“I’m aware.”
Cullen could hear the tapping of keys. “There’s an evacuation area twenty miles south of you,” Gideon said. “National Guard has a command post there, and a helicopter. Can you make it?”
Twenty miles?“Not with a baby and the roads wrecked.”
Kit was still staring at the clipping of Annette on the desk. Cullen realized it had been a few seconds and hisbrother hadn’t replied. “Gideon?” He held the receiver, gut clenching. “Can you hear me?” He tried again and once more until he gently placed the receiver back in the cradle. “We lost the landline.”
Kit stared at him, and he knew she was wondering the same thing he was. How were they going to get to an evacuation zone twenty miles away? He tried to plaster a hopeful expression across his features.
“On the positive side, someone in the outside world’s got the dirt,” Archie said.
“Yes,” Kit echoed. “Your brother will send help, right?”
“Yes, he will.”But will it be intime?
Archie put Tot to his shoulder and patted her back. His troubled gaze indicated he wasn’t optimistic either. Tot fussed for a few minutes while he and Kit ate their cookies and drank a bottle of water each. He would have liked a second one, but he didn’t know how Archie was fixed for supplies, and they’d need plenty of water to prepare Tot’s bottles until...
Until what? What exactly was the endgame now? With extreme effort, they could possibly cover the twenty miles in the ATV, but with the landscape buckling around them? Men in active pursuit? And a baby to protect?
Kit wandered back to the heat register and pressed her toes to it, still obviously cold. It was almost 2:00 a.m. and she was clearly exhausted, but sleep would have to take a back seat to warmth. They’d be here through the night at least; might as well secure some creature comforts while they worked on the next phase of action.
“You mentioned a supply plan, sir?”
Archie nodded. “The convenience store across the street.Leonard and Mary run it, and they gave me a tongue lashing for not evacuating, but they said to help myself to whatever before the volcano blew me up.” He jiggled Tot, who was fighting sleep and sucking at the same time. “Appears to me that since this baby doesn’t belong to you, it’s likely you’re not traveling with a full complement of gear.”
“That’s an affirmative.” He hesitated. “I can explain...”
“Later. Leonard and Mary’s store’s got a baby section.” Archie eyed Kit’s battered feet. “Some boots too, for the weekend warriors who don’t arrive in this area properly supplied. How about we go take ourselves a lookie-loo?”
“Is it okay to go out there again?” Kit’s gaze flicked to the lowered blinds.
“They can’t have gotten here so quick, if at all,” Cullen said. “But the ground’s a mess. Want to stay put and I’ll be your personal shopper?”
She shook her head. “We should stick together.”
He wasn’t sure if that was the wisest plan, but considering the woman had almost been murdered several times since the previous afternoon, he wasn’t going to quibble.
Archie pointed to Kit. “Meantime there’s a box of Band-Aids and a first aid kit under the checkout desk. Don’t want that cut on your foot getting infected, huh?”
Cullen felt bad that he hadn’t noticed the scrape.
Kit obeyed orders and fetched the supplies, then sat on the floor and folded her legs in a way he could never even come close to. She disinfected and applied a bandage. Those little toes, so small. He’d been told his toes looked more orangutan than human. She caught him staring, and he hastily glanced away.Admiring toes right now,Cullen?What is wrong with you?
“All right. We can do a supply run, but Tot needs to finish her bottle first.” Cullen was surprised when Archie handed over the baby.
“While she’s topping off her tank, I got me an idea. Be right back.” Archie hustled into a back room, and Cullen heard the hum of machinery.
“What’s he doing?” Kit whispered.
“Dunno, but Archie’s a wily one.” He urged Tot to drain the formula, her luminous eyes fixed on his face under heavy lids.
The wee fingers reached up for his chin, and he lowered his head to accommodate. The tender touch tore open the wound as he remembered what he’d had and how much he’d lost. Daniela’s infant daughter was gone from his life, just like her mother was, and he missed that tiny tot more than he’d ever thought possible.
Your own fault.He felt Kit looking at him as she repacked the first aid supplies, so he got up under the pretense of burping the baby.
Just rock thebaby. Stay in the now,not the what-used-to-be.
“Oh yeah,” he heard Archie crow. With Tot asleep on his shoulder, Cullen found the dusty work area where Archie sat on an overturned crate in front of an archaic-looking machine.
