Ranger's Baby Rescue. Lara Lacombe

anything.” Joseph had nearly soiled himself, and only the two men gripping his arms had kept him from falling to his knees. “I just need a little time to get the money together. A month, that’s all.”

      “Two weeks.” Karnov uncocked the pistol and let his arm hang by his side. “And I’m charging you interest. Now it’s five hundred thousand.”

      The figure had taken Joseph’s breath away, but he couldn’t exactly protest. “Thank you,” he’d said, swallowing hard. Not for the first time, he cursed his bad luck. First, he’d backed the wrong football teams. Then, he’d tried to buy himself out of the hole by betting on ponies. That had only made things worse.

      And so, out of options, he’d come to his sister, tail between his legs.

      “I’ll pay you back,” he’d promised. And he’d meant it. He had no intention of mooching off his baby sister; it was more like he’d asked her for a loan.

      But Emma hadn’t seen it that way. “Joseph,” she’d said, perfectly replicating the note of disappointment their mother had mastered over the years. “How could you do this to yourself again? You’re smarter than that.”

      He was smart, that much was true. But neither the football teams nor the ponies respected intelligence. It was all a game of chance, and Lady Luck hadn’t smiled on him in far too long. He certainly hadn’t meant for things to get so out of hand, but life was a cruel bitch sometimes.

      The downturn in his fortunes had stung, but not nearly as much as his sister’s denial. Emma’s refusal to help him was a betrayal of their relationship, and it cut him to the quick. She had the money—he knew she’d gotten a fat settlement from the other driver after Chris’s death. But she lied to his face, acting like she had nothing to give.

      “I don’t have the money.” She’d said that several times, as if repetition would convince him to believe her lies. “The other driver doesn’t have money, so I’m not getting any.”

      Yeah, right. Did she think he was stupid? The guy who was responsible for killing Chris might not be Mr. Moneybags, but Joseph knew he was paying. Maybe not all at once, but a monthly sum had to add up quick, and it had been over a year since the judgment. By his reckoning, Emma was sitting on a nice lump of cash. It might not be enough to pay his debt in full, but it would definitely buy him some breathing room. He’d heard through the grapevine that Karnov’s enforcers were brutal, going so far as to remove body parts from debtors.

      But no matter how clearly he explained the situation, she clung stubbornly to her lies.

      “I know you want to use the money for Christina’s education,” he’d said. “And I’ll have plenty of time to pay you back. You won’t even miss the funds.”

      “No, Joseph. I can’t help you.”

      More like won’t, he’d realized as he left her apartment. If he’d had more time, he probably could have come up with a way to persuade her to lend him the money. But a few hours after his conversation with Emma, Karnov’s thugs had found him and administered a painful beating. His ribs still ached from the blows.

      “Next time, we take things,” the square-jawed enforcer had made a scissoring motion with his fingers as he and his partner left Joseph in a heap on the floor.

      With his time running out, Joseph had resorted to desperate measures to secure his sister’s help. He felt bad about taking the baby, but really, Emma had only herself to blame. If she had simply agreed to help him instead of being stingy, he never would have had to take Christina.

      The baby in question was apparently bored with her ball. She began to crawl, her gaze focused on the open backpack lying a few feet away.

      “Oh, no you don’t,” Joseph muttered. He reached out to snatch the bag from her grasp, depositing it on the other side of the tent.

      Deprived of her goal, Christina opened her mouth and let out a piercing wail. Fat tears began to roll down her chubby cheeks, and her face turned pink with distress.

      “It’s okay,” Joseph said, scrambling to find some kind of distraction to stop the crying. The sound of her voice was like nails on a chalkboard, and he felt his hackles continue to rise with every passing second.

      “Are you hungry?” In desperation, he twisted the top off a pouch of baby food and stuck it in her mouth. Christina blinked in surprise at this unexpected development. She gummed the nozzle for a moment, testing the plastic. Apparently deciding the offering was acceptable, she began to suck on the pouch, restoring a peaceful quiet to the tent.

      Joseph let out his breath, grateful for the reprieve but knowing it wouldn’t last long.

      Bringing the baby to Big Bend hadn’t been one of his smarter decisions, but there was no other place he could think of to hide while Emma got the money together. He’d camped here so much as a kid, but now that he was responsible for a child, he realized how difficult those trips must have been for his own father. There weren’t a lot of creature comforts out here in the wilderness. But fortunately Christina was too young to notice that. He’d grabbed diapers and baby food before taking her, figuring that was all he’d need. Camping with an infant was not exactly fun, but at least they were isolated enough that her cries wouldn’t bother anyone else. A single man with a baby would raise suspicion; all he had to do was lie low for a few more days, and his problems would be solved.

      He knew Emma had called the police. They were probably searching for him now, thinking he was a danger to his niece. It wasn’t true—he had no intention of hurting the baby. As soon as he got the money, he’d make sure Emma got her daughter back. But he wasn’t going to stick around for the reunion. He was going to have Emma leave the money at a public location. Then he was going to tell Karnov where to find it. Let the Russian deal with the police when he sent his goons to retrieve the funds. Joseph smiled at the thought, imagining the square-jawed thug taking a few on the chin as he was arrested. Karnov would be pissed to learn he’d been double-crossed, but Joseph didn’t care. He’d be long gone by the time it all got sorted out. Besides, he was technically paying his debt. It wasn’t his fault Karnov wasn’t going to get to keep the money.

      Joseph retrieved the ball and set it in front of Christina. She eyed it with interest, the now-empty pouch dropping from her mouth.

      “Ba, ba, ba,” she babbled. She rocked forward to grab the ball, treating Joseph to an eye-watering whiff of her diaper.

      “Didn’t I just change you?” he grumbled. He reached for a fresh diaper and the wipes as the baby cooed happily to her toy.

      “Almost done,” he told himself as he set about the unpleasant task. “Just a few more days.”

      They couldn’t pass quickly enough.

       Chapter 3

      “Is this going to take much longer?”

      Matt glanced up from the computer screen to offer Emma what he hoped was a reassuring smile. She’d been pacing in front of his desk for the past twenty minutes, clearly on edge. She was obviously anxious to start the search, but there were things they needed to deal with before heading out into the park. He sympathized with her desire to do something, but he wasn’t about to head into an unknown situation without doing a little prep work first.

      “I’m almost done,” he said. “Do you have a photo I can add?” He was putting together a flyer to print, a sort of wanted poster that showed the baby and briefly explained the situation. He wanted his fellow rangers to know what was going on, so they too could be on the lookout.

      “A picture of Christina?” Emma asked. “Or Joseph?” Matt could tell by the way she practically spat her brother’s name that there would be no forgiveness for her sibling. Not that he blamed her—kidnapping wasn’t exactly something a mother could forget.

      “I’ll take both,