JOSH

by Delores Fossen

  “This wasn’t his fault,” Jaycee said. “Sierra was determined to kidnap me. Sooner or later, she would have found a way to get to me.”

  It was the truth, and it hurt Josh far more than a gunshot wound. No matter what precautions they’d taken, Sierra and her goons had figured out a way around them. But that was over now. Sierra and her hired guns would go to jail for the rest of their lives.

  “I’ll call you with any updates,” Grayson added, and he handed Josh the keys to his truck. “Dade and Bree are waiting outside to go with you.”

  “Oh, God,” Jaycee mumbled, and he knew why she’d said that.

  Because the danger maybe wasn’t over.

  That was the reason Grayson had arranged for Bree and Dade to ride with them. They were protection that they might end up needing. Again.

  “It’ll be okay,” Josh whispered to her, and he got her moving toward the exit. “Soon we’ll put all of this behind us, and you can focus on having a healthy baby.”

  That was his wish list anyway. Now he had to make it happen.

  However, Jaycee stopped and faced him. “It will be okay,” she said, surprising him.

  After everything that’d just happened, he expected at least a little bit of gloom and doom, but she slid her hand over her stomach. And kissed him.

  “You saved my life tonight. Multiple times. Thank you for that,” she said.

  You’re welcome didn’t seem nearly heartfelt enough. “You saved me a couple of times, too.”

  She nodded, and Josh leaned in for another kiss, but she pressed her hand over his mouth. “I’m just going to say this fast. Like ripping off a bandage. I’m in love with you, and I know that’s not the right thing to say. That it puts a lot of pressure on you—”

  Josh moved her hand away and kissed her. It wasn’t to shut her up.

  Okay, that was part of it.

  He just figured the best way to shut her up was to remind her of this heat that was between them.

  And it was a reminder, all right.

  He kissed her until air became a serious issue, and they had to break away to catch their breaths.

  “I tell you I love you, and that’s how you react?” Jaycee frowned, shook her head. “Wait, that didn’t come out right. What I meant—”

  He kissed her again. “I know what you meant,” he whispered against her mouth. “You want to know how I feel about that? Well, I don’t feel pressured, that’s for sure, and it was the absolute right thing to say. Because I’m in love with you, too.”

  Until that moment he hadn’t known for sure, but it was true. He was crazy, head over heels in love with Jaycee. He wasn’t sure when or where it’d happened, but he was certain of his feelings for her.

  She smiled. Then it faded, and she got another of those concerned looks in her eyes. “But what about the past?”

  “It’s the past,” he quickly let her know, and he put his hand on her stomach. “Seems best for us to focus on the future now.”

  Despite everything he’d just told her, her concerned look went up a significant notch. “You’re not in love with me just because of the baby?”

  “No.” And that was yet something else he knew with absolute certainty.

  Josh would have proved that with another kiss, but he heard Grayson’s phone ring, and both Jaycee and he turned back around to see if this was good news.

  Or if they truly did need protection driving to the ranch.

  “Gage,” Grayson said.

  Josh couldn’t hear a word Gage said, and he couldn’t tell from Grayson’s expression, either. All he could do was stand there and wait to find out what was going on.

  And take care of some much-needed personal stuff.

  “Marry me,” he whispered to Jaycee.

  She didn’t move. Didn’t respond. She certainly didn’t jump into his arms and say yes. And that meant he’d blown this big-time. He should have guessed after her reaction to his last marriage proposal. Of course, that one hadn’t been the real deal.

  This one was.

  “I’m not asking you to marry me because of the baby,” he quickly clarified. “Though that’s a nice bonus. But the reason I proposed is because I’m in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  Jaycee still didn’t move, but tears welled in her eyes, and she made a little gasping sound.

  “Oh, man.” Josh groaned. “Now I’ve made you cry.”

  “For the best of reasons,” she said.

  Her voice was all warmth and breath now, and there was no more concern in her expression. She put her arms around him and kissed him until Josh was feeling all warm and breathy, too.

  Actually, he was wishing he could haul her off to bed. And he figured soon he could make that happen.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Because he was caught up in the kiss, it took him a moment to realize that was the best thing Jaycee could have said to him.

  “Yes?” he clarified and hoped like the devil that he hadn’t misunderstood.

  He hadn’t. Her slow smile and quick nod proved that. So did their next kiss, and it went on a little longer than planned because he heard Grayson clear his throat.

  “Sounds as if congratulations are in order,” Grayson said, smiling. “Well, I can give you two something else to celebrate. You, too,” he said to Valerie. “They found both of the baby farms, and Sierra’s daughter was at one of them.”

  While that sounded good, Josh immediately thought of the guards who’d escaped with those women. “Did Gage say if there were any injuries or escapees?”

  “Doesn’t appear to be. There were four women at the first place. Three more at the second, and those women are the ones who were taken from the farm where Jaycee had been held.”

  “And they’re okay?” Jaycee asked.

  Grayson nodded. “Everyone is okay, and the guards have been arrested.”

  Jaycee made a sound of sheer relief and landed in his arms again.

  “Are the guards talking?” Josh asked. Because they might need info from them to find any other baby farms that Sierra had set up.

  “One’s talking, and that’s all it takes. We’ll cut a deal with him so he can testify against the others. And against Sierra. He’s already told Kade that he’ll spill any-and everything.”

  That was definitely a huge reason to celebrate. Of course, the guard might not know the full extent of Sierra’s operation, but Josh wasn’t going to borrow trouble. What the guard didn’t know they could probably piece together with the other evidence they’d find at the baby farm locations.

  Plus, there was Sierra.

  When she came out of surgery, she might be willing to give information to take the death penalty off the table. Sierra was the sort of woman who’d do all sorts of bargaining to stay alive, and that in turn could save anyone else who was unlucky enough to have been kidnapped and held.

  “I’ll wait here until Sierra’s out of surgery,” Grayson added. “When she wakes up, I’ll let you know.”

  Josh thanked him and got Jaycee moving toward the door again. It seemed odd, stepping outside without worrying if someone was going to try to kidnap or kill them. It felt like a new lease on life.

  Which it was.

  He was in love with Jaycee, and she was in love with him. Yeah, definitely a new lease.

  “So how will this work?” she asked, looping her arm around his waist. “Will we live at the ranch after we’re married?”

  “I’d like that. But if there are too many bad memories—”

  “There are good memories, too,” she interrupted. “Like before the kidnappers came.”

  Yeah, making love to Jaycee was indeed a good memory, and he hoped to create a lot more memories just like that one. In bed and out.
>
  “Don’t know if your place will be big enough, though, when the baby comes,” she continued.

  “So we can build a place like Grayson’s. There’s plenty of land, and it might be fun to see our baby playing with all the cousins.”

  “Our baby,” she repeated and stopped again. “So when we build this house, what color are we painting the nursery?”

  “Green,” he teased. “It’s my favorite color.”

  She gave him a playful jab in the stomach. “Pink or blue?”

  “Both.”

  Jaycee blinked. And Josh laughed. “Blue this time. But I’m hoping next time, we can go for pink.”

  Josh kissed that smile right off Jaycee’s mouth, scooped her up and started for home.

  Oh, yeah, there’d definitely be a next time.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss USA TODAY bestselling author

  Delores Fossen’s next book in her miniseries

  THE LAWMEN OF SILVER CREEK RANCH.

  Look for SAWYER next month,

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE LEGEND OF SMUGGLER’S CAVE by Paula Graves.

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  Chapter One

  The front door was unlocked. Jenny never left it unlocked.

  Hair rising on her neck and arms, Briar Blackwood took a careful step backward on the porch and drew her Glock 27. Not her weapon of choice; her Mossberg 835 shotgun was locked in the cabinet inside the cabin. But the Glock would do.

  She stayed still for a breathless moment, listening for movement within the cabin. Was she overreacting? Maybe her aunt had fallen asleep on the sofa without locking up.

  No. The break-in a month earlier had rattled Aunt Jenny’s nerves. She hadn’t been comfortable staying at Briar’s place with Logan alone at night since. She always locked all the doors and windows the second Briar left and wouldn’t even answer the door unless she knew the voice on the other side.

  So why was the door unlocked now?

  Everyone who mattered to Briar was behind that unlocked door. And she could stand here holding her breath, or she could go in there to see what was what.

  But not through the front door.

  Briar edged to the corner of the porch, making herself a harder target if someone inside started shooting. Tightening her grip on the Glock, she pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket and dialed the cabin landline. She heard the phone ringing through the cabin walls.

  No answer.

  Now she knew for sure something was wrong. Aunt Jenny was a light sleeper. She never slept through a ringing phone.

  Shoving her cell phone back in her pocket, Briar slid between the wood slabs of the porch railing and dropped three feet to the ground below. Stopping below the big kitchen window, she peered up at the jars of fruits and vegetables stacked in three tight rows in front of the window. The colorful jars took the place of curtains, both as a dash of brightness in the small kitchen and as a privacy screen, keeping out the unwanted gazes of strangers who might be lurking outside the mountain cabin.

  They were still intact. Last time someone had broken in, they’d shattered the jars and left a huge mess in her kitchen.

  What could they want? She was poor as a church mouse. Her new job as a Bitterwood police officer would do little more than pay the bills and allow her to put aside a little bit for her son Logan’s college fund.

  Could it be her job that had drawn the intruders to her door?

  She edged her way around to the root cellar door and eased it open, wincing at the low creaks of the hinges. Six concrete steps took her down into the tightly packed cellar, where shelves full of canned goods filled one side of the room, and bins of root vegetables filled the other. She used the flashlight app on her cell phone to illuminate the narrow path between shelves and bins, but she still managed to stumble into the shelves near the stairs. With a muttered curse, she barely caught a jar of tomatoes as it started to topple off the shelf above.

  Setting it right, she shined the cell-phone light up the stairs. The door to the cabin was closed. She crept up the stairs and tried the doorknob. Locked, as expected. She eased her keys from her pocket and inserted the right one. The doorknob turned smoothly, and she carefully slipped into the hallway, shutting off the phone light.

  She went very still, just listening. There was no sound at all, she realized. Not even the hum of the refrigerator or the whir of heated air blowing from the wall heater nearby.

  The power must be out. Had someone cut it?

  Glad for the rubber soles of her work shoes, she went silently into the living room and took a quick scan of the situation. Her eyes had begun to adjust to the low light, allowing her to see that the living room was a mess. Sofa cushions had been pulled from the sofa and ripped open, the stuffing lying all over everything. The intruders may have spared her jars of fruits and vegetables this time, but most of the contents of her refrigerator lay scattered across the floor and counters of the tiny kitchen, going to ruin.

  She stepped back into the hallway, her heart pounding with equal parts adrenaline and dread.

  Please, God, let Logan and Jenny be okay. Please, please, please....

  The door to her own bedroom was closest. That was where Jenny slept when Briar was working a night shift, as she’d done during her stint as a dispatcher, and as she’d be doing for the first few months on the job as a police officer. But when Briar tried to push the door open, something was blocking it. She peered through the narrow space between the door and the frame and saw a pale white hand outstretched.

  Jenny!

  A noise in the next room down made her freeze. That was Logan’s room.

  Someone was moving within.

  She reached through the narrow crack in the door and touched her fingertips to Jenny’s wrist. Relief rattled through her when she found a strong, steady pulse.

  Pulling back, she pushed to her feet and fell back on her police-academy training, so recently finished. She led with her pistol, moving as quietly and quickly as she could. The thumping sound she’d heard earlier repeated. A drawer closing, she recognized.

  She touched the door and found that it wasn’t latched. It swung open slowly and silently—thank God she’d oiled the hinges recently. It used to creak like crazy.

  A tall dark-clad figure stood silhouetted by the faint moonlight coming through Logan’s window. He had his back to her, allowing her to spare a quick glance toward the bed to reassure herself that Logan was still there, his face turned toward his pillow and his little chest rising slowly and steadily.

  “Freeze—police!”

  The dark silhouette whirled not toward her but toward Logan’s bed.

  She couldn’t fire at him, not with her son so close, so she shoved the gun in her jacket pocket and ran, hitting the intruder solidly. They both bounced off the bed and hi
t the floor.

  “Mama!” Logan’s soft, frightened wail tore at Briar’s heart, but she couldn’t let go of the man punching and kicking at her in an attempt to escape.

  He eluded her grasp and started toward the door. She scrambled up after him, tackling him as he darted into the hall.

  Suddenly, strong, cruel fingers bit into her arm at the same time she was yanked back by her hair, allowing the man she’d brought down to scurry out of reach.

  She grabbed the Glock from her jacket and twisted around, shoving the barrel at her captor. “Let me go!”

  He dropped her with a hard shove, slamming her back into the floor. Her head hit the hardwood with a jarring thud, and for a second the whole world seemed to explode into colorful confetti.

  Then her vision cleared, and she swung the Glock in a semicircle, looking for any sign of the intruders.

  The front door was open, barely visible from her position on the hallway floor. She pushed to her feet, wincing at the pain in her shoulder, and edged her way into the living room.

  She took a quick peek outside. There was no sound of a motor, but she thought she made out the rustle of leaves in the woods just beyond her property. Even with a three-quarter moon in the sky, she couldn’t detect any movement in the gloom of the woods, just the fading rustles of the two intruders running away.

  She shoved the door closed and engaged the lock, her heart pounding and her head aching.

  “Mama!” Logan’s wail drew her back to the hallway. Pocketing her weapon, she pulled out her cell phone and turned on the flashlight app, shining it into the darkness.

  Logan stood in the middle of the hall, his blue T-shirt riding up his little round belly and his pajama pants sagging to reveal his big-boy underwear.