RENEGADE GUARDIAN

by Delores Fossen

  Slade took his time shaking his head. “We hoped you’d be able to tell us.”

  “I have no idea why!”

  Again her voice was too loud, and it caused Evan to stir. He whimpered, and his mouth pursed as if he was about to cry. Maya caught onto the car seat and jiggled it gently, rocking him.

  “But if you’re right, if your numbers really add up, there are twenty babies.” She made sure her voice stayed calmer. Hard to do. “Twenty. So why would you think someone would come after my child? Why not offer your services to the other nineteen?”

  Slade studied a dark green SUV that was slowly making its way past the parking lot. Not a newer-model vehicle but a big sturdy gas-guzzler.

  “Because of the sixty-two babies born that day, only four were placed up for adoption,” he said. “One girl. Three boys.”

  Her heart went to her knees. She didn’t want Slade to confirm anything else, but she couldn’t stop him. Maya could only stand there and try to brace herself for the worst.

  The worst came.

  “The adopted boys are the ones who’ve been kidnapped,” Slade said, his words echoing through the thick pulse that was now pounding in her ears. “And your son, Evan, is the final one on the list.”

  Chapter Two

  Because Maya looked ready to fall face-first onto the concrete, Slade took her arm and forced her to sit in the driver’s seat of her car. He had no intention of letting her drive off, but he doubted she was capable of doing that right now anyway. Not with her hands shaking and her breath gusting.

  “Evan is the final one on the list,” she repeated, though her voice didn’t have a whole lot of sound.

  For that matter, she didn’t have much color, either. The natural blush had drained from her cheeks, leaving her bone-white.

  She groaned and pressed her fingers to her trembling lips. A helpless, panicked sound shivered deep within her chest. “Oh, God. This can’t be happening.”

  Slade didn’t want to comfort her.

  Okay, he did.

  He was a sucker for a damsel in distress, always had been. He blamed that on his upbringing at the hellhole, also known as the Rocky Creek Children’s Facility. There was forever a boatload of people who needed some kind of protection, and he’d always been good with his fists that way. But he didn’t want to soothe Maya’s fears. He wanted her to realize just how serious this situation was.

  He wanted her to need him.

  But he’d settle for her just accepting that she should have his services, because he wasn’t going anywhere. This was his case.

  In more ways than one.

  “Move over a bit,” he instructed.

  Maya looked up at him and blinked. Her eyes were brown. Not just any ordinary brown. More like a really good single-malt scotch. They were a nice contrast to all that flame-red hair that dangled and coiled around her face.

  “Why do you want me to move?” She glanced around the parking lot, her gaze landing on each car before she scanned the trickle of traffic on Main Street.

  “That’s why. I’d rather not be standing out in a wide-open parking lot if the kidnapper decides today is the day he comes after that little boy in the backseat.”

  She nodded. But she darn sure didn’t move. Her gaze came back to his, and she sat there staring at him. “Why should I trust you?”

  Good question, but Slade couldn’t tell her the real answer. He certainly couldn’t tell her the real reason he’d insisted on this assignment.

  “Because you have to,” he settled for saying. “Because I can stop the worst from happening. I’ve tracked down kidnappers like this before, and I can do it again.”

  Slade put his hand on her arm and gave her a nudge so she’d get moving, but she still didn’t slide over.

  Part of him admired her defiance. Lack of trust and skepticism were a big help to staying alive in a dangerous situation. But another part of him hated that she was making this so damn hard. They didn’t need to be here where it would be next to impossible for him to protect her and the baby.

  “You didn’t read about the kidnappings,” he said, trying a different angle. One that would be hard to hear, but maybe it would be persuasive. “You didn’t know this monster nearly killed one of the adoptive parents who was trying to prevent the baby from being taken.”

  The fear was instant. It flashed through her eyes, widening them, but she shook her head. The wind and the motion sent her hair swishing against the shoulders of the cream-colored top she was wearing.

  Without saying anything, she thrust her hand into the bag still looped on her shoulder. For a moment Slade thought she might pull out the gun she said she owned. If she even had one, she didn’t have a permit to carry it.

  But no gun.

  Maya grabbed her phone and frantically scrolled through the numbers. She jabbed the call button.

  “Sheriff Monroe,” she said. It wasn’t a bluff, either. Slade could hear the man’s voice on the other end of the line. “I’m in Hawthorne’s parking lot, and I’ve been approached by someone from the marshals—”

  Slade waited to see what the sheriff had said that’d caused her to stop, but while he waited, he glanced at the carrier seat. He couldn’t see the baby, because he was facing the rear of the vehicle, so Slade leaned a little to the side.

  The newborn was wearing a cap that covered his head, and he was snuggled deep into thick blue blankets that hid his body and chin. His eyes were closed. Sound asleep. And his mouth was pursed as if sucking on a nonexistent bottle.

  “I see,” Maya said.

  Her comment would have drawn Slade’s attention back to her eventually, but her touch drew it a whole lot faster. Except it was a little more than just a touch. Maya caught onto the sleeve of his jacket and gave it a sharp yank. Her eyes were narrowed now—and he could see the question in all those shades of brown.

  What was he doing looking at her baby?

  Slade put a quick stop to the looking. Best to keep focused only on convincing Maya to accept his help. Because she had no idea yet just how much she needed it.

  “Yes.” She continued with her phone conversation. “He’s about six-two. Brown hair. Dark blue eyes.” She paused. “Right. No visible scars, but I don’t see a tattoo.”

  “Six-three,” Slade corrected under his breath. “And yeah, there’s a tattoo, but unless you’re planning to strip-search me, it’s not visible.”

  That earned him a top-notch glare.

  A moment later Maya pulled in a long breath. “So Slade Becker really is a marshal,” she commented to the sheriff. “You’re positive? Because his hair seems too long for him to be a lawman.”

  “I just came off a month-long assignment chasing down fugitives and didn’t have time for a haircut,” Slade provided, though he wasn’t sure she heard him. Maya jammed her finger in her left ear as if she intended to shut out anything he said.

  She paused again while she continued to throw glares at him. “All right. No. I don’t think it’s necessary for you to come here, but you’re right about it being a good idea for one of your deputies to drive out to my place and have a look around. Thank you, Sheriff.”

  The moment she ended the call, Maya studied him, specifically his eyes. “The sheriff confirmed your identity. He knew you were coming to town. He’d already left a message on my answering machine at home and has someone headed to my house now to make sure no one is there.”

  “Good,” Slade mumbled. But he wouldn’t trust the locals on this. If and when he got to Maya’s house, he’d go through it again himself.

  “The sheriff said I could wait here until he’s made sure everything is safe at my house,” she added. She stared at him a moment longer, huffed and then moved across to the passenger’s seat so he could get in behind the wheel.

  “Th
anks.” But Slade was pretty sure his tone didn’t sound sincere, especially since he was merely thanking her for learning the truth. Still, he couldn’t blame her for wanting to confirm his identity. In addition to that one, maybe she’d be willing to take other precautions.

  Lots of them.

  “What now?” Maya asked.

  “We go to your place so I can have a look at your security system.” Slade watched her glare turn to a frown. He did some frowning of his own. He wanted to offer her an alternative like a safe house, but he couldn’t press this too hard, too fast. He darn sure couldn’t have Maya demanding that he be removed from this assignment. “Or we wait here for the sheriff to call.”

  She looked ready to jump on that second choice, but then Maya glanced over the seat at the baby. She reached out and touched Evan’s hand. Then his forehead. Probably checking to make sure he wasn’t too cool or too warm.

  Maya opened her door, and with the driver’s side still open, the breeze flowed through the car. The breeze also caught her scent and it drifted Slade’s way. Something feminine and musky.

  It wasn’t the kind of scent that came from a bottle.

  “We wait for the sheriff’s call,” she said. “And before I take you back to my house or anywhere else, I want you to fill me in on this kidnapper. You said the cops don’t know why the babies are being taken, but you must have an idea.”

  “Several of them.” None of them would make her breathe easier. “There’s the obvious—maybe this person is a baby snatcher. A woman who either is unable to have a child of her own or has recently lost one.”

  Of course, that didn’t explain why she’d take two babies, both of them adopted.

  “You have any suspects?” she asked.

  “Just a person of interest who’s missing, but the FBI, Marshals and the police are going through records and searching for any eyewitnesses.”

  Slade caught a flash of green out of the corner of his eye and looked in the direction of the traffic light again.

  Hell.

  There was the green SUV again. It’d just come this way several minutes earlier.

  “Is something wrong?” Maya asked.

  He glanced at her and confirmed she had followed his gaze to the SUV. “You recognize that vehicle?”

  “No. But it’s fall break for some of the schools. It could be someone visiting from out of town.” She sounded hopeful. And concerned.

  Slade took out the small notepad and pen from his jacket pocket and jotted down the license number. Maya was probably right. It could be nothing, but with the other kidnappings, he had to assume it could be something.

  “Is that how the other babies were taken?” Maya’s attention stayed on the green SUV. “Someone grabbed them from a public place and drove away with them?”

  Slade nodded. “The second one went down that way. The adoptive mother was coming out of her pediatrician’s office in downtown San Antonio. It was late. She had the last appointment of the day, and as she was getting into her car, someone bashed her on the back of her head. When she came to, her baby was gone, and there were no witnesses to the crime.”

  The traffic light changed, and the green SUV started to inch forward. The windows had a heavy tint, but he could just make out the silhouette of the driver. A man, judging from the size. There didn’t appear to be anyone else in the vehicle.

  “And the other kidnapping?” There was a lot of breath in her voice, and Maya was watching the SUV as if it were a jungle cat stalking them.

  Slade almost hoped it was indeed the threat that his body was preparing to take on.

  A showdown.

  Right here, right now.

  Part of him wanted nothing more than to stop this dirtbag and put an end to the danger. But he also didn’t want a shoot-out with the baby in the backseat.

  He put Maya’s question on hold for a moment, took out his phone and called the dispatcher at the marshals’ office in Maverick Springs. All five of his foster brothers worked there. All five would do whatever he needed. But Slade didn’t want his brothers to know about this yet. In case it turned out to be nothing.

  The agency dispatcher answered right away, and Slade read off the numbers of the license plate.

  “Call me when you know who owns the vehicle,” Slade instructed. He put his phone back in his pocket and slid his hand over his gun, which was in a waist holster concealed beneath his jacket.

  “The SUV isn’t stopping,” Maya said practically in a whisper.

  No, it wasn’t. The driver crawled past the grocery store and headed east on Main. Slade shifted a little in the seat so he could spot the SUV if it doubled back.

  Maya’s soft gasp, however, had his attention going right to her. “You really think you’ll have to use a gun here?” She tipped her head toward his holster.

  He thought about answering yes in the hopes of drilling home that it wasn’t a good idea for them to be sitting in a parking lot, but she already looked scared enough. “I want to be ready,” he said. “Just in case.”

  “Oh, God.” She shook her head and repeated it. “This is for real, isn’t it?”

  Slade settled for a “Yeah.”

  Yeah, it was for real, and yeah, all of this was starting to hit her like a sack of bricks.

  She pulled off her shoulder bag, dropped it on the floor and folded her arms around her. Her motions were borderline frantic, no doubt matching the intensity of the emotion going on inside her.

  “A baby snatcher wants my child,” she mumbled.

  “Well, that’s one possibility.” He paused and gathered his thoughts so he could try to word this the right way. “The babies could have been taken to cover up something illegal about the adoptions themselves.”

  Maya was shaking her head before he even finished. “There was nothing illegal about Evan’s adoption. I used a reputable agency and started the paperwork nearly three years ago—”

  “You did that after the doctors told you that you’d never be able to carry a child of your own,” Slade supplied. But he regretted that little revelation when Maya turned those accusing brown eyes on him again. “I checked into your background. Into all the adoptive parents’ backgrounds,” he amended. “I was looking for a connection.”

  “And did you find one?” she snapped.

  “No. You’re the only single parent of the three. The only one who’s an attorney.”

  Maya huffed. “But there has to be something. Maybe a connection with the parents. Their jobs. Their ages. Something.”

  Yeah. There was. And that was something she wasn’t going to like much. Of course, he hadn’t done or said anything so far that would make this a fun experience.

  “The parents of the first child own a successful business. Several of them, in fact. The second couple are both teachers. You’re thirty-two, and their ages ranged from twenty-six to forty-three. But I don’t think any of that information is relevant. I’ve gone through the files, and the only thing that connects all of you is the fact you adopted baby boys who were born on the same day.”

  She stayed quiet a moment and stared at the dashboard. “Maybe that is the only connection. Maybe the kidnapper is looking for a specific child.”

  Slade couldn’t dismiss that, but there was a problem with that theory. “Neither of the stolen babies was returned.”

  Still, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be or that this particular predator was indeed searching for one child. Maybe a child he’d already found. Maybe not. And maybe returning the babies was just too risky.

  Judging from the way she dragged in her breath, Maya had just figured that out.

  His phone rang. Not the lullaby tune like the one on Maya’s phone. His was the standard annoying ringtone, and after seeing the call was from the dispatcher, Slade knew he had to answer.

&n
bsp; “You ran the plates?” he asked.

  “I did,” Todd Freeman, the dispatcher, confirmed. “The owner’s Randall Martin from San Antonio. He owns a bowling alley and has a record for assault eight years ago but nothing recent.”

  “Ask someone to run a deeper check on him. I want to know if this guy has family or business in Spring Hill. Then check and see if he has a girlfriend or a wife who recently lost a child. It might have even been a miscarriage or fertility problems. I also need to know if he has any connection whatsoever to Maya Ellison or the other two families of the missing babies.”

  Todd confirmed he would get someone right on that, and Slade ended the call.

  “You have a lead?” Maya asked.

  He lifted his shoulder. “Just checking all angles.”

  There was a sound from the backseat. First it was a whimper. But within seconds it changed to a full-fledged cry.

  The baby was awake.

  “He’s hungry,” Maya announced. She dug down into the shoulder bag and produced a bottle filled with formula. “I need to feed him.”

  Slade volleyed glances between their surroundings and Maya while she leaned over the seat. She unhooked the safety belts that held the baby in the carrier and car seat, and she scooped him into her arms.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” she murmured, kissing the baby’s cheek. She returned to a sitting position and cradled Evan in the crook of her arm. He latched on to the bottle the second it touched his mouth.

  Despite the horrible news Maya had just learned about Evan possibly being in danger, she smiled at the baby and continued to mutter things to him.

  But Slade didn’t hear what she said.

  That’s because his heartbeat suddenly got the best of him, and he couldn’t hear over the sudden roar in his ears. He could only sit there, watching. Staring.

  And wondering.

  Maya pulled off the little blue cap and Slade’s heart pounded even harder. He saw Evan’s dark hair. He saw the baby’s eyes.