Page 9 of Over the Top

“Oh yeah. I must’ve seen thirty squad cars. They’ve come in from all over this part of the state.” Gunner reached for the same door Chas had come in through before asking, “Who’s the kid?”

“No idea. But I think she may be involved somehow.”

“A baby? How?”

“I’m not sure. But my neighbor carried her to my front porch for a reason.”

“Good point. What do you think about taking the kid to the cops who are milling around?”

Chas’s gut tightened with anxiety at the idea. “What if they don’t believe me? What if they don’t think she’s in danger, but she is? What if the bad guys come back for her—?”

“Slow down, there. We don’t have to hand her over right away. I happen to agree with you. The presence of this kid in the middle of a mass shooting is a little too weird to be pure coincidence.”

Thank God.

“Let’s get out of here,” Gunner continued. “Put a little distance between us and whatever went down here. Lemme make a few calls and see if I can find out what happened and how the kid fits in.”

Chas was massively relieved that Gunner didn’t want to just hand the child over without figuring out what her role in this mess might be. She’d been thoroughly traumatized tonight but seemed to have latched on to him as a safe human. He hated to turn her over to strangers again, particularly cops who might handle her like a piece of evidence.

“I never thought I’d find myself sneaking out of this one-horse town with you,” Gunner muttered.

Chas snorted. “I never thought I’d see you again after the way you left the first time.”

Gunner paused in the doorway, scanning up and down the alley before waving for him to follow. Chas had to hustle to keep up as they swept outside and rushed to a nondescript sedan.

Gunner slid into the driver’s seat, grimacing, and Chas slipped into the passenger’s seat.

“Get down,” Gunner ordered.

“How down?”

“Totally out of sight.”

Frowning, Chas tried slouching, but it wasn’t enough. He ended up lifting the armrest and lying on his side across the center console, the baby cradled protectively against his middle—kind of how Leah had been holding her.

What had Leah been doing with this kid? To his knowledge, she had been divorced for years and had only one grown son, who was both single and a bad egg, in and out of trouble with the law and in and out of jail. Did this baby have anything to do with him?

Chas was surprised at how conservatively Gunner drove, passing through town at exactly the speed limit. But he did notice from his contorted position that Gunner’s posture was tense, very much on alert the whole time. Good to know he wasn’t the only one freaking out a little, here.

“Is it weird being back?” he asked from the vicinity of Gunner’s right thigh, trying to distract himself from thinking about being hunched on the seat of a car, driving through a war zone with Gunner Vance.

“You have no idea.”

“Tell me. I need to think about something else.”

“Everywhere I look, I see memories.”

“Good or bad?”

“Some of each.”

Chas said reflectively, “My early childhood memories are mostly good. You and I had fun as kids. Before all the adult stuff caught up with us.”

“Yeah. Good times,” Gunner said quietly.

A world of pain was packed in those simple words. So Gunner hadn’t escaped Misty Falls unscathed after all. Chas had assumed Gunner had left town and never looked back. Apparently he still carried around some baggage from those last difficult teen years. Chas fell silent. He’d no doubt been part of what had made them difficult.

They drove for perhaps a half hour in silence. The toddler finally relaxed against him and might even have dozed off. She, too, seemed to sense that the worst of the crisis had passed.

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