The Marshal's Justice

“Crossman?” Mack’s concern went up yet another notch. He belted out some profanity under his breath, then blushed when he glanced at the baby. “Sorry.”

She waved off the apology because it wasn’t necessary. Crossman was a killer. Worse, a cop killer.

And it was that murder that had put some blood on April’s hands.

Mack stepped away, undoubtedly to take care of getting the CSIs out to examine the car and arrange for those supplies. Leaving Chase and her alone with the baby. The first moments they’d been together alone with Bailey.

Chase walked closer, staring down at her, and he touched his finger to Bailey’s cheek. Bailey was half-asleep, but that got her attention, and she turned her head, studying Chase as hard as he was studying her.

The corner of Bailey’s mouth lifted, and even though April figured it wasn’t a real smile, it still had a powerful effect. Chase groaned, the impact of fatherhood no doubt hitting him hard. And hitting him in the exact same way it’d hit April. Because he smiled, too.

A rarity.

Chase Crockett wasn’t exactly the smiling type—especially since things had fallen apart between them. Too bad because that smile stirred the too familiar heat inside April.

Heat she pushed aside again.

That was something she always had to do around Chase. Because he’d spent the past two years trying to put her brother behind bars, April and Chase had never dated. But that hadn’t stopped them from landing in bed together. For one glorious night, Chase had been hers for the taking, but then his friend had been murdered. Crossman—and Quentin—had been implicated in that. And anything she’d ever hoped to have with Chase had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Well, everything except Bailey.

That would give them a connection that she was certain Chase would rather have with someone else. Anyone else.

“Check her for tracking devices,” Chase prompted.

April hurried to do that, causing Bailey to fuss, but thankfully she didn’t see anything on her gown, blanket or diaper. That was something at least.

She heard the front door open, and Chase stepped back into the hall. Even though she couldn’t see who’d come in, she did notice the alarm on Chase’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Chase immediately asked.

April hurried to the door and looked out to see Jericho. He had the gunman in cuffs and handed him off to Mack, but his attention stayed on Chase.

“We’ve got trouble,” Jericho answered. “Jax was attacked on the road. He’s okay, but the woman he was bringing in just escaped.”

Chapter Five (#ulink_e6375bd4-10c9-51da-807e-82a316d95b0e)

Chase so didn’t want to have to deal with anything else right now. What he wanted to do was hold his daughter and get to know her. Instead, he was neck deep in making sure Crossman, or whoever was behind the kidnapping and attacks, didn’t get to Bailey and April again.

That meant going to a safe house. Something he was still working on, but for now, his baby was stuck sleeping on the cot in the break room at the sheriff’s office. Hardly premium accommodations, but Bailey didn’t seem to mind. She was sacked out, not a care in the world. Unlike April.

Chase saw plenty of those cares in her eyes.

“Anything?” she asked the moment Chase stepped into the doorway of the break room. She moved away from the cot and came closer to him.

Chase figured that one-word question encompassed a lot because there were plenty of cogs moving in the investigation. What wasn’t moving was a solution to put an end to this.

“Renée’s still missing.” Thanks to the help from a gunman who’d run Jax off the road and taken her.

April’s mouth tightened, clearly not pleased about that.

Welcome to the club.

Renée could have given them some answers, and now the woman was missing.

“And what about Jax? Is he really okay?” Not displeasure now but rather concern in April’s voice.

Chase nodded. “A few cuts and bruises. He’s pissed off more than anything.” An emotion that Chase completely understood.

He should have made sure Jax wasn’t being followed. Should have done more to protect his brother. But Chase had had so many things on his mind that he hadn’t taken more precautions. That couldn’t happen again. Because the next time, Jax or someone else could be killed.

April came even closer to him, glancing back at the baby. Probably to make sure their whispered conversation wasn’t disturbing her. It wasn’t. Now that Bailey had had a bottle, she was sleeping, well, like a baby. However, Chase was betting April and he wouldn’t be getting much sleep, if any, tonight.

“I’m sorry,” April said.

Not especially something Chase wanted to hear. Or feel. But he felt something all right.

Sympathy.

And he’d learned the hard way, that was never a good thing to feel when it came to April. Best to keep this conversation on a more business level. Easy to do since they had plenty of nonpersonal things to discuss.

Well, one huge thing anyway.

There was something he should probably tell her. Eventually. Something that was indeed personal. But it would have to wait.

“Someone did hack into WITSEC files,” Chase confirmed. “We won’t know the extent of what was compromised for a while, but it’s obvious the hacker was able to find you.”

“And my brother?” she asked.

“The marshals went to his house, but Quentin wasn’t there. The place had been ransacked and there were signs of a struggle.” Chase paused, trying to brace himself for how she was going to react to the next thing he had to tell her. “There was blood on the floor.”

That caused her breath to shudder, and she staggered back. Maybe would have fallen if Chase hadn’t caught her. He hooked his arm around her waist, putting them body to body again. Also giving him feelings he didn’t want to have.

Lust.

Not an especially good time for it, but it always seemed to happen with April. Chase cursed it and wished there was some way in hell he could make himself immune to her.

Rather than stand there with her in his arms, Chase led her across the room and had her sit in one of the chairs at the dining table.

She shook her head. “Quentin doesn’t even know how to get in touch with me if he needs help.”

“No, but he knows how to contact me. If it’s a real emergency, he’d call me.”

April looked up at him, blinked. “You don’t think the blood they found is real?”

Chase was 1,000 percent sure she wasn’t going to like this. “I think it’s real all right, but Quentin could have planted it so it would look as if he’d been injured. And he could have done that so we wouldn’t believe he had any part in kidnapping Bailey.”

There were holes in that particular theory, but Chase knew that Quentin was very good at doing criminal things.