Free Baby Breakout by Lisa Childs Page B

you alibi-ing me would be the fastest way to get my conviction overturned.”
“I’m sorry…”
“And I never should have let you come with me to see Leighton,” he said, his voice gruff with guilt and frustration.
“I didn’t give you a choice,” she reminded him as she headed toward the back door of her building. “I didn’t tell you his address.”
“But I could have gotten it out of you…”
He could have—had he kissed her like he just had. So she didn’t argue with him, just closed her eyes and relived those few brief moments when his lips had covered hers.
“I’m not giving you a choice now,” he said as he slid his arm around her.
She opened her eyes, both anticipating and fearing another kiss. But he wasn’t even looking at her.
He had only reached around her for the door knob. “I’m going up to your apartment with you,” he said. “I’m going to make sure you and Isobel are safe before I leave.”
She shook her head. “Mrs. Osborn—”
“Will never get a good look at my face,” he said as he opened the door. “No one has recognized me since the prison break. No one will.”
The collar was up on his dark-colored wool coat, but it didn’t hide much of his face. Dark stubble did that, as did his expression, which was so intimidating that nobody was likely to stare at him long enough to recognize him.
Erica drew in a shaky breath and inhaled the scent that had always been Jed’s alone—rain fresh but musky male. “You’ll leave once you see Isobel?”
He nodded.
“Okay.” She followed him inside and up the back stairs to her apartment. “Let me go in first and distract Mrs. Osborn.”
Jed was already reaching for her door, too, but he didn’t have to turn the knob. It stood ajar, the apartment so dark inside that only shadows spilled out into the dimly lit hallway. Something clattered to the hardwood floor inside, and Jed shoved open the door and bolted into the living room.
“Stop,” she called after him in a loud whisper. When she was watching Isobel, Mrs. Osborn usually left the doors open between her apartment and Erica’s. And the older woman often dropped things.
But Jed didn’t stop.
So Erica rushed inside after him. He wasn’t alone. But it wasn’t Mrs. Osborn he grappled with in the dark living room. The black-clothed figure was nearly as big as he was. But not big enough to overpower Jed, even though the man swung a punch at him. While it connected, it didn’t even faze Jed.
Then Jed swung back, knocking the man to the ground. He reached for the intruder and dragged him to his feet, but the man broke free of Jed’s grasp.
He turned toward the open door. Erica stood there, blocking the exit. Her heart slammed against her ribs, and her muscles froze so that she couldn’t move out of the way.
But he didn’t charge at her. He didn’t even look at her. He kept his head down, as Jed had demonstrated he did so that he wasn’t recognized. Then the man turned again and ran down the hall toward Isobel’s room.
Despite his size, Jed’s reflexes were quick and his stride fast as he pursued the intruder. Erica’s muscles recovered as fear and determination pulsed through her, and she chased after them.
Her primary concern was protecting her daughter. She wouldn’t let anyone hurt her little girl. Size and muscle was no match for a mother’s protective instinct.
Jed’s primary concern was obviously catching the intruder, since he didn’t spare so much as a glance toward the little twin bed as they ran past it. The men did not even stop inside the small bedroom. The intruder vaulted through the open window, and, with a hard thump on the metal, Jed followed him out onto the fire escape.
The curtains fluttered in the breeze blowing through the open window, whipping the hot-pink satin against the walls. It was freezing in the room, but it wasn’t nearly as cold as the blood pumping hard and fast with fear through Erica’s veins.
She stopped next to her daughter’s bed,