The Marshal's Justice. Delores Fossen
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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.
Her heart went to her knees.
April nearly shouted out for Jericho not to shoot the man, something that would have almost certainly put Jericho in danger because it would have alerted the gunman. But Chase glanced down at her, shook his head.
“If Jericho had wanted this guy dead, he already would be,” Chase mouthed.
It took her a moment to fight through the panic going on in her head, and April realized he was right. The man obviously didn’t know that Jericho was tracking him, and she was well aware that the sheriff had a deadly aim.
Chase eased her even farther behind the tree so that her face and body were pressed right against the rough bark. Chase pressed, too. His chest against her back. Touching her. Of course, he hadn’t meant for this to be an intimate situation, but it always seemed to be just that when she was within a hundred feet of Chase.
Her mind tried to shut out the memories. But her body remembered every second she’d spent in Chase’s arms.
In his bed, too.
She could no longer see the gunman or Jericho, but April could still hear the footsteps. The guy wasn’t moving that fast, but he was definitely headed right for them.
Did he know Chase and she were there?
Or like them was he simply trying to make his way to the car?
April hadn’t seen a second gunman in the car that’d been left by the bridge, but it was possible he came in another vehicle. Not exactly a comforting thought.
Because Chase was pressed against her, April felt his muscles tense even more than they already were. He was getting ready for something.
But what exactly?
She soon got an answer to that, too. Chase lunged out from cover, tackling the gunman, and he slammed the guy to the ground.
The gunman cursed, and he tried to bring up his weapon, no doubt to shoot Chase. But Chase didn’t give him a chance to do that. He knocked the gun from the thug’s hand.
That wasn’t the end of the fight, though.
The guy punched Chase. Hard enough to have knocked the breath out of him, but Chase managed to deliver a punch of his own.
And just like that, the guy stopped fighting.
It took her a couple of seconds to spot Jericho. He was moving in and had a Glock aimed right at the gunman’s head. April prayed the man wouldn’t give Jericho a reason to pull the trigger.
“Where’s the baby?” Chase demanded, pointing his gun at the man, too.
Jericho didn’t make a sound, but April knew he had to be confused about his brother’s question. Then, Jericho’s gaze dropped to her stomach for a split second, and that seemed to tell him all he needed to know. The baby had been born.
And had been taken.
Later, Jericho would have as many questions as Chase and the rest of the Crocketts would. For now, though, this ski-masked man might tell her what she needed to know.
“Where is she?” April repeated.
He didn’t answer. Chase yanked off the guy’s mask, and like their other