her sister in so many ways, but she couldn’t fail this time.
“Who was that man?” Holden added when she didn’t say anything.
“A hired thug. I don’t know his name, but I’m sure he’s already told his boss what happened.”
And what had happened was that things had just fallen apart. Nicky had thought she had more time, hours at least, to come up with a plan. But time had just run out.
She couldn’t help herself. The tears came, and she tried to fight them back. The tears wouldn’t save Annie’s baby. Right now, she had to focus and get to the hotel as soon as possible.
“Where are we going?” Holden demanded, and he took out his phone and texted someone.
Probably one of his cousins or brothers. They were all lawmen, and under different circumstances, they might be able to help. But in this case, they could make things much, much worse.
“The Victorian bed-and-breakfast about ten miles from here.”
“The place out in the middle of nowhere?” he asked.
She nodded. “I’m pretty sure that’s where they’re holding the baby.”
Holden cursed and sent another text. “There’d better be a damn good explanation as to why you’re pretty sure about that. And there’d also better be an equally good explanation as to why you told me Emmett and Annie had a baby.”
It was hard to think with everything racing through her mind, with her heart racing, too, but she tried. Sometime in the next five minutes she needed to convince Holden that he had to help her.
“This all started when I was investigating the missing senator, Lee Minton,” she said. “I found out he and his wife had gone to Conceptions Fertility Clinic around the same time as Emmett and Annie. So, I went to Conceptions, too, not expecting to find much, but they stonewalled me. That made me push even harder to find out what they were hiding.”
He mumbled, “Right.” Probably a dig at the fact that she usually pushed too hard. Sometimes, with deadly consequences.
“And what they were hiding was a baby? Emmett and Annie’s baby?” There was a boatload of skepticism in his voice.
Once, she’d been plenty skeptical, too. If she hadn’t been, if she’d jumped on this earlier, they might not be racing to save a child.
“Yes, their baby,” Nicky affirmed. “And don’t ask why they did all of this because I don’t know. Not yet anyway. But I think it might somehow be connected to the senator’s disappearance.” But she could be a long way from figuring how exactly.
“Senator Minton?” he asked, though he probably wasn’t asking for clarification but was rather puzzled as to how Minton would play into this. The answer was maybe he didn’t, but the senator had been missing for two weeks now, and it was while looking for him that she’d stumbled on to Conceptions.
“Yes, Senator Lee Minton,” she confirmed.
“How are you sure of any of this?” Holden snapped.
Oh, he was not going to like this. “I hacked into the clinic’s computer and copied some files,” she added. “Hacked into the senator’s computer, too, and then I put a listening device in Conceptions Clinic.”
Now, Holden’s cursing got a whole lot worse. For good reason. Because she’d just rattled off enough crimes to put her in jail. But she’d had an even better reason to do this.
To save Annie’s son.
“That’s what the thug was talking about,” Holden snarled. “Where are the files and what’s in them?”
Nicky decided to skip the where part and move to the what. Just in case the thug had managed to turn the tables on her and bug her car.
“The ones I copied from Conceptions were marked ‘the Genesis Project,’” she explained. “No names were connected with them, just case numbers, and when I looked at one, I figured out from the dates that the case number was Annie and Emmett’s.”
She’d tell him about the other info in them later. For now, Nicky focused on taking the road to the B and B.
“I don’t know who did it, but someone stole Annie and Emmett’s embryo and implanted it into a surrogate. And last week, the surrogate gave birth to a boy.” Nicky turned off her car’s headlights as she approached the B and B, and she pulled off the road, parking behind some trees.
Holden shook his head, stayed quiet a moment. “Could be it was a mix-up. Or maybe the embryo was donated to another couple who used a surrogate?”
Mercy, she wanted to latch onto that and believe it. “Then, why did that man just threaten me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you stole more than one set of files or pissed off more than just these people. Or it could have something to do with why the FBI wants to arrest you.”
Even if it was true, it was still too big of a risk to let them move the baby. Of course, Holden might not believe there was a baby. He soon would, though.
“Who’s inside that place?” he asked.
“Probably more men like the one who came to my house tonight.” Hired guns to protect very precious cargo until they could get her father to pay up. “Look, I don’t have time to explain all of this, but if they move the baby, we might never find him.”
She didn’t voice her greatest fear, that the goons inside might try to harm him so there’d be no proof of what they’d done.
“What if there really is a baby inside?” he went on. “How would we even know if it’s Emmett and Annie’s?”
She motioned toward her hair. “According to what I heard from the eavesdropping device, he’s a ginger.” Not exactly rare but at least it was something like Annie and me. Besides, she thought she might recognize her own sister’s child.
“You have backup on the way?” she asked.
Holden nodded. “It’s Landon. I told him to do a silent approach.” He tipped his head to the house. “If the guy who was at your house had already contacted them, they could shoot us on sight.”
“No. They want me alive so I can tell them where the files are. That’s why he didn’t kill me right away when he barged his way into my house.” Not exactly a reminder to steady her nerves. Of course, her nerves hadn’t been steady in a long, long time.
Nicky eased open the door, but Holden stopped her.
“I’m not letting you go in there,” he insisted.
“They want me alive,” Nicky repeated. “They’ll want you dead. If anyone should go in there, it’s me. But I need you...well, if something goes wrong, I need you to get the baby out.”
Holden took hold of her again, and this time he didn’t let go. “You’re not going in there. Wait here. And so help me, if you disobey that order, I’ll arrest you myself.”
But
