Her Christmas Guardian. Shirlee McCoy

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СКАЧАТЬ href="#u6d6ecc0c-d221-590c-8832-758370a67c7a">ONE

      I’ve been found.

      The thought shot through Scout Cramer’s head, left her breathless, frantic. She veered the shopping cart toward the store exit, her heart pounding, her body vibrating with fear.

      In her periphery, a man moved in. Casual in his dark slacks and sport coat, he looked like any other holiday shopper. She wanted so badly to believe he was.

       Please, God. Please. Let me be wrong about who he is.

      But she didn’t think she was.

      She thought she was right. Thought that somehow, after nearly three years, everything she’d tried to do for Amber, everything she’d tried to do for herself and Lucy had come to nothing. If she’d been found out, if he’d learned the truth, it was all for nothing. Every lie. Every broken friendship.

      All of it.

      For nothing.

      “Please, God,” she whispered as she unhooked Lucy’s belt and lifted her from the cart. At just a little over twenty-four pounds, she was tiny for her age, her little arms wrapping snugly around Scout’s neck.

      “Mommy needs to find the restroom,” Scout murmured, afraid to walk out into the parking lot. He’d follow her there. She was sure of it. After that...

       What would he do?

      Confront her?

      Worse?

      The store was filled with holiday shoppers, dozens of people crowding into Walmart’s long lines, all of them desperate for Christmas bargains.

      Would anyone notice if Scout was attacked?

      Would anyone intervene?

      Maybe, but she didn’t plan to stick around long enough to find out.

      She glanced at the man, hoping he didn’t notice her sideways look. He was still, hovering at the head of an aisle, pretending to look at cans of asparagus.

      She pivoted away, hurrying toward a restroom sign and the corridor beyond it. There had to be an emergency exit. She nearly ran to the end of the hall, stopping at double doors marked Employees Only.

      What would happen if she walked in?

      Would someone call the police? Set off an alarm?

      Would she be arrested? If she was, what would happen to Lucy?

      She looked at her little girl, smiling into dark brown eyes that were so much like Amber’s it hurt to look in them.

      “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered, and she hoped she was right. She’d made a lot of mistakes in her life. She’d done a lot of things she’d regretted, but she’d never regretted her friendship with Amber. She’d never regretted the promise she’d made to her.

      Even if she did sometimes wonder if she’d been right to make it.

      She glanced over her shoulder. No sign of the guy in the sport jacket. But her skin crawled, and her hair stood on end.

      Something wasn’t right, and that scared her more than anything else that had happened in the past couple of years.

      She pushed the door open, took a step into what must have been an employee break room. No one there. Thank goodness. Just vending machines, a microwave, a refrigerator. Straight across from where she stood, an external door with a small window offered the hope of escape she’d been looking for.

      “Everything okay, ma’am?” The voice was so unexpected, she jumped, whirling to face the speaker, her heart in her throat, her arms tightening around Lucy.

      Tall.

      That was the first impression she got.

      Very tall, because she was eye to chest, staring straight at a black wool coat that hung open to reveal a dark purple dress shirt.

      She looked up into ocean-blue eyes and a hard, handsome face, took in the black knit cap that almost covered deep red hair, the auburn stubble, the deep circles beneath the man’s eyes. He smiled, and his face changed. Not hard any longer. Approachable. The kind of guy a woman might put her trust in.

      If she ever put her trust in anyone.

      “I’m fine,” she managed to say.

      “You’re in the employee break room,” he pointed out, flashing an easy smile. There was nothing easy about the look in his eyes. She was being studied, assessed, filed away for future reference.

      “Yes. Well.” She glanced around, trying to think of a good excuse for being in a place she shouldn’t be. “I was looking for the restroom.”

      “You passed it.”

      “I guess I did.” Her cheeks heated, but she refused to look away. He hadn’t hauled out handcuffs or threatened to arrest her yet, so he probably wasn’t a security guard or police officer. She doubted he was working with the man who’d been following her. She’d have noticed him way before she’d noticed the other guy. That dark red hair and lanky height weren’t easy to miss. “I’ll just go find it.”

      She sidled past him, moving back into the hall, Lucy’s arms still tight around her neck. She’d do anything for her daughter. Anything. Even run away from everything she knew. Give up a job she loved. Say goodbye to friends and never contact them again.

      “Are you in some kind of trouble?” the guy asked, following her down the hall.

      Was she?

      She didn’t know, wasn’t made for intrigue and danger. She liked quiet predictability. No drama. No muss. Nothing that was even close to trouble. The one time she’d tried to break free, do something wild and reckless and completely different, she’d caused herself enough heartache to last a lifetime.

      No more.

      Never again.

      Except that she had done it again. Gone out on a limb, done something completely out of character. For different reasons, but the results had been the same. Trouble. It was breathing down her neck. She felt it as surely as she felt Lucy’s soft breath on her cheek.

      “Ma’am?” The man touched her arm, and she jerked back, surprised and a little alarmed. She’d kept mostly to herself since moving to River Valley, Maryland, spent all her time with Lucy or at work. She didn’t let people into their world, into the place she’d carved for them. The safe little house in the safe little neighborhood.

      “Are you in trouble?” he asked again, shoving his hands in the pockets of his black slacks and taking a step back.

      “No,” she mumbled even though she wasn’t sure. The guy in the sport jacket seemed to have disappeared, and she was beginning to think she’d let her imagination get the better of her. But if she hadn’t...?

       Then what?

      Could СКАЧАТЬ