Shielding His Christmas Witness

“Sounds good.”

He left the motel room and approached the cubicle housing the ice and vending machines. Spending another day here was good for Kari, but not necessarily for investigating the source of the safe house break-in. Although he was fairly sure he’d hear from his boss any minute.

A confrontation he’d rather avoid.

He swept his gaze over the small motel parking lot, taking note of anything out of place. There wasn’t so much as a new car parked in the lot, and the traffic on Highway WW seemed light for a Thursday morning.

Satisfied, he carried the ice bucket back inside. After filling a clean towel with ice chips, he draped it over her ankle.

“Be back in a few minutes,” he said, turning to retrace his steps. When he opened the door, he paused as a dark SUV complete with tinted windows came flying down the freeway exit ramp, going through a red light. Then he caught a glimpse of the barrel of a gun through the open passenger-side window.

No! They needed to move.

Now.

He barged back inside the hotel. “Kari, grab your stuff. We need to get out of here.”

To her credit she didn’t argue. She sat up, tossed the ice pack aside and then grabbed her vitamins. Instead of putting her shoes on, she carried them, wincing as she limped toward him.

He grabbed the laptop computer and his keys. They exited the motel and jumped into the car.

Marc hit the gas and sped out of the parking lot.

Despite his sixty-second head start, he could see the SUV was hot on his tail.

How had they found him? Not through Miles.

His boss? He didn’t want to believe it.

“They’re gaining on us,” Kari whispered, as she struggled to get her left foot into her shoe.

Crack!

The sound of gunfire had him planting his foot to the floor, pushing the car engine as fast as it would go.

Another gunshot echoed and he gripped the steering wheel tighter.

He couldn’t bear the thought of failing Kari and her baby. He had to figure out a way to keep them safe from harm.

Because there was no way he could cope with another death on his conscience.

FOUR (#ud92d1901-6293-5461-9205-e544a9653174)

Clutching the door handle with a white-knuckled grip, Kari tried to keep her head down as she stared in horrified shock at the side mirror and the large black SUV keeping pace behind them.

Dear Lord, keep us safe!

“Call for help,” Marc said in a terse voice.

Tearing her gaze from the mirror, she searched for the new disposable phones his brother had purchased earlier that morning. She grabbed the device and pushed the 9-1-1 digits with trembling fingers.

The phone rang several times before the dispatcher picked up. “What’s your emergency?”

“We’re heading north of the interstate on Highway WW and there’s a black SUV with tinted windows shooting at us.”

“Is anyone injured?”

“Not yet!” Kari sucked in a harsh breath when another crack echoed through the air. Their car skidded for a moment on a slippery spot on the asphalt before Marc wrestled it back on the road. “Hurry!”

“I’m sending squads to your area. Please stay on the line.”

“I’ll try.” She swallowed hard when Marc pulled out his weapon.

“Grab the wheel,” he ordered.

Making a decision between the phone and the car wasn’t that difficult. Kari dropped the device in the center console and grabbed onto the steering wheel with both hands, doing her best to keep it steady. Her heart thundered in her chest as she stared at the recently plowed blacktop highway.

Marc rolled down the window and poked out his head and his gun to return fire.

The gunshot blasts were excruciatingly loud, seeming to reverberate through the vehicle. She winced and struggled to keep the car centered on the road.

Marc ducked back inside and took control of the driving once again. She heard the voice of the 911 operator asking questions so she picked up the phone again.

“Sorry...can you repeat that?” Kari asked.

“I need the name of the closest exit,” the dispatcher said. “I have two Washington County Sheriff’s deputies dispatched to your location but I need to provide more details.”

“We’re driving a dark blue four-door Camry,” she told the woman. She peered through the windshield, trying to find a distinguishing landmark amidst the snow-covered farmer’s fields. “There! We just passed Silver Lake Road.”

“That helps, hang on.”

Kari glanced over at Marc, who was dividing his attention between the road and his rearview mirror. Thankfully, there weren’t too many cars on the road. She stifled a scream as he leaned on the horn, barreling through yet another intersection without hesitation.

“The police will be here soon,” she told him.

“They’d better hurry,” he muttered in a grim tone.

Another gunshot rang out and this time there was an answering thud. Their car swerved sharply as the bullet found its mark.

“We’re hit,” she told the dispatcher. “You have to hurry!”

“My foot is all the way down to the floor,” Marc said, and she didn’t bother to tell him she’d meant for the dispatcher to work faster.

The landscape zipping past the window was making her dizzy, but it still wasn’t fast enough to put more distance between their car and the darkly tinted SUV. Kari didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t find a way to escape the gunmen on their tail.

“Wait a minute, do you hear that?” Marc asked abruptly.

At first she didn’t know what he was talking about, but then she heard it, too. Sirens. Police sirens.