JOSH

by Delores Fossen

  Since the last time Josh and she had been together.

  Jaycee levered herself up a little so she could make eye contact with him. She wanted him to see the determined look on her face when she gave him an out that he obviously wanted. He’d certainly wanted one five months ago.

  “This doesn’t have to mean anything,” she said. There. It was the perfect out.

  Except she didn’t get quite the reaction she’d thought she would from him. Josh frowned. “I was about to ask you to marry me.”

  She sucked in her breath so fast that Jaycee got choked on it. Jaycee couldn’t even repeat what he’d said, much less answer it. “You’ve lost your mind,” she managed to say after several moments.

  “Probably. But neither of us had the chance to be raised by two parents. We could give that to her...our child.”

  Jaycee froze again. Josh was really throwing the surprises at her tonight.

  “It’s a girl?” she asked.

  But he didn’t confirm or deny it. “You said you didn’t want to know.”

  “I said I didn’t want to know right then, when I was ready to jump out of my skin. I don’t feel that way now.”

  He only shook his head and gave her a naughty-boy smile. “Just consider it a slip of the tongue. Now, back to my proposal—”

  “My answer’s no,” Jaycee interrupted.

  That brought him to a sitting position, and every trace of his smile vanished. “No?”

  “No,” she repeated. She sat up, too, and looked him straight in the eyes. “We can both raise our daughter, or our son,” Jaycee amended, “and we can do that without being married.”

  “How? With me here and you over in San Antonio? I know it’s not that far, but sooner or later you’ll want to go back to work.”

  Yes, and she’d thought Josh would do the same. “Does that mean you’re staying here in Silver Creek?”

  “Possibly. Probably,” he amended several seconds later. “The deputy job feels right, you know. So does being around family.”

  No, she didn’t know, and her silence must have told Josh that he’d hit a nerve. “You love your job as an agent,” he added.

  “Do I?” She hadn’t intended to say that aloud, but with it out there, she just continued to bare her soul that she probably should keep covered. “I always thought I had to work twice as hard to prove myself.”

  “Because of your parents,” he finished for her. “But you love it?” And that time it was a question.

  “Parts of it. Like finding justice for people who might not get it any other way.” That was what she’d always believed, but she slid her hand over her stomach.

  The baby had changed everything.

  It had changed her.

  Jaycee couldn’t see herself kissing her baby goodbye each morning while she went out and dodged bullets for the rest of the day.

  When had this happened? When had she turned into something she’d always believed she wouldn’t become? A soon-to-be mother. One who’d just minutes earlier offered Josh joint custody. Apparently, a good round of sex had caused her to have a dull brain, because she hadn’t even made up her mind about that.

  “I’ll look for a different job,” she finally said. “Maybe one here in town so that distance wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Marriage might make things easier.”

  “Or harder,” she argued. Jaycee huffed. “The sex will only take us so far if we stay under the same roof. Sooner or later, we’d have to deal with the issues that drove us apart five months ago.”

  He stared at her. Didn’t dispute that. Nor did he verbally withdraw his proposal.

  However, Jaycee could see the withdrawal in his eyes.

  She could see the pain, too, and she was responsible for a lot of that. Since she doubted he wanted to discuss that pain, she brought up the other bombshell he’d dropped.

  “So is it a boy or a girl?” she asked.

  He opened his mouth, and Jaycee thought she might finally get an answer to her question.

  But she didn’t.

  His phone rang, and after she saw Grayson’s name on the screen, she knew it was a call he’d have to take. Thankfully, he put it on speaker so she could hear.

  “The blood tests on Sierra’s baby just came back,” Grayson started, “and Bryson’s not the father.”

  Jaycee shook her head. “They can determine that from blood tests?”

  “They can if they know the blood types of the parents. Sierra’s is type A, and Bryson’s type O. That means the baby has to be either A or O to be their child, but the baby’s type B. The baby had to have gotten that blood type from her biological father.”

  And that was something they might never find out. Well, unless Sierra could figure out how to use it to her advantage. “So Sierra faked the amnio test results?”

  “Looks that way, and Bryson’s not going to be too happy about it.”

  “He knows?” Josh asked.

  “Not yet. I’m calling him next. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

  “Bryson’s going to be furious,” Jaycee mumbled, but she was thankful that the man wouldn’t get custody of the child. Still, she wasn’t sure the baby would fare much better with Sierra. Or even the real birth father.

  And speaking of babies, that reminded Jaycee of what Josh and she had been discussing before Grayson’s call. The sex of their own baby.

  “I want to know,” Jaycee insisted. But again, no answer.

  The lights went out, plunging them into total darkness.

  * * *

  JOSH WENT STILL for several seconds. And listened. Waiting for the power to come back on.

  It didn’t.

  It wasn’t unusual for the electricity to go off during storms, but there was no storm outside. Not the kind created by Mother Nature anyway.

  He got up from the bed and dressed. Fast. Jaycee did the same, and he hurried to the window to look out. The main house was dark, too, and so were the exterior security lights and Grayson’s house. So not just a power outage at his place but what appeared to be the entire ranch.

  His phone rang, and he reached for both it and his gun. “Grayson,” he answered after seeing his name on the screen. “What’s going on?”

  “Not sure, but Gage and I are heading out to check on it now. Stay with Jaycee. The security system will kick over to battery power so we should know if someone breaches the fence or the houses.”

  Including his apartment, since it was on the same security grid.

  Josh hated to put his cousins in possible harm’s way again, but protecting Jaycee had to be his priority, so he’d definitely stay put.

  And keep watch.

  Jaycee did the same on the other side of the window after she took his gun from the top of his fridge.

  “I don’t see anyone. Do you?” she asked.

  No more heat in her voice. Just fear that caused her words to tremble a little. Something he hated to hear because lately fear had been there way too often.

  He shook his head. Kept watching. And not just the area in front of the barn. Josh watched the sides, too.

  Of course, he had one big blind spot because there were no windows at the back of his apartment. If anyone did come in from the pasture or the back road, he wouldn’t be able to see them until they got to the exterior stairs that led up to his place.

  He saw some movement near the main house. Ranch hands, probably. They didn’t head his way but fanned out, staying close to the house. No doubt looking for anyone who might be a threat. Too bad there were plenty who could fall into that threat category since there was still a decorating crew on the grounds.

  Jaycee was breathing through her mouth now, her breath fogging up the glass. Thanks to the moonlight, he could see her face. Could see the
terror there and the death grip she had on the gun.

  Josh was about to reassure her that it was probably nothing.

  But he saw something.

  Or at least he thought he did.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, her gaze frantically searching the grounds below.

  Josh didn’t answer. He focused all his attention near the stairs where he thought he’d spotted some kind of movement, but no one was there. At least no one in his line of sight.

  However, there were plenty of places for someone to hide.

  He kept watching. Kept waiting. And he cursed the stress that Jaycee had to be feeling by now. If it was only partially as high as his, then it was too much. Not just for her but for the baby.

  Just when he thought he could release the breath that he’d been holding, Josh saw it again. The shadow at the base of the stairs. He hoped it was just the moonlight playing tricks with his eyes and the wooden railing.

  No such luck.

  The shadow moved again.

  And he saw that it was a man dressed all in black. He also got a glimpse of the gun he was holding.

  One of the guards from the baby farm, no doubt.

  “Move away from the window,” Josh ordered Jaycee. “And get on the floor.”

  While she hurried to do that, Josh took out his phone to call Grayson, but the man in black starting running up the stairs.

  He wasn’t alone.

  There were two others following him.

  “Get under the bed,” Josh told Jaycee. No time to do much else.

  He could hear the footsteps thundering on the stairs, and he pivoted and took aim at the door.

  Just as one of the men kicked it in.

  There was the cracking sound of the wood, and the door slamming into the wall. Then the security system. Not a blare yet, but a steady beeping sound to give him time to punch in the code to stop the alarm from going off. Josh wouldn’t do that. He wanted the alarm. Wanted everyone on the ranch alerted that he had an intruder.

  Josh held his fire, waiting for them to step inside.

  But that didn’t happen.

  Through the frantic beeps of the security system, he heard another sound of something metal hitting the floor. Unfortunately, this sound was familiar.

  A tear-gas canister.

  Not just one of them but three.

  It didn’t take long, just a few seconds, for the milky-white gas to start billowing through the room. And to reach Jaycee and him. They started coughing, and Josh’s eyes burned like fire. He couldn’t see, and he couldn’t risk shooting because he didn’t want to hit Jaycee.

  The alarm came. Full blast. The sound vibrated through the room and through his head.

  Josh ran to Jaycee, groping to find her in the darkness. He tried to shield her with his body, but he couldn’t stay standing. The coughing and burning took over, and he couldn’t catch his breath. He had no choice but to drop to his knees.

  He heard movement to his right. Tried to take aim at the dark figures moving through the cloud of gas. He got just a glimpse of one of them wearing a mask.

  Before the guy bashed the butt of a rifle against Josh’s head.

  The pain exploded through him, and even though he tried to fight back, he dropped like deadweight onto the floor.

  Jaycee made a sound. A strangled scream that he heard even over the piercing alarm. Josh tried to get up. To fight back so he could protect her. But another blow to his head put him right back down on the floor.

  A shot blasted through the room, causing his fear to snowball out of control. “Jaycee?” he managed to say.

  But she didn’t answer.

  Oh, God.

  Had she been shot? Or was she the one who’d done the firing?

  Josh couldn’t tell, but he heard another clanging sound and got a glimpse of a gun falling to the floor next to him. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought it was the same gun that Jaycee had been carrying.

  “No!” Jaycee said through the coughing and wheezing. And she just kept repeating it.

  One of the mask-wearing men scooped her up, giving Josh a hard kick to the chest in the process. Another jolt of pain, but despite the searing pain and the tear gas, he didn’t stay down. He fought to get up and stumbled across the room toward the still-open door.

  He had to get to her.

  Had to stop these men and save her.

  Though it seemed to take an eternity, Josh made it to the doorway. And he took aim. But the men had already made it all the way down the stairs and were heading toward the rear of the barn.

  “Stop!” Josh yelled. He knew they wouldn’t listen, but he hoped to alert some of the ranch hands. There were several already running his way.

  He was dizzy, still fighting to breathe and see, but Josh got down the stairs. Running as fast as he could. But he heard two more sounds that he didn’t want to hear.

  Jaycee’s scream.

  And the engine of a vehicle starting up.

  There were several vehicles parked back there for the ranch hands to use, but he doubted any ranch hand was behind the wheel. No.

  It was one of the guards.

  Josh took aim, praying he’d be able to shoot out the tires. But the truck didn’t come his way. He caught just a glimpse of the bloodred taillights as the truck sped across the pasture.

  With Jaycee inside.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jaycee fought as if her life depended on it.

  Because it did.

  Her life, the baby’s and Josh’s were all hanging in the balance. She’d seen the way the goon had kicked Josh and bashed him with a gun. Jaycee prayed he wasn’t hurt. Or worse. And while she was praying, she added one for her to get away from these monsters.

  It wasn’t working.

  No matter how hard she fought or how loud she screamed, it didn’t help. The hulking scumbags just held on to her and shoved her into a truck a split second before it sped away. They peeled off their gas masks, tossing them on the truck floor, but it was hard to see their faces because they were covered in camouflage paint.

  She kept blinking her eyes, trying to focus even though they were still stinging and watery from the tear gas. But she finally got just a glimpse of Josh in the side mirror. He was running toward her like a madman, and he had his gun aimed but didn’t shoot.

  Couldn’t.

  Because he wouldn’t risk hitting her.

  Her heart went to her stomach as the truck drove away and Josh disappeared from sight. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t go through this again.

  She tried to push aside the fear and the dread and concentrate on what she could do. Not much with three armed goons squeezed into the truck with her. It was a two-seater vehicle, and one of the guys was in the back, a gun pointed at her head. She was on the front seat sandwiched between the other two.

  Jaycee reached between the driver and her, hoping to snag a weapon he had in his pocket, but the other two jerks stopped her before her hand even made it to the man. The one on her right cursed her, calling her a bad name, and he grabbed the seat belt and buckled her up.

  “Who are you and what do you want?” she demanded, and Jaycee hoped she sounded like an FBI agent and not a terrified pregnant woman.

  None of them answered. In fact, the two in the front seat didn’t even spare her a glance. The driver had his attention on the rocky dirt road, and the one in the passenger’s seat was looking in the side mirror. No doubt looking for whoever would follow them.

  And someone would follow.

  Josh, no doubt, and she prayed he didn’t get himself killed while trying to rescue her again.

  The goon in the passenger seat didn’t take his eyes off the side mirror, but he made a call. Because he shelte
red his hand over the phone, Jaycee couldn’t see the numbers that he pressed in, and she didn’t hear who answered over the noise of her heartbeat crashing in her ears. However, she did hear his single-sentence response.

  “We have her.”

  So none of these three were in charge. They were just minions for the person who was no doubt responsible for the baby farms.

  Jaycee couldn’t go back there.

  She looked around the cab of the truck for anything she could use as a weapon. The discarded gas masks were on the floor, and if she could grab one she could wallop one of them with it. Of course, the other two would just stop her attack.

  Or they might crash.

  A crash might get her free of them, but it was a huge risk to take.

  So what could she do to get away from them?

  Normally, she’d try negotiation, but Jaycee seriously doubted that would work with these three. No. They were on a mission to take her to someone who would do heaven knows what with her baby and her.

  She had a very short list of things she could try to get herself out of this mess. And next up was some old-fashioned deception. She clutched her stomach and moaned as loudly as she could.

  “The baby,” she yelled. “Oh, God. The baby! I think I’m miscarrying.”

  Just as she’d hoped, that got their attention. The two in the front seat exchanged concerned glances, and the goon on her right took out his phone to make another call.

  “She’s making a fuss about the baby,” he said to the person on the other end of the line. “I’m pretty sure she’s faking it, but better get the doctor out there just in case.”

  Jaycee wished she could reach through the line and crush the person her captor was talking to, because he or she had almost certainly orchestrated all of this. She seriously doubted she’d get to see the culprit though because this dirtbag was a coward, letting the hired muscle do the kidnapping.

  The guy put his phone away again. And he cursed. For a moment Jaycee thought she was the reason for the renewed profanity, but she followed his gaze to the side mirror.

  There were headlights behind them in the distance.

  It was an SUV, and it looked like the one that’d been parked behind the barn.