Isabella
Nina, clutching her tiger, sat in the middle seat of the second row of the Ram, Wyatt on her left, Isabella on her right. Isabella, arm around Nina, tried to contain her fear and her anger. From where she sat, Isabella could see the back of the Monster’s head as he drove. But where were they going now? “That’s what you think is pro-life, shooting an old man?”
“Shut up,” Wyatt said. “You’re scaring our daughter.”
Nina hid her face against Isabella.
“Me?” Isabella, who for a brief moment had thought she was safe, lost all restraint. “Me? Take a look at what you’re doing.”
“Yes, you. You put her life in danger, dragging her around the country in the middle of the night with coyotes and mountain lions and God knows what out there.”
“You kidnapped us both, shot an old man trying to help us, and you’re blaming me? You’re pathetic. As well as crazy.”
She was reckless in her anger. But what did she have to lose? She had had one chance to get away. Now Charlie was dead, and she was trapped again. More than trapped. She was dead too.
One way or the other.
If the pregnancy didn’t kill her, the Monster and Wyatt would. She was a witness to what they’d done. They couldn’t let her live.
Her life had already been on the line, with the likelihood that her heart would give out either before the birth or immediately after. But on the slim possibility that she did survive the pregnancy, she’d have to be silenced.
Nina was also a witness. She might not know exactly what she’d seen, but she’d seen something, and even at four, she knew that Charlie the nice man had died after Daddy and his friend came to get her. After they—or rather Daddy—had shot him.
That would be enough to get them arrested. In Texas, enough to get them executed.
Isabella might be safe for the moment, because of the pregnancy that could eventually but not immediately kill her. Because they valued the potential of a human life more than they valued an actual human life.
Once they had the coveted baby, Isabella—if she were still alive, which was unlikely—would have to be silenced.
Would they kill Nina as well?
Wyatt had always put on a show of loving both her and Nina. Would he protect his own daughter? Or was he the kind of coward that would sacrifice his child to keep himself safe? She used to think that however inadequate he might have been as a husband, he was a good father. She’d been a fool.
Nina began to sob loudly. Wyatt tried to put his arm around her, but she twisted free. The sobs turned into a wail.
“Daddy loves you, Nina. Don’t cry. Everything is okay.” Wyatt’s voice, though, had an insistent quality, not the loving tones that he’d always used when he spoke to Nina. Always, until he’d kidnapped both of them.
Nina was not convinced. The crying continued, and she clutched harder at Isabella, who bent over to kiss her daughter’s hair.
“I… want… to… go… home.” The words came in between sobs.
“I know.” Isabella couldn’t bring herself to say anything more. She had no hope left.
From the driver’s seat, the Monster spoke. “Wyatt, you need to calm her down. It’s distracting.”
“I’m trying.” Wyatt’s voice rose.
Nina wailed.
“Tell her.” Wyatt’s eyes bored into Isabella. “Tell her that I love her and that everything’s okay.”
Isabella was no longer playing the game. “I don’t lie to my child.”
“It’s not a lie.” Wyatt’s voice rose.
“If you loved her, you wouldn’t have done this to her. Or to me.”
“Shut up!”
The wails turned into screams.
Isabella rocked Nina against her and said nothing. Wyatt had killed a man to get hold of her. He wasn’t going to let her or Nina go.
Ever.