by Elle Casey
I’m so relieved I feel dizzy. I half-expected him to look at me like I was crazy, or try to convince me to calm down. But he’s standing up and abandoning a meeting with the FBI just because I said the word popcorn. I want to cry with happiness.
Everybody looks down at the car seat, where Baby Tee is sound asleep. Poor little guy, taking the fall for our escape plan with a poopy diaper—a tiny superhero in his own right.
I join Thibault, pushing my chair out. “I know.” I wave my hand in front of my face, really trying to sell them on the stinky diaper plan. “Phew! I thought I was the only one who smelled it. I’m so sorry.” I look up at Thibault. “I don’t want to spoil everybody’s breakfast. Can you help me? You know I’m terrible at the diaper-changing thing, still.” I look at the agents, trying to seem like an airhead. “I’m a new mom. I still don’t know what I’m doing.” Hopefully they can’t do the math and realize I’ve already changed about fifty of the damn things.
Thibault gestures toward the bathrooms. “After you.”
“You grab the diaper bag, and I’ll get the baby,” I say.
Thibault gives Ozzie and Jenny a quick lift of his chin. “I’ll be right back. Don’t talk about anything important while we’re gone, okay?”
“Nothing important,” Ozzie says. “We got it.” He nods at Jenny and she nods back. He’s way cooler about it than she is. I’m no Bourbon Street Boy, but I’m pretty sure they just passed a code between them.
We go toward the bathroom as casually as we can. I glance over my shoulder a few times, and up until the moment we get to the ladies’ room door, Vanderwahl and Booker are watching us, but then Jenny knocks over her glass of juice, throwing the liquid across the table.
Everyone jumps up to avoid getting splashed, and Thibault nudges me toward the kitchen door during the confusion. I run inside without questioning him. He follows behind and looks through the little portal window as the door is shutting.
“Did they see?” I ask.
“Nobody saw a thing; they’re still mopping up juice, and now the waitress is in the way of anyone watching the doors.”
“What are we doing?” I ask as he hustles me to the back door, past two bored-looking cooks and several racks of pots and pans.
“We’re leaving. You wanted to leave, right?”
“Hell, yes. They know Sonia. Booker almost said her name. There’s something going on. Maybe they’re not agents. Maybe they’re moles. Maybe they’re on Pavel’s payroll. Maybe Sonia is double-crossing someone. I don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t trust them.”
We get to the back door and I stop, putting my hand on his arm. “You trust me.” I want to cry with the knowledge, with the emotions rushing through me.
“Of course I do.”
“You just got up and did what I asked without questioning me.” I can’t believe this is real.
“That’s what we do when we trust each other, right?”
I grab him into a one-armed hug. “Thank you.”
He pats me on the back and then steps sideways to open the door. “We can talk more about it when we’re out of here. Just get to the car as fast as you can. I’m right behind you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
We’re not going back to the motel?” I ask.
“No,” Thibault says, driving out onto the highway going in the opposite direction I expected him to. “The FBI has way too many resources to risk it, and on the off chance that one of those agents is dirty, I’d rather be inconvenienced than killed.” He reaches over to the far side of the dashboard and flicks a switch.
“What was that for?”
“I just disabled the navigation system in my car so it can’t be used against us by someone really good with computers. The blocker doesn’t come standard with these cars, but we’ve customized ours quite a bit.”
“Oh. Where are we going now?” I look back to check on Tee. He’s sound asleep.
“We’re going to find another hotel and settle in. Toni can hook us up with a credit card.” He glances over at me. “Don’t worry. We’ve got this.”
I half-smile. “I can’t believe we just ran out of there.”
“Me neither.”
“I swear he was going to say the name Sonia. That’s my other roommate. The one who doesn’t like me, who dates Pavel. But why would they be talking to her? And if they are, why would she sell me out?”
“I have no idea. And maybe he wasn’t going to say Sonia. Maybe he was going to say Sonny or Sony television.”
I laugh. “Are you serious?”
He smiles weakly. “No, not really. But it doesn’t matter. You weren’t comfortable, and they weren’t exactly being respectful, so that’s it. We can try again another time if you want.”
“Do you think they’re working together?” I ask. I can’t just let it go like he wants me to. It’s bugging me that her name came up when we were talking about Alexei.
He shrugs as we drive along a secondary road not as convenient as the highway but probably less likely to be used by federal agents. “It’s hard to say. It could have just been an innocent comment. Maybe their supervisor is named Sonia. Or maybe they were talking about somebody else with a similar name. It doesn’t matter; I’d rather be safe than sorry, and I trust your instincts. I trust you.”
We share a smile. It feels like I just passed a milemarker in my life at the same time we’re passing them on the road.
“Me, too. And I trust you too. Completely.”
He reaches back, and we hold hands for a few seconds.
His phone rings, so he lets go of me to answer it. “It’s Ozzie.” He presses the green button and puts it to his ear. “Hey there. Sorry we had to take off.”
Ozzie says something I can’t hear now. The sound of the road on the tires is too loud, and the baby starts to fuss. I occupy myself with calming Tee down while listening in on Thibault’s half of the conversation. “No, not cold feet. One of those guys said something about Sonia, maybe. He only got half the name out. That spooked her. Sonia is the name of her roommate—a girlfriend or former girlfriend of Pavel’s. If she’s involved in their investigation somehow, it can’t possibly be good for Mika . . . We’re going to find someplace to lie low.”
He hangs up the phone and looks at me in the mirror. “Ozzie’s cool. He understands.”
“What are they going to do?”
“They’re going to talk to the team and come up with a plan B.”
Ten minutes go by before I can get Tee to go back to sleep and focus on Thibault again.
“You know, I don’t mind talking to the FBI, as long as I know it’s not somebody working with Pavel’s group.”
“I get it, I really do.” He reaches back and pats my leg. “We’ll figure this out. My team is good.”
“I can’t believe Jenny already found Alexei or somebody using his account. She’s really good, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is.”
“They’re not mad we took off?”
“That’s what we do, we back each other up. Always. And of course they’re not mad. Why would they be? They trust me and I trust you. Shit happens. You can’t be good at security if don’t know how to roll with the punches.”
The baby starts fussing again. “His cheeks look really pink to me. Do they look pink to you?”
He adjusts the rearview mirror to look at him. “I can’t see his face with the car seat facing the back.”
I place my hand on Tee’s forehead. “He feels warm to me. I think he has a fever.”
“Great, just what we needed,” he says, hissing out a breath and shaking his head.
“Don’t be mad.” I feel terrible. I’ve been nothing but a burden to him since the moment our paths crossed.
Thibault looks at me in the mirror. “I’m not mad. I’m just worried about him. And I’m worried about you too.”
I put my hand on his shoulder, appreciating the fact that he cares. “I’m really glad you’re with me. I’m sad that I brought you into this
, but I’m happy to not be alone anymore.”
“You don’t need to be sad about anything. I’m here voluntarily.”
“I hope you don’t live to regret it.”
“The only thing I’d live to regret is walking away from you and Tee. That would be the biggest mistake of my life, I’m sure of it.”
I don’t say anything else. I’m too choked up over his dedication to me and my child—who I’m pretty sure is sick. And Thibault was right . . . I didn’t fill out Tee’s birth certificate, and I have no proof he’s mine. How will we find a doctor to take care of him? What if social services gets called and they take him away from me? Pavel will come and then everything will be lost.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
An hour later, after taking several side roads and rural routes, we find a run-down little hotel that accepts cash. Thibault calls Ozzie as soon as we’re settled into the room. I try to feed the baby, but he’s not having it. He’s very upset and he’s burning up.
“I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, because I think I’ve brought my fair share lately, but the baby is sick,” Thibault says over his phone. “We need to find a doctor who makes house calls.”
He pauses.
“I know. Tell me about it.”
Ozzie says something I can’t hear.
“I don’t know. He’s got a fever and he’s real fussy.”
Thibault paces on his bad leg, limping from the bathroom to the front door.
“I know. And on top of that, Mika hasn’t filled out a birth certificate on the baby yet, so if there’s any kind of problem at all, she has no proof whatsoever that he’s hers until somebody runs a DNA test. It could turn into a real nightmare.” He pauses. “Is there any chance that your friend Teddy is available? Your old wingman?” Thibault looks out the window. “We’re out here in the middle of nowhere. I’m sure I could find a field somewhere. We could come to him.”
Thibault nods at whatever Ozzie says. “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
I’m too worried about the baby to question anything being said or planned. But I trust that Thibault is going to take care of us, so I focus on trying to get Tee to eat while Thibault manages things in the background.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
You want me to what?” I ask, upon hearing his plan.
Thibault laughs. “You’re looking at me like I just sprouted a second head and asked you to run away and join the circus with me.” He pauses and takes me by the hands. “It’s the only way. That Motrin isn’t working.” We both glance down at the baby in my arms. His face is bright red and his eyes are swollen from crying. Cold rags on his forehead aren’t doing a damn thing, either. “We’ve got to get to the doctor fast, and if we drive, it’s going to take hours. You know we can’t just walk into the hospital. It’s too risky. We have to go see our guy. He’ll take care of Tee and get him all fixed up in no time.”
“Yeah, but . . .”
“Do you trust me?” He drops the smile and waits for my answer.
I glare at him. “No fair playing dirty.”
“Hey, it’s just a question. Do you trust me or not?”
I whine. “Yes, I trust you . . . But a helicopter?”
“It’s really easy. We just drive out a little ways until we find an empty field, send Ozzie and Teddy the GPS coordinates, and they’ll be there in a half hour. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.”
“Who’s Teddy?”
“Teddy’s the pilot. He’s great. You’ll love him when you meet him. He served in the military with Ozzie overseas. He’s the best.”
“Yeah, but then you’re gonna want me to get in the helicopter. That’s the part I’m having a problem with . . . Easy peasy, I get queasy.”
“You’ve never been in a helicopter before?”
“I’ve never even been on an airplane before, and those have, like, really big seating areas in them and really big wings and lots of gas and engines and stuff . . .”
“So you’re worried about it crashing? Is that the problem?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that what everybody’s worried about when they get in something that flies?”
“I guess. But this isn’t going to crash.”
“Because you can guarantee that. You just know. It’s a fact in your world.” I look at him like he’s crazy, because he obviously is.
“Yes. I can guarantee it. Because even if the engine goes out, the propellers are still going to turn and the pilot can do a nice controlled landing.”
“You’re nuts.”
He puts his arms around me and pulls me and Tee into him, touching his forehead to mine. “I am nuts. You make me nuts. Now would you please, for once in your life, just listen to me and do what I say without arguing?”
“That’s probably never going to happen.”
He kisses me gently on the lips. “I know. But you need to get on that helicopter.”
“Fine,” I say, sighing. “But if it crashes, I’m going to haunt you and my baby’s going to haunt you too.”
“Okay. I accept your terms.” He pulls away from me to take his cell out of his pocket. “It’s a go,” he says. No hello or anything else. He hangs up the phone and slides it into his pocket.
“Ozzie’s a man of few words, isn’t he?”
“You could say that.”
“You’re different when you’re around him than when you’re around me.”
“I sure hope so.” He holds both sides of my face and kisses me again.
“What do you mean by that?” I gaze up at him.
“Because Ozzie’s my friend, not the woman I care about in a romantic way, so of course I’m going to act differently when I’m with him than when I’m with you.”
I want to talk more about this liking me “in a romantic way” thing, but the baby is fussing again, so I start pacing the room, trying to get him to latch on. He begins to and then pulls away, crying. It’s stressing me out worse than anything I’ve ever felt before. “He’s not doing well. He’s not even eating now.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve got this.” Thibault checks his watch. “We need to go find ourselves a field so they know where to pick us up.”
I wander toward the door, all my attention on the baby. “I’m going to trust you on this one.”
He grabs the diaper bag and his duffel and limps to the door. His crutches are waiting for him at the entrance. He grabs them too, using them after he slings both bags over his shoulders.
“Stay right here and let me make sure everything’s okay.” He opens the door and sticks his head out. Then he pops it back in and smiles. “Nothing out here but cicadas and dust.”
I follow him quickly to the SUV and get in the back with Tee. We drive until Thibault finds a field that he deems suitable—big enough to host the landing of a small helicopter. He sends a text to Ozzie with the GPS coordinates.
“What do we do now?” I look at the dirt field all around us. I’m sad. Scared. Worried that everything I’ve put us through is going to amount to nothing when Pavel finds me and takes Tee away. What if there’s something seriously wrong with Tee? What if this doctor can’t fix it?
“We wait. And hope that nobody’s tapped into Ozzie’s phone.” He drags his duffel bag over and pulls out his holster and gun, strapping them onto his body.
Seeing him with the weapon really brings things home. “You’re starting to scare me.”
He looks at me over the front seat. “Don’t be scared. I’m here and I’m one of the good guys.”
I try to smile. “It’s probably naïve of me, but that does make me feel better.”
He smiles back at me. “Not naïve. Hopeful.”
“Yeah. You make me hopeful.”
“Ditto.” He turns to watch through the windshield for the approach of a tiny black speck on the horizon. I stare at his profile, wondering how I got so lucky to make that wrong turn.
CHAPTER FORTY
The helicopter ride is nothing to Thibault, but it’s a huge freak-out momen
t for me. The round windows give me too much of a view and make me think we’re suspended over the earth by a string. Everything is buzzing by way too fast—buildings, farms, tractors, animals, cars . . . It’s like watching a movie in fast-forward, and I’m worried about the ending. Will we crash? Will we die in a fiery inferno?
I don’t die, but the landing is the worst part. I glare at Thibault as we make our way across the big, mostly empty hangar after it’s over. “I am never, ever going to do that again. Do you hear me? You told me that when the engine cuts off, they do a nice, smooth landing.”
Thibault is trying not to smile. “The engine didn’t cut off. It was running just fine.”
“If I hadn’t had my seat belt on, I would’ve been thrown right out of the thing onto the tarmac.”
“But you did have your seat belt on.”
I refuse to argue with him about it anymore, but he’d better have another way for me to get wherever we’re going, because I am not getting back in that machine. The pilot looks like a crazy person with a big, scraggly beard. His hat is made out of animal fur with the tail and legs still attached. It looks like a raccoon is taking a nap on his head.
Ozzie is waiting in the darkness of the hangar, and there’s a guy wearing a golf shirt standing next to him.
“That’s Dr. Rainer,” Thibault says quietly as we approach. “He’s a pediatrician. He’s seen Melanie and Victor before at Toni’s place.”
“A doctor who makes house calls? How did you manage that?”
“Ozzie has connections.”
They’re ready for me and the baby in the manager’s office. It’s not the cleanest place in the world, but the visit is quick.
“He has an ear infection,” the doctor says, putting his equipment into a black leather bag. “This is completely normal in babies of this age. He’s going to cry a lot, along with having a fever. He’ll need antibiotics to kill the bug and more Motrin to bring the fever down. I brought several things with me just in case.” He looks up at me. “Do you know if he has any allergies?”