Under Duress

TWO

“If you aren’t taking us to the police as I requested, then legally, we’re still kidnapped.” Samantha’s tone of accusation cut to his core, and Reid swiped his hand across his jeans to keep from digging his fingernails into the flesh of his palm.

He surveyed the side and rearview mirrors, but they appeared to be free from a tail. The storm clouds gathering out the front windshield mirrored the foreboding in his soul. There was a storm coming, and it wasn’t going to be just a gentle rain.

A growl threatened to escape from his throat, but he tamped it down. He shouldn’t be surprised at her accusation. Lawyers excelled at pointing the finger and sidestepping the blame. But neither could he let her place sole fault on him. “Fine.” He pointed out the windshield. “Notice we’re headed toward the station. But remember, you’re the one who jumped into my backseat. What was I supposed to do? Kick you out?”

“You were supposed to take us straight to safety. To the police station.” She enunciated her words carefully, as if giving instructions to a three-year-old. “And it was either you or that thug.”

“From what you tell me, there’s nothing for the police to go on. You don’t have any identifying characteristics. You don’t know the model of his black SUV. You don’t have a license plate number. Chances are excellent, if he didn’t peel out and leave tire marks in the parking lot, that he left no evidence at the church. And it sounds as though a bullet didn’t lodge anywhere in your car.” She was definitely in a predicament. A sense of foreboding settled between his shoulder blades as he turned toward the station.

“Wait.” Hope tinged her voice as she reached toward the girl. “We could tell you what he was wearing, a button-up shirt that hung open enough to reveal his holster. And a blue baseball cap with a white horseshoe on the front.”

“Yeah, he was kinda mean looking.” Lily pushed hair off her forehead. “I’m sure I’d recognize him again.”

“Of course you would, sweetie.”

Reid grimaced. They were probably fist-bumping in his backseat, feeling victorious regarding their evidence. Now was definitely not the time to mention the unreliability of eyewitness accounts.

Reid turned his head to look out his side window before he rolled his eyes. No need to rile Samantha up any more than she was already. “You mean an Indianapolis Colts hat?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s no good.” He approached the intersection where Samantha had rear-ended his Jeep moments ago. The SUV was gone, and he turned onto the road that led to the police station. “At least half the men in the greater Indianapolis area own that hat.” He turned and nodded toward the back. “Reach under the passenger seat.”

Samantha disappeared from his rearview mirror as she leaned toward the floor. A loud exhalation later, her hand appeared over the seat, grasping a blue baseball cap with a white horseshoe on the front.

“There has to be something to go on. Evidence at the crime scene, or maybe I could work with a sketch artist?”

“Was he wearing sunglasses? Did he have a mustache or beard that he could shave off?” She’d been watching too many police procedurals on TV. A cop’s life wasn’t that exciting. It included long stretches of boredom and paperwork followed by a lapse in judgment caused by too much anger and then a career change. Case closed. He corked the sigh that threatened to bubble up.

“Well, at least we’re headed in the right direction. The police will help us.”

“Sam, I’m starving. Can we stop to eat?” The quiet voice piped up from the backseat.

“How can we stop to eat when we don’t know where the bad guy is, Lily? We have to get safe first. Talk to the police. Then we eat.”

Reid hadn’t been around children much, but when he had been about that size, his appetite had been insatiable. He patted his stomach and noted that the time on the dashboard clock did indicate it was past suppertime.

He pulled the Jeep up to the front of the redbrick station and parked in the empty lot. “Don’t get out yet. Let me check around.” He surveyed the area in his mirrors, then turned and stared out the back windshield for several minutes. Dread twisted in his abdomen, but Samantha was right. She ought to at least make initial contact with the police. If she needed them later, it would be helpful that they already knew her name.

A couple of police motorcycles were parked just inside a tall gate to the side of the building. Disturbing memories riddled his brain like so many bullets. Three separate times he had disregarded police policy that condemned a reckless disregard for safety and taken a motorcycle over one hundred miles per hour. Far over that limit, in fact. The last time, he hadn’t even caught the suspect, and in his anger at his failure had raged against the bike, pushing it to the ground and kicking it, until he’d severely damaged it. His chief had not looked kindly on the destruction of property and suggested he resign his position. Reid shook his head as if that could dislodge the images.

“It looks clear. I doubt a suspected perp like that would get too close to the station anyway. Let’s go.”

The three slid out of the vehicle, and Samantha held Lily’s hand as they approached the front door.

Inside, a lone officer in uniform sat behind a tall countertop. The Friday-night shift at the front desk was usually a lonely one. The officer pushed aside his hunting magazine and first looked over Samantha and then slanted his eyes at Reid. “Well, well, well. Back in town?”

“Cody.” Reid gave him a polite nod. “How you been?”

“Better’n you, I suspect. Still got my shield and weapon.” He tapped two fingers on the badge fixed on his uniform. “Heard you got religion.”

Samantha slid him a funny look as if she wasn’t too sure of the direction of the conversation or what it had to do with her predicament. She probably doubted the religion part as well, considering what she’d known of him in law school.

Reid felt the muscle tic in his jaw but forced a polite tone. “You could say that.” In his peripheral vision, he saw Samantha’s eyes widen. That was enough catching up, though, for the visit had nothing to do with him. It was about getting help for Samantha and Lily.

It wouldn’t go over well with Cody if the old Reid reared his ugly head and reached across the counter to punch some sense into him. The new Reid shoved his hands into his pants pockets and focused on the need next to him, the red-haired beauty in the summer skirt with flowers all over it. “As glad as I am to be back in Heartwood Hill, this isn’t really about me. My friend and her daughter need your assistance. Why don’t I just wait over here in case they need me, and you can help them?” He took a step back.

This wasn’t the way he had wanted it to go. He had planned to call an old buddy he thought might receive him better, someone who would be willing to ease him back into communication. He watched Samantha step up to the counter, her arm curled around Lily’s thin shoulders. Samantha deserved better than this. She shouldn’t have to suffer because of his past impropriety as an officer with the Heartwood Hill Police Department. Cody always was a bit high-and-mighty, but Reid couldn’t change who was pulling desk duty that night. A fresh wave of regret and repentance sloshed through him. Now Samantha had to pay for his past mistakes and poor choices.

He took another step back to distance his past from the present.

* * *

Why would Reid be treated like this at the police station? What had he done to deserve being snubbed?

Samantha had thought that the police were always supposed to be helpful and friendly. The bright white walls, fluorescent lights and tall, clean counter of the reception area certainly spoke of professionalism. A tall potted plant by a window added a touch of hospitality. But officers were people, too, with their own troubles and dramas happening in their worlds. Perhaps this Cody had had a bad day, had been chewed out by his superior or was suffering the effects of a fight with his girlfriend. Whatever the history between the two, Reid at least deserved some common courtesy.

Of one thing she was relatively sure: the thug who had tried to kidnap them wouldn’t dare to enter the police station to get her.

But considering this officer’s dubious attitude, she had a sudden surge of gratitude for Reid’s calm handling of the accident and his acceptance of her jump into his backseat. That, and his ability to defend her if needed, judging by his muscular physique.

Cody leaned toward her on the desk with a pointed look at her empty ring finger. “So, miss, maybe now that we’ve got that guy out of the way, why don’t you tell me your name?”

Samantha took a deep breath. Now she was getting somewhere. “Samantha Callahan, and this is Lily—”

“And is there a Mr. Callahan?”

“My father, but what does that have to do with—”

“Are you injured?” His penetrating gaze crawled over her hair and face. “’Cause you look as if you’re in pretty good shape to me.” A crazy grin tilted across his face.

“I’m fine. No injuries.” Why wasn’t he getting out the proper forms? A large file storage unit hung on the wall at the end of the counter, filled with neat stacks of preprinted papers. “But shouldn’t something be done? That’s why I asked Mr. Palmer to drive me here.”

Cody held up his hands in a surrender gesture. “Fine. Yes. Tell me what happened.”

She repeated her story, including the Colts baseball cap and how she’d jumped in the back of Reid’s Jeep Cherokee. She finished with a plea. “Please, Officer, I don’t know if that guy is still out there. He might be waiting for us. What happens next?”

He flipped through some forms in the wall unit and selected one, then retrieved a pen from a cup on the counter and pushed both toward Samantha. “Fill out your name, address, phone number and email. Then write down here—” he jabbed at the bottom half of the paper “—what you remember about the incident. Include what happened, in detail, and who might have seen it.”

Samantha glanced back at Reid. He leaned against the wall next to the door and shrugged at her, but a telltale crease in his brow conveyed his concern for her treatment here. She turned back to the officer. She risked making the situation with Cody worse, but she had to ask. “Is there anyone else I can talk to?”

“You don’t need anyone else, ’cause they’ll all say the same. Fill out the form.” He tossed a smirk at Reid then returned his focus to Samantha. “But if you want to come back when my shift ends at eleven, I’d be happy to help you personally with whatever you need.”

She just couldn’t stop it. She rolled her eyes, so far back and at such a speed that pain shot through her skull. There was some big guy out there trying to kidnap her and Lily, and now she had to deal with a reunion with Reid Palmer, a man who would never have been voted Most Likely to Succeed in law school. The last thing she needed in her life right now was some tough guy trying to pick her up. Between her father’s betrayal and her—ahem—near indiscretion in college, she had had enough of bad boys thinking they were tough and desirable and strutting around like peacocks.

Fine. She plastered on a smile as she completed the form. No sense in burning bridges, although she wasn’t sure any bridge had even been built. “I can’t leave a phone number because my screen is shattered and the phone won’t receive any calls.”

A throat cleared behind her, and Reid stepped up to the counter. “Put down my phone number.” He scribbled on the form and passed it to Cody. “I’ll make sure she gets any information if you call me.”

Cody hesitated but reached into a drawer and withdrew a business card. He handed it to Samantha. “You can call this number to check for updates, but if you find yourself in an emergency, of course call nine-one-one.” He skimmed the paper. “We’ll send an officer to the church, but there isn’t much we can do at this point.”

“Thank you for your help.” She turned away from the desk and toward the door, pulling on Lily’s hand. She stared at the rectangular shape, a portal into a world that was now dark with storm clouds and filled with foreboding. Where would she and Lily be sleeping tonight if that thug found them? Would they be sleeping at all? Nothing had changed, though, in his intentions. He had had the chance to kill them, and he hadn’t. If the bad guy was smart at all, he would know where they lived. And once he got whatever he was after, then what would he do?

Reid pushed away from the wall and opened the door, a look of disappointment etched across his face. At least he wasn’t saying, “I told you so.”

Cody’s last jeer propelled her toward the exit. “Let your boyfriend take you home.”

Boyfriend?

She pushed outside, Lily in tow. Reid’s voice filtered over the couple of cars driving past on the street as he said a cordial “see you later” to the officer. She stopped abruptly on the bottom step and scanned the parking lot. Lily rested her head against Samantha’s arm. The poor girl was probably tired, hungry and scared. Samantha would have to be strong for her. Tears threatened, stinging the backs of her eyelids. The only thing she could do now was call a cab and go home. The problems with that plan were that she had no phone to call with, and Heartwood Hill didn’t have a cab service. The suburb was so small there wasn’t even a bus system. She could call a cab from Indianapolis, but how long would she have to wait, and how much would she have to pay? She refused to wait inside the police station with Cody.

She jabbed a tear from her cheek. She probably shouldn’t go home, though. Surely that man with the gun would find her eventually.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder. Reid stepped in front of her. “Can I give you a ride?”

An answer stalled in her throat. If she accepted his offer of a ride, she didn’t need a phone or a cab. Problem solved. Then why was she having trouble answering? She swiped a hair off her cheek as the truth stabbed at her heart. She worked too much, bringing forever families together through adoption. As wonderful as that was, it didn’t allow for much of a social life or the formation of friendships with girlfriends she could call for help at a moment’s notice. She was estranged from her father. Hadn’t spoken to him in more than a year. And her most reliable relationships, with her mother and her twin sister, wouldn’t help her now since they were on the other side of the country at a church conference.

For a reason she couldn’t fathom, she didn’t want to share that information with Reid.

She wanted to tell him that she didn’t need the help of any man. That her father’s betrayal and desertion when she was just a teenager had torn a hole in her heart. That the guy in college who had turned out to be such a manipulator had ripped that gap wide-open.

She must have been scowling because a confused, even sad, expression shadowed Reid’s face. Was he hurt by her silence? She had been treated so callously over the years that there was no way she would bring her wall down now.

But neither did she want to be rude. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look into Reid’s vivid blue eyes. “I would appreciate that.” His strong presence was comforting, even though she didn’t want to admit it.

She slid into the front seat of the Jeep as Lily climbed into the back. This time it was a bit more willingly, but then why were her palms slicked with perspiration? As her seat belt clicked into place, she shot up a prayer that Reid would be more helpful than the officer at the station.

And that he’d left his bad-boy persona in his past.

THREE

Reid scrubbed a hand over his face and down his neck. Since they had left the station a scant ten minutes ago, that girl, Lily, had talked of half a dozen things including her favorite book, her new shoes and how hard it was to remember the multiplication tables. He should probably be grateful that she felt safe and comfortable in his ride. Perhaps those feelings would transfer over to her guardian, who even now refused to relax against the back of the seat and kept darting her gaze to the left and to the right.

The low-fuel bell dinged. Reid slumped his shoulders. Now? He turned toward his passengers but kept his view on the road. “We have to get gas first, and then we’ll figure this out. But you should be thinking of who you can stay with tonight.”

“Stay with?” Samantha sounded doubtful of anything other than going home.

“Like a sleepover? The late, late movie with popcorn and snacks.” Lily wiggled in her seat.

“We’ll see.” But Samantha sounded just like his own mother when she really meant “no way.”

Reid meticulously obeyed the speed limit for a couple of miles from the station, out toward the interstate and a long array of commercial offerings. He pulled into the least expensive gas station and hit the brake next to the pump on the end, closest to the exit. His original plan had been to drive straight to his new digs and eat something cheap, like chow mein. His cash had to last him until he could secure a family law client base or an actual position, and he certainly hadn’t planned on chauffeuring an old school acquaintance around this evening, not even one with strawberry blond hair and an adorable smattering of freckles across her nose.

Before he put the Jeep into Park, he surveyed the street and surrounding businesses. Samantha was right to be cautious, but there was no sign of a large black SUV. In fact, there weren’t any black vehicles at all. He cut the engine and left the keys in the ignition. “I’d rather not have to get gas right now, but better this than being stranded on the side of the road. You two stay in the Jeep. Leave the windows up and stay low.”

Before he had the door half-open, the girl whined again from the backseat. “I’m hungry, Sam. Can’t I run inside and get a bag of chips and a pop? Maybe some of those little chocolate cupcakes or a candy bar? You know, something to tide me over until we get wherever we’re going.” Her voice took on a wheedling tenor. “I can get something for you, too.”

Reid shook his head. What a study in the art of cajoling. He turned to see Samantha shaking her head no and reaching through the front seats to pat Lily’s hand. “We’ll get something soon, I promise. But Mr. Palmer is right. We don’t want to take any chances. We don’t know that we’re out of danger.”

Irritation at the predicament of an innocent woman and her ward bubbled up from a place deep within that he kept buried. A burial ground that concealed a childhood at the hands of an angry father, the very reason he had pursued a career in law enforcement so many years ago. There was no way he would allow himself to call that emotion what it truly was, even if he was fighting the urge to slam his fist into the dashboard. And what about that salvation that had swept over him just in time to save him from the dire consequences of himself? A verse bubbled up as he prayed, again, for peace and calm. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

He glanced around the pumps one more time and slammed his door shut. What was this ride, though, if it wasn’t a favor? A rescue, even? Samantha probably thought he deserved that callous treatment. People with flawless pasts and perfect lives often looked down their noses at those who had had to fight for every inch of progress. And so far as he could tell, Samantha Callahan had lived a perfect life.

A few long strides carried him across the stretch of gas station asphalt as he pinched the front of his shirt to fan away the summer heat. Inside the convenience store, he prepaid twenty bucks. It would have to do for now, at least until he figured out what to do with his ride-along.

* * *

Samantha hissed out a sigh and turned in her seat, peeking around the headrest but making sure she was hidden behind it. Reid was gone for a few moments, and then he strode back to the pump without even a glance in her direction. A scowl resided on his face. He was probably grouchy, irritated to have the two of them in his vehicle without a place to go. Whatever his plans had been, they hadn’t included Samantha and Lily.

She picked at a fingernail. She probably had come across to him as just as grouchy. She usually did to people who knew her twin. Mallory, the forever optimist, the sweet, sunshine-and-daisies twin. It didn’t matter how friendly she tried to be, Samantha was the one who everyone perceived as serious and stoic. Add on to that a past filled with men who acted like jerks, and, well, it was enough to make a girl want to leave town and start over, except that she loved her twin as much as everyone else.

Numbers ticked by on the gas pump, and Samantha scanned the station again. Reid had taken them to the police, and it had turned out exactly like he had said. The police, or at least that one officer, had thought there wasn’t much they could do.

She dug back into the recesses of her mind, trying to dredge up memories of Reid. Even by law school, she had decided she didn’t need any men in her life, so she had largely ignored those around her, choosing instead to focus on her studies and her sister and mother. Reid was a bit older than she was and had had a different career before entering law school. But that wasn’t unusual, and she couldn’t remember anything else. Whatever his history, his reason for leaving the school had been the year’s scandal.

“Sam?”

Lily’s quiet voice broke through her reverie. “Hmm?”

“Do you know Mr. Palmer?”

Samantha craned her arm around the side of the seat to rub Lily’s back in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. However much Samantha needed reassurance that all would be well, Lily needed it more. “Sort of. We went to law school together for a year, but that was a while ago.”

“Can we trust him?”