“Are you angry with me?” He was, she could see the tension in the corded muscles of his neck.
“No. It’s a good plan. What bank?” The crooked smile stretched from cheek to cheek not quite reaching his deep-set eyes.
“You are mad at me.”
“Not at you, Jo. Myself. I’ve been stupid.” He shook his head, grabbed her elbow again and led her around the corner inside the gas station. “Any chance you can call us a cab?” he asked the clerk.
And that was the end of conversation. She waited at the back of the store, toward the storage room with a concrete wall behind her. Safe, according to her warden. Levi stood covertly next to a window, utilizing his stealth and height to keep watch for a potential threat. Obviously stewing.
Something had happened and she was clueless.
Maybe it was because she didn’t have that much experience with people or maybe her view was clouded because she’d thought she’d known him. Whichever the reason, she felt defeated, hurt and banished to the corner.
The taxi pulled up within twenty minutes, just as the sun was setting behind them.
If she were honest with herself, sitting on those worn seats hadn’t come a moment too soon. Any additional time to think and she would have been in tears from everything she’d been through that day.
A visit to her childhood home. Shot at and harbored by a stranger who was a friend of her father’s. Treated almost like a criminal by the police. All the memories flooding through her yet just out of her grasp. And Levi.
Levi kissed her like no one else existed and she’d kissed him back wanting a lot more.
Jo had to think hard that it really had been just that morning she’d awoken from a drugged slumber. Just two full days ago, she’d been burying her father. Her father the landscaper.
Had she really known either man? Joseph Atkins or Robert Frasier? A simple enough answer for her. Yes. Her father was real no matter what his name. He’d loved plants, loved creating things with his hands, thoroughly disliked the day job he’d received from the Marshals Service. And more than anything else, hated the fact she hadn’t had a normal childhood and a mother to answer the questions that embarrassed him on more than one occasion.
There were no doubts she loved her father or that he’d loved her.
Oh, no, she was going to cry.
She held it together. Hiding the silent sniffles by wrapping her arms around herself and watching the taxi join the flow of evening traffic on the highway. She hadn’t heard Levi tell him where to go. It was too late to find a bank. He probably hated her idea anyway.
They turned and a beautiful clear Texas sunset full of oranges, golds and pinks filled the sky. It was beautiful. Had her father missed his Texas homeland?
She watched the colors swirl and mix, feeling sorry for herself until the image of a cartoon-like man wouldn’t leave her mind. Razor-sharp angles brought his face together almost like a Japanese cartoon. His multicolored straw-like hair and the red devil eyes were from a storybook. Something she’d seen as a child.
As much as she wanted to believe that the Rainbow Man was real, it was becoming highly unlikely. Levi wouldn’t believe her if she described him. It was the imagination of a five-year-old. No amount of sunshine shooting through crystals could create the hellish image she remembered of her mother’s murderer.
Chapter Ten
TEXT MESSAGE: Blocked Sender 7:19 P.M.
This distracting annoyance will end tomorrow. Priority is to find and eliminate the target. No excuses will be accepted.
JO STOOD BY another third-floor window in another hotel somewhere in another part of Dallas. More like a suburb with a different name. It didn’t matter if she was completely turned around and had no idea which direction was which. Levi barely spoke while they paid for a rental and drove around looking at other cheap cars to purchase tomorrow.
Whoever followed them would know about the rental soon. Another reason it was parked several blocks away. Levi’s plan? Buy a used car just like she’d suggested buying a motor home. A quick trip to a branch of her bank in the morning, purchase the car, return the rental...Then?
He’d made phone calls from their “burner cell.” If he’d had explanations he hadn’t shared them with her.
“Now what do we do?” she asked, desperately hoping he had more plans. “Don’t expect for me to shut everything off and go to sleep.”
At least there were two beds. She didn’t have to ask him to sleep on the chair so she’d keep her hands to herself. Then again, he hadn’t exactly been the one to call their earlier kissing session to a halt.
The reassurance of his fingers curving around her shoulder didn’t take her by surprise. She wanted them there next to her. She longed to trust him with decisions and with her emotions. That couldn’t happen and she constantly had to remind herself that wasn’t what he wanted. He’d made that very plain.
“Maybe we should talk about this before you turn in?” He held her mother’s carving in the palm of his other hand. “You said there’s a compartment?”
“Yes. Do you think she hid something inside?”
“If she did, would LuLu have known how to open it?” He handed it to her.
No more than six inches tall and three or four in diameter. She used to know what to press, hold, turn. Levi must have seen her worried expression. He covered her hands with his own, got her attention.
“Just hold it. Don’t think about it.”
“If that woman knew anything about this carving it was because she spied on us. My dad told me how to make it open. It was a family secret.”
He removed his hands and walked around the room. “Any idea where the carving came from?”
He was a pleasure to watch. He moved like a strong, confident man. Someone used to a confined space, but who didn’t enjoy them. He shrugged out of his jacket and unclipped his gun. Something she’d seen him do many times over the past couple of days. A normal action for him that didn’t change his facial expression.
The concern on his face was totally for her.
She rubbed the wood with the tips of her fingers. Still warm from Levi’s pocket and touch, smooth from age and other strokes of love. Sadie Colter/LuLu had said it was filthy. She used the edge of her shirt to wipe off layers of dust and a little grime. Nothing could make it “filthy” in her mind.
“It’s beautiful. Sorry, you asked if I knew where it was from. No. My mother loved and valued it. That’s all I remember.”
“And you think it was made specifically for your mother?”
“Absolutely. I was only allowed to look at it when she was there to help.” No latches or seams separating pieces. Smooth. She continued to stroke it as she sat, keeping the artwork her mother had loved in her lap.
“I get the idea that you didn’t always ask for help.” He chuckled under his breath.
“My mom would put it on the highest shelf so I couldn’t reach it. I’d bring toys from outside to stand on...”
The image of a tricycle and falling shot across her mind’s eye. Potent. Full of the pain from hitting the handlebars on the way to the floor. She caught herself rubbing her chin, expecting the skin to be torn and open.
“That had disaster written all over it. I suppose you fell?”
“Huh?”
“Jolene, what just happened?” Levi knelt at her feet. His eyebrows drew together in concern again.
She wanted to move her stroke to his brow and brush his worry away. She’d wanted it so many times in the past, she’d been afraid to touch him. She wasn’t now. His skin was warm. His expression changed from concern to curiosity, but he stayed where he was—one hand on her knee, the other caressing her hold on the wooden puppy.
She liked his smile the best, even if he was troubled about her reactions to her memories. He was so determined that she remember and go into the WITSEC program. She needed to tell him again that wasn’t an option. She wouldn’t spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder or wonderi
ng if she made a mistake that would cost the lives of the ones she loved.
“You okay?” he asked, his grip firmer, offering encouragement.
“You’re right. I fell and cut my chin trying to get to this hunk of wood.”
He tipped her head toward the ceiling, his thumb rubbed where her own fingers had been moments before. She closed her eyes and felt his knuckle drag the length of her throat. “No scar.”
Levi’s hands went to the arms of the chair and he half stood, leaning toward her. His face inched closer. His lips were warm, firm, in charge and she welcomed the need she recognized. She wanted so much more. Wanted...
She heard a click. Or felt it in her hands.
Levi moved back, looking at her lap. The carved dog statue was in two pieces, having come apart at the dog’s collar. Relaxed, without thinking, her fingers had worked the mechanism.
“Nice.” He sat on the bed, removed his shoes and tossed them to the other side of the room.
“It’s empty.”
“That was to be expected. They wouldn’t have handed it back to us any other way.” He slapped his thighs. “Ready to tell me what you remembered today?”
“It was just today?”
“Yeah, a lot’s happened.”
“I guess it has.” She’d rather talk about the touching and kisses. She’d postponed telling him her jumbled memories long enough, but didn’t believe she could get through all of the emotional stress without breaking down. “Honestly, I’m exhausted. Which bed’s mine and how early do I have to get up? Can we do it in the morning when—”
“One more thing.” Levi crossed the room and sifted through his duffel, setting items on the dresser until he removed the manila envelope where her father’s letters were stored. “Part of my instructions was to give you this whenever I felt the timing was right.”
He turned to her and in his hand was a second wooden statue of a dog. At first glance it looked identical to the one in pieces still in her hands. They were a set of cocker spaniels, both carved by the same person.
“I had to be careful not to interfere with what you were remembering. We haven’t exactly had a lot of time for discussion.”
“Give it to me.” Her eyes filled with tears. Her mind filled with confusion. She took a step to meet him, grabbed the dog and ran to the bathroom with both.
Levi could open the door easily, busting through or opening the lock, but he wouldn’t. Jo closed the toilet lid, threw a towel around her chilled shoulders and sat. She stared into the plaster on the wall. Counted the number of tiles on the floor and cracks in the ceiling. All the while, running her fingers over and around the small statue.
“Jo? You’ve been in there over thirty minutes.”
If the circumstances weren’t so extreme, she’d wonder about the amount of time she’d spent in baths lately. “Go to bed. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know that.”
“Leave me alone. Please.”
There was a long string of curses on the other side of the thin door. “That doesn’t appear to be in my nature where you’re concerned.”
Her heart could read a lot into that statement, but her head kept reminding her that Levi Cooper held a lot of information about her parents. More secrets. And the more she learned, the harder it was to forgive.
* * *
TWO HOURS AND Jo hadn’t budged from the bathroom. And Levi hadn’t budged from his spot in front of the door. Two nice-sized beds wasted and his backside was numb. Had been numb for over an hour.
If he stretched out on the inviting bed, he might not hear her sneak out. He hadn’t slept much since the night before the funeral and couldn’t take the chance.
“Come on, Jo.” He tried one last time, then he was putting the pillow he sat on under his head, blocking the doors and grabbing some much-needed shuteye. “There wasn’t much I could do except follow your dad’s instructions. It might have kept you from remembering anything.”
She was probably asleep, curled up in a small ball on the floor, covered with a towel or cramped in the tub. He’d spent a couple of nights in a tub. Not fun.
A click. A creak.
An exhausted-looking, red-eyed Jolene peeked around the edge of the partially opened door. He kept his mouth shut. She looked like she’d been crying the entire time she’d been in there.
“I can’t figure out how to open it. I thought if I held it like the other one that something would happen. I mean, I didn’t think about opening the other statue, so why would this one be any different?”
Harder to keep his mouth shut and wait. She came to him, wooden dog outstretched in her hand, gesturing for him to take it from her.
“I thought it was a message from my dad. Or a clue. Something important that would help. Or just something that he wanted me to have.”
He took the dog, dropped it on the pillow, then pulled her into his arms.
“He wanted you to have it, Jo. We’ll figure out why later. You’re too tired.”
“I couldn’t do it.” Her body shook with her tears and grief.
Levi should have been prepared for it. Over the past couple of days he’d gone through the different things that could have been happening behind the closed door. “You’re exhausted and need some rest.”
She looked up from his chest with her swollen eyes. “I have to help my dad.”
He brought her cheek back to his T-shirt. “Honey, the last thing your father wanted was for you to blame yourself. Rest. We can find the answers tomorrow.”
“I wish I could believe you.”
“I wish you could, too.”
If she wouldn’t get in bed he’d take her there himself. Lifting her into his arms was no trouble, even as tired as he was. She didn’t protest. Her arms circled tightly around his neck, and if they hadn’t, he would have thought she was asleep in a couple of steps. He kept her in his arms and tugged the sheet enough to get her covered.
The door was locked.
They were safe...for a while.
Like he’d told Jo, nothing to do except get some rest. After some much-needed sleep, they could determine their next move with clearer heads.
His witness who wasn’t a witness turned on her side and pulled her hands under her chin. Sleep. He wanted it, needed it, couldn’t function without it. He grabbed the spread off the empty double bed behind him and carefully lay down next to Jo.
He wouldn’t sleep worried about her leaving without him. Better to worry about keeping his hands off her instead.
The bed was a little crowded, his feet hung off the bottom a bit. He stared at the light intruding from the curtains’ edge and bouncing around on the ceiling. He’d just closed his eyes when Jo rolled over and snuggled next to his side. She released a long relaxed sigh.
Levi pulled her in close, reluctant to ever let her go. Knowing that it was the only way she’d ever be safe.
* * *
LEVI’S MOMENT OF rest and safety was gone. Replaced by a crazy minute of thinking that he was screwed. As he listened to the jumble of memories Jolene had experienced in the last couple of days, he did have a split second of wavering and asking himself: Was it worth it?
Was the woman he’d woken up with worth it?
Yes.
There was no doubt he’d make the same decision to protect and help her.
As she’d filled him in on the crazy thoughts and when they’d happened, she nervously twisted the end of her shirt, clicked her nails on her chin a few times until she noticed what she was doing, and then wrapped her arms around her midsection. It was her thing. Her nervous “tell.”
Easy to read and easy to care about. Innocent people always were, but it was more. He liked Jolene Atkins and had to get past that.
What was best for the witness?
“We need a plan. A couple of them. Restoring your memory has to be a priority.” He watched her cover her face and shake her head.
“I’ve been attempting to prioritize. Really. It’s a jumbled me
ss and easier to think about the person who wants to kill me than solving my mother’s murder. Which is such a long shot.”
“We’ll find the person responsible.”
“Levi, I just told you that my mother’s murderer looks like a Japanese anime cartoon. There’s not much hope of finding him.” Frustrated, her hands went in the air, then one fist lightly pounded the edge of the dresser.
“I heard you.”
“Well?” she asked without facing him.
“Well...I think we should grab that continental breakfast before heading to the car.”
“That’s not quite the discussion I anticipated.”
“There’s not much more we can do here. We can form a plan of action in the car. Speaking of which, they may have already found—”
She whirled around, indicating with her hands for him to stop. It worked.
“Levi, you have to face the fact that I may not remember. I may always think the man holding a gun to my mother’s head had green-and-blue straw hair and a pointed nose from something in a Tim Burton film.” She plopped onto the bed and covered her face. “I can’t do this.”
“What? Stay alive? ’Cause I don’t remember giving you a choice. Did you think it would be easy?”
He didn’t believe Jo was a quitter. They’d been forced into an impossible situation. He knew she could handle anything. She just didn’t have experience with avoiding killers.
“What I thought is that I’d bury my father who died in a car accident last week and return to my boring job in Georgia yesterday. That’s what I thought. I don’t want to run and hide for the rest of my life.”
She wasn’t crying. She seemed almost angry at him. Okay, he had led the shooter to her in St. Louis. Crap, he’d lost her on the train, too.
“No one said it would be easy.” He offered a hand, wanting to pull her close and make everything okay.
She slapped it away, standing on her own. “Don’t handle me. I’m not one of your...your witnesses.”
Maybe holding her would make him feel better. It wasn’t the professional solution. Just desire and the reaction to holding her all night. “I thought I was treating you like a person who needed my expertise and help.”
Dangerous Memories Page 10