They needed to act fast. Jake looked into Cassie's terrified eyes and gave her a silent plea to stay quiet. The two of them sprinted through the kitchen to an office at the far end of the hall in the back of the house.
“Don’t turn on the light. Don’t touch any of the light switches. Even the smallest spark could blow the house up.”
Jake felt his way along the top of the window and unlocked it slowly. The window opened with a rush of much needed fresh air. He pushed the screen out with one quick movement.
“Climb out and I’ll ease you down to the ground. Then I’ll jump out,” he said.
Jake filled his lungs with fresh air as he lowered Cassie to the ground.
“Hurry, Jake!” Cassie said.
Jake jumped to the ground and took Cassie by the hand. Just as he suspected, the light on this end of the house was dim. They could use that to their advantage.
“Quickly, into the woods.”
“Aren’t we going back down to the guard’s station?”
The heater in the basement kicked to life. Jake could hear the whine of the motor turn on and then shut off…and then turn on again.
“Run!”
Jake dragged Cassie behind him like his shadow. She kept up with every step without question, without the slightest drag. If he was wrong, they’d make it to the woods, turn around and wait for Agent Bellows and his crew to come up the driveway and check on the problem. But if he was right, they had mere seconds left until the whole safe house turned into a Fourth of July fireworks display gone bad.
Time dragged on at a turtle's stroll as they ran. The wood line was in sight. They needed to get as far away from the house as they possibly could, needed to clear the boulders lining the property, needed shelter. They raced over the boulders clinging to a prayer.
And then it happened in slow motion. White hot fire burst forward, bowling them over like a tidal wave crashing to shore, sending them tumbling down the slight pitch leading into the woods.
The heat was intense, singing his skin with its fury. His lungs felt as if they would explode.
When they stopped rolling, Jake forced himself to look back toward the path they'd just escaped from. It was gone. The whole house erupted into the sky like a mushroom explosion in a military testing field. Bright spitting fire burned angrily from what was left of the safe house, licking flames high into the sky as fiery wood and ash rained down all around them.
He hadn't landed near Cassie after the initial explosion. Frantically, he searched the brightly lit area for some sign of her. He was sure they’d both cleared the line of boulders before impact.
“Cassie?” he called out. He couldn’t hear anything. Not the fire, not the sounds of the night or even his own voice.
And then he saw her. Cassie was scrambling on her hands and knees. Somehow, within seconds, Jake managed to grab hold of her, pulling her to the base of a spruce tree with low-growing branches at the entrance to the woods. Flames sprayed like hellfire, hitting the intrepid spruce, which acted as their shield.
Jake held Cassie tight beneath his body, their chests locked together as he protected her from falling debris the hammered tree limbs couldn't hold back. They had to move before their meager shelter burst into a fireball.
He glanced down at Cassie’s face, saw the shadows of destruction and smelled the scent of burning pine needles and sizzling sap. His heart stopped beating when he pushed her hair from her face. Her long dark lashes fluttered open as she peered up at him.
“Seems to me we’ve done this before, Detective,” she said, her voice shaky.
Her face was streaked with ash, and she managed a weak smile. Jake couldn't fathom how she did it, but she did.
Rolling to his side, he said disbelieving, “We were almost just incinerated, and you can joke about it?”
“I have to,” she said on a choked sob.
It was then Jake saw the tears well in Cassie’s eyes and knew she was in shock.
“If I don't, it'll take control of me, and I have to be in control. As horrible as this is, if I can't get up and say, 'Hey, I'm alive. Isn't that great?' I'll cry. And I don't want to cry anymore. I can't cry anymore, Jake.”
The full impact of what had just happened hadn't really hit yet. He was numb and would probably be like that for a while. But it would hit them both. And when it did, he wanted Cassie to be as far away from this safe house as he could possibly get her.
“Jake, that was no accident.”
“I know. It's not going to take the Gestapo more than a few minutes to race up this hill, Cassie. Pretty soon, this whole area will be swarming with Feds. We need to get out of here.”
“Jake, who did this? Who keeps doing this to me?” She kept gulping for air, and her bottom lip was trembling. Despite what Cassie had just said, she was going to cry, and she had every right to do it.
Later.
“Listen to me, Cassie. Are you hurt?” His voice was firm and commanding. He had to get through to her.
She shook her head stiffly. In a few hours, they'd both be feeling the effects of rolling down this hill and being blown back against the trees. He'd find some way to deal with it then.
But not now. Right now, they had to move.
“Who is doing this to me, Jake?”
“I don't know. We’ll figure that out later. Can you walk?”
She nodded quickly.
“Good. If you can walk, then you have to run. You have to run right now. Do you hear me, Cassie?”
“What about the car?”
“We’ll never get out of here with that car. Hopefully, no one will know for at least an hour or so that we weren't inside the house when it blew.”
Jake quickly tugged Cassie to her feet and pulled her through the woods as fast as he could, scraping past low branches and brush. They had to move fast. In the confusion that was sure to come, they just might be able to escape.
* * *
Cassie couldn't feel her feet anymore. They were frozen. The Smoky Mountain night air bit into her skin like a mosquito on a hot night. She could no longer feel the branches that were tearing into her skin as they ran. Somewhere deep in her mind she knew it had nothing to do with the outside temperature. It was just raw fear of knowing she was being hunted like an animal.
Jake held her hand and pulled her along. It was too easy to lose each other in the thick of the forest and the dark of the night, he'd said. In the beginning, she was right up with him, running alongside, forgetting that she couldn't feel her feet or the squeeze of his hand as he held hers. After an hour or two—she wasn’t sure how long the minutes or hours dragged along—she was now lagging behind.
“Shouldn't we try…to make it…to the road?” she asked, her words coming in short bursts.
Jake finally stopped moving and glanced back at her. It had stopped drizzling. The clouds had parted and a half moon had hung itself high above them at some point during the last hour. There was enough light poking through the bare tree limbs for Cassie to see Jake’s face, see the hard lines of worry as well as the primal instinct of survival.
“We’re safer hidden in the woods.”
“We don't know where we're going.”
He glanced up at the moon, then turned his head toward the darkness ahead. “Listen for a second.”
She did as he asked. She’d finally regained her hearing, but all she could hear was her heart hammering against her chest and the crack of a twig beneath her sneakers. There were more distant noises. And owl maybe? She couldn't tell.
“There's the highway. I can't guess how far, but it sounds like it is coming—.” Jake abruptly stopped as he turned back to look at her. Cursing under his breath, he pulled off his jacket. “You're freezing. Why didn't you tell me?”
“I'm fine. I didn’t feel cold when we were running.”
“I should have noticed.”
He helped her into his leather coat and began rubbing up and down her arms. The movement stimulated her circulation.
> Her eyes fell to his empty holster.
“Jake, your gun is missing.”
He stopped rubbing her arms and snapped his attention to his holster, his hand folding over the empty pouch. He cursed again.
“The leather snap is completely broken off. It must have happened when we rolled down that hill after the explosion.”
“What are you going to do?”
“We can't go back for it now. Dammit!”
She pulled the leather jacket tighter and felt a chill shoot through her whole body.
“We have to keep moving,” he said. “We should reach the highway soon. We have a better chance of catching a ride without being detected, especially this time of the night. Tell me the truth. How are you holding up?”
Her legs ached and a scrape along her neck was starting to sting and throb. Cassie was thankful she really couldn't feel her feet. Now that she had a little taste of warmth again, all she could think about was dropping to the ground and falling asleep. Not a good sign.
“I'm good to go,” she said.
“That's my girl,” he said with a hint of a smile.
Less than an hour later, Cassie was standing by the side of the road watching a tractor trailer slow down to a stop.
She ran behind Jake as they made their way to passenger side door. Jake climbed up the rig and spoke to the driver through the window.
“We’re headed north. Are you going that way?” Jake asked. Cassie couldn’t hear the driver’s response, but when Jake opened the rig’s door and reached down for Cassie’s hand, she thought she’d faint with joy.
Moments later she placed her head down on a pillow in the back cab of the gigantic eighteen-wheel truck.
“You’re an answer to a prayer,” Jake had said to the driver when they’d climbed in.
“I’m no answer to anything,” Bernie had said. “I could use the company.”
Cassie let Jake do the talking. She took a moment while they talked to look at the driver.
His name was Bernie and he was a small man with thin straight brown hair that was getting even thinner at the center of his head. His beady eyes reminded Cassie of a mouse, but his smile seemed sincere.
Cassie had quietly questioned Jake about the wisdom of taking a ride while they were walking the road earlier. But Jake insisted any risk in taking a ride was far less than being found wandering on the road by the very people responsible for that gas leak. Now that her head was on a soft pillow, she was infinitely glad that Bernie had found them.
“The cab has a hell of a heater,” Bernie said. “But just in case you're still shivering, there's a nice wool blanket on the mattress there, too. Snuggle up and stay warm, why don't ya. Can't think of why y'all decided to leave home without a warm jacket.”
Bernie was talking to Jake now, but looking at Cassie through the mirror on the dash. She was wearing Jake's black leather jacket and she knew it looked ridiculously huge on her. She let the scent of Jake, and the comfort it brought her, wrap around her like the jacket as she stared back at the eyes peering at her in the mirror.
“How far up north are you going?” Jake asked.
“I’m headed to Toronto.”
A spark of an idea that felt like hope zipped through Cassie's mind. “We're going in that direction. Our place is in the Catskills,” she blurted out.
Jake's snapped his gaze back to her. She sat upright in the bed and nodded her head. She could tell by the way his eyebrows slightly furrowed at the center of his forehead that he knew she was up to something, but wasn't sure.
“That's right,” Jake said, playing along with her. After all, they had nothing else but a ride going a few hundred miles away from people who just tried to kill them.
Cassie couldn't see the driver's face to be sure if he bought the story.
“Well, it's a good thing I rolled on by,” he said brightly. “I can take you all the way. That is, if you don't mind a detour or two for drop off and pick up along the way.”
“No, that would be great,” Cassie said. Perfect in fact.
“Don't mind if I mention, you two look like road kill. I just had myself a few ZZ's at the truck stop a few miles back. I'm good for another twenty or so hours. Looks like you both could use some shut-eye though. I'll wake you when we stop for breakfast. I know a good truck stop that has the best steak, eggs and hash right off the interstate.”
“I appreciate that. Breakfast is on me,” Jake said.
Bernie haled a laugh that seemed out of character for a man of his stature. “Well, I hope your wallet is padded, because I have a hearty appetite.”
“You and me both.”
Jake climbed into the back of the cab and crawled on the mattress, pulling the blanket over both of them before settling in close to Cassie. Immediately she was engulfed by his heat.
It was more than just body heat. Jake was strong and warm and she craved the comfort and protection he provided. He didn't put his arms around her and it surprised Cassie just how much she wished he would.
It was probably for the best, she reasoned silently. Part of her feared the way she'd crumble in Jake's arms if she allowed herself. She couldn't do it. She had to stay in control.
But there was also this small fragment of her that wanted to say “to hell with control.” Why couldn't she allow a man to be strong for her?
Disappointment settled in the pit of her stomach, making her slightly nauseous. It was exactly the reason all her past relationships had failed. Her only serious relationship had ended three years ago because she refused to let herself lose control, even in bed.
She'd rationalized that maybe she was just one of those women who didn't enjoy sex. But she knew that wasn’t the reason. In giving herself to a man fully, even sexually, she’d have to give up part of the control she'd fought so hard to gain since her cousin's murder.
Rolling over to her side, she inched closer to Jake and gazed up into his eyes. His face was just a whisper away from hers. With each streetlight the truck rolled past, his face illuminated and then vanished as if it were never there. Cassie fought the overwhelming urge to reach up, place her hands on his cheeks just to keep him there. Just so she knew she was not alone in her horror.
“Do you think we can trust him?” she whispered, barely audibly.
Jake leaned forward, his mouth a mere fraction of an inch from her ear.
“I don't know. But we have to trust someone. We're in no condition to go any further until we get some sleep. How are you holding up? Are you okay?”
“I'm…afraid,” she admitted, cursing herself when her bottom lip began to tremble. She clamped her teeth down hard to keep it still as the image of the explosion invaded her mind.
“I know. But we have to sleep now.”
“What if he does something? What if he calls the police?”
Jake chuckled softly. “What's he going to do? He's lonely. He just wants some company. Besides, I sleep light.”
“You don’t have your gun, Jake.”
She’d seen the empty holster as they emerged from the trees, heard Jake’s quiet curse as he tore it off his body and tossed it to the ground.
“We’re not going to need it.” He kissed her head softly, breathing deeply with his lips against her skin.
With Jake's body simmeringly warm next to her, Cassie finally drifted to sleep. She dreamed of sunshine and laughter, and of her childhood in Connecticut. She dreamed of Jake's sexy smile and his body of armor that made her feel so safe in a world forcing her out of control.
The brakes of the truck groaned, pulling her from the safety of her dreams. She fought to stay there until Bernie's call pulled her completely from dreamland.
“Wake up you two. It's time for breakfast. And I, for one, am starving!”
They jumped from the truck and headed to a small diner off interstate 81. Traffic roared by them, seemingly unaware of the scent of bacon grease and cinnamon buns drawing Cassie and Jake toward the door.
They filled themselv
es while listening to Bernie ramble on about where he'd been and where he was going. As Jake had suspected, the poor guy was no threat, he was merely lonely. The craziness of talking small talk with this stranger in the wake of what they’d gone through to get there seemed surreal, but also a welcome break in the tension.
The driver grabbed the sports section of the newspaper and excused himself to the bathroom, telling them he'd meet them at his rig.
Jake waited until the waitress refilled their coffee and walked away.
“What's in the Catskills?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
“I was wondering if you'd caught on to that last night. Maureen has a small cabin just outside the Catskills.”
“Maureen, huh?” he said with half a groan. Cassie didn't seem to notice. If she did, she didn't comment.
She held her coffee mug in both hands and took a sip before continuing. “I've been there a few times. She hardly ever goes except in the summer because she hates driving, especially in the snow, so it'll be empty. It's not that far from the interstate.”
“How secluded is it?”
“About a half mile into the woods. You can't see it from the road because it's well hidden by pine trees. Even if Maureen were questioned, I don't think she'd think to tell anyone about it. No one will look for us there.”
Jake turned the notion over in his head for a minute. They needed to hide, at least until he could talk to Kevin and find out what the hell had happened last night.
“It could work. We could hide there until I figure out what is really going on. Do you remember how to get there?”
“It's not that hard. I think I could find it.” She stared at him as he rubbed his hands together. “You're going to need your jacket though.”
Cassie still had his leather jacket on. She'd offered it to him when they got out of the rig, but he'd refused. If they had a half-mile walk up into the mountains, he'd probably need something more than the cotton shirt he'd worn last night. He'd been freezing when they emerged from the woods and Bernie stopped the rig. It was going to be a lot colder hiking all the way to the cabin in the Catskills.
“No, you keep it.”
“I can't stand seeing you cold. It's not fair for me to take your jacket. Even a half mile walk up the road is long without a warm jacket.”
Material Witness Page 10