Unauthorized Return (Unauthorized Series Book 4)

by Ladew, Lisa

  She had no destination in mind. Where could they go? The police station was out. Not safe. Their love nest was out. At least until she knew if they had a tail or not. She had no choice but just to drive. Anything had to be safer than the courthouse right now.

  Coleton pounded on the dashboard, startling her. "I can't believe he did that!" Coleton swore. "Why can't he just bend over and take it already! He's done the crime, now he needs to do his time! How did he get away with that shit?"

  Aria gritted her teeth and weaved in between two cars, then turned right quickly at the next street. "I know, Coleton. You're right. Everybody underestimated him. And now we're all going to pay for it."

  Coleton turned to her, his eyes wild. "What do you mean?"

  "I think he might've escaped."

  Coleton moaned and pressed his palms up against his temples. "Of course he did, the fucking bastard! Goddammit! Why can't he just die already! A stroke, a heart attack, something!"

  Coleton pounded the dashboard again and craned his neck forward to see the sky out of the front window. "Come on, God. Aren't you paying attention? The bad guys are fucking winning! Can't you send down a lightning bolt or something?" he screamed and Aria winced. He was cracking up.

  He turned to her. "Don't you get it Aria? This is when it happens! He's got a plan. He's going to find me and shoot me himself!"

  "He might try," Aria admitted. "Maybe we should get you a gun..."

  Coleton froze, his face still.

  "If it comes down to you shooting him or being shot ..."

  "I couldn't shoot my dad," Coleton fired back immediately.

  Aria didn't say anything for a few moments, thinking, as she allowed her driving to slow a bit. "So you do still love him then?" she finally replied.

  "No." Coleton said without hesitation. "He's dead to me."

  Aria nodded and let it drop. She had already noticed that anytime Coleton spoke about his dad, it was almost in reverential terms. His eyes glazed over slightly and he became breathless. Aria could almost see his child self coming out. He was a strong and mature man, except when it came to his father, who still terrified him.

  Aria didn't blame him. Fiore Savoy was terrifying. A monster who had no moral compass or conscious. A man who always took what he wanted with force. Aria remembered the look in his eyes as he stared at her and she shivered to think of him loose somewhere in the city.

  Aria's mind wandered back to the guards and Assistant Chief Foley. Had anyone been injured? She hated the thought of that.

  Aria watched her rearview mirror and her four quadrants as best as she could while slowing her driving even more. She had no destination in mind. No idea where they were going to end up.

  A few miles later she swore lightly under her breath. "Uh oh," she said.

  "What? What's wrong?" Coleton asked immediately, his entire body still tense and worried.

  "We're being followed."

  Coleton craned his neck back to see behind them.

  "A block and a half back. Dark SUV."

  "I don't see it."

  "Behind that bus."

  Coleton watched behind them as Aria took a hard right and then another hard right. But within a minute, he saw the dark SUV making the same turns.

  Aria floored it and ran the next yellow light, then turned right once and left twice, then sped up and got onto the highway for two miles. She took a random exit, then drove leisurely through the suburban neighborhood they ended up in. Coleton watched behind them.

  This time it was Coleton who swore under his breath. "They're still back there."

  Aria pressed her lips together. "Did anyone touch you in the courtroom?"

  Coleton shook his head. "No one."

  Aria thought furiously. "Are you sure? What about the attorney? Did he put a hand on your back or anything?"

  "No." Coleton shook his head emphatically when a faraway look came into his eyes. "One of the guards elbowed me in the ribs as he ran by to get my father."

  "Lean forward," Aria demanded, then ran her hand over his back and his side. "I don't see anything but he must have put something on you."

  "Something like what?"

  "A transistor. It could be as small as a pencil eraser and flat. It could look like a sticker."

  Coleton tore off his jacket and examined it. Finally he rolled down the window and just pitched it out.

  Aria nodded approvingly. "Hold on."

  ***

  Coleton held on. He'd learned by experience that Aria drove a car like she'd stolen it. Just like she had stolen his heart. He watched her profile as she slammed the car into second gear and skidded around the corner.

  Up until now, even though he'd always known he was in danger, he'd never considered his father a cop killer. But seeing the way his father had stared at Aria in the courthouse, he knew that was all about to change. He felt like Aria was in incredible danger, and it was all his fault. He couldn't stand to be the one to have done this to her. If she was murdered, and it was all his fault, which it would be, he would die. His father wouldn't have to murder him. He would die of a broken heart on the spot.

  He had to think of a way to get away from her. To draw his father away from her. To make sure his father knew that she no longer had anything to do with protecting him. To beg for her life if he had to. In his mind's eye he could see himself calling his father somehow, with one last request. I'll come to you willingly, if you'll leave her alone forever.

  Coleton looked behind them, feeling the pain of the bullet that would be coming. "I don't see them," he said softly, trying to make his mind up.

  "Good," Aria said with a clenched jaw, and sped up. Coleton made sure his door was locked as he was thrown against it, then tried to hold himself in place. Eventually, she slowed down.

  She flashed a magnificent smile at him. "I think we did it."

  He smiled back, but it felt like he was already dying inside. "What now?"

  "I'm not sure," she said. "I don't know if anywhere is safe. Maybe we should just drive around for a while and give them time to sort it out at the courthouse. We can call in later and see if things are under control. But even if everyone was subdued and your father is still in custody, I don't think that means you're safe, do you?"

  Coleton just stared at her and she eyed him curiously. She didn't speak though, giving him space and time to figure out what he wanted. He watched as she got on the highway and he didn't question her decision. She was heading south, and he just wondered how far.

  An hour later, Coleton still wrestled with his decision, but Aria cut through his thoughts. "We're going to need to stop for gas."

  "Are we safe?"

  "I'm almost certain we are."

  Aria took an exit and pulled into a gas station. She parked just inside the entrance and spoke to him seriously. "I'm going to wait until that pump is free," she said lifting her chin to indicate the pump closest to the door. "When I stop, you get out and go inside to pay. If you hear me honk the horn, you run out immediately and jump in the car."

  Coleton nodded and took one last long look around at the roads in front and behind him. He did not see anything suspicious. The car in front of them cleared out and Aria pulled into the spot she had her eye on. Coleton followed her instructions to a T and within five minutes they were back on the road.

  "Do you ever think about just running?" Aria said in a strange voice.

  Coleton looked at her, dumbfounded. Finally he spoke. "I already did that, remember?"

  She shook her head. "I don't mean to New York. What about Brazil? Or Japan?"

  He shook his head. "And always be looking over my shoulder? Besides, my life is here."

  Aria moved her hand from the gearshift onto his leg, then found his hand and twisted her fingers in his. "I could go with you. We could start a new life," she said quietly.

  Coleton stared at her, his mouth agape. Finally he gathered his senses and tried to lighten the situation. "They would love you in Japan. With that bl
onde hair and those light blue eyes, you'd be bigger than Godzilla."

  Aria half smiled and gave him a stern look. "I'm serious."

  "You'll lose your job."

  "That's not as important as you would think. As I thought a month ago."

  Coleton shook his head vehemently. "I don't want you to lose your job and end up resenting me because of it."

  "That's better than losing you," she said in a small voice. "You could wind up dead if we stay here."

  "It's not better for me. I'd rather be dead than have you hate me."

  "I could never hate you, Coleton."

  "You could. If we ran right now, I'm afraid you would. Eventually."

  Aria was silent for a long time. Coleton knew she saw the wisdom in what he was saying. The stress of being on the run for the rest of their lives could destroy them both.

  He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. "Look, I know it seems hopeless. It seemed that way to me for a long time. But if something happens to me, you're going to be okay." In the back of his mind, he saw himself making the deal with his father. "I know Jason hurt you, but that was on him, not you. Your next husband won't -"

  "I am never getting married again!" Aria almost yelled, her eyes bright and hard as she sped up slightly onto the highway.

  Coleton studied her. He saw the pain written clearly on her face and wished he could take back his words. He never wanted to cause her a second of pain. If only he could get his hands on that jerk Jason, that jerk who had destroyed her peace of mind, her sense of safety, her view of the world. Coleton's thoughts wandered towards teaching Jason a lesson for only a few brief moments before Aria spoke again.

  "If we are not running, we'll need to head back. Get close enough that we can make it to court tomorrow morning at nine."

  Coleton nodded absently. He still had a decision to make. "Are we going to try to stay somewhere tonight?"

  "Yes, how about a motel just outside the city limits?"

  He gave her a lopsided smile. "Only if we can stay on the first floor," he said.

  She smiled back. "You're on."

  Chapter 26

  Aria took the heavy brass key and flashed the pimply motel clerk a light smile. She shoved the key into her pocket and headed out the door, hooking a finger at Coleton in the car.

  He got out and followed her to their room. "What, no key cards?" he complained as she slid the actual key home in the lock.

  Aria huffed a breath out through her nose. "Where do you think we are? The Ritz?"

  Coleton laughed behind her and she led him into the room, then collapsed on the bed. She looked at the time. Just after eight p.m. They had two hours before the ten o'clock news. Maybe she should call dispatch and see if they could put her through to Foley. Only Foley.

  With that thought marching through her brain, she promptly fell asleep. Coleton shook her awake at ten o'clock, with the smell of greasy food in the air. "It's almost time for the news," he told her. "Oh, and I ordered take out from that burger joint on the corner."

  "You left the room?" Aria hissed at him.

  Coleton held up his hands. "Hey, nothing happened. I'm fine."

  Aria nodded and took a deep breath. "Sorry. But you shouldn't leave the room again. Especially not without me knowing."

  Coleton gave her a look that said he had it all under control and snapped on the ancient TV, turning to a local channel.

  Immediately after the station logo played, a harried looking newswoman appeared in front of a nighttime scene on the side of a road. Aria breathed a sigh of relief. If the story at the courthouse wasn't the leading story, it meant that Fiore Savoy couldn't have escaped.

  But in mere moments, when the newswoman opened her mouth, those hopeful thoughts were destroyed, dashed into a concrete wall, and run over with a bulldozer.

  "It happened at 2:12 this afternoon, authorities say, and may just be the worst prison escape this state has ever seen, leaving folks we've talked to remembering Alcatraz and comparing the daring of these prisoners to those men."

  The camera panned out and showed a twisted white prison van sandwiched between two semi trucks.

  "The prison van had just left the court house to transport fourteen dangerous prisoners back to San Cuermo prison. It pulled onto I-5 and drove for approximately seven miles when witnesses say these two semi trucks overtook it and trapped it in between them, crunching the doors and windows and causing it to stop. The back of the trucks opened and armed men streamed out, shooting one guard and ordering the other to climb out the window and lie on the ground.

  "When it was over, all fourteen prisoners had been herded into a van on the other side of the semi trucks, and the vehicle fled the area at a high rate of speed. We can only assume they left the semi-trucks here to block the road and prevent police officers from following."

  Aria's mouth dropped open and Coleton, sitting on the bed next to her, convulsively began to wring the bed spread through his hands. They exchanged a glance and Aria saw flat terror in his eyes. Or maybe she was seeing her own terror reflected in him.

  The scene shot back to an anchorman in the newsroom. "Allison, is there any connection between this and what our sources are saying happened at the city courthouse this morning?"

  The scene flashed back to the nighttime shots in front of the closed highway. Allison pressed her lips together and nodded. "Authorities are not confirming that, James, but our sources tell us these men who escaped out of the prison are the same ones who started the brawl at the courthouse."

  "Is there any truth to the rumor that noted crime lord Fiore Savoy was among the escaped prisoners?"

  Allison listened to this question in her headset and nodded again. "We don't know James, but it's certainly possible. It was supposed to be the first day of his trial where this all happened."

  The shot turned back to James and he looked startled for a moment, then closed the segment. "Please let us know when you have any more information, Allison."

  "Will do, James."

  James turned on his most warning expression and said. "For now, every citizen should be on the alert. Sources tell us that the biggest manhunt the city has ever seen is now underway. Stay inside. Stay safe. Stay alert."

  Aria stared at the TV open mouthed, as Coleton snapped it off and began to pace. She didn't like how white his face was, or how waxy his expression.

  He turned to her. "I say we go to the police station. Get a full contingent of protection."

  Aria couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Have you forgotten what happened the last time you went to the police station?"

  Coleton shook his head. "No. But they can't all be dirty. You and I out here alone with him free are like sitting ducks."

  He peered at her closely and Aria suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She hated the look in his eyes.

  When he spoke, he only confirmed what she was thinking. "And I think you should stay ... ah, there. Maybe go home. I should go with someone new. I trust Chief Foley. I'll talk to him. See who he thinks is ok."

  Aria worked her mouth, but nothing came out. After everything, after all she had been through with him, after how she had kept him safe, he was going to abandon her now?

  She couldn't speak. She could barely think. Her emotions came to her through a haze of numbness and grief and anger. What was he saying?

  Aria stood up and pushed past him. She just wanted a breath of air and then maybe she could figure out exactly what he meant. Talk to him. If she didn't kill him first.

  Aria opened the door and stepped outside, the cool night air pressing on her cheeks. She took a deep breath and let her eyes pass over the cars in the parking lot. Including theirs.

  The bottom dropped out of her mind. She had fucked up. The people chasing her earlier had seen them - possibly been able to see the license plate on the car. She had pulled in and just left the car in the parking lot, not even thinking she should park it somewhere else - just in case. Just in case the bad guys had helicopters or a
ccess to all the city cameras which could read and process license plates ...

  As she was thinking, she saw it. The black SUV. Parked illegally near the motel office door. She couldn't see inside the motel office but she didn't need to. Her imagination filled in the details. Two men, big, with bulky coats and mean faces. Flashing badges or maybe just bullying the clerk into telling them what room the woman with the blonde hair and the cold blue eyes had paid for.

  Aria stumbled backwards into the room and grabbed Coleton by the hand, then scooped their two personal backpacks off the floor.

  "Aria, just let me-" Coleton said in apologetic voice.

  "Not now," she interrupted. "They're here. We have to go! Now!"

  Coleton's eyes went wide in startled fear and he ran past her to the door, his body tense and ready for a fight. "Where?"

  "In the office. Come on!"

  She pulled him to the left, but stopped long enough to quietly shut the door, then ran down the length of the building, throwing hard looks over her shoulder. Coleton stayed behind her but ran with her sense of urgency, always within a foot of her. She could tell by the set of his shoulders that he expected a bullet in the back any moment.

  They reached the end of the building and turned left, Aria visually searching the buildings in the street beyond with single-minded purpose.

  "What about our car?" Coleton panted.

  "Can't. They know it."

  Thankfully, he didn't ask any more questions. They ran swiftly down the road towards the closest building, a gas station about five hundred yards away. When they finally reached it, Aria slowed to a walk, not wanting to look suspicious.

  She cut behind it, just to see what was back there. Maybe they could find an employee's car with the keys still in it. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was steal a car, but she didn't feel like they had a choice at this point.