Trouble With A Badge. Delores Fossen
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then.” Levi hung up and took the road to lead them into town. “And you’ll explain everything to me,” he added to Alexa when he hit the End Call button.
Where to start?
Better yet, how much to say?
Or not to say.
“This morning I went over to Tasha’s to see the baby and her. She’d just gotten out of the hospital, so I thought she could use some help. While I was there, these two armed men showed up and tried to muscle their way in. Tasha and I escaped with the baby, but the men fired shots at us.”
Mercy, the sound of those bullets was still echoing in her head.
“Tasha was in WITSEC, too?” he asked.
“No. I met her after my relocation to Austin and we became friends. She’d been in hiding because of a stalker she couldn’t shake. A guy named Scottie Norse. According to her, he’s a violent, dangerous man, and Tasha was afraid he might try to hurt the baby or use the baby to force Tasha to be with him.”
“A stalker,” he repeated. “Is that Scottie’s baby?”
“No,” she repeated. “According to Tasha, she’s definitely not Scottie’s. And I believe her. She showed me a picture of Scottie so I’d know who he was if I ever saw him around, and Violet doesn’t resemble him at all. Tasha said the baby’s father was a guy named Brett Mendoza.”
“So, how was Tasha involved with Scottie then?” he asked.
“Tasha said she dated him for a while but broke off things when he became abusive. She had him arrested after he assaulted her, but he didn’t spend any time in jail. It was his first offense, and he’s got money and connections. Tasha moved, started seeing another guy, got pregnant, but then he was killed in a car accident.”
He stayed quiet a moment. “So, maybe Lockwood isn’t dirty. Maybe the dirt is from this scumbag stalker who sent the gunmen after Tasha.”
“Maybe,” she mumbled.
Alexa couldn’t rule it out, but she couldn’t rule herself out, either. After all, there was a reason she was in WITSEC, and she hadn’t exactly stayed out of things since she’d been given a new identity.
“Tell me more about these men who attacked you,” Levi insisted.
“I didn’t recognize them. We escaped in Tasha’s SUV, and the men came in pursuit. They chased us for over an hour before they caught up with us at the gas station. That’s when they said we should just surrender, that it wouldn’t do any good for us to escape because they had contacts and listening devices in the local law enforcement offices.”
“And you believed them?” he asked.
She nodded, not trusting her voice for several seconds. “It’s not hard to plant bugs or monitor the police radio.”
He made a sound that was possibly of agreement. Because he knew it was true. Most small-town police stations didn’t do routine sweeps for listening devices.
“If you tell everyone the baby’s ours, then Scottie won’t have a reason to come after her,” Alexa spelled out.
“If I tell everyone she’s ours, then it’s going to stir up trouble in my family,” he countered.
Definitely. “I’m very sorry about that. But until I know more about the attack, it’s the best way to keep Violet safe.”
He didn’t argue with that. Not verbally anyway. She braced herself for the questions that Levi was no doubt ready to ask.
But Levi didn’t ask her anything.
That was when she realized he had his attention nailed to the rearview mirror.
That put her heart right back in her throat, and Alexa whirled around in the seat to see what had put that look of concern on his face.
An SUV was coming up behind them.
“You said you stole this vehicle,” Levi reminded her. “But what would the other hired thug be driving?”
“Probably Tasha’s SUV. We used it when we escaped from the apartment in Austin. It’s dark green.” She studied the vehicle behind them, but the headlights were too bright for her to see much.
“Why didn’t you use her SUV when you got out of there with the baby?” he asked, snagging her attention.
“The hired gun’s car was closer. After they shot Tasha, I grabbed the baby from her arms, jumped in our attacker’s car and got out of there as fast as I could.”
Levi sped up a little and then cursed when the vehicle behind them did the same. “Why isn’t the baby in an infant car seat?” he asked.
That certainly didn’t steady her heartbeat. It started to race again. “Her infant carrier was in Tasha’s SUV, and I couldn’t get to it before I had to hurry away from the gas station.”
Alexa knew where this was going. The baby was vulnerable on the backseat with nothing to restrain her. The newborn was too young to roll over and fall, but a collision could be deadly.
Thankfully, they were already at the edge of town where there were businesses and shops. Yes, it was late and all of them were closed, but maybe the possibility of being spotted would stop the killer from launching a full-scale attack.
Maybe.
“I’ll get back there with her,” Alexa said, climbing over the seat, and she hoped the precaution was just overkill.
It wasn’t.
“We’re still a minute or two out from the sheriff’s office,” Levi said. “It won’t do me any good to call for backup now. We’ll get there before Jericho could respond. Just hold on to the baby and stay down.”
Alexa did indeed hold on to the baby, but she lifted her head just enough to see what the heck was going on. And she didn’t like what she saw.
Oh, no. Not this.
The SUV was right behind them, well past the mere tailgating stage. And now that Alexa got a better look at it, she knew for a fact that it was Tasha’s vehicle. That meant the person or persons inside had come to try to kill her. The driver didn’t waste any more time. He rammed into the car.
The jolt was instant.
It threw Alexa forward, slamming her against the seat in front of her. Thankfully, it didn’t do the same to the baby. Alexa put her body over the newborn’s, hoping it would be enough to protect the little girl.
There was another jolt.
Then another.
The car jerked to the right, and that was when Alexa realized the killers were trying to force them off the road.
And it was working.
The SUV was much larger, and the driver used that size when he sped up until the vehicles were side by side. Alexa couldn’t actually see through the heavily tinted windows, but the SUV bashed right into the driver’s side of their car.
“Hold on,” Levi warned.
The car lurched to the right as the SUV pushed them off the road and onto the sidewalk. Levi barely missed a concrete bench, but the front of the car bashed into the brick front of an antiques store.
Again, Alexa flew forward, somehow managing to keep the baby sheltered. But the jostling woke the little girl and she immediately started to cry.
Levi started to curse.
Alexa knew why—because they were stopped. They were now sitting ducks. The vehicle was angled so that the front end was against the door of the antiques shop.
“Call Jericho and tell him what’s going on,” he said, tossing her his phone.
Somehow, Alexa managed to press the Call button, even though her hands were