Protective Operation

by Danica Winters

  “You need to grab the baby and get on the floor.” The road blurred by as they screamed down the straight road that led to more and more ranch land and little else.

  “Are you kidding me?” She gave him a disbelieving look. “There’s no way I’m going to take that baby out of his car seat. What happens if we get in an accident? I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to this little one.”

  “Those guys behind us have a gun. If they take a shot, the metal back there isn’t thick enough to stop a bullet from penetrating and...” He didn’t dare finish his sentence.

  She unbuckled, turned around and reached back, quickly unfastening the baby from the car seat. “Be careful, Chad. Please.”

  He was known for his driving skills, having gotten his various STEALTH members out of some extremely hairy situations, but that didn’t mean accidents didn’t happen—especially when the conditions were treacherous and icy.

  She lifted the baby over the back of the seat and crouched down on the floorboard in front of the passenger seat, encircling the child with her body. She looked up and her eyes were filled with terror.

  “It’ll be okay, Shaye,” he said, hoping to make her feel better. “I’m just being extra cautious.”

  She nodded, but remained silent.

  He had no idea who these bastards were, but he had to get Shaye and the baby to safety and as far away as humanly possible. The road stretched out in front of them like a white snake, making slow bends right and left toward the mountains in the distance. To their right, ahead was the highway. It ran parallel to the frontage road just for a few miles and then the two roads forked apart. Between this brief pairing of snakes was a thin, barbed-wire fence.

  He was tempted, but did he dare go through it, hit the highway and get the hell out of there? If they managed to make it onto the highway without popping a tire, getting stuck, or spinning out on the ice and snow between the roads, maybe the plan would work. But just maybe. He wasn’t sure it was worth the risk.

  If something happened, they would be sitting ducks. All the bastards would have to do is get close and pull the trigger, and everything would be lost.

  He silently reminded himself that he had been through worse and made it to the other side. This was far better than the firefight he had been caught up in Aleppo. He and Raj had been taking rounds from all sides while escaping after a contract hit. They had thought their team had neutralized their opposition, but as soon as they hit the streets, hellfire had started raining down on them, as tracer rounds had zipped by, inches from their heads.

  But then he hadn’t had a baby and a woman he cared for in tow. He and Raj had known what they were getting themselves into. And though Shaye may have had a clue about how dangerous his world could be, he was sure she hadn’t come here thinking she’d be attacked around every corner. Between this and the hardware store, it almost seemed like the entire world had it out for them.

  He had promised Raj that if anything happened to him he would keep the woman Raj loved safe.

  That was one promise that, now more than ever, he couldn’t break.

  Chapter Nine

  Over the years, Shaye had been tied up, held hostage and had her life threatened, but she had never been more frightened than she was in this moment. She hugged the baby tighter against her chest, cooing in his ear in hopes of keeping him calm.

  His eyes were wide open and he shifted restlessly, pushing against her hold like she was the one who wished him harm. The baby let out an ear-piercing wail. “Shh, little one, it’s going to be okay.” Shaye rocked the child as much as the tight space would allow. “I’m here. I’ve got you.” But as she said the words, she couldn’t help the sense of impotence that overtook her.

  As it was, she couldn’t even keep herself safe. Everything about their situation screamed of their inability to adequately take care of this baby. Though she had wanted to keep him, at least until things were straightened out, she couldn’t deny that they had made the wrong choice. If only she had called the police and had them come and pick up the baby.

  Why did the choices always seem so much clearer in retrospect? Not for the first time, she wished life came with a manual.

  The truck lurched violently with the crunch of metal on metal as they were struck from behind.

  “Son of a...” Chad said, reaching out his arm toward them as if to press them down into the footwell.

  Though she was more than aware that his arm wouldn’t stop any real injury, his closeness made her feel safer.

  “Are you okay?” Chad asked, his words fast.

  She nodded and looked down at the baby, who was still squealing in her arms. The little one’s wails turned into a drone of crying. “Screw this,” she said, getting up off the floor and into the passenger seat. She tucked the baby’s blanket tightly around him, protecting him from the cold air, and then opened up the passenger-side window.

  “What are you doing?” Chad asked.

  “Hand me your gun. I’m not going to sit down there and do nothing. We’re in this together. Together, we are going to fight.”

  He unclipped the gun on his ankle and handed it over.

  She leaned out the window, tucking the baby under one arm and bracing herself against the back of the seat. She pointed in the general direction of the Suburban.

  The man in the passenger seat started to move, as if he was raising his gun, but before he could do anything, she fired. The gunshot ripped through the air, the sound booming around her like an invisible mushroom cloud.

  The Suburban swerved, but it was too late. Steam poured out of the radiator.

  Pride welled within her. Though she had never shot a gun before, she had hit her target.

  And yet, they didn’t stop.

  “I think I got him,” she cried.

  Chad stared up at the mirror. “It looks like you struck the radiator. It won’t be long before their car overheats. But they can still go a couple miles before they’ll be forced to stop.”

  She moved to lean out the window and take another shot, but Chad stopped her.

  “No,” he said. “I don’t want you getting hurt. Whoever these guys are, they aren’t inexperienced. I don’t want you getting shot.”

  She sank down in her seat and rolled up the truck’s window. She pulled the baby against her chest and gently ran her fingers over his head as she shushed him. As she looked up from the helpless child in her arms, the Suburban rammed them. The force of the hit sent them into a full fishtail. The world blurred around her, and as Chad tried to regain control, the truck skidded off the road and screeched against the barbed-wire fence, which collapsed under them. The front tires hit the side of the highway and the rumble strip before Chad had a chance to recover and he jerked, overcorrecting. Even with the snow on the ground, their tires squealed on the highway as they spun in a half circle.

  The baby went silent and she wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or concerned. She glanced down, and he had gone rigid in her arms, his eyes wide open and his little mouth a perfect O.

  “My feelings exactly, little guy,” she said, as Chad regained control of the truck.

  They hurtled back toward Mystery, having done a complete 180. Thankfully, the highway appeared to be empty of traffic.

  Behind them, working through the snow and downed fence, was the Suburban. It was pouring steam from the front of its grille, but as the driver merged onto the highway, the vehicle didn’t appear to have lost any power.

  Chad had the gas pedal pressed to the floor, but even with that, the Suburban was gaining on them. The man in the passenger seat leaned out the window. In his arms was a large, long gun. She didn’t know much about weapons, but it looked like a rifle that the military would use—one with automatic shooting capabilities.

  She wasn’t wrong.

  Chad reached over and pressed her downward, so sh
e was completely covering the baby just as a smattering of gunfire rang out. She heard the ping as bullets struck the tailgate and then the shattering of glass as a round pierced the back window.

  The shooting stopped.

  She looked up at the windshield. It had been hit from behind several times, one just mere inches away from Chad’s head.

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  “Chad,” she said, breathlessly staring at the bullet hole.

  “I know,” Chad said, “but I’m okay. Everything’s gonna be okay. It looks like they’re slowing down.” He jabbed his thumb in the direction behind them.

  “Do you want me to call the police?” she yelled over the whistle of the wind through their open-air truck.

  Chad chewed on the inside of his cheek. He glanced up at the mirror, like he was assessing just exactly how much trouble they were in. “No, we just need to give them a few miles for their vehicle to overheat and stay out of their line of fire. Then we can call Wyatt.”

  “But don’t you think that by now Wyatt has his hands full with the incident at the hardware store?”

  Chad sighed. “It would look awful strange if first they have a murder, and now they have a high-speed car chase and shoot-out. I’d rather we not be tied to any of it.”

  She nodded, but thought about their earlier mistake in not calling the police about the baby. “I think you’re right about this guy,” she said, nodding toward the child. “It would’ve been better if we had turned him over to someone else.”

  She looked in the side mirror at the Suburban as they roared down the highway. The cloud of steam pouring out of the engine had grown, obscuring the driver from her view. Finally, she and Chad seemed to be putting a bit of distance between them.

  “See that road sign there?” Chad asked, pointing toward a turnoff they had passed on the frontage road.

  The sign read Mockingbird Heights.

  “What about it?” she asked, staring out at the road as they passed it by.

  “That’s the road where the other bug-out cabin is. I think it’s tucked back in there a couple of miles.”

  A sense of excitement crept up inside her belly. “Do you think your family saw the chase? Maybe your brothers are on the way to help?”

  Chad shook his head. “I don’t know. Why don’t you give Zoey a call and let her know that we have some bogies.”

  “Bogies? As in Top Gun bogies?” She let out a nervous, scared laugh.

  “Are you really going to make fun of my eighties reference at a time like this?” he teased, giving her a half grin as he checked the mirror.

  Their assailants were falling farther and farther behind and now the steam was completely enveloping the car.

  He passed her his unlocked cell phone, Zoey’s name highlighting the screen like he had already pressed the call button.

  Was he handing her the phone to avoid talking to his sister?

  “Oh, no... You’re not going to make me the fall guy on this one,” she said, pressing the speaker button as the phone rang.

  “What? No. I—” Chad said.

  “Where the hell are you guys? Are you Flintstoning your way over here or what?”

  Apparently dated pop-culture references ran in the family. It only made her like them more.

  She gave Chad a look to tell him that he needed to deal with this.

  “Uh, I’ll take the or-what option,” Chad said, chuckling nervously.

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Zoey grumbled.

  “It means that we met up with a couple of guys in a Suburban who seemed hell-bent on filling us up with holes.” Chad shifted in the driver’s seat like it was getting hot underneath him. “The last thing I want to do right now is lead them, or anyone else who may be with them, straight to our bug-out location.”

  There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line. “Did you neutralize the threat?” Zoey finally asked.

  “Kinda,” he said, wiggling again.

  The baby let out a wail.

  “What? And what was that sound?” Zoey asked.

  She and Chad looked at each other and a stone dropped in her belly. She had forgotten that Zoey didn’t know about the baby just yet.

  “Well, um...” Chad began, as Shaye leaned back and rifled around in the diaper bag until she found a pacifier and plopped it into the baby’s mouth.

  He took the blue plastic nub and sucked at it greedily, making Shaye wonder if the baby wasn’t so much frightened as he was hungry, or maybe just reacting to the terror around him.

  “Someone dropped a baby off on the doorstep of the ranch,” Shaye said, helping out Chad.

  “You have to be kidding me.” Zoey was the one who now sounded breathless. “And you have this baby with you, why?”

  “Seriously? You wouldn’t expect us to leave a baby on the doorstep of a house that was about to be under siege, would you?” Chad asked, his voice tight and rigid with anger.

  “Of course not,” Zoey said, and Chad appeared to relax ever so slightly in his seat. “But you don’t think bringing a baby over here is a good idea, do you? And what about the dudes shooting at you? What about the baby?”

  Finally, it sounded as if Zoey was putting all the pieces together.

  “Jeez,” Zoey said, letting out a long exhale. “Where are you guys now?”

  “We are by mile marker seventeen, heading north toward Mystery,” Chad said.

  “And the guys who were following you?” Zoey asked.

  “Well...that’s the other part.” Chad ran his hand over his face. “They broke down. Shaye shot out their radiator and they overheated. I was hoping you could catch up to them and finish what we started.”

  Shaye hated to think about what exactly Chad meant by that, but at the same time, the men had shot at them and a child—whatever they got, they deserved.

  “And where are they now?” Zoey asked.

  “Unfortunately, they are near mile marker nineteen.” Chad cleared his throat.

  “But that’s... Are you kidding me right now?” Zoey spat. “Were you trying to lead them straight to us? What the hell, Chad?”

  “It wasn’t like we were trying to do anything other than get away. Just go take care of it, Zoey.”

  Shaye turned around and took one last look at the Suburban that was growing smaller and smaller as they drove away. She’d been so proud of her shot, and now once again, she’d screwed things up. When was she ever going to do anything right?

  No, she wasn’t going to feel bad about this. They had saved the baby from any harm, gotten away from their enemies and delivered the men almost straight into STEALTH’s hands. In her book that could be counted as a win.

  Chapter Ten

  When they made it back to Mystery, the town was abuzz with people coming and going as they left work and went about their shopping. But outside the hardware store, on Main Street, was a coroner’s van and two police cars. Chad cringed.

  Though he was nearly positive no one had seen them at the hardware store, he couldn’t say the same about what had just happened on the highway. The odds were stacked against them that with all of the nonsense that had happened today, they had gone unnoticed.

  Hopefully the cleanup crew had done their job and wiped the place clean of anything that could have put him and Shaye at the scene. If not, well...he couldn’t think about that.

  “I think the baby needs a change,” she said, rubbing at her nose like she was trying to waft away some foul odor.

  As he spoke, the stale air invaded his senses. “Whew,” he said with a nod, “you are right about that one. It shouldn’t take us too long to get to the new place, but do you think he can wait that long?”

  There was a ripple of small explosions inside the boy’s diaper.

  Shaye laughed. “If that sound is a
ny indication, I think he’s not quite done yet. A few minutes or so won’t make a huge difference. But I don’t want him going too long.” She nuzzled the baby’s cheek with her nose. “We don’t want you getting diaper rash, now do we?”

  Checking to make sure that no one else was following them and their six was clear, he turned toward the road leading to their new hideout. He glanced back at the end of pickup bed. Even from where he sat, he could make out a series of dents where the Suburban had crashed into them. Hopefully no one in town had noticed the damage—or the bullet holes that riddled the cab.

  The more he thought about how many loose ends were out there, the deeper the pit in his stomach became. There was no way, with everything stacked against them, that they weren’t going to attract attention .

  If only he knew who the men in the Suburban were.

  He was tired of sitting idly by, waiting for the attack. He wanted to go on the offensive.

  He had been in on the meeting when they had all decided to face whatever came their way, but now, with so many people depending on him to provide protection and safety, he wasn’t sure that they had done the right thing. He couldn’t help feeling like they were sitting ducks. Now that the world was crashing down on them, their idea to stay and face their enemies seemed naive.

  But he wasn’t sure he could convince Zoey to change their strategy.

  “What are you thinking about?” Shaye asked.

  Whenever one of his former girlfriends had asked him that question, he had always hated it. But hearing the question from Shaye, he didn’t feel the same way.

  “I was thinking about dumping this truck. The guys back there, they can identify it now—especially with it being all shot up.” He reached over and put his arm behind her, pulling her and the baby closer. “And, more importantly, I was thinking about how we’re going to keep everybody safe.”

  She tucked into him. She didn’t say anything, which surprised him. And yet he appreciated that she wasn’t offering any sort of platitude, or trying to convince him that everything would be all right. As of right now, their future was up in the air. It would only be a matter of time until the men and women gunning for them would be upon their doorstep.