“Are you saying you don’t believe I’d hurt you, Caroline?”
She realized that she had been all but certain of that for a while. “That’s what I’m saying.”
His eyes were once again on the road. He shrugged. “Believe me, your father thinks I’ll do what I have to do.”
“You know him, don’t you?” she asked curiously. Ordinarily the superintendent would have minimal interaction with a homicide detective. “Outside of work, I mean?”
Reed flicked a glance her way. “You ask too many questions.”
She frowned at him. “You could try answering some of them.”
They were traveling fast now, way over the speed limit, booking it down the two-lane blacktop that curled away into the darkness like Reed was intent on putting some serious distance between them and the interstate as quickly as possible. Dread made her chest feel tight as she thought about the resources that were certainly being deployed to find them. Her father hated to be beaten at anything: he would go all out to bring Reed in. Although she couldn’t see any at present, she knew there were helicopters up there aiding the search. The Mazda was still running without lights, which was a worthy attempt to disguise them both from the myriad squad cars undoubtedly cruising these back roads searching for them, and make them invisible to the searchers above. But it was dark, and anything could be on the road. Deer and other wildlife were a real hazard at night even under ordinary conditions. And if they should encounter a squad car while the headlights were off, the game would be up and the chase would be on with a vengeance.
Given those factors, she was almost relieved when they turned onto another, even narrower blacktop road, and he finally switched on the headlights. This road wound through a forest, and the foliage of the tall trees crowding close together on either side formed a leafy canopy overhead. She could no longer even see the moon, or anything much, except what was revealed in the blaze of the headlights: the rough bark of ancient tree trunks, trailing gray ropes of Spanish moss and swarms of insects, and the gleam of dark water curving beneath the trees some little distance away. She hoped the canopy would provide enough cover to keep a helicopter from spotting them. The road was twisty enough and the woods on either side were dense enough that the headlights should not be visible to anyone who was not coming directly toward them, she was almost sure.
“Where are we going?” Caroline asked.
Reed was driving as if he had a destination in mind. As dark as the night was there beneath the trees, she knew dawn could not be many hours away and presumed he would want to be off the road before then. Seen in profile, his handsome face was hard and set. If he was tired, as she guessed he had to be because she was practically dead with fatigue herself, she could see no sign of it.
“You’ll see.”
Another nonanswer. She was getting sick of them. Her brows came together. “Do you enjoy being cryptic?”
He slanted a glance at her. “Makes my day.”
“You can tell me where we’re going, you know. Because, see, we’re alone, and there’s nobody I can tell.”
Her sarcasm earned her a glimmer of a smile. “What, you don’t like surprises?”
“About as much as I like having my hands cuffed behind my back and being trapped by a seat belt.” Which was, not at all. Having her hands wedged in the small of her back was starting to get uncomfortable. So was not being able to move her arms.
“We’ll be there soon.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” She glared at him. “This whole stupid trade-me-for-Holly’s-little-brother scheme is not going to work, by the way. You’re delusional if you think it will.”
“It was the best stupid scheme I could come up with on short notice.”
The trace of mocking humor in his voice did not sit well with her. “To hell with this. I want to know what’s going on.”
“No, you don’t. Believe me, you don’t.”
“If you won’t tell me, how about I try to figure it out for myself?” Caroline asked pseudosweetly, then frowned, thinking. Her eyes stayed fixed on his face as she continued. “What is it they say? Oh, yes: once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth. First thing to do is discard the most unlikely explanations, such as the slim but not entirely nonexistent possibility that you are completely crazy. Clearly you weren’t after money, because you left the chance for a million dollars behind. Publicity? I don’t think so. Here’s what we’re left with: you, previously a good solid cop, were fired yesterday for taking a bribe, which Holly swears was a setup. Holly was arrested for possessing drugs, which he swears was a setup, too. Who supposedly set you two up? A very generic ‘the cops,’ again sworn to by Holly. He’s thrown in jail and thinks he’ll be murdered by morning. You take New Orleans’ top brass hostage, including, significantly, the superintendent of police and the mayor, in a spectacularly wrongheaded fiasco of a move that nevertheless succeeds in getting Holly out of jail and, not coincidentally, makes you both the object of a manhunt that’s probably going to end with the two of you getting killed.
“So what is the common denominator here?” She paused, musing. Then her voice brightened with triumph. “I have it: the cops. Specifically, the NOPD.” Her eyes narrowed on his face. His expression was guarded, but something in his eyes told her that she was on the right track. She continued slowly, piecing it together as she went. “I’m guessing you, or Holly—it would have to be Holly, wouldn’t it, or else there’s no reason for him to be involved—stumbled across something, some evidence of corruption, or a crime, which”—the look she was giving him turned speculative—“you reported to the superintendent of police, who either did not believe you, which accounts for the fight everyone says you two had, or did believe you and wanted to stop you from sharing what you discovered with anyone else. Bottom line, he didn’t like what you had to say. The situation went to hell from there.” At the telltale firming of Reed’s mouth, she smiled. “Bingo, right?”
“Leave it alone, Caroline.” The look he gave her was grim.
“Too late,” she taunted. “Let’s see, what could it be? What big bad could Holly have uncovered?”
“Goddamn it.” He said it violently enough to make her eyes widen. But he wasn’t talking to her, she realized a split second later. His eyes were fixed on something up ahead. His hands had clenched tight around the steering wheel.
Glancing out through the windshield, Caroline froze. Her heart lurched. Her stomach sank.
Although they were partially hidden by the trees, there was no mistaking the red revolving lights dead ahead.
A squad car was speeding right toward them.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
B
EFORE CAROLINE
could say anything, before she could make so much as a sound beyond her first instinctive indrawn breath, Reed doused the headlights. Darkness dropped over them like a curtain.
“Like that’s not going to attract attention,” Caroline scoffed.
“You have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
She didn’t.
“Oh, God, it’s all over.” Her voice sounded hollow. Her heart slammed against her ribs. There wasn’t a thing she could do, except stare in horror at the oncoming squad car. While it was still hidden by the trees except for the brilliant flashing lights that could be glimpsed through the stockade of trunks, it was approaching at a fast pace. The siren wasn’t on. If it hadn’t been for the activated light bar on top of the car, they would have had no warning at all.
“We just now saw their lights. I’m hoping they didn’t see ours.” He had taken his foot off the gas rather than hitting the brakes. Caroline guessed that it was to prevent the telltale flash of red from the brake lights. She watched as he shifted down into neutral.
“Reed.” He was pulling off the road. The Mazda bumped over gravel and then grass, going way too fast for a blind ride along the badly overgrown grassy strip at the edge of a forest. Trees flashed past Caroline’s window, so close that she cringed a little. Thank God the car was slowing. Her voice went dangerously high-pitched. “What are you doing?”
The squad car came around a bend, and suddenly she could see it speeding directly toward them, a solid pale shape beneath the pulsing red light bar that lit up the night.
“Stopping.” Even as he said it, the Mazda bounced over a cluster of small bushes and, amid the sound of branches slapping the paint and scratching along the undercarriage, shuddered to a halt. Reed had already let go of the steering wheel and was reaching for her seat belt before it finally stopped. His voice sharpened as he leaned toward her:
“Duck.”
“What?”
She didn’t get an answer. At least, not in words. Instead, as her seat belt released, a hard arm encircled her shoulders and he pushed her down so that she was lying across the console. He then covered her body with his own. The plastic console was hard and unyielding beneath her ribs. His torso on top of hers was heavy and suffocating. With the way he was twisted in the seat, her head wound up resting on the side of his muscular thigh.
“Oh my God, this would be the moment to take these handcuffs off me. Your best chance is to surrender to me before they—” Her voice broke off as the Mazda’s interior lit up with pulsating red flashes. “—find us,” she finished in a tiny voice.
The patrol car was clearly almost upon them. Once again, instead of welcoming potential rescue as any right-minded victim would, she found herself identifying with Reed. Her breath caught, her throat tightened up, and her cuffed hands clenched into fists. With Reed’s big body resting atop hers, she could feel his tension. His arm around her was rigid, and his thigh beneath her cheek was taut. He was heavy as a sack of cement, holding her down below the level of the windshield so that neither of them was visible to the officers in the cruiser passing the car. Bent over as she was, with Reed’s weight on top of her, it was hard for her to take a deep breath. His own breathing was even and slow, and she got the impression that he was deliberately controlling it.
He said, “I’m not surrendering.”
As his forbidding promise registered, she realized to her dismay that she could not feel his gun where it should have been. All she could feel against her back was his solid chest and a ridged shape near his left pectoral muscle that she knew must be his empty holster. One hard arm curved across her body; his hand rested near her hip. The other—to her horror Caroline saw that he held his gun against his leg.
Cuffed as she was, there was not a thing she could do about it.
“If they see you with a gun they’ll shoot you on the spot,” she warned urgently.
Even as she said it the lights were upon them; the entire interior pulsed red as hellfire. Goose bumps raced over her skin. Her blood thundered in her ears. Bracing, she listened for the sound of brakes, of the siren being activated, of something that would tell her that the moment of reckoning was at hand.
He said, “Whatever happens, you stay in the car and stay down. I don’t want you getting caught in any crossfire.”
“We don’t want any crossfire,” she almost wailed. “Reed,
please
don’t do this.”
The whooshing sound of tires rolling fast over pavement was followed almost immediately by a lessening in the intensity of the lights inside the Mazda. A moment later, and the red flashes were entirely gone.
Caroline lay where she was, unmoving. Reed, too, remained motionless atop her. Her heart continued to pound a mile a minute. She was sure that his did, too.
What was happening? Had the squad car stopped behind them? Were armed officers even now sneaking up on them through the dark?
Or had the cruiser simply passed them by and continued on?
Not knowing was driving her insane. Caroline felt like she was about to jump out of her skin.
Cautiously Reed lifted his head and looked around.
“Jesus Christ,” he said, exhaling. “They’re gone.”
Oh. My. God.
“They’re gone?” To Caroline’s embarrassment, her voice squeaked. She sat up when he did, and they both turned to look out the back window at the same time. Sure enough, in the distance she could see the flashing red lights racing away from them. She felt shivery inside with the aftermath of fear, and took a deep, hopefully calming breath. “Thank God.”
He looked at her. With both of them partially turned around in their seats, their faces were surprisingly close. His eyes gleamed in the darkness as they met hers. His mouth curved into the slightest of wry smiles.
“Hey, you’re being kidnapped, remember? You want me to get caught.”
“No, I don’t,” she said.
He must have heard the conviction in her voice, because his smile vanished and he looked at her searchingly. Then he leaned forward and kissed her.
At the touch of his mouth on hers, heat shot through her. His lips were hard and hungry, and the way he was kissing her made her dizzy. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth under his and kissed him back with all the pent-up passion for him that she’d been holding on to inside for ten years. Her heart began to pound and her body quickened and she shivered with a rush of absolutely unexpected pleasure.
Oh. My. God.
In a whole different way.
When he pulled his mouth from hers, her lids fluttered up and she looked at him almost dazedly. Chemistry—that’s what shimmered in the air between them. Potent. Explosive. The kind of inexplicable physical reaction that made getting naked and horizontal with the other person feel absolutely urgent. For a moment, as his gaze moved over her face, she went all melty inside in expectation of—something. Tender words. Another kiss. Feverish handcuffed sex. Until she realized that, although his eyes were heavy-lidded and hot for her, he was frowning, and the set of his mouth could best be described as grim.
Then he reached past her to grab her loose seat belt.
“Sit still,” he ordered, pulling it around her. “I don’t want to make this too tight.”
“That’s it?” she asked indignantly as he clicked the belt into place. “
Sit still
? That’s all you have to say?”