Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Glenn wiped the snow out of his eyes with the backs of his gloved hands, wishing he’d remembered to pack goggles before he’d left—but he’d been in a hurry. His knee ached. Fingers were cold. Nose numb from the wind chill.
Michelle would laugh her ass off if she could see him now, on the run, almost blinded by the flurries, near his physical limit with pursuers on his tail. It was all that bitch’s fault, trying to squeeze every last dime from him until he snapped.
What had she expected? That he’d roll over and take it? That Doug would protect her? Or his biker cronies? His top lip pulled back in a sneer.
He glanced over his shoulder. Summer had fallen asleep again and looked almost ghostlike tucked among the blankets. The tip of Trapper’s nose was visible against her neck, puffing out small clouds of warm breath.
He’d heard the chopper come and go behind him, had hidden beneath the trees and stayed still until he was sure the machines were headed in the other direction.
Yeah, motherfuckers.
That’ll slow them down.
He looked into the hills to the north which were so close.
Hesitated.
If he were the one in pursuit and had all the resources of the US government at his disposal, he’d have dropped a team north of his last known position in the direction of travel and set up an ambush.
He slowed and looked left. The mountain to the west was hidden by low clouds that were growing thicker by the moment, but he knew the pass was there on the other side of the valley.
It would take a couple of hours longer to reach, but it had a tactical advantage of avoiding a possible ambush and also any RCMP officers waiting expectantly on the Canadian side of the border.
His not turning up where predicted would make the people this side of the border look like the idiots they were.
The other pass was also less elevated, and the weather was likely to be milder if only by a few degrees.
Even though he could almost reach out and touch the northern border from here, his instinct told him to slow the hell down and use his head.
Damn it.
Unlike everything else in his life, his instincts had never failed him.
He turned his skis to head down the slope and raced downward, faster than he’d intended, and went sharply over the steep bank careening onto the frozen shoreline of the lake. It was too steep and too fast, and the sled tipped. Summer and Trapper were thrown.
Swearing as the sled crashed into the back of his legs, he turned around and undid the belt that was hooked around his waist. Trapper started barking, and Glenn swatted at his nose. “Quiet.”
The dog immediately hushed.
Summer lay unmoving in the snow.
“Summer. You okay, baby?”
A lump filled his throat. Was she alive?
He almost didn’t want to check because the idea she might not be destroyed him.
All of this would have been for nothing.
He sank to his knees in the snow as tears filled his eyes.
Then she groaned and moved her head from side to side, and he released a breath of relief.
“Thank God. Are you hurt?”
She didn’t answer.
“Summer. Summer.” She was pale, much too pale. He gripped her shoulders and shook her slightly. “Summer, wake up.”
Her eyes didn’t open but, she breathed out. “Papa, I’m tired. I want to go home.”
The words hit him like a bullet through the heart.
She should be home. She should have been fighting with him about how much TV she was allowed to watch or playing with her dolls.
He’d done this to her, to them both. All because he couldn’t keep a handle on his temper. But he’d fix it. He’d make it all better, and in a week’s time they’d be in Costa Rica, soaking up the sunshine on some golden beach.
“Another couple of hours, honey. That’s all. It’s not like I can magic us out of this place, now can I?”
He stared up at the sky and heard a weird buzz overhead. At first he thought he was imagining it, or he’d lost his mind, then he realized what it was.
A drone. A fucking drone.
Dread slid like ice down his spine. He climbed to his feet, ignored the arthritic ache in his bones and the pain lancing his knee.
Then he pulled his automatic rifle from the sled and fired into the air like a man with nothing left to lose.
Bullet casings showered around him. The scent of burnt gun powder filled the air, the haze of smoke merging with the softly falling snow.
The buzzing noise had stopped, and he was pretty certain he’d nailed the thing, but they’d know where he was now.
He looked about, but there was nothing to see except the ghosts of trees as the snow thickened around them. They could be out there, lining up a shot through a thermal scope. They could be anywhere.
He depressed the trigger and spun a full three-sixty degrees, firing without aiming into the whiteness, praying he found his target through the white veil. Eventually, he ran out of ammo and tossed the weapon aside.
It was dead weight now.
His knees went out from under him, and he slumped, hanging his head in despair. He gave himself a few seconds just to be. Then he gathered his daughter in his arms and pulled the pistol out of his waistband. “They want to take you from me, Summer, but I won’t let them.”
His heart cracked a little as his daughter started to cry. Then he slowly staggered back to his feet.
They hit the deck when they heard gunfire.
Sebastian dropped his poles beneath him, lay on one side among the trees, drew his Glock, and checked in on the others. They all had good cover. Nora was safe behind a sturdy lodgepole pine, Chance almost in her lap, her arms wrapped around him, head curled over him protectively.
It took everything in Sebastian not to throw himself over them both, which would be reckless and performative since they were both better protected by the tree trunks.
He called Novak.
The guy spoke before he could ask the question. “He must have heard the drone. Shot at it but thankfully missed. Romano pulled it up higher and south for now. You guys are less than two hundred meters from him on the lake. Watch out. He’s about to open fire again.”
“Everyone hold position.” Sebastian spoke softly into his comms and held out his hand so they stayed put.
Bullets flew indiscriminately around them, punching into trunks, breaking off branches, scaring every bird off its perch. He hoped to hell the rounds didn’t set off any more avalanches.
They all wore low-profile, modular, lightweight ballistic armor under their winter camo, and that included SAR team members, who’d balked at first. Another burst of bullets hit lower, and he saw one fly dangerously close to Nora’s head.
She flinched as a splinter of wood spat at her.
She held his gaze with those fierce, unusual eyes of hers, anger and something else mixing in their depths.
Fury rose up inside him alongside another emotion—the same one he saw in her eyes. Something he hadn’t been looking for but would do anything to protect now that he’d found it.
Eastman finally ran out of steam—or bullets.
This fucking asshole.
“He threw down the weapon.” Novak was narrating what he could see on the drone’s monitor. “Now he’s cradling his daughter in his arms.”
“Is she alive?”
“She moved her head a little earlier, but I think she’s in bad shape. Shit. He just pulled a pistol. Jed Brennan says he’s deteriorating rapidly and acting increasingly paranoid.”
“Yeah, we got that.” But it wasn’t paranoia if someone was really out to get you. “Would he harm Summer, do you think?”
“If he feels he’s about to lose custody of her, he’d likely be willing to hurt her rather than give up control.” Jed Brennan spoke directly into the satphone. “‘If I can’t have her, no one can’ sort of thing, which can be common in these kinds of situations.”
Sebastian used the comms to tell the others what Novak could see. “We’re moving closer. Spread out. Let’s see if we can get a shot.”
He skied forward, until he reached the edge of the trees.
Nora came too, and he let her for now.
Eastman was about thirty meters away and only visible as a ghostly shadow standing on the frozen lake carrying his daughter in his arms. A sense of relief filled Sebastian that he finally had eyes on the man.
He had zero intention of losing him again.
Moving slowly, staying low to the ground, he carefully slid out of his backpack.
Pulled his long rifle out of its case, lay in the snow, and stared down the scope to make out the individual hairs on Glenn’s cheeks.
Nora touched his arm. They were hidden from view via the trees and wore their snow camo, but she kept her voice low. “He’s got Summer over his shoulder now.”
He could see. “I won’t hit her.”
“Are you sure? With a cold bore shot from a gun that’s been tossed around over the past few days?”
His throat constricted. He hated the fact she doubted him, but what if she was right?
These were high-quality optics, but he’d thrown his rifle down when he’d grabbed Nora out of the river the other day and hadn’t fired it since the range at Quantico.
If the sight was off, even by a fraction of a millimeter, it could affect the accuracy of the shot.
He could announce himself and try to persuade Eastman to drop his weapon. To surrender and face the consequences of his actions. But it wasn’t only Glenn’s life at stake. A young, innocent child who’d done nothing wrong had been dragged into this mess by a controlling, deranged father.
The fact that Summer was over his shoulder presented a risk, but once Eastman got further out on the ice, in this viz, the shot would be even more difficult, and they could lose him again.
Sebastian doubted Summer would last out the day.
Fuck.
“I have an idea.” Nora’s voice was low and intense.
“What?” Whatever it was, he knew he wasn’t going to like it.
“Let me draw his attention. See if I can get him to give up or at least put Summer down.”
He stared at her face, those violet eyes that hid a world of suffering. “You can’t risk your own life, Nora.”
“It’s my job, Sebastian. I have some negotiator training. Not much, but some.”
Sebastian wanted to deny her, but couldn’t. Not if he hoped to one day win this woman over. But what good would it be to earn her respect if she were dead?
“It’s my job that my team come home safely.” His voice was fierce. He switched off his comms. “You don’t have to save Eastman to prove you’re not a monster, Nora.”
She blinked as if the idea of that was only now registering. She swallowed, smiled with her mouth but not her eyes. “You’re not worried I’ll kill him in a psychotic rage?”
He smiled back, sadly. “Only if your life depended on it.”
Her expression turned grateful. She touched his arm again, a whisper of understanding. “I don’t need to save Eastman to prove to myself I’m not a bad person. I know what I am. But I do need to do everything in my power to rescue that little girl. Everything.”
Because she’d been that little girl once.
Sebastian looked away. Eastman began to limp westward across the lake, struggling under the weight of his daughter. He’d given up on the sled.
Had he given up hope of escape? Was this his endgame? What did that mean for Summer? What would it mean for Nora if she put herself in Glenn’s sights?
Sebastian gritted his teeth and nodded. Turned on his comms. “Okay, guys. Nora will distract him.” He looked at her.
“Stay well back from him, and do not get in our line of sight. Ditch the camo and act like a lost hiker who’s been separated from your group or something.
Or pretend to be SAR looking for someone else, anything that makes him drop his guard for a few seconds.
If you can persuade him to put Summer down, we should be able to get a clear shot, which we will take unless he puts down that gun and surrenders. ”
She looped Chance’s leash around the tree. “Stay.”
The dog was obedient but so excited he almost wriggled out of his own skin…because he could smell his target scent, the person he’d been tasked with finding for days, Sebastian realized.
The fact Nora wouldn’t take her dog with her told him she knew how potentially dangerous this was. She went to move.
“Nora, wait.” He grabbed her arm, looked at this woman who’d somehow captured his heart.
He turned off his comms again. “I think I’m in love with you.
” What if she didn’t feel the same way? What if he was imagining that she was experiencing the same crazy whirlwind of emotions that he was?
If that was the case, he was gonna get his heart broken because he needed her to know, even if she didn’t feel the same.
“I’ve never said that to any woman before, but I need you to know.
I love you, and I have absolute faith in you. ”
Don’t die.
Her eyes went wide in surprise, but he saved her from responding by crawling forward to line up the target in his crosshairs.
“Hold fire until we can get a clear shot.” He spoke through comms again. “Ryan shadow Nora, but do not let Eastman see you. Cas, you ready?”
“Always.”
“Leave all comms open from now on. I’m filling Novak in on the plan. If Eastman looks like he’s going to fire on Nora or the kid, we take him out. Understood?”
“Understood.”
And he for one wouldn’t lose a minute of sleep over the decision.
Sebastian concentrated on his breathing and not on the fact the only woman he’d ever loved was about to reveal herself to a man who’d shot his ex-wife pointblank with a shotgun.
All to save a little girl who Sebastian was terrified might already be dead.