When the Bough Breaks (Rose Gardner Investigations #6) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,28

were open and filled with cars. Jed walked out of one of the doors as we crossed the parking lot toward him.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked, wiping his hands on a shop rag.

I took a ragged breath, dangerously close to crying. But something on my face must have made him realize something bad had happened. Panic filled his eyes and he snuck a quick glance to Neely Kate.

“Ashley and Mikey are missin’,” she said, her voice breaking.

Jed rushed over and wrapped an arm around my back and led me inside.

I pushed his arm away. “I’m fine.”

If I let him or anyone else baby me, I’d fall apart. And I couldn’t afford to fall apart. My niece and nephew needed me to be strong.

“Let’s go inside,” Jed said. He and Neely Kate flanked me as though prepared to catch me if I fell to pieces.

“What’s goin’ on?” Witt asked as we walked through the garage. Then he added in disbelief, “How big are you gonna get, Rose?”

I shot him a glare that should have killed him in his tracks.

“Okay,” he said. “Point taken. But what’s goin’ on?”

“Let’s go to the lounge,” Jed said, opening the door in the back that led to the offices.

Once we were in the employee lounge, Neely Kate said, “Ashley and Mikey are missing.”

“When you say missin’…” Witt said, moving his hand in a go on gesture.

I started pacing while they watched me. “They haven’t been in school or daycare most of the week. No one’s seen them since last Friday. When Joe and I went to pick them up last night, Mike refused to let us see them, telling us they had the flu, but he never called them in sick or took them to the doctor. And now he’s missin’, and his parents say he owed a lot of money to the bank, and an electrician was killed a few houses down from one of Mike’s…”

My voice broke and Neely Kate reached out to me, but I pushed her hand away.

“Rose,” Jed said in an irritatingly reasonable tone. “Maybe you should sit down.”

“Maybe you should sit down,” I snapped, then shook my head and ran my hand over my hair. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”

“It’s okay,” he said.

“Joe found evidence that they were taken, but he didn’t say a word about Mike,” I said, still pacing, knowing I couldn’t tell them about the note and hoping I hadn’t already told them too much. I wanted Joe to trust me—no, I needed Joe to trust me, and I hoped I hadn’t just broken his confidence. “Someone kidnapped them. But who? We know that James had some kind of control over Mike. Was it him? Did James take my niece and nephew?” My voice rose and I knew I sounded hysterical, but I’d kept my fears bottled up on the drive, and now that I was giving voice to them I couldn’t figure out how to stop.

“Rose, honey,” Neely Kate said. “Let’s just take a moment to catch our breath.”

“I still think you should sit down,” Witt said. “You look as pale as a sheet hangin’ on Granny’s clothesline.”

A Braxton Hicks contraction grabbed hold of me, and I stopped pacing and rested my hand on my belly as I waited for it to subside.

“What’s goin’ on, Rose?” Neely Kate asked in a panicked voice.

“False labor,” I said, trying not to tense and make it worse.

“Maybe we should get you to the hospital,” Witt said.

“I’m not goin’ to the hospital!” I protested, my voice rising. “I’m not goin’ just to have them send me home again. Heaven only knows how much I owe them, and I haven’t even had the baby yet. And besides, Joe’s busy lookin’ for Ashley and Mikey, so I can’t be havin’ this baby right now!”

Witt stared at me with unadulterated fear.

“Okay,” Neely Kate said slowly. “You’re not havin’ the baby now.”

“I have two more weeks,” I said, “and anything before then is just stupid Braxton Hicks, so don’t anybody be suggestin’ I go to any hospitals.”

I knew I was raving like a crazy woman, but I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant, I’d spent the last four weeks dealing with Braxton Hicks, and my niece and nephew were missing. I was due a little crazy.

The contraction began to ease. “What are we gonna do to find them?” I demanded, staring Jed in the eye.

A lesser man would have cringed or at least paused, but Jed didn’t hesitate when he said, “First