Читать книгу Josh - Delores Fossen - Страница 11

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.

“What about the checkups you had?” he asked. “Did the same person do them each time?”

“Yes. Caucasian male, about six feet tall, 170 pounds, light brown hair. He always wore a surgical mask, but if he hasn’t altered his hair, I think I could pick him out of a photo lineup.”

It’d be a bear to sort through all the doctors in the state, but Josh made a mental note to ask the analysts at Quantico to work on it. They might get lucky.

“You know if the baby’s a boy or girl,” she said.

The out-of-the-blue comment threw him for a moment. But Josh just nodded. “Why? You want to know?”

She shook her head. Groaned softly. “This seems crazy, huh? Me pregnant with your baby.”

Yeah, it did. Of course, when they’d made the baby, it was before the shooting, when they were still on good terms. They weren’t on good terms now, but like the flashbacks he’d been having, Josh was going to have to put that aside, too.

“I’m scared of you,” Jaycee went on. “Scared you’ll try to fight me for custody or something.”

Again, the comment threw him, and he wasn’t sure it was a good thing to have that possibility out in the open like this. Especially since he had plenty of other things to work out in his head.

“I want to be part of the baby’s life,” he settled for saying. It was a safe response. And an honest one. He might want more than just a part, and while he didn’t say that aloud, it seemed as if Jaycee picked up on it.

She swallowed hard. “And that’s what scares me. You have a normal life. Good roots and a law-abiding family. I don’t have any of that.”

She didn’t. Both her parents had served hard time for an assortment of crimes, and he’d heard that Jaycee had been brought up in foster care. His parents had divorced when he was a kid, and his mother had left, but it wasn’t the same. So yeah, by her standards he did have a normal life.

Well, except he was suffering from PTSD and might never recover. That wouldn’t look good on a custody challenge if that was what he decided to do.

He took the final turn to the ranch, and Jaycee got an immediate glimpse of his “normal” life. There were now six houses on the grounds, assorted barns, outbuildings and miles and miles of pasture for the horses and cattle raised on the ranch.

“Five of my cousins had houses built after they got married and started families of their own,” he explained. “My other cousin, Mason, lives in the main house with his wife and dad.”

“The one who’s getting married this weekend.”

“That’s right. Boone Ryland. He’s marrying a former deputy, Melissa Garza. She retired recently, and that’s how I got the job.”

Jaycee made an idle uh-huh sound, but her attention wasn’t on anything he’d pointed out, but rather the children in the fenced playground on the side of the main house.

“There’s so many of them,” she whispered. “It looks like a day care.”

It did. “They’re all kin. Last count, my cousins have nine offspring, and Mason and his wife have one on the way.”

And at the moment it seemed that all nine were out playing while a few of their moms watched.

Josh slowed when he reached the playground. The moms all waved. One of the kids, Kimmie, who was four years old, saw him and blew him a kiss.

“The little red-haired girl seems to like you,” Jaycee mumbled.

She did. Though Josh couldn’t understand why. He’d never been comfortable around kids, and they seemed to be uncomfortable around him. All except for Kimmie. That gave him a little hope that his own child might feel the same way.

He drove past the playground to the back part of the east pasture to a weathered-looking barn and pulled to a stop in front of it.

“You live here?” Jaycee asked, sounding skeptical and surprised.

Another dose of his version of normal. “The top floor’s been converted into an apartment. But if you like, I can get you a guest room in the main house.”

She glanced back in the direction of the children and their moms. Then the barn. “Your place will be fine.”

Josh bit back a smile. Barely. That’d been his reaction when he’d first returned home. “The kids grow on you,” he confessed.

At least that’s what he’d heard anyway.

He led her up the side stairs to the studio-style apartment. Even though the barn was isolated, it still had all the conveniences of a real house.

Jaycee paused in the doorway, her gaze moving over the room. But there wasn’t much to see. Other than the bathroom, it was just one big open space, with the modest kitchen and sitting area on one side and his bed on the other. There were clothes scattered on the floor. Dishes in the sink. Just the way he’d left it when he’d gone to work earlier.

“You haven’t been sleeping well,” she commented. Jaycee tipped her head to the unmade bed. The covers were in a tangled heap. His prescription pain meds were on the nightstand.

“Sometimes,” Josh settled for saying.

He went in, too, shutting the door behind them, and he tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter before he set the security alarm. A first for him since the ranch had always felt so safe, but nothing felt safe enough now.

“A security system in a barn?” she murmured.

“Yeah. Mason had it installed a few years ago after some intruders managed to get onto the grounds. Most of the buildings have security.”

That put some renewed fear on her face.

“It’s all right,” he assured her. “It was nothing recent. Nothing to be concerned about.”

But of course, they were both still concerned.

Jaycee inched across the room to the huge bay window at the far end of the room. It was late afternoon, and the butter-colored sun hit her just right to spotlight her.

Josh felt that punch of heat.

A punch he definitely didn’t want to feel but, like the other things going on in his head today, he couldn’t seem to push this one aside.

“Should we try to clear the air?” Jaycee asked with her back to him.

“No.” And he didn’t have to think about it. No way did he want to discuss the shooting with her. Besides, they were well past the air-clearing stage.

She turned, met his gaze. “Then at least let me say I’m sorry.”

He didn’t want to hear it, but it would have been petty to blast her for an apology that he couldn’t accept. Josh was still trying to figure out what to say when she crinkled her nose and slid her hand over her belly.

“Are you okay?” he quickly asked.

“It’s just the baby kicking.”

It didn’t seem to be a painful experience, and she certainly didn’t ask Josh to share it. Instead, she went to the bed and started fixing the covers.

“I think I’ll take a nap, if you don’t mind,” she said.

“Don’t mind at all.” And he went to the bed to help her straighten the sheets. To say this was an awkward moment was a huge understatement. Beds and Jaycee were never a good idea, even when it was the only option they had.

Thankfully, he had an immediate distraction. His phone made a soft dinging sound to indicate he had a text. Josh pulled it from his pocket and saw Grayson’s name on the screen.

This probably wasn’t good news. And it wasn’t short and sweet, either. It had an attachment. Grayson started by saying the reason he didn’t call was because he hadn’t wanted to wake Jaycee in case she was sleeping.

But there was a lot more than that in the message.

“You know the name Bryson Hillard?” Josh asked, reading through it.

Jaycee repeated the name, shook her head. “Never heard of him. Why?”

“The tech found his name on the laptop they recovered from the house.”

Another headshake. “Who is he?”

“A wealthy San Antonio businessman. No criminal record. Grayson plans to bring him in for questioning first thing in the morning.”

“I want to be there,” she insisted.

Josh didn’t try to talk her out of it. Heck, he wanted to be there, too. Because this was personal now. The idiot responsible had put his unborn child and countless others in danger, and if this Bryson Hillard had anything to do with it, Josh wanted to know. And confront him.

He scrolled through the rest of the email, and the reading came to a jarring halt when he saw the last sentence.

Hell.

He repeated the mental profanity when he opened the attachment.

“Once I take a nap,” Jaycee said, obviously not noticing his change of expression, “I’ll make some calls and find another place to stay.”

Josh finished reading the message before he went to the window and closed the blinds.

When he turned around, Jaycee was waiting, her mouth slightly open, and she had a white-knuckle grip on the bed post. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Josh debated how much he should tell her and decided she had to know the truth. “You can’t leave,” Josh told her. “You’ll have to stay here for the night, because those missing guards are looking for you. They left you a message nailed to the door of your old apartment.”

He walked closer and held up his phone for her to see the message that one of the deputies had photographed.

Jaycee’s gaze darted over the words, and she pressed her trembling fingers to her mouth. “Oh, God.”