Page 35 of Her Baby, Her Badge

“Be careful,” they said to each other at the same time.

Grace held the eye contact a few seconds longer, needing it, and also needing the unspoken assurance they’d all make it out of this alive. Then, they bolted from the cruiser with her heading to the front door and him running to the barn to join the search for his father.

Obviously, one of the ranch hands standing guard inside the house had seen Grace coming and knew who she was, because he opened the door to let her in. She recognized him as well. Cooper O’Malley. Like her, he’d been born and raised here in Renegade Canyon, and she was certain that Dutton had vetted him as well.

“Jamie, her nanny, the cook and the housekeeper have moved from her bedroom and into her bathroom,” Cooper said, motioning toward the stairs. “It’s the second room on the right.”

She nodded but didn’t budge until Cooper had shut the door, locked it and reactivated the security system.

Grace could count on one hand how many times she’d been to the palatial house. Definitely a mansion, but the furnishings weren’t what she’d call fancy. It was more classic cowboy, with its leather furniture and artwork of the prized horses and cattle that had been raised on the ranch over the years.

When she made it up the stairs and to the hall, she saw yet another hand, Taylor O’Malley, Cooper’s brother, and he opened the bedroom door for her. No cowboy vibe here. It was the decor of a girl caught somewhere between childhood and teens, since there were at least a dozen stuffed animals on the pale pink bed along with posters of some K-pop singers.

“Jamie, it’s me,” Grace said, and almost immediately the en suite bathroom door opened. Jamie rushed out and into Grace’s arms.

“Did you find Uncle Ike? Is he alright?” Jamie blurted.

Grace held her for a moment, silently curing the terror she could practically feel coming off the girl. “Not yet. Lots of people are looking, though, and we’ll find him,” she added as she led Jamie back into the bathroom, where there were no windows, thankfully.

The cook, Jeannie Ingram, the nanny, Millie Roberts, and one of the housekeepers, Ruby Bilbo, were near the tiled shower, and they all looked as frightened and concerned as Jamie.

“Tell me what happened,” Grace said to the girl. Yes, Jamie had already spilled the basics to Dutton, but often people remembered small but important things when they repeated the account.

“Start from the beginning,” Grace instructed. She kept her voice calm, hard to do, knowing the search was going on outside. Outside, where Dutton, her deputies, Ike and the hands could become targets.

Jamie nodded and drew in a long breath. “Uncle Ike and I came back here after we left the police station. He stayed in the truck, and I went inside to get my backpack.”

“Was the delivery truck you saw earlier still here?” Grace asked when the girl paused.

“No. But a few of the hands were down by the corral. No one was near the house, though.”

Well, someone likely was, but Jamie just hadn’t seen them. Grace figured Ike’s attacker could have been waiting by the side of the house, or even behind the perfectly manicured shrubs and hedges that threaded through the grounds.

“I went straight to my room once I was inside,” Jamie went on. “And I didn’t see or hear anyone. I got my backpack and then stopped to answer a text from my friend, who wanted to know when I’d be at school. Oh, and I went to the bathroom.”

Grace tallied up the time, and all of that should have only taken about five minutes or so. Not much time, so Ike’s abductor must have been close.

“And then what?” Grace prompted.

“When I went outside, the truck was still running, but Uncle Ike wasn’t in it. So I looked around, thinking that maybe he’d gone down to the corral where I saw the ranch hands. But they weren’t there, either. No one was.” Jamie stopped, swallowed hard. “Then, I saw the blood on the seat. Did someone hurt Uncle Ike?”

Grace dodged that question. No way did she want to spell out the possibilities. So she went with a question. “Did you hear anything when you were looking around for Ike? Maybe footsteps? Or did you sense anyone moving nearby?”

Jamie shook her head, and the tears welled in her eyes. “Is this my fault?” she asked.

“No,” Grace was quick to say. “Why would it be?”

“Well, if I hadn’t forgotten my backpack, Uncle Ike and I wouldn’t have been here.” She went into Grace’s arms again, and Grace held on to her, wishing she had the time to soothe her.

She didn’t.

Grace eased Jamie back and met her gaze. “I need the four of you to stay here so I can go help look for Ike. As soon as we find him, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, don’t go anywhere near the windows.”

“Because someone could shoot at us,” Jamie muttered.

The girl’s raw emotion felt like a fist squeezing Grace’s heart, and she found herself brushing a kiss on Jamie’s forehead before she hurried away. The sooner she got out there looking, the sooner they could maybe put an end to this. However, she’d barely made it back to the stairs when she heard someone shout something that she definitely hadn’t wanted to hear.

“Fire!”

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