“I’m not sure. I remember seeing that car parked a block down from your house, and now, it’s behind us. It could be anything.” He adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “I’ve sped up, and he’s been keeping pace. I’m going to make a quick turn up ahead and see if he follows. Hold on.”
The car behind them slowed and made its own sudden turn in the opposite direction. Quinn let out a big breath. “Just a false alarm.”
He pulled to a stop at the last traffic light out of town. A car pulled up in the right turn lane next to them. The windows were too dark to see inside.
“Come on.” Reid looked up and down the intersecting street. A car was heading their direction from the right. The car next to them hadn’t turned yet. Reid looked at her—no, past her—then stomped on the gas. Tires squealed as a loud pop sounded. She screamed, unsure of what was happening but knowing it wasn’t good.
Reid continued to drive at an alarming speed, but all Quinn could do was stare at a small hole in her window surrounded by spiderweb cracks. Something had come through it.A bullet?Everything went silent as the world started to spin.
“Quinn,” Reid said, panic in his voice.
She looked at him, then she twisted to check on JJ. He was lying in the back seat. Other than scared, he looked fine, too.
“Are you okay?” Reid glanced at her and then back at the road.
Am I okay?It was hard to tell. Physically, nothing hurt. She pulled the visor down and checked her face and neck. No signs of injury.
She once again turned to look at JJ. “Are you okay, buddy?”
He nodded. “Are you?”
“Yes. I am.”
“Are you sure?” His face crinkled with more tears.
She drew her eyebrows together. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because there’s a hole in your seat. It wasn’t there before.” He pointed to the headrest.
Breath whooshed out of her lungs as she turned and surveyed the headrest. Sure enough. There was a hole in it matching the one from the window. She twisted in the other direction and found an identical hole on the side by the window. A bullet had entered her window and gone through her headrest. She followed the trajectory and saw another hole in the back seat. She turned to face Reid. They needed to get to the police station.
Before she could say anything, she was jarred violently, and her head hit the window. Everything went black.
****
It was dark, her eyes were closed, and everything hurt. Every bump the car hit reverberated in her head.
Reid let out an expletive beside her. He shook her shoulder. “Quinn.”
His loud voice only increased the pounding in her head. “Watch your language,” she admonished as best as she could. “And please, don’t yell.”
“Thank God you’re okay,” Reid responded more quietly.
Cursing in one breath and praising God in the next? She didn’t want JJ learning those words—nor thinking it was okay to mingle the two.
JJ.She sat up fast and twisted around. Dizziness swept over her. She closed her eyes. Once her head stopped spinning, she opened them. JJ lay exactly like he had moments before. It didn’t seem possible that he could have got any paler than he was before, but he had.
“Pull over,” she said to Reid. She needed to hold her baby. The car never slowed. She looked to Reid. His jaw was clenched.
“I need you to pull over,” she said a little more forcefully.
“We can’t right now.” He released the steering wheel and then squeezed it again, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. “We were rammed by another car. It knocked us around and you out. We can’t stop until I know we’re safe.”
She longed to hold JJ, to assure him it was all going to be okay. Even if she didn’t know whether it would. God had a plan, and whether it worked like she wanted it to or not, everything would work out according to His plan. She just prayed His didn’t involve any more people dying.
She reached back and squeezed JJ’s knee. “We’re okay, baby.”
As she turned back around, she caught a glimpse of Reid. He sat stoically. His clenched jaw was the only thing showing he was feeling anything at all. She put a hand on his bicep. It twitched at her touch but relaxed a moment later. While his arm muscles relaxed, his face didn’t. His gaze bounced from the road in front of them to the rearview mirror and back.
