Free Kidnapping in Kendall County by Delores Fossen

strawberry-shaped birthmark on his left leg.”
    That would help, but only if they got a close look at the baby.
    “I’m guessing your sister already put this info out there, in case someone adopted a baby with a birthmark like that?” Rosalie pressed.
    “Of course.” He stared at her. “And no one came forward. I think that probably means that the person who adopted him or bought him knew they were doing something illegal.”
    Yes. She’d come to the same conclusion. “We don’t even know how many babies are missing. From everything I’ve learned about this operation, they kidnap illegals and homeless girls and force them into surrogacy. They kidnap pregnant women, too, and they steal babies.”
    “And they murder the women,” Austin reminded her. His gaze came to hers again. “That’s why you have to back away from this. You can’t be a mother to Sadie if you’re dead.”
    Rosalie cursed the blasted tears that watered her eyes. She’d cried an ocean of tears over this, and the crying jags only drained her. They didn’t help. And that’s why she tried to blink them back.
    As she did most other times, she failed.
    Austin cursed again, clearly not any happier about the tears than she was, and Rosalie figured it was a good time to go back into the bedroom and get control of herself. She didn’t make it far.
    Still cursing, Austin reached out, snagged her by the shoulder and hauled her to him. He wasn’t gentle. Not at first, anyway. Rosalie could practically feel the frustration in the corded muscles of his arms. But then his grip around her relaxed.
    “I’m sorry this happened to you.” His voice was gentle, too. Almost a whisper. And even though Rosalie figured that being in his arms was a very bad idea, she just didn’t have the strength to push him away.
    Austin made a soft shh-ing sound and eased her deeper into his arms. Until she was pressed against him. Even with the tears and her heart shattering, she felt his body. Heard the quick rhythm of his breath.
    Felt it, too.
    When his chest rose against her breasts.
    Just as when she had spotted him at the table with his bedroom hair and eye-catching jeans, the trickle of heat went through her. A bad kind of heat that she didn’t want to feel for him. But did, anyway.
    Rosalie pulled in her breath, taking in his scent with it, and she got a feeling of a different sort. Her heart raced, slamming against him.
    And he noticed, all right.
    Heck, maybe she was giving off some kind of weird vibe because Austin pulled back, his gaze meeting hers. His left eyebrow lifted a fraction. Rosalie figured what he was silently asking—was she actually attracted to him?—but it was a question she had zero intentions of answering.
    His grip melted off her, and Rosalie stepped back, but his gaze stayed on her mouth. She was well aware of this because her attention stayed on his eyes.
    Bedroom eyes, too.
    Oh, mercy.
    She was in trouble here.
    “You’ve been under a lot of stress,” Austin mumbled, as if that explained everything going on between them right now.
    Yes, it was a nightmarish time for her, but Rosalie doubted stress could cause this warmth that she was feeling in just about every part of her body. Still, she nodded, accepting the out he’d just given her. She needed to take that
out
a little further though and get the heck out of there and away from Austin.
    “You plan to call Seth now?” Austin asked.
    Had he read her mind about that, too?
    Of course, maybe it hadn’t taken any mind-reading powers. She didn’t exactly have a lot of options here.
    Rosalie nodded and was about to ask if she could use his phone, but it buzzed before she could do that. Since they’d had only bad news all morning, she tried to brace herself for more but prayed for a better outcome.
    “It’s Vickie,” Austin said, glancing at the screen, and he hit the button to put the call on speaker.
    “Agent Duran?” the woman immediately said, but she didn’t wait for him to