Rachel couldn’t breathe. Every muscle in her body knotted, and she felt trapped in the kind of nightmare where she opened her mouth to scream and no sound emerged. The only thing remotely functional was her brain’s ability to call out to her heavenly Father. There were no apt words. Just a silent plea for divine help.
Thankfully, she was braced against the dash with one hand, the other on the back of the seat, when Kyle whipped the steering wheel and accelerated. The SUV bumped up over the right-hand curb with a twist of its chassis. All wheels were spinning when they hit the lawn. Grass churned and clumps flew out behind them.
Horns honked. Bystanders put cell phones to their ears. She finally found her voice. “What are you doing?”
“Getting away.”
“You’re causing a scene. People are staring at us.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he countered. “Peter already knows where we are or he wouldn’t have jumped the line to get ahead.”
“But...”
“Just hang on. Is Natalie okay?”
“Yes. She’s stirring but still asleep. She must be exhausted.”
“No doubt.” His next turn was so abrupt the rear of the SUV fishtailed. Straightening out the vehicle and dropping its tires back onto the pavement, Kyle asked, “Do you still see him?”
“No, I...” Her breath caught. “Yes! He’s turning off like you did. I hear sirens but they sound far away.”
“Could be for some other reason,” he said. “Keep watching.”
She had no intention of doing anything else. The old red pickup was on their tail all right, but it apparently didn’t have four-wheel drive, because it was doing a lot of slipping and sliding while digging curved trenches in the turf. That was an unexpected plus.
“He’s losing traction on the grass,” she shouted. “We’re pulling ahead.”
“As soon as he hits the asphalt again he’ll have power,” Kyle yelled back. “I’m going to head for the highway so we don’t cause an accident on these city streets.”
“Will we be able to outrun him?”
“Temporarily. But the hospital found you, so he’ll be able to, too.”
“If it was just the two of us I’d say stop and have it out with him.”
“So would I,” Kyle agreed. “We can’t take a chance with Natalie. Once you—we—took off with her, we stepped across a line. Involving the police at this point won’t help us. And it might help Peter.”
Rachel was nodding. “Right. If it was only foster care she faced I wouldn’t worry too much. We can’t trust Peter to leave her alone. He’s likely to kidnap her and disappear.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Two more sharp turns and they were starting up the on-ramp to the highway. Rachel spotted a problem. “This is east. We want to go west.”
“All I care about is speed and safety,” Kyle said flatly. “Keep watching.”
“I am, I am.” She had swiveled to face forward again so she could peer into the right-hand outside mirror. Blue car, white car, semi, space, Peter! She screamed. “He’s hiding behind that truck in the far right lane.”
“I don’t see him.”
“Hang on. You will.” One of Rachel’s hands was fisted around the door handle. The other grasped the edge of her seat. In the mirror’s reflection the big truck was falling back. A flash of red swerved out to pass and nearly collided with a second semi. Rachel gasped as that truck driver laid on his horn and barely avoided an accident.
“He’s going to get us or somebody else killed,” Kyle shouted. “We can’t endanger Natalie like this. I’m going to try to lose him.”
She refrained from comment because nothing that came to mind lacked sarcasm. They were caught between a rock and a hard place. To stop would put the little girl in ongoing danger and to continue as they were made that threat immediate. Nevertheless, she was glad it was Kyle at the wheel and not her. Defensive driving was not her strongest talent and she was already queasy from riding backward.
“You may want to close your eyes,” he yelled as he whipped the wheel at the last instant, cut across two lanes and left Peter trapped on the wrong side of the speeding semis.
Rachel rolled down her window and leaned out, preparing to lose her breakfast, but the gust of cold air shocked the nausea out of her. “You’re crazy!”
“I’m successful,” Kyle countered with a tight smile. “He won’t have a chance to get off until the next ramp. By that time, we’ll have a good head start.”
Wind whipped her hair, the tendrils stinging her cheeks. Tears filled her eyes. Had he really done it? Were they safe for the time being? After such a harrowing chase, it seemed impossible.
She sagged against the door, her seat belt holding her. They were passing under the highway, ready to start back in the other direction, when she pushed away and closed the window. “I suppose I should thank you for scaring me to death. Would you mind driving like a normal person from now on?”
Kyle turned briefly to flash a smile. He looked elated as well as short of breath. That was comforting. She’d have been really worried if she’d believed he viewed his stunt driving as everyday behavior.
“Right. Normal. Normal is good,” he said. “The speed limit here is high. As long as we maintain our lead we’ll be fine.”
“Do you think Peter will give up?”
“It’s possible. I doubt he had time to listen to the whole story about Angela when he got to ICU. He may go back there.”
“Wishful thinking?” Rachel managed a slight smile. “He knows enough. He wouldn’t have chased us if he hadn’t heard we had Natalie.”
“That’s probably true.”
“And speaking of my niece, I suppose, since this is a civilian matter, I’ll need to retain private counsel to defend my right to keep and raise her.”
“Uh-huh. I have a couple of connections in San Antonio from my days in the regular world. If you’d like, I can contact them for you.”
“I’d appreciate it. Thanks.” Realizing she was hoarse, Rachel was reminded that an apology was called for. “Sorry I yelled at you, Kyle. Guess I got a little too excited.”
“We both did.” A gentle smile lifted the corners of his mouth and crinkled the outer edges of his dark eyes as he leaned to study the sleepy child in his mirror. “I don’t want to stop if we don’t have to. Can you make sure she’s okay from up here?”
“Sure.” Undoing her seat belt, Rachel got onto her knees and leaned over the back of her seat. “Natalie’s breathing evenly and is totally relaxed. I guess she’s comfortable being with us even if you do drive like you’re competing in the Indy 500.”
“I’m better than that,” Kyle teased. “All they have to do is keep turning left and going around in circles. I not only go both ways, I sometimes jump the car right off the ground.”
“Tell me about it.” She rolled her eyes, straightened in her seat and clicked her belt back on before touching his forearm. His muscles twitched but he didn’t pull away. “I want to thank you. All kidding aside, that was some great driving.”
She saw him eye the placement of her hand before he smiled again and said, “My pleasure.”
Rachel chuckled quietly. “It was, wasn’t it? You enjoyed every minute of it.”
“Not totally. If I’d been alone I would have. With passengers it was different.”
“I trusted you.”
She felt the shaking of his arm before she noticed it came from his shoulders. She gritted her teeth. He was silently laughing! At her. And after she had restrained herself from telling him what she’d really thought of his methods. “What’s so funny, Doctor?”
“You are.” Kyle snorted. “For somebody who trusted me, you sure did a lot of screaming.”
Clouds had obscured the sun, and wind had begun to gust across the sandy soil as they neared the air base. They were preparing to enter through the south gate when Kyle saw a dot of red closing the distance behind them.
He quickly rolled down his window, flashed his ID at the guard and jerked a thumb behind him. “There may be a guy in a red pickup coming this way. Whatever you do, don’t let him through.”
“Yes, sir. Shall I call Security?”
“Not unless he gives you trouble. He hasn’t actually done anything to us that we can prove and we’d like to keep it that way.”
In the background, Rachel gasped. Kyle held his hand out to signal her silence. As soon as they’d left the guard post, she said plenty. “Hasn’t done anything? What about my sister?”
“That’s a different case. We can assume he’s out on bail. If we start bringing up the reason he’s chasing us, that will reveal who our passenger is and stir up a hornet’s nest. I doubt Peter will say much because he won’t want to call attention to his actions, either.”
Slowing, Kyle watched the rearview mirrors until he was satisfied the gate guard had repelled their nemesis. “Done. We should be okay for a little while. I’ll drop you and your niece at your place and run over to the base exchange for whatever she needs.”
“Start with warm clothes.” Rachel leaned to peer up at the sky. “Looks like a storm is brewing.”
“That, it does.” He wheeled expertly into the driveway of her apartment building and parked behind it. “Want me to walk you in?”
It didn’t surprise him a bit when Rachel insisted she was capable of managing Natalie and her belongings all by herself. Matter of fact, she had the child out of the SUV and well in hand by the time he circled and stood next to her. “What about sizes? Shall I guess?”
“When in doubt, go big,” Rachel told him. “I’ll leave the tags on until we see what fits. We can return the rest.” Pausing, she smiled. “Thanks for doing this. We really do appreciate everything.”
“You’re welcome.” Kyle thought of adding My pleasure again but restrained himself. He didn’t want anyone, especially Rachel Fielding, making too much of his efforts. He’d have done the same for any of his techs. It just so happened that this particular airman was beginning to seem special, which was no problem as long as he didn’t break regulations and try to date her. The rules against officers and enlisted personnel getting together for romance had never concerned him before.
“And they don’t bother me now,” he told himself firmly as he drove toward the BX, base exchange, to go shopping for Natalie. There were good reasons for strictness in regard to separation of ranks. Promotions were earned on merit, not based on who an airman knew or who their family happened to be. Every new enlistee was tested and placed according to skills and aptitude. He, for instance, would have made a lousy pilot because of a childhood injury to his inner ear and thus his balance.
Maybe that was why he’d empathized so readily with Rachel and her sister, Kyle reasoned. It had been a long time since he’d thought about the fights his younger brother, Dave, used to get into. And even longer since he’d remembered being injured sticking up for him. Their older sister, Gloria, had already left home by that time and neither of the boys had told their parents about the beatings Kyle had taken defending Dave. Not that it mattered anymore. Gloria was stationed overseas in the army, and Dave had cut all ties after their parents had relocated to Florida. In a way, his family was no closer than Rachel’s had been. He’d hoped to change that pattern with Sue and Wendy until their lives had been snatched away so unfairly.
Mad at himself for allowing such maudlin thoughts, Kyle pulled into the parking lot of the base exchange, climbed out and slammed the door. Cold wind hit him in the face. He zipped his jacket and wished he’d thought to bring a hat. To say he was out of sorts was an understatement. This was just the beginning. Now he was going to have to look at children’s clothing and that would make him think about how precious his daughter had been.
The mall entrance was festooned with garlands and blinking colored lights. Christmas. A season that was supposed to make him feel joyous. Peaceful. Loved.
He clenched his jaw. Love was overrated. So was the holiday. Oh, he respected the spiritual aspects of it: the celebration of the coming of the Savior. It was the ho-ho-ho and all the other folderol that he could do without.
Electronic doors slid open. Kyle stomped in. As long as nobody wished him a Merry Christmas he could probably get through this task without too much trouble.
He went straight to the children’s-clothing section, then paused in front of a display of warm coats. His Wendy had had a red one a lot like this, with a fake-fur collar and white earmuffs to match. No way could he bring himself to buy that same outfit.
Mumbling to himself, he turned away to look elsewhere. His gut was in knots and he was beginning to perspire. Four long years had passed since his family had been wiped out.
It wasn’t supposed to hurt this much anymore.