She sucked in a sharp breath at his last question. Then she tucked one leg under her body and took a sip of her soda.
“I found out a few weeks after you deployed.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into the darkness, the words sounding hollow and inadequate.
Sniffling, she swiped a hand across her face. “Don’t be. It was the best news I could’ve gotten—to have you still with me while you were away.”
“It must’ve been a shock. It’s not like we were planning to start a family this early.”
“A happy shock. A welcome shock.” She brushed her hands together as if dismissing the sadness of the past. “And I found out the usual way—pregnancy test from the local drug store. I danced around the room when I saw the double lines.”
“I can picture that.”
“What else did you want to know?” She ticked off the answers on her fingers. “Easy pregnancy. Called my mom and my sister, Hannah, when I got scared or had questions. Alicia was my rock. Mom and Hannah were with me in the delivery room.”
“Do you have lots of pictures of Mikey? I saw the ones from the house that you packed up.”
“Tons. I’ll show you more on my computer tomorrow, if we have some time at the hotel before we hit the road.” She tapped her phone to bring up the GPS. “How much longer to Palm Springs from El Paso?”
“Probably another ten hours. We’ll head for Tucson from El Paso, but I don’t plan to spend the night anywhere else. We can get to my brother’s place by six o’clock tomorrow if we power through.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “I think that depends on Mikey. If he gets fussy, we’ll have to stop.”
“Got it. Tell me more. Tell me everything.”
The hours and the road flew by as Jennifer told him about his son. He drank it all in, absorbing it into his very marrow.
Her speech began to slow down and slur until she gave up and rested her head against the window.
“Do you want a blanket from the backseat to put beneath your head?”
“I’m not sleeping.”
“Maybe not, but you might be more comfortable.”
“I’m not sleeping.”
He brushed a lock of hair from her cheek and squeezed her shoulder. “Okay, Jen.”
Within minutes, her breathing deepened and her head sunk closer to her shoulder.
Miguel adjusted the rearview mirror to peek at Mikey. Like mother, like son.
He traveled the rest of the way across Texas with his own thoughts to keep him company. He was accustomed to that, too. His captors had kept him in solitary most of the time. He didn’t want to think about the men who’d shared his space from time to time or what had happened to them when they’d been dragged out of the cell never to return.
Now he had to protect his family from that evil at home, but it was worse. At least in captivity, he’d known his enemy. Here he couldn’t be sure.
He knew he could trust Roberto though. His older brother might be a ruthless man, but he needed Roberto’s ruthlessness on his side right now.
By the time they reached the outskirts of El Paso, Jennifer had woken up from her restless sleep.
“We’re here already?”
“According to your phone’s GPS, the hotel should be off the next exit.”
She twisted around and tucked Mikey’s blanket around his legs. “Did he wake up?”
“Not once, but then you told me that you could get him to sleep as a baby by taking him for a ride in the car.”
She tilted her head at him. “I did tell you that, didn’t I?”
He flicked on the turn signal, although the nearest car on the road had just passed him. The GPS directed him to turn right, and he spotted the lighted hotel sign up ahead.
The check-in for Mr. and Mrs. Garcia was smooth, since he had an Arizona driver’s license to match his credit card.
The chipper clerk assured them the crib had been installed in the room while rolling a dubious eye at Mikey, who’d awakened with a vengeance.
Jennifer smiled at the woman. “I’m sure he’ll be back to sleep soon.”
When they got to their room on the second floor, Miguel parked their bags in the corner and stretched. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“You’re crazy. You must be tight after driving for six straight hours.” Jennifer came up behind him and dug the fingers of one hand into the knots in the back of his neck. “How’s that hip?”
Seconds later, Mikey, hooked on Jennifer’s hip, patted Miguel’s back with his hands.
Jennifer laughed. “Mikey’s trying to help.”
Miguel spun around, holding out his arms. “He’s a big help. Can I hold him?”
As she poured Mikey into his arms, Jennifer said, “For a few minutes while I get out his diaper bag.”
Miguel bounced his son in his arms. “I’m changing his diaper. I still need lots of practice.”
“You don’t need to twist my arm.” Jennifer spread out the diaper changing pad on the floor and whipped out a new diaper. “It’s all yours, Dad.”
Miguel changed Mikey’s diaper with no help from Jennifer and then tucked the boy against his shoulder. “I think he’s tired again.”
“He’s all confused. I don’t think he’s ever been awake at two in the morning other than waking up in his crib as a baby.”
“Are you confused?” Miguel pressed his lips against Mikey’s soft hair and bounced him in the age-old motion for soothing a child. It had come to him naturally.
Jennifer put away the items from the diaper bag, and then collapsed on the bed, crossing her legs at the ankles. “It’s a good thing he slept the whole way because he’s figured out how to release the straps on his car seat and wriggle out.”
Mikey lifted his head from Miguel’s shoulder long enough to murmur, “Bad car seat.”
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “The car seat is not bad, Mikey. Mommy and even Daddy wear seat belts in the car. Didn’t you see Daddy buckle his seat belt?”
Miguel whispered as he gave Mikey another bounce. “I don’t think he heard a word you said, Jen. He’s drifting off.”
“Stubborn, just like his daddy.” She yawned and punched the pillows behind her head.
“Get some sleep. I’ll put Mikey in the crib when he’s ready.”
“You’re the one who had driving duty. You should sleep and I’ll take care of Mikey.”
“You’ve been doing it all for eighteen months.” He traced Mikey’s ear with his fingertip. “It’s my turn.”
Jennifer must’ve sensed the futility of arguing with him or she was too tired to care. She rolled to her side, pulling her knees up to her chest.
Mikey didn’t last much longer than his mother. His little body had gone limp against Miguel’s chest, and a thin line of drool from his open mouth had made its way to Miguel’s shirt.
Miguel crept to the crib and placed Mikey on top of the blanket Jennifer had spread over the hotel’s crib sheet. The boy stirred and twitched as Miguel eased his arms from him and pulled another blanket over his son’s body.
Miguel watched Mikey for another ten minutes before inching away from the crib. He sat at the window and watched the blinking lights of El Paso in the distance.
He had to try to contact Josh again, or one of his other teammates, to find out if the rumors about him and his time in captivity were gaining ground.
He didn’t want or expect to be hailed as a hero when he’d escaped from the enemy, but he hadn’t expected his country to turn on him either.
He had to see his family to safety first, and then he’d take care of the rest. Rooting out the mole in the intelligence community would not only restore his own reputation, it would also save lives.
And after the loss of life he’d
witnessed when that SEAL team was ambushed, he’d do anything to spare other families that torture.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, they allowed Mikey to run around the hotel room and bounce on the bed to burn off some energy.
“I don’t think we’re going to be as lucky today with Mikey. He’s a bundle of motion.” Jennifer wedged a hand on her hip as she stood next to the bed to make sure Mikey didn’t roll off.
“We’ll have to see that he has plenty of toys to keep him occupied, or maybe for lunch we can stop in at one of those fast-food places with a play area.” Miguel pulled out his laptop. “I’m going to take advantage of the Wi-Fi in here and try to get a message to Josh, or one of the other guys.”
Jennifer zipped up the diaper bag and placed it on top of her suitcase. Then she snatched the car keys from the credenza. “It’s pretty hot out there. I’ll get Mikey down to the car and start it up to get the AC going.”
He nodded as he logged in to his computer and visited the public chat room that he and Josh had designated as their anonymous place to communicate after that last text. He closed out and slipped his laptop into its sleeve, and then lugged all the bags downstairs.
Jennifer was coming around the back of the car and popped open the trunk. She shaded her eyes from the sun with one hand and called out, “I’ll start the car to get the air-conditioning going. Are you sure you don’t want me to drive this first leg of the trip?”
“Okay. You can drive if you want.”
She pushed up the trunk and ducked inside.
One of the suitcases he was dragging behind him twisted to the side, and as he righted it, the motel clerk from the night before raised a coffee cup in his direction. “There’s free coffee in the lobby if you want to get a couple of cups for the road.”
Miguel looked up. “We just might do that.”
Jennifer gave him a thumbs-up from the trunk. “Made some space.”
The clerk glanced over her shoulder. “Is your car okay now?”
Miguel cocked his head. “It always was. What do you mean?”
“Oh.” She squinted at the car. “Yeah, that’s the car. A tow truck was parked next to it early this morning and the driver was beneath the car.”
Miguel’s heart slammed against his chest as he dropped the suitcase handles and lurched toward the open driver’s-side door. “Jennifer! Stop! Don’t start the car!”
Her face turned toward him, eyes and mouth open wide as the engine turned over. “I—I...”
“Get out of the car!”
As Jennifer scrambled from the front seat, smoke started curling from the steering column.
Miguel sprang toward her and grabbed her arm, yanking her toward him. He spun her around so he was between her and the car and lunged forward, going airborne and taking her with him.
The explosion from the car propelled them even farther, and Miguel felt a flash of heat at his back.
Jennifer bucked beneath him, coughing and clawing at the ground. “Mikey! Mikey’s in the car.”
And then Miguel’s world went as black as the smoke swirling around them.
Chapter Seven
Her ears were ringing, but she could still hear her own screaming.
Miguel, who’d been covering her body with his own, jumped up and ran back to the burning car.
She struggled to sit up, hacking and trying to spit the acrid taste of burning rubber from her mouth. Tears streamed down her face, stinging her eyes, blurring her vision. But what she saw in front of her made her sick, hollowed out her heart. Nobody inside that car could’ve survived.
On her hands and knees, the dirt and gravel digging into her flesh, she crawled around to the back of the burning car where she’d last seen Miguel.
The clerk was shouting something behind her, but the words made no sense.
Then Miguel emerged from the billowing smoke, Mikey clutched to his chest.
Jennifer blinked at the vision. It was a dream, a sweet, sweet dream.
“Stay back, Jen. I’ve got him. I’ve got our boy.”
She collapsed on the ground, laughing and crying at the same time, her tears mingling with the soot and the dirt on her face.
Crouching beside her, Miguel placed a hand on her shoulder. “Can you get up?”
“Yeah.” She dragged a hand across her nose, smearing God knew what across her face, and grabbed Miguel’s arm.
He pulled her up, and she wrapped her arms around Mikey and Miguel at the same time. The ringing in her ears had subsided and now she could hear Mikey crying, the hotel clerk babbling hysterically behind her and the wail of sirens.
Miguel placed an arm around her and guided her away from the wreckage of her car, still blazing in the parking lot. He led her to the front of the motel and sank to the steps, pulling her down beside him.
She turned to Miguel and brushed her hands across his soot-blackened face. “How did Mikey survive that?”
“He unbuckled the straps on his car seat when you went around to the trunk. You’d left the back door open, thank God, and he squiggled out of the car.” Miguel pointed to the wrought iron gate around the small pool. “He wanted to look at the pool. It saved his life.”
“Thank God for my negligence in leaving that back door open.” She patted Mikey’s back. “What was he doing when you found him?”
“The blast had definitely thrown him.” He pinched Mikey’s chin with his fingers, turning his tear-streaked face toward her. “He has a cut over his eye.”
Mikey sniffled, hiccuped and reached out for her. Miguel placed Mikey in her lap as the first responders came squealing into the motel parking lot.
“Let me do the talking.”
She rested her chin on Mikey’s head. “What happened, Miguel? How’d you know?”
“The motel clerk saved you. She mentioned seeing a tow truck parked next to our car this morning and the driver underneath the chassis.”
“I didn’t even turn over the engine, just clicked the key one turn.”
“It must’ve been set to explode in the first position, or the guy set it incorrectly.”
She dug her nails into his biceps. “How’d they find us?”
“I don’t know.” He drove the heel of his hand against his forehead. “I’m thinking it must’ve been that ID I used for Raymond Garcia, but that was just this morning and I paid cash, so the motel just used it to hold the room and didn’t even run it.”
“They couldn’t have followed us. I was awake long enough last night to know there were no cars with us out of Austin.” She covered her mouth with one hand. “Could they have bugged my car?”
“I searched all over the car and even used a detector. You saw me.”
“Maybe it was some super-duper kind of tracking device immune to detection.” She pointed at the police car that had pulled in behind the fire engine. “We have to tell them something.”
“We don’t know anything. We’re Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Garcia on our way to visit family in Los Angeles.” Miguel combed bits of debris from her tangled hair.
“But the car is registered to Jennifer Lynch.”
Miguel cast an eye at the smoldering remains of her vehicle. “Somehow, I don’t think they’re gonna be able to trace the car, and if they do?” He shrugged. “Lynch is your maiden name.”
Miguel pushed up from the steps and showed his palm to her as she struggled to rise with Mikey attached to her neck. “You can stay here. That would be completely understandable. In fact, I’m going to send the EMTs over here to check out you two.”
She watched through slitted eyes, still burning from the smoke and chemicals of the fire, as Miguel sauntered up to the police officer.
He waved his hand back toward her and Mikey, waved a hand toward their room, the car a
nd the motel clerk, who was talking to another officer. Then he turned to the two EMTs hopping from the ambulance and pointed to her and Mikey on the porch.
As the EMTs approached her, Jennifer stood up and immediately threw out a hand to steady herself against the building, her legs wobbling beneath her.
“Check out my son first. He was near the car when it exploded and the blast threw him.”
“Sit back down, Ms....?”
“Garcia. Mrs. Garcia, and this is Mikey.” She plopped back down on the step, and the EMT leaned forward and lifted each of her eyelids with his thumb.
“I’m going to put some drops in your eyes.”
With the drops swimming in her eyes, Jennifer glanced sideways at the EMT cleaning and bandaging Mikey’s cut. “Is he okay? His ears? His eyes?”
“The cut’s not too deep, and I’m going to check out the rest of his vitals. He’s doing great.”
Her EMT had her open wide and peered at the back of her throat. He had her cough while he placed a stethoscope on her back.
“I’m going to clean your hands.”
He’d turned her hands over and she raised her eyebrows at her scraped and bloody palms. She hadn’t even noticed them, but now felt the sting of the broken skin as the EMT wiped them with a pad, and then swiped them again with some antiseptic.
“Any other aches and pains? How’s your breathing?”
She took a deep breath and coughed. “It’s fine, although I still taste that smokiness.”
“That’s not unusual.” He packed up his kit. “You and your son are very lucky.”
She squinted at Miguel, shrugging and spreading his arms as he talked to the officer. He was doing a bang-up impression of a man who knew nothing.
And maybe that wasn’t such a stretch for him. What did they really know except some nefarious group of individuals had them in their crosshairs?
* * *
JENNIFER ACCELERATED ON the stretch of desert highway through New Mexico in their new used car. Miguel had paid cash for it to some guy who’d parked it in a school parking lot that doubled as a used-car lot when class wasn’t in session.
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