making her feel giddy.
She had never known she could love a baby so much. Had never known she could feel so much pain when he had been ripped from her life.
He lay curled on his side, covered in the crocheted blanket her mother had given him when Holly had brought him home. She gently eased it aside. “Come on, sweetheart. Mommy’s here. We’re never going to be separated again.”
A scream lodged in her throat.
Her baby was gone! Nooooo. Not again.
Tears swam to her eyes as she frantically searched every corner of the crib. But her efforts were useless. Her baby hadn’t come back. They hadn’t found him at all.
He might be lost to her forever….
HOLLY’S EYES flew open, a sob wrenching from deep inside her as she leaned over Sky’s empty crib. How many times in the past four months had she been entrenched in this nightmare and walked in her sleep to her son’s room? Tears flowed down her cheeks and dripped onto her hands as she dropped her head onto the railing and cried.
Why hadn’t they found him? Who had stolen her baby from his crib? Why would someone torture her like this? Maybe she had been spoiled, a rich girl, had played with fire by seducing Night, but she loved Sky, and he…he didn’t deserve this.
Her chest heaved with her sobs, the hope she’d clung to the first week he’d been kidnapped dwindling every day. And now the FBI and her father were practically giving up. Even the P.I.s working on the case hadn’t caught the kidnapper.
A shrill sound cut through her misery and she jerked her head toward her bedroom. The phone was ringing. Not a house phone though, her cell phone. Who would be calling this time of night?
Someone about the search? Night maybe? She’d barely talked to him since he’d stormed out. But she knew he had been watching her.
Knew he blamed her, as she blamed herself.
The price she had paid for her passion…would her misery ever end?
The sharp ring drowned out her thoughts, and she dashed through the bathroom and flipped on a light, scanning the clumps of clothes and accessories littering the dresser and her chaise lounge for the phone. Where was her purse?
Panicked now, she tossed items haphazardly onto the floor, digging beneath the rubble until her hands landed on the oversize leather bag she’d purchased to double as a small diaper bag. She’d wanted to be a fashionable young mother.
Now, she would trade every cent the Langworthys had to hold her baby again.
The phone trilled again and she turned the bag upside down and dumped the contents. Lipstick, brush, wallet, powder—cell phone. Sighing with relief, she punched the button and held it to her ear. “Hello.”
“Holly Langworthy?”
“Yes.” She frowned, the hair at the nape of her neck rising. She didn’t recognize the gruff voice.
“If you want to see your son again, listen carefully.”
Her heart hammered against her ribs. This was the phone call they’d been waiting for. Her legs gave way and she collapsed onto the plush carpet, unable to believe it—she might get Sky back. “Wh—what do you want me to do?”
“Meet me at the Langworthy cabin at dawn.”
Her hands trembled as she fought her emotions. “Is my son all right?”
“Just show up. And, Holly…” His breath wheezed out. “Come alone. If I see a cop, or even a hint of one, you’ll never see your baby again.”
REGARDLESS OF the late hour, Colleen Wellesley had called a meeting at the Royal Flush to discuss the Langworthy baby kidnapping. Most of the key Confidential agents were there—Shawn Jameson, Ryan Benton, Colleen’s brother Michael, Fiona Clark, Conrad Burke, and Night.
The Confidential operatives had been working round the clock for the past four months. Although the FBI was pulling back, Samuel Langworthy still wanted Colorado Confidential, known to him as ICU, on the case. Thank God.
But even if Langworthy or Colorado Confidential gave up, Night wouldn’t.
His co-workers had no idea how powerless he felt without answers. Or how Night wanted them to use the Walker name instead of Langworthy when they referred to his son. Not that Samuel Langworthy would ever allow that to happen….
“Okay,” Colleen said after calling the meeting to order. “Let’s recap what we’ve learned so far.” She gestured toward her brother Michael. “Traces of wool, dirt, and egg shells were found by the baby’s crib. The wool fibers were from Merino sheep. I sent Michael undercover to the Half Spur, a Merino sheep ranch partially owned by Senator Gettys, to see if there might be evidence to connect him to the kidnapping.”
Michael took the floor first. “The atmosphere at the Half Spur was secretive and strange. Blood was collected from the flock at regular intervals. We lifted one of the blood samples and sent it to the Fort Collins CDC for testing. The sheep’s blood tested positive for a strange virus and antibodies for a bacteria called Coxiella burnetii, which causes Q fever. It seems the sheep are a test flock for a self-spreading vaccine for Q fever.” Michael paused.
“I received an e-mail from Wiley Longbottom, the director of the DPS,” Colleen added. “He saw those CDC results and suggested we check out a flu that hit Silver Rapids early this year.” She indicated for Shawn to continue.
“About five months prior to the kidnapping, a flu hit Silver Rapids. The people were treated at Gilpin Hospital in Denver. Two died.” Shawn pressed his hands on the table. “At about the same time the kidnapping occurred, Gilpin’s records room was damaged in a fire.”
“Too much of a coincidence,” Night said.
“Exactly. We caught the arsonist but he claims to know nothing about the kidnapping,” Shawn explained. “But we’re sure that the experiments being done on the sheep ranch are connected to the Silver Rapids flu. Dr. Kelley Stanton—” Shawn flushed as he said the name of the woman Night knew had captured his heart “—discovered that the flu was actually a Q fever outbreak. The people of Silver Rapids were probably exposed to a live version of whatever was being tested on the Half Spur flock.
“Senator Gettys still insists that Samuel Langworthy staged the kidnapping for publicity for his son Joshua. Former governor Todd Houghton seems to be in agreement.”
With Holly’s knowledge or without? Night had watched her from a distance these past four months, had seen the strain on her face, the dark circles beneath her eyes that showed she wasn’t sleeping. Even though she loved her brother Joshua and Night still resented the fact that she had kept his son from him, he didn’t believe she’d be a party to such a plan.
Ryan Benton jumped in. “While Michael was at the Half Spur, I investigated Helen Gettys, the senator’s former wife.”
Night turned his attention to Ryan, who explained that the senator was under investigation by the FBI for experimenting with biological weapons. Helen Gettys had given Ryan computer disks, copied from the Half Spur, that all but proved Gettys was involved in experiments that were likely illegal.
“When
