Jack hesitated.
Rita studied his face. “He doesn’t know. That’s okay. I’ll tell him.” She glanced at the three of them. “Later.”
Jack hugged her. “You’re still the best, Rita.”
She waved away his words. “Just take care of yourselves. All of you.” She reached out again, hugging him fiercely, her low voice reaching only him. “You’ve got a good one there with Summer. It’s clear you’re meant to be together. That doesn’t happen too often in this life.” Her voice cracked. “You hang on to her.”
Startled, Jack glanced at Summer, who was turned toward the back seat, patting Danny’s plump leg. Meant to be?
But he didn’t have time to dwell on the words. He had to get them far away. Perhaps he’d calculated wrong in bringing them here, rather than heading directly to D.C. He just hoped it wasn’t a fatal mistake.
“Jack?” Summer prodded, looking up at him from inside the car.
“Right.” He turned to Rita. “Thanks again. We couldn’t have made it without you.”
“You better get your wife to that doctor.”
Jack opened the door and slid into the car.
Rita leaned toward the window. “Summer, take care of yourself.” Then her gaze found and lingered on Danny. “I’m sure going to miss you.”
As soon as she stepped away, Jack drove ahead.
“I know how she feels,” Summer murmured.
Jack glanced at her briefly, his eyes scanning the area. “About what?”
“About getting so attached to Danny. He’s pretty hard to resist.” Summer couldn’t prevent another glance to the back seat. Her own heart had been lodged in her throat since the moment Jack had alerted her to this newest danger. She would be lying if she didn’t admit being frightened herself, but her thoughts had immediately turned to the baby. Innocent and trusting, he had to depend on them for his protection. What sort of men would hurt a child? Just thinking of their sort sent a new fear skating through her at Olympic speed.
“Yeah. I’m pretty fond of him myself,” Jack replied, pulling his focus from the road to glance quickly at his son.
“We didn’t tell Rita we were leaving for good,” Summer mused. “All of our things are in the trunk, so she couldn’t see the bags. How did she know?”
“You picked up on that, too?”
“She was saying goodbye, not see-you-later.”
“Despite marrying Bart, Rita’s pretty bright. I think she knew something about Danny and me wasn’t quite normal the first time around. By now she’s probably certain of it.”
“Do you think she’ll tell Bart?”
“I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.”
Summer thought again of the sweet woman, then wondered about the man who could even now be calling to turn them in. What price were their lives worth?
Jack turned the steering wheel so sharply, she would have slid to the other side of the car if she hadn’t been belted in.
“What—?”
He cursed briefly yet vehemently beneath his breath. “Fisher and Wilcox.” Glancing in all directions, he veered into what looked like a dead-end alley.
“What about them?” she asked, trying not to panic as he sped down the narrow passageway.
“They were in the Camaro at the last intersection.”
Summer gasped. “Here? We just passed them?”
“Right. And they were headed toward the club.” Jack glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Are they following us?” she asked, craning around to see.
“I don’t think so. Not yet.”
“But when they get to the Rusty Anchor, they’ll find out we’re gone,” she surmised, her eyes darkening with renewed fear.
Jack spared her a quick glance. “Afraid so. We have a five- or ten-minute head start at most. We have to take advantage of it.”
Summer couldn’t find her voice. Instead she pressed her feet desperately against the carpeted floor, bracing herself since it looked as though they were speeding straight toward a brick wall. At the last possible moment, Jack turned.
The alley opened up onto an unpaved side road. With no lighting in the dark night, it looked as though the road led into a meadow. Her fingers tightened on the armrest as she held on, wondering if they were about to plummet into a ditch.
Instead the car traveled over a raised culvert.
As she gripped the frame around the window, Summer tried to sound calm. “I guess you know where you’re going.”
“This is a farm road,” he explained briefly.
“Are we going to a farm?”
“No, we’re heading out of town, but there’s only one main road, which Fisher and Wilcox will be watching.”
She glanced out at what seemed to be miles of fields and darkness. “How do you know about this road?”
“I always checked out the alternate routes of escape in any place we lived.”
The car hit a particularly large bump. “And you’re sure this is still a road?”
“No.”
Her head whipped around to stare at him. “No?”
“But I am sure that taking the main road would be like advertising our departure.”
Summer swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, leaving the obvious unsaid. If the road didn’t play out, they’d be stuck. And although the darkness would conceal them now, the morning’s sunshine would be like a spotlight. And like an upended turtle, they would be helplessly trapped.
Glancing in the back seat, she saw that Danny remained soundly asleep, despite the lurching of the car. Taking a deep breath, Summer called on her own store of calm. “Where are we headed?”
Jack didn’t pull his concentration from the road. “I’m not sure.”
With those words her calm shattered. “But your plan—”
“Is only half-formed. We’ve got a couple of options. I’m not sure which one to take.”
Summer tried not to panic. “Any idea where we’re going to spend the night and how long it’ll take to get there?”
“That’s easy. You’re there.”
She blinked. “Here?”
“yet.”
“We’re in a car in the middle of nowhere.”
He spared her a brief glance. “And that’s where we’re staying.”
By sunrise, they had driven the prolonged, unknown route from town. They’d had to slow down to a virtual crawl through some particularly dark and rough patches. And they did get stuck once, bogged in mud. Jack had pushed while she steered, finally dislodging the car although they both wound up wearing a fair share of mud.
While they had left the town, it wasn’t so certain they’d evaded Fisher and Wilcox. Once on the main highway, Jack watched the rearview mirror constantly. “We have to stop for gas.”
Summer wiggled her cramped feet. “No complaints here. I feel like a permanent pretzel. And Danny can probably use another change and a bottle.”
A few minutes later, Jack spotted a small gas station and pulled in. Summer took the opportunity to check the limited selection in the station’s minimart. She stocked up on baby food, diapers, juice, bottled water and sandwiches. Spotting paper towels, she took a good supply along with some soap, hoping she’d be able to get rid of the mud soon.
The bored-looking clerk didn’t comment on the unusual selection when she piled it on the counter.
“I need to pay for gas, too,” Summer told him as she pointed to the pump where Jack stood.
The clerk glanced up casually. Then his gaze sharpened when he noticed the car. “That one?”
“Yes.” Uneasily, she followed his gaze as it lingered on Jack.
When the clerk finally turned back to her, she glanced upward. It took all of Summer’s control not to gasp aloud. A Most Wanted poster bearing Jack’s face jumped out from the other notices tacked on the wall.
The clerk fumbled nervously as he rang up the items. It took three attempts to get a total, which he told her in a quivering voice. His Adam’s apple
bobbing, he moved his hands in a nervous fashion, fiddling with his baseball cap, then repeatedly thrumming his fingers on the counter.
Instinctively Summer replaced the credit card she’d taken from her wallet and handed him cash instead from the tips she’d earned.
It took the clerk several more tries to hand her the correct change. “I think that’s it,” he said finally, his eyes huge in his thin face as he stared at her.
Summer tried to smile normally, then glanced at her purchases, which were still splayed across the counter. “Would you mind putting my things in sacks?”
The clerk stumbled at first, unsuccessfully trying to open grocery sacks, then finally shoved almost everything into one severely overpacked bag.
Summer took the bag without complaint, then tried not to be obvious as she rushed to rejoin Jack. Still, she jerked open her door, scooting across the seat quickly.
“I’ll pay for the gas,” Jack began to insist, reaching for his wallet.
“Fine, as soon as we’re on the road.” She shot him a pointed look. “Let’s go now!”
Taking her cue, he hastily opened the door and slid inside.
“Something wrong?” Jack asked as he started the car and quickly got back on the road.
She craned her head backward, and her stomach sank as she watched the clerk run outside to stare after them. “I was afraid of that.”
“What?”
“That clerk noticed something. He was okay until he saw the car and then you.”
“Bart must’ve given away the car,” Jack muttered. He stared at the wide-open spaces around them, spaces that offered nothing in the way of a hideout
“I’m not sure about that. I only know that the clerk acted differently when he saw the car. And just now he ran out to watch us leave.”
She gulped. “He had a Wanted poster of you tacked up in the store. I’m pretty sure he recognized you.”
The sudden sound of a siren screeching behind them shattered what was left of their hope.
“Take a bow. You’re absolutely right.” Jack accelerated, and the car flew over the blacktopped highway.
“I’d have been real okay about being wrong,” Summer tried to joke, flinching as Jack cornered at a speed so high she didn’t dare look at the speedometer.
When the sound of a second siren signaled another car joining the chase, Summer instinctively closed her eyes for a moment “Jack, we can’t outrun a pack of police cars.”
“Two isn’t a pack,” he countered.
“This is no time to quibble.” Her voice rose, but remembering Danny, she stopped short of shouting.
A third siren joined the chorus behind them, and unbelievably Jack accelerated even more.
“Jack, we can’t outrun every police car in the state! Why don’t we stop? We can ask them for help—tell them what has happened.”
“You saw the poster. I’ve been listed as a wanted criminal.” He spared her a brief, grim look. “You think they’re going to want to chat?”
“Why not take a chance?” she reasoned. “The police aren’t the enemy. Their job is to protect us. We should be able to trust them.”
“Yeah, and in a perfect world no one should have been able to mess with my file. Someone inside the agency wants to find me. The local police would hand me over so fast your head wouldn’t have time to spin.”
“But you don’t know that!”
“If we take the chance and you’re wrong, it’s a death sentence.”
Summer flinched. “I know the stakes are high, but how can you be sure the police won’t listen?”
“Whoever’s behind this is smart. I can protest my innocence until I’m hoarse, but the police will still turn me over to the feds. No law officer is going to believe the word of a wanted felon over that of a DEA agent.”
Summer sucked in a deep breath. “So, what do we do now?”
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel “We don’t let them catch us.”
She thumped her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Summer glanced back at the throng of cars following them. With lights flashing and sirens shrilling, it looked as though there were a hundred cars gaining on them.
Jack spared her another brief glance. “I’m not playing superhero, Summer. I’m flying by the seat of my pants. All I can promise is that I’ll do my best to get us out of this.”
Hesitating for a moment, Summer reached over, placing one hand on his forearm in a gesture of support. Surprisingly encouraged despite the cars pursuing them, Jack ran a mental scan of the surrounding area. He knew it well.
When he had moved here the first time, still crazed by his wife’s murder and the subsequent death of his own life-style, he’d had little to do in his free time. So, he had spent it cruising the surrounding area. Instinct told him even then that he might need the knowledge.
Jack had never guessed it might mean his life.
Now he watched carefully as an idea bloomed. Choosing what he hoped was precisely the right moment, he flipped a quick U-turn, heading in the opposite direction. He pressed the accelerator to the floor, knowing the burst of speed was essential to his plan.
Summer’s voice was high and reedy. “Are you hoping to get up enough speed to fly?”
“Close to it. You’d better hang on.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” she trilled as Jack turned abruptly, pulling off the road at the nearest turnaround, sending the car into a fishtail.
But he didn’t reverse direction again as she expected.
Jack spotted the washed-out bridge he remembered. Because the new highway ran beside it, the old bridge had never been repaired. Now it was a deserted, overgrown pile of vine-covered timbers and crumbling concrete.
Quickly driving beneath the remains of the bridge, Jack drove as close as possible to the pillars that were nearly obscured by overgrown greenery. Just as quickly, he turned the key, shutting down the engine.
The sudden silence was as startling as the shrill of the sirens had been.
But it didn’t last long.
Soon the chorus of sirens approached, sounding for all the world as though a horde of banshees pursued them. Unconsciously both Jack and Summer held their breath, afraid that even that small sound would somehow betray them.
Danny whimpered. Jack pulled off his seat belt and whipped around, reaching for his son. Comforting him, he postponed the wail that Danny was puckering up to deliver.
Thinking quickly, Summer grabbed some fruit juice, poured it into a bottle and thrust it toward the baby’s waiting mouth. He wavered between the satisfaction of cool juice or an earsplitting wail. The juice won out and he sucked at the bottle, letting out an intermittent hiccup.
But those tiny sounds were obliterated by the sirens that were now almost directly overhead. The three of them huddled close together.
Unconsciously Summer placed her hands over the baby’s ears as though to shield him from the sound. As she did, her eyes met Jack’s and she saw the message of gratitude and encouragement he was telegraphing.
The sirens blasted over them now, coupling with the sound of the engines of police cars revving as they drove at high speed. Summer closed her eyes to the sound, as though somehow that could shut out the danger.
A warm, strong hand covered hers at that instant, making her feel incredibly comforted despite the terror of the pursuing sirens.
Jack kept his hand over hers as the cars passed by them, the sirens finally fading into the distance.
Once again, the silence seemed wholly unnatural, almost eerie as the sounds of birds and the gentle rush of the water replaced the sirens. They watched the clock on the dashboard as the minutes ticked away. Nearly an hour later, no police cars had returned.
“Do you think it’s safe?” Summer whispered as she rubbed the baby’s legs in a comforting gesture.
“You don’t have to whisper,” Jack replied in a normal tone. His voice was almost as startling an intrusion as the sirens had been.
/> Summer cleared her throat as she drew back to her own part of the front seat. “So,” she began again, “did we outwit them?”
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
She frowned. “Shouldn’t we get back on the road heading the other way?”
“Police cars can come from both directions,” he pointed out. “And I’m sure there’s an APB out on us by now.”
“Then how are we going to get away?”
Jack’s mouth thinned. “Now that they’ve made the car, it’s like driving a Times Square marquee. It’s guaranteed to draw a lot of attention from a lot of people.”
“Then we’ll have to get another one,” she surmised logically.
“Yeah. I’ll just ask my fairy godmother for one.”
Summer frowned. “I can get enough cash with my credit cards.”
But Jack was shaking his head. “No way. I’m already indebted to you. I never should have put you in this much danger. I’m not draining all of your cash, too.”
“And you’re going to do what? Strap Danny on your back and walk to D.C.? Or maybe thumb a ride? Fisher and Wilcox should be along soon. I’m sure they’d be glad to pick you up.”
“Summer, point’s taken. I appreciate the offer, but I can’t take your money.”
“It’s a loan. And when you get everything straightened out, you’ll be able to tap into your own money.”
“If everything gets straightened out,” he reminded her. “I could be following a long shot to either a dead end or an ambush.”
Summer leaned over to smooth the hair on Danny’s forehead. “Nope. You’ve done the right stuff so far.”
Jack reached over to tip up her chin. He would have expected any woman to be screeching her head off by now. Seeing the tender concern in her eyes, he felt the guarded walls around his heart crack a bit. That in itself was dangerous, he knew. Yet he inclined his head toward hers. Remembering the softness of her lips, he longed for one more taste.
Danny squirmed, pushing away the now empty bottle.
With a resigned sigh, Jack leaned back. “I think we can get out now.”
Summer reached for Danny, holding him closely. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“No, but I think it is. We won’t know if we’ve escaped detection until we’re back on the road.”
The Hijacked Wife Page 10
