Ranger's Baby Rescue. Lara Lacombe

the term vary widely.”

      “I’ll tell her we can’t do anything and that her best bet is to go home.” Now that he knew she was telling the truth, Matt felt sorry for Emma. But he didn’t know the first thing about searching for a missing baby, and it was important she cooperate with the police.

      “Actually,” Randall said, sounding thoughtful, “maybe you could help me out.”

      “How’s that?” Matt replied. He had a sneaking suspicion the bottom was about to drop out of his day.

      “Keep her there,” Randall said, confirming Matt’s premonition. “You can keep tabs on her while she goes on this wild-goose chase. Based on our preliminary findings, she’s not a suspect in her baby’s disappearance. But I still need to know where she is. If you stay with her, you can let me know if her brother tries to contact her or if she does actually find something relevant to the investigation.”

      “Do you really think that’s a possibility?” Babysitting a stubborn, misguided woman wasn’t exactly high on Matt’s list of desirable activities, nor did it fit his job description.

      “It’s worth considering, especially since she’s already there. Can you do it?”

      “I suppose,” Matt said. “I’ll have to clear it with my supervisor, though.” It wasn’t unheard of for park rangers to assist law enforcement investigations, but the rangers in question usually worked directly with the officers involved. There had been such a case recently, when a ranger had teamed up with an FBI profiler to catch a serial killer who had been using the park as his hunting ground. In this situation however, he’d be working with the victim, with no clear search plans in place. How long was he supposed to help her? Unless he missed his guess, Emma was determined to comb every inch of this park. She probably wouldn’t be willing to leave until her baby was found, either here or in El Paso. He couldn’t help her indefinitely, that much was certain.

      “Patch me through to him and I’ll put in the formal request,” Randall said. “I really appreciate you helping out like this,” he added.

      Matt sighed, wondering how in the hell he’d gotten into this situation. I never should have made eye contact, he told himself. I should have turned around and let another ranger handle her. But it was too late for that now.

      “All right,” he agreed. “I’ll be in touch, but don’t expect us to find anything.”

      Randall let out a short laugh. “I don’t, but at least now I know we’re truly covering all the bases. One of us is bound to get lucky.”

      It won’t be me, Matt thought sourly. He didn’t have the greatest track record where babies were involved.

      Jennifer’s face flashed in his mind, the image of her accompanied by the familiar feelings of betrayal and pain. Three years ago, he’d shipped out with his army unit for a quick overseas tour and had come back to find his fiancée holding a baby. She’d sworn it was his, but even though the math just barely worked out, Matt had taken one look at the infant and known in his soul he wasn’t the father. The child was adorable, though, and he’d felt a tugging at his heart like he’d never experienced before. It would have been so easy to fall in love with the little one, even though the boy wasn’t his flesh and blood. But while he might have been willing to raise another man’s child, Matt wasn’t willing to forgive Jennifer for her deception. She’d cheated on him and spun a web of lies, trying to trick him into staying with her. He simply couldn’t spend the rest of his life with someone he couldn’t trust. After a paternity test confirmed his suspicions, Matt had packed his things and moved out.

      He’d been worried about the baby, but Jennifer hadn’t wasted any time. The door had barely shut behind him before she started seeing the baby’s real father again. Last he’d heard, they were a cozy family of three, living the American dream in the suburbs. Matt felt a pang of jealousy every time he thought about them. That should have been his life; he’d signed up for the wife, the child, the dog, the house. Hell, he’d even looked forward to driving the standard-issue minivan. It was a vision that had kept him going throughout his time in the army, and coming home to find out Jennifer had lied to him had ripped the rug right out from under his feet. Seeing her holding a baby had been like a dream come true. Realizing the boy wasn’t his child had been a kick in the gut. It had shaken him to the core, and he was still trying to recover.

      Matt ran a hand through his hair and sighed, trying to brush off the shadow of his memories. He heard the faint sounds of his supervisor speaking, and based on the snatches of conversation he was able to make out, Paul Anderson, the chief ranger in the office, was only too happy to have Matt cooperate with the police. It seemed he was going to have a new focus, at least for the foreseeable future.

      Time to go give Ms. Foster the good news.

       Chapter 2

      Emma wandered over to a poster mounted on the wall and stopped, staring at the glossy pictures of animals without really registering what she was seeing. He has to help me. The thought circled round in her brain, drowning out everything else. If she kept repeating it to herself, it would have to be true, right? There simply wasn’t another possibility. She couldn’t search the park alone, and she didn’t have the money to hire a private guide. The ranger was her only hope, and if he refused, she didn’t know what she was going to do.

      He didn’t believe her story, that much was clear. She’d seen the skepticism in his eyes and known he was writing her off as crazy. But Detective Randall would vouch for her, and then the ranger would have to understand. After discovering she was the real deal, surely he couldn’t refuse to help her find Christina, even though that wasn’t something a park ranger normally did.

      She still couldn’t believe Joseph had taken her baby. He’d called a few weeks ago, asking for money to pay off some debts. When Emma had told him she didn’t have any cash to spare, he’d simply said, “Okay.” She figured that had been the end of it.

      But when she’d found Christina’s empty crib, she’d called the police and then her brother. She’d wanted him to tell their mother what was going on—Emma hadn’t had the emotional energy to break the news to anyone else.

      Joseph had sounded unconcerned at hearing his niece was missing. “She’s fine, Em.”

      “How can you say that? You don’t know where she is!”

      “Actually, I do. She’s with me.”

      Joe’s confession had turned Emma’s blood to ice. She’d begged and pleaded with him to return her daughter, but her brother had refused.

      “I told you, I need money.” He’d sounded exasperated, as if he was tired of repeating himself.

      “And I told you, I don’t have it.”

      “We both know that’s not true. You got a fat settlement after Chris’s death.”

      “It wasn’t a lump sum,” she’d protested. “I don’t have a pile of money gathering dust in my bank account.”

      “Anyway,” he’d said, ignoring her. “Christina and I will be fine. You can have her back once you get me what I need.”

      He’d hung up then, leaving Emma feeling even more distraught. The police had tried to trace his phone, but to no avail.

      “He probably dumped it already,” one of the detectives had told her.

      The police and the FBI thought Joseph would stay in El Paso, figuring it was his home base and he wouldn’t want to stray far from the familiar. But Emma wasn’t so sure. The two of them had spent a lot of time in Big Bend as children, camping with their parents. Joseph had used the park as an escape before, when he’d needed to clear his head or take a break. It was a long shot, but Emma thought he might have run here again.

      The