Chapter Twelve

JD, Nathan, Vin and Danny were tracking down all of the cases of kidnapped or missing children taken from hospitals across the country. It was Danny who had remarked that hospitals were one of the very few places where an infant or small child under the age of two was left alone with strangers unattended by their parents. It also had the advantage of keeping some of the pack away from the nurse.

It didn't keep the scariest ones away from her though. Danny knew that was impossible. Chris Larabee might be a One Blood, totally genetically human, but there was no doubt he was all Alpha. In some ways Larabee seemed to him to be more of a wolf than Buck Wilmington, the Seven's Two Blood. Between those two and Josiah Sanchez, Danny did not envy that woman one bit.

Vin knew his teammate well enough to know what Danny was thinking, not that Danny would ever really feel sorry for a woman who kidnapped babies. No, Danny just didn't want to be the one facing Chris and the others when they were worked up. He could understand that, it was one of the reasons he'd made sure to take all of Chris' weapons. Buck and Josiah would never shoot or knife a woman, and Ezra was more likely to use words. It was Chris who actually had shot people when he was in a temper and he was in a temper now.

Not that he blamed Chris or any of them for that of course. He was worked up himself. He was just glad that Nathan was here with him instead of being in the interrogation room with the nurse. That spell that was used on the children was worse than being sold into slavery and Vin hated Nathan being reminded of that time. It was bad enough that Nathan had been a slave once.

It had been worse than slavery because even as a slave Nathan's thoughts had been his own and eventually he had made his escape. That hadn't been the case for Vin. For Vin, his thoughts had been what was enslaved. Sure he had fought against his magical chains, but he hadn't even known what he was fighting against. He'd thought at the time that he was just fighting his father's heavy handed attempts to run his life, only to find out that everything he'd known about himself was a lie. Someone was going to pay for that.

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Jack Malone and John Henry sat across from Nurse Amanda Jenkins and listened to her pour out her story. They hadn't had to say much of anything. Not only had she been caught red handed by Nurse Rain Jackson, but Chris Larabee, Buck Wilmington, Josiah Sanchez and Ezra Standish were all standing behind them. They weren't doing anything, just standing there but that was enough. Jack had heard the expression 'if looks could kill' before, but he had never seen such an example as the looks on these men's faces.

"I never took children from good families, I swear! I just took them from the street kids who shouldn't have been having kids in the first place! I never would take a child from a pack! I swear! I was just giving them to a better family!"

Her protests fell on deaf ears as far as the FBI agents were concerned. To the other four men in the room, all they did was condemn her more. Who was she to say that a mother didn't deserve her child? Who was she to say that a woman was or wasn't a good mother, especially a first time parent? Vin's mother had been condemned to 26 years of sorrow and grief because she had not only just lost her husband and the love of her life, she'd also had their only child stolen from her before he was even a day old. And all because this woman did think she 'deserved' to have a child. The fact that she was a poor waitress wasn't any of Jenkins' business.

"How did you know which child to kidnap? Who gave you your instructions? Who did you give the children to and where and how did you meet to hand them over?" Jack's questions were quietly asked but he was immovable. She would answer them or he would hand her over to the pack. She knew that without being told. There was no way Jack was going to buy anything she was trying to sell.

Even with the silent threat of the pack members in the background, well mostly silent, there was a few times when one or more had to settle their brother down, it took some time for the answers to be dragged out of the woman.

It turned out that she was a gambler and was hopelessly in debt. She had been contacted by a lawyer by the name of David Evens who had arraigned for her to have her debts wiped out if she would shop for a specific type of child for him. She had done so four times over the last 26 years. This last child was the fifth.

David Evens was the name of one of the men who worked at the adoption agency. Jack forwarded that information to Viv and then asked Larabee what he wanted to happen to Miss Jenkins. As Alpha, it would be he who made the decision.

"Make sure she doesn't have any more information. Then we'll hang her," was Larabee's judgement.