Christmas Rescue at Mustang Ridge. Delores Fossen

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      Chapter Three

      Jake tried not to react to the sirens wailing behind him. And he reminded himself that the local cops probably wouldn’t be after him yet.

      Probably.

      But even if they were, he still had to get Maggie out of there.

      “You’ve lost your mind,” Maggie concluded.

      She put on her seat belt as he’d ordered, though Jake wasn’t sure how she managed it with her hands shaking that hard. She was chewing on her bottom lip, too, and there wasn’t much color in her face.

      He hadn’t wanted to scare her.

      Okay, maybe he had.

      Fear was better than other things she could have chosen to do.

      Like fight back.

      Maggie had once been an Amarillo city cop with a good aim and a kick-butt attitude, and Jake had been surprised when she hadn’t pulled a gun on him and tried to defend herself. But no. She’d confused things even more by going with him and poking fun at the fact that this could have been her last few moments on earth.

      She pushed her dark blond hair from her face, looked over her shoulder and no doubt saw the Coopersville police cruiser behind them. Not close.

      And it wasn’t exactly following them.

      The cruiser pulled into the parking lot of the diner, and Jake kept going. He had to get out of there before the local sheriff realized that Maggie was gone.

      “Are you planning to let me in on what’s going on?” Maggie asked.

      Not really. But he needed her cooperation and that meant he had to tell her at least some of the truth. It was a gamble, but Jake was feeling a little better about his chances since Maggie had already asked about Sunny. Maybe that meant she hadn’t written off her niece.

      Maybe that also meant she’d help with Jake’s plan.

      “Should I be screaming and trying to flag down Sheriff Myers?” she pushed.

      Oh, yeah. She probably should, but Jake kept that to himself. “I hacked into the Justice Department database to find you.”

      “What?” She made a sound of pure outrage. “Why would you do something stupid like that? You know what could happen to me.”

      She stopped.

      “Oh, I get it.” Maggie huffed. “This is some kind of death by proxy thing. You lead one of Tanner’s goons to me so he can kill me. Yeah, you’ll lose your badge for hacking into the database. Maybe even spend some time in jail or on probation. But you’ll have your McCall justice, and I’ll be dead.”

      None of that was true. But he was glad Chet hadn’t thought of it. Jake didn’t think even his father would stoop that low, but with Chet, you never knew.

      Jake turned onto a back road before he continued. “Sunny’s sick.”

      Maggie froze and studied him a moment. “What’s wrong with her?” Her voice was tentative. As if she didn’t want to hear the answer.

      Jake had practiced this part so it would sound sterile. “Aplastic anemia. Her bone marrow isn’t producing enough new cells to keep her alive.”

      “Oh, God.” And Maggie repeated it until it strung together like one syllable.

      Jake gave her some time to try to absorb that. He wished her luck with it. He’d had several months now and was still trying to absorb it. It didn’t make sense that his baby girl would have to fight for her life this way.

      “How bad is it?” Maggie asked.

      “Bad.” He had to pause, take a deep breath. He’d rehearsed this part, too, but it still sickened him to say it. “She needs a bone marrow transplant fast. We’ve all had blood tests, and none of us match.”

      She repeated that, too. “And I’m a match?”

      He glanced at her and met her gaze. “I hope.”

      “You don’t know?” Her grip melted off him. “That’s what the test is for, Jake, you didn’t have to kidnap me. I would have done the test.”

      Her eagerness to help Sunny didn’t ease the knot in his gut. That’s because he was bargaining with the devil here.

      A devil he’d kissed.

      And dreamed about.

      Hell, the dreams were the worst part, because in them he’d done a lot more than just kiss her. That made him one sick puppy.

      “You СКАЧАТЬ