Page 58 of Secrets Along the Shore

How was she supposed to get that money?

Her valuables wouldn’t sell for much. She’d hidden those that Viktor hadn’t claimed, but it’d hardly pay for one flight to Australia.

The phone pressed against her leg made her pause. No! She hadn’t spoken to him in years. And what now? She was supposed to ask him for money? She let out a breath. The plan had been to go home. Still was. But the last thing she wanted to do was ask him for money.

“You want one too, Momma?” Rian held up another bar.

“Sure, that sounds?—”

Glass shattered. A sound she was all too familiar with rang out.

She ducked instinctively to avoid the bullet and covered Rian. Viktor must have ordered his men to kill them. Her heart pounded in her ears, blocking out most of the noises around her. It began to slow as no shot followed.

Then the front door opened.

With her back to it, she glanced over her shoulder to see who’d entered. Five men entered the store. Behind them, on the ground lay the taxi driver. No. No. No. Viktor’s men! They’d killed the driver. And would soon kill her and her son too. She straightened and shoved Rian toward the back exit. “Run!”

Her son sprinted for the door. He flipped the lock faster than she’d have been able to with her shaking hands. Rian slipped outside first. She caught the door and slammed it hard behind her.

Her son paused.

Where were they supposed to go? An open road spread out to the left and right. Ahead, another alley led somewhere else. “The alley. Go, Rian!” She pushed him ahead of her, then sprinted behind him. They needed a way out. But where?

That stupid phone beat against her leg with every movement.

No. She was not?—

“I see them!” a man shouted. Close. Why did he sound so close?

Elara didn’t look back as they broke out of the alley. Another road waited for them. This time, a sidewalk provided a safer place to run.

“Momma?”

“Go right.”

Rian took off again.

“Please, Lord,” She prayed. “Get us out of here.” God Almighty could put anyone in their path. Anyone necessary to save them. He could do it right now. But He didn’t have to. His timing was always perfect. Tears slid down her cheeks as she focused on the Scriptures she took to heart.

The sound of men running after them warned that they didn’t have much time.

A staircase up ahead caught her attention. Maybe if they hid in the building, it’d buy a few precious seconds. Then she’d make that dreaded phone call. She’d do it for Rian. She grabbed his shoulder as he passed it and pulled him back. “The stairs.”

Rian scrambled up the steps two at a time. All that practice he’d gotten at home had him on the second floor of the structure way before her.

She pulled herself up the last few steps, then searched for another route. An open door led into a long hallway. What was this place? An abandoned office building of some sort? Or an old apartment complex?

Elara nudged Rian ahead of her. He jogged down the hall and took a left around a corner.

Her heart skipped a beat as he vanished from her sight. She rounded the corner and found him testing doors. Every one locked. “We need to hide.” He opened a door three rooms down on the right of the hall. She almost let out a sigh of relief. “Go. Go. Go, baby.”

Once in the room, she flipped the lock on the door and searched for furniture. There was none. Nothing she could use to block the door. The men would kick it down. Which she meant they had even less time.

Rian raced to a door that stood on the wall adjacent to the entrance. He tugged it open. “There’s a closet.”

“Hide in there.” Elara tucked herself into the tiny space after him. She pulled the phone out of her pants pocket and dialed his number. Would he answer? So many possibilities why he wouldn’t. He could be dead for all she knew.

She held the device to her ear and forced herself to take a deep breath to calm her racing heart.