Книга - The Marshal’s Justice

The Marshal's Justice
Delores Fossen


A Texas lawman will move heaven and earth to keep his former lover and their infant daughter safeA shoot-out on the banks of Appaloosa Creek is the last place Marshal Chase Crockett expects to find his ex-lover. Former criminal informant April Landis is supposed to be in WITSEC, awaiting the birth of their child.But the desperate woman caught in the crossfire isn’t pregnant.Telling Chase he was a father–two months early–wasn’t an option with murderous thugs targeting April and their infant daughter. Despite the violence that divides them, her only prayer is to trust the Texas lawman sworn to protect his family. Until desire ambushes them again, leaving April and Chase at the mercy of a past with no promise of a future.









Chase paused, trying to brace himself for how she was going to react to the next thing he had to tell her.


“There was blood on the floor.”

That caused her breath to shudder, and she staggered back. Maybe would have fallen if Chase hadn’t caught her. He hooked his arm around her waist, putting them body to body again. Also giving him feelings he didn’t want to have.

Lust.

Not an especially good time for it, but it always seemed to happen with April. Chase cursed it and wished there was some way in hell he could make himself immune to her.




The Marshal’s

Justice

Delores Fossen







www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


DELORES FOSSEN, a USA TODAY bestselling author, has sold over fifty novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She’s received a Booksellers’ Best Award and an RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award. She was also a finalist for a prestigious RITA® Award. You can contact the author through her web page at www.deloresfossen.com (http://www.deloresfossen.com).


Contents

Cover (#u301c5510-6319-51b5-864a-3a9ad3f0cb8e)

Introduction (#ubbba0b75-d710-5bb7-9ace-20d41b362133)

Title Page (#u49ade07a-0e4c-5cff-beae-4c1b44334221)

About the Author (#u6dd6ef2d-fa80-5d97-8a70-6845c74e72eb)

Chapter One (#u3e7b29f6-9f42-51bb-889b-c4f5cb0e53db)

Chapter Two (#u816dc53c-c6f3-501a-a406-41903ac0f46f)

Chapter Three (#u3930adec-0c61-584e-b83c-202649fc9574)

Chapter Four (#u2203f7c3-e15a-5088-b4d2-c84e9d4e94c0)

Chapter Five (#u3036d6b4-6a0d-5165-9fcb-d3733c211e50)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)


Chapter One (#ulink_cd2405d9-8fc0-5bfa-8944-682572c13afe)

The shot cracked through the air. Mercy. That was definitely not what Marshal Chase Crockett wanted to hear.

Or see.

The bullet slammed into the woman he’d just spotted. Her gaze connected with Chase’s a split second before she crumpled to the ground.

If she wasn’t dead, she soon would be. Chase was sure of it.

He cursed when he couldn’t go out in the clearing where she’d fallen and pull her out of the path of more gunfire. Cursed, too, that he hadn’t been able to stop that bullet from hitting her in the first place.

How the devil had this happened?

He didn’t have time to try to figure that out because the next bullet came right at him, and Chase had no choice but to dive behind a pile of rocks. Maybe he’d get a chance soon to return fire and make the shooter pay for what he had just done.

And what he’d done was shoot the criminal informant, Deanne McKinley, on the banks of Appaloosa Creek. A woman who had phoned Chase earlier and begged him to help her. If he’d just gotten her call a few minutes sooner, maybe he could have arrived in time to stop this.

Whatever this was.

Clearly, someone wanted Deanne dead, and now whoever had attacked her was shooting at Chase, too.

“If you want to get out of this alive, you might as well give up now,” the gunman shouted.

Chase didn’t recognize the voice, but he’d caught a glimpse of a guy wearing a ski mask before the man shot Deanne and then darted out of sight. He wasn’t even sure if the idiot was yelling at him or Deanne. Chase didn’t have nearly enough info, other than the call a half hour ago from Deanne to tell him she was in trouble. She said someone was trying to kill her, that she needed his help.

Help was exactly what Chase had intended to give her when he’d arrived.

So far, all he’d managed to do was dodge bullets, but if he had anything to say about that, things were about to change.

Chase heard Deanne’s hoarse moan, and she moved her hand to her chest. Alive. He had to do something now to keep it that way.

He didn’t know the exact location of the shooter, but Chase fired two shots in the guy’s general direction. In the same motion, he scrambled toward Deanne to try to pull her away.

Basically, it was a high-risk move with little chance of succeeding.

Or at least it should have been.

But another set of shots blasted through the air. Definitely not ones that Chase or the gunman had fired. They’d come from a cluster of trees about thirty feet away, and the bullets had been aimed at the shooter.

Maybe backup had arrived a little sooner than Chase had thought it would. Or it could be a hunter or nearby rancher who’d heard sounds of the attack and had come to help. Either way, he’d take it.

Chase grabbed hold of Deanne’s arm and pulled her behind a tree. It wasn’t much cover, but it was better than leaving her out in the open.

He fired off another shot to keep the gunman at bay and sent a quick text requesting an ambulance along with the backup. It would likely be one of his brothers who responded to his request since all three of them were in local law enforcement. Chase only hoped the backup and the ambulance arrived in time.

It’d be close.

Deanne was bleeding out from the gunshot she’d taken to the chest. Chase did his best to add some pressure to the wound, but it was hard to do that without constricting her breathing. He didn’t want her to suffocate.

More shots came from the gunman.

The idiot was moving closer to them, no doubt coming in for the kill.

Deanne mumbled something, something that Chase didn’t catch, and without taking his attention off the area where the shooter was positioned, he leaned in closer, hoping to hear what Deanne was trying to say.

“Help,” Deanne whispered.

“Help is on the way,” he assured her. Chase wanted to say how sorry he was for what had happened to her. Deanne had a criminal past, but she didn’t deserve this.

Deanne shook her head. “No, help her.” Her gaze drifted in the direction where those two other shots had been fired.

Each word she spoke was a struggle, and by the time she was done, Deanne was gasping for air. Still, she managed to say one last thing.

Something that twisted his stomach into a tight, hard knot.

No more breaths from Deanne. Her chest just stopped moving, and Chase could only watch the life drain from her eyes. Watch and mentally repeat what Deanne had said to him with her dying breath.

April’s in trouble.

His gaze whipped in the direction of the second shooter. The person was still hidden behind a tree, but Chase had the sickening feeling that he knew who’d fired those two shots at the gunman.

Was April really out there?

Just the thought of it twisted and tightened that knot even more. There was plenty of bad blood between April and him. But a different kind of connection, too. One that would last a lifetime.

Because April was pregnant with Chase’s baby.

However, April shouldn’t be here. Couldn’t be here. She was in WITSEC, tucked away somewhere safe with a new name and a location that even Chase didn’t know. A necessary precaution so that no one could trace her by following him.

April was also nine months pregnant, ready to deliver any day now.

He waited until the original shooter fired another shot, and he used that to help him pinpoint the guy’s position. Chase fired. He also got moving right away, heading toward those trees where the second shooter had been. Maybe he wouldn’t find April there after all.

But if she was, then that meant something had gone wrong.

He tried to recall every word of the short phone conversation he’d had earlier with Deanne. She’d been frantic, said she was in her car, somewhere near the Appaloosa Creek Bridge, and that she was being tailed by a gunman wearing a ski mask.

Had Deanne said anything else?

No.

Definitely nothing about April being with her.

So, maybe he was wrong about April, and Deanne’s words were merely the mumblings of a dying woman. And maybe that was one of his brothers out there helping him with the shots.

Chase scrambled his way through the trees and the underbrush, cursing the wet spring weather that’d clogged this part of the woods with mud and briars. It slowed him down.

He ducked behind a tree, fired off another shot and then had to reload. It was his last magazine so he’d have to be careful with the shots now and make every one count.

Whoever was returning fire at Deanne’s killer didn’t seem to have the problem of not enough ammunition. The person continued to shoot, spacing out the shots several seconds apart.

“Jericho?” Chase whispered, hoping his brother, the sheriff, was the one returning fire behind the sprawling oak that was now just a few yards away.

No answer.

And if it’d been Jericho, or his other brothers, Levi or Jax, they would have responded somehow to let him know not to fire in their direction.

Chase kept moving, working his way through the muck, and he finally got in position to spot someone. It was late afternoon and some sunlight still hung in the sky, but the woods created deep shadows. There was nowhere near enough light for him to see the person’s face, but whoever it was wore all black.

He risked lifting his head just a little, to see how this shadowy figure would respond, but he or she didn’t even seem to acknowledge Chase.

“I’m coming closer,” Chase warned the person, hoping this didn’t turn out to be a big mistake, and he scurried toward the tree.

Thank God the person didn’t shoot him, but this definitely wasn’t one of his brothers.

Not April, either.

Because while he still couldn’t make out much of the person’s face, he could see the silhouette of the body. Whoever this was darn sure wasn’t nine months pregnant.

Chase scrambled the last few feet to the tree and landed on the ground right next to the person who was kneeling. His heart skipped a beat or two though when he saw the ski mask. Identical to the one worn by the other shooter.

Hell.

He brought up his gun. Took aim. Just as the person shoved up the ski mask to reveal her face.

April.

Yes, it was her, all right. There was no mistaking her now. The black hair, the wide blue eyes. But she didn’t have her attention fixed on him. It was on the other shooter.

“Is Deanne okay?” she asked on a rise of breath.

“No. She’s dead.”

April had no reaction to that. Well, none that he could pick out in the dusky light anyway. A surprise. Deanne and she weren’t friends. Far from it after everything that’d happened, but still April had to be shocked by a woman’s murder.

However, reactions and that ski mask weren’t his only concern about this situation. Chase couldn’t stop himself from looking in the direction of her stomach again. Definitely flat.

“The baby?” he managed to say.

His baby. The one April should have been giving birth to any day now. But she certainly didn’t have a newborn with her, and she didn’t look as if she’d just delivered, either.

“Play along,” she whispered, a split second before she hooked her left arm around his neck, dragged him in front of her and put her gun to his head.

“I have Marshal Crockett,” April called out to someone.

“What the devil’s going on here?” Chase snarled, and he shoved her away from him.

“You have to play along,” April repeated. Definitely not the tone of a terrified woman on the run. Nor was that a weak grip she put on him when she yanked him back against her.

Damn. Was April up to her old tricks again?

“Put down your gun,” she added in a whisper. “And whatever you do, don’t shoot him.”

Chase didn’t get a chance to ask her anything else because he heard the footsteps. Heavy, hurried ones. And he soon spotted the guy who’d been firing shots at him.

The very snake who’d killed Deanne.

Chase didn’t put down his gun as April had demanded, but she shoved his hand by his side. Maybe so that his weapon would be out of sight. Or perhaps because this was some kind of sick game she was playing.

The killer came right toward them, and the moment he spotted April—and the gun she had to Chase’s head—he lifted his ski mask.

And he smiled.

Chase didn’t recognize him. The guy was a stranger, but judging from his sheer size and the hardened look on his scarred face, this was a hired thug. He certainly didn’t look like a man ready to negotiate surrender, not with that Kevlar vest and multiple guns holstered on his bulky body.

“Good job,” the guy told April. “Well, sorta good. That wasn’t you shooting at me, now, was it?”

“I aimed over your head. I wanted Marshal Crockett to think I was trying to kill you so he’d come to me. It worked.”

Oh, man. Was this really a trap? Possibly. But Chase kept going back to April’s play along comment.

What kind of sick plan was this?

The man stared at her. A long time. As if he might challenge what she’d just told him. Then, he shrugged. “Guess it did work. Now take a hike so I can finish this. Unless you’d rather watch while I have a word with your ex-lover. It might involve a bullet or two.”

Shaking her head, April stood. Slowly. “No, I’d rather skip that part. Just give me what you promised, and I’ll leave.”

Chase stood, too, hoping it wasn’t a mistake that he hadn’t already put an end to this hulking clown. Or that he’d semi-trusted April when she’d rattled off those whispered instructions about not shooting the guy.

“Give me what you promised,” April demanded to the man.

Now Chase heard some emotion in her voice. She was scared. Which meant whatever the heck was going on here was possibly about to take an even worse turn than it already had.

“You’ll have to wait a little longer,” the man said. He motioned for her to leave. “I’ll meet you at your car, and you’ll get it then.”

Chase still didn’t have a clue what this conversation was about, but he had no doubts that this bozo was about to try to kill him.

“You promised.” April’s voice was trembling now.

The man smiled again. There was no friendliness or humor in it. “And it’s a promise I’ll keep, okay? Just not right now at this second. I need to have that little chat with this cowboy cop first while you hurry along.”

April stayed put, and even though Chase kept his attention on the man and couldn’t see her, he thought she might be glaring at Deanne’s killer. Chase was certainly doing his own share of glaring at both of them.

“I need you to find somebody in WITSEC,” the killer told Chase. “April claimed she wasn’t able to help, but since you’re a marshal, I’m betting you got access to stuff that she doesn’t. I need to find Quentin Landis.”

Chase groaned. He shouldn’t have been surprised this was about Quentin. It usually was when April was involved.

Because Quentin was her brother.

Along with being a criminal. And the only reason Chase had met April to begin with was because he’d been investigating Quentin. At the time he had thought April was innocent and had no knowledge of her brother’s criminal activity. He’d been dead wrong about that.

“You expect me just to tell you where he is?” Chase asked, making sure he let this jerk know that wasn’t going to happen.

Quentin might be scum, but he was in WITSEC after turning state’s evidence in an upcoming murder trial, and it was part of Chase’s job to make sure that even scum stayed protected. Whether they deserved it or not.

The gunman stared at him. “Yeah. I didn’t figure you’d cooperate, but we had to try, didn’t we? Maybe if I put a few bullets in your kneecaps, you’ll recall something.”

“We?” Chase spared April a glance, but she only shook her head. He had no idea what that head shake meant.

Nor did he have time to figure it out.

“No!” April shouted. Not at Chase but at the gunman.

The gunman lifted his Glock and aimed it at Chase. Chase was doing the same to the killer with his own Smith & Wesson.

Chase beat him to it.

He didn’t fire into the Kevlar vest, but instead he double-tapped two shots to the gunman’s head. And Chase didn’t miss. The man dropped like a sack of rocks just as Chase had intended.

With that taken care of, Chase turned to April. “Now, what the hell’s going on?” he demanded.

But she didn’t answer. Probably because of the hoarse sob that tore from her mouth. “Oh, God.” And she kept repeating it.

She dropped to her knees and she grabbed the dead man by the shoulders, lifting his torso off the ground. “Tell me where she is!” April yelled. “Tell me.” The sobbing got worse when she put her fingers to his neck. “He’s dead. He can’t be dead.”

It wasn’t exactly the reaction Chase had expected since she knew this snake was a killer and had been prepared to kill again.

She looked up at him, tears shimmering in her eyes. “The baby.”

All right. That got his attention. “Our baby?” Chase asked.

April nodded, and her breath shattered. “Someone took her. And that dead man was my best hope at finding our daughter.”


Chapter Two (#ulink_3fbfc5de-2562-5300-b473-c64df6e6b519)

April felt the fresh wave of panic slam into her like a Mack truck.

First the baby. Then Deanne’s death. Now this.

The emotions were too raw and strong, overpowering her so much that they were hard to fight. But April knew she had no choice except to keep fighting.

If she gave in to it, her baby might be lost forever.

Despite possibly destroying evidence, April rifled through the dead man’s pockets. Looking for anything that would tell her where he was holding the baby.

No wallet. No ID. No photos. No scraps of paper with details of any kind.

Nothing.

Tamping down the panic, she forced herself to get to her feet. Chase helped by taking hold of her arm. April didn’t have to look at his expression to know that he wanted answers. And he wanted them now.

However, April didn’t have some of those answers, especially the ones Chase would want most.

Even though Chase still had hold of her, April started toward Deanne. Yes, she knew the woman was dead. April had seen her fall after taking the bullet. Had also seen her talking with Chase moments before it looked as if she took her last breath. April didn’t know what, or how much, Deanne had told him, but she figured she’d soon find out.

“Who has the baby?” he snapped. “And when was she taken?”

April had to shake her head again, and she motioned toward the dead man. “Whoever he was working for took her. Around midnight two masked gunmen broke into my house, held me at gunpoint and demanded to know where Quentin was. When I said I didn’t know, they kidnapped the baby.”

A sound came deep from within his chest. Not a good sound, either. Pure anger. “And you didn’t call me?”

She’d braced herself for the question, and the anger. Or so she’d thought. Hard to brace herself, though, for that kind of emotion.

“The kidnapper said if I contacted you, anyone in your family or anyone in law enforcement, I’d never see the baby again.” She hadn’t wanted to believe that, but April hadn’t been able to dismiss it, either. “They said they’d be in touch soon and left.”

“So, you called Deanne instead.” Chase didn’t sound happy about that at all. Of course, nothing about this situation was going to make him happy.

“Yes, I thought it would be safe for her to come. I figured no one would be trailing Deanne to get to me. Especially after things ended so badly between us.”

Well, it’d ended badly between Deanne and April’s brother anyway. Deanne had been the one to turn Quentin in. Of course, in doing so Deanne had turned in April, as well.

“As a CI, Deanne dealt with dangerous thugs like the ones who took the baby,” April explained. “And she did come right away when I called her.”

“Because she felt guilty for what happened,” Chase supplied. “She shouldn’t have. Both Quentin and you made your own beds.”

Since it was true and there was no way to make Chase see the legal shades of gray that had gotten her to that point, April just continued with her explanation. “I waited for a ransom demand, or any kind of communication from the kidnappers. And about an hour and a half ago, someone finally called and said for me to come to the Appaloosa Creek Bridge, that there’d be instructions for getting the baby back.”

Chase didn’t come out and tell her she’d been stupid, but what he felt was written all over his face.

A face that shared a lot of features with their daughter.

Same light brown hair. Same deep blue eyes. It both broke April’s heart and warmed it to see those features on her precious baby.

“I guess Deanne got spooked and called me?” Chase asked.

Chase was not going to like this, either. “Not quite. When I got to the bridge, the kidnapper was waiting for me. The same one you just killed. But he said he wouldn’t give me the baby unless you came to the bridge, too. I tried to talk him out of that, but he insisted it was the only way.”

She’d been right. Chase didn’t like that. Because it meant she had lured him there.

“So, you had Deanne make the call,” Chase said.

April nodded. “I knew if I called, you’d have too many questions, and I wouldn’t have had time to get into it. Like now.” She paused. “Are your brothers on the way?”

Chase didn’t jump to respond, but he did follow her as she approached Deanne’s body. “Yeah. They should be here any minute. How safe are we out here?” He took out his phone and fired off a text. To one of his brothers, no doubt, so they could find them in these woods.

“I’m not sure if it’s safe at all,” she admitted. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t wanted to get you involved in this, but I didn’t have a choice.”

“You had choices. Everybody does.”

They weren’t just talking about the baby now but her past. A past that Chase was probably sorry had included him.

“Now tell me what the hell happened here,” he insisted.

She would. But where to start? The past sixteen hours had been one nightmare after another. Though Chase would want to know the details prior to that. Especially one detail.

The baby.

The one they’d conceived nine months ago when they’d had to face yet another nightmare. Landing in bed with him had been a lapse in judgment. Or Chase would consider it a lapse, anyway. Yes, they’d been attracted to each other since they first met, but Chase considered her a common criminal. And in many ways, he was right.

“I gave birth two months early,” she said.

April tried to rein in her emotions. The fear. The hatred for the person who’d put all of this in motion. Hard to rein in anything, though, when she knelt beside Deanne and touched her.

Dead.

Of course, she already knew that, but it sickened her to confirm it for herself. The tears came. No way to stop them, but she tried to brush them away. Later, she’d grieve for the woman who’d lost her life way too soon and had died trying to help April.

Later, April would do a lot of things.

After she figured out how to untangle this mess that could cost her the baby.

Chase knelt, too. So they were face-to-face. And even though he tossed some glares at her, he continued to keep watch around them.

Always the lawman.

A good lawman, too. For all the good it’d done. It hadn’t been good enough to help Deanne or their daughter today.

“Why didn’t you have someone call me and tell me you’d had the baby?” he snapped.

Yet another long story, and she was already dealing with too much to bring those memories this close to the surface. “Bailey...that’s what I named her...was a preemie, and at first she had trouble breathing on her own. She had to spend most of the time since her birth in a neonatal unit. It was touch-and-go there for a while, but she’s fine now.”

At least April prayed she was.

And the possibility that she wasn’t fine brought on the tears again. Sweet heaven, she was so tired of crying. So tired of being terrified. So tired of not having her precious baby in her arms.

“That doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me.” Chase’s tone didn’t soften despite the tears, but he finally cursed and slid his hand over her back. For a very brief moment. Probably in an attempt to comfort her.

Too bad it didn’t work.

April figured she could use some serious comforting right now, but comfort wasn’t going to help her find the baby.

“I didn’t tell you at first because I didn’t want to risk anyone following you to the hospital,” she said. “Because I delivered so early, we didn’t have nearly enough security in place for you to come running to me.”

It was the truth. But it wouldn’t be a truth that Chase wanted to hear. Soon, he’d press her for a better explanation.

But that had to wait.

“The gunman and I left our cars by the Appaloosa Creek Bridge,” April told him. So that’s the direction she headed. “Maybe there’s something inside his car that’ll help me find Bailey.”

“Not me. Us. You’re not looking for Bailey alone.”

He hesitated when saying their daughter’s name, the way someone would hesitate when pronouncing a foreign word. Maybe because he was just getting accustomed to the idea of fatherhood.

An idea that he’d struggled with for months.

Now, here it was, slugging him in the face. Crushing him, too. Because it was certainly crushing her.

“Maybe the baby is in the kidnapper’s car?” Chase suggested.

“No. Believe me, I checked. I even looked in the trunk when he opened it to take out an extra gun and some ammo.” There’d been absolutely no sign of the baby.

Chase walked in step beside her. “What about Deanne—was she faking being afraid so she could lure me here? Or was the gunman actually threatening to kill her then?

“Deanne’s fear was real. And warranted. The thug said the only way I could get Bailey back was for you to come, and that if I didn’t agree, he’d kill Deanne. I thought we’d be able to overpower him or something. I also didn’t think he’d want you dead. Not right off the bat like that anyway.”

She’d been wrong about a lot of things. Definitely a stupid plan.

“The thug made me put on these clothes,” she said, motioning at the all-black garb. “Deanne, too. I’m not sure why exactly, but I think he wanted to make you believe you were surrounded by hired guns.”

And the thug knew that Deanne and April couldn’t just shoot him. Because he was the only one who knew the baby’s location.

Still glaring, Chase cursed. Not general profanity, either. Like the glare, it was aimed specifically at her. But this time, the glare didn’t last as long as the others. That’s because Chase stopped and, without warning, latched on to her and hauled her behind a tree.

Had he heard something? Because she certainly hadn’t. Of course, with her heartbeat thumping in her ears, it was hard to hear much of anything.

The moments crawled by, but Chase still didn’t budge. “Why did that goon want to find Quentin?” he whispered. Obviously, he intended to use this waiting time to fill in some of the blanks. But in this case, she had just as many blanks as Chase did.

April had to shake her head. “My guess is Tony Crossman wants to settle up things with Quentin and me.”

Which wasn’t much of a guess at all because Quentin and she were responsible for putting the king of thugs, Tony Crossman, behind bars. Their testimony, along with the testimony of Crossman’s CPA, had put the CPA, Quentin and April into WITSEC, too.

However, even behind bars Crossman still had plenty of money and resources, and he’d apparently used both to come after her and take the baby. There was only one thing that could have gotten her to cooperate with one of Crossman’s thugs.

And that was Bailey.

“I haven’t seen my brother the entire six months I’ve been in WITSEC,” she added when Chase got them moving again.

Something Chase probably already knew because that’d been the plan all along. It would make it hard for Crossman’s henchmen to find Quentin and her if they were in different places leading separate lives.

Chase mumbled more profanity. “Someone probably hacked into WITSEC files to find Bailey and you. We thought we had a breach not long ago, but it turned out to be a false alarm.”

April had heard about that possible breach, and it’d involved yet someone else connected to Crossman. A criminal named Marcos Culver, who’d been running one of Crossman’s side businesses of money laundering. But that man had never been a threat to her. And besides, Culver was dead now.

“I need to find out who could have hacked into WITSEC,” Chase continued, “and try to link that person back to Crossman. Or anyone else who might be involved.”

Even though he didn’t spell it out, April knew what he meant. Chase believed her brother could be involved in this.

And maybe Quentin was.

After all, April would have paid a huge ransom to get Bailey back. Chase would have as well once he’d learned what had happened, and the one thing her brother probably needed right now was cash since he’d blown through his trust fund that their grandparents had set up for both of them. Still, something like this seemed extreme even for Quentin.

“Stop,” Chase said, and without warning he yanked her behind another tree.

Again, April hadn’t heard anything, but clearly he had because Chase lifted his head, listening. Finally, she heard the footsteps. Someone was coming up on them fast.

“Your brothers?” she whispered.

Chase shook his head.

April leaned out just a little and spotted the man skulking his way toward them. Definitely not a Crockett lawman. This guy was dressed all in black and was wearing a ski mask.

Another hired gun.

She instantly felt fear, and hope. This man could try to kill them, but he also might know something about Bailey.

Chase handed her his phone. “Text Jericho and give him the guy’s position,” he whispered. “Also tell Jericho we need him alive.”

April couldn’t do that fast enough. She certainly didn’t want the sheriff eliminating this hired gun before they got a chance to talk to him.

Jericho didn’t respond to the text, but April soon realized why. She saw him, and he wasn’t that far behind the guy in the ski mask.

Her heart went to her knees.

April nearly shouted out for Jericho not to shoot the man, something that would have almost certainly put Jericho in danger because it would have alerted the gunman. But Chase glanced down at her, shook his head.

“If Jericho had wanted this guy dead, he already would be,” Chase mouthed.

It took her a moment to fight through the panic going on in her head, and April realized he was right. The man obviously didn’t know that Jericho was tracking him, and she was well aware that the sheriff had a deadly aim.

Chase eased her even farther behind the tree so that her face and body were pressed right against the rough bark. Chase pressed, too. His chest against her back. Touching her. Of course, he hadn’t meant for this to be an intimate situation, but it always seemed to be just that when she was within a hundred feet of Chase.

Her mind tried to shut out the memories. But her body remembered every second she’d spent in Chase’s arms.

In his bed, too.

She could no longer see the gunman or Jericho, but April could still hear the footsteps. The guy wasn’t moving that fast, but he was definitely headed right for them.

Did he know Chase and she were there?

Or like them was he simply trying to make his way to the car?

April hadn’t seen a second gunman in the car that’d been left by the bridge, but it was possible he came in another vehicle. Not exactly a comforting thought.

Because Chase was pressed against her, April felt his muscles tense even more than they already were. He was getting ready for something.

But what exactly?

She soon got an answer to that, too. Chase lunged out from cover, tackling the gunman, and he slammed the guy to the ground.

The gunman cursed, and he tried to bring up his weapon, no doubt to shoot Chase. But Chase didn’t give him a chance to do that. He knocked the gun from the thug’s hand.

That wasn’t the end of the fight, though.

The guy punched Chase. Hard enough to have knocked the breath out of him, but Chase managed to deliver a punch of his own.

And just like that, the guy stopped fighting.

It took her a couple of seconds to spot Jericho. He was moving in and had a Glock aimed right at the gunman’s head. April prayed the man wouldn’t give Jericho a reason to pull the trigger.

“Where’s the baby?” Chase demanded, pointing his gun at the man, too.

Jericho didn’t make a sound, but April knew he had to be confused about his brother’s question. Then, Jericho’s gaze dropped to her stomach for a split second, and that seemed to tell him all he needed to know. The baby had been born.

And had been taken.

Later, Jericho would have as many questions as Chase and the rest of the Crocketts would. For now, though, this ski-masked man might tell her what she needed to know.

“Where is she?” April repeated.

He didn’t answer. Chase yanked off the guy’s mask, and like their other attacker, he wasn’t someone she recognized.

Chase got right in his face with the gun. “I won’t kill you, but I’ll make you wish you were dead if you don’t tell me where the baby is.”

When the man still stayed silent, Chase bashed his gun against the side of the guy’s head. “Tell me!” Chase demanded.

The man didn’t open his mouth, not until Chase drew back the gun again to hit him. “I don’t know where she is. Somewhere with the nanny.”

So her baby wasn’t alone in these woods. That was something at least. Well, it was if this snake was telling the truth.

“A nanny you hired?” Chase asked her.

“No.” Which meant it was someone working for the same person as these hired thugs.

“And where’s the nanny?” April pressed, moving even closer to the gunman.

“Don’t know. I don’t!” he shouted when Chase made a move to hit him again. “She was in a separate car with the kid. A black four-door, and she was supposed to follow us here.”

Chase glanced at his brother. That was all it took, just a glance. “I’ll tell Jax to look for the car,” Jericho volunteered.

With that search started, Chase turned back to the man. “Who’s us? Who else is here?”

The man tipped his head to the dead guy. “Just Hank and me.”

April wished she had a lie detector to know if he was telling the truth about there being no other gunmen, but even if he wasn’t, that wouldn’t stop her. “I’m going to look for the nanny’s car,” she said to no one in particular.

But Chase clearly thought she’d been talking to him because he stopped her. “Hold on a second and I’ll go with you.”

Chase turned his attention back to the man and he put his gun in the guy’s face. “One more question, and trust me, a wrong answer will cause you a lot of pain. Who hired you to do this?”

The guy’s eyes widened, filling with fear. “I don’t know. I swear, that’s the truth. I just had orders to find anything that would lead to Quentin Landis. And to get that info by any means necessary. That includes killing you.”

“Tony Crossman hired him,” Jericho spat out. “Unless somebody else is gunning for you and your idiot brother.” He slid a glare at April.

“I can’t speak for Quentin, but I think only Crossman and you hate me,” she settled for saying.

However, she wasn’t sure at all that it was the truth.

Chase glanced at her, too, but his attention quickly shifted back to the gunman on the ground. He stared at him, his gun still poised to do some damage, but after several long moments, Chase stepped back.

“Arrest him,” Chase said to his brother. “Maybe he’ll remember some things in interrogation.”

Jericho didn’t waste any time hauling the man to his feet, and he took out some plastic cuffs from his pocket to restrain him.

“Go ahead,” Jericho said as he checked the guy for other weapons. “Look for the nanny. I’ll take care of this piece of dirt and get someone out here for the woman’s body and the dead guy.”

The word body gave April another slam of grief. And guilt. But there wasn’t anything she could do for Deanne right now. Though she could do something to find her baby.

April turned and started in the direction of the Appaloosa Creek Bridge. She’d made it only a few steps when Chase’s phone rang. He caught up with her, glancing down at the phone screen before he answered it.

“It’s Jax,” Chase relayed to her, and he put the call on speaker while they kept running.

“I found a black four-door car,” Jax said. “It’s on the east side of the road, less than a quarter mile from the bridge.”

Good. The gunman had said the nanny was driving a vehicle like that. “Is the baby there?” April and Chase asked in unison.

Her stomach sank, though, when Jax hesitated.

“Chase,” Jax finally said, “you need to get over here right now.” And with that, Jax hung up.


Chapter Three (#ulink_b5bb2001-77cc-56c9-a8a3-bcc25c4479d4)

Chase batted aside some low-hanging tree branches and ran as fast as he could.

His thoughts and heart were racing, too. He wasn’t sure what had put the alarm in Jax’s voice or why his brother had hung up without an explanation, but with everything else that’d gone on the past hour, Chase figured it could be bad.

And it could involve his baby.

He hadn’t had even a moment to come to terms with the fact that he was already a father. Of course, he’d known April’s delivery date was approaching, but Chase had thought he had a little more time to deal with it.

Or rather more time to deal with his feelings for April.

His feelings for the baby were solid—he loved her, sight unseen, and would lay down his life to protect her.

April was a different matter.

Chase did indeed regret sleeping with her nine months ago. It’d been a mistake, one that had caused his family pain on top of pain.

Him, too.

However, he didn’t regret the baby. Not for one second. His only regret when it came to Bailey was that he hadn’t been there when she needed him to protect her.

He could partly blame April for that.

If April had just told him about Bailey, then maybe he could have put some more security measures in place.

Somehow, April kept up with his breakneck pace, and it occurred to him that he should at least ask her if it was okay for her to be doing this. After all, she’d had a baby two months ago. Maybe this was too much activity, too soon for her body. But since he figured he didn’t stand a chance of talking her into slowing down, Chase just kept running.

Even though it was only a couple of minutes, it seemed to take a lifetime or two for them to reach the road. The bridge was just to their left, but Chase went right since that was the direction where Jax should be. He prayed his brother was okay and hadn’t been hurt by yet another hired gun.

Maybe that wasn’t the reason Jax had put such an abrupt end to the call. But something had certainly caused him to do that. Since Jax had just as much experience as Chase in law enforcement, it must have been something damn important.

“I don’t see him,” April said.

She sounded frantic. Looked it, too. Her eyes were wild. Her breath racing, and yet she didn’t even pause. She kept running up the road until Chase pulled her back to the side.

“This could be an ambush of some kind,” he reminded her.

Something he didn’t want to consider, but his lawman’s experience put it—and plenty of other bad possibilities—in the forefront of his mind. It could have been the reason Jax ended the call. Because Jax could have walked into a dangerous situation.

Chase didn’t want April and him doing the same thing.

He made sure his gun was ready. Made sure April was behind him, too, and using the trees and brush for cover, Chase made his way east. About a quarter of a mile, Jax had said, and from Chase’s calculations, that meant his brother and God knew who or what else were just around the curve ahead.

“This way,” Chase told her, and he led April just a few yards off the road and back into the woods so they could thread their way to Jax without being out in the open.

Finally, he spotted his brother. Jax was literally in the middle of the road, his gun aimed at the car.

Oh, man.

Nothing could have held April back at that point. She raced out onto the road while Chase tried to keep himself between her and whatever had put Jax on full alert. Chase soon saw the cause.

A woman.

Tall, blonde and wearing a white maternity dress. She was mega pregnant with her back against the car.

And a .38 aimed at Jax.

His brother hadn’t been harmed. For now. That was something at least, but this was definitely a volatile situation.

Was this the nanny? The car description certainly fit. But the baby was nowhere in sight.

“Don’t come any closer,” the pregnant woman warned them. Her hands were shaking. Not a good sign since she had her index finger on the trigger, and the way she was holding the gun told Chase that she didn’t have a lot of experience with firearms. “I’ve already told the deputy here that if he shoots me, he won’t find the baby.”

April was trembling as well, and she lowered her gun to her side. “Where is she? Where’s Bailey?” The worry and fear practically drenched her voice.

“Safe, for now. Keep it that way and don’t come closer.”

Chase didn’t move, but unlike April he didn’t lower his gun. He couldn’t shoot a pregnant woman, but she might not be so anxious to shoot Jax if she had two guns trained on her.

He craned his neck to try to get a look at the interior of the car, but with the tinted windows, he couldn’t see much of anything. The engine was running, the windows all up, and since the woman was between them and the car, Chase figured he wasn’t going to get a better look inside until he dealt with the situation right in front of him.

“What do you want from us?” Chase asked her.

“Money, a getaway vehicle,” Jax provided. “And any information about Quentin’s whereabouts.”

“The last one is especially important,” the woman said, tears springing to her eyes. “I have to find him.” She slid her left hand over her belly. “He has to know he’s about to be a father.”

Good grief. So, she was connected to Quentin? And clearly this woman wasn’t just any ordinary nanny.

“I’m Quentin’s sister,” April said, taking a step toward her. “He wouldn’t want you to hurt his niece. He wouldn’t want any of this to be happening.”

That was probably true. Quentin could be scum, but to the best of Chase’s knowledge, the man had never endangered a baby.

“Quentin would want me protected. He wants to be with me and our baby, but he can’t be because of him.” The woman pointed at Chase. “You’re the marshal who put him in WITSEC. You’re the one who took Quentin away from me.”

Obviously, she had a skewed idea of what’d happened six months ago. “I did that for his own safety.”

“Then you can put me there with him! Quentin loves me and wants to be with me.”

Since Quentin hadn’t requested that and since this was the first Chase was hearing about the man having a pregnant girlfriend, he glanced at April to see if she’d known.

April shook her head. “I’ve never met her. But maybe Quentin mentioned your name,” she added to the woman.

“I’m Renée Edmunds,” she volunteered.

“Quentin didn’t always tell me the details of his personal life,” April mumbled. “He certainly didn’t tell me he was about to become a father.”

“Because he doesn’t trust you, that’s why,” Renée snapped. “He said I wasn’t to trust you because you betrayed him by spying on him. You became a criminal informant to save your own skin.”

April nodded, readily admitting that. “Quentin was involved in some bad things then. With a very bad man. I did what I had to do to put an end to it.”

That was the sanitized version anyway, and that very bad man was none other than Tony Crossman. April had uncovered her brother’s illegal activity but had sat on it for a while. Long enough for someone to get killed. Only afterward had April turned CI to help arrest Crossman.

“Were you doing what you had to do when you slept with Quentin’s enemy, Marshal Crockett?” Renée asked.

Quentin would indeed consider him his enemy. Chase felt the same way about him.

“Is that why you took our daughter, because you thought it would help you find Quentin?” April went another step closer to Renée.

“I didn’t take her.” A hoarse sob tore from Renée’s mouth, and she repeated her denial. “But when I got the call to be involved in this, I didn’t say no. I’d do anything to see Quentin again.”

Anything, including putting an innocent baby in danger. It didn’t matter if Renée had or hadn’t been the person who kidnapped Bailey, she certainly hadn’t turned the baby over to the authorities. And she darn sure wasn’t cooperating now.

Somehow, he had to get that gun out of her shaky hands.

“Who hired you?” Chase asked her, and he made sure he sounded like the lawman that he was. Maybe he could intimidate her into surrendering the weapon.

“I don’t know,” Renée said.

Chase huffed, already tired of this ordeal. He wanted it to end so he could find his daughter and deal with the aftermath of everything else going on here.

“Who hired you?” he tried again.

“I don’t know!” Renée’s answer was louder this time. “I got a call from a man who said Quentin was in danger and that if I wanted to find him then he’d help me.”

“Did this man have a name?” Jax asked. He, too, sounded like a lawman. A riled one. Probably because he was as fed up with Quentin and April as Chase was. Still, his brother would do whatever it took to get the baby back.

“His name is Jason Toth,” Renée finally answered. “He said he was Quentin’s friend.”

It wasn’t a name Chase recognized, and apparently neither did April or Jax. Of course, whoever had come up with this sick plan probably wouldn’t have used a real name.

“Do you know Tony Crossman?” Chase asked the woman.

She gave a shaky nod. “He’s the man Quentin helped send to jail. He wants to hurt Quentin.”

“Crossman wants to kill him,” Chase spelled out for her. “And he’d do anything—that includes using you—to find him.”

Chase didn’t add more. He just waited and let Renée fill in the blanks. It didn’t take her long.

“Toth might be working for Crossman,” Renée whispered, her mouth trembling now.

Bingo. “I don’t know Quentin’s location,” Chase continued, “but if I did and I told you, then Crossman could get to Quentin before you do. Let me guess, you’re wearing some kind of wire right now so Toth can hear whatever you’re saying?”

Renée’s gaze drifted down toward her stomach. And she nodded. It was a good thing Chase hadn’t known Quentin’s whereabouts and revealed it because assassins would have likely already been on their way to kill him.

April cursed and stormed toward Renée. “Where’s my baby?” she yelled to the person on the other end of that listening device.

April probably would have latched on to Renée as well, but Chase held her back. After all, Renée still had the gun, and the woman was past the point of just being panicked and upset. There was no telling what she would do in her state of mind.

“You need to come with us to the Appaloosa Pass sheriff’s office,” Chase told Renée. “We can figure out where the baby is. And just how much Crossman’s henchman has learned.” If anything. “You might be able to save Quentin from being hurt.”

Chase didn’t care a flying fig if Quentin got hurt. The only thing he wanted right now was the location of the baby. Once Bailey was safe, then he could deal with Crossman, his hired guns and anyone else who had a part in this.

“Oh, God,” Renée said, tears spilling down her cheek. “I was a fool to trust Toth.”

Yeah, she was. But Chase kept that to himself. “Just put down the gun and come with us.”

She volleyed glances at the .38, Chase and April. When Renée lifted her hand, Chase was certain that she was about to surrender.

He was wrong.

Renée made a feral sound that came deep from within her throat. Definitely not the sound of a woman who’d just realized she’d made a huge mistake. This was more the sound a trapped animal would make.

She turned, racing around the back of the car. Chase still wasn’t sure what she had in mind, but he didn’t want to risk firing a warning shot. He cursed and went after her.

Renée didn’t stop at the back of the car. She kept running. She jumped the narrow ditch and headed for the woods. For a pregnant woman, she ran pretty darn fast.

“Don’t hurt your baby,” April shouted out to her.

It was a good thing to say. It should have gotten a concerned, expectant mother to slow down.

But Renée definitely didn’t slow down.

“She can’t get away,” April said, following right along behind Chase and the woman.

“Go after her,” Jax insisted. “I’ll stay and search the car to make sure there’s no other gunman inside.”

Good plan. Too bad Chase didn’t have time to talk April into staying with Jax because she, too, went after Renée. Thankfully, it didn’t take them long to catch up with the woman, and when they did, Chase latched on to her shoulder and dragged her to a stop.

Renée didn’t exactly cooperate.

“Let me go,” she shouted, and she started to fight. Clawing and scratching at Chase while she tried to kick him.

Chase did something about that .38. He knocked it from her hand and April snatched it up before Renée could grab it.

That still didn’t stop Renée.

She rammed into Chase and she didn’t hold back. Renée off-balanced them, and Chase knew he couldn’t stop them from falling to the ground. However, he did try to take the brunt of the fall so that Renée’s unborn baby wouldn’t be hurt.

But when he heard April gasp, Chase figured he hadn’t succeeded in doing that.

Until he saw what’d captured April’s attention.

Renée’s dress had been shoved up during the scuffle. Way up. Chase saw a wire, but he also saw something strapped to her stomach.

A fake baby bump.

“She’s not even pregnant,” April mumbled.

That caused Renée to make another of those feral sounds, and she started fighting again. Not just scratching and shoving this time, but she punched Chase hard in the face.

Enough of this.

Since he was no longer dealing with a pregnant woman, Chase rammed her against the ground and pinned her in place.

“Tell Jax I need a pair of plastic cuffs,” Chase told April.

April turned, no doubt to call out to Jax. But his brother responded before she could even get out a word.

“Get up here now,” Jax shouted. “I found a baby.”


Chapter Four (#ulink_9e214690-5538-535e-b80a-7c2def2821c4)

April ran as fast as she could, the horrible thoughts running right along with her. Jax had said he’d found a baby, but that didn’t mean it was Bailey, and it didn’t mean her precious daughter was safe.

After all, the men who’d taken Bailey were the same ones who’d murdered Deanne.

Chase ran, too, dragging Renée along with him. But Renée still wasn’t cooperating, and that slowed Chase down.

April finally reached the road, but her heart sank when she didn’t see Jax. She soon spotted him, though. He was sitting in the backseat of the car next to an infant seat.

And Bailey was in that seat.

“She’s okay,” Jax insisted. “Someone’s obviously been taking good care of her.”

April’s breath whooshed out, and she practically crawled over Jax to get to the baby. He stepped out, hurrying toward Chase so he could take hold of Renée. But Jax did more than that. He clamped his hand over Renée’s mouth.

“I don’t want her calling out for help if she’s got any other comrades in the area,” Jax said.

Yes, and it was something that April should have thought about already. Renée could still be dangerous, but before April could deal with her, she had to see to Bailey first.

Bailey didn’t appear to have any injuries, but April had to check for herself. She took her from the seat, peeling back the blanket so she could check for any scrapes or bruises. None.

Jax had been right. Someone had been taking care of her. Bailey had on a fresh diaper, a clean pink gown, and judging from the bottles in the diaper bag next to the infant seat, she’d been well fed. Thank God. She was okay.

But Chase wasn’t.

April had been so caught up in making sure Bailey was unharmed that she hadn’t noticed Chase was right there by the door, and he had his attention fixed on the baby. He looked as if someone had slugged him, but the shock lasted for only a couple of seconds. Then, April saw something else she instantly recognized.

Love.

One look at his daughter and Chase was as smitten as April was.

“They didn’t hurt her,” Chase said, gulping in a long breath.

The love was mixed with a hefty dose of relief. Again, that love and relief didn’t extend to April. Chase’s gaze was practically icy when it landed on her.

“You should have told me when she was born,” Chase snarled and likely would have said a whole lot more if Jax hadn’t cleared his throat to get their attention.

“I hate to break up this family reunion, but it’s not a good idea for us to be hanging around out here. There could be other gunmen.”

Jax was right. Plus, he was still dealing with Renée. He kept his hand clamped over her mouth so she couldn’t yell, but she was struggling to break free.

Chase glanced around, probably trying to keep watch and figure out a solution to this. “Don’t say anything about where we’re going,” April reminded him. “Renée’s wearing that wire.”

“I disconnected it, but it’s still taped to her fake baby bump.”

Good. Because April didn’t want any more info relayed back to whoever had hired the woman or any other of those thugs.

“Where are you parked?” Chase asked Jax.

Jax tipped his head toward the road. “I left the cruiser about a quarter of a mile from here.”

Not that far, but he would have to fight Renée every step of the way. Chase obviously figured that out right away because he opened the driver’s side door of the black car and got in.

“I’ll drive you to the cruiser, and I can come back later and get my own car,” he told Jax. “You and Renée get in the front. April can ride with Bailey in the back.”

Good, because April didn’t want Bailey next to the woman. At best, Renée seemed unstable, but she could also be a hired killer. How the heck had Quentin gotten involved with her?

Or maybe he hadn’t.

April wasn’t sure anything coming out of Renée’s mouth had been the truth, but maybe they could sort it all out at the sheriff’s office. It was possible they’d also get some info from the wire she was wearing. First, though, April needed to try to sort out things with Chase. Or rather make peace with him.

“Let me go!” Renée snarled again when Jax put her in the cruiser. “I want to talk to Quentin.”

“Take a number,” Chase muttered under his breath.

April wanted to talk to her brother as well, but she wasn’t sure if he’d actually played a role in this. This had Crossman written all over it.

“Crossman must have hired someone to hack into WITSEC files to find me,” April said, thinking out loud.

Chase met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “Then why didn’t the hacking include Quentin? If Crossman found you yesterday, he could have found your brother, too, and he wouldn’t have needed to use Renée.”

True, and she definitely hadn’t heard anything from the marshals about Quentin being injured or killed. Of course, perhaps they didn’t know yet. That didn’t help the throbbing in her chest.

April forced herself to think this through. “Maybe the hacker did get Quentin’s file, but it’s possible he’s not staying at the place the marshals arranged for him. He’s not exactly a rule follower.”

Since Chase had known Quentin for two years, as long as he’d known her, there was no way he could argue with that. Plus, Chase and plenty of other lawmen had investigated Quentin. For a good reason, too. The bar her brother owned was a hangout for all sorts of criminals.

At one time, that included Tony Crossman himself.

And yes, Quentin had gotten involved with Crossman’s schemes and had in turn gotten her involved since April handled the finances for him. Worse, Quentin had tricked her into helping Crossma n with some money laundering. Chase would never believe it was a dupe, though. No. He would always think she’d done it willingly.

In a way, she had.

Chase pulled to a stop behind the cruiser, and Jax didn’t waste any time getting Renée out of the car. “Tell Quentin I need to see him right away,” the woman shouted.

“Oh, I will,” Chase assured her. He glanced back at April. “I’ll deal with your brother soon.”

April had no trouble hearing the implied threat—Chase would do that after he dealt with her. He didn’t use the rearview mirror this time. Chase turned and looked at her. Despite the horrible circumstances, April still wasn’t immune to that face. Hot seemed like much too mild a word when it came to Chase. He’d gotten to her from the first time they met. Was still getting to her.

But she forced that heat aside.

It was easy to do when his gaze went from her to Bailey. He couldn’t actually see Bailey’s face because of the rear-facing infant seat, but his expression softened a bit. Well, for a few seconds anyway. It would no doubt take him a while to come to terms with the realization that he was the father of a two-month-old baby.

“I need to call the marshals first,” he said, taking out his phone. “They should check on Crossman’s former CPA to make sure her identity hasn’t been compromised, too.”

That was a good idea, especially since it’d been the CPA, Jasmine Bronson, who’d been the one who’d actually witnessed Crossman talking about the murder he’d committed.

“After I’m done with the call,” Chase added, “I want to hear everything. And I mean everything.”

“Just be careful what you say when you make that call. The breach in security could have happened right there in that office.”

He didn’t dispute that, though it looked as if that’s exactly what he wanted to do. Chase made the call to his boss, and he asked him to check to see if April’s identity, or anyone else’s, had been compromised.

“Start talking,” Chase insisted the moment he finished the call. He didn’t have his attention on April now. He was watching as Jax maneuvered Renée into the backseat of the cruiser. “You’d better have a darn good reason for keeping Bailey from me for even a minute much less two months. And I’m not buying your excuse that you gave me earlier about those thugs finding you through me.”

“It wasn’t an excuse.” April took a deep breath before she continued. “The morning I went into labor, I got a call from Deanne, and she said she’d heard on the streets that someone was watching you with the hopes of finding me. Needless to say, I believe the person behind that was Crossman.”

Chase immediately shook his head, and he drove away once Jax had everything under control with Renée. “I didn’t see anyone watching me, and I would have noticed something like that.”

Yes, he would have. Especially in the past couple of months. He would have been on high alert because of Bailey’s impending birth and because he’d also been recently attacked by a serial killer. April didn’t know the details of the attack, but she was betting Chase had been looking over his shoulder a lot.

“Deanne said she’d heard the watching was being done through cameras,” April explained, “that someone had managed to set them up in or near your house and by the marshals’ office. The CI also told her that there was an informant in the marshals’ office, too.

“And you believed Deanne?” he snapped. He took the road toward the town of Appaloosa Pass.

“Why wouldn’t I? Deanne’s never lied to me. She was trying to help me tonight, and that’s why she’s dead.” That caused her chest to tighten, and April had to fight back a fresh batch of tears.

“Jericho has the guy who was working with Deanne’s killer in custody. We’ll get justice for her,” Chase reminded her. No doubt to get her mind back on their conversation.

“Yes, but justice won’t bring her back.”

“No,” Chase quietly agreed. Maybe he was grieving some, too. After all, Deanne had been one of his own criminal informants for several years. “Who told Deanne I was being watched?”

“I have no idea. As you know, Deanne didn’t like to share the names of her sources. She said it kept them cooperating so she could use them to get info to help the cops.”

Chase made a grunt of agreement, and while continuing to keep watch, he pulled out his phone. “I need a big favor,” he said to the person who answered. “When you get a chance, go to my place and see if anyone has put any surveillance cameras around the house. Call me if you find anything.”

As he put his phone away, he said, “That was Teddy McQueen, one of the ranch hands. If he doesn’t find anything, I’ll have him go through the house itself.”

A place she remembered well since it was where Bailey had been conceived.

April didn’t have to tap too deeply into her memories to guess where someone would have planted a camera. There were several large shade trees in his yard, a detached garage and even a small barn. But with the hours that Chase put in as a marshal, it was indeed possible that someone had gotten inside the house.

“I couldn’t be sure the person hadn’t planted listening devices along with cameras,” April explained.

That didn’t soothe the glare Chase shot her. “So what? You weren’t going to tell me at all?”

“I was, but Bailey didn’t get out of the hospital until three days ago. I didn’t want to call the marshals because of the possible informant.”

“You could have sent Deanne to tell me.”

“That was the plan. She didn’t want to call you because she wasn’t sure if the informant or one of Crossman’s thugs had managed to tap your phone. And she did try to speak to you in person, but you weren’t at the office.”

“The Moonlight Strangler investigation,” he grumbled several moments later.

Yes, that. A cause very close to home. Since Chase and his family had recently learned that a vicious serial killer, the Moonlight Strangler, was the biological father of Chase’s adopted sister. The Moonlight Strangler had murdered Jax’s wife and had even attacked Chase.

“I was out of the office a lot,” Chase added along with some profanity. Probably beating himself up for not being there. But this wasn’t his fault.

Again, it was Crossman’s.

And that led April to her next concern when Chase took the final turn into town, and she spotted the sheriff’s office.

“Is it safe for us to be here?” she asked.

Chase didn’t exactly jump to answer that. “We won’t be here long. I’ll arrange for a safe house. Not through the marshals just in case Deanne was right about an informant. And we won’t go to the ranch house or my place, either, just in case there are cameras set up.”

Good. Chase’s house was at the far edge of the ranch property, and with the threat of the cameras, she’d figured going there was out. However, she was glad he’d dismissed taking her to his family’s home on the ranch. For one thing, it might not be safe there, either, and for another, she didn’t want to have to face the rest of his family just yet.

Chase didn’t pull into the parking lot. He stopped directly in front of the door of the sheriff’s office and glanced around. Since it was only about six-thirty, there were still people out and about, and there were diners in the café across the street. Chase studied each one of them and made another call.

“Come to the front door,” Chase said.

A moment later, Deputy Mack Parkman appeared in the doorway of the office. He was sporting a very concerned look, no doubt because he’d gotten updates from Jericho and knew they had a murder on their hands.

Mack’s look of concern went up considerably when he saw the baby. Obviously, he’d known she was pregnant with Chase’s child. Everyone in town knew. But like Chase, Mack hadn’t known that she’d delivered.

“Don’t bring in the infant seat,” Chase warned her. He drew his gun and stepped out. “It could have a tracking device on it. Just take the baby and get out on the side near Mack. Once we’re inside we can dispose of anything the baby’s wearing in case it’s bugged, too.”

She hadn’t even considered something like that, but thankfully Chase had. April eased the baby into her arms, bundling her in the blanket, and as Chase had instructed, she hurried inside. Chase followed, but they didn’t stay in the reception area. He rushed her toward the hall and into Jericho’s office.

“Jericho will be here any minute with the prisoner,” Mack told them. “The ME is on the way to the woods for the bodies.”

“Jax is on his way, too,” Chase said. “He was right behind us and he’ll have a prisoner with him, as well.”

Mack nodded. “What do you need me to do?”

“We need baby supplies. Formula, bottles, clothes and a blanket. Have one of the clerks from the drugstore bring whatever they have. Also, the car outside and everything in it should be processed. I doubt there’ll be anything inside to link it to Crossman, but we might get lucky.”

“Crossman?” Mack’s concern went up yet another notch. He belted out some profanity under his breath, then blushed when he glanced at the baby. “Sorry.”

She waved off the apology because it wasn’t necessary. Crossman was a killer. Worse, a cop killer.

And it was that murder that had put some blood on April’s hands.

Mack stepped away, undoubtedly to take care of getting the CSIs out to examine the car and arrange for those supplies. Leaving Chase and her alone with the baby. The first moments they’d been together alone with Bailey.

Chase walked closer, staring down at her, and he touched his finger to Bailey’s cheek. Bailey was half-asleep, but that got her attention, and she turned her head, studying Chase as hard as he was studying her.

The corner of Bailey’s mouth lifted, and even though April figured it wasn’t a real smile, it still had a powerful effect. Chase groaned, the impact of fatherhood no doubt hitting him hard. And hitting him in the exact same way it’d hit April. Because he smiled, too.

A rarity.

Chase Crockett wasn’t exactly the smiling type—especially since things had fallen apart between them. Too bad because that smile stirred the too familiar heat inside April.

Heat she pushed aside again.

That was something she always had to do around Chase. Because he’d spent the past two years trying to put her brother behind bars, April and Chase had never dated. But that hadn’t stopped them from landing in bed together. For one glorious night, Chase had been hers for the taking, but then his friend had been murdered. Crossman—and Quentin—had been implicated in that. And anything she’d ever hoped to have with Chase had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Well, everything except Bailey.

That would give them a connection that she was certain Chase would rather have with someone else. Anyone else.

“Check her for tracking devices,” Chase prompted.

April hurried to do that, causing Bailey to fuss, but thankfully she didn’t see anything on her gown, blanket or diaper. That was something at least.

She heard the front door open, and Chase stepped back into the hall. Even though she couldn’t see who’d come in, she did notice the alarm on Chase’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Chase immediately asked.

April hurried to the door and looked out to see Jericho. He had the gunman in cuffs and handed him off to Mack, but his attention stayed on Chase.

“We’ve got trouble,” Jericho answered. “Jax was attacked on the road. He’s okay, but the woman he was bringing in just escaped.”


Chapter Five (#ulink_e6375bd4-10c9-51da-807e-82a316d95b0e)

Chase so didn’t want to have to deal with anything else right now. What he wanted to do was hold his daughter and get to know her. Instead, he was neck deep in making sure Crossman, or whoever was behind the kidnapping and attacks, didn’t get to Bailey and April again.

That meant going to a safe house. Something he was still working on, but for now, his baby was stuck sleeping on the cot in the break room at the sheriff’s office. Hardly premium accommodations, but Bailey didn’t seem to mind. She was sacked out, not a care in the world. Unlike April.

Chase saw plenty of those cares in her eyes.

“Anything?” she asked the moment Chase stepped into the doorway of the break room. She moved away from the cot and came closer to him.

Chase figured that one-word question encompassed a lot because there were plenty of cogs moving in the investigation. What wasn’t moving was a solution to put an end to this.

“Renée’s still missing.” Thanks to the help from a gunman who’d run Jax off the road and taken her.

April’s mouth tightened, clearly not pleased about that.

Welcome to the club.

Renée could have given them some answers, and now the woman was missing.

“And what about Jax? Is he really okay?” Not displeasure now but rather concern in April’s voice.

Chase nodded. “A few cuts and bruises. He’s pissed off more than anything.” An emotion that Chase completely understood.

He should have made sure Jax wasn’t being followed. Should have done more to protect his brother. But Chase had had so many things on his mind that he hadn’t taken more precautions. That couldn’t happen again. Because the next time, Jax or someone else could be killed.

April came even closer to him, glancing back at the baby. Probably to make sure their whispered conversation wasn’t disturbing her. It wasn’t. Now that Bailey had had a bottle, she was sleeping, well, like a baby. However, Chase was betting April and he wouldn’t be getting much sleep, if any, tonight.

“I’m sorry,” April said.

Not especially something Chase wanted to hear. Or feel. But he felt something all right.

Sympathy.

And he’d learned the hard way, that was never a good thing to feel when it came to April. Best to keep this conversation on a more business level. Easy to do since they had plenty of nonpersonal things to discuss.

Well, one huge thing anyway.

There was something he should probably tell her. Eventually. Something that was indeed personal. But it would have to wait.

“Someone did hack into WITSEC files,” Chase confirmed. “We won’t know the extent of what was compromised for a while, but it’s obvious the hacker was able to find you.”

“And my brother?” she asked.

“The marshals went to his house, but Quentin wasn’t there. The place had been ransacked and there were signs of a struggle.” Chase paused, trying to brace himself for how she was going to react to the next thing he had to tell her. “There was blood on the floor.”

That caused her breath to shudder, and she staggered back. Maybe would have fallen if Chase hadn’t caught her. He hooked his arm around her waist, putting them body to body again. Also giving him feelings he didn’t want to have.

Lust.

Not an especially good time for it, but it always seemed to happen with April. Chase cursed it and wished there was some way in hell he could make himself immune to her.

Rather than stand there with her in his arms, Chase led her across the room and had her sit in one of the chairs at the dining table.

She shook her head. “Quentin doesn’t even know how to get in touch with me if he needs help.”

“No, but he knows how to contact me. If it’s a real emergency, he’d call me.”

April looked up at him, blinked. “You don’t think the blood they found is real?”

Chase was 1,000 percent sure she wasn’t going to like this. “I think it’s real all right, but Quentin could have planted it so it would look as if he’d been injured. And he could have done that so we wouldn’t believe he had any part in kidnapping Bailey.”

There were holes in that particular theory, but Chase knew that Quentin was very good at doing criminal things.

“You think Quentin could have had Bailey kidnapped for ransom money,” April said. She didn’t exactly jump to deny that though it was no doubt what she wanted to do.

“It’s possible. You have to admit your brother has been involved in some illegal moneymaking schemes before.”

She didn’t deny that, either. Couldn’t. Because it’d been Quentin’s dirty dealings with Crossman that had set this entire mess in motion.

“I don’t think Quentin would work with Crossman,” April said. “Not again. Not after what happened the last time.”

And what’d happened the last time was murder. Specifically, the murder of a cop, Tina Murdock. Tina had gone to question Quentin, had found Crossman instead, and some kind of argument had ensued. Crossman had shot and killed her.

“You trust your brother a lot more than I do,” Chase reminded her.

“I know. And I also know you don’t trust me. That’s all right. I deserve it.”

She did. But there was no need for him to spell that out to her. April had known about her brother’s illegal activity. If she had reported it sooner instead of trying to get Quentin out of hot water, Tina wouldn’t have walked into the bar where she’d been murdered.

Of course, April hadn’t mentioned anything about knowing of Tina’s visit or her brother’s criminal activity when she’d gone to Chase that night. Even though Chase hadn’t known it at the time, she’d been looking for a shoulder to cry on because she was about to turn in her brother. And during the consoling, they’d landed in bed. Only afterward did Chase learn the truth, and he was still dealing with it.

“I need some good news,” she said, groaning. “Any good news.”

“The safe house will be ready soon. I didn’t go through the marshals for it, just in case. Dexter Conway and one of the other deputies are setting up a place in the local area. They’re stocking it now and making sure there’s plenty of security. After we’re settled there, I can work on getting you a new identity.”

Just thinking about that put a knot in his gut. A knot that’d been there since he’d known April was pregnant with his child.

Basically, as long as Crossman was a threat, April and Bailey would have to live in hiding. And if he wanted to be part of his baby’s life—which he absolutely did—Chase would have to go in hiding with them. It’d mean giving up everything he knew. His family. His job. His life.

But that’s exactly what was going to happen.

Of course, Chase had thought he’d have a few more days to come to terms with it. However, the little girl sleeping on the cot was the ultimate reminder that his time as a marshal was nearly up.

And that crushed him.

Since April looked very tuned in to his thoughts and appeared to be on the verge of another apology, Chase nipped it in the bud and continued giving her the update on their situation.

“Teddy hasn’t found any cameras or anything else suspicious at my place, but he’ll keep looking,” Chase explained. “And the marshals haven’t discovered anyone in the office who could be a mole.”

April kept staring at him. “You don’t sound as if you think they’ll actually find anything.”

Chase shrugged. “Deanne could have been wrong.”

“Maybe.” April took a deep breath and repeated her noncommittal response. “But she believed she was right. Believed it enough to risk her life to help me find Bailey.”

That put some tears back in her eyes, and this time April didn’t succeed in blinking them away. “God, Chase, I got Deanne killed. That’s more blood on my hands.”

The tears came faster. Sobs, too. And he would have had to be a heartless jerk to just stand there and watch her fall apart. Chase sank down in the chair next to her and pulled her into his arms.

“You might have saved Tina, but Deanne’s a different matter,” he said. It wasn’t exactly a full dose of comfort he was offering, but he hated the tears. Hated even more that there was reason for the crying. “It was Deanne’s choice to try to help you. She was by the creek because she chose to be there.”

And Chase was thankful for it. He hadn’t wanted Deanne to die, but at least the woman had given up her life while trying to save Bailey.

“Please tell me the man who was working with Deanne’s killer is talking,” April said through the tears.

“Not talking exactly, but Jericho did learn some info about him when he took his prints. His name is Gene Rooks, and he’s a career criminal. He lawyered up or rather a lawyer showed up here shortly after Jericho arrested Rooks.”

She stayed quiet a moment, probably giving that some thought. “Someone must have been watching. That’s how Crossman knew Rooks was in custody.” Another pause. “If it’s Crossman. Renée isn’t off my suspect list just yet.”

Nor his. It was obvious that Renée was desperate to find Quentin. Why exactly, Chase didn’t know, but desperate people did stupid things.

“Is Renée Edmunds even her real name?” April asked.

Chase nodded. “I pulled up her DMV photo and it’s a match. Unlike Rooks, Renée doesn’t have a record. No family for us to contact, either. I’ve put out feelers to see if she has a genuine connection to your brother. She could be just a nutcase or a groupie.”

There’d been plenty of publicity following Tina’s murder and Crossman’s arrest, and Quentin’s photo had been plastered in the newspapers. Quentin was a rich, good-looking guy. A bad-boy criminal. He was the type who could have attracted a nut job. Including one who could have faked a pregnancy. Of course, it was just as possible that Renée had indeed had a relationship with Quentin, and that was something Chase would ask her.

If they found her, that is.

It was going to be hard to track her down. No job. Renée lived off a trust fund, and her neighbors said they hadn’t seen her in weeks.

Chase’s phone rang, and even though he’d lowered the sound, it still caused Bailey to stir. April sprang out of the chair to go to her while Chase glanced at the screen. It was Teddy McQueen, the ranch hand.

“I found something,” Teddy said the moment Chase answered. “Two cameras. One on your front porch. The other on the back.”

Chase choked back a groan because he didn’t want to wake the baby, but that was not the news he wanted to hear. “You’re sure?” he asked, stepping out into the hall.

However, he’d already gotten April’s attention. Despite her having picked up the baby, she had her gaze fixed on Chase.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Teddy answered. “I didn’t see them at first because someone had hidden them in the eaves. And that’s not all I found. There are little black box–looking things—one underneath the windowsill in your office. There’s a second one outside your bedroom.”





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