Guarding the Babies

by Sandra Robbins

  Trask sat at a table across the room, and he stared at her as she walked over to where he was sitting. “Did you kill my sister and brother-in-law?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “You sure ask a lot of questions.”

  “If I’m going to die today, I want to know before I do. Did you kill them?”

  He studied her for a moment. “Yeah. I had a friend who worked at the airfield where they’d landed their plane in New Orleans. He distracted them while I slipped something in Michael’s coffee before they took off. It was a drug to make him fall asleep while flying.”

  Tears burned her eyes. “I don’t understand why you did it.”

  Willie pushed to his feet and stalked over to where she stood. He glared down at her and growled, “I’m tired of your questions.”

  “I’ll quit asking them when I get some answers.”

  Willie stared at her for a moment and then shrugged. “It was simple. Some rich hotshot wanted year-old twins. Seems like his, a boy and a girl, were killed in a car wreck, and his wife was grieving herself to death. He offered a lot of money to Wings of Hope if they could get him a replacement set. The only ones that had been born there were with your sister and brother-in-law. Greg knew they’d never give them up, and he didn’t have time to find others. He didn’t think you’d want to give them up either, so he decided on kidnapping them.”

  “I would never have let them go,” Holly hissed.

  Willie sighed. “Yeah, I know. So we had to change our plans.”

  “You’re disgusting!” Holly hissed. “How could you think I would ever want to benefit from the loss of the only members of my family I had left?”

  “It doesn’t matter now. Everything’s going to work out fine. We have the babies, and we’ll be paid well. With you out of the way, there won’t be any family to push for the case to remain active. After a while it’ll go cold. We’ll all live happily ever after.”

  “I’m warning you. You won’t get away with this.”

  Willie started to reply, but a sound from outside stopped him. He grinned at Holly as the sound grew louder, and she frowned as she identified the noise as a helicopter landing.

  Willie shook his head and laughed. “Looks like we’ve already gotten away with it. I was just waiting for Greg so we could take off, and it looks like he just arrived.”

  “He’s not coming,” a voice said from the direction of the door.

  Holly turned slowly and gasped at the sight of Julie Swanson standing in the open door. “Greg got himself shot this afternoon,” she said. “So I’m taking over now, and I don’t intend for there to be any more mistakes.”

  FOURTEEN

  Cole jumped from his car and ran in the front door of the sheriff’s office. Several deputies stood in the hall, and Brenda rose from her desk as he came in. “Cole,” she called out. “The tech guys want you in their office right away.”

  He didn’t stop, just nodded and ran down the hall. When he got to the room, he burst in and found the two tech workers hovered over a computer. They looked up, and one motioned for him to come over. “I think we found them,” he said.

  He pointed to the computer screen, where a small red triangle showed up. “Where is that?” Cole asked.

  “It’s a road that turns off Highway 66 near Sevierville. We tracked the phone, and it came to a stop here just before you came in. Do you know this area?”

  Cole scanned the screen as he tried to visualize the location. Suddenly, he knew where they were headed. Mo Calloway’s old helicopter site. That was the only place in that remote area.

  “I know where this is!” Cole shouted. “It’s a deserted helicopter site.” He turned and headed for the door. “Pin down the exact address and get a SWAT team on the way up there. I’m heading there now.”

  Without waiting for a reply, Cole took off at a run for the parking lot. He jumped in his car and peeled out onto the street. If Holly’s abductors were planning on leaving by helicopter, he didn’t have any time to waste. It had already been long enough since she and the twins were taken that they could already be long gone. There was no time to waste.

  He pressed his foot harder on the accelerator, and his car lurched forward. As he sped along the highway, he kept a lookout in his rearview mirror for the SWAT team. They shouldn’t be too far behind him since they were always ready to deploy within minutes of getting an order. Just before he turned off the highway, he caught sight of a van barreling down behind him. His reinforcements had arrived.

  Just seeing their vehicle gave him a new boost of confidence, and he said another prayer that they would arrive in time to help Holly and the twins. He couldn’t lose her now. They’d been through too much and come so far since she’d arrived home. The fear that the happiness they wanted was slipping through his fingers hit him like a punch in the stomach. He had to get to her in time.

  The turnoff for the road to Mo’s cabin came into sight, and he turned his signal light on so the driver behind would know where they were going. He slowed some but still the car felt as if it took the turn on two tires. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and guided the car back onto its side of the two-lane road that stretched before him.

  Suddenly, a whirring sound filled the air. He stared upward as a sleek helicopter passed overhead and flew in the same direction they were heading. The sight gave him renewed hope. If they were planning to transport Holly and the twins by helicopter, it was just arriving at the cabin. They weren’t too late.

  Cole kept his eyes on the helicopter’s blinking lights as he followed its path down the road. When it began to descend, he realized they were about a quarter of a mile from the house. He pulled over and jumped from his car.

  The van came to a stop behind him, and the doors burst open. Seven SWAT team members piled out onto the road. Even though they were dressed in full body armor and carried ballistic shields and assault rifles, he recognized their leader, Bruce Ivey, right away. They’d worked together on other hostage situations.

  Bruce trotted over to him and stopped. “Tell me what we’re facing here.”

  “I’m not sure. I know at least two gunmen are inside the cabin, but a helicopter just landed. There may be more armed assailants on board. These people are holding a woman and two babies hostage in the cabin. I think they may be getting ready to transport them.”

  Bruce nodded and called for one of his men, who jogged up with a motion detector in his hand. “Move in on the house and monitor the inside for movement. We’ll get in place and be ready when you give the signal that someone’s exiting.”

  The man nodded and moved off through the late-afternoon shadows.

  Quietly, Cole and the rest of the SWAT team headed toward the house but spread out in different directions as it came into sight. Two skirted the cabin to take up their posts at the back door while Cole, along with Bruce and his two sharpshooters, fanned out across the front.

  The SUV that Cole had seen on Stephen’s video was parked beside the cabin, and a helicopter sat on Mo’s old landing pad, its rotors still turning. As Cole watched, the door of the helicopter opened, and two men stepped out. He couldn’t make out who they were at this distance but continued to watch as one of them reached back inside and helped someone else to the ground.

  A gasp escaped his throat as he recognized the figure walking toward the house: Julie Swanson. For a moment, he just stared at her in disbelief. Yes, he’d been suspicious about the display of wealth from her clothes to her travel portfolio, but he’d never suspected that she’d be involved in something like this. He watched as she and the men walked into the cabin and shut the door.

  It seemed the perpetrators he’d been looking for had just all assembled in the cabin, and he and the SWAT team had to take them down. And they had to do it without injuring Holly or Emma and Ethan. The problem was he had no clue how they were going to do that.


  * * *

  Holly looked at Julie Swanson, unable to believe her eyes. “You?” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”

  Julie sighed and glanced over at Willie. “I’m here to try and straighten out the mess that Willie and Greg have made of this whole situation.”

  A small hope flared in Holly. “Does that mean you’re going to let us go?”

  Julie frowned and shook her head. “I’m afraid that isn’t an option. All I can do now is try to make sure the rest of their plan goes off without any more hitches.”

  “What do you mean? And how are you involved in all of this?”

  Julie sighed. “I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you now since you won’t be repeating what I say. Several years ago, I had a client come to me wanting to do a private adoption. They’d been turned down by all the agencies they had applied to and had decided that maybe they could pay a mother to give up her baby. They wanted me to find a child for them.”

  Holly could already see where this story was going. “So you went to Greg Richmond. He had babies. Instead of letting them be adopted through the state agency, you and he could arrange private adoptions and receive a lot of money from the adoptive parents.”

  Julie smiled. “You’re smart, Holly. That’s exactly what we did, and you’re right—we made a lot of money at it.” Her eyes suddenly glowed, and she leaned forward. “A lot of money. For the first time in his life, Greg had money to do the things he wanted to do, and I had money to travel like I’d always wanted.”

  “The pictures in your office,” Holly gasped. “You traveled to all those places with the money you got for selling babies. One thing I don’t understand, though. How much did the mothers get for giving up their babies?”

  Julie laughed. “Nothing at all. I was always quick to inform them of the things adoptive parents could provide and then tell them that it is illegal to accept payment for giving up their baby. When the parents gave us a check for the mother, it was simple to endorse it with a forged signature and transfer the funds to an offshore account. That way Greg and I could split everything the adoptive parents paid us.”

  “That’s horrible,” Holly exclaimed.

  Julie shrugged. “It didn’t hurt anybody until I had a client in Europe who offered a small fortune for a set of twins. When I told Greg about it, he wanted to follow through on the request right away. Since he didn’t have any expectant mothers with twins, he decided to try to get your sister’s babies back. I told him we’d just have to look for a mother with twins. But he didn’t listen to me. He and Willie concocted this crazy scheme to get the babies, and that’s brought us here today. Greg’s in the hospital under arrest, and I’ve had to scurry to get money transferred so I can leave the country before the cops come knocking at my door.”

  Holly’s stomach clenched at the unconcerned way Julie revealed what had led to this moment. She didn’t sound as if she’d wanted Ruth and Michael to die—but she didn’t seem especially upset about it, either. All that mattered to her was that she got her money. Holly shook her head. “I can’t believe that you, a trusted lawyer, could get mixed up in something like this. You won’t get away with it, you know. Cole will never stop looking for me or for the twins.”

  “Well, he can look all he wants, but there won’t be anything to find. The babies are going to be hidden behind the walls of a wealthy estate in Europe. I’m going to be living on an island in the South Seas, and you are going to be resting atop a mountain in the Smokies.”

  Holly’s eyes grew wide, and she tried to protest but no sound came from her mouth. She shook her head and took a step back from Julie.

  Julie turned to Willie. “Get them all in the helicopter. When we get over one of the remotest peaks, throw Holly out. Her body won’t be found there.”

  Willie grinned. “You got it.”

  Julie glared at him. “Don’t think I’m through with you. We’ve got a lot of talking to do when this is all over about the ways you messed things up.” Willie didn’t respond, and Julie turned to the other two men in the room. “Get these babies aboard, and, Willie, you bring Holly.”

  The men walked over and each picked up a car seat that the babies were still buckled into. She didn’t know how they’d slept through all that had been happening in the cabin in the last few minutes, but they had. With the sudden movement of being carried, though, they both jerked awake and howled in protest. Holly took a step toward them, but Willie grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

  “No!” he said and slapped her across the face.

  She let out a piercing scream as the blow knocked her to the floor. Willie reached down and jerked her to her feet. “Let’s go. It’s time you went for a ride.”

  Holly thought she was going to pass out as she watched the men holding the twins open the door and step outside with them. She took a deep breath and screamed again, but they were already out of view.

  * * *

  Cole watched the cabin and debated on the best way to get into the cabin. The SWAT team could easily break the door down and be inside within seconds, but that would give the abductors time to react. Which could prove deadly for Holly and the babies.

  Bruce crawled over next to where Cole lay and whispered, “I have my best sniper stationed to take out anybody coming through the front door. Do you want to wait or let us go in?”

  Cole closed his eyes for a moment and tried to decide what the best course of action was. A sudden scream from inside the cabin jerked him from his thoughts, and he stiffened. That was Holly’s voice. Had they hurt her or one of the babies?

  “Let’s go!” he hissed at Bruce and jumped to his feet.

  Before they could move, the door opened and two men emerged from the cabin. Each of them carried a car seat with one of the twins sitting in it. The babies were howling at the top of their lungs, and he could hear Holly’s voice pleading for them not to take her babies.

  Cole’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach at the pitiful sounds coming from all three of them. He started to surge forward, but before he could, two shots rang out. The men carrying the babies released their grips and fell to the ground.

  Two of the SWAT team members emerged from behind some trees to his left and raced across the yard. They scooped up the babies and disappeared back into the tree line. Cole breathed a sigh of relief that Emma and Ethan were safe, but Holly was still inside.

  “We’re the police!” Cole shouted. “Come out with your hands in the air.”

  “I don’t think so,” a voice yelled back. “If you take one step toward us, the world will be short one country-music star.”

  “You can’t get away!” Cole yelled back. “You need to give up while you still can.”

  “I don’t think so,” the man said. “We’re going to walk out of here to the helicopter. Your girlfriend is going with us as insurance that you won’t do anything.”

  “I don’t think so. You’ll kill her anyway if I let you leave.”

  “That’s a chance you’ll have to take.”

  Cole hesitated before answering. He turned to Bruce. “Are your guys still in place behind the cabin?”

  Bruce nodded. “I can send them in the back, and we’ll rush the front. That may be our best option for getting Miss Lee out alive.”

  Cole closed his eyes. What should he do? If they rushed the cabin, one of the gunmen could kill Holly before they got to her. On the other hand, if they were allowed to leave, Holly would surely die. There was only one thing to do.

  “Let’s roll,” Cole said.

  The words were hardly out of his mouth before Bruce gave the command, and Cole said another prayer for Holly’s safety as the SWAT team converged on the cabin.

  FIFTEEN

  The sound of gunshots from outside the cabin sent Holly’s captors scurrying for cover. Willie and the man who’d helped him abduct them pulled guns an
d prepared to fire. She dropped to the floor and covered her head with her arms.

  A voice from outside called out for her abductors to give themselves up, and peace flowed through her shaking body. She’d know that voice anywhere—Cole. He had come for her. She had no idea how he had found her, but she was so glad he had. And he was right outside.

  Suddenly, as if it had been planned to occur at the same time, the back door and the front door both flew open. She looked up to see men in body armor with the word SWAT across their chests rushing into the room.

  “Put your guns down!” one of the men yelled.

  Willie’s henchman dropped his immediately and raised his hands. Julie let out a startled scream and stared in disbelief at the guns trained on the room. Willie, however, stood there glaring at the officers, then slowly bent over as if he was going to lay the gun down. But he didn’t. Instead, he pressed it to Holly’s head and jerked her to her feet.

  The SWAT members took another step toward him, and Willie pressed the gun harder against her temple. “It doesn’t matter to me whether I kill her or not. I’ve got nothing to lose. So if you want this woman to live, you’ll let us walk out of here and get on that helicopter.”

  “You’re not taking her anywhere.” Holly looked toward the front door to see Cole standing there, his gun pointed at Willie.

  “Do you think you can stop me?” Willie sneered. “Your little girlfriend is my ticket out of here, and we’re leaving right now. Get out of the way, or I’ll shoot you and her both.”

  Cole’s eyes flashed, and she knew he wasn’t about to give up. He was prepared to die if it meant saving her, and she couldn’t let him do that. “Where are Emma and Ethan?” she asked.

  “They’re safe,” Cole answered. “We have them.”

  Holly sighed in relief. “That’s all that matters, then. Move out of the way, and let us leave. I’ll go with them if it means nobody else here dies today.”