Claiming Felicity (Ace Security #4)(73)

Maria looked down at the precious bundle. If she was this child’s mother, she’d be frantic to get him back, just as she knew her own mother was for her. Even though she wasn’t a child anymore, she knew deep in her bones that her mamá wouldn’t give up trying to find out what had happened to her.

The money Maldad had thrown at her was sitting on the kitchen counter. Maria hadn’t seen anyone in several days. It was the longest she’d ever gone without being raped or assaulted. Suddenly the urge to leave the apartment was overwhelming. Maybe it was a trick. Maybe the border agents would know at a glance the passport Maldad gave her was a fake. But wouldn’t being caught at the border be better than staying here? Spending time in jail and being deported to where she wanted to go in the first place would be heaven compared to being raped every day and treated as if she was an object.

But the baby.

Maldad wanted her to take him with her over the border. Into Mexico. The man hadn’t done one nice thing for her in three years. He certainly wouldn’t start now. He had to have done something bad in order to have gotten the baby. If she took the child across the border, she’d be playing right into whatever horrible scheme Maldad had planned.

But on the other hand, the smiles and snuggles from the baby were the first friendly gestures she’d had since she’d been abducted. He was a helpless babe, and he needed her. Maria looked back up at the television. Even though an advertisement for some useless gadget was now being shown, all she could see was the frantic worry on the faces of the baby’s parents as they’d pleaded with the public for any information about their kidnapped son.

Moving with a sense of urgency, and mentally berating herself for waiting so long to follow Maldad’s orders, she ran into her former prison and scooped up the blanket she’d used for so long. Carefully swaddling the infant until he was in a cocoon of fleece, she continued to get ready to leave. The only shoes she had were an old pair of men’s flip-flops. She’d worn them to the store, and they’d hurt her feet, but she didn’t care. She needed to leave. Now.

Maria Gonzalez slipped out of the apartment much the same way she’d entered it all those years ago . . . silently and unnoticed by the drug dealers, prostitutes, and gang members who milled about.

Home.

She was going home.

Maria wasn’t sure where she was or how to get to the border, but she had money in her pocket, a baby who was relying on her, and a renewed sense of urgency. She’d find the border crossing or die trying.



The tall Native American firefighter arrived at Station 7 later that day for his shift. He had the door open when he thought he heard something off to his right. He’d recently had a few experiences with his woman that made him extra cognizant of his surroundings. Turning his head, hoping not to see a coyote or another wild animal, he carefully looked into the bush with one hand on the doorknob and blinked at what he saw.

He cracked open the door and called out for his friends. Not waiting for them, he leaned down and picked up what he’d at first thought was simply a dirty blanket. But when he heard the faint cooing sound emanating from the material, he knew what he was looking at. Cradling the precious bundle in his arms, he read the note that was tucked into a fold on the baby’s chest.

Missing baby. On televisión. Colorado. Nate. You take home.

The words were short and to the point, and the firefighter decided, because of the accent mark over the letter o in televisión, it was probably written by someone whose native language was Spanish.

“It’s a baby,” he told his fellow firefighters as he met them just inside the large station. “Maybe that infant who’s been on the news out of Colorado. Call the cops. If it is him, his family needs to be notified as soon as possible that he’s safe.”

The fireman took one last look around the yard, as if he could find whoever had left the child. Seeing nothing, and somehow knowing searching would not only be futile but possibly dangerous to whoever had dropped off the child, the firefighter quietly shut the door.

He never saw the skinny young woman hiding in a row of bushes across the street, unwilling to leave before making sure baby Nate was safe. She’d made some poor decisions in her life, but this wasn’t one of them. She climbed out of her hiding place and headed back to the fast-food restaurant she’d been dropped off at by the taxi she’d hailed near the apartment she’d been held captive in.

Her plan was to get another taxi and head south.

Home.



Detective Baker took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. The second he’d heard the news, he’d raced to the Anderson house. It wasn’t often he got to deliver good news in a case like this one.

When he first heard the Anderson triplets were moving back to Castle Rock, he hadn’t exactly been pleased. He remembered the brothers from when they were in high school. They hadn’t exactly been troublemakers, but they definitely were on the radar of the local cops.

But they’d done more good than even Detective Baker probably knew since they’d returned. They almost single-handedly took down one of Denver’s most notorious gangs, and they helped countless other people who needed their brand of security.

So when he’d heard that baby Nate had been found, safe and healthy, he’d been more than happy to take the drive out to Logan and Grace’s house to give them the news personally.