"It can't be," Kim repeated as Cal Winters approached the car.
Cal's in jail. In Alaska. He can't be here.
She blinked her eyes, thinking it might be a hallucination. Maybe she had hit her head when the car flipped. Then Kim looked again through the gap between the car's hood and the ground.
It was Cal Winters.
Kim's mind reeled. The "how" was replaced in her thoughts, as she frantically thought through the past several weeks. It suddenly all made sense.
Cal had worked for Jericho who had tried to scare her with an attacking car and threatening deliveries. He also could have gotten Shane's keys from Jericho, and Cal had been to the diner in the mountains, so he could have taken Shane's old shirt.
That all added up.
Andrew. Whoever had targeted her had tried to kill Andrew.
"Oh, God," Kim breathed, as that, too, began to make sense. Cal wanted her, and he wanted their daughter. He had no need for her son.
Shane's son.
Kim spun back around. She had released Andrew from his seat belt and he was now on the ground, behind Kayla's seat, looking wide-eyed in the direction where Mike had fallen. Kim realized she was still holding her coat in her hands and that gave her an idea.
"Andrew," she said in a low voice, hoping Cal had not gotten close enough to the car to hear her. "I want you to get over by the window and stay still."
"Why, Mommy?" he asked, his eyes still showing his shock.
Kim shook her head. "Don't ask me why. Just do as I say. Get over by the window." As he moved, she cautioned, "Be careful of the glass." Then Kim pushed her coat through the gap between the seats. "Pull this over you and don't make a sound or move."
She helped settle the jacket over him, just as she heard a voice from outside the car.
"Come on out, ladies." Cal's voice was low and dangerous. "Unless you want to wind up like your friend over there."
In a voice no more than a whisper, Kim told Andrew, "Don't move unless you hear me tell you to run." Kim looked out the broken window and spotted the trees at the edge of the woods. They were not too far away. "If you hear me yell, run as fast as you can for the trees. Don't slow down. Don't look back. And even if you hear me call for you or tell you to come out, don't. Stay there and don't come out for anything. Do you understand?"
From under the coat, she heard Andrew whimper. "Yes, Mommy."
"Stay there and don't come out," Kim repeated. "Even if you hear me or Aunt Kayla or . . . or Uncle Cal. Definitely not if you hear Uncle Cal. Okay, Andrew? Uncle Cal's a bad man. He's a very bad man."
Outside, Cal's voice rose a bit louder. "I'm not joking, Kim. If I have to drag you out, I will."
"We'd better go," Kayla said. Kim could hear the pain in her voice.
Kayla took a deep breath. "I'm coming out, Cal. Kayla's been hurt and I'm-"
"Leave her," he yelled. "No," he corrected himself. "Have her come out too."
Kim glanced at her sister, whose face seemed ghostly white except for the red blood still running from the gash on her forehead. Kayla motioned with her head to the back seat. "We'd better do as he says," she whispered.
With a nod, Kim shoved the driver's side door. It stuck and she had to use all her strength to get it to crack open even a little. But her effort worked. Cal came around to that side of the car, the side opposite of where Andrew was hiding, and grabbed the partially opened door. He jerked it open the rest of the way.
Kim crawled out through the door on her hands and knees. She could hear Kayla's pained breathing as she followed close behind.
"That's right, ladies," Cal said. "You wouldn't want to keep me waiting."
As she emerged, Cal grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly to her feet. He was still holding his gun and he motioned to Kayla, who was just coming through the smashed door. "Get her up."
Kim did not argue. She reached down and helped Kayla rise, painfully, to her feet. "She's hurt," Kim said.
"Then maybe I should just kill her now." Cal sounded serious, and Kim looked over to him and saw that he had his gun raised in their direction.
"No!" Kim barked. She stepped in front of Kayla. "You do anything more to hurt Kay and you'll have to kill me." She stared into Cal's eyes, noting how empty they seemed.
"Get over here," he ordered, waiving the gun at them. Staying between Cal and Kayla, Kim reached back and felt Kayla take her hand, and they followed his orders. "Now where's Andrew?" Cal asked.
"He's at our folks," Kayla said quickly. Kim nodded.
Cal stepped forward, the gun still trained on them. "Don't take me for a fool, Kim. I know Andrew left the market with you. You wouldn't have had his guard with you if he didn't."
"I swear," Kim lied. "He's not here."
Cal tsked a few times. "Wrong answer, Kimberly. It's too bad. I might have let him live otherwise."
Kim knew that was not true. She could hear the cold, almost-dead tone in his voice. Kayla squeezed Kim's hand and she stepped forward, so they were next to one another.
Meanwhile, Cal turned away from them and approached the back door of the car. He kicked at Mike's lifeless body, shoving it out of his way. Then Cal crouched down by the door.
Almost without being conscious of it, Kim started to move closer to Cal. Kayla moved with her.
"Ah, I see what you did. Very smart, Kimberly." He looked up at her with a cheshire-cat grin. "I always loved smart women." The grin disappeared. "Unfortunately, not smart enough."
Kim felt her entire body constrict as she watched Cal raise his gun again and point it through the doorway. No! she cried silently to herself. Then, she found her voice and screamed as loud as she could.
"RUN, ANDREW. RUN!"