California Girl
Page 24
A woman emerging from a nearby bookstore stared but didn’t stop. A train whistled in preparation for leaving a tourist depot down the block.
“The thing on the dash?” Not totally understanding what he was talking about, Alys watched him examine the backpack seams.
“That ‘thing’ is a computer. There’s a device inside it that beams up to a satellite and tracks our location so it can tell us where to turn. If there’s one on Lucia, her grandfather would know exactly where she is at all times, just as the satellite knows where the car is and tells us where to turn.”
Alys stared at him in disbelief, not knowing whether he’d lost his mind or if he was really serious. “That’s ridiculous. Only rich people have things like that. Or cops maybe. Don’t they stick them on luxury cars so they can locate them if they’re stolen?”
“They can stick them anywhere they damned like. And if Lucia’s grandfather owns a trucking company, he’s likely to own dozens of the devices.” Satisfied there wasn’t anything on the backpack, Elliot began examining Lucia’s toys. “He could be sitting in his kitchen, tracking our movements on a monitor, coordinating them with whichever of his drivers are nearby. He’s only a phone call away. I might lose the nearest truck, but all Mendoza has to do is pick up the phone and tell the next guy where we are.”
The scent of spicy tacos drifted from a nearby restaurant. Lucia hugged the doll Elliot had given her and retreated to a corner of the seat.
Alys couldn’t think of any way that a computer could stick to books or dolls. She’d given Lucia a bath, and there hadn’t been anything strapped to her body. She’d like to believe it was something mechanical that allowed their routes to be traced, and not coincidence or paranoia, but it seemed too much like a movie script. She’d lived too long in her own narrow world to believe the outside world had gone that crazy.
Just as Elliot searched the last piece of clothing, the same idea occurred to both of them.
“The camera!”
Alys dug the hot pink child’s camera out of the console between the front seats and offered it to Elliot. He flipped it open, threw the film cartridge to Alys, and examined the camera’s insides. With a curse, he snapped the back closed and glanced around.
The train rumbling out of the depot drew his attention, and his long face lit up as if a thousand-watt bulb had turned on inside his head. With the set expression of a man on a mission, he raced across the shopping center parking lot in the direction of the restaurant and train station, carrying the camera.
Alys watched in astonishment as Elliot jogged through gravel alongside the moving train until he came abreast of an empty open-air sightseeing car. With a powerful swing of his arm, he lobbed the camera onto the flatbed as the train rumbled down the track.
Alys wanted to scream in glee and pump her fists in the air in triumph. He’d done it! He’d thrown the bad guys off course and saved the day. She hoped.
Which meant they might only have a few more hours together.
He wasn’t even breathing hard when he jogged back to the car and slid into the driver’s seat. With satisfaction, he turned on the ignition and drove straight for the rental agency.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Alys whispered in awe. Over her shoulder to Lucia, she said, “We’ll buy you another camera in Albuquerque. What color would you like?”
“Purple!” Lucia yelled with glee, apparently unfazed by the loss of her toy.
“It’s all beginning to make a crazy kind of sense.” Elliot checked the rearview mirror and side streets they passed. “The trouble didn’t begin until we picked up Lucia. Mame must have assumed Mendoza knew what she was driving, so she left Lucia with us, and hoped to lead the trucks on a wild-goose chase. She didn’t know about the GPS. She thought they’d follow the Rover.”
“Do you think they might be following her anyway? Just to cover all bases?”
Elliot winced and drove a little faster. “I think we’d better find out.”
“Before grandpa figures out his thugs are following a train,” Alys agreed.
Elliot hit the gas.
Chapter Twenty-three
“Look!” Alys pointed at a group of motorcycles parked at a restaurant on the road leading out of Santa Fe after they’d picked up Elliot’s phone. “I think that’s the Harley club we met. Stop!”
Elliot glanced at her to see if she was insane, but she was unfastening the seat belt before he’d even applied his foot to the brake, obviously confident that he would follow her request. He wasn’t certain he trusted Harley drivers anymore than truck drivers right now, but traveling with a woman and child he had to protect, he was operating on paranoia mode. Still, he braked and turned the rental car into the parking lot.
At least Alys was wearing a sweatshirt and not one of her formfitting bodysuits. He really didn’t want to have to pop any noses for smart remarks.
She ran ahead while he helped Lucia out of the child’s seat, keeping an eye out for purple semis passing by. These roads out here were too sparsely traveled and open for him to feel comfortable.
As he entered carrying Lucia, several of the bikers were shouting comments to Alys. The child retreated into her cocoon of silence while she studied the big, loud men, but Elliot was more immediately concerned about Alys. She had slipped into a booth next to a guy with a dragon covering his huge bare bicep and a scarf wrapped around his straggly brown hair. The two of them had their heads bent over a map.
Elliot suffered the unreasonable urge to strangle her, but he couldn’t tell if that violence came from jealousy or fear. He didn’t have much experience with either. He had been a reasonably fearless sort of guy until he’d taken on the responsibility of safeguarding an irresistible force.
He felt better when Alys saw him and bounced out of the seat to introduce Lucia to the gang, then lingered at his side as if she belonged there.
“Milo says they’re about done here and heading for the Albuquerque leg of the trip. They’ve offered to follow along as insurance.” Alys tweaked Lucia’s nose and made her smile a little.
“Insurance?” Elliot asked warily, watching grown men with rings in their ears and gang colors on their leather jackets pay at the cashier’s desk.
“I don’t think I can tolerate one more sideswipe by a semi,” she said flatly. “You may thrive on danger, but it scares the . . . heck . . . out of me.”
That she saw him as a man who thrived on danger stifled any protest. He didn’t believe he was any such thing, but he enjoyed knowing she did. Cautiously, Elliot studied Alys and the situation. She’d blown his mind last night, taught him things about himself he’d never known. He could learn to look at things from her perspective. If traveling with a motorcycle gang made her happy, then so be it. “I’m planning on traveling quickly,” he warned.
Alys beamed. “Of course.”
Milo, the man with the huge tattoo of a dragon, strolled over to join them. “I know Mendoza, man. I used to drive for him.”
Alys halted his words with a single glance. Taking Lucia from Elliot’s arms, she set her down on the floor so the child could admire a red teddy bear on the counter, then stepped out of her hearing.
With a nod of approval, Milo continued in a low voice. “Mendoza used to work with a lot of his drivers before he bought the company. He pays them well and they owe him a lot of loyalty. He hires only the toughest men around. Some of those guys would rob banks if he asked it of them. All he’s got to tell them is that you kidnapped his kid, and they’d beat the brains out of anyone between them and her. He didn’t get where he is by being crossed.”
Elliot squeezed Alys’s shoulder at her look of alarm. “Thanks. It’s good to know what we’re up against.”
With a curt nod, Milo strutted over to the counter to pay his bill. A moment later, he carried a curly-haired red teddy bear to Lucia. Lucia looked at it longingly, glanced up to Elliot, and seeing his smile of approval, eagerly grabbed for the toy.
“She belongs with p
eople who love her,” Milo said. Without another word of explanation, he swung on the heels of his heavy leather boots and sauntered out of the restaurant, his graying ponytail swinging.
“They’re good guys,” Alys whispered, catching Elliot’s arm and tugging him out the door after them.
It was a damned good thing patience was one of his virtues, Elliot decided, heading back for the car. He now not only had to look after a fey female, an orchid, a kitten, and a five-year-old, but he had to do it with the escort of a dozen Harley-riding geezers while watching out for dangerous semi drivers. Life was a circus—or life since Alys had become a circus. The three-ring kind.
Pulling out of the parking lot with open highway ahead, Elliot wished he was driving something with more power than the Taurus so they could reach Albuquerque before Mendoza’s thugs discovered the location of the GPS device. The roar of the motorcycles around them didn’t give him the assurance they apparently gave Alys.
When he’d picked up his phone and voice mail, Mame had left only a message giving the room number in the hotel where they had reservations. He wouldn’t be happy until he had Mame in the hospital and Lucia safely back with her aunt.
He deliberately blotted out any thought of what would happen between Alys and him then.
Half the motorcycles formed a phalanx in front of them. The other half formed a rearguard. Elliot thought they should have bought balloons and hung them out the window and called it a parade.
He watched a semi with a purple cab roar past and wondered if they could be any more conspicuous.
“The Balloon Fiesta Park is right off the interstate.” Retreating to the security of her old-fashioned maps, Alys pored over their directions while Lucia napped in the back seat, hugging her new teddy bear.
Elliot tried to close himself up in the little box he’d created years ago, the one that allowed him to concentrate on the path he’d set for himself. He’d written books, attained a medical degree, created effective research groups by shutting out his surroundings and all distractions.
Like a life.
He’d had life in abundance in the last six days, and he was kind of getting used to it. But the walls of his new box required that he see to it that Alys and Lucia and Mame lived long and productive lives—lives which didn’t necessarily include him.
But Alys was too flexible to form much of a wall. Even in sweatshirts instead of halter tops, she held the power to distract him just by breathing. He could sense her fear and worry. If he indulged in too much thought, he’d believe he could build on the attraction and affection tentatively binding them.
So he’d rather not think about Alys at all. Don his blinders, focus on one task at a time, and think about anything but Alys.
“We need to take Lucia to the reservation first,” he stated carefully.
Elliot was certain Alys cringed. She’d grown as attached to the child as he was, but she didn’t argue. Stoically, she returned to poring over their maps. “We’ll have to drive all the way through town,” she informed him, apparently locating the reservation that Mame had described.
She had spent years learning how to handle loss. Elliot wasn’t certain he had her ability to accept it. “No problem,” he replied, trying to sound confident. “Our original instructions were to drive to the tribal headquarters. One assumes they have police there and someone who will know how to reach her family.”
“Or Sam Wolf may have already found a way to call and tell them to expect her arrival.” Alys nodded in approval of his plan. “We’ll just hope the other guys are chasing a train into the mountains and won’t expect her to be heading this way yet. Or that Milo and his friends scare them off.”
“Exactly.”
He hated leaving the kid without knowing what terrors lurked around the corner, but he had no authority or expertise in protecting children. One thing at a time, he reminded himself. Get Lucia to safety. Find Mame. Finish book. Do radio show. Get a life.
He could see Alys straining to memorize the sights as they drove the interstate into the city. He’d been in Albuquerque, knew there was far more to it than the commercial districts seen from the highway, but their little vacation had just reached its end. Once he had Mame, Alys would have to explore the old town on her own. He refused to wax sentimental on the fun they could have had exploring it together—or the fun they could have had if she became a permanent part of his life.
She’d had enough of permanence. Hadn’t she made that clear when she’d tried to leave him at the hospital? Hospitals and death terrified her, and one way or another, they were all he knew. She needed sunshine and freedom.
But the quick looks Alys darted the sleeping child in back, and the way she tilted her head down so a shiny curtain of hair hid her expression, broke his heart. He longed to give her what she wanted, not take it away.
The motorcycles broke formation in the city traffic, some drifting to left and right, slowing at entrance ramps, guarding against intruders. At least with all the traffic around him, Elliot didn’t feel quite as conspicuous. The damned purple semis seemed to be everywhere. Fortunately, none of them slowed to notice the child in the back seat, even if they could see through the tinted windows. Without the pink Cadillac, they were nearly invisible.
On the other side of the city, the countryside returned to sagebrush and rocks, interspersed with billboards for casinos. The reservation where Lucia’s family lived wasn’t on the GPS, but Mame had written explicit directions. Elliot took the exit indicated and followed the road to a turnoff. The motorcycles halted at the sign pointing toward the tribal lands.
Relieved that they’d arrived safely without encountering any more dangerous big rigs, Elliot halted the car and got out. Milo rolled his bike forward to meet him.
“We’ll let you folks go on from here. Don’t reckon the natives will appreciate us riding down on them, and they can look out for their own.”
Elliot held out his hand and shook Milo’s. “If you’re heading back into Albuquerque, go over to the balloon park for the lighting. We know some people there. Maybe we can help you snag a balloon ride.”
Milo tipped a hand to his forehead. “Will do that. You got a nice lady there. You take care of her or someone else will.”
Elliot watched them roar off before returning to the car. Out of habit, he rubbed his chest, but the pain there had nothing to do with heartburn. It had to do with thinking of Alys with anyone else but him.
Unable to contemplate the emptiness her absence would cause, Elliot climbed back into the car. Alys sent him a questioning glance, but he merely turned on the ignition and drove up the road to the reservation.
No purple cabs followed.
“We didn’t buy a camera,” Alys whispered.
“We’ll come back later, after we find Mame,” he assured her. He could keep Alys around a little longer that way. He could add “buy camera” to his list of tasks.
Apparently pleased with his answer since it meant they could visit Lucia again, she turned to studying the modern structure ahead bearing the sign of the reservation’s headquarters. Elliot sighed in relief that they were taking the child somewhere safe. He didn’t know what he’d envisioned, but this hadn’t been it.
“Have you ever been here, Lucia?” Alys asked, unfastening her seatbelt as Elliot turned off the car.
Wide-eyed, Lucia shook her head negatively.
“Well, they should know how to find your Aunt Dulce. Let’s go see, okay?” Alys climbed out, opened the back door, and held out her arms.
Elliot admired the way she knew precisely what to say to reassure the frightened child. Holding the kitten and her teddy bear, Lucia allowed herself to be lifted from the car and set on her feet outside the strange building.
Elliot figured he was going to miss the cat as well as the kid, but that was another of those things that belonged outside his box. He’d never allowed himself to miss his brothers or Mame or anyplace he called home. They were irrelevant to his purposes.
He didn’t know what kind of places the kid had been living in lately, but he hoped this one had people who would love her. Elliot prayed Dulce was a responsible caretaker.
The heavy metal door opened and a slender, black-haired young woman flew down the walk, crying Lucia’s name and holding out her arms. With a whoop of joy, Lucia ran into them.
“Well, guess that answers one question,” Elliot said, coming to a halt beside Alys. He ignored the twinge of his heart at the sight of the two hugging and crying and talking in three languages at once.
“Dulce is young,” Alys replied, watching the pair through worried eyes. “But I suppose with a large family they’ll have some sort of support.”
Had he imagined the wistfulness in her voice? Alys had never expressed any desire for a large family. She’d barely had any family at all. She’d said she wanted to learn to live alone.
He wanted to change her mind, but he didn’t dare.
A sturdily built young man approached, and Elliot stepped up to shake his hand while Alys joined Dulce and Lucia.
“I am Tony, Lucia’s uncle. The family thanks you for delivering her safely.”
“I can’t guarantee that she’s safe,” Elliot warned, handing over the backpack. “I think we’ve thrown them off the track, but someone has been following us ever since we picked her up.”
Tony nodded. “Salvador has been on the phone in a foaming rage. The law has been out looking for her. But we have a court order. There’s nothing he can do now except take it to the judge. He had hoped to get her back in his jurisdiction, where he owns the law and we could not touch her.”