JOSH

by Delores Fossen

  “Nothing.” The frustration returned to Grayson’s expression. “But I need you to think. Did you see or hear anything that would give us a clue as to where they would have taken the women?”

  “No.” And she didn’t hesitate, either. “Any time I would go in the house for a checkup, I’d try to look around. Try to figure out who these men were. I don’t remember hearing or seeing anything. I’m so sorry,” Jaycee added, and her voice cracked.

  There was no telling how many nightmarish memories she had of her time as a captive. It sickened Josh to think of all those women and babies being in constant danger for months on end.

  Grayson glanced at Jaycee’s pregnant belly. Then at Josh. “I gather that you two were once...involved?”

  Josh nodded. “The baby’s mine.”

  “You think maybe that’s why Jaycee was taken? Maybe so someone would have leverage over you? The baby of two FBI agents is plenty of leverage.”

  Yeah. It was.

  Jaycee made a sound of agreement, too. “But if I was their initial target, they covered it well. I was kidnapped with another woman, and it certainly seemed as if they wanted just her. They only took me because I tried to fight back.”

  That didn’t help the throbbing pain in Josh’s chest, either. Of course, he couldn’t have expected Jaycee to stand there and do nothing. He wouldn’t have.

  Grayson released a long, weary breath. “I can get Jaycee’s statement tomorrow. Why don’t you go ahead and take her to the ranch so she can get some rest?”

  Jaycee’s eyes widened. “The ranch? With your family?” She shook her head. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

  “I have five brothers,” Grayson explained to her. “All in law enforcement. The ranch is safe, or at least it is for now. My dad’s a widower, and he’s getting married this weekend. There’ll be a lot of people in and out for the arrangements and for the ceremony itself. We’ll need to add some security when that starts happening.”

  Grayson didn’t mention those armed guards coming back for her, but they all knew it was a strong possibility. Jaycee was a dangerous loose end, and whoever was running the black-market operation wouldn’t want her around to give the cops any details about her captivity.

  “Come on,” Josh insisted, and he was thankful she didn’t argue.

  He did a thorough check of the parking lot and the street before he led her outside and to his truck. Josh didn’t see anything suspicious, but he hurried anyway and got them on the road toward the ranch.

  “I need to remember something,” Jaycee murmured. “Anything that’ll help us find those women.”

  Since she’d been held for nearly four months, there were a lot of memories and details to sort through. “Did you ever see the laptop that was recovered from the rubble?”

  She stayed quiet a few moments. “Yes, on the kitchen table about two weeks ago. I can’t be sure it was the same one, but I remember seeing one there.”

  Maybe that meant the laptop had been at the house long enough for it to contain something to blow this case wide open.

  “What about the checkups you had?” he asked. “Did the same person do them each time?”

  “Yes. Caucasian male, about six feet tall, 170 pounds, light brown hair. He always wore a surgical mask, but if he hasn’t altered his hair, I think I could pick him out of a photo lineup.”

  It’d be a bear to sort through all the doctors in the state, but Josh made a mental note to ask the analysts at Quantico to work on it. They might get lucky.

  “You know if the baby’s a boy or girl,” she said.

  The out-of-the-blue comment threw him for a moment. But Josh just nodded. “Why? You want to know?”

  She shook her head. Groaned softly. “This seems crazy, huh? Me pregnant with your baby.”

  Yeah, it did. Of course, when they’d made the baby, it was before the shooting, when they were still on good terms. They weren’t on good terms now, but like the flashbacks he’d been having, Josh was going to have to put that aside, too.

  “I’m scared of you,” Jaycee went on. “Scared you’ll try to fight me for custody or something.”

  Again, the comment threw him, and he wasn’t sure it was a good thing to have that possibility out in the open like this. Especially since he had plenty of other things to work out in his head.

  “I want to be part of the baby’s life,” he settled for saying. It was a safe response. And an honest one. He might want more than just a part, and while he didn’t say that aloud, it seemed as if Jaycee picked up on it.

  She swallowed hard. “And that’s what scares me. You have a normal life. Good roots and a law-abiding family. I don’t have any of that.”

  She didn’t. Both her parents had served hard time for an assortment of crimes, and he’d heard that Jaycee had been brought up in foster care. His parents had divorced when he was a kid, and his mother had left, but it wasn’t the same. So yeah, by her standards he did have a normal life.

  Well, except he was suffering from PTSD and might never recover. That wouldn’t look good on a custody challenge if that was what he decided to do.

  He took the final turn to the ranch, and Jaycee got an immediate glimpse of his “normal” life. There were now six houses on the grounds, assorted barns, outbuildings and miles and miles of pasture for the horses and cattle raised on the ranch.

  “Five of my cousins had houses built after they got married and started families of their own,” he explained. “My other cousin, Mason, lives in the main house with his wife and dad.”

  “The one who’s getting married this weekend.”

  “That’s right. Boone Ryland. He’s marrying a former deputy, Melissa Garza. She retired recently, and that’s how I got the job.”

  Jaycee made an idle uh-huh sound, but her attention wasn’t on anything he’d pointed out, but rather the children in the fenced playground on the side of the main house.

  “There’s so many of them,” she whispered. “It looks like a day care.”

  It did. “They’re all kin. Last count, my cousins have nine offspring, and Mason and his wife have one on the way.”

  And at the moment it seemed that all nine were out playing while a few of their moms watched.

  Josh slowed when he reached the playground. The moms all waved. One of the kids, Kimmie, who was four years old, saw him and blew him a kiss.

  “The little red-haired girl seems to like you,” Jaycee mumbled.

  She did. Though Josh couldn’t understand why. He’d never been comfortable around kids, and they seemed to be uncomfortable around him. All except for Kimmie. That gave him a little hope that his own child might feel the same way.

  He drove past the playground to the back part of the east pasture to a weathered-looking barn and pulled to a stop in front of it.

  “You live here?” Jaycee asked, sounding skeptical and surprised.

  Another dose of his version of normal. “The top floor’s been converted into an apartment. But if you like, I can get you a guest room in the main house.”

  She glanced back in the direction of the children and their moms. Then the barn. “Your place will be fine.”

  Josh bit back a smile. Barely. That’d been his reaction when he’d first returned home. “The kids grow on you,” he confessed.

  At least that’s what he’d heard anyway.

  He led her up the side stairs to the studio-style apartment. Even though the barn was isolated, it still had all the conveniences of a real house.

  Jaycee paused in the doorway, her gaze moving over the room. But there wasn’t much to see. Other than the bathroom, it was just one big open space, with the modest kitchen and sitting area on one side and his bed on the other. There were clothes scattered on the floor. Dishes in the sink. Just the way he’d left it when he’d go
ne to work earlier.

  “You haven’t been sleeping well,” she commented. Jaycee tipped her head to the unmade bed. The covers were in a tangled heap. His prescription pain meds were on the nightstand.

  “Sometimes,” Josh settled for saying.

  He went in, too, shutting the door behind them, and he tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter before he set the security alarm. A first for him since the ranch had always felt so safe, but nothing felt safe enough now.

  “A security system in a barn?” she murmured.

  “Yeah. Mason had it installed a few years ago after some intruders managed to get onto the grounds. Most of the buildings have security.”

  That put some renewed fear on her face.

  “It’s all right,” he assured her. “It was nothing recent. Nothing to be concerned about.”

  But of course, they were both still concerned.

  Jaycee inched across the room to the huge bay window at the far end of the room. It was late afternoon, and the butter-colored sun hit her just right to spotlight her.

  Josh felt that punch of heat.

  A punch he definitely didn’t want to feel but, like the other things going on in his head today, he couldn’t seem to push this one aside.

  “Should we try to clear the air?” Jaycee asked with her back to him.

  “No.” And he didn’t have to think about it. No way did he want to discuss the shooting with her. Besides, they were well past the air-clearing stage.

  She turned, met his gaze. “Then at least let me say I’m sorry.”

  He didn’t want to hear it, but it would have been petty to blast her for an apology that he couldn’t accept. Josh was still trying to figure out what to say when she crinkled her nose and slid her hand over her belly.

  “Are you okay?” he quickly asked.

  “It’s just the baby kicking.”

  It didn’t seem to be a painful experience, and she certainly didn’t ask Josh to share it. Instead, she went to the bed and started fixing the covers.

  “I think I’ll take a nap, if you don’t mind,” she said.

  “Don’t mind at all.” And he went to the bed to help her straighten the sheets. To say this was an awkward moment was a huge understatement. Beds and Jaycee were never a good idea, even when it was the only option they had.

  Thankfully, he had an immediate distraction. His phone made a soft dinging sound to indicate he had a text. Josh pulled it from his pocket and saw Grayson’s name on the screen.

  This probably wasn’t good news. And it wasn’t short and sweet, either. It had an attachment. Grayson started by saying the reason he didn’t call was because he hadn’t wanted to wake Jaycee in case she was sleeping.

  But there was a lot more than that in the message.

  “You know the name Bryson Hillard?” Josh asked, reading through it.

  Jaycee repeated the name, shook her head. “Never heard of him. Why?”

  “The tech found his name on the laptop they recovered from the house.”

  Another headshake. “Who is he?”

  “A wealthy San Antonio businessman. No criminal record. Grayson plans to bring him in for questioning first thing in the morning.”

  “I want to be there,” she insisted.

  Josh didn’t try to talk her out of it. Heck, he wanted to be there, too. Because this was personal now. The idiot responsible had put his unborn child and countless others in danger, and if this Bryson Hillard had anything to do with it, Josh wanted to know. And confront him.

  He scrolled through the rest of the email, and the reading came to a jarring halt when he saw the last sentence.

  Hell.

  He repeated the mental profanity when he opened the attachment.

  “Once I take a nap,” Jaycee said, obviously not noticing his change of expression, “I’ll make some calls and find another place to stay.”

  Josh finished reading the message before he went to the window and closed the blinds.

  When he turned around, Jaycee was waiting, her mouth slightly open, and she had a white-knuckle grip on the bed post. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Josh debated how much he should tell her and decided she had to know the truth. “You can’t leave,” Josh told her. “You’ll have to stay here for the night, because those missing guards are looking for you. They left you a message nailed to the door of your old apartment.”

  He walked closer and held up his phone for her to see the message that one of the deputies had photographed.

  Jaycee’s gaze darted over the words, and she pressed her trembling fingers to her mouth. “Oh, God.”

  Chapter Six

  The images kept coming at Jaycee in the nightmare. Images of the explosion. Of their escape and the armed guards.

  Especially of the women who hadn’t been lucky enough to get away.

  When she could take no more of those brutal images, Jaycee forced herself to wake up, and she jackknifed to a sitting position.

  And nearly smacked right into Josh.

  He wasn’t in the sleeping bag on the floor, which was the last place she’d seen him before she dozed off. He was there right next to the bed, leaning over her. His hands were lifted as if he were about to give her a hug. But the look in his eyes was pure concern.

  “I was about to wake you,” he said. “You were having a bad dream.”

  Yes, and it’d been a doozy, no doubt spurred on by the message the guards had nailed to the apartment door. Just two little sentences, but it was the stuff of nightmares and a serious guilt trip.

  Agent Finney, you sealed those women’s fates when you escaped. Thanks to you, they’ll all soon be dead.

  It shouldn’t have surprised her that the kidnappers had addressed her as Agent Finney. She’d already learned that they knew who she was. It was the other part of the message that had caused the tightness in her chest. And the nightmares.

  Thanks to you, they’ll all soon be dead.

  She had no doubt that these men would kill in retaliation, but she prayed they wouldn’t harm the women until they’d delivered their babies. That would give Josh and her some time to find and rescue them.

  “Any sign of the men or the hostages?” she asked, and Jaycee held her breath, waiting for Josh’s answer. She didn’t dare ask if any bodies had been found, because she wasn’t sure she could take the answer.

  “None.” Josh put down his hands but didn’t move off the bed. He stayed right there, looming over her.

  And he was naked.

  Jaycee did a double take.

  Okay, not naked. Just shirtless.

  She had a good view of not just those toned abs and pecs but also the scar. It was several inches long and slashed across his otherwise perfect body. Even though it was well healed, she figured the ashy white line would never go away.

  The memory of it certainly wouldn’t.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled, following her gaze. “I was changing when I heard you call out my name.”

  She had? Jaycee didn’t remember saying his name, but Josh had certainly been in the nightmare. This time, instead of getting her and the three other women to the truck, he’d been lying in a pool of blood.

  Yes, definitely a nightmare.

  She didn’t want to be the reason that he took another bullet, but it had come too close to happening yesterday. Too bad she couldn’t distance him from all of this, but she knew what his response would be if she even tried.

  No way.

  And she couldn’t blame him. If their situations had been reversed, she would have wanted to keep him close, too. To protect him from those note-leaving guards who seemed to enjoy tormenting them.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked, examining her eyes, then her face.


  His attention dropped lower, and that was when she realized the bulky T-shirt that he’d lent her had fallen off her shoulder to expose a lot of her left breast. And there was a lot more to her breasts these days, since the pregnancy had made them fuller.

  Jaycee quickly fixed the shirt situation, and it was her turn to mumble that she was sorry. Not that Josh would have found her attractive anyway, what with her pregnant belly just beneath those fuller breasts.

  But she immediately rethought that.

  There was indeed some heat in his cool blue eyes. Of course, there’d always been heat between them. That wasn’t their problem. Their problem was the scar on his chest, and since she was responsible for that, it would always stand between them.

  “Yeah,” he muttered as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. And he got up, went to the kitchen area and poured himself some coffee.

  “Does it still hurt?” Jaycee asked. “The scar,” she clarified when he gave her a puzzled look.

  “Sometimes. There was some muscle damage.” And with that tiny bit of info, he turned away. Everything in his body language indicated that the subject was off-limits.

  Jaycee huffed, looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was 7:00 a.m.

  Good grief. Where had the time gone?

  She’d fallen asleep shortly after eight, which meant she’d really racked up some serious snoozing time. Of course, this was the first morning in months that she hadn’t woken up as a captive.

  Well, a real captive.

  She certainly wasn’t a free woman, not as long as those men were at large. She’d essentially have to stay in hiding until they were caught. Or do something to catch them herself. Jaycee was leaning toward the latter, but she wasn’t sure how to go about that.

  “I talked to your supervisor a little while ago,” Josh went on. “He officially put you on a leave of absence so we’d have time to sort this out. The FBI will assist with the investigation any way they can.”

  “That’s good.” After the danger was over, she’d have a job waiting for her. One less thing to worry about.