J Saint - Collateral Damage

"That would explain it," Officer Cain replied.

"Explain what?"

"The report that just came in. A man driving a red, sixty-seven Chevy registered to a Neil Dalton blew out the windows of Neil Dalton's house with a high-powered shotgun."

"Keep me posted."

"Can she talk about what happened?"

"I'll work on that and call you back. Otherwise not until the morning. Doctor's orders." He hung up the phone and met Mari's frightened gaze. "Remember what I said at the store? For you to think whatever you had to think to make it right, but I was going to help you?"

"Yes." She glanced at her bandaged hands, her voice soft, hesitant.

He sat in the chair beside her bed and stretched out his long legs. "Good. Do it again. Because I'm not leaving you here alone. Not with a madman on the loose. He's going to have to come through me to get to you and that's not going to happen."

Mari exhaled and sank back against her pillows. "Allah has a strange way of answering prayers, but I thank you Mr.-"

"Roger," he said. "Once you've rested and have eaten as much as you can to feed that little tyke inside you then you can tell me more about what happened today."

She nodded, shut her eyes, apparently relieved he wasn't going to press her for answers now. He settled into a comfortable slump and searched his mind for anything Neil might have mentioned about the trauma Mari suffered before. He came up empty. Jack might know-shit!

Roger dug for his phone again. This time he sent Jack a text. Short and to the point. Call me. Mari is in trouble. But it would be a while before Jack turned his phone back on.

Atlanta, Georgia

Before Jack could say another word the boys squealed and shouted," Mom! Look! Look! Mom!" Sasha and Sam barked excitedly as the boys raced their cars down a ramp they had made with a Styrofoam kickboard.

Jack cut his gaze toward the fence, saw the men in Angie's yard pause then walk toward the noise.

"Damn. They're coming." He turned quickly, assessing the escape options for two women, two kids and two dogs. Not good. He realized he shouldn't have given Lauren time to accept him or embrace her kids. They should have collected everyone and disappeared.

Angie held up a set of keys and pointed to the back door just ahead. "House sitting. Neighbors are gone."

Jack moved fast, sweat pouring and heart pounding as if he were cuffed with a gun to his head. Fear for the kids kicked him hard in the gut. What if his daughter were seconds away from danger? He scooped up the twins, one in each arm. "Quiet. Bad guys are coming," he told the boys. They leaned into his shoulders with their race cars clutched tight. He could feel their shivering as he ran to the back door.

Angie fumbled the lock open, her hands shaking. Lauren and the dogs were on his heels when he slipped inside the house. Locking the door behind them, he made a quick assessment of his surroundings. Staying meant they'd be trapped. He found a key rack in the kitchen, a vehicle in the garage, and within ninety seconds, he backed out to the street in a green mini-van.

Just in case the men in black hadn't caught on yet, he had a golf cap pulled low on his brow and a bag of clubs in the passenger's seat. Lying on the floor behind him were Lauren, her friend and the kids. The dogs were cramped in the back storage area. Even in his wildest imaginings, he never could have cooked up this scenario.

The front yard was empty, but he counted his blessing too soon. The men came leaping over the fence in a hurry. Jack gave up all pretenses and floored the gas pedal. In his rearview mirror, he saw the men chasing after them, pistols with silencers raised. The pavement near the rear tires puffed dust from bullets.

Jack prayed hard and gunned the engine. He flew by Angie's house and then, half a block later, Lauren's car. A black sedan and a police patrol car had pinned her car in. What the hell?

Either it was a stolen or fake cop car, or a cop was hanging out with the wrong crowd. They were likely monitoring all radio transmissions too. If Jack called for help, he might just get Lauren and the kids kidnapped and himself killed.

His car, farther up the road, stood as he left it, which gave him even more ominous information to consider. "Lauren, turn your cell off. I'll explain later."

"Done," she said.

"What's the quickest route to the Interstate?"

"Right at the end of the street." Lauren moved closer to his seat. "Then at the second light go left. You'll see signs for I-85."

"Now get everyone buckled." In his rearview mirror, just before he turned right, Jack saw both the black sedan and the cop car racing toward them. The cop had his lights on but no siren. "This may get rough." His stomach churned at the danger to the kids, but the alternative was even uglier.

"Mom!" Mitch cried, clearly frightened.

Matt's reaction was even more terrifying.

"We're racing like E-hart!" Matt exclaimed. He sat in the rear seat with Angie next to him. "Zoom. Zoom."

Jack clenched his teeth; he'd have to tell the boy never to do what he was doing. He made it to the end of the street and managed to wedge himself in between a Lincoln and a Dodge as he pulled out into the traffic. Then he illegally passed the Lincoln in front of him via a right-hand turn lane.

The cop car kept coming, lights flashing, nearly running over the cars in front of him. The Lincoln and Dodge pulled to the roadside, barely making it between mail boxes and street signs. Jack reached the red light. He could already tell that out-racing these jokers wasn't going to be an acceptable option. They were faster and more reckless considering their heartless endangerment of children and innocent bystanders. Trying to lose them in an adrenaline-pumping high speed chase like in the movies would be stupid. He had to avoid it.

At the light he hung a right instead of a left and made an immediate right into the corner gas station, then disappeared behind the building before the cop made it to the corner. Jack screeched to a halt and the golf clubs in the front passenger seat hit the dash with a hard thwack and clattered to the floorboard.

"Mom?" Mitch cried out again.

"Mitch, don't worry," Lauren said. "I'm here. Just hold onto your seat tight." She was scared too, and the tight emotion in her voice was clear.

The Shepherds whined then barked, worried about their charges.

The pressure of keeping everyone safe was heavier and more intense than he'd ever experienced before in his life. The cop hung a right at the light, just as Jack had. Jack moved around the side of the gas station then.

Delta operatives were trained to operate in chaos. Practically any takedown of an enemy, no matter how precisely planned, was nothing more than controlled chaos. Unexpected elements always appeared. Yet, the crunch of trying to escape in a minivan from two assassins with two dogs, two kids and two women in tow was worse than any mission he'd ever tackled.

"We're okay," Jack reassured the kids. "We're going to outsmart them. Make them disappear like I made the quarter go away." He watched as the black sedan took the right turn on two wheels. Then Jack pulled back into that intersection the moment the light turned green and made a left. The Lincoln he'd passed earlier was once again behind him. He had about sixty seconds before the cop and the sedan figured out his maneuver.

Signs for Interstate 85 appeared, but just past that was a large shopping mall.

Jack weighed the odds and accepted Providence's helping hand. He sailed past the Interstate and turned into the megatropolis mall, going to the far side of the packed parking lot beneath a row of fat pear trees.

Glancing at the cars entering the Interstate, he saw a cop car with flashing lights whizz into the traffic, making cars swerve wildly to get out of his way. No black Sedan followed the cop, which meant that sucker was still close by and looking for them. The men in black probably already had the license number to the mini-van, which meant as long as they were in it, they wouldn't be safe. Six pairs of eyes stared at him from the backseat, four human, two canine and all of them frightened and worried.