Ann Voss Peterson - Vow To Protect

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? I thought you were here to protect us. If you aren’t, I want an officer who will.”

“I’ll talk to hotel management. They can ask the reporters to leave the property.”

“Do that.”

He gave her a sideways smirk. He clearly thought she was overreacting.

Fine. Let him think what he wanted. As far as she was concerned, nothing she could do was overreacting if it meant keeping Ethan safe. She turned back to the pool to find Ethan.

“Where are you going?”

So suddenly he’s concerned? She looked back at him. “Why? Are you worried about protecting us now?”

“You don’t have reason to be so hostile.”

“By disregarding the danger my son is in—danger that news exposure will make worse—you’ve given me plenty of reason.”

The cop’s good humor slid from his lips. “I didn’t disregard anything. And if you really wanted to keep him safe, maybe you shouldn’t have hooked up with Dryden Kane’s son in the first place.”

He thought she brought this on herself? On Ethan? He thought they deserved this? Her legs shook. Her hands balled into fists.

She tried to breathe, tried to control herself. “I want those cameras out of here. I’m going to get Ethan.” She’d call Detective McCaskey the moment she and Ethan got to their room.

She turned back to the pool, expecting to see Ethan at the bottom of the slide.

He wasn’t there.

A jolt of panic raced along her nerves. Ridiculous. She’d seen him just a second ago. She’d only taken her eyes from him for a moment. He had to be here.

She scanned the wet heads and slick bodies of kids splashing, scampering and sliding.

No Ethan.

Her heartbeat grew faster, thumping in her ears. She ducked around concrete palm trees. She raced across the deck of the pool, dodging children, circling tables. She had to stay calm. Had to find her son.

A pair of black swim shorts with orange flames licking up the sides caught her attention.

Ethan. He stood on the other side of the pirate ship, just behind one of the smaller slides.

Her knees flagged with relief. Willing her trembling legs to carry her, she started across the pool area toward him. “Ethan?”

He was too far away and the pool area was too loud. He would never be able to hear her. He stepped away from the slide, toward a group of tables and chairs gathered around the entrance to the hotel lobby and atrium. Nodding his head, he seemed deep in conversation with a redheaded man.

A man who looked strangely familiar.

Panic rose in her throat like bile. She tried to control herself, tried to get a grip. The man talking to Ethan had red hair and a beard. There was no reason for her to be afraid. No reason for her to panic.

“Ethan!” Her shriek mixed in with the laughs and yells of children and disappeared in the constant roar of fountains. She started running, dodging scampering children, circling the first pool.

The man looked up, focusing on her with blue eyes. Eyes so much like Ethan’s. Eyes so much like Cord’s. Yet eyes that glinted cold and hard and emotionless.

Dryden Kane put his hand on Ethan’s arm.

A scream rose in her throat. Surfaced to her lips. She had to reach Ethan. She had to save her son. Her baby.

The water park stretched forever, an obstacle course of pools and children and concrete jungle plants. She was so far away. Too far away.

“Kane!” A voice boomed through the room. Not hers. Not the cop’s.

Cord’s.

He burst into the water park through one of the lobby doors and stormed past Melanie. He raced for Ethan, raced for Kane. “Get away from him, you bastard!”

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