we take things,” the square-jawed enforcer had made a scissoring motion with his fingers as he and his partner left Joseph in a heap on the floor.
With his time running out, Joseph had resorted to desperate measures to secure his sister’s help. He felt bad about taking the baby, but really, Emma had only herself to blame. If she had simply agreed to help him instead of being stingy, he never would have had to take Christina.
The baby in question was apparently bored with her ball. She began to crawl, her gaze focused on the open backpack lying a few feet away.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Joseph muttered. He reached out to snatch the bag from her grasp, depositing it on the other side of the tent.
Deprived of her goal, Christina opened her mouth and let out a piercing wail. Fat tears began to roll down her chubby cheeks, and her face turned pink with distress.
“It’s okay,” Joseph said, scrambling to find some kind of distraction to stop the crying. The sound of her voice was like nails on a chalkboard, and he felt his hackles continue to rise with every passing second.
“Are you hungry?” In desperation, he twisted the top off a pouch of baby food and stuck it in her mouth. Christina blinked in surprise at this unexpected development. She gummed the nozzle for a moment, testing the plastic. Apparently deciding the offering was acceptable, she began to suck on the pouch, restoring a peaceful quiet to the tent.
Joseph let out his breath, grateful for the reprieve but knowing it wouldn’t last long.
Bringing the baby to Big Bend hadn’t been one of his smarter decisions, but there was no other place he could think of to hide while Emma got the money together. He’d camped here so much as a kid, but now that he was responsible for a child, he realized how difficult those trips must have been for his own father. There weren’t a lot of creature comforts out here in the wilderness. But fortunately Christina was too young to notice that. He’d grabbed diapers and baby food before taking her, figuring that was all he’d need. Camping with an infant was not exactly fun, but at least they were isolated enough that her cries wouldn’t bother anyone else. A single man with a baby would raise suspicion; all he had to do was lie low for a few more days, and his problems would be solved.
He knew Emma had called the police. They were probably searching for him now, thinking he was a danger to his niece. It wasn’t true—he had no intention of hurting the baby. As soon as he got the money, he’d make sure Emma got her daughter back. But he wasn’t going to stick around for the reunion. He was going to have Emma leave the money at a public location. Then he was going to tell Karnov where to find it. Let the Russian deal with the police when he sent his goons to retrieve the funds. Joseph smiled at the thought, imagining the square-jawed thug taking a few on the chin as he was arrested. Karnov would be pissed to learn he’d been double-crossed, but Joseph didn’t care. He’d be long gone by the time it all got sorted out. Besides, he was technically paying his debt. It wasn’t his fault Karnov wasn’t going to get to keep the money.
Joseph retrieved the ball and set it in front of Christina. She eyed it with interest, the now-empty pouch dropping from her mouth.
“Ba, ba, ba,” she babbled. She rocked forward to grab the ball, treating Joseph to an eye-watering whiff of her diaper.
“Didn’t I just change you?” he grumbled. He reached for a fresh diaper and the wipes as the baby cooed happily to her toy.
“Almost done,” he told himself as he set about the unpleasant task. “Just a few more days.”
They couldn’t pass quickly enough.
“Is this going to take much longer?”
Matt glanced up from the computer screen to offer Emma what he hoped was a reassuring smile. She’d been pacing in front of his desk for the past twenty minutes, clearly on edge. She was obviously anxious to start the search, but there were things they needed to deal with before heading out into the park. He sympathized with her desire to do something, but he wasn’t about to head into an unknown situation without doing a little prep work first.
“I’m almost done,” he said. “Do you have a photo I can add?” He was putting together a flyer to print, a sort of wanted poster that showed the baby and briefly explained the situation. He wanted his fellow rangers to know what was going on, so they too could be on the lookout.
“A picture of Christina?” Emma asked. “Or Joseph?” Matt could tell by the way she practically spat her brother’s name that there would be no forgiveness for her sibling. Not that he blamed her—kidnapping wasn’t exactly something a mother could forget.
“I’ll take both, if you have them,” Matt said. It would be good to show Joseph’s face as well, especially since he might have the baby in a tent or otherwise have her face obscured when people were around.
Emma pulled out her phone and tapped the screen. After a moment, she flipped it around so he could look at it.
“That’s my love,” she said, choking up a bit.
Matt had to admit her daughter was a beautiful child. She had her mother’s curly dark hair and heart-shaped face. But her eyes were startlingly blue, like a cloudless summer sky. Deep dimples reminded him of a cherub, and her toothless smile held such joy Matt couldn’t help but smile back.
Seeing her made his heart ache for the child he’d lost. Even though he hadn’t been the father of Jennifer’s child, he’d been well on his way to falling in love with the little guy.
“How old is she?” he asked, unable to take his eyes off the picture.
“Ten months,” Emma replied.
Almost a year, he thought. A little older than Fisher had been when the DNA test results had proved Matt wasn’t his father. Did babies that young have memories? It broke his heart to think that Fisher, now three years old, might remember him or feel abandoned because he’d left.
Matt cleared his throat, trying to cast off his melancholy. “Too young to be away from you for long,” he said.
Emma nodded. “She’s eating solids now, so as long as Joseph has baby food she won’t starve. But she still likes a bottle, and he won’t know that.”
“We’ll find her,” Matt said. The thought of that innocent baby crying from hunger made his own stomach twist with anxiety. He hadn’t considered all the logistical reasons why Christina needed her mother—he’d just assumed maternal love was driving Emma’s sense of urgency. But now he realized all the practical issues involved—the diaper changes, feeding, dressing, rocking. All tasks that could technically be completed by anyone with half a brain, but from the baby’s perspective, her needs had only ever been met by her mother. To have a stranger caring for her now had to be stressful and frightening.
All the more reason to get out there and start looking.
“Send me that photo, please.” He rattled off his email address. “And send me any pictures you have of your brother.”
Her fingers flew across the screen of her phone. “Done.”
A moment later he heard the chime
