Her survival instinct was strong. She wanted to make a getaway, but there was something else at stake. “We can’t leave Penny here. Or the baby.”
A sliver of moonlight through clouds illuminated his face. In his eyes, she saw a struggle between protecting the innocent and saving his own butt. “Damn it, Rachel. You’re right.”
Sadly, she said, “I know.”
They retraced their steps to the house. Instead of using the door, Cole went to the rear of the house. He stopped outside a window. Inside, she saw the bathroom where she and Penny had been talking only a little while ago.
He dug into his pocket, took out her car keys and handed them to her. “If anything happens to me, get the hell out of here. Hide in the forest until you can get back to the garage.”
The car keys literally opened the door to her escape. Her purse was in the van. And her cell phone.
When he shoved the casement window open, she said, “All those windows were latched.”
“I opened it hours ago,” he said. “I expected to be escaping from the inside out. Not breaking in.”
Walking into a shoot-out was insanity. But the alternative was worse. She couldn’t leave a helpless newborn to the mercy of these violent men.
Cole slipped through the window, and she got in position to follow.
“No,” he said. “Stay here.”
There wasn’t time to argue. He needed her help in handling Penny and the baby. She hoisted herself up and over the sill.
As soon as she was inside, she heard the baby crying. In the bedroom, Cole knelt beside Penny’s body on the floor. She’d been shot in the chest. Her open eyes stared sightlessly at the ceiling.
Rachel reached past Cole to feel Penny’s throat for a pulse. Her skin was still warm, but her heart had stopped. There was nothing. Not even a flutter. Penny was gone. After her heroic struggle to bring her baby into the world, she wouldn’t live to see her child grow. Fate was cruel. Unfair. Oh, God, this is so wrong.
From the front of the house, the gun battle continued, but all she heard was the baby’s cries. If it was the last thing she ever did, Rachel would rescue Goldie. Moving with purpose, she took the baby sling from the backpack. When she snuggled Goldie into the carrier, the infant’s cries modified to a low whimpering.
Cole grabbed the backpack filled with baby supplies. They went through the bathroom window into the forest.
They were only a few steps into the trees when he signaled for her to stop. He said, “Do you hear that?”
She listened. “It’s quiet.”
The shooting had ended. The battle was over. Now the attackers would be coming after them.
Chapter Four
Cole went first, leading Rachel up the forested hill and away from the house. The cumbersome backpack hampered his usual gait. He hunched forward, moving as quickly as possible in the snow-covered terrain. Even if there had been a path through these trees, he wouldn’t have been able to see it. Not in this darkness. Not with the snow falling.
His leather jacket wasn’t the best thing to be wearing in this weather, but he wasn’t cold. The opposite, in fact. He was sweating like a pig. Though breathing hard, he couldn’t seem to get enough wind in his lungs. After only going a couple of hundred yards, his shoulders ached. His thigh muscles were burning. This high elevation was killing him. He estimated that they were more than eight thousand feet above sea level. What the hell was a California guy like him doing here? His natural habitat was palm trees.
He picked his way through the rugged trunks of pine trees and dodged around boulders. After he climbed over a fallen log, he turned to help Rachel. She had the baby in the sling, tucked inside her parka.
She ignored his outstretched hand and jumped over the log, nimble as a white-tailed deer.
“Careful,” he said.
“I’m good.”
Her energy annoyed him. Logically, he knew that Rachel lived here full-time and was acclimated to the altitude. But he wanted to be the strong one—the protector who would lead her and the baby to safety.
Hoping to buy a little time to catch his breath, he asked, “How’s Goldie?”
Rachel peeked inside her parka. “Sleeping. She’s snuggled against my chest and can hear my heartbeat. It probably feels like she’s still in the womb.”
They needed to find shelter soon. It couldn’t be good for a newborn to be exposed to the cold.
“I have a question,” she said. “Why are we going uphill?”
“Escape.”
“If we go down to the road, we’ll be more likely to find a cabin. Or we could flag down a passing car.”
He looked down the hill. The lights from the house were barely visible. “We’re going this way because we can’t risk having the guys who attacked the house find us. They’ll be watching the road.”
“They’ll be looking for us? Why?”
If the gunmen worked for Baron, they wouldn’t leave without the boss man’s baby. If they were Baron’s enemies, the same rationale applied. Goldie was a valuable commodity. “It’s not us they’re after.”
Her arm curled protectively around the infant. “The police ought to be here soon. Somebody must have reported all that gunfire.”
It was too soon to expect a response from his GPS signal, but he trusted that the FBI was closing in on this location. “Nothing would please me more than hearing cop sirens.”
“You can’t mean that.” Her earnest gaze confronted him. “You’ll be taken into custody.”
He’d almost forgotten that she still didn’t know his identity. As far as Rachel was concerned, he was the guy who kidnapped her at gunpoint. An armed robber.
“If I got arrested, would you be heartbroken?”
She exhaled a puff of icy vapor. “No.”
“Maybe a little sad?”
“Let me put it this way. I wouldn’t turn you in.”
Her response surprised him. He had her pegged as a strictly law-abiding citizen who’d be delighted to see any criminal behind bars. But she was willing to make an exception for him. Either she liked him or she had a dark side that she kept hidden.
He turned to face the uphill terrain. “We’ll keep moving until we know we’re safe. Then we can double back to the road.”
The brief rest had allowed him to recover his strength. He slogged onward, wanting to put distance between them and the men with guns. In spite of the burn, his legs took on a steady rhythm as he climbed. Coming through a stand of trees, he realized that they’d reached the highest point on the hill. He maneuvered until he was standing on a boulder and waited for Rachel to join him.
“This is a good lookout point. Do you see anything?”
Together, they peered through the curtain of trees. The snowfall was thick. Heavy clouds had blocked out the light from the moon and stars.
“There.” She pointed down the hill.
The beams of a couple of flashlights flickered in the darkness. They weren’t far away. Maybe eighty yards. He and Rachel were within range of their semiautomatic weapons.
He ducked. She did the same.
The searchers were too close. His hope for escape vanished in the howling