couldn’t agree more. “How are the babies? Where are they?”
He tipped his head toward a hall off the E.R. “We brought them in through a side entrance. Two other deputies are with them and will escort them to Child Protective Services when the social workers arrive.”
That made her breathe a little easier, but her heart was still slamming against her chest.
“My brother’s the sheriff,” Deputy Ryland continued, “and he’s on his way to what’s left of the baby farm sites. We’ll have a CSI team out there, and the FBI’s been called in.”
With all that, they might find something.
Correction: they had to find something.
“What exactly happened to Janice? How did she die?” she asked. Part of Rosalie didn’t want to know the details, especially since she felt responsible, but the other part of her had to know.
“She was shot,” the deputy explained. “It appears the bullet went in through the back window of the truck she was driving, and it struck her in the side of the neck. It’s a miracle she managed to get away from her attacker. A miracle, too, that the babies weren’t hurt.”
Just hearing that spelled out caused her knees to buckle, and if Austin hadn’t caught her, Rosalie was afraid she would have fallen. It wasn’t just these babies who caused her reaction. Though they were the immediate concern. But if the monster behind this had put these two babies at such horrible risk, then her daughter was in the same danger.
Mercy, it hurt too much to think about that. And she’d tried to keep the bad thought aside. Impossible to do that now that she’d dealt with those guards face-to-face. Rosalie knew what they were capable of and how far they’d go to keep their operation under wraps.
Deputy Ryland must have noticed the alarm on her face and probably in every inch of her body because he grumbled something about checking on Sonny, and he stepped away, no doubt so Austin could tend to her.
“Come on,” Austin said, taking her by the arm. “I’ll get you to that safe house.”
Rosalie wanted to stay put, to learn as much as she could from whatever else Sonny might tell them. However, even she couldn’t deny that she was shaken to the core and needed a few hours to regroup.
After that, she’d have to get away from Austin.
Protect her, Seth had told him, and it didn’t matter about the bad blood between Austin and her. She figured Austin had no plans to let her out of his sight.
Well, temporarily, anyway.
He’d likely put her in some other agent’s protective custody so that he could get on with finding his nephew and putting an end to the baby farms. He’d want to exclude her while doing that.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
“How far is this safe house?” she asked.
“Not far. But we’ll have to drive around first to make sure we aren’t being followed. And it’s not a place we want to use for long. It’s best if I make arrangements for another place outside the county.”
That would put her even farther away from the baby farm. From Janice’s killers, too. But it wasn’t a trade-off Rosalie wanted since she needed to find answers about Sadie, and sadly, those killers might have those answers. Once they were at this interim safe house, she would somehow have to convince Austin to stay in the area.
That wouldn’t be an easy task.
Austin paused when they reached the E.R. doors and looked out. There were no other vehicles near his truck, just the same ones that had been in the parking lot when they’d arrived. Still, he hurried, and the moment he had her inside, he drove away.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No.” Rosalie didn’t even try to lie, especially since she was still shaking.
He made a soft sound of agreement. “I’m sorry. I know the shooting must bring back memories of Eli.”
“Everything brings back those memories,” she mumbled.
“Yes.” And that’s all he said for several moments. “I know saying I’m sorry won’t help, but I am sorry.”
Rosalie heard the words. Every one of them. But she couldn’t respond. She’d been raised to be polite. To not do anything intentionally to hurt a person’s feelings, but there was no way she could let him off the hook.
Eli was dead.
And Austin was partly to blame.
There were probably a lot of details of the investigation she didn’t know, but Seth had given her the big picture. Austin and Eli had been undercover investigating an illegal weapons ring, and when a hired gun of the operation had tried to flee, Austin had gone after him.
And in doing so, Austin had essentially blown their covers.
As a result, Eli had been gunned down a few seconds later by a second hired thug, who then disappeared along with his partner whom Eli had been chasing. All of this had happened just weeks before Eli and she had planned to walk down the aisle. Rosalie hadn’t even had a chance to tell Eli that he was going to be a father since she’d learned the news herself only that morning.
As horrible as all those memories were, they gave her something to focus on. Something other than Janice’s murder and the danger to all those babies.
Probably because she was still shivering, Austin cranked up the heat and took the road out of town. He didn’t go far, less than a mile, before he turned around and went in the opposite direction.
“See anything?” he asked.
Rosalie was about to say no, but she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A vehicle was parked on a side road. No headlights, and it didn’t pull out and follow them. However, because of the events of the night, it put her on edge.
“Yeah, I saw it,” Austin said, following her gaze to the side mirror. “It could be a spotter, to try to figure out which direction we’re going.”
And that meant it could be someone connected to the baby farms. “Too bad we just can’t stop and question the person inside.”
“Not with you in the truck.” Austin continued to glance at the vehicle while he turned back toward town. “I’ll try another road.”
The words had hardly left his mouth when the vehicle pulled out onto the road, following them.
“Get down in the seat,” Austin warned her.
Rosalie slid down, but she stayed high enough so she could watch from the side mirror.
Austin handed her his phone. “Call Sawyer. Tell him there’s been a change of plans, that I’m taking you to the Silver Creek sheriff’s office instead so they can guard you there.”
She hated being pawned off, but her mere presence was stopping Austin from going after the person in the vehicle.
