Michelle didn’t wait around to see the outcome. She pressed the gas pedal to the floor and pointed the little car north, away from the confrontation. She had to get a map and figure out the back roads. She had no doubt that Lucas had alerted all the area law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for her. But that wasn’t her biggest concern. Men with guns were far more worrisome.
It was time to ditch the rental car and find something else to drive.
There was a place she could go! At the memory, she brightened. When she was fourteen, she’d demanded to be sent to an arts camp in the small town of Reba, Alabama. Her interest even then had been photography, and she’d spent eight summer weeks with master photographers who’d treated her with respect. It had been a summer that changed her life, because someone had finally believed in her.
She couldn’t be certain, but she felt as if she were near Camp Imagine. If she could get there, maybe someone would help her. Either hide her or give her another vehicle.
It was worth a shot.
Chapter Ten
“I knew this photography foolishness would come to a bad end.”
Lucas couldn’t believe what he was hearing from Michelle’s mother. He’d never been stunned into silence before.
“Michelle was a brilliant child. Brilliant. She had scholarships to engineering programs and medical schools. Everyone wanted her. But she chose to be a photographer.” Mrs. Sieck said the word as if it tasted bad.
“Has she called you?” Lucas asked.
“Are you some kind of bill collector? Is Michelle in financial trouble? We told her, her father and I, that working in a field like photography would be living on pauper’s wages. There’s no guarantee in that kind of business.”
“I’m a mar…a friend, ma’am, and I need to know if you’ve spoken with Michelle lately.”
His harsh tone was met with complete silence.
Then Mrs. Sieck said, “Michelle hasn’t broken the law. She’s a willful young woman, but she isn’t a criminal.”
“Nothing like that. I merely need to speak with her. Has she been in contact with you?” Lucas wanted to bang the telephone against his forehead.
“She hasn’t called here. But that’s not unusual. She treats us like we have leprosy.”
He could have said that he understood why, but he didn’t. “If anyone should approach you for information about Michelle, please tell them nothing. These are dangerous men. Don’t provoke them, and don’t tell them anything about yourself or your daughter. I’ll speak to the police in your jurisdiction and see about having someone sent out to guard you.”
“What kind of joke is this?”
“I assure you, ma’am, this isn’t a joke.”
“Guard us! What kind of danger are we in?”
“Serious.” It was all Lucas had the time, or patience, to explain. “Officers will be there soon. Until then, stay inside and don’t open the door to anyone.” He thought of several other things that he’d like to tell them—none very nice—but he restrained himself. He wasn’t an officer of the law any longer, but he still had the sense that his conduct would reflect back on a group of law officers who deserved only respect.
He drove to the Baldwin County courthouse to see if the Alabama authorities had been able to track Michelle or Lorry. He’d left the wild beauty of the Mobile River Delta behind for the small town of Bay Minette. He drove down the unfamiliar highways, Michelle and Lorry heavy on his mind. Michelle was alone in a place she didn’t know, with killers likely on her trail. If they caught her…That didn’t bear thinking about.
Lorry was smarter, more street savvy, and she had Charles to assist her. Her new handler was doing everything he could to trace her through the marshals network. She’d successfully covered her trail, but for how long? Robert Maxim was desperate to save his brother, Antonio. He’d kill Lorry without batting an eye. She was his first priority, but Michelle was still in the area. He had to find her quickly.
Talking with Marco and her parents had given him a unique view of her behavior. While he’d thought she was spoiled and undisciplined, he now saw another picture. Her parents’ constant criticism had forged her spirit into one of hardheadedness, but only to survive. No child could face parental rejection unless he or she toughened up. Michelle had clung to her independence and her dreams against the emotional assault of her parents.
Had she become a doctor or engineer, he wondered if that would have finally pleased them. He doubted it.
His childhood had been so different. He’d worked alongside his father and Harry every day. When the ranch chores were done, they’d gone to the house, where his mother met them with a smile, eager to hear the stories of fencing and cows saved from bogs or illness or birth. When the desire to bring justice to people had sent both brothers into law enforcement, his parents had supported their decision.
Instead of belittling him, his parents had worked hard to give him a sense of himself as a man, a man who knew right from wrong and who could handle himself.
He was still angry with Michelle because of the foolish risks she’d taken, but he understood better the reasons why. She felt she’d started all of this, and now she was going to pay the consequences and fix things if she could.
What she didn’t understand was that Robert and Antonio Maxim had started this long ago, when they’d preyed upon vulnerable young girls who dared to dream of being models or movie stars. Sure the girls were naive and unrealistic, but they were children. And in some ways they were like Michelle—bold enough to act upon the dreams they harbored. They’d fallen into the wrong hands, though. And that could so easily have happened to Michelle, too. Could still happen.
The Maxims and their organization had robbed the girls of their innocence and their childhood, of their health and their futures, of their self-respect and even their lives.
Antonio was in jail, and hopefully he would soon pay with his life. And Robert?
A cold resolve clutched Lucas’s heart. Robert was going to pay big-time, and if he harmed Michelle or Lorry, he would pay on the spot. He wouldn’t get an opportunity to play the justice system as Antonio had.
MICHELLE SAW THE SIGN for the camp and pulled over. There was no traffic on the road in either direction, but she wanted a moment to accept the inevitable. The sign, once a thing of artistic beauty, was falling apart. It hung askew from a leaning post. Camp Imagine, Where Young People Find Their Dreams.
Her potential haven was abandoned. Her hopes sank to the floorboard. Somehow, she’d expected to find this place and drive back in time. When she’d been fourteen and come here, this had been the first place she’d ever felt valued for who she was and her talent to see light in a particular way.
As foolish as it might have been, she’d thought that if she could find Camp Imagine, she could find that place of security yet again. That was the reasoning of a child. Somehow, though, she needed to find safety, even if it was just a momentary respite.
The black cat put his front feet on the dash and examined the scene. He gave her a look as if to say, “This is where we’re going to be safe?”
A lone pickup passed. Michelle recognized one of the older men from the café. He stared at her as he drove by and then waved. She returned the gesture and waited for him to disappear.
“It may work out for the best that no one is there. At least I won’t be endangering anyone.” Michelle turned down the gravel road and headed toward the camp. There had been cabins and picnic sites, a cafeteria, bathhouses and a big lake. In memory the place was huge. As she drove into the clearing, she saw what a trick her memory had played on her. Camp Imagine was tiny, a small compound nestled among towering pine trees.
Familiar clawed at the car door. She leaned over and opened it to let him out. He sauntered around, sniffing the air like a dog and walking the perimeter. Whoever he was, he was a very special creature.
She walked to the edge of the lake, fighting the disappointment that wanted to paralyze her. The place was peaceful and ser
ene.
While the lake was smaller than she remembered, it was clear and inviting. She ached for a bath. The washup in the café had taken care of her face, but she needed a full, all-over cleaning.
She grabbed her bag from the car and went down to the water’s edge. In a moment she was in the water, swimming hard, burning off the fear and frustration that had settled in all her limbs.
So far, her plan had failed utterly. She had accomplished nothing. And she was out of touch with everyone.
As soon as she got dressed, she would call Marco or Kevin. They’d check the news for her and see if anything about Lorry or Lucas had been reported.
Feeling better with a firm plan in mind, she flipped to her back and floated for a few moments in the bracingly cold water.
TENSION GRIPPED LUCAS’S shoulders as he talked into the phone. “None of the deputies were hit?”
He’d just been told about the shoot-out on a county road north of Mobile. Although the deputies were not hurt, the shooters had disabled the two patrol cars and escaped. And the deputies had spotted a car matching the description of the rental car Michelle was driving.
“Thanks so much, Officer.” He closed the cell phone and turned his vehicle around. Michelle had been seen on a county road north of I-65, headed toward the town of Reba, Alabama.
Shortly after the shooting, a farmer on his way to round up some loose cattle had called the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office because he’d seen Michelle parked beside the entrance to an old abandoned artists’ camp. He couldn’t stop to help, but he’d been concerned that her car had broken down, and had called for assistance for her.
She was no more than two hours away. Lucas had to catch up with her before Robert Maxim did.
As he drove, he placed a call to Frank. His ex-partner told him that there’d been no word from Lorry and no reports that anyone had seen her.
“You checked all the safe houses?” Lucas asked.
“Every one in the vicinity.”
Lucas forced his grip on the phone to loosen. “Call me if you hear anything.”
“Will do. And be careful.”
Lucas put the phone on the seat and concentrated on his driving. What the heck was Michelle Sieck doing in the middle of the woods in Alabama? She didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who wanted to camp, not even in an artists’ community.
Suddenly he remembered one of the few facts she’d voluntarily revealed. A photographers’ camp in the middle of the Alabama woods. It shouldn’t be hard to find. Any local would know it.
He could only hope that she stayed there long enough for him to run her down.
MISS SHUTTERBUG IS A FULL-TIME guard job. She’s out in that lake, flipping and cavorting as if she hasn’t a care in the world. She never considered how humiliating it might be to be captured by the Maxim brothers in the buff.
Lucky for her, I’m on guard duty.
This is an interesting place, I have to say. I wonder how Michelle found her way here. I mean, a New York photographer and an abandoned arts camp for high school kids? Doesn’t seem like much of a match to me.
Just another one of the little mysteries surrounding Michelle Sieck. She’s a strange one, for sure. All that independence wrapped around a marshmallow center. The trouble is, the Maxims won’t care if she’s cream-filled or nuts. They’ll kill her just the same.
She’s been in that lake for an hour. She’ll be all shriveled like a prune when she finally gets out. I mean, really. Water? And cold water at that! Bipeds have the most extraordinary ability to entertain themselves with unpleasant activities.
Take horseback riding. Don’t get me wrong. I admire the noble equine and love to watch them buck and run in a green pasture. Riding is another matter. No reason in the world to climb aboard a horse when I have four perfectly good legs.
Or this swimming business. I mean, she’s immersed in water. That says it all.
Now I could enjoy a nice soft pillow in a sunny window where I could watch the birds flitter by. Perhaps a dish of pan-seared grouper at my side. Some music playing, and lovely Clotilde snuggled up beside me. That is the kind of activity I find worthwhile.
Yet here I am, in the middle of Alabama, with a woman who thinks she’s a dolphin. She does have a lovely breaststroke, but when all is said and done, she’s going to drip all over me.
Uh-oh. I hear someone coming.
My attempts to alert Michelle are going unheeded. No matter how loud I yowl, she can’t hear me underwater.
Jeez Louise! It’s up to me to set an ambush. Lucky for her, she has me to take care of her.
THE THICK COVER OF TREES opened up on the small campsite and the beautiful lake. Lucas saw the rental car instantly. Michelle and the cat were nowhere in evidence.
His heart rate spiked, and he drove slowly around the camping area, taking in the dilapidated old buildings, the air of decay that hung over the place. Still, it was beautiful.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. The black cat flashed between trees. Lucas almost smiled. Very slowly, he let his window down.
“Familiar, it’s me.”
The cat popped up twenty yards ahead of him. The little devil could move like lightning. And he was stalking Lucas.
He stopped the car and slowly got out, scanning for Michelle. If Familiar was here, it stood to reason Michelle was, too. The cat rushed up to rub against his legs.
“Glad to see me, are you?” Lucas said, easing down to stroke the cat’s back. “Where is she?”
“Me-ow!” Familiar trotted toward the lake.
A flash of long legs broke the water with barely a splash, and Lucas knew he’d found Michelle. The crazy woman was swimming! He felt his temper rise. Who in her right mind would take a swim break when killers were on her trail?
He was totally unprepared for her when she surfaced and stood up.
She was absolutely, stunningly naked. Or nekkid, as they said in Texas.
She saw him and froze like a deer. Before he could utter a sound, she dove back into the water and disappeared.
Lucas felt the heat in his face. Not since high school had he felt like such a gawking fool. Standing at the edge of the lake, with his jaw hanging open like he’d never seen a nude woman before.
The truth was, he’d never seen one that looked like Michelle Sieck.
Chapter Eleven
When she could no longer hold her breath, Michelle surfaced far out in the lake. She treaded water as she rubbed her eyes clear and looked toward the shore. It hadn’t been a hallucination. Lucas West was on the shore, his back discreetly turned to her.
“Michelle, come on out. I put your clothes on the bank.”
Michelle wanted to swim in the opposite direction. But what was the point? Her clothes were there, beside the lawman. And while he would give her the necessary privacy to dress, he would not trust her a second time. She was well and truly caught.
She swam toward shore. When her feet could touch, she saw no other way. “I’m coming out.”
“I’ll wait right here.”
“Could you at least move behind one of the buildings?”
He shook his head. “You’re kidding, right? I just walk away so you can grab your clothes, hop in the car and take off again. No, way, lady.”
Arguing was pointless. She slowly moved out of the water. Never in her life had she felt so totally vulnerable.
True to his word, Lucas kept his back turned.
“Talk to me,” he said. “I have to hear your voice so I know where you are.”
“What would you like me to say?” she asked, a bit of acid in her tone.
“How about ‘Thanks, Lucas. You’ve just spent a day of your life trying to find me to keep me safe, and I really appreciate it.’ That would be nice for starters.”
“Dream on.” But she did thank him, even if she couldn’t bring herself to verbally express it. “Look, I feel bad about the sleeping pills.” She pulled fresh clothes from her overnight bag and quickl
y began to dress.
“You should.”
“I didn’t want to involve you. And I wanted to find Lorry and help her.”
“And what is it that you think I want to do? Find her and feed her to the Maxims?”
Irritation made his voice rough, and she responded with a hint of heat. “Of course not. But if those men are as dangerous as you say, then I didn’t want to put you…I wanted to fix this myself.”
“Lady, you may be a great photographer, but as a strategist against mobsters and murderers, you need some training.”
She jerked her blouse over her head. And just in time. He turned around as she pulled her hair free from her collar. His eyes were a gunmetal gray, and the intensity of his look made her catch her breath. He was furious with her, but it didn’t stop the jolt that ran through her body. Lucas West was like grabbing a tornado and trying to hang on.
“Leave the rental here. I’ll call and have it picked up. You’re riding with me in the SUV,” he ordered.
Furious with the hammer of her heart, she stood her ground. “I don’t take orders. Not even from a former U.S. marshal.” She realized as soon as the words left her mouth that she’d pushed the boundaries a little too hard. In one long step, he was beside her. His hand caught her wrist, and he snapped a pair of cuffs on her left arm.
Seemingly without effort, he scooped her up and carried her to the SUV. Before she could say “Jack Sprat,” he’d cuffed her to the steering wheel.
“Take it easy, or take it hard,” he said. “Either way, you’re going to do what I tell you. Not because I want to order you around, but because you’re in danger. The best chance you have for surviving is to listen to me. If you’re too pigheaded to do it because it makes sense, then you’ll do it because you don’t have another choice.”
Michelle started to reply, but she clamped her teeth together and bit back the furious words. Lucas was too angry to reason with. And her problem was that she could see why. The day she’d walked into that church and taken those photographs of a woman who didn’t want to be in a picture, she’d started a landslide of events that had wreaked havoc on Lucas’s life and on the people he cared about.
Familiar Vows Page 8
