One Night In Reno

by Brewer, Rogenna

  #

  They’d decided to drive straight through to San Diego after the wedding and were making good time. He’d gotten off I-5, taking the 405 around LA and skipping over to the Pacific Coast Highway to give Jen her first glimpse of the ocean at night. The closer they got to home the more he wanted to break through her silence.

  Garrett didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts right now. He’d tried making his call, again. He’d gotten the same, we’re sorry...your number had been disconnected message. That could mean only one of two things...

  His house had burned to the ground. Or Tess had followed through on her threat to leave him. He’d broken down and used his cell phone to leave a message on hers.

  He clicked a country station on low. Josh had filled the void with his nonstop chatter until he’d fallen asleep. His wife of less than ten hours stared out the window at the night shrouded California coastline.

  Checking the headlights in the rearview mirror, he switched to the far right lane. “Josh ever been to Disneyland?” he asked as they passed another sign for the amusement park.

  “No. I’ve never been either.”

  “We’ll have to make a point to go sometime.”

  “That would be nice.”

  He checked the side view mirror. The headlights stayed right behind him. “Now would be a good time to tell me who or what you’re running from.” He shifted his gaze from the road to her. “We’ve picked up a tail.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “What?” Jenny swiveled in her seat to get a good look at the only other car on their stretch of road. “Maybe he wants to pass. Let him pass,” she pleaded as the bright lights came right up on their bumper.

  The highway narrowed to two lanes up ahead. With peeling tires, the SUV pulled up along the driver’s side. Between the tinted windows on both vehicles, she couldn’t see into the other car. “Nobody I know could afford a new car like that.”

  Except, of course, her new husband. Her husband.

  It could be a rental.

  “Slow down,” she urged, squeezing his thigh as he negotiated a curve. Headlights from a big rig rounded the bend.

  Garrett slowed. So did the SUV. Without warning, the other car banked a hard right into the Bronco. Her seat belt grabbed. Tires squealed. Metal scraped. Crumpled.

  Garrett swore under his breath as he hit the brakes. Buster yelped as she got bounced around in back. Josh woke up with a strangled, “Mom?” The Bronco spun out onto a wide sandy pullout, a breath away from the rocky precipice below. The SUV passed to the right of the trucker with his blaring horn, and kept on going.

  When her heart jump-started again, Jenny collapsed back against her seat. “Oh, my God.”

  “Is everyone all right?” Garrett asked.

  “What happened?” Josh asked, fully awake now.

  “We’ve been in an accident.” Garrett picked up his cell phone from the console. For several seconds he hesitated. “Is there any reason I shouldn’t call the authorities?”

  Jenny met his gaze, but broke eye contact before shaking her head.

  The trucker had pulled off the road and ran back across the highway to offer his assistance. He stuck around long enough to give the California Highway Patrol a statement. The officers that arrived on the scene chalked the whole incident up to road rage. Road Rage.

  After everyone left, Garrett continued accessing the damage to his Bronco. Which was bad, but could have been much worse.

  “I’m so sorry about your car.” Jenny rounded the hood to his side.

  “What do you have to be sorry about?” He stood there with the wind at his back and the roar of the ocean below as if he expected her to have an answer to that question.

  “I just meant it’s new--”

  “Insurance will cover it,” he cut her off with a wave of the papers in his hand. “I guess it’s a good thing all my policies are up to date.” His normal easy manner seemed forced and his words only served to remind her why he’d married her in the first place.

  “I suppose you’re wishing you’d never met us.”

  “I’m not wishing that at all.”

  She felt the familiar pang she’d come to associate with hunger, an emptiness that needed to be filled. But this time in the form of an unfamiliar longing. She wished she knew what he was thinking. She didn’t dare ask.

  “I’m wishing you’d trust me.” He responded as if reading her mind.

  #

  They drove the rest of the way to San Diego in silence. Garrett pulled up to his beach view bungalow well after midnight to find lights on inside his half of the duplex and a U-haul parked in the driveway. He got out of his car just as Tess stepped out his front door with her arms loaded. He was sure he’d heard an expletive before she’d dropped the box. She probably thought with him gone to NAS Fallon for two weeks training she’d make a clean get away. He rushed over to help her pick up the stuff that spilled.

  “I’m taking the webcam,” she declared.

  “Okay,” he agreed, putting it back into the box.

  “Okay?” She pushed to her feet and placed her hands on her hips. “Ask me to stay!”

  He pushed to his feet more slowly. “Stay.”

  “Say it like you mean it.”

  He hesitated. “Things are complicated right now, Tess. But I do mean it.”

  “If only.” She shook her head sadly, and then kissed him full on the mouth. "It’s over, Itch,” she murmured against his lips. “It’s been over for awhile it’s just that neither of us would admit it.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Jenny, meet Lois,” Jenny mumbled underneath her breath. Great, she shifted in the passenger seat. Her husband had a live-in, who appeared to be moving out and he didn’t seem too thrilled about it. Something else Jenny could feel guilty about.

  She looked away to give them privacy.

  “Mom,” Josh said from the backseat. “I gotta go pee.”

  “Can you hold it just a few more minutes, hon?”

  “I gotta go bad. Buster has to go, too.” He stressed the urgency of the matter. “Why is that lady kissing Garrett?”

  Jenny almost sprained her neck trying to get a clear view around the U-Haul truck at the woman kissing her husband. A husband she’d never kissed. And wasn’t likely to. So why should his kissing another woman bother her?

  “Let’s go find a bathroom,” she said, unloading Josh and Buster from the back. “I’m sorry,” Jenny apologized to Garrett as they approached his front door. “We need to use your facilities.”

  “Of course,” he said, nodding toward the house. “It’s unlocked.”

  “Another damsel in distress, Itch?” The other woman raised a sculpted brow.

  “Tess, this is Jenny, my wife. And her son Josh.”

  “Jenny, Tess. My fiancée.”

  “Ex-fiancée.” Tess stressed.

  Garrett took a deep breath. This was not how he wanted their engagement to end. He’d been trying to salvage the relationship, not destroy it. Although, he had to admit getting married to another woman was probably not the best way to go about it. The women exchanged tight smiles as Jenny ushered Josh and the dog inside.

  “Here.” Tess bent to pick up the box of electronics and shoved it at him. “Take back your webcam. Take it all back as a wedding present from me.” Removing the engagement ring he’d given her three years ago at Christmas, she dropped it in the box and left him standing on his front stoop.

  “Tess!” He followed her to the U-Haul.

  She climbed into the truck, slammed the door and rolled down the window. “I can’t compete with that.” She nodded toward the house.

  “What competition?”

  “You’re a single mom magnet. You couldn’t save your own mother--”

  “Tess,” he warned. “This is a temporary arrangement.”

  “Don’t kid yourself, Itch. What we had was temporary. You couldn’t commit to a wedding date after three years, yet married a total stranger in a week
end.” She turned the engine over. “I’m just sorry this ends without the break-up sex. So excuse me while I hunt down your best friend.”

  “You don’t even like my friends, remember?” That she couldn’t make time to socialize with his kind had been another point of contention in a contentious year in which they couldn’t agree on anything outside the bedroom.

  “Then I guess any SEAL will do. What’s the name of that bar where you’re always hanging out?”

  “Manny’s Dive,” he said, knowing she didn’t mean it.

  “I’m not your plus one anymore, Itch. You’re now a plus two. And neither of us is as upset about this latest development as we should be.” She reached for some papers on the seat beside her. “Yes, I got your message. Next time you want a background check on your wife ask someone else.” She handed over the information he’d requested on Jenny. “I can’t tell you how pissed I am you put your security clearance on the line by marrying a fugitive.”

  He flipped through the pages, and then back to the All Points Bulletin placed on top. “Says here she’s just a person of interest.”

  “I did a little digging. After both Jenny and the owner/manager failed to report for work on Friday, a coworker from the Little Eagle Lodge was dispatched to their respective homes in the same trailer park. The coworker found blood and a bloody hammer in Ms. Albright’s home. Bank records indicate she cleared out her bank account that morning. There’s no trace of the missing boss, Abdul Bari Kahn, AKA Barry. He is, however, on a terrorist watch list. I was lucky to nab jurisdiction ahead of the FBI and Homeland Security.”

  “He’s not missing. He tried to run us off the road tonight.”

  Tess took down the details of the earlier encounter. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t haul her in tonight?”

  “It’s our wedding night?”

  “Funny man.” Tess sighed heavily. “I said a good reason.”

  “Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? She’s wanted for questioning, nothing more. I promise to bring her by your office first thing in the morning.”

  #

  “

  Mom, look.” Josh poked his head through the doggie door. “Buster has her own door.”

  The open floor plan allowed Jenny to stand in the living room and see into the kitchen. “Would you, please, get in here?”

  Josh crawled in through the back door and then called for Buster to follow him inside. He’d been all over the small two bedroom house marveling at each new discovery. Which included a recently cleared out bedroom. Jenny had given up on trying to listen to the raised voices outside. When the voices had faded into the distance, she’d steeled herself against pushing aside the drapes for a peek. It wasn’t any of her business why it was taking them so long to kiss and make up. It’s not like it was her fault she'd stepped into the middle of their break up.

  Just like it wasn’t her fault they’d been run off the road?

  That might be her fault.

  Jenny couldn’t even begin to explain her relief when the door opened and Garrett stepped through it alone. “I’m so sorry,” she started to apologize. “I had no idea you were involved with someone or I never would have agreed to marry you. I think the sooner we get an annulment the better.”

  She’d rushed through the words in a single breath. Her chest squeezed tight as she waited for his response.

  He set the box of electronics on a nearby computer desk and stooped down to give Buster a scratch behind the collar. “Is that what you want, an annulment?”

  The question caught Jenny completely off guard. “It’s not a question of what I want, but what’s right.”

  “What’s an annulment?” Josh asked.

  “Sorry, hon. Adult conversation.” Jenny plucked him from the spinning stool and he wrapped his legs around her waist. “I’ll explain it to you later. Mommy needs to talk to Garrett right now.” She looked to Garrett. “Would you mind if we got our things so I could put Josh to bed?”

  “But I’m not tired,” Josh interjected.

  “You will be,” Garrett said. “We’ve got stuff to do tomorrow.”

  “Like what? Swimming?”

  “Swimming and finding you a bed. Tonight you have to sleep on an old Army cot, okay? Do you like camping?”

  The boy had to think about it for a minute. “Do I like camping, Mom?”

  “We’ve never been camping.”

  “I like camping.” Josh decided. Though Jenny knew it had more to do with liking Garrett and the things he liked.

  “I’ll go get our stuff.” Garrett whistled for Buster and the pup followed him out front. He returned after two loads and a trip to the garage for a cot. “You and Josh can sleep in my room tonight. We’ll figure out a more permanent arrangement tomorrow.”

  Yeah, like her and Josh leaving.

  CHAPTER TEN

  It took awhile to get Josh settled and into bed. When Jenny stepped out of the master bedroom Garrett was at his computer with Buster sitting by his feet. “Would you mind? Josh is asking if the dog can camp out with him.”

  “No, I don’t mind. Go,” he said to the beagle and pointed.

  Jenny closed the bedroom door behind the dog and continued down the hall toward him. “How’d you get her to do that?”

  “We’ve been working on some things,” he said, getting up from his computer desk and moving to the kitchen. “Is this going to be an all-nighter? Should I put on a pot of coffee?”

  It took her a minute to realize he was talking about the discussion she wanted to have with him and not a night of something else. “No.” She shook her head in answer to both questions.

  Coffee would just keep her awake. Not that she was going to get any sleep. Now that the time had come to talk, she couldn’t seem to find the right words. “Tess seemed upset.”

  What an inane and stupid thing to say. She didn’t want to bring up his ex.

  “If Tess was upset there’d be four letter words and shooting.”

  “She’s in the military?”

  He chuckled. “So that’s your opinion of the military? No, Tess is all civilian. Though she’s with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.”

  “NCIS? Like on TV? Your ex is a cop?”

  “Special Investigator. You have nothing to worry about unless you’re a spy, terrorist or criminal threat to the Navy and Marine Corps. Are you a threat to the Navy or Marine Corps?”

  “I don’t think so,” she said, slipping onto a stool while he made coffee. “But I might be in trouble. And I don’t want to get you in trouble along with me.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  She tucked her hands between her thighs. “I hit my manager over the head with a hammer. I didn’t kill him,” she was quick to add. “At least I don’t think so. I think he may have tried to run us off the road.”

  He didn’t seem shocked by her confession. “I’m sure you had your reasons.”

  “I burned dinner—sorry, but you should also know you married a terrible cook. The smoke alarm didn’t go off. So I got up there to change the battery. When I realized it hid some sort of mini cam, I freaked out. To think that creep was watching me and Josh in our own home…” She shivered. “I put the spy cam on the table and smashed it with a hammer I’d been using to hang pictures.”

  “Barry came running over—because he’s also my landlord and neighbor—he stormed the door, ‘Jenny, Jenny it’s not what you think! Security only, security!’ Of course, I didn’t believe him. I screamed at him. He’s tried to shut me up by putting his hands on me. He’s a pretty fit guy. I knew if he got hold of me I wasn’t going to get away—”

  “And that’s when you hit him with the hammer?”

  She sucked in her breath. If felt good to let it go. “And that’s when I hit him with the hammer.”

  Garrett came around to her side of the island. “Why didn’t you go to the police?”

  “I thought I’d killed him. There was blood. He wasn’t moving. I wasn’t
thinking. I just grabbed Josh and loaded up the car. I went back inside and grabbed the smashed mini cam, but then Barry was coming around and I didn’t want to be there when he woke up. I just wanted to get away. I figured he wouldn’t go to the police, not if I had evidence and he had to explain himself.”

  “You still should have gone to the police.”

  “I know, I know. But by that time I was on the road to Grand Junction. My car broke down. I didn’t have any money until it rolled over to midnight and my payday hit the bank. Then I realized I had no job and no home to go back to. I just felt overwhelmed.”

  She implored with her eyes.

  “Still have that evidence?”

  She nodded.

  He held her gaze as he dropped his forehead to hers. “Tomorrow you’re going to tell Tess everything you just told me.”

  Jenny closed her eyes and nodded. Was it so terrible to want to kiss her husband right now?

  #

  Garrett woke up on the couch several hours later to find Josh staring at him. It was still dark outside and it took him a minute to orient himself. He propped himself up. “What time is it?”

  The little boy shrugged. Garrett looked at his phone. Just after 4 o’clock in the morning. Which meant he’d had exactly two hours of sleep.

  “I can’t find Buster.”

  “I’m sure she’s around. Probably just off exploring her new surroundings.”

  Josh shook his head. “I checked everywhere. Even the backyard.”

  “The backyard?”

  Josh pointed to the doggie door.

  Wide-awake now, Garrett sat up and threw off his covers. He heard Jenny padding down the hall toward them in her bare feet and turned to look. She wore low-slung pajama pants and a midriff revealing tank top.

  “What’s going on?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  “Josh can’t find Buster.”

  She crossed her arms over her breasts.