eyes on the weapon. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t scream. Couldn’t even blink. This was how it ended, in a Georgia parking lot in the chill of late autumn. This was the price she would pay for doing the right thing.
The man stepped closer and Amy inched one step back. “I wouldn’t run if I were you.” His voice was low, deep and controlled. “You take off running or try to fight me and you won’t be the one I shoot.” He kept the gun low, and when Amy tore her eyes away from it to his face, he was eyeing a group of students several rows of cars away.
A sob leaked past her fingers as he closed the space between them, his hand wrapping around her wrist and making her hand throb with the pressure. “You walk with me like we’re old friends or I make sure your marshal friend over there isn’t the only one who bleeds today.”
* * *
“I’m thirty seconds out.” Deputy US Marshal Samuel Maldonado spoke into his radio and prayed he wasn’t too late. He ignored the horns blaring at him as he slowed for a red light then blew through it, hanging a left turn into the parking lot of the small community college where Amy Naylor taught biology.
The past chased him, urging him to push the pedal farther down, to shave away precious seconds. The one time he’d been too late, twenty seconds would have made all the difference.
He couldn’t let hesitation wreck another life. Never again.
“Don’t call attention to yourself.” His team leader, Deputy Marshal Greg Hayes, was typically a man who kept his cool no matter what the situation. His strained voice in this moment dug into Sam’s already frayed nerves. “You have no idea if she killed the phone call or if someone killed it for her. You blaze into that parking lot on two wheels and anyone who’s waiting for their moment to snatch her will panic.”
As much as it gnawed at Sam to hear it, Hayes was right. They already had one deputy marshal who wasn’t responding, even though Amy Naylor had confirmed Edgecombe was on-site. There was no telling what the truth of the situation was.
Sam eased up on the gas pedal and kneaded the steering wheel with both hands, fighting every instinct to move faster. He’d worked with Deputy Elijah Edgecombe for several years, and they’d worked closely for several months, ever since they’d tracked down and reacquired Amy Naylor in Virginia. The woman had actually thought she could take off for a few days on her own. She’d been none too happy when Sam and his team had tracked her down and brought her back to Georgia, and she’d been tight-lipped about her reasons for leaving in the first place. Sam had stuck close, working with Edgecombe to ensure she didn’t run off again. Grant Meyer’s people would be all too happy to find her in the wind with no protection.
Her saving grace when she’d wandered off was that Grant Meyer had been in North Carolina, focused on Amy’s twin sister, believing he had his sights on the woman who’d turned him over to federal authorities and outed his human-trafficking ring. He hadn’t realized he had the wrong woman until he was behind bars.
Amy’s identity hadn’t been compromised then. She’d been safely able to return to her life as Amy Naylor, adjunct professor in south Georgia.
Today was a different story.
As Sam broke through the line of trees at the end of the driveway that opened into the community college’s parking lot, he scanned the area, searching for Amy’s red SUV or Edgecombe’s dark green sedan. He rolled along the lot, scanning the area. This side of the parking lot was largely empty, as most of the students were parked closer to the building.
There. In the next to the last row. The sedan and the SUV sat side by side. “Got a visual on the vehicles.”
“Any sign of Edgecombe or Naylor?”
Sam pressed his lips together and scanned the green sedan. It was too far away for him to get a good look inside, but the red tint of the sun reflecting off the windshield told the story.
The truth came like a blow to the solar plexus. He swallowed hard twice before he could speak. “I don’t think he’s in a position to offer any help.”
Hayes muttered something under his breath, likely words Sam didn’t want to hear anyway. “You’re sure?”
“Not without getting out to check. Be prepared to call in an ambulance.” He itched to park the car and race to his colleague, but he was only one man and a woman’s life was in danger. He’d never wanted so badly to be in two places at once. “Where’s my backup?”
“Two deputies on the way.”
Two people appeared behind Amy’s SUV, walking toward a dark gray crossover parked behind hers.
No, that was wrong. The man walked. He was dragging the female along beside him.
Amy Naylor.
Sam stiffened his ankle to keep from pressing the accelerator to the floor. He’d only alert the man and anyone else who might be watching to his presence. Sam had no idea how many associates the man might have, no idea what he was up against. “I’ve got eyes on her, and it’s not good.” He relayed the scene to Hayes as he rolled closer. They needed a plan fast, before the stranger shoved Amy into a car and took this horrible show on the road.
Sam didn’t dare engage yet. While no one was close to the pair, there were too many students milling in the parking lot and pulling out of the main entrance. They were all in striking distance if the situation disintegrated into a shootout.
Sam was out of options. “I could use some help here.”
“Backup is still several minutes out. Can you stall them?”
“I can try.” He’d love to call in the police or give the order to clear the parking lot, but without knowing who the man was or what his plans for Amy were, any broad moves were risky. Whatever Sam did would have to be subtle and calculated.
The man who was holding Amy captive was tall, broad and blond. He was bigger than Sam, though likely not as well trained. He opened the front door of his car and jerked Amy closer.
The front seat. Okay, good. He was likely alone if he was willing to put her in the front seat where she could grab the wheel and wreck the car.
Slipping his pistol onto his lap and holding it at the ready, Sam rolled his window down and pulled to a stop behind the gray car before Amy climbed into the vehicle.
Her eyes widened when she saw Sam. She opened her mouth, then flicked her gaze to the man behind her and closed it again.
Good. If she blew his cover, they’d all be dead.
The stranger slid his hand from her wrist to her back and tried to shove her into the car as he cut his eyes at Sam. “I think you need to keep moving, buddy.” His voice was low and heavy with a midwestern drawl. He wasn’t holding a weapon, but the way his shirt hung at his side said he had one close to the ready.
Good news? It would take him longer to draw than it would take Sam. Bad news? Amy stood between them—a human shield.
There was an easy fix for that dilemma. He caught Amy’s eye, then deliberately looked at the car door, which stood open in front of her. Come on, Amy. Hear what I’m saying to you. “I just need directions, man. No worries. You know where the student center is? I’ve got a meeting with my—”
