Josh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And she would catch them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, more than a flash.

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

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

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

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

Praying, too.

“Is that baby mine?” he whispered.

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

“Yes,” she said.

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

Something that would likely be dangerous.

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

And soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

As would her continued stay near the door.

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

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

Best to stay on her feet, ready to react.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But she was wrong.

Not even a minute.

Just a couple of seconds.

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

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

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

But that didn’t happen.

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

Chapter Three

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

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

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

And then another.

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

“Let’s move,” Josh ordered the women.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big mistake.

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

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

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

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

And each step could be a fatal one.

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

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

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

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

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

Protecting her unborn child.

No, this wasn’t routine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But not for long.

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

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

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

Lots of places for gunmen to hide in there.

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

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

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

Before he heard the shot.

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

Hell.

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

“Go help them,” Jaycee said to Grayson.

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

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

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

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

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

They had to run some more.

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

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

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

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

“Cousin. His brothers were on the hill.”

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

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

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

Unfortunately, this was trouble of a different kind.

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

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

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

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

Except Jaycee and these women were in danger, too.

And so were their babies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We can help,” Jaycee repeated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No.

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

Something had exploded.

Chapter Four

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

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

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

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

Or the shock of something totally unexpected—like fatherhood.

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

He’d accused her of a lot of things.

And sadly, most were accurate.

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

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

Including any of Josh’s cousins.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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