JOSH by Delores Fossen Page B

said the moment Josh answered. “I heard them say your name so that’s why I asked for you.” Her breath was gusting and her words rushed together. “I knew it was safe to call you. Because I figure if they want you dead, then you’re not working for them.”
    “Who wants me dead?” Josh asked.
    “The guards.” A sob tore from her throat. “Four months ago I was kidnapped. And I gave birth to my baby yesterday. The guards took her. I don’t know where. But they were going to kill me, and I managed to escape. I can’t look for my baby on my own. I need your help.”
    Oh, mercy. This didn’t sound good at all.
    “Escaped from where?” Josh pressed.
    “A ranch out in the middle of nowhere. I need your help, please,” she repeated. “And I need you to find my baby and arrest the person who did this to us.”
    The muscles in his jaw turned to iron. “You know who the person is?”
    “I know.” The woman made another ragged sound.
    And the line went dead.

Chapter Ten
    “Miranda?” Josh repeated, though he knew it was useless. The call had ended, and he didn’t know if the woman had done that herself or if someone else was responsible for the disconnection.
    Josh immediately phoned back the dispatcher. “What’s the number Miranda Culley was calling from?”
    “It’s from a prepaid cell phone.”
    Josh groaned. There was no way to trace that, but it did make him wonder where she’d gotten the burner. Maybe like Sierra, she’d stolen it from one of the guards.
    “If she calls back, put her straight through to me,” Josh instructed.
    “You know her?” Josh asked Jaycee when he ended the call with the dispatcher.
    “No.” Jaycee shook her head and moved to Grayson’s laptop. “I’ll check NCIC.”
    The National Crime Information Center was a database for missing persons. It was a good start, but it’d be even better if Miranda called back and told them where the heck she was.
    And if she gave them the name of the person responsible.
    They needed that info from Miranda so they could make an arrest and put an end to not just the baby farms but the attacks, as well.
    “She’s missing, all right,” Jaycee confirmed several moments later. “Miranda Ann Culley is twenty-eight, single and worked as a waitress in Kerrville. No immediate family, but her boss reported her missing two months ago.”
    “No mention of the father of her baby?”
    Another head shake and more clicks on the computer keyboard. “She does have a record, though. Busted for drugs six years ago. Nothing since.”
    So she’d cleaned herself up. Maybe. Or maybe she just hadn’t gotten caught. And that led Josh to something else he had to consider. “This could be a setup to lure us out into the open.”
    Jaycee met his gaze from over the top of the computer. “Sierra wasn’t a setup.” She paused, groaned softly. “I don’t want it to be a setup. If she was held captive like I was, then I want her rescued.”
    Survivor’s guilt. Something Josh recognized because he felt it himself. His partner, Ben, had died, and he hadn’t. It didn’t matter that he’d had no say in the matter as to who had lived and who had died. Jaycee hadn’t had a say in her captivity and rescue, either.
    But the guilt was still there.
    “I want all of them rescued,” Jaycee added. Her voice trembled, and she cursed. “Damn hormones.”
    He suspected the hormones weren’t nearly as much to blame as the guilt and Jaycee’s need to get justice for all the women who’d been taken. Josh went to her, knowing it was a mistake to get this close when the emotions were sky-high. It was also a mistake to put his arms around her.
    But he did it anyway.
    “When you’re nice to me, it only makes it harder,” Jaycee mumbled.
    He eased back, looked at her and his eyebrow lifted, questioning that.
    “If you’re angry with me,” she said, her voice barely a whisper now, “then I can forget about that night we spent together.”
    His eyebrow lifted