Kidnapping in Kendall County (5 page)

As horrible as all those memories were, they gave her something to focus on. Something other than Janice’s murder and the danger to all those babies.

Probably because she was still shivering, Austin cranked up the heat and took the road out of town. He didn’t go far, less than a mile, before he turned around and went in the opposite direction.

“See anything?” he asked.

Rosalie was about to say no, but she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A vehicle was parked on a side road. No headlights, and it didn’t pull out and follow them. However, because of the events of the night, it put her on edge.

“Yeah, I saw it,” Austin said, following her gaze to the side mirror. “It could be a spotter, to try to figure out which direction we’re going.”

And that meant it could be someone connected to the baby farms. “Too bad we just can’t stop and question the person inside.”

“Not with you in the truck.” Austin continued to glance at the vehicle while he turned back toward town. “I’ll try another road.”

The words had hardly left his mouth when the vehicle pulled out onto the road, following them.

“Get down in the seat,” Austin warned her.

Rosalie slid down, but she stayed high enough so she could watch from the side mirror.

Austin handed her his phone. “Call Sawyer. Tell him there’s been a change of plans, that I’m taking you to the Silver Creek sheriff’s office instead so they can guard you there.”

She hated being pawned off, but her mere presence was stopping Austin from going after the person in the vehicle. Rosalie hoped once he dropped her off that Austin would go in pursuit with plenty of backup.

Before she could press Sawyer’s number, the phone rang, and she saw a familiar name on the screen.

Deputy Gage Ryland.

Mercy. She prayed something hadn’t happened to the babies. Rosalie pushed the answer button so hard that she nearly broke the phone, and she put the call on speaker.

“Are the babies okay?” she jumped to ask.

“Fine,” Deputy Ryland answered. “That’s not why I’m calling. Is Agent Duran there?”

“I’m here, but I’ve got someone tailing me. I’m heading to the sheriff’s office now.”

“Make a detour to the hospital, and I’ll have someone take care of the tail.”

Austin and she exchanged an uneasy glance. There’d been nothing urgent in the deputy’s voice when she’d met him at the hospital, but there was definitely some urgency now.

“I’m with the injured P.I. you brought in,” Gage continued, “and I think you should get back down to the hospital fast. We’ve got a
big
problem.”

Chapter Six

That was definitely not what Austin wanted to hear Deputy Gage Ryland say.

We’ve got a big problem.

Austin already had enough of those. A dead woman. Two destroyed crime scenes. And a whole mess of loose ends he needed to be working on.

Including taking Rosalie to a safe house.

“What’s going on?” Austin asked Gage.

“A guy just showed up at the hospital, and he demanded to see the P.I., Sonny Buckland. I told him it’d have to wait, that he was still being stitched up, but before I could send him on his merry way, Sonny came out of the examining room. Armed. He snatched the security guard’s gun and aimed it at the guy. Sonny’s holding him at gunpoint now.”

Of all the problems that Austin had imagined, that wasn’t one of them.

Austin shook his head. “And who exactly is the visitor?”

“Trevor Yancy.”

Even in the darkness, Austin could see the surprise dart through Rosalie’s eyes.

The concern, too.

“I wouldn’t have called you,” Gage went on, “but this Yancy idiot is egging Sonny on, along with demanding to see Rosalie and you. I’d really rather resolve this without bullets.”

So would Austin, especially since the babies might still be nearby.

“I’m on the way,” Austin assured Gage, and he turned and headed in the direction of Main Street.

“I want to go with you,” Rosalie insisted. “It’ll only waste time if you drop me off at the sheriff’s office first. And besides, it sounds as if the sheriff and his deputies already have their hands full.”

Austin couldn’t dispute any of that, but there was another angle to this. “You’ve already been put in enough danger tonight.”

She took hold of his arm, forcing him to make brief eye contact. It was just a glance, but Austin could see the determination written all over her face.

“Trevor might have kidnapped my daughter,” she reminded him. “And your nephew. If he did, I want to see his reaction when you ask him about it.”

“You’re not getting a chance to see his reaction or anything else.” Then, Austin huffed. “Sonny’s armed, and I don’t want you caught in the middle of whatever beef these two morons have against each other.”

And it was that beef that Austin was especially eager to learn more about. Sonny had said he’d suspected that Yancy had played a part in at least some of the baby kidnappings, so that might explain why the P.I. would want to hold Yancy at gunpoint.

But why wouldn’t Sonny just have Gage arrest Yancy?

Something more was going on here, and Austin intended to get to the bottom of it.

Apparently with Rosalie in tow.

Even if he dropped her off at the sheriff’s office, there were no guarantees that she’d stay put. Or that she’d be any safer there than she would be with him. She wasn’t under arrest, though he was sure he could come up with some kind of charges to force her to stay put or declare her a material witness. Still, it would take time to do that, and time wasn’t something that was on his side right now.

If Sonny managed to shoot and kill Yancy, then Austin might never learn the truth about the stolen babies.

Cursing his situation and this whole blasted mess, Austin drove toward the hospital.

“Thank you again,” Rosalie said when she obviously realized where they were going. She also released a long breath, one that sounded as if she’d been holding it for a while.

Austin darn sure didn’t say
You’re welcome
because he figured there were too many things that could go wrong with this situation.

Especially since both Sonny and Yancy were suspects.

Even if Gage hadn’t told him about the trouble going on, Austin would have known something was wrong the moment that he pulled to a stop by the E.R. Several medics and nurses were outside, huddled together against the bitter cold, and they were out there because Gage had almost certainly evacuated the immediate area.

Austin didn’t have a badge to flash. It was too risky to carry one while undercover, but no one questioned him when he identified himself as a federal agent and went back into the E.R. He spotted Gage immediately, his gun drawn, and every part of his body on alert.

“Stay here,” Austin warned Rosalie, and with his own gun drawn, he went into the hall to join Gage.

There, in the examining room, he saw the tall, heavily muscled man with blond hair.

Yancy.

He was backed into a corner. Literally. He had his hands lifted in the air. Sonny was in the opposite corner, the examining bed between them, and he did indeed have a gun pointed right at Yancy.

Despite the raised hands, Yancy looked calm, wearing an expression more suited for a social visit than a crime in progress. However, Sonny’s face was beaded with sweat, and the fresh stitches on his arm weren’t even bandaged. Judging from the way the supplies and equipment had been scattered around the room, the medical staff had left in a hurry.

It’d been over a year and a half since Austin had seen Yancy, but the man hadn’t changed much. He still wore a pricey suit that probably cost more than Austin made in a month, and he still had that cocky expression that Austin wished he could knock off his face.

Despite the fancy clothes, Yancy was nothing but a rich punk.

“Austin,” Yancy greeted, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a dry smile. “How kind of you to come to this little get-together.”

Austin ignored his sarcasm and the man himself and instead turned to Sonny. “Put down that gun now, and then you can tell me what the hell this nonsense is all about.”

“It’s about
him,
” Sonny snarled with his gaze still staked to Yancy. Sonny’s hand was shaking, and he was grimacing as if in pain. Not good. Since his shaking finger was also on the trigger. “Yancy came here to set me up.”

Austin glanced at Rosalie to make sure she was staying put. She was. “Set you up how?” he asked Sonny.

But Sonny didn’t jump to answer, and Yancy’s renewed smile made Austin even more uneasy.

“I used to work for Yancy,” Sonny finally said. “I was his top security man, and when I discovered some things that didn’t mesh, he fired me.”

Yancy dismissed that with a carefree shrug. “He violated my privacy by poking his nose where it didn’t belong. And he found nothing illegal. Only some personal emails that he misinterpreted.”

“Oh, I found something all right,” Sonny argued. His gaze slashed to Austin. “But the emails disappeared. That’s why I went to the baby farm, looking for proof, and I’m sure it was Yancy who gave the order to have me shot because I was close to finding out that he’d kidnapped all those kids.”

Austin heard Rosalie make a sound of surprise. She obviously hadn’t missed what Sonny had just said, and almost immediately Austin heard her footsteps, heading straight toward them.

Oh, man.

Austin didn’t even bother to tell her to stay back. She wouldn’t. Not when she thought she could learn something about her missing baby.

However, he did try to keep himself between her and the gun Sonny was holding. Sonny didn’t seem to want to hurt Rosalie, but Austin wouldn’t take the risk of a stray bullet coming her way.

“All lies,” Yancy said without a shred of guilt in his voice.

“All truth!” Sonny practically yelled.

“Settle down,” Austin warned him, and both Gage and he moved closer to Sonny in case they had to go after that gun Sonny was still holding.

“Did you kidnap my daughter?” Rosalie came out and asked Yancy despite his denial just moments earlier.

“Of course not. If I were looking for some way to get back at your late fiancé and Austin for their witch hunt of an investigation, I would have gone after them, not your little girl.”

His tone was so placating that Rosalie took a step toward him, as if she might try to force the info from him, but Austin hooked his arm around her and held her back.

Since he figured Yancy would just continue to deny any wrongdoing, Austin went with a different approach. “If you’re innocent, why come here to the hospital?” he asked Yancy. “And how the heck did you even know you’d find your former employee here?”

Another shrug from Yancy. “I had my people watching Sonny. A precaution since he’d threatened to get even with me. They followed him to the place that he’s calling a baby farm. My men had no idea what it was, of course—”

“You’re lying,” Sonny snapped. “You knew exactly what it was because the address was in one of those emails I found.”

“Ah, the emails that don’t exist.” Yancy made things a thousand times worse by adding a smile.

Sonny would have gone after him, too, if Austin hadn’t stopped him. Thankfully, Gage moved in to protect Rosalie so that Austin could concentrate on diffusing this dangerous situation. He took full advantage of Sonny’s pain and shaky hand to knock the gun away from him. Sonny tried to go after it again, but Austin pinned him against the wall.

“You know the deputy here has to arrest you,” Austin reminded Sonny. “So, don’t do anything else stupid to make it worse.”

That last part seemed to do the trick because Sonny stilled. Well, his body did, anyway, but he glared first at Yancy and then at Austin. “You’re arresting the wrong man. You should be putting that snake behind bars.” And he tipped his head to Yancy.

“I’ll gladly arrest him, too, if you have any proof that he’s connected to the baby farms.”

“No proof,” Yancy insisted. “And there won’t be because I haven’t done anything wrong. Well, not recently, anyway. And nothing that I’d confess to doing.”

Yancy smirked again.

Mercy, maybe Austin should have let Sonny hang on to that gun. That wasn’t exactly a legal brand of justice, but justice might be served in the end if somebody wiped that smirk off Yancy’s face.

“If your men followed Sonny as you said,” Rosalie continued, talking to Yancy, “then they likely know who killed the woman who escaped.”

For the first time since this whole conversation had started, Yancy looked a little bewildered. Of course, that could be faked.

“They didn’t see anyone get killed,” Yancy insisted. “If they had, they would have reported it to me, and I would have called the cops like any responsible citizen.”

“Right,” Austin mumbled, slinging some of that attitude right back at Yancy.

“Right,” the man repeated. “Make me out to be the bad guy here if you want, but you’ll want to press Sonny for more info about the lie he just told about those emails. I’m sure you’ve already considered he said that to cover his own butt, that he’s the one who’s involved with the baby farm. It would explain why he was really out there tonight.”

Sonny made a sound of outrage. “I was out there looking for proof of your connection,” he repeated.

“And you found nothing.” Yancy gave him a flat look before turning his attention back to Austin. “I’ve been doing some digging of my own because I figured Sonny would try to frame me.”

“What’d you find?” Austin demanded when Yancy didn’t continue.

“You’ll want to check on a past acquaintance of Sonny’s. A woman named Vickie Cravens.”

Sonny cursed. “Don’t you dare drag her into this.”

Now Yancy lost some of that cool composure. His eyes narrowed, and his teeth came together for a moment. “You started this game by dragging me into it. If you play with fire, then don’t expect to stay alive for very long.”

“Who’s Vickie Cravens?” Rosalie asked.

“Sonny’s former lover,” Yancy supplied. He put back on the coat that he’d been holding. “She’s worked as a nanny from time to time, and I suspect she’s working for the baby farms. Maybe even helping him run them.”

“She wouldn’t have done anything like this,” Sonny insisted.

While buttoning his coat, Yancy started out of the room. “Do your job,” he said to Austin. “And you’ll find Vickie isn’t as innocent as Sonny would like her to be.” His mouth bent into another of those nails-on-a-chalkboard smiles before he strolled away.

“Vickie’s innocent,” Sonny muttered. He no longer looked like the man who’d just challenged Yancy with a gun. He sank down onto the edge of the examining table. “It’s Yancy who’s behind this.”

Austin got right in Sonny’s face. “And if he is, I’ll be the one to find the evidence. No more grabbing guns from guards—”

“I thought he came here to kill me. I needed that gun to defend myself.”

Sonny sounded convincing enough, but Austin’s mood was well past the stage of just being bad, so he didn’t give him any benefit of the doubt.

“Just stay away from this investigation,” he warned Sonny. Austin glanced at Rosalie. “You, too. You’re not going to try to question Vickie Cravens.”

She stared at him, and he could see not just the weariness in her eyes but also the frustration. Vickie could have info about Rosalie’s missing baby, but if so, it was info Austin would get without her.

“You can finish up here?” Austin asked Gage.

Gage nodded. “I gotta arrest him for wielding that gun, but if I don’t have anything else to charge him with, then I figure he’ll be out by morning after he makes bail.”

It was a reminder that if Sonny was indeed guilty of the baby kidnappings, then Austin had to find something fast to keep him behind bars. Of course,
fast
couldn’t start to happen until he got Rosalie to a safe house.

Austin thanked Gage and got Rosalie moving toward the exit. Even if this incident hadn’t just happened, he would have still made sure it was safe to step outside, but he took a second and third look since Yancy might still be out there. Or the person who’d tried to follow them.

“You okay?” he asked Rosalie when she pulled in a long breath.

“No.” Since she didn’t look steady on her feet, Austin looped his arm around her waist. Her gaze fired to his as if she might object over the close contact, but she only gave a weary sigh.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. He knew exactly what that meant. The danger had created a strange partnership that neither of them had seen coming.

Austin was about to hurry them to his truck when his phone rang, and he saw Sawyer’s name on the screen. Maybe, just maybe, his partner had found out something so Austin could make an arrest.

“Please tell me you have good news,” Austin greeted Sawyer, and he eased Rosalie away from the doors and back into the waiting room.