She blinked back a sudden press of tears. Could it be that the feelings Jake’s kiss stirred hadn’t been one-sided after all?
She eyed the marshal who’d be whisking her away. If only she and Jake could’ve had more time to get to know each other, maybe...
She drew in a ragged sigh. Listen to her. When had a relationship ever given her anything but heartache? At least this way she could fondly carry her memory of her knight in shining armor in her heart. One knight who’d never get a chance to let her down.
The marshal escorted her to his black sedan, his silence unnerving.
You can trust him. Sam’s declaration echoed in her mind, but her stomach only churned harder as the click of the electronic door lock reverberated through the car and the deputy marshal donned dark shades despite the sunless day.
She shivered at the icy sleet that melted off her hair and slid under her collar.
Before they were a hundred yards from the cabin, he started a rundown of the rules for her new identity—Connie Klumchuck of Wisconsin, a cheese factory worker. “But I guess you know the routine,” he finished.
“Yeah, not that it stopped them from finding me last time.”
“Trust me. No one’s going to find you by the time I’m done with you.”
Kara’s breath stalled in her throat.
He chuckled. “I guess that sounded a little ominous. I meant you have nothing to worry about. I’ve never had a witness compromised.”
Kara forced the breath into her lungs. “Sam said the police had some leads on who’s been after me. Do you think I might be able to go home soon?”
He shook his head. “I’ve never had a witness want to go back. The mob has a long memory.”
“But I didn’t witness anything to do with the mob. It was an adoption ring.”
He shrugged. “Sounds like organized crime to me. I’m not up to speed on the case history. Your friend said they were working on a theory that one of the adoptive parents put a hit on you.”
She caught the dash as he swerved onto the highway, fishtailing on the icy road as frantically as her heart careening in her chest. The guy she’d photographed. Of course. A wannabe father would do anything to be with his child. Thinking of her own father, she buried her fisted hands under her armpits and focused on the barren hills whisking by. A wannabe father would do anything. Her father apparently hadn’t wanted to be one.
They drove in silence until the deputy marshal skidded to a stop at the intersection of the main highway out of Stalwart that would take them to Seattle. Traffic was moving like molasses thanks to the slush on the roads. A school bus passed followed by a convoy of cars, reminding Kara of the field trip Tommy and Jake were on. The cars hugging the bus’s tailgate were no doubt the parents who’d volunteered to chaperone. Her pulse picked up as she scanned the convoy for Jake’s truck. How many schools were in Stalwart?
Another school bus inched through the intersection, and two cars later the line ground to a halt. The marshal took the opportunity to swing onto the road ahead of the next car, and the line soon resumed its slow crawl.
The marshal whipped off his sunglasses and tossed them on the seat, glanced in the rearview mirror then at the dashboard clock, his sudden antsiness making her even more nervous. “At this rate, we’ll miss your flight.”
“Where’s my new ID?”
“In the trunk. I’ll get it out when we get to the airport.” He leaned sideways, apparently trying to see past the school bus, and then growled, “If we ever get to the airport.”
The line of vehicles ahead began to accelerate through the next intersection. Then suddenly brake lights snapped on and horns blared as an out-of-control car skidded through the red and slammed into the side of the school bus.
“Oh, no.” Kara gasped.
“Figures.” The deputy marshal turned on his left signal, looking as if he’d try to pull up to the crash. He swore. “The stupid lady’s blocking the whole road.” He swung his arm over the seat and backed to within inches of the car behind them.
“What are you doing?” she screamed.
“Getting you out of here.”
Ahead of them, the bus’s emergency door had already popped open and parents were rushing to the bus to help out the children. She was a teacher. She knew the routine. She shouldn’t just be sitting here. She unsnapped her belt. “We need to help!”
“We need to get you out of here.” He cranked his wheel a hard left and eased forward, but couldn’t clear the bumper of the car ahead of them. As he threw his shifter back into Reverse, she found the door lock release. “Those kids are terrified. I’m not running away.” She shoved open the door and jumped out as the car jerked backward.
“Nicole, wait. It could be a trap!”
One foot already out the door, Kara stared across the car’s front seat at the marshal. “Are you kidding me? You think this creep just happened to have an old lady sitting at that intersection, waiting for the chance to plow into a vehicle three cars ahead of ours?” She didn’t even try to tone down her voice’s rising pitch. “As if he knows which car is ours.” She jumped out and raced to the back of the bus, icy sleet pricking her cheeks.
“Kara!” A little boy’s voice came from inside the bus. Tommy squeezed past the child at the rear door and jumped into her arms. “You came back!” He clung to her neck.
“Just for you, buddy.” Ignoring the ache in her back, she cradled his head and inhaled his little-boy scent. “Let’s get you to where it’s safe.”
“Daddy!” he shouted gleefully.
Kara whirled on her heel with Tommy still in her arms, and her gaze slammed into Jake’s.
His face lit and her name came out as the barest whisper as he swallowed her and Tommy in his arms. “I was afraid I’d never see you again.” His warm embrace chased away the chill that had gripped her at the sight of the accident. He pressed a kiss to her hair, and then slid his palm to her cheek as he pulled back and drank her in.
Mesmerized by his gaze, she scarcely noticed the people jostling them out of the way of the door until the deputy marshal grabbed her arm.
“Kara, put the kid down,” he hissed. “We need to go.”
Jake hauled back his fist and Kara quickly pushed Tommy into his arms before he flattened the good guy.
“It’s okay, Jake. He’s my escort.” She pried Lewis’s fingers from her arms. “This is Sam’s brother.”
Jake hoisted Tommy onto his hip without taking his eyes off the deputy marshal.
Lewis offered a terse nod toward Jake. “It’s not safe here.”
“You need to get him into your truck,” Kara said to Jake. She reached to pull Tommy’s hood up against the nasty sleet and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Give Rusty a big hug for me every night. Okay?”
“When will I see you again?” he whined, and Jake’s gaze shifted to her, his expression sympathetic.
She brushed melting sleet from Tommy’s cheek and mustered a smile. “I don’t know, buddy, but know that I want to. Okay?”
“I want to go with Tommy,” another little boy yelled, reaching toward Jake from the arms that held him.
The adult holding him said, “Can he sit in your truck with Tommy until we get another bus out here to take them back?”
“Sure.” Jake hoisted him into his other arm, apology in his eyes as he turned back to Kara.
“Okay, let’s go,” the marshal repeated.
Kara shrugged off his hold. “I’m not leaving until every child is safely off the bus. It would go faster if you helped, too, you know.”
“I’ll be right back.” Jake jogged toward his truck with the boys, and by the time Kara had helped three more children off the bus and across the ditch a safe distance from the wreckage, he was back. “I locked the boys in the truck and told them to stay pu
t.”
The deputy marshal stepped across the ditch with another child and set him beside the three Kara had escorted to where a teacher was taking a head count. “Okay, that’s the last one. Let’s go,” he said to Kara.
Jake squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips. “Take care of yourself.”
She hugged him and, stretching onto her toes, whispered in his ear, “Connie Klumchuck of Wisconsin. Look me up sometime.”
He turned his head, his grinning lips brushing hers. “I’ll do that.”
The marshal yanked her arm. “We’re done here.”
Jake motioned to the teacher with the clipboard. “Yeah, I need to let her know I’ve got Tommy and his friend in my truck.”
As the deputy marshal escorted Kara back to his sedan, she craned her neck to scan the row of vehicles behind them, hoping to spot Jake’s truck so she could wave to Tommy one last time.
At the sight of a black truck door yawning open, her heart lurched. “Jake!” she shouted, sprinting for the truck.
The marshal caught her by the coat, then the wrist, and, pulling her close, hissed in her ear, “We gotta go. Now!”
Jake raced by her, shouting Tommy’s name as she struggled to break Lewis’s hold. The panic in Jake’s voice cut off her breath. Wild-eyed, he peered through car windows. Others joined him, calling Tommy’s name.
“Let me go,” Kara yelled at the deputy marshal. “I need to help.” Several cars in the line behind them had already pulled out and turned back to Stalwart. Others were flipping on signals to follow suit.
The little boy who’d been with Tommy scurried from across the ditch and held out a phone, tears streaming down his cheeks. “The man said mommy was on the phone.”
Jake dropped to one knee and gripped the boy’s arms. “What man?”
The marshal’s grip tightened on Kara’s wrist, but she dug in her heels. There was no way she could leave Jake like this, not after all he’d done for her.
“The policeman,” the boy sobbed. “He pushed his badge at the truck window. Handed me the phone, but I couldn’t hear Mommy.”
Full-blown panic exploded in Kara’s chest. The police weren’t here yet.
Jake took the phone from the boy. “Where’s Tommy?”
“Don’t know.” The boy’s chest heaved heartrending gasps. “I got out of the truck to try to hear Mommy. And then...Tommy was gone.”
“Get in the car. Now!” the marshal hissed in Kara’s ear, and lifted her off her feet as he shoved her toward the door.
“I ca—” The protest lodged in her throat at the fury in his face and the realization... Oh, please, God, no. Her muscles liquefied, her legs betraying her. If not for his strong grip, she would’ve crumpled.
Was all this her fault?
Behind them, the cell phone Jake took from the boy chimed the tune “Somebody’s Watching Me.”
A chill, colder than any sleet, slithered down her spine.
“Where’s my son?” Jake roared into the phone. His gaze snapped to hers, his expression horrified.
Her heart plummeted. This was her fault.
* * *
“Let me speak to Nicole Redman,” the gravelly voice on the other end of the line growled.
“Ni—” Jake’s chest seized. Tearing his gaze from Kara, he said, “I don’t know anyone by that name. Where’s my—?”
“Really?” He chuckled. “I guess I’m not surprised. She’s the woman you were just hugging. If you want to see your son again, put her on the phone.”
The deputy marshal’s car, carrying Kara—aka Nicole Redman—started to edge out of the line of cars. Jake sprinted toward it and slapped his hand against the passenger window. “You have to take this call!”
In the driver’s seat, the marshal shook his head and cranked the wheel a hard left.
“Stop!” Jake grabbed the door handle but the car jerked forward, ripping the handle from his grip.
“Stop!” Kara screamed at the marshal, and lowered her window.
Jake shoved the phone at her. “He has Tommy.”
The marshal failed to clear the bumper of the car ahead of him and suddenly reversed. “Get rid of the phone,” he hissed, slamming the shifter back into Forward.
Sheriff’s cars careened up the other lane, blocking him in. He jumped out of the vehicle and flashed his badge as Kara slipped out the passenger door, her face pasty-white. “He says we have to lose the marshal. Then he’ll call again, tell us where to meet him for the—” her voice broke “—exchange.”
The word slammed Jake’s gut like a sucker punch. For a full three seconds, he couldn’t suck in enough air to respond. “He expects me to hand you over to get my son back? Kara—” Pain gripped his chest like a vice. “I can’t do that.”
She pushed him toward his truck. “He isn’t giving you a choice.”
Sam cut in front of them, the marshal behind. “What’s going on?” Sam asked, his palms raised in a placating gesture that made Jake want to ram him into the ditch.
His fingers curled into a fist. “He took my son and he won’t give him back until he has Kara.”
The marshal, now flanked by two sheriff’s deputies, grabbed Kara’s arm. “We’re going.”
“No!” She kicked and flailed, fighting his grip like a wild woman. “I can’t. This is my fault!”
With hands on their sidearms and gazes scanning for danger, the sheriff’s deputies surrounded her as if protecting the president himself.
Jake grabbed her by the shoulders and she stilled. “The marshal’s right. Go. There’s nothing you can do here.” The order came out more harshly than he’d intended, thanks to the fear gnawing through his chest like an insatiable beast.
“I’m sorry, Jake. I’m so sorry.”
Her shattered expression would’ve carved a hole in his heart if it weren’t already ravaged. “I need to take care of my son now. At least I’ll know you’re safe.”
Sam ordered his men to check cars and get descriptions from drivers of every vehicle they could remember leaving.
Kara continued to fight the marshal as he forcefully edged her away. “But what if he won’t tell you where Tommy is?”
The desperation in her voice shredded what was left of Jake’s patience. They were wasting time. He stalked toward her and snatched back the phone she still held. “We’ll trace his call.” He glared at the marshal. “Get her out of here.”
She crumpled, her fight gone.
Unable to face the hurt in her eyes, Jake spun on his heel and thrust the phone at Sam.
“I’m sorry, Jake,” she mumbled at his back.
Thankfully, the marshal shoved her into his car and ordered the deputies to clear a path.
“You can get a trace, right?” he demanded of Sam.
Sam wasted no time thumbing through the call history to get the number of the last caller. “Didn’t Mom say she’d lend Tommy her phone for the day, just in case you were late joining the field trip and needed to find him?”
“Yeah!” Jake whipped out his phone. Why didn’t he think of that sooner? He pulled up the app that pinpointed the location of their mother’s phone. “He’s headed for the state park.”
“Okay, get in your truck and follow me.” Sam sprinted for his car, barking orders into the radio on his shoulder.
Jake clutched his steering wheel in a death grip. Please, Lord, don’t let this man hurt my son.
FOURTEEN
Kara stared numbly at the crushed front end of the car that had hit the bus as the marshal edged his sedan around the accident scene.
“I’m sorry, Nicole, my job is to keep you alive. Here—” He turned on his police radio. “You can follow their search at least.”
Kara prayed Tommy’s kidnapper wasn’t doing the s
ame or he’d have little trouble staying one step ahead of them. Would he let Tommy go once he figured out the marshal wouldn’t let her take his bait? She gasped. “He had to know that the odds of my doing what he asked were a long shot.”
“Yeah, he’s an idiot if he thought any marshal would consent to an exchange....” His voice petered out.
“Exactly. So why try? He must have already been tailing us to see me with Jake and Tommy.”
“Or tailing Jake. But he wouldn’t have been able to get a clear shot and make a clean getaway with everyone racing around.”
“So why take Tommy?” She straightened, peering through the windows of every car they passed. “Why not bide his time and keep following us once traffic got moving again? Why risk losing sight of me?”
“Could be a diversion. If he’s got a partner—” the marshal eased off the gas and scanned the sides of the highway ahead “—one of them could have taken Tommy to keep the cops busy while the other set up an ambush.”
The frenzied updates over the police band attested to the fact that every available law enforcement officer not working the accident was focused on the kidnapping.
Lewis scrutinized the rearview mirror, and then punched something into the GPS mounted on his dash. At the next road, he suddenly veered left.
“What are you doing?”
“Changing routes. Just in case.”
It seemed to her the road he chose was heading toward the mountains, not Seattle, and the sleet melting from her hair down her back suddenly wasn’t the only thing making her shiver. What if he was the bad guy’s partner?
She tried to swallow past the panic strangling her throat. “What about my flight? Won’t that make us too late?” Not that she cared about the flight, only what else he might have in mind.
“There’s no way we’d have made it after that delay.”
An excited shout blasted over the radio. “We found the kid’s phone. Twenty yards from the parking lot at the east gate.”
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