Tempted by a Dangerous Man

by Cleo Peitsche

  “How long do you think it will take?” I asked.

  “Two hours to pack, an hour to drive it over and unload it. We’ll also be moving your car.”

  And well, that was that. Life went so much smoother when you could just get other people to take care of the distasteful tasks.

  I pulled into the hospital garage and climbed into the back of the truck, exhausted. Might as well get some sleep.

  ~~~

  It was completely dark when I woke. I looked at my phone and saw that I had slept through several texts. Rob said he was heading back to the hospital. He’d sent it forty minutes earlier.

  Nothing from Corbin. Not that I expected there to be, but I had hoped.

  Nothing from Henry. Not a good sign.

  I was so sick of worrying about him. Wished he would just go away.

  Rob was waiting in a lounge. Dark circles ringed his eyes.

  “Where’s Martha?” I asked.

  “One of her friends took her to the cafeteria. She was getting dizzy from not eating.”

  Apparently I wasn’t the only one who didn’t feel hungry lately. “Is it all right if I store my stuff in your garage for a bit?”

  “Of course. When?”

  I glanced at the phone. “A few hours ago.”

  That made him laugh. “If I end up quitting, I can sell your furniture to pay my bills.”

  “That backup plan won’t get you far.” I gnawed on my lip. “Corbin and Henry got into a fight.”

  Rob’s jaw dropped.

  “I take it you didn’t know?” I asked, my heart lifting. If Henry hadn’t come looking for me by now, maybe he wouldn’t.

  A smile tugged at Rob’s lips, though I could tell he was trying to hide it. “I bet it was awesome.”

  “If by ‘awesome’ you mean that Henry knows about Corbin and he already wanted to arrest me before and now actually has a reason to get me locked up, I guess it was.”

  Rob’s smile melted away. “Damn. What are we going to do?”

  “What am I going to do. This isn’t your problem.” I shrugged. “The plan right now is to think about it later.” All while hoping that Henry would stay far away.

  Rob stood, stretched. “I’m going to the vending machine. Man, I wish I’d witnessed that firsthand.”

  “Hey, you didn’t even ask how Corbin is.”

  “I’ve seen him before. I don’t have to ask. Poor Henry.” Rob walked away, still shaking his head.

  He returned with two candy bars and two root beers that he shared. “Thanks.” I twisted the top off of my bottle.

  “What the hell happened to you, man?” Rob asked, looking past my shoulder.

  I caught his hidden warning and immediately stood, ready to run even though I had hoped to stay. Henry’s arm was bandaged up, and he had a black eye and a broken nose.

  “Why don’t you ask your sister?” Henry said. “Audrey, we need to talk. Let’s go to the atrium. I want you to meet some friends of mine.”

  Nothing in his tone was overly menacing, which frightened me even more. But I couldn’t imagine what he might do to me in a public place, and if he planned to have me arrested, I couldn’t do much about it at this point. I handed my soda to Rob. “All yours.”

  “You were never so sharing when we were kids,” he said with a shrug, but his attention was fixed on Henry. I got the impression that Rob was willing to blacken his other eye. “Don’t be more than five minutes,” he said.

  “It won’t take that long, I’m sure.” Henry’s voice was rock steady.

  Not good, not good.

  “How’s your arm?” I asked as we walked down the corridor.

  He didn’t bother answering that.

  I followed him to a wide open area. There was a skylight several floors above, and four floors below was a water fountain. The sound of the spraying water echoed.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen,” Henry said. “Behind me are two of my very good buddies from the police force. At the moment, they don’t know what I know.” His brown eyes were hardened and emanated hatred. So I was surprised by what he said next. “I don’t want to see you behind bars, Audrey. I don’t believe you knew what you were getting into.”

  My gaze darted to the side, and I saw two men who, while they might not have been officers, certainly gave off that vibe. I didn’t recognize them, but they could have been from another county. One man was stocky, the other tall and slender, but they had that haircut, that way of standing, that overall demeanor that I knew very well.

  If I had happened to walk by them, I would have thought cops.

  I licked my lips. “So what do you want from me?”

  “Where is he?”

  “Gone,” I said. “He would have to be an idiot to stick around after—” I nearly said after beating your ass, but I realized that probably wouldn’t go over well. “After getting on a bounty hunter’s radar.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “I honestly don’t know. I can’t help you, Henry. I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell me.”

  “Where is Zak?”

  I paused a half second too long before saying, truthfully, “I have no idea.”

  Henry leaned in. “You expect me to believe that you’re just some innocent woman in all of this? The security footage from the parking garage is corrupted. Bad things happen around you, Audrey. Give me your phone.”

  “No.” It was an unexpected request. Almost as shocking as realizing that Corbin had gotten to the security footage. Had someone else do it, I realized.

  “Shall I call my friends over?” Henry held out his hand.

  With a sigh, I pulled it out of my pocket. “You want me to unlock it or do you plan to admire the case?”

  His lips curled into a sneer. “I can do it.”

  “It’s thumbprint plus a code, but…” I shrugged and held it out. My heart pounded.

  “Unlock it.”

  I pushed the power button and replied to Corbin’s last text. One word. Owl, I typed. Three letters. I hit the send button.

  Heart pounding, I held the phone out to Henry. When he reached for it, I jerked my arm, sending the phone sailing over the side of the railing.

  With all the reflected noise, I didn’t hear the splash when it landed in the fountain, but when I looked over the rail, a few people were staring in confusion toward the water. One woman looked up.

  “Oops,” I said.

  Henry’s eyes flashed fire. “Then we do this the hard way. I’ve already pulled your phone records anyway, so it’s just a matter of time. But since you aren’t cooperating—”

  Rob hurried up, face grim. “Dad’s out of surgery. The surgeons want to talk to us.”

  I had thought I couldn’t get any more frightened. I was wrong. My mouth went completely dry.

  “What’s going on?” Rob asked, looking between Henry and me. “There a problem here?”

  “No, man. No problem,” Henry said casually. “Your sister will be arrested. Just another day putting bad people behind bars.”

  Rob grabbed my arm, pulled me away and down the corridor at a fast clip. “He’s following,” he said.

  “I don’t have a phone anymore.” It seemed like a strange thing to pop into my mind, but as we passed the elevators, I realized why I was thinking it, what I was going to do. Apparently Corbin had gotten through to me after all. Or maybe I just wasn’t as brave as I wanted to believe. “How will I find out if Dad’s ok?”

  “He’s fine. The surgery was a success.”

  “I’ll be in touch.” I pressed a kiss to my brother’s cheek, then I darted for the stairs.

  I caught a glimpse of Henry’s startled face, and the two men I had seen during our earlier discussion weren’t far behind him. The last thing I saw before bursting into the stairwell was Henry turning to get their attention.

  My feet thundered down the steps. I heard the door slam open moments before I reached the parking garage.

  I sprinted for the SUV, disabling the a
larm on the fly. I jumped into the back and nearly landed on the snowshoes that Corbin hadn’t removed. I pushed a button on the keychain, and the door closed firmly but quietly after me.

  Henry knew what my car looked like. He would be looking for that, or for me on foot. He certainly wouldn’t expect me in an expensive SUV. And if his cop friends ran the plates of every vehicle in the garage, which I doubted they would do for logistical reasons, this one wouldn’t turn up anything useful.

  I knew that from experience.

  Even knowing that I was absolutely safe, it wasn’t easy to stay in there, huddled down. It was freaking cold out, and of course I had to pee within ten minutes.

  But I stayed there. How long before they would assume I’d already run out the building or had driven away?

  So I waited an hour. Then I waited another hour to be sure. And another.

  Finally I peeked up. The coast seemed clear. I crawled over the back row of seats, then slid behind the steering wheel.

  I was on my own. I had no way to get in touch with Corbin. I wouldn’t be seeing my family anytime soon—even calling Rob would be too dangerous.

  I pulled down the sun visor and found a twenty-dollar bill and a gas card. I dug around in the glovebox, looking for more money or even a roll of quarters. Came up empty.

  Didn’t matter. Where I was going, I didn’t need much cash, and I knew a thrift store where I could pick up a wig for cheap. With a little luck, I’d even be able to get one in a natural hair color.

  ~~~

  Four and a half weeks later, I stood in the bathroom at The Soups and Grains Kitchen, staring at the stranger in the mirror. Maybe the wig looked nice, but it was hot. It also smelled faintly musty, but it did the job.

  After I collected my food, I trudged back to the SUV. A police cruiser pulled in, parked haphazardly. The officer gave the SUV a long glance before going into the mart.

  I had planned to pull off to the side and eat, but I decided to move on immediately.

  Not that I had any cause to be afraid. Not now. After all those weeks alone in Corbin’s cabin, I knew that it was safe for me to come back. Rob had told me when I called him that morning from a rest area pay phone. I had been calling him twice a week, checking in on our father.

  “Are you sure?” I’d asked when he told me I was clear. I couldn’t help wondering if it was a trap.

  “You know I wouldn’t say so if I hadn’t checked it out myself.”

  “And you’re not being, I dunno, wiretapped or something?”

  My brother’s laugh sounded a little uncertain. “You’re really paranoid. Look, I don’t know what happened, but there’s no warrant for you now, and you’re not even wanted for questioning. Guess the mixup got fixed.” His voice turned darker. “Though I don’t get why you didn’t just come in and talk to them about it.”

  No, he didn’t know, and I would never tell him why I couldn’t sit in the sheriff’s office and answer questions. I wasn’t convinced of my ability to lie convincingly. What had happened to Zachary would stay between me and Corbin.

  Still, being even more paranoid than Rob suspected, I had put on my wig and fake glasses to drive several hours to a small town called Mill Falls. There I used a computer to look myself up. It was true—I was no longer wanted by the police. There was no trace of the warrant, either… it was like the whole thing had never happened.

  Stunned, I called the sheriff’s office and talked with Frances, who confirmed it. “I told them from the beginning that something was wrong with that,” she said. “You’re no criminal. It made no sense! The order must have come from on high.”

  On high? More like on Heigh. As in Henry Heigh. And that it had been fixed after three and a half weeks couldn’t be a coincidence.

  It meant that Corbin was back.

  So I waited another week at the cabin. Whenever I heard the slightest noise, I rushed outside, wanting to catch the first possible glimpse of him. But he didn’t appear. And I was very tired of living in the woods by myself.

  I left him a note on the kitchen table, sure that even if he hadn’t received my final text, he would eventually turn up at the cabin. I wasn’t worried that having destroyed the phone would keep us apart.

  Because he was Corbin, and he would find me. After all, it was what he did.

  I drove to my brother’s place and parked several blocks over, in a busy enough area that the SUV wouldn’t attract attention. I grabbed my clothing—all of which needed washing because going to the laundromat had been too nerve-wracking for me—and slipped out.

  No one was around. Perfect.

  I took the back way to Rob’s place, pulling off my wig and glasses as I went, and I buried them in with the dirty clothes.

  As I turned down Rob’s street, I noticed a square car, a man’s silhouette inside. Spooked that I was the victim of an elaborate trap, I slowed as I approached.

  Drawing closer, I realized it wasn’t just any man. It was Henry. Our eyes locked, and the hatred in his face stopped me cold. But he didn’t get out of the car.

  Instead, he held up his hand, miming a gun with his thumb and index finger.

  I froze.

  With a creepy smile, he pretended to shoot me, then blew smoke away from the barrel. He lowered his hand, settled back and stared at me until I walked into my brother’s condo.

  ~ ~ ~

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