Heart aching, Meghan sent up a silent prayer of protection for Georgina.
In the passenger seat Ryan shifted, again. From the moment they’d left the Portsmouth Police Department, he’d been restless and kept looking in the side-view mirror.
“What are you doing?” she finally asked after he turned in his seat with a groan, because of his hurt ribs, to stare out the back window for the umpteenth time.
“We have a tail,” he stated, facing forward again.
She frowned. “A tail? Like in being followed?”
“Yeah, exactly like.”
She glanced through the rearview mirror at the multitude of cars dotting the highway behind them. “There’s so much traffic. How can you tell?”
“There’s a silver van about five cars back. I saw it at the police station. It’s been keeping the same distance for the past ten miles.”
“Coincidence?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He gestured ahead. “Take the next exit.”
She signaled and moved over to the far-right lane. In the rearview mirror she noticed the van did the same. Her heart pounded in her chest as she took the exit ramp. The van sped up and barreled down the ramp behind them.
“Ryan?” The light at the end of the ramp turned red. She pressed on the brakes, the car skidding to a halt. The van pulled up alongside the car. The back panel door slid open. Masked men aimed big black guns at them.
“Get down!” Ryan yelled.
Meghan screamed and ducked as a spray of gunfire pelted the car. The side window shattered. She felt a stinging sensation in her shoulder.
Reflexively, she stomped on the gas to get away from the flying bullets. The Subaru jolted forward through the red light. Horns blared. Tires squealed on pavement as cars swerved to avoid hitting them. She yanked on the steering wheel to prevent them from ramming into a streetlight. The back window exploded into a million pieces.
“Keep driving!” Ryan shouted.
She didn’t have to be told twice. She kept her foot pressed on the gas and swerved around a car.
This couldn’t be happening.
The whole event seemed surreal, like she’d stepped into some action movie by mistake.
She turned down a side street and another and another until she had no sense of where they were or what direction they were headed. The van wasn’t following them now, but that didn’t lessen her panic. Her shoulder throbbed, her arm and hand numb. Ryan spoke to her. His phone in his hand, she could see his lips moving when she glanced his way, but only heard the rush of adrenaline in her ears.
He placed a hand over hers on the steering wheel. His touch grounded her. Through a foggy haze she heard his voice.
“Meghan, come on, Meghan, I need you to hold it together. Slow the car down.”
She eased her foot from the gas. The car’s acceleration dropped.
“Put your foot on the brake,” Ryan instructed.
She did as asked. Allowing him to guide her hands, she pulled the car to the curb, halting at an odd angle. Smoke curled from under the Subaru’s hood. She began to shake.
“You’re bleeding!” Ryan quickly undid his seat belt and bolted from the car.
He limped around to her side of the car and yanked open the driver’s door. Carefully, he eased her out of the seat. The world swam and she clung to him for support. He helped her to sit on the curb.
Her dress was covered in brown sticky stuff. She frowned. Her left hand was covered in it, too.
Blood.
The thought slammed into her mind, sending waves of shock through her system. She was bleeding. Nausea churned, she clamped her mouth tight. She would not throw up on him.
Ryan took off his blue uniform shirt and then his white T-shirt, revealing the nasty bruises peeking out from under the bandage wrapped around his torso. He bunched the T-shirt into a ball and pressed it to her shoulder. Pain zinged at the point of contact.
Her mind grappled to make sense of why he was doing that.
Reality crashed in. She’d been shot. She swayed.
“Put your head between your knees,” Ryan said, pushing her head down with gentle pressure.
After a moment the world stopped spinning. The sounds of sirens sent a tremor coursing over her flesh. Twice in one day they were waiting for an ambulance.
Thank You, Lord, for Your protection.
“Who were those men?” she asked Ryan when she felt steady enough to raise her head.
His mouth pressed into a grim line. “I don’t know.”
“Do you think this is connected to Christina?”
“Could be. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Are you working on another case? Someone who wants you dead?” she asked, reaching for some explanation.
“No.” He peered at her. “What about you? What are you working on?”
“Just my cousin’s murder.”
At the reminder, she shuddered. Her cousin had been murdered, and now someone had tried to kill her and Ryan. Was this attempt on their lives connected in some way to Olivia’s death? Had Christina orchestrated the masked gunmen?
“Is the dolphin charm the only evidence you have that Christina might be involved in Olivia’s murder?” she asked, hoping to piece the facts together.
“There was a second blood sample found on the rock used to kill Olivia. DNA testing finally eliminated my brother Charles as a suspect. I wouldn’t be surprised if Christina Hennessy’s DNA is all over that rock.”
She was glad his brother was no longer a suspect in Olivia’s death. Charles Fitzgerald had been Olivia’s employer. She’d been his twins’ nanny. Meghan knew Olivia had loved those kids.
“When the charm was identified as Christina’s,” he continued, “I wondered. Then she skipped town with Georgina, coupled with Burke’s death…leads me to believe she’s got a dark side. Now we know for sure she’s capable of violence. When we take Christina into custody, we’ll run her DNA. If it matches…”
“Then she was at least there when Olivia was killed. She could have been struck with the same rock, for all you know.”
“True. Unless she confesses, the evidence places her at the crime scene but doesn’t make her a murderer.”
Meghan’s reporter instincts were clamoring, sensing a bigger story than she’d originally anticipated. One worthy of catapulting her career forward. Just what the story entailed
