by Rita Herron
He wanted her naked before he exploded, dammit.
He slowed her hands, then settled her hips over his sex, moving her gently so he could cup her breasts in his hands. They were full, round and fit into his palms.
He kneaded them then lifted his head, pushed her tank top up and closed his lips over one ripe nipple. She moaned, threw her head back and clung to him.
He flipped her to her back then straddled her this time, loving both breasts with his hands and mouth, her moans of pleasure eliciting his own.
He trailed his tongue down her abdomen, then shoved her pajama bottoms off and spread her legs. She clawed at his back, but he wanted her, sweet and succulent in his mouth, hard and fast below him.
Pushing her legs farther apart, he drove his tongue to her sweet heat and suckled her. She groaned, writhing beneath him as he plunged his tongue deep inside her and tasted her release.
The sound of her crying his name as she came apart sent erotic sensations through him, and he rolled sideways long enough to discard his jeans and pull on a condom.
Then he rose above her, kneed her legs apart again and looked into her eyes.
The raw passion and pleasure on her face stole his breath.
He wanted to see her look like that again and again.
She closed her hand around his thick length and guided him inside her. He moaned her name and found his way home.
* * *
TIA CURLED INTO Ryder’s arms, closed her eyes and savored the sensual aftermath of their lovemaking.
Although guilt niggled at her. How could she enjoy herself when her baby was still missing?
Still, her body quivered with erotic sensations, and she clung to him as if hiding in his arms could erase reality.
Finally she drifted into sleep. But sometime later, a ringing phone jarred her awake.
Ryder rolled from the bed, snatched his cell phone and answered. “Yeah? Okay. I’ll be right there.”
He reached for his shirt as he ended the call.
“Who was that?” Tia asked.
“Gwen. Someone spotted a man they think is Blotter at a motel near the airport. I’m going after him.”
Tia pushed at the covers. “I’ll go, too.”
Ryder eased down on the bed beside her. “No, Tia, stay here and rest. He didn’t have the baby with him. He might be dangerous.”
Ryder’s touch reminded her of their night of lovemaking, the frenzied, harried hunger, the gentle touches, the pleasure his touch evoked. She didn’t want him to go.
But he had to do his job. And if he found Jordie...
She lifted one hand and placed it over his, grateful for his tenderness. “Please be careful, Ryder.”
He nodded, eyes dark with the memories of their night together as well. “I will.” He dropped a kiss on her lips, then gathered his jeans and yanked them on along with his socks and boots.
She watched him dress, silently willing him to come back to bed and make love to her again. But she bit back the words.
Finding her son was more important. She wanted him back in her arms so they could start their life together.
Her heart squeezed. Only Ryder wouldn’t be part of that life.
* * *
RYDER PHONED LAW enforcement in Cheyenne, explained the situation and requested backup. A detective named Clay Shumaker met him near the airport.
Ryder checked with the motel clerk, who claimed a woman had signed herself in as Mrs. Jerome Powell.
Ryder showed him a picture of Judy Kinley and he identified her as the woman. Finally they were catching a break.
He and Shumaker approached the room with caution. Shumaker circled to the back to cover the bathroom window in case the couple tried to escape.
Ryder knocked on the door. “FBI. Open up, Blotter. Ms. Kinley. It’s over.”
The curtain slid aside and two eyes peered out. Judy Kinley.
“Give it up and no one will get hurt,” Ryder shouted.
But the door opened and a gunshot rang out. Ryder cursed and jumped behind the rail to dodge the bullet. Blotter raced out, gun aimed and firing.
Ryder raised his weapon and fired back, catching Blotter in the shoulder. Blotter twisted and fired at Ryder.
Ryder’s body bounced back as the bullet skimmed his arm.
Chapter Twenty-Five
His arm stung, but the bullet had only grazed him.
Another one skimmed by Ryder’s head, missing him by a fraction of an inch. Ryder cursed and released another round, this time sending Blotter to his knees with a gunshot to the belly.
“He’s down!” Ryder shouted to the detective.
Shumaker appeared, pushing Judy in front of him, her hands cuffed. She was crying. “Richard!”
Ryder kicked Blotter’s gun aside and knelt to check his wounds. Blood oozed from his abdomen, and he’d lapsed into unconsciousness. Dammit.
He wanted Blotter alive and talking.
Ryder called for an ambulance then confronted Judy at the police car. Fear and panic flared in the woman’s eyes. “Where is Tia’s son?”
“I don’t know,” Judy said.
“Don’t lie to me, Judy. You pretended to be Tia’s friend, then you unlocked that window for your brother to come in and kidnap the baby. Why?”
Judy closed her eyes and released a pained sigh. “Money. Richard...he needed it. The people he owed threatened to kill him if he didn’t pay up. I...told him I’d help this once, but that was it.”
“So you and Richard conspired to kidnap Tia’s baby, then sold the child for cash,” Ryder said, not bothering to hide the derision in his voice.
“It wasn’t like that. That lawyer convinced me that the baby would be better off with two loving parents.”
“That wasn’t his or your decision,” Ryder said. “Tia loves her son and would be—will be—a wonderful mother.”
Judy hung her head in shame.
“Who did he give the baby to?” Ryder pressed.
“I told you, I don’t know,” Judy said.
“Nothing? Didn’t your brother tell you a name or where the couple was from?”
Judy shook her head. “He said it would be better if I didn’t know.”
Then she wouldn’t be culpable. But that was a lie. She was an accomplice to a felony.
The siren wailed, lights flashing as the ambulance arrived. Ryder gestured to the detective. “Book her.”
“Please don’t let my brother die,” Judy said as the detective guided her into the back of his car.
Ryder didn’t respond. He told the medics he’d follow them to the hospital.
As soon as Blotter regained conscious, he was going to talk.
He followed the ambulance to the hospital then stayed with the man in the ER.
“He needs surgery,” the doctor told him.
“Make sure he survives,” Ryder said. “That man kidnapped a child. I want to talk to him.”
The doctor scowled. “I understand.”
Ryder went to the vending machine for coffee then phoned Gwen for an update. “Please tell me you found something on Frost’s computer or in his files.”
“We’ve collected information on at least half a dozen adoptions that might be in question and are assigning a task force to investigate them individually.”
“What about a couple who got Jordie Jeffries? An address where he might be?”
“I’m afraid not. We won’t give up, though, Ryder.”
He closed his eyes in frustration, then returned to the waiting room to pace while he waited on Blotter to get through surgery.
* * *
A SOFT KNOCK at the door woke Tia. She stirred and stretched, then realized that it might be Ryder returning.
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Maybe with news.
She pulled on her robe and knotted it at the waist, then hurried into the living room. Morning sunlight spilled through the front sheers and warmed the floor against her bare feet.
She hesitated at the door. “Ryder?”
“Yeah, open up, Tia.”
Tia jerked the door open, her heart in her throat. Ryder faced her but stepped aside. “There’s someone here who wants to see you.”
A slender twentysomething woman was stooped down beside a baby carrier. A baby carrier holding a small blue bundle.
Tia gasped and dropped to her knees in front of the baby. “Jordie?”
Ryder cleared his throat. “Yes, it’s him, Tia. He’s fine.”
Tia’s gaze met the young woman’s and she scooped her son up into her arms, tears spilling over. “Oh, my Jordie, I thought I would never see you again.” She kissed and hugged him, then held him away from her to soak in his features before she planted more frantic kisses all over his face and head. “Oh, baby, I’ve missed you so much.”
His little chubby face looked up at her, a tiny smile pulling at his mouth. “I love you so much, Jordie.” She glanced at Ryder. “How did you find him?”
“Blotter was shot but he regained consciousness long enough to tell me the name of the adopted party.”
He gestured toward the woman. “This is Hilary Pickens.”
Hilary sniffed and dabbed at her eyes. She was shaking and looked terrified and sad at the same time. “I’m sorry... I didn’t know.” The woman’s voice cracked on a sob and she touched the baby’s head lovingly. “I didn’t know he was stolen. The lawyer told us that he was ours, that his mother didn’t want him.”
A myriad of emotions flooded Tia. Rage at the people who’d done this.
Compassion for this woman, whom she believed had been a victim just as she had.
“I took good care of him, I swear,” the woman said. “I wanted a baby so badly, and when he came to us, I couldn’t believe it finally happened.”
“You went through Frank Frost?”
The woman nodded, tears streaming down her face. “But then I saw you on the news and...at first I ran. I thought I couldn’t give him back.” She gulped a sob. “But then I kept thinking about you and hearing your voice begging to have him home, and I looked into his eyes and knew I couldn’t keep him. That it would be a lie, that he wasn’t really mine.” She glanced at Ryder. “I was packing his things to bring him here when Agent Banks showed up at my door.”
Ryder nodded in confirmation.
Tia cuddled Jordie closer, then reached out and took the woman’s hand and led her inside.
Then she and Hilary hugged and rocked Jordie together while both of them cried.
* * *
RYDER STOOD ASIDE as Tia and the young woman cooed over the baby. He had never met anyone like Tia.
She had suffered while her son was missing, yet she’d accepted the woman who had her child into her home and forgiven her within seconds.
The other woman was suffering, too, he realized. She had wanted a child, but she’d done the right thing when she discovered Jordie had been stolen from his mother without the mother’s consent.
His own mother’s face taunted him. The pain in Myra’s eyes when he’d shown her his birth mother’s letters.
He had been hard on her. Had walked away.
He had to see her.
Knowing Tia would be fine now she had her son, he slipped out the back door. She no longer needed him. She had her family.
It was time he reconciled with his own.
Anxiety knotted his gut as he drove to his mother’s house. He knocked on the door, childhood memories bombarding him.
The times he was sick and his mother nursed him back to health with her homemade chicken soup and tenderness. The bedtime stories and holidays baking cookies together. His father teaching him to ride a bike and a horse.
The door opened, and his mother appeared, her face pale, eyes serious and worried. “Ryder?”
He offered her a smile. “Mom, I...I’m home.”
A world of relief echoed in her breathy sigh, and she pulled him into her arms and hugged him.
Ryder hugged her in return. Nothing could change the way he’d come to be in this woman’s life, or the fact that his birth mother had loved him and suffered when he was taken.
But Myra Banks was family, and he loved her.
Three days later
IT WAS TIME he met the rest of his family—the McCullens.
Nerves crawled up Ryder’s back as he drove to Horseshoe Creek.
He had tied up the case. With Gwen’s help and the task force in place, they had found three more cases in Frost’s files of unlawful removal of a child from its birth parent, all three teenagers he had coerced into handing their babies over to him for placement. However, the young women had not been blessed with the hefty payment Frost received—he had kept that for himself.
The mother of the baby Bonnie Cone had adopted agreed to leave her with Bonnie, although Bonnie encouraged the teen to be part of the child’s life. Tia’s Crossroads program stepped in to facilitate the arrangement.
Tia did not press charges against Hilary, but Hilary joined Crossroads. Helping other families was filling the void left by her own loss, and she’d decided to become a foster parent.
Tia’s kindness and Crossroads program were a blessing to so many.
He had been blessed to have met her.
Rich farmland, pastures and stables drew his eye as he wound down the drive to the main farmhouse on Horseshoe Creek. Cash had asked all the McCullens to join him at the house for the meeting.
God. Ryder was so accustomed to being alone, he wasn’t sure how to handle this.
Although being alone had its downside. He missed Tia, dammit.
The beauty of the land reminded him that this property had belonged to his birth parents, that they had worked the land and animals and built a legacy for their sons.
And that he was one of them.
It was still difficult to wrap his head around that fact.
The sight of trucks and SUVs at the rambling farmhouse made his pulse clamor. They were all here waiting to meet him.
What if he didn’t fit?
Dammit, Ryder, you’re an FBI agent. You’ve faced notorious criminals. This is family.
Except he felt like a stranger—an outsider—as he parked and walked up to the door.
Before he could knock, Cash met him outside. “Hey, man, glad you came.”
Ryder shook his twin’s hand, an immediate connection forming. He was no longer alone.
Cash had been out there all along.
Cash looked slightly shaken as well. “The others are waiting.”
Ryder nodded, his voice too thick to speak. He’d done his research, knew all the names and faces.
But he wasn’t prepared for the warm welcome.
“I’m Maddox, the oldest,” the man in the sheriff’s uniform said. “Welcome to Horseshoe Creek.” He gestured for him to follow. “Everyone is out back on the lawn. Mama Mary fixed a big dinner. We thought we’d do it picnic style.”
Cash gave him a brotherly pat on the back, and Ryder shot him a thank-you look, then he walked through the house to the back porch and onto a lush lawn with picnic tables and food galore.
A chubby woman with a big smile and wearing an apron greeted him first. “I’m Mama Mary,” she said with a booming laugh. “Nice to finally have all the family here together.”
Cash had told him about the bighearted woman who had served as mother to the McCullen boys after Grace was murdered.
She swept him into a hug and he patted her back, emotions thrumming through him when she released him and his brothers lined up
to meet him.
* * *
TIA HUMMED A lullaby to Jordie as she rocked him, the warmth of his little body next to hers so wonderful that she didn’t want to put him in his bed. Each time she did, she feared she’d wake up and find him gone again.
Since his return, she’d had a security system installed, along with new locks. He had been sleeping in the cradle in her bedroom, but one day he would outgrow it and she’d need to move him to the crib.
Still, for now, she clung to him. Listening to his breathing at night gave her peace. His little movements and smiles filled her with such joy that she thought she would burst from happiness.
Except...she missed Ryder.
Her bed seemed big and lonely without him. His scent lingered on the pillow. Images of his naked body tormented her. And when she closed her eyes, she imagined Ryder beside her, holding her, loving her, his big body there to protect her.
But...she hadn’t heard a word from him. He’d brought her baby back to her as he’d promised, then disappeared.
Probably onto another case.
He didn’t need her or a ready-made family.
She tucked Jordie into the cradle and stroked her thumb over his baby soft cheek. “I love you, little man. Mommy will always take care of you.”
She had to be both a mother and father for her son. Somehow she’d find the strength to raise him alone.
And to forget Ryder.
Chapter Twenty-Six
One week later
Ryder parked his SUV on a lush stretch of Horseshoe Creek and studied the pastures, the horses galloping along the hill and the open spaces and imagined a log home built on the property. A swing set out back. A screened porch overlooking the pond.
Family dinners and picnics.
He had tried to stay away from Tia. She needed time to settle with her son. Time to recover from the trauma.
He had helped her on the case, but he wanted more. But he didn’t want to play on the fact that she might feel indebted to him.
His feelings for her had nothing to do with debt.