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Charlotte slowly opened her eyes to realize she was hanging upside down in her seat belt. "Ian!!" she twisted and screamed at the bolt of pain through her back. "Oh my God, Ian!"
"Mommy!" He cried from behind her. "All done rolling. All done."
Painful relief at his voice made her limbs go weak. He's alive. Terrified, but alive. "Hold on, honey." She unclipped her seat belt and fell onto the ceiling, more pain shot through her body.
"Ma'am?" A deep male voice demanded before someone knocked on the window beside her. "Are you okay? Ma'am?"
"My baby—" she crawled over the middle console through to the back seat. Pain jabbed at her knee. She looked down at her fractured cell phone screen. Absently she picked it up before she grabbed onto Ian car seat. "Hold on, honey. It's okay." She fumbled around to unclip the five-point seat belt. "It's okay."
"Don't like this, Mommy. Don't like upside down." The toddler cried as he fell into her weak arms.
"Ma'am—" the truck door flung open. "Here, let me take him—" a pair of big male hands reached inside the back cab and took Ian as she crawled out of the truck.
"Don't drop him—" her voice cracked as she let go of her baby and heaved her body out of the truck and into long strands of damp grass. A kaleidoscope of brown, green and sky blue spun around her. "Ian?" She croaked and tried to roll over.
"Don't move. He's here." Ian was set down beside her.
She grabbed onto him and held, closing her eyes and crying. "Thank God," her throat constricted around the words. "Thank you." She opened her eyes to a pair of black boots beside her head. She put her hand on them, dropping her cell in the process.
"9-1-1" she whispered and reached for it, jabbing at the button, even as the sound of sirens faded into her awareness.
"Don't move. They're here." The boots walked away.
"Ya? Lucky?" A voice on the cell asked. "That you?"
Thyssen? She frowned. What was he— "I'm in a ditch," she sobbed holding Ian tighter. She must have called home, hit redial or something.
"Ma'am?" A voice called from somewhere above her. "Stay still." A paramedic's dark blue uniform appeared before her eyes. "Can you let go of the baby? I need to check him." His voice was deep and calm and reassuring.
"Lucky!" Thyssen’s voice demanded through the cell phone.
The paramedic took Ian from her arms. "No—" panic roared through her body as Ian body disappeared through her fingers. "Don't—"
"It's okay." The paramedic reassured her as a stretcher rolled in beside her. "He's okay. He'll be right here. What's his name?"
"Ian," She watched another paramedic check her little boy's body. Is he okay?"
"Looks to be," the paramedic spoke quietly to him, reassuring words of what he was doing. Ian just blinked at the man. "We still need to get you both to the hospital."
"I'm fine," she said when hands moved along her body. "Just a bit . . . dizzy but I'm . . . okay." She watched the paramedic lift Ian onto the stretcher as another one wrapped straps around his little body then covered him with a blanket.
"The man?" she croaked turning her head toward the flashing lights above her on the embankment. "He saved us."
"What man?" the paramedic looked down at her and flashed a light into her eyes. "What's your name?"
"Charlotte."
"Just relax, Charlotte. We're going to get you to the hospital . . ."
"He was right here. Wearing black boots. He helped us out of the truck." She turned her head but all she saw were the tall strands of grass. "He was—" She was lifted onto the stretcher and wrapped in a blanket. "Right here." She closed her eyes. What the hell?
"Mommy? We go for a ride?" Ian's little voice came at her. She looked over at him. Thank God he was okay. Thank God.
"Okay, Go." The paramedic's voice said above her before she felt the stretcher beneath her move. She kept her eyes on Ian's stretcher which moved alongside hers, but glanced from side to find the man in the boots.
Nothing.
Flashing lights and voices came from all around her as the stretchers rolled onto the highway. In seconds, she and Ian were lifted into the back of an ambulance before the heavy doors swung closed and the vehicle sped away.
Where was that man in the boots who saved them?
***
THYSSEN POUNDED ON his father's truck dashboard and glared out the front windshield. "Can't you move this piece of shit any faster?" He gripped the molded plastic and stared at Iannis.
His father dropped the pedal completely to the floor but had to slow down when the accident site came into view. Emergency vehicles with flashing lights along with regular traffic was at a standstill, forcing him to drive onto the side of the road. A fire engine with lights flashing sat diagonally in their path and police on radios had already cordoned off Charlotte's turned over truck with yellow tape.
"Jeeeesus fuck—" Thyssen's fingers dug into the molding at the site of all the debris that littered the embankment. He ripped open the truck door before Iannis stopped the vehicle. He ran toward the turned over truck and grabbed the first officer he came upon. "Where is the woman in the truck—my son?" His eyes stayed on the truck and surrounding area, searching with horrible trepidation for a body.
The officer grabbed his shoulder when he started down into the ditch. "They're okay, buddy, they got out. Gone to the hospital to be checked. Who are you?"
Thyssen ran back to his truck where Iannis was just stepping off the side rail. "They've gone. Hospital." He pulled open the passenger side door then froze. He stared through the chaos at one man standing still, leaning on a car fender watching him back through the commotion. "Fucking hell . . . The Stop." Thyssen narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "Son-of-a-bitch." His eyes locked with The Stop's for a long second before a firefighter ran between their line of sight. In that moment, he knew the other man did this, forced Lucky off the road, and tried to kill her and his son.
"Thyssen," Iannis barked. "Get in."
Thyssen searched the confusion but The Stop was gone.
Iannis banged on the truck's hood. "Fuck him for now. Get in."
Thyssen gave a final sweep of the crowd before he slowly got back into the truck. "Did you see that?" He turned to Iannis as he put on his seat belt. "That fucker."
"Ya. I did." Iannis did a one-eighty and sped down the highway toward the hospital.
"Standing right there. The son-of-a-bitch did this.” Thyssen slammed his hand on the dashboard. “I'm gonna kill him."
"Focus." Iannis snapped his fingers in front of Thyssen's face. "On what you need to do right now."
Thyssen slammed backward into his seat and rammed his fist into the side window, effectively shattering the glass.
"For fuckssakes." Iannis glared at his son. "Get your fucking head together." He checked the rearview mirror. "If he hit them, and let them live, it was only to get to you. Test you. Draw you out. He wants you not them."
Thyssen ground his molars.
"You either get them out of the way or leave so he follows you."
"Fuck that, I'm not leaving them."
"Then get them out of his crosshairs."
Thyssen saw red. He dragged in a ragged breath stamping down the urge to hit something else. "Fuck."
"Think." Iannis pointed at him. "Now he knows your weakness. And he also knows where you're going. What is he expecting you to do?"
Thyssen inhaled and forced his mind to filter out all personal thoughts and anger. He had to hold his shit together. Think. Get the initiative. "He thinks I'll go to them."
Iannis nodded. "Now don't. Do something else. The boys and I will take care of your family."
Charlotte walked down the side pier holding onto Ian's hand, her eyes consisting scanning the surrounding area. They'd just gotten home, and though she and Ian were both fine, they been shaken the hell up something fierce. Seatbelts really do save lives. The slogan hadn't stopped ringing in Charlotte's ears since she blinked her eyes open and found herself upside in hers.
"You are such a lucky boy today, get to go fishing with Papou." She kept her pace to a stroll as they neared the big fishing boat. It was imperative she kept everything low key and normal for Ian's sake. But she was going to kill Thyssen for this. Kill. Dead. Six feet for bringing this down on them.
They hadn't found the guy that ran her off the road, but after the heart to heart talk she'd had with Iannis and his buddies she knew they'd never find him. This Stop bastard was cold, and he did not care one iota about collateral damage. He could have killed her and Ian in his determination to get Thyssen.
"It's because I'm big now and brave. Papou said so." Ian jumped up and down excitedly and ran toward Iannis' boat.
"Ian! Wait!" She ran after him almost losing a sandal, her heart exploding.
Iannis jumped down from his fishing boat to the dock. "Slow down, boy." He grabbed Ian as he came upon the boat. "We don't run around boats." He spoke in Greek, and her son responded in kind.
"Sorry." Ian looked down at his feet. It still amazed Charlotte how easily her son switched languages when speaking to Iannis and his friends. One day she wanted him to also learn Celtic before the language died out.
"Never mind that." Iannis picked him up and set him on the boat. "Go get your orange on."
Knowing just what to do, Ian looked under a seat and pulled out an orange preserver vest. Iannis quickly snapped him securely inside before the little boy went to the other side of the boat to look at the colorful lures in a tackle box.
"All his stuff is in here." Charlotte gave Iannis the duffle bag she carried.
"What the fuck is in this?" He tossed it onto the boat.
"His stuff." She chewed her lower lip. "He might need stuff."
Iannis grunted. This was killing her. She was not fifteen anymore and regarded situations like this as an adventure. The night Thyssen came to her in the middle of the night and coaxed her to go for a midnight skinny dip on his boat had been fun. They were actually in hiding from some man after his father, but she didn't care. What did she know? She was with Thyssen and nothing else mattered. Being in danger was an afterthought.
She looked at Iannis. "And the boys will meet up with you?"
"Yes."
"Because you'll need back up you know."
He sighed. "There might be snow on my roof, but a fire still burns in the furnace." He pointed from what was left of his white hair to his heart and then his dwindling arm muscle.
It was her turn to rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever." She went up on her toes and waved and smiled at Ian though what she really wanted to do was squeeze him to her and never let go. But that wouldn't be normal and she needed him to think everything was normal. Just a fishing trip with Papou.
She leaned into Iannis. "I hate this—" she whispered harshly.
"I know," he grunted.
"And I am going to kill your son if he shows his face here again."
"I know." Iannis held her eyes for a moment then jumped up onto the boat and turned the key. "Cast me off."
She clamped down hard on her teeth and did as she was told before she stood on the dock and watched them chug away and out of sight. When she couldn't see Ian's little hand waving anymore she swallowed and forced back the tears that burned in her eyes.
"Now your turn," Thyssen's voice said from behind her.
Charlotte whirled around and glared at his big frame now in front of her. "What?"
"I'm getting you out of—"
She balled her fist and punched him square in the face.
"Whoa!" His head snapped back just as two whirring sounds sliced between them and bullets lodged into the deck's wood beside her feet. Before she had to process what happened, Thyssen jumped on top of her and rolled their bodies until they tumbled off the deck and splashed into the water.