Guarding The Babies. Sandra Robbins

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СКАЧАТЬ she whispered. “Relax.”

      “I’ll relax when we’re back at the ranch, ma’am.”

      She laughed at the flat tone of his voice and stopped in front of the cereal that the children liked. She was about to pick up a box when something caught her eye at the other end of the aisle, and she turned her head to see a young woman staring at them.

      At first, Holly thought she might be a reporter, but the more she studied her the more she thought that couldn’t be. Her brown hair hung down to her shoulders, and it looked as if it hadn’t been brushed all day. Even from far away, Holly could see the red streaks around her eyes. They seemed to stand out, especially since her face was so pale. She gave the appearance of someone who hadn’t slept in days.

      The young woman’s gaze flickered from her to the babies and then back to Holly. There was something in her eyes that sent cold chills down Holly’s spine. Who was she, and why was she staring at the twins so intently?

      Suddenly the woman whirled and disappeared down the next aisle. Holly stood there a moment, wondering what that was all about. Todd, who’d been looking the other way, evidently hadn’t seen her, and Holly didn’t say anything. The girl probably recognized Holly and was just shocked to see a country-music star buying groceries.

      Shaking off her discomfort, she tossed the cereal in the cart and pushed the stroller toward the end of the aisle. Todd followed with the cart. When she rounded the end, she looked about in hopes of catching another glimpse of the strange woman, but she was nowhere to be seen. Maybe Holly was overreacting thanks to nerves that were still fragile from her experience the night before. With a shake of her head, she pushed the stroller toward the produce section and came to a stop in front of a display of bananas. Emma and Ethan spied their favorite fruit stacked up and began to point.

      Holly laughed and chucked each one under the chin. “Don’t worry. I’m going to get you some.”

      She was just about to pick up one of the bunches when she heard a cry at the end of the aisle at the back of the produce section. She froze in place and turned a startled gaze in that direction. A man lay on the floor, and a crowd had begun to gather around him.

      “Call an ambulance. Does anyone know CPR?” someone called out.

      Todd glanced at Holly. “I know CPR. I need to go help him.”

      Holly nodded. “Go on. See what you can do.”

      Todd rushed over to the prostrate figure and dropped down on his knees beside the unconscious man. He leaned over and examined him for a moment before he looked up. “He’s breathing on his own,” he announced, loud enough for Holly to hear him. “I’ll just watch him until the paramedics get here.”

      Holly took a step closer to the drama that was playing out on the floor of the supermarket and stared at the man who lay there. The observing crowd was growing, and it looked like every customer in the store had congregated in the area. With the thought that Todd could handle the situation, she turned back to the twins.

      Later, she would remember that she had only looked away for not more than a few seconds. But that was all the time someone had needed. The space where the stroller had sat was now empty, and the twins were nowhere in sight.

      She looked around in panic before the first scream ripped from her throat. “My children! Someone’s taken my children!”

      Todd came barreling through the crowd toward her, but she was already running to the front of the store. “Did you see someone leave with two children in a stroller?” she yelled at the checkout girl.

      Her eyes grew wide, and she nodded. “A man just pushed a stroller out the front door.”

      Holly ran outside and plowed into a man who was standing still and staring at something behind her. She looked over her shoulder and gasped to see Ray lying on the sidewalk. Blood ran from his head. Part of her wanted to run and check on him—but the children needed her more. She turned to look in the opposite direction, and that was when she saw a man running down the street, pushing the stroller.

      “Stop that man!” she screamed and took off in pursuit, but the man only increased his speed.

      Holly realized that Todd was racing beside her as they tried to close the distance between them and the kidnapper. Suddenly, Todd’s feet went out from under him, and he fell to the pavement. Holly didn’t stop to check on him. She couldn’t let the man take her children.

      She closed the gap between them and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Stop! Give me my children!”

      The man looked over his shoulder and glared at her with an evil look that she didn’t think she would ever forget. And then, without warning, he gave the stroller a push. Holly screamed as the stroller holding Emma and Ethan rolled into the street and into the path of an oncoming car.

      * * *

      Cole scanned the crowd of people milling around in front of the Sturgis Road Mall. He didn’t know what had possessed him to think he could find a woman that he didn’t know in the middle of this crowded street. She could be any of the women he was passing. But anyone who sounded as scared as the voice on the phone had should show some physical evidence of fear, and he searched the faces of every woman he met to see if he could detect anything.

      As he approached the mall’s supermarket, he was close to giving up, but then he spotted a group of people just ahead on the sidewalk. When he got closer, he saw that a man lay there unconscious. Blood ran from his head.

      He pushed into the group and flashed his badge. “Sheriff’s department. What happened?”

      A young man, who looked like he might be a college student, spoke up. “I saw it all. This guy was just standing here like he was waiting for someone. Then this other guy ran by and hit him on the head. He didn’t even stop.”

      “Did you see where the attacker went?”

      The boy shook his head. “No. I squatted down and tried to help this injured man. I did call nine-one-one, though.”

      “Good,” Cole said. He was about to say something else when the door to the supermarket opened and a man ran out, pushing a double baby stroller.

      From where he stood, he could see two blond heads bobbing from inside the stroller as the man sped away. Cole frowned. The man’s behavior seemed a little suspicious—but Cole hadn’t seen anything to justify stopping him. He’d barely caught a glimpse of the children in the stroller, but they seemed unharmed. Maybe the guy was just in a hurry.

      Cole was about to direct his attention back to the man on the ground when a shrill scream split the air. Startled, he looked up to see Holly burst out of the store and then run in the same direction as the fleeing man. Her agonized cry for the man to give her the children sliced through him, and he jumped to his feet and ran after her.

      Cole kept his eyes on the stroller and willed his legs to move faster. To Holly’s left a man that he guessed was one of her security team ran beside her. Cole saw the crack in the sidewalk but, evidently, Holly’s bodyguard didn’t. He caught his toe on the protruding concrete, and the next minute, he was down on the ground directly in Cole’s path.

      Cole took a flying leap over the man’s prone figure and sped on right behind Holly. Then his stomach clenched as he saw the abductor give СКАЧАТЬ