Interrupted Lullaby

“I see him.” She touched the button to the radio. “Lieutenant? We have a vehicle that appears to be moving in on us.”

“I’m a little ways behind you, Chief. I will—”

They never heard what he was going to do. The car was beside them. It jackknifed, slamming into the chief’s car’s side. She yelled as the driver’s door caved in and her left arm slammed against the window. It remained limply at her side as she continued to steer with her right hand. In the backseat, the twins started screaming in terror. Desperate to see her babies and ascertain if they were hurt, Maggie started to unbuckle.

“Don’t you dare!” the chief barked.

Realizing how her being unbuckled could affect the chief’s driving, Maggie clenched her fists and remained seated. Her jaw started to ache. She had started grinding her teeth.

A siren blared as Lieutenant Willis roared up behind their attacker, a blue light flashing on the dashboard of his unmarked car.

The other vehicle sped away, zigzagging furiously through the traffic. Lieutenant Willis pursued the car, but Maggie could see the distance between the cars growing. His voice came over the radio, snapping out a description of the car, its license plate and location. Maggie could almost feel his frustration crackling through the radio.

“Lost him, Chief.” They could barely hear his voice over the howling twins.

“Understood, Lieutenant. We are pulling off. Need to have the babies checked over.”

Chief Garraway maneuvered the cruiser awkwardly off the next ramp, calling for an ambulance crew as she did so. Her face was drawn with pain, and sweat was beading on her forehead.

The car had barely stopped moving when Maggie pushed open the door and ran to the back door. After wrenching it open, she checked on the twins. Only the chief’s demand that she not remove the children from their seats or the vehicle prevented her from grabbing her babies out of the car. Worry simmered in her gut as she tried to soothe the angry twins. A couple of times she winced as Siobhan hit a piercing note.

When the ambulance crew arrived, it soon became apparent that the chief was stuck inside the vehicle. Maggie’s heart bled for Chief Garraway. The older woman was obviously in pain, wincing and muffling groans. Maggie couldn’t help but feel that this situation was somehow her fault. Stop it! You didn’t ask for any of this. Still, the knowledge that within twenty-four hours two officers had been injured trying to protect her was humbling. Maggie felt the weight of the debt she owed them. She grimaced. She didn’t like being in debt to anyone.

Two members of the crew used a set of metal cutters and set about the arduous task of extracting the chief from the damaged vehicle. The noise was horrendous. While they were doing that, another team member carefully examined Rory, Siobhan and Maggie. Lieutenant Willis pulled in as the crew was strapping Chief Garraway onto a stretcher. He leaped from his car and hurried over to his chief, an anxious expression on his face. Even injured, the woman was reluctant to hand over control.

“This is an attempted murder investigation here, Lieutenant. But we need to know what happened back in LaMar Pond that started all of this. She’s the only one who can identify the man who shot her husband. Do what you can to uncover the truth at that end. She’s the key to all of this. If our department can help you in any way, just ask.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll take care of it.”

“Your children seem to be fine, miss.” Maggie turned her attention to the young paramedic who was looking over Rory. The baby boy had stopped fussing now that he had been removed from the terrifying vehicle and had a full view of his mother. He smiled and waved his chubby arms at her. Overwhelmed with relief, Maggie’s eyes burned as tears gathered. She blinked them away, although one managed to escape down her cheek. The paramedic handed Rory to her, and she cuddled him close. When he protested and squirmed, she realized she was gripping him too close. She had almost lost them. These children were the only things that mattered in her life. She had to do everything she could to protect them.

“Mama! Mama!” Siobhan demanded her attention. Maggie bent down and made what she called the twin exchange. Rory stopped fussing as soon as he was free.

Siobhan was another story.

* * *

Dan stepped back from the ambulance as the driver closed the door, effectively cutting off his view of Chief Garraway. It was rather shocking to see the indomitable chief put out of commission. As far back as he could remember, she had never even taken a sick day. And here she was being wheeled away in an ambulance.

The sniffling noises behind him reminded him of the reason why his former chief was injured. Maggie was comforting Siobhan, bouncing the disgruntled little girl on her hip and shushing her. It wasn’t fair, but he felt an irrational surge of anger toward the woman. If it hadn’t been for her, Chief Garraway would be fine. All because she’d been too chicken to go to the police a year and a half earlier. If she was telling the truth about the corrupt cop, going to the police might have caused her to be killed herself.

Enough. He had a job to do.

“Can you get her settled down enough to move to my car?”

Maggie jerked up her head, startled.

“You’re not supposed to reuse car seats that have been in accidents,” she gasped. “They might be defective.”

He sighed impatiently and rolled his neck on his shoulders. This day had been too long already.

“Look, Maggie, right now I’m more worried about the jerk that has it out for you. Defective car seats are better than none at all. You and your kiddos are targets here. We need to move. Now.”

Maggie hesitated, then nodded. She handed Siobhan to him. Startled, he grabbed for the little girl. Sweat broke out on his forehead. He had never held a baby before. What if he dropped her? What if...? Siobhan trained huge blue eyes on his face and stared. Oh, no. What if she started screaming? But she didn’t scream. She grinned, then laughed. Her chubby hands found his beard and pulled. Hard.

Dan winced.

“Vonnie,” Maggie cooed near his ear, deftly reaching out her free hand to disentangle her daughter. “Don’t touch his beard, sweetie. Who knows when he last washed it?”

Dan swung his head around to glare and encountered her mischief-filled blue eyes.

“Huh. Your kids have your eyes.” Well, now that was a dumb thing to say.

She blushed. She sure was cute when she got flustered.

Focus, man. Focus. You don’t need to start thinking about women. They’re pure poison to you. Too many things go wrong when women and children get involved.

He turned on his heel and led the way to his waiting vehicle. As soon as the seats were set up and the kids were buckled in, he started driving. A couple exits down, he turned off and headed north.

“Where are we going, Lieutenant Willis?” Maggie asked, her voice tense and worried. He remembered that she had a distrust of police officers. “The police station isn’t this way. I drive past it every week when I go shopping.”

“I know. My priority right now is the safety of you and your children. And that means I need to find out what happened to your husband. The good thing is that I’m not actually with Garraway’s unit anymore, so I don’t need to stick around while they investigate at this end.” He glanced at her. The anxious look on her face had faded, and she looked thoughtful instead. “And I’m thinking we need to stay under the radar for a while. Which means you should probably call me Dan instead of Lieutenant.”

She gave him a pointed look. “I noticed that you never call me Ms. Slade like Chief Garraway. You always call me Maggie. As if we know each other.”

A wave of heat flooded his face. He hadn’t realized he had been doing that. “Sorry. I’ve been looking for you for a long time. In LaMar Pond, we got used to referring to you as Maggie. It stuck. I meant no offense.”

A feminine shrug answered him. “I’m not offended. I just was surprised at how casual you were.”

Dan nodded but didn’t speak. His mind was busy with a problem. He was positive that Phillip Nelson’s murder, the arson on the house and the attack on Maggie were all linked. Which meant someone was out to get her. Probably because of whatever it was that they had wanted from Phillip. That raised several urgent questions.

What had Phillip gotten himself into? Who was after Maggie? And how was he supposed to keep her low profile if she was conspicuously traveling around with twins? Not that the kids weren’t adorable. He sneaked a glance in the rearview mirror. They were facing backward. All he could make out were Rory’s feet as he kicked them in the air. A smile tugged at his mouth. He tried to keep it down. He needed to come up with a solution.

“Hold on.” He pulled to the side of the road. The driver of the car behind him swerved to miss him and blared his horn.

“Should have followed the two-second rule, buddy,” he muttered.

“Hey, watch how you drive, Dan! You have kids in the car.” Maggie glared at him.

“Yeah, sorry.” Dan pulled out his cell phone and shot off a quick message to Paul. He had an idea, but he needed the LaMar Pond chief to handle the logistics.

Paul sent a message back a minute later. Satisfied, Dan flipped on his blinker and slipped back into traffic.

“Is everything all right?”

Maggie looked tense again, her hands clenching and unclenching in her lap.

“Just solving a problem. Nothing you need to worry about.”

Unfortunately, her expression darkened. She bit her lip, hard. He winced, half expecting her to draw blood. Obviously, his words weren’t reassuring.

“Honestly, Maggie, it’s nothing. I just had a question, so I texted my chief.”

“Chief Garraway is on the way to the hospital.” Maggie furrowed her brow and tilted her head. The corners of her mouth turned down in a slight frown.

“Not Garraway. Chief Kennedy. In LaMar Pond. He’s my official boss now.”

At the words LaMar Pond, the blood drained from Maggie’s face. Her eyes grew huge in her face. She clenched her hands together so tightly that her knuckles whitened. The air almost vibrated with her fear.

“LaMar Pond? I can’t go back there! I just can’t!” A slight edge of hysteria shadowed her words.

Dan reached over and set his hand over her clenched fists. He took his eyes off the road long enough to look into her eyes. Seeing that she was in control again, he removed his hand and returned his eyes to the road.

“I know you are scared.” He kept his voice low, just a soft rumble in the strained silence. “I don’t blame you. But for your safety, and for your kids’ safety, we have to find out who is after you. And what secret is in your husband’s past.”

Sneaking a peek over, he saw that Maggie looked far from convinced. Her face was still pale, and he could detect a tremble in her hands, which she tried to hide as soon as she noticed him looking at them. Not much he could do about that. Whether she trusted him or not, he had a job to do. And to his way of thinking, the sooner this particular job was done, the better.

He saw a sign for the next gas station. It was sheer reflex to check the fuel gauge. Oh, man, they were getting pretty low. They would have to stop.

“What are we doing?” Maggie asked as he pulled off at the exit ramp.

“We have to get gas.” He pulled into the station, carefully watching out the windows for any sign of pursuit before he opened the door. The chain gas station was equipped with a food mart. Dan could see nothing but trees and hills behind them, although there were houses down the road a bit. Maggie threw open the other door, but he grabbed her arm before she could exit.

“You should stay in the car,” he said. “It’s safer.”

“I should change the twins’ diapers,” she argued. “Can’t you smell it?”

Dan took a deep whiff and wished he hadn’t. Okay, so she had a point. He let go of her arm, and she rushed out of the car and to the backseat. He listened with half an ear for squalling and was shocked when there was none. Huh. Guess the kids were going to cooperate. With an efficiency born of the urgent situation, he filled the gas tank, tapping his fist impatiently on the roof until it was done. He grabbed his receipt from the machine.

Maggie had the twins unbuckled as she hurried to finish up changing their diapers.

“If we hurry, could we go in and grab some milk and snack items?” she asked. “It’s going to be a long ride. The kids will get hungry.”

Dan kept his eyes scouring the road in front of them. He really didn’t like sitting out in the open like this. But he trusted Maggie to know what was best for her kids.

“Okay.” He squinted at Maggie. She had the serviceable backpack she used as a diaper bag slung across her back. He’d never thought of it, but it was probably hard to carry a diaper bag with a wiggling kid in each arm. By unspoken agreement they each bent down on their side to grab a kid.

Smash!

The window shattered as a bullet hit it. Two inches from Maggie’s head.

FOUR

Maggie screamed and pulled a shrieking Rory from the car.

“Run!” Dan bellowed. She needed no further urging. With a runner’s sprint, she hurtled toward the trees. Dan was on her heels, cradling Siobhan tightly in his arms.

A car screeched into the parking lot, bullets spewing from the open window. The ground was pelted ruthlessly, dust flying. It looked like the same car that had crashed into the chief’s.

Dan looked back in time to see a bullet hit a gas pump.

“Faster!” he barked. Ducking his head, he forced himself to hold the baby tighter and push forward.

The pump exploded. A nanosecond later, the flames set off a second pump. Dan yelled as the back of his leather jacket ignited. “Take her!”

Maggie grabbed the baby and Dan dived for the ground, rolling until the flames were out. He thanked God with all his heart that his jacket had taken the worst of the fire. He had, however, twisted his knee when he’d dived to the ground. Forcing himself to stand, he limped next to Maggie. He had never seen anything more beautiful than her tired face, scratched by broken glass but otherwise uninjured. And the babies. Wailing. Fat tears dribbled down their faces. But they were alive. He hadn’t let them down. Not like before...

Remembering the car, he looked over his shoulder. Both his car and the attacker’s were smoldering chunks of charred metal. He started toward the destruction, then halted, his cop radar on full alert. Another vehicle was approaching from the other direction, slowing down. He pulled Maggie and the twins farther out of sight.

“Trees. Get to the trees,” he gritted, taking Siobhan from her arms. Maggie looked as if she might protest, but he scowled at her. He wasn’t about to let an injury keep him from doing his duty. He would protect them, no matter the personal cost.

“Your back...”

“Is fine. My leg twisted. I’ll live. Move!”

She didn’t argue. They moved as quickly as his injured leg would allow. Once they were hidden, they slowed long enough to confirm Dan’s suspicions. The car had stopped, and two men had stepped out, carrying guns. They ignored the assailant’s car but inspected Dan’s still-burning car from a distance, bending to peer inside. Dan was too far away to hear what was said, but as the men started to look around the perimeter of the gas station, Dan urged Maggie farther back into the trees. It was only a matter of time before the men started to expand the search for Maggie and Dan.

“In the zippered front pocket of my backpack, you’ll find a baggie with pacifiers. Can you get it?” Maggie turned so Dan could reach out and open the pocket with one hand. Grabbing the baggie, he held it out to her. She grabbed the pacifiers and plopped one in each child’s mouth. Ah, silence.

Muttering a prayer of thanksgiving that they were alive, Dan prayed for their continued safety. And that Rory and Siobhan wouldn’t start crying again and give them away. Especially Siobhan, who was the loudest child he had ever heard. Unthinking, he kissed the baby’s head in silent apology for his unkind thoughts. Then he swung his gaze to Maggie, hoping she had missed the action. The eyes that met his were exhausted, but he saw the smile tugging at her lips. Oops. Busted.

He led the way farther into the woods, stopping several times to listen. The third time he stopped, he caught the distinctive sound of male voices coming from where they had been. Urgency filled him as he picked up the pace, changing directions and heading in a zigzag pattern through the woods. God had heard his prayer, he noticed in relief. Both Rory and Siobhan remained quiet.

The voices died away. The men had headed in the other direction. Dan continued to push his little group through the wooded area. Several times, he glanced at his phone. No bars. Figured. Pennsylvania’s hills were breathtaking, but they wreaked havoc with modern technology. He continued walking until he finally had a single bar. He passed Siobhan to Maggie, then motioned for her to keep back. He stepped several feet away from them, his nerves stretched tight as he drew closer to where the trees ended. Close by, the whir of traffic let him know that they were near a road. Using the GPS on his phone, he pinpointed their location.

How were the bad guys finding them? Were they following him? The idea seemed impossible, but he couldn’t see any other way that they could have pinned them down so quickly. Well, if some kind of tracker was in the car, it was gone. Quickly, he removed the battery from his phone and checked it for bugs. Nothing. He reassembled the phone.

It had to have been the car. Someone must have planted a tracker on it while he’d been inside Maggie’s house talking to her and Chief Garraway. Or it could have even happened earlier, before he left LaMar Pond. Was Phillip’s killer still there, still connected to the police department? Dan had put the call on speaker when that woman said she had found Maggie. Anyone in the station could have overheard, realized Dan would go to check out the lead and sneaked something onto his car before he left.

A quick glance over his shoulder assured him that the children and Maggie were fine. He ignored the tugging at his heart at the sight of the woebegone little family. Bitterness rose like bile in him at the thought of the family he would never have himself. What woman would want a man with his issues, his past? What kind of father could he possibly be?

Deliberately, he closed his mind to the dreams he’d had before the war had destroyed them. He sent a quick text to the police department, outlining his situation and his present location. In record time, he received an answer. Satisfied, he nodded to himself. Then he shot off a text to Paul, warning him to search for bugs or other surveillance equipment that might have gone missing.

Returning to the others, he kept his eyes peeled, constantly searching for movement in the line of trees behind them. He kept his voice low, cautious.

“Maggie, we need to keep moving. The department is sending us an unmarked car with enough provisions to get us through the next day or so if need be. Problem is, we’re going to have to walk a little ways yet to get to the drop-off spot.”

He focused his concerned gaze on her weary, dirt-smeared face. The twins were starting to get fractious. Rory had his fist in his mouth, gnawing on it. Siobhan was whimpering. Dan was worried. For a child as vocal as she usually was, did whimpering mean something was truly wrong? More than the situation at hand, that was?

A wan smile flitted across Maggie’s face. She nodded, then pulled the backpack off her back. She rifled through the contents and pulled out a small container filled with crackers. The kids fell to eating the crackers with a gusto that would have been humorous another time. She yanked out a bottle of water and gave some to one child, then the other, holding it steady even as water dribbled down their chubby chins. Still without a word, she grabbed a second bottle of water from her bag and handed it to Dan. Gratefully, he accepted it and took several thirsty swallows. She took a drink from the one the kids had used before replacing it in the bag.

“Here, let me take that.” Dan held out his hand for the backpack.

“But your back,” Maggie started to protest.

“It’s not really hurt. Mostly my jacket got burned. The fire didn’t even touch my clothes. But we don’t have time to argue. Got to keep moving.”

Her mouth thinned into a determined line, Maggie stood and pulled Siobhan into her arms. Dan hefted Rory onto his hip and led the way in the direction the dispatcher had indicated.

Every now and then, the small group rushed to hide, crouched down, as a car passed or as noises were heard. Once, they even heard voices nearby. Dan could feel Maggie tremble beside him. He was amazed at how quiet the children were. He kept up a steady litany of prayers under his breath.

“And there it is,” he announced almost an hour later. He could see two cars on the side of the road. A man and a woman stood there, apparently exchanging information. Dan recognized them both. When they turned toward him, his trained eyes could make out the shape of concealed weapons under their hoodies.

“Dan,” the man greeted him, his voice pitched low. “We have supplies in the trunk. And there are two children’s car seats installed, rear-facing, as requested. The tank is full. Do you need further assistance?”

Dan patted the officer on the shoulder. “Thanks, Craig. And you, too, Lori. We will take it from here. But I would appreciate it if you would tail us for a few miles just to be sure we are not being followed.”

* * *

More police officers.

Maggie had been running for so long, tensing every time she saw someone wearing a badge. Being in such close proximity with so many officers in one day was making her skin itch. They looked decent, though, and Dan clearly trusted them. Although she wasn’t ready to trust him implicitly, he had put himself in harm’s way several times to keep them safe. That had to say something about the man’s character. But she’d been fooled by men before. Her lips twisted as the memory of her stepfather crossed her mind. She shuddered in revulsion. And her real father was no prince, either. Charming on the outside, rotten on the inside. Even her husband had been hiding something. She hurried to stop that thought before she became overwhelmed.

Dan was talking to the officers in a low voice. He seemed at ease. Even so, these new officers were an unknown. She listened intently to their conversation as she loaded up the kids. Her neck felt stiff with tension, and her shoulders were beginning to ache. She fully expected gunmen to erupt from the woods behind them at any moment.

She didn’t allow herself to relax her guard until she and Dan were pulling away in the car. The children were holding a babbling conversation in the back, totally unaware of the tense situation. She couldn’t remember ever feeling that carefree, that trusting, even as a child. Of course, she’d had the bullies to keep her on her toes then. I’ve hidden from someone my whole life. The revelation did not please her.

“Where are we going?” She gazed out the window as she listened for his response. The trees created a fantastic landscape with their vivid leaves against the blue sky. Dramatic.

“There’s a hunting cabin I know of. It’s not mine. It belongs to my buddy Jace.”

Maggie swiveled her head to rest her gaze on his profile. Strange to notice how handsome he was at a time like this. But he was. His profile was strong. There was something so confident about the way he carried himself. She remembered how quickly he had moved at the house.

Suddenly, he tensed.

“Okay...”

“What? What is it?” Maggie straightened in her seat. “Tell me!”

“It’s probably nothing,” he stated slowly, though his tone suggested it was very definitely something. “There is a car behind us. I can’t be sure, but my gut says we are being followed.”