Delores Fossen - Josh

Josh looked at the phone screen. “It’s Grayson,” he told her. And he clicked the speaker function.

“How are the women?” Grayson asked.

“One’s in labor. The other three are being checked out now.”

“Good. Stay there with them, and if they’re feeling up to it, get statements from them. I’m trying to get a CSI team out here ASAP.”

Josh shook his head. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure.” Grayson paused a heartbeat. “But we found something.”

Chapter Five

Something.

Yeah, it was that all right. Josh looked at the items that had been collected from the rubble of the house that had exploded.

A laptop.

Or rather, what was left of it.

Josh wasn’t sure they could recover anything from it, but there was a tech from the crime lab already working on it.

There were also bits and pieces of paper. Several coffee mugs that would be processed for prints. Some shoes.

And a badge in its black leather case.

It was pretty beat up, as if someone had used it for a mini punching bag, but Josh had no trouble recognizing it as one issued to FBI agents.

Beside him, Jaycee pulled in her breath when she saw it. “Is the badge mine?”

Grayson nodded. “There’s enough of the identification card for us to confirm it’s yours.”

“Oh, God,” she murmured and sank down into the chair next to the desk. “I didn’t have it on me when they took me. That means they got it from my apartment.”

And more than that, it meant they knew who she was.

She looked up at Josh as if she expected him to have some answers, but he didn’t. The only thing that he was certain of was they would have indeed killed Jaycee once the baby was born. No way would they let an agent go free.

“But why steal my badge?” she asked, volleying glances at both Grayson and him.

“We’re not sure.” Grayson motioned to the laptop. “But we’re hoping the info’s recoverable. Plus, we’ve contacted your supervisor, Philip McCoy, to let him know what’s going on, since he thought you were on a leave of absence this whole time.”

“I did let him know I was taking some time off,” Jaycee said. “I was trying to deal with what happened so I told him I wasn’t sure when I’d be back to work—if ever,” she added in a mumble.

“That’s why he didn’t push to find you,” Grayson continued. “Now that he knows what happened, he’ll check to make sure no one used your badge to get into the FBI building.”

Where the person would have had access to all sorts of files and people. Of course, the San Antonio office where Jaycee was assigned wasn’t that large, so someone would have noticed a stranger trying to use Jaycee’s badge to gain entrance. If that had happened, it would have been a red flag for McCoy that something was wrong.

Grayson opened his mouth to add more, but his phone rang. It was the third call that had come through since Josh arrived with Jaycee ten minutes earlier.

Josh looked down at her. At her exhausted face. Her shoulders were slumped. There were dark circles under her eyes. She was biting her bottom lip. Every part of her body language told him she was tired and worried. Heaven knew what all this stress was also doing to the baby.

“I’ll get you out of here soon,” he let her know.

But that was another problem.

He’d learned on the drive over that Jaycee no longer had an apartment. Since she hadn’t paid her rent, her things had been moved to storage and the place had been rented out to someone else. She had no family to speak of. And he wasn’t sure how she would feel about going to a hotel with the armed guards still at large, especially since those guards knew her identity.

Heck, Josh wasn’t sure how he felt about it. After all, if Jaycee was in danger, so was the baby.

His baby.

Those two words kept running through his head. It’d been just words until he saw the ultrasound, and then it had felt like an avalanche. For a few seconds. And then he’d felt a whole lot more. The love for a baby he hadn’t even known he wanted until today.

The wound on his chest started to throb. A bad reminder of his past with Jaycee. He was a long way from forgiving her, but he wouldn’t let the past stand in the way of giving their baby the best protection he could.

Grayson finished his call, and for the first time in hours, he looked a little relieved. “That was the hospital. The woman in labor just gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The other two women are fine, too. We’re working on getting them all back with their families.”

“Good,” Jaycee said under her breath, and she repeated it. “But what about the three women and the guards? Any sign of them?”

“Nothing.” The frustration returned to Grayson’s expression. “But I need you to think. Did you see or hear anything that would give us a clue as to where they would have taken the women?”

“No.” And she didn’t hesitate, either. “Any time I would go in the house for a checkup, I’d try to look around. Try to figure out who these men were. I don’t remember hearing or seeing anything. I’m so sorry,” Jaycee added, and her voice cracked.

There was no telling how many nightmarish memories she had of her time as a captive. It sickened Josh to think of all those women and babies being in constant danger for months on end.

Grayson glanced at Jaycee’s pregnant belly. Then at Josh. “I gather that you two were once...involved?”

Josh nodded. “The baby’s mine.”

“You think maybe that’s why Jaycee was taken? Maybe so someone would have leverage over you? The baby of two FBI agents is plenty of leverage.”

Yeah. It was.

Jaycee made a sound of agreement, too. “But if I was their initial target, they covered it well. I was kidnapped with another woman, and it certainly seemed as if they wanted just her. They only took me because I tried to fight back.”

That didn’t help the throbbing pain in Josh’s chest, either. Of course, he couldn’t have expected Jaycee to stand there and do nothing. He wouldn’t have.

Grayson released a long, weary breath. “I can get Jaycee’s statement tomorrow. Why don’t you go ahead and take her to the ranch so she can get some rest?”

Jaycee’s eyes widened. “The ranch? With your family?” She shook her head. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

“I have five brothers,” Grayson explained to her. “All in law enforcement. The ranch is safe, or at least it is for now. My dad’s a widower, and he’s getting married this weekend. There’ll be a lot of people in and out for the arrangements and for the ceremony itself. We’ll need to add some security when that starts happening.”

Grayson didn’t mention those armed guards coming back for her, but they all knew it was a strong possibility. Jaycee was a dangerous loose end, and whoever was running the black-market operation wouldn’t want her around to give the cops any details about her captivity.

“Come on,” Josh insisted, and he was thankful she didn’t argue.

He did a thorough check of the parking lot and the street before he led her outside and to his truck. Josh didn’t see anything suspicious, but he hurried anyway and got them on the road toward the ranch.

“I need to remember something,” Jaycee murmured. “Anything that’ll help us find those women.”

Since she’d been held for nearly four months, there were a lot of memories and details to sort through. “Did you ever see the laptop that was recovered from the rubble?”

She stayed quiet a few moments. “Yes, on the kitchen table about two weeks ago. I can’t be sure it was the same one, but I remember seeing one there.”

Maybe that meant the laptop had been at the house long enough for it to contain something to blow this case wide open.