RENEGADE GUARDIAN

by Delores Fossen

  None of this could be good. Or the truth. “What does he want?”

  “Money.” A hoarse sob tore from Nadine’s mouth.

  A ransom demand. Slade had been waiting for another of those, but he hadn’t expected it to come like this. “Put the man on the phone.”

  “He won’t talk to you. I already tried. If you don’t come, if you don’t help, he says he’ll kill me, and no one will ever see the baby again.”

  Hell. This was not what Slade wanted to hear.

  “You have to come,” Nadine insisted. “You and Maya, and you have to bring as much cash as you can get your hands—”

  “Wait a minute,” Slade interrupted. “Why does he want Maya?”

  “He won’t say.”

  The color drained from Maya’s face, and he probably went a little pale, too. The last place he wanted her was in the middle of a ransom exchange. It was bad enough that Nadine was there. Of course, Nadine could have orchestrated all of this, so maybe the only danger was this plan to get Maya and him out in the open.

  Slade cursed. “Give your phone to our masked friend.”

  Nadine repeated that the man wouldn’t talk to Slade, but he could hear the movement. “I got my orders,” the man snarled into the phone. “If Maya Ellison doesn’t come with you and if you don’t have a boatload of cash, this kid is on the next flight to Mexico.”

  Slade tried not to react, but he wasn’t immune to that threat. Even if this wasn’t his baby, the infant was still in danger, and God knows what would happen to him.

  “Meet me at the old Weston ranch,” the man said. “You know the place?”

  “Yeah.” It’d been abandoned for several years, and there was only one road in and out. It was a good fifteen-minute drive from their own ranch.

  “I’ll go,” Maya said.

  “No, you won’t,” Slade insisted. He had to try again to bargain with the devil in the picture holding that baby. “I’ll come alone.” A lie. He’d have at least one of his brothers hidden away as backup. “And I can bring $20,000.” They probably had that much in the safe in the ranch’s office.

  “Bring more,” the man countered. “And don’t come alone. If Maya’s not with you, then the deal is off. It’s the same if you bring any of your law enforcement buddies. Just Maya and you. You’ve got thirty minutes, or I start shooting.”

  “No. I need a different plan,” Slade said, but he was talking to himself because the kidnapper had hung up.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “You’re not doing this,” Slade snarled.

  Maya had lost count of how many times he’d already said that, and she figured she would hear it plenty more before this was over and done.

  But that wouldn’t change things.

  She didn’t consider herself a brave person. Not with her brutal past. This had nothing to do with bravery but had everything to do with a child’s survival.

  “What if the kidnapper had Evan?” she tossed back at Slade. She didn’t add What if this is your child? but she figured they were both thinking it.

  “It’s too dangerous.” Slade finished shoving the money from the safe into a bank bag. It looked to be significantly more than $20,000, and she prayed that it’d be enough.

  “It’s more dangerous for the baby if I don’t go.”

  That silenced everyone in the room. Declan, Clayton, Dallas, Caitlyn, Joelle and Stella. They were obviously all waiting for Slade to respond, but he stood there, mumbling profanity and closing the bank bag as if he might rip it to pieces at any moment.

  “She’s right,” Declan finally spoke up. He went to the closet in the office and hauled out an equipment bag. “If it were just Nadine’s life at stake, I’d never agree to this. But it’s a baby, Slade.”

  But Slade shook his head. “A baby this kidnapper could be using as bait to draw out Maya.”

  “There’s no reason for him to draw me out,” she argued. “He could just want me there because he might think it’ll keep you from firing shots at him.”

  “The baby would prevent me from doing that.” Slade cursed again. “And maybe he’s doing this to get us away from Evan so he can be kidnapped, too.”

  Maya pressed Evan closer to her heart to try to steady it. Her son had already spent too much time in danger, and it wasn’t over.

  But maybe this was the beginning of the end.

  Dallas stepped forward. “You know there’s no way we’d allow anyone to take Evan. You and Maya go out to the Weston ranch, and the rest of us will stay here and guard him. You can take the infrared scanner so you can see who’s in that barn and anywhere else on the grounds before you go in. Harlan, Wyatt and one of the deputies can follow you and stay close in case you need backup.”

  “That still leaves Maya in danger.” Slade’s voice was so loud that it startled Evan, and he began to cry. “Sorry,” he grumbled.

  “It’s okay.” She went closer and gave Slade’s arm a gentle touch. It didn’t soothe him one bit, but that was asking a lot of an arm rub.

  “I can go in the truck with Maya and you,” Declan volunteered. “I’ll stay down so the kidnapper doesn’t see me. We’ll all have on Kevlar vests. And when we get there, you can go in for the money drop. If the kidnapper insists on seeing Maya, he can get a glimpse of her in the truck.”

  Slade was still shaking his head.

  “If things don’t look right, we’ll get out of there fast,” Declan added.

  “And what if things go wrong here?” Slade asked.

  Maya’s breath caught in her throat. The idea of her son being in more danger was terrifying, but the danger existed no matter where he was. And this might be a way to stop it. Because if they got lucky, this wouldn’t be just a money drop—they might be able to rescue the baby and capture the kidnapper.

  “I’ll have Sheriff Geary come out here,” Dallas explained. “Plus, every ranch hand will be armed and ready.”

  “I can watch the baby,” Stella said, stepping forward.

  “I’ll help,” Joelle and Caitlyn offered in unison.

  Maya looked down at her son. Then at Slade. She wanted nothing more than for them all to stay put at the ranch, surrounded by his family, who would protect them at all cost. But the kidnapper had made that impossible.

  “There, there,” Stella whispered to Evan as she took him from Maya. She nuzzled Evan’s cheek and gently rocked him. His whimpers stopped almost immediately.

  “You need to put this on.” Declan took several vests from the equipment bag and handed Maya one. “It’s Kevlar. It’ll stop a bullet.”

  “Yeah, but not if this SOB aims at her head.” Slade snatched one of the other vests from Declan, and both Declan and he put them on.

  “The kidnapper will have to go through me to get to Maya’s head,” Declan snarled back. “Or any other part of her, for that matter. Look, I’m not happy about this, either, but we don’t have a choice.”

  Maya agreed, though the thought of all of them in direct danger made her sick to her stomach. At least Declan and she would be in the truck. Or that was the plan anyway. But Slade would be the one to walk inside the barn and try to negotiate the release of the baby.

  “Let’s go,” Declan added. “I can call Harlan and Wyatt to get them headed out there.”

  “And I’ll call Sheriff Geary and the ranch hands,” Dallas volunteered.

  Still, Slade didn’t budge for several long moments. He finally aimed his index finger at Maya. “You’ll stay down, and you won’t take any chances.”

  It seemed as if they all made a collective sigh of relief, but there was no real relief and wouldn’t be until they got the baby safely out of there.

  Slade grabbed the equipment bag and some extra guns from the closet. He handed her one before they headed out. However, he paused to
brush his hand over the top of Evan’s head, and Maya kissed her son again.

  “I’ll take good care of him, I promise,” Stella said. And even though Maya hardly knew this woman, she believed her.

  With Declan on the phone to Harlan and Wyatt, they hurried to one of the trucks parked at the back of the house. Slade got behind the wheel, and Maya slid into the center so that Declan could take the window and keep watch. At least it was during daylight, unlike the ordeal that’d gone on at the safe house, so they’d be able to see a threat before it was too late.

  Well, maybe.

  “What if Nadine is behind this?” she asked. “What if she’s doing this to cover up the fact that she had her adopted child kidnapped, maybe to get back at her husband? Or maybe just for the ransom?”

  “If she’s behind this, she’ll probably have more than one hired gun with her.” Slade responded so quickly it was clear he’d already given this some thought.

  However, Maya had to shake her head. “But Nadine’s motive would be money to pay her gambling debts. Why demand cash from you when she could make a much larger ransom demand from her husband?”

  “Because maybe that’s too obvious. It’d make us key in on her even more as a suspect. This way she looks like a victim and not a perpetrator. Besides, this is just one of the babies. She could be planning to hit up Chase for a ransom for the second.”

  True. And maybe she hadn’t asked ransom of the adopted parents of the second missing baby, Caleb, because they wouldn’t have had much cash to give. Maya remembered that Slade had told her they were both schoolteachers.

  Slade’s attention volleyed between the side-and rearview mirrors, but he also sent one of those glances her way. “Hell,” he mumbled.

  That sent a jolt of alarm through her. “What?”

  “This,” he snarled.

  And when she looked into his eyes, she knew exactly what this meant. This attraction between them was rearing its head again and not in a heated I-want-you-now sort of way. It was creating a distraction because Slade wasn’t thinking like a lawman.

  “Harlan and Wyatt will get there ahead of us,” Declan relayed the moment he finished his call. “They have infrared, too,” he added, fishing the handheld machine from the equipment bag. “The plan is for them to move into position at the back of the barn. Deputy Randy Wells will be coming in behind us.”

  So there’d be five lawmen and her. Since Maya had never fired a gun, she wouldn’t be much help, but she was glad she had something in case things turned bad.

  “Don’t you dare get shot,” she mumbled to Slade.

  “Same to you,” he mumbled back, and he turned onto a gravel-and-dirt road.

  “Fresh tracks,” Declan pointed out.

  The tracks didn’t exactly confirm Nadine’s story, but it was clear someone had recently driven out here.

  With each passing second, Maya’s heart beat even faster, and by the time the ranch came into view, she was fighting just to keep her breath level. It wouldn’t help matters if she hyperventilated, and the last thing Slade needed was to babysit her.

  “Time for you two to get down,” Slade warned them. He stopped at the rust-scabbed cattle gate about two hundred yards from the house.

  Maya made a sweeping glance of the house and grounds. It was nowhere near as large as Slade’s family ranch, and the pasture fence was falling down in spots. The weeds and grass were at least knee-high in places, the trees and shrubs overgrown as well, and maybe that overgrowth would give Harlan, Wyatt and the deputy some cover as they made their way to the barn.

  Maya got on the floor of the truck and Declan dropped down across the seat just as his phone buzzed. “Harlan,” Declan greeted, but she couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation.

  While Declan was talking with his brother, Slade took the infrared, turned it on and aimed it at the house, then the barn. Maya levered herself up just enough to see the screen and the three colored splotches in the barn.

  “He definitely has the baby,” Slade commented. “And it appears to be in some kind of carrier on the floor next to the kidnapper.” He tapped the other splotch. “That’s probably Nadine. It looks as if her hands are tied behind her back.”

  That didn’t mean this wasn’t still a setup, but it was looking more and more as if Nadine had been telling the truth.

  “Harlan and the others are coming across the back pasture now,” Declan explained when he finished his call. “There’s a van behind the barn, but according to infrared, no one is inside.”

  She didn’t miss the look that passed between Slade and Declan.

  “Is that bad?” she asked.

  “Strange,” Slade clarified. “The kidnapper must have anticipated that I’d bring in backup, so why would he come alone?”

  True, and Maya could see where this was going. “Maybe he didn’t come alone. Maybe Nadine isn’t really tied up.”

  “Yeah.” And that’s all Slade said for several seconds before he took out his phone and redialed Nadine’s number. He put the call on speaker.

  But it wasn’t Nadine who answered. It was the man in the barn with her. Maya could see enough of the man’s movements on the screen to determine that.

  “I don’t see Maya with you,” the man said.

  Slade mumbled some profanity, squinted against the afternoon sun and pointed toward the front of the barn. Camera, he mouthed.

  Declan mouthed some profanity, too, and fired off a text message to Harlan to warn him that there might be a camera at the rear of the building, too.

  “Maya’s on the seat,” Slade told the man. “I don’t want her in the line of fire.”

  “The only way I fire is if I don’t see her.”

  The muscles in Slade’s jaw stirred. “Sit up for just a second,” he told her.

  Maya made her way off the floor, but she barely had time to look over the dash before Slade pushed her back on the floor.

  “There,” Slade snarled. “You’ve seen her.”

  “Who else you got in that truck with you?” the man asked.

  Maya’s heart nearly stopped, but she reminded herself that the camera hadn’t spotted her, so it wouldn’t spot Declan. Unless the kidnapper had infrared, too.

  “It’s just Maya and me,” Slade lied.

  The kidnapper didn’t say anything for several moments, but the baby started to cry. “All right, then. Now call your brothers or whoever you’ve got hiding in the back pasture and tell them to stop in their tracks. Do it.”

  Oh, God. So there’d probably been a camera back there after all. She prayed the three had gotten close enough to the barn to help if things started to unravel.

  “What part of that didn’t you understand?” the kidnapper taunted over the cries of the baby. “Call your backup and tell them to stop. If they move another inch forward, I shoot Mrs. Collier and hightail it out of here with the kid. Remember what I said about sending the brat to Mexico. And trust me, I don’t care what kind of family he ends up with.”

  Slade mumbled some profanity, but he made the call and told his brothers and the sheriff to hold their position. “What now?” he snapped to the kidnapper.

  “You drive to the barn. Stop directly in front of the door and wait until you hear from me.”

  “Don’t let him shoot me!” she heard Nadine yell.

  The woman genuinely sounded terrified, but Maya wasn’t ready to trust anyone other than Slade and his family.

  “Stay down,” Slade repeated to her, and he did as the kidnapper had asked. He pulled the truck to a stop and waited. They didn’t have to wait long. His phone rang just a few seconds later.

  “Don’t think about trying to take me out,” the kidnapper warned, “because I got the kid in my arms. And I’ve put a few security measures in place to make sure you don’t try
to blow off my head.”

  He’s up and moving, Declan mouthed.

  Even though Maya couldn’t see what was happening, from the sound of it, the barn door opened and the baby’s cries got louder. That cut her to the core. Even though the child was too young to understand what was going on, he might be hungry or worse. God knows what kind of care this monster had given the precious baby.

  “How much money did you bring?” the kidnapper asked Slade.

  “At least thirty grand. It was everything we had in the safe.”

  The man made a sound of disapproval. “I wanted more, but I guess that’ll have to do. The next kid will cost you a lot more.”

  Maya wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or terrified that he had both babies and was willing to ransom them. Maybe this meant they’d soon recover both children. And maybe it also meant the threat to Evan was over.

  “Where’s the other baby?” Slade snapped.

  “That’s a secret.” It sounded as if the guy was smiling, and Maya wished she could slap him for that. Or better yet, get Slade to beat him to a pulp. She hated this monster for putting the babies in danger.

  “Just focus on getting this kid for now. We’ll work out the details of the other later. Oh, and if you or your marshal brothers decide to put a bullet in me, I think you should know that’d be like putting a bullet in both kids. As you can see, I’m holding this one, and if I’m dead and gone, the other kid will just disappear.”

  That caused Maya’s stomach to clench. This had to end. They had to recover those babies.

  “Plus, there’s that security measure I talked about,” the man continued. “There are two assault rifles aimed at right about the spot where you’ve parked, and they’re rigged with a sound sensor and detonators. If someone fires a shot, the assault rifles start firing, too. I’m not exactly sure where the bullets will go, and I don’t think you want to find out.”