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Lucas crawled on his hands and knees toward the voice. Leaving the kids on a sinking boat wasn’t an option. The baby would drown before he could get to her, and he had no idea if Isabelle could swim. “Give yourself up!” He spotted a boat speeding toward them. “The Coast Guard is coming. It’s all over.”
Another bullet plowed into the boat’s soft wood near his head. Something about the man’s voice seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place him.
Carly’s distant voice carried to his ears. “If you hurt those kids, you’ll be facing the death penalty. Let them go. It’s all over.”
She was going to get shot. Lucas motioned for her to get down, but she continued to approach. He would have to take the shooter out before he could shoot Carly. Lucas leaped to his feet and charged the bow of the boat.
The shooter stood to aim, and Lucas didn’t see either of the children around. Roger Adams was firing, and Lucas’s finger jerked on the trigger as he dove toward the deck. An expression of surprise widened Roger’s eyes and he tumbled to the deck.
***
Carly was the first one to the wheelhouse, which stank of old urine, seawater, and dirt. She found Isabelle holding Caroline under a counter with a tipped chair barricading the way to them. “Isabelle!” She scrambled over debris to reach her sister and tug the obstructions out of the way.
Isabelle began to cry when she saw Carly and scooted on her bottom toward her. With the chair out of the way, Carly stopped to gather them both in her arms. “It’s okay.” The soothing words were as much for herself as they were for her sister. She felt weak with relief. Gunshots, a sinking boat, and the near miss of even finding them had drained every bit of her adrenaline.
Limbs trembling, she helped her sister from the floor and took the baby. “Let’s get out of here.” Caroline snuggled her face into Carly’s neck. They’d done it. Found them both safe and unharmed.
They exited the wheelhouse as Lucas was talking to the Coast Guard. She caught a few words.Kidnapped, ransom, gunshots.Would his weapon be taken from him again? A quick peek on her way to find the kids had shown Roger was dead.
But someone had been at the park watching her. Who had that been? This wasn’t over until they uncovered all the shadowy figures who had stalked them. If that ever happened. No matter what, she planned to get that egg out of her possession.
She helped Isabelle onto the spongy dock. “Be careful, it’s not very safe.” Carrying Caroline, she stepped gingerly along the boards until they reached solid ground.
Isabelle’s expression was set and scared. She kept glancingfrom right to left as if she thought someone would jump out anytime. It made Carly jumpy too. What if the other person involved was lurking around? She hustled the kids to the truck and got them inside to wait for Lucas.
Heat shimmered in the air, and she reached over to start the engine and turn on the AC. They had no car seat for the baby, so she planned to sit in the back and hold her while Lucas got them home. A thought struck her, and she grabbed her purse to make sure the egg was still there. The weight reassured her, and she dug into the contents until her fingers brushed the enamel finish.
It was safe.
And in a few hours, it would be someone else’s problem. She couldn’t wait to get it out of town and into a collection where it could be admired by everyone. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Lucas jogging toward the vehicle. All she wanted was to get everyone home so she could hold Noah and assure herself everyone she loved was safe.
Lucas slid into the driver’s seat. “Bernard isnothappy with me, but he’ll get over it. Teamwork—we did it.” He glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled when his gaze caught Carly’s. “Good idea to keep the baby back there. Isabelle, you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said in a tired voice. “Can we just go home?”
The ordeal had been grueling, but something about her sister’s manner alarmed her. “Maybe we should have a doctor look at both of them and make sure they’re okay.”
Isabelle whipped her head back and forth. “No! I want to go to bed. Take me home.” Fresh tears ran in dirty tracks down her face. “I just want to forget what happened.”
“The police and FBI need to talk to you,” Lucas said. “I’llhave them come to the house instead of going to the station, though.”
Isabelle’s eyes widened. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“We have to figure out who did this.”
“You shot him!”
“There is someone else,” Lucas said. “And he might come back.”
“He won’t! He said...” Isabelle shut her mouth and turned her face to the window.
And she said nothing more all the way to town. They made a brief stop for Carly to return the egg to the bank’s safekeeping before going home. When Lucas pulled into the drive and turned off the engine, Isabelle ran for the door.
Thirty-Eight
Lucas tried Isabelle’s door again with Noah in one arm. Locked. Lifting a brow, he glanced at Carly. “Now what? Bernard and Chen are downstairs waiting to talk to her.”
The minute they’d reached the house, Isabelle said she was sick and raced to the bathroom. They heard her retching inside and had given her space. Since then, she’d locked herself in her bedroom and refused to come out.
