Chosen by Denise Grover Swank Page B

type.” A gnawing in her stomach made her insides churn. She ran her hand over her forehead. God, she really shouldn’t have eaten all those greasy fries. Emma jerked her head back to Jake, who was playing with a toy car she found in her purse.
    Will scrutinized her through narrowed eyes. “Are you okay?”
    Forcing herself to stay calm, Emma scanned the cars around them, looking for any black SUVs that appeared suspicious. “Jake, do you sense anything?”
    He looked up in surprise. “No, Mommy. We’re fine.”
    “What’s going on?” Will straightened up in his seat and checked his mirrors.
    “Something doesn’t feel right.” She lay back on the seat, hand over her stomach. “I guess I’m just not feeling very well.”
    Will’s posture relaxed. “If you throw up in my truck…”
    “I’m not going to throw up in your fucking truck.” She closed her eyes and took some deep breaths. Everything was fine, at least for now. She had a good few weeks before she had to worry about the men showing up again. The panicked feeling began to subside and the movement of the truck lulled her into an uneasy sleep.
     

    Will wasn’t sure what happened with Emma, but he could tell she was pretty spooked. It surprised him she went to sleep so quickly. He shifted his gaze to the rear view mirror and saw Jake staring back.
    “You doing okay, little guy?”
    Jake nodded his head.
    “So, what are you, like in kindergarten?”
    Jake laughed. “No, it’s summer time.”
    Will shook his head. “Yeah, I guess it is. It’s been a while since I was a kid.”
    “My mom home-schools me anyway. I already know how to read and I can add and subtract,” He paused for a moment then added, “I bet you were nice when you were a little boy.”
    It had been awhile since Will had thought about his childhood. “Yeah, I guess I was. I was a pretty quiet kid.” He was lucky his childhood had been so ideal, at least when he was little. Of course, his father had missed most of it. He suddenly wondered how his parents were doing. He hadn’t thought of them in quite a while. The last time he saw them, when he came home from Iraq, his father made it very apparent that Will was no longer welcome.
    “Did you have a dog?” Jake asked.
    “A dog? Yeah, I had a dog. Rusty, some old mutt that showed up one day and my mom let me keep.”
    Jake’s mouth formed a pout. “I want a dog, but Mom says I can’t have one because we move so much.”
    “It would be hard for a dog to move so much. Maybe you can get a dog if the Bad Guys stop following you.” Will wasn’t sure what Jake and Emma’s future held. Why was he making friends with this kid when he was getting ready to hand Emma over to the people who hired him? Why did they want her? He had never put himself in a position to ask questions. Frankly, he never cared. “Jake, has your mom ever done anything bad?”
    Will watched Jake’s confused face in the mirror. “No, Mommy’s never done anything bad.”
    Just because Jake said she hadn’t didn’t make her innocent. A desperate woman trying to protect her son might have stole money from someone. The only thing she had now was a suitcase. How did someone rebuild from that? If she’d been in this position before she could have taken money and pissed someone off. And now they were collecting their debt. Only these people were pretty powerful. Will felt an unusual nagging, startled by the unfamiliar prickling of guilt. It had been a long time since he felt any accountability for what he did. He quickly pushed it away; he was just doing his job.
    Jake laid his head down on the seat and fell asleep. Will drove over the Texas border into Oklahoma.

     
    Emma woke up feeling a little better, but still had a twinge of uneasiness that something was wrong. She looked in the backseat and found Jake sleeping. Obviously, he didn’t sense anything. “Where are we?”
    “Just outside of Oklahoma City.” Will’s left hand was slung over the