His run across the sand to the fence was quick, and any other time she would have admired the way his legs pumped over the ground, how tight his butt looked in those jeans. But right now she kept looking up at the camera, and then back at Jake as he held the wire fencing and crept through it. When he fell to the ground and flattened out, she watched the camera. Not a moment too soon. It cruised over him, paused at the end of its cycle, and started back the other way.
“Now,” she heard him order across the distance. She took off running toward him. He already had the fencing spread as wide as he could, and when she reached him she carefully crept beneath it. Once she was through, they both turned without speaking and slid down the slope toward the black Hummer he’d driven off in what seemed like days ago, but had really been less than two hours.
“What did you do to your two guards?” she asked, heading toward the passenger side.
“The same thing you did to yours,” he replied with another of his grins. Then he continued, “Wrong side. You’re driving. I need to be able to shoot. The highway’s that way.” He motioned to their right, but Lucy stood glued to the ground.
“I can’t drive now,” she said, shaking her head. She couldn’t drive them from danger, from certain death. He was crazy.
He stopped close in front of her. “You can and you must. We will be followed, and you can’t shoot a gun, but you can drive. You’ve kept up with me so far, Luce. Don’t stop now. I’ve already called the cops. They’re probably on their way. We’re almost home free.”
She studied his face, saw the bruises, the cuts that told the story of the last few days. And she also saw the care, the concern. And yes, the love he must feel for her. And she knew she could do this. For them. For him. She stood on tiptoe and brushed his lips with hers before heading around the hood to the driver’s side. She could feel his gaze on her all the way.
Once inside the car, he asked as she started it, “You ready to blow this pop stand, sweetheart?”
Cocky Jake was back, and she hoped it was because of her kiss. She grinned right back at him. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Eighteen
The Hummer bounded over the desert terrain like a boat sailing into the swells. Jake’s head bounced off the roof of the SUV at regular intervals, but he dared not complain. They were laying Goodyear tracks away from danger and certain death. He just didn’t know if he’d be able to get a bead on anything the way they were rocking and swerving.
He continued to steal quick little glances at his driver while he faced out the retracted rear window. He was trying to understand what had happened to her back at the compound that would make her club her guard like she was hitting to the fences. Lucy Parker was a pacifist by nature, he’d learned, so something major must have transpired.
Just then the phone he’d borrowed from Cervantes buzzed in his pocket. Well, the cat was out of the bag now, he decided as he ignored the incessant whine. Once Farelli didn’t hear from either guard, he’d come to the right conclusion pretty damn quick and send reinforcements. Jake just hoped helicopters with rocket launchers weren’t in Farelli’s repertoire of weaponry.
“I think they’re onto us, Lucy,” he ventured, motioning to the shape of the phone in his pocket while shifting toward her. She threw him a panicked look.
“Just keep driving, sweetheart. It’ll take them a while to circle the wagons. You’re doing great.”
“I want this over, Jake,” she said with a catch in her voice, and he wanted so much to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay. He could only hope to God it would be.
“We’ll get out of this Lucy, just like everything else. We’re survivors.” He shot her a smile that she returned with a weaker facsimile. Encouraged, he poked gently, “Did that guy back there make some moves on you, Luce?”
The way her eyes shot to his and then skittered away told him more than her lukewarm, “Why would you ask that?”
“Because you’re not the type to go banging guys on the head unless they deserve it. You can tell me the truth. We’re far away now. Did he?”
They hit a nasty dip and Jake cracked his head against the ceiling despite the seatbelt. Swearing, he squinted at his driver. Had she done that on purpose to shut him up?
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he said. “You took care of him, and I know where he’ll be if I want to look him up later.” Oh, he’d look him up all right. Look him up with a couple of fists and a bat. By the time Jake was done with him the asshole would be an oversize doormat. Another wave of cold fury washed through Jake at the thought of that piece of shit touching his Lucy, let alone—
He inhaled sharply to control his imagination, his rage. He had to let it go for now. But when this was all over…
Unaware of the homicidal bend of his thoughts, Lucy offered a relieved, trembling-lipped smile, and he felt his anger seep away, felt like the sun shone only on him. Christ, if he hadn’t already figured out he was in love, this would’ve been the moment for sure. When making someone happy meant more to him than his own happiness, he knew he’d found that one person who made him whole.
A black Humvee roared onto the roadway from their left. “Lucy, look out!”
Farelli had rallied his troops.
Lucy cut their Hummer to the right in a spray of sand. Tires spun and the vehicle responded instantly, shooting over the terrain. The pursuing Humvee was no slouch. It swerved back and forth in the rearview mirror, gaining on them.
“It’s getting closer. What do I do? Jake, what do I do?” The Hallmark moment had evaporated in the wake of impending doom. Now Lucy screamed at him over the roar of their SUV’s engine, zigging when the monster Humvee zagged, foot still pounding the accelerator. Jake put the Uzi’s butt to his shoulder, sighted down it, and swore.
“Keep driving, Lucy. But for God’s sake, try not to hit every friggin’ rock in this desert.” He couldn’t count on hitting anything the way they were bouncing, and he didn’t have unlimited ammo like he was sure the dudes back there packed.
“I can’t help it,” she wailed, and then squealed when gunfire erupted from the chasing vehicle.
“Punch it, damn it,” Jake ordered, ducking as low as he could and spewing off a few rounds in the general direction of their followers. “And stay down, for Chrissake. These guys mean business.”
The other Humvee attempted a PIT maneuver, the driver trying to clip the rear of their vehicle to send it spinning out of control. Lucy stomped on the accelerator like Jake ordered, and the SUV launched out of the assault vehicle’s grasp, fishtailing wildly. She screamed, scrabbling at the steering wheel.
“Straighten out…straighten it out, for God’s sake, Luce! Ohhh, shit, here comes another one, they’re like cockroaches. Move it…move it!” Facing backward, he began shooting indiscriminately while an identical menacing Humvee joined the chase, crisscrossing the other’s path behind them. They returned fire. Lots of fire.
When he ran out of ammo in the Uzi, he threw it out the back window of their Hummer. It bounced off the hood of one of their pursuers, and Jake had a moment’s satisfaction when the driver swerved. Too bad he came back, more pissed than before.
Lucy was screaming now. Jake had been wrong to put her in the cockpit, but he’d been right about the gunfire. He just didn’t have enough rounds to fend off Farelli’s troops.
“I don’t know what to do,” she chanted. “They’re going to kill us. Help me, Jake.”
Her panic was going to be their downfall if he didn’t move his ass. Picking up his last weapon, an MP5, amidst more wild shots from behind, Jake took some calming breaths. He needed rock-steady hands for these next few minutes.
“Keep it together, Lucy. Hold the frickin’ wheel steady and just keep your foot on the gas. Do it.” He sighted on the driver behind him, who immediately began weaving. The car giving them chase popped off more rounds that burrowed into their Humvee’s steel sides.
Jake could hear Lu
cy whimpering while he held his breath, but then everything tunneled until all he saw was the driver behind him, snaking his car from side to side while his companion aimed at Jake. The other Humvee had dropped back, as if the two were tag-teaming them.
Jake took his shot, a spattering of rounds right through the windshield of the other Humvee. He was rewarded when the driver slumped over the wheel, and the vehicle went careening to the right, into the path of the other Humvee. Before they collided, Jake saw the passenger’s mouth open as he realized what was about to happen…
The horrendous noise and ensuing explosion was nuclear. Glancing in his side mirror, Jake watched as the two vehicles erupted in a blazing fireball, accompanied by the ripping sound of screaming metal.
“Shit, that was freakin’ awesome!” He settled back in his seat, grinning. But the Bonnie to his Clyde was ready to keel over. “Pull it together, Luce. The cavalry has finally come.”
Lucy followed his gaze out the windshield. A long stream of cop cars, light bars flashing and sirens blaring, were racing toward them on the nearby highway. Slowing to a stop, she shifted into park, collapsed against her seat, and closed her eyes.
Unable to resist, he leaned over the console and kissed her on the lips, a new boyfriend’s kiss that was more exploratory than sensual. When she opened her eyes, he reared back a little. “It’s almost over, sweetheart. I told you we were survivors. But it’s time for you to move on, and for me to help clean up this mess.”
Tears tracked down her face. She reached out for him across the center console, awkwardly pulled him into her, and squeezed tightly. “I don’t want to leave you, Jake. What if they don’t believe you? You’ll need my testimony—”
“Not if I can make a deal to keep you out of it.” He set her back from him.
“I don’t think this is right, Jake. I have a bad feeling about it.”
He shrugged. “It’s the only way, Lucy-love. I can bring down the whole house of cards, but I’m not doing it if you’re involved. You matter too much to me. All you have to do right now is stay quiet and let me do the talking. And then leave. Trust me.”
They stared at each other. Her lower lip began to tremble. He remained stalwart, though it about killed him to do so. Those sad, sad eyes peered out at him through cockeyed glasses. And she was still the hottest, sweetest, smartest woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
At last she swiped at her face. “You’ve taken care of me so far, I guess. What do I have to do now?”
He reached out to smooth her hair. Across the sand, a bullhorn-wielding officer of the law told them to “step out of their vehicle with their hands up.” The rest of the cavalcade raced on toward Farelli’s compound.
Jake tried to assuage Lucy’s fear with a smile. After all, she’d never been involved in a police bust. He winked. To her question he said, “Watch and learn, sweetheart. Watch and learn.”
Chapter Nineteen
Six Months Later
“Last four sandwiches, you guys. Two turkeys on sourdough, the other two beef halves with soup. Let’s finish strong, folks.”
The concerted “whoo-yah” from the kitchen staff brought a wide grin to Lucy’s face. She grabbed two of the four plates and helped her wait staff distribute the final meals to the hungry lunch crowd waiting in the brick-walled space. Choruses of “ooo’s” and “ahhs” met her delivery, and she paused to chat a moment with the recipients.
She found she enjoyed customer interaction even more than tallying the bottom line of sales at the end of every day. She’d certainly become a restaurateur in these last six months, and now there was no turning back.
After expressing her thanks for her customers’ patronage, Lucy returned to the back of the kitchen, content to watch her crew finish up and start the shutdown process for the afternoon. She could afford a few moments of private gloating. Hadn’t she handpicked this staff just so she could step aside and admire the well-oiled machine of her making?
“Another good day, Luce.”
Lucy turned toward her friend and restaurant manager. “They’re all becoming good days, aren’t they?” At the woman’s nod, Lucy continued. “You’re not sorry you made the move then, Jane?”
Her friend shook her head and smiled. “Not sorry at all, Lucy. Just kinda wish you had a life outside of this place, too. You work all the time.”
Lucy knew that. Work was all she had. But she’d grown these last six months. Grown as a small business owner and as an independent woman. She’d learned how to run a successful restaurant and continued to immerse herself in the operation of that restaurant, even if she’d relinquished the actual managing of the floor to Jane.
It had been a long road up to this point, since she’d walked into Matheson’s office and tendered her resignation. Everyone at the firm had stared as quiet, dutiful little Lucy Parker of the navy skirts and sensible shoes cleaned out her cubicle, and drove away in a hundred-thousand dollar Porsche. Jaws had certainly dropped.
Turning to Jane now, she responded, “I go out with you guys all the time. Remember our Friday evening happy hours?”
“That’s just with all of us at the restaurant. When’s the last time you went on a date?”
Lucy froze. She looked past Jane, into her recent past. And remembered a night in a fancy Las Vegas hotel. Her handsome companion with the Renaissance man good looks and the twenty-first-century smart mouth. That mouth…
Shaking away the memories, she returned to the present, schooling her expression into the pleasant mask that covered her feelings. She’d become a master at concealing those true emotions. Jane would not be getting past her outer armor today. Gazing at her concerned friend, Lucy replied in a quiet tone, “Two Hearts takes all my time right now, Jane. You know that. I’m not in the market for a man. Been there, done that.”
“You can’t wait forever, Lucy. He’s not coming.”
Lucy squared her shoulders. “Begging your pardon, but I’ll be the judge of that. Let’s just drop it.” She’d never told Jane much about Jake. Only that he had some unfinished business to take care of. And that she wasn’t ready to date yet.
Jane patted Lucy’s shoulder. “Dropping it right now. I’m going back to box up the leftovers for the shelter, okay?”
Lucy nodded. At least her friend hadn’t taken offense. There were just some topics Lucy couldn’t broach yet, and love was one of them. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t relive the moments she’d spent with Jake Dalton.
Why didn’t he come? He’d said he loved her, yet here she was, running a restaurant by herself that she’d bought for him with her retirement nest egg, sleeping in a new, king-size bed alone, waiting for him to make her whole again.
Lucy stared at the supply racks of the restaurant she’d romantically named the Two Hearts Café, as a stubborn refusal to admit defeat within the boxing ring of love. It had been six months, six long months of no word, yet she refused to give up hope of ever seeing Jake again. Her heart wouldn’t let her.
They’d both been taken into custody that day in the Las Vegas desert. Separated and questioned endlessly. Jake had initially refused to talk to anyone, but Lucy hadn’t. She’d cooperated with the law because she wanted to make sure Farelli and his entire outfit remained behind bars. She didn’t want to have a hit on her if they slipped through the cracks and got released because of something she didn’t divulge.
At last she had been allowed to leave, but had been told that Jake was going to be detained for in-depth interrogation by both his department and the FBI. She flew home to wait for him there. She was sure he would come for her when he straightened everything out. He’d told her he would.
When those first months passed by and Farelli’s arrest and incarceration hit the news, she called the police station where Jake had worked. No response. She’d left messages. Spoken to other detectives, dispatchers, his boss. Even the deputy chief. She’d received the same answers from bored, disinterested voices. Jake Dalton couldn’t come to the phone
. Jake Dalton wasn’t available. And finally, Jake Dalton wouldn’t talk to her. That last statement sliced her heart in two, and she wondered how she was still alive, how that organ continued to beat.
And that was when she decided to move on with her life, to stop living in cheap motels because she was afraid to return to her little apartment. The apartment where Delano/Fisk had attacked her so brutally and Jake had expressed an interest in her.
She’d learned that life could change in a heartbeat and could be snuffed out just as quickly. And that if you loved someone, you’d do anything for that person. Like open a restaurant for him.
In the manner of that movie, Field of Dreams, Lucy hoped that if she took her savings and used it for Jake, he would come. So she’d gone to her bank, took out all that money she’d been accumulating for a rainy day, and promptly began spending it.
She’d moved out of her little home that had been violated, taking what she needed and sending the rest to charity. She’d found a quaint little apartment above a vacant restaurant in the Mission Inn Square of downtown Riverside. She’d gotten her hair styled and bought designer glasses that flattered her face more than the mall optometrist’s brand. All with the idea that she wanted to look her best when Jake showed up.
She set up an account to deposit a small stipend every month in her mother’s bank account. She told her mother that if she ever begged or pressured for more, the payments into her account would stop. It was the perfect threat.
And lastly, because she was tired of being dependable, boring Miss Lucy Parker, of the navy skirts and sensible shoes, she walked into her boss’s office and summarily quit. Then she went out and bought the restaurant below her apartment, because again, if she built it, he would come.
Prisoner of Love Page 17
