refrained from comment because nothing that came to mind lacked sarcasm. They were caught between a rock and a hard place. To stop would put the little girl in ongoing danger and to continue as they were made that threat immediate. Nevertheless, she was glad it was Kyle at the wheel and not her. Defensive driving was not her strongest talent and she was already queasy from riding backward.
“You may want to close your eyes,” he yelled as he whipped the wheel at the last instant, cut across two lanes and left Peter trapped on the wrong side of the speeding semis.
Rachel rolled down her window and leaned out, preparing to lose her breakfast, but the gust of cold air shocked the nausea out of her. “You’re crazy!”
“I’m successful,” Kyle countered with a tight smile. “He won’t have a chance to get off until the next ramp. By that time, we’ll have a good head start.”
Wind whipped her hair, the tendrils stinging her cheeks. Tears filled her eyes. Had he really done it? Were they safe for the time being? After such a harrowing chase, it seemed impossible.
She sagged against the door, her seat belt holding her. They were passing under the highway, ready to start back in the other direction, when she pushed away and closed the window. “I suppose I should thank you for scaring me to death. Would you mind driving like a normal person from now on?”
Kyle turned briefly to flash a smile. He looked elated as well as short of breath. That was comforting. She’d have been really worried if she’d believed he viewed his stunt driving as everyday behavior.
“Right. Normal. Normal is good,” he said. “The speed limit here is high. As long as we maintain our lead we’ll be fine.”
“Do you think Peter will give up?”
“It’s possible. I doubt he had time to listen to the whole story about Angela when he got to ICU. He may go back there.”
“Wishful thinking?” Rachel managed a slight smile. “He knows enough. He wouldn’t have chased us if he hadn’t heard we had Natalie.”
“That’s probably true.”
“And speaking of my niece, I suppose, since this is a civilian matter, I’ll need to retain private counsel to defend my right to keep and raise her.”
“Uh-huh. I have a couple of connections in San Antonio from my days in the regular world. If you’d like, I can contact them for you.”
“I’d appreciate it. Thanks.” Realizing she was hoarse, Rachel was reminded that an apology was called for. “Sorry I yelled at you, Kyle. Guess I got a little too excited.”
“We both did.” A gentle smile lifted the corners of his mouth and crinkled the outer edges of his dark eyes as he leaned to study the sleepy child in his mirror. “I don’t want to stop if we don’t have to. Can you make sure she’s okay from up here?”
“Sure.” Undoing her seat belt, Rachel got onto her knees and leaned over the back of her seat. “Natalie’s breathing evenly and is totally relaxed. I guess she’s comfortable being with us even if you do drive like you’re competing in the Indy 500.”
“I’m better than that,” Kyle teased. “All they have to do is keep turning left and going around in circles. I not only go both ways, I sometimes jump the car right off the ground.”
“Tell me about it.” She rolled her eyes, straightened in her seat and clicked her belt back on before touching his forearm. His muscles twitched but he didn’t pull away. “I want to thank you. All kidding aside, that was some great driving.”
She saw him eye the placement of her hand before he smiled again and said, “My pleasure.”
Rachel chuckled quietly. “It was, wasn’t it? You enjoyed every minute of it.”
“Not totally. If I’d been alone I would have. With passengers it was different.”
“I trusted you.”
She felt the shaking of his arm before she noticed it came from his shoulders. She gritted her teeth. He was silently laughing! At her. And after she had restrained herself from telling him what she’d really thought of his methods. “What’s so funny, Doctor?”
“You are.” Kyle snorted. “For somebody who trusted me, you sure did a lot of screaming.”
Clouds had obscured the sun, and wind had begun to gust across the sandy soil as they neared the air base. They were preparing to enter through the south gate when Kyle saw a dot of red closing the distance behind them.
He quickly rolled down his window, flashed his ID at the guard and jerked a thumb behind him. “There may be a guy in a red pickup coming this way. Whatever you do, don’t let him through.”
“Yes, sir. Shall I call Security?”
“Not unless he gives you trouble. He hasn’t actually done anything to us that we can prove and we’d like to keep it that way.”
In the background, Rachel gasped. Kyle held his hand out to signal her silence. As soon as they’d left the guard post, she said plenty. “Hasn’t done anything? What about my sister?”
“That’s a different case. We can assume he’s out on bail. If we start bringing up the reason he’s chasing us, that will reveal who our passenger is and stir up a hornet’s nest. I doubt Peter will say much because he won’t want to call attention to his actions, either.”
Slowing, Kyle watched the rearview mirrors until he was satisfied the gate guard had repelled their nemesis. “Done. We should be okay for a little while. I’ll drop you and your niece at your place and run over to the base exchange for whatever she needs.”
“Start with warm clothes.” Rachel leaned to peer up at the sky. “Looks like a storm is brewing.”
“That, it does.” He wheeled expertly into the driveway of her apartment building and parked behind it. “Want me to walk you in?”
It didn’t surprise him a bit when Rachel insisted she was capable of managing Natalie and her belongings all by herself. Matter of fact, she had the child out of the SUV and well in hand by the time he circled and stood next to her. “What about sizes? Shall I guess?”
“When in doubt, go big,” Rachel told him. “I’ll leave the tags on until we see what fits. We can return the rest.” Pausing, she smiled. “Thanks for doing this. We really do appreciate everything.”
“You’re welcome.” Kyle thought of adding My pleasure again but restrained himself. He didn’t want anyone, especially Rachel Fielding, making too much of his efforts. He’d have done the same for any of his techs. It just so happened that this particular airman was beginning to seem special, which was no problem as long as he didn’t break regulations and try to date her. The rules against officers and enlisted personnel getting together for romance had never concerned him before.
“And they don’t bother me now,” he told himself firmly as he drove toward the BX, base exchange, to go shopping for Natalie. There were good reasons for strictness in regard to separation of ranks. Promotions were earned on merit, not based on who an airman knew or who their family happened to be. Every new enlistee
