Thunder Horse Heritage. Elle James
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up just like her.”
Julia’s hand shook so badly, the phone slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor. As if Lily sensed her distress, her whimpers amplified into wails.
Tears welled in Julia’s eyes and she stumbled to her feet, staring down at the device at her feet as if it was a snake coiled to strike.
“What’s wrong?” Tuck stood in the now-open doorway of the bathroom, a towel slung around his hips, water dripping off his body, pooling at his feet.
“The phone,” Julia answered in a stupor.
Tuck’s jaw tightened. “Whose phone?”
“Mine.” She glanced down at the seemingly innocuous phone at her feet.
“You didn’t answer it, did you?”
She nodded, her gaze shifting back to Tuck.
A tic jerked in his jaw, his lips firming into a thin line. “The killer?”
She nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He’ll kill Lily and me if I share the video with anyone.” Julia lifted the baby off the bed and hugged her close to her chest.
“So he knows about Jillian and that she sent the clip to you.” Tuck’s words were a statement. He reached back into the bathroom and grabbed his jeans. “We need to get out of here.”
Her breath catching in her throat, Julia whispered, “Now?”
Lily whimpered.
Tuck stared across at Julia, his expression as hard as his jaw. “Now. Pack fast.”
He strode into the living area of the suite, dropped the towel and slid his legs into his jeans.
For a moment, Julia could only stare at his naked backside, her mouth gone dry. Then she spun into action, her child’s safety crystallizing as the most important thing in her mind. She laid Lily on the bed and blocked her in on each side by pillows before getting dressed and then stuffing diapers, bottles and formula into her backpack.
In less than two minutes Julia had everything. As she tied the sling around her neck, she glanced across at Tuck, who stood at the window, peering around the edge of the curtain.
* * *
TUCK HAD HIS suitcase waiting by the door. He checked out the window to see if any new cars had shown up in the parking lot below. As late as it was, most gamblers had either called it a night and gone to bed or were spending the night at a slot machine, hoping to hit the big jackpot. Nothing moved in the parking lot.
Then a couple of pairs of headlights shone down the long drive leading into the casino.
His pulse quickening, Tuck zeroed in on the vehicles, calling out over his shoulder, “It’s time to move.”
“I’m ready.” Julia appeared at his side, Lily wrapped around her middle as she’d been before, the shawl draped over her body. Julia leaned over his arm and stared out. “What’s going on down there?”
“I have no intentions of finding out. Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed his suitcase and then set it down, thinking better of it. Nothing in it was that important. He’d move faster without it. He took Julia’s backpack from her, then he held the door open for the mother and child.
After Julia passed through, he caught up and moved around her, heading for the stairs, not the elevator. He took the steps two at a time, arriving at the bottom first.
Julia maneuvered the stairwell at a slower pace, careful not to slip and fall with her precious cargo.
Tuck opened the door leading out the back of the building and checked for bad guys. “The coast is clear for now. But we need to move fast.”
“Where are we going?” Julia started to push past him to the outside.
Tuck spotted movement at the corner of the building. A man in dark clothing rounded the corner, his head swiveling back and forth, searching.
For Julia, no doubt. Tuck jerked her back into the building and pushed her behind the metal staircase. “Wait here beneath the stairs until I come back. Keep down and keep quiet.”
He ducked out the door, sliding into the shadows of a nearby bush. As he inched his way along the wall of the casino building, he kept the man in view while searching for a way to get Julia out of the hotel and away safely.
Tuck spotted a golf cart near the back entrance, parked beneath an awning.
About that time, the man searching the back of the building moved abreast of where Tuck hid in the shadows. In the meager light from the moonless night, the dark silhouette of a pistol was clearly visible. Tuck didn’t recognize the man as any of the sheriff’s deputies, the tribal policemen who’d been at the murder scene earlier or the potential witnesses he had questioned at the casino.
The man wore dark clothes and moved in a crouched stance, easing through the darkness like someone who’d done this before. Making a snap judgment, Tuck darted out, knocked the gun from the man’s hand and jabbed an elbow up into the guy’s nose.
He doubled over at the same time as Tuck’s knee came up, connecting with his face. The guy fell to the earth and lay still.
Knowing he might have only moments before the man regained consciousness and raised an alarm, Tuck ran for the golf cart and felt in the dark, praying for a key. When his fingers closed around the hard metal, he sent a silent prayer to Wakantanka, the Great Spirit. He cranked the engine and slammed into Reverse, backed all the way to the rear door of the casino and motioned for Julia.
She hurried out, sliding into the passenger seat even as Tuck whipped the cart into Forward and sped toward the marina.
“What happened to the man you saw?” Julia spun around in her seat, checking behind them.
“Taken care of,” Tuck said between gritted teeth as the cart bounced down the narrow lane to the marina by the lake.
“Where are we going? Shouldn’t we be looking for a getaway car or something?”
“Not a car. We’re going by boat. The drive into the casino is narrow. They’ll spot us immediately. The lake is big enough to give us a lead on them.”
Julia held on to the brace bar the canopy was mounted on as Tuck pushed the little cart to the limit. “I think someone’s following us. Make that two people.” She turned to Tuck. “Can you make this thing go faster?”
Tuck’s teeth ground together. He had the accelerator floored. “This is as good as it gets, unless you think you can run faster, carrying Lily.”
“No way. But they’re gaining on us.”
A quick glance behind him assured Tuck. “We’ll get there first.” Then luck would have to be with them. The first boat they came to had to have the key in the ignition, or they’d be sitting ducks.
Lily whimpered.
Tuck didn’t dare glance down at her. He had to make it to the marina and get them the hell away before anything happened.
A dull thump made the cart shudder. Bits of hard plastic splintered across Tuck’s back. “Get down!”
Hanging on to the seat, Julia slid onto the floorboard of the cart, her free arm clutched around Lily’s form. “They’re shooting at us,” she cried. “What if they hit Lily?”
“Not gonna happen.” Tuck hoped he was right. He bumped up onto the wooden pier, barely slowing as he took stock of the moored boats.
A long, sleek jet boat caught his attention. He aimed the cart in that direction and floored the accelerator again. The cart leaped forward, bumping over the wooden planks, jarring the occupants.
Lily’s voice rose in a wail, her cry matched by Julia’s as she tumbled out of the cart backward,