Free Passion to Protect by Colleen Thompson

“They’re over there. You see that?”
    She jerked her gaze toward the spot he was indicating and made out movement in the shadows. But from this distance she couldn’t even be certain it was a person, much less one of her kids. “Cody?” she called.
    Though there was no answer, she broke loose from Jake’s grip and started to run. Jumping fallen limbs and scrambling over rocky outcrops, she picked up speed with the downhill incline.
    She heard Jake not far behind her, but his progress over the rough terrain was slower as he picked his way among the debris. Though he urged her to wait for him, she pulled farther ahead....
    Only to come to an abrupt stop when Misty planted her feet and started barking, the hair along her spine bristling in a stiff ridge. That was when Liane realized that the person trotting toward her wasn’t Cody but a grown man, his features hazed by smoke and distance.
    Before her mind could fully grasp what she was seeing, nausea seized her and she screamed in horror. It was impossible, unthinkable, that he could be a part of this. But the broad shoulders, the loping gait—the certainty ripped through her that this was the same figure that had rushed at her out of a thousand other nightmares, except this time he was real.
    “Mac!” What was he doingout of prison?
    “They ran from me. Hid out here,” he called, his voice strained and gravelly. “Help me find the kids. I heard their voices—over this way.”
    How could he have gotten here, much less tracked her family to the canyon and—with a horrifying jolt of insight, she realized that he must have been the predator that had surprised her father.That had killed her father, who never would have let Mac within a mile of the children. In fact, he probably would have shot him on sight if he hadn’t been taken unaware.
    Now Mac meant to kill her, too. Kill her and take the children, or maybe murder them, too, unless she could get away from him and save them.
    From behind her, Jake shouted her name, but her attention remained riveted on Mac. Though she still couldn’t make out his face, his intent was clear as he charged toward her like a maddened bull, a rifle in his hands.
    Her instincts screamed that he was about to take aim at her, that he’d come all this way to finish what he’d started in that hotel room in Las Vegas.
    “No!” she shrieked, changing course abruptly, zigzagging back toward the fire in the desperate hope that the smoke might hide her.
    In moments she was picking her way among burning trees, her lungs rebelling and eyes watering, her skin stinging with the heat.
    Behind her, she heard yelling and then the boom of gunfire, followed by a shout. Jake! She swallowed a sob, sickened that Mac might have killed again to keep Jake from rushing to her aid.
    A closer cry came from her right. “Mommy!”
    Startled, Liane slid to a stop so quickly that her own momentum nearly toppled her. “Cody? Cody, is that you, baby?”
    She held her breath, praying for an answer. Praying that her child’s voice was more than a dream-come-true trapped inside a nightmare.
    * * *
    Bullets flying past him, Jake shouted and dropped to the ground and landed facedown, then held himself motionless. His brain was racing, though, factoring the progress of the deadly wall of fire with the appearance of the man—and Liane’s terrified reaction.
    The stranger she’d called Mac had used her name, then talked about the children, who still bore the last name McCleary. Which meant this must be the ex-husband, the man she’d met after leaving him behind and heading off to find a new life.
    But whatever else he was, the bastard had to be Deke Mason’s killer. And Liane clearly considered him more dangerous than the inferno.
    Jake looked around before climbing to his feet, the canister of bear spray in his right hand. Apparently Mac had resumed chasing Liane after deciding Jake was no threat.
    “We’ll see about that, you son of a bitch,” he ground