Their gazes met for an instant, Padma’s reflecting Lisette’s uncertainty. Could they lose them? The car was reliable transportation, purchased more for its good mileage than its engine. The SUV was big enough and powerful enough to roll right over them if the driver so chose, leaving nothing but mangled bodies in flattened metal.
For all the teasing, though, Padma was a good driver, and going fast and wild came naturally to her. What seemed risky and reckless to others was business as usual for her.
Before Lisette could choose an answer, a roar sounded behind them, then she and Padma were thrown forward with surprising force. The seat belt caught, burning Lisette’s shoulder, and her ribs ached as she braced herself with both legs and hands. She thought she made a choked sound but wasn’t sure, since her lungs were resisting her effort to force air into them.
“They hit us!” Padma shrieked, fighting to control the car. With cars stopped ahead of them for a red light, she slammed on the brakes and jerked the steering wheel hard to the left, spinning the car a complete 180 degrees and still pulling as hard as she could. “Those idiots hit my car!”
“Go,” Lisette croaked, still strangled for air. “Go, go, go, go!”
The car fishtailed before the tires found traction, squealing as Padma accelerated. Lisette turned to see the SUV driver try the same maneuver, but his vehicle was too big. He drove over the curb, skidded on the grass and plowed over a street sign before bumping back into the street, heedless of traffic. She imagined she heard the big engine even over angry horns and struggling brakes when he straightened and pointed the vehicle at them again.
“Here.” Padma thrust her phone at Lisette.
“Who do you want me to call?”
“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe the police?”
Of course. Hands trembling, Lisette punched in 911. All her life, she’d been taught to be unflappable under pressure—and to stay away from the police—but on this Saturday from hell, all her unflappability was gone. Her entire body shook, and when the dispatcher came on the line, so did her voice. She reported their location, the SUV following them, crashing into them and now chasing them, and gave a great shudder of relief when the operator said officers were on their way. The wail of a siren a few seconds later allowed her to take the first deep breath since the moment of impact.
The patrol car hauled past in the opposite direction, lights flashing, siren piercing the air. A second car joined it, both of them closing in on the SUV, which made a sudden turn onto a narrow side street. The cars followed while more sirens sounded nearby.
Padma slowed for an upcoming intersection, easing into the right-turn lane. More police cars flew through the intersection, some going south to follow the suspects, others turning east to presumably try to block them from exiting the neighborhood they’d entered. “Though we called, I really don’t want to actually talk to them. Do you?”
“No.” Too many lame or half answers always yielded more questions, along with suspicion and distrust. She didn’t want the police in the city where they lived to think they had something to hide.
While Padma drove like a law-abiding citizen, Lisette dug out her own cell phone. “I wonder if Jack’s met with Candalaria already. If he hasn’t—”
“He shouldn’t.” Padma’s brows knit. “Tell him it’s gotten dangerous. Tell him they hit my car.”
The whine reminded Lisette of herself that morning—I fell off a cliff! Her smile was tough to pull together, though, and it didn’t last long. She located Jack’s cell number and dialed it, praying he would answer.
Her heart stuttered when it went to voice mail. “Jack, it’s Lisette. Call me, please. It’s important.”
Padma leaned across the car. “They hit my car!” Once again she wagged an admonishing finger. “A crisis is no time to be calm and cool. You’ve got to get your point across.”
Wishing she’d heard Jack’s reassuring voice instead of the canned message, Lisette wondered what the hell to do next.
* * *
Jack took his time getting to Rory’s, the bar David had chosen for their meeting. David was as punctual as a second hand on a finely made timepiece. Tardiness in others drove him nuts, and of course Jack liked to drive him nuts.
Stopping on the next block down from Rory’s, he scanned the vehicles outside, particularly the three SUVs right in front. With the tinted windows, it was impossible to tell whether they were occupied. His best guess was yes: at least two bodyguards inside the bar with their boss, one waiting in each of the trucks.
When a Humvee blasting music pulled up behind him, he made a quick right turn before the driver could blow the horn. A drive around the block showed no more suspicious vehicles—and also no way to enter Rory’s without walking right past the guards.
“You’re really not made to be a pirate, Jack. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Actually, he was sure he didn’t want to. Since getting off the phone with Simon, he’d had a bad feeling in his gut. Maybe it had been sneaking off without Lisette, or Padma’s uncharacteristically sober warning. Maybe Simon’s psychopath comment had sounded like less a joke and more reality. Maybe Jack really was a coward, or he had better sense than people gave him credit for, but the meeting didn’t feel like his best decision ever, and he already got enough ribbing about his bad decisions.
“Okay.” He parked around the corner on the side street, out of sight of the bodyguards. He’d give himself a pep talk if he thought it would matter, but it wouldn’t. He was going to force himself through the next however many minutes: one step, one word, one threat at a time.
He was about to walk away from the pickup when he remembered his cell phone. He took it from the charger and was surprised to see a missed call from Lisette listed on the screen. He’d had music on, not that loud, but the combination of nerves and dread had been a pretty potent distraction.
Instead of retrieving her message, he called her. She sounded breathless but fairly normal. “You guys find a hotel for the next few nights?”
“Um, we had a bit of a problem with that,” she answered, followed immediately by Padma’s irate voice. “They hit my car!”
The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. “Who hit what?”
“Someone in a gray SUV followed us, rear-ended the car, then tried to chase us down.”
Damn. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, just shaken.”
“Shaken, hell,” Padma muttered. “I want my mom.”
“We, um, aren’t used to this sort of thing,” Lisette said, her voice cracking. “We don’t know what to do.”
Jack wasn’t used to it, either, but there was always one place problems couldn’t follow. All he had to do was get the women to the airport. The problem of David wasn’t going to magically disappear, but they would have help in figuring out a plan of action, and they would be untouchable until then.
“Where are you now?”
“At the Presbyterian/St. Luke’s parking garage. We thought it was safer to get off the streets, and Padma’s father’s on staff, so we came here.”
“Okay, good.” Jack slid back into the driver’s seat, made a U-turn and left the area. “Tell me how to find you.”
She gave easy directions, waiting until he’d reached point A before trying to send him to point B.
“I’m coming to you, then we’ll get a cab. They’ll be looking for your vehicle, not a taxi.”
“And where will we go?”
“Doesn’t it seem like a good time to spend a few days down south? Warm water, sunshine, cool breezes, beautiful art...”
She was silent a moment, broken by an audible swallow. “Where south? The Florida Keys? Cozumel? Jamaica?”
“Why would I take you to any of those islands when my own is just a little farther?”
It was just a f
ew hours ago that he’d told her outsiders were rarely allowed on the island. Was she considering that, wondering if the invitation meant something, if it was more than mere protection from David? After all, he could fly her anywhere in the world and hire enough security to be equally safe. He didn’t have to take her—them, he reminded himself; Padma, too—to his private ancestral home.
But he wanted to.
“Don’t we need our passports?”
“There are ways to get around that. And I’m at the intersection you said.”
She gave him a direction and distance to the next landmark, then her voice became more distant. He imagined her turning in the car seat to face Padma. “You want to check out the water situation on a Caribbean island for yourself?”
“Yes! Oh, crap, no, I can’t take off work right now. The deadline for my grant proposal is coming up. But we don’t get to travel that often without paying for it ourselves because we run on donations, and that would be so cool to learn firsthand. And I can work while I’m gone. My computer may be smashed, but I’ve got my tablet in my bag, and I—”
Lisette interrupted her, used to her meandering. “We’d be grateful for the break. You should see the hospital campus by now. We’re on the third level of the garage. Drive slowly, and Padma will honk the horn when we see you.”
“Okay. I’m turning in now.” The garage wasn’t made for oversize vehicles, so any speed besides slow wasn’t an option. Appreciative that there wasn’t much traffic this late in the day, he followed the narrow lane up to the second level, then the third.
With the echo of Padma’s honk fading, he stopped behind them and got out, blinkers flashing. The women met him at the trunk, lifting out suitcases, tote bags and coats. “Wow, this was all for two nights away?”
“We believe in being prepared.” Lisette grimaced when she lifted her bag. He pulled it from her hand, took Padma’s, too, and stowed them in the backseat of the truck.
Buckled in again and waiting for them to settle, he studied the damage to the car. There was some crunching and broken plastic around the right taillight. Part of the bumper was missing, and the trunk, though operational, was crumpled. David’s people hadn’t been trying to hurt them, he suspected. Yet.
“Not so bad. It doesn’t look like your airbags even deployed.”
“What?” Padma leaned forward from the rear seat, mouth gaping. “I was so terrified, I didn’t notice! That rotten dealer sold me a car with broken airbags!” She slumped back. “Oh, they are in so much trouble. Sell me a car with no airbags...”
Lisette’s smile was sweet and indulgent. Though there was no blood between them, their relationship went beyond best friends to family of the best kind. He understood because he and Simon were the same way. They didn’t see each other as often as they should, but they were still best everythings.
“It’s good they didn’t hit you harder.” He directed the quiet comment to Lisette as he shifted into gear and continued up the incline.
“I think their goal was to scare us.”
“Or to stop the car so they could take you.” He spoke without thinking, felt the sudden stillness in the air and glanced at her. Her expression was stark, making him apologetic. “David’s threatening you to get to me. If I was meeting with him, then I couldn’t be with you. Having a hostage would certainly give him the upper hand. It was an ideal time for him to make his next move.”
When her mouth turned up in a faint smile, surprise raised his brows. “Instead, it became an ideal time, while they’re waiting for you, for us to make a run for it.”
He smiled, too. “Exactly what I was thinking. Can you call a cab and have them meet us a couple floors up? Offer them an extra thousand if they get here quickly. I’ll alert the pilot that we’re on our way.” While dialing the pilot’s cell, he made a mental note to send the truck’s location to the rental company and to ask the hotel to send his belongings to the island. He would let Simon know they were coming, too, so his friend could gloat about being right, and...
He couldn’t think of anything else. All they had to do was reach the airport unscathed, and within minutes, they would be out of Denver. Out of David’s reach. Home. Safe.
At least, for a while.
Chapter 8
The trip to the airport was the most uncomfortable one of Lisette’s life. Sharing the cab’s backseat with her, Padma gazed out the window, a glum look reflected in the glass. Was it finally hitting home with her, all that had gone wrong today? She’d started out with such excitement about—
“Ooh, how did you do in the quadcopter games?”
Padma’s brows drew together, then a smile burst across her face. “We kicked their butts. The guys took the trophy and my copter home with them to do a little tune-up on it. It’s good to be team leader.” After a moment, she asked, “How was the rock climbing? I mean, besides falling.”
“It’s better climbing with someone who knew what he was doing, truly enjoyed it and had enough confidence for both of us.”
Padma raised her voice to carry. “Jack has enough confidence for twenty people. That’s one of the perks of being Prince Charming.”
He grinned at them over his shoulder but didn’t interrupt his conversation with the cabdriver. He had a few unconfident moments, Lisette had seen for herself, and she liked him more for them. They made him seem more...
She couldn’t say accessible. He was friendly, open, traveled by himself without the squads of bodyguards he could easily justify. He was nice. Interested in others. He didn’t give the sense that he was slumming, didn’t let on that his everyday life was so privileged and luxurious that she could imagine it only because of the glimpses she’d gotten on the job.
His moments made him less a rich man, more a man.
“Can you believe we’re going to Île des Deux Saints?” Padma whispered. Plan A hadn’t included her in the trip; she was supposed to stay home and provide long-distance support. Between Lisette’s faulty choices, Jack’s sense of right and David’s violence, there wasn’t going to be much that was usual about this job.
And there was no need now for sex. The whole point of the seduction was to get Jack to take her to the island. Once she set foot there, the hard part was over. All that remained was not to fall into bed with him, thwart their security and escape with Le Mystère.
It was for the best, after all. She’d been willing to sleep with Jack to get what she needed, and she would have felt bad about it. Sex with Jack deserved to be so much more than that.
So why did that relief feel so much like regret? Because she hadn’t had a date in months? Because she hadn’t had sex in even longer? Because she’d entertained fantasies about how handsome he was, and nice, and interesting, and sexy, and the body, damn, to make those fantasies steam? Because she liked him? Because once this time with him was over, there would never be another chance?
Her sigh was soft, but Padma understood, squeezing her hand again. “It’ll work out okay. You and I have a knack for that, you know. We’ve tempted fate a million times, and yet here we are.”
“Don’t be feeling too smug yet. You’ve still got to call your parents, tell them someone broke into the house and rammed into your car, and that now you’ve taken off on a spur-of-the-moment trip to the Caribbean with me and a man you’ve known twenty-four hours.”
Padma’s expression morphed into dismay. “Thank you for reminding me of that. But I also get to call my boss and tell him that I’m doing on-site research on the islands’ drought conditions at no expense to us. He’ll be so amazed at my good karma that he’ll make me team leader next time.”
When it came to confidence, Padma could match Jack one-to-one.
The roar of a jet engine overhead drew Lisette’s gaze out the window. Denver International spread out, with more traffic, people and planes than she wanted to fac
e in one location. The cabdriver continued past the signs for the passenger terminal, curving around the property until at last he made a turn into a less chaotic area.
A lone plane stood on the tarmac, sleek and powerful. The airliners she was used to compared as favorably to it as a tricycle to a Tesla. The air stairs were down, and a man in uniform stood next to them. The engines were already running. By now, Candalaria had realized Jack wasn’t coming to the meeting. He’d probably sent his thugs out to look for him, and the airport must be high on their list of places to look.
Getting out of the car, she turned in a slow circle, searching for anything that seemed out of place. Since she was the main thing out of place, she gave up and turned to find Jack reaching for her arm. “Do you think... Never mind. I don’t want to know.” She softened her words with a smile as he and the cabdriver hustled them to the plane, Jack escorting her and Padma, the driver hauling the luggage.
Another man stood just inside the cabin at the top of the stairs, nodding politely. He directed them to the middle of the plane, where Padma spun gleefully. “Aw, man, it’s gonna be hard to go back to flying coach after this.”
“It won’t be so hard when you have no choice.” Lisette chose a plush leather seat and sank into its comforting depths with a silent ahh. Padma chose an identical chair across the aisle. There was room to stretch out their legs without menacing another passenger, or to curl up and sleep without folding into pretzels. Not that that would be necessary, since a sofa several feet longer than they were tall lined the wall farther back.
The rich were different.
She’d enjoy it while she could, because every job ended eventually.
Had Deux Saints changed since her parents’ time? Twenty-seven years ago, it had been so oppressive, and Marley’s and Levi’s desire for freedom so strong, they’d risked their lives to achieve it. Her father had died for it. Her mother almost had.
And the direction of Lisette’s life had been chosen before she’d even taken a breath.
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