Elle James - Lakota Baby (Harlequin Intrigue)

I want my son back.

Her head hung down and her shoulders shook with the force of silent sobs.

Joe stood helpless in the face of Maggies despair. When words wouldnt come, he pulled her into his arms and pressed her face against his shoulder. He held her for a long time without speaking.

Its so cold outside, she whispered, her breath warm against his chest. They didnt even take his blanket.

Joe swallowed the knot of regret in his throat. Well find him.

With Joes arms around her, Maggie felt as if shed come home. Hope feathered the inside of her stomach. Even after her tears dried, she didnt lift her head, didnt want to move from the certainty of Joes embrace. Despite the pain of their past, he was the only man she trusted to find her son alive.

And shed sell her soul to the devil himself to get Dakota back.

ELLE JAMES

LAKOTA BABY

This book is dedicated to my childrenCourtney, Adam and Meganand to my grandsonReily. If ever I lost one of you, Id be as frantic as my heroine, Maggie, to get you back. Children are to be loved and cherished. They outgrow their parents entirely too fast. I love you guys!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Golden Heart winner for Best Paranormal Romance in 2004, Elle James started writing when her sister issued the Y2K challenge to write a romance novel. She managed a full-time job, raised three wonderful children and she and her husband even tried their hands at ranching exotic birds (ostriches, emus and rheas) in the Texas Hill Country. Ask her and shell tell you what its like to go toe-to-toe with an angry 350-pound bird! After leaving her successful career in information technology management, Elle is now pursuing her writing full-time. She loves building exciting stories about heroes, heroines, romance and passion. Elle loves to hear from fans. You can contact her at ellejames@earthlink.net or visit her Web site at www.ellejames.com.

Books by Elle James

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

906BENEATH THE TEXAS MOON

938DAKOTA MELTDOWN

961LAKOTA BABY

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Joe Lonewolf Painted Rock Reservation tribal police chief, sworn to carry on the ways of his Lakota ancestors.

Maggie Brandt Joes former lover and widow of his dead stepbrother. Will her secret ruin her chances with Joe?

Dakota Maggies five-month-old son, kidnapped and ransomed.

Bill Franks Ex-con turned vending machine delivery man. Is he delivering more than snacks to the residents of the Painted Rock Indian Reservation?

Gray Running Fox Joes old friend and manager of the Grand Buffalo Casino.

Tokala The mysterious drug dealer supplying methamphetamines to the Lakota youth.

Marcus Caldwell National Indian Gaming Commission representative to the Grand Buffalo Casino.

Randy Biko The leader of the Sukas gang.

Delaney Toke Tribal police officer and Joes right-hand man.

Leotie Jones A woman obsessed with Joe Lonewolf. Would she do anything to get him?

Contents

Chapter One

She stood on a slight rise in the middle of a prairie, the golden grasses wilted and dying. Winter hovered on the horizon, gray clouds growing ever larger, harbingers of the snows to come.

Despite her goose-down jacket, she shivered, wondering where shed left her gloves and hat. Anyone with sense wouldnt come out in subzero temperatures without the proper clothing. Had she lost her mind?

As she pondered this conundrum, she heard a bleating sound as if a lamb had been separated from its mother. Where did the cry come from? She spun three-hundred-sixty degrees but all she could see was prairie for miles and miles. Not another living soul, animal or human, just herself alone on an endless plain.

Was it an animal separated from its mother? Her heart wept for the frightened creature.

Thinking she might have imagined the sound, she turned to find her way home. Home to the little cottage on Painted Rock, the South Dakota Indian Reservation where she lived with her son, Dakota.

The cry sounded again, only this time less like a lamb and more like the plaintive whimper of a baby.

Her baby.

Dakota? Her heartbeat picked up pace until it pounded against her ribcage. She couldnt see her son in the vastness of the open prairie. Why was she here? Why had she left Dakota alone in his bed?

She took off at a run, knowing neither the direction nor the distance to town. All she knew was that she had to get to Dakota. He was cryinghe needed her. The more she ran, the slower her legs moved until she slid into a wallow, her legs dragged down by the weight of cold, clammy mud filling her boots and coating her clothes.

Cant stop. Must get to Dakota. Leaning to the side, she grasped an outstretched branch from a tree she hadnt seen a moment before. The branch became a hand, locking with her fingers, dragging her to safety, freeing her from the pit of glue-like sludge.

For a moment, she lay with her face on the ground, gasping for breath. When she lifted her head to thank her rescuer, her dead husband stared down at her, his face slashed with blood, his eye sockets vacant. Again, he held out his hand to help her to her feet.

Maggie screamed and fell backward into the ditch, the sucking mire like fingers grasping at her arms and legs, dragging her deeper and deeper until mud covered her face, filling her lungs. When she thought her chest would explode from lack of air, blessed blackness swallowed her.

MAGGIE BRANDT sat straight up in bed, shaking.

Dakota, she said into the darkness, pulling in deep breaths of cool night air.

Her digital clock glowed4:15 a.m. It wasnt due to go off for another two hours. With her heart still pounding in her ears, she knew she wouldnt get back to sleep.

Had she been startled awake by the dream? Or had Dakota really cried out in his sleep?

Shivering, Maggie slung the covers aside and slid from her bed. She padded barefoot across the carpeted floor, her feet moving more freely than they had when mired in the mud of her nightmare.

Why was it so cold in the house? If it was this chilly in her room, what about the babys room? Had he kicked his covers off? Why hadnt he woken up crying?

Her steps quickened.

To conserve on her gas bill, shed set the heat five degrees lower than usual. Had she turned it down too low?

On the way down the hall toward Dakotas room, she passed the thermostat with only a cursory glance, determined to fix the heating problem after shed assured herself that Dakota was okay. Tendrils of frigid air caressed her bare feet and calves, rising from the floor. Her breath caught in her throat, making it difficult for her to fill her lungs.

Frigid night air drifted in from the bedroom in front of herit had nothing to do with the thermostat.

Dakota. Maggie raced into the minuscule room, barely large enough for the babys furniture. The small window stood wide open, the blue-and-white cloud curtains flapping in the bitter wind.

Oh my God, Maggie whispered. Her feet carried her one agonizing step at a time toward the crib of her five-month-old son, her heart choking the air from her throat. Even before she peered through the colorful mobile into the nest of blue blankets, she knew.

Dakota was gone.

A SHRILL BEEPING NOISE pierced his sleep, forcing Joe Lonewolf awake. He fumbled in the dark for his pager, until his fingers curled around it and he lifted it close to his face. In bright green digital letters he read Call Maggie, followed by a phone number and 911.

His pulse raced through his veins and as he swung out of bed the blankets and sheets fell in a careless heap to the floor.

Why would Maggie call athe peered at his clockfour-twenty in the morning? Hell, why would Maggie call at all?