by Barb Han
Chelsea continued to drive but felt like she was crawling, looking for a good place to pull over. When nothing appeared, she took a risk and reached for her cell. She got it.
“Ninety-six...”
“New game, Skylar. Mommy wants you to take her phone and call 9-1-1.”
“Is the bad man gone?” she asked.
“He is for now.”
Chelsea knew the reprieve wouldn’t last. With shaky hands, she handed over her cell.
She was almost across the bridge when a patch of ice caught her off guard and the pickup slid out of control before landing in a ditch.
Chapter Eighteen
“Everything all right?” Nate picked up on the controlled panic in Chelsea’s voice over the phone.
“I told Skylar to call 9-1-1.” Chelsea sounded confused as to why he was on the other end of the line.
“My phone rang and I answered it.” It was all he could think to say. “Are you guys okay?”
“It’s okay, Sky.” Chelsea’s voice sounded like she’d moved her mouth away from the phone. Then came, “I’m stuck in a ditch. The roads are slick and my tires spun out at the end of a long bridge over a lake. I don’t know where I am exactly.”
“Stay put. I’m on my way.” He knew exactly where she was. He didn’t want her to move an inch until he got there. It was also freezing outside. “Do you have enough gas to keep the engine running and the heater on?” Nate had already thrown on his coat and slipped into his boots. He was in his truck before she could answer.
“Yes. But there’s a problem.” Her voice was low, almost a whisper. “Travis.”
“Where?” The answer was the only thing that mattered.
The temperature had dropped a solid twenty degrees outside. Hail littered the roads. Winds blasted the windshield. Conditions were worsening by the minute.
“I managed to get away from him a few minutes ago. He’s on the other side of the bridge and he’s probably trying to get to us.” Again, her voice was barely above a whisper and he knew why. Skylar was within earshot.
“If we don’t get out of here now, he might get to us,” she said. Again she lowered her voice. “I’m scared, Nate.”
“Is the road clear behind you?” He didn’t want to ask outright if she could see Travis.
“I think so.”
“Unless you see someone coming, I want you to stay right where you are. It’s nineteen degrees outside and too cold for the little bean in the back seat.” His truck was slipping and sliding already and he’d barely left ranch property. “The roads are going to slow me down. I’m a half hour away.”
“I’m praying either you or Zach will get to us before Travis does.” The line was quiet save for the hum of the truck engine. She dropped her tone to almost a whisper. “He was in a jealous rage and I barely got away from him.”
The thought that Travis had said he wanted to be a family again with Chelsea and Skylar didn’t sit right. As far as Nate was concerned, Travis had had his chance. Leaving Chelsea destitute with a newborn didn’t qualify as a man worthy of a family. It would be one thing if Travis had straightened out his life and come back to her honestly. Nate would never stand in the way of a decent man trying to atone for past mistakes. Travis was doing the opposite.
Nate ran a mental checklist of anyone he might know who lived near the lake. There weren’t many houses out there as of yet. A development was planned but construction wouldn’t start until next year.
Best as he could recall there were two families who lived near Elm Fork Lake. Nate wasn’t close to either of them. Was there anyone he could call who could get to her faster?
Nate’s truck tires slid on an ice patch. He turned the steering wheel into the spin until the truck tires caught traction again. He realized calling anyone else wasn’t an option. There was no way he’d put his family in danger. Each one would risk life and limb to help someone in crisis.
At least she’d called in the emergency to Zach. He or one of his deputies might be able to get to her in time. Nate feared he’d be too late.
“Someone’s coming, Nate. I’m not sure if it’s him.” The panic in her voice sent a fire bolt of frustration swirling in Nate’s gut. He needed to get her.
“Describe the area around you,” he said.
“There’s a clump of trees on this side of the bridge. Across the bridge is all lake.” Her tone grew louder and her voice cracked.
There was one obvious place to hide that he knew about in that area. Too obvious? “Where’s the vehicle?”
“Slowly making its way. It’s still far but it won’t be too long before it’s here,” she said, the sound of panic rising.
No one would willingly drive across an icy bridge unless it was the only way home or they were determined to follow someone else. That second option was a gut check and most likely the right one.
“Can you get across the street without the driver seeing you?” he asked.
“I doubt it,” she responded.
Nickel-size hail pelted his windshield and this was just the beginning of the weather front about to batter the town. It was predicted to get a whole lot worse.
First, he needed to come up with a plan. It was clear that he wasn’t going to get to Chelsea and her daughter before the driver of the vehicle on the bridge. Send them into the woods where they might lose cell coverage and they could get lost and end up freezing to death? Tell them to stay in the pickup and a jealous ex could get to them?
The fact that domestic abuse was a leading killer of women was not lost on Nate. He’d heard Zach talk about it too many times for it not to resonate.
“Doors are locked, right?”
“Yes.” She paused. “He’s halfway across the bridge. What should we do?”
Before he could answer, he heard the sweet sound of a siren.
“Can you hear that?” she asked. Her tone picked up, too.
“Help is on the way.” Nate was halfway there and not nearly close enough. All it would take was one bullet to end Chelsea. Travis could disappear with his child over the border and both mother and child would be lost to Nate forever.
The thought hit him harder than expected.
Was he in love with Chelsea? He couldn’t deny that he’d never felt this strongly about anyone else before. Skylar had his heart, too.
So, yeah, he was in love with Chelsea and he wanted to be a family. But did she? Could she open up and let herself love another man after what she’d been through? Mia’s betrayal paled in comparison to what Travis had done to Chelsea and Nate wanted to shut it down for good. There was no doubt in his mind that Chelsea had feelings for him. The kind of chemistry they had was rare.
Even though it had only been a couple of weeks, it felt like he’d known her his entire life. It struck him as odd but he figured it had to do with being kindred spirits. Down deep, where it counted, the two of them knew each other. He’d known Mia for a year before they’d dated. Being around someone for a long period of time didn’t always equate to knowing them. There was something honest and pure about Chelsea despite what she’d been through.
Nate respected her a helluva lot.
There was no way of knowing if Chelsea could open up to him, though. Being able to go there again with anyone was a whole different matter and only Chelsea could decide if she was up for the challenge.
“It’s going to be all right,” he said to a quiet Chelsea.
It was as though she was holding her breath, afraid to speak.
Nate pressed the pedal as hard as he could, pushing his speed to the brink of losing control. He had to get to Chelsea and Skylar. There was no other option.
The sound of Skylar’s sweet little voice in the background singing the nursery rhyme that Chelsea had told her daughter to sing was a punch in the chest.
It was smart to distract the littl
e nugget.
“There’s an SUV with lights and sirens pulling up behind the Jeep,” Chelsea informed him.
Nate’s stress levels calmed with the news. He kept his voice the same timbre as before, just like he’d been trained to do in emergency situations. “Help is there. I’m probably ten minutes out.”
He was making better time than he’d initially calculated.
The sound of a shot split the air.
The air was suddenly sucked out of the cab of Nate’s truck. He bit out a swearword. “What happened, Chelsea?”
“It’s the deputy who came over. Deputy Long. He walked up to the driver’s side and then he was shot. He leaned his hands on the vehicle and I thought everything was fine, but then he took a couple of steps back before he dropped to the ground. Nate, the Jeep is coming. What should I do?”
“Is Skylar out of her seat?” Nothing inside him wanted to give this advice.
“Yes.”
“Get out of there. Run to the tree line and make a zigzag pattern. Don’t just run straight. Turn a lot so you’ll be hard to track and even harder to hit. Be as quiet as you can as you move through the woods.” He paused at the sound of her pickup door creaking open and then slamming shut.
He heard rustling noises and what sounded like blasts of wind. Skylar’s sweet voice was more of a whisper as she finished singing the song.
And then all he could hear was the sound of the wind.
“Chelsea...?”
No response came.
* * *
IT WAS SO cold that Chelsea’s lungs hurt every time she took a breath. She cradled Skylar against her chest. At least her baby was warm with her face burrowed inside Chelsea’s coat. She was grateful Travis hadn’t come after her. He’d been busy wrestling with the deputy.
Chelsea pushed her burning legs as she hugged her daughter.
It was almost impossible to process the fact that a law-enforcement officer had been shot. Chelsea couldn’t begin to allow that knowledge to sink in. Or that Travis was responsible. She couldn’t fathom how wrong his life had turned for him to be capable of such an act.
It was crazy to think that her ex would go to such lengths to hurt her. She’d underestimated the potency of jealousy and anger mixed with desperation. When she really thought about it, Travis’s life was over. Once he was caught, and she could only pray that would happen soon, he’d spend the rest of his life behind bars. All she could wonder was why.
Why track her down?
Why try to kill her?
Why ruin any chance he had for a future on his own?
Of course, at this point she had to consider his intention might be to kill her and take Skylar. He could easily slip across the border with their daughter as Chelsea had heard happened in custody cases far too many times.
For four years she’d wondered if he’d ever show up again. Unlike her mother, Chelsea hadn’t looked for her husband. There hadn’t seemed to be a point because there’d be no going back after what he’d done. But she’d always feared that he would show one day ready to take her daughter away.
Chelsea made a right turn, ran for a while and then made another. She’d been changing her course, just like Nate had said to do. Every once in a while she stopped to listen in case someone was calling for her, or worse, chasing after her.
The wind cut right through her coat.
Another right turn and this time she had to slow her pace for a minute to catch her breath. Running was one thing but carrying a little one while darting through trees, being slapped in the face with icy branches, wore her thin. At least hail wasn’t a problem in the thicket. There were enough evergreens to keep a canopy overhead.
She’d managed to drop her cell phone before she’d reached the trees earlier. How long had she been running? Where was she?
She’d long ago lost feeling in her toes and feared frostbite might be setting in.
She’d wanted to give up more times than she could count but couldn’t. Nothing inside her could surrender to Travis.
And then Chelsea heard her name. The strong, masculine voice trilled through her, bringing with it the first sense of hope since this whole ordeal had started.
“Nate,” she said barely above a whisper.
“Mommy, I hear the fireman,” Skylar said. “He can help us.”
“That’s right, sweetie.” Chelsea spun toward the voice, drew up what little energy she had left and sprinted toward the sound.
She knew he was taking a risk in calling her name. He was not only letting her know where he was but was also giving away his location. Did that mean Travis was out of the picture? Had he taken off or, better yet, been arrested?
There was no way Chelsea was taking a chance. She pushed forward, her toes feeling like needles were pressing into them with every step.
Another shot fired.
Chelsea froze.
“What’s that noise, Momma?” Skylar asked.
She tried to speak but no words came. And, for a split second, the entire world stopped spinning. Time stopped. She was no longer cold. The wind stopped blowing and everything went perfectly still, eerily quiet.
A second later, as though someone flipped a switch, the world restarted.
“Nate,” she whispered before taking off in the direction of the shot.
“Go back to the road,” Nate shouted. “Run. He can’t catch you.”
Was Nate lying in a ditch somewhere? Bleeding out? How on earth was she supposed to leave him in the woods? He could be dying trying to save her. She’d never forgive herself if she didn’t try to help him. But she wouldn’t put her daughter at risk, either. The decision to run to her pickup or Nate warred inside her.
And then it occurred to her that he didn’t want her to go to her pickup. That was too obvious and Nate was too smart to give away her location.
Chelsea spun around and ran toward the place where she’d heard the shot.
* * *
NATE CROUCHED LOW to the ground, listening for the sounds of Chelsea’s footsteps over the blasts of wind. Travis had turned back to the road the minute Nate had yelled for her to go to the vehicle.
Travis must not’ve realized that his shot had gone wide and missed Nate, who’d been dramatic and played the part of victim. Thankfully, he must’ve pulled it off. Travis had retraced his steps. Deputy Long, who’d been shot but was alive, would be ready for Travis this time. Travis wouldn’t catch the lawman off guard.
Leaving Deputy Long had been the most difficult thing that Nate had ever done. The deputy had been shot in the neck, but the bullet had missed a major artery. His bloodied uniform had made things look worse than they were. By the time Nate arrived, the deputy had already called for an ambulance and had insisted that he would be fine. He’d sent Nate into the woods to help Chelsea and Skylar. Long had promised that he would be ready if Nate was able to flush Travis out.
Time was running out. Nate needed to find Chelsea before she and Skylar froze to death. They’d been out in this weather for nearly an hour now. He scanned the woods as hail pelted his face in the clearing.
And then he spotted movement to his left. He eased behind the tree trunk in case Travis had figured out the ruse and circled back.
“Nate.” Chelsea’s voice was barely a whisper and the sweetest sound he’d heard in a long time.
His heart fisted as he popped to his feet and saw the look of exhaustion on her face.
Nate tore toward her, taking Skylar from her arms. The little girl was cold and Chelsea was shivering.
“Pull my coat off and put it on,” he instructed Chelsea.
“You’ll freeze,” she said.
He could see by the determined look in her eyes that arguing would do no good. She wouldn’t take his coat.
“Let’s get you both to a heater.” Nate knew the fastest way back to the
pickup. It took fifteen minutes, which was five minutes too long in his book.
As soon as they broke from the trees, he saw his cousin’s SUV. He took a risk running toward Zach but Skylar’s teeth had started chattering. Nate bolted for the vehicle and was almost surprised when no shots were fired.
Zach, outside the vehicle, opened the passenger door and Chelsea immediately climbed in as Nate handed Skylar to her mother.
“Get them out of here,” Nate said to Zach.
“You belong in the vehicle. I need to check on my deputy,” Zach stated.
The door had barely closed before the first shot rang out.
“Please. Take care of them.” Nate dropped to the ground and scrambled to his own vehicle. He knew his cousin wouldn’t leave the scene when he had a deputy down. Zach would ensure Chelsea and Skylar’s safety.
A ping sounded, a bullet whizzed past Nate’s ear.
Damn. That was a little too close for comfort. He dove, rolled and then popped to his feet behind his truck. He could climb in the cab, but then what?
Nate palmed his handgun.
He slowly looked around the side of his vehicle. Another shot was fired. He drew out two more as Nate counted shots.
Travis’s gun was empty.
The man could reload, if he had more ammunition, and that would take a minute or two. Nate seized the opportunity and bolted for the area from where the shots had been fired.
The shooter looked up and Nate immediately recognized Travis Zucker from the photo Zach had once showed him. The panicked look on the man’s face said he knew he was outmatched. Adrenaline must’ve kicked in because his hands shook as he tried to reload. That played to Nate’s advantage because bullets dropped to the ground.
Nate got his own burst of energy, so he propelled himself at Travis.
The guy was small but quick, rolling out of the way at the last second.
Nate tried to adjust midair but collided with the hard ground. Bullets littered the cold, unforgiving earth as he scrambled to his knees and jerked right. Travis was trying to flee.