Daddy Defender

by Janie Crouch

  Guards checked in every hour with a code only they knew.

  Cynthia came back on the line. “Patrick missed his assigned check in four minutes ago. One more minute and it would’ve alerted everyone in the system.” Guards were given a five minute grace period.

  “I’m on my way there now. ETA twenty minutes.”

  “I’ll get uniforms out there, also. But it will take them ten minutes at least.”

  If Harper had found out the location of the safe house and left the bar an hour or two ago like the bartender said, he definitely could’ve already made it to the safe house and taken Patrick out.

  Ten minutes was way too long. Ashton pushed the gas pedal down further. He disconnected with Cynthia, knowing the woman would do what needed to be done on Omega’s end, and called Summer’s phone.

  * * *

  SUMMER HEARD THE door creak open downstairs and smiled. She should pretend to be asleep just so she could see how Ashton decided to wake her up.

  Her phone buzzed on the nightstand and she grabbed it.

  Ashton?

  “Why are you calling me if you’re coming into the house right now? When I said to pick an interesting—”

  “Summer.” He completely cut her off. “It’s not me in the house and we can’t get in touch with the guard. Take Chloe and get out now. Right now. Use the balcony.”

  Summer sat straight up. Oh God. Someone was in the house and it wasn’t Ashton or one of the guards.

  She flew out of bed without wasting time. She had no idea how long before the intruder would make his way upstairs. She pulled her door behind her as she exited, hoping it would buy her time, and eased Chloe’s door open. She saw her tennis shoes where she’d left them in the bathroom before her shower and grabbed them, toeing them on.

  The silence was terrifying. All encompassing. Summer struggled to control the sound of her breathing. To her, it sounded like a freight train.

  Did the intruder have a gun? Of course he did. Otherwise how would he have gotten by Patrick outside? Summer couldn’t even think what that meant.

  “I’m in Chloe’s room,” she whispered into the phone as she closed the bedroom door behind her.

  “Do you have shoes? A jacket? You’re going to have to run.”

  “Shoes, yes. No jacket.”

  “Okay. Hurry.”

  She picked up Chloe, praying her daughter wouldn’t wake and cry. She grabbed the blanket and drew it around her and the baby.

  Chloe remained asleep. Summer went to the door leading to the balcony and opened it.

  “I’m outside now. Chloe’s still asleep.”

  “Help is going to be there in about eight minutes. You’ve just got to keep away from him until then.”

  Chloe hurried down the stairs and across the open area into the trees. “I’m running toward the woods.”

  She screamed and almost dropped the phone as a tree to her left splintered into pieces and a boom filled the air. She dove for cover behind other trees.

  “Summer!” Ashton’s voice roared into the phone.

  “I’m okay. He shot at me but missed. I’m in the trees now.” She could feel Chloe start to stiffen. “I’ve got to keep moving or Chloe’s going to cry.”

  “Stick your hand out from behind the tree quickly, then bring it back in.”

  She didn’t understand but she trusted Ashton. “I did it. Nothing happened.”

  “Run deeper into the woods. He didn’t shoot at your hand so he’s probably working his way down the stairs.”

  Summer began moving again and felt Chloe relax. She kept her daughter tight against her chest and forced herself to run as fast as she could. After just a few minutes, all she could hear was the sound of her own breath as it sawed in and out of her chest.

  Chloe’s sleeping weight became almost unbearable.

  She stopped to rest for a moment. “Ashton, I don’t know where he is or how long I can keep running.” She said the words around her breaths.

  “I’m at the house now. Keep this line open. I’m tracking your phone. Don’t try to talk. Just keep moving, okay?”

  “Yes.” She tucked the phone inside the blanket with Chloe and began moving again. Another shot rang out. Not as close as the first one, but close enough for Summer to realize the man was almost on her.

  She picked up speed again, trying to use the cover of the larger trees, struggling to keep her footing in the darkness, arms burning in agony. She felt like she had run forever and knew she had to stop and rest for a minute. If she fell and broke an ankle she and Chloe would both be dead.

  “Have to stop—For a minute,” she said as close as she could to the phone that was tucked in with Chloe. She hoped Ashton could hear her.

  She found a large tree she could sit behind and sank to the ground, rocking Chloe back and forth in hopes of keeping her asleep. She felt something crawl across the upper part of her foot but didn’t let it faze her. Her fear of bugs and snakes definitely took a back seat to her fear of a maniac chasing her with a gun.

  How much time did Ashton need? Was he already in the forest with them? Would her phone pinpoint her location or just give him a general idea?

  Should she start running again?

  The questions spun through her mind so quickly it made it hard to think. What was her best course of action?

  And then the man stepped out from behind the tree in front of her, gun pointed right at them.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, shrugging. “This is nothing personal.”

  “Wait. I don’t know who you are.” She had to try to buy some time.

  The man actually looked sympathetic. “I know. And like I said, I’m sorry it had to be you. I just have to take from them what they took from me. They have to understand the agony of grief.”

  Before Summer could say a word, even beg for her daughter’s life if not her own, a shot rang out in the darkness.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ashton plowed his car through the small ravine next to the safe house and drove as far as he could into the woods before the axel got caught on something. That was the third car he’d totaled this week, but he couldn’t care less.

  He dove out the door and immediately began running in the direction of Summer’s location, Omega feeding the info directly into the map on his phone.

  He could hear Summer’s ragged breathing through their open phone channel as she struggled to move forward with the heavy load of a sleeping Chloe in her arms. She was keeping it together, that was all he could ask of her.

  Ashton pushed himself faster, Glock already out and in his hand. They were only about a thousand yards, not quite half a mile, ahead of him.

  If Harper caught her, a thousand yards might as well be a million.

  Ashton wished he had his rifle and scope with him, but the Glock would have to do. He was pretty darn accurate with it, too. He knew exactly how accurate he was with his Glock 23 with 180 grain Blazer Brass .40 caliber ammo, which was what he was carrying.

  Two hundred thirty yards was his best record.

  He heard Summer’s breath get more ragged and knew she’d have to stop soon. He wasn’t surprised to hear her muffled words.

  “Stop... Minute...”

  He didn’t take the time to reassure her, just kept running as fast as he could, no regard whatsoever for his own safety. He knew he was closing the gap.

  But where was Harper?

  Six hundred yards. At this pace, he would be at her in less than two minutes.

  Hang in there, baby, he willed. So many things could go wrong. If Chloe woke up and started crying. If Harper just stumbled on them.

  He was three hundred yards out when he heard the man’s voice.

  “I’m sorry. This is nothing personal.”


  Summer. “Wait. I don’t know who you are.”

  Ashton’s stomach dropped out. Harper had caught them. Ashton could barely make the man out in the darkness two hundred and fifty yards in front of him.

  He stopped running. Running wouldn’t do him any good now. He took a deep breath to steady himself and brought the Glock up in a shooting position.

  This was the longest shot he’d ever taken with a Glock. And the most important.

  His finger rested lightly on the trigger.

  The man’s voice came over the phone he’d slipped in his pocket. “I just have to take from them what they took from me. They have to understand the agony of grief.”

  Ashton blew out his breath in a long narrow stream. His finger gently squeezed the trigger, his arms absorbing the shock of the gun’s recoil.

  The sound of the gun firing echoed through the night. He heard Harper call out and knew he’d at least wounded him in some way. Ashton didn’t wait, he immediately began running toward Summer again. A few seconds later, he fired again while running. His aim wouldn’t be as accurate, but hopefully it would keep Harper away from the girls. His girls.

  He heard Summer’s voice on the phone. “He’s gone, Ashton. You hit him. He’s gone.”

  He didn’t take it out of his pocket. A few moments later, he made it to them. He wrapped Summer and Chloe to him with one arm, but didn’t drop his Glock with the other. Harper was still out there, perhaps only minorly injured and biding his time. Ashton needed to get them out of here.

  “Let me take her,” he said to Summer, noticing her arms were shaking from holding Chloe for so long. He hefted the baby’s slight weight up onto his chest, keeping the blanket over her head, and began walking.

  When he found a secluded overhang where they were protected on three sides, he sat down and brought Summer down with him. They would stay here until the rest of the Omega team arrived. Ashton wasn’t taking any chances that Harper might double back. At least here no one could sneak up on them from behind.

  “Are you okay?” he asked Summer. She hadn’t said a word since he’d arrived.

  “Yes.” She closed her eyes. “When I heard that gunfire, I thought for sure he was shooting Chloe and me.”

  Ashton’s teeth ground together. “I’m so sorry.”

  “But it was you.” She moved closer to him.

  He wanted nothing more than to put his arm around her, but he had to keep his gun hand free. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. They sat in silence for long minutes, both reveling in being alive and unharmed.

  Eventually Chloe began to squirm and stretch under the blanket, unused to being held for so long. Summer reached over and pulled the blanket off her daughter’s head.

  “Mama.” Chloe’s sweet voice was beautiful to both of them. She turned to Ashton. “Ah-ta.” She smiled at him like there was nothing unusual about them sitting outside in the forest in the middle of the night. Ashton squeezed her nose and she giggled.

  She reached out a hand and grabbed a lock of Summer’s hair and began playing with it.

  “How far out were you when you took the shot?” Summer asked.

  “Too far out to get a kill, evidently.”

  “But he’s the only person who could’ve made that distance. Two hundred and sixty yards,” a female voice said, coming in closer to them. Lillian. “I don’t think even I could make that with a Glock 23.”

  “Is everything clear?” Ashton asked.

  She reached down a hand to help Summer stand. “We’re still combing the woods for Harper, but nothing.”

  “Any sign of the second man?”

  “None.”

  “What about Patrick?” Summer asked. “Whoever broke in had to get past him to enter the house.”

  Lillian shook her head. “He didn’t make it, you guys. I’m sorry. Harper, or the unknown man must have taken him out.”

  Ashton saw Summer wipe tears from her eyes.

  “I’m taking Summer back to HQ,” he told Lillian. “She’ll stay there. We’ve obviously got some security problems we need to talk about with Steve. Nobody, especially Harper, should’ve been able to find out where Summer was located.”

  Lillian nodded and winked at Chloe in his arms. “Yep, no argument here. I’m going to escort you out.”

  Ashton agreed. He wanted Lillian’s eyes with them, looking out for any further trouble. He knew one hundred percent for certain he could trust her. But an Omega guard down and Summer and Chloe almost getting shot meant there was a traitor inside Omega who clearly couldn’t be trusted.

  * * *

  ASHTON BROUGHT THEM to some sort of studio apartment inside Omega Sector’s headquarters. It had a bed in one corner and a couch and coffee table in the center. A small kitchenette with an island for dining made up the other section. Obviously the apartment wasn’t meant for long-term living, but it was certainly adequate for a few nights for her and Chloe.

  And Ashton would be staying with them. He hadn’t left Summer’s side for even a moment since he’d found them in the forest. He’d sent Lillian into the safe house to get what she and Chloe needed for the next couple of days—including Chloe’s fire truck.

  He was currently cutting up a banana for her to eat in the baby seat they’d attached to a chair at the island. Chloe didn’t seem to care that it was three o’clock in the morning. She had her Ah-ta and food. Life was good.

  “The more I think about it, the more I feel like we should get you out of here,” Ashton said as he cut.

  “Because you think Omega has some sort of mole or something?”

  “I don’t know that it’s an actual person. Maybe it’s a computer security problem. Someone hacking in from the outside. Either way, I don’t want you and Chloe’s safety to be compromised again.”

  “Is Harper a computer whiz? Is that how he found us?”

  Ashton cut another piece of banana. “Curtis Harper isn’t a whiz at anything as far as we know. And moreover, why would he come to the safe house when he knew I wasn’t there? He wants revenge on me. It shouldn’t have anything to do with you.”

  “He certainly looked serious when I saw him. Said you guys needed to learn the agony of grief the way he had. He must have really loved his father.”

  “Yeah, we got a recording of everything he said while I was tracking your phone. The profilers will analyze the words, see if they can come up with anything. But I have to admit from what I heard, it didn’t sound like something Harper would come up with on his own.”

  “Do you have a picture of Harper? I didn’t actually see him when I cracked my lamp over his head a few nights ago.”

  He nodded and got out his phone, finding the picture and handing it to her.

  “This is Harper? Like, a recent picture?”

  “Yes, from last Friday. We caught him on a security camera.”

  Summer stared at the picture. “That’s not the man who almost shot me today.”

  She watched as Ashton wiped Chloe’s banana-smeared face with a wet washcloth, not even thinking twice about it. He tweaked her nose and she laughed.

  “Are you absolutely sure?”

  Summer nodded. “Yes. There is no way this is the same man I saw in the woods.”

  Ashton flicked his screen to another picture. “What about this one?”

  That picture was much more similar. “Yes. He didn’t look exactly like that, but we’d both been running through the woods for a while. But I would say that is the man I saw.”

  Ashton picked Chloe up out of the chair. “I need to call this in. We know Harper is working with this guy, but we don’t know who he is.”

  “Me, neither. He doesn’t look familiar to me at all.”

  Summer took Chloe from Ashton and changed her diaper and clothes while he made hi
s call. Ashton paced back and forth as he spoke, upset as everyone probably was at the whole situation. Upset that anybody had found the safe house. Upset over the loss of an agent. It didn’t matter if it was Harper or this mystery man.

  The night was catching up to both Summer and Chloe. Now that her belly was full and all the excitement seemed to have passed, the baby’s eyes were beginning to droop.

  Summer went and laid her on the bed so she could stretch out, then sat down on the couch. When Ashton was done, he joined her.

  “Steve Drackett, my boss, agrees that we should probably get you out of here. I don’t like it, but until we figure out exactly what’s going on, I think it’s probably true.”

  “I could go to my sister’s house in Atlanta.”

  “Yes, that would be good. Lots of flights. There’s an FBI field office and we can make sure they’re aware of the situation. I will personally call their office and talk to someone who can be trusted.”

  “Okay. When should I leave?”

  “Early tomorrow would be best.”

  “Oh.” Summer was torn. She wanted to be safe, to get her daughter to a safe place. But she didn’t want to leave Ashton.

  “Believe me, I don’t want you to go.” He slipped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer. “But I do want you to be secure, so I’ll let you go. I don’t like it.”

  “There’s something I need to say to you, Ashton.” She sat back a little bit so she could see him better.

  “Okay. It’s about Tyler, isn’t it?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t handle our last talk about him, about that situation, very well.”

  “It was some shocking news, Summer. You handled it the way anyone would.”

  “I want to tell you what I told Joe Matarazzo when he tried to take the blame for Tyler’s death. I don’t care if you had the shot or not: you’re not the killer. The man who walked into that office building with the intent to hurt others and pulled out that hand grenade. He’s the only one to blame.”

  His name had been James Hudson. But Summer tried to say his name out loud as little as possible. She didn’t want to give him that much credit or space in her life. He’d taken enough.