Taking off after her, she flew across the yard. Reached the trucks and looked down the long aisle between them. Her target had vanished again. Where could she have gotten to?
There was a tall, board fence at the end of the aisle marking a division between the station and whatever lay on the other side. The fence was solid. Except for a gap where one of the vertical boards was missing. A gap wide enough to permit an adult to squeeze through it.
The woman must have escaped through this hole, and like Alice chasing the White Rabbit, Lauren went after her. Along the narrow canyon between the towering steel walls of the eighteen-wheelers she ran.
She never reached the gap in the fence. The blonde wasn’t alone. Lauren should have known she wouldn’t be on her own, that someone would have accompanied her, served as a lookout.
He must have been lurking at the tail of one of the two rigs. Lauren never glimpsed him, never heard him over the reverberation of the engines. She was nearing the fence when he struck with the speed of a viper, seizing her from behind as she passed the end of the truck.
A pair of arms went around her, stopping her, dragging her back, pinning her so tightly against his bulk that the wind was punched out of her.
Lauren’s skin crawled with revulsion when she felt his hot breath near her ear. He issued his challenge in a rough, ugly growl.
“And just where do you think you’re going?”
Chapter Eight
Lauren struggled in his grip, trying to break free. Her effort was useless. He was too strong for her, his arms locked around her like a vise.
When she started to twist her head around, attempting to get a look at his face, he prevented her action by freeing one of his hands just long enough to deliver a stinging slap to the side of her head. Lauren’s ears rang from the blow.
“You try something like that again,” he warned her cruelly, “and I’ll really hurt you. Understand?”
Given no choice about it, she bobbed her head. He didn’t want to be identified, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t prepared to listen to reason. Drawing air into her lungs, she pleaded with him.
“Look, just give my baby back to me. I’ll give you anything you want. Whatever it is, I’ll manage it somehow, I promise.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he sneered.
“At least tell me she’s all right. Please, I have to know.”
His laugh was low and as sour as his faint body odor.
“You’re crazy. What’s in that head of yours? Anything at all?”
Lauren was frightened, but she was also angry. “If you harm her, harm her in any way, I swear I’ll—”
His arms tightened around her, an iron band choking off her words. He was dangerous. Not just for her, but for Sara. Her threat had been a mistake.
“No, I didn’t mean that,” she quickly, breathlessly amended her error. “I’m sorry I said it. Just be good to her, that’s all I ask. If you’ll only—”
“Lauren! You out here?”
She instantly recognized the voice that came from somewhere near the back door of the gas station. It was Ethan! She felt her captor go rigid.
“Don’t try to follow us,” he whispered, his alarm forcing him into an admission. “If you want your kid to stay safe, don’t come anywhere near us again.”
Muttering an obscenity, he flung Lauren away from him with such rage that she went sprawling down onto the ground, her purse flying out of her hand.
By the time she lifted her head from the oil-spattered pavement, all she could see was a fleeting glimpse of his back as he forced his way through the gap in the fence. And because he wore a sweat jacket with the hood pulled over his head, she couldn’t tell even the color of his hair.
Ethan called to her again, a sharp, frantic edge to his shout this time. “Lauren, where are you?”
“Here!” she cried to him. “Over here between the trucks!”
She heard the sound of his feet striking against the concrete as he ran toward her. When he reached her, she was on her hands and knees and had managed to rescue her purse from beneath the wheels of the truck.
“What in sweet heaven are you doing down there? When I found the car out at the pump, I came inside looking for you, and the clerk at the counter said she saw you—” He broke off to help her to her feet. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m all right. Ethan, they’re getting away!”
“Who?”
“The couple who took Sara! They were here! They went through the fence there!”
Ethan’s face darkened with a savage look. Thankfully, he didn’t stop to express doubt or to question her. “Stay put,” he instructed her.
All she had time to do was call after him a cautionary, “He’s a devil! Be careful!” And then he was gone, slipping through the opening in the fence.
Stay put.
She did for a long maddening minute, and then she realized she couldn’t go on standing there doing nothing. Ethan was alone in there, and she was worried about him. She had to know what was going on, whether he might need her help.
Promising herself to be careful, Lauren went to the fence, ducked her head under the top rail to which the vertical boards had been nailed, and slid through the gap. When she stood erect on the other side, she was surprised to find herself in what amounted to an automobile graveyard.
The salvage lot was apparently an extensive one. Cars, or what were left of them anyway, stretched away on all sides. Every make and model was here in various stages of decay. There was no sign of either Ethan or the couple he was pursuing.
Lauren waited for a minute, listening for a sound that might provide her with a direction. But there were no footsteps. Nothing but the silence.
Although the cars had been packed tightly together in blocks, rows had been left open around the blocks. Lauren ventured up the first of these aisles, clutching her purse and pausing every few seconds to look and listen. Still nothing. Where were they?
As she wandered along the rows, she began to feel she was playing hide-and-seek in a vast maze. It was the perfect place to lose yourself. She figured that the blonde and her companion must have deliberately chosen the salvage yard to approach the gas station. It offered them the escape route they had needed.
Lauren wasn’t sure at what point she realized that she was the one who was lost. Coming to a complete stop, she tried to get her bearings. It was hopeless. She couldn’t distinguish one rusted wreck from another. By now, she had no idea how to find her way back to the gap in the fence.
It had been a mistake for her to come in here. Why hadn’t she listened to Ethan and remained where he’d left her?
The urge to call out to him was strong, but she suddenly understood she couldn’t do that. Whatever Ethan heard could also be heard by the enemy, and if she betrayed her presence, and they reached her first…
Trapped! She had trapped herself in here and was vulnerable!
This was ridiculous. She needed to help herself. Resisting the threat of panic, she turned around and started back the way she had come. She hadn’t taken three steps when she heard it: the sound of someone approaching.
Lauren looked around for a place to conceal herself. She thought about diving down between the cars. Then she noticed that the vehicle just to her right was missing its back door. Hopping inside, she crouched low, hugging the rotted seat.
Seconds passed. When she could no longer bear the suspense, she risked lifting her head just high enough to peer through the cracked rear window. At that moment a tall figure came swinging around the corner and down the row in her direction.
The sight of Ethan filled her with relief.
She didn’t blame him for being startled when she popped out of the car as he came toward her. “Lauren! What in the world were you doing in there? I thought I asked you to stay—”
“Don’t scold me. I couldn’t help it. I had to know what was going on, and then when I heard you coming, I thought it might be one of them, so I—”
She was trembling so badly she couldn’t go on. He had come to a halt when she’d emerged from the car. But now, seeing how shaken she was, he reached her in three quick strides. She ought to have objected when he folded her into his arms. Instead, she welcomed his protective embrace, clung to him tightly.
“A devil,” he muttered into her ear.
“What?”
“You called him a devil just before I went through the fence. And you’re scared. Did he touch you?” he wanted to know, his voice rough with anger. “Because if the bastard touched you—”
“No,” she lied, fearing if she didn’t that Ethan might leave her to go tearing off again after her attacker. And she needed him here. Needed him to go on holding her.
Lauren wasn’t entirely sure just when she began to realize she had traded one danger for another. She only knew that at some point she became aware that his embrace had become more intimate than protective. That he had molded himself so tightly against her body she could feel the hardness of his unmistakable arousal. That his strong hands on her back were no longer soothing her with comforting strokes but with slow caresses that could only be defined as desire.
In another moment, he would tip her head back, fasten his mouth on hers. To yield to that temptation would be so easy. And so wrong. Not just because this was neither the right time nor the right place. There was that, of course, but there was also the emotional turmoil that had been present from the beginning of their relationship. She knew that both of them continued to struggle with it. And there was their missing daughter.
“Sara,” she reminded him softly.
Just the mention of Sara was enough. Ethan immediately released her.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized for her momentary weakness.
“I was behaving like a fool just because— Look, I’m okay now. Did you see any sign of either of them?”
Ethan gazed at her in sober silence for a few seconds, as if wanting to be certain of her recovery. Or perhaps because he was disappointed in her resistance.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, “they got away before I could catch up with them. I heard a car roaring off on the other side of the yard. I suppose that was them. What happened exactly? How did you run into them?”
Lauren related what had taken place back at the gas station, minimizing the episode that had occurred between the trucks to a verbal warning from the man who had challenged her. If Ethan wondered how she could have been threatened without managing to see his face, she gave him no opportunity to pursue it.
“Can we get out of here?” she urged. “If we don’t get back to the car, the gas station is going to end up hauling it away for blocking their pumps. Providing, that is, you know the way. I’m thoroughly lost.”
Ethan’s sense of direction turned out to be far better than hers. He was able to confidently take them back to the gap in the fence.
“From what you told me,” he said when they reached the car, “we know for certain now that this is the couple who took Sara.”
“We know more than that. We know she’s still with them. They wouldn’t have risked stopping here for the diapers otherwise.” For Lauren, this was the most vital knowledge. That her daughter was alive and receiving at least basic care.
“And they haven’t left the area. They’re out there somewhere within reach.” The palm of his hand came down on the hood of the car with a frustrated smack. “But how do we find them?”
“Hilary Johnson’s other house in the hills,” she reminded him. “Unless they left Sara behind in their car while they sneaked through the salvage yard to get the diapers, and I don’t think they would have risked having someone spot her in the parked car, then—”
“Yeah, someone else was looking after Sara back at their hideout, and that someone could be Hilary.”
Lauren gazed at him, suddenly understanding his frustration. “You didn’t have any luck at Sloan Real Estate.”
Ethan shook his head. “Afraid I struck out. Oh, the redhead was friendly enough all right, but when it came to the subject of that house she wouldn’t budge. Said there was no point in my going out to look at it because the owner had removed it from their rental listings. And since they hadn’t kept the sheet on it, she couldn’t provide me with directions anyway.”
“If Hilary took it off the market, that’s got to be where they’re holed up.”
“A strong likelihood, certainly,” he agreed.
“There has to be a way of getting directions to the place.”
His mind focused on the problem, Ethan didn’t answer her. Lauren became aware of a man who had emerged from the front door of the gas station. From the way he stood there glaring at them pointedly, she guessed he was probably the manager.
“Uh, I think we’re being asked to move the car away from the pumps.”
Ethan didn’t bother glancing in the direction of the station. His interest had been captured by another figure out on the sidewalk. A teenager had come whizzing by on a skateboard. He was now stopped on the corner waiting for the traffic light to change.
“The baseball cap!” Ethan said.
If this was a sudden revelation, Lauren didn’t understand it. It was true the teenager wore a baseball cap, with its peak twisted around to the back and one of its seams parting from hard use. But what did this have to do with anything?
“I think I know how we might get those directions,” Ethan said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Since the manager was headed now in their direction, his decision was a timely one. Lauren took the wheel again.
“Where are we going?” she asked as they reached the street, pausing for the traffic to clear.
“Back to Hilary’s house here in town.”
Lauren couldn’t imagine why, but she waited until they were under way before she questioned him. “Now what’s this all about? What can we hope to learn when we’ve already been there.”
“Plenty, I hope. It was that baseball cap. I remembered the old man next door was wearing one. Like the kid’s, one of its seams was starting to split open.”
He went on to explain how Hilary’s neighbor had been in his yard raking leaves when Ethan had come looking for the ex-housekeeper yesterday morning.
“He knew about Hilary, knew about her family. There’s a good chance he also knows about that place in the hills and how to get there.”
The newspapers were still on the doorstep when they reached the Johnson house. Lauren pulled over to the curb and waited in the car while Ethan went to the neighbor’s door.
An elderly man answered his knock. Presumably, this was the same one Ethan had referred to, although he wasn’t wearing the baseball cap now. She watched hopefully as the two men conferred out on the stoop.
Her hands were clenching the wheel in suspense by the time Ethan returned and slid into the car. There was a look of triumph on his face when he turned to her.
“Got it!” he said. “The property used to be a farm Hilary’s father let out to a tenant. The old guy would ride out there with him once in a while to collect the rent, so he remembered the place and how to get there.”
Lauren exhaled in relief. “Bless him.”
“Let’s roll. I’ll give you directions along the way.”
Lauren hesitated. “Do you think it’s time we brought the sheriff in on this?”
Ethan shook his head without pausing to consider her suggestion. “No more delays. These people have got to be worried that you ran into them like that. They could be ready to move on from a hideout they no longer consider safe. If we don’t get to them now, we could lose them.”
And Sara with them. The unspoken words hung in the air between them. His argument convinced her they couldn’t afford to wait. At the same time, she was aware of the danger involved in their plan. But for the sake of her daughter, she was prepared to risk that and much more.
“THIS HAS GOT TO BE it,” Ethan said, indicating a pair of ancient wagon wheels that marked each side
of the turn into the driveway.
Since there was no sign or a mailbox, only the wheels the neighbor had described, Lauren hoped he was right.
Either the old man’s memory had been somewhat inaccurate or Ethan had been confused by his directions, because they’d lost valuable time backtracking on a labyrinth of un-paved country roads before arriving here.
It was late afternoon by now. There couldn’t be more than an hour or so of daylight left. It was hard to tell, though. Clouds had moved in, obscuring the sun and making her wonder if it was going to rain.
“Doesn’t look like any neighbors in the area,” Ethan said as she swung the car into the narrow lane.
Which makes it the perfect hideout, she thought as she proceeded slowly along the rutted, weedy drive.
“You see any sign of a house?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
“Me, either. But the minute we do, stop the car. We’ll leave it behind and check out the place on foot. We don’t want to alert them.”
If they’re even here, Lauren thought. There was no guarantee they ever had been. The property could be as deserted as it looked.
“Not much of a farm, huh?” Ethan observed.
He was right. The region was hilly, most of it in forest. It must have always been a struggle trying to farm it, and now the fields off on the right of the winding drive were abandoned and already shoulder-high with pines that had claimed them.
“You see it?” Ethan said, directing her attention to a roof peeking over the tops of those same pines.
“Yes.” She rolled to a stop, nodding toward a grove of tall hemlocks on their left. “That looks as good a place as any to hide the car.”
“Right.”
She turned the wheel and edged forward, squeezing the sedan into the depths of the grove until it was tucked out of sight. There was a total silence when she cut the engine. Ethan lowered the window on his side, and for a moment they listened. Nothing. Not even the sound of birds. There was something almost eerie about the stillness.
Paternity Unknown Page 11