I don’t think it’s safe. I can’t provide the kind of protection Kate can.”
Staying at the Winston Estate would be as hard on him as it was on her. They didn’t belong with these people. The Winstons traveled in an entirely different circle from the folks at the O’Hara Bar and Grill on the Outer Banks where she and her grandfather lived and worked.
The worried look on her grandfather’s face made her reconsider for the moment. She stepped outside the hospital where two long black limousines stood waiting at the curb.
“Tell me we’re not going in those,” she said.
Daniel’s mouth twitched into a grin, although his eyes were invisible behind his mirrored sunglasses. “Then I won’t tell you.”
Thad walked up behind them. “If we could move it along, the cars have been waiting for thirty minutes in a no-parking zone. The hospital security staff would like us to get going.”
Her father hooked her arm and led her toward the limo. The chauffeur opened the back door for her.
The closer she got to the dark interior, the faster her heart raced. “No.” She braced her hands on the roof of the car and refused to step inside.
“Is there something wrong?” Kate asked.
“I can’t get in. It’s too…”
“Too what, dear?” Kate laid a hand on her arm.
“Too dark,” Shelby whispered.
Kate’s hand gently smoothed over her arm. “It’s okay. You don’t have to ride in the limousine.” She turned to the driver. “Take it back to the estate. Miss O’Hara will ride with Trey in his vehicle.”
The driver nodded, rounded the front of the vehicle and got in.
Kate’s brows rose as she directed a glance at her oldest son. “You don’t mind bringing the O’Haras and Mr. Henderson, do you?”
“Not at all, Mother.” Trey turned away from the hospital. “If you’ll follow me to the parking lot—”
The limousine engine revved and died. The driver cranked it again and the same thing happened.
“What do you suppose is wrong with the limousine?” Debra frowned, making a note on her smartphone. “I have it serviced regularly.”
“Not good.” Daniel gripped Kate and Shelby’s arm. “Get down!”
Trey spun Debra around, shoved her behind the open door of the Jeep and shielded her with his body.
Before Shelby could react, Daniel pushed her to the concrete. Kate dropped to her stomach beside her and Daniel threw himself on top of both of them.
Shelby struggled to get up. “What the hell—”
An explosion rocked the ground beneath her, blasting her eardrums. She fought to breathe beneath the weight of Daniel lying across her as metal shards fell on her legs and arms.
His ears ringing and pain knifing through his leg, Daniel rolled off Shelby and Kate and leaped to his feet.
Smoke poured from the limousine’s engine. The hood had been blown off and had landed several yards away in the middle of the driveway. The windshield was completely shattered and the driver was slumped against the door.
Daniel limped to the limousine and tried to open the driver’s door to get him out. It wouldn’t open, and the acrid scent of gasoline and smoke made him pull harder.
Bracing his foot on the side of the vehicle, he pulled on the door handle but it wouldn’t budge.
Shelby helped Kate up on the other side of the vehicle.
“Get the hell away!” Daniel called out. “There’s gas leaking out, it could go up anytime.”
Shelby hooked Kate’s elbow and tried to hurry her toward the building.
Kate pushed her hands away. “No, that’s Carlo. We have to get him out.”
Thad ran toward Daniel, carrying a tire iron. He yelled back at Sam, “Call 911!” Thad wedged the pointed end of the tire iron between the door and the frame and leaned back. The door metal bent, but the door didn’t budge.
Daniel grabbed the iron below Thad’s hands and put his back into it. Together they pulled. Trey rounded to the opposite side of the car and tried the door. “This side is locked, too.”
Daniel glanced at the puddle of fuel pooling around their feet and the smoke still rising from the engine. “We have to get him out.” He took the tire iron from Thad and smashed it against the broken glass of the window behind the driver. The first strike wasn’t enough. He swung again and the safety glass caved in. He ran the bar along the edges of the long side window, breaking out enough of a hole to get inside.
By then, nurses and orderlies were running out of the hospital.
Sam stood between them and the limousine. “Stay back! It’s too dangerous.”
A siren wailed in the distance.
Daniel shrugged out of his suit jacket, laid it over the broken window and dived into the back of the limousine. He crawled over the back of the leather seat and shoved open the window between the back and the front. Pushing his bulky shoulders through the narrow opening, he reached through and checked the driver for a pulse. For a moment, he could feel nothing, then a faint throb bumped against his fingertips. “He’s still alive!”
Shimmying through the window, Daniel dragged his body into the front seat and hit the switch to unlock the doors. Nothing happened. “Take the tire iron to the other side!” he yelled, the smoke making him cough and his eyes fill with tears.
Thad rounded the vehicle and jammed the bar between the door and frame. Sam joined him with another tire iron. With the three Winston brothers on the outside pulling, Daniel kicked as hard as he could.
A scream rent the air and Daniel glanced up long enough to see flames shoot toward the sky. If he didn’t get the door open, he’d cook inside the limousine with the driver.
Flames engulfed the engine and driver’s side of the vehicle. Shelby screamed and pushed forward. If her grandfather had not been beside her, she would have joined the men at the door. “Don’t! You’ll be hurt,” he said, his arm catching her around her waist.
Her heart lodged in her throat, Shelby stood by helpless as the drama unfolded. “Where is the fire truck? Why isn’t it here yet?”
“They’re coming as fast as they can,” her grandfather assured her.
“They’re not going to get here in time. If my boys don’t get out of there…” Kate started to walk forward.
Patrick snagged her arm. “The best thing you can do is stay safe and away. If they’re worrying about you, they won’t be concentrating on their own safety.”
Kate pressed her hands to her face. “I can’t stand by and do nothing.”
Shelby pushed her grandfather’s arm away. “I have to help.” Before she could take one more step, the door to the limousine flew open. Smoke billowed up into the air as fire devoured the fuel.
Get out, get out, get out! Shelby screamed inside, but Daniel didn’t appear. Her chest squeezed tight and her breath caught and held in her throat as fire consumed the vehicle.
Then a leg came out, followed by another, and Daniel backed out of the limousine, dragging the limp body of the driver.
Trey and Thad took over, dragging