LITMIR.BIZ

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      “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

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