Under Duress

by Meghan Carver

  Reid surveyed up and down the aisle. “I’d rather get up there than stay down here and face the guy with the gun. What’s your pick?” He threaded his fingers together and leaned down to make a step for her.

  Fine. There really was no other option, and Lily was up to her perch already. It was a good choice. From their vantage point, they could probably see the thug move throughout the store, and they would know when he left.

  The two of them barely fit side by side on the bottom level. She got on her knees and leaned down on her elbows, twisting a bit until she could see through the slats of the railing. It would be the perfect position for praying, if she wasn’t so distracted by the softness of Reid’s shirt against her arm or the clean, laundry-soap scent that emanated from him or the warm feeling of safety from his biceps resting against her shoulder.

  Reid pointed through his slats. Samantha followed the line of sight until she spotted the thug in the shoe section. Her throat instantly went dry, and she swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. No gun was visible, but he was quite far away. He was also probably smart enough to conceal it in the store so he wouldn’t draw attention to himself. He stopped next to the sale rack of flip-flops and let his gaze sweep upward and around the store.

  Samantha jerked down behind the play set’s railing. “Lily, down,” she whispered.

  Samantha turned her head toward Reid. She would be able to judge by his reaction if the thug saw them, and that would be a lot easier to handle than making direct eye contact with the guy who was after them.

  Reid shifted a knee, and the wood structure creaked under the weight of his large frame.

  Uh-oh. That didn’t bode well for their outcome. A shiver stair-stepped up Samantha’s spine. What if the bad guy heard and found them? What if the entire play set crashed down under Reid’s weight? What if...? Samantha wanted to rub the start of a headache away from her temple but didn’t dare to move a hand. All these what-ifs would drive her crazy.

  She sympathized with the guy, though. He probably felt like a sardine squeezed into a tiny can. What she couldn’t figure out was what was in it for him. Why did he keep protecting them? It would be so easy for him just to turn her and Lily over to the thugs. Or just dump them at home. He could even have lost them in the store. So why take these risks?

  Did he just love brandishing his weapon, or the idea of rescuing the damsel in distress? Because the way she remembered it she was doing just fine until she rear-ended his Jeep. She and Lily were escaping by their own power and with God’s help. Or was he trying to get on her good side since he planned to set up a law practice that would compete directly with hers? Either way, the sooner this whole problem was resolved, the better.

  Reid’s expression didn’t change as he watched the thug out in the store, so Samantha risked a look. It took a moment to find him, but he was headed toward the tires and car batteries and oil-change station. A moment later, Reid jostled her with his elbow. “He’s gone. Let’s get out of here before I can’t straighten my legs.”

  She tapped on the underside of the top level of the play set. When Lily poked her head out at the ladder, Samantha waved her down. Once they were safely on the floor, Reid led them through the aisle of badminton games, volleyballs and weight sets toward a back room.

  Samantha grabbed his arm to stop him. “Shouldn’t we go back out the front?”

  Reid’s cheek muscle ticked. He met Lily’s gaze. She shrugged, wearing an I-don’t-know-what-her-problem-is expression.

  He grabbed Samantha’s hand and pushed the door open. He’d protected them thus far, so why did she question him? She squeezed his hand, hoping he understood it as the apology she meant it to be.

  A long, gray hallway with storage rooms on all sides stretched before them. He paused once they were all inside and looked up and down.

  “Now what?” Lily’s voice squeaked in the cavernous space.

  “We find an exit.”

  A few yards down, they turned a corner. An exit sign glowed over a door at the end of that short hallway. Samantha exhaled a breath she had been holding as a burden lifted off her chest. They would be safe soon.

  She pulled her hand away from Reid’s and grasped Lily’s. Lily was her concern, not Reid, and the more she remembered that, the better off they would all be. Lily curled her fingers around Samantha’s hand, a clutching that sought safety and security. Samantha prayed that she would be able to provide that for the girl.

  They were a few feet from the door, freedom in reach.

  “Stop!” The strident voice echoed around the bare hallway. Lily let go of Samantha’s hand to cover her ears.

  Samantha glanced back. It was him. The man who had broken into their hotel room and then followed them into the store.

  “Run!” Reid commanded, and her feet obeyed. “Get out.”

  She and Lily dashed past Reid. In her peripheral vision, she saw him turn and follow.

  Lily grunted at Samantha’s side, a step ahead.

  At the door, she pushed it open and Lily ran through. As she jogged through, she turned to look back. The thug lumbered only two paces behind Reid.

  Samantha moved aside as Reid stepped through the door. He swiveled around and grabbed the edge of the door, shoving it back toward the thug as he tried to step through. The heavy metal door collided with the thug’s face with a resounding crack. He fell back and hit the floor. They watched for a moment, but the man didn’t move.

  “Whoa!” Fright tinged Lily’s tone. “Is he dead?”

  “No. Just unconscious.” Reid stepped back into the building and felt the guy’s neck for a pulse. Apparently satisfied, he straightened. “He’ll be fine. He’ll just have a bad headache when he wakes up.” He looked back down the hallway. “I’m sure someone heard all that commotion. They’ll be here to help him in a few moments and call the police. We can’t stick around, though, with the other guy still looking for us.”

  He led them away from the building and closed the door gently behind them. The rough cement of the exterior wall of the supercenter scraped on Samantha’s arms and legs as they hugged the back of the building all the way to the corner closest to the hotel. They dashed to a large stand of pines in between the two structures. Samantha peered between the trees, but cloud cover blocked the moonlight and she couldn’t detect any movement around the outside of the hotel. Apparently, Reid was satisfied, and he shuttled them to the back corner of the hotel building. The storm continued to threaten, and a streak of lightning illuminated the parking garage.

  In another moment, they were back at the Jeep, just as the rain finally let loose. Samantha hung back to make sure that Lily made it into the backseat, then she slid into the front and pulled the belt over herself. Reid slammed his door and jammed the key in the ignition. The moment the engine roared to life, Reid thrust it into Reverse and pulled out of the parking lot.

  Once out on the highway, he headed back toward the center of town, windshield wipers running at full force. Samantha glanced at the speedometer. He drove just a few miles over the speed limit, probably so they wouldn’t draw any attention.

  She rotated in her seat to see Lily in the back. Lily’s eyelids drooped, and her shoulders sagged. Lily had managed to get her seat belt secured, but now her head lolled with the swaying of the vehicle. Samantha’s heart crept toward her throat as tears welled in her eyes. Awe swept over her again that God would trust such a precious soul to her care. She whispered a prayer for the girl who was probably still grieving the loss of her father. The girl Samantha hoped would call her Mom someday.

  She swiveled back toward the front, halting as she stared at Reid’s profile. Streetlights flashing across his face revealed a jaw set with determination, a determination she was glad was in their favor. Whatever was in Reid’s past, it seemed he had mastered it. He was on her side and for that she was grateful. But wou
ld it be enough to overcome the guys who were after them?

  With no idea where they were going and the rain falling strong and steady, it became abundantly clear that she had no other option than to trust.

  SEVEN

  It was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to use: physical force. But what else could he have done?

  Reid scrubbed a hand over his face. Light snoring sounded from the backseat, and a cursory glance at Samantha revealed her head bobbing to the rhythm of the drive. A light rain continued to patter on the roof of the Jeep, making good sleeping weather.

  At least they were safe. Again. He had acted on instinct honed by training and experience and used just enough strength to subdue the guy temporarily but not hurt him permanently. He had reassured Samantha and Lily of that, but he could tell by the wary look that haunted the lines around her eyes that she wasn’t accustomed to witnessing such action.

  If he had to face the awful truth, it had repulsed even him. As the lights of a sleepy Heartwood Hill slowly flashed past, he wrestled yet again with the past he hadn’t asked for and hadn’t wanted. Would he ever have a healthy handle on life? Chances were poor for that, since his only brother hadn’t been able to deal with the abuse of their childhood. In fact, he’d adopted their father’s problems as his own and was currently serving time in the very same facility as their dad. Did they share a father-son cell? Some people could find humor in the midst of pain, but what about when the pain remained as raw as an open wound? It just didn’t make any sense. And despite his current state of salvation, he still wore his past like a set of shackles around his ankles. Most days it seemed like a life sentence.

  It was late, but Derek needed to be up to speed. Reid dialed his buddy, awakening him from sleep. It only took a minute to fill him in, then he hung up, satisfied that Derek was on it.

  He surveyed all the mirrors but didn’t see a tail as he drove through downtown and the south side of the suburb. If memory served, there was a ramshackle barn at the end of a country road a couple of turns off the highway. Probably some farmer owned it and didn’t have the time or resources to either fix it up or tear it down. If it still stood, it would serve as a hiding spot, at least for the night. They were all desperate for some sleep, and apparently they would have to make their beds in his Jeep. He would be able to think more clearly in the morning with a few hours of sleep. At the very least, if they were discovered, they could make a quick getaway.

  So far, so good. The dirt road seemed the same, albeit a bit muddy now, and the silhouette of the barn leaned precariously against what he could see of the night sky through the rain. He cut the headlights and the engine and stopped several yards off the highway, sitting in silence for many minutes. He checked his watch in the moonlight. Nearly two o’clock in the morning now. Not a single car zipped past. The night remained eerily silent, void of any activity or sound except the pitter-patter of the raindrops.

  Confident they hadn’t been followed, he started the vehicle again but left the lights off. As he continued toward the barn, the bumping of the rutted road jostled Samantha awake. Something startled her, perhaps the remembrance of their prior trouble, and she sat upright, her eyes wide as she surveyed their surroundings.

  Reid touched her arm, an unexpected sensation of electricity in his fingertips. Her strawberry blond hair fell away from her face, revealing the freckle pattern traced across her nose. A catch in his chest made him anxious to soothe her and to settle her nerves. “We’re fine. We’re out in the country, and I’m pretty sure we haven’t been followed.”

  She looked down at his hand on her arm and then turned eyes of sorrow and frustration toward him. Perhaps that look was because she was still trying to process where they were and what all had happened. Sleep could discombobulate a person’s mind in the midst of a traumatic situation. But could it also have been a search for comfort and connection?

  She cleared her throat. “Where are we going?”

  “See that barn?” He nodded out the windshield and placed both hands on the steering wheel. “We’re going to park behind it and catch some sleep. But I’m glad you’re awake. We need to talk about what to do in the morning. I don’t want to hang around once the sun comes up.”

  “Wait a minute. Sleep in the car?”

  “Unless you have a better idea?”

  She sat silent for a moment, chewing her bottom lip. When she didn’t respond, Reid continued. “Those guys from the hotel and the store surely know my Jeep by now, so we’re going to need to switch cars. I’ve been through a lot with this Jeep. It’s in good condition and it’s paid for. So I’m not eager to sell it and get something that may be unreliable. I don’t think we have the time or opportunity for car shopping anyway. Yours, obviously, is out of commission.”

  “Thanks to you.”

  Reid gripped the steering wheel. That rear-ending was not his fault, but now was not the time to discuss it all over again. Samantha stared out the side window, her arms hugging her middle. She was grumpy from the upset in her life. Understandably so.

  Reid swallowed down the desire to bite back. “I thought about a rental, but I don’t think either of us has much money. I also don’t want to risk a credit card charge, in case these guys after you and Lily have the ability to track us that way. Since I just drove into town, I don’t have anyone I can call to borrow a car, especially in a situation that might get it banged up. What about you? You know anyone who would be willing to loan us a vehicle?”

  A thick crop of corn stood tall about the barn as Reid pulled up behind it. The structure leaned as if it didn’t have too many days left on this earth, and he prayed that it wouldn’t fall down on them. He cracked the window to let in some fresh air during their sleep and to be able to hear if anyone approached. The distinctive sweet and sticky smell of the corn leaves infiltrated his nostrils. Pungent though it was, at least the height of the stalks would provide an extra level of protection for their hiding place. Far better than the fields of soybeans, which were so prevalent across the Indiana countryside.

  Samantha wrinkled her nose, her freckles scrunching into a bunch. “Borrowing a car is a big favor to ask, especially when, at the rate we’re going, it’ll most likely get damaged or left behind. The only people I can think of are my mom and sister, but they’re out of town. Plus, they drove the car to Florida for a church conference. I could call them, but what could they do? It would take a day and a half to drive home. If they flew, then we wouldn’t have the car. And despite what most people think of lawyers, my sister and I aren’t wealthy with excess funds to be able to go buy another car. The damage to my little Honda is already going to put a major dent in my savings.” She puffed out her breath, a little circle of fog forming on her window in the nighttime humidity. “I don’t want to cause trouble for either of them.”

  Reid couldn’t fault her for that. He had heard people talk about how they could call on their families for anything, in any kind of distress or trouble. But he’d never experienced that, so how could he presume that she had? If she said she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, bother her mother and sister, then he would take her word for it.

  “That’s fine. We’ll figure something out.” But he couldn’t help scrunching his eyebrows together with the perplexity of the situation. “Let’s get comfortable and get some sleep.”

  * * *

  “Comfortable? In a car?” Maybe Reid had had the kind of college experience where guys sleep in their cars to wait in line for concert tickets. But the most sleeping in a car she had ever done was on a long drive to vacation in Gatlinburg. “Does the seat recline?”

  She swiveled around. Lily had taken the entire backseat and she was still curled up in the fetal position. The cargo space was small to begin with, but it was filled. A worn suitcase, a couple of plastic storage totes and three cardboard boxes labeled Books had been crammed in. Probably stuff he thought he w
ould need in the short-term, and he could drive back to wherever he came from for the rest of his possessions. Even with her brain, which couldn’t judge the size of anything by her eyeballing it, she could tell she wouldn’t fit. And if she lay on top of the containers, she would be at the height of the windows, easy pickings for the thugs. She turned back to the front and felt alongside the seat for the controls or a lever. The lower she could get, the better.

  Reid unbuckled his seat belt and turned until he had a knee in the driver’s seat. “It’s a good thing, I guess, that I haven’t found an apartment yet. I have all my worldly belongings in the back, including a pillow and a couple of blankets.”

  Samantha stifled a gasp. That was everything in the world that he owned? That mattered to him? Of course she couldn’t see what was in the tubs, but her possessions would have filled a small moving truck at the very least. What about photo albums or scrapbooks that contained a record of pleasantness in the past? What about souvenirs from family vacations? What about furniture? A bed? A comfortable chair for reading? She turned back to the front to keep an eye out for bad guys, even though it was so dark she wouldn’t be able to see anyone until they stood nearly right next to her window. She wouldn’t pry into what his worldly belongings consisted of.

  A plastic lid flapped behind her as Reid rummaged around in his containers. A moment later, a pillow pushed against the back of her head, shoving her hair into her face. She grabbed the pillow and turned around in her seat just in time to come face-to-face with Reid. She stared for a moment. A streak of lightning flashed, allowing her to see that his blue eyes were flecked with darker hues. He was too close, his masculine stubbly cheek too close, for comfort. Or maybe there was too much comfort in his closeness. Whatever it was, she didn’t have the time or desire to analyze it. Her focus was, and always would be, on providing a safe haven for Lily and the adopted children of her clients. That was the final verdict.

  She pulled back against the passenger door, allowing him to turn and sit back in the driver’s seat. His husky voice wrapped around her like the comforter he held. “Let Lily have the pillow.”