The Hijacked Wife

by Winn, Bonnie K.

  “I’ll protect you, Summer. You can count on it.”

  Briefly Summer thought of the bedroom sofa that he’d chosen to sleep on and she was inordinately glad that he was willing to abandon it. She thought of the sexual tension that had stretched between them as inescapably as the danger pursuing them. But now it wasn’t passion she craved; rather it was the strength and comfort he offered.

  Relationships had as many facets as people themselves, she realized. And right now, she wanted pure companionship. Jack was providing that and more. And for the moment, she pretended it could last.

  Jack was restless. Summer wasn’t certain why, but she could see it in every move of his body.

  She tried to concentrate on feeding Danny his cereal, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Jack had joined her for a midmorning break, having gotten up in the wee hours of the morning to begin working. She wondered if even now he was thinking of Cyndi. Was that what weighed on his mind?

  Danny smacked his cereal bowl, sending a glob of creamed wheat flying.

  “Danny,” Jack gently chided him. “Save your ammo for when you need it.” He grabbed a sponge, then wiped up the damage.

  Summer sent him a baleful glance. “Now, that’s great advice.”

  Jack ruffled Danny’s hair. “He likes to test out cause and effect.” He walked quickly to the window, then stared outside.

  Summer managed to feed Danny another few spoonfuls. “Watching for something in particular?” Or someone? Like Cyndi, she wanted to ask, but didn’t dare.

  He shook his head. “Just keeping an eye out.”

  An unexpected chill skittered up her spine. Was he experiencing his sixth sense again?

  Just then the back door banged open. Cyndi rushed in, her pretty cheeks flushed, her hands filled with packages. “Good, everyone’s here. I was hoping to have coffee and play with that adorable baby.”

  Summer managed to smile. So, he wasn’t watching for anything in particular? Convenient that Cyndi had strolled in at just that moment.

  Jack took Cyndi’s packages, and Summer looked away, unable to watch.

  “How’s Danny feeling this morning?” Cyndi asked.

  “Better,” Summer replied, feeling the spokes of being a fifth wheel poking at her.

  “Well enough that he’s hurling cereal,” Jack added.

  “I’ve felt that way often enough myself,” Cyndi confided to Danny.

  Surprised, Summer looked at the other woman. What would ruffle this seemingly perfect woman?

  Cyndi poured a mug of coffee. “I heard something unusual this morning in town.”

  Interest piqued, Jack abandoned the packages on the counter. “Oh?”

  “One of my neighbors, Alice Freeman—you remember her, don’t you, Jack?”

  He nodded and Cyndi continued. “She said she’d overheard someone at the drugstore asking about you.”

  Jack’s gaze collided with Summer’s.

  “Alice thought I’d want to know since she knew you’d once worked for me. Actually she asked if I’d seen you lately, but it struck me as odd that someone was asking after you. I told her I had a migraine coming on and that I had to head home before it got worse.” Cyndi glanced at Jack and then Summer. “Don’t you think it’s odd that someone’s asking about you now? So soon after you arrived?”

  “Yes,” Jack replied, his tone clipped.

  Fear robbed Summer’s words as she stared at him.

  “Cyndi, we’re going to have to leave now,” Jack continued.

  Soberly Cyndi glanced at Jack and then Summer. “It has to do with this person asking about you, doesn’t it?”

  He nodded, not offering an explanation.

  “I thought so.” She hesitated for a moment. “Do you need money?”

  Jack shook his head, his stubborn male pride still firmly in place. “No, just the pay I have coming.”

  “Surely I can do something else—”

  “We have to leave quickly.”

  “Do I have time to finish feeding Danny?” Summer asked, holding a spoon in midair.

  “If you hurry.”

  Cyndi glanced at Summer and the baby. “I’ll help you.”

  Distracted, Summer looked at the other woman. “Thanks.”

  Jack hurried out of the room, and Summer knew he would have them packed before she finished.

  Cyndi glanced after him briefly, a worried look on her face. “I’m sorry you have to leave so soon. As I’ve told you, I don’t know what I’d have done without Jack when he worked here the first time.”

  Summer tried valiantly to repress the pang of jealousy stabbing her, hoping her face didn’t betray her feelings.

  Cyndi reached over to pat Danny’s cheek. “My husband was dying, you know.”

  Summer’s gaze shot up to meet hers. “No... I didn’t.”

  Cyndi searched Summer’s face. “I hope you haven’t taken what I’ve said about Jack the wrong way. Without him to lean on when Bill was so ill, I’m not sure I would have made it.” A shadow passed over her face, and her gaze intensified. “It wasn’t anything more than friendship. Not that I wanted it to be, but in any case Jack isn’t that sort of man. He would never take advantage of a situation... or break a trust. He’s truly an exceptional person.” She laughed suddenly. “I don’t know why I’m going on like this. Of course you know that—you married him. I just didn’t want you to mistake our familiarity. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have any brothers of my own, but if I could have handpicked one, it would have been Jack.”

  Summer felt suddenly small for her unnecessary envy. “It’s rare that we get to choose our relatives. I think you’ve both made an excellent choice.”

  Cyndi smiled. “Why don’t I wipe down this little guy while you collect your things? I suspect Jack will be pacing in a minute.”

  Feeling the urgency herself, Summer stood, started to walk away, pivoted, then hugged Cyndi. “Thanks...for everything.”

  Cyndi nodded and Summer rushed upstairs.

  Jack had nearly everything packed. But his face fell into lines of relief when he saw Summer. “If you’ll finish packing, I’ll carry the gear to the truck.”

  “Right.”

  He quickly grabbed the playpen and portable crib.

  “Jack?”

  He paused at the doorway, clearly impatient to be gone.

  “Do you think it’s Fisher and Wilcox?”

  “It’s not the tooth fairy,” he replied curtly, then paused again, swearing lowly. “Sorry. I was just hoping for a respite. By now, you’d think I’d realize there aren’t any respites. I shouldn’t have bitten your head off for asking.”

  Realizing the cause of his stress, it was easy to forgive him. “It’s okay.”

  Within minutes, they had everything packed into the truck. Jack buckled Danny into his car seat.

  After feeding Danny, Cyndi had filled a sack with a substantial stash of food. “Bread, lunch meat, chips, fruit—stuff like that,” she explained.

  Jack took her hands, but this time Summer didn’t quiver with envy. “Thanks, Cyn. Someday hopefully I’ll be able to explain.”

  Cyndi smiled, but Summer could see a mist of tears in the other woman’s eyes and the way her throat worked as she tried to look brave. “No explanation needed. Just take care of yourselves. I want our next visit to be longer. Summer and I hardly had a chance to get to know each other.”

  “You got it.”

  Cyndi hugged him fiercely. Then she turned to Summer, giving her an equally hearty hug as she whispered, “Take care of him, Summer, and yourself. You’ll be okay. Just believe in what you have.”

  Unable to speak over the lump in her throat, Summer hugged her back before they quickly jumped into the truck.

  She twisted around, watching Cyndi wave to them as they sped away. When Summer finally turned back around, she glanced at the seemingly safe-looking countryside. “Where to?”

  Jack clenched the steering wheel, the tightness in h
is grip matching that in his voice. “I wish I knew.”

  Chapter 10

  Daylight was the enemy, but with no other choice, Jack made himself concentrate on the road. He had driven hard and fast for over an hour, but he knew that he couldn’t keep up the pace without attracting the unwanted attention of the highway patrol

  “Are there any hiding places you know about from when you lived here before?” Summer asked.

  “Unlike Bart’s, I didn’t have much free time. Just keeping up with the ranch took all my time.”

  “Do you think we have much of a head start?” she asked, twisting around to look at the road behind them.

  “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m hoping Fisher and Wilcox just arrived in town since Cyndi’s neighbor heard them asking around, but we can’t be sure of that.”

  “They certainly seem to be tracking us pretty well.”

  Jack glanced over at her. “I noticed that, too. It’s as though they’re reading my mind, figuring out where I’ll head.”

  “Do you think—no. that’s stupid.”

  “What?”

  Summer hesitated. “Do you think they hired some sort of psychologist to study you—predict what you’ll do next?”

  Surprised at the concept, but impressed with her insight, Jack thumped the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. “You’re probably right.” He paused. “So, what now? I think like somebody else? Or just deny my natural inclinations?”

  Summer shook her head. “Your instincts have kept us alive so far. Unless I’m missing my guess, you were having a premonition this morning.”

  Startled, he turned to look at her. “How did you know that?”

  “I guess I’ve gotten used to the way you act, your body language....”

  “Right,” Jack replied, his voice huskier than he intended.

  Summer twisted her hands, unable to contain the thoughts that had been plaguing her since they’d left the ranch. “You didn’t tell me about Cyndi’s husband.”

  “It’s still hard to talk about. Bill started out as my employer and quickly became my friend. I didn’t know when I met him that he already knew how sick he was. Then, losing him... I’d already given up my own family. It was hard doing that again, seeing someone so young and vital dying for no reason.”

  “Like Linda?”

  Summer’s instant understanding was like a balm to that wound. “Yeah. I always thought those platitudes about the good dying young were just that, but when it happens... You know it’s true.”

  “Sometimes I’ve wished I could just start over again, do things right this time,” Summer confided. “Be a better person, a good person. I guess I’d go back to when I was about eighteen. Any further back would be too painful. I was such a geek.”

  His gaze lingered on her. “I find that hard to believe.”

  “Where were you when I went to my prom with the king of the geeks?”

  “Busy being a good person, I guess.”

  “Don’t scoff. I would like to be more pure of heart, be a better person.”

  “How many people do you know who would give up their own ambitions to stay near an aging parent? You could have opted to put your mother in a retirement center instead.”

  Summer barked out a caustic laugh. “Can you imagine that? She’d have killed me.”

  “But you never considered it. And that’s strictly pure of heart, Summer.”

  She reached over, her hand encircling his arm. “I haven’t felt very pure of heart lately. Thanks.”

  Jack wondered what had been bothering her, but just then he spotted a highway-patrol car. “Hell.”

  “What is it?” Summer’s eyes followed his, and she saw the police car. “Do you think they’re looking for us?”

  “Hopefully they don’t know what vehicle we’re in. But we’re going to have to get off this main road.”

  Summer stiffened as she watched the patrol car. “Everyone and everything can’t have conspired against us.”

  “Back to that issue of good?”

  She nodded. “We can’t outrun the entire world.”

  “I used to think that. But I learned that if I had to, I could.” Jack looked at his son, who represented all the good that had otherwise become tainted.

  Summer followed his gaze and stroked Danny’s plump leg. “I can understand why.”

  The roads Jack chose took them through lush, thriving countryside. But Summer couldn’t enjoy the green meadows or the late-season wildflowers. Worry ate at her. It seemed no matter which direction they had taken, Fisher and Wilcox nipped at their heels. What would happen to them if they couldn’t outrun or outwit their pursuers?

  Now twilight was approaching. Summer didn’t know whether to be grateful for the cover of darkness or worried because they had no destination as they drove into the night.

  Jack turned off the road suddenly onto a narrower one.

  “Why are we turning here?”

  “I want to get off the main road before it’s completely dark. We need to find a place to camp. We can’t chance staying at a hotel on the main highway.”

  Intrigued, Summer watched closely as they drove forward.

  When Jack stopped the truck at the end of the road, it was hard to say who was more surprised.

  “An amusement park?” Summer questioned, her eyes roving over the tall chain-link fence.

  “A closed amusement park,” Jack corrected, seeing that the Fun Time Amusement Park sign over the gate was faded, hanging crookedly in neglect. “I didn’t expect that.”

  “But you wanted to come here?” she asked cautiously, wondering if the strain had pushed him over the edge.

  “I tried to think of some place the normal Jack Anderson wouldn’t choose, some place their profiler wouldn’t pinpoint before we got there. I guessed we could camp somewhere close by.”

  “I’ve never seen an abandoned amusement park,” Summer said in wonder.

  “Abandoned...” Jack mused.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “How adventurous are you feeling?”

  “Considering we’re probably only a few steps ahead of men who want to kill us, I guess all in all, pretty adventurous.” Any more adventurous and they’d be hanging upside down out of airplanes. But she kept the thought to herself.

  “Good. Let’s figure out how to break in.”

  She blinked. “Why would we want to do that?”

  Jack unfastened Danny’s car seat, then reached for the toddler backpack carrier. “Can you think of a better place to hide?”

  Summer climbed out of the truck. Since she couldn’t think of any place to hide, she shook her head even though she was doubting the soundness of this plan.

  Jack strapped the carrier on his back. Automatically Summer reached for Danny, lifting him from the car seat and placing him in the backpack carrier.

  “Let’s see if there’s an alarm system.”

  Summer gulped. “Alarm system?” She hurried behind him. “What if there is one? What do we do?”

  “Disengage it,” he replied calmly.

  “You know how to do that?”

  He flashed that devilish grin. “One of the advantages of having so many jobs. Not to mention my training to become an architect. Helps to know how wiring works.”

  Of course. She should have thought of that, but then she wasn’t sure what a person should be thinking about when breaking and entering.

  It didn’t take Jack long to disengage the simple alarm system. And from the easily broken locks, it appeared the owners didn’t anticipate many intruders. But the park, located away from any towns, wouldn’t attract vandals or fun-seeking teenagers. Summer wondered if the park’s remote location had contributed to its demise.

  “We need to bring the truck inside,” Jack told her. “Parked out here, it’s like a flag.”

  “I doubt many people come down this road.”

  “It would only take one,” Jack replied grimly.

  Sobered, she nodded.
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  “If you’ll drive the truck through, I’ll close the gates behind you,” Jack instructed.

  As she climbed inside the truck, it occurred to Summer how bizarre her actions had become. But then Jack was motioning her forward. Automatically she accelerated. The gates clanged shut behind her, an ominous sound. She tried not to think about it as she parked in the work shed that housed what remained of the park’s maintenance vehicles.

  Jack opened the truck door, and she slid outside.

  “I think we should check out the park, see if we can get in the hotel,” Jack suggested. He reached inside for the sack of food. “We travel light tonight.”

  She understood what he left unsaid. They could escape more quickly if they weren’t carrying a hefty load.

  Once inside, Summer could see that this was an older, small-scale park. The Ferris wheel and roller coaster appeared to be the zenith of the ride attractions. No two-hundred-foot free falls, no sky coasters, no Hollywood-scale high-tech illusions, no rides that promised to separate mind from matter. Fun Time was a kinder, gentler amusement park. Sadly Summer guessed that was the actual reason for its demise. “I guess it just couldn’t survive today’s world,” she murmured.

  Jack studied her face, then draped an arm around her shoulders. She sensed the comfort in his touch and allowed him to pull her close. “Everything has its time, Summer.”

  “I know. It’s silly. I don’t have an emotional investment in this place. I didn’t even know it existed before today.”

  “That’s why your heart’s pure,” he chided gently.

  She smiled in the growing dusk. Then she spotted a pay telephone. “I wish I could call my mother. I know I can’t, but I always feel so much better when I connect with her.”

  He nodded in understanding, but a flicker of pain crossed his face. “Nothing can take the place of family.”

  Summer felt the breach between them, regretted its cause, ached for the result.

  Jack tried again to reach Tom Matthews without success. Quietly they walked together toward the Fun Time Hotel. But when they reached the inn, it was discouragingly dark.

  “They’ve probably cut back to alternative electricity.” Jack pointed to the few small overhead lights. “Just enough output for a few security spots.”