“This way.” He pushed past the cooks working at their stations.
People called after them. Everyone was yelling. But Gage still never slowed. He shoved one guy to the floor who’d tried to stop them.
“Sorry,” he mumbled as he left the poor man in their dust.
All of a sudden they crashed through another door and found themselves in the open air on a loading dock. To the left was a ramp to the ground.
“Let’s go.” Gage found the right door and in moments they were blessedly in the parking lot, running full-out.
He pulled a key fob from his pants pocket and beeped opened the doors to a black SUV on the fly. “Get in!”
Buckling in while he started the engine and hit the gas, she turned to look behind them. Just as they were about to leave the parking lot, the two men who’d been chasing them came out on the dock and pointed in their direction.
Busted. “They’ve seen us.”
“Just keep your head down. They still have to catch us.”
But she knew these men. Or ones like them. And knew that they would never stop. They would catch up. Sooner or later.
Chapter 4
After doubling back on their tracks several times to be sure no one was following, Gage drove them to one of the picturesque ski resort hotels a few miles north in the mountains. Tired and hungry and in no mood to deal with more of her lies, he figured Elana—or whoever she was—would talk to him, tell him why she had no past and who was chasing her, if only they could spend a few hours in quiet so he could gain her trust.
The first resort he came to seemed new but made to look like one of the Sierras’ oldest lodge hotels. With four multi-levels and a stone facade, the place was too kitschy for his taste, but it would do for what he needed.
He pulled into the hotel’s covered lot and parked. “We’re going in. Bring your duffel.”
She stared over at him. “I’m not staying with you. Let me go. Perhaps if we separate, we’ll have a better chance of escape.”
The fury suddenly erupted inside him like a volcano, leaving him incapable of speech. Silently repeating his vow to keep his anger under control, he ripped the key from the ignition and stepped out of the SUV.
In two seconds he’d flung her door open and had her by the arm. “Get out.” He knew his voice was too low, too full of danger, but he couldn’t help it. “We’ve come this far. You owe me—” he bit off the anger, tried to calm down “—explanations. You will at least tell me why those men are after you.”
She glared at him but swung her feet out of the SUV and slid to the ground. “I don’t know you. And I don’t owe you any explanations.”
“Oh, yes, you do. Those men are after me, too, now.” He jerked her close, made sure he picked up her overnighter and headed to registration.
But as he walked them toward the hotel lobby, the earthy scent coming from her body took his imagination on a trip down memory lane. Pictures of his fingers stroking along the sensitive skin of Alicia’s lush breasts bombarded his mind, leaving him breathless. The echoed feel of her long legs entwined around his waist or his palms cupping her rounded bottom seemed so real that his fingers twitched and his heart pounded.
“Are you okay?” Her voice, and the Irish tinge behind it, woke him up to the idea that he was still confused about who he was saving.
“Fine. Just fine.” Was this the woman he’d spent endless nights making love to?
Not possible. But then who was she?
He marched them through the nearly empty lobby, with its pretentious restaurant, spa and boutique stores, toward the registration desk. She struggled to stay behind when he approached the man on duty behind the fake stone desk.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he growled in her ear. “We’re in this together.”
“Yes, sir. Do you need a room?” The clerk had a smile plastered on his face that was as phony as the potted plant on the counter.
“My wife and I will only be staying the night.”
Elana’s muffled complaint to his remarks died in her throat. Good thing. He would’ve hated having to explain to the complete stranger behind the desk why he’d all but kidnapped her.
“You’re in luck, sir. We’ve had one cancellation for a king room this evening. There’s a snowboard competition being held on the slopes this week and we’re booked solid. Now, if you wanted to stay over until Christmas Eve...”
“No need. One night will do it.”
It took a few moments for the clerk to sign them in and turn over the card keys. As they left the desk, Elana held out her hand.
“What?”
“A key. The clerk gave you two. One of them is for me.”
“Forget it.” Gage dragged her to the elevator and pushed the up button. “You’re not leaving my sight.”
Folding her arms over her chest, she pouted as they rode the elevator to the third floor. His emotions kept running the gamut from simmering lust to instant fury. He couldn’t find balance.
With her in tow, he stormed the empty upstairs hallway to their room in utter silence. One word from her and he would’ve exploded. Or he would have taken her right here in the hall. But she seemed to know that and stayed quiet.
Once inside their room, he threw her duffel on the enormous bed and locked the door behind them. “Stay put.” He shucked his hat and coat. “I’ll check the bathroom.”
Keeping one eye on her as she paced the large room, he double-checked the space to be sure they were alone. After he was satisfied, he came back and settled into a chair at the small, round table by the window.
“Sit,” he ordered.
Glaring at him, she remained standing.
Forcing her to do as he wished would get him nowhere. He wanted her to trust him so they could talk honestly.
“Are you hungry?”
She pressed her lips together and set her jaw.
“Well, I am. How about I order us some sandwiches? Or maybe a pizza?”
Without uttering a word, she turned and walked across the room to stare out the window.
Shrugging, he kept talking to her while he picked up the house phone to place an order. “I get really hungry for pizza. We don’t have any pizza joints in the small town where I come from. Or maybe you remember that?”
He watched her back stiffen, but she made no comment. It had been worth a shot. Not that he really thought this was Alicia. Not really. It couldn’t be.
Still, any kind of direct assault probably wasn’t the way to go about making her trust him enough for the truth. This situation called for a little finesse.
He got lucky. The hotel’s restaurant had ten-minute pizza delivery on the menu. He ordered a large pepperoni pizza and sodas. He might’ve liked a beer but figured both of them needed to keep their heads today.
“Please sit down.” He wasn’t above pleading. “I really need your help so we can devise a plan to get out of this mess.”
It was easy to visualize her weakening resolve just by the slump of her body. Finally, she removed her coat and placed it on the back of a chair, then sat across from him. But she said not one word the whole time.
Racking his brain for some way to break the tension and begin to develop trust, the start of an idea just popped out of his mouth. “You don’t have a phone with you, do you?”
She shook her head and folded her hands on the table.
“I bet you think cell phones are too easy to hack, right?”
Nothing. No response. Not even a blink.
“You might be right. But I have my satellite phone with me. You want to call and check on your daughter?”
The look in her eyes said it all. Relief. And then respect.
At last she said, “Yes, please.”
Grabbing his coat, he dug out the phon
e and handed it to her. “Whoever you contact, I would like to suggest you don’t tell them exactly where we are. You’re safe with me here for the time being. But not if word leaks out.”
She nodded and he actually believed she wouldn’t say anything. Why he thought that was beyond him. The woman was obviously a liar—and heaven only knew what else she was. Maybe a criminal.
But after she punched in a number on his phone, he figured that at least one of them was going to learn how to trust today. She spoke to someone on the line in what had to be Gaelic and then spoke quietly in English. He would just have to hope she hadn’t betrayed them.
The pizza arrived just as she hung up.
He doled out slices to each of them and then sat at the table and dug in.
After she hung up, he swallowed a bite and said, “This is pretty good. Have a piece before it gets cold.”
Elana tilted her head but made no move to eat. “I’ll be thanking you for allowing me to talk to my child. She was concerned, but I believe I calmed her down.”
“So she’s okay?”
“Temporarily. She’s caught the gist of the grown-ups’ concern over my situation, I’m guessing. Kids can see the true picture, not so much from words but from the attitudes of people around them. Plus, my baby had to leave her home today. I tried turning it into a game, but she’s so smart. I imagine she knows something is very wrong.”
He was suddenly struck by the fact that whatever else she was, Elana was a mother first. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault, then.” Absently, she picked at the edge of her pizza slice.
Not so hesitant, he reached for another slice and had half of it in his mouth before something happened that made him nearly choke on it.
Watching her, he was stunned when she daintily stripped off the piece of pepperoni on her slice and popped the meat into her mouth first. Exactly the way Alicia used to do. How many women in the world would eat pizza that same way? Maybe millions. Maybe only one.
While gulping most of a can of soda in order to calm down, he came to the decision not to call her on the obvious tell. But he was becoming ever more confused by the moment. Could this woman actually be his Alicia? If she was, he had a lot more questions. Like why she wore a disguise and why the ruse of her death? Meanwhile, the ache in the vicinity of his heart became overpowering.
“So, I guess that means you’re ready to admit those guys are after you and not me?” He had to hope that didn’t sound too pushy.
It wasn’t the real question he wanted answered. But it was a start.
“I am, yes.” Honest at least, she finished off her slice and reached for another.
“Well, since I’m in this with you up to my Stetson, do you mind telling me why they’d want to hurt you—an innocent Iraqi war widow?”
“It would be a long story.”
The cheese string between her mouth and her hand drew out into a long line. Focusing on the offending cheese, he couldn’t help himself; he had to touch her mouth. Breaking the string with one swipe, he let his fingers linger on her lips. Her tongue slipped out and licked, and his pulse spiked.
Quickly he withdrew and grabbed his soda can again. “We have time. Tell me.”
For a minute she looked shell-shocked, as if his touch had electrified her the same as it had done to him. Then she recovered and replaced the panic with a blasé look.
* * *
Elana chastised herself. She’d tried to remain aloof but Gage was making it impossible. He had probably saved her life back in town and she’d treated him so shabbily through all of this. He hadn’t ever deserved the pain she’d caused him. But nothing had changed. She had to find a way to keep him out of harm.
An idea hit her. If she came up with a bad enough story, maybe she could make him hate her. Then he would be sure to leave her alone and go back to Texas where he’d be safe.
“You’ll have to understand the way I was raised, then,” she began. “The family traditions and...my heritage.”
“Okay. Were you born in another country?”
She looked down at the table. “In Ireland, yes. But since moving here, we don’t participate in American life.”
It was his turn to shake his head and shrug a shoulder. “Explain.”
This would be only a partial a lie. She rarely gave up her real background because she knew what people’s reactions would be. In this case she hoped he would be disgusted enough to let her go. For his own sake.
“We are Rom—gypsies to you. My long-ago ancestors moved from Romania to Ireland.”
“A gypsy?” The look of astonishment on his face was exactly the reason she hadn’t ever wanted to tell him the truth when they’d been married.
In most people she met, after the astonishment wore off, hostility usually came next. She dreaded seeing an expression of prejudice on Gage’s face. So she didn’t look at him.
Pouring herself a soda, she noticed her hand shaking as she tipped the can to her glass. “We do things differently than the norm, I’m thinking. Actually, not the same as any other people on earth. We don’t assimilate. Rom don’t want to be like everyone else.”
At least that’s what her father always told her. She’d never been quite as positive that living outside the mainstream was the best thing for everyone.
“Gypsies.” He said it as though the word itself was dirty. “Were you raised to travel around? To keep moving from place to place?”
She couldn’t look up at him while answering. “That is our heritage, yes. But most of today’s generations put down at least temporary roots. Here in America, anyway.”
“But even if you’ve settled here, your other traditions are...unusual. Right?”
“Very.” She wondered how bad she could make this sound. Bad enough to make him walk away?
“I hate to sound...um...biased.” His voice had a hesitation in it she’d seldom heard from him. “But the only thing I remember reading about gypsies, other than the traveling, was about how they’re criminals. Or at least small-time crooks.”
Heat flamed her cheeks, so she ducked her head and tsked at him. “That’s painting millions of people with a broad and unkind brush.” Unfortunately, in her family’s case, it was all too true. But she couldn’t let him think that about the entire race of people.
“Today gypsies are more likely to run small businesses or work in the trades. We don’t like to talk about ourselves, and I suppose that tradition of silence makes us seem like criminals to some people. And...uh...” She had to make this sound bad. “Hate to admit this, but in my family, it’s mostly true.”
“You’re not kidding about this, are you?”
She only wished this was one big joke. “I’ll not be lying, thank you.”
Gage was staring at her as though he was seeing some piece of garbage that had washed up from the depths of the ocean. This, this look of contempt and confusion on his face, was only one of the reasons she’d never told him even this much of her story before.
As she swallowed the last of the liquid in her glass, she decided on another half-truth. Mixing truth with falsehood came easy to her. Anything she could do to save him from himself.
Folding her arms around her middle to keep steady, she began, “You see, when I was fifteen, my parents arranged a marriage to a Rom boy that I had never met.”
“Were you upset about the idea? What’d you think of having to marry a man your parents chose?” Gage had scooted his chair back, too, and now leaned his elbows on his knees. His look of concern and confusion made her want to smooth her fingers over the creases on his beautiful face.
It suddenly hit her how much she’d missed touching this wonderful man.
Deliberately, she balled her fists and shook her head, letting out all the weariness that had built up over the
last day. “I’d known for my whole life that an arranged marriage would be in my future. It bothered me a bit that I had never even met the boy. I assumed I had little choice.”
She laughed at little at how stupid that sounded now.
Still her story had to move on and go downhill from here. “But I was the smart kid in my family and my father had let me continue with school. So by the time I was fifteen, I’d had far too much education to just accept the situation completely.”
Unable to watch Gage while lying about the rest, she stood and looked out the window as the lavender light of twilight threw dusk’s shadows across the slopes. “When I was nearing the age to marry, I deliberately went out and found myself a non-gypsy guy who was willing to take me away. He wasn’t all that bright. But he was nice enough.”
She turned in time to see the frown lines developing across Gage’s face even through the growing darkness. Good. Maybe he would finally give up trying to save her.
“You never loved this guy?” He looked hurt, as though he thought she was talking about him. “You just used him?”
Forcing herself to give him a sly smile, she nodded. “Sure. I figured I would give him a few months and then just disappear.”
All of a sudden it occurred to her how this might sound to Gage. She hadn’t meant for her story to come anywhere close to their situation. This was just a story. Not their story.
On the other hand, that might not be such a bad idea if it would make him leave. “I mean, yeah, I know I’m a terrible person. But what can you expect?”
She tried to keep her voice calm as she turned back to the window and changed the subject as if what she’d said meant nothing. “Let’s leave the lights off in here. Do you mind? They’ll be lighting the slopes soon for the competition. That should throw off enough of a glow for us to see if we leave the curtains open. I want to be able to see outside.”
She needed to remain composed and darkness had a way of hiding her true feelings. Staying calm and cool, cool enough to say the exact right thing to drive him away, was all that mattered now.
“All right.” His quick agreement was amicable. Maybe too amicable.
Christmas Confidential: Holiday Protector Page 14
