Wanted Dead or In Love: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 3)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  Deciding that this really wasn’t worth arguing about, I wrote down a quick list of what I needed and handed it over to him. “Remember to avoid the cameras.”

  “I know.”

  “And don’t make any calls. Even from pay phones, they can track us.”

  “Does anybody even use pay phones anymore?” he asked drolly.

  “I swear to God, if you fuck this up, I’ll leave you behind.”

  “Relax,” he snapped. “I can handle this.”

  He walked out the door, leaving me behind. I had a really bad feeling about this. I always relied on myself, but now I was putting my trust in someone else. And not just anybody else, a person that didn’t know jack shit about hiding. He was a good ‘ol boy, and I was the complete opposite of him.

  I paced around the motel room for the better part of an hour. The longer he was gone, the more nervous I got. I kept one eye out the window, sure that those guys were going to show up at any moment. What the hell was taking him so long? This was a simple pick up, and he was taking too damn long. I was just about to grab my bag and walk out the door when I saw his headlights pull up.

  I flung the door open and marched out to the truck, ready to slap the shit out of him. “What the hell took you so long?”

  He held up a bag of take out, quirking an eyebrow at me. “Neither of us has eaten. I figured you might be hungry.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and tried my best not to be pissed off. It was actually very thoughtful of him. “Oh, that’s…” He waved his hand at me, motioning for me to continue. I rolled my eyes at him. “That was very thoughtful of you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he grinned. “That’s usually what someone says after the first person, that would be you, says thank you. I figured that it was implied.”

  “Whatever,” I said, snatching the bag out of his hands and marching inside. I heard the door shut behind me as I dug into the bag and started pulling out Chinese food.

  “I got you men’s hair dye. I figured it would look odd if I was buying women’s hair dye.”

  “Perfect,” I grumbled, grabbing the box from the bed.

  “So, what exactly do I need to do to change how I look?”

  “Well, we’re going to have to cut your hair. You can’t walk around with chin length hair. It’s too obvious. And we’ll get you a hat you can wear to help hide your eyes.”

  “I can do that.”

  “And you’ll need to start working out.”

  “Excuse me?”

  I stopped what I was doing and looked up at him. “Well, the most obvious way to change how you look is to bulk you up. If you start weight-lifting, you can bulk up and it’ll be harder to spot you. It won’t happen over night, but eventually, it’ll change your appearance enough to hide you.”

  “Huh. So, does that mean you’re going to eat a bunch of shit and put on fifty pounds?”

  I glared at him. “Now, how would that be helpful?”

  He held up his hands and smirked. “Hey, I thought we were exchanging ideas.”

  “I’m going to cut my hair and I’ll dye it.”

  “How short?”

  “Chin length. I haven’t worn it that short for a long time.”

  “So, I have to cut off all my hair and start weight-lifting, and all you have to do is cut your hair?”

  “Look, I’ve been doing this for four years. When was the last time you went on the run?”

  “Considering that I’m a law-abiding citizen, never.”

  I glared at him, but even though he didn’t know it, he had a point. “Can we just eat and get to work? We should get a new car and get on the road in a few hours.”

  “I leave this up to your expertise.”

  We ate in silence and when we were finished, I helped him cut his hair down to practically nothing. Then he cut my hair in a straight line at my chin and helped me dye my hair. When we were all done, we gathered up the hair and used supplies and bagged it up. I was walking it out to the dumpster when I noticed a car driving very slowly past the parking lot. I was instantly on alert, but when they slammed on the brakes, I knew we were screwed. I tossed the garbage into the dumpster and booked it back to the room.

  “We have to leave!” I shouted.

  He jumped up off the bed and grabbed the small bag of supplies from the pharmacy. “They’re here?”

  I locked the door and put the chain on the door, then grabbed his hand and dragged him back to the bathroom. “Come on, we have to go out this way.”

  “There’s no way I’ll fit through there.”

  I popped open the window and looked out, but no one was there. That’s when I heard the banging on the door. Josh slammed the bathroom door shut and flicked the lock.

  “That’s not going to hold them. Give me a boost.”

  His hands landed on my ass and shoved me up and through the window. Gripping the edge of the window, I lowered myself down and caught the bag he tossed out. I heard the bathroom door fly open and then a gunshot.

  Josh

  The bathroom door broke in half just as I pushed Hannah through the window. I saw the gun just a second before I ducked. The shot hit the tile of the bathtub. I grabbed the lid of the tank on the toilet and swung without thinking. It cracked against the guy’s skull and he dropped to the ground. My eyes widened as a second man appeared, raising his gun straight at me. I held up the tank lid, hoping it would block his shot. The porcelain cracked as the bullet hit, skimming across my cheek as it flew past me.

  I flung the piece still in my hand like a frisbee and cracked him right in the nose. Blood gushed and he fell to the floor. I didn’t waste another second sticking around to see what happened. I grabbed my plastic bag and booked it to the front door. I ran out just as Hannah was rounding the corner. She skidded to a stop and stared at me in astonishment.

  “You’re alive.”

  “Don’t look so surprised.”

  I raced to the car and got in the passenger side as she got in the driver’s side. She started the car and backed out, smashing into their vehicle in her attempt to flee. Dirt and gravel kicked up as she peeled out of the lot and hit the road.

  “I can’t believe you’re alive,” she said again.

  “Yeah, I already got that part. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “I just…I didn’t think you had it in you. How did you do it?”

  “Toilet tank,” I said, glancing behind us to see if anyone was following.

  “What?”

  “The lid of the toilet tank. I smashed it into their faces.”

  She looked over at me and shook her head slowly. “I just…I didn’t see that coming.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t think I’d have to defend myself like that. It was the first thing I saw. And it was either that or skewer him with the curtain rod.”

  She nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind for the next time we’re attacked in a motel.”

  “Let’s hope there’s not a next time.”

  “I don’t understand how they found us. Dammit, they weren’t following us. How did they find us?”

  “I have no clue.”

  “What did you do when you went out?”

  “I went shopping.”

  “Yeah, I know, but did you hide your face?”

  “Of course, I did. I’m not stupid. I followed your instructions to a T.”

  “And you paid in cash?”

  I sat there in silence, not really understanding why whether or not I paid in cash or with my credit card was a problem.

  “You didn’t pay in cash?” she asked incredulously.

  “You didn’t say anything in your rules about paying in cash. I paid with my credit card. Why is that a problem? It’s not like just anyone can access that.”

  She stared at me and then she exploded. “Are you fucking kidding me? Of course they can! I told you, these aren’t regular people we’re dealing with.”

  “Actually, you haven’t told me much of anything,” I pointed ou
t. “And next time, tell me all the fucking rules for escaping psychos while on the run!”

  She faced forward and fumed and I sat on my side and did the same. I glanced down at my hands and noticed I had blood on them. I swiped at my face and realized I was still bleeding from my close call with the bullet that was meant to be implanted in my head.

  “He fucking shot me!”

  “Well, that was kind of the point,” she snapped.

  “No, I mean, I realize that he was trying to kill me, but he actually fucking shot me in the face. It’s one thing to know that you’re about to be shot at, but it’s a totally different thing to know the bullet actually hit!”

  “Oh, would you relax? It’s a graze.”

  “A graze that could have killed me if it was just a few centimeters over!”

  “You know, you’re gonna have to learn to let this shit roll off your back if you’re going to handle being on the run.”

  I slowly looked over at her like the mad woman she was. “How are you so calm about this? Does this happen on a regular basis for you?”

  “Actually, in the four years I’ve been on the run, this is the first time this has happened.”

  I shook my head slightly. “How the hell did you manage that?”

  “I faked my death.”

  “You…” My eyes slid closed and I blocked out all my thoughts for a moment as I contemplated all I had learned in the last twenty-four hours. It was all too much. “How did you fake your death?”

  “Car bomb.”

  I stared at her for a moment, completely speechless. “Car bomb,” I finally said. “You ran from your husband and killed yourself with a car bomb.” She nodded. “Who actually dies from a car bomb?”

  “You’d be surprised,” she muttered.

  I shook my head. This was ridiculous. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how one would fake their own death in a car bomb. That was stuff that happened in movies, not real life.

  “I’m not sure I should ask, but how did you even manage to pull that off?”

  “Well, it wasn’t the easiest thing to do.” She sighed heavily, like she didn’t really want to tell me. “The coroner was a friend. She gave me a body to put in the car, and when my ‘body’ was sent to the morgue to be identified, she swapped out the dental records.”

  “Wow, I wish I had such a good friend that would help me fake my own death,” I said dryly.

  “Well, you can see why I’m concerned now that people are after me.”

  “Yeah, it looks like your friend told someone.”

  “Well, I hope not, because if she did, she’s probably dead now.”

  “Wow, your concern for her well-being is astonishing.”

  “You know, you have no idea what it’s like. I did what I had to in order to survive.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. I had just bashed in two guys’ faces with a toilet lid. And then I realized that her life must have been really bad if she faked her own death. She must have been terrified every day of her husband.

  “Was he abusive?” I asked.

  She hesitated and then gave a slight nod. “You could say that.”

  “So, instead of faking your own death, why didn’t you just kill him?”

  “I told you, he’s powerful. It’s not like it would be easy to get to him.”

  “You were married to him.”

  “And that made it even more difficult to pull off. I was watched all the time, constantly being tested. If I failed one of those tests, it wasn’t pretty.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I guess I had never had to deal with any of that, and she was a woman. She was fragile, even though she appeared strong. I remembered how she trembled when she held the gun on me. That kind of fear couldn’t be faked. And she’d been all alone for the past four years. That was just insane to think about. All the Christmases and Fourth of Julys that I spent with family and friends, she was all alone. The thing was, I wasn’t sure I could ever return to my old life. We would have to plan a way to take this guy down, but it would take a lot of planning and from the sound of it, it wouldn’t be easy. So, as crazy as this woman was, I was going to have to get used to her, because I was going to be spending a lot of time with her.

  We drove for days, switching vehicles three times before we finally pulled up to a mid-sized town in the middle of Kansas. I stared out the window at all the cornfields and realized, this was way too much like home.

  “All this driving and we end up just a few states over?”

  “Well, it’s not like taking a direct route to our final destination would be a good idea.”

  “Yeah, but why Kansas?”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “We can’t just go hang out in New York. You wouldn’t blend in.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, a little offended by her statement.

  “Look, it’s nothing against you, but you’re from Small Town, USA. You would stick out like a sore thumb.”

  “I’d just like to point out that a sore thumb doesn’t stick out. If I was missing a thumb, then it would stick out.”

  She sighed heavily as we drove through town. It was much larger than the small town I grew up in. It was at least four times the size. “It should be easy to blend in here.”

  “How long are we staying?”

  “Well, we’ll have to play it by ear. If we can find a house to rent, then we could possibly stick around for six months? I think any longer than that is too long. We don’t want to become complacent.”

  “How many times have you moved in four years?”

  She shrugged slightly. “I never stayed anywhere longer than three months, but I think with two of us, it’ll be easier to save some money. Maybe we can attempt to have some kind of normal life.”

  I frowned, thinking about what she was saying. “Wait, are you saying that you don’t think we’ll ever get to go back to our lives?”

  She parked in front of a real estate building and turned to look at me. “I wish I could tell you that you could go back one day, but…I just don’t see how that’s possible.”

  “We can find evidence against your husband. We can build a case. Maybe it’ll be slow going, but we have to try.”

  She gave me a smile, but I felt like she was just trying to placate me. “Maybe. Come on, let’s find out if there’s anything here for us.”

  I got out of the car and joined her on the sidewalk. “So, what’s our story?”

  “What?”

  “People in small towns are nosy. They always want to dig for as much information as possible. It’s best we have some kind of story.”

  “Okay,” she blew out a breath. “We’re a couple looking to settle down somewhere new. You’re a mechanic and I’m a waitress.”

  “Really? A waitress?”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “The right places will pay a waitress under the table. We need to be paid in cash.”

  I nodded. “This may be a stupid question, but how exactly do you go about asking someone to pay you under the table?”

  “Well, you have to get a feel for the employer. In the past, I’ve always just told the truth, that I’m hiding from my husband.”

  “I’m not sure how that’ll work this time, you know, now that you’re here with your boyfriend.”

  “We can figure that out later. We’ll just say that we’re high school sweethearts and we wanted a fresh start.”

  “Right,” I grumbled. “Because that’s not at all vague.”

  “Well, what do you want from me? I didn’t exactly have a chance to plan out a backstory with you while trying to escape being murdered.”

  “You had three days while we drove,” I said incredulously.

  “Yeah, and I had to deal with your millions of questions the whole drive. Excuse me for not having everything all perfectly planned out. Besides, I usually do this alone.”

  “I guess I just figured that since you’re so good at this, you would have a book of excuses or something.”

  �
�Can we just get this over with?” she sighed. “I’m tired, hungry, and I want some sleep.”

  “Fine, let’s do this.”

  We walked through the door of the real estate office and saw a throwback to the eighties sitting behind the desk. The woman was dressed in a floral dress with pearls around her neck and a short perm and large glasses.

  “Hello, my name is Patti. How can I help you today?”

  “Uh…I’m Josh and this is Hannah. We’re looking for a house to rent.”

  “Oh,” she smiled. “Are you two married?”

  “No,” Hannah said at the same time I said yes. The woman looked at us strangely and I laughed, awkwardly wrapping my arm around Hannah’s shoulders and pulling her closer. “I keep asking, but she keeps turning me down.”

  I glanced down at Hannah and she looked uncomfortable with my arm around her. Patti just had this frozen smile on her face, like she really didn’t know what to make of us.

  I cleared my throat and removed my arm from Hannah. “Anyway, we’re looking for something we can rent.”

  “Are you looking for long term or month to month?”

  I glanced at Hannah, letting her take this one. “Six months, if we find something we like.”

  The lady looked at her computer, her tongue playing with her top lip as she looked over the top of her glasses. “Well, it looks like we have one in town that’s available. It’s probably a little large for just the two of you, but it comes fully furnished.”

  “Perfect,” Hannah smiled. “Can we take a look at it?”

  “Let me see if Bert is available to take you out for a showing.”

  I pulled Hannah to the side and lowered my voice as Patti got on the phone. “How the hell are we supposed to pay for this when we can’t use cards?”

  “I have some cash saved up. We’ll be fine until we can get some work.”

  “Bert said that he can meet you at the property,” Patti interrupted, writing down the address. She tore off the paper and handed it over with a smile. “Just follow this road to Pine Street and then take a right. The house will be on the right, three blocks down.”

  “Thank you,” I smiled, taking the paper from Patti. I grabbed for Hannah’s hand at the same time that she tried to put her hand on my back. I shifted my hand to her back, but then she tried to grab my hand. Patti looked at us strangely, so I grabbed Hannah’s hand tight and raised our entwined hands, laughing like it was all so funny, and we weren’t totally awkward because we were pretending to be a couple.