memory that clawed at her. She hadn’t been able to save her, and now heaven knew what had happened to her and her baby.

“Why did they take you?” he repeated, his attention on her belly again.

“From what I’ve been able to find out, they kidnap women or force them into surrogacy and then sell the babies on the black market.”

She let go of the hunk of her hair and moved on to nail-biting to cover the movement of her mouth. Except she was shaking enough that nail-biting didn’t exactly seem like a pretense.

“They don’t appear to know I’m an agent,” Jaycee added.

And that was probably the only reason she was still alive.

This operation might not be huge, more like a sicko cottage industry, but it carried with it all sorts of felony charges. If the brains behind this thought she was FBI, they might not let her draw another breath.

And that would mean her baby wouldn’t stand a chance.

Or maybe they knew she was an agent and were planning to use that in some way. Maybe to get information from her.

Josh’s phone vibrated, and he glanced at the screen before answering it. “We’re going to need a lot of backup,” he whispered to the caller. “This is a black-market baby ring. At least four armed guards in the house. Four captives, too, and another three captives here in the barn.”

Jaycee couldn’t hear a word of what the caller said, and Josh’s body-language clues shut down, too. No more emotion in his eyes.

Sometimes, like now, she got just a flash of the heat that’d once been between them.

Okay, more than a flash.

She got a full shot of the attraction that’d landed them in bed. Of course, with Josh’s alarmingly handsome looks and long and lanky body, the attraction was a given. Even after all the bad that’d gone on between them.

He dropped his phone back in his shirt pocket and got into a crouching position. His gun ready. She hoped he had some kind of backup weapon that he could let her use.

“When I tell you and the women to get down, do it.” Even though Josh whispered that order, it had some snarl to it. As if he’d considered that she might refuse. At this point, she wasn’t refusing anything that would get her and all the captives out.

Jaycee managed a nod under the guise of more nail-biting, and since she didn’t know what Josh’s plan was, she stayed put. Waiting.

Praying, too.

“Is that baby mine?” he whispered.

She’d been expecting the question, of course, but Jaycee wasn’t prepared for the suddenly clammy hands and her knees locking.

“Yes,” she said.

She purposely didn’t look at Josh because if he had another wave of nausea or some other unmanly response, he wouldn’t want her to witness it. And besides, she didn’t need the distraction of his response, either. Apparently, something was about to happen, something that would require her to shout to Marita and Blanca to get down before she did the same.

Something that would likely be dangerous.

Later, Josh and she could talk about the baby. Yelling would no doubt be part of that discussion, but for now, everything inside her screamed for her to do something—anything—to help with this escape.

And soon.

Jaycee felt useless standing there and waiting. Fortunately, she’d had a lot of practice with that during the past months, and she’d learned some other things that Josh needed to know.

“As far as I can tell,” she whispered, “there are no working exterior cameras, and the computer inside the house seems to be rigged just to monitor the camera here in the barn and our ankle bracelets.”

“How long will the doctor be here?” he asked. It was a logical question, no hint of the baby bombshell she’d just dropped on him.

“Maybe awhile. I think one of the women inside is in labor.”

That brought on some muttered profanity from Josh. With good reason. It would be hard to escape with a woman delivering a baby. As it was, it’d be difficult for some of the women to run for cover. At least Marita, Blanca and she weren’t megapregnant, and they all appeared to be in decent shape.

It seemed as if time practically came to a stop. Jaycee couldn’t say the same for her breathing. It was gusting now, and there were beads of sweat on her face. The camera wouldn’t pick up the sweat, but the breathing would no doubt alert one of the bald goons.

As would her continued stay near the door.

Soon, very soon, one of them would show up to make sure she wasn’t up to no good and to order her back to her cot.

Hoping to buy them some time from the guard check, Jaycee partially closed the back door, leaving just a one-inch gap—the way it usually stayed during the day. At night, the guards locked them in with deadbolts. She went back in the direction of the cot but didn’t sit.

Best to stay on her feet, ready to react.

Marita and Blanca obviously picked up on her nonverbal cues. Maybe the verbal ones, too, if they’d heard Josh and her whispering. Blanca studied her from over the top of her paperback, and Marita kept volleying glances between Jaycee and the movie that she obviously wasn’t watching.

Finally, Jaycee saw the movement in the gap in the back door. Not one of the guards. This was another cowboy with a badge. She got just a glimpse of him, but he had the same hair coloring and body build as Josh. A strong enough resemblance that this could be his brother.

The man peeked in, his gaze briefly connecting with Josh’s, and Josh motioned for her to move to the door. She did, though Jaycee tried not to give anything away that the guards would detect.

“It’s hot in here, huh?” she said to the others as a ploy to cover up why she was headed back in that direction.

She cracked opened the door again and saw that it was just the one lawman, one, and while he looked capable and in charge, that meant they were still outnumbered and outgunned.

As Josh had done, this guy dropped his gaze to her belly before he glanced in at the other women. Jaycee wasn’t sure exactly what they wanted her to do, but she figured they had a minute at most before the guard would check to see why she’d reopened the door.

But she was wrong.

Not even a minute.

Just a couple of seconds.

The front door flew open, and the guard bolted inside. Not the one who’d come in earlier. This guy had a serious mean streak and had even slapped Blanca when she hadn’t in his opinion moved fast enough.

“Hands in the air!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, and he shifted the gun not toward her but to the stall where Josh was hiding.

Jaycee braced herself for the guard to move closer so he could do a thorough search.

But that didn’t happen.

The man pulled the trigger, and the shot blasted through the barn.

Chapter Three

The shot was deafening, and it roared through Josh’s entire body. The flashbacks started again, but he shoved them aside. No time for that now.

“Get down!” he shouted to Jaycee, but she was already dropping to the floor. From the sound of it, so were the other two women.

He had no idea if they were out of harm’s way because the harm just kept coming. The man fired another shot into the barn.

And then another.

Grayson threw open the back door just as Josh bellied out of the stall. Both of them fired at the shooter. Josh had no idea who’d taken down the man, but he fell, his rifle clattering to the ground.

“Let’s move,” Josh ordered the women.

Jaycee sprang up darn fast for someone who was pregnant, and she hurried to the other side of the barn to latch on to the two women. Josh stayed put, guarding the now-open front door where he was certain that it wouldn’t be long before the other guards responded and came in firing.

“Mason and Dade are covering the house,” Grayson let him know.

Mason and Dade were Grayson’s brothers. Both were experienced deputies, but covering the house would be next to impossible with the gunmen inside. Unless there was some way to get the captives out so the guards couldn’t use them as human shields.

Jaycee made it to the door, and Josh looked out, checking for those guards. By now they’d heard the shots, so why weren’t they running to the barn in order for Mason and Dade to pick them off?

“Go ahead,” Grayson insisted. “Get them out of here. I’ll cover you.”

Josh nodded, reached into his ankle holster to retrieve his backup weapon so he could give it to Jaycee. But it wasn’t there, of course. He hadn’t carried a backup since he’d left the FBI.

Big mistake.

But then, he’d never thought that he would run into something like this in the middle of nowhere.

With Grayson behind them and Josh in the lead, he maneuvered them out of the barn and to the corner away from the house. He glanced around first to make sure they weren’t about to be ambushed. No one in sight. However, that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there, hiding.

“Don’t use any of their vehicles,” Jaycee warned. “I’ve seen the guards rig them with explosives.”

Great. The guards had no doubt done that so the women couldn’t use them to escape, but that was exactly what Josh had had in mind. One of those vehicles would have been the fastest way to get them out of there. Now they had to hoof it a good quarter to a half mile away.

And each step could be a fatal one.

He refused to think about the pregnancy now. Refused to think about anything that didn’t involve survival.

“More backup’s on the way,” Grayson added.

They’d need it. Josh would have liked to have stayed with the women until they arrived because it was a risk to be outside like this. But staying put was just as much of a hazard as moving.

With his gaze firing all around, Josh led them to the front of the barn. No guards. But he spotted Mason and Dade on the hill where Grayson and he had been earlier. It was a good vantage point if anyone came out of the house, but no one appeared to be doing that.

The other two women were crying now, their breaths making hiccupping sounds with the sobs. Unlike Jaycee. She wasn’t crying, and if Josh hadn’t noticed her bleached-out color and jerky movements, he would have thought this was routine for her. But she also had one of her hands on her stomach.

Protecting her unborn child.

No, this wasn’t routine.

She was scared spitless. And so was Josh—scared that he wouldn’t get them safely out of there. He’d already faced death and made peace with it and his maker, but there’d be no peace if any of the women and their babies were hurt.

He glanced around at the position of the cars. There was a road and a heavily treed area on the backside of the hill.

“Have you ever seen guards in the surrounding woods?” Josh asked Jaycee.

“No. But sometimes replacement guards come in from the pasture on all-terrain vehicles. It’s not time for the shift change, and I don’t know where the replacement guards stay when they aren’t here.”

Later, that would need to be investigated, but they were a heck of a long way from the later point. For now, he just watched and made sure one of those ATVs didn’t come barreling up on them from behind.

“Stay close and let’s move,” Josh ordered.

They ran the ten yards to the first vehicle so they could use it for cover.

But not for long.

If the kidnappers had indeed rigged it with explosives, then they might have a remote detonator. Josh hurried them to the next vehicle, a truck. And then the third, the only one left that would give them any protection if the gunmen in the house started firing.

“Move fast and don’t look back,” Josh told them, and he did exactly that.

Grayson would keep watch behind them. Dade and Mason would do the same to the right side. Josh would need to cover anything else, and that included those woods ahead.

Lots of places for gunmen to hide in there.

One of the women stumbled, but Jaycee latched on to her and kept her moving without missing a step.

He hated that he had to put them through this—a blasted footrace. This kind of stress couldn’t be good for the pregnancies. But then the women had no doubt been through hell and back while in captivity. There was plenty of stress associated with that.

When they maneuvered away from the truck, Josh took a deep breath before he moved out into the open. He picked up the pace, jogging now, and they made it to the side of the hill.

Before he heard the shot.

It hadn’t come at them. But it had come from inside the house.

Hell.

He prayed that none of the hostages had been hurt. His cousins must have feared the same thing because the shot sent Mason and Dade scrambling down the hill. They ran toward the same vehicles that Josh and the others had just used for cover. He knew the deputies couldn’t wait any longer for backup. They had to move in and hope for the best.

“Go help them,” Jaycee said to Grayson.

Josh met his cousin’s gaze. It was a split-second glance, and he gave Grayson the nod. According to what Jaycee had told him, there were four women inside, and they were in grave danger. Mason and Dade would need all the help they could get.

Grayson tossed Josh his truck keys. “If you don’t see me in ten minutes, go ahead and get them out of here and back to town. More backup should be here soon.”

Josh didn’t waste a second. It wasn’t easy jogging with two sobbing pregnant women, but Jaycee helped. She pushed them from behind while she kept watch around him. When they made it to the road near the wooded area, Josh shifted positions, putting himself closer to the trees.

“If something goes wrong, get them in the ditch,” he told Jaycee. Even though it was filled with several inches of water from the spring rains, it would still act like a bunker against flying bullets.

Each step seemed to take an eternity, but Josh finally spotted Grayson’s truck ahead. He’d parked it just off the road, partially hidden beneath some towering oaks.

They had to run some more.

That put his heart higher in his throat, and the blasted wound on his chest started to throb again. But there was no way he’d give in to the pain and let it slow him down. Josh took one of the women by the arm and practically dragged her along those last yards.

Once he reached the truck, he used the keypad to unlock it, and even though it’d be a tight fit, he threw open the door and pushed them inside and onto the floor of the truck. The women stayed there, still sobbing, still praying in Spanish.

But Jaycee didn’t stay down. She immediately threw open the glove compartment and pulled out a Colt .45 and some extra ammunition.

“Was that man your brother?” she asked, tipping her head toward the house.

“Cousin. His brothers were on the hill.”

She rolled down the window and got the Colt ready in case she had to fire. “Please tell me they all know what they’re doing.”

Josh did the same with his own weapon. “They do.”

Grayson might have been sheriff of a small town, but Josh knew that he and his brothers had dealt with plenty of trouble over the past couple years.

Unfortunately, this was trouble of a different kind.

They waited, their attention pinned to the road ahead, their breaths bursting in and out. Josh hadn’t checked the time when Grayson had given him that ten-minute rule, but he knew the minutes were ticking away.

“I don’t want to leave them here,” Josh said, more to himself than to Jaycee.

“Agreed. We have to get those other women out.” Her gaze met his, and he saw her bottom lip tremble. “I think they kill the birth mothers once they’re finished with them.”

Oh, man. That did not help. Because there was no way he could drive back to safety when others were in danger.

Except Jaycee and these women were in danger, too.

And so were their babies.

Even though he didn’t want his thoughts to go there, Josh couldn’t stop them this time. “Why didn’t you tell me about the baby?”

“I would have, but I didn’t get the chance. I was kidnapped immediately after the doctor confirmed that I was pregnant.” She had such a fierce grip on the Colt that her knuckles were turning white. “Are you going to ask me if the baby’s really yours?”

“Don’t have to.” Josh looked away from her and put his attention back where it belonged—watching the area for any sign of one of those guards. “The baby’s mine. You have a lot of faults, but lying’s not one of them.”

Any response she might have had to that was cut off when they saw Mason. He was flat-out running, and he was carrying a woman with a huge pregnant belly.

“I don’t know her name,” Jaycee said, “but I’m pretty sure she’s the one in labor.”

Josh looked for any signs of injury or blood. Didn’t see any. Thank God. He jumped out of the truck and hurried over to his cousin.

“Take her,” Mason growled and dumped her into Josh’s arms. He turned as if to run back and help his brothers, but his phone vibrated, and cursing, Mason yanked it from his pocket.

Josh heard the footsteps behind him and reeled around as best he could, but it was only Jaycee.

“Here, I can help,” she said, and she eased the moaning woman from Josh’s arms to a standing position. Jaycee looped her arm around her waist and got her moving to the truck.

Josh was about to head there, too, but Mason’s profanity stopped him. It wasn’t unusual for Mason to curse. He wasn’t a very friendly sort, but this bout of profanity was worse than his norm.

“The guards have one of the captives at gunpoint in the yard,” Mason explained. “Get these women out of here now in case shots are fired.”

“We can help,” Jaycee repeated.

Mason shook his head, turned and delivered the rest from over his shoulder. “One of the gunmen escaped out back. He could be headed your way.”

There wasn’t much color in Jaycee’s face, but those words rid her of what little she had. She hurried, dragging the woman toward the truck.

“Go with them now, Josh!” Mason insisted.

That and the pregnant woman’s sounds of pain spurred Josh to move. Jaycee maneuvered her into the truck, and the others helped pull her onto the seat.

“I can ride in the back,” Jaycee said.

“You’ll do no such thing,” Josh argued. “Get inside and stay down.”

She did. Well, she got in anyway. But she didn’t stay down. Jaycee aimed the Colt at the bend of the road where Mason had darted out of sight. It was probably the route a gunman would take if he was coming after them.

Josh started the engine, threw the truck into Reverse and had just put his foot on the accelerator when he heard the sound. Not a shot from a rifle. Not this.

No.

It was much louder, and it literally shook the ground beneath them.

Something had exploded.

Chapter Four

Jaycee felt the vibration of the blast and saw the fear and concern jolt through Josh. It went through her, too, and she wanted to go back and try to save the others.

But that could be dangerous for the women Josh and the others had already managed to rescue.

Plus, the woman stretched out across Marita, Blanca and Jaycee’s laps was clearly in labor. She was moaning and clutching her stomach. Jaycee had never been around anyone in labor, but she figured the woman was close to delivering.

Josh glanced at the woman, then at Jaycee. The worry and questions were still etched on his face, and she had to wonder what this was doing to him. Agents suffering from posttraumatic stress didn’t usually have an easy time in a gunfight.

Or the shock of something totally unexpected—like fatherhood.

But Josh had gotten a double dose of both today. Hopefully, he’d be able to keep it together. She hoped the same for herself, too. She didn’t have the nerves of steel that Josh had once accused her of having.

He’d accused her of a lot of things.

And sadly, most were accurate.

“Hang on,” Jaycee told the woman in labor when she made another of those loud moans. “You’re safe, and we’ll be at the hospital soon.”

Jaycee hoped that was true on both counts. Josh was certainly driving as fast as he could, and both of them were keeping watch for those guards. So far, no one was following them.

Including any of Josh’s cousins.

She prayed they hadn’t been hurt, or worse, in the explosion.

“What’s your name?” Jaycee asked the woman in labor. She’d need to give it to the doctor, but talking might also distract her from the pain. If that was possible.

“Grace Levitt,” she answered through a sharp breath.

“All right, Grace, just hang in there a few minutes longer.” Jaycee tried to sound calm. Failed miserably. But after everything she’d been through, she wondered if she would ever be calm again. Normal seemed way too far out of reach.

Jaycee put her hand on Grace’s stomach so she could feel the contractions and time them. Yet something else the doctors would want to know. And Jaycee felt a contraction almost immediately.

Grace clamped her hand on Jaycee’s shoulder. Her bruising grip was paired with more moans. Louder this time. And she lifted her hips. Jaycee didn’t have to tell Josh to hurry. He no doubt knew they might have to deliver this baby in the cramped space.

The contraction finally subsided. Jaycee didn’t have a watch, so she had to use the clock on the truck’s dashboard to keep time. Barely two minutes had passed before Grace had another contraction.

Josh’s phone buzzed, the sound shooting through the truck, and he managed to fish it from his pocket despite the fact that Marita was squished against him.

“Grayson,” Josh answered, sandwiching the phone against his ear and shoulder. There was still no relief in Josh’s expression, but thankfully at least one of his cousins was alive.

Jaycee couldn’t hear what Grayson was saying. Couldn’t tell if the news was good or bad. She could only wait and keep watch. They were getting close to the town of Silver Creek now, but that didn’t mean the guards couldn’t catch up with them and start shooting.

Josh finished talking with his cousin, but instead of telling her what was going on, he made another call.

“I’m calling the hospital,” he said to her, and he told whoever was on the other end of the line that he was en route with four pregnant women who needed medical attention.

Jaycee opened her mouth to say that she was fine, but she didn’t know that for sure. She’d been held captive for months, and even though she’d gotten plenty of checkups during that time, she couldn’t trust any doctor working for black-market baby brokers.

Josh finally finished the call with the hospital, put his phone away and took the turn toward town. Just as Grace had another contraction.

“The house blew up,” Josh relayed to her. “My cousins are okay. They weren’t hurt in the explosion.”

“But?” Jaycee asked because there was definitely a bad-news tone in his voice.

Josh didn’t jump to answer, but his jaw muscles were stirring like crazy. “The guards escaped with the other three women.”

Jaycee groaned. It was better than hearing they’d been killed, but it was still a major setback. “All the women who were staying in the house are close to delivering. Once they have their babies, the guards will probably kill the women.”

For once she was glad Blanca and Marita didn’t understand a lot of English, though both women had no doubt figured out what was going on. They’d all seen the guards leave with babies, but never once had they seen one of the new mothers walk out of the ranch house.

Jaycee suspected they were being carted out in body bags at night.

“Grayson and the others are looking for them,” Josh added.

Though it was the only thing they could do, it didn’t seem nearly enough. The women were very pregnant and were no doubt being forced to run and do other things that their bodies and babies might not be able to handle. The guards wouldn’t care a flying fig if the escape led to the women’s deaths. They only cared about getting their hands on the babies so they could be sold like cattle.

“After we get Grace to the hospital,” Jaycee murmured, “I want to help find them.”

Josh made a sound. Definitely one of disapproval. “Going off half-cocked hasn’t worked well for you or others in the past, has it?”

That stung. Because it was true.

Jaycee choked back her own moan. Barely. And just like that, the memories came.

All bad.

The old mixed with the new from her captivity. Five months ago, she’d been conducting her own investigation into some money laundering and hadn’t been aware the operation already involved several undercover agents. Jaycee had only wanted to catch the piece-of-slime launderer who’d killed two women who happened to stumble upon his operation.

Instead, Jaycee had endangered the agents.

Josh had been shot and had nearly died during surgery. There’d been no nearly for his partner, Agent Ben Sayers. He’d been killed.

Someday she might learn how to live with that.

Might.

But for now it was just more bad memories added to the new ones from being held captive. She hadn’t been beaten, but only because it could have caused her to miscarry. However, she’d certainly been slapped a few times and threatened daily. And yet the slaps and the threats hadn’t been the worst of it. The worst thing had been not knowing what the abuse would do to her baby.

Grace moaned again, causing Jaycee’s attention to snap back to the woman. Another contraction, and this one seemed even harder and longer than the others.

“We’re almost there,” Jaycee told her.

No lie this time. The town of Silver Creek was just ahead, and next to the sign for the city limits was one for the hospital. Josh went in that direction, and it was less than a minute before he pulled into the E.R. parking lot where there was a team of medics waiting for them.

The moment Josh stopped the truck, Jaycee hurried out. Blanca and Marita, too, so the medics could get to Grace.

“There’s less than a minute between her contractions,” Jaycee told them, and they got Grace on a gurney and whisked her away.

Jaycee was about to follow them when she found herself being placed on a gurney, too. The medics did the same to Blanca and Marita and wheeled them through the hospital doors. Josh was right there, hurrying along behind them.

“The doctor will be with you soon,” a nurse said, and she put Jaycee into one of the E.R. cubicles. The nurse paused and looked at Josh. “Stay with her until I can get someone in here.”

Josh nodded, though Jaycee was sure that staying with her was the last thing on earth he wanted to do. He no doubt wanted to check on his cousins or go after those escaped guards and missing women.

Anything that didn’t involve having close contact with her.

She heard Grace’s moans fading. Not because the woman had gotten quiet. But probably because she was being taken to Labor and Delivery and out of earshot. Jaycee hoped that she’d deliver a healthy baby and that she could soon put this nightmare behind her. Jaycee wished that for all the captives. Especially for those three who hadn’t been rescued.

Soon, very soon, the quiet closed in around them, and because the room was small, Josh had no choice but to look at her.

Correction: he looked at her pregnant belly.

She saw the questions in his eyes. The doubts. Not about the baby’s paternity. He was right about that—she wasn’t a liar. Even though she had considered it. Briefly. After all, she was the last woman on earth who Josh would want carrying his child, and for a fleeting moment she’d wondered if he might want her to lie.

“I really did intend to tell you about the baby,” she repeated, trying to answer some of those questions in his eyes. “I was worried that it’d cause you to blow a gasket or two, but I would have told you.”

He nodded.

That was his only reaction. He certainly didn’t deny that he would have been seriously upset to hear the news months ago. But then, Josh wasn’t a liar, either.

“When’s the baby due?” he finally asked.

“In four months.”

Nine months after their weekend together in San Antonio. Their only weekend together. Yes, it’d been good.

Darn good.

But their last morning together, she’d seen that look in Josh’s eyes and known he hadn’t been looking for anything other than a short-term hookup. Old baggage, no doubt, since Josh had a love-’em-and-leave-’em reputation. So Jaycee hadn’t given him an out and walked away.

Six hours later, he’d been shot.

And they’d learned about her rogue investigation that had collided with Josh’s authorized one. If she had thought for one second that other agents were involved, she would have backed off. Of course, she hadn’t asked a lot of questions when she’d gone after those money launderers and killers. Jaycee had only been thinking about justice.

Josh kept staring at her. Kept those questions in his eyes. She wasn’t sure what he expected from her. Wasn’t sure he’d tell her if he knew. But after all these months of being held captive, Jaycee had had time to figure out what she would say to him if she ever got the chance.

Well, now here was her chance.

“Look, I don’t expect anything from you,” Jaycee firmly stated. Giving him another out that he looked like he desperately needed. “I just wanted you to know because, well, because.”

No reason to get into her old baggage. Or tell him that her own mother hadn’t told her birth father that she was pregnant with Jaycee. Not until it’d been too late anyway. Jaycee had never had the chance to know her dad, and even though he was a less-than-stellar person, she’d sworn she would never do that to her child.

Even if the pregnancy was unplanned, like this one.

Josh’s mouth tightened. His nostrils flared a bit. “It’s my baby. Expect something.”

That didn’t sound like an offer of child support or shared custody.

It sounded like a threat.

And maybe it was.

Josh hated her. But she couldn’t go back and undo this baby, and even if she could, she wouldn’t. Though Josh might not believe her if she told him, she loved this baby with all her heart and would do anything to protect it.

“Expect something?” she repeated.

“Yeah,” he snapped. And that was all he said for several moments. “Don’t expect me just to walk away. I slept with you knowing there could be consequences, and I’m man enough to accept it.”

She lifted her shoulder, ran her hand over her stomach. “But you probably didn’t expect this consequence. We did use protection.”

And clearly something had gone wrong. Jaycee had had a lot of time to think about every detail of that weekend, and while becoming pregnant had been the last thing on her mind, Josh was right. Sex, even safe sex, could make babies. And in this case, it had.

She waited to see if he intended to say more about consequences and expectations, but he didn’t. He just kept staring at her and looking far better than he should have. His good looks weren’t something he worked at. They were just there. And even now, she felt that little tug that she always felt when she looked at Josh.

Even when he was glaring at her.

“How are you?” she risked asking. Normally it was a polite, rote question, but this time, she truly wanted to know. And she figured he wouldn’t want her to know.

“Fine,” he snapped.

Translation: he was not going to talk about this. But she had five months of catching up to do.

She glanced at the badge clipped to his rawhide belt. “You left the FBI?”

“For a while.” His jaw muscles went crazy again. “I’m on a leave of absence.”

“Because you’re recovering from the gunshot wounds,” she finished for him.

He made a sound, a rumble deep in his throat. No doubt a back-off warning. But Jaycee didn’t listen to that warning. “You’re a deputy sheriff?”

He nodded.

Getting information from him was like pulling teeth. “Well, the job seems to suit you.”

The clothes, too. She’d known about his cowboy roots but had usually seen him in a suit or his undercover outfits. Now he wore jeans, a black T-shirt and boots. He had his Stetson in his left hand as if he’d always carried it there.

“Something wrong?” he asked. Definitely not a friendly question. “You’re looking at my clothes.”

Actually, she’d been looking at the man in the clothes, but it was best to keep that to herself. “I want to thank you again. If you hadn’t discovered where the baby farm was—”

“I didn’t discover it.” His words were clipped. Almost angry. But Jaycee got the feeling that this particular anger was aimed at himself and not at her. “I got lucky, that’s all. But I didn’t get lucky enough to save those other women that the guards took.”

No. But maybe that’d be remedied soon if the sheriff could find something at the now-destroyed ranch. Yes, it was a long shot, but it was the only shot they had unless the woman in labor could give them some much-needed answers.

Before Jaycee had a chance to rile Josh further with more questions, a nurse came back in. According to her nametag, she was Lillian Renfrew. She took Jaycee’s blood pressure and temperature—both were normal. That was a good start, and Jaycee hoped everything else proved to be normal.

“The doctor wants you to have an ultrasound,” the nurse said, and she started to wheel Jaycee out of the cubicle. However, she stopped when Josh followed them. “You can wait outside.”

“He’s the baby’s father,” Jaycee volunteered when Josh didn’t budge or say anything. “If he wants to come, I don’t mind.”

It was another risk, saying that out loud, but Josh kept the same expression that he’d had since they arrived at the hospital.

He was one angry, confused man.

“I want to see the ultrasound,” he insisted, not like an argument but more a declaration of war.

Nurse Renfrew nodded and took them to a room in another hall. There was a tech waiting for them, a middle-aged woman with brunette hair, and she didn’t waste any time hiking up Jaycee’s scrub top all the way to her breasts. The scrub pants came down too, all the way to her panty line.

Even though Josh had seen her stark-naked, this seemed way more intimate.

“You don’t expect anything from me?” Josh mumbled under his breath. And he repeated it, using that same “declaration of war” tone.

Oh, so that was what was still eating away at him. Jaycee tried to make eye contact with him, but the tech moved between them and squirted some cold goop all over Jaycee’s stomach.

“I’ve heard you say plenty of times that you weren’t looking for marriage or a family,” Jaycee reminded him.

The tech finally went back to the other side of the gurney. Josh’s and Jaycee’s gazes met.

Collided, actually.

“I wasn’t looking to be a father,” he stated, enunciating each word as if she were mentally deficient, “but I’m not running from it, either. That’s my baby, and he or she should expect everything from me. Because he or she will get just that—everything.”

He stopped, muttered some profanity. Rubbed his forehead. And got his teeth unclenched. “I’m glad you made it out of there.” His voice was a lot softer than before.

“Yes. Thank you for saving me.”

He nodded, and she hoped that meant they’d reached a tentative truce. No time to linger on it, though, because the tech started moving the wand over Jaycee’s stomach. She immediately saw something.

Maybe the heart beating.

The images weren’t very clear so Jaycee didn’t know exactly what she was looking at, but it was her baby. And she hadn’t expected that seeing all those blurry images would pack such a wallop.

“Is the baby okay?” Josh asked.

Jaycee was glad he had said that because her mouth was suddenly bone-dry, and her heart was pounding. She was terrified that this ordeal had been too much for her precious child.

“Everything appears to be okay. Good, solid heartbeat. Good movement.” The tech stopped, volleyed glances at both of them, her attention finally stopping on Jaycee. “How much did your doctor tell you about the pregnancy?”

Oh, God. Just like that the fear returned. “Is something wrong? I had other ultrasounds, but they kept the screen hidden from me. Did they do that because something’s wrong with the baby?”

The woman shook her head. “I don’t think anything’s wrong.” She glanced at the screen again. “But the doctor will need to see the images and talk to you.” She paused, cleared her throat. “Some people just don’t want to know the sex of the baby, and sometimes we can’t tell. This time, we can.”

The relief came as fast as the fear. Nothing was wrong.

“Do you want to know the sex of the baby?” the woman asked.

“No,” Jaycee said at the same moment that Josh said, “Yes.”

“I’ve just had too many surprises today,” Jaycee added. “I’d like to hear it at a time when I’m not about ready to jump out of my skin. But you can tell him,” she said to the tech. “I’ll just cover my ears.”

Jaycee did. Closed her eyes, too. And when she opened them, she couldn’t detect a darn thing from Josh’s expression.

“I’ll show the ultrasound to the doctor,” the tech said, turning off the machine. “Someone will be in shortly to take you back to the E.R.”

The tech had hardly made it out the door when Josh’s phone buzzed. Just like that Jaycee was reminded of the three missing women and the nightmare that wouldn’t end until they were all safe.

Josh looked at the phone screen. “It’s Grayson,” he told her. And he clicked the speaker function.

“How are the women?” Grayson asked.

“One’s in labor. The other three are being checked out now.”

“Good. Stay there with them, and if they’re feeling up to it, get statements from them. I’m trying to get a CSI team out here ASAP.”

Josh shook his head. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure.” Grayson paused a heartbeat. “But we found something.”

Chapter Five

Something.

Yeah, it was that all right. Josh looked at the items that had been collected from the rubble of the house that had exploded.

A laptop.

Or rather, what was left of it.

Josh wasn’t sure they could recover anything from it, but there was a tech from the crime lab already working on it.

There were also bits and pieces of paper. Several coffee mugs that would be processed for prints. Some shoes.

And a badge in its black leather case.

It was pretty beat up, as if someone had used it for a mini punching bag, but Josh had no trouble recognizing it as one issued to FBI agents.

Beside him, Jaycee pulled in her breath when she saw it. “Is the badge mine?”

Grayson nodded. “There’s enough of the identification card for us to confirm it’s yours.”

“Oh, God,” she murmured and sank down into the chair next to the desk. “I didn’t have it on me when they took me. That means they got it from my apartment.”

And more than that, it meant they knew who she was.

She looked up at Josh as if she expected him to have some answers, but he didn’t. The only thing that he was certain of was they would have indeed killed Jaycee once the baby was born. No way would they let an agent go free.

“But why steal my badge?” she asked, volleying glances at both Grayson and him.

“We’re not sure.” Grayson motioned to the laptop. “But we’re hoping the info’s recoverable. Plus, we’ve contacted your supervisor, Philip McCoy, to let him know what’s going on, since he thought you were on a leave of absence this whole time.”

“I did let him know I was taking some time off,” Jaycee said. “I was trying to deal with what happened so I told him I wasn’t sure when I’d be back to work—if ever,” she added in a mumble.

“That’s why he didn’t push to find you,” Grayson continued. “Now that he knows what happened, he’ll check to make sure no one used your badge to get into the FBI building.”

Where the person would have had access to all sorts of files and people. Of course, the San Antonio office where Jaycee was assigned wasn’t that large, so someone would have noticed a stranger trying to use Jaycee’s badge to gain entrance. If that had happened, it would have been a red flag for McCoy that something was wrong.

Grayson opened his mouth to add more, but his phone rang. It was the third call that had come through since Josh arrived with Jaycee ten minutes earlier.

Josh looked down at her. At her exhausted face. Her shoulders were slumped. There were dark circles under her eyes. She was biting her bottom lip. Every part of her body language told him she was tired and worried. Heaven knew what all this stress was also doing to the baby.

“I’ll get you out of here soon,” he let her know.

But that was another problem.

He’d learned on the drive over that Jaycee no longer had an apartment. Since she hadn’t paid her rent, her things had been moved to storage and the place had been rented out to someone else. She had no family to speak of. And he wasn’t sure how she would feel about going to a hotel with the armed guards still at large, especially since those guards knew her identity.

Heck, Josh wasn’t sure how he felt about it. After all, if Jaycee was in danger, so was the baby.

His baby.

Those two words kept running through his head. It’d been just words until he saw the ultrasound, and then it had felt like an avalanche. For a few seconds. And then he’d felt a whole lot more. The love for a baby he hadn’t even known he wanted until today.

The wound on his chest started to throb. A bad reminder of his past with Jaycee. He was a long way from forgiving her, but he wouldn’t let the past stand in the way of giving their baby the best protection he could.

Grayson finished his call, and for the first time in hours, he looked a little relieved. “That was the hospital. The woman in labor just gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The other two women are fine, too. We’re working on getting them all back with their families.”

“Good,” Jaycee said under her breath, and she repeated it. “But what about the three women and the guards? Any sign of them?”

“Nothing.” The frustration returned to Grayson’s expression. “But I need you to think. Did you see or hear anything that would give us a clue as to where they would have taken the women?”

“No.” And she didn’t hesitate, either. “Any time I would go in the house for a checkup, I’d try to look around. Try to figure out who these men were. I don’t remember hearing or seeing anything. I’m so sorry,” Jaycee added, and her voice cracked.

There was no telling how many nightmarish memories she had of her time as a captive. It sickened Josh to think of all those women and babies being in constant danger for months on end.

Grayson glanced at Jaycee’s pregnant belly. Then at Josh. “I gather that you two were once...involved?”

Josh nodded. “The baby’s mine.”

“You think maybe that’s why Jaycee was taken? Maybe so someone would have leverage over you? The baby of two FBI agents is plenty of leverage.”

Yeah. It was.

Jaycee made a sound of agreement, too. “But if I was their initial target, they covered it well. I was kidnapped with another woman, and it certainly seemed as if they wanted just her. They only took me because I tried to fight back.”

That didn’t help the throbbing pain in Josh’s chest, either. Of course, he couldn’t have expected Jaycee to stand there and do nothing. He wouldn’t have.

Grayson released a long, weary breath. “I can get Jaycee’s statement tomorrow. Why don’t you go ahead and take her to the ranch so she can get some rest?”

Jaycee’s eyes widened. “The ranch? With your family?” She shook her head. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

“I have five brothers,” Grayson explained to her. “All in law enforcement. The ranch is safe, or at least it is for now. My dad’s a widower, and he’s getting married this weekend. There’ll be a lot of people in and out for the arrangements and for the ceremony itself. We’ll need to add some security when that starts happening.”

Grayson didn’t mention those armed guards coming back for her, but they all knew it was a strong possibility. Jaycee was a dangerous loose end, and whoever was running the black-market operation wouldn’t want her around to give the cops any details about her captivity.

“Come on,” Josh insisted, and he was thankful she didn’t argue.

He did a thorough check of the parking lot and the street before he led her outside and to his truck. Josh didn’t see anything suspicious, but he hurried anyway and got them on the road toward the ranch.

“I need to remember something,” Jaycee murmured. “Anything that’ll help us find those women.”

Since she’d been held for nearly four months, there were a lot of memories and details to sort through. “Did you ever see the laptop that was recovered from the rubble?”

She stayed quiet a few moments. “Yes, on the kitchen table about two weeks ago. I can’t be sure it was the same one, but I remember seeing one there.”

Maybe that meant the laptop had been at the house long enough for it to contain something to blow this case wide open.

“What about the checkups you had?” he asked. “Did the same person do them each time?”

“Yes. Caucasian male, about six feet tall, 170 pounds, light brown hair. He always wore a surgical mask, but if he hasn’t altered his hair, I think I could pick him out of a photo lineup.”

It’d be a bear to sort through all the doctors in the state, but Josh made a mental note to ask the analysts at Quantico to work on it. They might get lucky.

“You know if the baby’s a boy or girl,” she said.

The out-of-the-blue comment threw him for a moment. But Josh just nodded. “Why? You want to know?”

She shook her head. Groaned softly. “This seems crazy, huh? Me pregnant with your baby.”

Yeah, it did. Of course, when they’d made the baby, it was before the shooting, when they were still on good terms. They weren’t on good terms now, but like the flashbacks he’d been having, Josh was going to have to put that aside, too.

“I’m scared of you,” Jaycee went on. “Scared you’ll try to fight me for custody or something.”

Again, the comment threw him, and he wasn’t sure it was a good thing to have that possibility out in the open like this. Especially since he had plenty of other things to work out in his head.

“I want to be part of the baby’s life,” he settled for saying. It was a safe response. And an honest one. He might want more than just a part, and while he didn’t say that aloud, it seemed as if Jaycee picked up on it.

She swallowed hard. “And that’s what scares me. You have a normal life. Good roots and a law-abiding family. I don’t have any of that.”

She didn’t. Both her parents had served hard time for an assortment of crimes, and he’d heard that Jaycee had been brought up in foster care. His parents had divorced when he was a kid, and his mother had left, but it wasn’t the same. So yeah, by her standards he did have a normal life.

Well, except he was suffering from PTSD and might never recover. That wouldn’t look good on a custody challenge if that was what he decided to do.

He took the final turn to the ranch, and Jaycee got an immediate glimpse of his “normal” life. There were now six houses on the grounds, assorted barns, outbuildings and miles and miles of pasture for the horses and cattle raised on the ranch.

“Five of my cousins had houses built after they got married and started families of their own,” he explained. “My other cousin, Mason, lives in the main house with his wife and dad.”

“The one who’s getting married this weekend.”

“That’s right. Boone Ryland. He’s marrying a former deputy, Melissa Garza. She retired recently, and that’s how I got the job.”

Jaycee made an idle uh-huh sound, but her attention wasn’t on anything he’d pointed out, but rather the children in the fenced playground on the side of the main house.

“There’s so many of them,” she whispered. “It looks like a day care.”

It did. “They’re all kin. Last count, my cousins have nine offspring, and Mason and his wife have one on the way.”

And at the moment it seemed that all nine were out playing while a few of their moms watched.

Josh slowed when he reached the playground. The moms all waved. One of the kids, Kimmie, who was four years old, saw him and blew him a kiss.

“The little red-haired girl seems to like you,” Jaycee mumbled.

She did. Though Josh couldn’t understand why. He’d never been comfortable around kids, and they seemed to be uncomfortable around him. All except for Kimmie. That gave him a little hope that his own child might feel the same way.

He drove past the playground to the back part of the east pasture to a weathered-looking barn and pulled to a stop in front of it.

“You live here?” Jaycee asked, sounding skeptical and surprised.

Another dose of his version of normal. “The top floor’s been converted into an apartment. But if you like, I can get you a guest room in the main house.”

She glanced back in the direction of the children and their moms. Then the barn. “Your place will be fine.”

Josh bit back a smile. Barely. That’d been his reaction when he’d first returned home. “The kids grow on you,” he confessed.

At least that’s what he’d heard anyway.

He led her up the side stairs to the studio-style apartment. Even though the barn was isolated, it still had all the conveniences of a real house.

Jaycee paused in the doorway, her gaze moving over the room. But there wasn’t much to see. Other than the bathroom, it was just one big open space, with the modest kitchen and sitting area on one side and his bed on the other. There were clothes scattered on the floor. Dishes in the sink. Just the way he’d left it when he’d gone to work earlier.

“You haven’t been sleeping well,” she commented. Jaycee tipped her head to the unmade bed. The covers were in a tangled heap. His prescription pain meds were on the nightstand.

“Sometimes,” Josh settled for saying.

He went in, too, shutting the door behind them, and he tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter before he set the security alarm. A first for him since the ranch had always felt so safe, but nothing felt safe enough now.

“A security system in a barn?” she murmured.

“Yeah. Mason had it installed a few years ago after some intruders managed to get onto the grounds. Most of the buildings have security.”

That put some renewed fear on her face.

“It’s all right,” he assured her. “It was nothing recent. Nothing to be concerned about.”

But of course, they were both still concerned.

Jaycee inched across the room to the huge bay window at the far end of the room. It was late afternoon, and the butter-colored sun hit her just right to spotlight her.

Josh felt that punch of heat.

A punch he definitely didn’t want to feel but, like the other things going on in his head today, he couldn’t seem to push this one aside.

“Should we try to clear the air?” Jaycee asked with her back to him.

“No.” And he didn’t have to think about it. No way did he want to discuss the shooting with her. Besides, they were well past the air-clearing stage.

She turned, met his gaze. “Then at least let me say I’m sorry.”

He didn’t want to hear it, but it would have been petty to blast her for an apology that he couldn’t accept. Josh was still trying to figure out what to say when she crinkled her nose and slid her hand over her belly.

“Are you okay?” he quickly asked.

“It’s just the baby kicking.”

It didn’t seem to be a painful experience, and she certainly didn’t ask Josh to share it. Instead, she went to the bed and started fixing the covers.

“I think I’ll take a nap, if you don’t mind,” she said.

“Don’t mind at all.” And he went to the bed to help her straighten the sheets. To say this was an awkward moment was a huge understatement. Beds and Jaycee were never a good idea, even when it was the only option they had.

Thankfully, he had an immediate distraction. His phone made a soft dinging sound to indicate he had a text. Josh pulled it from his pocket and saw Grayson’s name on the screen.

This probably wasn’t good news. And it wasn’t short and sweet, either. It had an attachment. Grayson started by saying the reason he didn’t call was because he hadn’t wanted to wake Jaycee in case she was sleeping.

But there was a lot more than that in the message.

“You know the name Bryson Hillard?” Josh asked, reading through it.

Jaycee repeated the name, shook her head. “Never heard of him. Why?”

“The tech found his name on the laptop they recovered from the house.”

Another headshake. “Who is he?”

“A wealthy San Antonio businessman. No criminal record. Grayson plans to bring him in for questioning first thing in the morning.”

“I want to be there,” she insisted.

Josh didn’t try to talk her out of it. Heck, he wanted to be there, too. Because this was personal now. The idiot responsible had put his unborn child and countless others in danger, and if this Bryson Hillard had anything to do with it, Josh wanted to know. And confront him.

He scrolled through the rest of the email, and the reading came to a jarring halt when he saw the last sentence.

Hell.

He repeated the mental profanity when he opened the attachment.

“Once I take a nap,” Jaycee said, obviously not noticing his change of expression, “I’ll make some calls and find another place to stay.”

Josh finished reading the message before he went to the window and closed the blinds.

When he turned around, Jaycee was waiting, her mouth slightly open, and she had a white-knuckle grip on the bed post. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Josh debated how much he should tell her and decided she had to know the truth. “You can’t leave,” Josh told her. “You’ll have to stay here for the night, because those missing guards are looking for you. They left you a message nailed to the door of your old apartment.”

He walked closer and held up his phone for her to see the message that one of the deputies had photographed.

Jaycee’s gaze darted over the words, and she pressed her trembling fingers to her mouth. “Oh, God.”

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