“Our extended interlude?”
“Yes.” She laughed, feeling Nick’s attention right through her clothes. “You look like you’ve been up for hours. I’m glad Jean went to bed early yesterday.”
“Me too.” He guided Rachel over to his notebook computer set up on the desk with his satellite uplink attached. “Fletcher Exports definitely ranks up there with Tanus. I can understand why they want to get their hands on the flash drives. I did some hacking around and found some interesting new hires on their payroll sheets. We may not be flying blind when we get to Sarasota.”
She looked over the pictures Nick had on the screen and gasped. She pointed to a husky, clean shaven man with dark hair. “That’s the guy I saw with Tanus, when they finished torturing Rick. He’s working for Fletcher now?”
“Yep. He’s among the hired-muscle I think would be waiting for us in Florida,” Nick answered, nuzzling her neck. “I guess it explains how Fletcher Exports all of a sudden knows the drives are in Florida. I’m surprised Tanus didn’t whack this Javier Martine before he had a chance to switch sides.”
Rachel moaned, her hands dropping to her sides, as she jutted back against him. Suddenly she spun around, grabbing his hands. “Nick, I want that Javier guy.”
“To play with or just do yourself?” he asked curiously.
“I…I don’t think I could torture him.”
“Good. One step at a time, Nikita. I believe you’ve earned it. Let’s see what part our Javier plays in Sarasota before you carry out the death sentence.” He pulled her right hand up to his lips, while he ran his fingertips up and down her arm until she shuddered.
“Huuuuummmmm…don’t do that. You know it drives me nuts,” Rachel complained, but moved into him instead of pulling away.
Nick lifted her up and into him, his hands supporting her bottom. Her legs wrapped around his hips and their open mouths met in tense anticipation. She groaned, feeling him poke into her through the flimsy nightgown. She reached down and tore it upwards toward her waist. She unfastened Nick’s shorts, never parting from his lips. A knock on the door startled them both as Nick had been on the verge of impaling Rachel.
“Hey, in there…Deke and me want to play Frisbee before breakfast,” Jean’s voice called out, followed by a short gruff bark from her sidekick.
“Oh my God!” Rachel whispered, panting for breath as she slid down away from Nick, her face flushed.
“We’ll be out in a minute, Danger,” Nick yelled back. “You and Scruffy the Wonder Dog go back to your room and we’ll be right there, okay?”
“Okay, Nick.”
“So, this is what married with children is all about.” Nick gave Rachel a quick kiss before turning away to get dressed.
Rachel seethed. “She has your timing.”
* * * *
“I like staying here, Nick,” Jean commented as they walked toward the restaurant at the Days Inn. “How long can we stay?”
“Maybe one more day,” he answered, exchanging glances with Rachel. “Deke really likes this place too. We still have a ways to go on this leg of our journey, kid. Tell you what, when we finish in Florida, we’ll head back to California this way. We’ll make a real sightseeing trip out of it with no more than a few hundred miles a day driving.”
“I’m flying back if we don’t stop at least three times in Kansas,” Rachel added.
“Three times it is, then,” he agreed. “I -”
He looked out at the parking lot, where three young men were walking along, checking out cars. Jean had wanted to stay late at the pool, because her three friends were there, so they were eating late. The parking lot security lights had come on as the sensors detected the approaching night. Rachel followed Nick’s line of sight toward the lighted parking lot.
“What’s wrong?”
“Those three gentlemen wandering around out in the parking lot are looking to boost a car,” Nick answered, stopping to watch them. “I’ll go put in a word at the office. I’m sure they have some security guys here. I don’t know what level of expertise they have, but I damn well don’t want the Escalade taken right under my nose.”
“This is Missouri, not New York, Nick. Are you sure they’re not simply checking out the different models?”
“I’m pretty sure.” He grinned over at Rachel.
“Why don’t you go get them, Nick?” Jean looked around Rachel at the parking lot. “Where’d they go?”
“Around the corner, looking for an easy one. I’m not Batman. I don’t want to draw any attention, so I think I’ll leave this up to the proper authorities. You two go on in the restaurant and order me up anything that looks good.”
“Don’t do anything that’ll put us on the road again tomorrow, Batman,” Rachel warned. “I need another day and night break after Kansas.”
“We won’t have anything to be on the road with if they get the Escalade, Nikita,” Nick pointed out with some exasperation. “It is one of the most stolen vehicles around.”
“You should have Lojack.” Rachel giggled at his reaction.
“That would fit right in with my secret identity. Get moving.”
He waited until Rachel and Jean entered the restaurant before jogging toward the office. The same desk clerk who had checked them in the night before was on duty. He smiled at Nick.
“Hello, Sir, may I help you?”
“I believe you have three young guys looking to steal a car in your parking lot. Right now, they’re looking for a quick one with the keys in the ignition. Do you have a security man on staff?”
“Yes, we do,” the clerk answered, picking up his phone. A few seconds later he engaged someone on the phone, and then hung up. “Our assistant manager handles security matters after six. She’ll be right out.”
“Okay, should I wait?” Nick wondered if the trio had reached the parking lot where his Cadillac was parked yet.
“Yes, Ms. Tobler will, ah, here she is, Sir.”
Nick turned around. He watched a brown-haired woman in her late thirties, dressed in a black skirt and light blue blouse approach. She had on black shoes, flat at the heel and was only a couple inches shorter than Nick. Her brown hair, cropped in short straight fashion, lent a lean hard look to the woman’s face. She stuck her hand out as she approached.
“Leslie Tobler, Mr…”
“Weatherby, Ms. Tobler, Roscoe Weatherby.” He shook her hand, appreciative of the solid grip. “I saw three young men out cruising your parking lot on foot. Two were about my height, light complexion, wearing jeans, white t-shirts, and ball caps. The third was a couple inches taller than me, dark complexioned, wearing jeans and a black parka. He had on a ball cap too.”
“Wearing a parka, in this heat… maybe you’re on to something, Mr. Weatherby. Would you walk with me and identify these three men?”
“Ah, do you have a weapon, Ms. Tobler? The guy with the parka’s probably packing something lethal, and the other -”
“Why don’t we have a look first, Sir?” Tobler smiled reassuringly at him. “I have my cell-phone with the Concordia police on speed dial. If the three look suspicious, I’ll call it in while we keep an eye on them.”
“Sounds good. They were on their way around the building to our left.”
“Fine,” Tobler acknowledged, setting a brisk pace toward the entryway. “Where do you hail from, Mr. Weatherby?”
“Nevada, Ma’am.”
“Leslie, please,” Tobler urged with a slight English accent, veering to the left as they cleared the entryway. “Anywhere near the Las Vegas area?”
“Yes, we have a house there,” Nick answered, not liking where the questions were going.
“Have you heard about the bodies they’ve discovered in the desert? It was on all the newscasts.”
“No, we’ve been taking in the sights on the way, trying to keep clear of the news.”
“I know what you mean.” Tobler glanced over at Nick’s bearded countenance. “I guess they still lose a few bodies out in th
e Las Vegas desert even now.”
“They sure do.” Too bad the damned discovery wasn’t a couple months away though. This may play hell with my stay another day plan.
“There’s one of them.” Nick pointed to a t-shirted man looking into car windows in a line of parked cars. “His two friends are down the way, working back towards him.”
“I see them.” Tobler sighed, taking out her phone. She pushed a button and waited. “This is Leslie Tobler, assistant manager at the Day’s Inn on Third Street. We have three men casing our parking lot and… Yes, that’s right. Okay then. Fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes?” Nick repeated with some concern, seeing the taller one of the three glance their way. Maybe they’ll abort the heist.
Instead the man walked toward them, exaggerating his already affected glide. Nick watched parka man’s hands as he approached, with his two buddies falling in behind him.
“What you lookin’ at?” Parka man asked Nick.
“I’m Leslie Tobler, head of security at Day’s Inn,” Tobler broke in with confident tone. “Do you have a room here, Sir?”
“It’s a free country, cuz,” parka man retorted. “We just checkin’ out the rides, Mrs. No need to go Dick Tracy on us.”
“The police will be here shortly,” Tobler continued. “I would advise -”
“What?” Parka man backed off a step, reaching into the pocket of his jacket. “I’ll show you shortly -”
Nick dropped and leg-whipped parka man off his feet, spinning to trap his adversary’s hand in the jacket pocket. Tobler had calmly stepped back and sprayed parka man’s companions from a keychain pepper spray can she had in hand. They stumbled back in agony, but Tobler pressed the attack, spraying until the two dropped to the ground gagging and yelling. Nick flipped the gasping parka man to his stomach, crossing the man’s arms behind his back, rendering him immobile. He held him there while patting the parka pocket.
“Are you all right, Mr. Weatherby?” Tobler kept her eyes on the two she had sprayed.
“I’m fine. This one’s armed. Feels like a 9mm.”
“I’m very sorry about that,” Tobler apologized. “I assumed incorrectly they would run away and avoid a showdown with the police. I -”
Tobler paused, leaning toward the two on the ground, who were beginning to crawl away. “Stay right where you are or I give you another dose right in your eyes!”
The two immediately stopped crawling. They wiped at their mucous covered faces with the t-shirts they had on, while grunting out strained pleas not to spray. Tobler reached toward parka man’s pocket, but paused when she saw Nick shake his head.
“I’d advise allowing the police to find the gun on him, Leslie. I’ll hold him still until they get here.”
“Quite right, Mr. Weatherby.” Tobler took her position again in front of the other two. “I greatly appreciate your help. Perhaps I could comp your room.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. I’m glad it’s worked out so far. Would -”
“You…you dead!” Parka man regained his voice. “You and your bitch! I’ll -”
Tobler leaned around Nick, and shot off a small dose right into parka man’s eyes. It was all the grinning Nick could do to keep from being bucked off by the writhing man under him. Parka man began vomiting. Nick pulled him slightly back away from it as the man continued to gag.
“I very much dislike being called that name,” Tobler explained, as people were gathering. Approaching sirens wailed in the distance.
* * * *
A tense Rachel, holding Jean’s hand, approached Nick, looking stricken. Nick shook his head in the negative slightly. Rachel pulled Jean away into the forming crowd. Jean was smiling.
“Batman strikes again, Mom,” Jean whispered.
“It looks like he had a little help from the Huntress,” Rachel whispered back. “Oh boy, I bet this means we’re on the road again tomorrow.”
* * * *
“Hey, I heard you come in.” Nick walked from the bathroom, drying his hair. “What’s Danger up to? Did she go to bed already?”
Rachel looked away from the screen of Nick’s notebook computer. “I rented her the latest Harry Potter movie. She and Deke are propped up in bed watching it. I see you’ve really collected a lot of information on Tanus and Fletcher employees.”
“It will make our Sarasota adventure less exciting if we can spot some of the players near the bank. My software program didn’t register a break in Tanus’s firewall until just before my shower. The names and faces you have on the screen are the latest.” He threw the towel aside.
Rachel put her arm around Nick’s waist as he stood alongside her chair. He had put on black boxer shorts before coming out of the bathroom. She kissed his side, leaning into him for a moment. “Leslie was pretty good with the cops. They hardly asked you anything.”
“She put them right on the defensive, then steered her way into the middle of their investigation. I made a simple statement, backing up her version, and she made them leave me alone. Leslie had all the right questions for them, too, about whether the police had priors on the young men, or if they fit car theft profiles in the area. She called hotel managers she knew and confirmed those clowns had been spotted before, after robberies at other hotels.
“I have your meal on warm in the microwave.”
“Bless you.” He pulled her up from the chair. “I’ll eat, check on Danger, walk the wooly mammoth, and then see if I can entertain you for a few hours.”
“Wow, aren’t you ambitious? Sit down, and I’ll bring the food and drink. You must feel a lot better after your shower.”
She brought out the carton with Nick’s order from the restaurant and set it down in front of him on the table near his notebook computer. She retrieved napkins and their drinks before sitting down with him. Lips parted slightly, she watched him eat the food in his black boxer shorts. Nick noticed her appraisal.
“I’m underdressed for dinner, huh?”
“Overdressed.” Rachel ran her hand along his thigh. “How’s your meal?”
“Other than having it with plastic utensils, it’s great.”
“Are we leaving tomorrow?”
“I’d like to stay,” he answered between mouthfuls of his hot turkey sandwich. “They found the van in Las Vegas. Leslie asked me about whether I’d heard the news when I told her we had a house in the Las Vegas area.”
“They’ll never pull your name out of that hat, Nick,” she kidded him.
“The quickest way to get into trouble is to start assuming facts not in evidence. I’m thinking we need to stay another day because we don’t want the cops around here getting suspicious of us fleeing the area after my run in with the locals tonight. They have our information on the register, including the Escalade’s license plate.”
“So, we stay.”
“We’ll play it by ear tomorrow and see how it goes.”
“Hey Nick, I’ve wanted to ask you something about your writing. How did you ever get your assassin stuff published?”
He leaned back with Rachel’s hand in his. “What makes you ask?”
“I’ve always heard it’s hard as hell to get published.”
“It took me three years for an agent to get beyond the first paragraph. A writer has to send out a query first with what they call a hook. If an agent or publisher likes your hook, they ask to see more. I had some requests for partials, but nothing panned out until near the end of my third year trying.”
“What did you do besides kill people while you waited?” she needled him.
“I wrote more books. By the time my first manuscript was picked up, by a publisher instead of an agent, I had four more books in the series done. Editing took up most of the two years after I hit the best seller list for my first book.”
“You must have had a lot of rejections in three years.”
“Quite a few,” he admitted.
“Did you ever want to shoot them?”
“Very funny.
” He stood up. “Want another one?”
“Sure.” Rachel handed Nick her empty can. “Did you ever get discouraged, or think about giving up on the idea of writing?”
“Nope. Writing gave me an outlet. It was pure enjoyment. I had a woman editor during the second year say she liked the idea, but the writing needed work. Usually you only get a form letter rejection. She sent an attachment with what she claimed were suggestions. I opened up the attachment in her e-mail, thinking it would be a critique pertaining to my manuscript. Instead, it was a list of basic things not to do while writing a novel.”
“So, you hunted her down, right?”
“You are so out of line.” He returned with their drinks, chuckling at Rachel’s banter. “No, I didn’t hunt her down. It was cute. At least it wasn’t another form letter.”
“The editor insulted you,” she argued, feigning rage. “How dare she insinuate the only thing good in your manuscript was the idea. Let’s go get her now.”
“Right, Nikita, we don’t have enough people to kill as it is. We need to start hunting down agents and editors from my past that sent me rejection notes. I don’t think so. I have a better idea. Let’s go watch the end of Harry Potter, play some Frisbee, put Danger and her sidekick to bed, then come back here. You can lecture me some more on how to handle rejection.”
“I’m thinking you probably won’t be getting anymore rejections.” Rachel shifted over into Nick’s lap.
Chapter Seventeen
Sarasota
“Uh oh, here comes the Huntress.” Rachel avoided looking directly at Leslie Tobler as she approached their table.
Nick nodded, winking at Jean, who smiled back. They had decided on an early breakfast in case there were any developing complications.
“Good morning, Mr. Weatherby.” Tobler smiled at Rachel and Jean. “You’re not leaving us soon, are you?”
“Good morning, Leslie, this is -”
“Jane Austen and her daughter Jean,” Tobler finished for Nick, holding out a hand to Rachel. “The Jane Austen?”
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