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“I’ll add them to the supplies.” Kit took the items, pulled on her boots, and walked out.

She was tired, had to be, but steely with determination.

He thought of her anguished expression the previous night, her wild plan to return to her rig, which meant everything to her, the satisfaction it had given him to hold her close and comfort her, his lips imprinted with the feel of her skin.

What was this weird connection they had?

But maybe he alone felt it prickling whenever he was near her.

One-sided? She’d out and out said she was a loner.

“Cullen.”

Archie’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Yes, sir?”

Archie waited until the library’s front door swung closed behind Kit. “You know it’s a slim chance we make the evacuation zone without help.”

“Yes, sir. I’m praying we encounter a friendly—National Park Service, cop, or scientist, anyone with a working radio.”

Archie rubbed the back of his neck. “That would be our best hope in my view as well.”

Tot rolled onto her side, and they both looked at her.

“Heck of a situation, a baby landing in the middle of this.”

“Yes, sir, it sure is.” It’d be one thing for him to face annihilation because of his choices, his decisions, but for little Tot, who hadn’t even lived long enough to decide one single thing for herself?

So small.

Her hands were tucked under her chin, the cutest thing he’d seen in probably his entire life.

The door thumped open.

Cullen turned, but the gun stopped him.

“No moving,” the newcomer said. A mild East Coast inflection colored the word. Dark hair, dark eyes, expensive haircut, neatly shaped brows. Nico, the guy from the newspaper clipping. He kicked the door shut behind him, the revolver in his gloved palm. “Hands showing and sit. Both of you.”

Archie and Cullen did as instructed. How had they missed his approach? They’d not seen a vehicle. And where was Nico’s partner?

Cullen’s mouth was bone dry. Kit would return any moment, walk right into the ambush. Stay where you are , Kit , he silently pleaded.

“Didn’t see you coming,” Archie admitted.

“That was the idea, old man.”

Cullen craned to see any sign of Nico’s second in command. Was he going around to confront Kit? “Where’s your buddy?”

“He’s my brother, Simon. He’s on another assignment.”

Another assignment. Okay, so second SUV guy was Simon, the brother. Not Kyle, not the guy on the motorcycle. He was still an unknown entity. But what other assignment? Targeting the runaway Annette? Stalking Kit?

Cullen started to speak, but Nico cut him off by waving the gun at the baby.

“I’m not here to chat. This has stretched on too long already.

Unbelievable that Annette got you all involved in this in the first place.

You stopped to help the trucker, and now here you are.

Rotten for you. If everyone had minded their own business, none of us would be here right now. Where’s Annette?”

Good. He didn’t have her. Yet. Cullen clamped his jaws together. Not gonna get any info on Annette from him. Not that he had any. Archie’s look was pure defiance too.

“Macho men, huh?” Nico waved the gun. “Not important. That problem can wait. I want her stuff.”

Cullen kept his expression neutral. “What stuff?”

“Her luggage, backpack, a phone. Whatever she was carrying with her when she hitched a ride from the trucker.”

Cullen kept his gaze away from the door. “What’s your interest in Annette?”

Nico’s eyes narrowed. “She’s mine. That’s all you need to know. What happens to her isn’t your business.”

Fury flamed in his gut. “You trafficked her, didn’t you? Forced her to work for you when she ran away from home at seventeen?” Cullen could not keep the disgust from his voice. “What kind of big man entraps a child?”

Without warning, Nico slammed his fist into Cullen’s cheek, tumbling him off the chair to the floor. Lightning pain sizzled through his skull. When Archie moved to intervene, Nico jammed the gun against Archie’s forehead.

“She was a desperate runaway, and she would have starved to death if I hadn’t stepped in.

I’m perfectly willing to kill you both, but I don’t have what I came for yet.

” He stared at Cullen. “You’re going to give it to me because you don’t want this old man to get a bullet in the brain.

Or the girl truck driver.” He darted a look around. “Where is she? Bathroom?”

Cullen felt a thrill of hope through the red-hot agony in his cheekbone as he sat up, warm blood flowing down, seeping into his shirt collar.

Nico didn’t know Kit’s whereabouts either.

The longer they talked, the greater chance Kit would have of hearing them, becoming alert to Nico’s presence.

“She left.” The words felt thick on his tongue, and he had to press them past the wall of pain.

“Took off because she got tired of baby care. Figured she had a better chance of making it on her own.”

Nico kept the gun pressed to Archie’s brow. His friend’s eyes brimmed not with fear but with rage. Stay cool , Archie.

“That smells like a lie to me,” Nico said.

Cullen blinked hard to clear his vision, felt the blood drip from his chin in a steady stream. Nico’s finger tightened on the trigger.

“Annette’s stuff is in the rig still,” Cullen said quickly. “We didn’t take it. Too much to carry.”

Nico shook his head. “Nope. That’s not going to fly. Simon checked the semi after we fixed the tire that Lover Boy shot out.”

Lover Boy? “He was going to rendezvous to help Annette escape, wasn’t he?”

Nico’s eyes were cold fury. “She thinks she’s smarter than I am, cooking up some relationship with her john, Kyle, and arranging to meet him behind my back.

Thought she’d keep me from coming after her by sending me that photo as a taste of what she thinks she has on me.

Fatal mistake. I won’t be blackmailed.” He jerked a chin at Tot.

“Baby’s probably his. Little liar told me it was mine.

Don’t know why I let her keep it, except that she’s one of my best earners.

Simon figured she’d stay in line with a kid tying her down, but she wailed so hard and long about the pregnancy it gave me a migraine. Lesson learned. So where’s her stuff?”

“Like I said, we didn’t take it.” Cullen climbed unsteadily to his feet.

Nico’s gaze slid to Tot. “But there were baby supplies. You’d have taken that, wouldn’t you?”

Cullen’s heart thudded. No choice. “We took a duffel,” he admitted. “And there was money in the bottom of it.”

Nico arched a brow. He hadn’t known about the money. “She stole from me too? After everything I’ve given her, she’s been skimming off the top. How much?”

“Ten grand. It’s all still there in the diaper bag. Take it and go. We’ll never see each other again.”

“That’s the truth, because you’re both going to be dead.”

Cullen swiped at the blood. “Don’t waste the bullets or the possible forensics trail you’ll leave. Volcano’s probably going to get us anyway, right?”

But Nico was fixated on Tot. He moved toward her, and Archie would have lurched at him, but Cullen pinched his arm, gripping the table edge with his other hand.

Archie blinked to show he understood. If Nico messed with Tot, Cullen would overturn the table and hope to take Nico’s legs out from under him.

It was the only plan he could think of. His nerves iced over at the thought of Nico’s gun inches from baby Tot.

One reflex flinch of the trigger finger. ..

Nico looked around Tot’s sleeping mat. “Where is it? The baby stuff?”

“Upstairs,” Archie said quickly. “I’ll get it for you right now.”

“No,” Nico said. “You stay. Soon as I check here, I’ll go find it.”

And kill us first. A shadow crossed under the door, and Cullen’s gut tightened.

Kit was about to enter. “Come on, Nico,” he said loudly.

“Not like we hid your goods on a baby. What is it you’re looking for?

If it’s not the money, why’d you barge in here with a gun?

What’s so important you’d risk your own life? What was on the photo she sent you?”

“Shut up.”

“No, really. Smart girl to collect evidence without your knowing. Must have been something for you to risk pursuing her here.”

“I said shut up,” Nico said louder.

The shadow had frozen.

Don’t come in .

His heart slammed into his ribs.

Run , Kit.

But where would she find safety? Now? By herself?

Nico stared at the baby in her pajamas and poked the toe of his boot to pull up the edge of her mat.

He reached out, and Cullen gripped the table.

He’d have to shove it with sufficient force to topple Nico but not enough to strike Tot.

He and Archie would laser in on the same target .

.. Nico’s gun hand. Whatever happened, bullets could not be fired in this small space with an infant lying unprotected.

Where was the shadow? Where was Kit?

Nico pawed at the small stack of supplies Kit had left for the last-minute change of clothes and diapers.

Cullen’s breath caught as he saw movement, now in the front window, to the side of the “Welcome, friends” sign. Kit peeked through a dusty pane of glass.

Her eyes were wide, searching, taking it all in until she locked on him. She turned away for a millisecond, returned to view, held up her fingers in a silent count. Archie saw too. Nico tossed aside the baby clothes, kicking them into a heap. Tot stirred.

Kit held up three fingers.

Nico went for the blankets next, shaking them into disarray.

Now two ...

Archie braced at his side.