Kidnapping in Kendall County

by Delores Fossen

  “Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the man said, taking aim at Austin and then cursing him when he apparently didn’t have a clean shot. “Could be bad for her health.”

  Without the scrambler, Rosalie had no trouble recognizing the voice.

  It was Sonny.

  All of the events of the past eleven months started to whirl through Rosalie’s head. Was this the monster responsible for taking her daughter, or was Sonny just a hired thug? She desperately wanted to know the answers, but more than that, she wanted Austin and her baby safe.

  “The cops were watching you,” she said to Sonny. “You were in your hotel room.”

  “Was,” he corrected. “I slipped out the back.”

  Not good. The other cops in Sweetwater Springs didn’t know he was here.

  With his gun aimed, Austin ducked behind a tree about ten yards away. “Let her go,” he ordered.

  “Can’t do that. She’s coming with me for now.” Even though she couldn’t see Sonny, she felt him move slightly, maybe glancing around. “I might let her go as soon as I have the situation with her brother contained.”

  Oh, God. Seth. They weren’t going after him, too. She prayed Seth would be able to stay safe.

  “What does her brother have to do with this?” Austin asked.

  “I figure he’s nearby. Or he soon will be. Too soon for me to get out of here with both him and you on my tail. Rosalie can help with that.”

  Sonny was taking her hostage. To use her as a human shield so he could try to stop or even kill Seth and Austin.

  It was well below freezing, and her teeth started to chatter. She was shaking, her breath seemingly frozen in her lungs. Still, she had to focus on what had to be done here. And what had to be done was getting her hands on Sadie.

  “Where’s my baby?” Rosalie asked.

  “She’s nearby, too. You’ll get to see her soon enough. All you have to do is cooperate and come with me. I’ll take you both somewhere so you can live out a long, happy life.”

  She desperately wanted to believe him, but it was hard to believe a man with a gun at her head.

  Austin leaned out, shook his head. “You have no intentions of letting either Rosalie or me walk away from this.”

  Sonny lifted his shoulder. Definitely not a denial. But then, Sonny probably figured that Austin and she knew way too much to let them go. They didn’t. Well, other than knowing that Sonny was almost certainly part of the baby farms.

  “Did you shoot yourself so you’d look innocent?” Austin asked. Rosalie realized he’d moved closer.

  “No, one of my employees accidentally did that when we were trying to clear out of the second baby farm. But I thought it was a nice touch. It got me in the back of your truck that night, didn’t it?”

  Yes, it had, and on that entire drive to the hospital they’d been riding with a coldhearted monster.

  “Why did you take my baby?” she asked, not in a whisper, either. She was hoping for the sound of her voice to cover any sounds that Austin might make. Also, it might give her brother a warning that something was wrong.

  Again, Sonny looked around. “When I was working for Yancy, his wife asked me to help with an adoption. She wanted a kid, and I’d heard about an operation that dealt in black market babies. I decided to start one of my own. Two of them, in fact. But thanks to you two, I had to blow up one of the places.”

  So, Sonny was the one who’d set up the baby farms. Or at least the two near Silver Creek.

  “Yancy wanted Rosalie’s baby?” Austin asked. Again, he’d moved.

  “No, that idiot had no idea what was going on. I targeted Rosalie’s baby so if things went wrong, then Yancy would be the patsy, and the proof of it would be that he was the one who had the kid.”

  Rosalie had to clamp her teeth over her bottom lip to stop herself from screaming. “But you tried to kill Yancy at the hospital.”

  “Another nice touch, huh? Wasn’t really trying to kill him, but after that, it put Yancy at the top of your list of suspects, didn’t it?”

  It had, and Austin’s and her distrust and hatred for Yancy had made it even easier to suspect him. Of course, Sonny had been a suspect, too. For all the good it’d done them. Here they were with Sonny calling the shots.

  For now.

  Maybe Austin or even Seth could soon do something about that. Maybe she could, as well. If she managed to drop down, then perhaps that would give Austin a clean shot. Of course, if she failed, both of them could die.

  “And you continued the ruse of setting up Yancy by having us bring his files and computers,” Rosalie concluded. She wanted to learn all she could in case they needed it to put this monster behind bars. Of course, for that to happen, they needed to get that gun out of his hands.

  “Yep,” Sonny readily admitted. “I used Yancy’s computer to set up the baby farms. There are hidden files on them. Nothing that Yancy would have found, but I figured the FBI wouldn’t have any trouble. Also figured you’d bring me fake computers. No way would the FBI let something like that out of their hands.”

  Sonny was right about that, too. So, that meant this was all designed to lure Austin and her out so they could be killed. And now, she might get Seth killed, too, unless Austin could get close enough and at the right angle to stop Sonny.

  “Who has my baby?” she asked Sonny.

  “She’s safe and with one of my employees. Don’t worry. She’s been well taken care of all these months.”

  Rosalie felt Sonny’s muscles go stiff.

  “Agent Duran, you need to stay put,” he growled, “or Rosalie dies before seeing her kid. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

  The thought of seeing her baby even for a few moments caused her heart to soar. But the feeling didn’t last long. Rosalie didn’t want Sonny to kill her in front of Sadie. Her baby was too young to know what was going on, but still the nightmare might stay with her for the rest of her life.

  “Did someone adopt Sadie?” she asked, and Rosalie prayed that she could live with the answer. “Did Yancy’s ex-wife get her?”

  “No.” Sonny looked around again. “After Yancy’s marriage went south, I decided to sell the kid to another buyer, but that deal fell through. Then, things heated up with the baby farm investigation, and I figured it best if I kept the kid in case something went wrong. And it did.”

  “There’s no reason to hold on to her now,” Rosalie insisted, though she knew nothing that she said to him would do any good. He’d committed so many criminal acts that she figured his heart was untouchable.

  “Yeah, there is. As long as I have her, your badge-carrying family will back off.”

  Sweet heaven. He planned to keep using Sadie. Not that she’d expected anything less, but it turned her blood to ice to hear it spelled out.

  “Where’s Yancy?” Austin called out. He seemed close. Maybe close enough to do something.

  “In hiding.” Sonny chuckled, clearly amused about that. “All the evidence will point to him looking very guilty, and he’s trying to cover his butt. He’ll surface soon enough, I’m sure, and the FBI can arrest him.”

  Yes, with evidence that Sonny had faked. She wanted Yancy behind bars, but not like this.

  “What about Vickie?” Rosalie asked. “Was it really her in the photo, and does she have my baby?”

  “Nope to both. I was telling the truth when I said she was innocent in all of this. The photo was just to get you looking in her direction and to muddy the waters. She’s great in the sack but not very bright. I wouldn’t have trusted her to be a real part of this. Look how she ran when just a little thing went wrong.”

  That little thing involved Austin’s nephew.

  That created a new surge of rage inside her. Sonny was playing a dangerous game with innocent lives. Without thinking, s
he drew back her elbow and rammed it into Sonny’s stomach. In the same motion, she dropped to the ground, hoping that Austin had a shot.

  Cursing, Austin leaned out and fired.

  But so did Sonny.

  The shots blasted through the air.

  * * *

  AUSTIN DUCKED BEHIND the tree, barely dodging Sonny’s shot, but Austin’s own shot missed, too.

  He cursed.

  This was exactly what Austin had been trying to prevent. Rosalie being caught in the middle of gunfire. Worse, Sonny dropped down, too, trying to grab hold of Rosalie again, and in doing so it took out any chance that Austin had of a second shot.

  Austin raced toward them, trying to position himself between Rosalie and Sonny, but it was already too late for that. Sonny managed to keep hold of her, and he slung her between them.

  Using her as a human shield.

  Since Sonny didn’t have complete control of his gun, Austin went after the man’s hand so that he couldn’t aim it at Rosalie. That cost him big-time because Sonny punched him, hard. So hard that Austin could have sworn something in his head exploded, and for a few crucial seconds, it robbed him of his breath.

  That didn’t stop Austin.

  He went after Sonny again, and this time managed to land a punch of his own.

  Rosalie twisted and squirmed, trying to get out of the fray, but Austin couldn’t help her because he had his hands full with Sonny.

  “Back away from him!” someone shouted.

  Austin got just a glimpse of a muscle-bound man hurrying from the SUV. Great. One of Sonny’s hired guns, no doubt. He didn’t need this, and Austin slammed his gun against Sonny’s head so he could put an end to this before the goon made it to them.

  The bash to the head caused Sonny to fall back. But the man didn’t stay down. He reached out, latched on to Rosalie’s hair and pulled her back in front of him. He put his gun to her head again.

  Hell. That wasn’t the way Austin had wanted this to play out.

  Austin scrambled behind one of the trees so that Sonny wouldn’t gun him down. He couldn’t save Rosalie if Sonny killed him.

  “Let’s try this one more time,” Sonny snarled. “Move and she dies real fast.”

  Sonny’s breath was ragged, and his face was bleeding. Austin figured he looked about the same. Thankfully, the only bright spot in all of this was that Rosalie didn’t seem to be hurt.

  Austin needed to do something fast to keep it that way.

  “I was trying to do her a favor by letting her see the kid,” Sonny added, glancing around him again.

  “I doubt that,” Austin argued. “You’re not the do-a-favor type. I’m guessing you want Rosalie alive so you can draw Seth out. I’m also guessing that you’re afraid Seth won’t let this go once Rosalie disappears.”

  Sonny smiled. “Can’t leave a bulldog like Calder out there. While I’m at it, those other three brothers of hers will have to go, as well. Yancy’ll get the death penalty for all of their deaths. Yours, too.”

  Rosalie made a sound, anger mixed with fear, and Austin shook his head, a warning for her not to throw another elbow. This time, Sonny might just pull the trigger.

  “You had a chance to kill us the night we picked you up in my truck,” Austin reminded him.

  “That would’ve been too soon. Had to figure out first what you two knew and if you’d told anyone anything that could lead back to me. Had to keep you close. And now that I’ve figured it out, you both know way too much to keep drawing breath.”

  “We didn’t have a confirmation of who owned the baby farms,” Austin insisted. “Not until tonight.”

  “Yeah, but you would have figured it out soon enough. Agent Calder’s not the only bulldog in these woods. You would have kept coming until you got to the truth, and that truth would have put me behind bars.”

  If Austin had his way, it would do more than that. Sonny would get the death penalty because Austin knew for a fact that some of the birth mothers had been murdered at the baby farm.

  “You okay, boss?” the thug asked, coming even closer.

  “Yeah.” Sonny spit out a mouthful of blood. “Stay close but check on Hutchins. He should have been here by now.”

  Austin didn’t know the man. The name hadn’t come up in the investigation, but he guessed this was another hired gun.

  One who’d been sent to find Seth.

  Maybe Seth, Cooper and Colt would be able to evade this Hutchins and the second goon. Austin needed that to happen because he intended to do whatever it took to get Rosalie out of this.

  And he saw his chance when the hired gun walked away to go after Seth.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Sonny said, probably because he knew that Austin was about to do something. “I have another helper in the SUV. This one has some long-range shooting skills, and since I’m not too concerned now about keeping Rosalie alive much longer, my man will pull the trigger.”

  Austin made a split-second glance behind him, but as before he couldn’t see inside the SUV. With all the scheming that Sonny had done, though, it wouldn’t surprise him if several hired guns were in there.

  There was a sound to his left, maybe footsteps. Maybe Seth. However, before Austin could even look in that direction, he heard another sound.

  The SUV door opening.

  Hell. He didn’t need another guy with a gun getting in on this. But it wasn’t a man. It was a gray-haired woman, and she was clutching what appeared to be a baby in a blanket.

  “You said the baby wouldn’t be in danger!” the woman shouted. With that, she turned and ran straight for the woods.

  A man jumped out from the SUV. The rifleman, no doubt, and he volleyed glances between his boss and the woman.

  “Go after her!” Sonny shouted. “And when you find her, kill her and bring me the kid.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “No!” Rosalie shouted, and she would have tried to go after the woman if Sonny hadn’t yanked her back by her hair.

  Pain shot through her, but it was nothing compared with the pain stabbing through her heart. The woman had Sadie, Rosalie was sure of it, and if the hired gun found her as Sonny had ordered, Sadie might be hurt, too.

  And even if the woman managed to get away, it was possible that Rosalie would never see her baby again.

  That couldn’t happen.

  This had to end tonight so she could be reunited with Sadie.

  “I have to see her,” Rosalie tried again, and she fought, squirmed and did whatever she could to try to break loose of Sonny’s grip.

  “Let her go,” Austin ordered, stepping out from cover and putting him in the direct line of fire.

  Sonny immediately turned his gun on Austin. And fired. Thank God Austin got out of the way in time.

  “Sonny!” someone shouted before he could take aim at Austin again. Whoever it was, the person sounded as if he was running straight toward them.

  “Hutchins,” Sonny mumbled.

  One of his hired guns. The one who was supposed to be out there hunting down Seth. She’d hoped her brother had managed to take care of him, but apparently not.

  Did that mean Hutchins had managed to kill Seth?

  Rosalie choked back a gasp and the tears. None of that would help her now. Only escaping would do that, and then she could get the baby and find Seth.

  Her gaze connected with Austin when he looked out from the tree. Too bad they weren’t mind readers because if they could work together, they might be able to come up with a plan that wouldn’t get them both killed.

  Austin had been right about one thing. If Rosalie died, it could have devastating consequences for Sadie. Either Austin or she had to stay alive to make sure Sadie lived.

  Mercy, though, it hurt to think of losing Aust
in.

  He didn’t deserve this. He’d made her fight his own, and he was out here because of her. Because he cared for her.

  Rosalie’s feelings went a lot deeper than that.

  She was in love with him.

  And it was the worst time possible for her to realize that. Maybe she would get a chance to tell him.

  “It’s me. Don’t shoot,” Hutchins warned Sonny, and several moments later, the man reached them. He had a bulky build and was wearing a black ski mask that he’d partially lifted up on his face.

  “We got a big problem, boss,” Hutchins said. “Leon’s dead. I found him just up the road. Somebody had snapped his neck.”

  “Hell.” And Sonny repeated it. “I sent him to check on you. Where the devil is Calder?”

  Hutchins shook his head. “I don’t know. Don’t know about the other two lawmen, either. If they’re out there, they’re keeping quiet.”

  That caused Sonny to spew another round of raw profanity. “Find them. Kill them.”

  The death order had barely left Sonny’s mouth when there was a sound that Rosalie didn’t want to hear.

  A gunshot.

  Even if it was one of her brothers doing the shooting, she didn’t want the bullets fired around the baby. She also didn’t want Seth, Cooper or Colt hurt, but she knew it was possible that the shot had been aimed at any one of them.

  While he kept a firm grip on her hair, Sonny pulled her behind a tree and moved a small communicator on his coat collar so that it was closer to his mouth. “Hendricks?” he said into the piece.

  Nothing.

  Rosalie wasn’t sure, but she was guessing this was the goon who’d gone after the nanny.

  “Hendricks?” Sonny repeated not just into the communicator, but he shouted out the man’s name.

  “Won’t do any good to yell for him,” someone yelled. “I just put a bullet in him.”

  Yancy.

  What the heck was he doing here? Rosalie couldn’t see him, but judging from the sound of his voice, he was in the woods where she’d last seen the nanny and baby.

  Oh, God. Had Yancy done something to them?