Hot Ice

After a few moments of hesitation and persuasion, Whitney took the baby onto her lap. “Hello, little man.”
    “I’m not sure the natives have heard of Pampers,” Doug said mildly.
    She merely wrinkled her nose at him. “Don’t you like children?”
    “Sure, I just like them better when they’re house-broken.”
    Chuckling, she gave her attention to the baby. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” she told him and reaching in her purse came up with a compact. “How about this? Want to see the baby?” She held the mirror up for him, enjoying the gurgling laughter. “Pretty baby,” she crooned, rather pleased with herself for amusing him. Just as amused as she, the baby pushed the mirror toward her face.
    “Pretty lady,” Doug commented, earning a laugh from Whitney.
    “Here, you try it.” Before he could protest, she’d passed the baby to him. “Babies are good for you.”
    If she’d expected him to be annoyed or to be awkward, she was wrong. As if he’d spent his life doing it, Doug straddled the baby on his lap and began to entertain him.
    That was interesting, Whitney noted. The thief had a sweet side. Sitting back, she watched Doug bounce the baby on his knee and make foolish noises. “Ever thought about going straight and opening a day-care center?”
    He lifted a brow and snatched the mirror from her. “Look here,” he told the baby, holding the mirror at an angle that had the sunlight flashing off it. Squealing, the baby grabbed the compact and pushed it toward Doug’s face.
    “He wants you to see the monkey,” Whitney said with a bland smile.
    “Smartass.”
    “So you’ve said.”
    To satisfy the baby, Doug made faces in the mirror. Bouncing with delight, the baby knocked at the mirror, angling it back so that Doug had a quick view of the rear of the train. He tensed, and, angling the mirror again, took a longer scan.
    “Holy shit.”
    “What?”
    Still juggling the baby, he stared at her. Sweat pooled in his armpits and ran down his back. “You just keep smiling, sugar, and don’t look behind me. We’ve got a couple of friends a few seats back.”
    Though her hands tensed on the arms of the seat, she managed to keep her gaze from darting back over Doug’s shoulder. “Small world.”
    “Ain’t it just.”
    “Got any ideas?”
    “I’m working on it.” He measured the distance to the door. If they got off at the next stop, Remo would be on them before they’d crossed the platform. If Remo was here, Dimitri was close. He kept his men on a short leash. Doug gave himself a full minute to fight the panic. What they needed was a diversion and an unscheduled departure.
    “You just follow my lead,” Doug told her in undertones. “And when I say go, you grab the knapsack and run toward the doors.”
    Whitney glanced down the length of the train. There were women, children, old people jammed into seats. Not the place for a showdown, she decided. “Do I have a choice?”
    “No.”
    “Then I’ll run.”
    The train slowed for the next stop, brakes squeaking, engine puffing. Doug waited until the crowd of incoming and outgoing passengers was at its thickest. “Sorry old man,” he murmured to the baby, then gave his soft butt a hard pinch. On cue, the baby set up a yowling scream that had the concerned mother hopping up in alarm. Doug rose as well and set about causing as much confusion as possible in the crowded center aisle.
    Sensing the game, Whitney stood and jostled the man at her right hard enough to dislodge the packages in his arms and send them scattering on the floor. Grapefruit bounced and squashed.
    When the train began to move again, there were six people between Doug and where Remo sat, crowding the aisle and arguing among themselves in Malagasy. In a gesture of apology, Doug raised his arms and upended a net bag of vegetables. The baby sent up long, continuous howls. Deciding it was the best he could do, Doug slipped a hand down and gripped Whitney’s wrist. “Now.”
    Together, they streaked toward the doors. Doug glanced up long enough to see Remo spring from his seat and begin to fight his way through the still-arguing group blocking the aisle. He caught a glimpse of another man wearing a panama tossing a newspaper aside and jumping up before he, too, was encircled by the crowd. Doug only had a second to wonder where he’d seen the face before.
    “Now what?” Whitney demanded as she watched the ground begin to rush by beneath them.
    “Now, we get