Ransom River
Page 34
Now Lucky was broken, and fumbling to regain his honor. Rory hoped Seth would find a way to help him do that.
“Last chance,” Seth said. “You sure you don’t want new IDs for you and Addie?”
“I’m sure of nothing. Except that I need to learn how to feed a growing girl. But no, thanks.”
Silence scraped between them. A big rig rolled past on the highway, headed north for Reno or Montana. The sun cast shadows across Seth’s face.
“I thought you were dead,” she said.
“I thought you were dead,” he said.
Rory’s phone buzzed. She didn’t answer immediately. It was a repeated text message, one that came every day about this time. It buzzed again.
“Yet we’re both alive. So what about us?” she said.
“You’re running.”
“But not away. And not alone.”
The wind lifted her hair from her neck. She held out her hand.
He took it. And his smile didn’t look like a dare, but like light pouring out. He pulled her in and held her. She hung on, tight.
When her phone buzzed yet again, she took it from her pocket. No caller ID. Despite the fact that she’d changed her phone number once already, the texts kept coming, from seemingly random cell phone numbers. The words were same as before.
I’ll find you.
She deleted it. She thought: No you won’t, Riss.
Seth said, “How far you think you’ll get today?”
“Maybe Lone Pine.”
“I’ll follow.”
She smiled. “That’ll be a first.”
She got in the car and pulled out. She looked, one time, in the rearview mirror. Seth’s truck was a hundred yards back. She put her hand out the window, held it up to the wind, and felt the morning air flow through her fingers. In the mirror she saw him do the same.
Welcome home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, I want to thank my wonderful agents, Deborah Schneider and Sheila Crowley, for their support and expertise. I also want to thank everyone at Dutton, especially Brian Tart, Ben Sevier, Jessica Horvath, and Jamie McDonald, along with Kara Welsh, Claire Zion, and Jhanteigh Kupihea at NAL. I’m lucky to work with such great teams. My gratitude also goes to my first readers: Mary Albanese, Adrienne Dines, Kelly Gerrard, Susan Graunke, Tammye Huf, and David Wolfe. My friends Ann Aubrey Hanson and Nancy Freund Fraser deserve special mention for holding my feet to the fire and forcing me to think, hard, about the story I was about to write. And, as ever, to my husband, Paul Shreve: I couldn’t do it without you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meg Gardiner is the author of four Jo Beckett thrillers, as well as five novels in the Evan Delaney series, including the Edgar award–winning China Lake. Originally from Santa Barbara, California, she now lives in London.