She'd yet to look at Zach. She didn't want to see the pity on his face.
"But Zach"—she finally looked up, meeting his gaze—"what else was I going to do? It was my mother's life or my own. She'd already sacrificed so much. Lost the love of her life. I couldn't let her go."
Zach reached out and took her hand in his.
"I know. If it had been my mother, I would have done the same thing. It's not your fault."
They were words of absolution. Words that gave her hope for her future. Words that endeared her to this man who had saved her life on numerous occasions. And now he accepted her, flaws and all. Knowing what she'd done. The horrible things she'd been forced to do. He still accepted her.
A small voice inside her whispered that once he found out the rest—when he heard the rest of the story—he'd hate her.
But for now, he was here. Holding her hand and looking at her with such tenderness that it broke Quita's heart.
For now, she'd cherish that.
* * * *
Zach was still stunned by Quita's story. So much had happened to her in such a short life. He knew she was younger than he was—probably by seven or eight years, maybe more.
He'd asked her for her real name before they'd been hit by that car. She'd been about to tell him. He could see it in her eyes. She wanted to trust him. Then all hell had broken loose, and the moment had passed.
He still wanted to know. He wanted to know her. She was sleeping quietly in the seat next to him. He knew she was exhausted. He was as well. They were almost to Knoxville, Tennessee, which would be a great place for him to stop and rest his eyes for a couple of hours.
The Army had taught him to survive on little sleep. Then, after the incident, the one that haunted his dreams, he'd learned to survive on even less. It was wearing on him. Years of not sleeping had started to influence his abilities. Isabel had been after him for years to get some help.
But for years, he hadn't had a compelling reason to get that help. He looked over at the woman sleeping in his passenger seat. Maybe she was reason enough to seek counsel. He wanted her in his life. Wanted her in his bed. By his side. For always.
For once, Zach knew exactly how Gabriel, Lucas, and Ethan all felt. He'd watched each of them fall in love with his wife. He finally understood the need to be with that one person all the time. When he was away from Quita, he still thought about her. It had never been like this for him before.
What did he have to offer her, though? He was a broken shell of a man. He wasn't sure there were even enough pieces of himself left to put together. And if he did, how many holes would still remain?
It wasn't fair to ask someone else to fill those holes for him. He had to find a way to do it himself. Maybe it was time to seek help. When this was over. When Quita was safe, and The General had been stopped, then he'd get the help he needed. He would have something to offer her then. A life with him.
Quita awoke and looked over at him, a sleepy expression on her face.
"Hey," she said shyly.
"Hey. Sleep well?"
Quita shrugged. "A little. How much longer are we going to drive?"
"I thought we'd find a rest stop in Knoxville, and I'll shut my eyes for an hour or so. I'd like to reach Arkansas by tomorrow afternoon, and we can get a hotel and rest longer there. I need to work on the encryption for a few hours while we're stopped."
"Sounds good. How far are we from the rest stop?"
"Just a few minutes."
They drove in companionable silence, Zach still deep in thought over his feelings. Quita sat cross-legged. He risked a glance at her.
She was beautiful. Stunningly beautiful. Her blonde hair was piled high on top of her head in a kind of messy topknot. Her face was clean of makeup, the bruises from her time in the alley with those two thugs finally starting to turn yellow and green. There were new cuts there from the accident, but none of that detracted from her loveliness.
"What?" she asked self-consciously. Zach had gotten lost in his thoughts and hadn't realized he was still staring at her.
"Nothing," he said, embarrassed at being caught.
"Do I have something on my face? Is it ugly from all the bruises? I can't catch a break." She sighed.
"No, it's not ugly. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met. Inside and out."
Quita glanced down at her lap. When she looked back up at him, her eyes glittered with moisture. "Thank you," she whispered.
He took her hand in his and held it.
The sign ahead said the rest stop was one mile away. They would stop there and get some rest, then move on.
Zach pulled the car into a space near the exit. He and Quita got out and walked to the restrooms before returning to the car. He turned it back on, since there was a slight chill to the air.
Reclining his seat back, he closed his eyes, willing himself to fall asleep.
"Zach?" Quita whispered in the silence of the night.
"Yes?"
"Thank you. For believing me. For trusting me. You have no idea how much it means to me."
"You're welcome," he said.
Then shut his eyes and slept.
Chapter 13
Zach's eyes popped open, his breathing fast and furious. He glanced at the clock and saw that he'd been asleep for more than two hours. He hadn't meant to sleep that long, but at least he'd woken up before the dream had consumed him.
It had begun before he’d forced himself awake. He'd been walking in that town again, dust rising in the air, his gun locked and loaded. He could feel eyes on him.
He shook his head. He was awake, and yet the feeling of being watched—of being pursued—still weighed on him.
Zach sat very still, glancing over at Quita to make sure she was still sleeping soundly, when his eye caught something moving in her side-view mirror. He looked into the rearview mirror and saw nothing. Then he looked at his own side-view mirror. A black figure was creeping up beside them, still across the drive, but coming up quickly. Thank God he'd left the car running.
"Quita," he whispered, lightly shaking her.
"What?" she asked, waking up rather grumpily.
"There's someone out there."
"What?" she shrieked, trying to sit up. His arm held her down.
"Shh! Stay put. Don't move until I tell you to. Lie still, curled up on your side. When I say go, open the door as fast as you can. Got it?"
She nodded, and he could see the fear in her eyes.
"It's going to be ok. Now, quietly unlock the door manually."
She followed his instructions, and he did the same to his door.
"Ok, wait for my command."
Quita nodded and turned over on her side, her hand resting on the door handle.
Zach watched as the two men got closer and closer. He knew they'd get to the doors and then jerk them open and put a bullet in each of their skulls. He and Quita had to time their move correctly in order to give themselves plenty of time to get away.
When one guy reached the door on his side, and the other guy reached Quita's door, he said, "Now!"
He and Quita both flung open their doors at the same time, knocking both men out cold. They fell to the ground, their guns clattering at their feet.
"Now, shut it!" he yelled, and jerked his seat upright. His tires squealed as he peeled out of the parking spot and noticed the headlights of a black sedan shining in his rearview mirror.
Flooring it, he spun out of the rest stop, angry that he'd let himself oversleep. Angry that Tobias's men wouldn't leave them alone.
The sedan followed, gaining on them. Zach changed to the left-hand lane on the highway, watching as the speedometer inched higher and higher. The black car was still coming. He wasn't sure what kind it was, but it had to be something with a powerful engine.
Quita looked behind them.
"They're still back there."
"I know."
"They're gaining on us."
"I know. Stating the obvious i
sn't helping, Quita."
"Sorry."
It was the middle of the night, and the highway was fairly empty of cars. Only a few late-night travelers and a few tractor-trailer trucks were on the road. He needed to find a way to lose whoever was in that sedan. And better yet, he needed to find out how they'd found them.
"Take my phone and plug in downtown Knoxville. I need to get inside the city so we can lose these guys. I'll never shake them on the open road like this."
Quita took his phone and put in the coordinates. "Ok, it's up. Not this exit, but the next."
Zach switched the navigation from his phone to his car's system. He waited until the last second before jerking the wheel over to the exit, crossing over several lanes and hurtling off the ramp. The black sedan had to come to a complete stop before finding its way over. Zach watched in his rearview mirror until he had to concentrate on where he was going.
"Watch them," he said to Quita.
She turned around in her seat as far as she could while still staying buckled.
"They're on the ramp now," she said, worry tightening her voice.
"I've got it. Relax," Zach said, as much to himself as to her. He wasn't at all confident that he had this. These guys had found them at a rest stop. Not on the road, but stopped. The only way they could have done that was by following them, and since they hadn't tried to take them out in the bathrooms or even right after they'd dozed off, Zach assumed that they'd been a couple hours behind them. Which meant that there had to be a GPS tracker on them somewhere.
He found a parking garage and glanced in his mirror, relieved at not seeing the sedan yet. Turning the car into the garage, he parked right near the exit. He had to figure out if the goons were following something on the car or something on them.
They waited, Quita's breathing heavier now, with the stress of the situation weighing down on them.
Zach watched as, a few minutes later, the headlights of the black sedan came around the corner.
"Dammit! We're bugged."
"What?"
"They have a GPS tracker on us somewhere. I'm assuming they put it on the car after they tried to smoke us out of Maggie's house."
"What do we do?"
"Ditch the car. And somehow find another one at four-thirty in the morning."
"You mean, like steal one?" she asked, her voice ratcheting up a notch.
"Borrow one. Yes," he said. "I'll make sure Sully sends word to the owner and covers the expense. I'm still working out how to find one with the keys in it, though."
"We don't need keys."
"Why is that?"
"Find me something older, and I can hotwire it for you."
Zach stared at her with a shocked expression on his face. He could feel his mouth opening and his eyes bulging out of his head. Had she said she could hotwire a car?
"How in the world do you know how to hotwire a car?"
"Years of planning my escape from Bruno and Tobias. YouTube videos. Internet articles. I was resourceful." She gave him a cheeky grin.
"I need to lose our tail again. Once we've ditched the car near a place we can get out quickly, we'll get the new car and be on our way."
"Hang on," she said, pulling out her phone.
"What are you doing? I thought I told you to keep that thing turned off in case they were tracking your location."
Quita stared up at him with obvious disbelief on her face. "Seriously? We've got someone on our tail, and you're going to talk to me about being followed?"
"True."
"I'm looking for the bad parts of town. The internet knows everything."
"Why are we going to the bad part of town?" Zach asked, worried about his car. It was just a car, but he'd bought it with cash. He loved his car, and a bad part of town meant that it would be picked apart before Sully could get someone over to it to take it home.
"Chill. We'll find a secure parking garage to park it in."
"A secure parking garage in a bad part of town?"
"Just shut up and drive."
Zach held back the laughter that wanted to find release. Quita always made him laugh at the most unexpected times.
"Ok, take a right up here at the next intersection." Zach drove up to the intersection and made the turn.
"Now, turn here!" Quita shouted.
Zach whipped the car down a narrow alley.
"Where are we going?"
"We're losing those goons. Now, take a right again," she said. "Now, here!"
Quita pointed to another alley on his right.
"We just did a big circle."
"Yep, now take a left."
Zach pulled back onto the street that they'd started from. The black sedan was nowhere in sight.
"You're a genius."
"Yep. They aren't worried about losing us if they have a tracking device on us, but it gives us time to get out of the car." Quita grinned at him, clearly proud of herself. Zach grinned back.
"There's a secure parking garage up here. The rougher parts of town are still a few blocks over. Think we can walk that far undetected?" she asked.
"I think they'll look all around the car first before coming after us on foot, hoping we're nearby to wait them out. I don't think they'll risk it."
"Good. Turn down this street," Quita said, pointing ahead of them.
Zach followed her directions for a couple of minutes, and they drove up the ramp to a parking garage. It appeared to be connected to a nice apartment building and required a key card to get in and out.
"Dammit!" he said, when there wasn't a button to push to let them inside.
"Push the button right there."
"The help button?"
Quita nodded. "People leave their cards places all the time. They have a security guard posted, I'm sure, who takes the calls at night." She turned in her seat and reached into the back seat, retrieving a baseball cap. "Put this on and pull it down low over your eyes."
Zach shrugged and put the cap on. He pushed the button near the intercom, and nothing happened.
"Push it again."
He did, and finally, a crackling started in the box. "Can I help you?" a tinny voice asked.
"I forgot my card," Zach answered.
"What unit number, please?"
Zach looked at Quita questioningly. Quita looked at her phone and then said, "Four-oh-five B," in a soft voice.
Zach pushed the button to talk. "Four-oh-five B," he said.
He could hear the sigh in the guy's voice. "I need to see your face, Mr. Sambourne, to identify you."
Zach looked at Quita with panic in his eyes. What should they do now?
"Act like you're drunk," Quita said.
Zach grinned at her, then turned back to the intercom and pressed the button to talk.
"Look here, boy. I got a guuurrrrllll in here that wants some lovin'. Now let me in." Zach laid the drunken slur on thickly, hoping the guy would be exasperated enough this early in the morning to just let him in.
Worked like a charm.
"Fine. Please try to remember your card next time, Mr. Sambourne. Enjoy yourself."
The gate lifted, and they went through. It would take hours for the thugs in the sedan to gain access, unless they just rammed the gate. Clearly, Quita was extremely clever, and also very good at flying under the radar. He wondered why.
He knew that she'd been running after she'd stolen the files, but how had she mastered the art? Why had she had reason to use it while living in Vegas? Unless she'd been planning on running one day.
He found a parking spot at the top of the garage, and they exited the car quickly, grabbing their bags from the trunk. The weapons case would be too heavy, so he slung just the duffel bag over his shoulder. It was half of what he wanted with him, especially if he ended up having a showdown with Tobias Winters and his entourage, but it would have to do. No way could he lug the seventy-five-pound case with him.
Zach examined the car, checking underneath it and popping open the hood, to see
if he could find the GPS locator. He found it under the back bumper and held it up.
"This would be how they knew where to find us."
He wished he had time to put the locator on a delivery truck to take their pursuers on a wild goose chase, but they were limited on time to get out of the city.
They had their bags strapped across their bodies and were headed down the steps to street level within moments of stopping the car. Quita had shown him on the GPS how to get to the side of town that might have an older car they could hotwire, one that wasn't equipped with an alarm or anti-theft features.
When they got to the street, Zach peeked around the corner of the building, looking for their “friends.” Just as he put his head around the corner, headlights flashed. He ducked back inside and pushed Quita away from the door.
"Stand back."
"Is it them?"
He nodded. "I think so."
The car passed by slowly and then turned down the street next to the parking garage.
"They're circling. We need to get across the street fast."
He pushed open the door, and they ran across the street. Quita pulled him down an alleyway, and they walked as fast as they could. They made several more turns until their route put them in a part of town where the walls were lined with graffiti.
Storefronts had been boarded up in some places, and bars were on the windows in others.
"We'll be lucky if we get out of here without getting killed," Zach said.
"Most of this population is asleep right now. It's too early for them to be up for work, and too late for them to still be out doing business."
Zach didn't ask her how she knew this. He saw an old model Honda up ahead and pointed.
"How about that?"
"Perfect," Quita said and rushed across the street to the car. The car was unlocked, and Zach wondered if it would even start. If it was unlocked in this neighborhood, it certainly wouldn't be here for long.
"Lucky break," she said. Quita knelt by the car and tore off the plastic cover under the steering wheel. Zach tore his eyes from her very perky backside sticking up in the air and watched for anyone that might approach. He heard sparks and then the rumble of the engine.
Castle Investigations Box Set Page 85
