High-Stakes Holiday Reunion

by Christy Barritt

Denton leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Not at all.”

  She fled so quickly that she nearly knocked over a chair. Why had she reacted so strangely to that question? Perhaps it was just the stress of everything that was getting to her. So what if David had been adopted? He knew that Josh and his wife were having trouble getting pregnant. Many couples turned to adoption. So why was Ashley acting so flustered by the question?

  He turned toward Denton. “This whole situation doesn’t look good, does it?”

  Denton shook his head grimly, tapping his pen against the side of the coffee mug. “No, not at all. These are some serious men we’re dealing with. They’re ruthless, cold and will stop at nothing to get what they want.”

  Hearing Denton say the words aloud made cold fear course through Christopher. Ashley was somehow caught up in the middle of this, and he didn’t like that one bit. “Where’s this leave Ashley?”

  “As soon as they figure out where she is, they’ll try to kill her. I don’t recommend staying in one place for very long. These men have a lot of resources. They’ll close in eventually. I just can’t tell you when.”

  Christopher nodded. Yep, it was even worse than he’d ever imagined.

  * * *

  Ashley splashed some water on her face, trying to calm herself down. She let the water drop from the tip of her nose into the basin of the porcelain sink. Her hands, white-knuckled, gripped the edges of the counter like a life preserver. Fitting, since she felt like she was hanging on for every last breath.

  They might have to look into David’s adoption records, just to rule out the idea that his birth mom had nothing to do with this? Now that was something she hadn’t expected to hear. How was she going to get around this? Or would she?

  She had to pull herself together. She’d do whatever she had to do to get her son back. And that was that. If that meant that she had to face the mistakes of her past head-on, then that’s what she’d do. But she wouldn’t like it.

  She grabbed a paper towel and blotted her face before pausing to stare at herself in the mirror. She looked like she’d aged ten years overnight. How things could change in the blink of an eye.

  John 14:27 slipped into her mind. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

  Yet all her heart felt was troubled and afraid.

  Please, Lord, help me to trust that everything is in Your hands. Give me the wisdom to know what to do next. Give me the courage to have conversations that might rock Christopher’s world.

  For good measure, she wiped one more paper towel over her face and glanced at her reflection once more. Hollow eyes, pale skin and dull hair. She’d imagined running into Christopher again after their breakup and looking fabulous, making him want to eat his heart out. Instead, he was probably glad he’d gotten away while he could. If only that worry was her biggest problem right now.

  She pushed the door open and trudged back through the lobby and into the cafeteria. Denton was gone and it was just Christopher sipping his coffee. She slid into the chair across from him and stared at her eggs, which were now cold and unappealing. Instead, she stabbed a piece of pineapple with her fork.

  She could feel Christopher’s gaze on her. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel shaken by his scrutiny. Some intrinsic part of her still seemed to trust the man and find strength from him.

  Which made no sense whatsoever.

  “You okay?”

  “Just feeling a little shaken.” She took a bite of the fruit. “Denton’s gone?”

  “He had to take a phone call.”

  She put her fork back on her plate, her appetite totally gone. Even the pineapple, one of her favorite foods, couldn’t whet her appetite. “What’s next?”

  Christopher’s green eyes studied her a moment. “It would really help if there was anything you could remember about David’s birth parents. There might be a connection there that will help us find him now.”

  She nodded, her throat burning. Did he suspect that he was connected to David at all? She didn’t think so. “I don’t know what to say.”

  His gaze pierced hers. “Did you ever meet her?”

  “In a vague sort of way, I suppose you could say that.” Nausea roiled in her gut. Should she simply tell him the truth? Just drop the news on him here and now and get all of her secrets out in the open? The words wouldn’t leave her throat.

  Christopher pressed his palms into the table and leaned toward her, his eyes narrowed in confusion. “What does that mean, Ashley? Is something wrong?”

  Tell him. Just tell him.

  She opened her mouth, ready to share the truth. But instead, she blurted, “I’m just not feeling that great. I’m sorry.” She ran a hand over her face before straightening. Maybe she could ease into the information. Fear threatened to strangle her, and she couldn’t seem to take a hold of the emotion. “Okay. Let’s see. I think she was young. Maybe 19 or 20. She was single. Any other information you’d have to get from the court files. I can’t help you. But I can say that I think we’re looking in the wrong direction. Nothing about his birth mother screamed terrorist.”

  “How about his dad? Did you ever meet his dad?”

  Her throat burned again. “He seemed perfectly...normal. You know, I really think we should look in other directions.” Fear won. Ashley couldn’t tell him. Not now. All of these years, she’d made Christopher out to be the bad guy when, in truth, what she’d done had probably been worse.

  It was going to be heartbreaking for her to come to terms with that truth.

  Christopher stared at her for a moment before nodding. “I see.”

  Their gazes met and tension stretched between them.

  “Bad news, guys.” They both turned toward Denton as he strode into the room. He stopped in front of them, his expression grim. He turned toward Ashley. “I sent someone to check on your car this morning. You said you left it behind that shopping center off Military Highway?”

  She nodded.

  He slapped a picture onto the table. “It’s demolished.”

  She blinked, her face growing even paler, as she stared at the unrecognizable piece of charred metal in the picture. “Demolished?”

  “Someone set it on fire.” Denton shifted. “We also sent someone to your apartment. Your desk has been cleared. I can only assume there was a computer there at one time.”

  She nodded. “That’s right. I do all of my web design on that computer.”

  “I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s gone now.”

  She couldn’t pull her eyes from the image of her charred car in front of her. “Why would they do that to my car? Why would they take my computer?”

  Christopher put his hand on her arm, pulling her back to reality. “Because they want to send a message, Ashley. They want to let you know they’re not done with you yet.”

  SIX

  Ashley huddled beneath her coat in an SUV that Denton had let them use. They needed to go and buy some items to use until this whole nightmare ended. Clothes, toiletries, shoes—they only had what they’d fled with. It wasn’t safe to go to either of their places to retrieve anything.

  Wind swept in from the open door in the driver’s seat as Christopher climbed in beside her. He slammed the door and cranked the engine. Christmas music blared on the radio, and cool air gusted at full power through the vents.

  He blew on his fingers, his breath forming frosty puffs that matched the sky around them. “It will take a few minutes for this to heat up.” That apologetic look appeared in Christopher’s eyes again.

  Ashley nodded, pulling her coat tighter and staring out the window at the white surrounding them. The frigid weather seemed to match the chill that started at her core and spread through he
r veins every time she thought about Josh and David.

  “It’s going to be okay, Ashley.” Christopher’s voice broke through her brittle thoughts, pulling her back to the present.

  She cleared her throat, pushing away the emotions that came upon hearing the genuine concern in his voice. “I have no idea what’s going on or what we’re going to do. Nothing feels okay.”

  He stared at her a moment. She could feel his eyes on her, but she didn’t look up, didn’t want him to see the fear in her gaze. She already knew what his eyes looked like—big and green and warm. She studied them a million times in the past, absorbing their every fleck and every emotion they conveyed.

  “You’re right, Ashley. Nothing does feel okay. All of this is crazy. We’re just going to take it step by step.”

  There he went again. He had a way of making her feel like everything would be fine. At one time he’d been her rock, her best friend and the man who made her heart do cartwheels. Now he was going to be her bodyguard—and that was it. She needed boundaries unless she wanted to get her heart broken again. There had always been something unseen between them, some force that pulled them together that made them forget about the rest of the world. They’d had that elusive, ever-desired “it” factor that so many love songs had been written about. She’d thought they were soul mates.

  It was obvious that the invisible pull between them could easily draw them together again if she let it. This time, she wasn’t a little girl. She was a grown woman, not one given to whims or flights of fancy or delusions of romance. No, next time she fell in love, she’d do it using her brain. And her brain constantly reminded her of how wrong Christopher was for her, despite how her heart might protest.

  Somehow her life had turned into something fit for a movie—a terribly frightening movie. Just two days ago her biggest worry had been whether she should go to the gym or watch her favorite Christmas movie. What she wouldn’t give for life to be like that again. “I just want to find Josh and David.”

  “If you find them, then you find the men who want to kill you. Not a good idea. Let Jack and Denton handle it. They’re good at what they do.”

  She shook her head, the answers becoming clear in her mind. “No, that’s the thing. I need to find my brother and nephew before the men who snatched them find me. I just can’t sit around and do nothing. It’s not an option. I need to be proactive. I’ll rent a car—”

  “If you use a credit card, they’ll be able to trace you.”

  “I’ll borrow a car, then. Certainly one of the families at church has an extra one I could use.”

  “You risk pulling them into the middle of this mess. And, even if you find a car, then what?”

  She mulled over his words. It was true. She couldn’t risk pulling anyone else into the middle of this. But if she could find a car, somehow and someway, maybe she could form a plan. “If I can find a car, I’ll drive until an answer smacks me in the face.” She sighed and rubbed her temples as the futility of her plan hit her. “They make this look so easy in the movies.”

  “Life isn’t a movie. Movies are nice and tidy bundles with everything resolved at the end. Life is messy and tangled with very few certainties. Our next breath isn’t promised, no matter who we are.”

  “That sounds like a fact you know all too well.” She’d heard through a couple of mutual acquaintances that they’d lost a member of their SEAL team during one of their raids. Christopher hadn’t mentioned it yet in their brief time together, but Ashley knew his world had been turned upside down when that happened. The brotherhood of the SEAL teams was amazing, a fact she’d seen firsthand when she and Christopher were engaged. Losing someone on your team was like losing a family member.

  His lips pulled into a tight line. “Unfortunately, I do.”

  Grim reality set in around her. How would all of this turn out? She had to believe for the best. Otherwise, hopelessness would paralyze her.

  They needed to search for answers at Ground Zero, she realized.

  “I know where to start,” she muttered.

  “Where’s that?” He stared at her, tension stretching between them. She knew him well enough to know that one of his biggest stressors had always been worrying about her safety. His laidback attitude always disappeared if he thought she might be in danger—physically, emotionally, mentally—whatever the case. At least, that’s the way it used to be.

  She raised her chin. It wasn’t his job to worry about her anymore. She could take care of herself. “My brother’s house.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” His lips pulled into a tight, grim line.

  “Do you have any others?” She tried to keep the edge from her voice, but emotion threatened to burst through. She couldn’t sit idly by while David and Josh were in danger.

  “Yeah, keep you safe. Tuck you away somewhere until this storm has passed.” Somewhere in his voice she heard a touch of that protectiveness that she’d always loved. But he had no reason to be protective of her now. They were two estranged friends who’d been thrown together again after years apart. In those years, they’d changed; they’d become new people. And once this was over, they’d go back to the way things had been.

  “You know I’m not a sit back and stay quiet kind of girl, Christopher.” Outside the window, the landscape morphed from back roads into suburban housing developments and shopping centers.

  He smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “There is a back way to get into Josh’s house.”

  He looked into the distance and sighed. “I’m stating for the record that I have reservations about this.”

  “You know I’m going to do it with or without you.”

  “Exactly.”

  She stared at him, waiting for his response. Finally, he nodded. “I’m calling some men from Eyes in to check things out first. And we’re not making any moves until it gets dark outside.”

  * * *

  Christopher watched as Ashley picked up a blue sweater and raised it in the air. Her eyes narrowed as if she was imagining herself in it before she draped it over her arm and continued looking.

  That method of determining what she wanted would have to do for now. They didn’t have time to try on any clothes. They had to get what they needed and keep moving.

  Christopher had decided to come to a local mall to do their shopping. What better place to blend in than the throngs of people out looking for last-minute Christmas gifts. How far away was Christmas again? A week?

  He hadn’t been looking forward to the holiday. His mom was out of town. His dad had been out of his life for two decades. His grandfather was dead. Christopher had planned on spending the day alone, reflecting on life—the past, the future, his failures, his successes, his regrets, his victories. Then he’d pray he could leave all of those things at the feet of a God who’d been born in a stable, but had grown to be the Savior of the world and his reason for hope.

  He’d convinced himself that being alone was what he wanted, though he knew it wasn’t the truth. He’d made his choices. He’d traded a family for his career.

  And now his career was over, and he was left with what felt like nothing.

  He glanced around him once more, as he’d been doing since they arrived. He might actually enjoy a day like this, if it wasn’t for the circumstances that had brought them there. Garlands and evergreens decorated the countertops and columns and displays. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” rang out through the speakers. Excitement seemed to zing through the air. The holiday rush—wasn’t that what people called it?

  As Ashley stepped away, Christopher remained close. Anyone watching would think they were a couple out shopping together. No one would guess their history. It wasn’t every day that God brought you the chance to make things right. The most he could hope for was Ashley’s
forgiveness. He’d ruined any possibility of a second chance, of Ashley being in his life again. But it didn’t matter. He was too messed up from the war. He feared too much that he’d let Ashley down again, just like his own father had let Christopher down when he walked away from their family.

  Despite that, there was so much he and Ashley needed to talk about, but now wasn’t the time. Now they just had to concentrate on staying alive.

  Christopher’s mind raced back in time to trips they had made together a decade ago. Even doing simple things like grocery shopping together had been fun with Ashley. She had a way of offering commentary on the most mundane things, making routines seem entertaining.

  Back then, they’d wanted to be together as much as possible.

  She’d always said it wasn’t the big things in life that you remembered. It was the small, everyday things that were important.

  When he thought back to their time together, it was the simple things about their relationship that made him smile—things like jogging together, picking out the perfect apple, watching the sunrise and searching for seashells along the bay.

  He shook his head, snapping back to the present. His gaze scanned the store. Two men walked in together and immediately separated. Christopher saw the way they glanced at each other, as if communicating in some unspoken way. Both perused shirts at opposite sides of the store. Funny, because the trendy clothes here looked nothing like what the suited men would wear.

  Christopher gripped Ashley’s arm. “We need to go.”

  She looked up, startled. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, they’ve found us.”

  She dropped the sweater as Christopher pulled her toward the back of the store. They slipped past the dressing rooms and into the office. All the employees were on the sales floor, busy helping with the Christmas rush, so there was no one to stop them.

  He pushed through a back entrance that led to a hallway that ran behind the stores—usually reserved only for employees. As soon as their feet hit the tile there, he grabbed Ashley’s hand and began running. “We’ve got to get out of here!”