Free Kidnapping in Kendall County by Delores Fossen Page B

through in the past twenty-four hours, Austin wasn’t about to trust anyone completely. However, he had to do whatever it took to get the baby to safety.
    “I’ll be there in about five minutes,” Austin told the detective.
    “Vickie could have gotten away,” Rosalie concluded when Austin ended the call. “She seemed to have had some kind of warning, a long enough one to call you.”
    Yeah. She’d said they were coming to kill her, not that they were already there. Since they’d had enough bad news, Austin decided to hold on to that as a positive sign. Even if Vickie had had only a couple of minutes’ head start, it might have been enough for her to escape and hide from her would-be attackers.
    But where the heck was she now?
    Following the instructions on his GPS, Austin took the final turn toward Vickie’s house. Technically, it was inside the city limits, but it was still fairly rural with the thick trees and narrow road leading to the pastoral-sounding neighborhood of Eden Waters.
    He was about to repeat his warning to Rosalie that she couldn’t be part of this. The warning died on his lips, however, when he saw the auburn-haired woman. She was partly concealed behind a winter-bare oak tree, and she had something clutched in her arms.
    “Vickie,” Rosalie and he said in unison.
    Austin hit his brakes, pulling his truck to the side of the road, and drew his gun. He also had to catch hold of Rosalie’s arm to keep her from bolting.
    “She looks terrified,” Rosalie insisted.
    “And looks can be deceiving,” Austin insisted right back. “Plus, this could be some kind of a trap.”
    But if it was, then it was a darn good one. The woman’s gaze met his, and even from the twenty-yard or so distance that separated them, Austin was pretty sure he could see the fear in her eyes.
    “We have to protect that baby.” Rosalie shook off his grip, and she would have no doubt bolted again if Austin hadn’t stopped her.
    “Wait here,” he ordered, and he made sure that’s exactly what it was.
An order.
Austin handed Rosalie his phone. “Call Detective Hernandez and tell him where we are. I want him here now so he can guard you.”
    Of course, Austin would still have to keep an eye on Rosalie to make sure she stayed put and that the guards didn’t use this opportunity to sneak up on them.
    “There’s a gun in the glove compartment,” he added and gave Rosalie one last glare of warning before he opened his truck door. “I’m Agent Duran,” he called out to the woman.
    As with the fear he’d seen earlier, he thought maybe now there was some relief. Still clutching the bundle in her arms, she started running toward them. “I’m Vickie Cravens.”
    “Get down,” Austin told Rosalie.
    He didn’t look back to make sure she did it. He kept his attention nailed to the woman and the area around her. Vickie was doing the same, her gaze darting all around as she made her way to him.
    “We have to get out of here,” Vickie insisted. “I got a call, and they’re on the way.”
    “Who’s on the way?” Austin demanded, and he moved in front of her to block her from getting into the truck.
    Vickie’s breath was gusting, and she frantically shook her head. “No time to explain now.”
    Austin would have argued that, but the sound stopped him cold. The baby cried, squirming beneath the blanket, and he knew that he couldn’t just stand there and wait for something else bad to happen.
    He cursed the fact that Rosalie was in the truck. Cursed also because he had put her right back in the middle of possible danger. He hoped it didn’t turn out to be the same kind of mistake he’d made with Eli.
    Austin checked as best he could to make sure Vickie wasn’t armed, and he helped her onto the seat between Rosalie and him. Thankfully, Rosalie had taken the .38 out of the glove compartment, but Austin prayed neither of them had to use a weapon, especially not in such close quarters.
    He spotted the cop car coming up