She wanted to pace but there wasn’t any room, so instead she just settled for waving her hands.
“Either way, the train is going to be stopped,” Nick said.
“Not if it derails first!” She caught her voice just as it was beginning to rise and clamped her hand over her mouth. “Not if we try to cross a railway bridge while the water’s too high.” Then she glanced at her watch. “If we are on those tracks, we don’t have forty minutes. We have fifteen, max, before we have to cross the river. And when that happens, if Bob’s not on top of things, this train could derail and get washed away. And I’m not waiting around to see if that’s going to happen.” She glanced at Zander. His excited monologue hadn’t paused for breath. “Tell your brothers to prepare for an evacuation from the borders of Moose River.”
“What are you going to do?” Nick asked. “Jump off a moving train?”
“If we have to. It beats drowning in a giant metal tomb.”
“Right, and how many times did you tell me off for being impulsive?”
“You jumped off a helicopter!”
“I was lowered from a helicopter! To rescue you and Zander. And I didn’t know—” He caught himself abruptly and lowered his voice. “And I didn’t know I was a father then.”
“You’re here to help us escape,” she said. “Because you know as well as I do that in a hostage and kidnapping situation every moment you stay in captivity the more dangerous it becomes. It’s been two hours now since he stuck a gun into my back. It’s been an hour since the train separated. It’s time we get out of here by any reasonably safe means possible. Look, I don’t like it any more than you do. But I’m telling you that the train is going to get really slow when it crosses the bridge. Plus, from there we’ll be walking distance from an abandoned train station where we can ride out the storm and wait for rescue. If all Mr. Grand really cares about is the laptop, then he’ll cut his losses and let us go, just like he was happy to jettison Fox, Orson and the back half of the train!”
Nick opened his mouth to argue. Then he shut it again. She was right and she knew it.
“They hung up!” Zander said. She turned to him. He got up slowly. “They didn’t even say goodbye. We were talking and there was this static noise like crush-shush-crush and then they weren’t there.”
Erica turned to Nick and suddenly she found herself reaching for him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him. He didn’t hug her back but he didn’t push her away, either. He just stood there and let her hold him.
“Look,” she whispered in his ear. “I know that I’ve hurt you and you’ve hurt me. But right now you’re all I’ve got and I’m all you’ve got. We’re in this together. Whatever we do, we do it together.”
She stepped back. The wheels squealed beneath them. Voices shouted down the hall. They were reaching the river sooner than she’d realized. What was Bob thinking? Only a few more minutes and they’d be out over the water.
“Why don’t you go tell them to stop the train!” Zander grabbed Nick’s hand. He gazed up at him trustingly. “You can do it. You’re a soldier. Just walk into the engine and say, ‘Hey! What you’re doing is not safe! Or nice! You’re going to be in trouble! Stop the train now!’”
Nick blinked. As Erica watched, she could see the gears moving in his head. She wasn’t sure what she was seeing, but she recognized something in his eyes. He was making a decision. Then his eyes cut to her face and somehow she knew what he was going to do. “You’re telling me that it’s not safe to go over the bridge? That if they don’t slow down we’re going to derail?”
She nodded.
“Okay, then, I’m going to have to go do something really smart and really crazy. You’ve just got to promise me to keep Zander safe.”
“Of course I will,” she said softly.
“I know,” he said, and the two words spoke volumes He hesitated and for one split second she saw something moved through the depths of his eyes. Something soft. Something strong. Something that shook her to the core and made her think for a moment that he was about to kiss her, right there, in front of their son, and that she was going to let him. Instead he blinked, and the look disappeared. The look vanished. He unholstered his other weapon.
“Wait.” She brushed his sleeve. “What are you going to do?”
He gritted his teeth. His jaw set. “I’m going to take this train back.”
ELEVEN
Did it still count as hijacking a train if somebody else had hijacked it first? The thought crossed Nick’s mind as he slowly unlocked the door. He peered out. The hallway was empty. But he could see Lou’s hulking form standing in the doorway at the end of the car. The door between them was closed, but he didn’t expect it would be that way for long. It was a straight, open line, with only one direction to go and nowhere to hide. As for taking out his target, he’d be able to hit Lou’s left arm from here, but that wouldn’t be an easy shot.
Not a lot of options. He might as well be a fish leaping right into a straight and narrow barrel. The only advantages he had were speed and surprise.
He eased the door shut again.
“You must be joking.” Erica’s hand grabbed his arm. “You can’t stop the train.”
“Not joking, not even a little bit,” he said. He pulled away. “We don’t have any other choice. You said it’s dangerous for the train to keep moving. You suspect the person driving it is being held hostage. So the only option is for me to go put a gun to Mr. Grand’s head and explain very kindly that he’s putting people’s lives in danger and they need to stop the train.”
“But there are more of them than there are of you!”
He felt a grim smile cross his lips.
“Yes, but unlike them I’m not flustered and know what I’m doing.” Then he paused and shrugged his jacket off. “Here, put this on. I know it’s wet. But I have some rope, an inflatable life jacket, a first-aid kit, emergency food rations and some other stuff. If anything happens, take Zander, find a way off this train and keep him safe.”
She nodded and slipped her arms through the sleeves of the wet jacket, looking every bit as adorable as when she used to borrow his clothes back in the day.
“Promise me you’ll save Tommy,” she said. “He took a swing at Lou to save Zander’s life and that gave Zander the ability to get away. Lou hit Tommy pretty bad for that. He tied him up and put him in one of the sleeper cabins, I think. I don’t know for sure. If the train derails while he’s still inside, he’ll drown.”
He let out a sigh. That complicated things and the situation was already complicated enough as it was. “He’s the only other hostage, right?”
“Yeah. Except for Bob, and it’s possible Julie and Rowan might be fed up enough with the situation to bail on Mr. Grand. But I wouldn’t count on it.”
Tommy had bullied him, punched him, lied to him and about him, actively tried to ruin his life, never delivered Nick’s letter to Erica and kept him from knowing about his son. The thing about taking a vow to serve his country, though, was that he didn’t get to pick and choose who was worthy of saving.
“I’ll do my best to save your brother and anyone else who wants to be rescued. I promise.” He bent down and pulled a gun from his ankle holster. Then he handed it to her. Their fingertips touched. His chest tightened and for a moment he wished he could just let go of the pain and tell her he forgave her. But that wouldn’t be true and maybe it never would be. “I trust you still know how to use this? When the train stops, or even slows enough that you’re able to jump out safely, I want you to take Zander and make a run for it. Don’t look back. Okay?”
The train squealed again. Erica’s face paled. He turned toward the door and prayed.
Okay, God, help me. This isn’t the first time I’ve drawn my weapon, but it really feels like I’m walking right into an ambush. If this is it for me, please keep Erica and Zander safe
. Thank You that I got to meet him... He ended the prayer there but felt one more thought move through his heart.
And that I got to see Erica again.
Then he dived into the hallway and rolled, moving fast, staying low and not wasting a bullet on a shot he didn’t know he had for sure. Lou fired above him. He came up by the closest sleeper cabin and yanked the door handle. It was locked. But the bullet sounding above him really didn’t give him much time to wonder why. He dived to the right and into the door of the cabin opposite as he felt another bullet fly behind him. This time he crashed through the door and into the sleeper cabin.
Tommy looked up at him. Erica’s brother was alone. His face looked like Lou had got a couple of punches in, and both his hands and feet were tied. His jaw dropped. “Nick Henry?”
Nick could hear Lou pounding down the hall. He grabbed Tommy, yanked him down and to the right, shielding him with his body as Lou flung the door open and fired into the room. The thug got off exactly one shot. It hit the window above them. The glass shattered. Rain and wind coursed through. Lou loaded another bullet into the chamber. But he didn’t get the opportunity to fire again.
Nick pushed off Tommy and dived at Lou, catching the criminal low and hard. He fell back into the hallway, taking Nick with him. Nick landed on top of the thug. Lou struggled to regain his grip on the gun. The train shuddered suddenly. The gun clattered down the car. Nick delivered a blow to Lou’s jaw and then dived down the train for the weapon. Lou scrambled up, hesitated and then pelted down the train toward the front engine before Nick could even think of getting off a shot.
Not that shooting a man in the back was ever going to be his style. For now he was thankful Lou was running in the opposite direction of Erica and Zander.
Nick slid Lou’s weapon into his ankle holster and kept the gun he trusted in his hand. He ran back into the sleeper cabin where he’d left Tommy. Shattered glass covered the floor. Fresh blood seeped from Tommy’s lip. Water poured into the train, coursing over Tommy’s body. Nick reached to help him but Tommy shook him off.
“So Nick Henry, of all people, has shown up playing the big strong soldier,” Tommy said. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“I’m not playing.” Nick gritted his teeth. “And I’m not wasting time arguing with you.”
He secured his weapon, yanked a knife from his pants pocket and cut Tommy’s leg bindings.
“Erica and Zander are safe in the cabin at the end of the hall,” Nick said. Then he freed Tommy’s legs. “Join them there. I’m going to stop the train and they’re going to escape out the back.” He reached for Tommy’s hand to help him up. “I don’t expect you to like me, and I don’t have to like you. But we both care about Erica and Zander. Promise me you’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Erica’s the most incredible person I’ve ever met and she deserved way better than either of us treated her.”
There was a noise in the hallway behind him. Nick gripped Tommy and yanked him to his feet. Then he took out his weapon and stepped into the hallway. A nervous face with long blond hair looked out at him from the door that had been locked. There was a laptop clasped to her chest and a knife in her hand.
“Julie, right?” Nick reached out to her like she was a frightened animal he was afraid of spooking. He was vaguely aware of Tommy scrambling down the hall behind him and Erica letting him into the sleeper cabin. “I’m Corporal Nick Henry, and I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to save the lives of everyone aboard.”
Could he trust her with where the others were or what the plan was? No. He didn’t want her to run around stabbing anyone he cared about, either. But he could give her the option of saving herself.
“Give me the knife,” he said. “When the train slows down, make a run for the back door. The train is probably going to derail at the next bridge. You don’t want to be on it when it does. If you leave the laptop behind, they might not even come after us and let us go.”
Julie hugged the laptop closer. Her knuckles tightened white around the knife.
“I can’t leave without the laptop,” she said. “The data on here is worth millions of dollars.”
“Yeah, I got that you guys think that,” Nick said. “But right now, I honestly don’t care what happens to that laptop one way or the other. And I’m not going to stand around and argue with you.”
With a quick flick of his hands he flipped the knife from her grasp. It fell to the floor. The laptop clattered after it. She cried out and snatched the laptop back, like it was somebody’s baby. She had no idea just how easy it would be for him to take it from her. But it was just a matter of time before Lou came back and Nick had way bigger problems to worry about. “You do what you need to do. Just stay here and stay low. I don’t want you getting hit by a stray bullet. When the time comes, I hope you make the right decision.”
A gun clicked behind him. He turned, hearing Julie close the door. Lou stood facing him, gun in his hand. Seemed he’d got himself another weapon to make up for the one Nick had taken. Hopefully he’d borrowed it from another thief, which meant fewer armed men ahead.
“Come on.” Lou gestured to him. “The boss wants to see you.”
Well, that was definitely one way to get into the front engine. It was plan B to charge in on his own accord. But walking into the front engine on his own two feet certainly beat some of the alternatives.
Nick raised his hands. Lou gestured to him to drop the weapons. Nick tossed the guns and let the thug lead him into the front engine.
They walked through the door. But his foot had barely crossed the threshold when Lou hit him on the back of the head. He fell forward and landed hard on his knees. Frustration filled his throat. No, this couldn’t be how it ended. He blinked. Young Rowan stood at the train controls. Mr. Grand stood with his arms crossed and a grin on his face. But the forced smugness of his smile was undercut by the worry in his eyes. He didn’t see a third man anywhere.
“Where’s Bob, the engineer?” he asked. “I thought he was driving the train.”
“He got off,” Mr. Grand said. “Now, tell me, soldier, how did you stow away on this train?”
“I didn’t.” Nick felt his grin go tight. “I got dropped off by a helicopter, actually.”
Mr. Grand didn’t look like he believed him and, for a second, Nick wondered how the thief thought he’d got there and what he thought was really going on.
“I’m here to tell you to stop the train,” Nick said. His voice rose. “Rowan here took you on a lousy set of tracks. I’m sure you thought it was a shortcut, or would make it harder to find you or take you closer to wherever you stashed the getaway vehicle. But I don’t care. The river is overflowing. The tracks are flooding. You’re putting your lives and everyone else’s lives in danger. You need to stop the train.”
Mr. Grand snorted. But the lines of worry between his eyes never shifted. “Or what?”
Hadn’t he been listening? Did he think this was a joke? Nick raised his chin. “Or I’m going to figure out a way to stop this train and save all your lives whether you want me to or not.”
Mr. Grand laughed louder and with bite. The muzzle of Lou’s gun pressed into the back of Nick’s head. “And you really think you could stop the train?”
A bullet cracked behind him. Lou shouted in pain. His gun tumbled to the floor.
“Not without backup.” Erica’s voice came from behind him. Nick glanced around. Lou was down on the ground, nursing his bleeding hand. Erica pointed Nick’s gun squarely and firmly at the young man behind the controls. Her hair fell wild and loose around her shoulders. She was still wearing his jacket. “Stop. This. Train. Now.”
* * *
Rowan hit the emergency stop. It was one thing to know how abrupt an emergency stop could be, Erica thought. It was a whole other thing feeling the ground yanked from under her and watching the people around her get tossed like b
owling pins. Rowan hit the floor. Mr. Grand shouted curses. Lou rolled like a sack of beets.
Erica pitched forward but in an instant Nick’s arms were around her. Holding her, keeping her steady.
“Where’s Bob?” she shouted.
“Apparently he left.” Nick’s voice was in her ear. “Where’s Zander?”
“I left him with Tommy,” she said. The train skidded forward. “Come on. We’ve got to disarm them and then we’ve got to run. We could still derail, especially if we don’t stop before we hit the bridge.”
Okay. He let go of her. She grabbed hold of the door and held the gun, covering him as he quickly patted everyone down, relieving them of their weapons as he went.
“Now, we’re getting out of here,” he said. “You all can stay on this train, start the engine again and go on with your plan, whatever it is. Or you can give up all this and get off the train before you risk derailing. I’m not the police and I don’t care about the laptop. My job is to rescue the hostages. Got it? But I’m not leaving you with any weapons.” No answer. Looked like nobody had any common sense in this crew. He turned to Erica. “Let’s go.” They turned to run.
“You’re not getting away with this!” Mr. Grand called. He leaped, Nick spun and caught him with his elbow before he could land a blow. Mr. Grand crumpled to the ground.
“Really?” Nick said. “Don’t be that guy. Of all the choices you could make right now, you went for that?” He heard Erica snort. He began to back out of the room. “I really want to tie you up. But I don’t want to doom you to drown or die if the train derails. So instead, I’m going to tie the door closed, nice and loose. Hopefully it’ll take you just long enough to get free.”
Erica and Nick stumbled backward out of the front engine. She yanked a length of rope from his bag. He tied the door closed.
Rescuing His Secret Child Page 14