Page 30 of Shadows Relived
“Minutes. Maybe less.”
“But how would they know Lucas is connected to us? That he’s even here?”
“All they needed to do was see us escaping the school, and to be honest, I don’t know that they did. But I refuse to take that chance.”
She didn’t argue. Just moved to pack.
He barked quiet orders, checking his weapon, gathering supplies. Meaghan moved like she’d done this before, focused, fast, no wastedmotion.
The kids were another matter.
Sophie clung to Meaghan like a koala, enormous eyes shimmering with fear, while Willie looked pale, bouncing on his toes like he needed to pee but didn’t want to say so. And Lucas, still crying, tried to help by dragging the wrong bag toward the door.
Callen knelt beside him, gripping the boy’s shoulder gently. “Hey.”
Lucas sniffled.
“You’re not in trouble, okay? But I need you to listen now. We’re gonna play a game. A fast one. Quiet feet. Big ears. Like deer, okay?”
Lucas nodded, blinking hard.
Callen’s throat was tight as he straightened. They were so damn little. “All right. Let’s finish getting everything together.”
The next few minutes blurred—Callen slinging the emergency bag over his shoulder, double-checking his sidearm, stuffing granola bars into his coat pockets. They zipped the kids into jackets, boots hastily shoved on the wrong feet, then quickly switched to the right ones. Sophie whimpered when she couldn’t find her mitten until Meaghan found it under the couch.
Callen paused, just for a breath.
She was crouched low, her hair tumbling from its hasty knot, one hand steady on Sophie’s shoulder while the other pulled the mitten gently over the girl’s fingers. Her voice was soft, soothing, certain, and he knew she could make a kid believe the world hadn’t just shifted under their feet. Even in the chaos, she looked… radiant. Wild and flushed and winded, but still somehow the most composed person in the room.
God, she was strong.
He’d seen hardened operatives fall apart in less time under less pressure, but Meaghan was still standing, still thinking ten steps ahead. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t panic. She just kept moving, kept caring, doing the things that had to get done as if these three wide-eyed kids were hers to protect, and nothing else mattered.
He’d known she was smart. He remembered the sharp edge of her wit, the way she always saw through the noise and into the heart of things. But this—this warmth, this fire, this unshakable presence—he hadn’t seen that coming.
And God help him, she looked beautiful.
Not in the magazine-cover kind of way. Not even in the slow-smile-across-a-bar kind of way. But in a way that made something ache deep inside his ribs. She had a beauty that burned low and steady, that whispered of permanence instead of fantasy.
He shook his head, refocusing as she stood, brushing hair out of her eyes.
Not the time, he told himself.
But he knew the truth. Some part of him had just shifted, too.
“Everyone ready?” he asked, standing at the door, hand on the doorknob.
Slow nods were his only answer.
He threw open the door, and the cold hit him in the face like a slap. The wind had picked up, shakingthe pines and scattering fallen leaves across the porch. A breeze that carried the scent of exhaust.
The faint crunch of boots on gravel, too close, too wrong.
They were halfway to the SUV when the first shot rang out with a crack. It echoed off the ridge like thunder, sending splinters exploding from the porch railing behind them.
“Down!” he barked, drawing his weapon and pivoting to shield the group. “Get down now!”
Meaghan yanked the kids into a dip in the ground as Callen dropped to one knee, eyes scanning the treeline.
