“Come on,” I glanced around the room. It wasn’t full, but there were enough people within earshot that I didn’t want to lay out any details of my plan.
We started for the doors, but Jackson stopped short and planted his feet. With a pout, he crossed his arms and glared up at Melissa. “I’m not leaving until we get my toy!” He declared, loud enough to draw the attention of those around us.
“I’m sorry, Jackson. I forgot.” She glanced at me. “Sorry, I promised him he could get a toy…did you want anything?”
“I’ll take care of this,” I said, holding up a hand. “What does he like?”
“Nuggets.”
“Okay. Stay here.”
I got in line and ordered three meals from the cashier, making sure a toy would be included with the order, and asked that they hurry. I led the way outside with the food in hand, and Melissa showed me to her large SUV.
“We’re going to have to leave it behind,” I said. Jackson was munching on fries and not paying any attention to us, but I didn’t want him to overhear the instructions I was about to give his mother. The situation had to be disturbing enough for him, without extra stress from my warnings. “Melissa, you’re going to have to leave the car, your cell phone, and any other personal electronics that have GPS capabilities behind. I need you to get in your car and follow me. I’m in the Explorer,” I thumbed over my shoulder to where I’d parked, out of the line of sight of the security camera mounted on the front of the restaurant. “We’re going to drive to a park not too far from here. They won’t have cameras in the lot. We’re going to leave the car and the electronics there. You and your son will come with me and we’ll go someplace safe. I’ve already contacted some friends who’re going to help us out. Do you understand?”
Melissa nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. Follow me close, okay?”
She gathered Jackson and got him buckled into his safety seat. Once she was behind the wheel, I left her to jog across the lot and got into my Explorer. We pulled out of the lot, careful to avoid detection, and drove to the park. If we left her SUV at McDonald’s, it would only be a matter of time before her husband found it. He probably had it LoJacked. And if they pulled the security footage, he’d see Melissa talking to me. I’d ducked the cameras as best as I could, but it never hurt to double down on security protocol.
In my line of work, it paid to be paranoid.
We ditched her car, phone, and tablet at the park, and I helped her install Jackson’s booster seat in the backseat of my ride and then she got into the seat beside him. The back windows were tinted and even if we got caught on a traffic cam, they wouldn’t see her or Jackson.
I got into the driver’s seat, turned over the engine, and glanced in the rear view mirror and found Melissa staring back at me. “You ready?”
She sucked in a slow breath and nodded. “As ready as I’m gonna be.”
4
Melissa
I wasn’t sure what I expected, but after Matt told me about his brother being an ex-SEAL, I’d somehow conjured up the image of a barroom brawler type with bulging muscles, tats head to toe, and a mean stare. The man who’d found Jackson and me at McDonald’s was a stark contrast to the vision my overactive imagination had come up with.
I’d never been more relieved to be wrong.
Chase was tall, at least as tall as Henry, if not an inch or two over. Maybe six one. And while it was apparent he was in kick-ass shape, his muscles were more of a street fighter, not a club bouncer. His shoulders were broad and strong under a fitted navy blue t-shirt and his narrow hips were encased in dark wash jeans. He wore a black baseball cap but the scruff on his jaw showed me his hair was a dark brown, and judging the sideburns at his temples, cropped short.
The most arresting of his features were his dark brown, nearly black eyes, which had me completely unnerved. When he gave me instructions, I found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying.
We hit the highway and Jackson fell asleep against the window, his hand clutched around the toy that Chase had gotten for him back at the restaurant. It was awkward to be sitting in the backseat and try to strike up a conversation with the back of his head, so I remained silent, even though there were about a thousand things I wanted to say. To ask.
“We’ve got about an hour to go if you want to get some rest too,” Chase said, meeting my eyes in the rear view for the dozenth time since we’d set out half an hour before.