Daddy Devastating by Delores Fossen

those shots at Julia.”
    “You can’t. I’m going in pursuit. Yeah, it’ll blow my cover as the buyer, but Milo thinks the Richardsons are the real buyers anyway.”
    No doubt. But that was only one of the issues they’d have to resolve. “What about the agents who took Julia?” Russ asked. “Milo’s man saw that happen, too.”
    “We’ll convince him that they were your hired guns.” Silas sounded out of breath, as if he had been running, but Russ couldn’t see the man anywhere in the park. “We can create fake IDs for them and plant some bogus employment records that’ll link them to you. They’re waiting at the park entrance for you to get in the car.”
    His stomach dropped. “Waiting? I told them to get Julia to the hotel.”
    “I told them to wait for you. It’s the only thing that makes sense, Russ. Now, get the hell out of here, or we might end up losing the Richardson kid.”
    Russ wanted badly to argue. Like Julia, he was primed for a fight, and he didn’t want to let this shooter walk. Still, he couldn’t blow the investigation.
    He couldn’t just turn and make a run for the car. Russ had to get out of the park in the same cautious way he’d come in—because it was possible the gunman was still in that tree waiting for an opportunity to shoot him.
    Russ hurried. He didn’t want Julia waiting out in the open any longer than necessary, and he finally spotted the black sedan parked on the side of the road at the entrance. Other vehicles were speeding away, and the San Saba cops were responding with seemingly every unit they had. The air was filled with the sound of sirens and people shouting.
    The back door opened when Russ was just a few feet away, and he got in before he cops could see him. He didn’t want to have to explain his gun or his lack of a badge. Especially since Silas had already warned him that one of Milo’s men was watching.
    Julia was the one who opened the door for him, Russ soon learned. She was there on the backseat, and she grabbed his arm to pull him inside so he could shut the door. The moment he did that, the agent behind the wheel drove away. Not speeding. He didn’t want to do anything to draw attention to them so they’d be stopped. Russ’s supervisor and Silas would be the ones to fill in the local police on what was happening.
    “You’re okay,” she said, her voice filled with breath and nerves.
    Was he? Maybe physically he was, but inside he felt as if he were battling a hurricane. He looked at the scrapes on her knees and cursed. “You’re hurt.”
    She shook her head. “Just worried. I called Zoey. Emily and she are okay. For now.”
    That was good. But Julia was indeed hurt. He’d have to tend to those scrapes and check for anything more serious.
    Unlike at the meeting, she looked on the verge of losing it. Russ hooked his arm around her and pulled her to him. “It’ll be okay,” he promised. But it was a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep. Still, he would try, no matter the cost.
    “We need to get to the Wainwright Hotel,” Russ reminded the agents.
    He knew both of them—Kevin Lopez and Chris Soto—and knew he could trust them. If they’d been available at the beginning of his investigation, he would have requested either of them for a partner.
    “Silas,” Russ mumbled.
    “What about him?” Julia asked.
    “He went after the shooter.” Perhaps without FBI backup, since the two security detail agents were with Russ. But maybe Silas would get lucky and be able to apprehend the guy and haul him in for questioning. Russ had a dozen things he wanted to ask, including first and foremost—who had ordered him to fire those shots?
    Unless Milo was the shooter.
    That thought caused him to rethink his hired gun theory. Milo had left in plenty of time to get up in that tree. If he had a rifle already planted there, he could have been the one to take the shots. And if it was him, Russ would make him pay. As soon as the Richardson baby was