Archie yanked on his boots and went to the tiny kitchenette. “I’ll whip up that travel bottle for Tot.”
“Make a couple,” Kit called. “We can keep the extra in the insulated lunch bag I found. There’s an ice pack in the bottom of the mini fridge.”
Archie shot a worried glance at the baby.
Cullen echoed the feeling. It was one thing that they’d somehow escaped injury thus far, but there were endless risks of driving an ATV in the dark through a fire-breathing wilderness.
And Nico. Oh, but if Cullen had the chance, he was going to make sure Nico understood the error of his ways. Traffickers were the reason his career had ended, why Daniela couldn’t walk, why he lived with an anvil of guilt in his heart that he could not dislodge with any amount of prayer. This trafficker was not going to win. The fatigue was replaced by a harsh adrenaline buzz.
“Shotgun, Arch?”
“Already in the car with extra shells. Mind you don’t lose my weapon like you did your rifle, huh?”
“Yes, sir.”
Kit darted a look at him. “The rifle’s gone?”
He ducked his chin and confessed, “Dropped it when I fell off the drainpipe.”
She shrugged. “At least it wasn’t Tot.”
“Baby’s hungry,” Archie said.
Cullen was going to volunteer to feed her when the ground shook, rattling the window coverings and the bits of broken glass on the library floor.
No, delaying wasn’t an option.
Not anymore.
NINE
WhileCullen and Archierushed to take last-minute items to the ATV, Kit stared at Nico, who glared back at her from his position on the floor. She relished seeing him helpless. It gave her a rush of triumph and hope. He’d sent Simon on an assignment somewhere, so maybe that meant Annette was still alive. Again her heart lurched as if she too were running alone and scared. She prayed with everything in her that Tot’s mom would keep a step ahead of Simon.
Archie hefted the first aid kit and jiggled the keys to the ATV, and Cullen entered behind him. “All set.” He arched a grizzled brow at Nico. “Should we leave him here? Let his brother or the volcano get him, whichever comes first?”
Kit picked up Tot and soothed her. She wanted to leave Nico to his fate, render him helpless and victimized like he’d left Annette. Tot grabbed at her hair and tugged. She looked into the vibrant baby eyes, rimmed with thick eyelashes. So innocent.
Would she want to tell Tot someday about this man who might be her father? That they’d left him to die? Helplessand alone? That because of his horrific choices, she had the right to abandon him? As much as she longed to punish him, something deep down whispered that it wasn’t right. Why that should be important now, she didn’t know.
Cullen and Archie were both looking at her, waiting. “This is my decision?”
“Not completely, but you’ve got a say,” Cullen said.
She glanced at Tot and back at the two waiting men. “How do you two vote?”
“Take him,” Cullen said at the very same moment Archie said, “Leave him.”
Archie rolled his eyes. “I say we leave his sorry self behind to find his own way out.”
“See, Kit? We need a tiebreaker,” Cullen said.
She groaned. “Take him.”
“You two are simpering softies,” Archie grumbled.
True, she thought, but she also felt a sense of relief knowing she wouldn’t have a death sentence weighing on her soul.
Cullen scooped up Tot and delivered her to Archie, who began to coo and hum. “I know you want your bottle, love. You’ll have to take it to go. It’s adventure time, sweetheart.”
