by Arianna Hart
EIS did a lot of government work that put their employees in tight situations, but Lex hadn’t done any work in that field lately. And it was Jane’s picture the goons were flashing in the lobby, not his.
Which meant it had to be something associated with the package Sarah sent. That was the only common denominator. He was going to have to find out what Sarah had been up to that was big enough to get her killed and send armed thugs after him.
He was pretty sure it wasn’t a fraud case.
Now, he had to figure out what to do with Janey. He couldn’t just leave her on her own with no protection. Whether she wanted it or not. She’d either suck it up and listen to him or risk getting a bullet through her chest.
Maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment. She’d reacted pretty damn well for a civilian. She hadn’t argued when he’d dragged her out of bed and down eight flight of stairs. He’d seen the questions burning in her eyes but she’d held her tongue.
In his experience, a woman who kept her mouth shut was a minor freaking miracle.
“I think we lost them, but keep moving just in case.”
“Where are we going?” she asked, glancing at him out the corner of her eye.
He knew her silence was too good to last.
“Pennsylvania. Take six-ninety-one to eighty-four west. Wake me up when we get to Brewster, New York.” He released the seat lever and lay back as far as he could go.
Maybe she’d keep quiet if she thought he was sleeping?
Not a chance.
“I have a few questions I’d like answered, please.”
“Like what? I can’t tell you everything. That’s for your own safety so don’t pester me about it.” He peered at her through half-closed eyes.
She looked offended by his words and he chuckled to himself. Needling her was so damn easy. And amusing too.
It was the only thing easy or amusing about this whole damn mess.
“First of all, who are you, really? I know you’re not a photojournalist.”
“Oh? Why do you say that?” He used the photojournalist cover with the management company of the condo complex so they wouldn’t get suspicious as to why he was gone so much.
“I don’t believe photographers carry guns with them.” She fiddled with the controls and the heat bumped up another notch.
He was already sweating from running across the parking lot, but she was still shivering.
He decided to level with her—to a point. “You’re right, I’m not a photojournalist. Although I’ve known several who routinely carried weapons.” In the jungles of South America but he didn’t tell her that. “I work for a company called Elite Investigation Services. We find kidnapped children and take care of…other things.”
“That’s why someone is shooting at you? Because of a kidnapping or because of one of those ‘other things’?” She stared at him incredulously.
“No. This doesn’t have anything to do with one of my cases.”
“Then I have to assume it has something to do with the package that was delivered today?”
He pointed his index finger and thumb at her like an imaginary gun. “Bingo.”
“But why would they look in my apartment? I have nothing to do with you or your business.”
“The box was sent to your address. You probably signed for it, right?” He waited for her nod of assent. “A teenager with a good computer can hack into the delivery records to find out where the package went and who signed for it. If they knew where Sarah sent it from and through which company, they probably were at your place ten minutes after the box arrived.”
“So if I hadn’t signed for it, they wouldn’t have destroyed my home?”
Lex felt a stab of sympathy for her. This was so far out of her depth she must be drowning in shock. “I’m afraid so.”
She was quiet for a moment. After a minute she asked, “Who’s Sarah?”
“An associate of mine.”
“What was in the box?”
“Information that pertains to another case. That’s all I can say.”
Sarah had sent him a jump drive wrapped in about ten layers of bubble wrap. She hadn’t wanted anything to happen to the data on the keychain-sized storage device.
Lex had gone to a cyber café to check out the drive while he waited for Mac to drop off some cash. It contained names, dates and dollar amounts that were well into the millions. It’d take someone much more knowledgeable about accounting to figure out what it all meant, which is why he’d left it at the drop point for Mac. Lex didn’t want to risk losing something that small with vital information on it.
Vital enough for Sarah to die for.
“So what are we going to do now?” Jane asked just as he was drifting off.
“We’re not doing anything. I’ll do some digging and you’ll lie low for a while. There are some complications within my company right now. Until they’re resolved you’ll need to stay out of sight.”
“For how long?”
“Not long. But until it’s safe you’ll have to fly under radar. Think of it as a vacation.”
He hadn’t thought much about what to do with the good doctor. After he’d gotten the money from Mac he’d headed back to the hotel for a few hours of shuteye only to spot a guy flashing Jane’s picture to the desk clerk. He’d hightailed it up to the room, dragged her out of bed and ran.
Now he didn’t know where the hell to put her where she’d be safe. The goons who had gotten Sarah were after Jane now and she didn’t have a tenth of the resources Sarah’d had.
Crap.
If he tried to stash Jane in a hotel somewhere she’d be dead in an hour. With the possibility of a mole at EIS, he didn’t dare put her in one of the safe houses.
He was stuck with her.
Chapter Four
Jane followed Lex’s directions, driving in silence. The only other vehicles on the road were tractor-trailers that rumbled by, rattling the car as they passed. Two o’clock in the morning and she was wide-awake. For once her insomnia was useful.
Except it gave her too much time to think. Gee, that was a surprise. Gerard had always teased that her mind never shut off. Later in their marriage he’d complained about it, told her she didn’t know how to loosen up.
Wouldn’t he be surprised to see her now, driving barefoot, without underwear and braless with a man like Luther D’Angelo sleeping next to her? The fact that gun-toting lunatics were trying to kill her because of a mysterious package would’ve sent him into complete shock. Things like that just didn’t happen to people like them. Intellectuals, who could trace their roots to the Mayflower, didn’t run from criminals—or with them for that matter.
Could Lex be a criminal? She wasn’t sure how much of his story she believed. If he really did work for an agency that rescued kidnapped children, then why hadn’t he wanted to talk to the police? He had a lot of explaining to do. And she’d demand some answers as soon as he woke up.
She stole another look at him. In sleep, his features softened some, but not much. Without his intense eyes to distract her, his nose seemed to dominate his face. His full lips were slightly parted to allow his deep, even breathing.
A shiver that had nothing to do with her cold body shook her frame and she forced her attention back onto the road. Almost against her will her eyes crept back to look at his face under the passing streetlights.
He had olive-toned skin with thick, dark stubble covering his jaw. A thin scar graced his cheekbone. Funny, she hadn’t noticed that when he’d held her so close earlier.
A rush of heat flooded her body as she remembered him nuzzling her in the elevator. It had all been for show, but it had still dazed her. Was she so desperate for affection that any male attention aroused her?
No. It’d been a long time since she’d been held in a man’s arms, that’s all. And she’d never been held by someone so, well, totally male before.
Even asleep he seemed to take up more space than his body accounted for. He wasn’t that
much taller than she was, but he filled the car to capacity. Jane wasn’t a small woman by any means, but he made her feel tiny and helpless.
And he was sound asleep. When he was awake it was even worse. It felt like his life force sucked the energy out of the room and left her wilted and lifeless.
Darn it, that wasn’t right. She shouldn’t feel weak just because she didn’t run around playing spy and carrying a gun. She was an intelligent woman with multiple degrees and it was time she stood up for herself.
And she would…when the time was right.
Who was she kidding? She was such a coward. His brusqueness intimidated her. Facing confrontation wasn’t one of her strong points on a good day. Voluntarily entering into a conflict with a man who carried a weapon like she carried lipstick was way out of her comfort zone.
Still, she couldn’t just keep doing whatever he told her without thinking for herself. Up to this point she’d followed his directions like a docile puppy.
Okay, so in the beginning he’d scared her into submission. She’d had to do what he said then. But she could have slipped out of the hotel room after he’d left. She didn’t have to stay where he put her. He was asleep now. She could take the next exit and go…
Where? Where would she go? She couldn’t go back to her condo. Obviously she couldn’t go back to the hotel with the gun-toting maniacs. And there was no way she’d lead them to her mother’s house. So where did that leave her?
Doing exactly what she was doing.
How pathetic. The only direction she had in her life came from running away from men with guns, with a man she didn’t trust as far as she could throw him.
How had she let her life get so out of control?
“Take the next exit for US two-oh-nine,” he said, rattling a sheet of directions he’d taken out of his pocket.
Jane jumped at the sound of his voice. He’d been snoring a second ago. How did he wake up instantly and figure out where they were and what exit they needed to take, just like that?
She had her blinker on and was taking the exit before she even realized she’d automatically followed his directions. All right, enough was enough. Time she took some control over this situation instead of blindly following his every command.
As soon as they were off the highway, Jane pulled the car into the lot of an abandoned gas station.
“Do you want me to drive for a while?”
“No. I want you to tell me where we’re going and what exactly we’re going to do when we get there.”
“I told you, we’re going to Pennsylvania. Stroudsburg, to be exact. When we get there I’ll figure out what we’ll do next.”
“I don’t want to go to stay in Pennsylvania with you. Why can’t I take you to Stroudsburg and go on my way?” Not that she had a way to go on, but he didn’t know that.
“Did you forget about the men with guns behind us?”
“They’re after you, not me. As sorry as I am that someone might be trying to kill you, what it boils down to is that’s your job, not mine.”
“Honey, they were flashing your picture to the desk clerk, not mine. They’re after you as much as they’re after me.”
“That’s ridiculous. I have nothing to do with this at all. Why should they be after me?”
“Because you signed for the box. These guys don’t care if you’re a doctor or a thief all they care about is tying up loose ends.”
“But surely if I explained I had no idea what was in the box, that it was only a mistake they’d—”
“Wake up, Pollyanna! This isn’t Sunnybrook Farm. This is the real world with real criminals shooting real guns.”
“It was Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, not Pollyanna, and I know there are awful people in the world. I’m not naïve.”
“Sweetheart, you have no idea what’s out there. And it’s my job to make sure you never do.”
“Be that as it may, I’m not moving this car another inch without more information. If indeed these men are after me, I deserve to know why.”
“It isn’t safe.”
Jane’s stomach roiled in fear but she didn’t let up.
“You’ve said they’ll kill me regardless of what I know, so why don’t you just tell me?” She clenched her hands in her lap so he couldn’t see them trembling.
“Fine. Have it your way, but when you can’t sleep at night, don’t blame me.”
Too late, mister. She already couldn’t sleep at night and it had nothing to do with him.
He stared at her again with those piercing, dark eyes. In the dim light they seemed more black than brown and it took every ounce of nerve she had to meet his glare. Finally, he ran a hand over his face and to the back of his neck.
“Sarah mailed me a jump drive. Do you know what they are?”
“They’re those little things you can put on your key chain. You can plug them into just about any computer and store a bunch of information on them.” When she was in private practice she’d stored her case notes on one so she could review them at home if need be.
“Right. This one had a bunch of information on it with dates, names and dollar amounts. Big dollar amounts.”
“Where did she get it?”
“I don’t know. She’d been working a case up in the Poconos. Some guy wanted EIS to investigate James Robert Beaupree, a TV preacher. The client claimed his mother had been conned out of all her money by Beaupree.”
Jane’s heart dropped to her toes. She knew far too well how devastating it was to watch a family member surrender her life savings to a slick-talking con man. It had taken months for her Aunt Betty to recover after she’d been scammed. It wasn’t just the financial devastation either. The embarrassment and humiliation of being taken for a fool was almost harder for her to survive than the loss of her life’s savings.
“My boss said Sarah took the job and reported there was something besides a shell game going on there. She was going to try to get into the inner circle and dig a little deeper before she wrapped it up. That was the last he heard from her until he got the call to identify her body.”
Jane let out an involuntary gasp. The woman who sent the box was killed for the information on it. That meant whoever was behind this wouldn’t hesitate to kill her either.
“Mac, that’s my boss, thinks someone within EIS blew her cover.”
“You mean someone you know could be responsible for her death?”
“No, I think the Tooth Fairy is responsible.”
Jane ignored his sarcasm. She’d heard worse in her practice.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” Again the hand went over the face and scratched at the stubble. “I haven’t slept much in the last thirty-six hours and the idea of a traitor at EIS pisses me off.”
“You’re upset, that’s understandable.” She automatically slipped into therapist mode. It wasn’t unusual for patients to lash out at the therapist when facing traumatic events. Knowing someone you trusted was responsible for your friend’s death could definitely be considered traumatic.
“Hell yeah, I’m upset but that doesn’t mean I have to be a bastard to you. Why don’t you let me drive for a while and you can get some sleep?”
“I’m fine. I got some sleep at the hotel. Can you tell me what we’re going to do when we get to Stroudsburg?”
“I don’t know yet. But I think we’re going to have to ditch your car.”
“My car?” She loved her Saab. Sure, it was an older model, but it still ran like a trooper.
“Look, if these assholes have your address and picture, they probably have your plate number and the make and model of your car too. If we don’t lose it somewhere, it’ll lead them right to us.”
“But I got this when I graduated from college. It was a present from my father.” She felt like crying. First, her job had been taken away, then her home, now he was trying to take away her car, her only link with her father.
“I’ll make sure you get a new one after all this is over. Mayb
e not a Saab, but at least a new car.”
“I don’t want a new car. I want this one.”
“More than you want to live? Is a hunk of metal worth your life?”
Tears of frustration burned behind her eyes. When he put it like that, no it wasn’t worth her life. But darn it, it was her car. She clutched the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip as if she could hold onto it by sheer dint of will.
“We don’t have to do it right now, but soon. If you want, I can take care of it for you.”
“If it’s at all possible, do you think I could get it back when this…situation is resolved?”
“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try my best.” He laid a hand on her cheek. Little jolts of heat pulsed from his fingertips through her body.
“Okay.”
“Now can we get going?” He dropped his hand and settled back into the seat.
She felt chilled at the loss of contact and shivered.
“Are you still cold? Jesus, I’m dying over here.” He shut off the heater.
“That’s because you didn’t run over frozen ground barefoot in nothing but a thin T-shirt and jeans.” She pushed the heat back up.
“It wasn’t that cold out, just a little nippy.”
“Maybe since you were properly dressed it didn’t feel cold, but to me it did.”
“Lady, I walk around in shorts until December. Trust me, that was nothing.”
She looked at him out the corner of her eye. He practically exuded heat and energy while she felt like an ice cube. “I’m always cold,” she said, more to herself than to him.
“That’s because you have no meat on your bones. If you spent a week with my mom you’d put on a few pounds and be as warm as I am.”
He smiled at her and his teeth gleamed in the glare of the streetlight. Jane’s stomach flipped again.
“I go to kickboxing twice a week to make sure I don’t put on any extra pounds, thanks all the same.”
“I’ll never understand women. I’ve lived with the species my entire life and it’s still a mystery to me why they starve themselves just so they can look like some bony little boy.”