JOSH by Delores Fossen

water before the tears came spilling down her cheeks. “I can’t believe I got away from them. They’ll come for me,” she added in a broken whisper.
    “Where were you when you escaped?” Jaycee asked.
    Sierra looked at her as if she hadn’t noticed her before in the room despite Jaycee asking her a question earlier. “I’m not sure. I’ve already told the sheriff that it was about a mile or so from the gas station. I stole a phone before I got away, but there wasn’t any service until I actually got to the gas station.”
    “There are a lot of dead spots for cell phones out there,” Grayson added. “But we’ve called the Texas Rangers so they can comb the area.”
    “They have to find it,” Sierra said. “There are other women being held captive.”
    It sickened Jaycee to hear that, but if Sierra was telling the truth, those women stood a good chance of being rescued tonight.
    “Your sister came in earlier,” Josh tossed out there. “And Bryson.”
    At the mention of those names, Sierra’s tears dried up and her mouth tightened. “Let me guess. They had all sorts of lies to tell about me.” Not exactly a question.
    Josh lifted his shoulder. “Bryson said you tried to blackmail him over some sex tapes.”
    Sierra didn’t blush, didn’t even dodge his intense lawman’s stare. “I simply asked him to pay me for the tapes. Did he also tell you that he broke into my place to get them?”
    Josh nodded. “If you want to file charges against him, I’ll put you in contact with someone at SAPD.”
    “That’s water under the bridge.” Sierra got that distressed look again as if she might start crying. “I’m the victim here. Not my money-grubbing sister and my ex-boyfriend. In fact, you should look at both of them, because either of them could be behind these baby farms.”
    Great. The sisters had now accused each other of running this heinous business. “You have any proof that they’re responsible?” Jaycee pressed.
    Sierra quickly nodded. “I do. I have some of Valerie’s bank records at my apartment. They prove that she was withdrawing huge sums of money from her trust fund.”
    Grayson and Josh exchanged glances. “How’d you get these records?” Grayson asked.
    Now Sierra’s gaze darted away. “I saw them in her office and copied them, all right? I knew she was up to no good, and I wanted some proof.”
    So she’d stolen them. And tried to use a sex tape to extort money from her former lover. Sierra definitely had some credibility issues, but at least she didn’t seem to be dodging their questions.
    “Does your sister need money or something?” Josh pressed. “I ask because I’m just wondering why you’d think she would do this.”
    “Money, definitely,” Sierra said. “Yes, she’s got plenty of it, but she’d love to have much more. With Valerie it’s always more, more, more, and she doesn’t care who she steps on to get it.”
    Obviously, they needed to take a hard look at Valerie’s financials. Of course, this could all be lies. Or not. Sierra certainly seemed shaken, but Jaycee had to admit that it could all be an act.
    Sierra gave a weary sigh. “I know it’s hard to think this about one’s own sister, but I believe Valerie could have had me kidnapped so she could sell my baby to Bryson.”
    Interesting.
    Jaycee couldn’t completely dismiss that theory. From everything she’d seen, Bryson would indeed pay a huge ransom to get his heir. Of course, Bryson himself could be behind this, too. He could have had Sierra kidnapped to ensure that he got his hands on the baby.
    So now they had three suspects.
    Sierra, Bryson and Valerie.
    Jaycee didn’t have a gut feeling about any of them except that she didn’t intend to trust any of them.
    “Can someone call Bryson and tell him I’ve been rescued?” Sierra asked.
    The request was a surprise, considering that minutes earlier she’d accused him of telling lies about her.
    “I can call him,” Grayson finally said,