Countdown Read online

  James kneeled down. Caleb and Ethan hurdled into his open arms. His hands splayed across their small backs. Their soft cheeks, wet with tears, pressed into his temples.

  “Daddy.” Ethan’s cry mixed with a laugh broke his heart.

  “Guess what, Dad? I put on my seat belt all by self,” Caleb said, his little voice shaking. “Ethan needed help.”

  James opened his eyes enough to look into the van. A ripped-up bench seat in the back of the van held three seat belts. The middle of the van had holes on the floor where rows of seats used to reside. He choked back a sob at the provision of safety. “That was very smart of you boys. You’re not hurt? Are you sure?”

  They shook their heads. Their blond hair brushed against his hair. “Daddy, you saved us, huh?” Ethan nodded his head while he asked. His son’s long eyelashes held tiny teardrops.

  James closed his eyes. His entire body shook with emotion. He fisted the backs of their shirts, wishing he could hug them tighter but careful to be gentle. “God did, buddy.” The words barely escaped his swollen throat. “And He used our neighbor to help.”

  James twisted to look over his shoulder at the woman in question. She stood with a hand cupped over her mouth, her head bent. She’d always been attractive, but at the moment, she looked a thousand times more beautiful than he’d ever noticed.

  He fought back the habitual onslaught of questions and theories flooding his mind whenever a problem arose. It made him an asset to his company, but as a parent he didn’t want to face what his analytical mind shouted: this was too bizarre to be random.

  The events of the last week shifted together in his memory, a puzzle begging to be solved. The blood in his veins ran cold. Bottom line: it had to be his fault, and he had no guarantee they wouldn’t try again.

  TWO

  Rachel fought off a relieved sob as she watched James reunite with his sons. His broad shoulders provided enough room to embrace both children at once. He stood as he held them to his chest, their little feet dangling. Both pairs of little arms wrapped around his neck.

  She turned to the side, not wanting to intrude on their moment. She’d gotten to know James and the boys as they car-pooled to church together every Sunday and Wednesday...at least until a few days ago when he’d left without her.

  Last Sunday, she had walked to the sidewalk at the appointed time and found his car already halfway down the street. She wouldn’t have minded driving on her own to church, but the lack of communication infuriated her. She’d half hoped he would explain, but on Wednesday he’d gone without her, as well. She’d meant to talk to James about it the past few days, but the awkwardness of the situation didn’t inspire her to make the first move. And now certainly wasn’t the time.

  Other sirens approached, but they had a different rhythm to them. Her suspicions were confirmed as an ambulance pulled to a stop on the main road. She didn’t envy the commuters the traffic jam it created, but his boys were alive. That was all that mattered.

  A policeman stepped in front of her. “Ma’am? Were you the one that called in? I need to ask you some questions.”

  Something flew into the back of her legs. Her knees almost buckled. She looked down to find two three-year-old boys firmly attached to her legs. The officer smiled. “I’ll give you a minute,” he said.

  “Daddy said you saved us.” Ethan held on to her right leg.

  Caleb squeezed her left knee. “We’re supposed to say thank you.”

  “I didn’t say you should tackle her, though.”

  Rachel twisted her torso to find James McGuire, tears in his eyes, flash a sheepish grin at her. “I—I can’t thank you enough,” he said.

  He reached above the boys and pulled her into an awkward hug. His arms squeezed her tight around her shoulders for half a second, as if he was about to lift her up instead of embrace her. Despite it being a clumsy hug, her cheeks heated. His abrupt release threatened her balance, but the boys’ weight around her feet helped steady her. She averted her eyes. She didn’t want him to see how his hug affected her.

  James cleared his throat and bent down. “Boys, let Rachel move.” The twins took the cue and jumped into his arms again. They had blond hair, from what she assumed was their mother’s side, but their blue, sparkling eyes and dark eyelashes were an exact duplicate of their father’s.

  A movement in the distance caught her eye. A man crouched between two trees on the opposite side of the street. The kidnapper returned to the scene to spy on them? A coldness that made no sense in a California suburb chilled her skin. “He’s there,” she shouted, raising a finger up. She trained her eyes and finger on him, but it seemed he didn’t care. He stared right back. A shiver ran down her spine.

  The cops immediately responded in pursuit. A second later the man broke eye contact and scaled the closest fence.

  “Get him,” she whispered.

  James straightened, the boys still in his arms. His eyes flicked from the officers in pursuit back to her. She couldn’t imagine what he was feeling. Judging by the way the muscles along his chiseled jaw tensed, barely controlled rage was the emotion of the moment.

  “Was that a bad man?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes.” A steely tone radiated off that one word.

  Caleb tugged on his collar. “And they’re going to put him in jail?”

  His chest heaved. “Yes.” His voice cracked. “So he can never try to take you away again.”

  Rachel’s ribs constricted. A man like James should never have had to lose his wife or even worry about having to lose his kids. She’d seen the way he parented them at church, during their car-pool rides, and occasionally through her window as they ran around their backyard while the boys giggled and taunted James with cries of “Chase me, Daddy.”

  Such a man didn’t deserve to deal with this kind of fear, the kind she’d experienced most of her life. An inevitable darkness surrounded people like her.

  James frowned, snapping her out of the morose thoughts. His dark mop of curls hung low and emphasized his blue-gray eyes. She followed his gaze as paramedics crossed the grass, heading toward them. “Are you hurt?” James asked.

  She put a hand on her neck. “Nothing a good stretch and a visit to the chiropractor won’t fix.” She reached out and gently touched the twins’ blond heads, needing reassurance they were fine.

  Two officers approached. “Sir? Ma’am? We need to talk to both of you.”

  James nodded but his gaze didn’t leave her. Two paramedics flanked James. They each talked to the boys in hushed tones as they asked questions and tried to evaluate them. The boys clung even tighter to their father’s neck. Their little red T-shirts against his navy-collared shirt gave a resemblance to a superhero.

  Rachel inhaled sharply. His gaze always sped up her heart a little. It needed to stop because they could never, ever, be anything more than neighbors.

  She turned on her heel and faced the officer. “Of course. Anything you need.” The stagnant air, mixed with the smell of diesel and tar from construction, threatened the start of a headache. Her stomach gurgled with hunger pangs, as if jealous for attention.

  After a series of endless questions, the beeps from a tow truck backing up halted her train of thought. They were taking her car. The muscles in her back tensed. Transportation meant freedom and control. How long would it take for them to fix the air bag and the transmission she felt certain she’d dropped?

  The officer pressed his lips in a firm line, as if impatient. She nodded for him to continue, but she half heard his next question. Her gaze, fueled by a desperate need for proof the kidnapper was gone, swept past the blue uniform. She studied the hedges, flowering bushes and trees surrounding her. She couldn’t get past one question the officer hadn’t yet asked: Why would the kidnapper return to the scene and spy on them?

  * * *

&
nbsp; James studied the boys in his rearview mirror on the drive back home. Physically they were unharmed and seemed like themselves, but they remained silent, their gazes locked on the blur outside their respective windows. A clear sign that his normally talkative twins weren’t fine.

  Their mom would’ve known how to help them cope after the attempted kidnapping. His throat tightened. Nikki had been gone two years. The boys probably didn’t even remember the sound of her voice.

  He squeezed the steering wheel. Ever since the hit-and-run had taken Nikki away from him, he drove only when absolutely necessary. So much so, his younger brothers had accused him of becoming a hermit, and his mother worried aloud he’d developed agoraphobia. Only his father seemed to understand. Or maybe he didn’t. James couldn’t tell because he hardly said a word.

  The manic chase to the subdivision exit marked the first time he’d driven aggressively since the accident. Thankfully, his neighbor didn’t seem to have such squeamishness. He would never forget the way she’d tried to block the van, and then, despite being hit, gone after them like a raging bull.

  What was the proper thank-you gift for such an act of selflessness? His throat swelled at the possibility of what could have happened had she not intervened. He gritted his teeth and forced the emotions to take a backseat.

  Rachel sat in the passenger seat in silence, her hands squeezed together. He’d insisted on giving her a ride home after her car was towed. It stood to reason she’d be distraught over her banged-up vehicle. Even so, she was uncharacteristically quiet and still. She hadn’t let a second go by with silence on all the other rides they’d shared to church and back.

  He forced a small smile. “Hey. Are you okay?”

  She blinked and jerked in her seat. Her wide eyes roved past James and the boys, as if she’d been awakened from a dream and surprised she wasn’t alone. “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I mean, I’m sure I will be.” Her voice took on a chipper tone. “I suppose it takes a while to process things when something like that happens.”

  The sudden positive take didn’t ring true. “If you hadn’t slowed them down...”

  She flashed him a dark look and darted a glance behind him. Ah, message received. She didn’t think he should discuss it any more in front of the boys.

  But James felt the need to talk about it. The squeal of her tires had made him look through the living room window to discover the boys had slipped outside without him. They had asked if they could ride their bikes outside, and he had said they could after his phone call. They were supposed to have waited. He never let them go outside alone.

  He shouldn’t care what Rachel thought of him, but still wanted to explain so she wouldn’t think he was an irresponsible dad.

  James groaned inwardly. Discussing their disobedience now would only make the boys think the kidnapping attempt was their fault. How would the experience affect them in the long run?

  His pulse ran hot and fast again. Relief turned to anger at the situation. He’d calmed down after the paramedics had checked the twins. His initial reactions began to seem like paranoia. Now he wasn’t sure. Could the kidnapping attempt be connected to the anomaly he’d discovered at work or the phone call he’d made two days ago?

  “We’re going home, right?” Caleb asked.

  “Yeah, buddy.” That was the third time in two minutes one of the boys had asked. They should’ve recognized their surroundings since they were gazing out the windows.

  “And the bad guys are in jail?”

  James’s throat tightened. They still hadn’t caught the escaped kidnapper, but the officers assured him they would. Patrol cars circled through the area, neighbors were on alert and the cop seemed positive the man wouldn’t be foolish enough to try to get at his kids again.

  Rachel twisted in her seat. The green tints in her blue eyes sparkled off the rays from the setting sun. Her grin held a hint of mischief. “Do you boys have a favorite food?”

  Ethan shouted pizza at the same time Caleb yelled ice cream. Rachel nodded. “Mine, too.” She stiffened and faced forward. “I’m not trying to imply we eat together. I just thought a treat might help them get their minds off things.”

  James shook his head. “I didn’t think of that.” But the image of her at his dinner table made his lips twitch, almost into a smile. “So you boys want pizza?”

  “Yeah,” the twins echoed in unison.

  She tilted her head back and released a lyrical laugh. She turned to him as her chestnut hair spilled over her right shoulder. “Do you ever get used to them speaking in stereo? I don’t think I’d ever be able to get over it. It’s amazing.”

  Warmth filled his chest. “They’re something special.” Now that his children were out of immediate danger, he registered the soft-shell navy jacket, the white-and-navy blouse, navy pants and navy flats Rachel was wearing. She looked amazing in his favorite color. James jerked his head back at the unbidden thought.

  He pulled into his driveway and hit the garage opener out of habit. He frowned at his mistake and shifted into Park. “Sorry. I forgot to stop in front of your house.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “So I could walk three feet instead of six? No worries.” She hopped out of the car before he could reply and waved at the boys. “You have a good night, okay?”

  “Bye.” They yelled in unison and squirmed forward against their seat belts.

  James stilled for a moment, searching for the right words to say as she walked away. Should he invite her to eat with them? Was it too forward? Would she be okay? Having a man point a gun at your face, even through a window, had to be a lot to process. He opened his mouth as he lowered the passenger window, but she’d already disappeared into her house.

  He pulled the car inside the garage and allowed the door to drop before releasing the boys. They ran up the steps and through the connecting door into the kitchen as they chatted about pizza and ice cream. For a split second, everything seemed normal again. His neighbor was right. They’d needed a distraction to help them get their mind off the kidnapping attempt.

  For him, it was the opposite. Now that he didn’t need to put on a brave face for Rachel or the boys, he could concentrate. Sure, there were plenty of creeps roaming the city, but the kidnapping didn’t seem random. Why would kidnappers pick a cul-de-sac deep in the heart of the subdivision? The timing of it all seemed suspect. Was his family a target?

  He worked at Launch Operations, a space transport company. The anomaly he’d found within the scripts he monitored meant a possible weapon was hidden inside a satellite scheduled to launch. His fingers twitched to call Derrick, his NSA contact, and demand protection. After all, it was Derrick who had asked him to help the NSA in the first place.

  Or was James jumping to conclusions, connecting dots that didn’t belong together?

  He followed the boys inside and found them jumping on the couch. “I was looking forward to pizza, but we could always have vegetable stew instead.”

  The twins froze, their mouths open, and dropped to their bottoms on the cushions. Ah, his boys may have been through a horrible ordeal, but they were smart enough to test how far this “treat” business went. He melted at their hopeful grins, lowered himself to his knees and hugged them again. When he thought about what might have happened—

  “Daddy, are you sad?” Caleb asked.

  He shook his head and blinked away the growing moisture. “No, the opposite. I’m very, very thankful for you.”

  “’Cause Rachel saved us, huh?” Ethan asked, but he was already nodding the answer.

  James nodded along and attempted to keep their beautiful neighbor out of his mind. “Yes.” Hugging her had been an impulse, and now he wished he’d never discovered her hair smelled like fresh raspberries.

  “Listen.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking Uncle David and Aunt Aria haven�
�t seen you for a long time. What do you think about a visit?”

  Their eyes widened, and they let out a whoop, no doubt thinking of the all the toys Aria had brought with her last time. James had never been so thankful he had a good relationship with his brother and sister-in-law. Hopefully they would be available, and if not, he’d just drive to his mom and dad’s. He could drop the boys off and drive all night to come back to work. At least then he’d feel safer knowing they were far away until the launch, and the possible threat, was over.

  “So,” James continued, “I need you to go to your room and pack some clothes in your backpacks just like we did when we went camping on the church trip. Think you can do that?”

  “What about the pizza?” Caleb asked.

  James’s stomach growled at his question, sending the boys into giggles. “What if we picked it up and ate it in the car?”

  Their reaction didn’t disappoint. They jumped up and cheered. He loved that something so simple as drive-thru food caused so much excitement. They were like their mother that way. She had found joy in the small, everyday things. Their little legs were already in motion, sprinting off to their shared room. “Don’t forget clean underwear and socks,” he called after them.

  His shoulders relaxed. Plans always helped. He picked up his laptop from the end table and flicked it open. Please show me I’m wrong, Lord. Let this just be a horrible coincidence.

  He’d set up his browser’s home page to his work login since he often telecommuted. As a systems administrator, he put in significant overtime and monitored all processes on the servers in the weeks leading up to each launch.

  In three days there was yet another telecom satellite scheduled to launch from an air force base his company leased from the government. Mission Control remained at the main offices in the city, but there would also be a small control tower next to the launch site.

  James worked around the clock before each and every launch, ensuring there would be no programming glitches. And he’d never found a glitch he couldn’t repair. It was fixing a small script error that had alerted him to the abnormality in the first place. Otherwise, he’d probably never have noticed it.