His To Protect

by Patricia Werner

  “Can you make it?” Tracy asked Jennifer anxiously.

  Round eyed and pale, Jennifer nodded. She didn’t waste any breath on words, but scrambled up the hill beside Tracy.

  The ground rose steeply, with loose rocks sliding underfoot. A grassy patch ahead was less covered by trees, and Tracy worried that they might be sighted against the pale prairie grass. She steered Jennifer around the clearing, and they sprinted beside a stand of aspens, stopping to rest against the smooth white bark to catch their breath. She could no longer see the helicopter, but the engine roared louder, as if the blades were slicing the branches as it descended.

  Matt ran up the hill to them. “They won’t be able to land on the hill,” he shouted. “But they’re dropping some men to the ground.”

  Tracy’s chest ached, but she drew enough breath to speak. “They’ll see we aren’t there.”

  He slid the M-16 to his back and reached down for Jennifer to carry her. “Our only chance is to get to the road.”

  She nodded. If they made the road, they might be able to make it to help.

  A burst of fireworks suddenly illuminated the sky, and Tracy realized their pursuers’ ploy. The gunfire would be indistinguishable from the fireworks.

  Now flashlights behind them in the woods told her their pursuers had searched the cabin and had seen they weren’t there. She tried to hurry her pace, but already Jennifer’s coughing was causing her grave concern.

  “She can’t go any farther,” Tracy said when she caught up to them. She slid her shoulder bag down and dug for the inhaler with shaking hands.

  “It’s going to be all right,” she told the frightened little girl. “Don’t worry. Matt will take care of us.”

  And she believed it. Even though the whirring helicopter that now danced upward over the trees could fly directly overhead at any moment, deep in her soul she believed that Matt could handle it. Matt could handle anything.

  The one slipup must have come after he’d left Chief Bartola’s house. Just as he’d predicted, Bartola must have let McAllister know that they were in the area. Somehow McAllister’s men must have followed Matt back to the cabin unseen. Once they knew which road Matt had taken to get here, they’d known where the cabin was tucked away.

  Jennifer leaned against a boulder and tried to exhale slowly. She clutched Tracy’s arm desperately as Tracy brought the inhaler up to her open mouth. In her fright, she gasped in too quickly, and Tracy mistimed releasing the medication. It took every ounce of courage for Tracy to speak slowly and calmly.

  “Breathe out, honey. Slow now.”

  Jennifer had more control this time and exhaled slowly. She nodded quickly, and then Tracy waited for her slow, deep inhalation. This time, she pressed the inhaler at the right moment, releasing the mist. Jennifer held her breath as Tracy counted with the fingers on her left hand.

  “We gotta move,” said Matt, coming next to them. “They’re getting too close.”

  “Right.”

  Jennifer breathed again, and Tracy stuck the inhaler back in the bag. She whispered. “We’re ready.”

  “This way,” said Matt. “I’ll stay behind you.”

  He had to cover them in case anyone fired at them, which left Tracy to blaze the trail. She bent low to avoid branches and to better see the rough ground, holding Jennifer’s hand tightly behind her.

  The next blaze of fireworks showed her they were on top of the rise. Directly ahead was a wire fence, marking someone’s property.

  “I can run,” said Jennifer bravely when they came to the grassy open space.

  A spray of rifle fire from behind them tore the ground to their left. They were going to die. Right here on this mountain, Jennifer would see them shot to death before taking a bullet in her young heart.

  The sharp return fire from Matt’s semiautomatic rifle was so loud, Tracy’s head nearly burst. But some survival instinct made her pick Jennifer up in her arms and hurry to the fence. She thought Matt had stayed back to cover them, but when she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath, he was miraculously beside them. Wire cutters appeared from one of his pockets, and with a couple of strong cuts, the wires broke free. He reached for Jennifer and set her on the other side. Then he helped Tracy through.

  As the first of the flashlights crested the hill, Matt leaped over the fence. But rather than shooting to give away their position, he grabbed Jennifer again and veered off at an angle down the hill. Tracy followed on the steep angle as thorny weeds and shrubs cut her ankles. She stumbled, grabbed a bush to hold her as her feet slid, then regained her balance and half slid, half ran down.

  Pink star bursts blossomed overhead, and Tracy no longer knew whether rifle fire or fireworks followed their progress. They slid into a gully and she felt Matt’s arm reach out to pull her to him. She pressed against his chest, feeling Jennifer whimper against her.

  “You okay, Jenn?” she asked. Her own voice shook, and tears of anguish mixed with dirt and sweat on her face.

  Her heart was thundering so loud, she at first didn’t realize they weren’t being shot at anymore. Instead, flashlights swept the hill, but farther to the west. Could it be possible that they’d gained precious seconds by sliding down in this direction?

  “This way,” whispered Matt, taking Jennifer again.

  Her feet found the edge of the road. At least they could make faster progress now. Town was the other way, but so were the pursuers. Their only chance might lie in circling back.

  She fled along the road with Matt carrying Jennifer, certain that at any moment a bullet would whiz toward them.

  They rounded a curve, and Tracy recognized the long dirt road that led to the cabin. Matt crossed it, heading for some trees.

  She looked over her shoulder only to see headlights turn off the main highway, onto this road. “Lights,” she gasped, out of breath from the dash.

  Matt glanced back. “Head for those trees, but watch your step.” He led the way off the road through weedy, rutted ground.

  They crouched beside some pines just as the car topped the rise and descended toward the road to the cabin. Her heart jumped into her throat when it turned up the dirt road, but in the ambient light, she thought it looked familiar.

  “Roland,” said Matt, setting Jennifer down.

  “He’s headed for the cabin,” she warned anxiously, taking Jennifer’s hand. “They’ll kill him.”

  “No, they won’t,” said Matt. “Stay here.”

  His rifle in his hands, Matt stayed low and crept up the side of the road toward the cabin. Tracy shivered as she held Jennifer in her arms.

  “Will Matt get hurt?” asked Jennifer.

  She stroked the little girl’s head. “I hope not, honey.”

  “Will the bad men get us if Matt doesn’t win?”

  Tracy tried to draw a deep breath. “Not if I can help it.”

  She was faced with the greatest decision of her life. Matt would want them to get away. But to where? The pursuers were covering the road from here to the highway. That way lay danger. Her instinct to protect Jennifer was as strong as her instinct to stay close to Matt. She felt ripped apart on the inside.

  “Do we have to stay here?” asked Jennifer. “Maybe we can help him.”

  Tracy swallowed to try to ease her dry throat. “I wish we could. If he gets to Roland in time, at least there will be two of them.”

  But they had to move. Summer nights in the mountains were chilly, and they’d left too quickly to take jackets. Tracy made her decision. “Let’s move up closer, but stay deep in the trees. Go slowly and don’t make any noise. Okay?”

  She felt Jennifer’s silent nod. Carefully and slowly, they crept along the line of trees, pausing to try to listen to the night sounds. A final burst of multicolored fireworks signaled the end of the display. The helicopter had timed its departure well. Its deafening engine could no longer be heard.

  A blast of gunfire made her grab Jennifer and duck. She heard voices shouting and then more gunfire.
Running footsteps approached, and she pulled Jennifer in behind the trees. A man sprinted along the road, coming even with them. He turned and fired. Then, to her horror, he veered off the road, plunging into the trees, headed right toward them, not twenty yards away. She had to stop him.

  “Get down flat,” she whispered to Jennifer, and then seized a dead branch, rising to her knees, prepared to defend her stepdaughter.

  “You can’t get away with this,” shouted Matt, close in pursuit.

  McAllister dropped into the foliage, and she saw Matt make a dash for trees on the other side of the road. A bullet zinged toward McAllister’s position covering Matt’s approach.

  Terror choked her. They didn’t know where McAllister had gone, and if they fired in this direction, they might hit Jennifer or her. If she shouted to Matt, McAllister could get to her first. Her only chance was to create a diversion.

  But evidently McAllister had decided to play bully. He yelled at Matt, uncomfortably close to Tracy’s position.

  “You won’t win, Forrest. For all your fancy training, you’re outnumbered.”

  A gun exploded, and a bullet whacked into a tree, splintering bark. “Turn yourself in,” Matt shouted. “It’ll go worse for you if you don’t.”

  “You’re out of your league, Forrest. This thing is bigger than you think.”

  “I know who you’re taking orders from,” Matt shouted back. “If you kill me, it’ll be one more murder charge. Give up now.”

  For answer, McAllister scrabbled farther into the woods, and Tracy held her breath. He was coming this way. Suddenly, a cough erupted from Jennifer’s throat, and McAllister’s movements stopped. Jennifer coughed again, and Tracy dropped the branch to try to help her.

  “Who’s there?” called out McAllister.

  In a minute, he’d find them. They’d both be dead.

  But a crash of undergrowth distracted him, and then Matt was on top of McAllister, ten yards away. She was dimly aware of sirens growing louder. Fear paralyzed her as Matt rolled with McAllister. Metal glinted in the moonlight that filtered through the trees.

  “Drop your weapon, McAllister,” Roland shouted as he entered the woods.

  Then in the next instant, McAllister was on his feet, his gun aimed at Matt’s head. But Matt drove an arm forward, gripping McAllister’s gun arm and forcing it across his body. With a knee to his groin, he stepped past his right leg, twisted McAllister’s body and brought him down with a knee holding his head. While Roland covered him, he got the gun away.

  With lightning speed, Matt had McAllister on his stomach, his hands cuffed behind him and a gag tied around his mouth. Headlights blinded them, and two county sheriff’s vehicles ground to a stop as officers emerged, ordering, “Hands up.”

  Rene Baker appeared out of nowhere, evidently having followed the sounds of gunfire until she deemed it safe. She crashed through the undergrowth to reach Tracy, the whites of her eyes visible in the darkness as she knelt down to put a reassuring arm around Jennifer.

  “It’s all right, honey,” said Rene. “You’ve got your friends here.”

  A burly officer fanned out his men as he strode forward. Tracy stood up as the sheriff approached. “Are you all right, ma’am?”

  “Yes, but this little girl needs to get to a hospital. She has asthma. The man taken hostage tried to kill us.” She pointed at McAllister. “His accomplices are still at large.”

  “You can let him go,” she continued, nodding toward Matt. “He’s with me. And his friend and his sister helped us.”

  “We’ll sort it all out, ma’am. We have to follow procedures to make sure no one gets hurt.”

  The sheriff’s officers disarmed Matt and Roland and led them to the cars.

  “I’ll go with Jennifer,” Rene said in her ear. “You stay here with Matt.”

  An ambulance arrived and took Rene and Jennifer, and McAllister was led away. She heard more shots exchanged in the woods, some shouts, and then the shooting stopped.

  Still unable to believe it was over, Tracy climbed into the back seat of the car with Matt. His hazel eyes swam with emotion as he looked at her, unable to hold her with the handcuffs keeping his hands behind his back. She touched his perspiring face.

  “It’ll be all right,” she whispered, her own emotions at the end of their tether.

  He turned his face to kiss her fingers. She knew what he was thinking. He’d broken the rules. The evidence they had wouldn’t stand up, gathered illegally as it had been.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said, her body pressed against his side. “McAllister tried to kill us. He’s a maniac. That much we can prove.”

  “I’d do it again,” Matt said with that stubborn edge to his voice. “I’d do anything for you.”

  She closed her eyes and reached around him to hold him close. The wounded prisoners were brought up and taken away in a van. The sheriff interrupted them.

  “Time to go, ma’am. The deputy will drive you downtown.”

  She stifled her irritation at being separated from Matt, but this wasn’t his jurisdiction, and she’d better cooperate and give her statement to the authorities. The sooner they told their story, the sooner the truth would be brought to light. Then tomorrow, they would untangle their personal lives.

  With one last glance at Matt that said everything, she backed out of the car.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Late Monday morning, Tracy began packing up Scott’s den. With plans to remodel the room, she made a new resolution that allowed her to put away the past. The future held some hope.

  After a tiring day at the sheriff’s department in Estes Park on Sunday, matters were straightened out and Matt and Roland were let go. When Jennifer was released from the hospital, they drove back to Denver and spent a long evening at Commander Udal’s home. The chief of police listened to their story and immediately opened a full investigation.

  McAllister was now in jail awaiting a hearing. Faced with the voice print that matched escaped criminal Jax Schaffer, McAllister confessed to carrying out Schaffer’s orders. The murder weapon that had been in Tracy’s safe-deposit box was found hidden in McAllister’s basement. The evidence was strong that he’d killed Scott the day of the Crestmoor State Bank robbery.

  Tracy had been so tired last night when Matt tucked her into her bed that she fell asleep instantly. By the time she’d awakened this morning, he’d been gone. But it was best that way. In spite of the bond between them, she knew in her heart that she just couldn’t have another relationship with a cop. She just couldn’t do that all over again.

  An hour later, she heard a car stop in front of the house and looked out the dormer window to see Matt striding across the lawn. She decided to wait upstairs and let him find her here. Her heart felt like lead as she thought about telling him she just couldn’t be with him. As much as he meant to her, she couldn’t do it again.

  In moments, his footsteps climbed the stairs. Then he stood in the doorway, gazing at her, one hand on the door frame.

  Her heart cracked, and she dropped the curtains she’d just removed from the window. His gaze swept her figure, and his eyes looked into her soul.

  “Everything all right downtown?” she asked breathlessly.

  His sober lips twitched upward as he stepped toward her. They met in the center of the room, and he let his hands rest on her back as she clamped her hands on his strong shoulders and leaned back so she could see his face.

  Then he smiled and pulled her to him. “Tracy, I love you.”

  Her voice trembled as she murmured into his shoulder, “Oh, Matt.”

  He began to caress her, kindling their deep passion. She didn’t resist. She longed to make love to him one last time. It would be a beautiful goodbye. He kissed her lips and slipped his thumbs around her rib cage and under her short knit top to graze her skin.

  “Mmm,” was all he said. “We’re alone.”

  Within minutes, they lay on the daybed. His look grazed her face, and he took his
time disrobing them both. Then their demanding passion overwhelmed him, and they spent the next half hour giving and taking, pleasuring each other as if there were no tomorrow.

  When at last he lay next to her, he propped himself up on one elbow and brushed her hair from her face.

  “I’m not a cop anymore,” he said.

  She sat upright. “You’re what?”

  He grinned in amusement at her disbelief. “I decided I needed a new profession, one more suitable for a family.”

  Her wide brown eyes blinked. “But what will you do? The SWAT team was your life.”

  He pulled his mouth to the side in a wry expression. “I broke the rules, and I’ve been suspended. But I’d do it all over again.” He looked at her more seriously, his eyes hiding a smile. “And I had an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Running a camp for teenagers outside Estes Park. An old friend offered me the job a while ago. I didn’t have a reason to take it then. I do now. It would be a great place for Jennifer.”

  He rolled over her, off the bed and got on his knees. “Tracy, I’m proposing. Will you marry me?”

  The look of love he gave her told her it had all been worth it. She reached for him again, running her hand through his tousled hair.

  “I love you, Matt. I thought we couldn’t be together. I knew in my heart I couldn’t go through all that again.”

  She shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. “I never expected this. I mean, I knew you’d broken too many rules to be on the force without suspension. I knew they would set you back. But I never expected you to give up police business entirely.”

  She cried as he held her, but he knew they were tears of relief, of unspent grief and of joy. He was happy at last. Justice would take its course, and he no longer felt burdened by the guilt that had consumed him until he’d learned who his buddy’s killer had been. In some mysterious way, fate had led them through this and blessed him with true love. They had won.

  AFTER A LONG AFTERNOON of intimacy and renewing joy, Tracy finally left Matt soaking in the bathtub. She showed him a letter Amanda Fielding had faxed to her this morning. The bank president had decided on her own to arrange a loan for Tracy so she could buy computer equipment to be able to work at home.