Still, he wasn’t taking any chances. He set his gun on the nightstand. He’d take the bed nearest the door and Quinn could have the one closest to the bathroom.
“Separate beds?” Quinn asked. “Really?”
“The last thing I need is to be distracted by you before this is over.” He’d been spoiled in the short time they’d been married having her in bed with him every night, waking up with her every morning.
He picked up the remote and put on the TV. Quinn took the pet carriers into the bathroom. The next thing Reif knew, two furry bodies raced out. He groaned, sneezed, and popped one of the allergy pills out of its foil pack. He swallowed it realizing he had a problem. He needed to be alert. But he also needed to rest. Which meant he had to stop sneezing. Sometimes even the non-drowsy antihistamines kept him wide awake.
One of the ferrets sniffed at his shoe. Then his pants leg. Then it put its front paws on the edge of his chair and sniffed.
Reif sneezed. “Go away,” he told it. As if it understood English, it dropped back to all fours and darted back across the room to chase its companion around the small space. Quinn sat in the other chair and took a sip of soda.
Reif blew his nose into one of the napkins from the fast food bag. “Do they have to be out here?”
“It seems only fair to let them run around for a while. They’ve been cooped up in those carriers for hours.”
“Oh, right. You definitely want to do the right thing where they’re concerned.”
The late night talk shows had ended. There wasn’t much on. But the noise from the TV was better than the silence that stretched between them.
He grabbed the fast food and set Quinn’s half in front of her. She ignored it. He pushed it closer to her. “Eat.”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
Her earlier bravado was gone and her eyes were starting to shimmer. “Can’t. My stomach’s one big knot.”
Reif sincerely hoped she wouldn’t start crying. He didn’t think he’d be able to stay mad at her. Maybe that was the plan. She’d soften him up and he’d be right back where he started. If he couldn’t keep her safe from him and from herself, let alone whoever else was out there coming after her, they’d never make it.
He was halfway through his cheeseburger and now his stomach was in a knot as well. He couldn’t stop thinking about something happening to her and what that would do to him.
The ferrets, tired of their game of tag, attempted to climb onto the chairs, and he supposed, eventually the table. He pushed them away and tossed two bits of hamburger their way along with the paper bag. He hoped they’d crawl in and not be able to find their way out. He reached for another napkin, sneezed into it and blew his nose again.
He pushed his food away. “You want to take a shower?”
Her eyes glowed with hope. “With you?”
“Uh, no. You can have the bathroom first is what I meant. And take those furballs with you.”
“Oh.” The look in her eyes died. This watching over her twenty-four/seven was going to be more problematic than Reif had anticipated. How was he supposed to never let her out of his sight while keeping his distance? Quinn took her bag into the bathroom then came back out and somehow managed to corral both the ferrets.
Reif swore. Yeah. He was going to get a ton of sleep with her in the other bed and with those two weasels running around the room. Stopping at a motel for the night had been a brilliant idea.
He could hear her as she spoke to the ferrets. He heard her giggle. He remembered the first time he’d heard the sound of her laughter.
He glowered at the TV until the bathroom door opened. Quinn had donned a pair of white panties and a tee shirt that skimmed the tops of her thighs. She set the two carriers beneath the sink. “I’ll feed them and let them run around in here while you take a shower,” she told him. “I cleaned out their carriers.”
Reif made no comment. He pretended not to watch while she brushed her teeth. The tee shirt rode up when she bent over the sink. “I’m calling them Fudge and Pudge. Because one’s brown and the white one’s kind of chubby,” she said.
The brown one ran toward him but stopped just shy of his chair. It stared at Reif for a moment before losing interest and attacking the fast food bag once more. Reif had about all he could stand. “They’ve run around enough. Put them back in the carriers. They’re sleeping in the car.”
“But they—”
The expression on his face must have been what stopped her. Or maybe it was his watery eyes. Or the giant sneeze that took them all by surprise and sent the two frightened ferrets scrambling away from him. Quinn caught them both and murmured soothingly to them as she locked them up.
Reif grabbed the carriers and took them outside. When he came back in he headed for the bathroom and that damned shower he’d been longing for. “You get the bed furthest from the door,” he said as he brushed by her. “Don’t go anywhere. Got it?”
“Fine. If that’s the way you want it,” she told the door as it closed behind him.
Quinn surveyed the motel room, eventually spotting the gun he’d left on the nightstand. She imagined using it to force him into bed with her. Maybe Reif didn’t want to talk to her, but his body had a language all its own, and with a little prodding, nature would take its course.
She shook her head and chuckled. It was that kind of dumb logic that got her here in the first place. Reif was angry with her and he didn’t trust her. She didn’t know what to do about that.
It was hard to apologize for something she wasn’t entirely sorry for. She pulled the covers back on her bed. The sheets and pillowcases looked clean enough. She left the light on over the nightstand, turned off the television and got into bed with Bubba Two. At least Reif wasn’t allergic to stuffed animals. Maybe if he stopped sneezing she’d get some sleep.
Eventually she heard the shower turn off and the sound of Reif moving around in the bathroom. He cracked the door open and she heard him brush his teeth. The light over the sink went off and he shuffled to his bed.
Tension hummed in the darkness once he’d settled in. The unit under the window that was supposed to cool the air alternately rattled and hummed. Words they couldn’t say to each other floated in the space between them.
Quinn didn’t know if she slept. She must have. Suddenly she was wide awake. She sat up shivering in the overly air-conditioned room, every sense alert. Thunder cracked the silence and lightning popped, illuminating the thin edges where the curtain didn’t fit close to the window. At the same time someone pounded on the door. A man’s voice slurred and shouted unintelligibly through the heavy rain.
The edge of the curtain moved. Reif was at the window looking out. In the dim light she could just make out the outline of him and the gun in his hand.
A woman’s voice joined the man’s, screeching over the downpour.
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Domestic situation in the room next door. The manager’s out there.” He watched for a few more minutes. “Cops just pulled up. Man, I really know how to pick a motel, don’t I?”
For a fraction of a second, when she’d heard the pounding and the voices, Quinn thought the mob had found her. They were going to burst in the door. Kill her. Kill them both. Maybe they’d kill Reif first and make her watch.
That would be so much worse than him being killed in a plane crash, because it would be her fault. If anything happened to Reif because of her…
Reif dropped the curtain and came toward her. He set the gun on the nightstand and stood for a moment in the narrow space between the beds. “It’s okay. The cops are hauling him in.”
She nodded, although in the dark he probably couldn’t see. She shuddered as she tried to get herself and her emotions under control.
“You okay?” Reif’s
hand brushed her shoulder and everything inside her broke loose at once. She grabbed on to his hand as if it were a lifeline and pulled him toward her, tugging him off balance so that he toppled on top of her. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him everywhere she could.
They grappled with each other, losing themselves in the moment. Reif’s anger and frustration coupled with her desperation created an out-of-control need in both of them. No gentleness, no soft words or slow caresses. Just grasping and panting until they were pounding against each other harder than the rain outside.
Afterwards, when her heart rate had returned to normal and she could speak again, Quinn asked, “Are you still mad at me?”
Reif rolled his head back and forth on the pillow in answer to her question. “I don’t think I was ever really mad at you. More like terrified.”
“Of what?”
“Of something happening to you.”
“Because I act like an idiot.”
“Your words, not mine. But that’s not it either.”
“Afraid it will be your fault?”
He shook his head again. “If I lost you, it wouldn’t matter whose fault it was.”
“That’s what I thought when I woke up. If they had found me with you, they’d kill us both. They’d kill you and I’d know it was my fault.” She snuggled closer and kissed his neck. “But it was the idea of losing you that scared me most.”
“Were you manipulating me just now?”
“How do you mean?”
“Trying to get me in bed with you so I wouldn’t be mad at you anymore.”
Quinn laid back with an exasperated gasp. “God, you make me out like I’m some kind of super con artist. I love you. I was afraid I might never get to be with you this way again. I was desperate. And scared.”
Reif turned on his side to look at her even though she could hardly see him. “You played me. From the very beginning.”
She started to interrupt but he put a finger to her lips.
“You took risks you never should have taken and I let you because I didn’t know how much danger you were in. You didn’t want me to know.”
“I wanted to live! I watched a seventeen-year-old boy die! After the attack on the safe house, I thought it was just a matter of time before I was next. I decided I was going to live every day like it was my last. I don’t regret what happened between us that first morning. I wanted you and you were there for me. I didn’t want to hide in a corner if I only had days or weeks or months left, don’t you see? I’ve been hiding in a corner since my mother died.”
“I understand.”
“I can’t just…what?” Quinn wasn’t expecting that response.
“It was true in Vegas and it’s true now. There are no foolproof guarantees of safety, but you still have to trust me. You have to promise me you won’t take any more unnecessary risks until this is settled.”
“I promise. Besides, it’s the only way I can keep you safe too.”
She moved closer to him, but he moved away.
“God, this bed is lumpy.” He shifted some more. “Wait. What the hell is this?”
She felt fake fur brush against her arm. “It’s Bubba Two.” She took it from him.
“Bubba Two?”
“The cat you bought me. Remember?”
“You were packing in a panic to flee from a hitman, and you took the time to pack this?”
“Yes.”
“You sleep with it?”
“Yes,” Quinn said a bit testily.
“You’re a twenty-three-year-old married woman and you sleep with a stuffed animal.”
“Well at least you’ve admitted to being married again.”
Reif chuckled.
She edged closer to him and kissed his ear. “Besides, I only sleep with him when I can’t sleep with you.”
“Oh, well, in that case.” He snatched the toy from her and tossed it carelessly aside. “Bubba Two can have my bed.”
Chapter Twenty
The next morning, when Reif went to get a fast-food breakfast for them, Quinn insisted he bring the ferrets inside so they could run around for a bit. Reluctantly, Reif did so. He balled up the wrappers from his breakfast sandwich and hash browns and tossed them across the room for the ferrets. Their interest in them lasted about thirty seconds. Quinn and Reif had decided to drive straight through to Coral Bay, swapping the wheel every time they stopped for gas.
“The only thing is…” Quinn began.
“What?”
“Those two.” She pointed at the ferrets who were digging inside the waste paper can they’d knocked over. They managed to get the lid off an empty drink cup and the melted ice drained into the carpet. “We’ll have to let them out some of the time while we’re driving. They can’t be caged up for two whole days.”
Reif rubbed his eyelids. His eyes were still bloodshot but he wasn’t sneezing as much. “I’m going to need some more pills.”
When Quinn wasn’t driving she let the ferrets out for an hour or so, doing her best to keep them away from Reif. But once, when she was settling Pudge back into the carrier, Fudge leapt into the passenger seat. He seemed to like Reif. Quinn wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but she thought Reif’s attitude toward the wily creatures had softened a bit. Fudge set his feet on the center console and sniffed Reif’s sleeve, then gave a tiny sneeze.
Reif picked up his package of allergy medication and held it out to the ferret. “Want one?”
Quinn stirred as Reif pulled into a gas station the next night. He turned off the ignition and rubbed his eyes. Quinn yawned and looked around. It was one-fifteen in the morning if the clock on the dash could be trusted.
“Want me to drive for a while?” she asked as they got out.
“Yes. I’m beat,” Reif admitted. “Let’s pay for the gas and get some coffee or something.”
“Where are we now, anyway?”
“God, I don’t know. Hell?”
Quinn giggled. “I’m thinking Mississippi.”
He slung an arm over her shoulders. “Same thing.”
Except for a lone clerk behind the counter the place was deserted. He looked up and nodded when they stepped through the door. Reif handed him a couple of twenties. “Forty on pump two.”
The kid nodded and rang it up.
“Restroom?”
The kid pointed and they made their way back along a corridor crowded with excess merchandise, a water fountain and a hand truck.
Reif stood guard outside the door of the restroom until Quinn was done before he took his turn. There was a self-serve coffee bar and soft drink fountain nearby. Quinn poured herself a large coffee and moved into the pastries aisle. The muffins and donuts looked pretty picked over. Quinn bent down to peruse the pre-packaged goods.
She heard the door buzz as it opened.
“Open the register. Give me all the cash.”
Are you kidding me? Quinn peeked around the corner to see an armed man wearing low-rider jeans and a black hoodie with the hood up to obscure his face. He was only a few feet away from her.
Had she somehow upset the delicate balance of the universe by asserting her independence and making her own decisions? At this rate she’d be struck by lightning and swept away in a hurricane before she made it back to Florida.
She glanced up and saw her reflection in the big round security mirror mounted above the hallway to the restrooms. The gunman hadn’t noticed her, despite the fact she was right behind him. Apparently he hadn’t noticed the Escalade sitting at the pump either.
She looked back to the counter. The clerk had his hands up. “Don’t shoot, man. I’m new here. I…I can’t just open the register. I don’t think it works like that.”
“Open it. Or I shoot you. Your choice.”
“Look, I have to ring something up. It has to be a
cash sale or the register won’t open. I don’t have keys to unlock it. I swear.”
“Oh for fuck’s…” The gunman slid a packet of beef jerky over. “Ring that up!” The robber was trying to play it cool but there was a tremor in his voice. Even from her vantage point Quinn could see the hand holding the gun shake. It seemed like neither he nor the clerk knew what they were doing.
“Okay, okay. I think that’ll work.” The clerk scanned the beef jerky. Quinn heard the restroom door open.
In two seconds Reif would appear at the end of the corridor. The robber would turn, see him, and realize he had another witness to worry about. He was already unstable. Throw another person into the mix and who knew what would happen.
Quinn had a sudden flashback of Julio falling to the ground in the parking garage, a bullet in his chest, staring at Quinn in stunned surprise. That wasn’t going to happen now. Not when she had a chance to do something.
She pulled the lid off the coffee cup and lunged toward the gunman. The robber had turned toward the restrooms, training his gun in that direction, when the coffee hit him square in the face. She barreled into his legs, leading with her shoulder, knocking the man into the counter.
The would-be thief cried out in pain, hot coffee all over him. Quinn’s tackle hadn’t toppled him, but it had thrown him off balance. The night clerk fought to wrestle the gun out of his hand.
The robber pulled himself away from the clerk, gun in hand, just in time for Reif’s fist to connect with his chin. He spun around, dazed, and dropped face first on the floor.
Carefully, Quinn picked up the gun and set it on the counter.
“You got an alarm?” Reif asked the clerk. Reif had the robber face down on the floor and was keeping him there with a knee in his back while he held on to his wrists. The guy’s hoodie had come away from his face. He looked young, desperate and was quietly whimpering.
Fantasy Man Page 17
