Secure Location - By Beverly Long Page 0,71
it was Meg but he’d caught a glimpse of rich, dark hair.
Cruz grabbed Myers’s arm, pointed and ran for his car. He had the car started and was pulling away when Myers wrenched open the passenger-side door and slid in. The man started talking into his radio, giving other officers their location. It took four blocks before Cruz’s vehicle and two other unmarked cars converged around the blue Focus.
There was enough light to see that it was Blakely and Meg and the bastard had a gun pointed at her head. She was alert and watchful and he willed her to stay calm, to not give the man any reason to shoot.
Stand down. Myers got the message to his team.
“How long to get a sniper to take him out?” Cruz asked, his voice low.
“Five minutes.”
Cruz pulled his gun. Myers looked at it, frowned, but didn’t say a word.
While five minutes wasn’t a long time, it was too long because Blakely decided to move. He opened his car door. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll kill her,” he yelled.
“Nobody needs to get hurt, Mr. Blakely,” Myers yelled back. “Let Meg go and we can talk about this.”
“We have to go to the bank,” Blakely yelled.
Myers looked at Cruz. What the hell?
Cruz shook his head. It was the middle of the night.
“Okay. Let Meg go and we’ll take you to the bank,” Myers said.
“She has to go, too.” Blakely sounded frantic. Cruz could see that the hand that held the gun was shaking. “First to the hotel, then to the bank. You get someone to open the bank now.”
“Okay, okay,” Myers said. “We’ll get in touch with the manager right now and see if he can come down and unlock the doors.” He turned to Cruz. “I want both of them out of that car. It’s a better shot for our sniper.”
Cruz didn’t answer. He judged the distance, angled his body and raised his gun. He didn’t intend to wait.
“Continue to stand down,” Myers instructed the other officers. “You, too,” he said to Cruz.
Cruz ignored him. He focused on Blakely and tried to keep his eyes off Meg. He couldn’t look at her pinched, tight face or focus on the fear in her eyes.
She’d always been his weakness and now more so than ever. His child’s life also hung in the balance. Without them, he was nothing.
“Damn you, Montoya,” Myers said. “Don’t make me take that gun away from you.”
Cruz continued to ignore him. Blakely was moving, pulling Meg out of the car. He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her in front of him, using her as a human shield. He was only a few inches taller, not leaving a whole lot of room for error on the sniper’s part.
It had the potential to end very badly.
Cruz took a breath.
“Hurl,” he yelled.
A fraction of a second delay, then Meg bent at the waist. Cruz fired. His shot hit Blakely in the shoulder, knocking him back.
The two closest officers sprang forward and tackled him. Meg ran.
Cruz caught her before she’d gone ten feet. He swung her up in his arms, buried his face in her hair and breathed in the scent of life. For a long moment, he could not speak. “I thought I’d lost you,” he finally managed.
“I’m so sorry,” Meg said, pulling her head back. “I wasn’t as careful as I should have been.”
“It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. It’s over.”
She was shaking and he held her close. Finally, she lifted her eyes. “I have something to tell you.”
“Okay,” he said.
“I’m pregnant.”
He brushed her hair back from her face. “I know. Charlotte told me. It’s a long story that I’ll tell you sometime.”
“Are you mad?” she asked.
“Honey, I’m thrilled. I want you. I want our child. I want it all.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I wanted you to have it all,” she said. “That’s why I left.”
He nodded. “That’s what I figured. I’m sorry that little girl died. But it was just an accident. You can’t blame yourself.”
“It wasn’t an accident. It was T.J.”
He had all kinds of questions but now wasn’t the time. “Can you put it behind you?” he asked.
“I will never forget that she died. I will never forget her. But yes, knowing the truth helps.”
With the pad of his thumb, he brushed a tear off her cheek. “Here’s another truth, Meg. I love you.”
She looked him in the eye. “I love you, too. Always have. Always will.”
He smiled. “Will you marry me? Again?”
Epilogue
The Montoyas were