“Agreed.” Now it was Samantha’s turn to lean over into the backseat where Lily snored softly, her head lolling against the headrest. Samantha unfastened Lily’s seat belt and lay her down on the seat. As she tucked Reid’s pillow underneath Lily’s head, Lily only mumbled something incoherent and complied with Samantha’s arrangement. Lily’s soft snoring resumed, and Samantha turned back to the front, satisfied that the girl would get some rest.
Reid held the edge of a comforter out to her. She grasped it and pulled it over her legs. “It’s all I have, so we’ll have to share. As the temperature drops, I don’t think it’ll be too heavy.”
“It’ll be fine.”
Another streak of lightning jagged through the sky. A breath later, torrential rain poured down in sheets. Samantha clutched the edge of the blanket as Reid rolled up the windows. The heavy drops pummeled the Jeep, and Samantha found herself scooting as close as possible to the console that divided her from Reid. She glanced at him, and in another lightning flash, he offered a wobbly smile. She appreciated the effort at consolation, but he didn’t look too sure of himself.
“Summer storms don’t usually last long.” He peered out the window into the inky blackness as if he could see the clouds clearing already. “And this gully washer is actually a good thing. It’ll muddy up and perhaps even wash away our tracks down that dirt road. You know, just in case those guys in the SUV are tracking us.”
“That makes sense.” She prayed Reid was right, because every time she glanced outside the Jeep, she didn’t see cornstalks. She saw angry men marching toward her with arms stretched out to grab her and Lily. The door was locked, but the window wouldn’t stop a bullet. She was sure of that.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, the downpour lessened to a gentle patter on the roof of the vehicle. Reid leaned toward her. “You okay?”
“Better now that the storm seems to have passed.”
“I think we’ll be fine here through the night.” He paused, holding his breath as if afraid to say what was on his mind.
“What else do you want to say? Considering our circumstances, you might as well spit it out.”
“I was wondering about your father. From what I read of him, he’s got plenty of money and would, most likely, have an extra car we could use. Maybe we could even hide out at his place while we work with the police some more.”
Her father? Now it was Samantha’s turn to hold her breath. But hadn’t she just told him to tell all? She exhaled softly. “I pray every day for my father’s salvation. He desperately needs God in his life. But it hurts too much to have any kind of regular contact with him. In fact, I haven’t spoken with him in over a year.”
“Right.” Reid slid a hand under the comforter to grasp hers and pull it onto the console between them. The warmth of his hold encouraged her to continue.
“When my sister and I were in high school, my father decided he didn’t want to be burdened by a family anymore. I was actually the one who found evidence of his unfaithfulness when he returned from a conference. He moved out the next weekend. And what do you think the outcome was when the city’s leading divorce attorney with all his knowledge and connections and power decided to divorce his wife?”
“I can imagine.”
“But can you imagine the pain, the emotional hurt, that was inflicted on my family? My mother was left destitute, with just barely enough money in alimony to get through a little bit of school. She had always been a mom for us, and even though she was a wonderful mom, those skills don’t translate well into the workplace. And he didn’t just reject his wife, he rejected us, his children. Me and Mallory.”
“I’ve read about his law practice in Indianapolis Magazine. Sounds as if the guy has some of the most prestigious clients in the city. Is that what drove you to law school?”
“I guess, in a backward sort of way, my father determined my career choice. Mallory and I were determined to use the law to try to counter the harm he was doing. We reasoned that the more families we brought together through adoption, perhaps the less damage he was doing by living the high life with money earned from other children’s pain. Maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it helped us begin to heal.” She clutched her shirt, a familiar ache rising in her sternum. “I don’t think we’ll ever be completely healed, though.”
He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand, drawing her attention back to the touch. Electricity jolted between them, and she pulled her hand away. She leaned against her window, clutching her hands together, squeezing away the sensation of his touch. Their connection scared her. She had promised herself long ago that she would devote herself to her work.
“What is it?”
“I appreciate your help, but...” Why not just tell him everything? Get it out in the open and then they’d be clear. She released a sigh. “Dad’s leaving was one of the most horrible times in my life. Mal and I graduated high school the following year, and everything was still so fresh. We started college, and I was just angry. Angry that my family was torn apart. Angry that my father had ditched us like that. So when this really cute guy with a leather jacket roared in on a motorcycle, I fell for him. Hard. It wasn’t long, and we were together all the time, and the pain lessened. When I look back, I can see that there were lots of things that should have warned me about him, but I ignored them. I just wanted someone to want to be with me.”
Reid shifted in his seat but didn’t take his eyes off her.
“After a few months, we had this big date planned. It sure seemed like a perfect proposal time to me. We were a bit young, but when you’re young you don’t realize how young you are. You know what I mean?”
He nodded, as if afraid his voice would stop her story.
“So we went out, had a nice supper, all that rigmarole. He brought me back to my apartment, and I thought that was the big moment. I was stupid and blurted it out. I love you. But you know what he said? Nothing. He just shook his head and walked away. He dumped me. The end.” She crossed her arms across her front to ward off a sudden chill. “I never told anyone, not even my twin. So that’s it. Two hurts too many. I appreciate your help, but when this is over and we’re back to normal, it’s goodbye.”
An awkward silence consumed the space between them. Even after telling that story, she wiggled her fingers, a tiny part of her missing his touch. She sneaked a glance at him. A weary, almost sad expression rested on his face as he stared at the steering wheel.
He cleared his throat quietly. “I understand hurt, and I understand not trusting. I wasn’t trying to imply anything, just be comforting. But you can rest assured that there’s nothing else.” He turned to gaze briefly into her eyes, his own burdened with grief and longing. “You wouldn’t want to be with me anyway. Too much risk.” He turned his back to her as much as the seat would allow and pulled the comforter up to his shoulders.
Risk? Did that mean what she thought it did, that he was just like that guy in college? If so, the sooner the police could catch these men, then the sooner she and Lily could get back to life as normal, and the sooner she could distance herself from Reid Palmer.
And despite the artificial coziness of a late night with an attractive man in a gentle rain, she couldn’t allow herself to be taken in by a handsome face again. She reclined her seat as much as possible while still giving Lily enough wiggle room, grateful for the refreshing breeze sneaking in through a crack in the window to cool her warm cheeks.
Reid’s whisper filtered through the darkness between them. “One request, if you don’t mind. Let’s pray about what to do tomorrow regarding those roughnecks. Maybe God will present an answer in the morning.”
Samantha pulled the comforter up around her shoulders and nestled her head against the firm headrest. Pray? Since when had Reid Palmer become a praying man? He did seem different than when she had known him before. Was it possible he
had truly changed? She closed her eyes, but there wouldn’t be much sleep for her tonight with all the questions swirling around in her mind and the lingering comfort from his touch on her hand.
EIGHT
Sharp sunlight pierced through Reid’s eyelids. He raised his hand to shield himself even before he opened his eyes. He tried to roll over, and his hind end hit an unyielding barrier. Where was he? He slowly opened his eyes and took in the interior of his Jeep Cherokee. He slapped the visor down, but it only blocked a little of the glare. A gentle snoring reached his ears, and he turned to see a beautiful woman with strawberry blond hair falling across her freckled cheek in his passenger seat. An adorable ten-year-old nose whistled in his backseat.
He bolted upright and hit his head on the ceiling of the SUV. As he rubbed the sore spot, his memory returned like a choke hold. Samantha Callahan. Her ward, Lily. The would-be kidnappers. And he still didn’t have a job or a place to live. He opened his eyes a little more. Felt the gentle summer-morning breeze on his forehead as it drifted in through the crack in the window. Sniffed the fresh country air. He wrinkled his nose—cows must be nearby, but it was still a far better awakening than the morning he’d woken up in a jail cell. He hadn’t told Samantha any of his story, but what would be the point? Statistics proved that any romantic relationship was a bad idea for both him and whomever he might be involved with. Numbers didn’t lie. And she had made it abundantly clear that she was unavailable and would be for...well, ever. Still, she had trusted him with her hurts, and he would honor that by keeping her secrets.
He stepped out of the Jeep and immediately sunk his shoes into an inch of mud. That would muck up the Jeep, but it couldn’t be helped now. He stretched his legs, then closed the door softly and watched to see that neither Samantha nor Lily stirred with the sound.
The perimeter of the Jeep was undisturbed—no footprints in the mud, no cornstalks flattened. That was as he expected, since Samantha and Lily were still slumbering in the vehicle. He walked down the now muddy road a ways, filling his lungs with fresh air and his spirit with fresh hope. Despite the trauma of his childhood, his mother had been right—hope always did come in the morning. It was just too bad that it didn’t last through the day. But now he was an adult, forging a new way with the help of a trust in the living God, one who could and would direct his paths. He squatted down in the mud and bowed his head, thanking the Lord for their safety through the night and praying for a new course this morning. A course that would lead him to God’s will.
Satisfied that their location remained undetected, Reid turned back toward the Jeep. Samantha had emerged and was stepping lightly toward him, the morning sunlight filtering around her. The statistics fled his mind as she approached, and he gave in to the urge to tuck some stray hair behind her ear. She turned toward his hand and held it against her cheek, closing her eyes in the sunshine, apparently savoring their moment alone.
He didn’t dare speak. Words didn’t seem needful or wanted. Instead, he prayed the Lord would use that touch to fill her with hope for another day.
The moment was over with a cough from the Jeep’s backseat. Samantha pulled away, and Reid saw Lily sit up in the backseat, her bedhead fluffed like an ’80s hairstyle.
“Good morning.” He opened the door and sat down on the seat sideways, scraping as much mud as he could off his shoes on the edge of the running board. “Sleep well?”
“Yep.” Lily arched her back to stretch the sleep out. “I slept great. Maybe we should sleep in the car more often, Sam.”
Samantha met his gaze and rolled her eyes toward Lily, a slight smile curling her pink lips. Against his wishes, Reid’s heart flopped. Did her playful look mean that all was well, even after her rather terse instructions the night before to stay away?
“There is no way we’re sleeping in the car ever again, apart from another emergency. You know that.” Samantha folded up the comforter as best she could in the confined space. “Any chance we could get some breakfast?” she asked Reid.
“Yeah, I’m hungry,” Lily said.
Reid pulled his door shut as he slid all the way into his seat. “I haven’t seen any prints in the mud, so I think we’re good to go eat.”
“Are we going to have to drive-through again or can we get out? Maybe use the facilities?” Samantha asked.
“If we don’t pick up a tail, I think we’ll be okay getting out. I’ll drive to the next suburb for safety since they’re looking for you in Heartwood Hill.” He started the engine and threw it into Drive. The Jeep slogged through the mud and finally emerged onto the main, paved road.
Lily bounced around in the backseat. “Can we go to that place where they have the blackberries in the pancakes and the syrup in cute little jars?”
“Sounds good to me, but I need a strong cup of coffee.”
He glanced in the rearview mirror just in time to see her screw up her face in an expression of disgust. “Yuck.”
“How about milk? Good for a growing girl.” He glanced at Samantha to find her watching him, a smirk forming, but he couldn’t tell if it was upset at his friendliness with her ward or appreciation that he could talk to a child. Either way, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to put himself in a position where he could hurt another person, especially someone he was beginning to care about.
A few miles down the road, his phone rang. “Yeah?”
“Got a minute?” Derek’s confident tone sounded in his ear, bolstering Reid’s own confidence that his police training had not been in vain if he could continue to protect Samantha and Lily.
Reid chuckled. “Got nothing but time.”
“Okay, so we got Samantha’s Honda towed to a body shop. She’ll have to deal with it from there, but we couldn’t get any prints. I’m guessing he never touched it. She wasn’t in it, so he didn’t need to.”
“Right. I don’t think getting the car fixed is a high priority right now, but text me the number for the place, and I’ll pass it on.”
“Good enough. We also ran the prints we lifted from her house last night. Nothing except the residents’. The guy probably wore gloves.”
“Figures.” Reid intercepted a quizzical glance from Samantha, and he shook his head. In a minute, he mouthed.
“You also mentioned the gas station, but since he went in to prepay, I’m assuming it was in cash. A card would have been swiped at the pump.”
“That’s what I thought, too. No help there. What about the hotel? How did he figure out what room we were in? Did he pay off the clerk?”
“No. The night clerk was out back on the phone with his girlfriend. The perp probably stepped behind the desk and searched through the computer. Those programs can’t be that hard to figure out. Point and click.” Irritation tinged Derek’s voice.
“I registered in my name, though. He wouldn’t know my name.”
“He could have just looked for the most recent check-in. Maybe he saw you pull up and thought the dark of the hotel room would be good cover. He could have been sitting in the parking lot, biding his time until the clerk left.”
A groan escaped Reid. “So now they know who I am, as well?”
“Probably so.”
Reid rubbed his forehead. This wasn’t helping the situation. “Okay, what about the guy I knocked out at the superstore?”
“Dead end there, too, bub. Store employees never found anyone out of place, let alone a guy lying unconscious in a remote part of the back area.”
“What?” In the passenger seat, Samantha startled at his loud tone. She glared at him and tucked her hair behind her ear. He’d better keep it down. Panic wouldn’t help. “No one? He disappeared?”
“Yeah, gone. And I checked at the hospital. No one appeared at the ER last night.”
Frustration bubbled up like heartburn. He had had visual contact with this guy, but wit
h his sunglasses and cap, he knew it wouldn’t help to work with a sketch artist. As best Reid could tell, no one else had seen him anyway, except maybe the cashier at the gas station. But that place had been so busy that the cashier had probably never even looked up from the register. “All right. Then, I’ll see what I can find out about the father. Maybe that’s the connection?”
“You never know. But these guys are good, maybe professionals, so watch yourself.”
“Definitely. But we’re professionals, too.” What had he said? Reid gulped air, wishing he could jump in a time machine and undo what he had just said. How could he still think of himself as a professional law enforcement officer after the way he had disgraced his shield? The shield he no longer carried. Old trains of thought were proving harder to leave behind than he had anticipated.
“Hey, man?” Derek’s voice brought him out of his reverie.
“Yeah?”
“Glad to have you back.”
Sure. One person was glad to have him back. He had a long way to go before his other relationships were restored and Heartwood Hill could be called home.
* * *
The privacy of the bathroom was a welcome relief from the close quarters shared with Reid all night. Samantha rubbed lotion slowly into her hands, savoring the vanilla scent, the feeling of femininity and the smidgen of normalcy it contained. If she couldn’t be at home enjoying her regular routine, this was the next best thing.
The drive to a neighboring suburb had consumed a half hour full of checking about for black SUVs, but none had been spotted. When they’d arrived at the restaurant, Reid had parked behind an adjacent building to hide the Jeep.
Now he stood guard outside the door. When they emerged, he darted his gaze around the lobby crammed with candles and decorations for sale, probably looking for a thug lurking behind the collection of ceramic roosters. He ushered them to the hostess station, where he asked for a booth in the back. He leaned into Samantha with a low tone. “It might hide us a little better. Just in case.”
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