Chapter 20

TWENTY

SATURDAY, 3:20 A.M.

Why did this man always have to sacrifice himself? Juliette started forward, but the gun pressed against her temple halted her.

Think, think, think!

Caleb stared at Juliette as Theo shuffled him out the door. His eyes communicated love and the promise of a future.

Why did love always look a lot like sacrifice? Last time, she'd left him rather than have her problems bring him down. But now?

This man truly loved her. He was risking his life for her. The logical, risk-averse Caleb had willingly put his life on the line to save her. To rescue her.

God, please let us have more time together.

She wanted the rest of her life to be spent with the man now held at gunpoint.

Theo positioned himself behind Caleb and jabbed his gun in his back before slamming the door shut. "Let's go," was the last thing Juliette heard.

Hopefully Theo would keep Caleb alive as a hostage, but his instruction to the two hired gunmen signaled the end for Juliette, Noelle, and Ivy.

The bad guys were cleaning house and running.

Juliette and Noelle exchanged glances. Neither of them would go down without a fight. But before they could act, an explosion rocked the room. Juliette grabbed the back of Ivy's chair to keep herself on her feet. The ground shook, and thick smoke filled the room.

Someone kicked the door down, and through stinging eyes, Juliette watched Alana burst into the room with a high-powered rifle.

"Freeze," Matt shouted over the commotion. "Guns on the ground. Now!" Three police officers followed him into the room.

The men tossed their weapons down. Officers secured the two men, and Juliette relieved one of the security guards of his radio and clipped it to her belt.

Something pulled on her sweatshirt, and small arms encircled her waist. Juliette enveloped Ivy in a hug.

"Juliette, please find Uncle Caleb. You have to rescue him." The girl now looked all of her twelve years of age. Tears trailed through the dirt covering her smoke-stained cheeks.

"That's the plan, Ivy. I'll get him back. Stay with Noelle and Alana."

She nodded at Noelle, who nodded back. Noelle would guard Ivy until this was over. Juliette needed to find Caleb. Now.

"Matt, Theo Payne took Caleb at gunpoint."

"Go, we've got this," Matt said. "This warehouse is a maze, and I have officers searching every corner of this place. Join the search."

She dashed out the door and stood in the middle of the warehouse. The offices where they were held lined the center of the facility. All around her, rows of metal shelving created long aisles, with a main passageway running through the length of the building.

"This place is a maze." Alana walked up behind Juliette and pressed a gun into her hand. "I'll watch over things here."

"Thanks, Alana. I have to find Caleb."

While the police had breached the front of the facility, Juliette headed to the back. Theo would be plotting a way to escape.

She headed down one of the rows that almost looked like a road running down the center of the warehouse. The concrete floor showed wear and tear from forklifts moving packages to be shipped. To the left were rows of merchandise. To the right were the loading docks, some with trucks and some empty. The commotion grew softer the deeper she moved into the warehouse. Maybe she could commandeer a forklift, but where was she going?

How was she going to find Caleb in this labyrinth? There was no way she could check each truck or aisle. In the distance, flashlights flickered up and down from officers on search duty. But time was running out. She swung her gun out in front of her whenever she hit a new aisle.

Nothing.

Theo would need to find some way to get as far away from this place as he could.

She raced down an aisle and stared at the maze of shelving units, boxes, and the occasional parked forklift. They could be anywhere.

The situation was out of her control. She clenched her teeth. "It can't end this way," she whispered. "I love him too much."

Caleb's words rushed back to her. Sometimes we just need to stand still and let God fight for us. Instead of ignoring his advice, she embraced it and decided to do the one thing that seemed completely unnatural and illogical to her.

She stood still.

In the middle of a dusty aisle in a mile-long warehouse, she stopped running and set her emotions aside. "Okay, God. I'm standing still. I can't do this on my own. I have to find Caleb. Please protect him and lead me to him."

The radio she'd clipped to her belt crackled. An idea struck like lightning.

Theo had a partner, a woman, who had a radio. She'd heard the voice. Maybe she could trick Theo into revealing his location if Juliette pretended to be his partner.

It was worth a shot. She ducked behind a row of pallets shrink-wrapped to hold multiple boxes. She spotted a box cutter and stuck it in her pocket for future use. It might come in handy.

What was Theo's radio name? If only she had an eidetic memory like Caleb and Ivy. Rough something.

Rough Rider?

It was worth a shot. She crinkled some of the shrink wrap, hoping it sounded like static.

"Rough Rider. What's your twenty?"

Silence.

She waited, hoping the other woman didn't respond and bust her.

But a crackle zipped through the air. "In a truck, loading dock thirty-two. Hurry. We have to get out of here."

Thank you, God.

She bolted for that location, praying that the police had already confiscated the radios and had heard the same message she'd just received. Juliette needed to get there before Theo's partner did, because she'd probably heard Juliette's bad impersonation.

The slots were numbered, and she'd passed twenty-five before she'd ducked down this aisle. She raced down the center pathway.

Thirty. Thirty-one. She spotted loading bay thirty-two and hid next to a stack of furniture boxes to scope out the situation. She didn't see any movement.

A voice from behind made Juliette's heart stop. "Don't move." A woman stepped out of the shadows, but Juliette didn't need to see her to know exactly who the voice belonged to. If only she had put the pieces together sooner.

Because another person close to Caleb had betrayed him.

* * *

SATURDAY, 3:41 A.M.

Caleb prayed that Juliette, Noelle, and Ivy were rescued.

Theo had dragged Caleb through the warehouse to the loading bays. He shoved Caleb up against the wall of the eighteen-wheeler truck bed, where Caleb lost his balance and slid to the ground. It didn't help that his hands were zip-tied behind his back. Hiding in the shadows of the empty truck bed, Theo paced. Without his hands, Caleb stood no chance of overpowering this maniac.

He didn't try to get up. Maybe he could kick Theo's legs out from under him if the man got close enough.

"Where is she?" Theo muttered. "We've got to get out of here." The guy was losing it. He'd always respected the man's work, but now his heart broke for Theo's family. His son was barely two.

A scuffle sounded from outside the truck bed. A figure appeared in the door opening. Caleb's heart skipped a beat.

Juliette.

Did this mean they'd escaped?

Juliette stood in the opening, not moving. "Ivy is safe. But we've got company."

Another figure emerged from the shadows. A woman.

Was that?—

No.

Before him, with a gun trained on Juliette, stood Abby Prewett. The woman Caleb had trusted to watch Ivy after school.

The woman he'd lived next door to for the past several years, who had been like a grandmother to Ivy, was a part of Rushmore. The neighborhood busybody was working with the bad guys?

All he could say was "Why?"

Abby shrugged. "You know my husband died a slow, painful death. If First United Bank had lent us the money, he could have gotten an experimental treatment that might have saved his life. But my John wasn't given a chance. They just revoked our line of credit. I want them to pay. Rushmore gives back what the bank stole."

No wonder the hacker group knew so much about Ivy's abilities. Abby had spent countless hours with his niece. Another family ruined by vengeance.

Caleb had a knack for reading people, but how had he gone so wrong with Abby? "I can't believe you used me like that."

Abby looked contrite, but Caleb didn't buy it for a second. "I lucked out. You moved in next to me, remember? Once I figured out who you were and what Ivy could do, I joined forces with the other members of Rushmore and formed the perfect plan. Well, until you and the blonde bodyguard ruined it."

Theo huffed. He took out a pair of zip ties and cuffed Juliette's hands behind her back. "Enough chitchat. We're getting out of here. I'll drive the truck."

He nodded toward Abby. "You ride back here and figure out how to deal with these two."

No. No. No. They had to get out of this vehicle before Theo drove five states away and dumped their bodies who knew where.

"You, sit on the floor next to your boyfriend." Abby shoved Juliette to the ground. Juliette rolled and slid toward Caleb and then sat back-to-back with him. His fingers wove into hers, but both of them were now cuffed.

Abby grabbed a safety strap attached to the wall of the truck, the gun never wavering in her hand. How could the sweet grandmother from next door turn out to be the vigilante holding them at gunpoint?

Theo hopped out the back of the truck and slammed the doors shut. Interior lighting on the sides of the aluminum walls gave them enough light to see. A few seconds later, the semi's bed rumbled from the engine roaring to life.

At least now it was two against one, except they still didn't have the use of their hands. And Abby had a gun that never wavered.

He felt a tug on his binds. Did Juliette have a pocketknife? The zip ties fell off, and he flexed his fingers but kept his hands behind his back.

The truck made several turns, and they swayed with the movement. He prayed the police had set up some checkpoints. They needed to get out before Theo hit the highway. He grabbed Juliette's hand and tapped out a Morse code message on her wrist.

Rush Abby. Get gun . Together .

She tapped back on his wrist, I'm in.

His mind drifted back to their basic training days. To their no-win training exercise. Juliette fought her way out of an unwinnable situation. Could they do the same? Because they did need to Kobayashi Maru their way out of this one.

They needed to change the rules, with a lot of divine intervention.

Sure, it was two against one in the back of the trailer, but it didn't seem like Theo had a lot of practice driving a big rig. The cargo bay swayed back and forth. If they moved to take Abby down and the truck made a turn, they'd lose their balance.

It was now or never. He counted down on her wrist.

Three. They moved into a crouching position.

Two. Caleb prayed this would work. That God would get them out of this. And keep Ivy and Juliette safe.

One .

Caleb and Juliette sprang up and threw all of their weight into colliding with Abby. Juliette pinned her down, and Caleb wrestled the gun out of her hand and tossed it out of her reach.

The cargo bay pitched left. The bounce caused Juliette and Abby to lose their footing and the door to unlatch and swing open. Wind blasted through the open space.

Caleb dove for Juliette's hand while grabbing a rope wrapped around a metal tiedown. His hand connected with her ankle, and he held her foot with all the strength he could muster.

"Hang on, Jules." His fingers dug in through her shoe, and he prayed it didn't come off. If he let go, she could slide out the door.

The truck bucked, and Caleb held on tight to the rope and Juliette. Both arms shook, but he refused to let go. A pop sounded, and he sucked in a breath at the blinding pain racing down the arm holding Juliette.

He couldn't hang on for much longer.

Abby tried to stand, but another sharp turn sent her flying out the back of the truck. She managed to catch a metal bar attached to the back of one of the double doors. It pulled her out of the opening, and she clung to the door as it flapped in the wind.

"Help!" she cried.

Juliette inched closer to the wall of the truck, but she still wasn't secure. One more bump in the road could send them both flying out the back. Outside, all Caleb could see was paved asphalt with white dotted lines flying by on the highway. The truck picked up speed.

But Caleb was in no position to rescue Abby. He refused to let go of Juliette until she wasn't in danger of sliding out of a moving truck bed.

Juliette wiggled her way to the side and grabbed a rope attached to the wall. "I'm good," she yelled over the wind and the rumbling truck. Caleb let her go and clung to the rope, his shoulder throbbing. He fought the urge to pass out from the pain.

The truck slowed and the inside lit up with red and blue lights. Caleb spotted a police cruiser whiz by them.

Theo must have hit a checkpoint. If he were smart, he'd stop and not try to outrun a police barricade. Another car approached the back. Someone hung out the window.

It was Alana, in Juliette's grandmother's Lincoln Town Car, with Noelle in the driver's seat. Several more police cars raced by, and a few seconds later, the truck came to a grinding halt, complete with metal scraping sounds and a dust plume. Noelle got close enough for Alana to grab Abby around the waist and pull her onto the hood of the car. An officer pulled in behind the car and cuffed Abby.

Caleb slumped against the wall and let go of his lifeline. Juliette crawled to him. He wrapped his good arm around her, and she collapsed in his lap.

"It's over," he whispered. "And this time, I'm never letting you go."