JOSH

by Delores Fossen

“Grayson’s wife brought over some clothes and toiletries earlier,” Josh said, tipping his head to a small suitcase next to the door.

  Jaycee hadn’t heard their visitor or Josh up and moving around, and that unnerved her. She had to be more vigilant. Had to do more to keep herself safe.

  Starting with finding another place to stay.

  She’d need to make some calls once she had washed up and changed. And Jaycee didn’t want to think about how Josh would react to her decision. Of course, he might be a little relieved. Having her under the same roof couldn’t be any easier for him than it was for her.

  She got up, took the suitcase with the clothes and headed to the bathroom to shower and change into a loose yellow cotton maternity dress. In fact, all the clothes were maternity, but that shouldn’t have surprised her, either. Not with all the children she’d seen running around the ranch.

  Josh was on the house phone when she came out of the bathroom. He quickly ended the call, but he’d no sooner done that when his cell rang. The sound shot through the room and caused her to gasp.

  Get a grip.

  She wasn’t the gasping type, and what she needed to settle her nerves was her gun and her badge. A little bit of normalcy might go a long way toward helping her get through the rest of this day.

  “It’s Grayson,” Josh said, and he hit the speaker function on his phone. “Please tell me you have good news,” he said to his cousin.

  “Some. Two of the women, Marita and Blanca, will be headed back home today. They’re sisters, and they said their family is very poor, and their father basically sold them to a man who said he wanted them to work as maids. Instead, he took them to the baby farm where they were inseminated.”

  Josh’s grip tightened on his coffee cup. His mouth tightened, too. “Do the women know the fathers of their babies?”

  “No. But they agreed to have an amniocentesis. That’s a procedure to test the amniotic fluid, and it’ll give us the DNA of the father. Or fathers, whatever the case might be. If he’s in the system, we could get a match.”

  It was another long shot, but better than nothing. Besides, someone who would force women into surrogacy probably did have a police record.

  “The other woman will be able to leave the hospital tomorrow,” Grayson went on. “Her ex fathered her child, so no need to do DNA tests. She was hiding from the guy. Had a restraining order on him, but he kept finding her and assaulting her. So she moved to San Antonio and was living under an alias when she was kidnapped and taken to the baby farm.”

  “She won’t be going back to the ex, will she?” Jaycee asked.

  “No. We’re relocating her to a different city.”

  Good. If she’d been through anything like Jaycee had, then being rescued shouldn’t take her from the frying pan and into the fire.

  “So she and the baby are okay?” Josh asked.

  “Fine. The woman didn’t have a scratch on her.”

  Somewhat of a miracle considering their escape, and it was a dose of good news that Jaycee needed. However, she could hear a “bad news” hesitation in Grayson’s voice.

  “Did the men leave me another message?” she came out and asked.

  “Not that we’ve found.” He paused. “But we did find something else. The tech was able to recover some of the data on the laptop’s hard drive. A lot more than just Bryson Hillard’s name. It appears there are more baby farms. Maybe dozens of them scattered throughout the state.”

  Oh, mercy.

  It sickened her to think of all those women and their babies in danger.

  “According to some emails on the hard drive,” Grayson continued, “the people behind this kidnapped pregnant women who wouldn’t be immediately missed. Homeless women, runaway teens or those without families.”

  Like her.

  Judging from what Jaycee had found out the night before, her supervisor had simply thought that she’d gone off the deep end because of Josh’s shooting and had taken a long leave of absence. She had gone off the deep end. But that hadn’t been the reason for her disappearance.

  “How many women are we talking about?” Josh asked.

  “Dozens at least. Not all came from Texas. Some were illegal immigrants or those on the run from the law, and some appear to have been forced into becoming surrogates like Marita and Blanca.”

  Josh muttered some profanity. “And there were no missing persons reports filed on any of these women?”

  “A few, but not enough for any law enforcement agency to connect the dots.”

  Jaycee huffed, but she knew that unless there was a pattern, the FBI wouldn’t have picked up on it. “What about the people paying for the babies? Any info about them on the hard drive?”

  Grayson made a sound of frustration. “They’re all listed by case numbers with no personal details. We can try to match the numbers with adoptions filed during that time, but I’m betting the people who paid for these babies didn’t file papers.”

  Jaycee was betting the same thing. She took a deep breath before she asked the next question. “Were the birth mothers murdered?”

  “Don’t know yet. We don’t have identities on the women. Well, with the exception of you and the ones who were rescued yesterday.”

  She immediately thought of something. “What about the woman who was kidnapped the same time as me? She was at the Hawthorne Medical Center in San Antonio, so there should be a record of her name on the appointment schedule.”

  “I’ll check and see what I can find,” Grayson assured her. “But since these people stole your badge, it’s possible you were their primary target all along.”

  That sent a chill right through her. Heaven knows what these monsters had planned to do with her baby. And with her. But she figured they hadn’t had anything good in mind. Maybe they’d wanted to use the baby to force her into doing something illegal.

  Maybe Josh, too.

  Her baby could have become the ultimate bargaining tool, since there were a lot of things that two FBI agents could cover up or overlook in criminal investigations.

  “We’ll keep digging,” Grayson added, and he ended the call.

  Jaycee didn’t even try to hide her frustration. “That wasn’t the way I’d wanted to start the morning,” she mumbled.

  “No,” Josh quietly agreed. “But at least we have a possible lead. If we get a DNA match from Blanca’s and Marita’s babies, then we can interrogate the birth father. Or fathers. They could help us find the person who honchoed this mess.”

  Yes, it was a good lead, but it didn’t seem nearly enough considering all the lives that were at stake.

  “Coffee?” he asked, raising his cup.

  Jaycee shook her head because the smell made her a little queasy. “But I wouldn’t say no to some toast or milk. Or a doughnut.” She wasn’t hungry, but she should eat something for the sake of the baby.

  His left eyebrow lifted. “A doughnut?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been craving them in between the bouts of morning sickness.”

  But her suddenly jittery stomach wasn’t a result of morning sickness. Probably more nerves than anything else. After all, Grayson had just told them some disturbing things.

  Plus there was Josh.

  Yet something else disturbing in a totally different way. She was in a very confined space with a shirtless man whom she’d always found attractive. His jeans didn’t help, either.

  They were snug in all the right places.

  And despite the fact that she was five months’ pregnant and coming down from a horrible ordeal, she felt the heat trickle through her.

  Their gazes met.

  Held.

  And Josh gave a heavy sigh before he turned around and put two pieces of bread in the toaster. He also crossed the room, grabbed a shirt from the closet a
nd put it on. It still didn’t help. Jaycee had a much too vivid memory of how he looked without it.

  “Sorry, no doughnuts,” he said. “If it’d make you more comfortable, I repeat my offer—you can move to one of the guest rooms in the main house.”

  “With all those people? No thanks. I can call some friends.” If she still had any, that is.

  Josh stared at her. “FBI friends?”

  Jaycee shrugged. Actually, she didn’t have a lot of friends in the FBI because she often worked alone and undercover for long stretches. That didn’t give her a lot of socializing time. Ironically, before the shooting, Josh had been her closest friend, and she doubted he’d now classify her as such.

  “Look, you’ve already done so much,” she said, “and I don’t want to keep imposing on you.”

  “It’s not an imposition.” His gaze dropped to her stomach. “And I’d rather be the one protecting you.”

  A burst of air left her mouth. Not quite a laugh. “I’m a trained agent just like you. The kidnappers took my gun, but if you give me another one, I’ll be pretty good at protecting myself.”

  Oh, no. He got that mule-headed look. The one that let her know he wasn’t going to back down on this.

  “You’re a pregnant trained agent.” Even though the toast popped up, Josh ignored it and walked closer to her. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but that baby changes everything.”

  Jaycee wanted to be mule headed, too. Mercy, did she want that. But he was right. The pregnancy did change things. She’d fought her way out of plenty of bad situations, but fighting wasn’t much of an option now because it’d put the baby at risk.

  “No one will protect you like I will,” Josh added, and he jammed his thumb against his chest.

  The moment seemed to freeze, and she thought he was about to move toward her. To pull her into his arms. Jaycee wasn’t stupid and knew it wouldn’t be for a steamy kiss that her body seemed to want.

  Bad.

  But Josh looked to be on the verge of giving her something else she needed. A good old-fashioned hug.

  It didn’t happen, though, because his phone rang again, and the moment was gone. He drew in a hard breath and stabbed the button to put the call on speaker.

  “Josh,” she heard Grayson say. “I think Jaycee and you should get down here to the sheriff’s office right away. Our suspect, Bryson Hillard, just walked in. He’s got a lawyer with him, and he says he’ll talk if he can speak to one of the former hostages.”

  In other words, her.

  Jaycee pulled her breath. Waited.

  It didn’t take long for Grayson to continue. “Bryson says he knows who’s running the baby farms.”

  Chapter Seven

  “You recognize either of them?” Grayson asked Josh and Jaycee.

  Josh looked through the one-way mirror and into the interview room of the Silver Creek sheriff’s office where Bryson Hillard and his attorney, Valerie DeSilva, were seated. Both appeared to be in their mid-forties. Both wore nondescript business clothes. Bryson had salt-and-pepper hair, conservative but expensively cut. Nothing much conservative about Valerie’s hair. It was flame red, short and choppy—the style of a much younger woman.

  “Never seen them before,” Josh answered.

  Jaycee shook her head and echoed the same, her attention returning to the background report on the two that Grayson had given them when they’d first arrived at the sheriff’s office. They were all anxious to hear whatever information Bryson had, but Josh knew that Grayson needed to be armed with info so he could convince the man to talk without Jaycee’s help.

  Just in case this was some kind of ruse to get to her.

  Josh certainly couldn’t rule it out, especially since the guards knew who she was and also knew that she was in protective custody in Silver Creek. They’d left that threatening note, and if they’d been that brassy, Josh figured they wouldn’t hesitate to send someone right into the sheriff’s office so they could launch another kidnapping attempt.

  There was just one problem with that theory.

  Neither Bryson nor Valerie looked capable of kidnapping unless they had help, and lots of it. Of course, those three missing guards would be plenty of help, and if he was looking at the faces of the people in charge of the baby farms, Bryson and Valerie could have those guards waiting nearby.

  Josh was in such deep thought and way too much on edge that he nearly reached for his gun when he spotted the movement out of the corner of his eye. But it wasn’t a threat. It was one of the other deputies. She had a cup of coffee in one hand and was balancing a large box of doughnuts in the other.

  “I’m Bree,” she said to Jaycee, and she slid the doughnut box on the table. “Married to Grayson’s youngest brother, Kade.”

  Jaycee nodded. “I know the name. He’s an FBI agent.”

  Josh couldn’t help but notice that while Jaycee sounded polite, she was eyeing that box.

  “Want some?” Bree asked, obviously noticing, too. “Josh sent me a text asking me to pick up a dozen.”

  “Thanks, both of you.” And the moment Bree stepped away, Jaycee grabbed one of the doughnuts and took a huge bite. “Mercy,” she mumbled. “That’s really good.”

  And she made a sound of pleasure that had both Grayson and Josh looking at her.

  “I’ll eat something healthier later,” she added.

  That wasn’t his concern. It was the dab of sugar at the corner of her mouth. Without thinking, Josh reached out, wiped it away and then licked the sugar off his thumb.

  He should have given that some thought.

  Because even though it’d been an innocent gesture, it sure didn’t seem like it.

  “All right,” Grayson said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m going in there to see if he’ll spill something. So far, no luck. He keeps insisting that he wants to talk to one of the former hostages.”

  Grayson left, and Josh continued to read the backgrounds while trying to forget about the sugar-licking episode. Jaycee had a look, too, and continued eating.

  “Bryson owns a successful investment company,” she pointed out. “Plenty of money to put a baby farm operation together.”

  Josh tapped Valerie’s page. “Ditto for her. She’s a prominent attorney. Once served on the city council.”

  Hardly the profile of someone who would be involved with black-market babies. Still, he’d seen stranger things. And Valerie definitely had the cash to front such a business.

  Josh looked up from the pages to see Grayson walking into the interview room. “I’m sorry, but I can’t get one of the former hostages here,” Grayson explained, sounding very believable.

  But Bryson glanced in the mirror. Scowled.

  “I doubt that,” Bryson grumbled. “You appear to be a resourceful man, but obviously you haven’t understood me. I’ll only talk to one of the hostages. I need answers to some questions before I’ll tell you what I know.”

  Jaycee huffed. “He’s not buying it.” She turned to leave. No doubt to go in to the interview room.

  Josh caught her arm to stop her. Dropped his gaze to her stomach. “There’s a reason you’re craving doughnuts, and it’s the same reason you should stay put.”

  She huffed again and turned around to face him. “Look, we both know I have to do this,” she argued. She crammed the rest of the doughnut in her mouth, licked her fingers.

  And his body tightened.

  Hell. Not now.

  What the heck was wrong with him? He was acting like a teenager.

  “Are you listening to me?” Jaycee asked.

  “Not really.”

  That answer got her huffing again, but it was the honest truth. He wasn’t listening in part because his body was acting crazy, but another part was because he knew what Jaycee
was going to say, and he was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to like it.

  Her hands went on her hips, and the breath she blew out carried her scent. Or rather the sugary sweet scent, thanks to her doughnutfest.

  “Both Grayson and you will be in there with me,” she argued. “Besides, they were checked for weapons, right?”

  They had been. That didn’t mean this couldn’t get ugly. Jaycee had already been through way too much, and he hated putting her through more. And an interrogation would definitely qualify as more.

  She lifted his chin. Made eye contact with him. “This could save those women’s lives. Heck, it could save our lives. Because if we manage to close down the baby farms and arrest those guards, then the danger will be over.”

  Josh had known this was a battle he was going to lose from the moment he started it, but he’d had to try. A lot was at stake here, and he just wanted to make sure he was thinking straight. He still wasn’t certain he was, but he didn’t see a lot of options here. They needed Bryson to talk, and he clearly wouldn’t start doing that until he laid eyes on Jaycee.

  Josh had to make certain that was the only thing Bryson laid on her.

  “Don’t make me regret this,” Josh mumbled.

  The relief on her face was instant. Followed by a quick smile. In midsmile she dropped a kiss on his mouth.

  Then froze.

  “Sorry,” Jaycee immediately said. And she winced. “I just got caught up in the moment because I’ve never won an argument with you. Or maybe it’s the sugar high from the doughnut.”

  Yeah, Josh knew a little about being sorry. The kiss had been hardly more than a peck, but he’d felt it, all right. It must have made him even more stupid, because he started to think about what it would be like to kiss her for real.

  Not a peck.

  A real kiss.

  Even if the past had been settled between them—and it wasn’t—he darn sure shouldn’t be kissing someone in his protective custody. It was the fastest way to get them both killed.

  “Sorry,” Josh repeated, and he pulled way back from her. “We’ve been saying that a lot to each other.”