Haley took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Surely if the black car had come upon the house, she would've heard something. It was not a stretch to think that since she was the one who took the pictures, that she was most likely the actual target of the attacks.
Haley decided to check the kitchen hoping to see some sign of what may have happened to Lucas. She had barely walked back into the living room when the front door opened.
"Good morning," Lucas greeted her.
"Oh my gosh, where have you been?” Haley realized she sounded ridiculous and tried to sound less hysterical. “I am sorry, I just didn’t know what to think when I couldn’t find you."
Lucas seemed puzzled. "I'm sorry. Did you not see the note I left in the kitchen?"
"Note?" Haley repeated.
"Yeah," he said moving into the kitchen with Haley right behind him. He picked up a piece of paper off the table and showed it to her. "See? Here it is."
"Oh." Haley gestured towards the living room. "I woke up and you weren’t in the living room or the kitchen so I thought you were in the bathroom. When you weren’t there either I got a little worried. I guess I am not really awake yet. Sorry."
Lucas shook his head. "It's okay. Don't be sorry. I probably should have put the note somewhere more conspicuous. I didn’t want to wake you though; you were sleeping so soundly. I wanted you to be able to sleep as long as you needed.”
It was not a surprise to Haley that she had been fast asleep. The storm had continued through the night, the wind blowing through the trees sounding like a mournful cry. It had taken her nearly an hour to fall asleep, and then she had slept fitfully, tossing and turning as she was plagued by bizarre dreams throughout the night.
The dreams had alternated between happy and upsetting. Horrible ones about the black car roaring towards them, suddenly the size of an Army tank. Other dreams were deceptively calm with Lucas being sweet and wonderful, having never left her years ago. Everything would be happy and wonderful until sunspots of reality would begin to burn the dream away and wake her, only for her to fall into yet another upsetting dream.
Even before the dreams, she had laid awake for quite a long time thinking about what Lucas had said. His suggestion of going to dinner had her wondering if he had been hinting at them going on a date, or was she was simply reading something else into his words. She couldn’t deny that she still had feelings for him, but at the same time, she couldn’t forget the way he had walked away four years ago.
“Where did you go?” Haley finally asked
“When I first got up I decided to look through the house again just in case I had missed a CB radio or phone that had been stored away.”
“Any luck?” Haley went back over to the couch and pulled off the blanket she had used during the night.
“No.” Lucas pointed at the table. “Although I did find some granola bars and a couple of bags of trail mix.”
“Well, that will be helpful. We burned through most of our food last night.” Haley glanced out the window. “Looks like the storm has cleared.”
“I think it blew itself out in the middle of the night. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if another storm blew through this afternoon.”
Haley set the pillows and folded blankets on the kitchen counter. “Hopefully, we will be in Sampson’s Quarry before then. Do you think that black car will still be looking for us?”
“I don’t know.” Lucas leaned against the counter. “At first, I just thought it was a random road rage incident. But with the black car coming after us and then hearing about Alice Hamilton...”
“Alexa,” Haley corrected him. Lucas looked confused and she added, “The missing woman, her name is Alexa Hamilton.”
“Alexa, right.” Lucas waved a hand. “Now it just seems a lot more complicated.”
"Are we convinced that this is somehow connected to Alexa Hamilton’s disappearance?"
"This all started after you took the pictures of the yellow car," Lucas replied.
"True. I managed to get the black car waiting in the parking lot too."
Lucas nodded. "And the red-haired woman getting out of the yellow car."
"Which kind of puts us right in the middle of this whole kidnapping thing."
“Do you think it was a kidnapping?” Lucas asked.
“You don’t? What else could it be?”
“I don’t know. In the photo you took, the red-haired woman doesn’t look particularly upset or worried to me. What do you think?”
“I don’t really see it either.” Haley scrunched up her face trying to remember. She snapped her fingers as it came back to her. “No, my first thought was that I was a little embarrassed because I felt like I had interrupted a romantic rendezvous.”
“But you didn’t see anyone else around?”
“No, it was just the feeling I had when she got out of the car.” Haley shrugged. “I suppose those details don’t really matter at this point. It won’t make any difference if the black car is still looking for us.”
“We will just have to do our best. We can’t stay holed up here for much longer.” Lucas pushed away from the counter.
“No, especially the way that you eat. I can be ready to go in about ten minutes and then we can walk back to the car. Hopefully, it’s still in one piece.” Haley tried not to think what could have happened to it overnight, especially if the driver of the black car had discovered where it was hidden.
“It’s totally fine.”
“What is? My car?”
“Yeah, I walked over and drove it back. That’s where I just came from.”
“How did you drive back here?”
Lucas pointed to a framed photo on the wall near the front door. “It’s an aerial view of this whole area. I was able to spot the place where we left the car. All I had to do was follow the gravel road to get back here.”
“Wow. I’m totally impressed.” Haley walked over to the photo. She touched a wide line off to the side. Is that what I think it is?”
“Yup. The highway. I’ve been trying to commit it all to memory.”
“You don’t have to. I can take care of that.”
“What? You have a photographic memory?”
“Well, you are half right. I have my digital camera in my backpack. I can take some shots of the aerial photo and we can refer to it at any time we want on the screen.”
"Genius!" Lucas exclaimed and then kissed her on the cheek with a loud smack.
Haley was so caught off guard that all she could think to say was, "Okay, yeah. I guess I'll go get my camera."
With Lucas's studying of the aerial photo and Haley's image on her digital camera, they were back on the highway headed to Sampson's Quarry nearly an hour later.
Haley was breathing a sigh of relief when Lucas surprised her by asking, "Tell me about this job you just quit."
"You know, I have been meaning to ask..." Haley started to say, trying to distract him by asking a question about Bri.
"And don't think I haven’t noticed that you've been avoiding the subject. I know you quit recently, but I'd like to know what you have been up to since I've been gone."
"I didn't think you noticed." Haley smiled. Lucas gave her a pointed look, letting her know that she wasn’t going to be able to weasel out of the conversation this time.
Haley sighed. "When I first came back to Fairview to help my mom, I got a job working in an office. At first, I was a receptionist and that was fine because I was just greeting people and answering the phones. After a while though, they wanted to promote me since I was doing such a good job. I didn’t really think much of it until I got moved into the back office. I spent most of my days in a room alone with no windows. It didn’t take long until I started to hate it."
"No doubt. That sounds awful."
"It was pretty awful, I agree with that." Haley tried to think of something else to say to head the conversation off, but nothing was coming to mind and she decided to just come clean. "So, after I ha
d worked there a year or so, I decided to find something else."
"Change can be a good thing."
Haley tried not to cringe as she started to explain, "I got a job at the Fairview Family Portrait Studio."
Haley expected Lucas to make a dismissive comment but all he said was, "Oh, that's great. I'm glad that you are still into photography."
Haley had been ready to defend her reasons for working at a crappy photo studio. Irritation that she had built up had nowhere to go, causing her response to come out a little more forceful than she planned. "Thank you."
Lucas gave her a funny look. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," Haley said, feeling so foolish that she ended up laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, I was feeling a little embarrassed about telling you that I had been working at a portrait studio while you were off traveling the world.” Haley had thought about it so many times. “It’s not much of a comparison. You were photographing exotic places while I was taking pictures of the Sullivan family and their new golden retriever."
Lucas glanced at the rearview mirror and then back to the road in front of them. "Ah, the Sullivans. How many retrievers do they have now? Three? Four?”
"It’s four now, and I really shouldn’t complain. The sitting with their new puppy was the most fun I have had in a long time." Haley laughed. “I had to schedule it at nearly closing time so that no one would know. Vicki had a fit when she found out that I had done a pet session. It was worth it though.”
"That’s good." Lucas glanced over at her and said, “I'm sorry that you were embarrassed to tell me about your job. I hope I didn’t do anything to make you feel that way.”
He sounded so heartfelt and sad that Haley felt like a complete jerk. “No, Lucas. It’s all my fault. I think it was jealousy on my part. You had the dream job while I was working this crappy job dealing with tired kids and rude parents.”
“I saw some great places and met some amazing people, but it wasn’t all fun. It was tiring just finding food and water that was edible and a safe place to sleep. Exotic locales usually mean third world countries with a lot of crime. It was a great experience, don’t get me wrong, but I was tired and dirty, and missed my family and friends every day.”
“You don’t have to explain. This is completely my fault. It was easier to act like you were the problem rather than admit that I needed to make some changes.”
“What would you want to do?” Lucas checked his mirrors again and then said, “I could talk to Mitchell at the magazine. They are almost always looking for more photographers. I mean I would hate to have you leave right when I got back, but if it’s your dream job then you should go for it.”
“No, that’s okay.”
“I hope I didn’t discourage you with what I just said. It really was an amazing job and you wouldn’t necessarily be traveling through Third World countries. It’s more likely that they’d send you to Europe or Australia.”
“I wouldn’t mind traveling at some point, but it’s not my dream job.” Hailey shifted in her seat to turn toward him a little more. “I’d like to open my own studio, where I could do something more creative than back-to-school photos and Christmas cards, like pet sessions and outdoor shoots.”
“That sounds great. What’s stopping you?”
“I don’t know. Nothing. Everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Money, of course, is the biggest issue, but I haven’t really done any research into any of it. It always felt like it was a sometime in the future sort of thing.”
“Why not now?”
“I don’t know.” Haley shrugged. “I guess I can’t imagine where I would open up a studio in Fairview.”
“Hmmm,” Lucas said, his eyes on the rearview mirror again.
“What’s wrong?” Haley turned to look through the back window. Far off in the distance, she could see a car driving behind them. “Do you think that’s the black car?”
“Not sure. It’s been back there for a while. Could be the black car or just another car on the highway. I’ve been keeping an eye on it.”
“For all we know, it could be the black car or the same guy in a different car.” Haley felt herself starting to panic and willed herself to stay calm. She kind of hated that Lucas seemed so cool and composed, while she was grateful to him at the same time. She knew that panicking would not help either of them. “What do we do?”
“Nothing yet.”
“Sorry if I’m asking so many questions,” Haley said. “I just hate being helpless and having to wait to see what’s going to happen next.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m the one who should be sorry.”
“Well this certainly isn’t your fault,” Haley responded. “I was the one who took the stupid photos.”
“No, I’m sorry about what happened before I left Fairview, four years ago.”
Haley couldn’t believe he decided to bring that up while they were together in the car, possibly fleeing for their lives. “No, it’s fine. You don’t have to…”
“I know I don’t have to say anything, but I want to. I need to explain. Please hear me out, okay?”
Haley wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear any of it, but she had no choice but to let him talk. “Okay.”
“I acted like a complete idiot, a heartless jerk, and I am truly sorry."
When he paused Haley nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
Lucas let out a long breath and said, “You scared the heck out of me. I’ve never had a relationship go from friendship to attraction to such an all-encompassing affection so quickly, and it was completely frightening. There was so much that I wanted to do and I was afraid that being tied to somebody would keep me from following my dreams. “
Haley was furious. She turned back around to face forward, her voice hard as steel. “And somehow you actually thought that I would stand in your way? I would never have made you choose between me and your dreams. That is complete crap, and you know it.”
Lucas held up his hands. “I know, I know. I was scared and stupid. The worst part was that I was afraid I might lose you as a friend if we dated and broke up. There was part of me that thought I was being noble.”
Haley snorted. “How did that work out for you?”
“It was awful. There wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t want to kick my own backside for what I did." Lucas paused as he changed lanes. “I tried writing you but I didn’t know what to say. I even called you a couple of times but I always ended up going to your voice mail and I didn’t know what to say.”
“Yeah, I blocked your number on my phone.” Haley remembered how hurt and embarrassed she had been. “It was childish of me, but I didn’t know what to think. Everything seemed so wonderful the night of Bri’s party and then you just disappeared.”
“I was a complete jerk. It took some time but I realized that I was clearly not mature enough for any sort of a relationship.”
Brushing off her pant leg she said, “Thank you for explaining after all this time, but you know I got over it a long time ago."
Lucas thought about that for a moment and then said, “That’s too bad because I never did.”
“You never did what?”
“Get over it.”
Haley’s breath caught, and while she rejoiced at hearing that he still cared, she couldn’t help but remember how she had felt years ago.
“I would like to make it all up to you. Do you think you could give me another chance?” Lucas held up a hand. “I don’t want you to answer now. I don’t want you to look back and think that I took advantage of this situation. I just want you to think about it.”
Haley knew he was right, but she hated him talking like that. “I wouldn’t think that.”
“Will you think about it, at least?” He said and she felt the car accelerate.
She looked back to see the car that had been in the distance gaining on them. “You think you are ready for a relationship no
w?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Let’s survive this and then we’ll talk.” Haley picked up the GPS. “Should I look for somewhere to turn off so we can try to hide?”
“We can’t, Haley.”
“What? Why?”
Their eyes met and Haley was scared by the utter regret in his eyes. “We are almost out of gas.”
10
Haley had completely forgotten that they had not filled up the gas tank at the general store. They had driven so much on the narrow forest roads, she was somewhat surprised that they hadn’t already run out of gas. Then a picture of Lucas holding the GPS popped into her head. “What about the gas station that you mentioned yesterday?”
Lucas grimaced. “I think we passed it about ten miles back.”
Haley groaned.
“I know. I didn’t think it was a good idea to even try it. What if the gas station was closed? I didn’t want to run the risk of the driver of the black car cornering us somewhere, not to mention wasting even more gas.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Haley took a couple of deep breaths hoping she wouldn’t hyperventilate. “So, what’s the plan?”
“We’ll just have to try to outrun him. If we are lucky there will be more cars the closer we get to Sampson’s Quarry. I am counting on the idea that he’ll be less likely to do anything dangerous with other cars around.”
“That makes sense.” Haley looked down the road searching for any other cars.
“I don’t think he can afford any more witnesses.”
“Clearly not, considering this is how we got involved.” Haley still had the GPS in her hands and she started looking on the map for the closest town or even a park information center, anywhere that there might be people. “How long do you think we have before we run out of gas?”
“I don’t know.” Lucas said, his eyes suddenly darting to the rearview mirror. “I don’t think it’s going to come down to that.”
The Road to Sampson's Quarry (A Sampson's Quarry Mystery - Book One) Page 7