Mama Said

by Byrne, Wendy

  “Sure. We meet every Sunday afternoon right here in the library and work on the assignments for the week.”

  She nodded, still focusing her attention on the screen. Thankfully, he took the hint and went back to his own work. Opening files, she began looking at Shane’s notes.

  Shane had everything neatly organized. His system didn’t require a lot of skill to negotiate. Which was good. She printed out the documents and stuffed them into her backpack.

  Next she keyed Shane’s e-mail address into the Yahoo site and found a whole bunch of new messages. She ignored them all except the one from Garrett and the two from Vince Perry. She scanned Garrett’s message first, hoping he was on his way home. It took everything in her not to send a ‘HELP’ message back to him. Besides, by the time he got back, one way or another, it would probably be too late.

  With that depressing thought rattling around her brain, she started feeling paranoid. She glanced around while clicking on the first message from Vince. No one was peering over her shoulder. Students were oblivious to her presence; librarians were helping people at the desk in the center. Everything was as it should be. So why did she have this weird sensation inching up her spine?

  Then she spotted them. O’Brien, along with another guy she didn’t recognize, was trolling the perimeter. They were followed by Stu, the same guy who’d somehow turned up MIA when everything went south for Mack. There was no way this was some kind of weird coincidence. He had to be with the other two.

  She pulled the bill of the cap lower on her head and appreciated her foresight in wearing a Wisconsin red t-shirt and jeans. Half of the students around her were wearing some form of the same, allowing her to blend in.

  Gabriella watched as Stu unfolded a piece of paper and thrust it before the librarian. When the woman shook her head, he unclipped a shield off the waistband of his pants and showed it to her, as if that might change her mind.

  He was a cop? This was even worse than she thought. He could shoot first and ask questions later.

  The librarian shook her head, but then called over another woman. It had to be pictures. Maybe pictures of Shane. Maybe of her.

  Even though she had yet to print out the two new e-mails from Vince Perry, let alone read them, she couldn’t stick around. Instead, she gathered what she had from the printer as inconspicuously as possible, stuffing it into her backpack, pulled out the flash drive, then scanned the interior for O’Brien and the other guy.

  She found them on each side of the pillars bordering the interior space. Drawing in a breath, she tried to remain calm as they walked through the aisles. Although they were doing a good job of making it appear they were searching for book titles, she could easily tell they were looking for her and Shane. If she hadn’t been paying attention, more than likely they would have blended in with the students because they were wearing t-shirts and jeans. The difference was, over their t-shirts they wore jackets. No doubt to cover a gun.

  Breathe.

  Think.

  Above all, don’t panic.

  Quickly, she ticked off the options in her head. First, she needed to put as much distance as possible between her and the computer station. Since she was betting they had a picture of both her and Shane, she needed to make herself as invisible as possible. If she went over to where the two policemen had already searched and engrossed herself in some impromptu research, she might get away without being noticed. But so might inching her way out the front door, which was even more tempting. Right now she wanted nothing more than to be as far away from this place as feasible.

  She had very little time to escape, if any. She could only hope there weren’t more police waiting outside the door. Just as she was about to crawl out of her skin worrying about what to do, she spotted her newfound friend from the computer station walking with a group of students. They must all be headed to that coffee shop to discuss lit class.

  Voila! Plan B. She would attract the least attention in a group.

  Hooking her hand into her new friend’s arm, she said, “I changed my mind. I’ll join you for coffee after all.” She turned her head so that it was as close to this guy’s shoulder as possible, obscuring her face.

  “Nick.” He had a big smile on his face when he spoke.

  “Tasha,” she replied, scanning the scene outside for more police. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was another guy stationed outside. While she’d never seen him before, his appearance and mannerisms definitely said cop.

  Sticking with the crowd, she followed where they led and tried to avoid attention from others in the group. The last thing she needed was for some perceptive student to ask specifics about classes or professors.

  Somehow the bad guys had figured out where they were. Maybe the call she’d made to Vince Perry’s office had given them a general location.

  Her only consolation right now was that if they were on campus they probably weren’t scoping out the motels in the area, which meant that for the time being, Shane was safe. At least she hoped he was.

  Despite the circumstances, she tried to remain calm. The college students around her seemed oblivious to her foreign status, although she wasn’t sure how long that would last.

  Trying to fit in while she followed along with the crowd, she joined in their discussion. “That lit paper is going to be brutal, isn’t it?” she chimed in as the group walked en mass.

  Without even noticing the fact she was new, one of the guys responded, “I hear Professor Greene takes off if you don’t have the bibliography formatted properly.”

  Holding her breath, she continued to walk with the group, hoping against hope no one would make her as an outsider. She could almost envision someone demanding, ‘Who the hell are you?’ If so, the result wouldn’t be pretty.

  She followed the crowd, stopping for coffee and taking it with her to the grassy area between the buildings. They sat in a circle sipping and talking about projects they had to do while her mind was preoccupied with how quickly she could get back to Shane.

  She was introduced by her new friend Nick and she volunteered to do research for the CHAPTER Two quiz. Frankly, at this point she would have agreed to anything as her mind was buzzing with the overwhelming need to get out of there as quickly as possible.

  Then Stu came around the corner of the building, heading straight for where they were sitting. He scanned the general area, then put a set of binoculars to his eyes and looked again. The other two guys stood along the sidewalk doing their best to blend in. Given their out-of-the-norm-behavior, it wasn’t working very well.

  More anxious than she cared to think about, she kept her head down. “I need to leave,” she mumbled incoherently as overwhelming fear nearly robbed her of breath.

  “We’re not—”

  Nick didn’t get to finish his statement before she stood and sprinted across the grassy triangle. She couldn’t sit there one second longer. If she did, it would be like waiting for certain death. She needed to make a run for it.

  She wasn’t sure how long it took before they figured out she was the one they were looking for. She was too busy running and not looking back. In all the horror movies, the heroine always made the mistake of looking back. That was how she got nabbed by the bad guy. Gabriella wasn’t going to fall into that trap.

  Instead, she kept running. Even when she could hear shouts coming from behind asking her to stop, she kept going. She wasn’t a track star like her sister Juliana, but given the right motivation, she was fast. And if this wasn’t motivation, nothing was.

  * * *

  Shane felt like crap. His whole body ached and he couldn’t seem to get warm. He focused on the clock and tried to remember how long Gabriella had been gone.

  Damn. It had to be close to an hour by now. She should be back any minute. The last thing he’d wanted to do was to send her off on her own. At the time, the risks had seemed minimal. In and out. She should have been able to finish and be back within a half hour. But now, as the minutes stretched by and
she still wasn’t back, he had to wonder if he’d made the right choice.

  She was a strong woman, much stronger than she gave herself credit for. But whoever was involved in this wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, or anybody else that got in their way.

  Why hadn’t he gone with her? Sure, they’d draw more attention with him still looking the way he did, but at least he’d be around to take the heat. If anything happened to her he’d never be able to forgive himself.

  Ten more minutes. That’s all he’d give her.

  He went into the bathroom, splashed some water on his face, and took some aspirin, hoping it would kick in fast. As he walked back to the bed, he heard somebody outside the door. Based on the size and shape of the shadow against the window, it wasn’t Gabriella.

  As in a bad movie, the lock turned slowly to the left, then the right before the tumblers clicked into place and the door eased open. The guy was bigger than a tank and leading with a gun. Shane reached to the waistband of his jeans, only to remember he’d left his gun in the nightstand.

  This was going to get ugly.

  * * *

  Gabriella figured there were too many people around for them to shoot. If a stray bullet hit one of the students, there’d be messiness and a whole lot of questions. She was betting on the fact they wouldn’t want that.

  She kept running, trying to find populated areas in which she could get lost. Luckily, given the nice weather and a lazy Sunday afternoon, students filled the area, strolling around in groups or in pairs. While she didn’t blend in, given the fact she was running, she was at least circumventing any real show of force for the time being. Most criminals, even if they are cops, don’t like witnesses, she reminded herself.

  Adrenaline kept her moving, but she needed a destination. Going straight back to the motel while they were trailing her would be trouble for both her and Shane. But she also couldn’t continue running indefinitely.

  Suddenly, she spotted a bus station. There had to be twenty buses lined up in an orderly fashion. The three at the beginning of the line looked as if they were about to pull away. After a quick glance behind to insure she could pull it off, she sprinted toward the tangle of students and waiting buses. The bus was halfway out of the lot when she ran around to the front and pounded on the door.

  Even though the driver was irate, he stopped to allow her inside. “There’s another one in ten minutes going the same direction,” he grumbled.

  Spent and out of breath, she managed to mumble, “Thanks,” as the driver started to pull into traffic.

  She slunk down in a seat and peered out the window. Stu was scanning the busses with his binoculars while O’Brien and the other two guys searched the crowd. One of them flashed a badge and got onto one of the buses.

  For the first time in what seemed like forever, she drew in a deep breath. As far as she could tell, they had no clue which bus she had gotten on. It would take them a little while to sort it through.

  After a circuitous route through the city and several bus transfers, she got the car and headed back to the motel. Every time she even contemplated the fact Shane might be discovered, alone and vulnerable, a shiver of fear stole up her spine, nearly paralyzing her. Her heart seemed to be beating at the back of her throat instead of her chest where it belonged as she sprinted to the room. They couldn’t get out of town fast enough.

  “Shane!” She was breathless as she barreled inside. “We need to get out—”

  Her words stopped when she tripped over the body sprawled across the floor.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Through some miracle, she held back the scream even though it was clawing like an angry cat at the base of her throat. After her mind registered that the body she’d tripped over wasn’t Shane, she glanced around the room. He sat with his back propped against the wall and his gun trained on the guy lying on the floor.

  “We need to tie him up and gag him to give us time.” Shane looked exhausted, as if whatever had transpired in her absence—considering the disastrous state of the room it was quite a bit—had drained every ounce of energy from him.

  Instead of asking questions, she continued the job he’d started, tearing the sheet into strips and tying the arms and legs of the beefy guy lying on the floor. The weird part was she didn’t even have to think about complying. It was almost as if she’d somehow morphed into Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde, part blues singer, part criminal, without even batting an eye.

  Never in her wildest dreams would she ever have imagined tying up anybody—at least against their will and under these circumstances. If she thought about it too long, it would totally creep her out.

  Shane got up off the floor and made his way into the bathroom. He looked deathly pale beneath the bruises. She had to give some serious thought once again to having him checked out medically, despite his wishes to the contrary.

  Then again, maybe he was stronger than he appeared. Somehow he’d managed to subdue the oaf of a man lying on the floor. The guy wasn’t dead—she’d felt his pulse—but he was still out.

  Shane emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, his head and chest glistening with water as if he’d taken off his shirt and put his head under the faucet. “Do you have anything else for me to wear?”

  She scurried to the bag on the floor, pulling out a t-shirt and flannel shirt. He grabbed them and walked toward the window, looking outside as he slipped on the t-shirt.

  “Wait a minute.” Despite all the bruises and contusions on his face and chest, she hadn’t thought to check out his back. Just before he pulled on the t-shirt, she’d spotted a deep cut below his right shoulder. She walked over and pulled up the shirt. “You have a nasty cut on your back. I didn’t see it before.” The area around the wound was red and raised. And, unless she was mistaken, there was pus oozing out. “You have an infection.”

  “I’ll be fine.” He opened the door slowly, peering into the parking lot.

  She snatched the bag filled with their meager belongings and followed right behind, peeking over his shoulder. “You need antibiotics or you’re going to get really sick.”

  Without saying a word, he grabbed her hand, pulling her outside. “What took you so long?”

  “They came into the library and were chasing me. I had to take a bus to lose them then had to circle back for the car.”

  He stopped and grabbed her arm, scrutinizing her from head to toe before speaking. “Who came into the library?”

  “O’Brien and a couple other cops, including Stu. They must have tracked us through the cell phone.”

  He shook his head and swore. “Get rid of it now.” He didn’t wait for a response, instead stomping on it before throwing it into the nearest trash can.

  Despite his show of strength, she knew he must feel awful when he slipped inside the passenger door rather than the driver’s. “Where should we go?”

  “It feels like they’ll find us no matter where we end up.”

  She couldn’t agree more. It was as if they were one step ahead. “Then I say we go straight back to where we came from. They can’t expect that.” The thought had come to her like a light bulb lighting up. Since they probably expected them to run farther and farther away, why not do the exact opposite?

  “Sounds like as good a plan as any.” He drew in a deep, long breath and readjusted the gun in his lap. “You know how to shoot a gun?”

  “My brother taught me the basics. I wouldn’t trust my aim, but I’m not going to shoot myself or you by mistake, if that’s what you’re asking.” At least she hoped not.

  “Good enough. I hope it doesn’t come to that.” He readjusted himself in the seat as if trying to find a comfortable position. “What did you get at the library?”

  “Most of what you told me to. There were a couple of e-mails from Vince, but I didn’t get a chance to read them or print them out since that was when I spotted the cops. I shoved what I had, along with the flash drive, into my backpack and ran.” She headed onto the highway, fee
ling more than a little guilty she hadn’t gotten to those two e-mails from Vince.

  When he reached in back to retrieve her backpack, he winced, reminding her they had to do something about his shoulder. “Did you see any e-mails from H. Mann?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t looking for that name. Who is it?”

  “I didn’t think of it until after you left. It’s the first client Garrett and I worked with Vince on. He always said if he was worried about anything, he’d send it under that name from a remote location.”

  “I can’t remember.” She searched for a snippet of memory, but when she couldn’t seem to focus, she returned to the present. “I need to put some antibiotic cream on your shoulder. I’m pretty sure I have some in the bag.”

  “Let’s get a little further down the highway.” He began to examine the papers as best he could, spreading them out on his lap.

  She was with him on that. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to stop. As it was, her heart was still beating at least a million beats per minute every time she thought about her close encounter in the library and the subsequent chase through campus.

  “Have you ever seen that guy? The one I tied up in the hotel room?” As she asked the question, she swallowed back the fear that stole through her body. Being that close to somebody who wanted to kill them was very scary. She hoped to never have that experience again but somehow didn’t think she’d be that lucky.

  Shane shook his head. “Nope. Could be a cop. Could be some kind of hired thug.”

  “What happened?” She was still trying to put the pieces together in her head. How many men were looking for them in Madison?

  “He must have gone from motel to motel in town talking to the managers, giving them a picture or description of us. That’s the only thing that makes any sense. The manager must have remembered you.” He glanced through a few more papers and shook his head. “I heard somebody outside the door. We struggled. Luckily I ended up on the good end of that deal.”