The Baby’s Guardian

by Delores Fossen

  This could be yet another hired gun.

  At the gunman’s urging, Sabrina stepped from the building. So did he, and he kicked the door shut behind them. He also maneuvered her so that she was turned toward the dispatch officer, who drew his weapon the moment he spotted them. The gunman was using her as a human shield.

  What should she do?

  The adrenaline was knifing through her now, and it was hard to keep control of her breathing. Much more of this, and she’d hyperventilate. The only thing that kept her from totally losing it was Shaw. Even though his gaze was fastened on the gunman, Shaw was right there, and she believed with all her heart he would do whatever it took to get her out of this.

  But she needed to help.

  How?

  She glanced around, looking for a weapon or something she could possibly grab if she got the chance.

  There wasn’t anything.

  Sabrina considered dropping to the ground. Yes, the fall would be risky, but it wasn’t as risky as having that gun pointed at her head. Even if the man’s immediate plan wasn’t to shoot her, something could still go wrong.

  The dispatch officer reached for something on the desk just below the keys. A phone. But the gunman obviously saw what was happening.

  He turned his gun and fired.

  Sabrina braced herself for the gunshot blast, but it was merely a swooshing sound, barely audible over the noise of the fire alarms. That’s when she realized he was using a gun rigged with a silencer.

  The dispatch officer collapsed onto the ground, and his gun fell from his hand, landing on the concrete next to him. She wasn’t sure if he was dead, but he certainly wasn’t moving, and there was blood.

  Too much.

  The gunman positioned her again, moving her closer to the man he’d just shot, and he kicked the gun out of reach. He didn’t waste any time, and he shoved her forward again. He pulled a set of keys and some kind of remote control from the hooks above the table, and he pressed the button on the keypad so the car’s security system made a loud beep. The lights flashed, and in doing so it identified which car went with the keys he’d taken.

  He pushed her in that direction.

  Her stomach clenched. He was planning to put her in that car and make a getaway, and unless something happened soon in their favor, Shaw wasn’t going to have a clear shot to stop this monster.

  She stared at Shaw, hoping he’d be able to convey to her what she should do. But he only focused on the gunman while they made their way to the car.

  When they reached the vehicle, the gunman motioned for Shaw to drop his weapon. “Now!” he growled when Shaw didn’t comply. He moved his gun from her temple to her stomach.

  To the baby.

  The fear slammed through her. The threat had been horrible enough when it’d been directed at her, but this SOB was threatening to hurt her baby.

  Sabrina tried to figure out who’d spoken that threat and launched them into this nightmare, but it was obvious he was trying to disguise his voice. Still, Shaw could no doubt see his face, and unless he was wearing a mask, Shaw knew who they were up against.

  Shaw dropped his gun.

  Her heart dropped with it.

  He was surrendering. He was giving up!

  Part of her wanted to scream, to beg him to pick up his gun again, but she knew she had no choice. He couldn’t risk the baby being hurt.

  The gunman kicked Shaw’s weapon under the car, and he took the barrel from her stomach and put it back to her temple. Of course, both she and the baby would die if he shot her point-blank, but she preferred that he keep the gun on her.

  But he didn’t.

  The gunman aimed it at Shaw.

  “Inside the car,” he ordered, his voice still low and raspy.

  This wasn’t any better. True, the baby was temporarily safe, but now he had a clean shot of Shaw.

  The man kept a tight grip on her, moving his hand from her mouth back to her throat. He squeezed hard and used that pressure to get her moving. He opened the back door of the unmarked car and backed in first so that he was seated. He hauled her next to him, keeping her positioned so that she still couldn’t see his face.

  Sabrina considered elbowing him in the gut. She was in the perfect position to do just that. But he had that gun pointed right at Shaw. If she did anything, he would fire.

  “Shut the door and drive,” he ordered Shaw. He tossed the keys onto the front seat.

  Shaw stood there a moment, and she could see the argument he was having with himself. She was having the same argument. But it was cut short when the gunman scraped the silencer across her cheek. The pain was instant with the metal digging into her skin. He no doubt drew blood. Sabrina didn’t yell out in pain, but it sickened her that this person had total control over her, her baby and Shaw.

  The veins popped out on Shaw’s neck and forehead, and his hands clenched into fists. For a moment, Sabrina thought he might risk everything and launch himself at the gunman.

  He didn’t.

  When the gunman started to make another cut on her cheek, Shaw cursed and hurried around the front of the car. He glanced at the fallen dispatch officer and no doubt wanted to call for help. He didn’t do that, either. Shaw threw open the car door, got behind the wheel and started the engine.

  “Where to?” Shaw asked.

  He met her gaze in the rearview mirror, and Sabrina tried her best to look brave and in control. Shaw had enough on his plate without worrying whether or not she would panic and make this situation even more dangerous than it already was.

  “Just drive,” the gunman snarled.

  Shaw did. He put the car in gear and drove. He didn’t get far before she saw the security gate. It was tall and metal, and she thought it might stop them. But the gunmen pushed the button on the remote control he’d taken with the keys. The gate slid open.

  And Shaw drove through.

  “Go left,” the gunman instructed.

  A left turn would take them away from the front of the headquarters building and away from the chaos that was going on there because of the car bombings. There were so many officers in the area, all of them scrambling amid the smoke and the fires that the bombs had created. She saw several injured people lying on the street and sidewalks.

  But no one seemed to notice them.

  Probably because of the heavily tinted windows on the vehicle. Or maybe because they thought she and Shaw were merely evacuating the area as Lieutenant Rico has advised them to do. No one was running to help.

  She and Shaw were on their own.

  Sabrina turned slightly so she could keep watch behind them, hoping that the car would get someone’s attention.

  And that’s when she saw her attacker’s sleeve.

  She immediately recognized the shade of blue. And her heart sank even further.

  The gunman was a cop.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Shaw considered a couple of options. None ideal. One was to slam on his brakes and hope the sudden stop would allow him to wrestle the gun away from their would-be kidnapper.

  But the guy could still get off a shot.

  A shot that could hurt Sabrina.

  A second option was to hit another car, preferably a parked one. Or he could run a red light. Anything that would get the attention of his officers. But those weren’t risk free, either. Sabrina wasn’t wearing a seat belt, and God knew where or how she might land if there was even a light collision.

  He couldn’t risk it.

  And that left only one other option. Somehow, he had to reach over the back of the seat and just grab that gun away from the cop SOB who had it pointed right at Sabrina.

  One of his own was responsible for this. Officer Newell was the likely candidate. Well, maybe.

  The guy was wearing a uniform, but Shaw couldn’t see his face because it was covered with a latex superhero mask. A fake face and maybe a fake uniform.

  Or possibly a stolen one.

  How the hell had this guy
gotten all the way down the hall of police headquarters dressed like that?

  He probably hadn’t put on the mask until he was out of sight from the other officers and until he’d gotten close enough to the flop room. And with that uniform, he had likely walked right past everyone. With all the commotion going on from the car bombings and the bathroom fire, no one would have noticed an officer in a hurry. Obviously no one had seen him and gotten suspicious.

  “Where are we going?” Shaw asked.

  He adjusted the rearview mirror so he could get a better look at Sabrina. Other than that scratch on her face, she seemed okay. Seemed. She had to be scared out of her mind. And Shaw would make this armed bastard pay for that scratch and for her fear.

  “Just drive,” the guy growled.

  Their captor was trying to disguise his voice, and it was working. Shaw couldn’t tell who the heck this was, and it didn’t help that their three major suspects were all about the same height and weight.

  “Go right,” the guy suddenly barked.

  Again, Shaw looked for some escape route or some diversion he could use, but unfortunately people were starting to head out for lunch breaks, and the sidewalks were filled with pedestrians. There were also plenty of cars on the street.

  Shaw took the right turn a little faster than he normally would have, the tires squealing in protest at the excessive speed, and he watched the gunman shift in the backseat. The mask slipped a little, only enough to see the guy’s neck. It certainly didn’t provide Shaw with an ID.

  Right now, his best hope was that someone had found the wounded dispatch officer and had notified Rico that an unmarked car was missing. If that happened, the car could be tracked since it was equipped with GPS.

  But that was a big if.

  There was a lot going on at headquarters, and they were short on officers. It might take an hour or more for anyone to figure out what was going on. By then, they could be into the next county.

  Or dead.

  But Shaw rethought that.

  If the gunman had wanted them dead, he would have just shot them in the hall at the headquarters. He wouldn’t have orchestrated a very risky kidnapping.

  So, this went back to motive.

  Someone intended to use Sabrina for leverage to get him to do something illegal. Probably something to do with that missing baby and the DNA that had been destroyed during the hostage standoff.

  Of course, it could be something else.

  Shaw thought of the false info that the police had leaked about the missing baby’s DNA from a pacifier. The leak had also revealed that the police would soon have the DNA extracted from it.

  This guy probably thought the leak was real, and if so, he would want Shaw to destroy the so-called evidence. Shaw considered trying to tell him the truth, that there was no pacifier, but the gunman likely wouldn’t believe him, and even if he did, then what?

  At best, the gunman might just let them go because they hadn’t seen his face. But if that happened, it would mean not finding the location of the baby. Maybe it was because Shaw was so close to becoming a father that he knew that couldn’t happen. The baby had to be found, but the trick was to do that without endangering Sabrina and his own child.

  “Let Sabrina go,” Shaw tried. “I’m the one who can help you with whatever this is all about. She’ll just be in the way.”

  The gunman made a yeah-right sound that didn’t need clarification. Without Sabrina, the guy had nothing to make Shaw cooperate. She and the unborn child were the ultimate bargaining tools, and this bozo knew that.

  “Go left,” the guy ordered.

  Shaw did, and he immediately recognized the area. There was no traffic on this particular side street because most of the buildings were old and abandoned. Including the one at the end of the street. The one still roped off with ragged yellow crime scene tape.

  It was the building where the gunmen had taken Sabrina after the hostage situation.

  “Stop by the silver car,” the gunman added.

  There was indeed a silver Ford parked at the side entrance, and Shaw pulled up next to it. He looked inside the vehicle, praying this guy didn’t have reinforcements, but the vehicle appeared to be empty.

  The guy shoved open the door, and with the gun still pointed at her head, he dragged Sabrina out. Again, he put her right in front of him and led her in the direction of the silver car. Shaw walked in that direction, as well.

  “No!” the gunman ordered Shaw. “Get on your knees, hands behind your head.”

  That put a knot in Shaw’s stomach, but he didn’t jump to any conclusions just yet. However, the conclusions came anyway when the man opened the car and pushed Sabrina onto the front passenger seat.

  “On your knees!” the gunman repeated to Shaw.

  Maybe he’d been wrong about the guy’s motive. Maybe he didn’t want Shaw to do anything illegal after all. Because it was possible the gunman intended to shoot him execution style, right in front of Sabrina. And that left Shaw with a question even more troubling than his possible murder.

  What would happen to Sabrina and their baby if he was killed?

  With this sick SOB behind the trigger, Shaw didn’t like any of the answers that came to mind.

  And that’s why he had to do something now, before the gunman managed to get away with her.

  Shaw put his hands behind his head. Slowly. While he calculated the distance between him and the gunman.

  About ten feet.

  Sabrina was in the car, certainly not out of the line of fire, but at least she wasn’t standing out in the open. However, she did have a gun pointed at her head, and the guy’s finger was definitely positioned on the trigger.

  Shaw would have one chance to save her.

  Just one.

  Shaw took a deep breath and started to lower himself as if he were dropping to his knees. But he didn’t.

  “Get down!” Shaw shouted to Sabrina.

  He couldn’t risk waiting to see if she could manage to do that. There was no time. It was now or maybe never.

  Shaw lowered his head and charged the gunman.

  SABRINA HEARD SHAW SHOUT for her to get down, but it took a split second for that to register. In that split second, she saw Shaw run head first toward the gunman.

  The gunman fired.

  And Sabrina screamed.

  It couldn’t end this way. She couldn’t lose Shaw now, not after everything they’d managed to survive.

  Shaw rammed his body into the gunman, and they landed against the car door. It slammed shut, and because she was already precariously perched on the seat, the momentum threw her off balance and her hip rammed into the gear shift.

  She quickly tried to right herself so she could help, but the two were in a fierce battle for the gun. Shaw had clamped on to the gunman’s right wrist and had both his hand and gun smashed against the window.

  Frantically, she looked for any sign of blood or injury, but she couldn’t tell if Shaw had been shot. And she wasn’t sure about the best way to help him.

  She searched the car, shoving aside newspapers and a fast-food bag. No cell phone. No gun. Nothing she could use as a weapon. But she couldn’t just sit there, either, with Shaw in a fight for their lives.

  Sabrina crawled over the gear shift and into the driver’s seat. No keys. But there was a horn, and she jammed her hand against it. The sound blared, and she didn’t let up. Maybe someone would hear the noise and call the police. Of course, this wasn’t the best area of the city so it was possible something like a car horn would be ignored.

  There was a hard thump against the passenger-side window, and her breath froze. Because it sounded like another shot. She tried to pick through the tangle of the two bodies so she could determine what was happening.

  The men were still locked in a fierce battle, and the weapon was still pointed upward, thanks to Shaw’s unrelenting grip. But the gunman was using his left fist to pound Shaw in his midsection. With each blow, the gunman’s elbow rammed
into the glass. Neither was giving up.

  But she wouldn’t, either.

  “Run, Sabrina!” Shaw yelled. He wanted her to try to get away, but she didn’t want to leave him like this.

  Still, she could try to go for help, especially since the horn didn’t seem to be drawing anyone’s attention. She threw open the door and climbed out.

  Just as there was another shot.

  She ducked down, putting her hands over her belly to protect the baby.

  The shot went through the passenger window and into the front windshield, shattering both. If she’d stayed put inside the car, she would have almost certainly been hit.

  That both terrified her and infuriated her.

  She didn’t care what their kidnapper’s motives were, but she was sick and tired of his total disregard for Shaw’s life and the life she carried inside her.

  The anger shot through her, and Sabrina looked around. Not for an escape route. But for a rock or a fallen tree limb, anything she could use to hit the guy.

  Sabrina quickly spotted several small stones. They weren’t much bigger than silver dollars, but she gathered them up, drew back her hand and threw them with as much force as she could. They smacked the gunman in the back of the neck.

  It wasn’t much of a blow, but it caused him to react by jerking his head to the side. Shaw took full advantage of that slight maneuver and bashed the gunman’s hand against the metal rim of the door.

  The gun went flying.

  And Sabrina didn’t waste any time running after it.

  She made her way around the front of the car, all the while looking on the ground to see where the weapon had landed. She finally spotted it next to the unmarked car the gunman had used to kidnap them.

  She raced toward it.

  But didn’t get far.

  The gunman made a loud, feral-sounding growl. And he shoved Shaw backward—right toward her.

  Sabrina barely got out of the way in time.

  Shaw fell to the ground, his back just a few inches from the weapon. Sabrina tried to tell him that, but she didn’t get the chance. The gunman dove at Shaw and landed on him with his full weight.