she wanted was a gun battle where the baby could be hurt. Obviously, Shaw felt the same because he moved protectively in front of her. Close. With his back right against her front.
As a cop, he’d perhaps been in situations similar to this where his life was on the line, but this whole ordeal was a first for her, and Sabrina hoped she didn’t lose it. Falling apart wouldn’t get them out of there, and it wouldn’t help the baby.
“Call him back,” the gunman finally said. It was the peppermint guy. “I’m getting a weird feeling about being here. We need to get out now.”
With her breath stalled in her lungs, Sabrina stayed still, and she finally heard what she prayed she would hear. The gunman went back down the hall away from them. At least she hoped that’s what he’d done.
Shaw nudged her to get moving, and Sabrina didn’t waste any time. She climbed through the window, trying to protect her belly from scraping against the sill. Her feet finally touched down onto the ground. Shaw was right behind her. While continuing to face the direction of the gunmen, he shimmied out the window and landed right next to her.
“Come on,” he ordered. Using his left hand, he grabbed her arm and started to move as fast as she could.
The baby kicked even harder, and her stomach started to cramp. Sabrina silently cursed the Braxton Hicks contraction.
False labor.
Her body was merely practicing for the real thing, but she didn’t need the distraction now. She had to keep moving and get to safety.
She saw the SWAT team then, on the building across the street. There were other officers crouched down behind a Dumpster and the gunmen’s SUV.
The baby and she were safe.
Or so she thought.
But then, the shots rang out.
Shaw cursed and hooked his arm around Sabrina.
Despite the urgency that the deadly gunfire created, he tried to be careful with her, and he took the brunt of the fall when he pulled her to the ground. His shoulder hit hard, but he held on tight to his gun so that it wouldn’t be jarred from his hand.
Shaw didn’t stop there. He crawled over Sabrina, sheltering her with his body, and he came up ready to return fire.
This was obviously a situation he’d wanted to avoid at all costs. He didn’t want his baby in the middle of a fight with these armed fugitives, but when they fired that shot, they’d left him no choice. Now, the trick was to get Sabrina safely out of there.
There was another shot. It slammed into the rough brick wall just inches from Shaw’s head. Not close, a good foot away, but the sound and the impact allowed him to pinpoint the origin of the shot. It was coming from the window where Sabrina and he had escaped.
“Get down,” someone on the SWAT team yelled from the roof of the adjacent building.
Shaw did. He dropped lower, covering Sabrina as best he could.
She was breathing way too hard and fast, and he hoped like the devil that she didn’t hyperventilate. While he was hoping, he added that the baby hadn’t been harmed in all of this. Sabrina didn’t appear to have any physical injuries, but the stress couldn’t be good. She needed to get to a doctor so she could be checked out.
There was another shot, but this one came from a rifleman on the SWAT team. Shaw didn’t look up, but he heard the sound of glass being blown apart.
Good!
That would stop the gunmen from aiming any more shots at Sabrina and him. At least from that window. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t go elsewhere to return fire. The abandoned building was large, at least five thousand square feet, and there were a lot of places for someone to hide or get into a position to kill.
The shots continued, all coming from his men, which meant it might be time to try to get Sabrina to better cover. Shaw glanced at the front of the building. Hell.
Too many windows.
And a set of double doors with glass fronts.
The gunmen could use any of those points of attack to fire again. That meant staying put until the officers and SWAT had apprehended the suspects. The one advantage that his officers did have was that the building was only one floor. The gunmen wouldn’t be able to move upstairs and launch an assault there. They were going to have to face the SWAT team and other cops head-on.
So that Sabrina’s pregnant belly wouldn’t be smashed against the ground, Shaw eased off her and moved her to a sitting position so that her back was against the brick wall. They were close. Too close. And face-to-face.
He found himself staring right into those sea-green eyes.
Shaw quickly looked away. Then he turned around so he was facing outward. This would make it easier for him to cover all sides. It was a solid strategic move, he assured himself. And it was far better than staring at her.
With the gunmen no longer firing at them, Shaw’s men started to close in around the building. One of the SWAT members bashed in the double front doors, and officers began to pour inside. It shouldn’t be long now before he could get Sabrina out of there.
Once he had her in an ambulance and on the way to a hospital, he could return to the original crime scene and try to mop up things. He’d left Lieutenant Bo Duggan in charge, but that was strictly temporary. Since Bo’s own wife was a hostage, Shaw needed to get back on scene so that Bo could be with his wife. If their situations had been reversed, Shaw would have certainly wanted to be with Fay.
“The gunmen said they were going to use me,” Sabrina muttered, her voice a shaky whisper. But it was loud enough to cut through his thoughts and snare his attention. “To get you to cooperate.”
“What?” Shaw said that a little louder than he’d intended and glanced at her over his shoulder.
Sabrina shook her head, sending a curl of that wild red hair flinging over her cheek. “I don’t know what they meant by that. Do you?”
“No.” But he could guess. “I’m a police captain.” A lot of people might want him to cooperate, especially when it came to helping with a plea bargain or reduced charges.
That wouldn’t happen in this case. Shaw turned his head away from her so he could keep watch of all the areas around them. “What else did they say?”
“Not much. They were careful not to talk in front of me or the others. But I think they knew I’d be at the hospital this afternoon. They were waiting for me.”
Oh, man. That didn’t sound good at all. “Why the heck were you even there?”
Sabrina took a deep breath. “Someone from the hospital phoned me. A male nurse named Michael Frost, and he said Nadine Duggan had called an urgent meeting of the moms’ support group. So, I went.”
Shaw cursed and didn’t bother to keep the profanity
