The Marshal's Justice (Appaloosa Pass Ranch 4) by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online Page A

who’d run Jax off the road and taken her.
    April’s mouth tightened, clearly not pleased about that.
    Welcome to the club.
    Renée could have given them some answers, and now the woman was missing.
    “And what about Jax? Is he really okay?” Not displeasure now but rather concern in April’s voice.
    Chase nodded. “A few cuts and bruises. He’s pissed off more than anything.” An emotion that Chase completely understood.
    He should have made sure Jax wasn’t being followed. Should have done more to protect his brother. But Chase had had so many things on his mind that he hadn’t taken more precautions. That couldn’t happen again. Because the next time, Jax or someone else could be killed.
    April came even closer to him, glancing back at the baby. Probably to make sure their whispered conversation wasn’t disturbing her. It wasn’t. Now that Bailey had had a bottle, she was sleeping, well, like a baby. However, Chase was betting April and he wouldn’t be getting much sleep, if any, tonight.
    “I’m sorry,” April said.
    Not especially something Chase wanted to hear. Or feel. But he felt something all right.
    Sympathy.
    And he’d learned the hard way, that was never a good thing to feel when it came to April. Best to keep this conversation on a more business level. Easy to do since they had plenty of nonpersonal things to discuss.
    Well, one huge thing anyway.
    There was something he should probably tell her. Eventually. Something that was indeed personal. But it would have to wait.
    “Someone did hack into WITSEC files,” Chase confirmed. “We won’t know the extent of what was compromised for a while, but it’s obvious the hacker was able to find you.”
    “And my brother?” she asked.
    “The marshals went to his house, but Quentin wasn’t there. The place had been ransacked and there were signs of a struggle.” Chase paused, trying to brace himself for how she was going to react to the next thing he had to tell her. “There was blood on the floor.”
    That caused her breath to shudder, and she staggered back. Maybe would have fallen if Chase hadn’t caught her. He hooked his arm around her waist, putting them body to body again. Also giving him feelings he didn’t want to have.
    Lust.
    Not an especially good time for it, but it always seemed to happen with April. Chase cursed it and wished there was some way in hell he could make himself immune to her.
    Rather than stand there with her in his arms, Chase led her across the room and had her sit in one of the chairs at the dining table.
    She shook her head. “Quentin doesn’t even know how to get in touch with me if he needs help.”
    “No, but he knows how to contact me. If it’s a real emergency, he’d call me.”
    April looked up at him, blinked. “You don’t think the blood they found is real?”
    Chase was 1,000 percent sure she wasn’t going to like this. “I think it’s real all right, but Quentin could have planted it so it would look as if he’d been injured. And he could have done that so we wouldn’t believe he had any part in kidnapping Bailey.”
    There were holes in that particular theory, but Chase knew that Quentin was very good at doing criminal things.
    “You think Quentin could have had Bailey kidnapped for ransom money,” April said. She didn’t exactly jump to deny that though it was no doubt what she wanted to do.
    “It’s possible. You have to admit your brother has been involved in some illegal moneymaking schemes before.”
    She didn’t deny that, either. Couldn’t. Because it’d been Quentin’s dirty dealings with Crossman that had set this entire mess in motion.
    “I don’t think Quentin would work with Crossman,” April said. “Not again. Not after what happened the last time.”
    And what’d happened the last time was murder. Specifically, the murder of a cop, Tina Murdock. Tina had gone to question Quentin, had found Crossman instead, and some kind of argument had ensued. Crossman had shot