“We need cash,” she said.
“I picked some up before leaving Boston,” he replied. “I thought there might be a time I wouldn’t want to leave a paper trail.”
“Maddox said the phone is safe. Should I call and get a train schedule?”
“I have renewed faith in him,” Nate said. “But let’s stop at a pay phone.”
“I’m a big fan of trains,” she said.
He turned slightly to look at her. “When I was a kid, I wanted a train set more than anything in the world. I never got over it. I travel by train whenever I can and never get tired of them.”
Another small insight into him. She was beginning to understand the man who had been so distant when she’d first met him. She wondered about the foster homes he’d lived in. She hoped they had been good ones, but she had enough experience in charitable endeavors to know it was unlikely.
“How do we get to Denver?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“There’s the interstate or a parallel state road.”
“We’ll take the state road,” he said.
She looked at the map in the car, then gave him directions. She leaned back against the door where she could both view the cars following them as well as glance at his face.
She saw the lines in his face. Obviously he hadn’t slept at all. How long could someone go without rest?
Denver was approximately two hours away on the state route, closer on the fast-moving interstate.
They stopped midway at a small cafe where several trucks and cars were parked. Sam had always heard that truck drivers knew the best places to eat. She hoped that legend was correct because she was hungry.
It was like stepping back in time. A juke box was just inside the entrance and the tables were worn and the vinyl seat fabric tom, but the smell of hamburger curled around her nostrils as if it was a porterhouse steak.
They sat in a booth and read a much-used menu. She ordered ham and eggs; he ordered the eight ninety-nine steak.
“I’ll call the train station,” she said.
He nodded.
She went to the pay telephone, still wondering how they had been located, still worried about Jack Maddox and his dog. If the rental car did carry a tracing device, they wouldn’t be safe until they reached Denver and ditched the car. She dialed information and got an 800 number. She dialed that and learned the Zephyr would leave the Denver Station at 7:45 P.M. and arrive in Chicago late the next afternoon.
She declined the opportunity to make a reservation.
She returned to the booth. Nate was eating a wilted-looking salad as if it were food of the gods.
“The train to Chicago leaves at seven forty-five,” she said.
He looked at his watch. “Eight hours from now. Plenty of time to get some clothes.”
Their food arrived. She was starving, yet she had trouble eating. She was worried about Maddox and Jock. About her mother and Terri. About the man across from her.
He sat facing the door, his gaze slicing toward it every time someone entered.
“What do we do when we find my mother?” she said.
“Set a trap.”
“What kind of trap?”
“We can narrow possibilities to several people,” he said. “We will call each one and tell them that we’ve taken precautions, but want two hundred thousand to keep quiet.”
“And we wait to see who bites?”
“Yes.”
“And if no one does?”
“We try something else, but he will. He can’t afford not to.”
“He? You know who it is, don’t you?”
He gave her a bland look.
“Does Jack Maddox?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Who?”
It was clear he didn’t want to tell her. “We agreed to be honest,” she said. “It’s my life. And I’m not going to leave this place without knowing.”
He grimaced. “It’s only supposition, but you have the right to know. It could be a judge named McGuire. He was a patrolman in 1968. He’s a federal judge now, nominated for the federal appeals bench.”
Her heart dropped. A federal judge, and all the political connections that went with that.
“How—?”
“He must be very good at burying the past,” he said. “Cops love him. They think he’s on their side. He’s cultivated a law-and-order image. But a federal Appeals judgeship means more scrutiny than for a district judge. Once there, he doesn’t only interpret law, but makes it.” He paused. “It could be the reason I was taken off the case. One cautionary warning from a federal judge is next to an order.”
She looked down at eggs growing cold. She’d lost her appetite completely now, but she forced herself to eat.
After several bites, she knew she couldn’t eat any more. “Do you really think we lost them? They seem to be everywhere.”
“We will once I get rid of the car,” he said. “And no one thinks about trains these days.”
“Except you,” she said.
“Except me,” he agreed.
“I want to call Terri.”
“Are you worried about her or Nick?” His voice was cool and she wondered whether she had just lost the ground she’d gained.
“Both.”
“Let’s wait a while,” he said. “We need that cell phone. If they have a trace on the Faulkner phones, we might compromise it. Nor should we call from here. If they pinpoint this telephone, they can find whatever other numbers were called within a few moments.”
“And learn that someone called Amtrak,” she said.
He paid the bill and they went to the car. He studied every car in the parking lot, but then shook his head. “Won’t do any good if they have something planted in my car, and they had the opportunity at your house.” He went back into the restaurant; she followed him.
He went straight to the cash register and gave the lady behind it a devastating smile.
“Do you know someone reliable who could give us a ride to the bus station in Denver?” he said. “I don’t like the way the car is running, and we’re due in Flagstaff for her mother’s wedding.” He put an arm around Sam. “I’ll make it worth his while.”
“What about your car?”
“I’ll call the rental company and have them pick it up.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said.
Ten minutes later they had a ride to Denver for a hundred dollars cash and a full tank of gas.
They caught the train seconds before it pulled out. The tardiness was planned.
The train started moving, and Nate looked for the conductor. Within minutes, they had tickets for a deluxe bedroom.
Nate said a brief prayer of thanks. He was ready to drop. A coach seat had not appealed to him.
The conductor showed them to a compartment. It was tiny with a cushy sofa and armchair and its own private sink, shower and toilet. A decided plus.
An attendant appeared almost immediately and asked whether they wanted their meal in the room or in the cafe or lounge car. They opted for the room. They ordered steaks and a bottle of wine and sat on the sofa, watching as foothills became prairie and the last glimmers of twilight faded into night.
He hoped he wasn’t relaxing too much. But there was no way anyone could find them here, not after all the precautions he’d taken. And he was so damned tired.
He checked his weapon. That was the other reason he wanted to take a train. No one checked for weapons.
As a federal law enforcement officer, he could have declared his weapon on a flight but new security measures probably would mean a check with his office. He hadn’t wanted that.
As soon as they ate, he would ask that the beds be prepared. The sofa would magically become a bed and an upper berth pulled down. The clackety clack of wheels beneath them already made a soothing lullaby
In the interim, he simply enjoyed being with Sam. She leaned against him, and he put his arm around her. Tension drained from hi
m. There was something about a train that always had that effect on him.
He’d picked up the schedule at the station. They’d bought tickets to Chicago, but he planned to leave the train at Naperville and take a second train into the city. Then they would find the elusive Patsy Carroll.
His eyes had almost closed when the attendant arrived to set a table with a linen tablecloth, then returned with steaks, baked potatoes and mixed vegetables.
Nate couldn’t take his eyes from Sam as she ate with apprehension. They’d both purchased new clothes and she had a way of making even the most casual slacks and plain shirt look elegant. He continued to watch her rather than eat until she very pointedly looked at his plate.
He nursed one glass of wine while she had a second. He wasn’t sure how well that went with the medicine she was taking, but if anyone deserved a few moments of normalcy, it was Samantha. When they finished, he asked the attendant to prepare the beds.
The lower one was wider than the upper berth. Two people could fit on the lower one only if they lay like spoons.
Spoons sounded pretty good.
But sleep sounded even better if not as enjoyable. He needed sleep to maintain an edge.
He looked at his watch. Ten Denver time.
He put out the do not disturb sign, secured the door, then backed up the one chair against it.
“You take the shower first,” he offered.
She smiled. “What about simultaneously?”
“You haven’t seen the shower.”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” she said. She lifted up on her toes to brush a kiss across his lips.
“Don’t do that to your bodyguard,” he scolded.
“A bodyguard is Kelley,” she said. “You’re—”
“I’m what?” he asked when she stopped.
“A friend.”
He flinched at that. He didn’t want to be that either.
He skimmed his hand over the shirt they’d purchased for her that afternoon while waiting for the train. Clothes and simple things like a razor and toothbrushes. He stopped at the open vee, and his fingers touched the swelling of her breast.
She trembled, but probably no more than he.
“Damn,” he said out loud. Stupid, he said under his breath. Yet he bent over her, his lips brushing hers and raining light kisses over her cheek and down her neck.
He kissed his way back up to her mouth, deepening the kiss. He was exhausted. He was also on fire as he always was when near her. Her eyes, weary a few moments ago, were now glimmering with life. He touched her everywhere, sliding her clothes off, his gaze possessively following the progress of his hands.
She turned toward the window.
“There’s no one out there,” he said, but he leaned over and pulled down the shade as she unbuttoned his shirt. His skin was alive with wanting, alive with hundreds of writhing nerve ends.
She was as adept at taking off his clothes as he had been at hers. The car lurched and her body impacted with his. His body hardened, trembling with a need that went beyond lust or passion.
There was so little space that they naturally drifted onto the lower berth. He entered her, full and throbbing, but slowly. The urgency between them intensified and he felt her tighten around him. Their bodies reacted to each other with frenzied need and he plunged deeper into her, his strokes growing faster.
She wrapped her good leg around him, bringing him to the core of her. She cried out as the primitive dance turned wild and uncontrollable, reaching beyond familiar feelings and ending in flashes of white-hot splendor.
He kept her next to him, his body still fused to hers. They heard the lonesome call of the train whistle as they approached a crossing. Her body snuggled closer into his and relaxed, and several moments later he realized she was asleep.
Nathan McLean, sworn enemy of the Merrittas, touched her hair as his own eyes closed. He reached over to his clothes, felt the pistol there. Satisfied, he began the slow descent into sleep, knowing he wanted this Merritta with him. Always.
Tomorrow, though, they would be taunting the tiger.
He had to remember that.
thirty-one
Sam woke to the light filtering into the small compartment and the sound of movement outside their room.
Nate’s arms were still wrapped around her, probably by necessity due to the narrow berth, but they felt wonderful under any circumstances. She moved slightly and then so did he, and she realized he must have been awake but had not wanted to disturb her.
“Hmmmm,” she murmured as she turned and looked at him.
His hair looked more mussed than usual and his cheeks had an overnight beard, but his eyes were as brilliant as ever and he looked incredibly sexy. “They deliver coffee,” he said.
“I don’t need coffee.”
“How is your leg?”
She grinned at him. “What leg?”
He looked toward the door. He had locked it last night and shoved a chair in front of it as an extra precaution, but she knew he felt that they were safe here. Secure.
For a few more hours, anyway. Hours that belonged just to them.
For a fraction of a second, she wondered how Jack Maddox was making out with the police. And Terri. Was she safe? Then her mind jumped to her newly found brother. What was he doing in Steamboat Springs?
“What are you thinking about?”
“You. Jack Maddox. Terri. My… brother.” She wasn’t sure how the latter would affect him. He’d seemed to change in the past few days, but…
“You want to call Terri?” He knew it wasn’t only Terri she wanted to know about. But Nick Merritt as well. Was he still in Steamboat Springs? Well, he wanted to know that, too.
“Yes.” His arms tightened around her. “Can we call from the train?”
He looked at his watch. “There’s a brief stop in Omaha,” he said. “You can call from a pay phone there. I hate to use Maddox’s cell phone unless we have to. He says it’s safe, but there are always ways with sophisticated equipment.”
“How long before we get there?”
“About thirty minutes.”
She snuggled into him, hearing his indrawn breath and feeling his body harden again.
“Sam?”
“We have time,” she pointed out logically and, hopefully, steadily. Her body was already reacting to his in very sensuous ways.
He didn’t require more convincing. He nibbled at her neck until her body felt as if it were on fire. His fingers played with her pubic hair, then touched the most intimate part of her until she was writhing with need.
When he finally entered her, his movements were , slow and tantalizing until she was nearly mad with wanting him. She wondered whether this kind of madness remained through the years, the fierce urgency that counterpointed moments of extreme tenderness and wonder. He stopped and leaned over, showering her face and neck and shoulders with light teasing kisses, titillating and tormenting her until she arched her body toward him.
Nate’s slow deliberate strokes fanned the blazes inside her. He moved faster until the world swirled with such speed that she thought she would be carried away by some magical force. Shattering explosions rocked every fiber of her being with rolling waves of sensations.
They both sank down to earth, depleted and sated, and she felt a warm, wonderful lassitude that cosseted and enveloped them like a thick feather comforter on a cold winter night. She heard his heartbeat. It seemed in rhythm with the song of the wheels beneath them, and nothing in her life had ever seemed so natural. So right.
The back of her hand rubbed against the bristle on his cheeks. Then her tongue ran over them, then licked the tiny lines that fanned from his eyes.
“Oh, you’re heading for trouble, Miss Carroll,” he said lazily, even as he rolled away from her and easily sprang to his feet. He leaned down and kissed her lightly before looking at his watch. “You have five minutes before the train stops, then fifteen to find a phone booth outside the stati
on.”
Still feeling fuzzy and warm and filled with him, she forced herself to get up, pull on the same clothes she wore yesterday and run a comb through her hair while he took a hurried shower. She rinsed her face and noticed it was glowing. The train whistle blew and the car seemed to slow.
She quickly added a touch of lipstick and then left the tiny bathroom.
Nathan pushed the chair away from the door and unlocked it. He still hadn’t shaved, but she liked the way he looked just fine.
They met the attendant. He smiled, and she wondered whether her face told him exactly what had happened a few minutes ago.
“Would you like coffee and breakfast?” the attendant asked.
“We’re going to step inside the station for a few moments,” Nate said. “Then we’ll go to the dining car.”
“As you like, sir, madam. Would you like me to make up your room?”
Nathan nodded.
The train slowed, jerked. Came to a halt.
“We leave in twenty minutes sharp,” the attendant said.
“We’ll be back.”
Together they stepped off the train, went through the station and looked around. Nate wanted anything but a train station phone. He saw a cafe and they hurried over to it. She found a phone and dialed Terri’s cell number. Nate had said they might have four or five minutes before anyone could trace the numbers.
Terri picked up immediately.
“Terri?”
“Yes. Are you all right?”
“It’s been quiet,” she said. “Any repairman at your home?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Is Nicholas still there?”
“Yes. He needs to talk to you. He knows who is behind at least some of the attacks. He says he has to see you.”
Sam looked at Nate. He had his eye on his watch. He , held up one finger. She covered the mouthpiece. “Nicholas says he knows who is behind what’s been happening. He wants to see me.”
“Tomorrow,” he said. “The Adler Planetarium in Chicago. The Sky Show at eleven a.m.”
She stared at him for a moment, then relayed the message to Terri.
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