Major Nanny

“No,” she murmured.

“Yes, you will,” Trevor said, waving the gun in a wide sweep. “He’s got it all worked out.”

“Zachary’s okay,” Harlan said. “He came to get me.”

Her heart leaped. “Really?”

Trevor gave her an odd look. “Yes. Are you willing to be part of it, too?”

“Jeff Appleton’s injured but being treated. Are Charlotte and his daughter okay?”

“Yes,” she answered.

Trevor’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

In her ear, Harlan gave her a quick update. “A gunman shot at the governor. She’s okay. Nobody hurt, just bumps and bruises for the guests during the evacuation.” His voice was a bracing shot of whiskey, shoring up her flagging strength. “We didn’t catch the shooter, but he’s long gone.”

So Trevor’s dream of some big plan unfolding wasn’t going to come true. But would sharing that information with her unstable captor make things better or worse? At this point, he seemed to have lost all touch with reality and didn’t even notice she was still on the phone.

“I’m willing to be part of it,” she said aloud to Trevor. “But I don’t think we should depend on someone else. Why can’t we just come up with our own plan?”

“I need to know where you are. We don’t have a bead on the guy,” Harlan murmured.

She met Trevor’s beaming gaze, wondering how to reveal their position without tipping him off. If she could keep Trevor from getting shot, that’s what she wanted to do. But the more he waved around that gun, the sooner someone was going to get hurt. She didn’t intend for it to be Charlotte, Abby or her. “Trevor, why don’t you untie Charlotte and let her go? She can take Abby with her. They’ll tell Sheriff Hale that everything’s okay-won’t you Charlotte?”

Charlotte nodded, her eyes dark with desperation.

“See?”

Trevor shook his head. “You don’t believe her, do you?” He raised the gun and pointed it right at Charlotte’s head. Charlotte flinched, squeezing her eyes shut.

“No!” Stacy took a step toward him, keeping the phone pressed to her ear so she didn’t lose the connection to Harlan. “I believe her. I do. She’s my best friend. She’d do anything to protect me. She’s not going to let me get in trouble for helping you.”

Trevor lowered the gun. “She may not, but nobody out there is going to believe her. Harlan McClain will poison their minds against me.”

“Tell him to trade Charlotte and Abby for me,” Harlan urged in her ear.

“No,” she said sharply, seeing the black fury in Trevor’s eyes. She had no doubt that if Harlan stepped foot inside the house right now, Trevor would shoot him dead on the spot.

“He will,” Trevor insisted, pointing the gun at Charlotte again. The anger in his eyes melted into bleakness. “We’re not getting out of here alive, Stacy. They won’t let us. We’re surrounded and he’s not coming, is he?”

“Maybe your friend’s just not here yet,” she said quickly, not liking the look in his eyes. “Maybe he’s looking for a distraction-if we could send out Charlotte and Abby, the people outside would be so busy dealing with them-”

“He could make his move,” Trevor finished for her, looking at her with almost childlike hope.

“Let me untie Charlotte. She could go get Abby.”

“Is Abby in Zachary’s room?” Harlan’s voice was a low rumble in her ear.

“It’s probably getting cold in Zachary’s room for Abby, with the window open,” she said to Trevor.

“We’ll put someone at the window to get them out that way-just warn us if Trevor’s coming with her,” Harlan said.

Trevor looked at Stacy uncertainly. “You think it’ll work?”

I hope so, she thought.

HARLAN HEARD A LOW THUD, and seconds later, the sound of ripping tape. Lewis must’ve duct-taped Charlotte Manning to a chair in the kitchen earlier “Stacy?” he murmured, needing to hear the sound of her voice. But she didn’t answer.

“She probably put the phone down to unbind Charlotte,” Sheriff Hale said softly, his gaze on the pair of tactical officers he’d just positioned on either side of Zachary’s bedroom window. As long as Charlotte entered alone, they’d draw her and Jeff Appleton’s daughter to the window and help them escape.

“There. Let Charlotte go get Abby.” Stacy’s voice was back in his ear again. He felt the tension in his gut ease.

“Good,” he said. “Keep him from going with them.”

“No, she can do it by herself,” Stacy said, clearly talking to Trevor. “We need to stay here and figure out what we’re going to do when your friend makes his move.”

That’s my girl, he thought. And he was going to do whatever it took to make her see they were right together as soon as he got her out of there.

A rectangle of light appeared in Zachary’s room. The door opened and Harlan spotted Charlotte Manning’s silhouette enter.

The men at the window called softly to her. Following their orders, she handed Abby out the window to one of them and let the other officer help her out. The deputies brought Abby and Charlotte over to where Harlan and the sheriff crouched.

“Where are they?” Harlan asked Charlotte.

“Living room. He’s going to come looking for me if I don’t go back out there.”

Sheriff Hale nodded to another deputy standing nearby. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

Charlotte looked at Harlan. “He’s completely out of it- Stacy’s walking around talking into the phone and it’s like he doesn’t even see it. You’ve got to get her out of there.”

The deputy walked over, carrying an M24 police sniper rifle. He held it out to Harlan.

Harlan stared at the rifle, realizing what Hale intended. “Sheriff, no-”

On the other end of his headset, he heard Stacy’s soft intake of breath.

“Everything’s okay,” he murmured into the microphone.

“You said you were a sniper,” Hale said.

“I have an injury.” He held up his shrapnel-scarred hand.

“What’s taking so long?” Trevor Lewis’s agitated voice was clear over the line. He must be standing close to Stacy.

Harlan realized they were out of time. Lewis seemed to be growing more desperate by the second, and now Stacy was the only remaining target for his madness. He had to end this mess.

Now.

It had been too long since he’d felt as if a sniper rifle was part of his own body, a third arm with which he could deliver justice in a few well-aimed and well-considered shots. But if that was the only way to make sure Stacy got a chance to hold her little boy again, then he’d make it happen.

He held out his hand to the deputy with the rifle. Into the headset, he murmured, “Get him into Zachary’s room, turn on the light, and get the hell out of the way.”

On the other end of the line, Stacy was silent for a long moment. Then, aloud, she said, “We should go check on them.”

Harlan positioned himself for the best possible shot through the open window. His heart was rattling like a snare drum, beating a cadence of fear, but he shook off the doubt and concentrated on the task. Level the sight. Go for center mass.

A silhouette filled the doorway of Zachary’s room, blocking part of the light. Harlan had the shot, but he didn’t know where Stacy was, so he couldn’t take it yet.

“They’re not here.” Trevor’s voice rose with alarm. Harlan could hear him both on the headset and faintly through the open window twenty yards away.

“Are you sure?” Stacy’s voice was strong over the line. “Let me turn on a light.”

Harlan saw her silhouette just behind Trevor’s. Her arm moved, flicking on the light in Zachary’s room.

Illumination flooded the shadowy scene. Harlan saw Trevor Lewis clearly, standing a few feet inside the room.