The Marshal's Justice

Chase knelt, too. So they were face-to-face. And even though he tossed some glares at her, he continued to keep watch around them.

Always the lawman.

A good lawman, too. For all the good it’d done. It hadn’t been good enough to help Deanne or their daughter today.

“Why didn’t you have someone call me and tell me you’d had the baby?” he snapped.

Yet another long story, and she was already dealing with too much to bring those memories this close to the surface. “Bailey...that’s what I named her...was a preemie, and at first she had trouble breathing on her own. She had to spend most of the time since her birth in a neonatal unit. It was touch-and-go there for a while, but she’s fine now.”

At least April prayed she was.

And the possibility that she wasn’t fine brought on the tears again. Sweet heaven, she was so tired of crying. So tired of being terrified. So tired of not having her precious baby in her arms.

“That doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me.” Chase’s tone didn’t soften despite the tears, but he finally cursed and slid his hand over her back. For a very brief moment. Probably in an attempt to comfort her.

Too bad it didn’t work.

April figured she could use some serious comforting right now, but comfort wasn’t going to help her find the baby.

“I didn’t tell you at first because I didn’t want to risk anyone following you to the hospital,” she said. “Because I delivered so early, we didn’t have nearly enough security in place for you to come running to me.”

It was the truth. But it wouldn’t be a truth that Chase wanted to hear. Soon, he’d press her for a better explanation.

But that had to wait.

“The gunman and I left our cars by the Appaloosa Creek Bridge,” April told him. So that’s the direction she headed. “Maybe there’s something inside his car that’ll help me find Bailey.”

“Not me. Us. You’re not looking for Bailey alone.”

He hesitated when saying their daughter’s name, the way someone would hesitate when pronouncing a foreign word. Maybe because he was just getting accustomed to the idea of fatherhood.

An idea that he’d struggled with for months.

Now, here it was, slugging him in the face. Crushing him, too. Because it was certainly crushing her.

“Maybe the baby is in the kidnapper’s car?” Chase suggested.

“No. Believe me, I checked. I even looked in the trunk when he opened it to take out an extra gun and some ammo.” There’d been absolutely no sign of the baby.

Chase walked in step beside her. “What about Deanne—was she faking being afraid so she could lure me here? Or was the gunman actually threatening to kill her then?

“Deanne’s fear was real. And warranted. The thug said the only way I could get Bailey back was for you to come, and that if I didn’t agree, he’d kill Deanne. I thought we’d be able to overpower him or something. I also didn’t think he’d want you dead. Not right off the bat like that anyway.”

She’d been wrong about a lot of things. Definitely a stupid plan.

“The thug made me put on these clothes,” she said, motioning at the all-black garb. “Deanne, too. I’m not sure why exactly, but I think he wanted to make you believe you were surrounded by hired guns.”

And the thug knew that Deanne and April couldn’t just shoot him. Because he was the only one who knew the baby’s location.

Still glaring, Chase cursed. Not general profanity, either. Like the glare, it was aimed specifically at her. But this time, the glare didn’t last as long as the others. That’s because Chase stopped and, without warning, latched on to her and hauled her behind a tree.

Had he heard something? Because she certainly hadn’t. Of course, with her heartbeat thumping in her ears, it was hard to hear much of anything.

The moments crawled by, but Chase still didn’t budge. “Why did that goon want to find Quentin?” he whispered. Obviously, he intended to use this waiting time to fill in some of the blanks. But in this case, she had just as many blanks as Chase did.

April had to shake her head. “My guess is Tony Crossman wants to settle up things with Quentin and me.”

Which wasn’t much of a guess at all because Quentin and she were responsible for putting the king of thugs, Tony Crossman, behind bars. Their testimony, along with the testimony of Crossman’s CPA, had put the CPA, Quentin and April into WITSEC, too.

However, even behind bars Crossman still had plenty of money and resources, and he’d apparently used both to come after her and take the baby. There was only one thing that could have gotten her to cooperate with one of Crossman’s thugs.

And that was Bailey.

“I haven’t seen my brother the entire six months I’ve been in WITSEC,” she added when Chase got them moving again.

Something Chase probably already knew because that’d been the plan all along. It would make it hard for Crossman’s henchmen to find Quentin and her if they were in different places leading separate lives.

Chase mumbled more profanity. “Someone probably hacked into WITSEC files to find Bailey and you. We thought we had a breach not long ago, but it turned out to be a false alarm.”

April had heard about that possible breach, and it’d involved yet someone else connected to Crossman. A criminal named Marcos Culver, who’d been running one of Crossman’s side businesses of money laundering. But that man had never been a threat to her. And besides, Culver was dead now.

“I need to find out who could have hacked into WITSEC,” Chase continued, “and try to link that person back to Crossman. Or anyone else who might be involved.”

Even though he didn’t spell it out, April knew what he meant. Chase believed her brother could be involved in this.

And maybe Quentin was.

After all, April would have paid a huge ransom to get Bailey back. Chase would have as well once he’d learned what had happened, and the one thing her brother probably needed right now was cash since he’d blown through his trust fund that their grandparents had set up for both of them. Still, something like this seemed extreme even for Quentin.

“Stop,” Chase said, and without warning he yanked her behind another tree.

Again, April hadn’t heard anything, but clearly he had because Chase lifted his head, listening. Finally, she heard the footsteps. Someone was coming up on them fast.

“Your brothers?” she whispered.

Chase shook his head.

April leaned out just a little and spotted the man skulking his way toward them. Definitely not a Crockett lawman. This guy was dressed all in black and was wearing a ski mask.

Another hired gun.

She instantly felt fear, and hope. This man could try to kill them, but he also might know something about Bailey.

Chase handed her his phone. “Text Jericho and give him the guy’s position,” he whispered. “Also tell Jericho we need him alive.”

April couldn’t do that fast enough. She certainly didn’t want the sheriff eliminating this hired gun before they got a chance to talk to him.

Jericho didn’t respond to the text, but April soon realized why. She saw him, and he wasn’t that far behind the guy in the ski mask.