Married To The Mob. Ginny Aiken

gut and stunned him for a moment. She took his brief silence and continued.

      “Drop that bag and come join us. We’re having fun!”

      Fun? They were supposed to be on the run. Once again, Carlie seemed able to find something to appreciate in even the direst situations. He didn’t know another woman who would cope as well.

      “Don’t be a party-pooper!” The teasing look on her face tugged at him. “Come on, Danny Boy, be a sport.”

      The three little ones stared at him in fascination. The younger girl took a step forward. “Yeah, mister. You can play with us. It’s not so hard. I’ll show you.”

      A small hand reached out for him. A car drove down the road past the motel. His professionalism returned with a vengeance, but he found himself unable to deny the child…or the woman.

      “One time,” he said, dropping his bag. “Only one time, okay?”

      The kids clapped.

      Carlie murmured, “Thanks.”

      He hopped, and memories of his childhood flooded him. It had been a long time since he’d thought of things like hopscotch on a summer morning. The games he’d played recently involved expensive equipment and far-flung locales. He enjoyed golf and tennis, but the simple pleasure of tossing a rock and bounding from square to square on one leg touched a different corner of his being.

      Bang!

      His instincts took over at the blast. He reached behind his back and drew his pistol.

      “Run!” he yelled, and aimed.

      But no one moved. The kids stared at him, their eyes wide open, their mouths forming perfect Os. Carlie also stared, but her stare came full of fascinated horror.

      “What are you waiting for?” he cried. “Run for cover.”

      She dropped to the children’s level and opened her arms. The boy toddled to her. She held the little guy close, murmured something soothing to the girls and then gave him the glare he’d come to expect from her.

      “You owe them an apology,” she said, her voice quiet. “You’ve scared them for no reason.”

      “No reason?” He shook his head and pointed to the plain car with his weapon. “Get in there before they come back for another try.”

      Carlie shook her head. Her look turned pitying. “Have you lost all touch with reality? Is that what your job does to you?”

      “Reality, lady, is that you’ve got a bull’s eye on your back.”

      “Reality, Dan, is that you overreacted to a car’s backfire.”

      “What?”

      “Dan…” She patted the boy then stood and approached, exasperated. “That old truck backfired when the driver pulled into the diner while we played, and it did the same thing a minute ago after the guy finished his breakfast or cup of coffee. Get real. We’re in the middle of nowhere. My family’s not about to show up here. Put that thing away, okay?”

      He scanned the road, and when he saw nothing to arouse his suspicions, he realized how ridiculous he looked. Not to mention how frightening he appeared to three little kids. His outstretched arm suddenly weighed more than the average tree trunk, and his face heated up.

      “Ah…well, if you’re sure that was a truck…”

      “Listen up, Secret Agent Man, we’d better get out of here before the motel owners come out, see you in spook mode and call the cops. That wouldn’t help our cause any, would it?”

      With one quick move, he shoved his gun into his waistband and grabbed his duffel bag. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

      She grinned. “Can I have that in writing? That ‘you’re right’ thing? It’s the first time. We need to mark the event.”

      He chuckled. Against his better judgment. But instead of commenting, he unlocked the car, threw his bag into the back seat, placed the gun on the console, where he always kept it while driving on assignment, and then turned to the kids.

      “Sorry, guys. I figured we could maybe play ‘cops and robbers,’ but Carlie is right. We have to go. Maybe next time we’ll play some more.”

      He slid behind the steering wheel and waited for Carlie to buckle up. Through the windshield, he watched the little boy run to his oldest sister and bury his face in her belly, while the younger girl reached out and patted him on the back. The air of vulnerable innocence hit him hard.

      “Do you have any idea how stupid that stunt was?” he asked, barely leashing his anger.

      “What stunt? All I did was play with a couple of kids.”

      “Exactly. In an open parking lot, with no protection, in full view of the road. You know we’re being followed, yet you just hopped around out there.”

      “But nothing happened—”

      “They could’ve picked you off!”

      “That could happen any time, Dan. I have to continue to live.”

      “And how about innocent bystanders? Like the kids? Do you think your brother’s pals would spare that little boy? Or the girls? Not if they thought those children could identify them.”

      Carlie gasped. Out the corner of his eye he caught her expression. Shock etched her face. All color drained from her cheeks, the sparkle left her eyes. She began to shake.

      “Oh, Lord Jesus,” she murmured. “Forgive me.”

      On the tail of her prayer, the tears began to fall. They didn’t come as a surprise. What stunned Dan was his pain at every drop that rolled down Carlie’s cheeks.

      He didn’t want this.

      He didn’t want to be this vulnerable—to her.

      But he was.

      He wanted to wrap his arms around her, hold her until the last tear dried, to promise her she’d be safe, that he’d make sure of that. But he couldn’t do that, none of it.

      So instead he continued to drive, his feelings in a kind of tangle he’d never experienced before.