Her Mistletoe Protector (9 page)

“I have the money,” she blurted out. “You can have it. All I want is my son.”

“Hold on, now,” he said, sweeping his gaze around the area. She never flinched, trusting the men behind her to stay well hidden. “You’ll get your kid soon enough.”

“I’m not armed and I’m here alone, just like you asked,” she said, drawing his attention back to her. “Here’s the money. If you’ll just let Joey out of the car, we’ll make the swap.”

His expression turned ugly. “Listen here, lady,
I’m
the one who’s in charge. The kid doesn’t move until I say so.”

Her fingers clenched on the duffel bag as the seconds drew out to a full minute. He approached her with slow, deliberate steps, rounding the front of the Jeep. With every step closer, she grew more nervous. She came out from behind the safety of the driver’s door, lugging the duffel bag.

“Set it down, where I can see it,” he said in a low, guttural voice. So far, his movements had been slow and cautious, but the glint of excitement in his eyes betrayed his greed.

Ironically, that glimpse was enough to make her relax. She was certain he wasn’t going to do anything foolish if that meant risking the money. But she didn’t set the duffel bag down the way he told her to. “I will, but only if you let Joey open his car door.”

He glared at her for a minute before giving a little wave of the gun. “Open your door, kid, nice and easy.”

She tried not to divert her attention from the gunman, but she couldn’t help sneaking a sideways glance at Joey. He was still squinting, as if he couldn’t see very well but managed to open his passenger-side door. She could see his feet dangling outside the car, in the familiar basketball shoes she’d bought for him earlier in the school year. They were bright orange, his favorite color, and her eyes stung with the memory of how excited he’d been when he’d worn them for the first time.

The Jeep was high off the ground, and she wanted to call out a warning to Joey to be careful. But with the gunman so close, she didn’t dare. Instead, she opened the duffel bag, holding it awkwardly against her chest, to show him the cash inside.

The gleam in his eyes got brighter, and she was struck by the fact that this guy obviously wasn’t very smart. Nick was right—there had to be someone else acting as the brains of this operation. Morales was nothing more than a pawn. Right now, though, all she cared about was her son.

“Get out of the car, kid,” Morales shouted. When she glanced over at her son, the thug lunged forward in an attempt to grab the money, but Rachel was faster. She snatched the handles of the bag, whipped it around and threw it at Morales, hitting him directly in the chest. “Run, Joey!”

While Morales was grappling with the bag, trying to make sure he didn’t lose any of the cash, she leaped forward and grabbed her son. With a herculean effort, she hauled him up and ran toward the car, using her body to protect him as best she could. “Get inside,” she urged.

“Stop!” Morales shouted. The sound of gunfire erupted and she ducked behind the open driver’s door and threw herself over Joey, squashing him against the front seat.

“Stay down!” Nick shouted, coming around the corner of the barn, looking like a madman with straw sticking out of his hair and clinging to his clothes.

Morales turned and fired again. Panic-stricken, she glanced sideways and caught a glimpse of Nick hitting the ground. “Nick!” she screamed.

More gunfire, this time from up above, but Morales had already thrown the duffel into his Jeep and taken off, his tires churning up clouds of dust as he barreled down the dirt road.

NINE

N
ick ignored the burning pain in his left arm as he crawled across the ground to reach Rachel and Joey. She held her son in a tight hug as if she might never let him go. Every instinct in his body was clamoring for him to follow Morales, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave Rachel and her son. Or take them along, putting them in more danger.

“Are you all right?” he asked, pulling himself upright and leaning against the car. “Any injuries?”

“No injuries,” Rachel murmured as she lifted her tear-streaked face from her son’s hair. She barely glanced at Nick, her attention focused solely on her son. She brushed his hair away from his forehead. “Joey? Are you sure you’re not hurt anywhere?”

Joey shook his head but didn’t say anything, burrowing his face once again against his mother. The boy’s silence was a bit concerning, but not completely unexpected considering the trauma he’d been through.

“Nick, you’re bleeding!” Rachel reached out to touch his arm. “He hit you?”

“Winged by a bullet, nothing serious,” he said, glancing around for Jonah. His buddy shoved open the barn door and came out, limping.

“I tried to take out the Jeep, but I fell through a hole in the floor,” Jonah said with disgust. “I’m sorry I let him get away.”

“Nothing more you could have done, Jonah,” Nick assured his friend. “And the way you shot at him from up in the loft obviously scared him off, which is probably a good thing. He was armed, and the way things were going down, I doubt he intended to leave any witnesses once he got the cash.”

“Yeah, I got that same feeling,” Jonah muttered. He looked at his car and scowled, fingering the bullet hole in the back door along the driver’s side. “Now I know why you wanted me to take my car. Hope he didn’t hit anything in the engine.”

The bullet holes in the back door of the driver’s side were sobering, proof of how lucky they were to get out of this with a gouge in his arm and nothing more serious. “I’ll reimburse you, Jonah.”

“No biggie,” his friend said, waving him off. Joey lifted his head and gazed at both him and Jonah with suspicion. Nick belatedly realized they were both strangers to the child, so he dropped to his knees and smiled over at the boy. “Hi, Joey, my name is Nick Butler and I’m a detective with the Chicago Police Department. And that’s my buddy Jonah Stewart, who is a police detective, too, from Milwaukee. We’ve been helping your mom find you.”

“Thank you,” Joey said in a wobbly voice, his curiosity apparently satisfied. “Can we go home now? I’m hungry.”

Nick was trying to figure out a way to let the boy know it wasn’t safe to go home yet, when Rachel interrupted. “You’re hungry? Did they give you anything to eat or drink?”

Joey shook his head. “No. They kept me in a room in the basement. It was dark and I think there were big hairy spiders, too. The door was locked and I had a mattress and a toilet but nothing else,” he admitted, his lower lip trembling with the effort not to cry.

Rachel’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Joey. So sorry...” Once again, she hugged him close as if she could erase the horrible memories by will alone.

“We’d better get out of here,” Jonah said quietly. “In case they decide to come back.”

Nick couldn’t agree more. “Rachel, do you have the car keys?”

She sniffled and used the sleeve of her jacket to wipe away her tears. “Here you go,” she said as she handed them over. “Joey and I will take the backseat.”

He understood she couldn’t bear to let go of her son. “You’d better drive,” Nick told Jonah, as he loped around to the passenger side of the vehicle. “I’m going to call my boss and put an APB out on that Jeep. And I don’t suppose you have a first-aid kit in here somewhere?”

“In the glove box,” Jonah said. He slid behind the wheel and grunted as his knees hit the steering wheel. He adjusted the seat back and then started the car.

Nick called Ryan Walsh, quickly filling his captain in on the details. “I’m fairly certain the driver was Ricky Morales and the Jeep’s tag number is JVW-555.”

Walsh wasn’t entirely thrilled to hear what had transpired. “I’m glad you got the kid back, but we need to keep looking for the link to the Mafia,” he said. “When are you coming in to file your report?”

“Soon,” Nick hedged. “Just let me know as soon as you hear anything about Morales or the Jeep, okay?” He disconnected from the call.

“Where to?” Jonah asked, as he turned off the dirt road and back onto the highway.

“That’s a good question,” Nick muttered, as he rummaged around for the first-aid kit. “We should probably pick up my car first.”

“No, we need to stop for something to eat, first,” Rachel said from the backseat. “Joey’s hungry.”

“Is he all right? Or should we get him checked out by a doctor?”

“Physically, he looks fine,” Rachel said after a moment’s pause.

He knew she was already worried about the emotional trauma Joey may have suffered. “You’re right, eat first and then pick up my car.”

From there, he wasn’t sure, other than he wasn’t going to take Rachel or Joey back to their home.

Not until he knew for sure they were safe.

* * *

Rachel knew she was smothering Joey, but she couldn’t seem to stop touching him—his hair, his arm, his knee—to remind herself that he was actually sitting right here beside her.

Thank You, Lord, for keeping my son safe!

There was a tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her that there was a good chance God didn’t have anything to do with getting Joey back safely, but she was too emotionally drained to listen. Right now, she found an odd comfort in believing God had been with them through those horrible moments when she’d faced Morales.

“Can we eat at Mr. Burger’s?” Joey asked in a soft, hesitant voice. His lack of confidence broke her heart.

“Of course,” she agreed, even though she normally avoided those types of fast-food joints like the plague. “Nick, let me know if you see a Mr. Burger’s.”

“There’s one up ahead,” Jonah pointed out. She wasn’t surprised, as they were everywhere. A few minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot. Jonah swiveled in his seat. “Inside? Or drive-through?”

“Drive-through,” Nick said, before she had a chance to respond. “All of us going inside would draw too much attention.”

She belatedly remembered his bloodstained jacket. “The drive-through is fine.”

Nick warned her to go light on Joey’s food, as they placed their order. She went with both a chocolate shake and a soda for her son, along with chicken pieces. No one else ordered anything to eat, including Rachel. The nausea that she’d lived with for the past few hours had dissolved, but she still wasn’t hungry.

Jonah kept driving as Joey ate. He only ate about half his food before declaring that he was full. The thought of her son going hungry gnawed away at her, although she was grateful he didn’t appear to be physically abused. The only indication of what he’d suffered was the traumatized expression in his eyes.

“That’s okay, we can save the rest for later,” she said, bundling up the leftovers.

They reached the hotel parking lot where they’d left Nick’s car, and there was a heated debate between Jonah and Nick about what to do next.

“Go home to your pregnant wife, Jonah,” Nick said stubbornly. “If I need anything more, I’ll let you know.”

“I’m not leaving when you’re wounded,” Jonah argued. “Besides, where are you going to go?”

“My mother’s uncle has a cabin in Wisconsin,” Nick said. “I thought we’d go there for a while. I still have my laptop and we can maybe do some searching while we’re there. Hopefully, we’ll hear some good news from my boss soon.”

“A cabin?” Joey echoed, his eyes wide with enthusiasm. “Can we go to the cabin, Mom? Can we?”

She couldn’t bear to deny Joey anything. At least not now. Of course, they’d have to go back home, eventually, to figure out their next steps, now that she didn’t have her company anymore. “If that’s what Nick thinks is best,” she murmured.

“I don’t have enough cash to keep going to motels,” he said, his tone apologetic. “Besides, Morales is going to report back to whoever hired him that you weren’t there alone. I’m worried they might be able to spot my car if we stick around here. I think the cabin is the safest place for us to be right now.”

Jonah didn’t look convinced. “I still don’t like leaving you alone,” he grumbled. “But Mallory’s due date is next week so I should head home. Promise you’ll call if you need me?”

“Yes. And I’ll give you the address to my uncle’s cabin, too.” Nick rattled off the address as Jonah punched it into his phone.

Soon, they were back on the road. Nick had managed to wrap gauze around his arm, which helped stop the bleeding. Jonah insisted on leaving the first-aid kit with them, and Rachel accepted it gratefully, knowing that as soon as they’d reached the cabin, she’d need to do a better job of cleaning up Nick’s wound.

She stayed in the backseat with Joey, unwilling to leave him there alone. As Nick’s car ate up the miles, crossing over the Illinois/Wisconsin state line, she closed her eyes and clutched her son’s hand, wondering if their life would ever be normal again.

* * *

Nick glanced in the rearview mirror as he drove, noticing that Rachel had fallen asleep. He was glad she was getting some rest, but Joey, however, was still wide-awake. Dusk was already darkening the sky, and Nick’s goal was to make it to the cabin well before nightfall.

“Are you doing okay back there?” he asked softly, trying not to disturb Rachel.

Joey nodded, although his gaze seemed troubled. “The bad man isn’t going to come after me again, is he?”

Nick’s heart lurched at the panic in Joey’s young voice. No matter what happened, the poor kid was going to have nightmares about the kidnapping for a long time to come. He made a mental note to discuss with Rachel the need for Joey to get counseling.

He didn’t want to lie to the boy, but he didn’t want the child to live in fear, either. He chose his words carefully. “The reason I’m taking you and your mom to the cabin is to keep you safe from the bad man,” he said finally. “I’ve already called my boss and asked him to put out an arrest warrant for the bad man, too. Once he’s in jail he won’t be able to hurt you or your mom any more.”

Joey nodded and seemed to relax at that explanation. “I’m glad you’re a police detective,” he said.

Nick caught the boy’s gaze in the rearview mirror and flashed him a warm smile. “Me, too.” He paused, before asking, “Joey, you mentioned you were in a basement room with a mattress, a toilet and a locked door. Do you remember anything else? Anything that might help the police track down the bad man?”

Joey’s lower lip trembled as if he might burst out sobbing. And as if she instinctively knew her son was upset, Rachel woke up. “Joey? What’s wrong?”

“I c-can’t remember anything else,” he stuttered. “I couldn’t see because the bad man put a black hood over my head!”

Nick winced when Rachel glared at him. “You don’t have to remember anything, sweetie,” she said gently, daring Nick to disagree. “I don’t want you to worry about the bad man anymore. All that matters is that you’re safe here with me. We’re going to make sure nothing happens to you, okay?”

“Okay,” Joey mumbled.

He sighed and dropped the touchy subject. He didn’t want to upset Joey, but at the same time, they needed to know what, if anything, the boy remembered.

Maybe once they reached the cabin, Joey would relax enough to open up about his ordeal. Refusing to discuss what happened wasn’t going to help Rachel’s son get over what happened.

But talking through the events just might.

He didn’t voice his opinion though. Instead, he concentrated on trying to remember the route to his uncle’s cabin. The farther north he drove, the more the temperature dropped. There was evidence of a recent light snow, although nothing deep enough to worry about. He hadn’t been to Uncle Wally’s cabin in the past year, since his uncle had passed away, leaving the cabin to his mother. And since Nick’s parents had chosen to retire in Florida last year, he doubted anyone had been up there since he and Wally had been there the summer before his uncle’s passing.

Nick’s wife and daughter had enjoyed spending time up there, too. He smiled remembering how Sophie had laughed as she played in the fallen leaves. For the first time, remembering his family didn’t cause his heart to ache. He’d treasure every moment they had together.

He forced his attention on his surroundings. Twice he had to backtrack, because the area looked so different from what he remembered. But then he caught sight of the red fire sign with the numbers 472 and knew he’d found it. The gravel driveway was barely visible between towering evergreen trees, and so completely overgrown with brush and weeds that he only went far enough to make sure the car was out of sight from the road, before shutting off the engine.

“Sorry, but we’ll have to walk in from here,” he said, grabbing the bag of clothes in one hand while keeping his weapon ready with the other. Just in case. “I’m afraid we’ll get stuck if we drive in any farther.”

“That’s okay,” Rachel replied, opening her door and pushing it against the brush. Joey climbed out right behind her as if eager to be out of the car. He saw Rachel reach for Joey’s hand, but when her son eagerly strode through the tall brown grass without so much as glancing at her, she let her hand drop back to her side.

“Be careful,” he called to Joey as he came over to walk beside Rachel, their feet crunching against the half-frozen brush.

“I hope there aren’t poisonous snakes around here,” she said nervously, as she followed her son’s progress down the driveway.

“December is too cold for snakes,” he assured her. He wanted to reach for her hand but sensed she was still angry with him. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I didn’t mean to upset you or Joey.”

“Then stop asking him questions about what happened,” she said wearily. “Don’t you think he’s been through enough?”

“I think you’ve both been through more than enough,” Nick said in a low voice. “But we can’t afford to relax now. For one thing, Morales knows we saw him and that you didn’t come to the barn alone.”