He just grinned, “Yep. So be a good hostage or I’ll tie you up.”
His forehead creased for a fraction of a second, probably wondering if his joke was too much.
“You wish,” I grinned letting him off the hook. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Who knows?” He mused laughing to himself and checking his watch.
We shot the breeze for a while longer reminiscing about the old days until he checked his watch for a fifth time. “Are we running late?” I wondered.
“A little,” he admitted. “But don’t worry; I’ll make up the time.”
Another hour or so of driving later Adrian called; I didn’t hesitate to pick it up. “Hey Sweetie, is everything ok?”
“Yeah, Kristen is just trying to find the invoices you asked her to fax off.” He assured.
I had forgotten all about them, “Oh, um, crap. They’re in my filing cabinet, but I have the key with me. Do you think you can ”
“I’m sure Doc can manage a filing cabinet,” my guy chuckled.
“Tell Chance I can take a few sticks of TNT to it.” Macon offered in the background, joking.
“He better not,” I threatened.
“We found them, Honeyface,” Adrian informed with a grin still in his voice.
“Good.”
“How’s your day going? Are you having fun?”
“Not really, we’ve been in the car this whole time.” I muttered cutting my eyes to an amused Hunter.
Adrian was so quiet I had to check and see if he was still there. “You there?”
“I’m here, just went into another room,” He answered. “You haven’t made it yet? Where are you guys going?”
“I don’t know yet. We’re somewhere in Pennsylvania right now.” I covered the phone for a second to turn to Hunt, “Where are we right now, Babes? Where are we going?”
“Washington,” He answered keeping his eyes on the road. “and you will know when we get there.”
I rolled my eyes returning to my phone call, “So he said we’re in Washington, Pennsylvania right now, but he still won’t tell me where we’re going. He’s abducting and torturing me with the power of surprise.” I teased flicking him in the side of his neck when he said something smart under his breath.
Adrian took a deep breath, “So let me get this straight. You’ve been driving for over four hours. Leaving the state, with no idea where you’re going and the one person that knows isn’t telling you?”
“That sounds about right.” I giggled trying to make light of things because Adrian’s tone sounded annoyed to say the least.
He sighed, “Honeyface…let me talk to Hunter for a sec.”
“Um…” I hesitated. I wasn’t sure what he would say; probably tell him to bring me back or something.
“Honeyface…” Adrian called again, “can you put him on?”
“Are you going to be sweet?” I negotiated, still unsure.
His voice was flat as he answered, “As sweet as you are.”
That could honestly go either way because Adrian always called me sweet, but he and I both knew I had a very mean side when I was pissed. “Phone’s for you.” I muttered passing it over to him.
Hunter looked at it with a raised eyebrow but took it when I shoved it closer. “ This is Hunter.”
I turned down the music and tried to hear at least the tone that Adrian was using but I got no luck so I was forced to just base it on Hunt’s reaction.
“I can’t tell you where she’s going…”
He still had that unfazed grin in his words, “Well the whole purpose is for it to be secret and since she’s in the car with me telling you know would kinda ruin the surprise…”
“We’ll probably be back tomorrow…”
Tomorrow? He didn’t say anything about this being an overnight thing. Well I was definitely surprised.
Adrian obviously didn’t like that, “we’ll be back first thing in the morning; I don’t think that’s crazy at all… If I tell you can I trust you not to tell her… well you can’t seem to not give her what she wants…” He rolled his eyes pulling out his cell phone, “What’s the number… I’m texting you right now…I’m going to put Alyssa back on now…” He passed me over the phone, “Here.”
“Baby?” I picked back up watching Hunter type furiously with one hand.
He let out a breath and his mood changed, “Okay Honeyface, Dario and I have to meet that fashion designer in an hour so we better hit the road. We want to get there early to scope the place out.”
“My fiancé spending the day backstage with models strutting around in their underwear really makes a girl feel insecure.” I sighed feigning bleakness.
He wasn’t fooled, “Size zeros aren’t my thing, Honeyface.”
“Still I’m going to need a little reassurance the next time I see you.” I teased.
“For as long as you need, Honeyface.” He crooned making my stomach knot in anticipation. Then Dario called his name in the background. “Gotta go Sweetness, I’ll call you later.
I hung up the phone and looked to my best friend, who was still typing. “Hunt, what are you doing?”
“The short of it, explaining to Adrian where I’m taking you.” He answered, stopping to switch lanes.
I shook my head, “Here.” I offered steadying the wheel so that he could finish his last bit of characters and send off .
“Adrian is going to know before I do.” I frowned looking out the window.
“Well either I tell him, or he hunts us down and we can’t have that now can we?” He rolled his eyes wryly.
It had stopped raining hours ago, but it was also getting late into the afternoon. “How much longer do we have?”
“A while.” He answered cryptically.
“Fine,” I gave up unbuckling my belt and tilting the seat back, “wake me up when we get there.”
“Will do, Babes.” He promised increasing his speed after looking at his watch again.
I woke up to a pinch of my hipbone and Hunter on the phone. “We’re looking at an ETA of four minutes. What’s your location…Two clicks away.” He hung up the phone and looked over at me. “Wake up, Babes, we’re close.”
I looked around outside the windows, the sky was orange and that made the nothing around us that more obvious. There were no houses, restaurants, anything; just fields of green and in certain spots not even that, just barren dirt. “Hunter…”
“It’ll make sense soon, just trust me.” He winked speeding up. We were the only car on the road now, and if I were to guess we were somewhere between Ohio and Indiana.
I shook my head, he had really lost it, “Hunt there isn’t anything ”
“There’s our ride right there.” He smiled getting off of the main highway and onto a less paved road. I could see tail lights about a mile or so up ahead and what looked like a cargo van. He picked up his phone and dialed again, “Yeah, I’m right behind you.”
The van slowed down and for a second we passed it, until Hunter pulled over and screeched on brakes throwing up dust and rocks around us. Once we stopped we reversed up to the van. “Hunter what are you doing?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet, Babes? Come on…” He scoffed looking behind him as we traveled backwards.
Then it hit me, “You…?”
“Yeah.” He laughed opening the door and getting out greeting the man that had been driving. “How long we got?” He asked shaking hands with the driver.
“About as long as it takes to fix this flat.” The man smiled looking down at a perfectly fine tire. “I’ll wait a few minutes before I call it in, but dispatch won’t take more than an hour to send someone.”
“That gives us time to fake a blowout.” Hunter guessed.
I was speechless as him and the driver lead me around to the back of the van and the guy took a large ring of keys from his belt and started unlocking it. “Hunter… this is…”
“Highly illegal…career threateningly danger
ous…” He guessed with his patented wicked grin and then shrugged, “I know.”
The doors to the prisoner transport swung open and there he was. “Victor.” I breathed with a smile on my face. He was still handcuffed by the hands and feet to the bench inside but that damn sure didn’t stop me from climbing in there to put my arms around me.
He couldn’t help his smile either, “Hello Miss Alyssa, it’s been a while.”
Instinctually he tried to return the embrace but his hands barely moved, I looked pointedly at Hunter. “Let him out man.” Hunter ordered the guy, but the prison guard shifted nervously.
“You didn’t say anything about removing his restraints… if he escapes it on my head.”
Hunter slapped a hand on his shoulder, “Ah come on David. He isn’t going to escape are you big guy? From what I hear he’s been a model prisoner in Leavenworth.”
David tossed me the keys and I fumbled to find the right ones, but it didn’t take me long. When he was free I tossed them back gratefully. “Thank you.”
He didn’t say anything but Hunter’s easygoing attitude calmed him a bit, “Good, she’s happy, we’re happy, now let’s go see about faking that blow out before we call it in shall we?”
When Victor was done rubbing his wrists he gave me a proper hug, we had to step out of the van to do it but once we were done we sat on the back with the doors open. I didn’t want to scare David too much.
“I’ve missed you…” I admitted after I filled him in on everything that had happened in the shortest and fastest way possible. “Did you get my letters?”
“Every last one Miss Alyssa.” He promised, looking down on me with kind eyes. “Even the order from Liam to carry things out with Myles. You and Juan can sleep well Miss Alyssa, everything is done.”
Part of me was angry because I had wanted to carry it out myself, but with the thought of everything that Victor volunteered for to keep me safe, I couldn’t help but smile, “You know, I said that you and I were going to have it out the next time that I saw you. Leaving like that without a word, you knew I would be mad.”
“Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black to me.” He smirked looking down at me. “You and I both did what we felt we had to, and from what I can tell some good came from it.” He noted motioning towards the ring on my finger.
“May 23rd is the big day, but I suppose you knew that this would be coming too.”
He gave me a single nod, and I jumped from a loud pop filling the night behind us. Victor put his arms around me, “It’s just them blowing the tire Miss Alyssa, don’t worry.”
“Did you know that Hunt was planning this?” I wondered.
He shook his head, “Not until I heard your voice.”
Hunter stepped around to the back of the van with an apologetic expression. “Sorry Babes but they’re sending another transport van to collect Victor. He’ll need to be locked up and we’ll need to be long gone before then.”
We had been talking for over an hour, the sky had burned orange, the moon had risen and we had barely noticed. I nodded forcing myself to stand and hug Victor one last time before David started putting his handcuffs and chains back on.
“You’re going to your new location now, and you’re set to be released in a few days.” Hunter assured. “I just figured, Alyssa would want any opening she could get before then.”
Victor nodded, “Thank you son. Until next time Miss Alyssa.” He dismissed climbing back into the van so that David could secure him back to the bench, lock the cage door, and then the van doors all over again.
“Bye Victor, I’ll see you in a week.” I swore before I walked back to the car with Hunter.
Once we got back in the car Hunter breathed, “Alright, let’s get you back home, huh?”
He drove me seven and a half hours and almost eight hundred miles to give me what I wanted for just an hour. Hunter was awesome, no more than awesome, he was amazing, I leaned over before we pulled off and planted a kiss on his cheek, “Thank you, Babes.”
“You’re welcome.” He sighed getting back on the highway to go back the way we came.
We stopped to fuel up again, and to get something to eat at a diner. Hunter was oddly quiet the entire time. “What’s up with you?” I nudged from the driver’s seat getting his attention. “You’re quiet.”
“I wanted to talk to you about something before we get back to D.C.” He confided turning his focus on me.
My eyes shifted from the road to him and then back to the road, playing the which is more important game. “What’s up?”
“I’m going to be going away for a little bit.” He answered.
“I thought your job kept you in the pentagon.”
“It does… for the most part, but I’m going to head out on a mission.” He clarified. “A few things came up.”
“Like what?”
His forehead creased and then he perked up once again joking, “I have to keep my world safe you know?”
“Is there something you can’t tell me or won’t tell me?” I asked feeling uneasy in my gut. “You know you can trust me right?”
“With my life.” He promised, “But some things are easier, if you don’t know.”
“Ah, well the government doesn’t really interest me, but my best friend does. Are you ok?” I pressed looking away from the road again to search his eyes. “You aren’t leaving because of me or anything are you?”
“I’m leaving to keep my world safe Alyssa, don’t flatter yourself.” He snorted leaning back in his seat.
I chuckled with him, but then sobered up to ask him again, “You’re ok right?”
“Of course I am.” He vowed. “I just have a project I have to see to the end. I put it on hold to help you, but I can’t suspend it for much longer or my trail will cool down.”
“So… this is your work and has nothing to do with me.” I breathed an exhale of relief, thinking that being around me would be too much now that the case was over and he wasn’t forced to be around me so much.
Hunter rolled his eyes, “What’s with all of the questions Babes, am I losing my honest face or something?”
I smirked at him, “No your honest face is still there Hunt, but you know the thing about honest faces…”
“And what’s that Babes?”
That was the third time that he shirked out of the question I asked him. He told me everything, but I had no doubt at that moment there was something he was keeping from me. “They usually come attached to liars.”
Sneak Peek of Murphy’s Law:
What would Alyssa do? I asked myself as I sat at the steel table in front of a couple of Arlington's finest. With a few deep breaths it was like her voice filled my head.
I had been forced to put myself inside her head for years, to expect her reactions, to keep her calm, and in the past pull her from her shell. Of course.
Keep calm, pay attention, and be clever with your words. So clever that you can get everything from them and give nothing in return.
My eyes combed between them, assessing which one was mentally the weakest, because any good mental sniper knows that to bring down the big gun, you scare him by trimming the fat first.
"Tawny Kerrigan you are in a lot of trouble." The fat man informed sitting down in front of me. He wiped the sweat from his balding head before opening the file in front of him. The lights and heat were affecting him more than it was me.
I looked at the two-way glass, which no doubt held a few more members of the APD and back at the fat man, "De Luca," I corrected.
"Excuse me?" He wheezed wiping sweat from his face again.
"Kerrigan hasn't been my last name for a while now," I smiled twisting the golden band on my ring finger.
Then my smile faded because I wanted to be with her. To know where she was, what she was doing, I wanted Juan with us and not on the other side of the world with Makenna for safety, but most of all I wanted to know how the team was coping with the losses.
Our team se
emed to have a habit of being surrounded by death, but it never quite managed to touch our circle, nowhere near this bad and trouble was nowhere near over…
"Mrs. De Luca…" The fat man repeated bringing me out of my thoughts.
I nodded, "Yes officer Bridges, what can I do for you?"
He shifted in his chair, I knew he would. Officers always felt uncomfortable when you mentioned them by name. It shows that you are paying attention to them. He recovered quickly though. "You know you're in big trouble don't you. Assaulting an officer is a very serious offense."
"I'm aware." I nodded looking over at Sgt. Fields, the officer I punched in the face to get arrested in the first place. "I'm sorry for hurting you. Though I am sure it was more emasculating than it was painful."
"This isn't something that can go away with a sorry." He spat pulling up a chair next to Bridges. His eye was fine, maybe a little bruised, but I could have done worse.
Bridges slapped him on the shoulder and they exchanged a not so private exchange. His way of telling him to keep calm, because they needed me to cooperate - a means to an end.
"You know… the thing is Mrs. De Luca… we weren't even after you. Did you know that?"
Of course I did, why did they think I punched Sgt. Fields in the face instead of running away? "Oh?" I questioned, "Who were you after?"
Bridges smiled when Fields scoffed in disbelief. "You can't tell me that you didn't know your employer was a suspect-."
"-She didn't kill him." I cut harshly.
Fields slapped another file down this time opening it in front of me. There were pictures of the body at the scene of the crime, then on the examining table. I had seen dozens of bodies, but I couldn't take it I had to look away.
Fields argued as he showed me picture after picture, " She was seen by several officers leaving the scene of the crime, her DNA is all over that body, even her skin under his nails, how do you explain that?"
I didn't have to explain it, I saw it. "She couldn't leave him."
"Well those lights got her moving fast enough…" Fields carried on.
The Law of Motion (Law Series) Page 56
