Christmas Conspiracy

“What are you looking for?” she asked, as she quickly changed both kids, then sat them down on a blanket with juice boxes and a snack.

“My equipment bag. I have a bug sweeper in there. Those men knew where we were,” he said. “I need to check for a transmitter.”

He rounded the SUV and reached in. Part of his duffel was caught in the crumpled metal of the rear tailgate and it had been littered with bullets. Great. He unzipped the bag and rifled through its contents. The case containing his electronic detector had been decimated. Holding his breath, he pulled out the shot-up equipment. The bug detector was beyond hope.

He grabbed his phone, another link to the outside world. Supposedly secure. Only his computer expert, Zane, should be able to trace his location with it.

Logan hesitated. His gut told him to remain incommunicado. He pulled the battery from the phone and unhooked the GPS power source. He wasn’t taking any more chances. Not with his kids’ lives.

He looked over at them. Each child sipped on a juice box while Kat sang softly to keep them entertained. He wanted to watch and listen, but they couldn’t afford to stay anywhere for long. He needed to find that transmitter. Nothing else explained how the gunmen had found them.

Logan rifled through the equipment, searching for anything out of place then checked the kids’ seats before beginning a swift visual search on the vehicle’s exterior.

“What are you doing now?” Kat asked. “I thought you had a detector.”

“It’s ruined. That makes us vulnerable.” He rose quickly and dusted off his jeans. “Get everything else out of the SUV, Kat. Fast. If we don’t absolutely have to have it, we’re dumping it and getting the hell out of here.”

Logan stripped the vehicle of anything not nailed down except for his most sensitive high-tech equipment, the diaper case and one toy each to distract the kids. He grimaced at Kat’s dismay as she dumped a garbage bag of clothes and toiletries, but when he grabbed the small bag from the floor of the backseat and threw it on the trash pile, she clutched his arm.

“No,” she hissed. “Those are Christmas presents. It’s all they’ll have. Please don’t.”

At her desperation, Logan stopped and peered inside. A used train and doll lay alongside two tiny packaged toys and one outfit for each child. His knuckles whitened on the bag as he viewed the meager items. He’d known money was tight for Kat, but this? He raised his head. Embarrassment laced her gaze. Silently, he checked the toys out and handed her the bag. She clutched it, looking away.

He wanted to comfort her, but what could he say?

He slid under the car and, using telescoping mirrors, checked the undercarriage, front to back. After a few minutes, he cursed. “Gotcha.”

He showed her the bug, then smashed it. “Okay, we’re out of here. They could be close by for all we know.”

They buckled the kids into the car, but remained silent. For a brief few moments earlier, they’d experienced the initial ease that had existed between them three years ago. From the moment they’d first met, they couldn’t stop talking or touching each other. Being with her then had felt so natural. Now, the awkward silence made his chest ache.

Logan forced his mind from the past and quickly covered the pile of equipment and Kat’s belongings with dead branches and leaves. She stared at the mound, then, without speaking, climbed into the passenger’s seat. Holding herself stiffly, she peered out at the flat landscape beyond the birch trees.

Sighing, Logan took one look at his sleepy children and started the vehicle. He waited until the kids had finally nodded off before broaching the subject he’d wanted to talk about for hours. “I would have helped you any way I could, if you’d just come to me.”

Her eyes flashed with anger and residual embarrassment. “I did come to you.”

“When?”

“Once I found out I was pregnant, I tracked you down. I came to your ranch and pleaded to see you. Your men wouldn’t even let me through the gate. They said you were indisposed and nothing I said would get you to talk to me.” Pain punctuated every word. “After that heartwarming welcome, I didn’t have to be told twice that you didn’t want me around.”

Logan looked at her in shock. “I never turned you away.”

“So what? I’m lying?” she shot back. “You think I would make up a story about going to your ritzy ranch in Carder, Texas?”

He glared at her. “You don’t exactly have a great track record for reliability and honesty, Kat. Point in fact—me meeting my kids for the first time today.”

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