Miles paced while his brothers watched surveillance video from a camera pinned to a button on Cecile’s blouse. He was surprised Josh’s small department could afford video surveillance, but his brother had told him the cameras had been purchased with money confiscated during a drug bust. He listened to Cecile walk Zeke through what they were about to do before Zeke pulled the car to a stop and they both stepped into character.
Zeke dragged a struggling Cecile toward a parked dark-colored SUV. The kid was a good actor and really seemed to be playing his part to the letter. Cecile kept her head down until they approached the car, but the camera on her shirt had a clear line of vision as a man exited the vehicle and approached them.
“I have what you wanted,” Zeke told him.
Two more men got out of the SUV—one from the back seat and another the front passenger side. This last man walked around the front of the car and approached them. The camera picked up his image, but thanks to the hat he was wearing, there was no clear shot of his face. He was also the first one to realize the ruse.
“It’s not her! It’s a trap,” he hollered as Cecile pulled out her weapon and warned them all to freeze.
“Go now,” Josh commanded the backup team.
The man in the hat took off running just as the team arrived.
Cecile darted after him, shouting for him to stop, but the man quickly outdistanced her and disappeared in a matter of minutes.
“We need a team to block off the streets and get a team out here to find this guy,” Cecile said into her microphone.
Josh responded. “Already on the way. Did you get a good look at him? Was he the man in charge?”
“I think so,” she said between heavy breaths. “The guys we captured appeared to be just muscle. And, no, I didn’t get a good look at him. He had his cap low, so it was difficult to see his features.”
Josh pushed back from the table. “I’m heading out there. You guys coming with me?”
Paul nodded and stood. “Absolutely. I can’t arrest anyone, but I’ll do what I can to help with the search.”
But Miles shook his head. Their best opportunity to catch this guy had turned sour and he had to think about Melissa and Dylan. Protecting them was his number-one job. “I’m going to take Melissa and Dylan home. You’ll let me know if you find anything?”
Josh agreed. Miles doubted they would find the guy, but even if they did, it would take more than arresting him to end this. They also had to convince him to turn against Shearer and admit that Shearer was the one who had pulled all the strings to have Melissa eliminated. Otherwise, Melissa might never be free from danger.
He headed for Josh’s office and noticed as he approached that the blinds were closed. He opened the door and walked inside to see Melissa slumped over on the couch in an unnatural manner. His sister was in a similar state on the floor. Paper cups and what looked like coffee had been spilled. Dylan was nowhere to be seen.
He rushed to Melissa, called her name and shook her until she groggily responded to him. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d been drugged. For a terrible moment, he wondered if he’d lost her. Panic gripped him and he shook her again until her eyes fluttered and she weakly tried to push him away. That sent relief flooding through him that, at least, she was alive.
He yelled out that he needed help as he rushed to check on Kellyanne. Several deputies came running, followed soon by Josh and Paul.
“What happened?” Josh asked, hurrying over to Kellyanne and checking on her.
“I’ll call for an ambulance,” Deputy Vance said, then turned and ran from the room.
Paul bent and examined the spilled coffee cups. “Looks like they’ve both been drugged.”
Those words sent shivers through Miles and he feared the worst. “Where’s Dylan?” He prayed the boy had just wandered off on his own.
The others began searching the room, then the rest of the sheriff’s office, but after an extensive search, Josh told him that they couldn’t find Dylan anywhere.
“I’m having my tech team pull video surveillance to see who walked in and out of here. We’ll find him. And the ambulance is on the way for these two.”
He sat by Melissa’s side, knowing that when she finally regained consciousness, she was going to be devastated. How could he have let this happen?
And how was he ever going to break the news to her that Dylan was missing?
Melissa’s head was still swimming even as she awoke. She fought her way back to consciousness and forced her eyelids to open. She’d heard a lot of commotion and realized she was lying on the couch in Josh’s office.
She recognized Miles’s deep voice close by, but she couldn’t see him. Memories began to return and she recalled feeling light-headed, then realizing that she’d been drugged before passing out. Then Dylan’s face as he was carried away from her. She cried out.
Miles was by her side in a flash, kneeling on the floor. “Melissa, are you okay?”
Hot, pressing sobs racked her. “Where’s my baby?” she moaned, but he had no answer. Dylan was gone. She knew it in her heart.
He gripped her shoulders and forced her to sit up, which helped clear her head. “I need you to focus.” His tone was sharp and demanding. “What happened here? Did you see who took Dylan?”
She saw horror and fear manifesting in his eyes and forced herself to push aside her emotions and try to focus, but all she could see, all she could remember, was Dylan’s face as he was carried away. “I—I don’t know. I didn’t see the person.”
His fingers dug into her shoulders. “Was it a man or woman? Tall or short? Did you notice anything about them? A sound? A smell? Anything?”
“I don’t know,” she cried, pushing his hands away. He acted like he was the one whose child was missing. Then she remembered she hadn’t been alone. “Kellyanne. She was here with me. Is she all right?”
“She’s fine. She’s being questioned by Josh. Unfortunately, she doesn’t remember anything, either. It looks like someone drugged you both.”
Someone had planned this—drugging their coffees, then watching and waiting for them both to pass out before snatching her child from her.
“It doesn’t make sense. Why take Dylan and not you?”
She tried to stand, but her legs were still shaky. Miles lowered her back to the couch. “The paramedics want to take you both to the emergency room to get you checked out,” he said.
“I’m not going,” she declared. “I want to know what’s happening, what’s being done to find Dylan.” She couldn’t sit around doing nothing. She needed to be out there looking for her child.
She tried to push to her feet, but once again, her legs buckled beneath her.
Miles’s arms went around her, keeping her from falling. She turned and leaned into him as hot, angry tears burst through her and sobs racked her body.
Where was her baby?
Melissa sat on the couch in Josh’s office with a blanket over her shoulders as the paramedic took her blood pressure. She looked pale and ready to faint. He hated seeing her this way and longed to go to her and comfort her, but he had another job to do. He had to find Dylan.
Melissa was refusing to go to the hospital, as was Kellyanne. They were both determined to stay at the sheriff’s office to help, but there wasn’t really anything they could do, since neither could recall seeing the person who had taken Dylan.
He met up with Josh in the surveillance room for an update, but his brother didn’t have much to offer. “We’ve been through all the video footage and we can’t find any images of anyone leaving the building with Dylan. We expanded our search to the courthouse and the surrounding areas, too, but not all the video-surveillance equipment is working. We had a tornado that swept through here a few months ago and it did a lot of damage to video cameras that haven’t yet all been replaced. But we’re reaching out to the local shops in the square, as well as spreading the word in case someone in one of them saw something.”
Miles rubbed a hand through his hair. How could someone just pick up a three-year-old boy and take off with him without someone noticing? For that matter, how could someone drug Melissa and his sister in order to make that happen? He glanced around the sheriff’s office. They’d been on minimal staff last night because of the sting operation, but this still should have been a safe place. Someone had to have been watching them, waiting for the opportunity to strike. But why take Dylan when Melissa was clearly Shearer’s target?
“We’ve set up roadblocks in and out of town and I’ve got the sheriffs and local law-enforcement offices in the surrounding counties on alert, too.”
Josh was doing all he could and Paul was already out searching for Dylan, but it wasn’t enough. This department was already stretched thin with the sting operation and processing the men they’d arrested. As Cecile had suspected, the men were low-level muscle, probably Shearer’s men but, so far, they weren’t talking.
Miles should have had his agency, his marshal friends and his partner, Lanie, to call upon. The US Marshals Service had more resources to draw on than Josh and his county sheriff’s office, but he couldn’t call them for fear of bringing the danger to them. But then Shearer had found Melissa and Dylan already. Did it really matter now who the leak was when whoever it was had already sold them out and brought danger right to his family?
“I need to call my boss,” Miles stated. He pulled out his phone and dialed Griffin’s number. “Something has happened.” He explained everything, including that they were staying at his family’s ranch. He endured the lecture from Griffin for diverging from procedure, giving his reasons for staying close to his family after the shooting and promising that he would accept any consequences for his actions. But then he dug into his real reason for calling—the fact that Shearer, Kirby or their associates had found a horrific new way to strike against Melissa. “Dylan has been taken. Melissa and my sister were drugged by whoever took him.”
He heard his boss’s frustrated sigh on the other end. “We haven’t had any leads on the leak and so far we have no reason to believe anyone from the marshals service knew your whereabouts. If someone was able to connect you to the case, or track Melissa to your location, then they’ve managed to do it without raising any red flags. I can send you backup, but I’d be doing it blindly, since there’s no way of knowing who in the office can be trusted. If you feel like you need our intervention then you’ll have it, but remember your number-one priority is to the witness, keeping her safe from the men who are after her. Anyone I send might be the source of increased danger for her. I’m working on leaking some information to try to weed out the leak in the office. I’ll let you know if anything comes of it.”
“Thanks, Griffin.” He hung up and walked over to Melissa. He sat with her and put his arm around her, and she leaned into him as tears flowed down her face. None of this made sense. If this was Shearer and he had Dylan, his only play now was to use Dylan to lure Melissa to him or threaten to kill him if she testified. But why take Dylan when he could have just killed Melissa right then and there? He couldn’t hold the boy indefinitely. None of this made sense. His plan had to be to lure her to him and, if that was the case, they would soon be getting a message from him.
“I need to ask you a question,” he said. “Shearer might have taken Dylan to use him as bait to capture you. I need you to tell me if he calls you, Melissa. If he somehow manages to get a message to you, promise me that you’ll tell me. Promise that you won’t sneak off and try to rescue him alone.” He gripped her arms and she struggled against him. He should be gentler, but his fear was that she would leave him out of the loop.
He’d seen how instinctively she acted to protect her son—whether there were bullets flying at them or horse hooves coming down near their heads. She didn’t stop to think and she didn’t hesitate. She’d see her son in danger and she’d jump to shield him in any way she could. If a threatening message came to her—“Meet me at this address or your son dies,” perhaps—then he worried she’d act automatically, without stopping to think of the consequences. Then they both would be gone and he knew what that meant. They would both be dead. “Promise me.”
She cried out and jerked her arms from his grip. “Stop it, you’re hurting me.”
He released her and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention. I just need your word that you won’t leave without me. You won’t try to sneak away.”
He saw her eyes darting back and forth. She was thinking, trying to figure out something. Finally, she looked at him, tears pooling in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Miles. I can’t make that promise. I’ll do whatever I have to do to get him back.”
“No, you don’t understand. Giving in to that kind of blackmail won’t save anyone. Once Shearer has you, you’ll both be killed.”
“I can’t risk it. I have to do whatever they say. They have my baby. My baby! You have no idea what it’s like to have your child jerked from your arms. I want him back! I want him back safely!”
“I know you do. We will get him back. I promise.”
Her eyes darted to his. “Don’t you promise that, Miles. You don’t get to make me any promises.” Her next words cut him to his core. “You promised to keep us safe and you failed! You failed, Miles. My baby is gone because of you! Because you couldn’t do your job.” She stormed into the office and slammed the door shut hard enough to rattle the pictures on the walls.
He hung his head and took a long, deep breath to try to contain the anguish building up inside him. She was right about him. He’d failed to do his job. He’d failed to keep them both safe. Even though he knew she was just lashing out, she was still right. He was a failure. He put his head in his hands. His heart was breaking, ripping in two. He couldn’t keep her safe, couldn’t keep her from sneaking away, and still search for Dylan. He could let Josh and the others take the lead on finding the boy, but he didn’t want to. He loved that kid, had grown to love him so much that he wanted to be there, involved in the search for him. But what could he do? He couldn’t leave her alone, either, and risk losing them both.
He stood and walked down the hallway, stopping at the door to Josh’s office. He saw her silhouette leaning against it and even from that angle he could see her shoulders shaking as she cried. He didn’t knock but leaned against the door and spoke through it. His voice cracked with emotion that he couldn’t hold back. “I’m sorry I let you down. I never meant to. I made you a promise to keep you and Dylan safe and you’re right, I failed. But I will find him, Melissa. I will bring him back to you. That’s a promise I will keep.” He turned and walked back to the command center.
Right now, finding Dylan was his main concern. He could only pray that Melissa would give him one more chance to prove himself, that she wouldn’t try to take matters into her own hands.
Melissa couldn’t breathe. Anger and fear pressed against her chest and her arms ached to hold her baby. She couldn’t imagine the horror he was enduring and each moment that passed without news was devastating.
That was why she couldn’t make that promise to Miles. She would go to Kirby or Shearer or whoever in an instant if it meant Dylan could live. She begged God for that phone call, but hours passed and it didn’t come.
She knew they were doing all they could to find Dylan, but knowing that someone got close enough to spike their drinks meant they could get to her no matter where she went. No one could keep her safe from these men, not even Miles, no matter how much he tried.
A figure appeared in the doorway and she turned and saw Kellyanne standing there. She fell onto the couch beside Melissa and threw her arms around her as her own set of tears erupted. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. One minute I was fine, and the next, someone was shaking me awake and Dylan was gone.”
Melissa assured her she didn’t blame her. Someone had drugged them both, but it hadn’t been Kellyanne’s responsibility to protect Dylan. It had been hers. Hers and Miles’s. She pulled out her mother’s necklace and pressed it against her lips. She needed to feel close to her when everything was falling apart.
Kellyanne sniffed and motioned at the necklace. “What’s that?”
She opened her hand and let Kellyanne see the charm and chain. “It belonged to my mother. She gave it to me on my twenty-fifth birthday and I’ve worn it ever since. Now that she’s gone, holding it helps me to feel closer to her.” And she needed that comfort now with Dylan gone more than ever. She wished her mother was here to tell her what to do.
Kellyanne looked confused. “The only thing I know about the witness protection program is you’re not supposed to keep anything that can be linked to your past, right?”
Melissa felt her face redden with embarrassment that Kellyanne had uncovered her secret. “Yes, that’s true. One of the marshals saw me wearing it and tried to take it from me, but I completely fell apart so he said I could keep it as long as I kept it hidden.”
“So Miles doesn’t know you have this?”
She shook her head, realizing she’d been condemning him for his need for secrecy when all the while she’d been keeping this from him.
“You should tell him,” Kellyanne commented. “He’s been going crazy trying to figure out how these people found you. It might not be connected to this, but you still owe him the truth about this necklace.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“But what if it isn’t?”
Melissa glanced through the office’s windows at Miles, who was deep in conversation with his brothers. Perhaps even now he was trying to wrap his brain around how Shearer’s men had found them. The truth in Kellyanne’s insistence hit home for her. Kellyanne was right. She’d kept this necklace from him.
At best, her necklace had nothing to do with any of this and she was about to tell him something unimportant. At worst, he would take the last possession she had of her mother and she would never see it again.
Still, she felt a loyalty to Miles after all he’d done to protect them. She had to tell him the complete truth.
She got up and approached Miles as he was talking to his brothers. “I need to tell you something,” she said when he saw her.
His brothers moved away to give them some privacy and Miles turned back to Melissa. “What is it? Did you remember something?” He folded his arms, his presence distant and that hurt even though she knew he was only reacting to what she’d said earlier.
“No, I didn’t.” She sniffed back tears and debated the best way to begin, finally deciding it was better to just get the words out there. “I did break one of the WITSEC rules.”
Anticipation clouded his eyes. “You called someone? Who?”
“No, nothing like that. It’s nothing that would alert anyone to where we are, but I haven’t been completely honest with you, Miles, and for that, I’m sorry.” Now, the tears managed to push through and she put her hands over her mouth to catch her breath before continuing. “I just missed her so much. I haven’t even had an opportunity to grieve for her.”
“What is it, Melissa? Just tell me. What did you do?”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the necklace. “They said I couldn’t keep anything from my old life, but my mom gave this to me. It’s the only thing I have left of her. I couldn’t give it up. I’m sorry.” She placed it into his hand and turned away. Would he allow her to keep it, like the other marshal had? He was certainly more compassionate and caring than the other marshals she’d encountered, but he was also much more concerned about their safety and he followed the rules. They were an important part of his life and his job and she’d violated them.
He was silent for a moment, then started to reprimand her. “Melissa—”
“I know, I know. I should have given it up. I just...couldn’t. One of the marshals saw me wearing it and tried to confiscate it, but then he changed his mind when he saw how important it was to me. He said I could keep it as long as I didn’t wear it and kept it hidden. I thought it would be fine. It’s only a necklace. What harm could keeping it possibly do?”
She turned to look at him and saw him peeling at something on the back of the charm. He separated it from the necklace and held it up. It was flat and tiny, small enough to hide against the back of the charm without her even noticing it was there. “What is that?”
He gave a loud sigh. “It’s a GPS device. It’s how they’ve been tracking you all this time.”
Melissa gasped and put her hands over her mouth as the horrible realization hit her. “I did this,” she cried, having trouble catching her breath. “I did this. I led them right to us. I’m the reason they were able to capture Dylan.”
He started to reach for her but pulled back, probably deciding after their talk earlier, she wouldn’t welcome it. “No, don’t do that to yourself. You didn’t know.”
“I should have known. I broke the rules, Miles. I did this. It’s all on me.”
“You didn’t know there was a tracker on the necklace. You just wanted something of your mom’s. I understand that. The real question is how did this tracker get on it? How long have you had this necklace? Has it ever not been in your possession?”
“My mother gave it to me for my twenty-fifth birthday. Up until we entered WITSEC, I wore it all the time. I never took it off.”
“Which means someone bugged it while you were in WITSEC. The question is who and when.”
She shook her head, trying to remember. “No one even seemed to notice it until we arrived at the hotel where you met up with us. Once we were there, one of the marshals who brought us noticed it and told me he had to take it. I handed it over, but I was upset. I went into the bathroom and cried. When I came out, he handed it back to me and told me to keep it hidden.” That had to have been when the bug was placed. “I thought he was doing something nice, but he was just using me, wasn’t he?”
He nodded and rubbed his jaw. “Do you remember the guy’s name?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
She tried to think back to recapture his image, but even that was futile. “He was nice to me and I appreciated that, but...” She sighed in frustration. “I’ve just seen so many marshals in the past month. They’ve all started to blur together.”
“I understand.” He led her to the couch and sank into the cushions beside her. “Tell me about the necklace. I want to know its history.”
“I’ve already told you. My mother bought it for me for my birthday. I hardly ever removed it. I haven’t worn it since the marshal gave it back to me—but I’ve kept it in my pocket.” Horror and grief shuddered through her. “I led them right to Dylan.”
“No, stop it. This is a good lead. I’ll have my boss pull the protection-detail records. We’ll figure out who did this and why, and once we do, we’ll find Dylan and you’ll both be safe.”
She leaned into him and he cautiously placed an arm around her. She heard the steady beat of his heart. He was a good man and she’d been wrong to blame him but this incident only proved that her initial opinion of secrets had been right all along. Secrets were wrong and she could never be with someone who couldn’t share his life fully and freely with her. That realization broke her heart. She’d fallen for him. She knew it. Despite her better judgment, his kindness had surprised her and opened her guarded heart enough to let him inside. Miles was everything she would want in a husband and everything she could ask for in a father for Dylan. But there were just too many obstacles between them.
Beginning with her missing child.
Miles took out his phone and dialed his boss’s number. Finally, he had a lead—even if it was one that infuriated him. He hated that Melissa had been betrayed once again by the marshals service. They’d promised to protect her, but instead, someone had used her and tracked her location.
He updated Griffin about the necklace and the marshal who’d allowed her to keep it and, in Miles’s opinion, had planted a bug on it.
“She doesn’t remember the name of the marshal, but she did say it was a man.” Eliminating the female marshals was a good start and, at least, that meant Lanie was no longer suspect. That was some good news.
“I’ll send you a photo outline of each of the male marshals who worked her detail. Maybe she can point him out to us.”
“I also need you to run background checks on those marshals,” Miles replied. “Whoever this guy is, it’s clear that he’s the leak in our office.”
“I’ve been doing my best to root him out, but so far I haven’t come up with anything. Let me know if Melissa points him out.”
He hung up with Griffin, but heard his phone beep a moment later. He opened an attachment from his boss and glanced through the photo display of marshals he’d known and worked with for years. His gut clenched at the idea that one of them might be a turncoat, a patsy for a mob boss. One of these men, who’d sworn to protect Melissa and Dylan, had instead sold them out.
He approached her while she was stretched out on the couch, a blanket covering her. “I’d like you to look at these photographs to see if you can point out the marshal who gave you back the necklace.”
She nodded and took the phone with shaky hands. “I’ll do my best.”
She scrolled through several photos before she stopped on one. “That’s him.”
She handed the phone back to him and he glanced at the image. His heart dropped. She’d just pointed out Adam Stringer, his best friend and Lanie’s boyfriend. Adam was the one to place the GPS tracker on the necklace.
He sent the image to Griffin with a short message about Melissa’s identification and then he put his phone away. He leaned against the desk in the office as the weight of the truth about his life sank in. Even his secrets had secrets, and he was growing weary of them. His friend, one of the only people in the world he’d felt comfortable sharing himself with, had proven untrustworthy and placed Melissa and Dylan’s lives in danger.
God, I don’t know where to turn.
How could his friend have betrayed him this way? How could someone be so desperate that they would turn on a witness under their protection? He couldn’t understand it, but at least now he could call in the marshals to help search for Dylan. The program still owed it to her to find her son and bring him home safely.
Griffin sent him a text message letting him know the marshals would be arriving in Courtland County by the next morning. They were bringing the full force of the United States Marshals Service with them, minus Adam Stringer, who had mysteriously gone missing and wasn’t answering his cell phone.
Miles watched Melissa through the office window as she dealt with her grief over what she’d done, keeping that secret from him. His heart broke for her. He understood Melissa’s dislike for secrecy and he was beginning to dislike it more and more. Could he continue doing what he did even once this was all over? The problem was that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. His job was important and the secrecy was a necessary part of it. That would never change for him. But perhaps the agency and Griffin would implement some controls that would prevent their inspectors from being so isolated that they became prime recruits for the bad guys.
Of course, any change they made in the future wouldn’t do anything to help Melissa right now. The only thing the marshals service could do for her at this point was rally the forces to try to get back her son...and then send Melissa and Dylan off to start a new life somewhere. Without him.
He couldn’t deny his attraction had been growing stronger and stronger with each day he’d been with her. He wanted her and Dylan in his life, but that was something that could never be. Especially not now, after he’d let her down the way he had. His only hope was to bring Dylan home to her and make certain the next place they were sent to would be safe. Keeping her alive had to be more important than keeping her with him.
But first, they had to find Dylan.
And given that Adam had gone MIA at the same time that an unknown man had begun recruiting people to kidnap Melissa, Miles suspected the man on that video had been Adam. That was why his voice had sounded so familiar on Zeke’s recording.
He was going to find Adam and make sure he paid the price for his betrayal.
Miles and Melissa headed back to the Silver Star. The chasm between them stretched far and wide and felt all the more painful as he recalled how close they’d become. All that was gone now and he wondered if they could ever get it back. Perhaps it was better that they never did. He’d moved his focus from protecting Melissa to being with her, and that had caused him to overlook important details, things that had placed her and her son’s life in danger. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow that to happen again.
Once they were back at the ranch, she went upstairs and locked herself into her bedroom, while Miles settled down to reread the statements and reports from Dylan’s kidnapping. They still hadn’t received any contact from the killer luring Melissa to him. That troubled Miles. What other purpose would they have in taking Dylan? Dylan hadn’t even been in the house when Melissa’s mother was killed and, even if he had been, he was too young to testify against Kirby. And besides, why kidnap Dylan when Melissa was right there, drugged and vulnerable? The perfect target. Had the drug in the drinks been meant to kill her instead of just knocking her out? That was a possibility, but as murder weapons went, it was a sloppy one. That led him back to Zeke’s encounter with the mystery man, possibly Adam, who was recruiting young adults to try to harm her.
He poured over the statements taken from everyone they’d interviewed that evening. The roadblocks were still set up and other counties alerted, and an Amber Alert had been issued for Dylan, but so far no leads had come in to point them in the right direction.
He made a list of all the people who had been at the sheriff’s office around the time Dylan went missing. They included Melissa, Miles, Josh, Paul, Kellyanne, Ellie, Deputy Vance, Deputy Willbrook and Deputy Turner. There had also been two food deliveries during that time, including the laced coffee that Melissa and Kellyanne ultimately drank. He knew Josh had had trouble with a former deputy back in the summer who had been secretly working for a drug runner. It was possible they were dealing with a similar situation, but he had to admit, he’d known all three of these deputies for most of his life and couldn’t imagine any one of them kidnapping a child. And from what he’d heard, if anyone knew the heartbreak of losing a child, it was Ellie. She could never put another mother through that nightmare just for some quick cash.
He moved on to the delivery drivers who’d brought the food and coffee. The coffee had come from a local café around the corner that regularly delivered to the sheriff’s office. Josh and the others knew both delivery drivers well and, during questioning, neither had acted suspicious, and their backgrounds didn’t have any red flags.
He rubbed his hands over his face and sighed. He had to think about this differently. What if Dylan’s kidnapping had nothing to do with the threats against Melissa? What if this incident wasn’t a result of Kirby or Shearer plotting against her? It was a stretch, but it was a possibility he had to look at. It would explain why they’d had no contact with the kidnappers and why they hadn’t killed Melissa when they’d had the opportunity.
He glanced through the list of names again.
He realized if he was going to consider the idea that someone might have kidnapped Dylan for their own personal reasons, he had to look at Ellie as a viable suspect. She’d lost a child, as well as had multiple miscarriages, if the rumor mill was to be believed. Just because someone lost a child didn’t automatically make them crazy enough to snatch someone else’s child, he rationalized. But Ellie had lost more than just children. She’d lost her husband through divorce and her parents the year before. She’d gone from buying high-priced clothes and living in a large home to working at Robbie’s as a salesclerk. And she’d doted on Dylan when she’d seen him.
So has Kellyanne.
So has everyone who knows Dylan.
He grunted. His sister obviously wasn’t a kidnapper, but he couldn’t completely rule out Ellie without speaking to her first. She’d been at the sheriff’s office before Dylan had been kidnapped but hadn’t been there afterwards. But then neither had the food and coffee delivery drivers. They’d had to return later to be questioned but, to his knowledge, no one had been able to reach Ellie for questioning.
And while he questioned her, he could have his brother check out more nefarious reasons Dylan might have been taken.
He dialed Josh and learned he and Cecile had already investigated that angle. “I got a list of pedophiles in the area and we’re in the process of accounting for all of their whereabouts, but so far, it doesn’t look like any of them were anywhere near the courthouse or the sheriff’s office. There were no court sessions going on that late so few people would have reason to be at the courthouse, and I think we’ve questioned everyone we saw on the video surveillance that was close by.”
“I want to reinterview the deputies who were there, then go talk to Ellie just so I can cross her off my list.” He didn’t really believe she was a suspect, but she’d been there so he had to speak to her.
“Cecile is already handling those interviews, but I don’t believe any of them were involved. I’ll go with you to Ellie’s,” Josh stated. “I’ll meet you at her house.”
Josh rattled off the address taken from Ellie’s earlier complaint about a break-in and Miles put it into his phone. He woke his dad and asked him to keep an eye out for Melissa, and his father assured him he would.
Miles drove to the address Josh had given him and found his brother already parked in the driveway. Miles got out and approached him.
“It doesn’t look like anyone is at home,” Josh told him, “but look what I found sitting by the outside trash.”
Miles saw it was a brand-new box for a child’s car seat and knew without a doubt Ellie was involved. That meant it looked less and less like this had anything to do with Kirby or Shearer or the reason Melissa was in WITSEC in the first place.
“There also don’t appear to be any signs of a break-in. All the doors and windows are secure. She must have concocted that break-in story to have a reason to be at the sheriff’s office.”
“But how would she have known we would be there at that time?”
Josh shrugged. “Small-town gossip? At least it didn’t get back to the men Zeke was meeting with.”
Miles soaked it all in and tried to think where Ellie might go. Then he recalled the conversation they’d had at the general store. “She has an aunt in Dallas. We need to find out where that is.”
He hoped Ellie wasn’t a sophisticated enough criminal to think about covering her tracks. Or perhaps she thought they would blame whoever was after Melissa. Which they had. Truthfully, she could be anywhere, but they would start their search for her with the only family she had left.
“On it.” Josh nodded, pulled out his cell phone and called the office.
Miles phoned Paul, updated him and asked him to return to the Silver Star to keep an eye on Melissa. Paul agreed. Now that he believed Dylan’s kidnapping wasn’t tied to Kirby or Shearer, Miles couldn’t discount the possibility that they, or someone they’d hired to do their dirty work, would take advantage of his absence to try to grab her. He wanted to be there but knew she would want him to focus on bringing Dylan home first.
Lanie, Griffin, several of the other marshals in his office and a unit from the Dallas PD met them at the address Cecile had found for Ellie’s aunt. Miles readied himself to enter the apartment, praying he would find Dylan unharmed. He was already looking forward to holding him again and bringing him home to Melissa.
Lanie removed her US Marshal gear and approached the apartment first, knocking on the door with a made-up story about searching for her missing cat. The woman who answered—obviously Ellie’s aunt—wished her luck but stated she hadn’t seen anything. Lanie thanked her, then walked back toward the group.
She nodded at Miles. “There is a child in there. I saw him sitting on the couch with a woman who looked like our suspect.”
Miles thanked her, all sympathy for Ellie evaporating now that he knew she’d drugged Melissa and Kellyanne, then snatched Dylan from them. He readied his weapon, hoping he wouldn’t need it but wanting to be ready in case he did.
Dallas PD led the maneuver into the apartment and by the time Miles entered, the officers were in a standoff with Ellie.
She gasped when she spotted Miles. “You can’t just come in here without knocking.”
But he was done talking to her. “Move away from the child, Ellie.”
From behind her, he spotted a dark head poke out and a smile light up the boy’s face. “Miles!”
Ellie scooped Dylan into her arms and Miles took several steps toward her, but she quickly walked backward the same distance. “Don’t come any closer,” she demanded, gripping the boy so tightly that he began to whimper. “I’ll hurt him if you come any closer.”
He shook his head. “You don’t want to hurt him. He doesn’t belong to you. You have to know this is wrong.”
Her aunt, who’d already been detained by the local PD, cried out. “Ellie, what did you do? You told me you adopted him from a family who couldn’t care for him any longer.”
Ellie’s face contorted. “Wrong? You have no idea what the word wrong means. Wasn’t it wrong that I had to lose my baby? That I had to have my husband leave me? That I lost my parents? Wasn’t that wrong? Don’t I deserve something good in my life? Melissa has everything I’ve ever wanted. The husband, the child, the big loving family. Why should she get all of that when I have nothing, Miles?”
His heart broke at her words, mostly because she had no idea what Melissa had and didn’t have. Melissa’s tales of woe were as bad as Ellie’s. She’d lost so much, too. Her mother, her home, her husband. Even her identity. All she had left was this child that Ellie had taken from her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he warned her. “You have no idea what her life is like and now you’re trying to take the only good thing she has—her child.”
“I’ve lost everything! At least she still has you, Miles.”
So once again, Melissa was in this mess because of him, because of the lies and secrets he’d forced her to share. He’d made up a life for her that was built on lies, and those lies had convinced an unstable woman that Melissa was a fair target. She would never forgive him for this and that was okay. He would be satisfied enough if he could bring Dylan back to her. “I’m not letting you leave with that child. You may as well hand him over.”
She clung to him and Dylan began to cry. He squirmed and called Miles’s name, reaching for him. “Miles! Miles, help me!” He managed to wriggle away from her and slide to the floor, running toward Miles before she could grab him again.
Ellie’s shoulders slumped as Miles scooped Dylan into his arms and hugged him, soaking in the feel of him. Melissa had missed him so much, but until that moment Miles hadn’t realized how much he’d missed him, too, how much he would miss them both when they were gone. They’d been playing this game of make-believe for so long and he’d become invested in it and in them. But it was time to reunite this family—and remind himself that he wasn’t a part of it.
He glanced back to Ellie, who’d fallen to her knees in hysterical tears. He left the Dallas PD to handle her and carried Dylan outside to his truck.
Lanie approached him and Miles turned to her. “Thank you for coming when I needed you.”
She gave him a half-hearted shrug. “Always.” Then she punched him—hard—in the arm. “And that’s for thinking I could ever be a mole or betray a witness. My aunt loaned me the money to buy that house.”
He rubbed his arm. She was petite but fierce. “I’m sorry about that. I suppose Griffin told you about Adam, though?”
He saw a mixture of hurt and anger flash across her expression before she regained control of her emotions. “He did. After talking to Griffin, I went to Adam’s apartment and did some snooping of my own. Apparently, he’s been gambling. He’s got debts.”
Miles knew where this was leading. “And Max Shearer just happened to buy those debts.”
She nodded. “Looks that way. I’ll take my car and follow you back to the Silver Star to drop this little guy back with his mama, then we need to work on finding Adam before he does any more damage.”
Miles buckled Dylan into his car seat, then he and Josh headed back to the ranch with Lanie, Griffin and three other marshals following behind. He phoned the house to let Melissa know and his mother answered. She squealed at the news. “She’s resting upstairs. I’ll run up there now and tell her.”
He thanked her, then ended the call. At least he would be able to fulfill one promise he’d made to Melissa. He was returning Dylan to her. That would have to be enough to make up for his falling down on the job of keeping them safe in the first place. Then they would find Adam and bring him to justice, and send Melissa and Dylan on to their new life and new identities with the assurance that the leak in WITSEC had been taken care of.
A crash shook the house and jerked Melissa awake. She’d been struggling to rest but must have finally dozed off. Now this.
She heard voices rising from downstairs, so she opened the door and rushed out. A few steps down, she saw what had made the jarring noise. A full-size SUV had slammed through the front window of the house.
She hurried down a few more steps before she saw bodies on the floor—Paul, John and Diane, all lying unconscious. Kellyanne was kneeling over Paul, then she looked up at the intruder. “You hit my brother. He was standing by the window.”
John pushed himself to his elbows then tried to scramble to his feet. “Get out of here,” he cried at the intruder, who didn’t seem bothered in the least by his warning.
John lunged at the man, who used the back end of his gun to club him over the head. John grunted and fell back down, causing Kellyanne to rush over to him.
“Daddy, are you okay?”
Melissa started to turn and run back upstairs to phone for help, but the man’s voice stopped her cold. “There you are.”
She turned and saw his eyes locked on her. “Come here, Melissa. You’re coming with me.”
Fear locked her in her spot. She recognized him as the man, the marshal, who’d given her back her mother’s necklace. The man who’d bugged it and used it to track her to Courtland County and the Silver Star Ranch, all so he could hand her over to be murdered. She shook her head. “I won’t go with you.”
His face contorted and he reached for Kellyanne, pulling her to him as she cried out. He took his gun and pointed it at Kellyanne’s head. “Come with me or I kill this woman.”
Melissa took several steps down. “Okay, okay. Please don’t hurt her.”
Kellyanne’s eyes were full of fright, but Melissa could still see her silently begging Melissa not to go. But Melissa had no choice. She couldn’t allow this family to suffer any more because of her. Paul and John both definitely needed a doctor. She couldn’t see Diane well enough to see what her injuries were, but she hadn’t gotten up and that couldn’t be a good sign. Once they were gone, Kellyanne could phone for help.
Besides, going with this man would lead her to her son.
She walked to the bottom of the staircase and stood to face him. “Miles is on to you,” she told him.
He shoved Kellyanne away and reached for Melissa, pulling her against him and pressing the gun into her stomach. He sneered. “Then we’d better go before he gets home.”
He pushed her into the front seat of the SUV, then climbed in beside her, started the engine and backed away.
As he drove, she looked back with a sinking feeling that she would never see the Silver Star or the Avery family again.