by Dana R. Lynn
“Huh?” Rick checked the mirror, then switched lanes, following Karl. “No, not really. This girl I dated a couple of times, she keeps calling me. I am not sure why. We went out to a movie and to dinner. I told her that I would be busy with work for the near future.”
Annabelle made a face behind him. Uh-oh. He knew what she was thinking about. When they’d still been together, he’d often been too busy with work to do things with his family. Even before he’d withdrawn.
“As long as we’re okay.”
“Yeah, I think we’re fine. It’ll probably be a boring trip. Sorry, but this isn’t a very exciting drive.”
Tyler settled down to enjoy the peace of the drive. It was a warm day outside. As the day heated up, Rick turned the air conditioner on higher. Around noon, Bethany started to whine about needing to use the bathroom. Rick called Karl and told him that they needed a restroom break.
Tyler turned around partially in his seat. “We’re gonna look for a place to stop, bug, okay?”
The smile she had given him earlier was gone, replaced by a definite pout. “Wanna stop now. I don’t like this car ride anymore, Daddy.”
“Bethany Jane,” Annabelle said, her tone a clear warning.
“Two named. That sounds serious,” Rick murmured. Tyler held back a grin. He knew Annie’s tone all too well. It wouldn’t go well if she thought he found his daughter’s attitude entertaining.
Bethany gave up her whining, although her pout became more pronounced. Tyler winced, wondering how long they would have to wait for a full-out meltdown. The kid had had a rough couple of days. She was about due for one. Not that it would be acceptable. But it would be understandable.
Ten minutes later, they pulled off the interstate and headed for a rest area. Bethany nearly leaped out of the car when he opened her door. Even Annie groaned as she exited the vehicle and stretched. She caught him watching her and grimaced.
“You okay?” He stepped closer to her.
“Fine.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Just ready to get there. Wherever there is.”
That, he understood.
“Mommy!”
“Okay.” She reached out for her daughter’s hand and threw a tired smile at the men. “We’ll be right back.” Stacy joined them, and the three females headed off together.
Karl walked over to where Tyler and Rick were standing. “We should be there in about four hours.”
Tyler groaned. Four more hours in the car. They had a portable DVD player. He’d gladly listen to kid videos if it meant his daughter would be entertained.
“Here come the women,” Karl said, halting his discussion with Rick.
Tyler turned to see Stacy leading the way back, followed by Annabelle and a much happier Bethany skipping at her side. He heard a heavy sigh behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he was astonished to see the wistful expression on Karl’s face as he watched the women. Eyebrows rising, he slid his gaze back toward them. Stacy’s eyes skittered away from the men, her cheeks flushed. He tightened his lips so he wouldn’t smile. They might think they were playing it cool, but anyone with eyes could see that there was something going on between those two. He shot a glance over at Rick and snickered as the marshal rolled his eyes. Yep. They weren’t fooling anyone.
Absently, he rubbed his arm where he had been shot. The bandage was off now, although his arm was still tender. He thought about his relationship with Annabelle. He missed the way they used to be so close. Shaking his head, he closed down that line of thinking. He shouldn’t waste time on what was. What they had was gone. They were not going to be together forever. Only until they could leave witness protection. Then they’d go back to their separate lives. Although, this time, he would keep in touch with his daughter.
A car squealed into the parking lot. Tyler took one look and his blood ran cold. The speeding car headed straight for them, showing no hint of slowing down. When the window rolled down, he was running before the first shot blasted through the silence.
“Get down!” he yelled at Bethany and Annie. Behind him, Karl echoed the command.
Tyler reached the women and put himself directly in front of his wife and daughter. He pushed them behind another vehicle. He felt Annie flinch when the car door was hit. He pushed Bethany’s head down and covered them as well as he could with his body. Bethany’s whimpered sobs broke his heart, but he made himself block them out.
More shots rang out around them. How many came from the marshals and how many from the people who wanted him dead, he had no idea. Stacy landed beside them, her Glock in her hands. Her pretty face was drawn and serious. She was every inch a US marshal, protecting those in her charge.
“If we could get you into my Jeep, we might be able to escape while Rick and Karl are keeping them busy. I have called in the state police. They are on their way.”
She led the way to her car, motioning for them to keep low.
Tyler put Annie in front of him and sandwiched Bethany between them. Slowly, they crawled to the Jeep. Another shot rang out and this time, it was accompanied by a loud cry. They had almost reached the Jeep when it was hit. Twice. Both rear tires hissed as the air left them. They weren’t going anywhere fast in a vehicle with two tires deflated.
“You guys have to get to shelter.” Stacy kept her eyes firmly on her targets as she spoke to them.
Tyler swiveled his head from side to side, searching for a safer place.
“Let’s head to the trees. Run!” Tyler scooped up his daughter in his arms and ran, keeping Annie in front of him.
They had almost reached the trees when he heard a shout. Instinctively, he slowed and looked back. Karl was squared off against the villains, who had spotted them. One of them started up toward them. Stacy stepped behind a tree for cover and held her Glock in front of her. “Keep going,” she ordered them. “I will hold them off. The police should be here soon. Then I or Karl will come and find you.”
Tyler opened his mouth.
“Move, now! I need to focus.”
Tyler turned and pushed his family behind the trees. He managed to glance back over his shoulder. Karl and Stacy were standing near each other, doing their best to keep the bad guys at bay. Rick was standing to their left, his face grim in his determination.
As he watched, Rick tumbled to the ground, his hands clutching his side. From where he stood, Tyler could see blood seeping between his fingers and covering his hands. His mouth went dry. A gasp at his side reminded him of Annabelle and Bethany. He needed to get his family to safety.
SIX
“Do you think Rick is dead?”
Tyler sighed at Annie’s softly spoken comment. He had wondered how much she had seen. If she hadn’t seen Rick go down, he had every intention of telling her, once Bethany was not paying attention. He just knew that there were some things one couldn’t unsee.
“I don’t think he was dead.” He flicked his gaze toward Bethany. Good. She didn’t appear to be paying attention to them. “He was still moving. I have no idea how badly he was hurt, though. I imagine that the police will be there soon, and they’ll call an ambulance.” He glanced behind him. No sign of Stacy. Or Karl. Where were they? Were they safe?
He winced at the sorrow on Annabelle’s face. The urge to put his arm around her, to comfort her, was strong. But he knew that she wouldn’t accept comfort from him. He was fortunate that she was talking to him. He could expect nothing more than that, though.
“I think we need to keep going, Annie. I wish we still had our cell phones. We could try and contact them later.”
“I still have Karl’s card,” Annie murmured. “Maybe we could find a business that would let us use their phone.”
He pursed his lips, considering. It was a good idea. “I think that would work. If we can’t reach them, we could contact Jonathan Mast. Although I would hate to disturb him right now.”
She thou
ght about it for a few seconds, then nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Which direction do we head?”
“We’re close to La Porte, Indiana. At least, I think we are. I seem to recall signs for I-80. We would have taken that next. I am guessing that we want to keep heading east toward Ohio.”
“Mommy, I’m hungry.”
They exchanged glances. The food was back in the car. “I have a protein bar in my purse, baby doll. That will have to do for now.”
It wasn’t the best choice for a five-year-old, but it was better than nothing. Especially since they had no idea how far they would have to walk before this adventure came to a conclusion. Annie opened her mouth to say something—he had no idea what—when he heard something. Holding a finger to his mouth, he listened. Annie froze, then she bent down and whispered to Bethany to be very quiet. His heart ached when his baby girl opened her eyes wide, her lower lip trembling. The poor little girl had been through enough that she realized they were not playing a game.
“Mommy, I’m scared.”
His throat tightened.
“It’s going to be okay, sweet pea,” Annie whispered back. “Daddy knows what to do.”
He did? That was sure news to him. Right now he was winging it. But he would do whatever he needed to if it would keep them safe.
Another patch of white noise. Followed by a burst of speaking. Like a pager.
Or a walkie-talkie.
They were being tracked through the woods. For a moment, he hoped that they were being tracked by the cops or the marshals. If so they would be safe for the time being.
“We have tracks in the dirt here,” an unfamiliar masculine voice said. The white noise followed.
“Go ahead and shoot on sight. If you can catch the kid or the woman, they can be used as bait.”
Nope, definitely not the cops. He looked down at the ground, and irritation with himself grew inside. They were leaving all kinds of tracks in the dirt, scuffing up the path. That would never do. He leaned closer to Annie, so he could whisper in her ear. The scent of her hair threatened to distract him, but he refused to allow that to happen.
“We need to get off the path. Head into the brush and try to keep from leaving clear tracks.” His old Boy Scout motto of Leave No Trace came to mind.
Annie nodded. Tugging gently on Bethany’s hand, she indicated which way they were going. Thankfully, his daughter seemed to grasp the urgency of the situation. She followed her mother’s lead without question. It was another plus that they’d all worn jeans that day. Otherwise, their legs would have been scratched up from the shrubbery. A couple of times, thorns caught at his ankles.
Without pausing, he bent over and picked up his daughter. “So she doesn’t get stuck with thorns,” he murmured in response to Annie’s raised eyebrow.
She nodded and kept going. The voices were coming closer. Though they were still on the path. There was no way that they could get far enough away to safely avoid them, judging by the pace with which the voices were catching up to them.
Tyler stopped and glanced around. A little farther on, there were two trees that had been toppled. There was an opening between them. If they could squeeze down in there, maybe they could get low enough that they wouldn’t be seen as the men went past.
“This way!”
Moving as quickly as the prickly bushes and briars would allow, the small group slogged through the growth and arrived at the tree.
“Let’s get you in there first, and then I will lift Bethany to you.” Tyler assisted his wife over the first tree. It was enormous. When he handed his daughter over to her mother, Annie set the child down. The top of her head barely cleared the tree. Perfect.
Placing a hand on the top of the fallen tree, he vaulted over and landed with a slight plop next to them. Annie had already coaxed Bethany to crouch down. He got down as low as he could. In the close confines, he could hear them breathing. He placed his hand on Annie’s shoulder to urge her to crouch lower. His hand tingled where he touched her. She flushed. Did she feel it? He removed his hand and focused on listening.
“Lord, protect us.” Annie’s whispered prayer resonated within him. When was the last time he prayed, really prayed? Would God even hear him now, after he’d ignored Him for so long? He had nothing to lose. And he and his family could use all the help they could get.
God, please be with us. Keep us safe. Amen.
It was all he could think of to say. Hopefully, it would be enough.
By now, the men were practically on top of them. Their voices were growing louder. Even a bit angry. It suddenly struck Tyler that they were making no attempt at all to keep quiet as they tracked his family. Were they so confident in their ability to catch Tyler that they didn’t put any effort into sneaking up on him? Could they really be that arrogant?
“Jim, they had to have left the path,” one of the men said.
Jim. He now knew that one of them was named Jim. He would, of course, relate that to the police or the marshals. Not that it would make much of a difference. Jim was a very common name.
“Cut through here.”
Lowering himself farther, Tyler put an arm across Bethany’s shoulders, just in case she decided to stand for some reason. He didn’t think she would, but she was only five. She whimpered softly in his ear. He tightened his arms around her.
“Steady, bug,” he breathed. “I’ve got you.” He placed his lips against his baby girl’s soft blond curls. Over her head, he met Annie’s wide eyes. She was frightened, but she was strong. He had always known that.
Then the men were right over them. If one of the men glanced down and to the side in just the right way, there was the chance that they would be seen. And there was no way to escape from their present hiding place. Had he put them in an impossible situation?
Another prayer whispered through his brain. Distract them, Lord. Please draw them away from us. Something crashed in the underbrush on the other side of the path.
“That way!”
He held his breath as the men dashed off, their voices loud and surly as they continued the search in the opposite direction. Tyler and Annie remained still and kept Bethany quiet for an additional ten minutes.
When it seemed that the men were gone, the tired group rose again. Tyler assisted Annie over the tree, then handed Bethany to her mother. When he had joined them, they started off again.
“I don’t wanna do this anymore,” Bethany whined. “I want to go home.”
“Bethany, we are going on a little adventure, honey. I need you to be my brave girl for a little while longer.”
How Annie could turn this horrific experience into an adventure was just part of what made her so amazing. However, the child wasn’t buying it. Her bottom lip pushed out and her thin arms crossed her chest. He might not have been around her much, but he knew stubbornness when he saw it.
So did Annie. She glanced at him. He shrugged, as if to say, “Don’t look at me, I got nothing.”
“Bethany,” Annie said, “I know that you’re tired. I know that you are hungry. But there are bad men who are after us. We need to keep going so that they won’t catch us.”
That pushed-out lip started to tremble again. “But why are they looking for us?”
How did one tell a five-year-old that people were trying to hurt her family and it was all her father’s fault?
SEVEN
She didn’t like the bleak expression that had entered Tyler’s eyes. The sudden urge to hug him caught her by surprise. It also concerned her. At some point, her anger had cooled, leaving her vulnerable to other emotions. She needed to keep her emotional distance. Still, seeing him hurting was uncomfortable for her. He was doing his best to protect them.
It had taken some coaxing, but Bethany had given in and they were once again headed east. Most of the conversation had ceased. Annie didn’t even try to talk. Partly b
ecause they were listening for the men to return, partly because they were all too tired and hungry to talk and partly because the thoughts whirling around inside her head were too heavy and chaotic for her to try to voice them yet.
They pushed on. Tyler was carrying Bethany, who had grown too tired to continue walking. Her thin arms had looped up and were clinging around his neck. He dropped a kiss on her head. Annabelle looked away, her eyes stinging at the tender action. She swallowed past the lump in her throat.
“Annabelle, do you have any water in that bag?” Tyler asked, his voice a soft rasp in the stillness.
Nodding, she slipped her purse over her neck so that it hung diagonally across her body. She opened it up and rifled inside the bag until her hand bumped into the bottled water she had placed in it earlier. It was slightly damp from condensation and cool to the touch. She pulled it out, quickly unscrewed the top and held it out to him. He carefully hoisted Bethany closer and removed one hand so he could drink. Then he offered the bottle to Bethany before handing it back to Annabelle. When their hands touched, she felt a subtle zing of electricity. She sucked in a breath. Her face warmed. Turning her head to hide her reaction, she took a drink then put the water back in her bag.
A little after six, they came into a small town. They took advantage of the rural setting to get something to eat at the gas station and freshen up. The man at the gas station looked at them suspiciously when they asked to make a phone call, but a couple of college students in the store heard them asking.
“You can use my phone, man.” One of the young men handed Tyler his phone. Annabelle dug out Karl’s card and handed it to him. She waited, nerves stretched taut, as he went to stand a bit apart from them to make the call. She could hear him talking but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
A minute later he returned. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” He handed the phone back to the college kid.
“No problem, dude.”
They had done everything they had set out to do. Continually looking over their shoulders, they headed east again.