Delores Fossen - Kidnapping in Kendall County

Rosalie’s heart just kept dropping. She was beyond thankful that the babies were okay, but it was terrifying to think of Janice being pursued by these monsters while she was trying to get the newborns to safety.

“The babies are being taken to the hospital,” Agent Ryland continued. “Just as a precaution. There’s not a scratch on them. And, of course, child protective services will be brought in. Will the woman’s killer try to come after the babies?” he came right out and asked.

Rosalie already knew the answer and dreaded hearing it.

“Possibly,” Austin said without hesitation.

“I’ll get right on it,” Ryland answered, also without hesitation, and he ended the call.

“This is all my fault,” she whispered.

Austin made a yeah, right sound. “The fault lies with the person who set up the baby farm.”

True, but if she hadn’t put Janice in a position where she had to escape, the woman might be alive. “If I’d stayed with her and the babies, this might not have happened.”

“Yes, it would have, and you’d be dead, too. Those guards wouldn’t have wanted any witnesses to get away.”

And since both Austin and she were just that—witnesses—then, yes, the men would have tried to shoot her, too. But at least if she’d been there, she might have been able to stop it and Janice might be alive.

Austin drove into the hospital parking lot and came to a stop directly in front of the E.R. doors. Sonny climbed out, not easily, and while still clutching his injured arm, he headed inside.

“Stay close to me,” Austin warned her, and as he’d done while they were on the road, he kept watch around them.

The rain had stopped, but the wind took a swipe at her. She was already shivering from the spent adrenaline, and the bitter cold only made it worse.

The moment the E.R. staff saw Sonny, they rushed forward and whisked him away to one of the examination rooms. A security guard wearing a uniform trailed along behind them.

Rosalie looked around, hoping to see the babies and whoever was guarding them, but the E.R. was empty except for a woman sitting at the intake desk.

“I’ll need to get some information from you about the patient,” the woman said.

But Austin waved her off. “Nothing much we can tell you. We just gave him a ride here.”

That wasn’t the whole truth, of course, but Austin probably didn’t want to get into any details of the investigation with someone who wasn’t law enforcement.

“I’ll check on the babies,” Austin said when Rosalie continued to look around.

He took out his phone, stepped to the far side of the room, but before he could make a call his phone rang. He groaned and showed her the name on the screen.

Seth.

Now it was Rosalie’s turn to groan. Agent Ryland had likely called Seth.

“Let me talk to my sister,” Seth ordered. Even without the call being on speaker, she had no trouble hearing him.

“I’m fine,” Rosalie jumped to say to her brother when Austin handed her the phone.

“You’re not fine if you were in the middle of an undercover investigation. Have you lost your mind?”

Probably. Hard to have a sound mind with her baby kidnapped. “I don’t expect you to understand why I did what I did.”

“Oh, I understand it all right. I want to find my niece as much as you do, but I don’t want my sister dead in the process. Put Austin back on the phone,” he ordered, sounding very much like the hardheaded brother that he was.

“How the hell did she manage to get inside an undercover operation, and exactly how close did she come to dying?” Again her brother’s voice was so loud that Rosalie didn’t need the speaker function to hear him.

Austin’s gaze met hers, and she silently pleaded with him not to tell the truth. It was best if she broke the details to Seth after he calmed down. Whenever the heck that might be.

“Rosalie’s okay. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Austin said, but he shot her a glare. No doubt because he wasn’t happy about the lie or her involvement in any of this.

“From what I’m hearing, you were both at the wrong place. You do know your boss is ticked off about this?”

“Yeah, I heard,” Austin mumbled. “Can’t be helped.”

“We got a lead on the missing babies,” Rosalie volunteered since she doubted Austin wanted to continue to listen to this scolding any more than she did.

She moved closer to the phone, and in doing so, her cheek brushed against Austin’s. The slight contact stunned her, as if it’d been more than just an accidental touch, and she eased away from him.

Austin’s gaze stayed on her, and he cleared his throat. Obviously, he wasn’t any more comfortable touching her than she was touching him.

Except it hadn’t been just discomfort on her part.

Rosalie felt that trickle of heat. The kind of man-to-woman heat that she couldn’t possibly feel when it came to Austin, so she quickly shoved it aside and hoped it didn’t come back.

“Trevor Yancy’s name came up in connection with the baby farms,” Austin told Seth.

“Hell,” Seth mumbled.

And that was Rosalie’s reaction, too.

Well, it was after she managed to force that trickle to take a hike. It was easier to do now that Yancy was in the forefront of her thoughts.

Yancy and his hired gun could be the people responsible for the attack that had left Eli dead, and she wanted the man to have no further connection to her and her family. However, Yancy might have the ultimate connection if he’d been the one to kidnap Sadie.

“I’ll deal with Yancy,” Austin continued. “And I’ll drive Rosalie home as soon as someone arrives to take over for me here at the hospital.”

“Don’t take her home yet.” Seth cursed, groaned, cursed again. “I’m tied up with a case here in El Paso, so I’m asking you to do me a favor. Protect her. Make sure these goons don’t come after her. And, Rosalie, don’t you dare say you can take care of yourself.”

Since that’s exactly what she’d been about to say, Rosalie just stayed quiet and aimed her own glare at the phone. She loved Seth, and he’d been more of a real brother to her than her own three blood-kin ones had been, but she couldn’t stop looking for her precious baby.

No amount of warnings from anyone, including Seth or Austin, would stop her.

“Sawyer said these goons killed a woman,” Seth went on, talking to Austin now. “And if so, they could come after Rosalie.”

That made her feel a little light-headed. She’d considered that, of course, but what she hadn’t realized was that if Austin took her to her family’s ranch, that she could put all of them in danger, too. Her pregnant sister, Rayanne, was there. Her father, as well, along with her oldest brother’s wife and toddler son. She didn’t want them caught up in the middle of this dangerous situation.

“I’ll get Rosalie to a safe house,” Austin assured him, and before either one could give her a say in the matter, they ended the call.

She had to make Austin understand that she wasn’t going into hiding. “I don’t want to go to a safe house. I want to find Sadie.”

But she was talking to the air because Austin’s attention was no longer on her. It was on the lanky dark-haired man who came through the E.R. doors. Rosalie immediately spotted the silver badge clipped to his belt and figured he was carrying a weapon beneath his buckskin coat.

“Agent Duran?” he said, heading their way. “I’m Deputy Gage Ryland. I’m here to guard the man you brought in.”

“Ryland,” Austin repeated. “You’re Sawyer’s cousin?”

The deputy nodded, the corner of his mouth lifting a little. “Around here, just about every Ryland has got a badge.” The half smile quickly faded. “Tell me about this guy I’ll be guarding.”