Manhunt

by Lisa Phillips

  She grabbed Kerry’s hand and led her downstairs. She’d never wanted this life for either of them, but she was so grateful to have Kerry that she wanted to drop to her knees and weep.

  Conventional wisdom said Hailey should be looking for a husband to help raise her daughter—or so every old biddy in town insisted on telling her. But why did they have the monopoly on what was right? Hailey liked it that Kerry was her focus.

  She did the best she could, but not much made up for the fact Kerry lived in two separate houses and alternated Christmases.

  Perfect would have been so much better than just okay. This wasn’t the way life and home was supposed to go. Hailey knew that much from looking at the other families at church with a mom and a dad and their kids all in a row. But the last thing she wanted was to have to divide her attention between her daughter and a romantic relationship.

  Kerry took up every ounce of energy she had—that was just the way Hailey parented. And when she couldn’t be there, her dad was an invaluable help. Unlike Hailey and her dad’s relationship, Kerry loved spending time with her grandfather. It was as though, however he’d felt about her falling pregnant, that hadn’t extended to Kerry as a person.

  Hailey figured a husband would expect to be the center of her world, and she just couldn’t see how that would ever work.

  Eric was at the base of the stairs. “Car’s already running.”

  “Good.” As far as Hailey was concerned, the quicker they got out of there, the better.

  He took Kerry’s bag for her and Hailey grabbed Kerry’s knee-length jacket. Kerry grabbed two umbrellas from the shelf in the hall closet and handed one to Hailey.

  “Good thinking.”

  Kerry grinned. There was no way Hailey was going to let Farrell take that light away. She needed Kerry in her life to draw her out. Having a daughter had proved to Hailey that she wasn’t the center of the universe. Not that she’d been overly self-centered before Kerry, but she had barely been out of her teenage years.

  They stepped out into the downpour. Hailey could hear the sirens going off in town, the warning was loud and shrill enough to send anyone running.

  Her dad’s heart was in the right place, but she hoped the people crowding their front lawn with loaded-up trucks and RVs didn’t take advantage of his hospitality. Or destroy the lawn too much with ruts from their tires.

  Hailey nodded a couple of times to people she knew from around town. They seemed surprised she was leaving, but there was no time for her to explain. Hailey opened the rear door for Kerry and left her to put down her umbrella. She joined Eric at the back, where he had the trunk door up. She surveyed his collection of long, rectangular cases that held shotguns, rifles and a smaller case where he kept two handguns, and a stack of boxes of ammo.

  She looked up. “I think we’ll be good. You know, when war breaks out in the backwoods.”

  He didn’t look too impressed with her attempt at humor. “You’re the one who said we should be prepared.”

  “And you just happened to have all this in the back of your truck?”

  “Can’t leave it in my apartment, so I left it at work. I loaded up at the office earlier after Farrell tried to get Kerry. In case we get cut off.”

  This was about protecting her daughter? “Well, all right then.”

  Eric sighed, like Hailey was seriously testing his patience. “Can we get out of the rain now?”

  The roar of rushing water swept the valley. Hailey spun around, but it was hard to see the town through the haze of rain. Who knew how long it would take the dam to overflow the banks of the river completely, and flood the lower part of town. Wherever they were going, it needed to be high ground they could get to fast.

  “You want me to drive? I know a couple of good places we can go.”

  Eric shook his head. “Get in.”

  She chafed against his ordering her around, but walked around the car to the passenger side anyway. At the last second she got in the back instead, giving Kerry a smile like nothing was amiss. Kerry should have been with Charles that weekend. But if all this meant Hailey was getting extra time with her daughter, she was going to make the most of it.

  Eric skirted his truck between a trailer with an ATV on it and a pickup before he pulled out down the road to town.

  “So where are we headed?”

  Eric kept two hands on the wheel, controlling the bounce of the soft ground. “Jonah called. He said to use his place tonight since he’ll be out with the team.”

  Hailey blinked. “We’re going to Jonah’s house?”

  “Yep.”

  She didn’t even know where that was, but hopefully it was high up. The water level in town was only going to rise. Still, her brain spun with the idea of getting to see the personal side of her boss. She figured his house would be secure, since he’d been a marine before joining the marshals.

  Hailey grinned. “He’s giving us free rein of his house?”

  “Uh…not exactly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, he sort of kind of said don’t touch anything. Or make a mess of any kind. We also have to feed his dog, and let him out.”

  She caught Eric’s eyes in the rearview and saw his smirk. “Seriously?”

  He laughed. “He was kind of adamant about the not-making-a-mess thing.”

  “Maybe we should take our chances with a motel.”

  “Or wear those booties they give you when you’re working a crime scene.”

  Hailey laughed, longer and harder than usual because she was so tired. Kerry was smiling, so Hailey scooted to the middle and put her arm around her daughter. With her free hand, Hailey grabbed the middle seat belt and pulled it across her body to buckle up.

  There was a huge crash, the sound like an explosion of metal hitting metal. Farrell’s car slammed into the side of Eric’s truck.

  ELEVEN

  Eric swam to the surface of consciousness and batted the airbag away. Farrell’s car had destroyed almost the whole front end of his car. He touched his fingers to his top lip and saw blood there. That explained why his face hurt so much. His nose was probably broken.

  He wrestled his door open. The intersection was deserted. The same Cadillac he’d seen at Charles’s house was wedged against the front corner of his vehicle, the door open and the dome light on. The warning alarm was beeping. Farrell must have jumped out and left the keys in.

  Eric fell onto asphalt covered with an inch of water, heaved himself up and pulled open the rear door where Kerry was sucking in deep breaths.

  He handed her his cell phone. “Stay here. Do not move.” He unlocked his phone and brought up his contacts. “Call Jonah and tell him what happened.

  “I have to find your mom.”

  She nodded and he wished he could stay with her.

  Eric scanned the area, nothing but a closed-down gas station and trees that bordered the road. He trotted around the car to Hailey’s side where the door was open. But instead of her hanging out of the car, unconscious like Ames, there was no trace of her.

  Where was she?

  He pulled out the tail of his shirt and wiped the blood from his nose. With his weapon drawn, he checked once more that Kerry was fine and heard her on the phone telling Jonah what had happened. Eric headed for the trees closest to Hailey’s side of the car, a straight shot from her door to cover. He pushed through and saw broken branches.

  A man cried out, and then Hailey yelled.

  Eric sped up, reaching the spot in the trees where Hailey and Farrell wrestled for her gun in the mud.

  Eric planted his feet and raised his weapon. “Freeze!”

  Hailey pulled on her weapon, but Farrell didn’t release it. He lifted her up by her arms and slammed her onto the ground. “I’m going to kill you!”

  “Farrell, let go of the gun.”

  “You shot him. I know one of you shot him.” Eric saw a flash of pure rage on Farrell’s face as he turned, still struggling to get to the g
un. “I’m going to kill all of you!”

  Eric held his weapon up as Hailey fought for possession of her gun. “Let go of it, Farrell. It’s over.”

  The escapee’s eyes moved to Eric, and his fingers released Hailey’s gun. She backed up and trained her weapon on Farrell.

  Eric kept his gun and his focus on Farrell. He asked Hailey, “You okay?”

  “I was handling it.”

  “Yeah, it sure seemed like it.” Eric shook his head, which hurt a lot. “You want the pleasure of cuffing this guy, or should I do it?”

  “He tried to abduct Kerry. He’s mine.”

  “It won’t matter what you do with me. I’m still going to kill both of you.” Farrell looked at Eric, then Hailey, and then back at Eric. “Which one of you shot him?”

  She stepped forward and gave the order for Farrell to roll onto his stomach, holstered her weapon and palmed a set of cuffs. “What are you talking about?”

  Farrell grunted as she pulled his arms back, struggling even though it was pointless. “At the airport,” he said. “One of you shot him.”

  Farrell wanted to know which of them had fired at the airport. Either he or Hailey had killed someone. “Who did we kill?”

  “He’s not dead. Yet! And I want to know who did it.”

  He wasn’t going to let Farrell fixate on Hailey. “It was—”

  “Not our doing.” Hailey hauled the guy to his feet, his hands now cuffed behind his back. “We were doing our jobs. Your friends were the ones breaking the law.”

  Farrell still had that enraged look on his face. “I’ll kill your whole team anyway, just to be sure I get whoever shot him.”

  Hailey moved to lead Farrell back to the road, but Eric stopped him. “Who was shot?”

  Hailey frowned. “Our priority here is taking Farrell in so he can be processed. Then he’ll be off to California to serve out his sentences.”

  After Farrell was booked, Eric had every intention of taking a very long and very hot shower and sleeping for about twelve hours. After which he would eat an obscene amount of biscuits and gravy. But one look at Farrell’s face said that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  Eric waited until Farrell met his gaze. “Who?”

  Farrell’s eyes darkened further. “You’re dead.”

  Hailey led him away, and Eric followed them with a sense of foreboding in his stomach.

  Farrell was being detained, which would hamper his efforts to retaliate for the shots both Hailey and Eric had fired at the airport. Eric still wanted to know who Farrell was talking about, even if he understood Hailey wanting to check on Kerry.

  The road was deserted and there was no sign of Jonah yet. A mud-splattered white sports car had pulled up.

  Hailey froze. “Kerry?”

  Deirdre Phelps stood with Kerry in front of her, a gun pointed at Kerry’s head. What on earth was she doing out of police custody? Deirdre had been harboring a fugitive, after all. What was going on?

  Eric pushed Hailey and Farrell aside. Hailey needed to keep her hold on their prisoner while he dealt with Deirdre.

  Eric trained his weapon to the left of Kerry’s ear, where Deirdre’s shoulder was. “Put the gun down, Ms. Phelps.”

  “Let Steve go or I’ll shoot her.”

  Eric didn’t think she would shoot a child. Few people would ever pull the trigger on that one. Unless something or someone was forcing them to, which he suspected was what was going on with Deirdre. Was it Farrell?

  Eric pinned her with his stare. “You won’t get away with this. Let us help you figure it out.”

  “Let him go. That’s it.”

  “We’re not going to do that. You need to put the gun down before you make this worse than it is.” Eric swallowed. “You don’t want the death of a child on your conscience.”

  “I will kill her!”

  Hailey made a noise in her throat, but Eric couldn’t take the time to turn back and tell her she needed to keep her cool. She had to do that herself, and he knew she would.

  “Put down the gun!”

  Deirdre’s hand shook. The last thing Eric wanted was for her gun to go off accidentally.

  “Okay.” He held up one hand. “Okay, Deirdre. I’m lowering my weapon. Lower yours, and we’ll talk about this.”

  “Let him go.”

  A cold voice came from behind Eric, and Hailey said, “Let my daughter go, or I’ll shoot him.”

  *

  Hailey watched as Deirdre’s eyes widened. Fatigue weighed heavy on her muscles, but the discomfort was nothing compared to the sight of someone pulling a gun on her daughter. Why wasn’t Eric doing something? Hailey figured if she was going to get Kerry out of this, she’d have to do it herself.

  “I said—”

  “I heard you!” Deirdre’s eyes flicked between Hailey and Farrell, as though she wasn’t sure what to do. Apparently she’d run through her plan and was now improvising. Not good.

  Deirdre shifted her feet and raised her chin. “Let Steve go, and I won’t be forced to hurt your daughter.”

  Hailey tried to put on a brave face, even though she was shaking. Farrell had to feel it in her grip on his arm. She glanced at Eric’s weapon, aimed right for Deirdre. “Put down your gun, Ms. Phelps. You’re already in enough trouble without adding a murder charge to aiding an escaped fugitive.”

  This whole situation was like driving blindfolded. Except the person who kept getting hurt was Kerry.

  Deirdre looked at Eric. “Put your gun down and I’ll let her go. Give me my boyfriend and I’ll walk out of here.”

  Farrell’s body twitched like he was itching to run.

  Eric nodded. “Done.”

  He lifted his free hand, palm out and took his finger from the trigger. Hailey knew it was still close enough he could get a shot off if he needed to. Eric was hardly going to disarm himself just because Deirdre asked. All they needed was for Deirdre to believe he had.

  Deirdre looked at Hailey. “Let him go.”

  Hailey locked her jaw. “Let Kerry go.”

  After a second of silence and staring, Hailey shoved Farrell to the side and grabbed Kerry’s hand, pulling her over. Kerry ran between Eric and Hailey to stand behind her mom.

  Deirdre held her gun loosely, but she squared her gaze on Hailey. “Handcuff keys?”

  “Don’t push your luck.”

  Farrell’s eyes were hard when he looked at her one last time. “The two of you are dead.”

  Deirdre revved the engine, and Farrell ran to climb in the passenger side. Dealer plates meant the car likely belonged on the lot of one of Deirdre’s father’s superstores. Which was probably exactly where she’d “borrowed” it from.

  The sports car growled again and they sped away, leaving Farrell’s car still steaming where it had smashed into Eric’s SUV.

  Eric strode forward and kicked the tire of his totaled vehicle.

  Three federal cars tore around the corner, lights flashing. Hailey turned back to Kerry. Her daughter was drenched, her wet hair plastered to her head just like Hailey’s.

  Eric moved in front of them and Hailey looked up. His gaze was on Kerry. “You okay?”

  Kerry nodded.

  Jonah pulled up beside them in his car, while the other two cars continued on in pursuit of Deirdre and Farrell.

  Jonah jumped out. “You ladies okay?”

  Hailey gave him a look, but so long as Kerry was okay, he could call her whatever he wanted. Hailey reached out and Kerry burrowed into her side. She squeezed her daughter tight and looked at Jonah.

  There was something in his eyes she’d never seen before, a desperate grief that said he knew how fragile life was. He was happy for her, but that didn’t mean something in him wasn’t hurting. What was that about?

  “Hanning?”

  Eric didn’t answer Jonah. His lips were still mashed together, befitting his mood.

  “Let’s head back to the law enforcement base of operations. You can tell me what happened on the w
ay.”

  Eric led them to Jonah’s car, and they climbed in, Hailey and Kerry in the back.

  Eric was ready to close the door and get in front when Kerry reached out. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him in so that he sandwiched her in between him and Hailey.

  Kerry wrapped her fingers around Eric’s sleeve, leaning her shoulder against his arm. He glanced up. The surprise on his face looked a whole lot like hope. Something was happening, something that put a lump in Hailey’s throat.

  She cleared her throat and leaned forward to speak to Jonah as he drove. “How is Deirdre out? Isn’t she supposed to be in custody for aiding Farrell?”

  Jonah shook his head. “Turner couldn’t get the warrant. The judge evacuated like everyone else, and the jail is in the flood zone. She’s supposed to be under house arrest until the streets clear.”

  Hailey sat back. “This is unbelievable.”

  “There wasn’t time to tell you, what with Farrell being at Charles’s house.”

  Hailey didn’t even know what to say. Deirdre wasn’t exactly the biggest threat, but the woman had just been holding a gun to her daughter’s head.

  Jonah said, “Tell me what happened back there.”

  Twice during the story Jonah pressed his lips together so hard they went white, but he didn’t say anything. He also didn’t criticize her for handling the situation instead of letting Eric do the negotiating. Hailey couldn’t help but think that might be because he knew he’d have done the same thing.

  “This is bigger than we thought if someone Farrell cares about is involved. We need to do more digging.”

  TWELVE

  Kerry shifted and laid her head on Hailey’s shoulder. Her breathing became deep and regular as Jonah took the least washed-out route through town. The low voice on the radio listed off roads now rendered impassable by the storm.

  Eric turned from the window. “It won’t help any of us if Deirdre and Farrell get caught in rushing water and have to be pulled out of their car. I hope the marshals in pursuit are okay.”

  Hailey nodded. “Me, too.”

  Jonah glanced back from the driver’s seat. “Law enforcement has checkpoints at every major exit through town. If he tries to leave, they’ll get him. I doubt he’ll try to hike out. The mountains are impassable in this weather. He’s more likely to get hit with a flash flood.”