and was shocked when there was none. Huh. Guess the kids were going to cooperate. With an efficiency born of the urgent situation, he filled the gas tank, tapping his fist impatiently on the roof until it was done. He grabbed his receipt from the machine.
Maggie had the twins unbuckled as she hurried to finish up changing their diapers.
“If we hurry, could we go in and grab some milk and snack items?” she asked. “It’s going to be a long ride. The kids will get hungry.”
Dan kept his eyes scouring the road in front of them. He really didn’t like sitting out in the open like this. But he trusted Maggie to know what was best for her kids.
“Okay.” He squinted at Maggie. She had the serviceable backpack she used as a diaper bag slung across her back. He’d never thought of it, but it was probably hard to carry a diaper bag with a wiggling kid in each arm. By unspoken agreement they each bent down on their side to grab a kid.
Smash!
The window shattered as a bullet hit it. Two inches from Maggie’s head.
Maggie screamed and pulled a shrieking Rory from the car.
“Run!” Dan bellowed. She needed no further urging. With a runner’s sprint, she hurtled toward the trees. Dan was on her heels, cradling Siobhan tightly in his arms.
A car screeched into the parking lot, bullets spewing from the open window. The ground was pelted ruthlessly, dust flying. It looked like the same car that had crashed into the chief’s.
Dan looked back in time to see a bullet hit a gas pump.
“Faster!” he barked. Ducking his head, he forced himself to hold the baby tighter and push forward.
The pump exploded. A nanosecond later, the flames set off a second pump. Dan yelled as the back of his leather jacket ignited. “Take her!”
Maggie grabbed the baby and Dan dived for the ground, rolling until the flames were out. He thanked God with all his heart that his jacket had taken the worst of the fire. He had, however, twisted his knee when he’d dived to the ground. Forcing himself to stand, he limped next to Maggie. He had never seen anything more beautiful than her tired face, scratched by broken glass but otherwise uninjured. And the babies. Wailing. Fat tears dribbled down their faces. But they were alive. He hadn’t let them down. Not like before...
Remembering the car, he looked over his shoulder. Both his car and the attacker’s were smoldering chunks of charred metal. He started toward the destruction, then halted, his cop radar on full alert. Another vehicle was approaching from the other direction, slowing down. He pulled Maggie and the twins farther out of sight.
“Trees. Get to the trees,” he gritted, taking Siobhan from her arms. Maggie looked as if she might protest, but he scowled at her. He wasn’t about to let an injury keep him from doing his duty. He would protect them, no matter the personal cost.
“Your back...”
“Is fine. My leg twisted. I’ll live. Move!”
She didn’t argue. They moved as quickly as his injured leg would allow. Once they were hidden, they slowed long enough to confirm Dan’s suspicions. The car had stopped, and two men had stepped out, carrying guns. They ignored the assailant’s car but inspected Dan’s still-burning car from a distance, bending to peer inside. Dan was too far away to hear what was said, but as the men started to look around the perimeter of the gas station, Dan urged Maggie farther back into the trees. It was only a matter of time before the men started to expand the search for Maggie and Dan.
“In the zippered front pocket of my backpack, you’ll find a baggie with pacifiers. Can you get it?” Maggie turned so Dan could reach out and open the pocket with one hand. Grabbing the baggie, he held it out to her. She grabbed the pacifiers and plopped one in each child’s mouth. Ah, silence.
Muttering a prayer of thanksgiving that they were alive, Dan prayed for their continued safety. And that Rory and Siobhan wouldn’t start crying again and give them away. Especially Siobhan, who was the loudest child he had ever heard. Unthinking, he kissed the baby’s head in silent apology for his unkind thoughts. Then he swung his gaze to Maggie, hoping she had missed the action. The eyes that met his were exhausted, but he saw the smile tugging at her lips. Oops. Busted.
He led the way farther into the woods, stopping several times to listen. The third time he stopped, he caught the distinctive sound of male voices coming from where they had been. Urgency filled him as he picked up the pace, changing directions and heading in a zigzag pattern through the woods. God had heard his prayer, he noticed in relief. Both Rory and Siobhan remained quiet.
The voices died away. The men had headed in the other direction. Dan continued to push his little group through the wooded area. Several times, he glanced at his phone. No bars. Figured. Pennsylvania’s hills were breathtaking, but they wreaked havoc with modern technology. He continued walking until he finally had a single bar. He passed Siobhan to Maggie, then motioned for her to keep back. He stepped several feet away from them, his nerves stretched tight as he drew closer to where the trees ended. Close by, the whir of traffic let him know that they were near a road. Using the GPS on his phone, he pinpointed their location.
How were the bad guys finding them? Were they following him? The idea seemed impossible, but he couldn’t see any other way that they could have pinned them down so quickly. Well, if some kind of tracker was in the car, it was gone. Quickly, he removed the battery from his phone and checked it for bugs. Nothing. He reassembled the phone.
It had to have been the car. Someone must have planted a tracker on it while he’d been inside Maggie’s house talking to her and Chief Garraway. Or it could have even happened earlier, before he left LaMar Pond. Was Phillip’s killer still there, still connected to the police department? Dan had put the call on speaker when that woman said she had found Maggie. Anyone in the station could have overheard, realized Dan would go to check out the lead and sneaked something onto his car before he left.
A quick glance over his shoulder assured him that the children and Maggie were fine. He ignored the tugging at his heart at the sight of the woebegone little family. Bitterness rose like bile in him at the thought of the family he would never have himself. What woman would want a man with his issues, his past? What kind of father could he possibly be?
Deliberately, he closed his mind to the dreams he’d had before the war had destroyed them. He sent a quick text to the police department, outlining his situation and his present location. In record time, he received an answer. Satisfied, he nodded to himself. Then he shot off a text to Paul, warning him to search for bugs or other surveillance equipment that might have gone missing.
Returning to the others, he kept his eyes peeled, constantly searching for movement in the line of trees behind them. He kept his voice low, cautious.
“Maggie, we need to keep moving. The department is sending us an unmarked car with enough provisions to get us through the next day or so if need be. Problem is, we’re going to have to walk a little ways yet to get to the drop-off spot.”
He focused his concerned gaze on her weary, dirt-smeared face. The twins were starting to get fractious. Rory had his fist in his mouth, gnawing on it. Siobhan was whimpering. Dan was worried. For a child as vocal as she usually was, did whimpering mean something was truly wrong? More than the situation at hand, that was?
A wan smile flitted across Maggie’s face. She nodded, then pulled the backpack off her back. She rifled through the contents and pulled out a small container filled with crackers. The kids fell to eating the crackers with a gusto that would have been humorous another time. She yanked out a bottle of water and gave some to one child, then the other, holding it steady even as water dribbled down their chubby chins. Still without a word, she grabbed a second bottle of water from her bag and handed it to Dan. Gratefully, he accepted it and took several thirsty swallows. She took a drink from the one the kids had used before replacing it in the