Free JOSH by Delores Fossen

for real.
    Not a peck.
    A real kiss.
    Even if the past had been settled between them—and it wasn’t—he darn sure shouldn’t be kissing someone in his protective custody. It was the fastest way to get them both killed.
    “Sorry,” Josh repeated, and he pulled way back from her. “We’ve been saying that a lot to each other.”
    She nodded, and he caught another whiff of her sweet breath when she murmured an agreement. “I thin k the ‘I’m sorrys’ are j ust getting started, though.”
    He wasn’t stupid. Not about this anyway. He figured that applied to many things. The attraction. Her pigheaded views of how to run an investigation. Her views, period. Jaycee and he always seemed to be butting heads, and he was making it worse with this stupid ache he had for her.
    Though he hadn’t gone through with the kiss, Jaycee must have sensed what he’d been thinking of doing.
    “Yeah.” She pressed her lips together a moment, and even though the simple gesture wasn’t meant to tease, it made his body tighten again.
    And beg.
    “It’s all right,” she added. “I know this attraction doesn’t mean anything.”
    It didn’t.
    Well, nothing other than he was playing with fire and losing focus. Something that always seemed to happen when he was around Jaycee.
    He quickly got that focus back. Josh fired off a text to Grayson to let him know they were about to come in the interview room. Just in case Grayson had any objection. But his cousin only gave a weary nod. Grayson clearly wasn’t making any headway with Bryson.
    Hoping this wasn’t as big a mistake as he figured it was, Josh stayed ahead of Jaycee when they went into the room, but Bryson looked right past Josh. The man barely gave him a glance and then turned to stare at Jaycee.
    “I need your help,” Bryson said to her, and he slipped his hand inside his jacket, causing both Grayson and Josh to reach for their guns.
    Bryson’s hand froze for a moment. “It’s just a picture,” he explained. But Josh and Grayson kept their hands on their guns until Bryson did indeed pull a photograph from his pocket. He held it up for them to see.
    “Do you recognize her?” Bryson asked, his attention back on Jaycee. “Was she one of the women being held captive with you at the baby farm?”
    Now, that was a question Josh hadn’t seen coming. He looked at the photo.
    Grayson and Jaycee did, too.
    It was a glammed-up shot of a woman in her early thirties, with dark auburn hair that tumbled onto her shoulders. She was wearing a flimsy negligee and a come-hither expression. It was the kind of photo that a woman gave to her lover.
    “I don’t think she was there,” Jaycee said. “Who is she?”
    “Sierra DeSilva,” Valerie supplied. “My sister.”
    “She’s missing?” Grayson asked.
    Valerie lifted her shoulder, and her forehead bunched up. “She could be. Sierra isn’t the most responsible person. She often disappears for months at a time. Usually when she has a rich boyfriend who’ll cater to her whims.” She made a sound of disgust. “And after she’s run through all his money, she comes to me looking for more. But this time, she hasn’t come back.”
    Josh intended to do a background check on this Sierra, but first he wanted more information. “Sierra’s pregnant?”
    “Yes,” Bryson and Valerie said in unison. “She should be just about ready to deliver,” Bryson added. “And it’s my child she’s carrying.”
    “You can’t be sure of that,” Valerie mumbled.
    “I can be,” Bryson fired back. That wasn’t an affectionate look he was giving Valerie. Or even a civil one. Odd since this woman was his attorney. “I had Sierra take an amnio, and the test proved the child was mine.”
    “If she didn’t have the results faked.” Valerie huffed. “You were only with her for a few months. You don’t know how manipulative Sierra can be.”
    Bryson’s face reddened, but he didn’t challenge that. So maybe Sierra was running some kind