Renae laughed. “Don’t. You look so cute, like a teenager or a tourist. Oh, that reminds me, did you see the makeup and lotion I put in the smaller bag?”
Cassi shook her head and felt in the bag where she had already put her Mother and Baby statue. “Thanks. It would be kind of awkward to buy something like this with Jared.”
“I also put in some extra underclothes, too. For both of you. And some cash for you, just in case. It’s from my secret stash, the one every woman should have. I don’t like the thought of you not having your own funds right now.”
“Thank you so much.”
The sound of a car in front of the house made them both start. “It couldn’t be Trent yet,” Renae said. “Maybe the Burtons are early with dinner.”
Going to the edge of the window to peek out, Cassi gasped. “Two men are getting out of a car. They’re wearing suits. They’re talking and looking at the house. They’re coming up the walk!”
Renae’s eyes grew wide. “What are you going to do?”
Cassi’s heart pounded. “Linden. He must have said something about you, and they found out who you are. But they can’t know for sure that we’re here. Then again, what if they search?”
“Quick, out the back way,” Renae ordered. “Cut through our neighbor’s yard—there’s a break in the fence—and go to the grade school. Trent’ll meet you there later with the money.”
“What about you?”
“They don’t want me,” Renae said. “I’ll just call the kids and warn them not to say anything. Now go!”
Cassi grabbed the duffel bags, straining slightly against the double weight. Jared looked up from the stove as they rushed into the kitchen.
“Men outside.” Cassi handed him the Buddha and motioned to the back door.
“What about Renae?” he asked, flipping off the stove.
Cassi shook her head. Already she could hear the children coming down the hall in response to their mother’s voice. “She won’t say anything. She’ll be okay.”
They dived for the back door. As it shut behind them, Cassi heard the doorbell echo through the house.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
During the time they had been in Renae’s house, the weather had changed. Dark, ominous clouds now filled the sky, and a warm wind was blowing. Jared glanced at Cassi and saw perspiration streaking her face. They had been running nonstop since leaving Renae’s house and were now at least a mile away. They were probably safe, and by continuing to run, they were only drawing attention to themselves.
“Stop,” Jared puffed, wiping the sweat from his own brow. “We should stop.”
Cassi nodded and slowed to a walk. “Do you think they’re okay?”
Jared knew what she was thinking. He was also worried. He would never forgive himself for running if something happened to Renae and the children. “I think they will be. From what you said about their actions, they didn’t seem to be in a hurry. It’s probably a routine check.”
“Yeah. That’s got to be it.” Cassi sighed. “They were probably sent by Linden. He’s the only one who knew she was there with me, except the room service people and those who called the ambulance, but they wouldn’t have any idea who she was. He must have found out where she lived.”
Jared could hear the hurt in her voice, and he thought it best to change the subject. “Where did you learn to run like that anyway?”
Cassi smiled. “I did track in high school, and I’ve kept up the habit of running six days a week. It’s something I enjoy.”
“It sure took me by surprise at the beach. I was worried about having to pull you along, but you ran faster than I did.”
“I may not cook, but I can run.”
At her words, Jared recalled how helpless Cassi had been in the kitchen. The revelation that she couldn’t cook, and even hated doing so, had shocked him. It had hit him abruptly that this woman, to whom he was quickly becoming attached, was far from the stereotype he had envisioned as wifely material. Far different from his mother and his sisters.
Before he could decide how he felt about the matter, she had stomped from the kitchen, and Jared had followed unobtrusively, amazed that she had heard baby Jared crying. How did she know? Could it be that even though she didn’t have any cooking instincts, she still had a strong second sense about when a baby needed her? And what did it matter if she hated to cook, anyway, as long as she was there for her children? What was more important?
Seeing Cassi with her long, perfectly curled hair, cuddling the infant against that ridiculously oversized T-shirt had made him want to kiss her again. Probably a stupid reaction, but there it was.
“You hating to cook is not really your fault,” he said to her now. She looked at him curiously. “I mean, it’s hard to do something that you weren’t raised doing”
“So it’s my mother’s fault that I can’t cook?”
Jared smiled. She did have an innate ability to get down to the crux of the matter. “Not exactly. You’re an adult and you make your own decisions now. I just think it would’ve been easier if you’d been taught.”
Cassi looked at him, and her eyes seemed soft like warm chocolate. “Thanks. I appreciate that. But you know, I still hate cooking.”
“Well, I’m not too hip on running.”
She grinned. “I could teach you. You’d probably enjoy it.”
“And I could teach you to cook. You’d probably enjoy it.” They both laughed.
A large drop of rain fell suddenly and splattered on Jared’s nose. Cassi laughed even harder until she was also pelted with the warm drops. She breathed in the pungent scent of the wet pavement. “I love that smell,” she said. “It’s so earthy.”
“Is the school nearby?” asked Jared. Cassi nodded and pointed ahead. Jared could see a large building in the distance. “I think we’d better run again.”
“Don’t you like the rain?” Her voice was almost challenging.
“Not particularly.”
She lifted her face to the sky. “I love the rain.” Then she sprinted ahead, and Jared followed.
Together they ran toward the building. The rain came down harder, and soon Jared’s hair and T-shirt were soaked. He looked at Cassi to see that she was equally drenched. Parts of her hair were plastered against her head, yet she had not lost any of the endless ringlets. A sneaking suspicion that her hair was natural crept over Jared. Impossible. He would wait until it dried to judge. At least he knew for sure that no gel from her suitcase could save her now.
They reached the school and set the duffel bags against the building where the rain wouldn’t reach them. Then Jared settled down to wait.
“Come on,” Cassi beckoned to him, going back out into the rain.
“Are you crazy? You’ll get sick.”
“That’s only if the rain is cold. You said as much yourself when Sandy was all wet, remember? I’ve always played in the rain during the summer, and I’ve never once gotten sick. We have to wait for Trent, so we might as well enjoy ourselves.”
She looked inviting standing on the wet blacktop with her T-shirt outlining her slender curves. Jared stood up, allowing Cassi to grab his hand and pull him to the set of swings in the school yard. In moments both were sailing back and forth in the air above the blacktop. As their laughter echoed out over the deserted playground, Jared could almost imagine the laughter of little children accompanying them.
The burdens of the last two days slipped from Jared’s shoulders, and he looked at Cassi gratefully. Her mascara was coming off in black smudges and little rivulets, but she had never looked so beautiful to him. She was impulsive, free, and full of life. It almost seemed as if he had known her forever.
When they tired of swinging, they tried the teeter-totter, but she weighed so much less than he did that they had to give it up. They went to the merry-go-round, where Jared pushed Cassi on the large wheel. She had wiped the black mascara from her face, and now Jared noticed the tiny black beauty mark near her right eye. There was ano
ther just above her lip, and he found himself wanting to kiss it. He hesitated. She seemed almost like a wraith in the darkening day, a mythical creature that he couldn’t, or perhaps shouldn’t touch.
“What’s wrong?” Cassi leapt off the merry-go-round to stand next to him.
Jared was all too aware of her and struggled with the emotions boiling inside him. “Nothing. I . . . we should check on the statues.” Jared couldn’t bring himself to tell her of his growing feelings. What if she scorned him? He remembered Léon’s accusations against her and felt his confidence plunge even further.
I’ll wait until this business with the Buddha is over, he thought. Then I’ll find out how she feels.
As they reached the place where they had left the bags, Cassi looked up at him with a guarded expression. A voice seemed to say in Jared’s head, Kiss her. But he hesitated, and the moment was lost.
“Cassi!” A shout from behind made them turn to see Trent running across the blacktop that separated them. It was still raining, though more lightly now, and Trent’s hair dripped water into his eyes. He shoved the brown locks back from his forehead.
“Here,” he said, handing Jared an envelope. “I got some of it in smaller bills to make your transactions less noticeable.” He grinned. “I think I’m getting into this. I’ve half a mind to go with you myself, but I can’t leave Renae.”
“Is everything okay at home?” Cassi asked anxiously.
“Yes. Those men wanted to know if we’d seen you, and asked us to call them if you contacted us. They didn’t even come into the house when they learned about the baby. They just talked to Renae through the door. They seemed worried about you, Cassi. Are you sure they’re the bad guys?”
“No, I’m not. We don’t know who to trust. That’s why we’re going to take the Buddha to Jared’s employer and be done with it. Then we can forget it ever happened.”
Jared wanted to disagree. Despite the danger, he was glad he’d met Cassi, and he wasn’t sure he wanted their adventure to be over.
Trent nodded. “I guess you guys know what you’re doing. Oh, I almost forgot. Here’s some food Renae told me to put together for you. It’s just sandwiches and stuff, but it should tide you over.”
“Thanks,” Jared said as Cassi accepted the sack. “We’ll call you when we get to New York.”
“There’s a convenience store across from the school,” Trent said. “You could call a taxi from there.”
“I’ve got my cell,” Jared said.
“Can’t that be traced?” Trent asked.
“Oh, right,” Jared said, chagrined. “I guess we’ll call from the store.”
They said good-bye and watched Trent jog across the school yard. Cassi sighed wearily.
* * * * *
On the drive back to L.A. Cassi fell asleep in the taxi, her head resting on Jared’s shoulder. He removed his jacket from his bag and put it over her damp T-shirt. His fingers also touched the gun in the bag, bringing the reality of their situation back to him vividly.
He brought a hand up to Cassi’s hair. The ringlets of sweet-smelling hair twisted around his fingers, and he marveled at them. He had been so very wrong about her. She wasn’t the vain creature he first imagined, but only herself, unadorned and simply beautiful.
Jared sighed and let his hand drop. With a full stomach from Renae’s sandwiches and a comfortable position next to Cassi, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to slide into a contented sleep.
* * * * *
“Jared, wake up. We’re here.” Cassi’s voice brought Jared back to consciousness.
He shook his head to clear the fogginess and reached for his wallet to pay the driver with the cash Trent had given him. Then he hefted the Buddha and stepped out of the car, looking around. They had asked the driver to take them to any motel in downtown Los Angeles, and he had obliged by dropping them off at an intersection that held four of them. They walked purposefully to the nearest one.
“What about our disguises?” Cassi asked with a little smile, remembering their earlier plan. “I don’t think I can walk another step, unless I have to.”
Jared sighed. “Me either. Maybe we were exaggerating a little this afternoon. They didn’t know we were at Renae’s, and with all the motels in L.A., they certainly won’t know which one we’re at.”
“Good. Let’s leave it for tomorrow.”
Jared nodded and opened the motel door for her.
“We need two rooms,” he said to the night clerk at the desk, a short, frail man with hair that had gone completely white. “Adjoining, if possible.” He wanted some way to check on Cassi’s welfare.
“But we don’t have a credit card,” Cassi added. “Only cash, so if you can’t take us, we’ll check across the street.”
“You can stay,” the man said gruffly. “But you’ll have to leave a fifty dollar deposit for each room. You can pick it up when you leave.” He didn’t look twice at them as he accepted their money in exchange for the keys. Nor did he question the fake names Jared gave him.
Jared led Cassi into one of the rooms and opened the connecting door. “Well, pick which one you want,” he said.
“Any one that has a bathroom,” Cassi threw him a self-conscious look and darted through a door behind him.
Jared went through the connecting door and set the Buddha on the single queen bed. The room looked exactly like the first, with a small dresser and television set. When he heard Cassi moving around, he walked back to her room. “I guess we’d better turn in.”
She yawned. “Lots of work tomorrow. It’s the Buddha’s big day.”
He smiled and with a wave returned to his own room, shutting the connecting door behind him but not locking it. Before throwing himself on the bed, he kicked off his shoes, leaving his clothes on and his gun nearby, in case he had unwanted visitors in the night. For long moments he lay there, not moving or letting himself feel anything.
The door from Cassi’s room opened. In the moonlight coming from his half-shuttered window, he could see her face, framed by the curls he adored. She still wore the large white T-shirt, now dry, with the cuffs of her long shorts peeking out beneath.
“Jared?”
He sat up in the bed. “Yes?”
“Could I leave the door open?”
Jared couldn’t help grinning, and he was grateful the darkness masked his features. “Yes, Cassi.”
“Thanks. And good night.” She got to her feet and padded into her own room, leaving Jared’s arms empty but not aching. Although he wasn’t sure how he would do it, he was determined to pursue their relationship to see where it might lead.
But first he had to get rid of the Buddha.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Light filled Cassi’s motel room, and she reluctantly pulled herself out of bed. The nightmares that had tortured her sleep were gone, but their effect remained. She felt as if she had been fleeing for weeks, when in reality this would only be the second day. Admittedly, this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her, and part of her was enjoying the adventure—especially being with Jared.
Cassi tried not to think about the man in the room next door. She stifled her thoughts and went into the bathroom to shower. He had not so much as tried to kiss her since the beach. At the school, she had thought perhaps he had been about to, but he’d pulled away at the last moment. Perhaps like her high school prom date, he had been put off by her rashness.
She sighed. “Well, I am who I am.” Even so, she wished she hadn’t made him play in the rain. Perhaps he saw her now more as a child than a woman.
She pulled on the light green dress of the day before, the one she had worn to Carl’s house. The top part of the dress was wrinkled, but the crinkled broomstick skirt seemed no worse for traveling scrunched in the cooler and the duffel bag.
The visit to Carl’s already seemed like a lifetime ago. “I hope you’re with the woman who loves you,” she said aloud to Carl. “Wherever you are.”
Her thoug
hts filtered relentlessly back to Jared. He would go to the funeral today, leaving her behind. She was frightened at being alone with the Buddha, yet she wasn’t going to let him know. She had already admitted enough of her fear by asking him to keep the door between their rooms open last night. She had finally closed it this morning before going to shower.
As Cassi left the bathroom, a quick rap on a door startled her until she realized it was coming from the adjoining door to Jared’s room. Uselessly, she tried to run her fingers through her wet hair, but the shampoo and conditioner supplied by the motel left much to be desired. She knew that it would be frizzy when it dried. Sighing, she went to the door and threw it open.
“Breakfast,” Jared said with a big smile. “Sleep well?”
Cassi grimaced. “In between the bad guys chasing us, I guess.”
“You too, huh?” He looked at her sympathetically. His face looked much better today. His black eye was fading into a dark greenish-yellow, and he had removed some of the bandages. He wore the same semi-dress clothes of the day before, complete with his tie that they had somehow managed not to lose in the confusion of the day.
Cassi took the carton of food he handed her, recognizing it as an egg sandwich from a fast-food restaurant. On top of the cartoon were several large bills. “You never know if we might get separated,” he explained.
“Thanks.” She paused. “Uh, did you see the underclothes Renae put in for you?”
“Yes. Remind me to write and thank that woman. She’s one in a million.” He looked at Cassi. “Are you going to be okay? I need to leave for the funeral now. I’ve already called a taxi.”
“What if those men are there? I mean, if they found Renae, it’s a sure thing they’ll know about your friend’s funeral.”
Jared frowned. “I’ll call my friend Larry on the way to see if he notices anything unusual. At any rate, I made flight reservations for us at one, so I’ll be back before then. Since I won’t be staying for the graveside part of the service or the luncheon like I’d planned, we can take that earlier flight. It’s not a direct flight, but we should be in New York around nine or ten tonight, L.A. time. It’ll be three hours later there. I had to give my real name for the reservation, but hopefully whoever’s looking for us won’t be notified if we pay cash.”
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