Secrets Among the Cedars (Intertwined Book 2) (11 page)

A knock on her window made her jump out of her seat. She turned to stare straight into the tiny blue eyes of a scraggly bearded man in greasy overalls. Was this one of Phil's cousins?

He tapped on the window again. "Miss? Do you need help?"

She shook her head as she pressed the lock button making sure she'd locked the car. "Someone is on the way. Thanks."

"You sure?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Alrighty then. Have a good day." The man walked behind Kathryn's car and climbed into an old beat up wrecker. He honked his horn as he passed her and waved.

Kathryn let out her breath and ran her fingers through her hair. That was close. She had to stay alert. If that had been one of Phil's cousins, she could have been overpowered. She turned up the radio and let the next song fill her mind with something besides her fear.

Chapter Eleven

When Phil arrived, he honked his horn before approaching Kathryn’s car. Now that was a gentleman.

Kathryn hopped out of the car and ran to him. He wore khaki pleated dress shorts, a white golf shirt, tucked in, and brown leather sandals. This was the most businesslike he'd looked since she'd met him, and the look suited him well. Casting aside all inhibitions, she embraced him. Phil encircled her waist with his arms.

"Thanks so much for coming to my rescue. No one has ever rescued me before."

"You're welcome." He pulled back and looked down into her tear-filled eyes. "No one?"

"No. I suppose it's because I'm usually acting as if I don't need help. But I'm starting to believe that that's the wrong approach to this life. It's not such a bad thing to need others."

"Life lessons learned in Cedar Key, huh?" Phil squeezed her waist and then released her. "Let's have a look at what we've got here." He bent to look at the back left tire, then walked around to the other side. When he stood, he sighed. "This doesn't look good."

"What do you mean?"

"Your tires were slashed."

"Slashed! How can you tell?"

"Come over here and look."

Kathryn walked around to the back right side of the car. Phil pointed out the cut marks in the tire. "I can't believe this. Who would have—"

"Who do you think?"

"Your cousins are serious about their work, aren't they?"

"You have no idea. See why I said you can't handle an Ezzo alone?"

"Yes, I see now. So what do we do now?"

Phil pointed at her trunk. "I'm assuming you don't have two spares in there."

She shook her head.

"Okay. Let me call my mechanic, Elmer. I'll get him to bring two new tires over from his place, and he'll put them on here."

"How far away is he?"

"Oh, his shop is just a few miles up the road. If he was further, I'd recommend towing your car. But he's pretty quick and always handy." Phil dialed a number and waited. He winked at Kathryn.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Kathryn almost planted a whopper of a kiss on Phil's face. Of course, that wouldn't have been a ladylike thing to do. Unless she played the part of the damsel in distress. She giggled. She was losing her tough woman image, and it didn't bother her at all.

Phil raised his eyebrows, obviously wondering what she was laughing at. "Hey, Elmer? This is Phil. Yeah, I've got a friend's car over here on 24. She's got two sliced tires. Can you bring some replacements out here and put them on for us?" Phil waited, then knelt down beside the back left tire. "Yeah, they're P215/60R16. Thanks, man." Phil hit the end button and leaned back onto the back quarter panel. "Elmer will be here in a bit."

Kathryn leaned against the car beside Phil and circled her elbows with her fingers. "Did he say how much they'd cost?"

"No, but probably a hundred per tire."

"Ugh! This little trip is starting to eat away at my savings."

"You need me to cover you?"

"No, thanks. I've got it. I just hate spending money I don't have to spend."

Phil bent over and looked between his legs at the busted tire. "Looks like this is one of those times you have to spend money."

"You're funny. Truly funny." She smacked his arm.

“You can turn it in on your insurance depending on what your deductible is.”

“I suppose. I guess we could sit in the car in the air conditioning."

"If you want. Or we could just stand out here in the breeze with the armadillo and chat."

Kathryn laughed. "This isn't a breeze. This is a burst of hot air."

"Then into the car we go."

“Would you mind terribly if we sat in your car? I want a working mode of transportation in case we need to escape without much notice.” She chewed on her forefinger.

“Absolutely. This way, ma’am.” Phil escorted her to his SUV, opened the passenger side door for her, and shut it behind her.

Kathryn inspected the inside of the vehicle. Clean. Detailed. Not a gum wrapper in sight. No surprise. Although, he'd said his vehicle was worse than hers. He'd probably made it sound as if he was messy in order to make her feel better about herself. How sweet.
After Phil slid into the car, he cranked it and turned down the radio then pointed the air vents toward her.

"Okay, so tell me about your cousins and how they plan to convince me not to prosecute your uncle—even though I'm actually not prosecuting him anymore."

"What do you want to know?"

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, securing it with a brown hairband she'd had on her wrist. "What do they look like? How dangerous are they really? How do I get away from them permanently and not have to worry about joining you in the Witness Protection Program?"

Phil chuckled. "They can both be dangerous, but not in a deadly kind of way. They're the ones who know how to break a leg or cut off a thumb. They do the ground-level dirty work."

"Oh, that's comforting." Kathryn widened her eyes and shook her head at Phil. “You may be wrong about them though because remember they were arrested in Perkins County after the shootings along with your uncle? At least one of them has to be the shooter. That doesn’t sound too harmless to me.”

"True. I’m sure if Louie asked them to do it, they would have. They’ll do anything to remain on the payroll. Now you see why I had to get out?”

She nodded.

“As far as the Witness Protection Program goes, I wouldn't mind going into it if you could be by my side."

Kathryn nudged him with her elbow. "How sweet."

"Seriously. I could think of worse things than having to start over with a new name and occupation with someone like you beside me. If nothing else, it’s better than going it alone."

Kathryn peered at him out of the corner of her eye, heat crawling up her spine. The tight cockpit of the SUV made it impossible for her to resist Phil's charm. What was happening to her tough shell? "You're slick."

"Slick? I'm being serious, Kathryn. I like you."

She faced him. Boy, he was close. "I—I like you too.”

“I mean I really like you. As in I think it would be incredible to get to know you better.”

“Well, I kinda think it would be amazing to get to know you better too, although it seems weird to say that to someone I didn’t know three days ago. You think it has anything to do with the fact that it's virtually impossible for us to be anything more than acquaintances?"

"It's not impossible for us to be more than acquaintances, and if it were, that wouldn’t be why I like you. I have nothing to prove to anyone. I don’t need to be rebellious and throw my efforts into something or someone that’s taboo. I like you because you're intriguing, sweet, funny, and…and quite lovely." Phil drummed his knees with his fingers.

"Okay, well, I don’t have anything to prove to anyone either when it comes to my dating life. If I did, I would have already either made a move on you to prove that I could have any kind of guy I wanted, or I would have run away from you in an effort to impress whoever it is I was trying to impress."

“Because I’m that bad?”

“No, you goof. Because if I was trying to impress someone, you’d be at the bottom of the list of eligible candidates given our current situation.”

“True. So why do you hang around with me?”

“Let’s see.” Her face and neck burned, and it wasn't from sitting in the car with the sun beating down on the windshield. She counted off the reasons on her fingers. "Although it seems like the two of us together breeds trouble, I’m apparently safer with you than without you.”

“And?”

“You wrangle sharks.”

He rolled his eyes. “And?”

“You’ve got a boat.”

He laughed. “And?”

She smiled. “You’re kind and interesting and…I think you’re easy on the eyes. But you are a little irritating because you didn't tell me what your cousins look like. I think one of them came up to the car right before you got here."

Phil jumped in his seat and grabbed the steering wheel. "What? What did he look like?"

Kathryn shivered at the memory. "A scraggly-looking man with a beard. Piercing blue eyes. Drove a wrecker. Wore overalls."

Phil slung his head back onto the headrest and erupted with laughter. "You obviously know nothing about Italians. Especially ones born and bred in New York."

She punched him in the arm. "You're laughing at me. Again!"

"Sorry." He laughed into his hands.

"So what you're saying is they don't look like country folks from Georgia? They look more like the mafia guys in movies?"

"Something like that. Maybe not quite so stereotypical. But close." Phil scratched the back of his neck. "You would've known if one of them had approached you."

“How?”

“Because we probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now.” He pointed beyond the windshield. "There's Elmer now."

"That—that's Elmer?" Kathryn giggled and covered her face with her hands. "That's who I thought was your cousin."

"Nope. He's my buddy. He usually goes fishing with me. I figured that's who you were talking about when you described the man who approached you." Phil opened the car door and joined Elmer as he stepped down out of the wrecker, reaching his hand out to Phil.

Now that she had a better look at the man, it was clear that Elmer was the same man from the pier who congratulated Phil on his big catch. Kathryn was a poor judge of character by nature and too often critical and judging of innocent people. Sometimes she even had them convicted in her mind before the evidence had been fully disclosed. To be fair to herself, this critical attitude came with the job. She needed to learn how to be more discerning in the future. At least Elmer was one more advocate in Cedar Key. Kathryn needed all of them she could get.

She stepped down out of the SUV and introduced herself to Elmer. The sooner he could get her tires changed, the sooner she could see where the rest of this day would go.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to take pictures of this evidence before you start working." Kathryn whipped her phone out of her pocket and pulled up the camera app.

"Sure thing, ma'am." Elmer pulled his jack from the back of his wrecker.

"And would you be able to keep the tires in your possession in case we need them for evidence later?"

"Anything for a friend of Tag's."

Tag? That was Phil's nickname? Not too shabby.

#

After Elmer changed Kathryn's tires and took her debit card information, he shook their hands, tipped his cap, and drove away.

Kathryn swiveled toward Phil, her hands cupped in front of her. "Thanks again for coming to my rescue."

He nodded. "My pleasure. Do you want to file a police report?"

"Against a mystery man? No thanks. I don't need to draw more attention to myself than I already have."

He shrugged. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure. Would you want to go with me to follow up on this lead?" She raised her shoulders up to her ears and grinned like a child asking for one more hour of reading time before bed. Phil looked at his watch, and Kathryn's heart plummeted. He'd already helped her more than she could ever repay him. She shouldn't have asked him to go with her. He obviously had other things to do.

"Where is it?"

"Somewhere in Chiefland. Off Highway 19. I'm not staying long because of Sadie. But I called and asked if I could come interview this man."

"You were going to go alone?"

Kathryn twisted up her mouth and nodded. "I know, not the smartest thing I've done today."

"You said it. Not me." Phil tossed his keys in the air. "I'll follow you."

A light drizzle landed on Kathryn's windshield and thunder rumbled in the distance as she pulled back onto Highway 24. She looked around her visor at the darkening sky then switched on the wipers. "If ever I need it not to rain, it's now." Mr. Ballew was waiting on her, and she needed a clear path in front of her to find his place in Chiefland. "GPS don't fail me now."

Kathryn turned on to County Road 345, and the GPS fired off directions to go six and a half miles and turn left onto Rocky Creek Road. Her destination would be on the left. She glanced back into her rearview mirror. Phil was right behind her. The lightning charge that had been running through her before Phil had come to her rescue was as dormant now as winter’s trees.

She'd never been a part of a team, except a few times in law school. Even her staff seemed to exclude her most of the time. But Phil was there to help her, and he didn't care if he benefited or was harmed. That made Kathryn want to laugh or dance or go bungee jumping. Somehow, some way she'd express her joy when this was all over.

The rain disappeared as quickly as it had come. Within fifteen minutes, Kathryn pulled up to the old white farmhouse, rows of corn in the field to the left, pecan trees in the field to the right. Two brown-and-black mutts ran out from under the rusty old tractor beside the red barn, and chickens scattered across the lawn. Phil pulled in behind Kathryn.