Ten.God, let us get out. Keep Reid safe.
Nineteen… Twenty. It was time to go. She tiptoed to the sliding glass door and cautiously peered out. No bullets came whizzing her way. She surveyed the yard and didn’t see anyone. With JJ tucked behind her, she stepped out the door and headed toward Mrs. Stevenson’s side of the duplex.
Sirens sounded in the distance. Her limbs immediately felt lighter. Help was on the way. More gunshots reverberated through the yard, followed by two muffled bangs. Quinn pushed JJ in front of her and shoved him forward. “Run!”
With her body between JJ and the gun. Hopefully, he would be safe. They made it to the edge of the yard, and JJ struggled with the latch on the old wooden fence. The wailing siren grew closer. Lord, let them make it in time.
The latch finally released, and the gate flew open. JJ ran ahead as a man came around the corner from the front of the duplex, put his arm out, and caught JJ, keeping him from getting away.
“Let him go!” She lunged at the man with all her might, knocking them all to the ground. She swung her fists, throwing punches at the man lying under her. If she could hold him off just a little longer, the police would be here. “You’re not taking my son. I don’t care who you are or what you want. You’ll never get him.”
A police car squealed to a stop in front of them, and it wasn’t too much longer before she was being pulled off the attacker. Another officer rolled him onto his stomach and cuffed him.
Quinn frantically looked for JJ as a melee of officers arrived on scene. “My son?”
“He’s all right, ma’am. Another officer has taken him to safety.” The officer pointed to where JJ sat with a uniformed woman, his legs dangling out of the back seat of a cruiser.
Quinn didn’t even spare another glance at the man being arrested. She spun to the officer that had helped her up. “Reid Lucas is still in there!”
“I’m down here,” Reid said from her left.
Heat rushed to her face. Reid was the one in cuffs.
CHAPTER THREE
Reid worked to catch his breathafter the small struggle with Quinn. He didn’t know where her strength came from, but she could have been a linebacker in pro football. The way she’d tackled him when he’d grabbed JJ and then pummeled him. It had to have been adrenaline and the mama bear reflex, but that didn’t stop the air from being knocked out of him.
She had started yelling immediately after tackling him and didn’t give him a chance to explain until she was pulled away by a police officer.
“No. You’ve got the wrong guy,” Quinn pleaded with the officer that had saved Reid from her defensive attack.
“Ma’am, this is the man you were fighting with when we arrived.” The officer raised his eyebrows.
A sheepish grin slid across her face. “I know, but I didn’t know who it was. I just saw someone grab my son, and all I knew was I had to protect my baby.”
Handcuffs weren’t the most comfortable things. They’d be coming off soon enough. The police would get everything worked out. He just needed to be patient.
Ten minutes went by while the police confirmed his identity and what had happened. Then, the cuffs finally came off. Reid rubbed his wrists. It wasn’t his first time in cuffs, but it was by far the shortest amount of time he’d been in them, thanks to a past that still haunted him. He shook his head, ridding his mind of painful memories.
He strode over to where Quinn and JJ were seated in an ambulance. The scene had been secured, and now, the firefighters were doing their jobs. “How’s everyone doing?” He looked from JJ to Quinn. JJ’s face was pale, but he’d quit crying almost immediately after the cavalry arrived. Quinn’s cheeks were tinged pink; strands of hair had escaped her ponytail and danced in the breeze.
“No worse for the wear.” She stood, looked up at him, and slowly reached toward his hair. “You’ve got grass in your hair.” She plucked a piece and showed it to him.
“You do, too.” He copied her actions, not allowing himself to linger and test the softness. He pulled a longer blade and showed it to her. “I believe it’s your fault, too.”
Her cheeks grew pinker as she looked down at her feet. “Sorry about that.”
A chuckle rumbled from his gut. “It’s all right. I understand the mama bear reaction.”
“Thank you for helping us get out.” Her pale green eyes started to glisten.
He had done and seen some things that would have made any other man tuck tail and run, but there was one thing he couldn’t stand to see, and that was a crying woman. Not typical tears from pain or tears to get her way but tears that were connected to her heart.
“Don’t mention it.” He squeezed her shoulder.
“Really—”
“It seems that the two of you are at the center of another disturbance today.” Detective Jacobs moseyed up to them, withdrawing a notepad from the breast pocket of his department-issued blazer.
