Drove All Night (Passing Through Series Book 1) Read online

  Drove All Night

  #1 PASSING THROUGH

  Sarah Hegger

  Dedication

  To the incredible Terry M.

  Your courage humbles me.

  Your determination inspires me,

  and I cherish your friendship.

  You can tell everyone this is your book.

  Acknowledgments

  This book took a while to reach release, and it wouldn’t have made it without some very special people who helped me along the way. Thanks to Kristi Rose who is holding my hand through this terrifying leap into Indie publishing. How she remains patient through my barrage of idiotic questions is a mystery, right up there with crop circles. Also Tara Cromer who is a constant source of encouragement and ego stroking. You two ladies are the best and I owe you BIG TIME. It’s in writing now, so I can’t renege.

  I’d also like to extend my thanks to the incomparable Penny Barber. There are good editors, there are great editors and then there is PENNY BARBER. And yes I did mean to put that in caps. Thanks as well to Renee Rocco, who is probably reading this as she puts my scribblings into a legible format. These covers you made for the Passing Through Series! Girl!!!!!! I couldn’t love them more. It’s been wonderful to reconnect with you as we both take another step in our publishing journeys.

  As always, thanks to my family, particularly my husband and his constant helpful plot suggestions. His title suggestions are best never mentioned again.

  And last, but by no means least, you fabulous people who make up the Sarah Hegger Collective. You keep me going.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 Sarah Hegger

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Format and cover design by: Renee Rocco

  First Electronic Edition: June 2019

  ISBN-13: 978-1-7329331-2-5

  ISBN: 978-1-7329331-3-2

  Praise for Sarah Hegger

  Positively Pippa

  “This is the type of romance that makes readers fall in love not just with characters, but with authors as well.”

  —Kirkus Review (Starred Review)

  “What begins as a simple second-chance romance quickly transforms into a beautiful, frank examination of love, family dynamics, and following one’s dreams. Hegger’s unflinching, candid portrayal of interpersonal and generational communication elevates the story to the sublime. Shunning clichés and contrived circumstances, she uses realistic, relatable situations to create a world that readers will want to visit time and again.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

  “Hegger’s utterly delightful first Ghost Falls contemporary is what other romance novels want to grow up to be.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly, Best Books of 2017

  “The very talented Hegger kicks off an enjoyable new series set in the small Utah town of Ghost Falls. This charming and fun-filled book has everything from passion and humor to betrayal and revenge.”

  —Jill M Smith, RT Books Reviews 2017 / Contemporary Love and Laughter Nominee

  Becoming Bella

  “Hegger excels at depicting familial relationships and friendships of all kinds, including purely platonic friendships between women and men. Tears, laughter, and a dollop of suspense make a memorable story that readers will want to revisit time and again.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

  “…you have a terrific new romance that Hegger fans are going to love. Don’t miss out!” Jill M. Smith

  —RT Book Reviews

  Nobody’s Fool

  “Hegger offers a breath of fresh air in the romance genre.”

  —Terri Dukes, RT Book Reviews

  Nobody’s Princess

  “Hegger continues to live up to her rapidly growing reputation for breathing fresh air into the romance genre.”

  —Terri Dukes, RT Book Reviews

  “I have read the entire Willow Park Series. I have loved each of the books … Nobody’s Princess is my favorite of all time.”

  —Harlequin Junkie, Top Pick

  Contents

  Contents

  Drove All Night

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Copyright

  Praise for Sarah Hegger

  Contents

  Drove All Night

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  Sarah Hegger

  Positively Pippa

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Books by Sarah Hegger

  Drove All Night

  Sarah Hegger

  Chapter 1

  At Main and Fourth, a minivan shot through the stop sign. Ben hit the lights and siren.

  The minivan veered across the road and screeched to a halt at an angle from the sidewalk.

  “Shit.” Ben punched the brakes. Keeping his eye on the vehicle, he called it in.

  Whoever drove that thing had bought themselves a couple of hefty fines. Reckless asshole. Some people should not be allowed behind the wheel.

  Stepping out of the cruiser, he palmed his sidearm. The car had Pennsylvania plates. Not from around here, and driving like a crazy person. He approached with caution.

  The driver’s door flew open and someone leaped out.

  The pale, wide-eyed woman hit the ground. Her knees smacked the blacktop so hard he winced. She threw her hands out in front of her. “Do it.” The woman sobbed. “Arrest me. Take me away. Lock me up and throw away the key.”

  Fifteen years as a cop and this was a new one on him. Ben stopped midstride and loosened his grip on his weapon. “Ma’am?”

  “I can’t.” Her shoulders jerked up and down. “I just can’t anymore.”

  A rusted pickup stopped and Hank Styles hung his grizzled old head out the window. “Everything all right here, Ben?”

  That’s all he needed, Hank Styles playing deputy. He waved him on. “All good.”

  “She don’t look so good.” Hank leaned further out his truck. “What’s wrong with her?”

  It went easier if you didn’t engage the conversation. “Drive on, Hank.”

  The woman staggered to her feet, wrists still held out to him. She took three tottering steps in his direction and collapsed.

  Ben caught her a heartbeat before her head hit the road.

  “Holy crap.” Hank jerked his head back in. “She’s dead.” He rolled up his window and gunned his truck down Main.

 
Ben checked for a pulse and found one at her neck. Her skin felt hot and clammy. She was burning up. An ambulance, maybe?

  “Is my mommy dead?” A plaintive voice came from the van.

  The van door opened and Ben stared straight into hell. A boy, maybe five or six, and covered in barf blinked back at him. From the far side, a scarlet-faced toddler hiccupped and then yowled. Two older kids, wearing identical girl faces peered around the van door at him.

  The smell made his eyes water; an unholy miasma of body fluids that did not belong on this earth.

  The woman stirred. “Ryan?”

  “You fainted.” Ben hoisted her into his arms. First step, get her out of the road. “Lie still.”

  “Where are you taking her?” One of the girls cocked her head at him.

  Ben jerked his chin to indicate the side of the road. “Stay put.”

  He walked around back of the minivan and set her gently on the grassy shoulder.

  “Are you arresting her?” The girls moved to the other side of the van, hanging over the squalling baby, heads jammed together as they peered through the open window.

  “Nope.”

  The woman opened her eyes, squeezed them shut, and then opened them again. “Who are you?”

  “I’m the police chief, ma’am.”

  “My children.” She bolted upright, slamming her head against his chin.

  Ben tasted blood as he pressed her back down. “Lie still. You fainted.”

  She blinked at him, but lay back. She had brown eyes, dark like his morning coffee and huge in her pale face. When not passed out on the side of the road with sweat sliding down the sides of her face, she might even be pretty. Too thin, but real pretty.

  He turned to the minivan. “Any water in there?”

  “Nope.” Three heads moved from side to side. The baby kept right on bawling.

  Ben jerked his chin at the red-faced crier. “He sick?”

  “Uh-huh.” One of the twins slow-nodded. “He’s got the flu, and he pooped in his diaper. Mommy didn’t have any more so we were going to Walmart to get some. He’s screaming coz he’s got a sore bum.”

  Sick mum, one sick toddler, one puking boy and a set of lively twins. He weighed his options.

  They didn’t cover this sort of shit in the police academy, or the army, and Ben was man enough to know when he’d drifted way out of his league. He reached for his cellphone.

  Ma answered on the fourth ring, sounding as delighted to hear from him as ever. “Ben!”

  “You home, Ma?”

  “Of course I am. It’s baking day and they want some cupcakes for that fundraiser for the library. Do you think I should put sunflowers or flip-flops on the top? What with it being summer and all.”

  “I’ll be right over.”

  “What’s wrong?” Her voice sharpened. “Did you get shot? Are you injured?” She heaved a sigh. “You forgot to eat lunch again, didn’t you?”

  He had, but not his biggest concern right now. “Bringing some kids.”

  “What? What kids? Whose kids? Where did you find them?”

  “See you.” Ben hung up on her still firing questions. If he answered those, she’d only find a raft more for him.

  “Ma’am?” He looked down at the woman. “Can you tell me your name?”

  “Poppy.” She swallowed. “Poppy Williams.”

  “Well, Poppy Williams, I’m gonna have to drive your car.”

  “Are you a car thief?” Her eyes widened.

  Ben shook his head and hoisted her into his arms. She weighed next to nothing. Her sweatshirt claimed her as Property of Philadelphia University and hung on her narrow frame. He placed her gently in the passenger seat.

  Her eyelids fluttered closed as she fought sleep. He’d bet by the shadows under her eyes it had been a long, long time since Poppy Williams had gotten a good night’s sleep. Her fever must be knocking the crap out of her round about now.

  Her eyes flew open. “My children.”

  “I got them.” He buckled her in.

  “Are you kidnapping me?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  Her lids fluttered closed, only to startle open again. “Are you a rapist?”

  “Nope.” He took his badge out and held it in front of her fever-glazed gaze. “I’m the police chief, ma’am. I got you.”

  Chapter 2

  The stink in the car had Ben driving with his window wide open and still nearly dry heaving all the way. Poppy Williams woke every now and then, and went back to sleep as soon as he assured her he was still the police chief. Eventually he put his badge on the dash right in front of her.

  Ma stood on the sidewalk, hopping from one foot to the other. That was the thing with his mom. She never walked when she could run, or stood when she could bop about like a jackrabbit. Today, she wore a red T-shirt announcing to all Police Chief’s Mom. It might put his passenger at ease.

  Poppy hardly looked old enough to have four children. Her dark hair had escaped her ponytail in tendrils that stuck to her temples. He’d bet his last dime she had one helluva story.

  “Who’s that?” One of the twins peered out her window. Their names were Brinn and Ciara but damned if he could tell them apart. One had on a blue T-shirt and shorts, the other some kind of dress with flowers all over it.

  “Is that the perp?” The older boy, Ryan, leaned forward in his car seat.

  “That’s my mother.” He stopped beside her.

  Ma frowned at the unfamiliar car, caught sight of him and beamed. She appeared at his door before he even had it open.

  “Ben.” Face full of delight, as if she hadn’t seen him in months, and not yesterday for lunch, she kissed his cheek. “I had no idea what to make of that cryptic message.”

  “I need your help.” He walked around the car with her tailing him.

  “You’re so like your father. Never use three words when one will do. I thought you were doing traffic duty today. Isn’t that what you said? Yes, you did say that. You said people were speeding out of the Walmart parking lot.” She paused for breath. “And they nearly hit that nice Barker boy. Isn’t that what you said?” She nodded. “That’s what you said.”

  Ben gave her a nod to cover all those questions and opened the passenger door.

  Ma snapped her mouth shut. That had to be a first. She took a step closer, straightened and stared at him. “Who is that,” she whispered.

  “A woman.”

  “I can see that.” She slapped his arm. “Is this her car?”

  “Yup.” He slid open the side door. The reek charged out to the sidewalk.

  “Oh, my.” Ma clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh, my.”

  The baby’s lip quivered, his eyes filled up, and he opened his mouth and bellowed.

  Ma folded like a cheap deckchair. Her arms shot out and she unclipped the little guy. “You poor baby.”

  “Sean.” Poppy stirred, and tried to sit up.

  Ben flashed his badge. “Chief. I got this.”

  She settled down again.

  Ma had the baby in her arms and rocked him side to side. “You poor little guy. Are you unhappy? Tell Dot what is making you so unhappy.”

  “He pooped,” Ryan said.

  The girls craned forward between the first row of seats. “And he’s got diaper rash,” said the one in the dress. “It makes him super cranky.”

  “Well, of course it does.” Ma put the kid’s head on her shoulder, and ran a soothing hand down his back. “Dot is going to fix that for you. Yes she is. No need to fuss.” She gave Ben a reproachful glare, as if he was somehow to blame for all of it. “What happened to these children?”

  He shrugged, because other than their mother losing her shit, he had no answers.

  “Come on, honey.” She motioned to Ryan. “You climb out here and s
ee Dot. You look like you could use a bath.”

  “I barfed.” Ryan nodded. “All over myself and some of it got on Sean, too.”

  Ma had a stomach of iron, because she took the news without a flinch. “Did you?” She held out her hand to Ryan. “How very nasty for you.”

  She leaned in closer to Ben and jerked her head. “Is that their mother?”

  “Yeah.” He unclicked Poppy’s seatbelt. “I think she’s sick. I didn’t know what to do with all these kids if I called an ambulance.”

  “Sean’s sick too.” Dress twin bounced to the ground. Her sister followed more cautiously. “He got sick one day after we left Philly.”

  “Is that where you’re from?” Who needed interrogation when you had a ma like his? The baby had quieted down to loud sniffles, his flushed face pressed into ma’s neck.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Dress twin seemed to suffer from the same inability to stand still as Ma. She bounced on her toes, canting left and then right, flipping her ponytail from side to side. “Four-twelve Mifflin Street, South Philadelphia, one-nine-one-four-six.”

  “Oh, my. Aren’t you clever.” Ma widened her eyes.

  “I am.” Whip, whip, whip went the ponytail. “I get the best grades in my class. Even better than Randall Greer, and he’s always telling everyone how smart he is. He once cried and tried to hit me when I beat him at spelling.”

  “He sounds like a perfectly horrid little boy.” Ma leaned in closer. “I don’t like people who brag. How about you?”

  “Nope.” She stopped and smoothed her dress. “I like this dress. It’s my favorite.”

  “It’s very pretty.”

  She went back to bouncing. “I’m Brinn and this is Ciara.” She jabbed a thumb at her sister. “We’re twins.”

  “I can see that.”

  Ben felt tired watching her.

  Poppy moaned and twisted in the seat.

  “Inside?” He jerked his chin to the house.

  “Yes, indeed.” Ma gripped Ryan’s hand tighter. “Brinn? Why don’t you and Ciara follow me into the house? My son will bring your mother.”

  “Is he your son?” Twin sets of dark brown eyes fastened on him.

  “He is.” Ma nodded at her T-shirt. “See, I’m the chief’s mom.”