His Tattooed Virgin(Divine Creek Ranch 12)(94)

“Cooperate, baby. We’re tracking you and authorities already know in Lusty. Do what you have to do to stay safe. I love you.”

Wishing she could reply but not willing to take the risk of Phillipe seeing, she slipped the phone into the front pocket of her jeans and covered it with Seth’s shirt which swallowed her.

Toby woke two hours later, cranky and red-faced. A few minutes later, everyone in the SUV knew why as the noxious odor of his diaper filled the air.

“Merde! The stench! Pull over!”

Phillipe made a gagging sound and obeyed, then looked at Henri for further instructions. Henri groused and fiddled with the window controls as the SUV rolled to a stop on the shoulder of the two-lane stretch of highway. They had to be close to Lusty by now.

Henri climbed out and then jerked open her door. Glancing in both directions, he brandished the revolver at her. “One false move and I leave you a bloody mess on this road. Change him.”

He pocketed the gun and allowed her to climb out. Standing in the open doorway on the grassy side of the shoulder, she unlatched Toby’s harness and lifted him from the car seat. She placed a changing pad on her seat and laid him on it to clean him up and changed Toby’s diaper as Phillipe glared at her from the driver’s seat.

Henri adopted a harmless demeanor as a truck approached them heading in the direction they’d just come from. Jayne handed Toby a toy to keep him from fussing. She glanced at the vehicle and had to bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep from betraying herself. The driver of the truck bore a startling resemblance to Julián Alvarez. He pulled over on the opposite shoulder and rolled his window down. Phillipe rolled his window down and nodded. Chills rippled up her spine as she heard the gun cock.

Henri whispered, “One false move, you die, and that driver dies too.”

“Y’all broke down? Need help?”

Phillipe shook his head and did an amazing job at sounding American. “Nah. Jus’ changing a diaper.”

The driver nodded and grinned like he’d been there and done that. “Y’all have a good day.” He had dark sunglasses on, but she knew it when his attention shifted to her through the opened windows. He didn’t betray himself as anything but a helpful rancher running an errand. He rolled the window up and proceeded down the road.

Attending to her task, she changed the diaper with all speed and packed the diaper bag up and put Toby back in his car seat. Wondering at what the rancher’s purpose had been in stopping, Jayne didn’t complain when Henri shoved her to get her in her seat, bruising her shins on the doorframe.

Once on the road again, Jayne said, “He didn’t eat lunch. He’s going to get fussy. May I feed him?”

One word from the front seat as Henri paid attention to his cell phone. “Yes.”

She carefully unzipped the main compartment, pulled out his spoon, and chose one from a dozen junior-sized jars of baby food. Because Toby was growing so fast, she’d recently stocked up on the larger-sized baby food jars. Chills went up and down her spine as she listened to his call. Henri sounded suave and metropolitan as he made plans to sell her to the highest bidder, after he’d given her a try.

Over my dead fucking body, asshole.



* * * *



Seth willed the SUV to go faster as Ace spoke with Kemp on the phone. Kemp had stayed behind to help Duke Rivers and Gage Randall monitor things from Divine. They’d called with regular updates on Jayne’s changing location. Ace hung up the phone and smiled sympathetically at Seth.

“I know how you feel, Seth. Don’t worry. This is an easy op. These guys have no idea what they’re doing.”

Given that she’d still had her phone in her possession, Seth had to agree, but he knew the type of man Henri was.

“They’re taking the back roads to Lusty to avoid notice. At this rate, we’ll beat them to the airstrip by at least ten minutes.” The phone rang again, and Ace answered it. “Yeah? Good. Okay.” He hung up again. “That was Hank. Adam Kendall said one of his men, Peter Alvarez, just checked in while doing recon. He’s a Fed. Experienced. They had to stop to change the baby’s diaper. She has a bruise on her cheek but otherwise she seems okay. He said she might’ve recognized the family resemblance between him and his brother, Julián, but she was cool as a cucumber.”

He hit her. Fury of inhuman proportions boiled inside of him. “Good. That’s my girl.”

“We’ll get her and your boy back. Too bad we’re headed this way in an emergency capacity. There’s this place in town, Lusty Appetites. Best roast beef I’ve ever had, even better than my mom’s and that’s saying something. And their crème puffs. Mmm. I might stop by for some to take home after we get your family back.”