As Naomi reviewed everything, they came around a curve, and Micah pressed the brakes.
A dark SUV sat in the middle of the road ahead, tinted windows, angled sideways across both lanes. A woman stood beside it, one hand on the roof, looking down at the rear tire. She saw them coming and began waving her arms.
Micah flipped on his police lights and slowed to a stop. He scanned the vehicle, then the woman, then the tree line on both sides. “Stay here.”
“Of course.”
He climbed out, and Naomi watched him walk toward the woman, his posture easy but alert. She wasn’t sure why, but something about this stop made her anxious.
It was probably everything that was going on. Her nervous system was on alert.
But she just wanted to get to the courthouse and get this hearing over with.
She turned to check on Grace. “We’re almost there. Then we’re going to make sure you stay right where you belong.”
She looked back up just as Micah reached the SUV. As she did, movement from the woods caught her eye.
She sucked in a breath. “Micah!”
But she was too late.
Two men lunged from the trees, converging on Micah from both sides of the road.
They were armed—and moving fast.
Naomi gasped, and her hand flew to her door handle.
Then she saw the shadow outside her window.
A third man appeared. He blocked her exit. The barrel of his gun was pointed directly at her through the glass.
Dread hardened in her gut.
She knew without a doubt that if she made one wrong move, she’d be dead.
Micah’s hand was already moving toward his weapon when he heard movement and realized this was a trap.
“Don’t.” The voice came from his left.
He froze.
Two men in ski masks surrounded him. The woman had already moved to the back of the SUV. One other man stood at Micah’s SUV, his weapon trained through the passenger window.
On Naomi.
Micah’s hand dropped away from his holster.
“Smart,” the man closest to him said. “Give me your weapon—slow and easy—or you’ll regret it.”
Micah reached across his body with two fingers, drew his sidearm from the holster, and held it out.
The man took it without looking away from his face.
Micah watched the man at his SUV wrench open the passenger door. He watched as the man pulled Naomi out. She grabbed the door frame to stop him. But the man was bigger and stronger.
His muscles twitched. More than anything, he wanted to lunge toward her.
But he didn’t move.
