by Barb Han
“Well, if I have to have a child out there, this little guy isn’t a bad one to have,” Dallas said. “You hungry?”
“Starving,” she said. “I need to feed Jackson and put him down for a nap first.”
“What sounds good?” Dallas asked, ignoring her comment. He might not be able to take care of Jackson on his own, but he could order lunch.
“A hamburger and fries,” she said, making a little mewling sound.
Dallas remembered hearing a similar one earlier that morning while they’d made love. He cracked a smile, thinking how much he’d like to hear it again.
* * *
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, the door to the guest room opened a crack. Kate pushed up to a sitting position, careful not to wake Jackson.
“Thought you’d want to know that Stacy’s going home this morning,” he said in a whisper.
“That’s great news,” Kate said. “Or maybe not. I’m worried about her being home alone.”
“I’m sending Reece to stay with her just until this case is resolved,” he said, and then his expression sobered. “I got a text from Tommy that Seaver has been picked up and is being brought into the station. From what I’ve been told, he’s not real happy about it. Janis is on her way over to stay with the baby. I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”
Kate kissed her son, got dressed and met Dallas in the kitchen.
He walked up to her, gaze locked on hers, cradled her neck with his right hand and pressed a kiss to her lips.
“There,” he said, after pulling back. “That’s a better way to start the day.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” she said, smiling. “I missed you last night.”
He kissed the corners of her mouth as a soft knock sounded at the door.
“I’ll get the coffee.” Kate had already noticed the travel mugs on the counter.
Dallas opened the door for Janis.
“Is my baby sleeping?” she asked.
“Yes. But probably not for much longer.” Kate filled mugs and brought them with her into the living room.
“Then I’ll read quietly. Is he in the guest room?”
Dallas nodded as he took his mug from Kate. “Ready?”
“Let’s do this,” she said.
“We’ll take my brother’s Jeep. Colin drove it over this morning for us,” Dallas said.
He had a big family. She’d met Tyler so far. She wanted to get to know the others, too.
As she said goodbye to her son and hauled herself into the Jeep, Kate wondered what it must’ve been like growing up in such a large family. It had been only she and Carter as children. Maybe that was why his recent closeness with their mother seemed like such a betrayal.
Dust kicked up on the road, which was barely visible in the predawn light.
“We’re going to exit on the east side of the ranch, near Colin’s place. He’s similar in height and build, so I’m hoping no one will recognize me. You might want to get in the backseat and lie on your side until we clear the area safely.”
Kate unbuckled her seat belt and climbed into the rear. “Tell me when to duck.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The ride to the sheriff’s office went off without a hitch. Dallas’s plan to throw off whoever might be watching by switching vehicles seemed to be working, and Kate finally breathed a sigh of relief when they pulled into the parking lot.
Facing Seaver had her nerves on edge, knowing he was somehow involved if not completely behind the abduction attempt.
Tommy met them as soon as they walked through the door. “He’s confessed to everything,” he said.
“What?” Kate could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“We’re making arrangements for Seaver to turn state’s evidence against Raphael Manuel,” the lawman added, ushering them into his office. “Manuel was Susan’s boyfriend. We connected him using the sketch you gave us yesterday.
“The man you identified is a known criminal who’s wanted for murder in New Mexico and Texas. And Seaver confessed that he happens to be the father of Susan’s child.”
Kate’s head spun as she tried to wrap her mind around the information coming at her at what felt like a hundred miles an hour. It occurred to her that while Dallas was in the clear, her son’s situation still hung in the balance. Susan and this man could be Jackson’s parents.
“You know this for certain?” Dallas asked.
“One hundred percent,” his friend declared. “There’s no way you fathered Susan’s child.”
The paternity-test results would prove that, but Dallas was relieved not to have to wait. “What about Susan?”
“Found out from the marshal who will handle Seaver that she is safe and tucked far away until the trial,” Tommy said. “She broke off her relationship with Manuel after she caught him engaging in criminal activity, and made a desperate call to you. The Feds have been building a case ever since. With her and Seaver’s testimony, Manuel will go away for a long time.”
“How is Seaver involved?” Dallas asked.
“Manuel had his henchmen kidnap babies, but he learned from Harold Matthews that some of the adoptions were kept off the books at Safe Haven. Manuel tracked several to Seaver and threatened to kill the lawyer’s family if he didn’t help locate his son.”
“And he had worked with me and Jackson,” Kate said quietly.
Both men nodded.
“Which accounts for the change in MO,” Dallas said.
“Seaver is deathly afraid of guns and he didn’t want to take the chance that someone would get killed. The assignment was to take the babies and test them, not hurt them or their mothers,” Tommy explained.
“So, Seaver arranged Jackson’s abduction,” Dallas said.
“And admitted to setting up Allen to throw us off the trail,” Tommy stated.
“Which almost worked,” Kate mused.
“Where’s Manuel?” Dallas asked.
“We don’t know. The marshal is processing a warrant right now so they can pick him up.”
“They have to locate him first,” Dallas said.
Tommy’s cell buzzed. “Hold on. I need to take this.”
Dallas’s arms were around Kate, and for the first time in a long time, she felt a glimmer of hope.
And then Tommy looked at her with an apologetic expression. Her stomach dropped.
“Manuel must’ve followed Seaver’s trail to your brother. Carter has been abducted.”
“What?” Kate’s heart sank. This could not be happening. She’d spoken to him just yesterday. Carter had to be fine.
The only thing keeping her upright was Dallas’s arms around her. Her head spun and she could barely hear the quiet reassurances he whispered in her ear.
“We have to find him,” she said, her knees almost giving out.
“They want Jackson,” Dallas said, holding her tight. “They won’t hurt Carter.” His words wrapped around her, kept her from succumbing to the absolute panic threatening to take her under.
She gasped. “My phone. What if Carter tried to call? I have to get to my phone.”
“Where is it?” Dallas asked.
“In the diaper bag at the ranch.” Hold on. She could check her messages from anywhere.
Dallas must’ve realized what she was thinking, because he made a move for his own cell. “Try this.”
She put the call on speaker.
Carter’s voice boomed into the room. “Kate, don’t do anything rash. He wants Jackson.”
A male voice she didn’t recognize urged Carter to tell the truth.
Her brother hesitated. “He says he’ll kill me if you don’t deliver Jackson to one of his men.”
The line went dead.
The automatic message system indicated that the call had come in at four o’clock that morning.
“Can you trace it?” Kate asked Tommy.
“We’ll do our best. Manuel most likely has a program to scramble his signal, though,” the lawman conceded.
&nb
sp; “They’re somewhere local,” Dallas said. “Manuel would have brought Carter here.”
“What makes you so sure?” Tommy asked.
“This guy is desperate to find his son and he’s narrowed his search down to this area. I’m sure Morton told him about the other local adoptions,” Dallas said. “A man who goes to these lengths to find his boy would want to be right here.”
Tommy nodded. “Good point. I’ll check in with local motels.”
Dallas held his hand up. “I might already know where he’ll be.”
“Morton’s house.” Kate gasped. “Stacy.”
“Reece is with her. He’s very good at his job. She’ll be fine,” Dallas said, his thumbs moving on the keyboard of his phone. “I just asked him to call me.”
Kate immediately realized that Dallas wouldn’t want Reece’s cell tones to give him away, or he would have phoned the security agent himself.
Her heart pounded against her ribs.
Dallas pointed toward the landline. “Call your mother. Tell her to get out of the house and not come back until we say it’s safe.”
Kate did, unsure what kind of reception she’d get.
Her mother picked up on the first ring.
“Mom, it’s Kate. I need you to listen carefully. Go next door and stay there until I call.”
Her mother must have grasped the panic in Kate’s tone because she stuttered an agreement. “What is it, Kate? What’s going on?” she finally asked.
“I need you to go now. I’ll explain later.”
“All right,” she said tentatively. “I’ll wait next door until I hear from you.”
“Tell Dad to be careful, too. He should stay at the office until I give the all clear.”
“I’m worried. Are you and the baby okay?” It was the first time her mother had asked about Jackson.
“We’re good, Mom. I’ll explain everything when I can. Just go, and be careful, okay?” Tears streamed down Kate’s face. She and her mother had had their difficulties, but she couldn’t stand to think of anything awful happening to her.
“I will. I love you, Kate. And I’m sorry. If anything happens to me I need you to know that.”
“Me, too, Mom. And I love you.” Kate held in a sob, promising herself that she’d stay strong. “Call my cell when you get to the neighbor’s and leave a message. Let me know you got there safely.”
Kate’s cell was at the ranch, but she could check the message when she retrieved it or call voice mail again using Dallas’s cell.
“Okay. Take care of yourself.” Her mother paused. “And give Jackson a kiss from Grandma.”
Kate had wanted to hear those words from her mother for months. She promised she would do as asked, then ended the call.
Thankfully, her parents were safe. At least for now.
Dallas was urging her toward the exit as soon as she hung up.
“Any chance I can talk you out of walking through that door?” Tommy asked.
Dallas stopped at the jamb and turned.
“I didn’t think so,” his friend said. “Okay, fine. But we’re going in with my tactical unit.”
“I’m dropping Kate off at the ranch first,” Dallas stated.
“They might hurt her brother if they don’t see her.” Tommy looked from Dallas to Kate.
“You can’t take me back there. Not when my brother needs me,” she declared.
Dallas’s jaw clenched and every muscle in his body was obviously strung tight. “They’re going to want to see a baby.”
Tommy called down the hall and a deputy showed up a few seconds later cradling something in his arms.
The plastic baby looked real from a distance. Kate took it from the deputy. “He sees me with this and he’ll assume it’s Jackson.”
“I won’t use you as bait,” Dallas muttered.
“Neither will I, but I want her in the car nearby,” Tommy said, before she could argue.
“We brought Colin’s Jeep. I’ll let my brothers know what’s going on,” Dallas said.
“This one needs to stay quiet,” Tommy said. “There’s no one I trust more than your family, but we’re taking enough of a risk as it is.”
Tommy called in his unit. “Kate will be in the Jeep with Dallas, here.” He pointed to a spot on the Google map he’d pulled up on his computer screen. “We’ll come in from around the sides while she makes contact. Our perp will be watching the front and back doors, so we’re looking at side windows.”
Kate glanced at Dallas, not bothering to hide her panic. “We have to get there before Stacy and Reece do.”
“I know.” But the expression in Dallas’s eyes said it was probably already too late.
Very little was said between Dallas and Kate on the ride over. He had agreed to give Tommy’s men a ten-minute head start, which wasn’t much time.
Kate regretted having this go down on such a quiet suburban street. It was afternoon, but thankfully a weekend, and she hoped the cold and nearness to the holiday would keep everyone inside.
The sun peeked out from battleship-gray clouds as they approached.
“That’s Reece’s car,” Dallas said. “But this is good. If they surprised him then we’ll have someone on the inside. If I know Reece, he’s already planning an escape route, and he’ll keep Stacy safe.”
“She’s been through so much already,” Kate said under her breath, hating that so much bad could strike such a good person all at once. Stacy must be terrified.
Kate cradled the pretend baby in her arms, making sure anyone watching could see. The look of panic on her face was real.
Dallas eased down the quiet road and then parked across the street from Morton’s house, just as they’d planned.
The porch light flickered on and off a couple of times.
“They’re signaling,” Dallas said.
“What do we do now?” Kate asked.
“We wait.”
But they didn’t have to sit for long. There was a loud boom inside the house and smoke billowed out one of the windows.
“Stacy’s in there,” Kate said, her hand already on the door release.
Dallas stopped her. “We have to let Tommy do his job.”
“We can’t just sit here,” she argued.
Dallas’s door opened just then and the barrel of a gun was pressed to the back of his head.
The noise inside the house, the smoke, must have been meant to be a distraction while Manuel grabbed his son.
“I’ll take that baby,” a male voice said, and it had to be Manuel, based on the sketch Dallas had provided.
Kate pulled the plastic baby to her chest to shield its face from the man. If he got a good look, he’d shoot. “I’ll come with you.”
She made a move toward the door handle, and at the same time, Dallas jerked the guy’s arm in front of him, pinning it against the steering wheel. A shot sounded and Kate’s heart lurched.
“Run, Kate,” Dallas cried, wrestling the gun out of Manuel’s hand.
Dallas must’ve been putting a ton of pressure on the guy’s arm, based on the look on his face.
Kate bolted. She ran straight to the house, flung open the door and shouted, “He’s out front!”
Another crack of gunfire sent her stomach swirling. Dallas.
Tommy ran out the door toward her.
By the time the two of them reached Dallas, he had Manuel facedown and was sitting on his back while twisting his right arm behind him.
The criminal was spewing curse words.
Tommy dropped his knee into Manuel’s back as he wrangled with flex-cuffs. Kate frantically searched for the gun and noticed, as Dallas turned, that he had blood on his stomach.
“Dallas,” she cried with a shocked sob.
His gaze followed hers and he pressed his hand against his abdomen.
Tommy was already calling for an ambulance as Dallas lost consciousness. He slumped over onto his side as Kate dropped to her knees, unaware that she was still clutching the plasti
c doll.
It took ten minutes for the EMTs to arrive. Kate was vaguely aware of Stacy and Reece comforting her.
Reece drove her to the hospital behind the ambulance in his SUV. Being told that the kidnappers had been arrested did nothing to settle Kate’s nerves, not while Dallas was in trouble.
She could see the gurney Dallas was on as it rolled into the emergency entrance. She asked Reece to stop, bolted out of the SUV and rushed forward.
One of the EMTs turned around. “Are you Kate Williams?”
Her heart clutched. “Yes.”
“Good. Will you come see this guy? He hasn’t stopped talking about you since he opened his eyes in the ambulance.”
Kate nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks as she ran toward Dallas.
She had never been so happy as when he looked at her and said, “We did it. Jackson’s safe.”
“I love you!” It was all she could manage to say before he squeezed her hand and was wheeled away.
* * *
“TEST RESULTS ARE IN,” Dallas said as he entered the room, his hand fisted around something that Kate couldn’t readily make out.
“You shouldn’t be out of bed,” she fussed. “The doctor won’t be happy when she hears about this.”
He’d been a trying patient at best since Dr. McConnell agreed to let him recuperate at home.
“Well, if you aren’t the least bit curious, then I’ll head back to our room,” he said, turning.
“Dallas O’Brien, you better stop where you are,” Kate muttered.
He did. “Good to know you have that ‘mom voice’ perfected,” he teased. “We already knew I wasn’t Jackson’s biological father,” he continued. “Manuel is.”
“Which means he’s Susan’s child,” Kate said. “What if she wants him back now that this is all over?”
“She doesn’t,” Dallas said. “Said he would remind her too much of her mistakes. All she ever wanted was for him to be brought up in Bluff by a loving family. He’s your son and Susan has no intention of trying to change that.”
Relief flooded Kate hearing those words. The child of her heart was hers to keep.
“I heard you on the phone earlier with your mother,” Dallas said.
“She’s making a real effort,” Kate said, beaming up at him. “Once you’re well, I’d like to invite her and Dad over for dinner.”
