“Kim would like to see you,” Grace said.
“That’s very funny.” Nick smiled, running both hands through his hair as he stretched. “I believe the stars are not right for Kim and me. Tell her I said no hard feelings.”
“Sit down, Nick,” Tim urged. “We have a proposition for you.”
“No offense,” Nick proceeded carefully, hoping they were going in the direction he’d been steering them. “But if this proposition has anything to do with me and Kim, forget it.”
“We have a leak in the program.” Grace patted the chair until Nick reluctantly sat down. “No way anyone finds out where Kim is without a leak. First, the guy she was to testify against grew a third eye in Manhattan and now there’s an attempted hit on Kim.”
“Maybe it was the same guy.”
“He was in France when the Manhattan guy went down.”
“Tanus? I read the papers.”
“You know too much. Nobody likes a smartass.”
“So I’ve been told. That’s why I live alone. What’s the proposition?”
“Your house in Pacific Grove has two safe rooms,” Tim stated.
Uh oh
, Nick thought, trying to keep his face in neutral.
Grace put an arm around Nick’s shoulders. “Now what would a cute writer-type like you need with not one, but two safe rooms? Bet you’re wondering how we found out you have them, aren’t you?”
Nick shrugged. “It’s public knowledge. Any two-bit hack could get into city planning.”
“You’re one of those damned computer nerds too?” Grace pulled her arm back and pretended to pout.
“Want to tell us why you have two?” Tim asked quietly.
“One’s downstairs, one’s upstairs. I’m a little paranoid.”
“What would you have to be paranoid about?” Grace eased up over the table until she was smiling in Nick’s face, resting on her arm in front of him.
“No reason. I’m just naturally careful.” Nick smiled back.
Grace sighed and slid into her seat again. “I told you he’d say that.”
“We’d like you to take Kim with you, Nick, until we get this leak business straightened out,” Tim explained. “Grace and I will go down with you, while some people we trust implicitly find the leak.”
Yeah, that’ll work.
“You two are out of your ever lovin’ minds.” Nick registered the right amount of shock and awe. “Kim and I just met. I don’t even know her.”
“Ah…but would you like to?” Grace laughed at her own play on words. “C’mon Nick. It’ll be fun. You have a huge house. Tim and I will stay in Monterrey so we’re near if you need us. US Marshalls put people in places where other bad people can’t find them. We aren’t exactly bodyguards. It’ll only be for a couple weeks.”
“Does Kim know about this?”
“She’s very excited about it, Nick. Kimmy loves the idea.”
* * * *
“You want me to what?” Rachel cried out in astonishment, with Grace trying to shush her, while Nick tried not to laugh.
“For the record, I knew you lied about Kim knowing all about this idea.”
“Shut up, you,” Grace ordered, pointing a warning finger at Nick. She turned to face the enraged Rachel. “It’s the best we can do until we clear this up, Kimmy. No one knows about Nick. He has those safe rooms you can run into and lock behind you like a people vault.”
“You agreed to this?” Rachel stared at Nick in amazement.
“He’s very excited, Kimmy. I -”
“I want you to be safe,” Nick cut in. “Like Grace says, I have a huge house you can get lost in. Tim and Grace figure it’ll only be for a couple weeks. It would be very easy for you to avoid me at my house. The living room and kitchen are really the only communal areas. There are three bathrooms. If Grace and Tim manage to keep your whereabouts secret, you could move around outside without a problem. I’m not much of a bodyguard either. The way to keep you safe depends on my address remaining secret.”
“You haven’t told him, have you?” Rachel stared accusingly at Tim and Grace.
“Just like you, we were waiting for the proper time.” Grace smiled confidently over at her increasingly distressed partner.
“I have a seven year old daughter named Jean, alias, Sarah,” Rachel blurted out, still staring at Grace.
Oh shit! I’m well informed
.
“The more, the merrier,” Nick stated without hesitation. “I’ll put you two up on the other side of the house.”
“And…and an Australian Sheppard dog named Deke.”
“I love dogs.”
Great God in heaven, I am so screwed
.
“Do you mean that?” Rachel, tears running freely down her cheeks, met Nick’s unwavering gaze.
“Absolutely,” Nick answered.
I’m a dead man if Frank finds out about this
.
* * * *
Nick’s Chevy Malibu, loaded with bags in the trunk, also had a pile behind the driver’s seat. Jean and Deke sat on one side of the rear passenger seat, with Deke’s head out the window and body spread over Jean. Rachel sat on the front passenger side looking around the dark parking lot worriedly.
“You have yourself a low rider, Nick.” Grace stepped back, assessing how low the Chevrolet was to the ground.
“Don’t come to my house with the rest. Leave a message at the number I gave you when you come down with the other stuff. I’ll meet you,” Nick replied, standing with his hand on the driver’s side door handle.
“Will you know if you’re being followed?”
“Yeah, for all the good it would do me. If they have my license number how long would it take to find out where I’m headed? Our advantage is if no one knows about me. When will you and Tim be following? Did you put the block on my DMV records.”
“Yes, yes, yes, and we’re coming tomorrow night. We won’t approach unless you call the code,” Grace promised, trying to hug Nick. “You’re my hero…my widdle bunny…my…”
Nick grabbed Grace’s hand and in seconds Grace was standing on her tip toes dancing around. “Ow…ow…ow…ow…ow…”
“Don’t touch me.” Nick released her and opened his door to laughter from both Rachel and Jean. “I’m writing you into my next novel and it won’t be flattering. I’ll make it so bad – yet exactly like you – your whole family will sue me even though they won’t be able to win.”
“No need to get nasty.” Grace held the hurt look until Nick was behind the wheel and then she waved happily at Jean. “You be good and do what Nick says.”
“Okay, but what’s in it for me?” The seven year old asked, staring out at Grace over Nick’s shoulder with a serious face. Deke barked on cue, sending Grace into peals of laughter.
“This is like you’ve entered the Twilight Zone, isn’t it?” Rachel asked, when Nick drove away from Grace and out of the underground parking garage.
Shit, she reads minds.
“No, I’m not like the writer Jack Nicholson portrays in
As Good As It Gets
. Very little bothers me when I write – except for women, kids, and dogs.”
Rachel laughed so long, Deke began to bark, with Jean giggling. She slapped Nick’s shoulder in a way that reminded him of Carol’s affectionate scolding of Dan. Rachel calmed down and leaned back in her seat with a sigh.
“It wasn’t that funny.” Nick smiled over at her.
“Why didn’t you quote the line from that movie you really like? Go ahead and say it. I’ll give you the lead in…‘How do you write women so well?’”
“Okay…‘I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.’”
“Feel better now?”
“Surprisingly, yes. How about you?”
“I’ll be okay.”
“I’m hungry,” Jean spoke up from the back.
“Sarah!” Rachel whipped around. “I asked you if you were hungry before we left.”
“I wasn’t hungry then.”
“Give me about forty-five minutes, Sarah, and we’ll stop, okay?” Nick checked his rear view mirror every few seconds. He had swept the Malibu for bugs before they left when he had been alone.
“Okay,” Jean agreed.
“It won’t be safe to stop, will it?”
“If it’s not safe in forty-five minutes, it won’t be safe at all,” Nick stated matter-of-factly.
“I’ll have to start reading your novels. Your main character, Diego, must be like a superhero.”
“He’s a cold-blooded psychopath with only a thread of humanity left.”
“Oh…”
“You’d be surprised how many people read the novels and start rooting for Diego as Tim admitted to doing. We have a mean streak in us and sometimes a character like Diego touches the black part of our souls. There are other readers who would like to have a book burning with my novels as the guests of honor.”
“Grace really likes them.”
“Yeah…well…Grace is a psycho.”
“She is?” Jean popped up past Deke to get closer while the dog jammed in behind her with his head out the window. “What’s a psycho?”
“If you want to stop in forty-five minutes you’ll have to ignore anything you hear me say.” Nick grinned back at Jean for a moment. “I live alone. Sometimes I say things better left unsaid because I think I’m talking to myself.”
“How about after the forty-five minutes?”
“Sarah!” Rachel reached around attempting to tickle Jean who started squealing before the hand reached her. Deke interceded, grabbing Rachel’s wrist lightly in his jaws. “Deke!”
Nick started laughing, while glancing over at the interchange. Hearing the tone in Rachel’s voice, Deke released her and plopped down with head in Jean’s lap, ready for another attack.
“You didn’t tell me Deke was an attack dog.”
“He attacks me without any problem. I’m not sure about anyone else. He’s been doing it since he was a puppy. If I reach quickly for Jean in any way, Deke grabs me. If I escalate, he escalates.”
“Neat.”
“Figures you’d think so.” An enigmatic smile formed as Rachel looked over at Nick.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nick asked rhetorically, recognizing a setup when he heard one.
“Men and dogs recognize abhorrent behavior, think
oh well, that’s nature
, and move on.”
“You know us so well it’s scary, right Deke,” Nick prompted the dog and earned a ‘grrruuffff’ in response. “Hey, let’s play the women and cats game now.”
Rachel giggled. “I don’t think so.”
Twenty minutes later Rachel noticed Nick watching the rear view mirror even more than at the start of their trip.
“You’re looking worried.”
“Did Grace or Tim mention anything about putting a tail on us to you?”
“No, I thought they wanted only the two of them to know we were headed to your place.”
“That’s what I thought. We’re almost to Gilroy. There’s a McDonalds near the exit where we can get something to eat. In the dark, I’ll know if the car I’m suspicious of follows us off.”
“Yaaaaaaaaayyyyy, McDonalds!” Jean cheered.
“You will have a salad and glass of milk, young lady,” Rachel told her.
“Yeah, right, Mom.” Jean gave Rachel the wave off. “I’m having a Happy Meal and a milkshake.”
“Do you have kids, Nick?”
“No.”
“Want one?”
Chapter Four
Getting To Know You
Nick drove off the exit he knew led to the McDonalds and noticed the pair of headlights he had been watching leave the freeway too. In the McDonalds parking lot Nick, watched the car go past. It was a tan colored late model Buick Lacerne. The Buick kept going without slowing down and Nick could not get an angle to see the plate. He ordered and paid for the food after only a slight debate between his charges. They took the order over to a table Nick had picked out away from the front windows. Nick let Rachel divvy up the drinks and food, staying on his feet while sipping from the iced tea he’d ordered.
“Let me have Deke’s leash and one of his waste bags. I’ll take him for a walk.”
“They came off the freeway with us, didn’t they?”
“I’m going to see if they’re parked where they can see who gets into or out of my car. Relax, I’ll be right back.”
Rachel nodded hesitantly and handed Nick the dog’s leash and a baggie she had brought with her, planning to walk Deke after having something to drink. Nick took his iced tea with him. He leashed the overjoyed Deke and walked him out of the parking lot. Nick stopped every time Deke sniffed anything, allowing the dog to stay engaged with whatever aroma appealed to him. Nick drank his iced tea, looking around as Deke proceeded slowly up the street. The Buick was parked in the darkness nearly fifty yards away, facing Nick from across the street. After continuing another thirty feet, Nick took a look up at the sky casually and tugged Deke toward the parking lot.
Rachel smiled at Nick in relief as he walked toward their table after returning Deke to the car. “How we doing?”
“Not so good.” Nick sat down. “I’m going to take them for a little ride. I’ll call Grace while I’m doing it. If I’m not back in half an hour, call a cab and have the cabbie take you to a hotel. I’ll have to take Deke with me.”
“Why not call Grace right now?”
“You’re not going to hurt Deke!” Jean chimed in.
“Calm down you two,” Nick urged. “Deke and I will lead these clucks away, ID them, and be back in no time. I’m covering all our bases. If they’re dangerous people, Deke and I will lead them on a wild goose chase until Grace and Tim get here.”
“Okay…okay, we’ll wait,” Rachel agreed, picking up her cell-phone. “You’ll call me, right?”
“I’ll have Grace call you. Sorry this trip’s taking longer than we figured but we need to be careful.”
Nick walked out to the Malibu and opened the trunk. He moved luggage out of the way until he could reach the rear trunk area. Lifting up a section of fiber board, Nick took out a small leather case. He reloaded the car and took the case up front with him. Deke looked at Nick from the front seat expectantly. Nick laughed and opened the rear passenger door. Spreading the bags out on the floor and seat, Nick evened the surface before motioning Deke into the rear passenger compartment.