Under Duress. Meghan Carver
not much to tell. I was picking Lily up from a day camp at church, and the guy in that big SUV had his hands on her when I pulled up. I jumped out of my car to stop him and ended up hitting him in the face with my bag.” She hefted the leather tote to show him. “I think the buckle hit him because there was blood on his face. That gave us time to get away, but he shot out the back window of my car. I thought we had lost him in the traffic on the way to the police station, but then I hit you, and here we are.” She paused to take a deep breath. “I have no idea who he is or why he would want us.”
Kidnapping. Pure and simple. If the man had wanted them dead, he could have done it right there in the parking lot. But the motive was a mystery. Why them, and what did he want?
“You’re safe now.”
“Thanks for letting us jump in your car. By the way, I’m Samantha Callahan, and this is Lily, my soon-to-be daughter. I’m her guardian right now, but I have the adoption in the works.”
Of course, Samantha. One of the Callahan twins and the smartest in their law class. He should have known by her assertiveness that she wasn’t the sweet and optimistic Mallory.
She scanned the passing buildings as they merged into a commercial area. “You’ve passed the police station. If you turn right up here, we can circle around.”
Reid sucked in a breath. There was no avoiding it. “You don’t need the police.”
“Why not?” Her hand clutched the back of his seat, pulling the fabric away from his shoulder. “You look familiar. Who are you?”
He turned as Lily leaned against the back of the front seat. “Are you a giant? You’re really big. I don’t think I know anyone as big as you.”
That was a new one. But then he hadn’t spent much time around kids who spoke their minds freely. Maybe this was a perfectly acceptable question.
Samantha shushed her. “You can’t go around asking a stranger if he’s a giant. Maybe we need to work on your manners.”
“What’s wrong with that? I’m making conversation. I’m trying to look him in the eye, but he’s driving. And I didn’t get a chance to try out my firm handshake since you shoved me in the car. I’m being polite.”
“Lily.” She dragged out the last syllable.
Reid held up a hand. “It’s fine.” He turned enough to meet Lily’s gaze for a nanosecond then returned his attention to the road. In his peripheral vision, he caught her smile. “No, I’m not a giant, technically. I’m only six feet four inches tall.”
He met Samantha’s gaze in the rearview mirror and forced a lopsided grin. Frustration glinted in her blue eyes. “I’m Reid Palmer,” he repeated. “We attended our first year at law school together.”
The color slid from her face, and she licked her lips before she could recover her composure. “Reid.” She drew out his name as if fighting to keep her tone steady. “Yes.”
She sat back against the seat and turned her attention to the window.
His mind blanked on what to say as he surveyed the surrounding area for the big SUV. A simple you-can-trust-me speech seemed inadequate. They hadn’t known each other well in school, but from what she probably remembered of him, her anxiety was warranted. Mere words wouldn’t matter to her now.
Samantha swiped a hand through her hair. “I still need to involve the authorities. At least file a report or something.”
It wasn’t exactly the timing he had hoped for to make amends with his buddies. But he couldn’t just drop her off. And even though he hadn’t witnessed what had happened at the church, he’d seen the black SUV that was after them.
Another thought niggled the back of his mind. This was his chance to prove to himself that he had changed since the last time he was in town. That his personal dragons had been slayed. That even though he didn’t trust himself in a romantic relationship, he was a gentleman not only capable of protecting and serving but also eager to do so.
For her own safety, he had to convince her that she could trust him. This wasn’t exactly the way he wanted to be reunited with his former brothers on the force, but it was too late to enact his original plan of bringing gifts of a case of pop and a couple buckets of chicken wings. Dark thunder-boomers dotted the sky, scudding and bumping into one large mass, as Reid turned his Jeep toward the police station. The first streak of lightning jagged across the sky.
“If you aren’t taking us to the police as I requested, then legally, we’re still kidnapped.” Samantha’s tone of accusation cut to his core, and Reid swiped his hand across his jeans to keep from digging his fingernails into the flesh of his palm.
He surveyed the side and rearview mirrors, but they appeared to be free from a tail. The storm clouds gathering out the front windshield mirrored the foreboding in his soul. There was a storm coming, and it wasn’t going to be just a gentle rain.
A growl threatened to escape from his throat, but he tamped it down. He shouldn’t be surprised at her accusation. Lawyers excelled at pointing the finger and sidestepping the blame. But neither could he let her place sole fault on him. “Fine.” He pointed out the windshield. “Notice we’re headed toward the station. But remember, you’re the one who jumped into my backseat. What was I supposed to do? Kick you out?”
“You were supposed to take us straight to safety. To the police station.” She enunciated her words carefully, as if giving instructions to a three-year-old. “And it was either you or that thug.”
“From what you tell me, there’s nothing for the police to go on. You don’t have any identifying characteristics. You don’t know the model of his black SUV. You don’t have a license plate number. Chances are excellent, if he didn’t peel out and leave tire marks in the parking lot, that he left no evidence at the church. And it sounds as though a bullet didn’t lodge anywhere in your car.” She was definitely in a predicament. A sense of foreboding settled between his shoulder blades as he turned toward the station.
“Wait.” Hope tinged her voice as she reached toward the girl. “We could tell you what he was wearing, a button-up shirt that hung open enough to reveal his holster. And a blue baseball cap with a white horseshoe on the front.”
“Yeah, he was kinda mean looking.” Lily pushed hair off her forehead. “I’m sure I’d recognize him again.”
“Of course you would, sweetie.”
Reid grimaced. They were probably fist-bumping in his backseat, feeling victorious regarding their evidence. Now was definitely not the time to mention the unreliability of eyewitness accounts.
Reid turned his head to look out his side window before he rolled his eyes. No need to rile Samantha up any more than she was already. “You mean an Indianapolis Colts hat?”
“That’s it.”
“That’s no good.” He approached the intersection where Samantha had rear-ended his Jeep moments ago. The SUV was gone, and he turned onto the road that led to the police station. “At least half the men in the greater Indianapolis area own that hat.” He turned and nodded toward the back. “Reach under the passenger seat.”
Samantha disappeared from his rearview mirror as she leaned toward the floor. A loud exhalation later, her hand appeared over the seat, grasping a blue baseball cap with a white horseshoe on the front.
“There has to be something to go on. Evidence at the crime scene, or maybe I could work with a sketch artist?”
“Was he wearing sunglasses? Did he have a mustache or beard that he could shave off?” She’d been watching too many police procedurals on TV. A cop’s life wasn’t that exciting. It included long stretches of boredom and paperwork