Her Mistletoe Protector

by Laura Scott

  There was a loud noise as Jonah’s foot broke through one of the rungs of the ladder. Her heart lodged in her throat as he hung there for a moment before he regained his balance. In a few minutes, Jonah was safely on the loft.

  “Wouldn’t he be better off down here?” She couldn’t imagine the rotted wood that made up the loft floor would be any sturdier than the ladder.

  “I’ll be down on the ground level, and he’s going to try and get some leverage from up above. See that window up there?” He indicated the open space in the wall of the barn located above the loft. “It overlooks the front of the barn, and that’s our best option.”

  She felt dizzy watching Jonah ease his way into position, so she lowered her gaze and tried not to sneeze. Despite the cold December air, the moldy hay was making her eyes water. “Where are you planning to be?”

  “Outside, as close to you as I can manage,” he said grimly. “There are several stacks of hay outside along the north side of the barn. If I drag a few more out there, I should be fairly well hidden.”

  She helped Nick carry a couple of stacks of smelly, musty hay outside. They had to open the barn door wider and it groaned loudly in protest. She froze, hoping it wouldn’t fall off.

  After two trips, they had a decent-size stack of hay along the side of the barn. Nick carefully closed the barn door and then used a bunch of hay like a broom to brush the dirt, covering up their footprints.

  The north side of the barn seemed too far away for her piece of mind, but she bit her lip so that she wouldn’t complain. After all, she couldn’t very well expect Nick to hide in the backseat of Jonah’s car. Truthfully, she was lucky to have any backup at all.

  “You might want to give me the car keys, just in case they want me to go someplace else,” she said.

  Nick scowled and dug them out of the front pocket of his jeans. “Here you go. But don’t follow those guys someplace else, Rachel. There would be nothing to prevent them from killing both you and Joey, while still taking off with the cash. Your best option is to stay right here, where Jonah and I can protect you.”

  “I know,” she said, taking the keys from Nick. As much as she knew he was right, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to say no if it came to the kidnappers giving her an ultimatum. Her greatest weakness was her son’s safety. If they threatened to hurt him, she knew she’d go along with whatever they asked of her.

  She turned to walk away, but suddenly Nick grabbed her hand to stop her. Glancing over her shoulder, she found him staring at her intently. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Nothing. Just—be careful, okay?” he said gruffly. Then, before she could respond, he pulled her close and gave her a quick kiss.

  The kiss was over before she had a chance to register what had happened. But she longed to throw herself into his arms, absorbing some of his strength. This wasn’t the time or the place, though, so she said the first thing that came to mind. “Remember your promise,” she blurted. “No matter what happens, save my son.”

  He stared at her for a long moment. “I won’t forget my promise, Rachel. But my goal is to get both of you out of here safely.” He turned away and began digging a hole for himself in the hay.

  She turned and hurried back to the car. By the time she’d slid into the driver’s seat, she couldn’t hear him any longer. He must have gotten himself hidden very quickly.

  Her lips tingled and she wondered if Nick had kissed her on purpose to distract her. If so, his ruse had worked. For a couple of minutes her stomach hadn’t hurt, although now the pain was back with a vengeance. She took another deep breath and focused on the task at hand, anxious to be ready if the kidnappers showed up early.

  The driver’s seat was all wrong, so she scooted the seat up so that she could reach the pedals and adjusted the mirrors to accommodate her smaller frame. From the way Nick had parked the car, she couldn’t see much of the north side of the barn, which was back and to her left. Using the rearview mirror, she could just barely catch a portion of the stacked hay.

  Nick and Jonah were both armed and ready. She tried to find comfort in the fact that if she couldn’t see Jonah or Nick, then the kidnappers couldn’t see them, either.

  The minutes ticked by with excruciating slowness, and she resisted the urge to turn on the car to warm up. If she was cold, surely Jonah and Nick were even more so.

  Within five minutes of waiting, she spotted a black Jeep coming down the highway from the same direction they’d come. With a frown, she followed the Jeep’s progress. If this one belonged to the kidnappers, they were fifteen minutes early.

  Rachel clutched the steering wheel and strained her eyes in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her son. She thought there might be someone in the passenger seat, but the Jeep was too far away to be certain.

  At the last possible moment, the Jeep slowed and then turned onto the dirt road. She held her breath as the vehicle approached. The driver was the same big dark-haired man who’d snatched Joey out from the car crash. There was a smaller person in the passenger seat and when the Jeep came closer, she could tell the small person had a dark hood over his head. The Jeep pulled to a stop about thirty feet from her vehicle.

  Panic threatened to overwhelm her. What if the person in the front seat really wasn’t Joey? What if this was nothing more than a horrible trick? What if they planned to kill her and take the money, while keeping her son to sell him in the black market of human trafficking?

  Her pulse thundered in her ears as she pushed open the car door. She grabbed the duffel bag of money and dragged it over the console so that it was right next to her, as she stepped out of the car.

  “I want to see my son!” she said in a loud voice.

  The driver, who had to be Morales, reached over and yanked the hood off her son’s head. Joey squinted and ducked his head, shying away from the light. He reminded her of a prisoner who’d been locked in a cell for days, unable to bear normal daylight.

  Cold fury swamped her. It was all she could do not to rush over to grab Joey and yank him out of there. She narrowed her gaze and stared, waiting for direction.

  Morales slowly and deliberately pushed open his door and stood. Her heart dropped to the soles of her feet when he leveled his gun directly at her son. “One wrong move, lady, and I’ll shoot to kill.”

  “I have the money,” she blurted out. “You can have it. All I want is my son.”

  “Hold on, now,” he said, sweeping his gaze around the area. She never flinched, trusting the men behind her to stay well hidden. “You’ll get your kid soon enough.”

  “I’m not armed and I’m here alone, just like you asked,” she said, drawing his attention back to her. “Here’s the money. If you’ll just let Joey out of the car, we’ll make the swap.”

  His expression turned ugly. “Listen here, lady, I’m the one who’s in charge. The kid doesn’t move until I say so.”

  Her fingers clenched on the duffel bag as the seconds drew out to a full minute. He approached her with slow, deliberate steps, rounding the front of the Jeep. With every step closer, she grew more nervous. She came out from behind the safety of the driver’s door, lugging the duffel bag.

  “Set it down, where I can see it,” he said in a low, guttural voice. So far, his movements had been slow and cautious, but the glint of excitement in his eyes betrayed his greed.

  Ironically, that glimpse was enough to make her relax. She was certain he wasn’t going to do anything foolish if that meant risking the money. But she didn’t set the duffel bag down the way he told her to. “I will, but only if you let Joey open his car door.”

  He glared at her for a minute before giving a little wave of the gun. “Open your door, kid, nice and easy.”

  She tried not to divert her attention from the gunman, but she couldn’t help sneaking a sideways glance at Joey. He was still squinting,
as if he couldn’t see very well but managed to open his passenger-side door. She could see his feet dangling outside the car, in the familiar basketball shoes she’d bought for him earlier in the school year. They were bright orange, his favorite color, and her eyes stung with the memory of how excited he’d been when he’d worn them for the first time.

  The Jeep was high off the ground, and she wanted to call out a warning to Joey to be careful. But with the gunman so close, she didn’t dare. Instead, she opened the duffel bag, holding it awkwardly against her chest, to show him the cash inside.

  The gleam in his eyes got brighter, and she was struck by the fact that this guy obviously wasn’t very smart. Nick was right—there had to be someone else acting as the brains of this operation. Morales was nothing more than a pawn. Right now, though, all she cared about was her son.

  “Get out of the car, kid,” Morales shouted. When she glanced over at her son, the thug lunged forward in an attempt to grab the money, but Rachel was faster. She snatched the handles of the bag, whipped it around and threw it at Morales, hitting him directly in the chest. “Run, Joey!”

  While Morales was grappling with the bag, trying to make sure he didn’t lose any of the cash, she leaped forward and grabbed her son. With a herculean effort, she hauled him up and ran toward the car, using her body to protect him as best she could. “Get inside,” she urged.

  “Stop!” Morales shouted. The sound of gunfire erupted and she ducked behind the open driver’s door and threw herself over Joey, squashing him against the front seat.

  “Stay down!” Nick shouted, coming around the corner of the barn, looking like a madman with straw sticking out of his hair and clinging to his clothes.

  Morales turned and fired again. Panic-stricken, she glanced sideways and caught a glimpse of Nick hitting the ground. “Nick!” she screamed.

  More gunfire, this time from up above, but Morales had already thrown the duffel into his Jeep and taken off, his tires churning up clouds of dust as he barreled down the dirt road.

  NINE

  Nick ignored the burning pain in his left arm as he crawled across the ground to reach Rachel and Joey. She held her son in a tight hug as if she might never let him go. Every instinct in his body was clamoring for him to follow Morales, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave Rachel and her son. Or take them along, putting them in more danger.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, pulling himself upright and leaning against the car. “Any injuries?”

  “No injuries,” Rachel murmured as she lifted her tear-streaked face from her son’s hair. She barely glanced at Nick, her attention focused solely on her son. She brushed his hair away from his forehead. “Joey? Are you sure you’re not hurt anywhere?”

  Joey shook his head but didn’t say anything, burrowing his face once again against his mother. The boy’s silence was a bit concerning, but not completely unexpected considering the trauma he’d been through.

  “Nick, you’re bleeding!” Rachel reached out to touch his arm. “He hit you?”

  “Winged by a bullet, nothing serious,” he said, glancing around for Jonah. His buddy shoved open the barn door and came out, limping.

  “I tried to take out the Jeep, but I fell through a hole in the floor,” Jonah said with disgust. “I’m sorry I let him get away.”

  “Nothing more you could have done, Jonah,” Nick assured his friend. “And the way you shot at him from up in the loft obviously scared him off, which is probably a good thing. He was armed, and the way things were going down, I doubt he intended to leave any witnesses once he got the cash.”

  “Yeah, I got that same feeling,” Jonah muttered. He looked at his car and scowled, fingering the bullet hole in the back door along the driver’s side. “Now I know why you wanted me to take my car. Hope he didn’t hit anything in the engine.”

  The bullet holes in the back door of the driver’s side were sobering, proof of how lucky they were to get out of this with a gouge in his arm and nothing more serious. “I’ll reimburse you, Jonah.”

  “No biggie,” his friend said, waving him off. Joey lifted his head and gazed at both him and Jonah with suspicion. Nick belatedly realized they were both strangers to the child, so he dropped to his knees and smiled over at the boy. “Hi, Joey, my name is Nick Butler and I’m a detective with the Chicago Police Department. And that’s my buddy Jonah Stewart, who is a police detective, too, from Milwaukee. We’ve been helping your mom find you.”

  “Thank you,” Joey said in a wobbly voice, his curiosity apparently satisfied. “Can we go home now? I’m hungry.”

  Nick was trying to figure out a way to let the boy know it wasn’t safe to go home yet, when Rachel interrupted. “You’re hungry? Did they give you anything to eat or drink?”

  Joey shook his head. “No. They kept me in a room in the basement. It was dark and I think there were big hairy spiders, too. The door was locked and I had a mattress and a toilet but nothing else,” he admitted, his lower lip trembling with the effort not to cry.

  Rachel’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Joey. So sorry...” Once again, she hugged him close as if she could erase the horrible memories by will alone.

  “We’d better get out of here,” Jonah said quietly. “In case they decide to come back.”

  Nick couldn’t agree more. “Rachel, do you have the car keys?”

  She sniffled and used the sleeve of her jacket to wipe away her tears. “Here you go,” she said as she handed them over. “Joey and I will take the backseat.”

  He understood she couldn’t bear to let go of her son. “You’d better drive,” Nick told Jonah, as he loped around to the passenger side of the vehicle. “I’m going to call my boss and put an APB out on that Jeep. And I don’t suppose you have a first-aid kit in here somewhere?”

  “In the glove box,” Jonah said. He slid behind the wheel and grunted as his knees hit the steering wheel. He adjusted the seat back and then started the car.

  Nick called Ryan Walsh, quickly filling his captain in on the details. “I’m fairly certain the driver was Ricky Morales and the Jeep’s tag number is JVW-555.”

  Walsh wasn’t entirely thrilled to hear what had transpired. “I’m glad you got the kid back, but we need to keep looking for the link to the Mafia,” he said. “When are you coming in to file your report?”

  “Soon,” Nick hedged. “Just let me know as soon as you hear anything about Morales or the Jeep, okay?” He disconnected from the call.

  “Where to?” Jonah asked, as he turned off the dirt road and back onto the highway.

  “That’s a good question,” Nick muttered, as he rummaged around for the first-aid kit. “We should probably pick up my car first.”

  “No, we need to stop for something to eat, first,” Rachel said from the backseat. “Joey’s hungry.”

  “Is he all right? Or should we get him checked out by a doctor?”

  “Physically, he looks fine,” Rachel said after a moment’s pause.

  He knew she was already worried about the emotional trauma Joey may have suffered. “You’re right, eat first and then pick up my car.”

  From there, he wasn’t sure, other than he wasn’t going to take Rachel or Joey back to their home.

  Not until he knew for sure they were safe.

  * * *

  Rachel knew she was smothering Joey, but she couldn’t seem to stop touching him—his hair, his arm, his knee—to remind herself that he was actually sitting right here beside her.

  Thank You, Lord, for keeping my son safe!

  There was a tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her that there was a good chance God didn’t have anything to do with getting Joey back safely, but she was too emotionally drained to listen. Right now, she found an odd comfort in believing God had been with them through those horrible moments whe
n she’d faced Morales.

  “Can we eat at Mr. Burger’s?” Joey asked in a soft, hesitant voice. His lack of confidence broke her heart.

  “Of course,” she agreed, even though she normally avoided those types of fast-food joints like the plague. “Nick, let me know if you see a Mr. Burger’s.”

  “There’s one up ahead,” Jonah pointed out. She wasn’t surprised, as they were everywhere. A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot. Jonah swiveled in his seat. “Inside? Or drive-through?”

  “Drive-through,” Nick said, before she had a chance to respond. “All of us going inside would draw too much attention.”

  She belatedly remembered his bloodstained jacket. “The drive-through is fine.”

  Nick warned her to go light on Joey’s food, as they placed their order. She went with both a chocolate shake and a soda for her son, along with chicken pieces. No one else ordered anything to eat, including Rachel. The nausea that she’d lived with for the past few hours had dissolved, but she still wasn’t hungry.

  Jonah kept driving as Joey ate. He only ate about half his food before declaring that he was full. The thought of her son going hungry gnawed away at her, although she was grateful he didn’t appear to be physically abused. The only indication of what he’d suffered was the traumatized expression in his eyes.

  “That’s okay, we can save the rest for later,” she said, bundling up the leftovers.

  They reached the hotel parking lot where they’d left Nick’s car, and there was a heated debate between Jonah and Nick about what to do next.

  “Go home to your pregnant wife, Jonah,” Nick said stubbornly. “If I need anything more, I’ll let you know.”

  “I’m not leaving when you’re wounded,” Jonah argued. “Besides, where are you going to go?”

  “My mother’s uncle has a cabin in Wisconsin,” Nick said. “I thought we’d go there for a while. I still have my laptop and we can maybe do some searching while we’re there. Hopefully, we’ll hear some good news from my boss soon.”