Delores Fossen - Holden

She didn’t voice her greatest fear, that the goons inside might try to harm him so there’d be no proof of what they’d done.

“What if there really is a baby inside?” he went on. “How would we even know if it’s Emmett and Annie’s?”

She motioned toward her hair. “According to what I heard from the eavesdropping device, he’s a ginger.” Not exactly rare but at least it was something like Annie and me. Besides, she thought she might recognize her own sister’s child.

“You have backup on the way?” she asked.

Holden nodded. “It’s Landon. I told him to do a silent approach.” He tipped his head to the house. “If the guy who was at your house had already contacted them, they could shoot us on sight.”

“No. They want me alive so I can tell them where the files are. That’s why he didn’t kill me right away when he barged his way into my house.” Not exactly a reminder to steady her nerves. Of course, her nerves hadn’t been steady in a long, long time.

Nicky eased open the door, but Holden stopped her.

“I’m not letting you go in there,” he insisted.

“They want me alive,” Nicky repeated. “They’ll want you dead. If anyone should go in there, it’s me. But I need you...well, if something goes wrong, I need you to get the baby out.”

Holden took hold of her again, and this time he didn’t let go. “You’re not going in there. Wait here. And so help me, if you disobey that order, I’ll arrest you myself.”

But he’d no sooner said that when someone opened the back door of the house. The place had a wraparound porch, and while the front was well lit, the back wasn’t. Probably on purpose. Because Nicky saw something she didn’t want to see.

Two men. A woman. And the woman had something bundled in her arms.

They didn’t linger on the porch. They hurried, practically running down the porch steps.

Nicky’s heart went to her knees. “They’re getting away. Go after them. We have to stop them.”

If Holden was listening to her, he didn’t respond. He just kept watching, kept his grip on her until he finally pulled back his hand so he could send a text.

“I don’t think she’s holding a baby,” Holden said. “I think it’s a decoy.”

Nicky tried to fight through the panic so she could see why he’d said that. Maybe because the bundle was huge. No way to miss that. And it wasn’t anywhere near cool enough for the baby to need multiple blankets. It was September, and the temps were still close to ninety.

Plus, there was something else that was off. The woman was as tall and bulky as the two men who’d hurried her out of the house.

Mercy.

This was some kind of trap.

“They probably suspect we’re here and will be expecting us to follow them,” Holden said without taking his attention off them.

The trio got into an SUV parked behind the inn. Almost immediately, she saw the headlights of the SUV come on.

“Landon will follow them instead, and he’ll have two other deputies do a quiet approach here,” Holden added. “Come on. Get out of the car. Stay low and move fast. I’m going to see who’s inside the house. I can’t leave you here or they might try to kidnap you.”

Nicky tried not to let that statement rob her of what breath she’d managed to gather. Because this was a risk. And not just the possible kidnapping. Nicky had to consider that this could be a ruse of a different kind. One where the baby was actually inside that SUV and these thugs wanted to lure Holden and her to the house.

Well, if so, it was going to work.

Of course, it was just as possible that at this very moment someone was escaping with the baby on the other side of the house. Everything inside Nicky was screaming for her to hurry.

“Do you have a gun?” he asked.

She shook her head, and he gave her one of those looks. The one that made her feel like an idiot. “I don’t keep a gun in my vehicle. And besides I didn’t plan on shooting anyone tonight, especially with the baby around.”

“Then, what was your plan, to ask them pretty please to hand over the child?” Holden snapped.

“No. I was going to sneak in and take him. I’m pretty good at sneaking in places,” she added in a mumble.

No way could he argue with that, but Nicky wished she’d had time to come up with a better plan. Too bad that thug had shown up at her house and thrown things into chaos.

“Just do everything I tell you,” Holden warned her. “Everything.”

With his gun drawn, Holden threaded them through the trees, but he stopped at the edge of the yard. There were plenty of windows, but she couldn’t get a glimpse of anyone inside. However, there was another car in the small parking area on the side of the house.

She glanced back at the road and the SUV, but the trees were in the way, and Nicky couldn’t tell if it actually stopped. She prayed that if the baby was indeed inside the vehicle, Landon would be able to follow them and find out where they were taking the child.

Holden led them onto the porch, and even though the door was partly open, they didn’t go inside. Instead, he went to a window and peered around the edge. He snapped back so fast that she knew there had to be someone in the room. Someone who had caused his muscles to go iron-stiff.

“Two men,” Holden whispered. “Both armed. There’s a baby carrier on the table.”

Even though she figured Holden didn’t want her to move, Nicky had to see for herself.

Nicky took in everything in one quick glance. The two men, one bald and the other wearing a black baseball-type hat.

And the ginger-haired baby asleep in the carrier.

Mercy. She’d tried to steel herself for whatever they might face, but it sickened her to think of a baby being around hired guns.

“If you create a distraction,” she said, trying to make as little sound as possible, “I can sneak in.”

Holden gave her a look again, to let her know that wasn’t going to happen. But she didn’t want to stand around there and wait. If these goons heard the other deputies, they might start a gunfight, and the baby would be caught in the middle.

Even though the window was closed, she had no trouble hearing a phone ring inside. She also had no trouble hearing one of the men answer it. Not with a greeting, either.

He simply said, “What now?”

Too bad he hadn’t put it on speaker because Nicky would have liked to know who she was dealing with. But nothing. For several snail-crawling moments. She had no idea what the caller was telling him, but it caused the man’s forehead to bunch up.

“All right,” the man finally said. “We’ll move the kid now. See you in a few.” He ended the call and turned to the bald guy. “That reporter’s car was just up the road. She wasn’t in it, but they’re sending someone to torch it and the house just in case.”

Considering all the other things going on, that was small potatoes. Still, it sickened her to think of these snakes destroying her home. And it would all be for nothing. Because the files weren’t even there.

“You know she didn’t just leave,” the other man said. “She’s out there somewhere.”

The first one nodded and slapped off the lights. “If she really knows what’s going on, she won’t shoot around the kid, and she’ll make sure the marshal doesn’t, either.”

The thug was right about not wanting to start a gunfight, but he was wrong about her knowing what was going on. She still didn’t understand why someone would do this.

“You don’t shoot around the kid, either,” the hat-wearing guy warned his partner. “But if you get a clean shot of the marshal, take it. Do the same to any of the locals who might show up to poke around here. Nobody who sees or could see anything gets away from here to rat us out.”