JOSH (17 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Jaycee kept as low as she could and kept running.

Thanks to Josh.

He had hold of her arm, and he didn’t let go despite the bullets kicking up dirt and rocks all around them. He pulled her onto the other side of a dirt embankment, and they dropped to the ground.

There were more shots.

But not all were coming from the kidnappers.

Some were coming from the direction of the dirt road where she’d last seen Grayson and another man. A ranch hand, most likely. Jaycee had caught only a glimpse of them before their truck had started moving their way. Now that truck had run into the clump of rocks where the kidnappers had taken cover.

At least one of the men was hurt. She’d gotten a glimpse of the blood on his face before she had crawled over him and escaped. Jaycee hoped his wounds were bad enough that he couldn’t return fire and also so that his comrades would want to get him out of there fast and to a hospital. They would have to stop shooting to do that, and then maybe Grayson and Josh could move in to arrest them.

The shots kept coming, but they weren’t aimed directly at her. Most of the shots were going to the left, the bullets tearing through the dirt and scattering the debris everywhere, including her eyes. She was still feeling the effects of the tear gas, and the debris and the darkness didn’t help.

That thought froze in her head.

Not the debris. But the tear gas.

Oh, mercy. Could that have harmed the baby?

She slid her hand over her stomach and prayed that it hadn’t, but it made the situation even more urgent. She, too, needed to get to a hospital. Of course, these men would try to stop that from happening. Clearly, this was still a kidnapping attempt.

And she still didn’t know why.

Was it because she was an FBI agent and they wanted to find out what she’d learned? Or did they only want the baby? Jaycee hoped she found out soon because that answer might give her some clues as to who was behind this.

Josh was already practically on top of her. Sheltering and protecting her. And as before, he put his mouth right against her ear.

“The ranch road curves and continues over there,” he said, tipping his head to a heavily treed area on the right. “If we can get there, someone can pick us up and get us out of here.”

Jaycee was all for that, though moving would mean leaving cover. For a few seconds anyway.

“Send Grayson another text,” Josh added. “See if he can create another diversion and tell him we’re going to move to the road away from the shooters. Have him get someone out there if he can.”

Her hands were shaking like crazy, but Jaycee managed to write the text. And the waiting began. The kidnappers kept shooting, but from what she could tell, they weren’t moving in for the kill.

Why not?

She shook her head, glad that it wasn’t happening but wondering what the heck they were waiting for.

Or who.

Maybe their boss hadn’t given them an out—they weren’t to come back unless they had her.

Josh’s phone dinged, and she saw the response text from Grayson.
Will do.

Grayson didn’t give details, but a moment later, she saw the plan in action. A hot pink flare shot into the night sky like fireworks. But not just into the sky. Several of the flares came shooting like rockets right at the kidnappers.

Josh didn’t wait to see what would happen. He got them moving again away from the embankment and to those trees. It took a few seconds, just enough time for them to reach cover, before the shots came their way again.

The second diversion had worked.

Well, for Josh and her anyway.

With the new position, she was able to see the shooter, and two were firing at Grayson. The other, at Josh and her.

So much for hoping that one guy was injured too badly to fire.

All three men looked fit and ready to kill. And they were sending most of their shots at Grayson. She hoped he’d taken cover before shooting off those flares.

“Let’s go,” Josh said over the deafening noise, and that was the only warning Jaycee got before he moved them to another tree. Then another.

Each step was a huge risk because the shots kept coming—not directly at her but at Josh and the others. Even when one of the men stopped to reload, his partners picked up the slack and just continued firing.

Josh and she worked their way through the trees, and she tried to position herself so the men wouldn’t be able to shoot him. But Josh would have no part in that. He just shoved her right back behind him and continued their trek to the road.

So did one of the kidnappers.

The bulky one who’d driven the truck moved out from behind the rocks and came after them.

That sent her heart crashing against her ribs, but it didn’t slow them down. Even when the guy fired into the tree they were using for cover, Josh just kept them moving toward the road.

It seemed to take an eternity before Jaycee finally saw the dirt road just ahead.

She also saw the kidnapper behind them.

Josh did, too. He leaned out, sent a bullet the man’s way, but the guy just briefly ducked out of sight. The snake used the same trees for cover that Josh and she had.

“Wait,” Josh said to her, and he stopped several yards from the road.

It was much darker in this area because the towering trees on both sides blocked most of the moonlight. Her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, but she could hardly see anything.

Certainly no headlights from a rescue vehicle.

“We’ll follow the road until someone from the ranch gets here,” Josh explained.

Jaycee had no idea how long it would take for a vehicle to circle back around to this point, but she prayed it wouldn’t take long.

Josh got them moving again. Not on the road itself but along the side of it. Probably so they could still use the trees for cover if things got worse.

Without the gunshots blasting nearby, she could hear the kidnapper clomping his way through the woods. She couldn’t tell how far away he was, but he was close.

Too close.

Once the rescue car arrived, he might be able to kill Josh and anyone else who got in his way.

The road made another of those sharp curves, and Josh slowed when they made it around the curve and came out onto a straight stretch.

“Hell,” she heard him mumble, and he pulled her to the ground.

It took Jaycee a moment to figure out why he’d done that.

And then she saw it.

The car.

No headlights, and it was black, blending right into the murky darkness.

The driver’s-side door opened, and she held her breath. Hoping it was someone from the ranch there to rescue them. But her heart went to her knees when she saw the camouflage clothes.

Identical to those the other kidnappers were wearing.

Josh fired at the man.

Just as the man fired at them.

* * *

J
OSH
PULLED
J
AYCEE
back down again. Not a second too soon. Because his shot missed the guy, and the bullet that came their way slammed into the tree just above their heads.

Or rather
his
head.

The scumbags didn’t seem to be aiming for Jaycee. That was the good news. The bad news was the bullets were still coming damn close, and she could be hit.

Three more shots came his way. Plus one from the guy following them from behind.

Jaycee and he were trapped in the middle.

The flashbacks came, of course. And Josh cursed them. He didn’t have time for this, but they came anyway. Images of another shooting.

Of his partner lying dead in a pool of blood.

Of the shots slamming into Josh’s chest.

He pushed them aside and hoped he could keep them at bay. Jaycee’s life might depend on that.

“This is over,” the one by the car said. He’d taken cover behind the door, and it was too dark for Josh to tell if he was alone or if anyone was inside.

He was betting someone was in there.

Maybe the scumbags’ boss.

But Josh figured Jaycee and he wouldn’t get that lucky. So far, he’d sucked in the luck department.

“If you want to live,” the guy added, “you’ll put down your gun now.”

Josh was pretty sure that wasn’t the way to stay alive. Without his gun, the men would just have an easier time killing him and kidnapping Jaycee.

He looked around, trying to find someplace that Jaycee and he could use for cover. Preferably something to his right so he could keep an eye on the two armed men and anyone who might be in that car.

Josh finally spotted something.

A fallen tree that’d just missed hitting the road. It was huge, the trunk at least two feet thick, and it was only about four yards away. If they could get to that, it would give him a better position to take out at least one of the gunmen.

But they could just gun him down before he got a chance to do that.

He considered another plan. One that he hated because it would test his theory that they didn’t want Jaycee dead. Only him.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, following his gaze to that tree trunk.

He could no longer see her face as well as he had by the embankment, but he could hear the terror in her voice. Yes, she was a trained agent, but she didn’t have a gun, and she was no doubt worried about the baby. And also worried about what would happen if those men got their hands on her.

“What?” she pressed. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get us out of here.”

He believed her, but she still wasn’t going to like what he had in mind. Hell, he didn’t like it much, either. However, it might keep Jaycee alive. Of course, he didn’t want her kept alive just so she could be kidnapped.

“Text Grayson again,” Josh whispered to her. “See if he can get someone to the back road where we are. Tell him we’re near the big fallen tree.”

She nodded, her fingers flying over the buttons on his phone, and he heard the little sound to indicate the text had been sent.

Now the waiting began.

It was eerily quiet. No one was shooting at them, and he didn’t know how long the pair would just hang around until they closed in on them.

“You heard that part about me telling you to drop your gun,” the guy by the car said. Then he said something over his shoulder.

To the person inside the car.

So he did have help. Help that would no doubt spring to life the moment they had Josh in their kill zone.

And that was about to happen soon.

The guy behind them was moving closer. Getting into position so he could shoot and not hit Jaycee. Only Josh.

“What happens if I put down my gun?” Josh asked. He didn’t really want an answer. He knew. But he needed a little time for Grayson to answer.

The guy said something over his shoulder again and stayed crouched behind the car door, making it next to impossible to shoot him. “Put down your gun and we’ll talk.”

Right. Just talk. Josh figured there was no chance of that happening.

“Jaycee’s right next to me,” Josh reminded them. “If you shoot me, you could hurt her. Or worse.”

It wasn’t easy saying that, and it felt as if someone had clamped a big meaty fist around his heart. Still, he’d say or do anything to keep her alive, and he was bargaining on the armed pair feeling the same way.

Finally, he heard the soft dinging sound to indicate they had an answer to the text. “Grayson said the road’s blocked by another vehicle, but Gage is coming to us on foot.”

Good. Well, good about Gage. The other vehicle bothered him a lot. He hoped like the devil that there weren’t more armed men inside.

“I want you to move over there,” Josh told her, tipping his head to the tree trunk. “Move fast. Then get down and stay put.”

She shook her head. “But what about you? Where will you be?”

Now here was the part she wouldn’t like. “I’m staying here. I want to take out at least one of these idiots.”

She pulled in her breath. Stared at him. “But if I move away, they’ll shoot you.”

Yeah. No way to sugarcoat that. “I’m a good shot,” Josh reminded her. It was true. But he wasn’t good enough to take out two men standing at different locations at the same time.

Though he couldn’t see her eyes, he could feel the argument coming on, and he wanted to nip it in the bud. “You have to think of the baby.”

Josh hadn’t wanted to play the baby card, but he figured that was the only chance he had of getting her to agree to this plan.

“Just do it,” he pressed. “It won’t be long before Gage is here to help.”

At least he hoped that was true.

“We can wait for Gage,” she insisted.

But they couldn’t. They were already on borrowed time, and the scumbag behind them was closing in. Inch by inch. Soon, he’d be close enough to pick Josh off.

And that would leave Jaycee unarmed and unprotected.

Josh brushed a kiss on her lips. “Please, just do it.”

“Time’s up,” the kidnapper said.

It was. The guy behind him was in position, and Josh could see him ready to take aim.

“Go now!” Josh ordered Jaycee.

Maybe it was the sheer volume of his voice, but she finally moved. She scrambled toward the tree trunk, and Josh pivoted and took aim at the guy behind him.

He fired, a double tap of the trigger.

And hit him.

Josh didn’t watch to see if he fell. If the guy wasn’t dead, he at least wouldn’t be able to return fire anyway. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jaycee drop to the other side of the tree truck.

Out of the line of fire.

However, Josh wasn’t.

The gunman by the car pulled the trigger, and the bullet slammed right into Josh.

Chapter Nineteen

This was the repeat of a nightmare that Jaycee had already had way too often. Josh being shot and her being the reason for it. Now here it was again, playing out in the dark woods. But it wasn’t a nightmare.

It was real.

So was the bullet that’d hit Josh.

Jaycee didn’t think. She needed only to get to him to make sure he was alive. She ran to him, slinging her arm around him to steady him, but Josh only tried to push her behind him.

“You’re hurt,” she told him, just in case he was in shock and hadn’t realized it.

But no shock. He glared at her and stepped in front of her. “You should have stayed behind the tree trunk,” Josh said through clenched teeth.

“You’ve been shot,” she repeated.

“I’m okay.”

He darn sure didn’t look okay. Jaycee saw the gaping tear on his shirtsleeve and his arm. The blood looked black and shiny in the darkness and was already seeping through the fabric.

“What the deputy’s trying to tell you,” the gunman calmly said, “is that I gave him a superficial wound to draw you out. I kept him alive so you’d cooperate.”

Oh, mercy.

Jaycee had been too crazy with worry to consider that. And it’d worked.

Well, it’d gotten her out from cover anyway, but she couldn’t just let his goon kill Josh and kidnap her.

“Now, Deputy, drop your gun, or the next shot goes into her. It won’t kill her, but it’ll put her in enough pain to make you wish you’d cooperated.”

She looked back at Josh. Didn’t see surrender in his eyes. She saw only determination to end this. But he dropped his gun. It fell on the ground just a few inches from her feet.

Jaycee glanced around the woods, but didn’t see Gage or anyone else who could help them. She hoped he was nearby and hearing all of this so he could maybe ambush the gunman. After all, this goon was just one man, and Josh had killed the other one who’d been behind them.

Of course, there could be others in the car.

Her stomach knotted.

Because there might be more than one other kidnapper. With all their attempts to kidnap her, Jaycee wouldn’t be surprised if the whole car was filled with guards ready to haul her off to a baby farm.

“So what now?” Jaycee demanded from the kidnapper. She hiked up her chin and tried to sound a lot tougher and stronger than she felt.

“We wait for a few minutes until the road is clear so we can leave.”

She prayed that didn’t mean one of the guards had found Gage, but she figured if they’d set up a plan like this, then they would have brought enough reinforcements.

“In the meantime, the deputy puts down his gun, steps aside and you come with us,” the gunman continued. “If you don’t make a fuss, the deputy lives.”

She swallowed hard. Jaycee didn’t believe him for one second. No way would he allow Josh to live, because they’d both seen his face. Still, she wanted to do something—anything—to save Josh.

But what?

There were a lot of options here, and she couldn’t count on Gage and the others arriving in time.

“I’ll come with you if you bring Josh, too,” she blurted out.

Her offer wasn’t well received.

Josh cursed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The goon just stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “If this is some kind of trick,” he said, “it’s a dangerous one.”

Maybe, but Josh and she stood a better chance of surviving if they were together in the car, preferably with her in front of him so the goon couldn’t shoot him again.

She couldn’t be sure, but she thought the kidnapper smiled. “Admirable, trying to save your boyfriend, but it won’t work if he doesn’t cooperate.” He turned his head slightly and mumbled something. To the person in the car no doubt. “Okay. Time to move.”

Neither Jaycee nor Josh budged. “Whatever your buyer’s paying for the baby, I’ll double it,” Josh fired back.

If the offer surprised the man, he didn’t show any signs of it. And he definitely didn’t step out from cover. “Oh, you’ll get the chance to do that when the baby’s born and if you’re still alive then.”

So this was about selling the baby and maybe didn’t have anything to do with her being an FBI agent. And if the man was telling the truth, they did indeed have a buyer.

A thought that sickened her.

Someone was out there and wanted to buy her baby as if it were cattle.

“The being alive part is up to you,” the man said to Josh. “It’s simple. Cooperate now and you live. Don’t cooperate and you die.”

“Let’s walk toward the car,” she whispered to Josh.

However, it went against all her FBI training to actually get in the car. Because the stats were that once these goons had control over Josh and her, things would only get worse. But there were a lot of steps between the car and them.

Those steps could be their chance to escape.

Escape how exactly, she didn’t know, but it was clear this goon wasn’t going to give them much more time.

Jaycee took the first of those steps but then stopped when she heard the sound.

Gunfire.

Not behind them where Josh had shot the kidnapper and where she’d last seen Grayson. This was coming from their right. Where Gage would likely be.

Again, the kidnapper didn’t seem surprised. Nor did he even glance in that direction. He kept his attention pinned to Josh and her, and he aimed his gun at Jaycee.

“Move now, Deputy, or I shoot her in the arm just like I did you. I’m pretty sure blood loss wouldn’t be good for that baby she’s carrying.”

Jaycee took another step and Josh followed. Putting him closer to his gun that he’d dropped on the ground. If she dived to the side, maybe Josh could get his gun and get off a shot. It wouldn’t be an easy one with the moron crouched behind the door, but it might be the only chance they had.

The gunshots stopped, and she said another prayer. That Gage had won that round. It was impossible to tell because the kidnapper didn’t have a reaction to that, either. He simply used his gun to motion for her to keep moving.

One more step.

Josh, too. And he stopped.

His boot was right next to the gun.

“Drop now,” Josh whispered to her.

Jaycee was about to do that to give Josh a chance to take out the kidnapper, but she froze when she heard the sound to her right. The person was walking straight toward them.

Not Gage.

However, it was someone Jaycee recognized.

And the person was pointing a gun right at Josh.

* * *

S
IERRA
.

Josh wasn’t sure who would be on the other end of that gun, but he’d figured it would be Bryson. Or Valerie. He hadn’t expected Sierra, since it’d been less than twenty-four hours since she’d given birth to her daughter.

This was hardly the place for a new mother.

Or a mother-to-be.

He had to get Jaycee out of there, but how? It was hard to think with the pain stabbing in his arm. Yeah, it was just a flesh wound, but that didn’t stop it from hurting like crazy and dulling his mind.

Sierra kept the gun on Josh, and after blowing out a weary, tired breath, she opened the back door of the car and sank down on the seat, facing outward and with her feet still on the ground. She did not look like a happy camper when she glanced over at the kidnapper.

Correction: her minion.

It was clear who was in charge here, and Sierra was definitely the boss.

“You just couldn’t get this done yourself, huh?” she snarled at the guy. “Made me walk all the way over here from the other car. You know how hard it is to push out a kid?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Damn hard, and I expect you to pick up the slack while I’m recovering.”

“What do you want me to do, boss?” the man jumped to ask.

“Well, now we have to wait, don’t we? No doubt thanks to one of his badge-wearing cousins.” She shot Josh a glare. “Someone disabled the vehicle we used to block the road so no one else could drive in and get to me. I’m guessing it was a Ryland lawman who did that.”

That was Josh’s guess, too, and he was glad one of them had managed to do that.

“You shot the person?” Jaycee asked, her voice trembling now. It was exactly what Josh had planned to ask.

“Of course. I killed him.” Sierra added a taunting smile.

Josh didn’t put much stock in the answer or the smile. “Liar. If you’d killed him, you wouldn’t be worried about being ambushed right now. You wouldn’t be cowering in the car.”

That put some venom in her eyes that even the darkness couldn’t hide. “If you think you’re going to goad me into standing out in the open, think again, cowboy. I’m not stupid, and just because I took care of one Ryland, that doesn’t mean there aren’t others out and about.”

There were. Or at least there should be. By now, Grayson would have alerted the entire family, and they’d be combing the woods looking for Jaycee and him.

“Of course, the fires we set will keep them occupied for a while,” Sierra added a heartbeat later.

“What fires?” Josh lifted his head, hoping this was yet another lie, but then he silently cursed. Because he did indeed smell some smoke.

What the hell had she done now?

“We set a few fires in the barns and near the houses,” she happily explained. “They were on timers, so you probably didn’t get a glimpse of them before you came running out to save Jaycee.”

He hadn’t, but Josh didn’t think she was lying about this. “If you hurt my family, you’re a dead woman.”

Sierra laughed, a short burst of laughter that had no humor in it. “You Rylands breed like rabbits,” she added in a grumble. “Too bad you’re not all women because you’d make nice additions to my little cottage industry.”

So that’s what she was calling it. “Cottage industry is tame sounding for what’s really multiple felonies,” Josh accused her. “How many people have you murdered, Sierra?”

“Enough that you should be worried about me holding this gun on you,” she continued, sounding pleased with herself now. “All I want to do is finish this up and get a good night’s sleep. And that’ll happen. Once that car’s out of the way, we’re leaving.”

Josh figured it wouldn’t be easy to move a car on such a narrow road. No place to put it because of the trees and the ditches. Sierra’s plan to keep anyone else from using the road had backfired. He hoped the rest of her plan did, too.

“What’d you do with your baby?” Jaycee asked. “Did you sell her, too?”

If Sierra was insulted by that, she didn’t show it. She just lifted her shoulder in a careless shrug. “She’s with the nanny, along with some other soon-to-be mothers. She’s all tucked away safe and sound, waiting for Bryson to pay through the nose if he wants an heir as much as he claims he does.”

So her daughter was likely at a baby farm. Too bad Sierra hadn’t spilled the location, but he might be able to get that out of her if she kept talking.

“But Bryson’s not the father of your baby,” Josh tossed out there. “Blood tests prove it.”

Again, she just shrugged. “Blood tests, like everything else, can be faked. Bryson wants to believe this child is his. Or maybe it’s not even that. Maybe he just wants an heir and doesn’t care about the test results.”

Sad, but true. Bryson was all about the money. Still, the man had seemed plenty upset that Sierra was trying to extort money from him.

“Bryson got himself into a bad fix,” Sierra went on. “He owes money to the wrong people. Loan sharks. So what did he do? He borrowed more money from even worse people to pay his debts. I figure right about now, he’ll do anything to get an heir so he can claim his inheritance.”

“I’m guessing you’ll be more than willing to take some of that inheritance from him,” Jaycee muttered, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

“Seems only fair that I get half.” In Sierra’s warped, money-hungry mind, that probably did seem fair.

Josh’s phone buzzed, but it was in Jaycee’s pocket so he couldn’t see it.

“Uh-uh,” Sierra warned Jaycee when she reached for it. “Keep your hands where I can see them.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Find out what the hell’s taking so long with that car. I want out of here now.”

Josh got a glimpse of the person she was speaking to. Not Bryson or Valerie, but Josh was pretty sure it was one of the guards who’d escaped from the baby farm raid. The one who’d shoved Jaycee into the barn. The man took out a phone and made a call.

Jaycee adjusted her position just a little and just enough so that she was no longer in the way of him getting his gun. Now all he needed was some kind of distraction. Too bad he couldn’t let Grayson know that. But then, Grayson might be too occupied with the fires to do much of anything right now.

“Quit moving,” Sierra snapped. “You’re making me antsy with that fidgeting.”

“What about your sister and Bryson?” Jaycee asked, obviously not addressing the moving issue. Which she did again. Just a fraction to the side. So that she wouldn’t be in Josh’s line of fire. “Are they in on this with you?”

“Please, I don’t need help running this operation. Bryson’s an idiot, and Valerie’s too busy bad-mouthing me to help me. However, my sister did fund the start-up of my business.”

“With or without her knowledge?” Jaycee fired back.

“Without,” Sierra readily admitted. “Valerie wouldn’t knowingly help me do anything that would get me ahead in life.”

Well, that was something at least, and Josh thought Sierra was telling the truth. About this anyway. “How did you milk the money from her?” Josh asked. “Did you just come out and steal it?”

There it was again. That flash of anger in her eyes. Maybe Sierra didn’t like being called a common thief. Well, she was a thief, all right, but not of the common variety. It’d taken a lot of money and brains to put together an operation like this.

“I didn’t steal it,” Sierra snapped. “I cut a deal with one of her longtime employees. Someone she trusted but who was in desperate need of cash. He lied to Valerie, saying he needed lots of cash for medical treatments. I had the medical records faked, and the employee and I split the money.”

That explained the withdrawals from Valerie’s bank account. It didn’t, however, explain plenty of other things about the baby farms. Josh wanted those answers, but he wanted to get them with Sierra handcuffed and on her way to jail.