She wanted him to say something. Anything. The cold silence was killing her. He hadn't treated her unkindly—he’d taken her bag from her when they were loading the car. Then the whole temperature thing. He was the perfect gentleman. But something had changed. He had a knowledge of her now that exposed a part of her that she didn't want him to know about. A desperate part that she wasn't proud of. He'd known what she'd been forced to do for Bruno, who had pimped her out at will to whoever he thought would give top dollar for her "attentions." Then he'd beaten her for it. He'd told her that she enjoyed it, or that she brought it on herself. That she’d flirted with the men beforehand, and so had left him no choice but to sell her to them.
Quita had hated him. Still did, even though he was dead.
His death had been spectacular. He'd fallen off the roof of Tobias's hotel and been impaled by a large lotus flower sculpture in the pool. They'd had to remove the flower. From what she'd discovered, the room sales had gone down, too.
They would pick back up, though. People were morbid like that. And they loved a good ghost story. Bruno's ghost would be haunting that building for eternity. Served him right.
She sighed and shook her head. After several minutes of sitting silently in rush hour traffic, Quita had had enough.
"Are we going to talk about it?"
Zach looked convincingly confused. "Talk about what?"
Exasperated, Quita threw her hands in the air.
"About what I told everyone? Earlier today? Zach, you can't even look at me."
"What? I'm not looking at you because I'm driving."
"Seriously? That's your excuse?"
Zach risked a glance in her direction.
"Let's go over the order of events. You drop some serious truth bombs on us, then you go pack. I see you for three minutes in the hallway while we load the car, and then all my attention is focused on getting through this hellacious traffic. At what point was I supposed to look at you or talk about what you’d told me?"
Well, when he put it that way, it did seem like maybe she was being silly. But she didn't feel silly. She felt like things were off.
"You just seem distant. Not the same."
Zach sighed and pushed a hand through his golden-brown locks.
"It's a lot to process."
Her heart sank. She knew he'd feel differently about her. It was inevitable.
"I understand."
"No, you don't understand. I get why you did what you did. I can appreciate your dilemma. What I'm having a hard time overcoming is that you didn't trust me enough to tell me about your mom. You didn't share with me why you ran from me in Vegas. Why you wouldn't tell me everything. Why I couldn't find a damn thing about you on the internet. Nothing. That's what is killing me."
"Oh." She hadn't thought about it like that. Keeping secrets had become second nature to her. And he hadn't been able to find her on the internet because Quita was a name that Bruno had given her. She hated it. And yet, she still used it.
But she did trust Zach. And he needed to know that. He needed to know about her. Even if knowing her real name would keep him from her. At least he'd know that she trusted him enough to share it with him.
"I didn't think of it that way. I've been bearing this burden alone for many years, Zach. It's hard to trust that someone is really going to be there. In my experience, people are only there for you as long as you fit their mold. Once that mold breaks, they leave you."
"I get it. I just want you to trust me."
"I do."
"Prove it."
"How?"
"What's your real name?"
Quita froze. No one in her life now, knew her real name. Revealing her name would mean a vulnerability that she hadn't allowed herself since she'd been in Tobias’s and Bruno's employ. Bruno had dubbed her Chaquita, highlighting her Latin curves, and she'd gone with it, never sharing that part of her true self with them.
Zach turned into the private aircraft section at Reagan International Airport. He drove down an aisle of parking spots and shot a glance in her direction.
This was it. She had to give him something, or they'd have nothing to build this friendship on. And whom was she kidding? She wanted more than a friendship with him. She was crazy to hope, but there it was. She wanted what Isabel and Scarlett had. She wanted Zach Harper.
Opening her mouth, she started to utter her name when the car suddenly jerked sideways, causing glass to shatter near her face. Her ears rang as the airbags in front of her and beside her exploded, raining powder down on her. The car wobbled on its side and then stopped. Quita was confused. She looked at Zach. He had blood running down his face from a cut above his eye.
He was moving his mouth, his lips forming words, but she couldn't hear them.
Suddenly, her hearing returned. He was shouting at her.
"Quita! Are you ok?"
She nodded, too stunned to say anything. She could feel a wet trickle running down her face. She wiped at it, her hand coming away covered with blood.
A pop-pop-pop sounded, and then the sound of something pinging off metal.
"Shit!" Zach yelled, and their tires screeched as he pulled down another aisle of cars.
"What's happening?" Quita yelled. She looked down to see that her seat was scrunched up from the impact of the other car hitting them. She was sure that the frame was all busted up, but fortunately, for now, Zach was able to drive it.
"Looks like Tobias is a little impatient."
"That doesn't make any sense!"
"Tell that to Mr. Winters."
Zach swerved to miss a car that was turning down the lane. Gunshots peppered their car, and the back window exploded.
Quita screamed, shoving her head into her lap.
"I have to get out of this parking lot!"
The car jerked to the right, and Quita's head hit the dashboard. "Ouch!"
"Sorry. Almost there. Just a few more feet."
She had no idea what he was doing. She just prayed he’d do it well and get them out of this mess.
Zach punched the gas, and Quita risked a glance around. They were on the parkway surrounding the airport. She glanced behind her and saw a dark sedan gaining on them.
"They're gaining on us," she said, her knees bouncing up and down with nervousness.
"I know," he said. "Once we're on the highway, it will be a parking lot. I'm trying to get some distance between us."
"It's not working!" she shouted.
Zach gave her a look that clearly indicated that he was worried about her level of intelligence. She stuck her tongue out at him. Childish? Of course. But she couldn't help herself.
He punched the gas again, sending her back against the headrest. She heard a ping off the door and yelped. "Zach?"
“I'm working on it,” he said through gritted teeth.
Zach whipped the car down the emergency lane and sped down the road, narrowly missing several cars. He got off on an exit ramp and entered the highway, keeping to the emergency lane.
Quita turned in her seat to see the black sedan still following them. Zach pulled his phone from his pocket.
"Call Sully! Tell him what's going on."
Quita took the phone and pulled up Zach's contact list, hitting the button to connect the call and putting it on speaker.
"Harper! What the hell? I've got calls coming in from everywhere saying that there are gunshots and a car speeding down the emergency lane. Want to tell me what the hell's going on?"
"I'm assuming that our friend Tobias got impatient and sent some thugs to intercept us at the airport. I'm trying to lose them but not having much luck."
"Roger that. Ok, let me see what I can do."
Sully ended the call without so much as a good bye. Quita looked anxiously at Zach.
"What does that mean?"
"Wait and see."
They went several more miles down the road before Sully returned the call.
"Mile marker?"
Quita looked out t
he window, found the mile marker number, and gave it to him.
"Ok, hang tight."
This time, he didn't hang up.
"Help should come any second now."
"Thanks, Sully," Zach said and ended the call.
Quita glanced behind her, turning around in her seat. Her neck was stiff from being T-boned earlier, and she could still feel the blood running down her cheek. She dreaded seeing what she looked like. Her bruises had just been starting to fade.
She watched as the black sedan sped after them. They were far enough back that the distance wasn't conducive to gunfire, at least. But they were still following.
Suddenly, a tractor-trailer truck turned from the inside lane and crashed into the black sedan, sending the car down the embankment. The tractor-trailer stopped before following them down the slope, the cab shaking at the abrupt stop.
"What?" Quita said, laughing.
"I'm sure Sully told them I was a veteran security officer encountering some difficulty from a perpetrator. He'll call the police and get someone out here, but those guys will be long gone before they arrive, I'm sure."
"That was amazing!"
Zach laughed. "Yeah. It was."
Moments later, they turned into the warehouse parking garage and started up the ramp.
"What are we doing here?"
"Changing cars," Zach said. They'd taken one of the surveillance cars to the airport since it would be sitting there for several days. It seemed they'd be taking Zach's car now.
Sully met them in the garage.
"This looks like it's totaled," Sully said.
"Yeah, I'm sure. The floorboard looks like an accordion."
"Driving now?" Sully asked.
"Looks like it. If we leave tonight, we should be able to take our time and still get there by Saturday evening."
Sully nodded. "Good. I'll help transfer the luggage. Quita, go on inside and let Lucas look at those cuts."
"I'm fine—" she started.
"Don't argue with me, please. I've been arguing with a woman all day. Just go."
Sully wasn't used to anyone questioning his command. Quita wondered who'd been giving him a hard time. She figured it was probably Maggie. Her bet was that she wasn't happy about being someone's charity case. Not at all the reality of the situation, but Quita knew from experience that that was how it would make her feel.
Quita went inside and found Lucas waiting for her just outside one of the office doors.
"Come on in," he said, with a kind smile on his face.
Lucas looked her over, making sure she didn't appear to have any major whiplash or a concussion. He then moved on to her cuts, cleaning them and placing tiny butterfly bandages over them.
"You'll be sore for a couple of days, but it doesn't appear that you have a concussion. If you start to feel dizzy or nauseated, though, give me a call. Take some ibuprofen for the pain and stiffness. The cuts should heal fine."
"Thanks, Lucas."
"You're welcome. Be safe."
She was trying, but nothing seemed to be going her way.
When she returned to the garage, Sully and Zach were arguing.
"Just let him patch up the damn cut. Geez, Zach."
"Fine." Zach started towards the office door.
"Did you hit your head?" Sully asked.
"The side of it on the window."
"You probably have a concussion.”
"I'll take some painkillers."
"You're a stubborn ass," Sully said, the exasperation he’d shown towards Quita earlier seeming to grow as he argued with Zach.
"I'll drive," Quita interjected, raising her voice to talk over them.
"What?" they both asked at the same time. Whoa, all that undivided attention from these two males at the same time was a little unnerving.
"I'll drive so that you can rest your head."
"No one drives my car."
"Fine, I'll rent one and go on my own." Quita turned to go back inside.
"Quita," Zach growled through clenched teeth.
"Zach," she growled back, turning to look at him over her shoulder. She turned back to face him.
"At least tonight. If you feel better tomorrow, you can take over."
"Fine. You can drive until the ibuprofen kicks in. Let's go." He was the most hard-headed man she'd ever met.
"Not until you let Lucas look at that cut," she said stubbornly.
"Has anyone ever told you you're a pain in the ass?"
"Yep!" she said cheerfully and smiled sweetly at him. There wasn't much that was cheerful about the situation, but Quita was enjoying the banter.
Zach stormed back into the office, slamming the door behind him. Quita cringed, then looked at Sully's shocked expression.
"Well. That was fun."
Chapter 12
Quita had been driving for a couple of hours when Zach had insisted that he was fine and demanded to take over. Lucas had said that he didn't appear to have a concussion, but Quita had insisted on driving for a little while. Zach had been a fidgety mess the entire time, never relaxing.
When he'd insisted on taking over, she’d jumped at the chance to switch seats. He was making her nervous.
They stopped at a gas station to get gas, and Quita sat in the car, trying to shush her growling stomach.
Zach opened the driver's side door. "You hungry?"
"I thought you'd never ask," she said honestly.
He chuckled. "If you were hungry, why didn't you say something?”
"I didn't know if it was safe enough for us to stop."
"I don't think anyone is following us. We took precautions. Plus, we have to eat at some point." Zach started the car. "There's a fast food joint and a chain sit-down place. Choose your poison."
"Let's do the fast food. I don't want to take the chance of someone catching up to us."
"Fast food it is."
They found the burger joint and ordered their food, sitting down at a table to eat quickly. She took a bite of the greasy burger and groaned.
"Good?"
"Yes. I didn't eat lunch with all the packing and stuff. Then the stress of having crazy people chasing us—it made me hungry."
Zach chuckled. "Adrenaline will do that to you. So, tell me more about your mom."
Quita swallowed the bite of burger and thought about what to say.
"My dad died when I was seventeen. A senior in high school who thought the world was hers for the taking." Quita smiled sardonically. "When he died, all our friends left us. It was like we had the plague or something."
Quita paused to take a sip of her Diet Coke, letting the bubbles burn the back of her throat.
"I’m sorry," Zach said softly.
"Me, too. I had to grow up quickly. Mom and Dad had met at Arizona State University as exchange students and stayed after they got married. They moved to D.C. for Dad's career when I was a baby. But when Dad died, Mom and I moved back to the place she called home. Home for her obviously wasn't home for me. But D.C. is expensive to live in, and I think Mom needed to move someplace where she had familiar surroundings.
"I tried to stay in D.C. with friends so I could finish my senior year, but I couldn't find anyone willing to let me live with them for a few months. So I had to go with Mom. I finished my degree, turned eighteen, and then moved to Vegas to go after my dream of performing."
"You were out on your own at eighteen? In Vegas?"
"Yep."
"When did Tobias come along?"
"I'd been in Vegas for two years. I'd earned enough to get my own apartment and keep myself fed. I had a few acquaintances from work, but I was so much younger than most of the other girls when I first started that it was hard. Anyway, one night, I'd just finished a performance, and my cell phone rang. It was my mom.
"She'd called to tell me that the bronchitis she'd thought she had was actually cancer. An aggressive form that had only a twenty percent survival rate. I immediately flew home, where we saw several doctors. She st
arted chemo and radiation. None of it worked."
Zach touched her hand, but Quita needed to get the story out before she chickened out. It was hard talking about her mom's illness. Even though things looked great right now, she could go out of remission at any moment.
"I was twenty years old and about to be an orphan. That was all I could think about. One of the doctors said there was an experimental treatment that had had great success so far. They didn't know yet what the long-term effects would be, but if it didn't cure her, it would at least give her many more years to live.
"I was ecstatic. That is, until I heard how much it cost. Insurance wouldn't cover it, and it was more money than I could make in two or three years of working in Vegas. I didn't have a college education. Mom was unable to work anymore. I didn't know what to do."
Quita took a deep breath, her hands shaking as she continued the story.
"I flew back home in a daze. Went to work on autopilot. Did my routines. Sang my songs. And all the while, I was dead inside.
"Tobias and Bruno were regulars at the show I worked for. They always sat in the front and would come up afterwards and tell me how wonderful I was. Many times, Tobias had tried to get me to come work for him, but I'd resisted."
Quita saw the darkening in Zach's features. It angered him what Tobias and Bruno had done to her. That warmed her heart. She hadn't had too many people in her life who gave a damn.
"Tobias was a handsome man, but there was also something underneath the surface that frightened me. I could tell he was dangerous. Bruno was a creep. That was evident from the first time I met him. He was always looking at me as if he wanted to devour me. So I always refused.
"That night, he approached me again, but this time, I heard him through different ears. The ears of a girl who was about to lose her mother. The only person left in her life."
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes, and she swallowed hard to keep the emotion at bay.
"He said he would make me rich. My name would be in lights. I'd make more money in a few weeks working for him than I made all year where I was.
"So, I said ok. He looked shocked at my ready acceptance, and I was honestly equally shocked. I knew in that moment that I'd just sold my soul to the devil."
Castle Investigations Box Set Page 84
