The sigh was so loud, James heard it as though the man was in the attic with them.
“Looks like we’ll just have to hunt down Hank and make him tell us where he hid the boy before anyone else finds out Gardner Todd’s son is out there missing.”
If James tensed at the mention of Hank’s name, he turned into a statue at this new information.
Gardner had a son?
He had a nephew?
Suddenly everything fell into place. The urgency to meet in person. The secret he’d been trying to tell James.
Gardner had a son.
A son who was in trouble now.
Rage, pure as pollen in the spring, filled James so quickly that he had half a mind to open the attic door and bring down a heap of pain on the men in the bedroom. Had they been the ones who had ordered Lester to kill his brother? Why were they after the boy? What were they planning on doing with him after they found him?
Every question pushed adrenaline into James’s muscles.
In the darkness of the attic, all he saw was red.
And then that red cooled.
Suzy moved her hand onto the arm he had around her stomach. Her fingers delicately wrapped his forearm. Then, in the smallest of movements, she brushed her thumb across his skin.
The rage in him quieted, and sense returned to him.
Jumping out and taking on the unknown number of armed men would only get him killed, and her, too. And then his nephew would still be in danger.
James squeezed her side to let her know he’d gotten the message.
“Go get Zach and the boys, and tell them to go ahead and hit the road,” the first man said. He must have been the one in charge at the moment. James committed his voice to memory. “Keep your phones on,” he called as one of the men’s footsteps went back into the living room.
“What do you want me to do?” the third man asked. Not the guy with the Southern accent. Again, James felt like he could almost place the man’s voice. “I mean, do we even know where Hank is?”
“No, but Sully does.”
“I thought he was gone. In the wind.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t get him back. The sorry SOB has a lot of problems, but his worst one is how he feels about his people. We find that boy he took a bullet for, and I bet we could smoke him out.”
“If Sully hasn’t already bought a one-way ticket to the great fire pit in the ground.”
The first man laughed. It sounded like nails against a chalkboard.
“He may be soft, but Sully isn’t about to let a bullet do him in.”
Car doors shut in the distance. An engine turned over.
“And what if he doesn’t know where Hank is? Heck, what if Hank is already on his way out of the state with the boy?”
Zach, the boys and the man with the Southern twang must have been leaving. James tried to split his attention, to see if he could hear if one or two vehicles were driving off, but he very much wanted the same answers as the unknown third man did.
“You may not have been in for long enough to know about Hank, but I used to run with him a few years back. He’s not a stationary man, and definitely not a fan of the state. He came back for a reason. He won’t leave until he’s done whatever he needed to, and my guess is it wasn’t being the father to Gardner Todd’s kid. Now, let’s start with his old woman in—”
Music—the chorus of the song “It’s Raining Men,” to be precise, courtesy of James’s sister and how hilarious she thought it was to try to embarrass him when she called—filled the attic around them. He and Suzy both reached for his coat pocket and his phone, lit up and blaring.
“What the—”
James wrapped his hand around the phone and pulled Suzy up and farther into the darkness, just as a shot sounded up through the attic door.
“We need light!” she yelled. No point in trying to pretend no one was home when The Weather Girls were belting out one of their most famous hits.
James held up the phone, giving them some light. Another bullet embedded itself in the roof above them. As soon as Suzy could see, she was playing hopscotch across the ceiling beams. The last thing they needed was to fall into the bedroom.
“Whoever you are, you’re screwed!” yelled one of the men. James didn’t have the time to figure out which one it was. He canceled Chelsea’s call and used the phone as a flashlight.
The attic ran the length of the house and was by no means spacious. They hunched and clung to roof beams as they hurried to get out from above where the men were.
Not that that would make much difference when they decided to walk into the living room and unload a few more rounds into the ceiling.
“How close is the truck to the house?” Suzy asked James. A ripping sound pulled his attention to her dress just in time to watch the tear that was already there split all the way up to her hip. Lord have mercy—if they weren’t running for their lives, James would have had to really think on the lacy number she was wearing beneath it.
“How close is the—” he repeated.
Suzy cut him off. “The vent!”
James followed her line of sight to the attic vent at the end of the house. With a jolt of excitement, he understood.
“Close enough,” he said.
Another two bullets shot up behind him, too close for comfort. Suzy must have sensed it. The moment she got to another beam, she turned toward him, brandishing her gun.
“Move!” she yelled.
James didn’t have to be told twice. He hurried around her and kept going toward the vent while she did some shooting of her own. He counted four shots by the time he made it to the beam closest to the vent.
Two bullets answered from the men below. James turned, worried she’d been hit.
“Hurry!” she shouted at him.
Holding two roof beams to steady himself the best he could in the small space, James pulled back his leg and then kicked out at the attic vent with all he had. The planks of wood splintered beneath the force. Suzy sent another few rounds beneath them while he kicked out again. Before he could clear the last two planks, he could already see the truck beneath them.
“This is going to hurt,” he called over his shoulder. He moved his phone to allow more light to help her get the rest of the way to him.
“Not as much as getting shot,” she bit back. “Trust me.”
He wasn’t about to argue.
He broke the last board, until all that was left was a hole they’d have to squeeze through. But, like Suzy said, it was better than the alternative.
“As soon as you hit the truck bed, I’m gunning it. So make sure you buy us some time with those bullets,” he said.
“Yes, sir.” Suzy nodded, turned and unloaded her clip into the floor.
As soon as the last bullet left her barrel, James moved through the hole that used to be the attic vent, grabbed on to its sides, said a quick prayer and pushed off.
* * *
WHEN SUZY WAS FIFTEEN, she had dared Billy to jump off the Wendigo Bridge on their way home from school. It wasn’t that high above the water, but tall enough that Billy wasn’t having any of it. By the time she’d decided to stop ragging him about it, Tommy Wexler and his cute older brother had shown up. The way Suzy had seen it then, she’d had no choice at that point. She had to jump.
She still remembered how her stomach had turned to nothing but butterflies as she stood on the old railing and looked down at the water. Billy had still been spouting concern, but promised he’d try to fetch her if she started drowning. The Wexler boys weren’t as concerned, but said a few things that made her believe they’d be impressed if she did, indeed, go through with it. So she’d taken that first step without hesitation.
What Suzy never told Tommy Wexler—or Billy, for that matter—was that she’d seen her friend Melanie do the same thing
the previous summer on a dare. It was a scary drop, but as long as she tucked her legs in and held her nose, she’d be fine. But Melanie had told Suzy that the real secret was in knowing you’d be fine before you ever did it. Confidence was key, she’d said.
Now, no longer a teen trying to impress a boy, Suzy realized that the key had never been confidence. It had been youthful stupidity.
And, boy, did she feel stupid jumping off a house in an attempt to hit the back of a truck with a nine-or ten-foot drop in between the two.
She felt a slight fizzle of confidence spring up when James hit his target and none of his bones snapped in half. At least, none that she heard.
James landed in the truck bed on his feet, and a second later he was out and over the side. The moment he flung open the driver’s-side door, Suzy held her breath and followed.
If she hadn’t abandoned her high heels in the attic, she was certain her ankles would have twisted something awful. As it was, when her feet connected with the metal, a jarring jolt of pain radiated up through her. However, nothing felt terribly wrong. Though she was sure she’d be feeling it the next morning.
That was, if they made it to the next morning.
It wasn’t like two full-grown adults landing in the back of a pickup were exactly quiet. If the gunmen hadn’t already left wherever they’d been seeking cover when she’d shot at them, they’d leave soon to find them.
On cue, a man yelled from inside of the house. “They’re outside!”
Suzy was whirling around, trying to get James’s status on driving them away, when the engine roared to life. She barely had time to drop into a crouch and grab the side of the truck bed before the tires were kicking up dirt and rock.
The window between the cab and the back slid open just as two men ran out into the night.
“Hang on there!” James yelled through the window. The truck accelerating threw Suzy even more off balance. She slid down. More ripping sounds let her know Mara’s dress was tearing again. It sure wasn’t made for the field.
A familiar bang cut through the night. One of the men stood defiantly in the backyard with his gun out, but his face, as well as his aim, was becoming obscured by the distance and night. It was easy to hit a house. Not so much a moving target.
Which told Suzy these men might be familiar with guns, but they weren’t pros.
“You okay?” James called. He didn’t let up on the gas pedal as he took a left, putting them back on the road. Suzy was flung to the side.
“If they don’t kill me, your driving might!”
Through the chaos that had turned into Suzy’s evening, she heard James Callahan howl in laughter. Despite everything, it made her smile.
But it didn’t last long. A pair of headlights raced onto the road behind them.
“They’re following us!” she yelled.
“Might be time to get in here, then!”
Suzy eyed the window opening and did some quick math. She was a slim woman, thanks to the job and the need to stay in shape that came with it, but her part-Hispanic heritage had graced her with hips on the wide size, just like her mother. The pickup wasn’t old, but it wasn’t brand-spanking-new, either. Its window wasn’t made for a grown woman to slide through and into the cab. Actually, it was a surprise the millionaire was driving this dinky truck rather than some sports car or hopped-up truck with a lift kit.
“I don’t think I can fit,” she said. “The window is too small.”
James didn’t turn his attention away from the windshield. The headlights were bouncing in front of them as the tires ran across the same holes that had prompted James to hold her down earlier.
“Simmons, you just jumped out of an attic vent and into a truck. You can manage this window!”
Suzy glanced over her shoulder at the approaching vehicle. It was too close. If she got stuck, then she’d be one easy target.
“There’s no time!”
She pulled out her phone. She should have called the department when they were in the attic, but she hadn’t wanted to give their hiding spot away.
“Here!”
Suzy turned in time to see James passing her a present.
It was a gun.
A loaded gun.
“You know the saying ‘it’s like shooting fish in a barrel’?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
James turned to give her a quick look. He was smirking.
And, boy, she couldn’t stop the thought that it made him look delicious from crossing her mind.
“You’re the fish in this scenario,” he said. “So make sure you don’t let them get near the barrel!”
Chapter Six
By the time the truck made it to the main road, Suzy had opened fire on their pursuers. She got in three shots before another was returned. It hit the top of the truck. An awful noise of metal against metal sounded above them.
“You okay?” he yelled, even though he knew she hadn’t been hit.
“Just peachy!”
Two more shots came at them. Both missed. James already had his foot to the floor. At this rate, they’d be inside the town limits within minutes.
Would the men keep coming at them until their ammo ran out? Or would they stick with them until they could get the upper hand another way?
James glanced in his rearview mirror just in time to see the driver of the car thrust his arm out of his window. The passenger joined in, hand and gun sticking out of his window, too.
“Get down,” James just managed to say seconds before both opened fire. One of the side windows was blown off as James ducked. The windshield followed quickly. A gust of night air pushed into the cab.
“Still with me?”
“They have more firepower! We need a better plan!” Suzy yelled back. This time there was no joke in her reply.
James cleared the glass off himself and squinted as the air made his eyes water. Suzy was right. At the rate they were going, getting into the town limits wasn’t going to do them a lick of good. Not unless they had backup waiting.
They needed a better plan.
Or, at least, a different one.
“Could you hit their tires?” James yelled, already weighing the pros and cons of what he was thinking of doing.
Pro? It could get the two men and their seemingly endless amounts of ammo off their tails. Long enough, at least, to call and rendezvous with Suzy’s law-enforcement brethren.
Con? It didn’t work, and they were either killed by bullets or in a car accident.
James decided not to share these thoughts with the female gunslinger in the back of his truck.
“Hold on,” he warned, making up his mind. “And then get ready to jump up and shoot!”
“Roger that!”
James gave her a few seconds to get a good grip. Then, with another silent prayer that he wasn’t about to kill them both, he stomped on the brakes.
For the second time that night, the world around them seemed to change speed. The truck shuddered as it skidded to a halt. The glass on James and the front seat sprayed forward against the dash. The weight of a body rattled around the truck bed. He even heard Suzy yell out in surprise or pain or both. All of these things were followed closely by the horrible screeching sound of even more tires. James looked in the side mirror in time to watch the car behind them veer around the truck by what had to be inches. They rode their own set of brakes down the oncoming traffic lane before coming to a violent stop. It was a miracle they hadn’t fallen into the ditch or flipped.
Now there were less than a few yards between them.
“Suz—” James started to yell. He was interrupted by a blur of fabric moving as the woman stood tall in the truck bed. All he could see was a beautiful pair of legs.
Then he was listening to the sound of her gunshots over the truck roof above him.
Three shots was all it took to deflate the back two tires of the gunmen’s car.
“Hold on,” he warned again. This time, as soon as he heard her drop down, James was punching the gas pedal. Instead of going past the front of their car, giving them more shots, he cut the wheel and took them the other way. Suzy might not have been chief deputy of the county they were now pointed toward, but that didn’t mean James was about to risk the pair of thugs getting a good shot at her as they rode past into Riker County.
At least, James hoped the new direction wouldn’t open her up to any more of their target practice.
Either way, he bet their chances were better than flashing their backsides at two men more than willing to kill them.
“You have your cell phone on you?” he asked after a minute or so had passed. Suzy was sitting up, her hair moving in the night air like she was underwater. He didn’t need to be her best friend like the sheriff was to know her focus was behind them. The car and gunmen weren’t following them.
But that didn’t mean their friends couldn’t.
Wherever the Drawler and the rest of the original group had gone, James just hoped they didn’t run into them on the way to safety.
“Yeah, but it’s dead.” She turned so that her head was almost in the window. “Let me see yours. Because we both know it definitely works.”
James couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Ten minutes later and Suzy was finally done with the phone. She’d called ahead to the Calwarts County Sheriff’s Department so a deputy could meet them and bring them in while another few were dispatched out to find the two gunmen behind them. She also called in to her department and put them all on alert since they had no way of knowing where the other group of men had gone. She even called in the sheriff, as best as he could tell from the snatches of yelling he heard through the wind.
By the time she had ended the call, the county road was being blocked off in front of them by two blue-and-whites. James came to a stop in front of the first car as a pair of deputies raised their guns at them.
“This is all you, dear,” James said over his shoulder. He cut the engine and raised his hands. Before Suzy could come back with her own quip, a man stepped out of the second car. He wasn’t in uniform but James could see a sheriff’s badge clearly on his belt.
Loving Baby Page 5