Kidnapping in Kendall County. Delores Fossen

Austin could see blood on the sleeve of his jacket. “They tried to kill me.”

      Austin had a fast debate with himself. He could just drive off and call for someone to come and get the guy. After all, despite that injury, this man could be part of this baby farm operation.

      And that’s why Austin lost that mental debate.

      Because if he was indeed part of the operation, then that meant he had answers, and Austin wouldn’t get those answers if he allowed him to disappear. Or die.

      “Stay down,” Austin warned Rosalie.

      Did she listen?

      No, of course not.

      She lifted her head, and Austin nudged her right back down before he lowered his window.

      “I need help,” the man insisted, walking toward the truck.

      “Don’t come any closer,” Austin warned him, and he took aim at him. “Who are you?”

      “Sonny Buckland. I’m a P.I. from Austin.”

      “Send another text to Sawyer Ryland, my partner at the FBI,” Austin told Rosalie. “Have him run this guy’s name and ask him to hurry.” While she did that, Austin pinned his attention to the man. “Open the sides of your jacket so I can see if you’re armed.”

      “I’m not,” he insisted, and he winced when he pulled back the side with the blood. “They took my gun when they found me snooping around the place.”

       “They?”

      “Three armed guards. Big guys. The only reason I managed to escape is because they got a call from someone who told them to get out fast. I ran. That’s when one of them shot me.”

      That meshed with what Austin figured had happened. The person monitoring the cameras at the baby farm had likely made the call to let the guards at this place know there’d been a breach in security.

      “How do you know I don’t work for those guards?” Austin came right out and asked.

      “If you did, you would have already killed me.”

      True. But that didn’t mean Austin would blindly trust this guy. The guards could have left him behind with orders to finish off anyone who got near the place.

      Sonny clamped his hand over his injured arm and fired nervy glances all around them. “Stating the obvious here, but it’s not safe to hang around. We need to get out of here.”

      Austin nodded. “You’re not going anywhere with us until you convince me you’re not working for the baby snatchers.”

      “I’m not working for them!” Sonny practically yelled. Then, he groaned, a mixture of pain and frustration. “A client hired me to find his missing pregnant friend. I followed some leads that I got from a criminal informant, and it led me to this place.”

      Rosalie made a soft sound of agreement, and even though Sonny’s story meshed with hers about getting the info from a CI, Austin shot them both scowls for inserting themselves into a dangerous investigation. Yeah, he’d done the same thing. And not with authorization, either. But he was a trained agent. Neither of them was.

      Of course, Sonny could still be a threat.

      “Did you learn who was behind this operation?” Rosalie asked the man. “Did you find any records or anything that could help us locate some missing babies?”

      Sonny huffed and made more of those uneasy glances around. He looked on the verge of trying again to press Austin to get him out of there, but maybe he realized the fastest way for that to happen was to give them any info he had.

      “I did learn something,” Sonny said. Then, paused. “I think a piece of scum named Trevor Yancy is responsible for at least some of the baby kidnappings.”

      Rosalie sucked in her breath, and her hand went to her mouth. Austin tried to rein in any response, but just like that, his thoughts jerked him back to a bad place, a bad time.

      Eli’s murder.

      Rosalie was no doubt doing the same thing. Because the man Eli and he had been investigating for gunrunning and a whole host of crimes was none other than Trevor Yancy.

      “You know Yancy,” Sonny said. Not a question, either.

      Obviously Austin hadn’t done a good job of hiding his reaction. No surprise there. Austin was responsible for the way that investigation had turned out, and it had turned out in the worst possible way.

      With Eli shot dead by an unknown assailant.

      And Yancy a free man.

      If Yancy was indeed involved with the baby farms, then the question was why? Was it just another illegal venture on his part, or was there something even more sinister going on here? Something to do with Rosalie and him?

      “What makes you think Yancy’s connected to this?” Austin demanded.

      Sonny shook his head. “I’ll tell you once we’re out of here. These men will kill us all if they come back.”

      Austin couldn’t dispute that, and despite his need for the truth, he could no longer keep Rosalie at the center of this possible danger. He was already responsible for Eli’s death. Best not to add hers to the nightmares that he stood no chance of ever forgetting.

      With a firm grip on his gun, Austin opened his truck door, but before he could get out, Rosalie caught his arm. “You’re not going out there.”

      For a split second Austin was taken aback by her concern. Her touch, too. But just as quickly as she’d touched him, she pulled away her hand. He realized then that her concern wasn’t aimed at him but rather their situation. If he got shot, her chances of getting out of there and finding her daughter would decrease big-time.

      “I’m only going to frisk him,” Austin told her.

      He stepped from the truck and did just that. Sonny cooperated, lifting his hands away from his body and wincing in the process.

      “No gun, like I said,” Sonny explained. “But I’ve lost some blood.”

      Yes, he had, and that meant Austin’s first stop had to be a hospital, and the nearest one was back in the ranching town of Silver Creek. He could leave Rosalie there, as well, since he knew the sheriff and deputies. He doubted Rosalie would like that, but Austin didn’t intend to give her a choice.

      “You can ride in the back of the truck.” Austin motioned for Sonny to hop in, and the man did. It was freezing cold and wouldn’t be a pleasant ride, especially considering his injury, but Austin couldn’t risk allowing him in the cab of the truck with Rosalie and him.

      “Keep an eye on him,” Austin said to her when he got back in.

      He checked the road to make sure no one was out there waiting for them, and when Austin didn’t see anyone, he got them out of there fast.

      “Trevor Yancy,” Rosalie mumbled. She turned in the seat so she could nail her attention to Sonny. “Has his name come up in your investigation of the baby farms?”

      “No.” Austin didn’t have to think about that, either. A lot of names had popped up. Potential suspects and kidnap victims. But if he’d seen anything about Yancy related to this, he would have definitely remembered.

      “Is it possible...?” Rosalie’s breath hitched, and even though they weren’t touching, Austin could practically feel her muscles tensing. “Would Yancy have kidnapped my daughter and your nephew because Eli and you had been investigating him?”

      Anything was possible when it came to a snake like Yancy.

       Anything.

      And since that wasn’t likely to make Rosalie’s breath stop hitching, Austin didn’t spell it out for her. Still, this could be the lead that Austin had been searching for. He reached for