Gave him some muscles too. Yeah, she’d noticed.
“You’ve picked up a few yourself.”
She blinked. “Huh?” Muscles?
“Fighting skills.”
“Oh. Yeah. In my line of work they come in handy occasionally.”
He turned to scan the area behind him. “I don’t see any headlights. At least not any that are too close. What exactly is your line of work? I thought you were a cop.”
“I was.” She glanced in the rearview mirror and tested her sore elbow. Bruised and battered, but nothing broken, thank goodness. “Doesn’t mean they’re not back there,” she said in response to his statement that he didn’t see anything.
“Let me out if you’re going to the cops. At least give me a head start.”
“What are you going to do on your own? The cops aren’t stupid. They’ll find you eventually.” Jackie made a left turn, then a right. She stayed on the back roads hoping the men they were running from would assume she would hit the highway.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. So far I’ve just been winging it. I need to be able to slow down and think, but I’ve been dodging them since I left work yesterday.”
“What do you mean?”
“One minute I’m walking to my car after work, and the next thing I know, someone’s trying to run me down. I managed to avoid getting hit, got in my car, and took off. I called the cops and they started talking to me like I was a fugitive who needed to turn himself in. So no. No cops. Not until I figure out what’s going on and why I’m a wanted man all of a sudden.”
“All right, no cops. Yet.” She tapped the steering wheel as she thought. She really didn’t like the idea of harboring a fugitive. It was stupid and wasn’t a place she thought she’d ever find herself in. But this was Ian. “I work for an organization called Operation Refuge.” She tightened her fingers around the steering wheel and thought fast. “We’ll go there, sit down and talk, and work out a plan.”
“Operation Refuge? What is that? How many people are there?”
“At this time of night? No one probably. But we can rest up and jump in with a plan first thing in the morning. And ironically enough, Operation Refuge is an organization that helps people who can’t help themselves.”
He snorted. “I can help myself.” A pause. “But I don’t think I’d mind some outside help.”
Silence descended for another tense moment as she kept one eye on the road in front of her and one eye on the rear.
“Those guys were going through your car. Is Operation Refuge’s address on anything?” he asked.
Jackie snapped her lips together and thought. “No. But my home address is on the registration. If they go there and start searching my house, they may find something related to Operation Refuge.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s not a secret organization, but we don’t advertise either except for a website that will show up in your search engine if you type in certain phrases.” She sighed and reached for her phone. “I’ll call David and tell him what’s going on.”
He snatched the phone from her fingers and she jerked the wheel. His head smacked the window and he winced.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
He powered down the phone. “If they know who you are, they can trace you through your phone.”
“I realize that,” she snapped.
“Then we can’t go to your office or contact anyone related to it. Don’t you have somewhere else we can go? Please, Jackie, you came looking for me for a reason. Won’t you at least help me find a safe place and hear me out?”
Jackie glanced at the man who’d once been her childhood best friend. With the potential to be more. Until her life had fallen apart and she’d had to leave him. She sighed. “Fine. We’ll talk. I’ve just got to figure out where to go to do it.”
“What about your grandfather’s place in Virginia? Is he still there?”
Jackie jerked, then shot him a look of disbelief. “You remember that place?”
“Of course. It was all you talked about that fall after spending all summer there. Then you went to live there permanently—” He looked away and swallowed hard. “Anyway, I remember it.”
She bit her lip. Her parents had been going through one of their many times of “on again–off again.” When her father had shoved her mother against the wall and threatened to kill her, Jackie had jumped on his back. He shook her off like a rag doll, then punched her hard enough to break her nose. As a result, she took it upon herself to hitchhike to the Appalachian mountains in western Virginia so she didn’t have to listen to them argue—or worry about being beat up.
Her grandfather was stunned when she’d shown up on his doorstep, then welcomed her with a warm hug, buckets of hot chocolate, and a visit to the ER to get her nose set.
He made three phone calls. One to her parents to let them know she wouldn’t be coming home. The second one to his lawyer. And the third to Child Protective Services who promptly investigated and placed her in her grandfather’s custody.
Her mother took off shortly after that, and Jackie and her father managed to come to a peaceful understanding. As long as he left her alone and let her live with her grandfather, she wouldn’t cause him any trouble—or press any charges for the broken nose.
Three years later, her grandfather was dead of a massive heart attack and she was on her own at the age of nineteen. Her uncle, one of the only three people in the world that she loved, had been deployed somewhere overseas, and she was under strict orders not to reveal his identity or that they were related.
The other two were Ian and his cousin, Holly. Jackie wasn’t sure about showing back up in their lives after her rather dramatic exit, so she’d focused her attention on building a life for herself. Thank God for the police academy.
She took the next three left turns and headed for the interstate, arguing with herself the entire time. “I really should go to the police.”
“You know me, Jackie.”
“I haven’t seen you in fifteen years. The occasional Facebook status update doesn’t count.” She pulled onto the highway and moved over into the left lane.
“But you know me. You know I’d never do what they’re accusing me of.”
She sighed. “My grandfather’s cabin is a six-hour drive, Ian.”
“Please. I need to get out of here, go somewhere safe. That’s your job, right? To keep people safe?”
Jackie didn’t answer at first. Her brain spun with what she should do. Like go to the cops. She was harboring a fugitive. “My job is to uphold the law. But …” A sigh slipped out. “Tighten your seat belt and start talking. Looks like we’re going to have plenty of time.”
Just as Ian opened his mouth, the first bullet shattered the back window.
Ian ducked. Glass flew. He felt the sting of the shards hitting the back of his head. Gus whined.
Jackie spun the wheel and did a one-eighty in the middle of the highway. He heard her yell as she punched the gas. The sedan shot forward. Tires screeched, horns blared. Headlights blinded him. “You’re going the wrong way!”
“Just for a minute.” She moved over as far as she could go without dumping them into the ditch.
He held on and whispered prayers. Then he leaned forward and opened the glove compartment. Nothing. He slammed it shut.
A break opened in the median. A little bridge over the ditch that led to the other side of the highway. She slammed on the brakes and the seat belt cut into Ian’s shoulder.
“Give me your gun!” Ian yelled.
Jackie didn’t spare him a glance as she shot across the small ramp. She spun the wheel and landed in the left-hand lane going in the right direction this time. She sped up and passed an eighteen-wheeler who laid on his horn. “Are they back there?”
Ian twisted and scanned the highway. His heart sank as he righted himself back in the seat. “Headlights approaching fast.”
She reached across he
r torso and grabbed her weapon. She handed it to him. “Since you asked for it, I’m assuming you know how to use this?”
“I’ve only shot at paper targets before, but I figure if someone feels like they have the right to shoot at me, I can shoot back.”
Approval glinted at him before she swung her attention back to driving. “How are they staying with us like this?” she muttered.
“It’s like they came out of nowhere back there.”
“Still won’t let me call my friends?”
He caught her watching the rearview mirror. “No. How are we going to lose them?”
She tapped her fingers and scooted into the next lane. “Hold on.” Then she pressed the brake and slowed.
“What are you doing?”
“Letting them catch up.”
“What? Why?”
She didn’t have a chance to answer. The headlights from behind illuminated the interior of the sedan like someone flipped on the overhead.
Jackie didn’t seem to care. She drove with slow, careful precision. “Hold on tight and be ready to duck if the bullets start flying again.”
Just past the off ramp to the next exit, she slammed on the brakes and yanked the wheel to the right. The car behind them shot past as Jackie stomped the gas pedal and roared across the shoulder and up the exit ramp. She slowed for the light. Turned left, then made the first right into the nearest gas station. She pulled around and parked in a dark corner. “Let’s go,” she said as she unbuckled her seat belt.
He mimicked her actions, but couldn’t help wondering if she’d lost her mind. “Why?”
“I don’t know this car. They may have some sort of tracker on it.”
Understanding clicked. He threw the passenger door open and climbed out. Gus bounded after him. Together, the trio made their way around the side of the gas station to get out of sight of the road. He handed her the weapon and she holstered it, but he noticed she left the safety strap off.
“We need a phone. An untraceable one,” she said.
“I have cash. Let’s get one.”
“We may not have time.”
“No sense in standing here wondering.” He moved to the door and she followed. Gus stayed at his heels. Inside, he appreciated the warmth that seeped into his chilled bones even while he moved to snag a prepaid cell from the rack.
“Hey, that dog can’t come in here.” The clerk shoved the cash register shut and eyed Gus.
“See the orange vest? He’s a service dog,” Ian said and made a motion with his hand. Gus dropped to his hindquarters and his tongue lolled out as he panted and waited.
The clerk lifted a brow. “Oh. Cool.”
Jackie pulled a few items from the shelf along with a pair of reading glasses, sunglasses, and two baseball caps. She handed them to him and hung back near the door.
Ian moved to the counter to pay when he looked up and saw the television playing behind the counter. The sound was off, but a ticker tape ran across the bottom of the screen.
And then Ian saw his picture take up the right-hand corner while Jackie’s flashed in the left, identifying them as persons of interest. Ian was wanted for questioning in the theft of vital information from the company he worked for. The company believed the information had been stolen with the intent to sell to enemies of the United States, and Jackie was listed as his accomplice. Somehow they’d already connected her abandoned car to him.
He froze and glanced at the clerk. When the young man showed no sign of recognition, he took a deep breath and slid his gaze over to Jackie only to find her attention locked on the television screen. She finally glanced at him and made a calming motion with her right hand. Ian sucked in a deep breath and gave her a short nod. Keeping his head lowered, he set the items on the counter and fished in his pocket for his wallet.
“That’ll be forty-nine eighty-five. You want a bag?”
“Sure, thanks.”
The entire transaction took less than five minutes since entering the store. It felt like an eternity.
Ian grabbed the bag and walked to the door. Gus kept pace with him. Jackie pushed open the door just as headlights turned into the parking lot. She let out a little gasp. “Rats,” she whispered. She backed up into him and stumbled.
He caught her against him and held her for the split second it took to get her footing. “What now?” he whispered.
“I guess we run.”
3
10:00 P.M.
Jackie shook off the feeling of being held in Ian’s arms for that brief moment. Her mind registered the sensations and she chalked it up to the high tension running through both of them. With the clerk busy with another customer, she and Ian made their way to the back of the store, Gus a silent shadow right behind them.
Within seconds they slipped out the back exit and found themselves outside near the car they’d parked. She shivered as the cold wind blew across her face, but ignored it and gazed at the landscape behind the gas station. Rocky but wooded. Think, think.
“They’ll find the car and think we took off through the woods,” he murmured. His fingers crunched the bag.
“Yeah.” She pulled up the edge of her black sweatshirt and jabbed the key through the material of the thin white camisole she wore underneath. The shirt gave way and she ripped off a large chunk. “Come on.”
“You’ve got a plan?”
“For whatever it’s worth.” They slipped a little ways into the trees, going the opposite direction he thought they should go. “Do you see them?” she asked.
“Not ye—uh, yeah.” The car that had been following them pulled into the spot next to the beat-up sedan. She, Ian, and Gus moved further back into the trees until she could no longer see the parking area.
Car doors slammed and a voice rose. “Find them. Fan out.”
Jackie hung the white cloth on the tree about waist high. “Now move left,” she whispered. “Stay parallel to the parking lot.” He must have understood what she had in mind. He started moving. She stayed beside him. “Go slow, as quiet as you can.”
Thankfully, their pursuers weren’t trying to be very quiet. “Where are they?” She heard one curse. “Hey! Victor, look here.”
Victor. She made a mental note of the name. One of the others must have found the piece of cloth. She tried to listen and figure out how many of them there were, but the voices mingled. She thought three, maybe four.
“Go, go, go,” another ordered. “Don’t lose them.”
She and Ian kept moving. If the men had been thinking, they would have realized she hadn’t been wearing white when they saw her. Hopefully they wouldn’t remember.
Finally, she and Ian reached the edge of the trees that ran along the side of the parking lot. The voices faded. Ian stepped out onto the asphalt and Jackie followed him. Gus stayed right next to Ian, his superb training and absolute trust in Ian clear. She looked back over her shoulder and down toward where the cars were parked. “We need a vehicle.”
“Yeah. One they can’t track this time.”
“I’d have one within minutes if you’d let me call my friends.”
“I’d rather not. I’m sorry, I just don’t know who I can trust at this point.”
“Even trusting me is a stretch, huh?”
He shrugged, regret stamped on his features.
“Right.” She nodded toward the next building. “Let’s get out of here before they figure out we’ve doubled back. Stay in the shadows.”
He nodded, signaled Gus to follow, and led the way. Together they made their way along the back of the buildings parallel to the road. Gravel, broken glass, and other debris littered the area. Ian knelt and tapped behind his right shoulder.
The dog leapt onto his back and Ian rose with a grunt to carry his four-legged friend. His gentle consideration of the animal grabbed at her heart. There was no way he could be guilty of anything related to a terrorist act, could he? She grimaced. Just because he liked animals didn’t mean he wasn’t a terrorist.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“I think I know where we can get a car.”
She glanced at him. “Where?”
“My brother.”
“That’s not a good idea. They’ll be watching him.”
“Do you have a better suggestion?”
“Not at the moment.” She looked around and shivered. “Does he live near here?”
“About ten miles away.” He paused. “If you don’t want me to call him, what about catching a cab?”
Jackie thought about that. “That’s a pretty big risk. The cab driver might recognize you.”
He looked around. “Let’s find a place to hole up and get that cell phone working, then we can decide.” He set Gus back on the ground and the dog shook himself, then sat, waiting for his next order.
Jackie shivered again. It was already below freezing. Not even her heavy sweatshirt was doing much to protect her from the wind. “Holing up sounds good.” Traveling far away from the men after them and figuring out what she’d gotten herself into sounded better. But they had to come up with a plan. She thought about finding a pay phone and simply calling her co-workers. She trusted them with her life, but then Ian would decide she couldn’t be trusted and strike out on his own.
And she just couldn’t let him do that.
“Where?” he muttered.
“Someplace that doesn’t have the news streaming on their television.”
He nodded toward a shopping center. “How about the café in that bookstore?”
“All right,” she looked back over her shoulder, “let’s go.”
They hurried down the sidewalk, crossed the street, and went into the warmth of the bookstore. Jackie finally had time to process the vest Gus wore when Ian pulled a leash from his pocket and snapped it onto the dog’s collar. She’d heard Ian point out the vest to the clerk in the convenience store and wondered why Ian would have a service dog. Maybe she’d get a chance to ask soon.
No Place to Hide Page 2
