The Marshal's Justice

“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

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

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.”