And then there was movement and she thought, oh, he’s leaning down to say something, only what she saw made her think—
Pop. Cait dropped to her hands and knees as the window inches above her exploded into shards. Pop. She scrambled behind the door then around to the front of the small car. Pop. Her Mazda shuddered. She turned her head frantically. All he had to do was get out and walk down there. Could she make it to the closest trees? But the trunks were scrawny, and there was virtually no undergrowth to hide behind.
911. Call 911. But when she tried to dial, her hand shook so badly she dropped the phone. It landed in a small puff of dust below the bumper. She scrabbled for it even as she strained her ears for the sound of a door opening or closing. Or, please God, another approaching vehicle.
Nothing. She felt like an animal hiding from a predator but knowing it was helpless. A weapon. She had the spray in her purse—but her purse was in the car. She desperately wanted to poke her head out and look.
Suddenly she heard the engine rev, and she worked up the courage to creep toward the far side of her car and peek. The SUV was swinging in a sharp U-turn and accelerating. Disappearing from her sight.
A dry sob escaped her before she could muffle it with her hand. What if there’d been two people in that SUV, and one of them had slipped out to hunt her?
No, that didn’t make any sense. It had to be Blake, didn’t it? Only…he’d never had a gun that she knew of. They’d talked about things like that. He’d been a big believer in tighter gun control.
That’s when she heard the engine again. Oh, God, oh, God, he’s coming back. She pulled herself to a crouching position and prepared to dash for the trees. But the vehicle she saw wasn’t silver; it was black, and it was way bigger than the SUV she’d recognized as a crossover.
This one was slowing as if to stop, too, but instead it turned in and she saw the familiar insignia and front grill. Chevy Suburban.
Noah. Could it be?
Cait dropped to her knees, then to her butt. She leaned against the bumper, afraid she’d topple over without its support.
The engine was turned off; a door opened and then slammed.
“Cait?” he bellowed. “Cait!”
“I’m here,” she called, then realized how whispery and tremulous her voice was. “I’m here,” she repeated louder.
In seconds, he rounded her car, the fear on his roughcast face enough to turn her to jelly.
“Oh, damn.” He crouched in front of her. “You’re hurt.”
She shook her head and tried to smile, although her eyes were filling with tears. “No. Just, um…” She fingered tattered tights. “I think my suit is toast.”
He swore and fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around her as if he had to feel her against him to know she was all right. Cait seized on to him with more strength than she’d known she had. Nothing had ever sounded better than the slam of his heart beneath her ear.
* * *
NOAH DIDN’T THINK he’d ever been as scared in his life as when he had seen the bullet hole through the rear window of Cait’s little Mazda—and then realized that the glass was missing altogether on the driver’s-side window. There was the door, just standing open, and no sign of her. It had looked like a classic abduction scene. All he could think was, That bastard has her. His knees had about buckled when he’d heard her voice.
Noah and Cait held each other for a long time, him kneeling in the dirt, his cheek against her hair. He’d been scared badly enough that it was a while before he started noticing that her breasts were pressed against his belly and that her hair smelled really good.
It was probably just as well that her grip loosened about then and she finally eased back. He kept his hands on her upper arms.
“What happened?” he demanded.
She sniffed and swiped at her cheeks and then her nose. For someone with her air of class, the gesture was unexpectedly childish. If terror hadn’t still been electrifying his body, it might have made him smile.
“Somebody shot at me.”
“I figured that out.”
She frowned at him. “How?”
“There’s a bullet hole through the back window of your car.” He lifted his head. “Out through the front.”