Moving Target

by Kimberly Van Meter

  “How about some warm milk, kiddo?”

  Kat had only been seven when her parents died in a freak skydiving accident in Brazil and Kat had been trundled off to her bachelor uncle, Chuck, her mother’s distant, older brother. She’d been tired, scared and grief-struck by the time she’d been dumped off with Uncle Chuck and a little punch-drunk. Uncle Chuck, a burly man with a thick, salt-and-pepper beard that hung from his face like a puffy Brillo pad, had taken one look at Kat and as he’d put it, “softened like butter left in the sun.”

  “I’m lactose intolerant,” came her small answer. “It hurts my tummy and gives me the tooties.”

  Uncle Chuck had thought about her answer and rubbed his expansive belly, saying, “Hell, maybe that’s my problem, too. Sometimes I get the tooties, too, when I drink milk.” She cracked a tiny smile and held tightly to her teddy bear. “How about some cookies and juice, then?”

  She nodded and followed her uncle Chuck to the old faded kitchen and scooted into a wooden chair at the table. Uncle Chuck brought the cookies and they sat that first night, eating cookies and drinking juice, getting to know one another, bonding over a tragedy. To this day, when she needed comfort, Kat turned to cookies and juice.

  Kat closed her eyes, wishing she still had that teddy bear to hold on to but, more important, wished her uncle were still available to eat cookies and drink juice with over a hard day. Jake may think her noble for chasing after a cure but right about now, she didn’t feel particularly noble—only the fresh stabs of grief for failing her uncle when it mattered most.

  * * *

  Jake knew something was eating at Kat but he thought it best to leave her be until they were safe again. When he pulled off the highway, she perked up to ask, “What are you doing? Bathroom break? I hope so. I’m about to wet myself.”

  “Not exactly. We’re making a pit stop until I can get something figured out,” he answered, maneuvering the car onto a side street and then down an isolated dirt road.

  “Pit stop? Where?” she asked, watching as the signs of civilization receded. “We’re not heading for another dirt motel are we? I’m not sure I can take another of those.”

  “No, we’re going to my brother’s place,” he answered. “Nathan owns a cabin out here to go target shooting. It’s miles of nothing but trees and dirt and there’s no one who can sneak up on us without us seeing them first.”

  “Is your brother nice?”

  “Nice? What do you mean? That’s an odd question.”

  “No, it’s not,” she returned, affronted. “Well, if he’s anything like you, then that answers my question.”

  He did a double take. “Did you just space the fact that I saved your life back there?”

  Kat appeared loath to remember that but relented with a short, unhappy sigh. “Sorry,” she said. “Being on the run with an emotionally constipated man is murder on the manners.” Kat seemed to realize that comment was also mean and tried to make amends, saying, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. You’re right, you did save my life and I appreciate the fact that I’m still breathing, though if you continue to shove MREs in my face, I might consider that a particularly vile form of torture.”

  “I told you this wasn’t a pleasure trip.”

  “Boy, you weren’t exaggerating.”

  A surprised smile tugged at his lips but he squelched it when he remembered what had started this conversation. “What’s with all the questions about my brother?

  She shrugged. “Just curious.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I thought if you told me a bit about your brother, I could learn more about you.”

  He frowned. “I’ve told you everything you need to know about me.”

  Kat glared and he got the distinct impression she wanted to bop him over the head with something blunt. “Why do you get so prickly whenever I ask anything remotely personal? Are your past, present and future considered classified information? Are my questions a threat to national security? Geesh, I’m just trying to get to know you. Don’t you think it might be easier to handle this little adventure if I felt a little more secure about the man in charge of my safety?”

  He hated to admit it but she had a small point, but he didn’t know which bits and pieces of himself were safe to share, without revealing too much. Frankly, he didn’t trust the feelings that kept bubbling up without notice when it came to Kat and her unorthodox personality. She had a way of getting things out of him that no one else had ever done before. That, in of itself, was frightening to a guy like him. “It’s not a good idea to get too chummy,” he said and her expression fell into a disappointed frown that did terrible things to his resolve. He exhaled a short breath and against his better judgment, said, “We’re not close so I don’t know much about him.”

  “Must be nice to have a brother, though.”

  How did he respond to that? “I guess.”

  “You guess? Is he a jerk or something? How do you not know your own brother? Did you grow up apart?”

  “No, we grew up together but...” Hell, here’s where the words dried up. He couldn’t tell her what happened in his childhood, how his brother had left him behind in a war zone where kids were not only collateral damage but the target, as well. He didn’t reveal that part of his childhood to anyone. Much less to a virtual stranger who did weird things to his head. “I don’t like talking about my past. Okay?” Was that a note of desperation in his voice? She made an exasperated sound as if his answer made no sense. “Then why are we going to his place?”

  “Because I know I can trust him.”

  “You do realize you’re talking in circles, right?”

  “How so?”

  “Because you’re not close but you trust him? Don’t you have to be close to someone to trust them?

  Jake considered that and then shrugged, not willing to dig any deeper into that mucky pool of thought. “Either way, those are the facts.”

  “Your childhood must’ve been interesting to say the least.”

  “Interesting isn’t the word I would choose.”

  “What word would you choose?”

  “Brutal.”

  There he went again, blabbering sensitive information. Jake wanted to stuff his own fist in his mouth. “Listen, I can hear the questions forming in that supersmart brain of yours. This is all I’ll say about the matter...my childhood was dark, bleak and filled with bouts of pain and misery. My father was a drunken bastard and my older brother split the first chance he could get, leaving me behind to bear the brunt of the old man’s fury. Got it? Paint a good enough picture?”

  “Yeah,” she answered with a solemn nod. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize for something you didn’t have a hand in.” She surprised him with a sudden laugh. He scowled. “What’s so funny?”

  Kat sobered quickly. “Nothing. It’s just that I found it ironic that I was irritated at you for offering a platitude and then here I go doing the same thing to you. I apologized because it felt as if I should because my childhood was different.”

  He could see her logic...as crazy as it was and grunted his acceptance and moved on. “So, here’s the thing, Nathan is a decent guy and we recently helped each other with something he had going on, and I think he has the right connections to help me find out who’s trying to cut us down before we get to Washington.”

  “You think they’re trying to kill us?”

  “Actually, probably not you because you’re valuable. I’m simply in their way and expendable.”

  She shuddered. “And what exactly would they do with me if they managed to catch me?”

  “I doubt they’re trying to invite you to tea, if you catch my drift. Torture to achieve their means is not a far-fetched possibility.”

  She gasped. “Torture? Aren’t there rules
against that sort of thing?”

  “Honey, laws only apply to those who follow them.”

  “So much for the Geneva convention,” she muttered, and he smiled.

  “Well, you’re not exactly a political prisoner, either, so that wouldn’t apply, anyway.”

  Kat exhaled a long breath. “I’m so not good at this on-the-run thing. I never realized how attached I am to the simple pleasures of sleeping in my own bed and soaking in my own bathtub, not that my bathtub was anything to write home about but at least it was mine.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, and he meant it. She’d been dragged into a pretty messed-up situation through no fault of her own. “I’ll do my best to get you to safety as soon as possible.”

  “Thank you,” she said, breaking into a short-lived smile. “But you and I both know my life isn’t ever going to be the same. How am I supposed to go back to life as it was when someone, somewhere will always know about the drug I created? I would imagine someone is always going to want it.”

  He couldn’t lie. “You’re right. Likely, you’ll get a new identity and you’ll have to start life someplace else, doing something else.”

  “Like what? I’m a scientist.”

  “I don’t know but I’m sure they’ll think of something appropriate.”

  She sighed and laid her head against the window. “I liked my life just the way it was, which is strange to say now that I realize how much I’m going to miss it. I used to wish I had a different life. Something more exciting or adventurous, even though I can’t fly, I have stress-induced asthma and I don’t actually know how to interact with people socially...but I guess it’s human nature to want what you don’t have. Except now I want what I used to have back. Does that make sense?”

  “It does,” he admitted, surprised that her dizzying logic didn’t completely confuse him. “For what it’s worth...I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, I get it. There’s nothing you can do about it. You’re just following orders.”

  Jake shifted against the discomfiting feeling that squeezed his heart at the faint dejection in her tone. He didn’t like knowing that it bothered him. He was getting too close to her, that much was apparent. “Glad you understand that,” he said, returning his focus on the road and ignoring the sharp stab of something that felt a lot like denial.

  Chapter 8

  Jake kept his eye on the rearview mirror, watching for anything that looked remotely suspicious but thus far the drive to Nathan’s place had been smooth sailing. His brother’s cabin was just outside of Reno, up in the mountains. The only reason Jake knew about the place was because a few months back, Nathan and his girl, Jaci, had been caught in a bad spot and if all hell was going to break loose, Nathan had instructed Jake to hide out there. It hadn’t come to that—thank God, everything had worked out with minimal scarring—but it’d been a close call.

  He’d nearly lost his brother on that mission. He’d been surprised to have conflicting feelings about that, seeing as Nathan had abandoned Jake to enemy territory when Nathan had split to join the marines. Nathan had promised to come back for him. Yeah, well, that didn’t happen. No one rode in to save Jake. Not Child Protective Services, not a single neighbor. He’d saved his own hide. Hell, if he’d waited around for someone to rescue him from that hell, he’d have ended up buried in the backyard.

  And so, yeah, he had conflicting feelings about Nathan. On one hand, he missed his older brother, but on the other? He wanted to punch him in the mouth.

  As if keying in on his turbulent thoughts, Kat asked, “Is your brother going to be there when we get there?”

  “No. But I know where he keeps the spare key. I’ll call him as soon as we get there.”

  “I know I made that snippy comment earlier, but I’m really curious...are you and your brother anything alike?”

  He scowled. “Why? He has a girlfriend.”

  Kat laughed. “Calm down, I’m not looking for a date.”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because you fascinate me and I can’t seem to help myself from wanting to know more about what makes you tick.”

  “And my brother plays into that, how?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t have any siblings and always wished I’d had one. You have to admit, you’re an enigmatic sort of guy. A tantalizing mystery always begs a little digging.”

  “Enigmatic, huh?” Was he losing his mind that he found that flattering? Or was it that she thought he was enigmatic that he liked so much? He shifted with discomfort at his own internal dialogue.

  “We’re nothing alike,” he finally answered. That probably wasn’t true. Jaci had said they were exactly alike but Jake didn’t like to draw comparisons because if that were true that would mean Jake was an asshole, too. “Are you disappointed?”

  “Oh, stop. Why would I be disappointed? It was just a question. Revealing something personal about yourself doesn’t make you weak, you know. It’s not as if I’m going to hold what you tell me against you. You can be such a bear. Would you like a Cheese Nibble? You seem peckish.”

  “Peckish?”

  “Yeah, you know...hungry and grouchy?”

  He suppressed an unwelcome grin. That girl had a way of worming her way beneath his skin in the most beguiling way. “I don’t eat Cheese Nibbles. Too full of preservatives.”

  She exhaled an annoyed breath. “Are you always so rigid? I noticed you line your shoes up at the edge of the bed. Military training, I assume?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Which branch?”

  “Army.”

  “Ohh, army strong. Yeah, I think that fits you. You seem hewn from granite. I mean your physique is pretty impressive. Now, mind you, I hang out with scientists all day and although I’m loath to perpetuate a stereotype, where there’s smoke there’s fire. As in...not many of my peers were big on going to the gym. They were pretty soft in the muscle department.”

  Jake cut her a sidewise look, wildly and inappropriately curious about her personal life. “So...scientists are your type? You like the brainy guys?”

  “I like—” she bit her lip as if embarrassed and peeped at him “—guys like you. Smart and underwear model material.” Her cheeks pinked and she averted her stare as if she just couldn’t handle watching his reaction to her admission. What did she think he was going to do? Laugh? Mock her? Something told him that maybe that had happened to her in the past and a growl threatened to erupt from his lips. She continued, keeping her gaze trained out the window at the passing scenery. “But I’m not exactly the kind of girl who gets noticed by guys like you. I mean, it’s okay. I’m not crying over it or anything but high school was rough. Smart girls aren’t what’s considered hot with teenage boys.”

  “Then they were not only stupid but blind, too,” he muttered before he could stop his unruly mouth. He tightened his lips but it was too late. He caught the quick look Kat shot him and he shrugged. “Listen, teenage boys are stupid. I should know, I was one. Kat, you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of in the looks department, okay?”

  A slow, shy but utterly delighted smile curved her lips and something gripped his insides with an iron claw. “You mean it? Wait, of course you do. You’re not the kind of guy who would blithely hand out compliments just to feed someone’s ego.”

  “I’m not?” he asked, amused.

  “No, not at all.”

  “You think you have me figured out?”

  “Not completely figured out, but definitely, mildly figured out. You’re the kind of guy who would never say the words I Love You unless you meant them because you believe in the power of the words. You would never lie to someone just to spare them the pain of the truth. You are the kind of guy who believes in ripping the bandage quickly, rather than pulling it slowly. And, you would do anything for so
meone you cared about.”

  He sat in shock. How’d she manage to glean all that from their short acquaintance? It was spooky. Jake forced a small shrug. “Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m nothing like you think.”

  “You didn’t have to drive me. You could’ve forced me to fly. What do you care about my phobia? Or the fact that I’m allergic to anesthesia? It wasn’t your problem. That single action told me that you were the kind of guy who cares about people.”

  Jake didn’t want her romanticizing his actions. That could only lead to heartache on her end when he ultimately disappointed her. As much as he hated to do it, he had to pop a hole in her theory. “I’m flattered but before you go too far, my concern was for the mission. My mission is to secure you safely to Washington. I can’t have your health jeopardized by anything I can prevent, so a road trip was necessary.”

  She smiled as if she knew a secret and it was that look that scared him more than staring down the barrel of a gun—because whatever she knew, it was probably accurate. “Kat, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Okay?” he prompted gently.

  “I’m not,” she assured him, but Jake still wasn’t sure if he was getting his point across. In the end, he decided to drop it. Maybe she was right. He was peckish. “Hand me a Cheese Nibble,” he said, relenting. As he chewed, he wondered how it was that this slip of a scientist had begun twisting him in knots in record time when he’d faced far greater threats in the past. One thing Kat was right about...her life was never going to be the same nor was she likely going to be able to continue her research into a cure for Alzheimer’s. That more than anything made his gut churn. And he wasn’t looking forward to the moment when she learned her dreams of creating a cure would have to be shelved.