Authors: Maggie Thom
Knowing he was free of Donna and
her threats, he let himself relax. He should have known she’d been playing him
all these years. Thinking back, he realized he liked the little bit of danger
that she’d posed. He’d only ever had to give her enough. Enough money to
survive on, while on the run. Enough warning that her husband was tracking her
down. Enough information for her to understand that her husband was watching
the border so she couldn’t leave the country. Enough lies to keep her right
where he could keep an eye on her. And she always bought that he’d sent a
cheque to the last address and if she hadn’t cashed it, someone had. How did he
know she wasn’t scamming him? He’d played her so well. He’d known or been
ninety-five percent sure she’d never have really gone through with making that
photo of him public. Besides she’d given him more crooked federal politicians,
along with doctors, lawyers, judges, too many well paid people for him to keep
track. Some of them still had a guilty enough conscience that they were still
paying, even though they were no longer in the public eye.
He sipped at his scotch, his eyes
glancing at the door that Bailey had left through. He wondered what the little
snot would do if he told her he’d forged her birth certificate. The thought of
letting that piece of information out, was tempting. The fun he could have
withholding her true identity. He didn’t know who she really was but neither
did she and never would. Donna had never said where she’d gotten the baby and
frankly he hadn’t cared. Smiling to himself, he slowly drank the rest of the
Scotch that he’d had to bid on and pay an exorbitant amount for. Scotch that
not even his wife knew he owned.
Since no one had found out about
him in over forty-five years, since his first ‘experience’, he didn’t know why
he’d worried so much. It really was a blessing that Donna had that picture and
not her husband. He would have blackmailed him for every dime he had and then
made it public knowledge, gloating in being able to bring him down.
Uh, but they lost.
He smiled the first genuine smile
he’d had in a very long time.
He was safe.
Rising from his crouched position beside a house a few doors
down from Bailey’s, Payme saw the guy he’d run into, finally climb in his SUV
and drive away. He stood up and moved along the shadows of the building. Since
the girl had left and he’d already looked through her place and couldn’t find
anything, he might as well see if he could get his other career back on track.
He walked around the house and up onto the deck, to look in the patio windows.
The house was spotless and on the table he could clearly see a note. There was
something about the personal touch of the handwritten letter that had him
thinking twice about what he was going to do. But he needed to find alternative
methods to bring in money again. Mr. L would be cutting him loose soon,
especially when he found out that the girl had gotten away from him.
He snuck down off the deck and
grabbed a rock out of the flowered rock garden and within minutes he’d broken
the glass and had climbed in. The note let him know that he had plenty of time.
The people were out of town for a few days and the message was for their
neighbor. Crumpling it, he chucked it in the garbage before heading upstairs to
the bedrooms. They were always the best places to start. Snooping through the
house, he’d forgotten how much pleasure he got from peeking into the lives of
others, of taking from the lives of others. He found jewels, old coin
collections, cash, credit cards - all that he was looking for and more. Since
time wasn’t a factor he spent a good half hour searching through everything.
After he had his pockets and a
nice leather duffle bag full, he headed out the patio door. Slithering over to
the dark shadows along the fence, he waited several more minutes before making
his move. He jumped over the fence and scampered through the yard to the next
one. The back alley had proven once too often the place where he’d been caught.
Instead, he chose to leap over fences and brush, dashing through yards, able to
hide whenever the early morning partiers drove by.
His phone rang.
He immediately dropped to the
ground, scrambling to grab the damn cell before it went off again. Since he
wasn’t used to carrying one, he hadn’t thought about it. As he answered it, he
fleetingly realized that Mr. Lund would want it back.
“She just left. Follow her. Make
sure she leaves the city. Once she’s gone, call me.”
Payme didn’t bother to tell Lund
that he was across town and not on her tail, as he was being paid to be.
“That’s it. What about them
pictures?” Payme scratched his prickly, stubble.
“All that’s been taken care of.
You’ll get a nice bonus for the work you’ve done. Call me when you’re out of
town. Make sure she leaves.” Click.
The man stared at the cell phone
in his hand. Something didn’t feel right. He was to get her out of town. And
then what? Was he being hustled? Was Mr. L playing him? He could be identified.
The man he’d run into may or may not have seen his face. But the woman
definitely had. It was time to get rid of her, no matter what he’d been told to
do.
He’d called the girl earlier to
scare her. With her gone, he knew he could look freely.
He’d wanted to get that picture.
It might have been his retirement ticket. But she’d run to Lund and now he had
the damn picture.
Payme slugged back several gulps
of the cheap whisky he’d swiped. He shuddered as it hit his empty stomach. He
pulled out his cigarette package and holding it below his nose, he took a long
whiff. It had been a while since he’d had a fresh pack of smokes. Thankfully,
bumming and smoking butts would now be on hold for a while. He reached into his
shirt pocket to get his matches but they weren’t there. He patted down all his
pockets, nothing. Swearing, he looked around. He’d left his car a few blocks
away. Trudging down the alley, he decided he’d get to his vehicle, smoke a few
cigarettes, sleep a bit and then he’d give Mr. L a call and give him the
information he wanted to hear.
Then he’d get Bailey when she
came back to the house. Once he had her, he and Lund would renegotiate their
agreement... after he’d had a bit of fun with her. Lund seemed a little too
eager to keep tabs on her.
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Bailey started her car and drove back across the city
wondering if it was safe to return to the house. A couple blocks away from her
mom’s she pulled over and stopped. Taking a moment to steady her frayed nerves,
she drew in several calming breaths.
What was going on? First, the guy
at the house and then Lund. She wasn’t sure which one was creepier. Lund had
been good, slimy but good. He’d almost had her believing he was genuinely sad
that her mother had passed away. But she knew better. Living on the street had
taught her a few things, too. It had been a while since she’d had to act the
victim. In fact she hadn’t since she’d been about fourteen and her mom had flipped
when she’d found her playing the dumb innocent school girl, who never got
anything in her life that was her own. Would the nice gentleman please give her
twenty dollars?
That had been her scam for a long
time, and it had worked, at least until her mom had put a stop to it. It was
just another one of her mom’s many major disappointments in her. Her stomach
clenched at the memories of what she had done just to survive.
Leaning back, she slid her hand
into her pants pocket and pulled out the USB keychain she’d lifted from the
false bottom of the second drawer in Lund’s desk. She was confused by some of
what her mom had doodled on the envelope to her but locating and getting that
jump drive had been really clear.
She started to chuckle. He’d been
so easy. Talking about women’s menstrual cycles always seemed to freak guys out
and not question when you didn’t show up for fifteen or twenty minutes. Of
course, when she’d returned and given a detailed explanation to Mr. Lund on the
history of women’s menstruation cycles and how it was one week out of every
month to have to deal with all that mess, it had been his undoing. He hadn’t
questioned why she’d taken so long in the loo.
With her free hand she reached up
and tugged out the elastic, freeing her hair from the ponytail. Normally she
pulled it back because she liked the ease of it but she also knew that it made
her seem more like a teenager then a woman pushing thirty. The effect on men
was the same, they strutted their stuff like they were groomed peacocks.
Without warning, her door was
yanked open. She jerked sideways, her arm coming up to shield herself, her foot
lifting to lash out. Before she could make contact, a body pinned her and a
hand reached across her, ripping out the keys. The scream that formed on her
lips was swallowed as she met a steely pair of blue eyes. He moved back but not
before redirecting her foot to the floor mat. Her hand instinctively wrapped
around the flash drive and slipped it into her pocket. Feeling faint with
relief, she slumped back. Her door slammed and her would-be thief was soon
around the car and opening the passenger side. Sliding into the seat, Guy
closed the door, leaned back and glared at her.
Too tired to move, she rolled her
head sideways to meet the glower, neither spoke. She waited him out. After a
long period of time, she raised her eyebrows.
He folded his arms across his
chest and turned to look out the window. “Who was the guest at your house?”
“What?”
“Who was the nice man who was
waiting at your home?”
“What were you doing at my mom’s
place?”
“Looking for you.”
Since he wasn’t looking at her,
she took the time to study him. He definitely had the cute bad boy down pat,
all dressed in black, with his black leather coat and his hair looking
windblown and falling over one eye. The scruffy beard thing was almost going
too far.
“I don’t know who he was. I
thought maybe he was a friend of yours.”
That brought his piercing gaze
around to hers. His jaw clenched.
“Aren’t we funny? I never sent
that man to your house but someone did. Any ideas?”
That had been her thought but
that didn’t mean she had to play nice. The not knowing scared her more than she
cared to admit. The shiver started out as a fine vibration shimmying down her
spine. “What makes you think he wasn’t just a random kook looking for a place
to break into?”
“He trashed your place, which in
and of itself, generally means the person is looking for something. And before
you say he could have been looking for drugs, I met your friend at the door and
since I got up close and personal with him I would agree that he was the slime
of the earth. But I don’t think drugs were what motivated that break in.”
“How’d you find me?”
“I’ve been following you for the
last ten minutes. I was almost to Lund’s when you went roaring past me. You
didn’t know I was following you, did you?”
Fear shook her body as though she
were in arctic weather. Not questioning what was causing her tremors he
smoothly slid the key into the ignition and started the car, turning the heat
on full.
“Thanks.” She turned and rested
her forehead on the side window, staring out at the black night that the weak
street lights tried to stave off. A dark shape crouched low, leapt over a
fence, and then reappeared jumping over another one. The person was traveling
from one back yard to another. Startled, she sat up but kept her focus on where
she’d last seen the guy.
“What’s wrong?”
Not bothering to look at him
turned out to be a mistake. His warm breath brushed the back of her ear as he
stared out her window over her shoulder. She suppressed the shiver of
excitement that tickled her nerve endings as she pointed off to the right.
“Someone or something is running
through yards. Watch, you’ll see him in a moment between the grey house and the
blue one. He’ll jump over the hedge between the yards.”
A few seconds later a person did
exactly that. A thin strip on the neck of the hood glowed in the dark.
“The guy who visited you tonight
had on a hoody, right?”
“Yes.” Whipping around,
forgetting that he was so close, they literally ended up nose to nose. She
froze.
“I figured we’d end up like
this.”
Trying not to breathe in his male
scent, her eyes opened wide.
“Nose to nose that is. You like
to get your way and I like to get mine.”
Breathing out slowly, she eased
back. “Are you suggesting that the guy who was at my place is that person?” She
inclined her head in the direction of their night crawler.
Guy nodded.
“What the hell’s going on? My
life was normal.” She ignored the twinge of guilt that remark gave her. “Until
you barged in telling me I’m someone else.” Her hand flipped up to stop his
quick retort. “What you’ve said doesn’t make sense. Please don’t. I don’t want
to hear it again.”
“You do recognize that you’re in
trouble?”
“As dense as you may think I am,
yes, even I get that. I just don’t understand why. Except that, back to my
theory which I never got to finish, until you barged into my life I never had
people chasing me down. So when I put two and two together they add up to you.”
Glaring at him, she crossed her arms. “Or add two and two and you get… oh my
god.”
The man they’d been watching
jumping fences, raced out onto the street. Once he was under the street lights,
she immediately recognized him by his long, greasy hair and grubby clothes, as
her home wrecker. “That’s the guy…”
A black car came zooming around
the corner. Tires squealed, as the vehicle swerved but not in time. Thump,
crash, bang, all blended together. She could never remember if the guy made any
sound as he landed on the hood of the car, only to be shot forward when the man
slammed on his brakes. The vehicle spun around.
Bailey reached for the door
handle, ready to run out and see if she could help, when Guy grabbed her arm
and pulled her back.
“What the hell’s your problem?”
He jumped up onto the console and
stomped on the gas with his left foot. As they screamed away from the curb, he
cramped the wheel, so they did a U turn.
She slapped at him and fought him
for control.
“He’s got a gun.”
She never saw it but she heard
the distinct popping sound. “This isn’t going to work if you want to get out of
here. Give me the wheel and move your damn foot. I know what I’m doing.”
He couldn’t steer very well from
his crouched position on the console, so he removed his hands. “Turn right.”
After they squealed around that corner, he realized she was right and removed
his foot, letting her take over.
“Where did he come from? And what
happened to my uninvited guest? Did he get up?” She slammed on the brakes and
whipped down a back alley before gunning it. Guy who had been sitting
precariously on the console between the seats, tumbled backward. He scrambled
up onto the seat, as they shot out onto a street. Bailey turned the steering
wheel and with tires squealing, they shot off down the road.
“I don’t know but I don’t see him
anymore. Keep doing what you’re doing. Great driving.”
Annoyed at his sarcasm, she
snapped, “the other man, what happened to him?”
When there was no answer she
glanced in the rear-view mirror. He was studying her.
“What? What?”
“I think your guy–”
“I don’t claim ownership.”
“Your guy–”
She glared at him in the mirror.
He smiled in return. “Might have
gotten in the way of our thug shooter. Know who or why either of them would be
chasing you?”
Her gaze automatically went to
the glove compartment. The letters from her mom were in there.
No, but I
have a feeling I know who might be able to tell me.
“Where am I dropping
you off?”
“You’re not.”
After zipping down another avenue
she slammed on the brakes. She spun around to face him. “Then get out.”
“No. You and I are tied at the
hip, so to speak. If it’s because of me that these goons found you then that’s
my responsibility.”
“I can take care of myself.” She
clenched her teeth.
“I’m sure you can. However I will
be along for the ride. Besides, if you want to see your family ever, you need
me.”
Slowly shifting to face forward,
she stared out the front window at the deserted street.
Aaaah yes, my one
lifetime dream. Family.
“Where are we going?”
“I can drop you off at any time.”
She put the car in drive and eased forward. Taking several side streets that
took them another hour, she then headed west, taking Highway One. She drove for
a while before turning north. Silence was something she was used to. Driving
with a partner was not. Refusing to let herself be intimidated by him, she
drove for hours, ignoring him. When her back started to complain that she’d
been in one position too long and she realized they needed fuel, she pulled
into a gas station on the side of the road.
“Would you like something to…”
She looked back over her shoulder as she spoke. He was slumped sideways across
the seat. Her first thought was that he’d been shot but then she saw the gentle
rise and fall of his chest. Her hero had fallen asleep. Before she forgot, she
pulled out the envelopes from their hiding place in the glove box and stuffed
them into her back pocket.
Quietly getting out of the
vehicle, she filled up. Since she had no idea how long it was going to take to
get where she was going, or exactly where she was going, she purchased an Alberta
and B. C. map, loaded up on junk food and bought a case of lemonade and a case
of water. She set everything on the seat beside her, eased into hers, put on
her seatbelt and pulled onto the highway.
“Not a smart thing to do.”
“Aaahhhh.” Her head almost hit
the roof and the car swerved before she was able to still her reaction.
“Jesus.”
“No, actually I’m not but I do
get mistaken for him a lot.”
She frowned as she looked at him
in the mirror for a minute. Then the joke hit her. Laughter came from nowhere.
It started as a giggle, then a chuckle. It sounded off key, which just made her
laugh even harder.
“Pull over.”
Too far gone with laughter to
even question his command, she turned off into a well treed campground. Gasping
for breath, she was finally able to bring herself under control. Completely
drained, she slumped over the steering wheel. “Thank you.”
Guy climbed out of the back seat
and stepped up to the driver’s side opening the door. “For what?”
Too exhausted to move, she turned
her head but didn’t lift it. “For making me laugh, for keeping me company, for
feeling safe enough to fall asleep.”
His cheeks turned a nice shape of
apple red. That got her attention. She sat up and faced him.
“Tough guy, embarrassed about
that?”
His face turned ruddier as he
swore. “Let’s just say it’s an issue.” He turned away. His shoulders shook.
Surprised, Bailey got out of the
car and put her hand on his back and bent over to see his face. “Hey. I wasn’t
making fun…”
He was laughing. She stepped back
not sure how to take it.
“I’m sorry. The insanity of this
just hit me.” Scrubbing his hand down his face, he yawned.
“Where are we headed?”
Contemplating how much to share
with him, she finally replied, “near Jasper.”
He looked pointedly at her. “Your
turn to sleep. I’ll drive.” He opened the driver’s door.
That shot some pep into her. She
squinted, trying to block out the glare of the interior light as she turned to
face him. “I’m fine.”
“What the hell?” He moved so
quickly, she had no time, except to stiffen at his light touch against her
swollen cheek. “Your intruder.”
Telling him yes with her eyes,
she found she couldn’t pull away from his concerned gaze or break the contact
with his hand.
“That bastard.”
Realizing she was liking his
attention way too much, she stepped back and stiffly walked around the car. She
opened the passenger door and reached in.