Silent Protector. Barbara Phinney
Liz!”
Ian’s head snapped up. Charlie was standing on the partially finished road above them, peering down at the woman with great excitement.
He’d said something!
The boy turned his attention to Ian. “That’s my auntie Liz. She’s come for me, just like she promised!”
TWO
“Charlie!”
With strength she didn’t think she had, Liz scrambled over the rocks and up to the road. Though soaked through and still panting, she grabbed Charlie into a tight embrace.
Then, after a long moment of holding Charlie, one full of prayer and the pain of thinking how close she’d come to never seeing him again, Liz set him slightly away from her.
His front wet, he blinked up at her. “Auntie Liz! I didn’t think you were ever coming! I thought you didn’t love me anymore! When I called, you promised me you’d come!”
She tried in vain to contain the choke of emotion. It had been only two days since he called, but even to her, it felt like a lifetime. “Oh, Charlie! I’m here! I’m here, and I do love you very much!” Crying, she swung him up into her arms again. “I’m so sorry about your dad. It took me forever to get a flight down here. And I wasn’t even sure where to go. But I found you, sweetie! I’m here to take you home now.”
As she spoke, she fingered his short hair. Jerry never bothered with barbers, and the last time she’d visited, Charlie’s curls had been tightening into horrible dreadlocks. But she’d held back her complaints on many an occasion, not wanting to jeopardize the tenuous hold she had on visiting the boy.
Now, his hair was barely an inch and a half in length, and dark blond, with messy streaks that mimicked the sun’s effects. Gone were the gorgeous black curls of his babyhood.
She peered hard at him. And glasses? Charlie’s eyesight was fine, she was sure of it. So why was he wearing glasses now?
Only then did she sense the other person on the unfinished causeway. Yes, the man who’d saved her life. She turned, slowly, feeling his presence rolling over her soaking frame.
He was tall, as wet as her, and though she knew she’d had a good look at his face as he’d rescued her, she looked at it now as if for the first time. He’d shoved back his hat, one of those soft, wide-brimmed, beige things, and because of that she got a clear view of his face.
He was handsome, but his features were tightened into a hard frown. His lips were now a thin line.
And he pointed a gun at her.
She gasped and pushed Charlie behind her, blocking the boy from the gun. She knew her bravado wouldn’t last, but she ground out, anyway, “I don’t know who you are or who you work for or even what your reasons are, but I can tell you that you’ll be charged with kidnapping so quick it’ll snap your head back! And don’t think that gun is going to scare me off because it won’t!”
“Who are you?”
“Liz Tate. Who are you?”
“Ian MacNeal. How do you know this boy?”
Liz felt Charlie peer around her waist. She shoved his head back. “I’m his aunt. And I’m here to take him home with me to Maine. Now, we can do this without anyone getting hurt, or we can do something stupid like you appear to be doing. It’s your call.”
Oh, yes, her bravado was just an act. Inside of her, Liz felt her breath stop in her throat and her fear pour ice into her heart and her whole body quiver. The wildlife refuge where she worked owned a rifle for emergencies, but no one had any need to use it. Until this minute, she’d never been close to a firearm.
Still, she refused to fail Charlie again. He didn’t deserve it.
“Wait a minute.” Liz straightened. “You went swimming with that gun. I doubt it will fire anymore.” She tipped her head to one side and frowned. “Besides, if you wanted to kill me, you could have not rescued me. So, why don’t you just put that gun away and let us leave quietly?”
The man in front of her lowered his gun and shoved it into the back of his jeans’ waistband. She wasn’t completely sure if he had carried that gun into the water with him, but she’d let her courage speak in case he had.
“Your car is at the bottom of the inlet, and it’s a long, hot walk back to Northglade. That’s the nearest town.” He shoved his hand onto his hips. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She nodded, grateful to see the gun disappear behind the man’s back. She still wasn’t sure of the man’s intentions, but logic and common sense were winning and aggravating this man would be foolish. It would be better if she stayed calm. A prayer or two wouldn’t hurt, either. Help me, Lord. “Um, well, thank you for helping me out of there. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“You’re welcome.” He squinted against the sun as he scanned the shore of the mainland. His gaze returned to Liz’s waist, his head tipping to one side to catch sight of Charlie. “We shouldn’t stand out here. We can talk in the rec center. It’s air-conditioned, and I should be able to find a few towels for us.” He leaned to his left to catch Charlie’s shy stare. “And you can tell me where my cell phone is, because I know you took it to call your aunt.”
Liz opened her mouth to protest but shut it immediately. She peered down at the boy, whose watery, kicked-puppy look blinked back up at them. “Charlie, did you take his phone? Was that the cell phone you used to talk to me?”
“Yes. It’s under my mattress,” Charlie answered quietly. “But the battery’s dead.”
Ian lifted his eyebrows. “How long did you talk on it?”
The boy peeked up at him. “Couple of minutes,” he answered in words barely above a whisper. “I just played all your games after I called Auntie Liz.”
“When was that?” Ian asked.
He shrugged. “I dunno. When I first got here. I was scared.”
Tears stung Liz’s eyes as she fought back the urge to grab Charlie, to hold him until the fear in his voice was gone forever. She threw the man a cool look. “Don’t you think you’ve scared the boy enough? You’ve stolen him from me, after all that’s happened to him, and then you try to shoot me. Think about how that’s affected him!” Liz shook her head quickly. “I’m surprised that he talked to you with that gun you keep waving around.”
The man turned his attention back to her. “He hasn’t talked at all, I’m afraid. Charlie hasn’t said a word since he arrived, Ms. Tate.”
He took off his hat and wrung it out. “Look, we’re both soaking wet and standing in the hot sun. Why don’t we walk down to the rec center? We can finish our conversation in there. The police and ambulance won’t be here for another fifteen minutes at least.”
“Just a minute, Mr. MacNeal—”
“Pastor Ian MacNeal.”
Pastor? She gaped at him. No pastor she knew of would point a gun at a woman he’d just fished out of the water. In fact, no pastor she knew even owned a gun.
Seeing her hesitate, he added, “We’re both wet, and if you don’t mind, I don’t want to be out here talking. I had told Charlie to stay put by the trees while I helped—”
He cut off his words. Liz watched him frown at the edge of the trees and then followed his gaze down to the end of the causeway, where beside a beaten sign saying Moss Point, stood a woman. She held one hand to her mouth.
The man in front of Liz cleared his throat. “Let’s go to the rec center. I promise you, you’ll come to no harm. If nothing else, let’s go there just to get out of this sun.”
True, Liz thought. The sun was brilliant today. She’d lost her sunglasses