Rescue on the Run

by Jaycee Bullard

  She glanced back toward the cabin. Had she done a good enough job obscuring their trail? Maybe. But she needed to do something more to protect Cal and the baby. But what?

  Ever since her dad’s accident, she had known that she was called to help others. It was her gift. Her role in God’s plan. For a long time, she believed that He had planted her here to adopt Davey and give him a home. But now there was another child who needed her help even more desperately. She thought of Isobel’s little boy, sound asleep in the cabin. A sense of peace settled in her heart, replacing the adrenaline rush from seconds earlier. The anxiety she had felt all evening evaporated. She knew what she had to do next.

  She looked up at the early-morning sky. Dawn was breaking in a firmament sprinkled with hundreds of tiny lights. When she was little, she’d imagined that the stars were souls looking down on her and watching her from heaven. The biggest and brightest one was always her father. The memory brought her comfort. And for a moment, all seemed calm and right. This was where she was supposed to be. Her entire life had been building toward this moment.

  Her eyes darted to the left and the right as she improvised her next move.

  She would hop on the snowmobile and lure Ricky and the others to follow her, either on foot or in the SUV. If all went well, she could lead her pursuers to the middle of the lake. But even if the motor stalled out and she didn’t make it that far, she could at least buy Cal time to find a good hiding place for himself and the baby.

  Cal had told her not to take any risks, but this was a calculated one that could save them all. She kept her body low and flat against the exterior wall as she crept around the back of the lodge toward the abandoned snowmobile. She bundled up the towels and shoved them under her sweatshirt and yanked hard on the pull start. Nothing. She lengthened her stance and tried again. This time, the engine sprang to life with an angry growl. She straddled the seat and revved the motor. If this was going to work, she needed to make sure she was heard.

  A second later, the back door banged open and Max appeared, pistol in hand.

  She didn’t waste another moment. She pressed down on the accelerator, flattened her body against the seat, and shot off toward the lake with Max running behind her in pursuit. Her goal was to lure him as far away from the cabin as possible, but the snowmobile wasn’t cooperating. It slowed to a crawl as the engine popped and sputtered. No surprise there. The needle on the gas gauge pointed to empty. She was running on fumes, and Max was getting closer by the minute. She turned her head and saw that a second man had joined in the chase. Even from thirty yards away, she could tell it was Ricky.

  The distance between them dwindled even more as the snowmobile jerked to a shuttering stop.

  She leaped off the vehicle and sprinted toward the dock. She was still ahead of her pursuers. But as she cast a quick glance in the direction of the cabin where Cal was hiding with the baby, her heart dropped. She may have distracted Max and Ricky, but that wasn’t good enough. Martina was approaching the cabin’s front door.

  Abby picked up her speed and headed for the boathouse. As she rounded the corner of the open pavilion in the front, her path was blocked by a maze of storage racks stocked full of canoes and kayaks. Her breath hitched out in short, desperate puffs as fatigue slowed her limbs. Behind her came the thud of boots against the snow. She didn’t know how much farther she could run, but if she didn’t take evasive action, her pursuers would catch up to her soon.

  She stepped up onto the first rung of the metal stand and began to climb up the side of the rack. The metal poles teetered under her weight, but she continued moving toward the top. Shifting her body forward, she propped her head on the underside of one seat and her legs on the other so that she was lying in the shelter of an overturned red canoe.

  She closed her eyes and began to pray.

  FIFTEEN

  Cal held his breath as the clamor of slamming doors drifted up the stairs. Martina seemed to know that he was hiding somewhere inside the cabin, and she was determined to search every nook and cranny until he was found.

  He had been watching out the living room window when Abby took off on the snowmobile. For a moment, he had felt hopeful as she cut a straight route toward the dock. Maybe there was more gas in the tank than he thought. But his heart had dropped when the door to the main lodge had flown open, and Ricky and Max had taken off in pursuit, leaving Martina behind to search the cabins.

  Beginning with the one where he was holed up with the baby.

  There had been no time to consider all of the options or to make a logical plan. Operating on gut instinct, he had grabbed the little boy and hobbled up the stairs, making his way toward the bathroom at the far side of the loft. He climbed into the bathtub and pulled the curtain closed behind them just as the floorboards shook with the thud of footsteps. Judging from the sounds, Martina was inside the cabin and in the process of opening and closing every closet and cabinet door.

  How long before she finished on the first floor and headed up to the upper level? The place was small. It wouldn’t take her more than a couple of minutes to search the downstairs. But between the baby in his arms and his hurt leg, he had limited options when it came to engineering an escape. A bitter sense of failure pitted in his stomach. There were so many things he should have done differently. Sure, in the past few years, he had suffered his share of self-doubts. But even as his marriage crumbled, he had remained assured of his competence on the job. He was a good cop, and he knew it. That confidence had led him to apply for the sheriff position in Dagger Lake and allowed him to make a fresh start. His faith had grown, forcing him to remember that he was a precious child of God.

  But he suddenly felt unmoored in a vast ocean of doubt amid a raging storm. He was the sheriff, and yet he hadn’t been able to protect Abby or the baby. And where was God in all this? All evening he had been praying, but it didn’t seem like God was listening. He shouldn’t be thinking like this. A better Christian wouldn’t let his faith falter. So yet again, he had struggled and failed.

  No! He tightened his jaw and balled his hands into fists. He wasn’t going to despair. God was with him. With a prayer for guidance, he set the baby down and climbed out of the tub. Then he braced his hands against the shower rod and pulled with all his might. With a loud crack, the pole snapped off the wall. He dumped the curtain on the floor and waited.

  Anger washed through him. He was the sheriff. And he wasn’t going down without a fight.

  After a few minutes, he heard the tread of approaching footsteps. He gripped the metal bar in his hands and kept his eyes glued to the door. Seconds ticked by before the knob began to turn. He didn’t wait for Martina to step inside. He yanked the door open and walloped the shower rod down on her head. With a stunned look of surprise, she hit the ground, unconscious but still breathing.

  He rolled the shower curtain into a makeshift rope and bound her hands to the pipe beneath the sink. Bending down, he scooped up her pistol and tucked it into the back pocket of his pants.

  Now it was time to track down Abby.

  But first he had to find a safe place to stow the baby. He picked up the precious bundle and maneuvered back down the stairs. It looked like a cyclone had been through the living room and kitchen. Chairs were tipped over, and lamps leaned sideways on the floor. But the disarray might work to his advantage. If one of the other criminals came into the cabin, they might assume that these rooms had already been examined and give them a pass. His eyes skimmed around the room, but nothing jumped out as a safe place to hide the baby.

  He shuffled into the bedroom. Martina had made a mess here, too. The bedding was thrown on the ground, and the bed was shoved flat against the wall. Or was it? He limped forward for a closer examination. The footing was wider than the actual frame, leaving a small gap between the bed and wall. Kissing the baby on the top of his head, Cal gently laid him in the crack. And then he backed out of the
room.

  Was he doing the right thing? Doubts assailed his mind. Leaving the infant alone in the cabin was a potentially reckless move. He weighed the pros and cons of strapping the little guy on his back, but all things considered, the hiding place by the bed seemed more secure.

  With a final prayer for guidance, he limped out the door.

  He still had to deal with a badly wounded leg, but now he had Martina’s pistol clutched tightly in his hand.

  * * *

  Abby lay motionless under the red canoe, listening to Max and Ricky tipping over boats as they worked their way through the racks. With each thunderous boom that assailed her ears, her hiding place felt even more claustrophobic. And it was clear that Ricky and Max were getting closer. Her hands trembled, and her fingers clenched as she recalled the sensation of holding Cal’s hand in the freezer. She had been afraid then, too, but Cal’s presence had comforted her. She wished he were here now. Realization dawned. She wanted a partner. She needed a partner. It wasn’t weak to want to have someone to share your burdens, to help you in times of sorrow and to be there with you in moments of joy.

  Thud! The last thump felt like it was right underneath her. She unhooked her legs from the underside of the back bench and pulled her head out, as well. Fastening her fingers around the side of the canoe, she set her feet along the overturned bottom and waited to see what the men would going to do. She wasn’t ready to give up. God had showed her something precious tonight, and she was going to do everything she could to save it. For too long, she had rejected the idea of love and companionship, choosing to prize her independence and self-sufficiency. But now she wanted more. Maybe life wasn’t about choices. Maybe it was about possibilities. Possibilities of embarking on a life with someone beside her, not trying to achieve everything alone. Not that she had ever been truly alone.

  Please, God, help me. Stay with me as you always have. Protect me and keep me safe.

  “She’s in here for sure.” Max’s deep voice was instantly recognizable.

  “Maybe so, but she’s trapped. And when we find her, she’ll have nowhere to go.” Ricky’s scornful laugh reverberated through the space. “Leave her to me, Max. I can handle one woman on my own. Go back to the lodge. Tomas might have found the others hiding somewhere on the main floor. If not, both of you should check to see if Martina needs help searching the cabins.”

  Abby pulled in a long breath as Max’s footsteps faded away. She flexed her leg and prepared to make her move. Her timing had to be perfect if she was going to stay one step ahead in the chase. There was a loud thump as the canoe below her slid off the rack. Now! Now was her chance.

  Leveraging the power of her limbs, she pushed the canoe onto Ricky and then rolled in the opposite direction. She landed in the snow, pulled herself up and took off running.

  Shouts echoed behind her as she reversed course. In her arms, she clutched the two loose bath towels. Maybe from far away it would look like she was holding a baby.

  Her pulse pounded as she tried to run faster, but she couldn’t make her feet move quickly enough to gain any ground on Ricky. For every two steps forward, she slid back one as the soles of her shoes lost their grip on the slippery snow.

  “Stop,” a cold voice ordered.

  Ricky was close. Too close.

  But she ignored the command, lunging to the right in hopes of gaining an advantage with a haphazard route.

  A shot rang out. A bullet whizzed by, inches from her head.

  “I told you to stop. I will not repeat myself again. If you want to save the life of our son, you will obey me.”

  Our son. Ricky assumed that she was Isobel. It made sense. She and Isobel were approximately the same height. And throughout the evening, she had been wearing a hoodie that obscured her features and covered her hair.

  Clasping the bath towels even tighter to her chest, she stopped, but she kept her face turned from his sight.

  “That’s better. I would have thought you would have learned by now that nothing good comes from defying me. But then you must not have known me very well if you imagined that you could leave me. My darling wife, did you really think that I would let you go? Or that I would allow you to take my child away from me?”

  Abby remained still, her head bent and her body poised. Her chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath. What to do? What to do? The situation had gone from bad to worse in a hurry. Her attempt to lure the kidnappers away from the cabin had failed, and Cal and the baby were now in danger of being discovered by Martina. All because she had to go off and do things her own way.

  Blood pounded through her veins, and panic clouded her judgment. If Ricky got any closer, she would take off running. But for now, she would stay where she was. Praying that Cal would find her. Praying that the police would arrive in time to save them.

  “Just who do you think you are? When I met you, you were a nobody. A nothing. I took the time to show you the world, teach you about the finer things in life. And how do you repay me? You run away. You must have known that I would hunt you down. I wonder if you even wanted me to find you. Why else would you have selected the hometown of your oldest friend? You should have realized that I had the money and the resources to discover your hiding place, no matter how far you might go.”

  There was no way to respond to his grotesque threats and accusations. All she could do was clamp her lips tight against the force of his ugly words.

  “Imagine my surprise when I discovered you were pregnant. I had been prepared to take you back. You are young and foolish. And even fools are allowed one indiscretion. No more. A man in my situation doesn’t allow betrayal. Not without retribution. Regrettably for you, you committed two transgressions, running away and attempting to separate me from my own flesh and blood. I knew of your whereabouts for months, but I couldn’t compromise the health of my child by seizing you too soon. So I allowed you to remain here, unaware that I was watching you and monitoring your pregnancy. And when the time was right, I commenced my plan. You do realize that everything that happened tonight occurred because of me, right?”

  He paused, and she held her breath.

  “I asked you a question. Answer me.”

  She nodded her head, praying that that would be enough. The acknowledgment seemed to appease him, at least for the moment. But how long could she continue the masquerade?

  “Even your manager friend winning a vacation that required her to leave you alone at the bank. All me. Of course, I didn’t count on that idiot cowboy shooting the doctor, but it didn’t matter in the end. You thought you knew me so well, but you don’t know anything at all.

  “You are wondering why we staged a bank robbery instead of snatching you from your apartment and taking my son? You were never very good at putting two and two together, were you, my dear? That’s why you needed me. But I digress. I realized that if I were to abduct you, your friend Tessa would alert the police. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but an unnecessary annoyance, nonetheless. I determined that it would be easier to arrange to induce your labor at the bank. And once you had the baby, blow up the whole building with you inside. We’d use so much C-4 that there would be no evidence left, no bodies to examine, no trace of what went down. The fire department would assume that it was a robbery gone wrong, and no one would be any wiser. That’s what we in the business world call win-win.”

  Win-win? What sort of person talked about the death of innocent human beings in such a heartless way? A wave of pity for Isobel surged in her heart even as she leaned forward and focused on a point straight ahead—a stand of pines set back in the shadows. If she took off sprinting, what were the chances of reaching it without getting shot?

  But then what? She could hide, but her tracks in the snow would be easy to follow. Besides, it would be a challenge to outrun a bullet. And Ricky looked like the kind of man who didn’t often miss when he took aim. But would he dare fire a
t her if he thought she was holding his son? It was a risk she might have to take.

  Yet still she hesitated and once again considered the odds. Her ears strained to catch the faint hum of vehicles approaching from the distance, but still a long way off. The police? The sound was getting louder, but would help arrive too late?

  But there was something else, too.

  A muffled shuffling in the snow, boots squeaking against the frozen ground as someone approached from the east.

  Ricky didn’t seem to notice. His anger would not be denied. He raised his voice to be heard above the howling wind. “I do have bad news for you, my dear Isobel. This is where you and I say goodbye. I can’t forgive what you did to me. Nor will I forget. And I don’t like living with a grudge. It’s better this way. You hand over my son, and then I kill you. But you can rest assured that once you are dead, I will mourn your passing for all the world to see how deeply I loved my precious wife.”

  He took a step toward her. Then another. He was so close that she could almost feel the hatred in his breath. Run! Run! Her brain registered the impulse, but her feet remained cemented in place.

  A heavy hand clamped down on her shoulder, and thick, powerful fingers dug into her flesh. Ricky spun her around to face him, his eyes dark and fierce, and his lips drawn back to reveal a row of glistening white teeth.

  “You aren’t Isobel!” he roared at the sight of her face.

  Tears trickled down her face. Before she took off on the snowmobile, she had been prepared to die. But now, with freedom so close, she was no longer resigned to her fate. She wanted to live. She wanted to see Cal again. To hug Isobel and to hold her baby. To be a mother to Davey. And even as hopelessness clawed at her senses, her body ached with a longing as deep and powerful as any she had ever known. But she had waited too long, and now there would be no second chances.