“Ouch!” I stare at the road signs. “Is everything here opposite? The metric system, driving on the wrong side of the road, people talking funny, I feel like I’m upside down.”
“We even sell an inverted globe here where the South Pole’s on top. Our compasses are turned around, and so are our maps,” he says this in all seriousness, but I catch the twinkle in his eye.
“Good, because you’re buying me one on the way home.” I nudge him as we stop front of the car rental. “I want a gemstone globe, a big one, upside down, like you say. Make sure the Philippine Islands are done in diamonds.”
“Whoa, you’re expensive.” Zach kisses my cheek and loops his arm around my shoulder.
I pull on my shades, trying not to look like a tourist. Zach rents a car and opens the door for me. It’s strange getting in on the left-hand side. I hope he knows how to drive this thing, because I’m sure I’ll get disoriented and turned around. He limps slightly as he crosses around the front of the car.
The attendants look at him funny because of his artificial leg, and I bite my tongue. Zach points to the gas pedal. “See? On the right, and so is the brake. Betcha thought I’d be driving with my phony foot.”
He’s so cute. What’s not to like about him?
The transmission lever is on the center console, and I’m relieved it’s an automatic. I pull my hair off my sweaty neck and twist it with a scrunchie. “Think we can get a room and a shower? I might need some clothes, too.”
“You won’t need any if you get a room with me.” Zach wiggles his eyebrows.
“Why? Mr. Spencer, are you propositioning me?”
He stops at the end of the lot and leans toward me, his breath in my ear. “Maybe I wanna get you addicted to me.”
The way his voice rasps, so hot and breathless, husky and sexy, gets my juices running. I reach to rub my cheek on his stubble when he backs away. He’s a tease, that’s what he is. A male tease. I cross my arms and change the subject. “What now?”
“A nine hour drive through the bush or we sleep in the dust with scorpions under a gum tree. Oh, and the termites. We might find shade behind a termite mound.”
My skin’s already itching and prickly. “Can you turn on the air?”
“Hope the car doesn’t overheat.” He’s definitely teasing me now.
“I knew I should have stayed with Cliff. He’s snoozing on the airplane and will get to Melbourne way before us.”
“In that case, let’s stay here. I’ll take you to the Opera House, we’ll climb the bridge, and I’ll teach you to surf. Let him go to Melbourne.”
“I’m here on a mission, not a vacation.”
His voice barely clears his throat. “Are you pinning all your hopes on finding your father?”
I don’t answer. It sounds crazy, a fantasy. But a girl never gives up, especially if she’s Daddy’s little girl. I turn my face toward the window and watch the airplanes rise into the clouds.
We exit the airport and the terrain doesn’t look any different than California—sparse trees, sunny skies and the usual congestion. After passing a golf course, we drive into a straight tunnel that seems to go on forever. I’m starting to get claustrophobic and dizzy. The light colored walls zoom by, and there’s only a single strip of overhead lights on the grey ceiling.
Suddenly the car swerves into the next lane. My eyes widen in alarm. “Zach? Did you get enough sleep?”
He chuckles and rolls his eyes. “How can I sleep when you snore as loud as a backhoe?”
“I don’t snore.” I tickle his knee. “You always bugged me to sleep with you. I knew you wouldn’t respect me in the morning.”
“I would if you didn’t snore.” He cups my hand to stop the tickling. “So how do you like my country?”
“We’re stuck in a tunnel, what’s there to say?” I yawn loudly. “Are the bugs bigger here?”
“Oh, yeah. Flies the size of bumblebees, swarms of mozzies, that’s mosquitoes to you, so thick they’d suck a kangaroo dry in two minutes, and …” His voice drones, but I’m already tuning it out, and my eyelids are too heavy to enjoy the monotonous tunnel view.
***
I’m jerked awake and spinning. “Zach, what are you doing?” I scream, flapping my hands.
Flashes of yellow grass swirl outside the windshield. We bounce. One. Two. Three. And pow! The airbag socks my face. I see stars and hear a zinging noise as I bat it from me.
Zach bounces off his airbag and reaches for me. “Vera, you okay?”
“Sure, sure, I’m still alive.” My eyes sting from the acrid airbag powder, and my ears are ringing. Sunlight glares through the windshield while traffic zooms by on both sides.
“What happened?” I grab my purse and jump out of the car. We’ve spun out onto the grassy median of a divided highway, and the front end of the car is stuck in a drainage ditch.
“Some SUV cut me off, sorry.” Zach stoops awkwardly on one knee to examine the underside of the car.
I wave at the passing traffic for help. Minutes later, a dark silver Range Rover rolls to a stop, and three guys jump out. Two Asians and … Cliff?
They swagger toward me, and I’m standing there trying not to look flustered. I mean, my hair’s rumpled, I’m sweating and dizzy, but this is unreal, like a movie scene.
Cliff slowly removes his shades and whistles, shaking his head. “Looks like he can’t drive.”
One of the Asian guys says, “And they say we can’t drive?”
The other one ambles to where Zach is bending over and says, “Hey, mate, need a hand? Er, a foot?”
The three of them laugh while Zach pushes himself up from the ground. His face is red, and he’s probably in pain since he’s been wearing his prosthesis for more than twenty-four hours. I brush Cliff’s hand from my shoulder and walk to Zach’s side, but Cliff sticks to me and parks himself between us.
“You endangered Vera’s life,” Cliff says. “Hand me her bags. I’m taking over.”
Zach doesn’t back down. In fact, he stands straighter. “No can do. Vera’s with me.”
Cliff’s two sidekicks swarm over, their biceps bulging under fierce tattoos. It’s starting to look like a standoff but a horn blares, and a police car slows and comes to a stop.
Two officers get out of the cruiser and come toward us. I’m worried about Zach, but surely we can get a tow or exchange the car and be on our way again.
“What happened here?” one of the officers asks.
“Bloke lost control of his car.” Cliff points at Zach. “Not sure he’s supposed to be driving with that gimp leg.”
The other officer calls from where he’s examining the rental. “You’ll need a tow. The front tires are busted, airbags out. We’ll need to see your insurance and license,” he says to Zach.
Zach hobbles back to the rental and digs in the glove.
I’m feeling faint and hot. The grass swirls at my feet, and I see black and white patches. I try to walk toward Zach, but my knees are wobbly.
“We’ll be going, right?” Cliff claps an arm around my shoulder.
The officer replies, “Sure, thanks for calling it in.”
Cliff sweeps me into his arms and carries me to the SUV.
“Wait, but what about Zach?”
“What about him?” Cliff says. “Your uncle told you to travel with me. Why did you run off?”
Because he’s so hot and I’m falling for him? No, that’s my hormones talking. Either that, or my blood sugar has dropped and I’m not thinking straight.
My pulse swishes behind my ears, and my head is expanding and contracting while my heart feels hollow and flipped inside out. A vasovagal episode, my nurse’s brain says right before I see nothing.
Chapter 13
My head throbs to the techno beat on the car stereo. I crack open my eyes and stretch, but a pair of muscular arms enclose me. There’s a crick in my neck and I struggle to push the arms aside. It’s Cliff, of course, smelling like tobacco, strong aftershave a
nd warm male.
“Well, hello there, beautiful,” he says with a satisfied smirk. “Tell me what’s better? Cruising in this Range Rover or bouncing along with stumpy in a Toyota?”
I elbow him hard. “Leave Zach alone. And that goes for you in the front, too.”
“Oh … feisty, aren’t we?” Cliff tightens his hold and brushes his hand over my breast.
My teeth gritting, I swat his paw and snap, “Where’s Zach? And how did you find us?”
“When you’re with a guy with half a leg, you’re pretty conspicuous. Oh, and as for Double-crossing Debbie? I promised her a date with Ben,” he nods at the driver, “and she rolled out of the seat right after you snapped that picture. A few kissy faces, and she let me in on your plan, which, by the way, was my plan all along.”
Ben whistles over his shoulder. “We were at the Sydney airport waiting for you. Zach was just an insignificant complication.”
I fumble for my purse when I see it on the floor. Cliff’s stupid picture’s still on my cell but the battery’s low, and my charger’s in my luggage on its way to Melbourne. If only I knew the emergency number here …
I glare at Cliff, hoping to take his focus off my phone. “Was Zach okay? Why did we leave?”
“He’s not our friend, and I’m sure the police are taking care of him. Meanwhile, me and you have an appointment.” Cliff snatches the phone from me.
“Give it back. I need to text Zach.”
“Nope, sorry. You’re with me now. Looks like Zach lost this round.” He sounds entirely too self-satisfied.
“This isn’t a game. Am I free to leave?” I know I sound stupid, but I’m not exactly in a position to escape, traveling at more than eighty miles per hour on an expressway. I shove Cliff aside and scoot toward my side of the bench seat.
“Excuse me? I’m the one who’s supposed to watch over you. Why did you go with Zach? You and I both know he has reason to hate you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I stare at the flat, straight, boring road lined with shrubs and eucalyptus trees.
The guy in the passenger seat says, “We’re your bodyguards—tenth degree black belts. By the way, I’m Dex and he’s Ben.”
Tenth degree, my foot. They look like they’re barely out of their teens. Identical twins. I’m going to have a hard time keeping them straight. And who names their sons Ben and Dex? Sounds like a clown show at an ice cream store.
“Yeah, yeah, why would I need bodyguards?” If anything, I need a guard from Cliff, sitting there exuding bad-to-the-bone macho pheromones.
Cliff scowls at me. “Zach’s trying kill you and make it look like an accident. If we hadn’t gotten there, he would have conked you on the head and claimed you died in the wreck.”
Dex cracks his knuckles and sneers. “Too bad for him. I saw the police take him in. Driving with a stump.”
“Stop making fun of him.” I kick the seat in front of me.
“Just telling it like it is.” Cliff purses his lips as if he’s sympathetic. “Why did he insist on coming along when your uncle got the tickets for us? It’s not like he’s your boyfriend or anything.”
“He’s a friend, and I like him.” Why do I have to explain myself to these bozos?
Cliff opens a bottle of water and offers it to me. “You’re dehydrated, fainting, probably hungry. What better way of murdering you than to get lost in the bush and claim he can’t find you?”
“Yeah, or his car breaks down and he hitchhikes for help and leaves you stranded,” Dex pipes in.
“In fact,” Cliff says, “he took you into the airplane loo while the seatbelt signs were flashing. He could have slammed you against the wall and given you a concussion. Your face was really flushed when you came out.”
I avoid his leer, my cheeks heating from the memories of my former escapades. Zach and I used to like doing it against a wall—back when he had two legs, thick as tree trunks. Biker’s legs. I’m beginning to understand why he shies away now. He’s afraid I’ll compare him to his former self.
Irritation mounts, and I cross my arms to cover my breasts. “Zach doesn’t want to kill me. You guys are imagining things. For what reason, I have no clue.”
“Yeah, well, you trust your uncle, don’t you?” Cliff says. “Aren’t you at all interested in your father?”
My heart lurches, and I sit up straighter. “Is he alive?”
“Do we trust her?” Ben turns, his eyes slithering between Dex and Cliff.
“That’s enough,” Dex slams the dashboard. “No more talking until we verify her identity.”
Great. Just wonderful. Stuck between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dummer. Try as I might to calm it, my heart skitters. I might be meeting my father soon. But first, I’ll show I’m not afraid of them.
“Zach will find me somehow.” I jut my chin. “He might be telling the police right now to come after us. He could have noted the license plate number.”
“You still think he’s on your side.” Cliff snickers. “I hate to break it to you, but he knows who you are. You think he’s stupid? Doesn’t know how to do an internet search?”
“But he thinks his mother died of a congenital heart condition.”
Cliff shakes his head as if I’m an idiot. “That’s a line he’s telling you to put you off guard. He thinks your dad’s the killer, and you’re the bait.”
“No, no, wait. You said he thinks. Does this mean my father is not the killer?”
Cliff looks at Dex who tilts his head, as if deciding whether to tell me or not.
“Is my father the killer or not?” I demand.
“We’re not at liberty to say,” Dex intones arrogantly.
I tick my fingers. “Let me get this straight. Zach wants to kill me because he thinks my father killed his mother and that’s why he followed me to Australia.”
“Too right,” Cliff says. “That’s what I was trying to tell you.”
“Humph! I’m not sure I believe anything you say. Zach is a sweet and kind-hearted man.”
“You never wondered why a guy with women all over him is fixated on you?”
I glare at him. “Because he’s interested in me.”
“You’re hot, sister, but not his type. He’s got a blond-haired, blue-eyed fiancée waiting for him at home. Doesn’t he, Dex?”
Dex flips the cover open on his tablet. “Check out these pictures.”
I turn away from him and refuse to look. Cliff takes the tablet and swings it in front of my face, but I shut my eyes and cover my ears. “Na, na, na, na, na, I didn’t see anything.”
Bunch of jerks! Even if I were curious, I’m not about to show them I care. Instead, I cross my arms and pout.
They go into guy-speak mode, talking about the woman’s body parts and how Zach looks like a dweeb, and speculate if she’s going to break the engagement now that Zach’s disabled.
Cold sweat combined with the air conditioning chills my forehead. If Zach were planning on marrying, why is he pursuing me? Maybe I’m just another plaything, a woman to be sampled on the buffet table of tastes, colors, and cultures—adding diversity to his bedroom.
After they quiet down, I steer Cliff back to what I’m interested in. “If my father’s not the killer why did he jump? That’s what my mom says.”
Cliff’s jaw tenses. “He was being framed by Zach’s father. His word against a white man’s. Who do you think the police would believe?”
A pang goes through my gut. “Did he survive the fall off the bridge? You sound like you’ve spoken to him.”
Dex drills Cliff with another warning glare, so Cliff shrugs.
“I still don’t see why my father left us,” I say petulantly to instigate him for more information. “If he were innocent, he could have worked with the police. Not everyone’s biased.”
“Pffuh!” Cliff almost spits. “Your father was an illegal alien. You didn’t know?”
My world spins, and I gape at him. Zach’s words return to me. Is your fat
her on the run? Illegal alien?
Cliff jiggles my arm. “You look thunderstruck, like you’re remembering something.”
I place my forehead on the windowsill. “No, it’s nothing.”
We’re somewhere on Highway 31, and the towns are far between. The earth is dusty orange, and trees are scarce.
When I get a chance, I’ll contact Zach and let him explain.
Any man who can make my body sing as high as heaven can’t be playing me. Not with eyes so true blue, that meltdown smile, and a dog named Bing-Bing.
Chapter 14
The Range Rover swings off the expressway onto a two lane road. We’ve already driven most of the day, and the sun is setting. The sparse landscape is interrupted by towns with names like Gundagai, Wodonga, and Alexandra—the last one looking like a movie set from an old western, complete with bakery, saloon, antique shops, and a hotel sporting wraparound porches on both floors. Of course, they have the obligatory Chinese restaurant. Cliff makes sure to nudge me as we drive by, as if I have anything to do with it.
I can’t get over how blue the sky is, so much like Zach’s eyes. Clear and sparkling. The air is more humid than I’m used to, but the land looks dry and flat, with clumps of eucalyptus, or what Cliff calls gum trees, lining the road.
After a few miles, the road gets windier, and lusher vegetation fills the forest. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, something I should have gotten to enjoy on an excursion with Zach. But then, I have to remember he’s on the opposing side when it comes to my father.
Ben takes each curve at high speed, and I’m barely blinking at the cars coming head-on from the right, especially around the tight turns.
The trees are taller and straighter, almost like the redwoods back home on La Honda road. They cast shadows so deep it alternates with the glare of the sun. I ask Cliff what they are, and he says they’re mountain ash. Lower down, ferns and lacey fronds decorate the openings between the road and the tree trunks. Cliff says they’re cycads.
He’s trying to impress me by talking in a snooty fake British accent, but I’m having none of that. I’m tired, grumpy, and the few stops we made for food and drink were heavily guarded. No purse allowed in the restroom, and Cliff escorting me to and from the tables.
Knowing Vera (Romantic Suspense, Family Drama) (Chance for Love) Page 9