Hazardous Holiday. Liz Johnson
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be nice.”
When she climbed into the passenger side, she had another reason to be grateful she’d passed over the keys. His letters were still strewn across the floorboard, and she scrambled to collect them and shove them into her oversize purse before he noticed.
* * *
Zach couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her, even as he pulled off the base and toward the bridge.
He’d never had a welcoming party before. His mom and dad had tried to meet him following his first deployment, but after his team had been delayed and then called back to duty, they’d headed back to Texas. This was new. And not unpleasant.
“You didn’t have to be here today.” His tone came out thicker, gruffer than he’d intended, and her eyes flashed wide.
“Should we not have come? I didn’t know what you’d want, and we didn’t realize—”
He held up his hand quickly to cut her off while he cleared his throat. “No. I’m glad you did. I just wasn’t expecting it. You didn’t have to.”
Kristi’s head dipped, her hair falling over her shoulder and blocking his view of her face. “Ashley called and told me to be here. I thought maybe you’d asked her to get in touch with us.”
His stomach gave an involuntary jerk, and he pressed a fist to his knee. He should have thought to do that. He’d just never had a family in San Diego before. Not even an unconventional one.
“I guess we both have some adjusting to do.”
She heaved a little sigh that sounded as tightly wound as he was. And in some strange way, it helped to know that he wasn’t the only one unsure how to navigate this new terrain.
As he pulled her little green four-door onto the bridge, a large black van came up behind them. He watched it through the rearview, its bulk taking up most of his mirror and making the hairs on his arms stand up. It was following them awfully closely.
He frowned but kept his speed up, shifting into the middle lane of the eastbound traffic. The van stayed put, and he let out a slow breath.
“Cody’s been so excited to see you. He told the checker at the grocery store that his SEAL was coming home. I think she thought you were a pet.”
Zach chuckled. “I’ve been called a lot worse. He’s a good kid. It was nice to get his emails every week.” With a glance into the backseat, he checked on the sleeping boy. “How’s he doing?”
Kristi hugged her giant bag to her chest and plastered on something that he assumed was supposed to resemble a smile. It came much closer to a grimace.
“He’s...tired. All the time. He’s not getting enough oxygen, and the doctor said that pretty soon he’ll either have to carry around a canister or move into the hospital full-time.”
That made sense. The kid’s lips were borderline blue, and his breathing was too fast.
He shot another glance in Cody’s direction.
But his gaze snagged on the two black vans that were now behind them. His pulse soared.
Snapping his focus back to the front, he saw what he’d missed before. A third van in the left lane, slowing down. In a few seconds it would be at their side.
The vans had set up a tactical maneuver.
He’d seen a thousand of them in training and in the field, and it didn’t take him more than a second to work out what was happening. They were going to box him in. To what end, he couldn’t be sure. Would they try to force his car off the bridge?
As if on cue, the van to the left jerked to a near stop, tires squealing and cars behind it laying on their horns.
The painful screech stopped Kristi’s chatter. “What’s going on?”
Zach motioned toward the van, then to the right, where another pulled up alongside them. They didn’t seem to be trying to force him off the bridge, then—so what was their plan? He slowed way down, putting extra space between him and the vehicle ahead. It was a tractor trailer. Running into that could seriously injure him and Kristi and Cody. Was that the goal?
He continued slowing down to the annoyed honks of everyone behind them. But he didn’t have another choice. There were three eastbound lanes and no way off the two-mile bridge. Traffic was hemmed in by a cement barrier blocking oncoming traffic on the left and a relatively low guardrail on the right. But with enough force, at the right angle, the car could go up and over.
And into the Pacific.
His stomach sank faster than a car in the ocean.
The van on the right was edging closer to them, while the one on their left held its position, keeping Zach from an evasive maneuver. Braking hard wasn’t going to work either. Not with the third van right on their six.
Kristi gasped and covered her eyes, then nearly lunged for the backseat. “Cody.”
Zach gave her a push until she was facing the front. “Sit down. Keep your belt on.”
It was terse and a bit sharp. And all he could manage at the moment.
The van to the left pulled ahead while the one on the right veered into their lane. Zach didn’t have another choice. He had to pull into the vacancy, even as the lumbering black beast on his right kept pressing them closer and closer to the divider. If they hit it just right, the front end could crumple in on them. Or they could flip over the divider into oncoming traffic.
He had to get out of there.
He had to get his family to safety.
Find the opening. Find the exit strategy.
His instructors had drilled it into him. There was always a way to escape. He just had to wait until it presented itself.
It took half a second to see it. He didn’t pause to analyze. He just floored it. They shot ahead of the van on the right, which couldn’t keep up with the lighter sedan. Zipping behind the semi and into the far lane, they shot forward into the clear. The vans tried to catch up, but the end of the bridge was in sight.
As soon as they were on land, he veered off to a side street, searching for a pursuit that didn’t come.
Kristi’s chest rose and fell rapidly, her panting breaths filling the otherwise silent car.
Zach narrowed his gaze and stared into her pinched features.
“You want to tell me what exactly I came home to?”
Zach eased Cody into the bottom bunk and pulled the covers under his chin. The little guy had slept through the whole ordeal on the bridge and even through the tense drive back to the town house. But now he let out a loud yawn, and his eyes blinked open.
“Is it nighttime?”
Zach leaned over Cody and shook his head. “Nope. But for now, you should get some rest. Have a good na—” he pulled himself up short “—sleep.”
Cody yawned again and snuggled beneath the red blanket covered in classic Corvettes. “Okay.”
Kristi watched everything from the doorway, and when he sneaked past her, she stayed put, her head never turning away from Cody’s face. It glowed in two low beams, the headlights of a red ’57 Chevy night-light.
After several long seconds, she followed Zach down the stairs toward the kitchen, tripping on his duffel, which he’d dropped by the front door.
This wasn’t a good sign. He never left things lying around, but one quick trip up the stairs with the kid, and he’d already forgotten his usual routine.
“Sorry.” He grabbed the bag and carried it through the kitchen before shoving it into