The Last McCullen Read online

  No such luck.

  She’d watched Darren screw some woman, waiting patiently as if the scene didn’t disturb her.

  Then she’d slid from the car and slunk up to the apartment.

  A movement inside Hoyt’s apartment snagged his eye.

  The lights flickered in the bedroom. Movement as Darren, wearing nothing but a towel, stalked toward Tia.

  Maybe they’d gotten rid of the baby together and this was rendezvous time.

  A shadow moved. Tia standing now.

  The silhouette of her body revealed an outstretched hand.

  No, not outstretched. An arm extended, hand closed around a gun.

  He jerked the door to his SUV open and ran toward the apartment.

  Just as he reached the apartment, a gunshot rang out.

  Chapter Two

  Tia’s hand trembled as she fired a shot at Darren’s feet. “Tell me what you did with Jordan.”

  Darren jumped back, his eyes blazing with fear and shock. “What the hell are you doing, Tia?”

  She lifted the gun and aimed it at his chest. “I want the truth, Darren. Where is my baby?”

  “I told you I don’t know.” He took a step backward. “Now put down that damn gun. You don’t want to hurt me.”

  Oh, but she did. “Maybe I do,” she said, allowing her anger at his betrayal to harden her voice. “You cheated on me, emptied my bank account, then left me pregnant and alone.” Thank God she’d had the good sense to protect her charity so he couldn’t touch those funds.

  The eyes that Tia had once thought were alluring darkened to a menacing scowl. “I wouldn’t have cheated if you’d satisfied me, baby.”

  Oh, my God. He was a total jerk. “I don’t care who you sleep with or how many women you have. All I want is my son.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who lost him,” Darren said sharply. “So tell me what you did with him, Tia?”

  Rage boiled inside Tia. “I was exhausted from labor and the night feedings. I went to sleep.” Still, the guilt clawed at her. “That’s when you snuck in and stole him, didn’t you? You were mad that I wouldn’t give you more money, so you decided to get revenge. Did you hurt him or leave him with someone?”

  “You’re crazy,” Darren shouted. “I can’t believe the cops haven’t already locked you up.”

  She was terrified they would. Then she couldn’t find her baby.

  He reached for his cell phone on the bed. “I’m calling them now—”

  Panicked, she fired the gun again. The bullet zinged by his hand. He pulled it back and cursed. She started toward him, but a low voice from behind her made her pause.

  “Put down the weapon, Tia.”

  A chill swept through her at the gruff male voice. She clenched the gun with a white-knuckled grip and pivoted slightly to see who’d entered the room.

  “Put it down, Tia,” a big, broad-shouldered man with dark brown hair said. “No one needs to get hurt here.”

  “She’s insane. She tried to kill me,” Darren screeched.

  Tia inhaled a deep breath at the sight of the man’s Glock aimed at her.

  “He stole my baby,” Tia cried. “I just want him to tell me where Jordan is.” She swung the gun back toward Darren. She’d come too far to stop now. If this man worked for Darren, she didn’t intend to turn over her weapon. Then she’d never convince Darren to talk.

  Suddenly the big man lunged toward her. She screamed as he knocked her arm upward, twisted the other one behind her back and growled in her ear, “I said drop it.”

  “Who are you?” Tia said on a moan. It felt as if he was tearing her arm out of the socket.

  “Special Agent Ryder Banks. FBI.”

  Shock robbed her of breath. Or maybe it was his strong hold.

  A second later, he whipped the Saturday night special from her hand. She cried out as he pushed her up against the wall, and yanked her other arm behind her.

  The sound of metal clicking together sent despair through her as he handcuffed her and guided her to a chair.

  “You saw her. She tried to kill me,” Darren shouted.

  Tears blurred Tia’s eyes. If she went to jail, she’d never find her son.

  * * *

  RYDER NEVER LIKED being rough with a woman. But he had no choice. This one was about to shoot a man.

  Whether the guy deserved it, he didn’t know.

  He wished to hell he’d had more time to do a background check on both of these two.

  “Thanks, man.” Darren released an exaggerated breath and gestured toward Tia. “She’s a total nut job. She was going to kill me.”

  “I was not.” Tia shot him a rage-filled look. “I just want to know what you did with our baby.”

  “You fired at me,” Darren shouted.

  Ryder jerked a thumb toward Darren. “Sit down and shut up.”

  Darren sputtered an oath. “I didn’t do anything. She broke in and pulled a gun on me.”

  Unfortunately she had done that—Ryder had witnessed it himself.

  Perspiration beaded on Darren’s forehead. “Arrest her and take her to jail.”

  Tia started to argue, but Ryder threw up a warning hand, then addressed Darren. “Do you know where the baby is?”

  A vein throbbed in the man’s neck. “No.” He tightened the towel around his waist.

  “Put on some damn clothes,” Ryder said, annoyed that the man hadn’t asked to get dressed.

  Darren sauntered to the closet, yanked out a shirt and jeans, then disappeared into the bathroom.

  Tia cleared her throat. “I wasn’t going to kill him,” she said again. “I just wanted to scare him into talking.”

  Ryder’s gaze met hers. His boss had failed to mention that Tia Jeffries was gorgeous. Petite in height, but curvy with big, bright blue eyes that made her look innocent and sexy at the same time.

  An intoxicating combination.

  “You should have let the police handle it,” he said, forcing a hardness into his statement. He had to do his job, find the truth, ignore the fact that when he’d handcuffed her, he’d felt a shiver ripple through her. That she felt fragile—well, except for that gun.

  Still, she wasn’t experienced with it. Her hand had been shaking so badly he’d had to wrestle the gun from her before she hurt her ex or shot herself.

  “I tried,” she said, anger mingling with desperation in her voice. “But that sheriff treated me like I’d hurt my own baby. He believed Darren instead.”

  “That’s because Tia is unstable,” Darren said as he stepped into the bedroom. “She did something to Jordan and now she’s trying to blame me.”

  “That’s not true.” Tia’s voice broke. “I would never hurt my son. I...love him.”

  She said love in the present tense. A sign that she might be telling the truth. Sometimes when people were questioned about the suspicious disappearance of a loved one, they used past tense, which meant they already knew their loved one was dead.

  “She has emotional problems,” Darren said. “Just check her history. She had a breakdown a few years ago.”

  Ryder raised a brow. “Yet you married her?”

  The man’s eye twitched. “Hell, I didn’t know it at the time. But then she started acting weird and depressed and erratic. I encouraged her to get help, but she refused.”

  Hurt flickered in Tia’s eyes. “That’s not true.”

  “Yes, it is. When we met, she was all over me. Later, I realized that was just because she wanted a baby.” His voice grew bolder. “I guess she thought she could trap me into staying with her. And I fell for it. But she was obsessed with the pregnancy. She stockpiled baby clothes and toys and furniture for months.”

  Tia’s eyes glistened with tear
s. “It’s true I wanted a baby, but I wasn’t obsessed.”

  Ryder folded his arms. Some women did that to trap a man. Then again, if Darren hadn’t wanted a child, he had motive to do something to the infant.

  “You must have been angry when you discovered you were going to be a father,” he said, scrutinizing Darren for a reaction.

  “He was,” Tia said. “But I didn’t get pregnant on purpose.”

  “Yes, she did.” Darren’s eyes flickered with anger. “And, yeah, sure, I was mad, but I took responsibility.”

  The bastard made it sound as if he’d done Tia a favor, not as if he actually cared about his own offspring.

  Darren pasted on a smile that looked as phony as a three-dollar bill. “I stayed with her for a couple of months, but she’s impossible to live with.” Another exaggerated sigh, as if he was a victim of a crazy woman. “She pushed me away, told me she wanted me gone. That she’d just used me to get the child and she didn’t need me anymore.”

  Pain streaked Tia’s face as she shook her head in denial. “That’s not the way it happened at all. He started cheating on me, dipping into my money.”

  Ryder studied Darren then Tia. No wonder the local sheriff had asked for help.

  Both stories were plausible.

  Although Darren’s attitude rubbed him the wrong way. The man seemed too slick, as if lying came easy.

  The anguish in Tia’s eyes seemed real.

  Although her anguish could stem from guilt.

  He steeled himself against the tears in her deep blue eyes.

  He would find out the truth.

  No child should have to suffer at the hands of the very people who were supposed to love and protect him.

  * * *

  THE COLD METAL felt heavy on Tia’s wrists.

  She could go to prison for attempted murder.

  God...where had this federal agent come from? Had he been following her?

  And why? Because the local sheriff had passed her case to the feds and thought she was guilty of doing something to Jordan?

  Pain made her stomach clench. How could anyone think that?

  She gulped back a sob. What was going to happen now?

  She had to convince Agent Banks that she was telling the truth.

  Darren strode across the room as if he owned the world and grabbed his belt. “Are you going to take her in?”

  “You intend to press charges?” the agent asked.

  Darren paused, his mouth forming a scowl. “I should. She would have killed me if you hadn’t shown up.”

  “Don’t do this, Darren. You know I’m not crazy or violent.” Her voice cracked. “I just want my little boy back.”

  The agent crossed his arms. Darren walked over and stared into Tia’s eyes with a coldness that chilled Tia to the bone. “Then tell the cops what you did with him and maybe they’ll find him. And stop trying to make me sound like the guilty one.”

  Tia jutted up her chin, battling a sob. Her arms were beginning to ache from being bound behind her. “He’s your son, Darren. But you really don’t care about him, do you? If you did, you’d be asking the police to search for him, too.”

  “How do I even know he’s mine?” Darren asked sarcastically. “Maybe you lied so I’d hang around.”

  Hurt robbed her of speech. How could he be so cruel?

  Giving her one last icy look, he turned to the agent. “Lock her up so I don’t have to worry about her shooting me tonight in my sleep.”

  “Darren, please,” Tia whispered, desperate. “If you know who took Jordan, tell me. I won’t even press charges. I just want him back.”

  Instead of answering, his jaw hardened. “Agent Banks, I told you to get her out of here. I have things to do.”

  A hopeless feeling engulfed Tia as the agent helped her stand.

  “You need to come to the sheriff’s office to file an official police report,” the agent told Darren.

  Darren gave a quick nod and muttered that he would.

  Tia searched the agent’s face for some hope that he believed her story, that he would help her.

  But hope faded as he guided her outside to his car.

  Dark storm clouds rolled in, obliterating the few stars that had shined earlier.

  He opened the back door and gestured for her to get in. Emotions overwhelmed her as she sank into the backseat and he drove toward the jail.

  Chapter Three

  Tia hunched in the backseat of the agent’s car, her nerves raw.

  She was going to jail. She’d never see her baby again. If Darren had given Jordan to someone else, little Jordan would grow up without ever knowing her.

  He might never know she’d looked for him, that she loved him.

  A hollow emptiness welled in her chest. Hands still cuffed behind her, she leaned forward. She couldn’t breathe.

  Tears trickled down her cheeks, but she was helpless to wipe them away.

  She closed her eyes, willing herself to be strong. An image of her son’s tiny body nestled in the baby blue blanket and cap she’d knitted taunted her.

  Even if she never got him back, she had to know he was safe.

  But how could she do that locked in a cell?

  The car bounced over a rut in the road, and she lifted her head and looked out the window. Rugged farm and ranch land passed by. Trees swayed in the wind, leaves raining down. Dark shadows hovered along the deserted stretch of land, signaling that night had set in.

  Another night away from her baby boy.

  Minutes crawled by, turning into half an hour.

  She gulped back a sob and cleared her throat. “Where are you taking me?”

  Agent Banks met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “The sheriff’s office in Sagebrush.”

  Despair threatened again. The sheriff, Dan Gaines, had been less than sympathetic when she’d asked for help. He’d practically accused her of killing her child so she could be single, footloose and fancy-free.

  He had no idea that footloose and fancy-free was the last thing she wanted.

  Or that she’d spent her adult life missing the family she’d lost. That all she wanted was someone to love to fill the hole in her aching heart.

  That she spent her days working with kids and families in need, helping them find housing and counseling so they could patch their lives back together. That the money she’d received from her parents’ life insurance had gone toward a charity she’d started called Crossroads.

  Agent Banks drove through the small, quaint town of Sagebrush, then parked at the sheriff’s office. Dread made her stomach roil.

  She had to find someone who’d believe her. Sheriff Gaines certainly hadn’t.

  Maybe Agent Banks would.

  Somehow she had to convince him she wasn’t the lunatic Darren had painted her to be.

  * * *

  RYDER CLENCHED THE steering wheel with a white-knuckled grip. Tia Jeffries looked tiny and frightened, and so damn vulnerable that he felt like a jerk for handcuffing her.

  She had a damn gun and shot at a man.

  Whether she’d been provoked made no difference. The law was the law. He was a by-the-book man.

  Except sometimes there were grays...

  Where did this woman fall on the spectrum?

  He parked at the sheriff’s office, killed the engine, then walked to the back of the car and opened the door. Tia looked up at him with the saddest expression he’d ever seen.

  Eyes that could suck a man in with that sparkling color and innocence.

  Except the innocence was yet to be proven.

  He had to keep his head clear, his emotions out of the picture.

  Only her lower lip quivered as he took her arm and helped her from the ve
hicle, making his gut tighten.

  “I don’t care what you do to me,” she said with a stubborn lift to her chin. “But please find my baby.”

  What could he say to that? She wasn’t pleading for him to release her, but she was worried about her child.

  Wasn’t the sheriff looking for the baby?

  His gaze met hers. “I’ll find him,” he said. And if she was lying, he’d make sure she stayed locked up.

  But...if there was any truth to her story, he’d find that out, too.

  She inhaled sharply as he led her to the door of the sheriff’s office. When they entered, a husky man in a deputy’s uniform sat at the desk. He looked up with a raised brow.

  “Where’s the sheriff?” Ryder asked.

  “On a call.” The man stood and extended his hand. “Deputy Hawthorne.” He gave Tia a once-over. “What’s going on?”

  “Miss Jeffries needs to cool down awhile. Pulled a gun on her ex.” He didn’t add that she’d fired that weapon.

  The deputy grabbed a set of keys, jiggling them in his hand. “I’ll put her in a holding cell.”

  Ryder nodded, although the terrified look on Tia’s face twisted his insides. Dammit, he didn’t have a choice.

  “Can I have my phone call?” Tia asked.

  “In time,” Deputy Hawthorne said.

  “Let her make the call,” Ryder said. For some reason, he didn’t trust how quickly the deputy planned to follow through.

  Deputy Hawthorne shrugged and gestured toward the phone. “Is it local?”

  Tia nodded, and he handed her the handset. The handcuffs jangled as she punched in a number.

  Ryder gestured for the deputy to step to the side. “Miss Jeffries claims her baby was kidnapped from her home. Has the sheriff been investigating?”

  The man shrugged. “He thinks she got rid of the kid. No proof yet, though.”

  “Anything on the Amber Alert?”

  “So far nothing.”

  “He talked to the baby’s father, Darren Hoyt?”

  Deputy Hawthorne nodded. “Man had an alibi.”

  Ryder wondered how solid it was. “Did the sheriff tape his interview with Miss Jeffries?”

  The deputy narrowed his eyes. “Not when he got the call and went to her house. But she came in and he recorded that conversation.”