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“Thank you for your help.” She turned away from the desk and toward the door, pulling on Lily’s hand. She stared at the rectangular shape, a portal into a world that was now dark with storm clouds and filled with foreboding. Where would she and Lily be sleeping tonight if that thug found them? Would they be sleeping at all? Nothing had changed, though, in his intentions. He had had the chance to kill them, and he hadn’t. If the bad guy was smart at all, he would know where they lived. And once he got whatever he was after, then what would he do?
Reid pushed away from the wall and opened the door, a look of disappointment etched across his face. At least he wasn’t saying, “I told you so.”
Cody’s last jeer propelled her toward the exit. “Let your boyfriend take you home.”
Boyfriend?
She pushed outside, Lily in tow. Reid’s voice filtered over the couple of cars driving past on the street as he said a cordial “see you later” to the officer. She stopped abruptly on the bottom step and scanned the parking lot. Lily rested her head against Samantha’s arm. The poor girl was probably tired, hungry and scared. Samantha would have to be strong for her. Tears threatened, stinging the backs of her eyelids. The only thing she could do now was call a cab and go home. The problems with that plan were that she had no phone to call with, and Heartwood Hill didn’t have a cab service. The suburb was so small there wasn’t even a bus system. She could call a cab from Indianapolis, but how long would she have to wait, and how much would she have to pay? She refused to wait inside the police station with Cody.
She jabbed a tear from her cheek. She probably shouldn’t go home, though. Surely that man with the gun would find her eventually.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder. Reid stepped in front of her. “Can I give you a ride?”
An answer stalled in her throat. If she accepted his offer of a ride, she didn’t need a phone or a cab. Problem solved. Then why was she having trouble answering? She swiped a hair off her cheek as the truth stabbed at her heart. She worked too much, bringing forever families together through adoption. As wonderful as that was, it didn’t allow for much of a social life or the formation of friendships with girlfriends she could call for help at a moment’s notice. She was estranged from her father. Hadn’t spoken to him in more than a year. And her most reliable relationships, with her mother and her twin sister, wouldn’t help her now since they were on the other side of the country at a church conference.
For a reason she couldn’t fathom, she didn’t want to share that information with Reid.
She wanted to tell him that she didn’t need the help of any man. That her father’s betrayal and desertion when she was just a teenager had torn a hole in her heart. That the guy in college who had turned out to be such a manipulator had ripped that gap wide-open.
She must have been scowling because a confused, even sad, expression shadowed Reid’s face. Was he hurt by her silence? She had been treated so callously over the years that there was no way she would bring her wall down now.
But neither did she want to be rude. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look into Reid’s vivid blue eyes. “I would appreciate that.” His strong presence was comforting, even though she didn’t want to admit it.
She slid into the front seat of the Jeep as Lily climbed into the back. This time it was a bit more willingly, but then why were her palms slicked with perspiration? As her seat belt clicked into place, she shot up a prayer that Reid would be more helpful than the officer at the station.
And that he’d left his bad-boy persona in his past.
THREE (#ulink_c0cd8391-9420-5ad8-b99d-30e1a4d312ed)
Reid scrubbed a hand over his face and down his neck. Since they had left the station a scant ten minutes ago, that girl, Lily, had talked of half a dozen things including her favorite book, her new shoes and how hard it was to remember the multiplication tables. He should probably be grateful that she felt safe and comfortable in his ride. Perhaps those feelings would transfer over to her guardian, who even now refused to relax against the back of the seat and kept darting her gaze to the left and to the right.
The low-fuel bell dinged. Reid slumped his shoulders. Now? He turned toward his passengers but kept his view on the road. “We have to get gas first, and then we’ll figure this out. But you should be thinking of who you can stay with tonight.”
“Stay with?” Samantha sounded doubtful of anything other than going home.
“Like a sleepover? The late, late movie with popcorn and snacks.” Lily wiggled in her seat.
“We’ll see.” But Samantha sounded just like his own mother when she really meant “no way.”
Reid meticulously obeyed the speed limit for a couple of miles from the station, out toward the interstate and a long array of commercial offerings. He pulled into the least expensive gas station and hit the brake next to the pump on the end, closest to the exit. His original plan had been to drive straight to his new digs and eat something cheap, like chow mein. His cash had to last him until he could secure a family law client base or an actual position, and he certainly hadn’t planned on chauffeuring an old school acquaintance around this evening, not even one with strawberry blond hair and an adorable smattering of freckles across her nose.
Before he put the Jeep into Park, he surveyed the street and surrounding businesses. Samantha was right to be cautious, but there was no sign of a large black SUV. In fact, there weren’t any black vehicles at all. He cut the engine and left the keys in the ignition. “I’d rather not have to get gas right now, but better this than being stranded on the side of the road. You two stay in the Jeep. Leave the windows up and stay low.”
Before he had the door half-open, the girl whined again from the backseat. “I’m hungry, Sam. Can’t I run inside and get a bag of chips and a pop? Maybe some of those little chocolate cupcakes or a candy bar? You know, something to tide me over until we get wherever we’re going.” Her voice took on a wheedling tenor. “I can get something for you, too.”
Reid shook his head. What a study in the art of cajoling. He turned to see Samantha shaking her head no and reaching through the front seats to pat Lily’s hand. “We’ll get something soon, I promise. But Mr. Palmer is right. We don’t want to take any chances. We don’t know that we’re out of danger.”
Irritation at the predicament of an innocent woman and her ward bubbled up from a place deep within that he kept buried. A burial ground that concealed a childhood at the hands of an angry father, the very reason he had pursued a career in law enforcement so many years ago. There was no way he would allow himself to call that emotion what it truly was, even if he was fighting the urge to slam his fist into the dashboard. And what about that salvation that had swept over him just in time to save him from the dire consequences of himself? A verse bubbled up as he prayed, again, for peace and calm. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
He glanced around the pumps one more time and slammed his door shut. What was this ride, though, if it wasn’t a favor? A rescue, even? Samantha probably thought he deserved that callous treatment. People with flawless pasts and perfect lives often looked down their noses at those who had had to fight for every inch of progress. And so far as he could tell, Samantha Callahan had lived a perfect life.
A few long strides carried him across the stretch of gas station asphalt as he pinched the front of his shirt to fan away the summer heat. Inside the convenience store, he prepaid twenty bucks. It would have to do for now, at least until he figured out what to do with his ride-along.
* * *
Samantha hissed out a sigh and turned in her seat, peeking around the headrest but making sure she was hidden behind it. Reid was gone for a few moments, and then he strode back to the pump without even a glance in her direction. A scowl resided on his face. He was probably grouchy, irritated to have the two of them in his vehicle without a place to go. Whatever his plans had been, they hadn’t included Samantha and Lily.
She picked at a fingernail. She probably had come across to him as just as grouchy. She usually did to people who knew her twin. Mallory, the forever optimist, the sweet, sunshine-and-daisies twin. It didn’t matter how friendly she tried to be, Samantha was the one who everyone perceived as serious and stoic. Add on to that a past filled with men who acted like jerks, and, well, it was enough to make a girl want to leave town and start over, except that she loved her twin as much as everyone else.
Numbers ticked by on the gas pump, and Samantha scanned the station again. Reid had taken them to the police, and it had turned out exactly like he had said. The police, or at least that one officer, had thought there wasn’t much they could do.
She dug back into the recesses of her mind, trying to dredge up memories of Reid. Even by law school, she had decided she didn’t need any men in her life, so she had largely ignored those around her, choosing instead to focus on her studies and her sister and mother. Reid was a bit older than she was and had had a different career before entering law school. But that wasn’t unusual, and she couldn’t remember anything else. Whatever his history, his reason for leaving the school had been the year’s scandal.
“Sam?”
Lily’s quiet voice broke through her reverie. “Hmm?”
“Do you know Mr. Palmer?”
Samantha craned her arm around the side of the seat to rub Lily’s back in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. However much Samantha needed reassurance that all would be well, Lily needed it more. “Sort of. We went to law school together for a year, but that was a while ago.”
“Can we trust him?”
Smart kid. “For now, I guess. He’s at least better than the guy who tried to nab you at the church. And he’s been more helpful than the officer at the station.”
Lily pointed toward the busy street. “Why don’t we just get out and run to one of the fast-food places over there? Get away from Mr. Palmer and the bad guy, call someone for a ride, go home?”
“That’s an interesting plan, but we don’t want to bother any friends. We’ve already bothered Mr. Palmer, and that’s quite enough.” It wasn’t something she wanted to admit often, but her dedication to her work came before friends. There was too much good to be done in the field of family law, helping desperate would-be parents secure forever families and uniting abandoned children with loving mothers and fathers, that she couldn’t justify taking personal time to cultivate relationships. In fact, Samantha couldn’t name anybody she could bother with a situation of this magnitude, especially with her immediate family on a trip so far away. “I want you to scrunch down back there. Don’t let your head pop up from behind the seat.”
Lily slouched down, and Samantha raised the headrest a couple of inches so she could stay low behind it and still perform her surveillance. She wasn’t sure why, but she thought it was best to monitor what happened behind the vehicle rather than the front, even though Reid was in that direction at the gas pump. Surely it had nothing to do with his thick black hair and the navy polo that hugged his torso. Nothing at all to do with the protectiveness and feeling of security that emanated from him. Definitely nothing to do with his clean, soapy scent that lingered in the Jeep.
She shook her attention away from Reid just as a monster black SUV pulled into a spot two pumps away.
“Get down. More,” she whispered to Lily.
Samantha clutched the seat fabric with shaking hands as she jerked down behind the seat. Was that the same SUV from the church? Reid was still out there. Would the thug recognize him from the accident site? His Jeep?
She licked some moisture to her lips and inched up until she could see Reid through the space between the seat and the headrest. How could she just hide there and do nothing when Reid might give them away? Was he safe out there? The windows weren’t tinted enough to assure her that she and Lily were hidden, because she could still read the numbers on the pump ticking by and see Reid leaning against the Jeep, his face to the pump.
A burly man stepped out of the SUV. He had removed his Colts cap and now wore wraparound sunglasses, but he was definitely the guy from the church parking lot and the site of the accident. The only reason a guy would wear sunglasses with thunderstorm clouds colliding overhead and nighttime settling over the town would be to avoid detection. If only her phone still worked, she could snap a picture, an image for Cody to run through facial recognition or something high-tech like that.
A screech squeaked out, and Samantha clapped her hand over her own mouth.
A second man wearing similar sunglasses emerged from the passenger side of the SUV and jogged inside the station, Samantha assumed to pay in advance with cash. She sagged in the seat. There were two guys after them now? The one hadn’t got them, so he’d brought in reinforcements? A few seconds later, he tossed a thumbs-up at the first thug. He lifted the nozzle and turned toward his vehicle, pausing, nozzle in hand, as he seemed to notice Reid. Samantha couldn’t track his eye movements with such heavy sunglasses and the tint of the Jeep’s windows, but his head turned a little as if he were studying the Jeep. Then his attention appeared to return to Reid.
Her throat constricted and, gasping for air, Samantha slid over to the driver’s seat, working her skirt over the gearshift with trembling fingers. Staying low, she leaned toward the crack in the driver’s-side door and called to Reid in a stage whisper. “Reid! He’s here. That guy from the church. Are you done? I’m in the driver’s seat now.”
Samantha tilted her head to peer through the sliver of open door. Reid seemed to stay calm as he surveyed the gas station. Keeping it low, he held a hand out, palm facing her, as if to say that he’d heard her and she should stay quiet.
She twisted to dare another look at the thugs—plural now. The first, looking at the second, nodded in their direction. The first replaced the nozzle in the pump as if trying to act normal, then began a slow advance toward Reid.
The second man slammed his passenger-side door shut a moment later, the thud reverberating through the Jeep like the thunder that threatened in the clouds, and headed their way.
Reid jerked the Jeep’s backseat door open and jumped in. “Go!”
Samantha jumped at the rough sound of his command and sat upright. Her pulse quickened in her veins. “What about the nozzle?”
“Trust me. Go!”
She bit her lip, threw the Jeep into Drive and mashed the accelerator. The vehicle lunged forward. The nozzle broke free from the gas tank and clanked against the pump. At the sound, she hit the brakes.
The squeal of the tires on the pavement made her want to clutch at her ears.
“Go!” Another command from Reid, more terse this time. A glance in the rearview mirror revealed his position of surveillance. Lily crouched down in her corner of the backseat. “They know we’re here. They’re back in their SUV and following us.” Reid swiveled around and pointed out to the busy road. “Get out there. In the middle of traffic.”
Samantha pulled away from the pump and nosed onto the highway, the black SUV filling the rearview mirror. Reid wanted her to get into the middle of traffic? Fine. But she prayed that the Lord would steer for her because she didn’t trust her shaking hands to maintain a grip.
She urged the Jeep across two lanes of oncoming traffic, narrowly missing a minivan. She jerked the wheel to turn into the fast lane, and the Jeep teetered as if two wheels had left the ground.
A UPS truck shot up next to her in the right lane. Where had that come from? The steering wheel fought against her as she struggled to right the Jeep, but her slick palms slipped off the wheel.
The brown side panel of the truck filled the windshield and passenger-side window. She slammed the brakes. The Jeep screeched in a collision course with the truck.
“Lily!” It was her last utterance before she closed her eyes and braced for impact.
FOUR (#ulink_ae0bb0fa-2bc4-5688-bc42-43e3991be60b)
That woman was going to get them all killed.
From the backseat, Reid pushed his chest against the side of the driver’s seat, shoved his cheek against the side of the headrest and stretched his arms around Samantha to grab the wheel. Yet another instance where his six-foot-four-inch height gave him an edge, not to mention the quick reflexes from the police training he had tried to leave behind. The UPS truck swerved away from the Jeep as Reid jerked the steering wheel hard to the left, almost willing the Jeep’s four tires back onto the ground out of sheer desperation.
No way was he going to die here and now. Not Samantha and Lily, either, if he had anything to do with it.
He righted the Jeep into the proper position in the left lane, his attention pulled to the rearview mirror with a screech of tires behind them. The black SUV had catapulted into traffic, as well. It was now only one car behind them.
Reid forced his focus to the road before them and calmed his breathing to short puffs. Samantha’s hair fluffed in and out with his huffs, the scent of cleanliness and sunshine that emanated from it distracting him in a way he wasn’t familiar with. Apparently, he’d lost some of his edge.
“Thanks.” Samantha’s voice wobbled. “I thought that was going to be the end of us.”
Reid swerved into the right lane. He would signal if he could reach it, but Samantha didn’t seem to be in any condition to follow orders. “He’s still behind us. We’re not done yet.” At the very least, she needed to be able to concentrate enough to manage the speed of the vehicle.
“We’re alive.” She relaxed her head against his straining biceps, probably seeking rest and comfort. But immediately she jerked upright as if realizing the intimacy, and the inappropriate timing, of the gesture. Her foot must have pressed the accelerator because the Jeep rushed forward.
“Slow! Don’t rear-end that car.”
Samantha let up and the Jeep eased up on the compact car it had almost trampled. “Sorry.”
“We’re alive, but not safe yet. Pray.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a split second and then refocused on the road. No way could he let himself get distracted now, not with a maniacal thug following them on a busy street and his life still resting in Samantha’s ability to accelerate and brake at the right times. It was Friday night in a small town and apparently everyone had decided to eat out and hit the movie theater tonight.
Hide. That was a temporary solution. Where could they pull off and sit to avoid detection and to figure out what to do next? A row of semis stretched ahead of him. He pointed without lifting his hand from the wheel. “Slower. Get in between the trucks.”
Samantha gently touched the brake, and he cut back to the left lane, now two vehicles in front of the SUV. One of them was a jacked-up monster truck. The thing was so tall it completely hid the black SUV from view. It was perfect.
“I think I can take over the steering again now.” Samantha gripped the wheel below his fists as if the force of her hands would convince Reid.
Lily scooted forward in her seat. “But he has his arms around you, Sam. His really long and muscular arms. Ooo—”
“Lily, that’s enough.” She turned her head to glare at the girl, her freckles dark and prominent in the stormy early-evening gloom, her face inches from Reid’s. A pink blush touched her cheeks, and she faced forward again. “I’ll be fine, Reid.”
“All right. Let’s pass these two semis—”
Lightning flashed to the ground nearby as a shock wave of thunder ripped through the low-hanging clouds. Samantha startled and landed their front tire in the lane of oncoming traffic. Reid jumped for the steering wheel again and swerved them back to safety. “You’re fine?” Try as he might, he couldn’t keep the critical tone from his voice.
“It surprised me. I was going to get us back in our lane.” She puffed her hair away from her face. “I’m not just a helpless female.”
“Slow down some more. We’re going to turn right soon.” That was the second time she had just about gotten them all killed, but even his limited knowledge of women dictated that he shouldn’t voice that thought.
Two semis up, he jagged back to the right lane, squeezing in between two of the long trucks. “Take it easy. Get ready for a turn.” Samantha pushed the brake, and a split second later, he steered right toward a fast-food restaurant.
He nodded toward a parking spot. “We’re headed in there. Hit the brake again.” He eased into the opening behind a large cargo van with All Righty Plumbing painted on the side. Samantha hit the brake just as the front tires bumped against the curb.
Sure now of Samantha’s hands on the wheel and her foot on the brake, he released his grip and spun to the back window. The black SUV was still trailing the last semi, caught behind a minivan driven by an elderly woman who couldn’t see over the steering wheel, tooling along below the speed limit. Without even a glance into the parking lot, the thug drove past them.
Reid turned back to the front and collapsed against the backseat, flexing his fingers to loosen the soreness out after his death grip on the steering wheel.
Lily popped up over the back of the seat and eyed the restaurant. “Are we safe? Does this mean we’re going to eat now?”
Samantha shifted into Park and leaned her head against the rest. “Let us catch our breath first, girl.”
“And give the bad guy a few minutes to get farther away.” He had the strange but undeniable urge to ruffle her hair, but would a ten-year-old girl see that as affectionate? As relief that they were all safe? Or was she at the age where her hairstyle was of the utmost importance and all touching would be an affront? Considering that she had the pungent aroma of someone who had been running and playing and fishing all day, he doubted it was the latter.
But what was he thinking anyway? She wasn’t his. He had just met her maybe an hour ago, and under rather unusual circumstances. And even though he knew her guardian a little, Samantha probably didn’t have a favorable memory of him.
Samantha ran her hand through her hair and fluffed out the ends. Reid noticed again the clean scent of shampoo that emanated from her. It was the best scent he’d had in his Jeep...well, ever. He breathed deeply, desperate to inhale peace and calm. Samantha was a smart attorney, well practiced at asking tough questions.
He was a smart attorney, too. He knew what was coming.
It was unavoidable.
Samantha turned in the driver’s seat, pulling her knee up toward the console. She pierced Reid with a classic interrogation look. “So you want to tell me what was going on back there at the police station?”
He shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant even as his stomach roiled. “I tried to tell you that they wouldn’t be helpful. But I apologize for any difficulty my presence caused. I figured it might...uh...stifle their desire to serve and protect.”
Samantha cocked her head, her brow furrowed. “Why?”
“I was a police officer.” He paused. Held his breath. “I was asked to leave the force.”
* * *
