by Lisa Hughey
He wasn’t Mama and he was too young to be him.
Initially I dismissed the guy, and glanced at the time on my phone again. But something about him drew my gaze and when I looked back I knew why.
Underneath the bill of the cap, Zeke Thorn’s ocean blue eyes stared at me.
I shoved up, my back scraping against the wall, my pulse pounding in my throat. I tried to swallow but I could barely breathe.
What were the odds that he would happen to be in this restaurant at this particular time? I had a better statistical chance of getting hit by lightning.
He wound through the tightly grouped tables, making his way straight toward me. I clutched my across-the-body tote bag with stitched peace signs and patchwork squares in my hand and straightened.
Somehow, some way he had tracked me here. Followed me? Although I sure hadn’t noticed anyone following.
I had to get out. Get gone.
My breath solidified like sludge in my lungs, slowly cutting off my oxygen and leaving me gasping for air.
Zeke put out a placating hand as if to touch me. I had to get away. From him. Out of here. Great Goddess, had my system with Mama been compromised?
Could Zeke be working with him?
Maybe nothing about our last few interactions had been happenstance. Maybe he really was stalking me, maybe he was here to get me, so the monster could get Mama.
Fear shuddered through my body, working through each organ starting at my head and rippling to my toes in a wave.
“Great place.” Zeke’s shoulders were loose. He smiled and his body language was as non-threatening as possible.
“College hangout,” I said trying to breathe normally as if I wasn’t about one step away from completely hyperventilating. One step away from total breakdown.
He couldn’t pretend to be nonchalant any longer, his gaze earnest and just a little bit pleading. “Sunshine, it’s okay.”
I glanced around frantically. “I have to go.” If he had tracked me here, then anything was possible. I eased around the table, staying as far away from him as the space permitted and trying desperately to keep some object between us.
Zeke followed, advancing on me, gaining with every step. “Your mother sent me.”
Oh, no, no, no. I was shaking my head, even as I picked up the pace. Mama wouldn’t send him. She wouldn’t jeopardize our system with a complete stranger.
Except....Mama thought we had something going on. “Lying is never rewarded,” I whispered as I edged toward frantic.
My lovely co-dependent Mama had sent me a white knight.
Except we didn’t know diddly squat about this guy. Mama only thought I knew him.
Zeke reached out, trying to grab me across the table where the two art students now sat. The clink of the metal silverware on ceramic plates, the trill of laughter from behind me, the smell of the coffee that had sat a little too long on the burner, and the distinct odor of frying potatoes registered with my senses even as my vision tunneled to his very masculine hand. To his long, almost elegant fingers, with the dings and scrapes from his tumble in the ocean last night and the dusting of fine blond hair over his knuckles.
I stared as if I’d never seen a male hand before, unable to tear my gaze from his fingers or break away from the sudden and inexplicable urge I had to trust him.
To place my hand in his and let him help me.
Which was craziness. No one could help me. No one but me. I’d learned long ago only to rely on myself.
I backed away, and in my haste, bumped into the last person in line, causing a small chain reaction. Half the people turned around to see what the commotion was.
I’d inadvertently created my own escape distraction.
Zeke’s attention was split for precious seconds as his focus shifted to the people in line and their annoyed stares. I scuttled toward the door praying I could get out before he realized I’d given him the slip.
Unable to help myself, knowing it was a horrible, bad, no good idea, I glanced back.
Zeke stood transfixed, staring at the Asian woman now at the counter.
The look of horror on his face was mirrored on hers.
Weird. Something very weird was going on. But I wasn’t about to hang around and find out what. I had to get out of here now.
Fourteen
“Shit,” Zeke whispered. Susan Chen was in line.
He’d noted the kinematics of her actions when she’d started to turn, recognized the pattern, the Euler angles of her joints, and the familiarity of her movement. All those elements had pulled his gaze toward Chen instead of staying squarely centered on Sunshine.
Everything in him slowed. The world narrowed. His heartbeat clanked in his ears drowning out all other noises. Images strobed as his attention fractured.
Ka-thunk. Susan Chen who looked as horrified as he felt.
Ka-thunk, ka-thunk. Sunshine beating a frantic exit made tracks for the damn door and away from him.
Ka-thunk. Susan Chen. National security. A sinister plot that had cost one agent his life, and two other agents had been irrevocably changed by the results of her science experiment. If she would just tell his superiors what he’d divulged when he’d been kidnapped and drugged, he would be off suspension. He hoped.
Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk. Sunshine. Whom he’d vowed to protect from Susan’s evil clutches just a few hours ago. Sunshine who was clearly frightened. Because of him? Because of the unnamed threat to her and her mother?
Ka-thunk. Susan Chen. The key to all his problems, but she could also be the downfall of everything.
Ka-thunk, ka-thunk. Sunshine, who had someone after her, was clearly terrified that Zeke had something to do with whoever, whatever, was dogging her and her mother.
Ka-thunk. Susan Chen who had the ability to clear him. But, if she didn’t clear him and if his bosses found out he was anywhere near her, expressly against their directive to stay away from anyone who compromised national security, he was done for. His job was to find her, follow her discreetly, and call someone else. Chen wasn’t supposed to actually see him.
While he was clicking through his two options, Susan Chen beelined for the door. Zeke couldn’t let her escape.
Zeke followed desperately.
As she reached the door of the café, he curled his palm around her bicep. She whipped her head around, and her eyes were wide, frightened. The stark fear in her trembling body shocked him and he loosened his grip.
As soon as he did, Susan yanked open the door and bolted outside. She jerked her head left, then right. Zeke caught up to her again.
But then he spotted Sunshine Smith frantically turning over the engine on the old Volvo.
Shit.
Chen tugged at her arm. But this time he wasn’t letting her go.
“Please,” she begged. “Don’t do this.”
The grind of the starter pulled his gaze toward Sunshine. She was no longer looking at Zeke. Her attention was directed across the street. Sunshine was staring at an older man with a wide chest, large arms, and a nearly bald head scattered with salt and pepper hair. The sheer terror reflected on her face was so strong it made Susan Chen’s expression seem like a placid lake of calm.
Sunshine had hunched over the steering wheel. Her grip on the molded plastic was so tight he could see her bones.
The condemning beat of his heart echoed in his ears. Susan Chen was tugging against his hold. She hadn’t said another word since that one bout of pleading.
The guy Sunshine was afraid of glanced down the street, his gaze skimmed over Zeke and Susan and kept going. If he scoped back up the street, he would see Sunshine in the Volvo.
Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk. Sunshine who was alone in the world. Who’d saved his ass last night. The least he could do was return the favor.
Options clicked through his mind as he searched for patterns, searched for the right path. His next move. He stared at Chen. Trapped, cornered. He caught her vibe, and considered that she was as trapped as he was.<
br />
The patrons eating at the outdoor section of the café were beginning to murmur. So he needed to either apprehend Susan and get her in his Range Rover or let her go. Otherwise, he was guessing the police would be here soon. And that definitely didn’t constitute laying low.
Ka-thunk. Wallet. Cards. He reached into his back pocket, observing mechanically as Susan Chen ducked.
She thought he was going for a weapon. Of course the last time she’d seen him, her partner had just had his head blown off.
Zeke flipped a card at her, hoped like hell he hadn’t just fucked himself. He couldn’t believe he was going to do this. Because while Susan Chen looked trapped, Sunshine Smith had been terrified. “If you want to talk, call me.”
He headed for Sunshine, walking quickly and trying not to draw the older man’s attention.
Ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk. His heart rate increased. Zeke hoped he wasn’t making the biggest mistake of his life.
Oh wait, the biggest mistake of his life was hacking into the Pentagon at sixteen. The government had owned him since then. And fuck him if they hadn’t wrung every drop of remorse out of him. How could they think that he would jeopardize his entire future, his freedom by giving away national secrets?
Of course leaving Susan Chen here, along with his business card, might top that cluster.
But something, he wasn’t sure what, instinct, insanity, was telling him that he needed to be with Sunshine. She was his mission priority.
As soon as the older man shifted his attention down the opposite side of the street, Zeke ran toward her Volvo. Sunshine was getting ready to ram the hell out of his rental.
He stretched his stride, kicking his feet as if he were on the last twenty-five meters and headed for the finish line. His feet slid forward in the Merrill’s, and he held his hands out in supplication.
Her Volvo would seriously crumple the side of the Rover, but the SUV would hold. More importantly, he needed to get her out of here before they drew any more attention.
In the back of his mind, he calculated odds, inconsistencies, and probability, factoring in all the variables as his brain whipped through possible scenarios, and came to one conclusion.
Susan Chen’s appearance in that bistro was unexpected and unwelcome but he was pretty sure, random.
It also meant a shift in all of the other calculations he’d been mentally compiling. For some reason, he’d assumed that the threat against Sunshine and her mother wasn’t extreme. But because of the way they’d responded, now he was re-thinking his analysis of their situation.
He should have acknowledged two facts before jumping to that conclusion. One, women who were virtually untraceable by him, a gray hat hacker, and two, a woman who was afraid of the ocean and still dragged his sorry butt out of the water, wouldn’t overreact to a threat. They weren’t easily scared.
Sunshine gunned the engine of her Volvo. She hunched her body, curling in on herself, as if she could will the car to lift out of the box he’d cornered her in and fly.
Thinking strategically, he wound around to the passenger side and yanked open the door. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Did he send you?” Her foot hovered over the gas pedal. Her eyes were wild. If she pressed down while he was hanging onto the car door, he was in trouble.
Jesus, whoever he was, she was terrified. Zeke had to find out. He threw himself into the passenger seat and pulled the door shut. “I don’t even know who he is.”
***
Oh my Goddess.
How had he found me?
The monster was here. Across the street. He’d gotten out of an old pickup truck and had clearly been scanning the sidewalks and businesses. If I didn’t get out of here soon he might see me. Bile swirled in my stomach, like the angry waves from last night, and my forehead blossomed with sweat.
“Him.” I jerked my head toward where my stepfather had stood. Terrified to call attention to myself. A big black Range Rover blocked the Volvo and had partially hidden me from the monster. But if I rammed the car blocking my way, my stepfather was sure to check out the commotion and see me. “Get out.”
I yanked the seat belt over my body, and sent up a prayer that these old Volvos truly were built like tanks.
Zeke Thorn hadn’t budged. He was scrutinizing the street. “I won't hurt you,” he repeated.
“Then why the hell are you here?” I cried. “Leave me alone.”
“Come with me, in my car. Whoever you’re afraid of won’t be able to identify it.”
I shook my head so violently the strands of my hair sprang from the tight braid and curled against my cheek. “I don’t even know you.”
“Shit. I’m no good at this people stuff.” Zeke tugged at the neckline of his O’Neill t-shirt. “This is why I stick to numbers, programs, equations. You plug in the variables and come out with an answer.”
Had the monster seen me yet? I tried to peer through the windshield without lifting my head very far above the dash. Fear and rage clashed violently inside me, and I wondered how long I could keep down the scone I’d eaten for breakfast.
I needed to get the hell out of here before he could get me.
I flashed back to him staring up at me in that attic window. To the menace in his eyes before he’d turned around to make sure my grandparents were dead. To the first three times he’d found Mama and me and we’d managed to escape before he got close enough to grab my mother.
In thirteen years, this was the nearest I’d been to the man who’d murdered my grandparents and stolen my childhood. I couldn’t even think about how he’d found me, us. How was that possible?
“Look, I only want to help you.” Zeke sounded desperate.
Welcome to the club, asshole.
“You can’t. No one can.” Just leave me alone.
“Let’s take my car. Tell me about your problem and we’ll see what I can do.” He spoke calmly, gently, all trace of desperation gone.
Maybe he could help. Maybe there was something he could do. Except I knew nothing about him. Nothing.
“We’ll never know unless you tell me about it.”
The unseasonably warm October sunshine streamed through the window. He waited, on the edge of a precipice for my decision. His focus shifted across the street. Reflexively, I slid further down in the seat.
“Was that the guy?”
“Can’t you just leave me alone?” The urge to scream obstructed my throat. Which was fortunate, because I shouldn’t do anything to draw attention to myself.
“I want to help you.” Zeke craned his neck to peer over my head.
“Don’t stare.”
It had been nine years since the last time he’d tracked us down. I’d still been a kid. Now I was a full grown woman. And he still had the power to terrify me. I wasn’t sure I could move if he saw us and turned that malevolent gaze on me. Which was why I had to get the hell out of here. Since I didn’t know how he’d found me I had to assume everything I owned was compromised. Which I then realized meant I needed to ditch the Volvo.
“Which car is yours?”
“The Rover.”
“You blocked me in?”
“I wanted to make sure you talked to me.”
“You aren’t some crazy stalker, are you?”
That’s all I needed. Another crazy stalker.
“No!” Zeke burst out. “Come with me. I want to help you.”
The monster was now out of sight. He’d headed down the street toward the flower shop and the bistro. But he’d have to come back this way to get in his nondescript old truck.
Zeke adjusted his ball cap. “I am the good guy,” he snarled.
I yanked my keys from the ignition and threaded them between my fingers, making a fist with my right hand. I couldn’t go anywhere in my car, which was potentially compromised anyway, and he was blocking me in. I had to get out of here before the monster came back.
“Let’s go.” Then I said fiercely, my throat tight, but my resolve
absolute, “But if you have anything to do with him, I’m warning you. I won’t give her up. Ever. And I’ll make you sorry you ever came after me.”
For a moment, he went boneless as if every muscle released the tension he’d been holding in a rush of relief. Zeke gripped the door handle of the Volvo. “You won’t be sorry.”
“I’d better not be.”
I prayed I wasn’t making the last mistake of my life. I’d lost my freaking mind. But I really didn’t have a choice. The monster could come back at any moment. I could ram the Rover but the commotion would draw attention I couldn’t afford.
I could run from Zeke, and my stepfather, but with that powerful SUV Zeke would be able to catch me fairly quickly.
I needed a place to re-group and hide until I could figure out how my stepfather was tracking me. And I needed to let my mother know that the monster really was here. That he’d found us.
For right now, I had to trust Zeke. He was my best option for getting away from my stepfather. I still couldn’t believe that Mama had given him access to our communication network.
But until I could talk to my mother and explain that I’d lied about knowing him, she might keep feeding Zeke Thorn information.
Besides that, I had this irrational urge to trust him.
The look on his face while trying to convince me had been determined but not desperate and somehow vulnerable. As if he didn’t want to hurt me and he knew enough about me that he could have used other methods to get me to go with him, but hadn’t.
His obvious sincerity had been what finally convinced me that he was my best option right now. I reached into the back seat and hefted a pink canvas duffel bag into my lap. “Let’s go.”
Fifteen
Zeke started the Rover.
“You want to hunch down?”
“Yes.” She crouched in the well of the passenger seat. “Get the license plate number of the old Dodge truck parked across the street.”
Her demanding tone struck a chord within him. And he admired her strength. Because for all her terror, she hadn’t fallen apart.
He noticed the graceful length of her neck, the fall of her hair, and the curls that escaped to drift around her resolute face, softening her, making look more vulnerable.
