by Jane Toombs
He couldn’t see Victoria ahead of him. The trail twisted and turned so much it didn’t really mean she was any great distance away. Glancing at his watch, he decided she’d reach the Y in about fifteen minutes.
If Malengo sent a man or men back down the mountain by road, it would take them nearly an hour to reach Hanksville, so that shouldn’t be a problem. If he already had a man waiting there, that would be a different story. What Steve had to worry about right now, though, was pursuers on foot and how many there were.
He hadn’t wanted it to come to this, hadn’t wanted Victoria put in jeopardy. Heidi they wouldn’t hurt or kill. He’d be devastated if Malengo got his hands on the baby, but at least she’d be alive. Victoria was another matter. Malengo wouldn’t think any more of shooting her than he would Joker.
Unbearable to think of Victoria dead. He did his best to eradicate it from his mind. As he pounded down the trail, he pictured his time with her, their time together. All he’d noticed about her at then first meeting at the hospital is that she had red hair and looked as tired as he’d felt It hadn’t taken long for her to make much more of an impression than that, though.
Victoria was nobody to order around, as he’d quickly discovered. She stuck up for her rights—annoying at first but, as he’d had to admit, admirably. He’d begun to notice her as a woman that first night at his town house when Heidi woke them both up in the middle of the night. What man could fail to be attracted to someone so attractively packaged?
It had taken him longer to appreciate her inner beauty. He wasn’t sure exactly when he progressed from simple lust to a more complicated emotion. When was it he realized that he’d give his life to save hers?
Which he hoped to hell wouldn’t happen.
When the Y came into view, he slowed, stepping off the trail to make his way as quietly as he could through the trees until he reached the connection. He waited a few minutes and was about to step back onto the trail and continue on down, when he heard the protesting squawk of a jay from somewhere up the trail from where he hid. Since he knew the bird hadn’t spotted him, the jay must be warning all within earshot of another intruder. Steve stayed where he was.
Victoria had been relieved when she came to the Y. As she remembered, the village wasn’t too far from here. Luckily, since her pace had slowed considerably. Downhill was all very well, but she’d been jogging rather than walking and she was getting tired. Thank heaven Heidi hadn’t seemed to mind the jostling.
Joker had been ranging ahead, but once past the Y she ordered him to heel and was relieved when he obeyed. It wouldn’t do for him to pop out of the woods at the end of trail and advertise their presence before she had a chance to reconnoiter a bit.
The thinning of the trees warned of the trail’s end before she reached it. She eased off the trail into the pines, working her way to where she had a view of the village with still enough cover to hide her and the dog.
Everything seemed as placid as usual but she took her time scanning everything. She eyed the car parked by the gas station. Was it the same car she’d seen there before, the would-be kidnapper’s car? She couldn’t be sure. There was a man inside it, sort of slouched down behind the wheel. He could simply be waiting for someone who was shopping in the general store, or he could be Malengo’s lookout.
Since there was no way to tell, she had to find a way to get across the street to the store without him recognizing her. Offhand, that didn’t seem possible. If he was Malengo’s man, she’d be spotted for who she was immediately—a redhead carrying a baby, trailed by a most distinctive looking dog, one he wasn’t likely to forget.
Tune was of the essence; she couldn’t go on dawdling in the trees. What to do?
In her jacket pocket, she found a scarf. Okay, head covering. But what to do about Heidi and Joker? She might be able to get the dog to stay behind but the baby was likely to give her away. Finally she came up with an idea.
First she tied the scarf in a turban arrangement that completely covered her hair. Then she took off her jacket and undid the pouch. She carefully arranged it, baby and all, over one arm, before covering Heidi and the pouch with her jacket.
“Sit and stay,” she ordered Joker, in the sternest voice she could command.
He whined when he saw her edging from the trees but remained where he was. Taking a deep breath, she let it all out, then, heart thumping in her chest, stepped onto the trail and walked boldly toward the village street.
Chapter Fourteen
Once Victoria reached the road, she forced herself not to dash across. With so little traffic, if she seemed to be in a big hurry, she might attract the attention of the man in the car parked near the gas station. Though she didn’t turn her head to look at him, she watched his car from the edge of her vision.
When she reached the other side of the road, she breathed a sigh of relief. His car hadn’t moved and he was still inside it. She entered the general store, lifting her jacket off Heidi as she hurried up to the gray-haired woman at the cash register.
“Please call the police,” she begged. “Someone is after me and the baby.”
“You mean that guy over to the gas station sitting in his car?” the woman asked. “We already called the cops on him. Fred what works over there told my husband it’s a different car but the same jerk that done the shooting yesterday.” She narrowed her eyes at Victoria. “You’re the one he shot at, ain’t you?”
Victoria nodded and thrust the baby, pouch and all, at the woman. “Would you please keep her safe until the police get here? I’m going back up the trail to help my—” She hesitated, unsure what to call Steve. “My man,” she finished. “There are more than one of them and they’re after him, too. Tell the police they’re criminals.”
The gray-haired woman took Heidi into her arms. “You got to be careful you don’t get shot.”
“Whoa—you got yourself a gun?” someone asked from behind her. Victoria looked around at a teenager carrying a fielder’s mitt and a baseball bat. He looked familiar. At the same time Joker nuzzled her hand.
“I found that bullet, you know,” the kid said. “Saw your dog outside wanting to get in so I came in with him. Look, if you ain’t got a gun, take my bat.” He held it out to her. “Better’n nothing.”
How much use a bat would be against a gun was debatable but Victoria carried it with her as she left the store. She cringed when she saw the man parked by the station already out of his car, ready to cross the street. Obviously he’d recognized Joker.
What to do? Her indecision ended when she saw a police car coming up the road. Malengo’s man noticed it, too, and backtracked to his car, started it and shot out of the station, turning onto a side road. Lights and siren went on as the police followed him.
Reassured about Heidi’s safety, Victoria ran across the street and plunged into the woods, heading up the trail. Nothing must happen to Steve! From somewhere above her, a gun fired, echoes of the shot reverberating from the surrounding mountains. A second shot speeded her pace, difficult as it was to run uphill.
He’s all right, she told herself, her heart pounding from fear and exertion. The words echoed in her head. All right. All right.
Gasping for breath, she rounded a curve in the trail and stopped abruptly. On the ground just ahead, Steve and his assailant wrestled for possession of a gun, a mean-looking long-barreled weapon she knew wasn’t Steve’s. To her horror, she noticed a patch of blood on Steve’s shirt.
He’d been shot!
Fury rippled through her, mingling with a roaring in her ears. She crept forward, gripping the bat handle, and began circling the struggling men, looking for her chance. The assailant shifted position, lifting his head slightly. She brought up the bat and whacked him. Readying herself for another go, she held when she noticed him slumping forward.
Steve freed himself from underneath the man, yanked the gun away and sprang to his feet, gun aimed at his assailant, who was now on his hands and knees.
“F
reeze, Malengo!” he warned.
Malengo ! As Victoria stared at the dark-haired man dressed all in black, she suddenly became aware that the roaring wasn’t in her ears but came from a hovering helicopter. The agency to the rescue! When both she and Steve glanced up at it, Malengo leapt to his feet and plunged into the trees.
She grasped at Steve’s arm as he started after Malengo but was too late to stop him. Why couldn’t he let someone else, someone who wasn’t already wounded, track the man?
Deciding she’d only get lost if she tried to follow Steve, Victoria also realized there was little point in waiting where she was. The best plan was to go down the trail to the village below, back to where she’d left Heidi. She’d gone no more than ten feet when a hoarse scream froze her in place.
What had happened? And who to?
She chewed on her lip, trying to make up her mind what to do now. Before she came to a decision, Steve erupted from the trees and she Almost collapsed with relief.
“Malengo went over a hidden cliff,” Steve said. “Don’t think he survived.”
“You’re hurt,” she said, staring at his bloodsplotched shirt.
He examined himself briefly. “Not my blood. I winged him.” He glanced at the bat she held. “Looks like I got myself one tough lady.”
“The police are at the village. Was Malengo alone?”
“On our trail from the cabin, yes. The others took the trail to Willa’s. She planned to toss her rattlesnakes at them. Serve them right.”
Victoria shuddered and Steve put his arm around her. “Heidi okay?” he asked.
“I left her with the woman who runs the general store. Joker’s there, too.”
“Let’s get ourselves down to the store pronto. The rattlers may have missed a few.” A quick hug and he let her go.
The copter was hovering over Hanksville when they reached the village. Letting Victoria go to Heidi, Steve stopped at the gas station phone and called the agency. “Let the guys in the chopper know there’s a baseball field east of town,” he said. “I’ll make sure no one’s on the field so they can set down.”
Partway there, a teenager carrying what looked like the bat Victoria had used, caught up to him.
“Whatcha gonna do now, mister?” he asked.
“The helicopter needs to land on your baseball field.”
“Whoa—way cool! I’ll go warn the guys.” The kid ran ahead of him.
By the time Steve got there, the few kids who’d been shagging balls were heading for the edge of the field while staring up at the chopper.
After a time, it settled down onto the center of the clearing. As it landed, a police car pulled up beside Steve. “You Henderson?” the driver asked.
Steve pulled his agency ID from his wallet and the cop nodded. “Headquarters got a call from D.C. We’re here for whatever assistance you need.”
As briefly as he could, Steve told them about Malengo’s fall from the cliff and the possibility some of his men were still on the mountain trail.
“You’ll need to escort the red-haired woman in the general store with the baby so she gets here safely,” he finished.
The police car pulled away and Steve headed out to the chopper, followed by the kids who’d been using the field. Whatever happened after this, he’d have the satisfaction of knowing Victoria and Heidi would be taken to a safe place.
Much later, after the chopper had lifted off with Victoria and the baby aboard, Steve and Mikel Starzov, who’d stayed behind to help wind things up, headed back up the trail to the cabin, along with Joker and a search-and-rescue team.
Near Willa’s cabin they found three snake-bitten men stretched out along the trail, none completely conscious.
doing to give hem and I Knew dang well they weren’t about to cooperate. Some got bit more’n once, you know. Scared ’em to hell and gone. Dropped their guns and went to howling and carrying on.”
Mikel looked around uneasily. “Where are the rattlers now?”
“Them I recovered are back in the cages. The rest hightailed it. Doubt if they’re hanging around Very close.”
“You’ve got more guts than I have,” Mikel told Willa. “Snakes and I don’t see eye to eye.”
“Just gotta know how to handle ’em,” she said. “Got my daddy’s old shotgun to hand but never shot the dang thing in my life. Never figure to. You, though, I’d lay odds you’re a marksman.”
“Best in the agency,” Steve confirmed.
After thanking Willa, Steve left the men to the search-and-rescue team and led Mikel toward his cabin, Joker bounding ahead.
“Weird-looking dog,” Mikel commented.
“Smart, though. Highest canine IQ in the country.”
“Somehow I never figured you for a dog man.”
Before the call telling him Kim was dead, Steve had never figured himself as a man who attached himself to much of anything.
Just short of the cabin, Joker dived into the bushes and came out holding Bevins in his mouth by the scruff of the kitten’s neck.
“Don’t tell me that cat’s yours, too,” Mikel said.
“’Fraid so.” Steve plucked Bevins from Joker’s mouth.
The kitten promptly climbed to his shoulder and clung there until Steve deposited him into the carrier in the van, twisting the latching mechanism with pliers so it was impossible to open. “Gotcha,” Steve told the cat, earning raised eyebrows from Mikel.
“And here I thought I knew you,” he said, shaking his head. “A dog and a cat besides the baby. Plus that charming redhead with the missing sister.”
“You got any off time coming up?” Steve asked.
“Two months, if they ever let me take it. Why?”
“I’ll let you know.” Steve retrieved the spare van key from its hiding place. “By the way, when they find Malengo and go through his pockets, if there’s an extra set of car keys, they’re mine.”
Steve coaxed Joker into the back of the van, shut him in, then grabbed a clean T-shirt out of his bag and changed into it before he and Mikel climbed into the front seats. He maneuvered around the four-by-four Malengo and crew had driven up to the cabin, and took off down the mountain.
“Glad we don’t have to stick around for the mopup,” Mikel said. “Bor-ing.”
“I kind of like tying up all the loose ends.”
“You’re a neatnik. Me, I prefer the chase. Once that’s over, it’s all over for me. If I need to know more, they’ll tell me what they found.”
Steve glanced at him. “Same deal with women?”
Mikel shrugged. “Never met one I wanted to keep around more than a month or so.”
“I can understand that.” And he could. Because he’d felt much the same. He’d known almost from the day of the wedding that marrying Kim had been a bad idea. So how had he managed to get so hung up on letting go of Victoria? He had to, he knew that, but he didn’t want to.
There was too much packed in the van to change it for the car he’d left in his rented garage so they continued on to Maryland, taking turns driving, accompanied by occasional outraged yowls from Bevins.
“We checked out your town house—everything’s clean there,” Mikel told him. “The boss thinks you’d be better off staying away from it, though, till this Malengo business is cleared up.”
Steve nodded. He’d been planning to go to the safe house where Victoria and Heidi were anyway.
It was late that night when they reached the place. After they were admitted into the garage, Mikel helped him unload what was necessary from the van. Joker was let loose in the fenced-in backyard while Bevins came with them into the house. Steve left the cat in one of the unused bedrooms and went looking for his women.
Steve found Heidi asleep in a crib padded with bumpers so she couldn’t poke through the slats. She seemed tinier than ever in such a large crib. He stood for a moment gazing down at her, relieved she was safe and sound and knowing he was bound to this little girl for life.
Victoria was sleepin
g in an adjoining room but roused the moment he looked in on her.
“Is it all over?” she asked, sitting up.
He longed to sit beside her, gather her into his arms and hold her forever but restrained himself. “Might be a few lawyers shouting for a couple of months but, yes, it’s essentially over. They tell me Malengo was killed in the fall. With him gone, it’ll all unravel.”
“I can’t help but feel glad he’s no longer alive to be a threat to Heidi. Surely you’ll be able to keep her now.”
He had to touch her; he couldn’t help himself. Easing down onto the bed, he took her hand in both of his. “Kim had no close relatives so there shouldn’t be a problem, especially since she listed me as the baby’s father on the birth certificate.”
Victoria smiled at him—his undoing. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hungrily. He was never going to be able to get enough of this woman. She returned his kiss with enthusiasm, but when he deepened it, she pulled away.
“Is that Bevins I hear crying?” she asked.
“Yeah, but he’s okay.” When he tried to gather her close again, she resisted.
“There are other people sleeping in the house,” she said. “Maybe you’d better bring the kitten in here with me so they won’t be disturbed.”
He got up reluctantly and started off to retrieve the cat, belatedly realizing on the way that Bevins wasn’t really the issue. She didn’t want to make love with him. Why?
Turning on his heel, he went back to ask her. “Never mind the cat,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
She crossed her arms over her breasts. “We’ll be saying goodbye soon. Isn’t it best to start now?”