by Arlene Webb
“Sure you can,” Ray murmured. “You’re not dehydrated, you have a plan, and you know I’ll send someone to pull you over within minutes of you driving out of here if I don’t think you’re good to go.”
Cassi’s jaw dropped. “You…you’re the reason I got that speeding ticket?”
She jerked beneath his hold, and he held his hands up. “I needed gas. Didn’t know how far you planned on going.” He lowered his hands, his best sheepish grin in place. “If you get stopped again, the friendly officer will place you in a nice, safe jail cell. With a sink connected to tap water. Fearfully close to the open toilet.”
“Bastard.”
“Nah, born legit, but yep, definite ass. Sorry.” He arched his brows as she twisted her arm to smack at him. The punch to his stomach wouldn’t hurt a child. He wrapped his arm around her and turned to Lisbon. “Let’s go have a chat who’d make the best escort to accompany our newly recruited secret agent. That dick,” he gestured to Maxton, “or me.”
Cassi shrugged loose of his arm. “Neither. Detective Lisbon could come with me.”
“Oh, could be girls on a trip, but maybe this Anne thinks you’re gay?” he asked innocently. “You never mentioned a nasty boyfriend to her?” He arched his brows. “Now me, I’d make one mean, controlling guy who’d not let his woman go off alone.”
“This isn’t a good idea,” Lisbon said.
Ray ignored her. He was busy pretending to punch at his cell phone. “Hey, Maxton, is this you on Facebook? The guy whose relationship status says married with eight kids?”
Maxton stood with Cassi’s laptop under his arm. “Divorced. No kids. Decorated agents who bring down serial killers and bust terrorist cells without getting civilians killed don’t stay married. Hazard of the business.”
“Okay, boys, let’s take this pissing contest outside,” Lisbon said.
“Sure,” Ray said. “Cassi, here.” He shoved his cell phone into her hand. “High-speed net and almost full disclosure on anything personal concerning me, the guy who’ll keep you more than alive, but unharmed and smiling. Password-protected spots are ones I can’t let you in, but it’s work-related, and Lisbon knows my codes.”
“We’ll be in the van out front,” Lisbon told Cassi. “I’m number one on his speed dial, and there’ll be an officer outside this door. Getting some rest regardless of what you do next is a good idea.”
“I’m not to leave the room?”
“Call me first,” Lisbon said. “I don’t want the body count getting any higher. A picture of you, your whereabouts, must be on top of someone’s list.”
Ray clasped Cassi’s arm. “You need anything?”
“No. But I doubt I can sleep.”
He released her. “Understandable. Don’t, then. We won’t be long. The sooner we roll somewhere else, the safer you’ll be.”
The other agent and Lisbon were already out the door. He gestured Maxton ahead of him, nodded at Cassi, and closed the door behind him.
“Pigs will fly before stuffy dicks with Fed written all over them make good undercover,” he grumbled. “Lisbon, you know I’m the best.”
“Shut up.” Lisbon grabbed his arm. “Come on. I’ve had some thoughts.”
As long as Ray got lead on this, he’d do as his boss said. Keep his mouth shut and let her work on the other testosterone heading to stink up the van.
Chapter Five
Cassi blinked her eyes open and brought the cell phone she clutched in her hand closer to her face. 2:00 p.m. When Ray had handed it to her, it’d said 9:15 a.m. As soon as he’d closed the door, she’d stumbled for the bed, fallen face down, and curled into a fetal position.
So much for not being able to sleep. She’d been out for five hours.
She sat up. Her movement caused the long form on the other bed to also lurch upright. Ray’s hand went right for his hip. With his palm on the weapon’s grip, he blinked confusion at her, scanned the room, looked back at her with awareness, and collapsed down. He groaned.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” She dragged her gaze from long inches of sprawled guy with stubbled cheeks and full lips, and her eyes widened. On the end table beside her bed sat the large blue Thermos and the bag of fruit she’d had in her car from the organic food store. She grabbed the heavy, expensive water bottle, twisted off the cap and took a long guzzle of distilled, triple-filtered water still cool in the insulated, glass-lined container.
She lowered it, licked her lips, and found those deep green eyes staring at her. Ray had rolled to sit on the edge of the bed. He frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me that was in your car? I’d have fetched it instead of boring you with my silly story.”
A jolt of pure lust hit her. Add that to the pure water settling in her stomach, and dammit, her panties were damp. “I didn’t think you’d let me go out to get it.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I wouldn’t. I’d have either left you with an arsenal because I’d forgotten it was there, or I’d have gone with you to make sure no one lurked with evil intent.” He cracked a grin. “Other than me, of course.” He raked his gaze over her rumpled clothes, messy hair, and face with an imprint of the bedspread on her cheek. “You always wake up so beautiful?”
She felt the electricity crackle across the room and wrap around her heart. “I like your silly stories. Are the others gone?” If I jump up and kiss you, will SWAT come bursting in?
Her heart stopped as he pushed to his feet and crossed over to her. He bent, stuck a finger under her chin, and tilted her face to kiss her forehead. He dropped to sit beside her and fell onto his back. “Yep.” He flung his arm over his face. “The mighty dicks wouldn’t go for a woman handling a man’s job. Undercover, cops and robbers, it’s all male stuff.”
“Whaaat?” She leaned over him and knocked his arm aside. “Are you serious?”
He smiled, blinking up at her. “Yes and no. The Feds took off about fifteen minutes after we left you, and you’d fallen asleep. I know that because I ignored Lisbon growling at me while she was talking on her phone, and snuck in here to have a peek. Out cold, an adorable little bit of drool on your chin.”
“I was drooling?”
“Yep. Anyhoo,” he grabbed his cell, which was lying between them, and glanced at the time, “special agents should have been in Evans Point hours ago. To make sure they don’t totally muck things up, Lisbon went with. You and I are commanded to show our faces in this town in Wyoming no earlier than tomorrow mid-afternoon and only after Lisbon gives the go ahead.”
Her breath froze. She pushed the words out. “You’re staying here with me?”
He groaned. “No. Was supposed to tell you well over an hour ago and hit the road. Guess I fell asleep.”
Of course he wasn’t hanging out with a loser like her. Probably couldn’t wait to ditch the freak and get back to his life. But then what’d he mean by Evans Point? “We’re each going home, and you’ll call me if it’s okay to go to Wyoming?”
He bolted upright. “Hell, no. Even if you hadn’t finally left that bastard, you think I’d let you go back to an apartment with a pool of blood on the floor?” He shoved off the bed, cell phone in hand. “Lady, you’re not leaving my sight, and we’re not staying here. I won’t even tell Lisbon where we’re at.”
He shoved the cell in his pocket and paced to the window. He shifted the curtain aside, peering out. “You have to start thinking like some serious bad guys are out there. A Fed drove your car back to the apartment for now. Your stuff is in my car, except for the rock and book collection and big empty water container. Need the bathroom? Hurry. The officers guarding this motel may have drawn attention. I’ll tell them we’ll vacate in three minutes. Did I say hurry? Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder.”
He turned to her surprised face. “Sorry, sweet…I mean Cassi. I’m pissed I fell asleep. I’m not comfortable.”
She hopped to her feet and fought the heat rising in her cheeks. “I don’t care if you call me sweethe
art. I know it’s just something you say when you think the person you’re protecting is nervous.”
He glared at her with mock outrage. “No, I don’t. But I will call you some nasty things if we don’t get a move on.”
She grabbed her Thermos and the bag of fruit. “Then what are you waiting for? Why was my car brought back to Denver, not yours?”
He rolled his eyes. “Because the plates are registered to you and any hit person can get that from motor vehicles. If we end up going to Evans Point, I’m not sure we should announce your presence, or your car’s presence, to everyone.” He glanced at his phone. “Officer Reed says exit looks clear.” He drew his weapon, and headed for the door.
“You always this grouchy when you wake?”
“Yep.” He turned and gave her a forced smile. “And yep, I sure hope you plan on getting used to that. Stay behind me.”
She didn’t see any good or bad guys as they crossed the parking lot in the sparkling early afternoon light toward the red sedan.
Ray clicked to unlock and turned to her. “I can, but do you want to drive?”
Her eyes widened. “Sure.”
“’Kay. Move that pretty butt then.”
He really was nervous. She ran around, opened the driver’s door while he slid in the passenger seat and promptly scanned the parking lot yet again.
Relief hit her. His car was an automatic. It’d been awhile since she’d driven a standard and the last thing she wanted to do was strip the transmission if shots were fired.
“Keep just above the speed limit. I don’t see anyone but an officer.”
“How do you know they’re a cop?” she asked.
“He nodded. And he texted me his position before we left the room.”
“Which way?”
“Are you kidding? You expect me to shoot and navigate?”
She chuckled. “North should be good. I’ll get back on the interstate.”
“Yep.”
Ray didn’t relax until she trucked up the on-ramp. He shoved the gun back in the holster, and grabbed an apple. “You mind?”
“Of course not.”
He wolfed it down, opened his window, and tossed the core hard so it cleared the road. He really was a sweetie. Only creeps left apple cores to fall in the road where an animal or bird would get hit while they scavenged.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Feel good. The sleep really helped.”
“Great. Go ahead and do ten to fifteen over the speed limit. Otherwise we stand out. Can you keep checking in the rearview for a tail?”
“I can.”
He grabbed the bag, set it on the floor angled so she could reach into it, and put her Thermos beside it. Next thing she knew, he went down on his side. His head pillowed onto her thigh, one foot on the passenger door handle, and his hand crept to clasp her leg.
“Ray, hey. Where we going?”
“North. Don’t let me sleep much past some city over the state border into Wyoming, and head toward Rock Springs. Wake me if you see anything. Anything at all. Or if you need a story. Or need me to…sing….”
She looked down. His long lashes curled on his cheeks, his lips softly parted, and his hand on her leg relaxed. Just like that, he’d fallen asleep, as trusting as if he’d known her for ages.
She forced her eyes back to the road. She reached to brush his stubbled cheek, glanced over, and he didn’t even blink at her caress. I can love this guy. I really can.
Fifty miles, an apple, and a swig of water later, she’d grown comfortable enough to suspect she wouldn’t be able to wake him unless she hollered in his ear.
It was a gorgeous summer day, traffic was light, and no vehicle looked familiar as if it had been stalking behind them. Of course, most of her peeks from the curves of the road had been downward. Ray had shifted his face a couple times, raised his hand higher on her leg, and his breathing remained steadily shallow.
Unlike hers. Her breath caught every time she took in the profile of the man sleeping more soundly than a toddler, while her head buzzed with the strangeness of her situation. She would never see Pete again, thanks to his murder, instead of her uprooting and leaving the suburb of Denver in the state of Colorado that happened to be named Evans, a near match for Evans Point in the state of Wyoming. Either she was the unluckiest person ever to have some terrorist accidently receive her obsession while she received his, or fate had given her a chance with someone beyond special.
At least, she assumed the person behind murder and weapons was a male. It’d be so awful if the woman she’d shared some e-mails with was into more than growing food crops using artificial lighting in a hydroponic setup in underground bunkers. Anne had confided to Cassi that this town she was currently driving toward had been hit by a series of tornadoes a little less than a year before. On the Beaufort wind scale, they registered as a force of ten with winds up to sixty miles per hour. Trees uprooted and vehicles thrown, intense structural damage to the entire town.
The amazing thing was some residents had become interested in a damaged but structurally sound underground network. Their town sat on top of an elaborate maze of bunkers built by the Army Corps of Engineers, originally installed to protect military serving at the Evans Point Army Airfield in the nineteen forties.
A select group was invested in rebuilding these bunkers and preparing for Mother Nature, alien invasion, the seven horsemen or whatever heralded apocalypse, bird flu, nuclear holocaust, sarin gas, anything and everything. She didn’t know much other than practical discussions on seed strains, fertilizers to add to which level of purified waters, the best way to recycle contaminated water and for what crops, the deal with growing hydroponic vegetables under artificial lights, and so forth. But it seemed clear a controlled environment, free of pesticides, acid rain, polluted runoff from factories, and dairy and beef and poultry farming waste, had many benefits.
Cassi had become intrigued by the science aspect, while the political and emotional side of it left her wary. Cult behavior was something she feared. If there was a manmade, alien-made, or natural disaster, and millions needed shelter, who would decide to open the shelter to the unaware, and would they use racial or economic profiling to discriminate as to who got in?
On the other hand, working to develop a prototype for cities along the seaboards prone to disasters could be something she could get invested in. Especially if these people didn’t plan to fight off zombies with semi-automatic Yugoslavian M—whatever Ray had called them—rifles.
The sign for the Colorado-Wyoming border had taken her by surprise. Miles had flown by. The gas tank was half empty, and her stomach tightened as she thought about what lay ahead. Forget underground cities, terrorists, and the possibility of being on someone’s kill list. Visions of a bed, couch, back seat of this car, bathroom…nah, not in a public restroom, no way…well, maybe. The guy whose hand was inches from her hot spot would make a convent of nuns have second thoughts.
She shivered. The feel of the quiet fingers on her leg burned through her jeans, steadily winding her tighter and tighter. In this moment, she’d do him anywhere, even pressed against a dirty sink.
She gave herself a mental slap upside the head and lifted her hand from a firm bicep to join her other clenching the wheel. She was an idiot. Crazy to think this would be more than a job to him, a couple nights at the most with her. After all, a guy like him could have pretty much anyone he wanted.
The moment she slowed for a large truck full of cattle, Ray jolted. His hand shot to his hip and the gun before he’d opened his eyes and sat up straight.
“It’s okay,” she muttered. “We’re off the interstate and in Wyoming. We crossed the border a while ago.”
He blinked, looked around, then turned to stare at her. “Hey, beautiful. Border behind us, huh?” He relaxed, and that slow smile filling his face mesmerized her.
Time to commence some sort of babble, before he understood how lost she was. “We crossed about an hour ago. Did you kn
ow Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah have borders based on straight latitude and longitude lines, rather than natural landmarks?”
He rubbed his eyes. “No. I did not know that.” He did a scan of all directions again. “I’ve hiked the parks here before, but….” Intense green eyes swiveled to her. “I’d like to stop at the first place you think you could find something edible.”
She chewed her lower lip, shifting complete attention to the winding two-lane and slow increase of traffic. He’d slept like a baby and without snoring, something outstanding on its own, and admitted what he wanted without hesitation. How could he not be exceptional with other appetites as well?
A large hand came down on her leg. “Vegetarian, carnivore, omnivore, I figure we’ll skip the soups, right?”
“We’re not that far from Rock Springs. I’m sure there’ll be something there, and I’ll try not to get too weird.”
He squeezed her leg and damn, there went the current crackling to her toes. “Oh no. Be yourself. I need…crave…love weird. You want me to drive after I check in with Lisbon?”
“I’m fine.”
A moment of reading text messages, and he said, “They’re in Evans Point. Hanging with the sheriff, staking out a decrepit ranch twenty miles into the remote hills, as well as a residence on a side street in town with the unoriginal name of South. Same name as the street of an apartment with crime scene tape crossing the door. Calvin Smith isn’t home at either. No one is. Sheriff says Smith moved to the area of mostly ranchers two-three years ago, claims some sort of online business, and keeps to himself when he’s in town.”
He set the cell phone down. “Did you know Wyoming is the tenth most extensive, but the least populous and one of the least densely populated of fifty states?”
“Now I do.” She found herself smiling, despite the unease at being reminded of the dead. “It’s also the first state to grant suffrage to women, had the first woman court bailiff, one of the first to hang a woman for cattle rustling, although word had it she was innocent, and the first to elect a woman governor. Nellie Rose in 1925.” Jesus, why don’t I just put a Post-it note saying ‘nerd’ on my forehead?
