JOSH (3 page)

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 ther
e 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.