Movement at his left made him ease off the gas. Fuck, he didn’t want to slow, but the more manpower they had, the better. Viper opened the back door and Wraith leapt inside.
“Go!” Viper ordered.
Roarke stepped on the gas. Gravel pinged against the body of the SUV as he shot out of the driveway and headed north.
No lights shone ahead. He pounded his foot harder against the pedal, willing taillights to appear. The windshield wipers slapped away the pellets of water beating down on the glass.
He glanced at Laine. She was rigid, her hand on the door for support, the other on the dash as she stared out of the windshield. The sight of the deep purple swelling around her eye made him grit his back teeth and steer his attention to the road.
They reached the crest of a hill.
“There!” Laine shrieked, pointing straight ahead just as he saw the van.
“Is that them?” he asked. He’d close in whether it was or not.
“I can’t be sure—we’re too far away, but it looks like the same vehicle they took us in.”
“Good enough for me,” he murmured.
In thirty seconds, the vehicle was clearly visible. If the driver suspected their approach, he didn’t react.
“That’s it,” Laine cried, her voice hitting a high pitch. “That’s them.”
As if hearing her words, the van gunned forward.
Shit. Hesitation made his limbs heavy, but he accelerated. Christ, was Emmy in a car seat? Was she even buckled? Sweat dampened his hairline.
There was no help for it. They couldn’t let Cameron get away with her. He had to be stopped.
“Left tire?” Viper asked, rolling down the back window.
Laine snapped her attention to him, her hair fanning around her. “You’re going to shoot?”
Unease lodged in Roarke’s throat. No, he didn’t want to shoot at the vehicle Emmy was in. However, options were limited. They couldn’t exactly reason with Cameron. The sonofabitch sure as hell wouldn’t surrender her.
“Go,” he barked.
Laine covered her face with her hands. “Ohmigod. Ohmigod.”
Viper got into position, hanging out the back window. Roarke reached over and gave Laine’s thigh a squeeze before returning his grip to the wheel. “We got this,” he told her. “Bringing that little girl home right fucking now.”
Crack!
The back-left tire blew out. Rubber screeched on the pavement, and the van skittered across the road before bumping over the shoulder and into the ditch. Roarke followed the van’s tracks and stopped several feet away.
Laine kicked open her door.
“Wait!” He reached for her, but she slipped out of his grip. “Dammit.”
He leapt out of the vehicle a beat behind Viper and Wraith, and the four of them raced into the ditch. Water splashed up his pant legs as he trained his weapon on the van, keeping his aim low in case Emmy jumped out.
There was no movement. Not a fucking sound.
His pulse roared with warning.
“Emmy!” Laine stumbled to her knees, seeing something that he couldn’t. “Roarke, don’t shoot!”
The minute the words left her mouth, the driver’s side door swung open. Cameron shoved Emmy out first, a gun pressed to her head.
