Baby Mine: A Hudson Family Series- Book Two- Lucas and Sara

by Chontelle Brison

  Synclair sighed and looked at the phone in her hand. If Travis had both Sara and Logan, there was no telling what the maniac would do to them. Sara had no experience dealing with raging, psychopaths, whereas Synclair grew up on the streets of Vegas. She knew how prison changed people, she knew how animalistic someone could become after being locked up. Sara probably had no idea who she was dealing with. Whoever Travis was as a person before prison was not who he was today. Now he would be bitter, angry, and more unhinged. She wondered if Sara or any of the Hudsons would even know how to deal with someone like Travis.

  Sure Reece was tough, and the other Hudsons could hold their own. However, she worried that in their hurry to beat Travis to a pulp, Sara, and Logan could get hurt in the process.

  Synclair knew she was about to do something stupid. So dumb that Reece would probably never let her leave his sight again. Yet, the longer she waited to get to Sara, the worse things could be. Reece would want you to call the cops.

  Synclair snorted at her own thoughts. Cops never helped and almost always showed up to late. Plus, they were bound by rules of procedure that Synclair didn’t have to follow, so nope, the cops were out.

  Handing the vial to the widow, she smiled.

  “I need you to give this to the paramedics, I just googled it on my phone, it’s a horse tranquilizer, they should know how to take care of Mr. Wilmington.”

  The woman grabbed Synclair’s hand as she started to rise.

  “Will Wayne be okay, he hasn’t even stirred.”

  Synclair squeezed the older woman’s hand, mentally slapping herself for not asking her first name, “The drug just made him sleep, he’s okay, I checked his heart and his breathing.” She tried to reassure the woman, although, she had no idea just how much of the medication that Travis had given the older man.

  “Where are you going?”

  Synclair smiled, “To find the one person who might know where Sara and Logan are.”

  “Who's that?” The woman called just as Synclair reached the door.

  “Malibu Barbie,” Synclair shouted back ignoring the puzzled expression on the woman’s face.

  Synclair knew that if anyone knew what Travis was up to it was Amber. Or Malibu Barbie as Synclair had called her back in college. There was no way that plastic witch wasn’t up to her fake ta-tas in this, whenever anything ugly went down Amber was constantly at the center of it, and Synclair was prepared to bet that this time was no exception.

  **********

  Reece and Lucas washed their hands in the building outside of the Coleman’s barn. Reece had been lucky that Lucas was close enough to help him with this calf’s birthing. Normally a calf’s birth was tedious, but when the calf is coming out legs first, it presents all kinds of issues. Needing assistance, he had reached out to Lucas, who had gotten there in record time. Besides, the way that Lucas was brooding it probably did him good to have something to concentrate on other than Travis Donaldson.

  “You okay?” Reece asked his brother as they made their way back to their vehicles.

  Lucas shrugged, “No, I finally have everything I want, and I refuse to let Travis ruin it all.”

  “What happened to him? How did we not know what an asshole he was?” Reece asked shaking his head.

  Lucas gave him a tight smile, “Ma knew, she told me on more than one occasion that something wasn’t right with him. She even made sure that Rachel was never alone with him.” Lucas scrubbed his hands over his face and groaned.

  The truth was he was young and arrogant and didn’t want his mother to choose his friends. He had ignored his mother’s warning and later he had ignored Sara’s pleas. Sara had informed him time and time again that Travis would stare at her in ways that made her feel uncomfortable. He had tried to make excuses, he had told Sara that Travis’s parents had gotten divorced when he was young, and he had never gotten over it. He had even tried to convince Sara that Travis’s peculiar fascination with her was his way of trying to be close, like a brother.

  Lucas felt like kicking his own ass. He had let his feelings of friendship with Travis blind him to who he actually was and now Sara was paying the price for it.

  “Lucas, dammit, snap out of it, we have problems,” Reece shouted, waving like a madman to get Lucas’s attention.

  Without hesitation, Lucas jumped into Reece’s truck. “What is it? Synclair?” He demanded, not realizing the cause of his brother’s alarm.

  Reece shook his head as he tore down the dirt road toward town.

  “My phone was off, check yours, Synclair called me six times and Rachel has been texting me for an hour,” Reece told him taking a right turn a little too hard and causing Lucas to bang his head on the passenger window.

  Grunting Lucas pulled his phone out of his pocket, damn, the battery must have died.

  “Shit, mine’s dead, what the hell is going on?”

  “The hospital left me a message, it seems Wayne Wilmington was just brought in about ten minutes ago, someone used horse tranquilizers, with my office label on them to knock the man out. They want me to come and talk to Sherrif Jones.” Reece told him taking another hard right.

  As Lucas’s head smacked the window again, he glared at Reece.

  “Where’s Sara, does she know?”

  Reece sighed, “Hold on to your hat brother, Sara wasn’t with him, the woman that came into the hospital with him described a woman fitting Synclair’s description, she told Sheriff Jones that the woman was going after Barbie.”

  Lucas groaned, he knew exactly who Barbie was. This was bad, he never should have left Sara unprotected. He had so many questions, he wasn’t sure where to start, where was Sara? Why would someone knock out Sara’s father? where was Logan and what the hell did Amber or Barbie as Synclair called her, have to do with all of this?

  By the time Reece reached the hospital and parked his brothers had pulled up beside him.

  “Rachel said that Sara left to go pick up Logan, but Syn didn’t buy it. Rachel tried to stop her, but she promised Rachel that she was going to go by Sara’s apartment and if she discovered anything she’d call you.” Dalton told Reece as he fell into step next to him.

  “She did call me, I was on an emergency birthing, Lucas was with me so I didn’t have my phone on. She called me six times.” He growled feeling like a jackass for not leaving his phone on. While he usually turned off his phone when he was with clients, Synclair was pregnant, it was a foolish move.

  “I told Rachel to stay at the house, just in case Synclair or Sara showed up, you guys should know that neither one is answering their phones,” Matt told them his eyes full of worry.

  “Reece.” Sherriff Jones greeted him as they walked into the waiting area.

  “What’s happening Sherriff?” Lucas asked.

  “Well, as far as we know, Wayne was brought in, someone jabbed a needle in his neck and tranq’d him with a vial that had your label on it.”

  “How did you discover him,” Dalton asked. Lucas could see the SEAL hat was back.

  Sheriff Jones shrugged, “The widow woman, Ms. Daley, called the ambulance, claimed she got a frantic message from Sara to come check on her dad when she got there he was lying on the floor. Apparently, Ms. Patrick showed up a short time later.”

  Reece groaned, “If Synclair was there, then why didn’t she come to the hospital with Wayne?” Reece had known the answer before the Sheriff said it, he was just hoping it wasn’t actually true.

  “She told the widow to give the vial to the paramedics when they arrived and told her was going after Barbie.” Sheriff Jones pinned Reece with his no-nonsense glare.

  Matt sighed, “Syn used to call Amber that, on account of the fact that she’s a fake bitch who still has everything.” It was not the time to joke, but Matt couldn’t help the twitch of his lips.

  Sherrif Jones’s phone began to ring, and he excused himself to take the call. Reece was about to go speak to the doctors about Wayne, just to make sure they didn’t need him to give
them any information about the tranquilizer.

  The only thing that made sense was that Travis had stolen it from Michael Donaldson’s ranch. Reece always kept certain medications in the tack room of the barn, it would have been easy to grab. Since Michael and Travis were cousins, no one would have thought twice about Travis being in the barn. His main worry was that he didn’t know how much Travis had taken, or what he planned to do with it. With Sara and his pregnant fiance missing, it didn’t look good.

  “Hudson, I think we found your wife.” Sheriff Jones snapped as he pocketed his cell phone.

  Reece whipped around, not bothering to correct Sheriff Jones on his marital status he placed his hands on his hips and waited expectantly.

  “Well, is she okay? Did she find Amber? Oh god, she did, is it bloody?” Reece was talking so fast that Lucas put a hand on his shoulder to shut him up.

  Sheriff Jones grabbed his hat off his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “The folks down at Tally’s Salon said Ms. Patrick tore into the place, shouting at Mrs. Donaldson-Potter, wanting to know where Ms. Wilmington was. Some word were exchanged, and it appears that Ms. Patrick dragged Mrs. Donaldson-Potter out of the Salon by her ear.” He finished, it was evident the man was trying not to snicker.

  “She’s crazy,” Reece growled as he buried his face in his hands. His soon to be wife, mother if his child, had kidnapped and assaulted one of the richest women in town.

  “She’s brilliant!” Dalton argued. That got everyone’s attention.

  “How is she brilliant? How the hell would Amber know where Sara or Logan are, and if she did, why the hell would she tell Synclair?” Lucas asked. He was tired of wasting time, they needed to go find Sara and Logan.

  Dalton shook his head. “Amber is Travis’s cousin, he’s been staying with Michael at the Ranch.” He explained as if that should clear everything up.

  “Yeah, not following how that all connects, Travis is Mayor Donaldson and Amber’s cousin, so?” Matt came to stand next to Lucas.

  Dalton huffed a frustrated sigh and looked right at Lucas, “Because if anyone knows where Travis would hide it would be Amber, nothing happens in this town that she doesn’t know about, I’ll bet Synclair figured the same thing and is going to strong arm Amber into telling her where Travis has Logan and Sara.” He finished like he was explaining something to a room full of third graders.

  “If that’s true Dalt, then Synclair is going to go after Travis,” Reece said grimly.

  “She wouldn’t do that alone right?” Matt asked looking from one brother to the next.

  “She’s pregnant, there’s no way she would take a chance with that baby.” Lucas tried to reassure Reece but deep down he knew it wasn’t true. Synclair was like a mama bear with people she loved, she also had grown up on the streets of Vegas, so he was sure it was in her realm of reasoning to go after Travis.

  “She would, she cares about Sara and Logan is a child, Synclair would do anything to protect women and children, it’s what she did at that damn shelter in Las Vegas, she’ll think she can handle it, she’s so used to being on her own she won’t want to endanger anyone else.”

  “That’s nuts,” Matt told him shaking his head in disbelief.

  “That’s love.” Dalton shot back. “Synclair might be a lot of things, but she’s not stupid, she knows how these abusers think, she’s probably our best chance at getting Sara and Logan.”

  “Great, so what are we supposed to do in the meantime, sit here and hope she checks in?” Lucas practically shouted.

  Dalton gave him a look that told him he was clearly missing the big picture. “Fuck no, we go over all the properties that the Donaldson’s own, narrow it down and start knocking down doors, if Synclair’s playing the Lone Range, then we’re fucking Tonto, and we are going to ride up and be the calvary.” Dalton finished giving each on of his brothers a hard glare.

  This was like any other SEAL mission, you identify your target, find your target and take it down, it was just that simple. His brothers could follow or get out of the way, but no matter what he was going to back up Synclair on her rescue mission.

  “Someone please tell me this isn’t happening.” Reece practically whispered.

  His brothers were smart enough to stay quiet, Lucas knew just how he felt.

  **********

  “Oh god, Oh god, answer the phone Syn!” Rachel shouted. As soon as Synclair’s voicemail picked up, she threw her phone across the room. Fearing she had just broken her phone, possibly the only way she could communicate, she jumped up and rushed across the room to retrieve.

  When she was finished inspecting it for damage she looked up to see a woman standing at her door, hand lifted to knock.

  “Can I help you?” Rachel asked, there were a lot of weird things going on today so she was wary of strangers.

  “You can. I’m looking for Synclair Patrick.” The cute, brunette woman replied smiling.

  “You and everyone else,” Rachel replied sighing.

  The woman frowned, “Is Syn in some kind of trouble?” Her dark brown eyes narrowed at Rachel.

  Rachel started to feel uncomfortable under her gaze, “When is she not?” Rachel asked trying to gauge why this woman seemed to know Synclair, she had referred to her by her nickname, which meant she had known her in Vegas.

  Realization dawned, and Rachel snapped her fingers, “You’re Taylor, right? The Bow and Arrow chick who writes books in Washington?” She asked opening the screen door to let the woman step inside.

  The woman eyed Rachel for a moment and then cautiously stepped inside. Her gaze roamed the room, it was like she was looking for a way out and she’d only just arrived. Feeling the urge to put the woman at ease, Rachel touched her shoulder.

  “It’s okay, no one’s here but me.” Synclair had told Rachel some of the details of the abuse that Taylor had suffered at the hands of her ex-husband so she wasn’t sure what would spook her.

  “Oh, it’s okay, force of habit, I always size up a room for exits and possible places that someone could hide. I hate to be caught off guard.” The woman explained.

  “You have me at a disadvantage, you know my name but I don’t know yours.”

  Rachel face palmed herself, “Of course, sorry, I’m Rachel, Rachel Hudson, my brother Reece is marrying Synclair. We had a girls night, and she told us you were coming and that you were some sort of badass with a bow and arrow or something like that.” Rachel gushed clearly embarrassed.

  “Something like that” Taylor replied slowly as if she was trying to figure out exactly what Rachel knew about her

  Motioning toward the sofa, Rachel stopped to get a look at the woman Synclair was friends with. She was a little taller than Rachel, long auburn hair down to her waist with dark eyes and tan skin. She looked incredibly fit, she was wearing tight jeans and a pink tank top that had the Victoria’s Secret logo on it, Rachel liked her already.

  Taylor eyed the young woman. She seemed harmless and if she was the young Hudson sister that Syn had told her about then she was a sweet kid. However, something was off, Rachel was fidgeting, a lot. The comments she had made when she answered the door got Taylor’s suspicions up. Why was the girl acting like she was hiding something and why was she speaking in cryptic sentences?

  Taylor wasn’t a patient person. However, she let Rachel bring her some very sweet lemonade and a few shortbread cookies. When Taylor couldn’t handle it a moment longer, she put the lemonade down loudly on the coffee table and speared the young Hudson girl with her gaze.

  “I appreciate the hospitality Rachel, I do, but I can tell something is wrong, so tell me what Syn has stepped into now so I can help.”

  Rachel’s mouth gaped like a fish, but no sound came out.

  Suddenly, someone banged on the screen door making both women jump. Taylor recovered first and walked to the front door with Rachel following behind. Sure, it wasn’t her house, but Taylor could tell something had Rachel spooked, with her protective instincts in high
gear, she stuck her hand in her pocket and patted the mace spray she always carried, just in case.

  “Reece, are you home? I came as soon as I got your message” A man shouted as Taylor approached the large screen door.

  “No, he’s not, who are you?” She demanded.

  The man with eyes the color of crystal blue water stared back at her. She had to admit he was cute. He had perfectly groomed wavy blonde hair and a strong, freshly shaven face. She would guess he was about six feet and some change, which put him a full head taller than she was.

  From her experience, it was important to size up any possible attackers. He definitely had size on her, the way his expensive shirt pulled across his thick arms told her he worked out, and she would bet he was sporting, at least, a six pack under all that cotton. She couldn’t tell from the slacks he was wearing, but if his back was as tight as his front, the man had a mighty fine ass.

  Not that she cared, she was just making observations, she didn’t swoon over men, ever. Jesus, Taylor focus, he’s just a man, and like any man is probably not worth the air he breathes.

  With common sense back in control, she cleared her throat. Asshole was checking me out just as hard as I was him, hmm, no way pretty boy, not happening.

  She was about to make a snide remark about staring when Rachel pushed past her. Before she could grab the quick moving girl, she was standing out on the porch pointing one pink manicured hand into the hard chest she had been just admiring.

  “Where’s Sara? I don’t care if you’re the Mayor Michael Donaldson, if you don’t tell me where Travis has Sara, I’ll find a bat and beat you with it.”

  Taylor smirked, well, at least, Synclair’s bat fetish has been passed on. She eyed the blue-eyed man with amusement. This guy was the Mayor? He looked like he belonged on a Chippendale’s Calendar, not a parade float. His eyes caught hers and the bastard actually smiled at her.