Under The Cowboy's Protection. Delores Fossen

again use his phone to record the conversation. Once he had it ready, Thea took the call. The first thing Raleigh heard was the baby crying again. It was like taking hard punches to the gut. It sickened him to think of these monsters having that little girl.

      “All right, you ready to do this?” the kidnapper asked.

      “We are,” Raleigh answered, and he waited a moment to see if the guy would ask who he was. He didn’t. Which meant the thug likely knew all the players in this. That wasn’t much of a surprise since whoever was behind this had probably done their homework.

      “Good. Because I’m gonna make this real easy. Transfer fifty thousand into the account number that I’m about to text to you.”

      In the grand scheme of things, fifty thousand wasn’t much for a ransom demand, which made Raleigh instantly suspicious. Then again, maybe these guys just wanted some quick cash so they could make a getaway. After all, they were killers now, and if arrested, they’d be looking at the death penalty. Fifty would be more than enough to escape.

      “If you do it right,” the kidnapper went on, “it’ll only take a couple of minutes at most for the money to show up. Then you can have the kid.”

      Raleigh huffed. “How do we know you even have the child? The crying we heard could be any baby. Or a recording. And if you do have her, what stops you from taking the money and running?”

      “I figured you’d ask that. Well, I’m sending you a picture of the kid, and since Thea’s using her cell for this call, I’ll text it to your phone.”

      The guy didn’t ask for Raleigh’s number, and several moments later Raleigh’s phone did indeed ding with a text message. Two of them, in fact. The first was the routing number for a bank account. Probably an offshore one that would be out of reach of law enforcement.

      Raleigh went to the second text. A photo. It was indeed a baby wrapped in a blanket, and seeing her was like another punch. He reminded himself though that the picture could be fake. But this didn’t feel like a ruse. Raleigh was certain these snakes had that little girl.

      He showed the photo to Thea, and he saw the raw emotions go through her eyes. “Oh, God,” she whispered, her voice mostly breath.

      She obviously didn’t think it was a ruse, either. And that led Raleigh back to his second issue with this ransom arrangement.

      “I’ll transfer twenty grand,” Raleigh told the kidnapper. He could take that from his own personal checking account. “You’ll get the rest when I actually see the baby. And Thea will have no part in the drop. It’ll be between you and me.”

      Along with some backup deputies that Raleigh would have in place. The plan was to catch these idiots and make them pay for what they’d done. First though, he had to make sure the baby was safe.

      The guy didn’t say anything, and the silence went on for what seemed to be an eternity. “All right,” the kidnapper finally answered. “Get that money to me in the next five minutes, and then I’ll give you the location of the kid.”

      Before Raleigh could ask for any more time, the kidnapper ended the call. Raleigh didn’t bother to hit Redial because it would just eat up precious time.

      He had a quick debate with himself as to how to handle this, and the one thing he knew was that he didn’t want Thea anywhere near this. That meant getting her to the station.

      “Call the emergency dispatcher,” Raleigh said as he used his own phone to access his bank account. “Have him connect you to Dalton. Tell him to gather up as many deputies as he can because I might need them. I also need Dalton to get the remaining thirty grand of the ransom money.” If nothing went wrong with the first part of this plan, Raleigh wanted to be ready.

      “I could do backup,” Thea insisted. “I still have your gun, and I’m not woozy anymore from the stun gun.”

      Raleigh dismissed that with a headshake and motioned for her to make the call. She did, and he continued with his own task.

      It took several moments for him to get access to his account, several more for Raleigh to put in the number the kidnapper had given him. The transfer went through without any hitches.

      He had more money in investment accounts, but he doubted those would be as easy to tap into. That’s why he’d wanted Dalton to come up with the rest. That would involve getting some help from fellow law enforcement, maybe even the DA. Somehow though, they’d come up with that money.

      “Dalton said to tell you that he’ll get to work right away on all of that,” Thea relayed to him the moment she finished her call. She also took his phone and had another look at the photo the kidnapper had sent. “I’m just trying to figure out if there’s any resemblance between the baby and Yvette.”

      “And?” He started driving again so he could get Thea to the station. They were still ten minutes out, so Raleigh sped up. After everything that’d happened, he didn’t want to be on this rural stretch of road any longer than necessary.

      “I can’t tell. You think we should send it to Yvette to see if she recognizes any features? The baby could resemble her husband since it was Yvette’s and his fertilized embryo that was implanted in Sonya.”

      He had another short debate about that and dismissed it. The woman had been so frantic that this might push her over the edge. Raleigh wanted her to stay put with Dalton at least until he could get there.

      “Egan would send backup if you need it,” Thea reminded him.

      She probably hadn’t suggested that to rile him. After all, Egan was Sheriff Egan McCall of McCall Canyon. Along with being Thea’s boss, he was Raleigh’s half brother and Warren’s son. Raleigh wasn’t so stubborn that he would refuse help and therefore put the baby at even greater risk, but he didn’t think he would have to rely on McCall help just yet.

      Only a short distance ahead, Raleigh spotted a dark blue SUV. It wasn’t on the road but had pulled off onto one of the ranch trails. A trail with a lot of trees and wild shrubs. Normally, seeing a vehicle parked there wouldn’t have alarmed him. After all, there was pasture land out here for sale, and this could be a potential buyer. But this day was far from normal.

      “You recognize the SUV?” Thea asked. She drew her gun, which meant this had put her on edge, too.

      “No.” And it was parked in such a way that he couldn’t see the license plates.

      Raleigh considered just speeding up, and once he passed the vehicle, he could get the plates and call them in. But he saw something else. Something on the ground next to the passenger’s side door.

      “Is that what I think it is?” Thea muttered. “It looks like a baby carrier.”

      It did. Raleigh had already had a bad feeling about this, and that feeling went up a significant notch when the SUV came flying off the trail and onto the road just ahead of Thea and him. The driver sped away, heading in the direction of town.

      Raleigh hit his brakes and slowed so he could have a better look. At first, he thought the carrier was empty, that this was some kind of trick. But then he saw the baby’s tiny hand moving away. He heard the cries, too.

      His phone dinged with another text. Since Thea still had hold of it, she read it to him. “Change of plans. The kid is all yours. Thanks for the twenty grand.”

      Raleigh wanted to know what had happened to make them flee like that. He also wanted to go in pursuit, but that would mean leaving the baby out here.

      “Call Dalton back,” he told Thea. “Let him know what’s happening. I want that SUV stopped.”

      While she did that, Raleigh drew his gun and got out. He fired glances all around them but didn’t see anyone. However, the baby’s cries seemed to be even more frantic now. She could be hungry or scared.

      Still keeping watch, Raleigh went closer, and he prayed this wasn’t some elaborate dummy. It wasn’t. The baby was real.