“We’ll get to my friend’s place outside of Grandlake. He was uncertain about evacuating, but even if he did, he has a landline. Might work.”
“Mightwork?” They were banking their lives on a flimsy notion like that? Over the growling engine she heard metal smashing metal, a shriek that hung in the air. The SUV guys were attempting to bash through the gate.
Evel’s rasping voice replayed in her thoughts.“How’d you get the baby? Where arethey?”
They? The baby and Tot’s mom? She had to be the key to whatever the murderous men were after, and it wasn’t just the money in the duffel.“She can hurt them.”
Tot screamed and Kit held her steady. How long before the attackers would be upon them again?
SIX
Cullen would not allow himselfto think about what had almost happened in his cabin. “Narrow escape” didn’t even capture it. The SUV guys hadn’t wasted a moment fixing their flat and tracking them. And Evel had actually busted through the kitchen door. Cold swamped him from the inside out. Evel could have killed Kit if she hadn’t unloaded on him. A smile curled his lips. Kit was impressive.
He snaked an admiring glance at her, his cheeks warming when she caught him looking.
“What?” She clutched the baby defensively. “I’m holding her as tight as I can without squishing her.”
“Not that. You’re doing fine. Kudos on the way you handled Evel back there. That was excellent.”
She blinked, smiled faintly, and lifted a shoulder. “He had it coming.”
“That’s for darn sure.”
She shifted on the seat. “He said ‘She’s mine. They’re mine. I want them back.’”
“Did he drop any names?”
“Annette. And he said she could hurt them.”
“If Annette is Tot’s mom, she’s clearly been trying hard to escape and she must have found something to serve as insurance.”
“Evel could be lying.” She voiced his own question. “Is she running from him? Or the SUV guys?”
“Maybe both. Whatever she did, stealing that money or running away, she made some people angry.”Angry enough to kill.
“She’s not anybody’s,” Kit said fiercely.
“What?”
“He said, ‘They’re mine,’ but they aren’t anyone’s property, Annette and Tot. I don’t have to be acquainted with Annette to know that.” She jiggled the baby more vigorously.
“Agreed.” The emotion in her voice tightened the muscles in his belly. Kit was a force, an enigma. He wished they could sit down across from each other so he could look into her delicate face and understand who she was and what she’d been through. It’d be a fascinating story, he had no doubt.
Concentration was required elsewhere. He attempted to avoid the big dips that might take out the axle, but he was flying blind with the darkness and the debris.
“You ...” He lost the rest of it as they slammed into a hidden crevice and out again, his cranium impacting the roof. She yelped, and Tot let loose a screech as he struggled to correct but not before another tooth-rattling jostle.
“Sorry.”
“Where are we going?” Kit said over the baby’s screams.
“There’s a bridge over the creek. Only shortcut to Grandlake from here.”If we don’t blow a tire first.Hewondered again how the SUV guys had managed to change their flat so quickly. Must have some mechanical skills. Definitely advanced tracking ability since they’d been found again in speedy fashion in spite of the conditions. The only glimpse he’d gotten had been two guys, one trim and dark-haired, the other with a bush of unruly curls protruding from under his knit cap. Only two? He prayed there were no more wolves circling, waiting to join in the hunt. Bad enough the motorcycle dude had made an escape.
They bumped their way past the trees and up a gradual slope that reassured him they were headed in the right direction. Thick clumps of pines grew sparser as they rose in elevation, and he tried not to listen to his brain screaming,This isn’t safe,you dolt!
His breath caught as they took in the massive bulk of Mount Ember silhouetted against the shrouded moon. Normally her steep granite sides, rising some nine thousand feet into the sky, would be visible only occasionally, her top sporting a crown of snow that remained year-round. Now the magnificent slopes were misshapen, the eastern side bulging out like a grotesque pimple. Farther south there was a giant pockmark where none had been before. He felt like they were traversing an alien terrain. They were only ninety miles south of Seattle, but they might as well be on Mars.
Kit peered out the driver’s side window to get a look. “I heard on the news Tuesday night that the steam explosion made a two-hundred-fifty-foot crater. The bulge in her side is growing six feet a day as the magma rises up the cone of the volcano. Geologists are predicting the maineruption within days. There’ll be an avalanche and mudflows from the melting snow. Smoke, ash, catastrophic ground movement. The red zone is expected to be fully impacted.”
