Nowhere to Run (14 page)

“I still think you should have backup,” McCormick told him. “It's standard procedure.”

“No. I know the man we're after. If I'm going to have a chance to bring him in, it has to be one-on-one.”

Leaving no room for argument, he whipped off the earpiece and stuffed it into his pocket. He couldn't chance interference. Seth had always been cold and deadly in a firefight. Any unnecessary distraction could prove lethal when going against a man like that.

Sure of his stealth because of the darkness, Eccles walked on, wasting no more than a cursory glance on the men he'd just shot.

He spotted the red of taillights before he rounded the final bend and saw the watery crossing. There were two vehicles in the river and no way to tell which was Seth's. Therefore, the best way to find out was to fire at one of them and see which driver reacted in the most professional way.

Steadying his pistol in both hands, Eccles assumed a professional stance and prepared to fire.

 

A sharp crack echoed across the water. Marie wasn't sure that the high-pitched, zinging sound signaled danger, but one look at the way Seth was shielding Patty told her he certainly didn't believe it was an innocent noise.

She stared, her jaw agape. “What was that?”

“Another gunshot,” he said.

“What do you mean
another
one?” She knew her voice reflected terror but she couldn't help it.

“There were others a few minutes ago,” Seth said. “That last one was closer. Now will you come with me?”

“I
can't
leave my car. What if the firemen find it empty and think I've drowned or something?”

“Tell the dispatcher what you're doing and then let's get out of here. Pronto.”

Under the circumstances, Marie could see the wisdom of his suggestion, even if he was coming across as so bossy and causing her to hate giving in.

She reluctantly did as he'd ordered, leaving the phone connection open, as the official on the other end of the line had instructed. She didn't know why Seth had been so adamant about turning off the cell phone, but there was no more time to discuss it. Not if someone really was carelessly shooting nearby. Besides, she'd imagined feeling the car slip again, and she was growing more and more uneasy every moment that she sat there.

She unfastened her seatbelt, passed him her purse, then got onto her knees and began to wriggle her upper torso out the window. Directly below, she could see the roiling, churning blackness of the icy water, hear its roar, feel its spray as it hit the car door and splashed up at her. If anyone but Seth had been planning to catch her, she knew she'd have been so scared she wouldn't have been able to budge, let alone crawl out the window.

Extending her arms, she reached for him. Just as their fingertips touched, the car slipped. Slewed. Moved her just out of his reach.

Marie screamed. Seth lunged till his upper body was all the way out of the truck window.

“Save Patty!” she screeched.

“No. Jump.”

“I can't.”

“Yes, you can. Open the door if you have to.”

Sliding back onto the seat, Marie put her shoulder against the door and tried to move it. “It won't budge,” she shouted. “The current's too strong.”

“Then crawl out the window. You can't stay there.”

She pushed both feet on the brake pedal, hoping to stop her slide. It was no use. Every few seconds her car stuttered and shifted. And every time it moved, it was farther from Seth and from the safety of the riverbank.

Once again, Marie got on her knees and stretched out the window toward Seth. Her hands were slippery from the splashing water and her whole body was trembling uncontrollably.

He lunged, every muscle taut.

Marie tried to reach him.
Almost there.
She was almost there. If only she hadn't hesitated, hadn't argued with him. “Dear God, help me,” she cried.

One more monumental effort and Seth's hands clamped tightly around her slim wrists. Her fingers curled to grasp his, as well.

The car shuddered and started to swing around as it was pulled downstream.

Marie stifled a scream. “It's moving more!”

“Your weight must have been all that was keeping it there,” Seth shouted. “Kick free before it takes you with it.”

“What about…” She was going to argue against leaving all her possessions, when the decision was stripped from her. The car's traction broke loose. If Seth hadn't been holding her wrists so tightly she knew she would have been swept away, possibly to her death.

The side mirror jabbed her in the ribs, the window sill scraped her legs, but Seth's grip held.

As Marie was whisked out of the car she landed in the icy, rushing water, up to her knees. She recoiled, then tried to clamber into the truck as Seth lifted and pulled her.

She was almost in, almost safe, when another shot sounded. Something ricocheted off the metal of her nearby car and smashed through its rear window, shattering it into a million pieces.

Marie had no opportunity to react. Seth jerked her the rest of the way into his truck so fast that she didn't have time to breathe, let alone scream.

“Get on the floor and keep your heads down,” he ordered, shoving her and the child in that direction as he slid behind the wheel.

Her voice was tremulous. “What's going on?”

“Somebody's shooting at us.” Dropping the truck into low gear he added, “I hope it's Roy's old buddies.”

“You do? Why?”

“Because the other alternative is worse,” Seth said. “Much worse.”

 

Eccles saw a flurry of activity as the driver of the truck pulled someone into the cab and started to speed away.

That was Seth,
he concluded. It had to be him. His reaction had been too perfect, too practiced.

He fired once more at the fleeing truck, then turned and ran back to his car. He didn't know how he was going to squeeze past the other abandoned car or get across that fast-moving water, but no matter what he had to do, he wasn't going to let Seth escape. Not now. Not when he was so close to silencing him for good.

M
arie was frightened out of her wits and so flustered she could hardly think, hardly function. Keeping her daughter on the floor between her feet, she slipped back onto the truck seat beside Seth as he drove.

“I told you to stay down,” he yelled.

“This is as far down as I plan to get,” she countered. “Patty's safe. I want to see what's going on.”

“And give me more to worry about.”

“That's not fair. I've told you all about Roy's partners in crime, but I'm getting the feeling there's a whole lot more to this mess than that.”

All Seth said was “Yeah.”

“So? Give. What else is going on?”

The force of his erratic driving was tossing her from side to side on the seat, and she was having to brace herself against the dash and side door to keep from sliding.

“Put your seat belt on,” Seth ordered.

“
Then
will you explain?”

He made a sound of disgust that reminded her of a growl. “All right. You may need to know more in order to defend yourself—and Patty—properly. Get the belt on and I'll tell you everything.”

Marie managed to do as he'd said by bracing her feet on the floor on either side of the child. She hated to make Patty stay down there, but if Seth was convinced that that was the safest place, she'd do as he'd said.

She looked over at his profile as he drove. Her heart leaped. In the moonlight, his features were chiseled and his smoky blue eyes had darkened to slate, with sparks of obsidian. He was magnificent, in spite of his dour mood. Every muscle in his body seemed totally in tune. Every instinct told her that she was in good hands as long as she was with Seth.

That intense emotional reaction took her by surprise. She felt safe! Wanted! Secure in spite of everything that was going on. That was new for her.
Very
new. Even as a child she had never felt that protected, that sheltered. With Roy she had had to fantasize about being cared for and loved, but with Seth it was real. Though he had never expressed his feelings, they were evident. He was her guardian, her stalwart defender, no matter what happened.

Someday, hopefully very soon, she would tell him how much she cared for him and see if those feelings were reciprocated. There was no way she could imagine that they were not.

“Okay. The belt is fastened,” Marie said. Her voice was shaky from the bouncing of the truck but strong, nevertheless. “Tell me what's going on.”

“It's complicated,” Seth said. “I told you my wife died.”

“Yes.”

“What I didn't say was that I was framed so the authorities would think I'd killed her.”

Marie could hardly breathe, barely speak. “What?”

He was nodding, keeping his eyes on the winding road instead of looking at her. “I used to have a career working for a private firm that was heavily involved in corporate espionage.” He paused long enough to give her a brief glance. “Basically, I was a spy.”

Her jaw dropped.
A spy? Seth?
That was impossible. He was just a garage mechanic, a regular guy who worked on cars and lived in a quaint little Ozark town. How could he possibly have been a spy?

Continuing, he said, “There's more. I was good at my job. Before Alice was killed, I had uncovered an insider plot to steal and sell military-type secrets to unstable governments around the world. I was about to expose everything. That was why the men responsible had to get rid of me. I thought they had also killed Jonathan Biggs, a close friend of mine, but he's still alive. That was who I had given that new cell phone number to—and why I didn't want you to turn it on or use it unless you had to.”

“You didn't trust me to talk to him?” Her voice was barely audible above the roar of the truck's engine.

“No, no. I didn't want Jonathan to think I had blown his cover. If he had called and you had answered, he might have broken all contact with me.”

“Nobody called. Honest.” She saw Seth's jaw clench.

“There's more,” he told her. “Once that number was given out, even though I trusted my old friend, it made it possible for that particular phone to be traced whenever it was left on.”

Marie was crushed. And angry. “Why didn't you
say
so? Why didn't you trust me enough to explain your reasons? Did you think I was like Roy?”

“Of course not.”

“Then why not at least tell me a believable lie? Or is that what you're doing, now?”

“You wanted the whole truth and now you have it. Don't complain if you don't like what you hear.”

“Complain? That's hardly what I'd call it, Mr. Whitfield. You led me on, made me trust you. Made me think you were…”

“Made you think I was what, Marie? Looking out for you? I am. That's why I had to finally tell you everything. There were two cars following you besides mine. One was Roy's buddies. I don't know who was in the other one, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was after you, because you'd turned on that new cell phone after I'd specifically warned you not to.”

“Hold it. Are you saying we're running away from people who are after
you?
”

“It's highly likely. Although I can't understand how they managed to get a link to your position so quickly. You only turned on the phone to call for help, right?”

She laced her fingers together in her lap as if preparing to pray before she admitted, “No. I turned it on back in Serenity when I was going to call you and tell you where to find your phone messages.”

His head whipped around. He was scowling at her. “Then you turned it back off, didn't you?”

Marie shook her head and avoided his gaze. “I'm not positive. I think I left it on after that. It was still working when I picked it up to dial 911.”

She had expected Seth to curse the way Roy always had when she'd disappointed him. Instead, he merely looked away as if dismissing her. That hurt more than it would have if he had called her every bad name in the book.

 

By the time Eccles reached the crossing, the blue car had slid off the road and was partially submerged in the racing water. All he had to do was watch it float downstream, bobbing like an ungainly boat.

His sedan was not only larger than the other car, but it was also armored enough to make it a lot heavier and therefore more stable. Still, he was relieved to safely reach the road on the far side of the torrent. He knew he was several minutes behind the truck he'd seen but figured he'd catch up to it eventually. According to his GPS unit, this road ended at a campground. There was only one way in and out. No one was going to get past him. Not alive, anyway.

 

Seth noted that Marie was shivering, which was not a surprise, since she'd been half submerged in that icy creek. “There's a blanket behind the seat,” he said. “Pull it out and wrap it around your legs.”

“I'm fine.”

He gritted his teeth. The woman was unreasonably stubborn, and she was obviously mad at him. Not that he blamed her. He'd never intended to get her involved in his problems; he'd simply been trying to help her. If she hadn't been so hardheaded…

“Then get it for Patty,” Seth said gruffly. “We're going to run out of road soon, and we'll need to grab as much survival gear from the truck as possible.”

“Wait a minute. What do you mean we'll run out of road?”

“Hey, don't complain to me. You're the one who turned off the highway and headed for the boonies. If you'd stayed your course instead of trying to be cute, you'd have been fine.”

“If I'd known what I was really up against, I wouldn't have extra bad guys chasing me, either,” Marie countered. “All you'd have had to do was tell me how important it was to not use that phone.”

“I did tell you.”

“No, you didn't. You gave me some silly excuse about switching phones that sounded like macho drivel. I'm not stupid, Seth. I'd have understood.”

“No, you wouldn't,” he said slowly, feigning calm. “You'd have started asking yourself if I was really innocent the way I claimed, and you'd have pushed me away so I couldn't continue to help you.”

“I'm not pushing you away now, am I?”

He snorted derisively. “I don't see that you have a lot of choices for the present. Just know this, Marie. I am innocent of any crimes. Period. I did not kill my wife or steal and sell defense secrets. I was framed by people I had once trusted and had to change my identity in order to survive. The Feds are after me, and so are the men who accused me in the first place.”

“Why didn't you go to the local police? Everyone in town seemed to like you.”

“Actually, I was eventually going to tell Logan Malloy and see if he could help me get justice,” Seth said. “He used to be a private detective.”

“Your
preacher?
”

Her astonishment made Seth chuckle in spite of the dire situation. “Yes, Marie, my preacher. Logan came to Serenity to track down a missing baby and discovered she had grown up without knowing she'd been abducted. Actually, it was Becky. He ended up marrying her.”

“Becky?” She stared at him. “So that's what she meant when she told me she'd had a rough life. Wow. I'd never have guessed. She seems so settled, so happy.”

“Which just proves that anyone has a chance. Even us,” Seth said. He held his breath, waiting for Marie to either affirm or deny his suggestion that they might one day become a couple.

When she didn't answer, he knew what her decision had been. She no longer trusted him. And he didn't blame her. Not really. He had hoped that she was different. That she would take him at face value even after finding out he'd had such a chaotic history.

I've been kidding myself,
Seth thought, chagrined.
I can't expect a normal family life in the future, any more than I was able to have one in the past.

His hands fisted on the wheel and his teeth clenched.

There was no way he was going to ask any woman, especially Marie, to put up with his former lifestyle. Nor was there much of a chance he wouldn't wind up incarcerated when this was all over, maybe for years. Given those two alternatives, it would be blatantly wrong to even tell her how he felt.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, he spotted the flash of headlights through the trees. Someone was still trailing them. It wasn't over yet.

 

“This one's alive,” the sheriff shouted. “Get the medics over here.”

Al groaned and stared up at the uniformed officer. His gaze locked on the man's badge. “If this is heaven, I hope you're not St. Peter.”

“It's not heaven, son. But your friends may have gone there. What happened?”

“I don't know. We were just mindin' our own business and…”

“Don't give me that. I know better. We had several local reports of a car chase and shots being fired. Let's have the truth.”

Al shook his head and groaned again.

“Look. If you want medical attention in a hurry, I suggest you tell me,” the sheriff said. “Me and the boys can wait as long as we have to.”

“Hey, I'm dyin' here. You gotta help me.”

“We will. Just as soon as we know what we're up against. I don't want any more innocent civilians getting shot.”

“That's us,” Al said, grimacing. “We were just good ol'boys out having some fun. Then we had car trouble and this guy in a big black car comes along and shoots us for no reason.”

“What about the other two vehicles—a car and a truck.”

“You know about those?”

The sheriff nodded sagely, patiently. “We know. One was reported to be stalled in the river crossing, but it's not there now. Where'd they go.”

“I don't know,” Al insisted. “I was afraid to stick my head up and get it shot off.” He raised a trembling hand to point. “They drove off that way. That's all I know. I swear.”

“Okay.” Straightening, the sheriff spoke into his radio, listened to the reply, then gestured to the paramedics. “You see to his injuries and I'll have my men take care of the other two. Tell the hospital to give this one whatever treatment he needs but keep a close eye on him afterward. I just found out that he and his friends are wanted men in Louisiana.”

“What else do you want us to do?” one of the volunteer firemen asked.

“Nothing, unless that car is still stuck down in the creek somewhere. If it's gone, I'll drive a little farther to see what I can see. The rest of you fall back and reorganize. We can take up the search again at daybreak.”

“Isn't that an awful long time?” the firefighter asked.

“Not if I leave a unit to guard this road. By morning, if we haven't found hide nor hair of the rest of the folks messin' around out here, I'll order an official search. If the others involved are as dirty as these three, it'll do 'em good to spend the night with the skeeters, ticks and chiggers.”