RENEGADE GUARDIAN (4 page)

And she was in his arms.

She quickly remedied that. “Sorry.” She pushed herself away from him but not before Slade caught another look in her eyes. Not distrust.

Oh, man.

He had to be wrong, but it seemed as if there was that little spark. Well, he had too much on his mind and plate to be dealing with that, and he told his body, and hers, to knock it off.

Maya reached for the baby, wobbled again and Slade stepped around her to unstrap the carrier so he could lift it and the car seat. He didn’t have anything resembling a car seat in his truck, and the baby had already been put in enough danger.

Clearly, Maya didn’t like him handling her baby even while Evan was in a carrier, but even she couldn’t argue that she wasn’t steady enough on her feet to make the short trek across the parking lot.

Slade kept his gun ready in his right hand, shifted the carrier to his left and gave Maya a nudge to get her moving. However, they only made it a few steps before the sheriff’s phone rang.

“Sheriff Monroe,” he answered, and Slade saw the immediate change in the lawman’s body language.

That stopped Slade in his tracks. Maya, too. Hell, Slade hoped this wasn’t bad news, because they’d already had enough of that today. Him and Maya and waited and fortunately didn’t have to wait long.

“We got him,” the sheriff announced the second he ended the call.

Maya made a sound of sheer relief. But not Slade. He just waited for the sheriff to continue.

“Well, we got one of them anyway,” Monroe explained. “My deputy just cuffed the driver of the black car and he’s taking him to the sheriff’s office now.”

“Is he talking?” Slade immediately asked.

The sheriff shook his head.

Slade got Maya moving again. “I’ll do something about that.”

One way or another, Slade would get answers. And not just about the kidnappings but about the baby’s paternity. The moment he had Maya and the baby inside his truck, he took out his phone and started a text to send to one of his brothers.

“Please tell me nothing else is wrong.” Maya leaned over as if trying to see what he’d typed.

But Slade fired off the text before she could see it. At least he thought he had.

Maya looked up at him with suddenly accusing eyes. “Why...?” That was all she managed to say for several seconds. “Why did you ask for a DNA kit?”

Chapter Five

Maya groaned when she checked the clock on the office wall again and wished the minutes would stop crawling by and speed up. It’d been nearly an hour since Slade and she had arrived at the sheriff’s office. Almost immediately he’d disappeared into the interrogation room with the sheriff and their kidnapping suspect.

The man from the black car.

No one had filled her in on what the man’s role had been in the kidnapping. Or if there’d even been a role. Basically, she’d just been left in the room with the promise from Slade that he’d get answers. Well, that wait for answers was testing her already frazzled nerves.

She was thankful that her son wasn’t in on that frazzled part. She’d given him the rest of his bottle not long after they’d arrived, and the full tummy did the trick because Evan was sound asleep.

Unlike Maya.

She was too exhausted to pace across the sheriff’s private office, but she couldn’t stop her mind from racing. The attack in the parking lot was partly to blame for that.

Mostly to blame.

But some of that mind racing was because of the cowboy-lawman in jeans and a Stetson who’d rescued Evan and her. She should be thanking him a hundred times over, but it wasn’t a boatload of thanks that was in that whirlwind inside her head.

It was the uneasy feeling she had about him.

Since she wasn’t about to lie to herself, she admitted part of that uneasiness had to do with his looks. Alarmingly handsome. With a dark and dangerous edge. It wasn’t even the
edge
that troubled her. In fact, that only made parts of her body notice him even more. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that Slade was as uneasy about her as she was about him.

But why?

And did it have something to do with the DNA test he’d requested in the text? Slade hadn’t answered her question when she’d asked him about it. There hadn’t been time. They’d been in a rush to get to the sheriff’s office and he had said something to her about needing to keep watch. Which he had certainly done. She had, too. But she’d soon demand the answer.

The office door opened, and despite her fatigue, Maya jumped to her feet. Just like that her body went on alert, preparing her for another fight. But it wasn’t a kidnapper who came through the door.

It was Slade.

He paused in the doorway, looking first at her before his attention landed on Evan. She’d put the carrier on the sheriff’s desk because the chair next to her hadn’t been wide enough to hold it.

“Did he confess?” Maya asked.

“To some things.” And with that somewhat cryptic statement, Slade closed the door and walked closer. His attention was still on the baby, and he sank into the chair next to her.

“His name is Morgan Gambill, and yeah, he has a police record for various drug offenses. He claims someone paid him to go to the parking lot and sit there. He says he didn’t know anything about the green SUV, the attack or the kidnappings.”

A frustrated sigh left her mouth. “You believe him?”

He shot her a “What do you think?” look. “I never believe anyone with a record that long, especially a drug user who looks like he’d sell his soul for his next fix.”

Maya couldn’t help it. She shuddered. This was exactly the kind of person she’d tried to distance herself from. “Who hired him?”

Slade shook his head. “Gambill claims he doesn’t know, that it was all done via email and a wire transfer. We’ll confiscate his computer and go through the account.”

But he didn’t sound very hopeful that they’d find anything. And they likely wouldn’t. She couldn’t imagine the kidnapper making a mistake that would be so easy to trace.

“Gambill wasn’t armed when the deputy caught up with him,” Slade continued. “But he could have tossed a weapon out the car window. Sheriff Monroe has someone out searching the sides of the road now. How is he?”

Since Slade didn’t pause before that last question, it took her a moment to realize he was asking about the baby. “He’s fine,” Maya practically snapped. “Sorry,” she added in a mumble.

Slade’s gaze came to hers. Even though she hadn’t thought it possible, those blue eyes were even more unsettling when aimed at her rather than the baby.

“How are
you?
” he asked.

Maya considered a lie but figured he’d see right through it. “Scared to death and even more afraid of trusting you.”

Slade stayed quiet a moment, that steely gaze still drilling into her, and he nodded. “For the record, I don’t trust you much, either. I figure first chance you get, you’ll try to ditch me and that’ll only put you and that boy in harm’s way again.”

His instincts were spot-on. She had already considered ditching him.

“I can’t do much to change your opinion of me,” he went on, his voice a husky drawl with a touch of gravel in it. “Can’t deny this attraction between us, either. That won’t help,” Slade concluded.

Again she considered a lie. Again dismissed it. “Last time I acted on an attraction, I got burned—badly.”

“Yeah.” For one word, it encompassed a lot.

Sweet heaven. Did he know that she’d been attacked and left for dead four years ago?

No doubt.

Slade was a lawman, after all, and he’d known about her desire to have a child. But it only added another level of uneasiness that he knew about the attack. Had likely seen photos, too. Those nightmarish images flashed through her mind. Always there.
Always.
And she had the physical scars to prove it.

“I learned a lot from that attack,” she mumbled.

“Bet you did. It’s the hard lessons we remember most.”

That was the voice of experience, and she made a mental note to do an internet check on Slade. She was betting he had some secrets.

Dark ones.

“I need you not to run,” Slade tossed out there. “This investigation will be dangerous enough without you making it worse.”

Maya pulled back her shoulders, about to assure him that she wasn’t going to make things more dangerous. But she had to rethink that. What if Slade was her best bet at keeping Evan safe? The marshal certainly seemed determined to do just that. And in that particular area, they were on the same page.

“Let’s just get through this,” he went on. “And find the person responsible. Find those babies, too, so we can get them back where they belong.”

Again, on the same page.

So why did it feel as if she were about to step off a cliff?

“What happens now?” she asked. And Maya hoped she didn’t have to clarify that she was talking about the investigation and their current situation. They couldn’t stay at the sheriff’s office much longer, because she didn’t have any additional formula for Evan.

“You’ll need to go to a safe house.” Slade checked the time. “My brother’s working on that. The sheriff will continue to press Gambill and hope he spills something. I don’t think Gambill’s an innocent as he’s claiming, but he’s not smart enough to put together something like this.”

“What about Randall Martin, the owner of the green SUV?” she asked.

“I talked to him on the phone, and he’s coming in for an interview, but he claims someone stole his SUV and that he reported it stolen before the attack.”

“You believe him?”

Slade lifted his shoulder. “He knew about the kidnappings. Said he heard about them on the news.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Maybe he did. But he doesn’t have an alibi for the time of the kidnapping attempt. He claims he’s been home alone.”

So he could be the person responsible and could have reported his vehicle stolen to cover his tracks. “What about the missing nanny, Andrea Culberson? Are the cops still looking for her?”

He nodded. “Looking but with no luck finding her. She’s left no money or paper trail.”

Maya couldn’t dismiss the nanny as a suspect, but there was something about her situation that didn’t make sense. “If Andrea took her employers’ baby, then why would she take another child and then attempt to kidnap Evan?”

“She had some mental problems,” Slade reminded her. “Maybe this is just overkill.” He paused. “Or she could be dead. The kidnapper could have murdered her when he took the baby.”

Despite the bone-weary fatigue, that sent a spike of panic through her. Maya wanted to get out of there, fast, so that her baby wouldn’t be in danger.

As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, Slade cupped his hand around her wrist. Not a rough grip. A barely there touch, something she wouldn’t have thought him capable of, not with that strongman’s body.

“Breathe,” he insisted.

Only then did Maya realize that she’d sucked in her breath and held it. She released it and shook off his grip. But it didn’t matter. Just that brief anchor had been enough to help her settle the panic.

“Andrea’s employers, Nadine and Chase Collier, have hired a P.I. to look for her,” Slade added. “And their baby, of course.”

She looked down at her son and couldn’t imagine losing him. A parent’s worst nightmare. One that Slade had been through himself. No doubt that was the reason for the pain she now saw in his eyes when he stared at Evan.

The sound shot through the room, and because Maya’s nerves were right there at the surface, she gasped. It took her a moment to realize someone had knocked on the door. Slade jumped to his feet, moving in front of her, but she saw his shoulders relax when the door opened.

But Maya didn’t relax.

The man in the doorway looked just as intense as Slade.

“My brother,” Slade said to her. “Marshal Declan O’Malley.”

The lanky dark-haired man slipped off his Stetson, caught her gaze and nodded a greeting. Maya noticed not only the lack of resemblance but the different surnames.

“Your brother?” she questioned.

“Foster brother,” Marshal O’Malley explained. Like Slade, he had an easy Texas drawl, but there was a hint of some other accent. His gray-green eyes went from her to Slade and then to Evan.

“The safe house is ready.” Declan handed the papers he was holding to Slade. “The background checks you wanted.”

Slade took them, and Maya went closer to him so she could see what had captured his complete attention. Randall Martin’s name was on the first line. Before she could even scan through the personal info about his address, age, etc., Slade mumbled some profanity.

“Yeah,” his brother concurred. “You need to question him.”

Maya saw it then. In the paragraph of comments. Randall’s girlfriend, Gina Blackwell, had left him several months earlier, and apparently it hadn’t been a peaceful split, because she’d filed a restraining order against him.

The restraining order didn’t prove that Randall could be involved in the kidnappings, but it was a clue that he could be violent. However, there was nothing to indicate that Randall had believed a baby would help bring his ex back to him. But maybe that was exactly what’d happened.

“Might be best if I take Randall into Maverick Springs for questioning,” Declan explained. “This is already federal anyway, since the FBI was called in.”

She shook her head. “Does that mean the marshals would handle the case?”

“We already are.” Slade’s tone wasn’t as bossy as usual, but he certainly wasn’t asking for permission.

“Before you take Maya to the safe house, you can question Randall at the marshals’ office,” Declan went on. “And talk to Ranger Morris.” He paused, met his brother’s gaze. “There’s been a...development.”

Both men glanced at her, and she didn’t think it was her imagination they were considering if they should take this conversation out of the room. But then Slade looked at the baby.

“What development?” he asked Declan.

Even though Slade had obviously just given him the green light to continue, Declan hesitated. Mumbled some profanity. “The Rangers claim they found an eyewitness who puts you near Webb’s office at the time of the murder.”

Of all the things she’d thought he might say, that wasn’t one of them. “You’re a suspect in a murder investigation?”

Slade’s mouth tightened. “I’m a suspect in a witch hunt,” he huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “I was raised at the Rocky Creek Children’s Facility.”

Oh. Now, that was a place she recognized because it’d been in the news for months. The facility was closed now, but it had a less than stellar reputation. As had the headmaster, Jonah Webb, and about six months ago Webb’s body had been found in a shallow grave near Rocky Creek.

But she recalled other facts. Ones that had her shaking her head. “Webb’s wife confessed to the murder.”

Declan nodded. “But before she went into a coma, she said she had an accomplice.”

She turned toward Slade so quickly that she accidentally bumped into Evan’s carrier. Startled, her son’s hands flew up, and he started to cry. Maya picked him up to try and soothe him, but she needed some reassurance of her own.

“The Rangers believe you helped murder Webb.” And it wasn’t exactly a question.

Maya hadn’t thought it possible, but Slade’s jaw tightened even more. “For the record, Webb deserved to spend an eternity in hell, and whoever sent him there should be given a medal. Not jail time.”

It wasn’t the declaration of innocence she’d been hoping for, but Maya decided to withhold judgment. About that anyway. From what she’d read about Webb, he had been physically abusing the children at the facility he ran. A man who preyed on someone weaker than himself.

Something Maya had some experience with.

And that was the reason she was willing to cut Slade some slack.

She hoped that was the only reason.

Maya was so deep in her own thoughts that she nearly missed the look that Slade and Declan gave each other. Something passed between them, maybe an entire conversation, and at the end of it, Slade and Declan moved away from her and closer to the door. With their backs to her, Declan whispered something.

“Is this personal?” she thought she heard Declan say. But what she didn’t hear was Slade’s response. Declan handed Slade something, and when he turned back around to face her, she saw the small plastic bag in his hand.

“It’s a DNA test kit.” Slade’s attention went straight to Evan. So did he. Slade walked back toward her, reached out and touched Evan’s cheek.