Kidnapping in Kendall County (14 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Rosalie braced herself for the slam of guilt that she was certain would come. Especially after that incredible climax with Austin.

But no guilt.

And, of course, that made her feel guilty.

Part of her—the logical, sane part—had known that this was coming. Austin and she had been skirting around this attraction for two days now, and with all the adrenaline and energy, it had to bubble over and send them straight to bed.

Which is exactly what it’d done.

They were both single. Both dealing with the same emotions from someone trying to kill them. The same search for the truth about her daughter and the baby farms. It was only natural that she would be lying beneath him and enjoying some nice little aftershocks of the climax. There was nothing wrong with it.

But the other part of her—the crazy, guilt-ridden part—also knew they’d landed in bed for all the wrong reasons.

Well, one wrong reason, anyway.

They shouldn’t have carried things this far until they’d worked out their feelings for each other. She wasn’t the sort who slept with a guy and then walked away, and she had to brace herself for a broken heart.

Because he might indeed do just that—walk away.

Austin, too, had to be dealing with the guilt of sleeping with his late partner’s fiancée.

Or not, she amended, when he lifted his head, located her mouth and kissed her until Rosalie could have sworn she saw little gold stars. Of course, maybe that was just because the kiss went on for so long that she wasn’t getting any oxygen to her brain.

Either way, it was an amazing kiss to top off what’d been an equally amazing experience.

“You said my name,” Austin said, giving her that lazy smile that made her toes curl.

Yes, many times if she remembered correctly. “It seemed the right thing to say.”

Rosalie smiled, too, hoping to keep the moment light. She wanted to hold on to this feeling just a little bit longer. Austin gave her another smile for a moment, too, but she could also see the worries in the shades of all that blue in his eyes.

“I don’t want you to cry about this, about anything that has to do with us,” Austin added as if choosing his words carefully. Which he probably was. He also likely figured that the ship had sailed on telling her not to feel guilty.

“No tears,” she promised, but Rosalie wasn’t sure it was a promise she could even keep.

Especially if Austin left.

That feeling came at her again. The one that made her feel as if someone had clamped on to her heart. She’d already lost so much, but the thought of losing Austin, too, just seemed, well, unbearable.

“I’ll give you a minute.” Austin dropped another of those mind-numbing kisses on her mouth and got off the bed to head to the bathroom.

Since she was suddenly aware that she was stark naked on the bed, Rosalie got up too and gathered her clothes that had been strewn over the room.

“No tears,” Austin repeated, calling out to her from the bathroom.

Even if she had been on the verge of crying, it wouldn’t have happened. Not after a butt-naked Austin stepped into the doorway.

Oh, mercy.

Why did just seeing him cause her to go all hot again? Maybe because he had a perfect body to go along with his other good attributes. Or maybe because she just couldn’t seem to get enough of him.

“You’re blushing,” he pointed out.

“Because I’m gawking at you and wishing I could have you all over again.”

Rosalie hadn’t exactly intended to blurt that out, but she did like the way it caused the corner of Austin’s mouth to lift into a sexy smile. He walked to her, that smile still on his face, and he reached for her. But reaching was as far as he got because his phone rang.

Just like that, Rosalie snapped out of her heated trance. The call could be about the investigation.

Or about Sadie.

Austin snatched his phone from his jeans pocket and started to dress while he took the call. What he didn’t do was put it on speaker. Maybe because he was going to try to buffer any bad news they got.

But buffering wouldn’t work.

“Who is this?” Austin asked the caller.

Rosalie hurried to him, as close as she could get so she could figure out what was going on.

The voice was mechanical, like one of those scramblers that kidnappers used.

Oh, God.

This had to be the person behind the baby farm. The person who might have Sadie.

Rosalie practically ripped the phone from Austin’s hand and jabbed the speaker button.

“Are you two still listening?” the person asked.

“We’re here,” Austin answered. “Now, who are you and what the hell do you want?”

“I think I’ll be the one to ask the questions,” the person answered. The smugness came through even with the scrambler, and Rosalie wished she could reach through the phone lines and force this monster to give Sadie back to her.

“I need you to get the files and computers that were confiscated from Yancy’s place,” the caller continued. “Not just the flash drives, either, but the laptops in case anything is on the hard drives. Have someone bring them to you, then I’ll tell you where I need you and Rosalie McKinnon to deliver them. Only the two of you. If you bring anyone else, the deal is off.”

Austin and she exchanged glances. Yancy’s things? Did that mean it was Yancy himself calling, or was this just another way to set him up? With everything that’d happened, neither option would surprise Rosalie.

“And why would I bring you Yancy’s files and computers?” Austin demanded.

“Oh, didn’t I mention that already? Must have slipped my mind.” The smugness went up a notch. “We’re working out a deal here, Agent Duran. You give me the items you took from Yancy’s house—all of the items—and I’ll give you something that you want real bad.”

“What?” Austin snapped.

The silence crawled on until her stomach was clenched into a knot.

“I’ll give you Rosalie’s daughter, of course,” the caller finally said. “She’s here with me now.”

And Rosalie heard something that sent her heart straight to her knees. It was a baby’s voice, repeating a single word.

“Mama.”

Chapter Sixteen

“I don’t want you to do this,” Austin said to Rosalie for the umpteenth time.

He figured he could say it a thousand times more and she still wouldn’t listen.

The bad part about that?

Austin didn’t blame her one bit. If that was his little girl out there, he wouldn’t keep away, either. Still, he wanted Rosalie to stay safe, and delivering a “ransom” to a baby snatcher wasn’t a good way to stay safe.

Especially since this particular ransom was fake.

The FBI hadn’t gone along with the notion of removing what could be critical evidence in a multiple-felonies investigation, so Austin and Seth had come up with what they hoped would be enough to fool the kidnapper. They’d copied some of Yancy’s business emails and such and made duplicates of some of the files.

Maybe it would be enough to get Sadie.

If this snake really had her, that is.

Austin wasn’t even sure an eleven-month-old baby was capable of saying “Mama” or that it was proof that the baby was indeed Sadie. However, the simple repeated syllable had been more than enough to convince Rosalie that she was going through with this stupid plan.

At least now they had a drop point. The kidnapper had phoned again two hours after the first call and had demanded that Rosalie and Austin meet him at the site of the now-abandoned baby farm where Rosalie and he had worked undercover. It was remote, and there were plenty of places to hide.

Too many.

And that’s why Rosalie’s brothers Colt and Cooper had gone ahead of them to scope out the place from a distance. If the kidnapper had brought gunmen—and he or she almost certainly had—then Austin wanted to know what they were up against before they ever stepped foot on the place. Better yet, Austin wanted the hired guns eliminated so he could deal with this moron baby snatcher face-to-face.

Too bad the cops hadn’t managed to locate Yancy or Vickie.

Austin would have liked to have tails on both of them. Or just have thrown them both in jail. However, they did have a tail on Sonny, and Austin was getting text updates on the man. So far Sonny had gone into his room at the Sweetwater Springs hotel, and he hadn’t come out. Maybe Sonny would stay there so they’d have one less suspect to worry about.

Of course, that didn’t mean that Sonny hadn’t hired gunmen to launch another attack. Or set up a ruse that could get Rosalie and him out into the open.

Like this one.

“No,” Rosalie said when Seth tried to talk to her. “I’m going.”

Seth was one of the most hardheaded people Austin had ever met, but he’d clearly met his match with Rosalie. Seth’s jaw tightened, and his
do-something
gaze slashed to Austin.

Austin just gave a heavy sigh and shook his head. “She’ll wait in the vehicle when we make the drop, and Colt, Cooper and you will stay out of sight so you can protect her.”

That was the compromise Austin had finally made with Rosalie. After a heated
discussion.
She’d wait in a bullet-resistant car that the FBI used for dangerous undercover assignments. Seth would follow them to make sure they weren’t attacked from behind. And Colt and Cooper would provide backup after they’d made the site as safe as possible.

Nothing about the plan was ideal, and it’d take a miracle to pull it off. Still, it was the best possible plan under the worst possible circumstances.

Austin’s phone buzzed, and he saw a text from Colt.

No one appears to be around. Will keep looking to make sure.

That was good. Except that Austin remembered those explosives and fires that’d been rigged at the second facility. It’d be hard for Colt and Cooper to check for that without putting themselves directly in harm’s way, so that meant Austin had to keep watch for anything that could blow them all to smithereens.

Yeah, this was no piece-of-cake assignment.

Austin fired off a text to Colt. “Anything on infrared?”

Rosalie’s brother had brought equipment that would detect the body heat of anyone nearby. It wouldn’t give them the caller’s identity, but it would be able to tell them how many hired guns they were up against.

“Nothing,” Colt answered.

That was both good and bad. It meant gunmen weren’t nearby. Well, unless they were using some kind of heat-shielding camouflage. Of course, there’d be no need for gunmen and camouflage if the plan was just to blow them up, and the infrared wouldn’t detect any explosives.

“It’s time,” Rosalie said, glancing at the clock.

Her hands were shaking.

Heck, she was shaking, and she couldn’t seem to make herself stand still. She’d been pacing, fidgeting and trembling head to toe since the phone call from the kidnapper. Austin didn’t expect any of those nerves to get better in the next hour or so.

“We need to leave,” Rosalie added.

It’s was only a twenty-minute drive to the site, and the drop-off time was forty-five minutes, but Austin understood her urgency to get out the door. Too bad that each moment outside put them in even greater danger. Of course, with their luck, the attacker could somehow launch explosives at the cottage if they stayed put.

“I’ll drive slow,” Austin said to Seth, knowing that Seth would do the same.

All of them were anxious to see if the kidnapper did indeed have Sadie, but it wasn’t a good idea for them to stand around outside at the abandoned baby farm, waiting for this guy to show up. He or she could hurl explosives at them there, too, after getting the info from Rosalie and him.

Austin hurried her out to the car that he’d had Seth park directly outside the back door. Thanks to Seth, the fake files and computers were already on the backseat. They’d made a show of putting them there, too. Seth had brought in the fakes from the FBI office, so if anyone was watching the ranch, then maybe the stuff would appear to be the real deal.

It was nearly dark and bitterly cold. The wind was gusting, and Austin felt the flecks of sleet spit at him.

Great.

Now the weather was working against them. The roads would be slick, adding yet another level of danger to this already dangerous situation.

“I’m not stupid,” Rosalie said when he pulled away from the ranch. “I know this is likely a trap, but I also know that in the past eleven months, this is the closest I’ve come to finding my baby.”

Austin slid his hand over hers. It was about the only thing he could do to try to comfort her, and it wasn’t much of a gesture. At least he didn’t think it was much until her fingers closed around his for a quick squeeze.

It definitely gave him some comfort, anyway.

He glanced behind them to make sure Seth was following. He was, and he was keeping a safe distance so that it wouldn’t readily appear that he was following them.

Of course, the kidnapper would be looking for something like that, and since the snake had been adamant about Rosalie and Austin coming alone, then he or she would be looking for any sign that they hadn’t followed the rules and had brought backup.

Seth would have to drop way behind them when they approached the baby farm. And that was yet another part about this plan that Austin didn’t like.

“Those photos are of Sadie,” Rosalie continued several minutes later. “That means someone associated with this has her.”

It did. But it didn’t mean that person was going to hand Sadie over to them. Or that the person demanding the ransom was also the one who’d taken those photos.

Austin kept that to himself.

“If it isn’t Yancy who’s doing this,” she went on, “then it’s someone who wants to make him look guilty.” Rosalie paused. “I’m hoping it’s Yancy so we can put him behind bars for the rest of his life.”

Yeah, Austin was hoping that, too, but maybe Vickie would be a less formidable foe. Except that Vickie could have hired just as much firepower as either Sonny or Yancy.

His phone buzzed. No text this time but an incoming call, and the caller’s name and number were blocked.

“The kidnapper.” And Austin hit the answer button and put it on speaker.

“I see that you’re on the way,” the caller greeted them. “Lose Agent Calder though before you get here.”

Austin mumbled some profanity. “You had the ranch under surveillance?”

“Of course. There’s a lot at stake here.”

There was. And that’s why Rosalie’s brothers had used binoculars to check if there was someone watching, but they hadn’t spotted anyone. Still, that didn’t mean the kidnapper hadn’t managed to get a camera close enough to monitor their every move and could have been doing that for days. With all the ranch hands and workers on the sprawling McKinnon ranch, it wouldn’t have been that hard to do.

“I’m guessing the sheriff and deputy are at the baby farm checking things out,” the caller went on. He didn’t wait for Austin to respond. “Good. They can stay there, and once you tell Agent Calder to take a hike, you can deliver those goods that the two of you put on the backseat of the car. How much trouble did the FBI give you about getting the stuff?”

“Plenty.” And Austin hoped that meant that the kidnapper believed the evidence was real. “You said the drop-off was the baby farm,” he snapped.

And while the location sucked, Austin figured any alternative would suck even more.

“There’s been a change of plans,” the kidnapper said. It was that same smug tone that he’d used with his earlier calls. “Call Agent Calder now. Tell him to turn around and go back to the ranch.”

“Why? So it’ll be easier to kill us?” Austin came right out and asked.

“No. Because I don’t want to make it easier for you to kill me. Especially since I’m holding the kid and all.”

Rosalie sucked in a hard breath. “Don’t you dare hurt my baby!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. She’s my ticket to that evidence. Oh, and by the way, she’s cute and sleeping like a baby for now. Keep it that way by following the rules. Ditch Calder and within five minutes, you’ll have your kid.”

Austin knew there was no way Rosalie could simply dismiss that as a lie. There was too much hope in her eyes to believe that she couldn’t soon have her baby in her arms.

“Where are you?” Austin demanded of the kidnapper, but he was talking to himself because the caller had already hung up.

Cursing, Austin hit the end call button and glanced in the rearview mirror at Seth’s car. Then, he glanced at Rosalie.

“We have to do it,” she insisted. “We have to tell Seth to stop.”

Austin had a quick debate with himself, but he knew there was only one solution here.

And it was a bad one.

“Call Colt and Cooper first to give them our location. Then, call Seth,” he finally said. “Tell him to pull off the side of the road until the kidnapper contacts us about the exchange.”

Rosalie gave a shaky nod and made the calls in the order he’d told her. Cooper and Colt gave her a quick okay. Seth argued, of course, but he would do as they asked.

Austin hoped.

And while he was hoping, he added that maybe there was some way he’d be able to get Rosalie out of this alive while also rescuing Sadie.

Behind him, he saw Seth pulled to the side as they’d requested, but Rosalie’s brother was also voicing his disapproval of the change in plans. However, Seth didn’t get a chance to voice it for long because another call came in on Austin’s phone.

“It’s the kidnapper again,” Rosalie said, quickly ending the conversation with her brother. As before, the screen showed that the caller ID had been blocked.

Austin automatically slid his hand over the gun in his shoulder holster. “What now?” Austin asked the moment Rosalie answered the call.

But the kidnapper didn’t jump to answer. The moments crawled by, and if Austin hadn’t heard the guy breathing, he would have thought no one was on the line.

“All right,” the kidnapper finally said. He was still using the voice scrambler that made him sound like a cartoon character. “Agent Calder is far enough away so you can take the turn just ahead.”

The windshield wipers were smearing the sleet on the windshield, so it took Austin a moment to see the road. Except it was more of a dirt-and-gravel path than an actual road. He eased on the brakes so he wouldn’t go into a skid, and he made the turn.

Also slowly.

He turned on his high beams, hoping it would give him a better look of their surroundings. There were plenty of trees and shrubs. No houses. But just ahead he spotted a dark-colored SUV parked in the center of the path.

Rosalie took the gun from the glove compartment.

“Yeah, that’s me,” the kidnapper said. “Drive closer.”

Austin didn’t. He came to a full stop then and there.

“Rosalie stays in the car while you and I make the exchange,” Austin insisted.

Again, the guy took his time answering. Maybe because he or she figured it would put them even more on edge. Austin wasn’t sure it was possible to do that since every nerve and muscle in his body was on full alert.

“Suit yourself,” the kidnapper finally said.

Austin hadn’t thought it possible, but that indeed made him even more concerned. He’d expected an argument.

One that Austin was sure he would lose.

So, was this some kind of trap to get him out of the car so Rosalie could be kidnapped?

Or worse?

But if this bozo just planned to kill them, why hadn’t he just started shooting? Maybe because the kidnapper suspected the car was bullet-resistant? Either way, there was nothing about this setup that Austin liked, and it just kept getting worse.

“I’ll put the laptops and files on the side of the road where I’m parked,” Austin said, trying a different angle. “Once that’s done, you come and get it.”

“Oh, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” the kidnapper answered. “It’s the weather, you see. Wouldn’t be good for the baby to be out for too long on a winter night like this. No. I’m thinking a better solution would be for you to drive closer. Less time outside for the kid.”

But closer meant Rosalie and he would be easier targets.

“You haven’t asked for proof that I’ve got the baby,” the kidnapper added. “Well, here it is.”

Austin didn’t have to wait long this time. Only a few seconds. Before the interior light came on in the kidnapper’s SUV. The light stabbed through the sleet and darkness, and even though Austin was parked a good thirty feet away, he had no trouble seeing the figures inside.