Under Duress

by Meghan Carver

  Reid’s legs disobeyed his mind, and he found himself swinging down into the seat. He started the machine and inched toward the door, a movement of air through the open windows ruffling his hair and his spirit. His only hope was to outmaneuver them.

  * * *

  Samantha grasped Lily’s hand in her own perspiring palm, her body pressed up against Lily’s in the front seat. Dizziness threatened to engulf her as her mind spun in an effort to completely understand where she was and what she was about to endure.

  After everything that Bump had told her about Reid, this was their escape? But there wasn’t time to analyze. Reid had his hands wrapped around the steering wheel and was gently leading the Mustang toward the back of the barn and the open door that would lead them straight into trouble. Lily trembled beside her, grasping her backpack.

  She tore her gaze away from the woods outside long enough to steal a glance at Reid. There was a grim set to his mouth. Was he upset that they were on the run again? Or was it a comfortable determination?

  “You’ll be fine,” Bump hollered over the roar of the engine.

  Reid nodded as Bump backed away and turned to a storage locker. Was he going to retrieve a weapon to cover for them in their escape? He couldn’t possibly outgun them. Not just one man. Was he grabbing a helmet to ride along with them? But then Reid revved the car, and the rush of the wind through the open windows whipped away all further wonderings.

  Lily squeezed her hand. The poor girl had tears in her eyes.

  Samantha leaned toward Lily and squeezed her hand back. “We’ll be fine,” Samantha shouted to her, repeating Bump’s mantra. She prayed it would prove to be true. Lily nodded and sucked in her lower lip to try to stop the tears.

  Why couldn’t they just figure this out and make it stop? Why not give the thugs what they want, the flash drive or whatever it was? Money. Information. Anything to make it all go away.

  “Lord God,” she prayed aloud. “Protect us. Save us. Be with Reid as he steers us.” A prayer spoken in desperation was just as effective, if not more so, as one carefully designed and transcribed. Never before had one of her prayers been so fervent, so heartfelt, so needy as those few words.

  “Amen!” Reid and Lily hollered at her side.

  Lush green cornfields flew by at a dizzying rate. Dust rose up and blew in through the windows, tickling her nose and choking her throat. The crops soon morphed to woods, and she leaned toward Lily in the middle, an instinctive avoidance as tree branches scraped across the Mustang. She closed her eyes to stop the motion sickness that threatened upheaval in her stomach. When a leaf slapped her in the face, she popped her eyes open. If the chase, and her life, were going to end in a collision with a tree, she wanted to see it coming.

  SEVENTEEN

  Where was the road? Reid would wipe the sweat from his face and neck if he dared to take a hand off the wheel. For now, other matters were more pressing than his personal comfort. Like his life and the lives of his passengers.

  He needed to get them to a road, anything away from the woods, where the limbs and leaves were flapping into the car—plus, this well-worn dirt path didn’t allow for much speed. Samantha cowered down in the seat, Lily huddled against her. Reid drove, his attention back to the path ahead just as a deer leaped in front of the vehicle. He slammed on the brakes and narrowly missed the white tail of the animal, but the roar of the monster SUV following filled the forest.

  Several yards ahead, a shimmer drew his attention, the mirage of wavy lines as heat met a length of asphalt. Pavement, at last. Safety and speed were within his reach.

  Maybe.

  And if he did save Samantha and Lily, if they were able to escape and catch the bad guys and resolve the whole ordeal, what did that mean for him anyway?

  The bump onto the asphalt pushed a grunt out of him. As the tire treads caught traction on the pavement, he leaned into the steering wheel, urging it to carry them to safety. The Mustang handled well. Still, though, he couldn’t seem to elude their pursuers.

  The car’s odometer inched toward three digits as greens and browns and blues rushed by at a bewildering pace. The SUV revved a couple of yards back.

  A bullet pinged just outside the window, puffing up the dust and leaves at the side of the road. A second bullet struck the side mirror and ricocheted into the field.

  “Keep your head down!”

  Samantha and Lily instantly ducked, tucking their heads as far down as they could manage in the tight space.

  They didn’t want him. They only wanted him to stop so they could get Samantha and Lily. As long as he was able-bodied, he wasn’t going to voluntarily stop the vehicle. They would have to shoot more than the dirt.

  Another shot buzzed past his window, a narrow miss as he blasted around a curve.

  He floored it on the straightaway, but another bullet pinged next to him. He focused on the road ahead. It would take more than that.

  The steering wheel jerked in his hands as a flapping sounded from the back of the Mustang. A bullet had hit one of the back tires. What had worked for Reid before would work for the thugs now, and Reid strained against the wheel to keep the vehicle from careening off the road.

  The second rear tire popped, and he cried out with the sudden exertion of controlling the car. He sensed, more than saw, Samantha’s surprised turn of the head.

  Perspiration popped out on his forehead as he struggled against the wheel. If he slowed, they would be captured. But if he couldn’t control the vehicle, at that insane speed, not one of them would survive a crash.

  The sting of defeat spasmed in his chest, and he released his foot from the gas. The car immediately slowed, but Reid couldn’t risk a crash with his impaired ability to steer safely. Most likely, this wouldn’t end well, and he had failed Samantha and Lily. Not only would he not get the girl, but he would never be able to practice law in Heartwood Hill. He would forever be known as the lawyer who hadn’t been able to protect that poor Samantha Callahan.

  How could he go on without Samantha anyway? There was no other like her.

  As he continued to slow, the steering wheel jerked out of his hands. He hit the brakes as the Mustang careened off the road and into a thick mulberry bush.

  Disappointment engulfed Reid like the cloud of exhaust that came from behind. Even more upsetting than the end of his career was the knowledge that he wouldn’t have a chance at a relationship with Samantha. Despite his history and family background, he wanted to put his best efforts into a relationship with her. There was something about her that compelled him to be the best he could be and to continue to keep his past in the past, with her at his side and with God’s help. But now, even if they survived this, she wouldn’t want a protector who couldn’t protect.

  With the car stopped, he turned to Samantha and Lily. They met his gaze with wide eyes, but both seemed unhurt. He shot up a prayer for guidance and help as the two thugs approached, malicious and victorious smiles smeared across their faces.

  Samantha tugged on his arm and pulled him close. With tears in her eyes, she swiped a kiss across his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “My defender. My hero.”

  Reid just shrugged his shoulders, but his heart felt as if it would burst from the pounding of love through his arteries. She didn’t seem disappointed in him at all. Scared, perhaps. Terrified, even. Not many had traveled at that speed. His determination to get through whatever was coming doubled.

  “Out of the car,” one growled. The other approached the passenger side and motioned Samantha and Lily out. Both had their weapons trained at the Mustang’s passengers.

  Samantha and Lily clambered out as Reid exited the driver’s side.

  “Now hand it over.”

  Reid reached down to his ankle holster and handed his gun to the thug.

  As Reid’s captor marched
him around the car to join the females, Lily shot out her foot and kicked the thug closest to her in the shin. The big man dropped with a groan, surprised by the sudden move and the accompanying pain. As the girl dashed toward the cornfield, Samantha ground her heel into the top of his foot.

  The man nearest Reid pointed his weapon toward Lily.

  “No!” the injured man hollered at his companion. “He says he wants her alive.” He hobbled toward the spot in the tall corn where Lily had disappeared. “I’ll get her. You manage these two.”

  Samantha’s lips began moving fervently, and Reid joined her in prayer for Lily’s safe escape. Prayer that she would be able to get back to the safety of Bump’s place. Prayer that the girl would know which way to run. Perspiration dotted her brow, but he couldn’t tell if it was from the intensity of her prayer or the chase.

  The remaining thug holstered his weapon, then pulled some rope from a pocket in his cargo pants and tied their wrists loosely in the front. When he had finished, he removed his weapon again and swung it around on his finger. As so often happened with arrogance, the man’s cockiness made him dangerous, and Reid stepped in front of Samantha to protect her should the gun go off.

  A few minutes of waiting by the side of the deserted road with no vehicle approaching in either direction convinced Reid that there was almost no chance anyone would come along who could and would help them. If they were to escape from this, it would be up to him and Samantha.

  A moment later, a nondescript white cargo van pulled up. The thug guarding them opened the back and pushed them inside, then stepped up himself. At the wheel sat a small pale man. Without a word, he slammed on the gas and the tires squealed in his eagerness to get to a new destination.

  For nearly an hour, Reid gazed at Samantha’s blue-eyed, strawberry blonde beauty, trying to communicate love and encouragement through their eye contact. He didn’t dare to speak. For one thing, as a captive, he didn’t want to risk angering his captors. For another, he didn’t want to give them any more information than they already had. Samantha gazed back, her lip trembling intermittently, the little lines around her eyes crinkled with worry.

  Eventually, the van stopped, and they disembarked outside a small, windowless brick building that stood several yards from a two-story office building. “I know that building,” Samantha murmured as she seemed to stumble closer to him. “Lily’s father worked there.”

  “No talking,” the pale man ordered.

  The thug pushed them inside, and Reid, even in his relative technological ignorance, recognized it as some kind of communication center with servers and cables and wires set out in careful arrangements. The man sat in front of a laptop at a plastic folding table as the armed roughneck slammed the door shut behind them.

  He grasped a wireless mouse and turned to Samantha with a slight grin. “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve called you here today.” He snorted through his nose. “I’ve always wanted to say that. Sounds lawyerly.”

  Samantha shot Reid a look. The guy was nuts. Reid inclined his head toward the man to indicate to Samantha that she should humor him.

  “You and the girl are hard to catch up with, especially with the help of your boyfriend. I thought putting a hold on your bank account would stop you, but now I think I’ll just keep your life savings as payment for my trouble. See, I need something that you possess, and I’ll have my guys do whatever is necessary to get it.” The thug stepped toward Samantha, and she shrunk where she stood.

  Reid struggled to put the pieces together. The guy who had showed up just as they were captured. The office building where Lily’s father had worked. The way the man with the sunless skin commanded the big guys with guns. The information on the flash drive. He cleared his throat to get the little guy’s attention. “You’re him? The guy behind all this? You’re all in this together?”

  The man at the computer shook his head, but Reid couldn’t tell if he was surprised at the audacity of speaking up or just curious at how Reid had come to his conclusion. “Seriously? Look at me. I hired these guys. They’ll do the job, I’ll pay them, then they’ll disappear without saying a word to anyone. That’s what they do for a living.”

  “Do what job?”

  The man nodded to the thug, who approached Reid and began patting him down. With one pat on his pants pocket, the thug reached in and retrieved the key chain. “That it?”

  “Bring it here.” The man sneered. “Awful pretty key chain for a manly man like you.” He grabbed it and examined it for a moment, then stuck a dirty fingernail in the middle of the heart and pried it apart. A grin snaked across his face. “Let’s get this plugged in. If it’s what I been looking for, then I might let you go. Then I’m going to escape to a country without an extradition treaty, so I don’t need to plead the Fifth. Isn’t that what you lawyers say?” He jerked the mouse in little rectangles. “I used to work with the girl’s father at the pharmaceutical company. But that nine to five was getting a little tiresome, and the retirement money wasn’t adding up like I wanted. So I helped myself to a whole lot of retirement money. Problem is, someone found out and copied my files before I could move the money. The girl’s father. He always was a do-gooder. He was on his way to deliver the evidence to the police, but I stopped that. Yeah, I saw the flash drive. But he’d passed it to the girl before I could get it.”

  “You embezzled and hid the money.”

  “Look at me. I know I’m nothing to look at. Short. Receding hairline. Never married and always rejected. For decades I’ve toiled at that company. Given them far more than the requisite forty hours a week. I’m sick of it. I’m escaping this boring life and going to live on the beach somewhere, where I’ll be lauded and revered because I’ll be a rich American.”

  “Why chase Lily, though? And Samantha? You have the flash drive now. Let us go.” Reid wiggled his wrists in an attempt to loosen the ropes. If he got loose, he had no idea what he’d do, but he’d take his obstacles one at a time.

  “Nah, I don’t think so. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this, finding the picture of the girl and her guardian, searching them down, locating the tracking information the girl’s father put on the flash drive. I watched the girl for a while and saw her relationship with the woman, and I figured I better grab the guardian, as well. I didn’t figure on you, and you made this much more difficult than it needed to be.”

  A growl issued from Samantha as she twisted her hands against the binding. This man had better watch out if the mama bear got loose.

  If Reid kept the guy talking, would the man lose his focus, making an escape possible? Reid had learned in his police training that worked in domestic disputes to calm down attackers, but this was a far cry from that type of situation. He racked his mind to think of what to ask next when the only door banged open.

  Lily stood in the doorway. The second thug slouched behind her, pushing a gun into her back.

  * * *

  “Lily!”

  Her beloved Lily stood in the doorway, but Samantha couldn’t embrace her. She struggled against the rope but couldn’t loosen it from her wrists. Samantha had always believed in the wonderfulness of adoption, but to experience it herself? As mother, not as lawyer? Well, nobody had better hurt her girl, for a love that was deep and fierce burned in her soul for the child of her heart.

  “Are you okay?” Her voice scratched against her throat. “Did they hurt you?”

  The first thug towered over her. “Zip it, lady.”

  As best she could from this distance, Samantha scanned Lily from head to toe but didn’t see any injuries. When Lily stepped into the building, she seemed to be walking normally. No limping.

  Lily caught her gaze and nodded slightly. Samantha prayed that was an acknowledgment that Lily might be winded and sore and sticky from the corn slapping against her as she’d run, but that she was unhurt. Samantha
expelled a force of air that made her hair tickle against her face and doubled her resolve to give her life, if need be, to protect Lily. Judging by the look on Reid’s face, he had determined the same thing.

  The man with the gun pushed Lily toward Samantha and then returned to his post outside, leaving one thug and the mastermind at the computer in the tiny building with Reid, Samantha and Lily. The man at the laptop nodded at Samantha. “You know now why you’re here. Let’s see if this is what I need.”

  Lily rushed toward Samantha and wrapped her arms around her middle. Samantha ached to be able to hold the precious child, but right now she needed to stay strong. Later, when it was over, if it was ever over, they could cry and hug and never leave each other’s sight. Reid shuffled where he stood, drawing her attention, and she met his steely gaze. Yet lurking behind his slate-blue eyes was a love and compassion that overflowed for the both of them.

  “All right, all right.” The bad guy pulled Lily away from Samantha.

  Samantha swallowed. She would try to be as gentle as she could. The poor girl had been through so much she didn’t need more evil shoved at her. “Sweetie, this man wanted that silver heart key chain that your father gave you before he died. Remember that key chain?”

  Lily chewed her bottom lip and darted glances around the room. She was obviously distracted by their surroundings, but who could blame her?

  “It’s here,” he growled. “This is it.” He turned to Reid. “Now, who else has a copy? Did you make a copy or email these spreadsheets to anyone? The police?” With barely a pause to let Reid answer, he pressed him again. “I haven’t got all night. Your time’s running out.”

  Reid growled back, “Listen, buddy. You ever hear of duress? Forcing someone to act contrary to their interests, especially when they are falsely imprisoned, doesn’t exactly aid in remembering. Chill out.”