Nowhere to Run

by Valerie Hansen

  When she didn’t answer, he knew what her decision had been. She no longer trusted him. And he didn’t blame her. Not really. He had hoped that she was different. That she would take him at face value even after finding out he’d had such a chaotic history.

  I’ve been kidding myself, Seth thought, chagrined. I can’t expect a normal family life in the future, any more than I was able to have one in the past.

  His hands fisted on the wheel and his teeth clenched.

  There was no way he was going to ask any woman, especially Marie, to put up with his former lifestyle. Nor was there much of a chance he wouldn’t wind up incarcerated when this was all over, maybe for years. Given those two alternatives, it would be blatantly wrong to even tell her how he felt.

  Glancing in the rearview mirror, he spotted the flash of headlights through the trees. Someone was still trailing them. It wasn’t over yet.

  “This one’s alive,” the sheriff shouted. “Get the medics over here.”

  Al groaned and stared up at the uniformed officer. His gaze locked on the man’s badge. “If this is heaven, I hope you’re not St. Peter.”

  “It’s not heaven, son. But your friends may have gone there. What happened?”

  “I don’t know. We were just mindin’ our own business and…”

  “Don’t give me that. I know better. We had several local reports of a car chase and shots being fired. Let’s have the truth.”

  Al shook his head and groaned again.

  “Look. If you want medical attention in a hurry, I suggest you tell me,” the sheriff said. “Me and the boys can wait as long as we have to.”

  “Hey, I’m dyin’ here. You gotta help me.”

  “We will. Just as soon as we know what we’re up against. I don’t want any more innocent civilians getting shot.”

  “That’s us,” Al said, grimacing. “We were just good ol’boys out having some fun. Then we had car trouble and this guy in a big black car comes along and shoots us for no reason.”

  “What about the other two vehicles—a car and a truck.”

  “You know about those?”

  The sheriff nodded sagely, patiently. “We know. One was reported to be stalled in the river crossing, but it’s not there now. Where’d they go.”

  “I don’t know,” Al insisted. “I was afraid to stick my head up and get it shot off.” He raised a trembling hand to point. “They drove off that way. That’s all I know. I swear.”

  “Okay.” Straightening, the sheriff spoke into his radio, listened to the reply, then gestured to the paramedics. “You see to his injuries and I’ll have my men take care of the other two. Tell the hospital to give this one whatever treatment he needs but keep a close eye on him afterward. I just found out that he and his friends are wanted men in Louisiana.”

  “What else do you want us to do?” one of the volunteer firemen asked.

  “Nothing, unless that car is still stuck down in the creek somewhere. If it’s gone, I’ll drive a little farther to see what I can see. The rest of you fall back and reorganize. We can take up the search again at daybreak.”

  “Isn’t that an awful long time?” the firefighter asked.

  “Not if I leave a unit to guard this road. By morning, if we haven’t found hide nor hair of the rest of the folks messin’ around out here, I’ll order an official search. If the others involved are as dirty as these three, it’ll do ’em good to spend the night with the skeeters, ticks and chiggers.”

  Marie was shaking so badly she couldn’t even pretend to hold still. It wasn’t merely because she was soaked and chilly. It was also shock. She knew the signs from the first aid training she’d been given when she’d worked at the preschool in Baton Rouge.

  Finally, she gave in and tugged the blanket out from behind the seat, unfolded it, and used it to wrap around herself and Patty, trying to tuck it in to isolate the child from the clamminess of her damp jeans and sneakers.

  She was secretly glad that Seth hadn’t said another word to her since his disclosure about his criminal record. That revelation had floored her, had left her so befuddled she didn’t know what to think, let alone what to say to him.

  How foolish she’d been. How gullible. She’d run from one liar and landed in the arms of another. She sure could pick the wrong men, couldn’t she? Compared with Seth, Roy had been a Boy Scout.

  Yet, the signs had all been there if she’d chosen to heed them, Marie concluded. She’d sensed that Seth was different right from their first meeting. She’d even asked him about it in a roundabout way. Of course he hadn’t leveled with her. Now that she was aware of the truth—at least she thought she was—she could clearly see why he had not told her. They had been strangers then.

  And now? Now, they had gone far beyond mere acquaintance, though she didn’t like to admit it, even to herself. For him to have disclosed everything the way he just had meant that he trusted her. With his life and with his future. Could she do less for him? If she hadn’t had Patty’s well-being to consider, she might have been more willing to speak up and discuss it.

  Through chattering teeth, Marie managed to ask, “How much farther can we go on this road?”

  “A mile. Maybe two. Then we’ll have to make a run for it on foot.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  “Are you up to it?”

  She shook her head in the negative, but said, “Sure. I can do anything when somebody is shooting at me.”

  “If I could be sure how many men were after us and that they’d follow me, instead of you and Patty, I’d suggest we split up. Unfortunately, there’s no way to predict that.”

  “I’m not much of a country girl, either,” Marie said. “I not only wouldn’t know how to survive out here by myself, I’d probably wind up getting lost.”

  “And Patty may need to be carried,” Seth added. “She’s not going to be able to run as far or as fast as the rest of us.”

  “What about Babe?”

  “She’ll be fine. I take her on hikes in the woods all the time. If she gets lost, she just heads cross-country and goes home. We’re not as far from my place as it seems by road.”

  “I wish…” Marie bit her lower lip. “Never mind.”

  Ahead she caught a glimpse of a square block building and a sign indicating that they had arrived at the isolated campground.

  “Here we are,” Seth said, turning the truck in an arc so his headlights would illuminate the entire area. “Thankfully, there’s no one else camped up here, so we won’t have to worry about collateral damage.”

  That was the kind of reference that had tipped her off to his unusual background in the first place. If she were honest with herself, she’d have to admit that she’d had plenty of clues to Seth’s past. If only she’d listened to those niggling warnings.

  Seth pulled into the farthest campsite, then doused his headlights and killed the engine. “We hike from here on,” he said.

  Marie wondered if her wobbly, freezing legs and feet would support her when she stepped out.

  Seth had circled the truck, had called to Babe and was already opening Marie’s door. She handed Patty to him before gathering up the unfolded blanket.

  “Can you make it by yourself?” Seth asked.

  “Yes. I’m coming. Just take her and go.”

  “Not on your life,” he countered. “We all stick together.”

  In the distance, Marie could hear the steady grind of an engine, but she couldn’t tell how far away, or how close, it might be. Wide-eyed, she stared at Seth, barely able to read his expression in the moonlight.

  “That’s him. He’s getting closer,” Seth said, confirming her fears. “Come on. And bring the blanket.”

  Balling it up in her arms, Marie staggered after him. Her feet tingled with needles of pain and her body shook more with every step, yet she kept pace with him.

  “I—I wish we had a gun,” she said, slightly breathless already.

  To her shock, Seth an
swered, “We do. A rifle with a scope would be better than my .38, but at least we’re not totally defenseless.”

  Of course he’d be armed, Marie reasoned. After all, he wasn’t just a regular guy from a little Ozark town. He was a former spy.

  That notion made her tremble anew. Aspy. Here she was, running for her life through a trackless wilderness, and her guide was the kind of dangerous man most people only saw in movies or read about in thrillers.

  At that moment, Marie realized she was less concerned about whoever was after them than she was for Seth’s ultimate safety. He had been leading a double life, staying out of harm’s way, until he had chosen to risk his anonymity to help her. If he hadn’t given her that phone, and if she hadn’t disobeyed his orders and used it, perhaps his enemies wouldn’t be on their trail at all. If anything bad happened to him, she’d never be able to forgive herself.

  And if anything bad happened to Patty, she added, fists clenching, she would never forgive Seth.

  FIFTEEN

  Seth wasn’t familiar with the area around the campground, so he simply headed away from it and plunged into the densest portion of the forest. Behind him, he could hear Marie’s rapid breathing, sense her fear.

  Holding Patty close, bending down, and protecting her head with his hand, he forged through a thicket of hickory. The trees weren’t large but they were flexible and resilient and thus more likely to spring back into place and mask their passage.

  “You couldn’t have found a worse trail, could you?” Marie complained in a hoarse whisper.

  “If it’s hard for us, it’ll be just as hard for whoever is following,” Seth replied. He halted to give her a chance to catch up. “Stay real close and let me break trail for you.”

  “Do you want me to carry Patty for a while?”

  He snorted derisively. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t look like you can hardly hold yourself up, let alone carry a five-year-old.”

  “I can do anything if I have to,” Marie countered, her temper obviously getting the better of her.

  Seth eyed the wool blanket she still carried. The dark color was barely visible in the moonlight. “Tell you what,” he said. “Bring that and we’ll find a place for you to hide under it. If I cover you both with leaves, then make noise as I keep running, our enemy will pass you right by.”

  “No. I won’t leave you.”

  “Don’t be an idiot.”

  She huffed. “Hey, no name calling, mister. I know it’s my fault you’re in this awful mess, but it wouldn’t be if I’d had all the facts in the first place. Besides, I already told you how inept I am in the woods. Even if you drew the bad guys away from us, chances are I’d get so lost we’d either starve or freeze to death out here before we were found.”

  “You probably wouldn’t freeze this time of year,” Seth said flatly. “But I do see your point. All right. We’ll keep going for a little while longer.”

  He stiffened, pointing back the way they’d come. “Look. He’s got a flashlight. That’s to our advantage because I only see one beam. Since he’s not following standard Corp. Inc. procedures, he’s probably from the same bunch who wanted me out of the way in the first place.”

  “Is that good?”

  “Yes. Because I think I know who it is,” Seth answered. “And if it is Eccles, I won’t hesitate to shoot him the second I get the chance.”

  “Kill him?” Marie’s voice was barely audible.

  “No.” Seth shook his head. “I want him alive. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to clear me with the law before all this is over. And when he does, I’m going to get back to Serenity as fast as I can and try to put all this behind me.”

  “Really? The way you talked earlier, it sounded as if you wanted to go back to spying.”

  “I used to think I did,” Seth said. “But lately I’ve been toying with the idea of being just a regular guy doing a regular job.”

  “Would you…Would you consider taking Patty back to Serenity and looking after her for me. I don’t have anyone else.”

  “Why would you need someone to do that?”

  “Because of Roy. If the police believe I was involved in his crimes, the way you first thought I was, I’ll probably go to jail.”

  “No, you won’t. God willing, maybe neither of us will. Not if I have anything to say about it,” Seth insisted, starting to believe his own words for the first time. He glanced past her at the erratic jerks of the distant flashlight. “But we have more pressing concerns right now. He’s the last domino in the chain. Knocking him down has to come first. Later, we’ll talk about the future.”

  “We will?”

  “Yes. We will.”

  “Are you giving me orders again?”

  This time, he could tell she wasn’t speaking from anger. “Sure am. Now get moving, woman. I want to be on high ground and set up a good defensive position before Eccles, or anyone else, catches up to us.”

  “We’re going to let him catch us?”

  “Yes.” Seth felt the .38 in his belt to assure himself he was still armed. He didn’t want to tell Marie that he had only the ammunition that was already loaded in the revolver. He wasn’t going to have many shots with which to end this pursuit in their favor. He had to make sure he didn’t waste them.

  Seth’s jaw clenched. He knew what a man like Eccles was capable of. He’d seen it firsthand when he’d discovered Alice’s body. Only this time, no one was going to get past him and hurt those he loved.

  His pulse hammered. He did love these two innocents, didn’t he? Those feelings had sneaked up on his heart more subtly than any purveyor of espionage ever had. He’d been blindsided, pure and simple.

  It quickly occurred to him that since Marie had asked him to look after Patty for her, she must have at least a mild affection for him, as well. That was enough to build on.

  Seth gritted his teeth. If they survived.

  The rocky outcropping rose out of the forest floor like a stack of colossal black pancakes, dropped there at an angle by a careless giant.

  “There,” Seth hissed, pointing to the rocks. “Get down behind the thickest place.”

  Marie complied, gladly. Her legs ached and she had been trembling so badly that every muscle in her body ached. As Seth placed Patty beside her, she covered them both, head to foot, with the blanket and hunkered down. There was no more strength or fight left in her, not even enough to question his orders the way she was usually so prone to do.

  “Mama?”

  “Shush,” Marie warned. “We have to be real quiet.”

  “Where’s Babe?” the child asked. “I want Babe.”

  “We might not be able to keep her from barking so it’s better if she’s outside, helping Seth,” Marie replied. “Now do as he said. Hold very still.”

  The little girl was sniffling but didn’t argue. For that, Marie was doubly thankful. She wouldn’t have known how to explain their situation if she’d had to, nor was she sure just exactly what that situation now was.

  What would she do if something bad happened to Seth? That unacceptable question sat in her heart like a glacier, cold and oh, so heavy. Pulling her daughter closer, she began to silently pray with all the faith she could muster.

  Outside the makeshift tent she could hear the rustling of fallen leaves from the previous winter. She hadn’t noticed that much noise as the three of them had fled through the woods, so she could only imagine that Seth was purposely creating a diversion.

  “Bless him, Father,” she prayed in a whisper. “And keep him safe. Keep us all safe. Please, Lord.”

  Beside her, she heard a childish “Amen.” Sweet Patty was praying, too, and, in Marie’s opinion the child was probably far more deserving of an answer than were any of the adults. There was something special about the pure faith of a child, wasn’t there? Children weren’t so liable to overthink things. They simply trusted.

  I want to trust like that, too, Marie thought, directing her mind toward the heavenly Father
she had so recently come to know. I want to. I just don’t know how.

  As suddenly as that thought came to her, it was followed by an assurance that she had all the faith she needed. Learning to employ and understand it might be another matter, but the faith was there. The Bible promised that she’d never have to face life’s trials alone again, no matter how difficult her situation might seem. She did believe that. The hard part was wanting to know ahead of time how everything was going to end.

  And to help, she added, chagrined. It was part of her nature to want to work things out herself, to fix other people’s problems.

  Her eyes popped open, seeing nothing in the darkness. Was that what God had been trying to teach her all along? Had she gotten into this mess because she’d been trying to manipulate her life, and the lives of others, and had failed to trust the Lord? The notion was chilling.

  Could that also be why she’d been so attracted to Seth? she asked herself with a shiver of awareness. Her arms tightened around her little girl as she whispered, “Dear Lord, forgive me. And keep us safe. Please.”

  She listened to the stillness, hearing nothing. Her vivid imagination kept picturing Seth doing battle while she fervently prayed for his safety. Was the sense that he’d needed someone’s help what had drawn her to him in the first place?

  I didn’t know he had problems when we met, Marie countered. That can’t be it.

  But I did sense his uneasiness and decide he had to be hiding something.

  Setting her jaw, she made a face, seeing herself as gullible and foolish. She had done it again. She’d been subconsciously attracted to the same kind of man that Roy had been, and she’d fallen for her own form of personal subterfuge. It wasn’t merely that Seth had kept things from her; it was more. She had refused to listen to her inner warnings, and here she was, in worse trouble than ever before.

  The notion that she didn’t know how to pick good men was more than true; it had just been proven for the second time. Was she never going to learn?