Samantha finished the call and handed the phone back. “He said he’ll send a unit.”
Who would be on duty tonight? And why did that wondering strike trepidation into his soul? He had only good things to prove about himself. Changes that he prayed would last for the long-term, with God’s help. But if his reception by Cody early that evening had been any indication, the path to renewed and improved relationships with his former police brothers was going to be steep and rocky. It was yet another reason why a prosecutor’s position wouldn’t work. Excellent relationships with law enforcement were an absolute necessity.
Samantha moved into the bathroom and began filling her bag with her toothbrush and toothpaste.
“I’ll wait outside while you finish up. Fill in the officers when they arrive.”
She nodded her assent, probably all she could muster right now.
Outside, he surveyed the perimeter, but the roughnecks were long gone. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the slider at the back patio had been jimmied. With no bar in the track to prevent the door from sliding open, the thugs had easily broken the lock and gained access.
A car engine sounded around the front of the house, and Reid jogged around the side, his heart thumping in time to his steps. He stopped at the corner, relief flooding him. It was Derek, a good guy who had been a good friend, and a rookie he didn’t know.
Derek caught sight of him and stared for a moment, then a grin spread across his face. “Reid? What are you doing here?”
Reid approached, uncertain of the protocol, but Derek grabbed him into a manly, back-thumping hug. “Don’t know if news ever filtered back, but I’m a lawyer now. Drove into town today to look for an apartment and a job, but got rear-ended by Samantha Callahan.” He gestured toward the home. “Long story short, this is her house. B and E, and it’s torn up pretty good. Seems someone is after her and the ten-year-old girl she’s guardian to.”
The rookie grabbed a case from the trunk and approached Reid to shake his hand.
“This is Gizmo.” Derek shot a wink to Reid. “He just joined us a couple months ago. He is...uh...young and energetic.”
“Weren’t we all at one point in time?” Reid smiled, although his mood did not feel as light as what he hoped his expression was.
“Good to meet you, sir.”
Sir? When did he get to be a sir? It was true that Reid had lived a lot of life and committed many wrongs in his thirty-three years, sins that laid a weight on him and aged him. But he wasn’t ready to pull up the afghan and sit in the rocker yet. God had given him a new life, hadn’t He? A second chance? He plastered his smile back in place and simply muttered, “Good to meet you, too.”
The officers weren’t at the house long and didn’t express much hope in any evidence left behind. They took Samantha and Lily’s statements, and Reid filled them in on what he had seen when they arrived. Photos were snapped and fingerprints lifted. Derek promised he would take point on the investigation, and would let Reid know what forensics found, if anything. But an hour later, they were gone with only an offer to drive through the subdivision every now and then to keep an eye on neighborhood activity, and a suggestion from Derek that he and Reid should meet for coffee sometime.
Samantha stood next to him in the kitchen, looking lost. “So what now?”
Yes, indeed. What now? The obvious thing was to avoid detection while figuring out who was after Samantha and Lily and why, and then bring the full force of the law down on their heads. But how to avoid detection? Heartwood Hill was only so big. To leave town would be to leave the police department that was now, at least superficially, familiar with the case.
“We go.” Sounds of drawers opening and closing sounded from Lily’s room. The poor girl was probably trying to straighten everything, make sense of the situation. “You can’t stay here, not with those guys still at large.”
Samantha hugged herself, and Reid shoved his hands into his pockets to quell the desire to hug her himself. What had gotten into him? Attachment in any way, shape or form was completely inadvisable and would only result in disappointment for the both of them.
But he couldn’t just ditch them. Before he’d turned to God, he had known plenty of guys who would have just dropped Samantha and the kid off at their house, even when it had been trashed, and taken off. They wouldn’t want to be burdened by someone with a ten-year-old girl, let alone someone in trouble and needing help. Fun had been the name of the game. Before he’d turned to God, he had been one of those guys. But the new Reid Palmer couldn’t leave her. Not only because he needed a new and improved reputation in Heartwood Hill and a good working relationship with the Callahan twins, but also...just because.
Because there was something comforting yet energizing about being with Samantha. Because in the short time they’d been in the Jeep together, he’d realized how lonely being alone can be.
Because he wanted desperately to be a gentleman. He felt it within himself, bubbling up like a hot spring despite the fact that his father had never modeled gentlemanly behavior, and now was his chance to make good on it. Because he wanted to prove that he had escaped his past, his father’s disposition that even now coursed through the blood in Reid’s own veins. Reid couldn’t ever risk a relationship, but he would sleep better at night, be more comfortable in his skin, if he proved to himself that the angry, rabble-rousing days were over. That he was not his father.
He would never be his father.
“Reid?”
Samantha’s worried tone broke his reverie, and for the first time in his life, he wished he carried change in his pocket, something to keep his hands busy, away from Samantha’s trembling shoulders. If there couldn’t be a relationship, there ought not be affection.
He shook his head to clear the thoughts. “Neither of us has a place now, so we stay at a hotel, at least for tonight. Maybe some sleep will help us figure this out. Gather your stuff and Lily, and let’s get out of here. And make sure to bring Lily’s scrapbook about her father. Just in case it has something to do with all this.”
Back in the Jeep, Reid turned out of Samantha’s subdivision and headed back toward the commercial strip of town. In the darkness, he suppressed a wry smile. He had been concerned that Heartwood Hill would have changed so much in his absence that he would have to learn it all over again, adding more stress to his reentry. But this chauffeuring was certainly reacquainting him quickly.
A number of hotels stretched near the interstate ramps, and he pulled into the cheapest motel and drove around back, parking the Jeep but letting it idle.
Samantha’s gaze darted around the dark exterior. “Is this where we’re staying?”
Reid surveyed the only entrance to that part of the parking lot. “No. I’m waiting to see if someone’s following us.”
A full ten minutes later, no one else had nosed into that secluded spot, and as he pulled around front, all the vehicles were the same as when he had pulled in. He turned right onto the main highway and circled around the fast-food place they’d been at earlier, then turned into the priciest of the hotels. In this parking spot, he turned off the engine and cut the lights.
“Do you see anyone?” Samantha had scrunched down in her seat.
“No. I think we’re good.”
Then he selected a middle-range place to stay and pulled into the parking garage. The garage seemed a bit fancy for such a small suburb, but now Reid was grateful for the added protection. This hotel wouldn’t eat up his cash but would be clean and stocked with fresh towels. Breakfast in the morning would be nice, too, since his usual fare only included a cup of joe. Samantha and Lily accompanied him to the front desk, Lily clutching her pillow. He secured two adjoining rooms and paid with the rest of his cash. He’d have to find an ATM tomorrow.
Lily had staggered down the hallway half-asleep. As Lily headed to the shower, Reid in
structed Samantha to put her in the bed farthest from the door. That would leave Samantha the bed close to the door, just in case, and he would be right next door.
He stepped into his room to give the girls some privacy, then returned later as Samantha tucked the blanket around Lily, whose soft breathing whispered between them. “It’ll be all right, won’t it?” She gazed up at him, questions and doubts clouding her blue eyes.
“Everything will look better in the morning.” He hated it, but the platitude his mother used to feed him after one of his father’s brawls seemed the easiest way out at the moment.
Without a word or any indication of whether or not she believed him, she closed the door between the two rooms.
With only the bathroom light filtering into his room, Reid sat on the edge of his bed and removed his shoes, leaving them at the ready next to the bedside table. He lay on top of the covers, fully dressed. Sleep would not come easy that night, if at all. Too much was at stake.
He hated to bother her, but he needed more information about Lily’s father. He padded to her door and knocked quietly. “Samantha? You awake?” he whispered.
A few moments later, she opened the door and leaned against the doorjamb. “Yeah.”
“What else do you know about Lily’s father?”
“Like I said, he was an accountant, but I don’t know at what level, if any. He was always so quiet that I never really got to know him. At first, I thought it was grief for his wife. But I think that was just him. Quiet, but still strong. You know what I mean? He wasn’t pushy with his opinions, but he didn’t waver from his beliefs.”
“What about friends? Acquaintances?”
“I don’t know. I only spent a little bit of time with him, not much because I was mostly with Lily. I also saw him when I picked her up or dropped her off or at church. The last time I picked her up, right before he died, he had just given her a beautiful heart-shaped key chain. He didn’t usually give gifts like that, but I thought he just wanted her to carry a key to the house. Eventually, she gave it to me for safekeeping.” She rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. “I’m sorry. What were you asking about? Oh, yeah, friends of Lily’s father. No, he was usually alone, working on his computer or reading a book that looked computer-ish. Boring, so I didn’t pay much attention.”
“Did you ever see what was on his computer?”
“No.” She exhaled loudly into the dark room. “Can we talk about this later? I don’t want to wake up Lily. She needs her sleep, and the last thing we need tomorrow is a cranky, sleep-deprived adolescent.”
“Sure. Night.”
She closed the door without a word, and soon her sleepy breathing sounded louder than Lily’s.
Reid lay back down and tucked his hands behind his head, staring at the sliver of light coming from the bathroom. What an odd predicament he found himself in, and on his first night back in town. Sharing adjoining hotel rooms, weapon at the ready, with a former law-school classmate and her ward? What did the Lord have in store for him next? Because it sure was an unusual way to form an amicable working relationship with a local lawyer.
What seemed like moments later, Reid startled at the sound of footsteps outside the door. A glance at the clock revealed he had slept for about an hour. All seemed quiet behind Samantha and Lily’s door. He lay still, holding his breath, waiting for another sound.
There. More footsteps right outside the door.
Then a slight rattle of the doorknob, like someone was jimmying it or trying to insert a key card.
Reid shot up, slipped his feet into his shoes and tied his laces. He raced quietly to the window and pulled the side of the curtain back just enough to peek down at his Jeep.
In the blackness of the night, a dark shadow, barely perceptible with only a smidgen of moonlight, peered into the backseat of his vehicle. One thug was checking his Jeep. Another was at his door. His advantage was that the thug at the door didn’t know they had two rooms.
Despite his police training, his heart leaped into his throat. It was different when it was personal.
“Samantha.” His voice was a hoarse whisper as he tapped at her door. He prayed he wasn’t too loud.
The jiggling continued at his door.
He heard movement on the other side, and the door slowly opened. “Samantha, they’re here. We need to go.”
He stepped to his door to the hallway noiselessly, holding his breath. His heart beat so loudly he feared the thug on the other side of the door would hear. Their best plan was to make the guy think they were all in that room, so silence was absolutely critical. He grabbed his bag and placed it inside Samantha’s room. Then he stepped through and gently closed the adjoining door. He assumed a position behind the door and flicked out the light. Total darkness consumed them.
The door lock clicked on his room door, and someone from the outside depressed the handle. With a slight scrape across the carpet, the door swung open.
Reid held his breath as he waited for the footsteps to cross completely into the room. As soon as the man completed as many steps as Reid figured it would take to reach the bed, he tossed a whisper to Samantha and Lily, who huddled by their room door. “Now!”
Samantha threw the door open, halting it just before it hit the doorstop. He stepped up behind them and motioned for them to go in front. “Stairs! To the left!”
They ran for the stairwell. Reid blinked in the bright light of the hallway. Surely the thug’s eyes wouldn’t be able to adjust between light and dark and then light again so quickly that he could catch up. Samantha popped open the stairwell door and barreled through. Reid brought up the rear, but before the door closed them in the stairwell, he heard the hotel room door open again. The man would be close upon them in a moment.
* * *
Samantha longed to stop and rub her calves. Leaping out of a sound sleep and into action was not easy for the body or the mind. She struggled to process what time it might be, but all she glimpsed outside the stairwell windows was utter darkness broken only by the lights of nearby businesses.
A door opened and closed somewhere behind them. “Faster,” Reid urged them. He was following close behind, as Samantha led. Shouldn’t Reid be in front? What if a bad guy waited just outside the first-floor door? But what if the bad guy behind them caught up? Reid had a gun, so maybe he could protect them. Either way, she yearned to be at home in her bed, free from men with their weapons.
“Head for the superstore across the lot.” Reid’s voice sounded closer behind now.
Open twenty-four hours. Bright lights. Employees and shoppers. That sounded like a good plan.
Samantha risked a glance back. Lily wore a wide-awake expression of intensity, not even breathing heavily after their rapid descent from their third-floor hotel room. She was in good shape for all her wear and tear, but no child should have to go through this. The sooner they could get to safety, the better. Samantha hightailed it through the last door and hit the humidity at a run. She gasped to inhale the moist air, immediately slowed by the sogginess that hung still and heavy. But she pushed herself toward the big, bright supercenter, like a bug drawn to the light.
Lily caught up and jogged alongside her as they crossed the parking lot. Only a handful of cars littered the area, and Samantha prayed that the store was filled with night employees stocking the shelves. She slowed as they approached the front door, and she ran her hand down the front of her T-shirt to smooth the wrinkles. At least she had been able to change out of her business attire when they reached the hotel earlier that night, and Lily had been able to take a shower to wash away her day-camp stench.
The doors whooshed open, and blessedly cool air enveloped them. Reid stepped up next to her. She grasped Lily’s hand and pulled her forward as they walked past the welcoming displays of summer treats. A couple of bored cashiers turned to watch them walk past.
“Slow. Slow.” It was barely more than a grunt from Reid.
She dropped her pace immediately and pasted what she hoped was a nonchalant expression on her face. She glanced at the end caps as they sauntered by. Her favorite brownie mix was on sale for an excellent price. Under normal circumstances, she would buy a box and enjoy time in the kitchen with Lily, then savor each delectable morsel while they watched an old favorite Fred Astaire movie.
These were anything but normal circumstances, though.
She glanced at Reid. Did he like brownies? Would that be his idea of an enjoyable evening? Dessert and a movie at home? Why was she even wondering about it? Her biggest priority right now was Lily. Lily was her responsibility, true. But it was difficult to keep her mind from wandering to the possibility of something with Reid. She couldn’t quite grasp it, but there was a sense of security about him that she could get used to. A refuge in the storm.
Reid glanced behind them, then suddenly steered them down an aisle toward the toy and outdoor department. “He’s here.”
As he pushed her around the bend, Samantha sneaked a glance back. It was the same guy, complete with the cap and the dark sunglasses. Where was the other one? Was he waiting for them around the corner or for them to exit the building? Beads of perspiration sprang to her forehead, but she didn’t dare to swipe them away for fear she would draw attention to herself.
Reid weaved them in and out of displays of children’s shirts and women’s socks until they stepped up to the bottom of an outdoor play set. The two-story, solid-wood structure sat on top of a shelving unit and rose above them almost to the ceiling. Reid arched his gaze up then turned to her. “We hide here until he’s gone. Lily, take the top level and stay down. Behind the railing.”
Samantha gawked at Lily climbing the shelves and hoisting herself up to the play set without help. “What? Are you serious? Is it sturdy?”
Under Duress Page 6