His voice was gentle. Almost a whisper. And even though Rosalie figured that being in his arms was a very bad idea, she just didn’t have the strength to push him away.

Austin made a soft shushing sound and eased her deeper into his arms. Until she was pressed against him. Even with the tears and her heart shattering, she felt his body. Heard the quick rhythm of his breath.

Just as when she had spotted him at the table with his bedroom hair and eye-catching jeans, the trickle of heat went through her. A bad kind of heat that she didn’t want to feel for him. But felt anyway.

Rosalie pulled in her breath, taking in his scent with it, and suddenly everything that happened couldn’t compete with what she knew they were both feeling right at this moment.

Kidnapping in Kendall County

Delores Fossen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

USA TODAY bestselling author DELORES FOSSEN has sold over fifty novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She’s received the Booksellers’ Best Award and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, and was a finalist for a prestigious RITA^® Award. In addition, she’s had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines. You can contact the author through her webpage at www.dfossen.net.

Contents

Cover

Excerpt

Title Page

About the Author

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Extract

Chapter One

Rosalie McKinnon tightened her grip on the Beretta that she’d stolen and stepped out of the house and onto the narrow back porch. She stayed in the shadows, away from the milky kitchen light that was stabbing through the darkness.

There was only a thin lip of an overhang on the roof, so after just a few steps, the December rain spat at her. Not sleet exactly, but close enough. Rosalie didn’t know if she was shivering from the fear or the cold. It didn’t matter. Shivering wasn’t going to stop her.

Nothing would.

Tonight, she would get answers. Even if she had to shoot him.

She made it down the slick, uneven limestone steps and into the sprawling backyard. She paused just a couple of seconds to make sure no one in the house had noticed that she’d left. With all the decongestants and antihistamines she had managed to slip into the guard’s coffee, maybe he’d be out long enough so he wouldn’t realize that she was missing.

If not...

Well, best not to go there.

Even though she had stolen the guard’s gun after he’d passed out, there were other armed guards on the grounds. If they discovered her, she’d be dead within seconds. Especially if they figured out what she was doing. They were no doubt capable of killing.

That also applied to the man she had to see.

Maybe, just maybe, he’d be sleeping, too, so she could get the jump on him. It was the only chance she had of making this plan work.

Hurrying now, Rosalie crossed the bare winter grass to a much smaller house at the back of the barn. Once, it’d probably been a guest cottage when the ranch was a real working operation. Now there was no livestock around, no hint of the life that’d once gone on here other than a tractor and hay baler that had been left to rust away. These days, the place was a glorified prison for the babies being processed for black market adoptions.

Since it made her sick to her stomach to think of that, Rosalie pushed the thought aside and tested the doorknob on the cottage.

Unlocked.

A big mistake on his part.

Rosalie opened the door and stepped inside. All dark and toasty warm. It smelled of too-strong coffee and the fast-food burgers that’d been brought in for their dinner.

The only light in the room of the cottage came from the kitchen in the main house, where she’d just been. It cut like slivers down the tiny front windows that were streaked with rain.

It took a couple of moments for Rosalie’s eyes to adjust, and in the shadowy silhouettes, she saw a desk, a sofa and the small bed against the wall. There were two interior doors, both closed, and from what she’d learned from the guard’s idle chatter, one was a bathroom. The other, a bedroom that was being used as a storage closet.

But it was the man on the bed who grabbed her full attention.

He was on his side, facing away from her. No cover on him, and he appeared to be wearing the same jeans and shirt he’d had on when she had spotted him earlier in the yard.

The guard had called him boss.

She’d yet to see him up close, but Rosalie had gotten another glimpse of him from the upstairs window of the main house. His dark brown Stetson had covered most of his face, but she’d watched to see where he would go. And he hadn’t gone far—just to the cottage. All in all, it wasn’t the worst place to confront a monster because he was alone here, away from the guards who would protect him.

Keeping the Beretta by her side, she walked closer, her heart thudding with each soft step. She had to remind herself to breathe. And to keep a clear head. Her instincts were to shoot, or run, but neither of those things would get her what she needed.

Too bad she wasn’t a cop like her siblings. They would have no doubt handled this much better.

But then they would have never gotten into this place.

Not with their cops’ eyes and attitudes. Plus, they’d all been tied up with other leads and other investigations. Important ones. Her mother was about to stand trial for first-degree murder, and while finding the baby was critical, so was the trial since her mother was facing the death penalty.

That’s why she’d come up with her own plan several months ago while she was staying at her family’s ranch. A plan that’d started with finding any info to get her inside this place or any other place that would possibly lead her to her daughter.

Rosalie leaned over and jammed the gun to the back of the man’s head. “I want answers,” she managed to say even though her throat clamped shut. Her voice had hardly any sound.

He moved, just a fraction. “Darlin’,” he drawled.

Her shoulders snapped back, and it was that split second of shock that caused her breath and body to freeze.

The man reached out, lightning-fast, snagged her by the right hand and stripped her of the Beretta. In the same motion, he pulled her down onto the bed with him and rolled on top of her, pinning her beneath him.

That unfroze her.

Her heart jolted, throbbing in her ears, and Rosalie started to fight back. She couldn’t just let this man kill her.

“Play along,” he growled, his voice no longer a drawl but rather a whisper. “There’s a camera.”

She’d already brought up her knee to ram any part of him that she could reach, but she stopped. Stared at him. Well, she stared at what she could see of him, anyway.

“Rosalie,” he muttered.

Mercy. How did he know her real name? She was using a fake ID with the name Mary Williams. If he was onto her, why hadn’t he already told the guards?

“Who are you?” she tried to ask, but he put his hand over her mouth.

“I figured you’d drop by,” he said. No longer a whisper, and the cocky drawl had returned. “I saw you eyeing me earlier from the window.”

She had. She’d eyed him and committed everything she could see about him to memory from his sandy-brown hair to lanky build. He normally wore a shoulder holster, and judging from the bulge in the back of his coat, he had another gun tucked in the back waistband of his jeans.

And the keys.

Three of them.

They jangled from a metal ring hooked to his belt loop.

Rosalie believed one was for the truck she’d seen him driving, but one of the others was for the room inside the main house where she’d gotten a glimpse of computers and files. The room was always locked, and there was a camera mounted on the doorjamb, but she needed his keys to get a look at those files.

She glanced around, to try to see if there was indeed a camera here, but the room was too dark.

“Who are you?” she asked, shoving his hand from her mouth.

He pulled back, stared down at her, though she still couldn’t clearly see his face. “You don’t know?” But he didn’t wait for an answer. He mumbled some really bad profanity, and his grip tightened on her wrists. “Why the hell are you here, anyway?”

He didn’t shout it, but she had no trouble hearing the anger in his voice. Or maybe not anger, but something.

What was going on? She couldn’t see enough of his face to recognize him, and that raspy whispered voice wasn’t enough of a clue. He could be friend or foe, but clearly he fell into the latter category since he was the boss here.

So, what was her next move?

She hadn’t thought beyond getting answers and then trying to escape, but clearly she hadn’t expected this. Whatever this was.

“Did you come here to kill me?” he demanded, still whispering.

“If necessary.”

Except a dead man couldn’t tell her what she needed to know. But she would have pulled the trigger if it’d come down to it. Unfortunately, she no longer had a gun as a bargaining tool. She had only shaky hands. Shaky body, too, and her heart just kept pounding.

The moments crawled by. Him, still staring at her and obviously waiting for an explanation. The only sounds were the rain pinging against the window and their rough breaths.

“Pretend,” he finally snapped.

Rosalie didn’t get a chance to ask what the heck that meant before his mouth went to her neck. He nuzzled it, as if kissing her, but he was still mumbling profanity, and his jaw muscles were way too tight for this to be a real kissing session.

So, what was this? Some kind of act for the person on the other end of the camera? If so, why was he trying to cover for her?

“I’m not leaving without answers,” Rosalie whispered. “And I want these babies safely out of here and back where they belong.”

“Pretend we’re having sex or you might not be leaving at all. You’ll be dead. And so will I.”

That was the only warning she got before the pretense went into full swing. He kneed her legs apart, yanking off her green scrub pants. He didn’t touch her panties, thank goodness, and he threw the covers over them.

He fumbled between them, pretending to unzip his jeans before the fake thrusting started.

“If necessary?” he said, repeating her response to his question of Did you come here to kill me? “If you’re not here for revenge, then why did you come?”

Revenge, yes, she wanted that. And justice. But more than those things, she just wanted answers.

It was impossible to think with everything going on. The sex was fake, but it was still a man’s body shoving against her. And then there was the fear. Obviously, this man knew her. Knew she was as phony as the sex they were having. So, why hadn’t he shouted out for the guard?

Why hadn’t he killed her?

After all, he had her gun and his.

“I’m looking for my baby,” she said. Her mouth trembled. And she felt her heart breaking all over again.

He stopped moving, met her gaze. For a few seconds, anyway. Then, he let out a loud groan, the sound of a man who’d just reached a climax, and he collapsed against her.

“You had a child,” he said. Not a question exactly but more like something a person would say when trying to piece things together.

She nodded. Bad idea. It caused her mouth to brush against his neck, and because his sex was still aligned with hers, she felt a stirring.

Yes, this was pretend, but his body was obviously having a hard time remembering that.

“I gave birth to a baby girl nearly a year ago.” Eleven months. Six days. Heck, she knew the hours and minutes.

“Nearly a year ago,” he repeated. “She was your fiancé’s baby?”

Again, not a question that she’d expected. Rosalie nodded and tried to tamp down the massive lump in her throat. Her eyes burned with tears that she couldn’t cry. Tears wouldn’t help her baby now.

“Sadie...that’s what I named my daughter. She was born eight and a half months after my fiancé was murdered.”

The memories of that day came. Of his shooting. That horrible flood of images that just didn’t stop. So senseless. Her fiancé, Special Agent Eli Wells, had died because of a botched investigation, and Rosalie had wanted to die right along with him.

And then she’d learned she was pregnant.

The baby had saved her. Because she’d put all her love and emotions into surviving, into the pregnancy, so she could have the child of the man she’d loved.

“Someone stole Sadie from the hospital just a few hours after she was born,” Rosalie added, “and I’ve been looking for her ever since.”

His breath was thicker now, practically gusting. “She wouldn’t be here. They only bring newborns here, and they’ve only used this place for a couple of months.”

Yes, she knew that from the guard’s ramblings before he’d actually dozed off from the meds that she had slipped him. “I thought there would be records on the computer in a locked room of the house.”

“There are. But only for the babies being held at this location. You’re sure the black market ring took your daughter?”

“No.” And it hurt to admit that. She wasn’t sure of anything, but she’d exhausted her leads and had gone with this different angle. “A criminal informant said there might be information here.”

There was a lot more to it than that, but Rosalie didn’t want to rehash everything it’d taken to bring her to this point. All the lies, the payoffs and the bogus identity she’d had to create.

“Why haven’t you killed me?” she came out and asked. “And how do you know who I am?”

Again, he took his time, looking down at her as if trying to figure out what was going on. Rosalie was doing the same thing to him.

“What criminal informant did you use?” he asked, obviously dodging the questions.

Of all the things that were up in the air here, that didn’t seem very important. “A guy from San Antonio. Lefty Markham.”

He groaned, cursed and rolled off her and to his side. But he immediately pulled her against him. Face-to-face. Like a couple having some pillow talk after a round of sex.

“He’s your stepbrother’s CI,” he whispered. “Why the hell didn’t you bring Seth in on this?”

Seth Calder, not just her stepbrother but also an FBI agent. So, not only did this man know who she was, but he also knew details about her life that he shouldn’t know.

“Because Seth’s checking out another lead over in El Paso. The CI said the baby-holding area here at the ranch wouldn’t be here much longer.”

“It won’t be. The plan is to move tomorrow.”

Oh, mercy. So soon. “I need to see those records. Please help me. Please.”

Yes, she was begging but she would resort to a lot more than that to learn where her baby had been taken.

“I’m Austin Duran,” he said.

His voice was so soft, barely audible, but it slammed through her as if he’d yelled it.

“Oh, God,” she said a lot louder than a whisper.

“Yeah.” He moved away from her so they were no longer touching.

The name was as familiar to her as her own. But not in a good way. It was a name she’d cursed. A bogeyman who’d robbed her of her hopes and dreams.

The man who’d killed Eli.

Not in the eyes of the law, though, and it certainly hadn’t been labeled murder. But Rosalie knew that Austin Duran was the FBI agent who had botched the investigation that’d led to Eli’s murder.

“Yeah,” he repeated. There was a lot of emotion hanging on that one word. The pain. The memories.

Everything Rosalie was feeling.

“You thought I’d come here to kill you,” she mumbled. “You thought I was avenging Eli’s death.”

He didn’t confirm that. Didn’t need to.

“I didn’t get a good look at your face.” And that’s why she hadn’t instantly recognized him. Strange that she hadn’t sensed that he had been so close, because she’d spent all these months hating him.

And Rosalie would use that hate.

In fact, it could be better than a gun.

“You’re here undercover?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’m looking for...someone.”

She didn’t care about that. Didn’t care about anything right now but her daughter. That included choking back her hatred for this man and making this work for Sadie and the other babies who were being held inside so they could be sold like cattle.

“You owe me,” she insisted. “For Eli’s death. And you’re going to help me find his missing baby.”

Austin didn’t jump to do just that. He lay there, silent as death, and Rosalie was about to repeat her demand when she heard the sound.

Something she definitely didn’t want to hear.

Footsteps.

Those steps were the only warning they got before there was another sound. The door flew open, and Austin scrambled in front of her.

But it was too late.

Two armed guards hurried into the cottage, and both pointed assault rifles at them.

Chapter Two

Austin had already spent the past twenty minutes or so cursing fate. And cursing Rosalie’s untimely arrival in the cottage. It wouldn’t do any good, but now he cursed the guards and those rifles trained on him.

“What the hell do you two want?” Austin growled, and he made a show of zipping up his jeans.

Austin didn’t know the guys’ names. Over the past week since he’d been undercover at the ranch, the flow of guards had stayed steady, none of them remaining in place for more than forty-eight hours. But it didn’t matter what they called themselves. Austin just needed to get them out of there.

“Well?” Austin added in his worst snarl. He made sure he sounded like the person in charge.

He wasn’t.

Heck, he didn’t even know who had that particular title of being in charge or who exactly was watching him on the camera. However, it was pretty clear that someone had gotten suspicious of Rosalie’s visit. The mock sex hadn’t fooled them, and if Austin didn’t do something fast to diffuse the situation, it could go from bad to worse.

The pair of guards exchanged glances as if trying to figure out what to do, but the guy on the right had a communicator in his ear, so he was no doubt receiving instructions.

“Why is she here?” The goon on the right tipped his head to Rosalie.

Austin gave him as cocky and flat of a look as he could manage. “Why do you think?”

“She’s supposed to be inside,” he snapped.

“The babies are asleep,” Rosalie volunteered as if that explained everything.

It didn’t, of course.

There were two newborns inside, along with a nanny and the guard. Since Rosalie had no doubt been hired as a nurse, she should have been inside and nowhere near Austin’s quarters.

“I’ll be going,” Rosalie mumbled. She fished around on the floor for her scrub pants and pulled them on. She also pushed her long blond hair from her face.

Austin noticed that both her voice and hands were shaking, but hopefully the guards would think that was a reaction from being caught in the act of a lover’s tryst. And nothing else.

Soon, if they got out of this, he’d need to convince Rosalie to leave so he could get on with his investigation.

This was a bad place for her to be.

She started for the door, but the men blocked her path. And they didn’t lower those rifles. “You two know each other?” one of them asked.

“We do now.” Austin shot her a sly smile. “But I’m ready for her to leave. Gotta get some sleep.”

And he waited.

The guards still didn’t move, though he could hear some chatter on the one guard’s earpiece. Austin wished he could snap his fingers and make the real boss appear so they could settle this man-to-man, but so far he didn’t have even a description of the person responsible for so much pain.

“Walk her back to the house,” one of the guards finally said to Austin. “Make sure she stays put.”

Austin tried not to look or sound too relieved, but he was. Rosalie and he had just dodged a bullet or two.

For now, anyway.

The real boss obviously didn’t trust him, or the goons wouldn’t have been sent in to see what was going on. Maybe that meant Rosalie and he would be placed under a more careful watch. However, she wouldn’t be reined in like that.

Nope.

There’d be no deterring Rosalie from looking for her stolen baby. Austin knew how she felt, but he also knew that her persistence would get her killed the hard way. He couldn’t let that happen.

She was right about one thing. He did owe her.

But that was a debt he could never repay.

Still, maybe he could do something to bring his late partner’s baby back to her mother’s arms.

The guards stepped back. Finally. And as soon as they were out of the doorway, Austin grabbed his shoulder holster and coat from the peg near the door. He still had his backup weapon in the holster in the back waistband of his jeans, but if this little walk to the house went wrong, he wanted all the firepower he could get.

“Come on,” Austin told Rosalie and got her moving.

He picked up her Beretta, as well. Or rather, the guard’s Beretta. Austin wasn’t sure he wanted to know how Rosalie had gotten it from the man.

She glanced back at the guards, who were now making their way to the barn. Not an ordinary one, either. It had become a modified command post and living quarters to house the guards and all sorts of people who’d been coming and going. Austin had sneaked some photos and jotted down license plate numbers, but he was a long way from piecing this together.

“Why didn’t my brother know the FBI had undercover agents working the black market adoptions here?” Rosalie whispered.

“Because the FBI doesn’t know I’m here.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she looked ready to accuse him of something, but she must have remembered that she’d sneaked in here, too. Of course, he had the training to carry out undercover work.

Rosalie didn’t.

But she obviously had some kind of contacts to get her in this place. Austin sure had. Well, one contact, anyway. A former FBI agent who’d helped him create the bogus background and references so Austin would look “legit” to someone running a criminal operation. It had worked, and he’d been hired as head of security at this particular site.

Austin purposely kept their steps slow to give them time to talk, and he looped his arm around her waist so they’d look like the lovers they were pretending to be.

“Who hired you for this job?” he asked.

Rosalie shook her head. “I made all the arrangements through the criminal informant. He said word on the street was the operation was looking for nannies and nurses. I’m an RN. So I had a fake ID made. Created fake work and a computer bio, too.”

Austin tried not to groan. Lefty Markham was a piece of slime who’d sell his mother for a quarter.

“The job interview, if you can call it that, was done over the phone,” she added. “Along with transportation arrangements. This morning, a truck arrived at an abandoned gas station just off the interstate to pick me up, and the driver made me put on a hood so I couldn’t see where he was taking me.”

That was standard practice for this operation. So, the fake bio and ID must have fooled the person in charge of hiring her. Still, that didn’t mean anyone trusted her.

Nor him.

The camera proved that, and Austin was well aware that he was constantly being watched. Even now.

“You said your daughter was taken eleven months ago?” Austin whispered. He kept them walking at a slow pace toward the house.

Rosalie nodded. “Why? Do you know something about her?”

She sounded hopeful, but Austin would have to crush those hopes right off. “No. I’m here looking for my nephew. He’s a newborn, and someone kidnapped him.”

Rosalie pulled in a hard breath, and even though it was dark, he thought he might have seen some sympathy in her eyes. “So we can find them both.”

“No.” He stopped, turned her so she could see that this wasn’t up for negotiation. “I’ll find them, and you’re getting the heck out of here. I don’t care how. Pretend you’re sick or something. I just want you off the grounds tonight.”

She was shaking her head before he even finished. “I can’t leave. I have to find my baby.” Her voice broke, and he saw the tears shine in her eyes.

Austin huffed. “Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but you won’t be doing your baby any good by getting yourself killed. These men are dangerous, Rosalie, and they’ll do whatever it takes to keep this operation secret and profitable.”

He could tell by the little sound she made that he hadn’t convinced her, so Austin would have to do more than talk. “Then I’ll make the arrangements,” he added. “But one way or another, you’re leaving tonight.”

Before she could respond, or argue, the back door to the house creaked open, and the guard staggered onto the porch. Unlike the other two, Austin knew this one. Walter Ludwig. Not very bright but trigger happy.

A bad combination.

Walter had a rifle in his right hand and aimed his left index finger at Rosalie. “She drugged me and stole my gun.” And even though he was still staggering, the man pointed the rifle at her.

Austin stepped between them, held up his hands in a calm-down gesture. “Everything’s okay,” he lied. “It was all just a misunderstanding.”

Not the best excuse, but Austin didn’t want to say too much. Every word now could be risky.

“She drugged me,” the guard repeated, and he came down the steps, closer to where they stood. “And now she’s gonna pay for that. Get out of the way, boss.”

“Not happening. Just put down the rifle, Walter, and we’ll talk about this.”

“Don’t wanna talk.” His words were slurred, and he had to lean against the porch post to steady himself. “I just want her dead real quick.”

Austin cursed under his breath. He had to figure out a way to diffuse this now, or else the other two guards would hear the raised voices and come running. They were already suspicious of Rosalie and him. Which meant the pair just might encourage Walter to commit murder.

“Move away from her!” Walter growled, and despite his unsteady footing, he came off the porch. Charging right toward them.

Austin pushed Rosalie to the side so he could latch on to the rifle and turn it away from her. Walter’s finger was on the trigger. Poised and ready to fire.

“If you shoot, a bullet could ricochet and hurt one of the babies,” Austin tried again.

His attempt at logic didn’t work. Walter was in a rage. Every muscle in his body primed to fight, and it was obvious he wasn’t going to listen to reason.

“I’m gonna kill her!” Walter snarled, and when he tried to bring up the rifle to do just that, Austin knew he had no choice.

He bashed the Beretta against the side of Walter’s head. It wasn’t a hard enough hit to kill the man, but it caused him to drop like a bag of rocks to the ground.

“What’s going on?” someone asked, and a moment later, the nanny, Janice Aiken, looked out from the kitchen door. She gasped, pressing her fingers to her mouth.

But that wasn’t the only voice that Austin heard.

The barn door opened, and he knew it wouldn’t be long before both guards came out to see what was wrong. This had plenty of potential to end in the worst possible way.

“What should we do?” Janice asked. “I’ll help.”

“She’s on our side,” Austin explained to Rosalie.

Well, maybe.

He didn’t have time for details and especially didn’t have time to make sure that he trusted Janice. So far, it appeared the nanny was ready to put an end to the black market baby operation, but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of that. He definitely hadn’t counted on trusting her this soon. But one thing he did know: the babies were worth a lot of money, so even if Janice was in on the scheme, she would indeed protect them.

For now, that had to be enough.

Austin turned to Rosalie, took out one of the keys and handed it to her. “It’s for the truck. Use it in case something goes wrong. For now, go inside and help Janice get the babies ready to move.”

Rosalie gave a shaky nod and hurried into the house with the nanny. They’d barely gotten the back door closed when Austin reeled around and faced the pair of guards who were storming toward them.

“What the hell happened?” one of them demanded.

“Personal dispute. Walter here wanted to sample my lady friend, and I didn’t want to share.”

Walter moaned, twisting on the soggy ground. “She drugged me.”

And despite the moans, that accusation came through crystal clear.

Austin smirked at the man. “I think Walter just had a little too much to drink.”

Yeah, it wasn’t much of an explanation, but Austin didn’t think he could say or do anything at this point that would convince the guards that this was nothing that concerned them.

The guard on the right glanced at Walter. Then, Austin. And finally at the house. “Get the woman out here now so we can talk to her.”

That put a hard knot in Austin’s stomach. “And then what? You kill her and leave us without a nurse? What happens if one of the babies gets sick, huh?”

The man lifted his shoulder, took aim at Austin. “Nurses are replaceable. And so are you. Drop your weapons.”

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