The Stork — Nancy Wood

It's been five and a half years, and Shelby McDougall is finally on track. Back in Santa Cruz, California, she's sharing an apartment with her brother, and is in her second year of criminal justice studies. She's landed her dream job as intern to local PI Kathleen Bennett. And her stone-cold love life is heating up. Her past is behind her. Almost. A late-night phone call puts Shelby's perfectly ordered life into a tailspin. One of the twins she put up for adoption has been kidnapped, snatched from his home in the middle of the night. There are no witnesses. After meeting the family, Shelby knows something is off. The adoptive parents tell her the children don't sleep. They eat constantly, and their IQs are off the charts, qualifying them for either Ripley's Believe It or Not or a sideshow act in the circus. Against her better judgment, knowing that every cop in the state of California is doing their best to find this boy, Shelby agrees to help. By the time she realizes she's up against something powerful, something evil, it's almost too late. As Shelby fights for her life and that of the kidnapped boy, she learns the shocking truth about her babies. And she also discovers her own truth, a lesson she has to learn over and over: her best instincts might have unexpected, damaging, consequences.