RENEGADE GUARDIAN (6 page)

“Hold on a sec,” Harlan said, and Slade heard him make a call to arrange for some marshals to drive out to Spring Hill.

Those marshals would likely be more of Slade’s foster brothers. There were some huge advantages to having five brothers who were all federal marshals, and this was one of them. Slade trusted them with his life.

“Done,” Harlan verified. “Now for those background checks.” He paused. “You want them now?”

That was Harlan’s way of asking if Slade wanted Maya to hear. Slade didn’t, not really. She was already too close to falling apart, but Maya’s gaze suddenly steeled up.

“I want to hear,” she insisted.

Slade mentally debated it but knew whatever he learned from Harlan, he’d eventually have to tell her anyway. “Go ahead,” he told his brother.

“You still got Andrea Culberson there in custody?” Harlan asked.

That wasn’t the question Slade expected. “Yeah. Why?”

“Because you need to ask her about her employers. She could be innocent in all of this.” More keyboard clicks. “I just found out that her boss Nadine Collier is up to her Botoxed forehead in gambling debts. The woman loves betting on the horses, but she’s apparently not very good at it. She owes a cool million, and she owes it to the wrong people.”

A million. Good grief. That was a big motive for plenty of things. “You think Nadine could have set up the kidnappings to collect the ransoms and pay off her debts?”

“It’s possible, especially since her husband, Chase, doesn’t seem to know about those debts.” Harlan paused again. “The Colliers got a ransom demand about five minutes before you called me.”

The demand was actually a relief because until now Slade hadn’t known the kidnapper’s plans for the missing babies. Maybe this meant the kidnapper wouldn’t harm the babies.

Unless...

“Perhaps Nadine didn’t kidnap the other baby, only her own adopted son,” Slade suggested.

“Yeah.” And that’s all Harlan said for several moments. “I’m working on it, and if Nadine has her son hidden away, then I’ll find him.”

Maya shook her head. “So this might have nothing to do with fact that the babies are adopted?”

“We’ll piece this together,” he settled for saying. Especially since Nadine could still be responsible for all the kidnappings. “How soon can you question Nadine?”

“She’s coming in for an interview first thing in the morning.”

That wasn’t soon enough for Slade. He didn’t want Maya to have to go through a night with the danger looming over them. But then, even if Harlan pressed Nadine hard, the woman probably wouldn’t confess to kidnapping. She’d no doubt have some well-paid lawyers who would keep her quiet, too.

“Talk to her husband,” Slade insisted. “See how he reacts when you tell him about his wife’s gambling debts.”

“Will do. I’ll set up the interview so you can watch it from a laptop. Didn’t figure you’d want to bring Maya and the baby here to Maverick Springs to hear the interview in person.”

He didn’t. It was too big a risk to be on the road with them, and yet he had no choice. Slade had to get her to the safe house. And away from the sheriff’s office. Yeah, there was only a slim chance that the kidnapper had an ally here, but a slim chance was still too big of a risk.

“I’ll wrap up the interview with Andrea,” Slade told his brother. “Better yet, can you send someone out here to finish things with her?”

“Sure. The sheriff does plan to hold her, right?”

“He does. She’s a kidnapping suspect.”

Of course, if she was the actual kidnapper, she had help since there was no way Andrea could have made that call to Maya. There was also the question of a mole in the sheriff’s office and maybe that was the person who’d made the call.

“I know I’ve loaded you down with stuff, but I have to add one more thing,” Slade continued. “Have someone run a check on the sheriff and his whole department. Just in case the caller was telling the truth about that.”

“If he was, you shouldn’t be there,” Harlan insisted.

“I won’t be much longer. Call me—”

“Wait,” Harlan interrupted. But he was the one who paused. “I need to go over one more thing with you. In private,” he added.

Slade groaned. This couldn’t be good.

“I want to hear whatever he has to say,” Maya insisted.

No doubt. But that didn’t mean she should hear it. Slade clicked the button to take the call off speaker, and he put the phone to his ear.

“What’s going on?” Slade asked his brother.

“Declan just dropped off the swab kit with the baby’s DNA at the lab, and he said the results are for our eyes only.”

“That’s right.” But he knew what his brother was really asking—why did the results need to stay secret? After all, this baby had been involved in a kidnapping attempt.

“So you want some kind of DNA comparison to prove what—the identity of the birth parents?”

“Yeah.”

Another pause. “That’s a short answer for a big question. I’ll do an entire database search to see if there’s a DNA match. But who’s the specific DNA comparison we’re looking for?” Harlan came right out and asked.

“Mine.” He waited for his brother to question that, but Harlan didn’t say anything. “Call me when you have the results.”

Slade ended the call, shoved his phone back in his pocket so he could carry the car seat and baby supplies but still have his right hand free for his weapon. He prayed he didn’t have to pull it, but with everything going on, Slade wasn’t going to trust anyone who wasn’t family.

“We’re leaving,” Slade told her. “We’ll go out the side exit, and once we’re outside, move as fast as you can to my truck.”

She nodded but didn’t budge. Maya looked up at him. “I heard,” she said in a whisper.

“Heard what?”

Maya swallowed hard. “I heard,” she repeated. “Why do you want Evan’s DNA compared to yours?”

Oh, hell.

Slade should have remembered that she’d heard the earlier comment made in a phone conversation. The woman had excellent hearing.

And bad timing.

This wasn’t something he wanted to take the time to explain. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Maya caught onto his arm when he opened the door. “No. We’ll talk about it now.”

He didn’t like that determined look in her eyes, but it faded just a bit when they heard the movement. Sheriff Monroe was making a beeline toward them, and he was moving darn fast.

“We have to get out of the building now!” the sheriff insisted. “Someone just called in a bomb threat.”

Chapter Seven

The bad news just kept coming, and Maya was afraid it would even get worse. Judging from Slade’s body language and his sharp replies to the person on the other end of his phone conversation, he felt the same way.

Slade had taken or made multiple calls every second since they’d evacuated the sheriff’s office in a mad rush. The ride was equally mad, but that hadn’t stopped Slade from keeping watch of their surroundings as they’d first gone to the marshals’ office in Maverick Springs so he could get a “clean” vehicle. A truck that couldn’t be traced back to him or the Marshals. One that he was now driving down the rural road.

Maya had kept watch, too, because she knew this could all be some kind of ploy to get them out in the open so that the kidnapper could try to take Evan.

“I want him found,” Slade snapped, and he jabbed the end-call button as if it were the cause of their problems. “They didn’t find a bomb, but during the evacuation, Morgan Gambill disappeared.”

Mercy. No wonder Slade had jabbed the phone button so hard. “How the heck could that have happened?”

Slade shook his head and looked on the verge of cursing, but he glanced down at the car seat they’d strapped in between them. Evan was wide-awake and appeared to be hanging on every word.

“The deputy said he just lost sight of him,” Slade settled for saying.

Great. Now one of their suspects was on the loose. Even if Gambill wasn’t the kidnapper, it was entirely possible he was working for the very person who’d tried to take Evan. “Please tell me they managed to hang on to Andrea.”

“They did, and my brother Dallas is personally transporting her to the Maverick Springs marshals’ office. I’ll question her again tomorrow. Along with Nadine and Chase Collier.” His gaze met hers. “That means you’ll need to stay at the safe house with one of my brothers.”

There was a lot he left unsaid in that last part. Slade seemed to be waiting for her to object. And maybe she would.

Slade was keeping something from her, and she wanted to know what. But first things first. Since he’d been on the phone during their entire hour-long drive, she hadn’t had a chance to ask some much-needed questions.

“What about the meeting at the abandoned gas station?” she asked. “Did anyone show?”

“No one. That could mean the guy had us under surveillance and wanted to see what we’d do.”

She waited but he didn’t add anything. “There seems to be an
or
at the end of that.”

Slade lifted his shoulder. “He could just be crazy. Or maybe he wants to torment us as much as he can.”

Maya had to groan. Neither of those were
ors
she wanted to consider. “How safe is this safe house where you’re taking us?”

“As safe as my brother could make it.”

For him, that probably meant it was
safe,
but again, she would decide once they were there. “How much longer before we get there, because I’ll have to feed and change Evan soon?” Besides, it was getting dark, and she didn’t want to be on the roads if she couldn’t see if someone was following them.

Slade checked his GPS. “We’re only about two miles away.”

Good. But there was a downside to that—it wasn’t nearly enough time to press him on the part of the conversation that she’d overheard with his brother Harlan.

“My brother learned more about the Colliers,” Slade continued before she could say anything. “First of all, the ransom demand didn’t pan out. They claim the kidnapper told them that he’d be calling them back, and it hasn’t happened.”

Maybe the kidnapper would call, though. And soon. “Did your brother learn anything else about the Colliers?”

“Some. Nothing good, though. According to an acquaintance, their marriage has been rocky for a while, and it was Chase who pressed for the adoption because he thought it would make things better.”

She thought about that, shook her head. “How could any agency let them adopt under those circumstances?”

“It was a private adoption, and a lot of money changed hands. This acquaintance also said that Nadine wasn’t happy about any aspect of the adoption, that she didn’t want to be a parent and resented Chase for dumping the baby on her.”

Maya actually shivered and silently cursed the fact that money had put that innocent baby in what seemed to be a toxic home. When the children were found—and she had to hold out hope that they would be—maybe someone would rescind the petition for adoption.

Slade took a turn off the rural road, and she spotted the one-story house just ahead. Other than a barn, there was nothing nearby, and the pastures stretched out on both sides.

“The town is a good ten miles away,” Slade explained, “and the locals believe the owner is a city businessman who lends the place out to clients.”

That would provide good cover as to why people would be coming and going, but it looked like an ordinary Craftsman-style house, not a fortress.

Slade didn’t stop in front of the house. He drove to the back, parked directly next to the porch and began to unhook the car seat at the same time Maya reached for it. Their hands touched.

Gazes met, too.

She hated the warmth that pooled in her body. Obviously, her past hadn’t taught her anything, and she pulled back her hand so she could touch one of the scars on her stomach. Her clothes concealed them, but she could always see them in her mind. And it was the reminder of the scars that gave her the attitude adjustment she needed.

“Once we’re inside, I’ll want an explanation about the DNA,” she said.

He didn’t dodge her gaze. In fact, Slade didn’t have any reaction other than the barely audible sigh that left his mouth. He lifted the car seat, Maya grabbed her diaper bag and the plastic bag with diapers and formula that the sheriff had given them, and they hurried out of the truck. Slade also didn’t waste any time using the electronic keypad to open the door.

The moment they stepped into the house, the security system started to beep.

“Is that you, Slade?” someone asked.

The sound of the man’s voice caused Maya to gasp, and it took her one breath-stopping moment to realize the person wasn’t inside the house but rather had spoken through the speaker mounted on the wall next to the keypad.

“It’s me,” Slade verified.

The buzzing stopped, and she saw the keypad lights go from red to green. “The security system is armed,” the man said. “If you need anything, just hit the panic button. There’s one on the wall in every room next to the light switches.”

“Will do. What other measures have been taken?”

“There’s perimeter security. If someone turns onto the road that leads to the house, it’ll trigger the sensor and that’ll give you at least ten minutes’ notice that someone’s coming.”

“What if someone tries to reach this place on foot?” Slade asked.

“No sensors for that. We tried it, but the deer kept tripping it. But the windows are bullet resistant. And in case you have to get out in a hurry, the road curves around, so you could leave out back if you had to.”

Maya prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

“Call if you need anything,” the man added.

Slade assured him that he would, and he pressed another button on the keypad before he walked across the hardwood floor and set the baby on the coffee table in the modestly furnished living room.

Modest
described what she could see of the rest of the place, too. There was a dining room directly across from them and the kitchen behind them. She figured the three doors on the right led to the bedrooms. Well, hopefully there were at least two because she had no intentions of sharing a bed with Slade.

Without asking her permission, Slade undid the safety belts and took Evan into his arms. Her son didn’t fuss. In fact, he stared at the stranger holding him. And Evan smiled.

Yes, smiled!

Maya figured it had to be gas. From all the books she’d read, Evan was still too young for a real smile, but she felt the tightening in her chest. Not jealousy that someone other than her had been on the receiving end of a smile. No. This was something much stronger than jealousy.

It was fear.

“I want answers,” Maya managed to say, though she wasn’t sure how. In addition to the tightening in her chest, every part of her seemed frozen in place.

He didn’t jump to say anything. In fact, he took his time, and he kept his attention pinned to Evan. No smile for Slade, just the raw intensity that had stirred the muscles in his jaw.

“Remember when I told you about my ex-girlfriend?” he finally asked.

Maya nodded. “The one who was pregnant and disappeared.”

“Yeah.” And that was all he said for several moments. “Well, it wasn’t a relationship, more like a one-night stand, but months afterward she called to tell me she was pregnant with my baby. She said she was within days of her due date, and she wanted me to meet her. She was scared and said someone was trying to kill her.”

Evan cooed, the sweet sound drifting through the room, and despite the pained look in his eyes, the corner of Slade’s mouth lifted. Not exactly a smile, but she thought maybe that was the nearest he came to that particular expression.

“I wasn’t sure it was a real threat,” Slade continued, “but I drove to her place in Austin only to find it ransacked. And she was missing.”

Oh, mercy. Maya didn’t like the sound of this at all. “What happened?”

Slade lifted his shoulder, but there was nothing casual about the reaction. There was a storm raging just beneath the surface. “Deidre’s body was found a few hours later.”

Maya put her hand on her chest to steady her heart. It was racing now, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer to her next question. Still, she had to know. “And the baby?”

“Missing. He wasn’t with her body.”

Her heart pounded even harder. “
He?
She had a son?”

Slade nodded. “I managed to learn that from the doctor who delivered the baby. Deidre had paid him to keep the delivery secret.”

“From you?”

“Maybe.” Another pause. “But she was in trouble, had gotten involved with the wrong man—a guy named Damien Waters—who was jealous that she was carrying another man’s child.” He mumbled something that she didn’t catch. “Deidre had this thing for bad boys.”

Something Maya could understand. She, too, had once been there, done that. And yes, she had the scars to prove it.

“From what I’ve been able to piece together, Waters was verbally abusive. Maybe physically, too,” Slade added like profanity. “He’s dead now, so I can’t get answers from him.”

Maya wanted to ask if Slade had been the one to kill this abusive man, but again, it wasn’t an answer she wanted to hear.

She waited, breath held, but she had the sickening feeling that she knew where this was going. “This happened a long time ago?”

Now Slade’s gaze came to hers. “September 16 of this year.”

Evan’s birthday.

And the birthdays of the missing babies.

Her heart slammed against her chest. Her breath stalled, only to start gusting in and out. And because she had no choice, she sank down onto the sofa. Everything hit her at once. The realization. The tornado of emotions.

And, yes, the fear.

“You think Evan is your son.” Maya didn’t wait for him to confirm it. She would have grabbed Evan right out of his hands, but Slade moved, turning his body so she couldn’t do that.

“No need for that.” Slade’s voice sounded like a warning, and she thought for a moment he might use physical force to take Evan.

But he didn’t.

He calmly shifted Evan back toward her and eased him into her arms.

“Oh, God,” she mumbled, and she just kept repeating it. Maya was aware that she sounded crazy, but considering the circumstances, she had a right to snap. “I thought that happened a long time ago.”

“No.” His gaze came back to hers. “Put yourself in my place. The doctor who delivered my son confirmed that he was born on September 16, and three baby boys born that same day were put up for adoption. If Evan’s not mine, then it means my child is likely one of the other two, and he’s already been taken.”

Or worse.

Slade didn’t say the words aloud, but she heard it in his voice. Saw it in his face.

She swallowed hard so she could speak. “Evan’s birth mother wasn’t named Deidre. It was Crystal Hanson.”

“Deidre gave the doctor a fake name, too. Besides, if Waters killed her, took the baby and put him up for adoption, he wouldn’t have used her real name.”

Maya jumped right on that. “But there was a birth certificate for Evan, and the mother was barely twenty. Deidre was older than that, right?”

“Yeah. But Waters could have faked the name, the age, everything. He was into all sorts of illegal things, including a few forgeries. If he didn’t do the paperwork himself, I’m sure he knew where to find someone to do it for him.”

She wasn’t giving up. Maya wasn’t ready to buy any of this, because if she did, that changed
everything.
“How can you be sure Deidre was even carrying your child? From the sound of it, she wasn’t a very reliable woman.”

“She wasn’t,” he readily admitted. “But the timing is right for her to have conceived my baby. And she wouldn’t have voluntarily given him up for adoption. Deidre could be flighty, but the one thing she wanted most was to have a baby.” His jaw muscles stirred again. “In fact, she could have gotten pregnant on purpose.”

“And not told you?” she snapped.

He gave her a flat look. “Deidre and I had sex. Nothing more on her part or mine. We weren’t in love, not by a long shot. I figure the only reason she called me to tell me about the pregnancy was because she knew she was in danger and that I’d protect her.”

Maya wanted to scream for him to stop. She didn’t want all these pieces lining up like this. Especially when the pieces kept pointing to a conclusion that couldn’t be reached.

“I’m sorry. But you can’t have Evan. He’s my son.” And she hugged him close to her.

Slade didn’t challenge that. In fact, for several snail-crawling moments he just sat there. “There’ll be toiletries in the bathroom. Extra clothes in the bedroom closets. Oh, and the fridge will be stocked. You should eat, feed Evan, change him and then try to get some rest. You need any help?”