Good. Austin wanted all the help they could get.
“Go to the local airport,” Seth insisted. “If the nanny’s not there, if she’s headed to San Antonio instead, we’ll stop her.”
Austin didn’t hesitate to take Seth up on his offer. Neither did Rosalie. They started running back toward the car. It seemed to take an eternity to get there, but the second they were inside, Austin started the engine and got them moving.
He hadn’t thought it possible, but the roads seemed even slicker than before. Maybe that would work for them.
“The nanny cared about the baby,” Austin reminded Rosalie. “She wouldn’t have run if she hadn’t. And that means she’ll take care driving on these roads.”
It could slow the woman down just enough for Austin to catch up with her. Of course, there was another obstacle once they had the nanny and the baby.
What if the little girl wasn’t Sadie?
Austin wasn’t sure Rosalie would be able to handle that. Wasn’t sure he could, either. He didn’t know Sadie. Had never held her in his arms the way Rosalie had, but it would crush him to have her disappear.
He didn’t want to think about what it would do to Rosalie.
“Seth should have called by now,” she mumbled.
She sounded on the verge of panicking, and he couldn’t blame her. The stakes were sky-high right now, and with the road conditions, they were still about eight minutes out from the airport.
“Back in the woods, you told me that you loved me,” he said.
Yeah, the timing sucked for this particular conversation, but it might stop them both from losing their minds. Or maybe it would just add to it, he amended when he saw the flash of surprise in Rosalie’s eyes.
“You didn’t mean it,” he concluded. “I get it. Adrenaline. Heat-of-the-moment kind of thing—”
“I meant it.”
Oh.
That gave him a jolt of emotions. All good ones. Despite the hell they’d just been through, he found himself smiling. Judging from Rosalie’s expression, that didn’t help settle her nerves.
“It doesn’t make things better,” Rosalie continued before he could gather his thoughts and answer her. “Nor easier. Just the opposite—it complicates things. And for the record, I don’t expect you to return the feelings. In fact, I’m not sure I want you to.”
Well, that caused his smile to go south. Austin shook his head, sure he was missing something that should be obvious.
“You don’t want me to love you?” he came right out and asked.
She huffed.
Yep, this clearly fell into the obvious category, and he was too thickheaded to figure it out. He was about to ask her to spell things out for him, but his phone rang, and he saw Seth’s name on the screen when he took it from his pocket. So that he could keep both hands on the steering wheel, Austin put the call on speaker and gave the phone to Rosalie.
“Please tell me you’re close to the airport,” Seth snapped.
“About three or four minutes out. Why?” And judging from the sense of urgency in Seth’s voice, Austin was afraid he wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Because there’s a small plane about to take off, and I believe the nanny and baby are on it.”
“Oh, God,” Rosalie mumbled. “Were you able to stop it?”
“Yeah, but there might be another problem. There’s a lone air traffic controller running the place this time of night, and he just radioed for the pilot to abort takeoff. That doesn’t mean the nanny won’t just get off the plane, get back in the car and head elsewhere.”
Rosalie repeated that Oh, God.
“I’m hurrying,” Austin assured Seth. He ended the call so he could focus on getting them to the airport in one piece.
The sleet kept coming at them, pelting the windshield and making it hard to see. It didn’t help that Rosalie’s breath was gusting now, much as it’d been when she was facing down a killer like Sonny.
Of course, these stakes were even higher now.
She could lose her baby forever.
Austin took the turn to the airport. Too fast. But thankfully, he didn’t go into a skid. He managed to keep the car on the road, heading straight toward the small metal hangar that sat just off the runway. The moment he pulled in front of it, he saw the plane.
Thank heaven.
It hadn’t taken off, but the engine was still running. If necessary, he’d drive the car in front of the plane to stop it from taking off.
“There,” Rosalie said, pointing to the side of the hangar.
Austin looked in that direction and spotted an SUV, similar to the one that Sonny had used to get to the woods. There was white steam coming from the exhaust pipe, which meant that engine, too, was on.
Before Austin could bring his car to a full stop, Rosalie bolted out, making a beeline toward the SUV.
“Wait!” Austin called out to her, but just as he’d expected, she didn’t listen. Too bad because Sonny could have a hired gun waiting in there.
Or worse.
Maybe the nanny wasn’t even here at the airport with the baby. Maybe this was another of Sonny’s tricks to lure them to a spot where they could be gunned down. It wouldn’t get him off the hook with the felony charges, but Sonny might take pleasure in their suffering.
Austin threw the car into Park, drew his gun and got out so he could hurry after Rosalie. However, before he could get to her, she yanked open the SUV door on the driver’s side.
And she froze.
Austin could have sworn his heart froze, too, because he was terrified that she was looking down the barrel of a killer’s gun. He got his own gun ready and took aim the moment that he came to a stop.
But it was no killer staring back at them.
It was the woman they’d seen in the woods. Midfifties with gray hair and a thin build. She was alone. Well, maybe. She certainly wasn’t holding the baby, and there was no thug in the seat next to her.
That put a knot in Austin’s gut.
Until he glanced in the back and saw the infant seat. It was facing the rear of the SUV, and he couldn’t tell if it was empty or not, but he’d soon remedy that. Austin threw open the rear door.
And there she was.
A beautiful sleeping baby.
She was snuggled into thick blankets, and because the car’s heater was on high, she didn’t appear to be cold.
“Don’t hurt her,” the woman insisted, and she jumped from the car to try to push Austin away. He held his ground, but she just kept on pushing despite the fact he outsized her and was armed.
“He won’t hurt her,” Rosalie said. “We’re here to save her.”
She eased onto the backseat next to the baby. With her fingers trembling, she reached out and touched the baby’s hand. Rosalie’s breath hitched in her throat, and the tears came. Austin wanted to go to her, to hold her, to share what he hoped was about to be a happy reunion, but he had some business to settle first.
“Who are you?” the woman demanded.
“Austin Duran, and this is Rosalie McKinnon. Now, who the heck are you?” He used his FBI tone even though he wasn’t sure it was necessary. The woman seemed to be trying to protect the baby, and her size didn’t make her much of a threat.
“Laura Keels,” she said, and her wary gaze went from him to Rosalie. Austin expected her to try to stop Rosalie from touching the baby, but she didn’t. “Did you say your name was McKinnon?” she asked.
Rosalie n
odded, but she didn’t take her attention off the baby. She eased the baby from the seat and took her into her arms.
“McKinnon,” the nanny said once more, and she turned to grab something from the car.
Austin didn’t let that happen. He caught on to her and put her against the door the way he would any criminal suspect.
“I don’t have a gun,” she insisted. “But I do need to show you something. It’s in my wallet in the diaper bag on the passenger’s seat.”
There was indeed a diaper bag on the seat, and while he didn’t see a weapon, he had no intentions of letting her get to her wallet to show them anything. Not yet, anyway.
“I need answers. Why were you working for a man like Sonny?” Austin asked.
She frantically shook her head. “I didn’t know he was violent. I didn’t know he’d done anything wrong. Please tell me he’s under arrest.”
“He is.”
It was hard to tell if Laura was telling the truth, so he motioned for her to continue.
“I’m a nanny. I’ve been one for over thirty years, and when Sonny contacted a former employer and offered me a job, I took it. He brought me the baby eleven months ago, and I’ve had her ever since. I’ve cared for her just as I would all the babies I’ve loved and raised over the years.”
“And you didn’t wonder if the baby had been kidnapped or stolen?” Austin snapped.
Rosalie kept the baby cuddled in her arms, but she looked up at Laura, obviously waiting for the answer to that.
“Of course not,” Laura insisted. “Sonny said the baby’s father was a drug lord. A very dangerous man. And that the baby’s mother had gone into hiding and that she’d be back to claim the child when it was safe.”
Austin huffed. “You believed that?”
“I didn’t have any reason not to.” Laura paused, her own tears now streaming down her cheeks. “Not until tonight. Not until I saw what a violent man Sonny really was. He said we were only going to see the baby’s mother. I didn’t know there’d be guns and shooting.”
“Did Sonny hurt the baby?” Rosalie asked. “Did he touch her?”
Laura’s eyes widened. “No. God, no. I would have never let that happen. I cared for her, kept her safe until she could be reunited with her mother.”
Rosalie swallowed hard. “I believe I am her mother.”
He braced himself for Laura to deny that. But she didn’t. She looked at him again. “I need to get something out of my wallet. It’s something you need to see.”
Austin kept his gun on her and finally nodded. Laura didn’t make any fast moves, probably because he didn’t seem too friendly, and once she’d taken the wallet from the diaper bag, Laura pulled out what appeared to be a small strip of plastic.
Thanks to the interior lights of the car, he saw that it was the kind of bracelet that hospitals put on newborns. It was pink and there was something written on it.
McKinnon Baby Girl.
“Room 112,” he read from the bracelet along with the date.
Sadie’s birthday.
Rosalie’s breath shattered, and the sound she made—relief mixed with joy—caused the baby to stir.
“It’s Sadie,” Rosalie managed to say. She pressed a flurry of kisses on the baby’s face. “That’s the date she was born, and that’s the room I was in at the hospital. She’s mine. She’s really mine.”
Yeah. They would need to do a DNA test, of course, but it would only verify what they already knew. That this was Rosalie’s daughter.
Just as a mom would do with a newborn, Rosalie eased back the blanket, checking for fingers and toes. They were all there, and Sadie looked like a perfectly healthy child.
“I took care of her,” Laura repeated. “She’s a good baby, but I always knew that she needed her mom and dad. You’ll take good care of her, too.”
It wasn’t a question, but Austin nodded. No doubt about it. He would take care of her and Rosalie.
If Rosalie let him, that is.
He clearly had some things to work out with her, especially that part about her not wanting him to love her. Austin still wasn’t sure how to get around that.
His phone rang. It was Seth, again. And Austin realized he should have already called him with an update since Seth would be worried about his sister. The reunion had obviously distracted him.
“Rosalie’s fine,” Austin said the moment he answered. “We found the nanny in time.” And he had to clear away the lump in his throat when he saw the way that Rosalie was looking at her daughter. “The baby is Sadie.”
Seth made a sharp sound of relief. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah, we have proof.”
Another sound of relief. “How’s Rosalie handling that?”
“About the way you’d think.” Her face was practically glowing from the love that was there. “The nanny’s still here, and I’m hoping once you’re finished booking Sonny that you can take her statement.”
“Colt and Cooper can deal with this sack of slime,” Seth insisted. “Oh, and I just got off the phone with headquarters. You’ll get the collar for Sonny so you’ll be getting your badge back. My advice is to take a day or two, though.”
That wasn’t even on Austin’s radar right now, but he was sure later he’d appreciate that. Especially since working out of the San Antonio office would keep him close to Rosalie.
And he’d definitely take that time off, maybe more than a day or two.
“I’m on the way to have that chat with the nanny,” Seth said, and with that, he hung up.
Good. Austin was glad that Seth would help tying up the loose ends because he had something of his own that he had to finish. He started with Laura.
“I need to check you for weapons,” he said, figuring he wouldn’t find any. And he didn’t. Nor did the woman object to the search. When he was done, he tipped his head to the hangar.
“Wait in there. Agent Calder from the FBI will be here soon to ask you some questions.”
She shook her head again, and new tears sprang up. “I swear I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”
“That’s what you need to tell Agent Calder. He’ll take your statement, and if you know anything that can add to our case against Sonny, then tell him that, too.”
Though more wouldn’t be necessary. Sonny had confessed to so many felonies that he’d be locked away for life. As a minimum. But if they could also pin Janice’s murder on him, then he might get the death penalty.
Laura gave a shaky nod, started toward the hangar but then looked into the car at Rosalie. “Can I kiss her goodbye?” Laura asked.
He could see Rosalie think about it, probably because she wasn’t ready to give up another moment with her baby, but she finally motioned for Laura to come closer. The nanny leaned down and kissed the top of Sadie’s head.
“She doesn’t like peas but loves country music,” Laura added to Rosalie. “If she gets fussy at night, just put on George Strait. That’ll soothe her right down. Oh, she can crawl anywhere, fast, and I think she might be walking by the new year.”
Rosalie hung on to each word. Precious little bits of information for things that’d she wanted to know about her baby.
“I think that’s everything, but if you got any questions, I’ll give Agent Calder my number so you know how to get in touch with me.”
Rosalie nodded.
“Be a good girl for your mama,” Laura said softly to the baby.
Sadie smiled. “Mama.”
That put some fresh tears in Rosalie’s eyes, too.
“I taught her to say that,” Laura explained, “because I figured one day you’d finally get to see her, and you’d want to hear her say it to you.”
Rosalie’s breath fluttered. “I do. Thank you for taking such good care of her.”
The women’s gazes met, and Laura brushed a kiss on Rosalie’s cheek, as well, before she started toward the hangar. The moment she was away from them, Austin got into the car with Rosalie and Sadie and closed the door. Not because he thought Laura was a threat but because he wanted to keep Sadie warm.
Sadie turned and looked at him. Studying him, actually, as if trying to figure out who he was. At least she didn’t seem frightened of him.
“I’m Austin,” he said, though it seemed silly to introduce himself to a baby.
Still, Sadie must have liked it because she smiled at him, and he could have sworn that his heart doubled in size. Man, how was it possible to love someone this much after just one look at her?
Rosalie looked at him, smiled, too, and kissed Sadie’s fingers when the baby touched Rosalie’s mouth. “Thank you for helping me find her.”
You’re welcome was the standard response, but Rosalie and he were well past that.
He hoped.
“You said you didn’t want me to love you,” Austin reminded her.
Surprise flashed through Rosalie’s eyes, and she fumbled with whatever she was trying to say to him.
Austin decided to help her along with that fumbling. “I think you meant you didn’t want me to feel obligated. And I don’t. It wasn’t obligation, the danger or the spent adrenaline that had me taking you to bed.”
Everything stilled, as if the earth itself was holding its breath and waiting for him to finish. Rosalie was certainly waiting, and her mouth had dropped open a little. Sadie was touching his chin. All in all, it was a perfect moment to say what he wanted to say.
Kidnapping in Kendall County Page 18