Delores Fossen - Josh

Josh finished talking with his cousin, but instead of telling her what was going on, he made another call.

“I’m calling the hospital,” he said to her, and he told whoever was on the other end of the line that he was en route with four pregnant women who needed medical attention.

Jaycee opened her mouth to say that she was fine, but she didn’t know that for sure. She’d been held captive for months, and even though she’d gotten plenty of checkups during that time, she couldn’t trust any doctor working for black-market baby brokers.

Josh finally finished the call with the hospital, put his phone away and took the turn toward town. Just as Grace had another contraction.

“The house blew up,” Josh relayed to her. “My cousins are okay. They weren’t hurt in the explosion.”

“But?” Jaycee asked because there was definitely a bad-news tone in his voice.

Josh didn’t jump to answer, but his jaw muscles were stirring like crazy. “The guards escaped with the other three women.”

Jaycee groaned. It was better than hearing they’d been killed, but it was still a major setback. “All the women who were staying in the house are close to delivering. Once they have their babies, the guards will probably kill the women.”

For once she was glad Blanca and Marita didn’t understand a lot of English, though both women had no doubt figured out what was going on. They’d all seen the guards leave with babies, but never once had they seen one of the new mothers walk out of the ranch house.

Jaycee suspected they were being carted out in body bags at night.

“Grayson and the others are looking for them,” Josh added.

Though it was the only thing they could do, it didn’t seem nearly enough. The women were very pregnant and were no doubt being forced to run and do other things that their bodies and babies might not be able to handle. The guards wouldn’t care a flying fig if the escape led to the women’s deaths. They only cared about getting their hands on the babies so they could be sold like cattle.

“After we get Grace to the hospital,” Jaycee murmured, “I want to help find them.”

Josh made a sound. Definitely one of disapproval. “Going off half-cocked hasn’t worked well for you or others in the past, has it?”

That stung. Because it was true.

Jaycee choked back her own moan. Barely. And just like that, the memories came.

All bad.

The old mixed with the new from her captivity. Five months ago, she’d been conducting her own investigation into some money laundering and hadn’t been aware the operation already involved several undercover agents. Jaycee had only wanted to catch the piece-of-slime launderer who’d killed two women who happened to stumble upon his operation.

Instead, Jaycee had endangered the agents.

Josh had been shot and had nearly died during surgery. There’d been no nearly for his partner, Agent Ben Sayers. He’d been killed.

Someday she might learn how to live with that.

Might.

But for now it was just more bad memories added to the new ones from being held captive. She hadn’t been beaten, but only because it could have caused her to miscarry. However, she’d certainly been slapped a few times and threatened daily. And yet the slaps and the threats hadn’t been the worst of it. The worst thing had been not knowing what the abuse would do to her baby.

Grace moaned again, causing Jaycee’s attention to snap back to the woman. Another contraction, and this one seemed even harder and longer than the others.

“We’re almost there,” Jaycee told her.

No lie this time. The town of Silver Creek was just ahead, and next to the sign for the city limits was one for the hospital. Josh went in that direction, and it was less than a minute before he pulled into the E.R. parking lot where there was a team of medics waiting for them.

The moment Josh stopped the truck, Jaycee hurried out. Blanca and Marita, too, so the medics could get to Grace.

“There’s less than a minute between her contractions,” Jaycee told them, and they got Grace on a gurney and whisked her away.

Jaycee was about to follow them when she found herself being placed on a gurney, too. The medics did the same to Blanca and Marita and wheeled them through the hospital doors. Josh was right there, hurrying along behind them.

“The doctor will be with you soon,” a nurse said, and she put Jaycee into one of the E.R. cubicles. The nurse paused and looked at Josh. “Stay with her until I can get someone in here.”

Josh nodded, though Jaycee was sure that staying with her was the last thing on earth he wanted to do. He no doubt wanted to check on his cousins or go after those escaped guards and missing women.

Anything that didn’t involve having close contact with her.

She heard Grace’s moans fading. Not because the woman had gotten quiet. But probably because she was being taken to Labor and Delivery and out of earshot. Jaycee hoped that she’d deliver a healthy baby and that she could soon put this nightmare behind her. Jaycee wished that for all the captives. Especially for those three who hadn’t been rescued.

Soon, very soon, the quiet closed in around them, and because the room was small, Josh had no choice but to look at her.

Correction: he looked at her pregnant belly.

She saw the questions in his eyes. The doubts. Not about the baby’s paternity. He was right about that—she wasn’t a liar. Even though she had considered it. Briefly. After all, she was the last woman on earth who Josh would want carrying his child, and for a fleeting moment she’d wondered if he might want her to lie.

“I really did intend to tell you about the baby,” she repeated, trying to answer some of those questions in his eyes. “I was worried that it’d cause you to blow a gasket or two, but I would have told you.”

He nodded.

That was his only reaction. He certainly didn’t deny that he would have been seriously upset to hear the news months ago. But then, Josh wasn’t a liar, either.

“When’s the baby due?” he finally asked.

“In four months.”

Nine months after their weekend together in San Antonio. Their only weekend together. Yes, it’d been good.

Darn good.

But their last morning together, she’d seen that look in Josh’s eyes and known he hadn’t been looking for anything other than a short-term hookup. Old baggage, no doubt, since Josh had a love-’em-and-leave-’em reputation. So Jaycee hadn’t given him an out and walked away.

Six hours later, he’d been shot.

And they’d learned about her rogue investigation that had collided with Josh’s authorized one. If she had thought for one second that other agents were involved, she would have backed off. Of course, she hadn’t asked a lot of questions when she’d gone after those money launderers and killers. Jaycee had only been thinking about justice.

Josh kept staring at her. Kept those questions in his eyes. She wasn’t sure what he expected from her. Wasn’t sure he’d tell her if he knew. But after all these months of being held captive, Jaycee had had time to figure out what she would say to him if she ever got the chance.

Well, now here was her chance.

“Look, I don’t expect anything from you,” Jaycee firmly stated. Giving him another out that he looked like he desperately needed. “I just wanted you to know because, well, because.”

No reason to get into her old baggage. Or tell him that her own mother hadn’t told her birth father that she was pregnant with Jaycee. Not until it’d been too late anyway. Jaycee had never had the chance to know her dad, and even though he was a less-than-stellar person, she’d sworn she would never do that to her child.