“It usually just takes a little extra money.” He started the Escalade.
“Are we going to Washington D.C.?”
“Why would we go there?”
“To meet up with your friend, Frank.”
Nick feigned surprise. “I’m shocked at you, Rachel. I think you’re getting a little bloodthirsty, my dear. We can’t just flit around the country, hunting poor dupes of the government/media complex down on a whim. You are a monster. Shame on you.”
Halfway through his performance, Jean was giggling, and Rachel’s mouth had dropped open in actual shock. Her eyes narrowed suddenly. She punched Nick’s arm.
“Okay, good one.” She leaned back, arms folded across her chest. “My daughter seems to know when you’re making fun of me faster than I do. How sad is that? Now, where the hell are we going, and do you think I’ll ever get the job at your friend’s café in Pacific Grove?”
“That’s our goal.” Nick steered the Cadillac out onto the road. “We’re heading for Sarasota. I’m hoping to be in Missouri before we call it quits today. We’ll take Danger to the best hotel we can find. You and Deke should be entertained enough with the portable Playstation and DVD player, right Danger?”
“Sure Nick, but we are going to stop to eat, aren’t we?”
“Yep. But I’d like to be out of Colorado when we do. We’ll stop the moment we get into Kansas. As for my old buddy, Frank, we’re going to play a little game with him and buy some time. I’m going to wait for his call and –”
“Pretend you’re coming after him,” Rachel interrupted, grabbing Nick’s arm. “You are such a monster. He’ll be going nuts wondering when and where.”
“Is this my plan or yours, Miss I’m Going To D.C.?” Nick glanced at her with an award winning look of annoyance. She’s good. “Yes, I’m betting Frank has to pretend he doesn’t know anything about anything. It will be impossible for the weasel to simply take off, especially when they find the surprises we’ve left behind. He knows I would arrive in a roundabout fashion, so who knows how big a dragnet he’ll put out for me between Colorado and D.C.? If I convince him I’m coming, he knows I’ll recon every possible item in his life. He will indeed be preoccupied with my arrival--enough so he will pull his resources out of Sarasota.”
“Leaving us to deal only with the thugs we expected before.”
“That’s the plan. I figure we can take our time once we split off for the South.”
“You’ll have to be subtle and not openly threaten him. If…what?” Rachel laughed, seeing the quick glances she was getting from Nick as she lectured him on the obvious. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate you don’t already have every detail of your conversation with Frank planned out, Master.”
“Very well, you’re forgiven, young Jedi.” Nick glanced back at Jean, who had her Playstation already out and headphones on. “I figure the room-temperature Senator will be discovered very soon. It’ll be interesting to hear how the cops play it out with what I left them. Frank will know instantly, which will lead him to try and make immediate contact with 'Beavis and Butthead,' who are also at room-temperature. I’ll bet he doesn’t have any assets in the area to clean up the mess either. Although I took all their personal stuff, you can bet their DNA and fingerprints are on file somewhere. They’ll be looking into that scene very closely. I believe he’ll be calling right around the time we stop to eat.”
“Those guys… the sniper team…do –”
“Don’t go there, Rachel,” Nick cautioned. “They were paid to take us out. We’re driving toward Kansas because we were better.”
“You were better.”
“When you told me to hold up at the door, I was going in. Chances are, without my spotter, I’d be dead. You can bet ‘Beavis and Butthead’ had skills. Don’t short change yourself. If all goes as planned, you and I may develop into one of the best teams around.”
“As long as we don’t raise Jean up in the family business, I’ll go where you go.”
“Hey, don’t limit your daughter’s potential, Mom.”
“Not funny!”
“Calm down.” Nick laughed. “Hell, you figured to be dead by now.”
“We’ll never really be safe after this, will we, Nick?” Rachel reached over to put a hand on his thigh.
“No one is really safe. Many times, having value means greater safety. If we make it through this, we’ll be quite valuable. Unfortunately, it may mean I won’t be able to put a bullet in that prick Frank’s head for a while.”
Later, Nick exited for gas and a pit stop off Route 70, in a town called Brewster, past the Colorado/Kansas border. As he drove toward the indicated gas station and restaurant his satellite phone vibrated next to him. He grinned over at Rachel, who was shaking her head.
“Now that’s timing.” Nick saw Frank’s ID on the digital readout as he picked up the phone. “Assassins R Us, Nick speaking, how may I direct your call?”
“I know what you’re thinking, Nick,” Frank said.
“No, you don’t.”
“You’re wasting your time. You’ll never get to me.”
“Why…whatever do you mean, Frank?” Nick asked in a lilting voice. “Has something happened to make you think you’re in danger?”
“I…I have to hand it to you. They think Ambrose had some kind of attack. They’re hushing it up because of the mistress waking next to him with no idea what happened.”
“Gee, that works out really well for you, Frank. Maybe you were a little shortsighted in your cleanup idea.”
“Small damn doubt about that. Jesus! You can’t really be coming to D.C., Nick. You’re not that stupid.”
“Now see, I don’t really think of a nice trip to the nation’s capital as stupid. I consider it kind of a vacation--or even an adventure.” He pulled off the road for a moment to finish the call, with Rachel watching him closely.
Frank's voice came across as slightly panicked. “What can I do to make this right, Nick? I’m really in a position to help you.”
“How sweet, you’re going to help me now.”
“Don’t be an ass. We can work this out.”
“Let me think about it for a couple weeks, Frank. Maybe you’ll be around when I make the decision--or maybe not.”
Nick ended the call and steered onto the roadway again.
“How we doing?”she asked.
“Five by five, Rach, five by five.”
* * * *
Rachel checked the speedometer once more, glad for the cruise control. It had taken them over ten hours, with stops for gas and food, to get across Kansas. Every time she had taken the Escalade off cruise control and operated the gas pedal manually, Nick had been forced to nudge her back down to seventy miles per hour. He kept reminding her that the last thing in the world they needed was to be stopped for speeding. After an hour of driving, seventy seemed like twenty on the highway. I’ve had about as much of the amber waves of grain as I can take without going stark raving mad.
“Did you say something?”
“I’m sorry.” She met Nick’s gaze. “Did I curse Kansas out loud?”
“It feels like you age a couple years driving through here, doesn’t it?”
“I kept glancing back at Jean the last half hour expecting her to be a teenager.”
He laughed. “She and Deke are good travelers.” Rachel saw him glance back at Jean, who was again dozing off. “They sleep when they can and play when they can. I’m glad Jean thought to get a Frisbee when we stopped. Did you know Deke was a champion Frisbee player?”
“It was a surprise to me. I guess we should have tried him out with balls and Frisbees before this. Work, eat, sleep, and life slips by without a stir. I noticed the goofy dog sleeps with his head on the damned thing now.”
“Deke’s grown quite attached to it.”
Hearing his name, Deke looked up with the black Frisbee in his mouth, gave it a few chomps and put his head down again.
“The border’s only five minute
s away…thank God! Where do you want to stop?”
“I’ve been to Concordia before when Kansas has worn me out. It’s not far from the border. We should be there by seven. We’ll stay at the Day’s Inn, off of Route 70. They allow pets and Danger will like the indoor pool and hot tub. I know I will.”
“Sounds wonderful. I’ve noticed it doesn’t take much to make you happy.”
“These days, we have to take the good times where we can get them. Didn’t you like our stay in Denver?”
“Too much tension,” Rachel admitted. “All I could think of was what you were going to do and whether we’d ever make it out of there alive.”
“Okay, then this drive through Kansas was pretty nice, right, relatively speaking?”
“Gee, where was that count your blessings crapolla three hundred miles ago when I could have used a pick me up?”
“It looked like you were having the time of your life. We’ll check in separately again. I’m glad I had time to get a Colorado driver’s license for you. It makes checking into hotels a lot easier. This day and age, they need your life history even when you’re paying cash for the room.”
“I was surprised how fast you managed to get my false ID. How did you get the license, Nick, or is that need-to-know?”
“An old friend. We hadn’t seen each other in years. I have quite a few contacts across the country, but none I trust more than Jake. He does it professionally, so you can bet you’re listed in Colorado’s DMV as Jane Austin.”
“I liked the name you picked out.”
“I was surprised you’d read Pride and Prejudice. I figured you more for one of those Thomas Hardy fans.”
“Not likely.” She shook her head slightly with obvious distaste. “I read Jude the Obscure in college. I nearly committed suicide afterwards.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Nick chortled in agreement.
“You must trust the false ID guy implicitly.”
“I saved his life in the first Gulf War when we were just kids. Jake doesn’t ask and he doesn’t tell. It’s the first time I’ve asked him for anything. You should have seen his face light up. We’ll go see him under better circumstances. He hasn’t been to Pacific Grove in over seven years. Jake has a wife and three kids. That’s why I didn’t want to have a big meet up. No one knows we’ve kept in touch. I have to keep it that way.”
“Does he know what you do?”
“Jake thinks I’m one of the good guys.”
“So, you lied to him.”
“Exactly.”
Chapter Sixteen
Down Time
When they reached the Concordia Days Inn, Nick took Deke off to the hotel side. He played Frisbee with the dog for a half hour until Rachel and Jean were checked in. After noting what room they were given, he went in and asked for the room adjoining theirs. Although the clerk did a double take when asked for a room next to the one he had just rented out, he completed the transaction quickly under Nick’s Roscoe Weatherby card.
“I’m friends with the lady and little girl who were just in to register,” Nick explained, when the clerk gave him the room electronic keys.
“Oh.” The clerk smiled. “I was wondering. Anyway, we have a very nice Continental breakfast served in our dining area every morning. Enjoy your stay, Mr. Weatherby.”
“Thank you.”
Nick rejoined Rachel and Jean, who were allowing Deke to lap up a bowl of water after his Frisbee exercise in the dusky light. It was still nearly ninety degrees outside. Nick sent them ahead to the rooms while he parked the Escalade closer. Jean decided the pool and hot tub were preferable to dinner, so Nick put on his swim trunks and shorts hurriedly. He went out to play more with Deke while Rachel and Jean were getting ready. He put Deke inside with food and water. He then ordered soda and beer inside the hotel restaurant.
With the beverages in separate ice buckets, Nick entered the pool area where Rachel and Jean were already swimming. He watched Rachel in her black bikini glide smoothly from one end of the pool to the other, as did the other half dozen men in the pool area with their families. Nick placed the towels and ice buckets on an empty table, along with his bag containing the satellite phone, keys, and stun gun. The pool area was crowded and noisy, but the people thinned out quickly, having been at the pool longer.
Rachel followed Nick into the hot tub nearly forty-five minutes later. Jean played in the swimming pool with three siblings near her age: two girls and a boy. Rachel pointed at the satellite phone Nick had in hand.
“You’re going to call Grace, aren’t you?”
“You know me so well.”
“It couldn’t wait until morning?” She settled in next to him.
“We haven’t called her since we were on the road to Denver. I have to see if anything’s changed before we move on,” he explained. “I waited until I had a beautiful woman, a beer, and a hot tub before calling her.”
“You think I’m beautiful, big boy?” Rachel batted her eyes at him comically, nearly making him lose the last gulp of liquid through his nose.
“Don’t…” Nick choked while avoiding Rachel. “Let me get this over with.”
“Oh fine. One measly compliment and then it’s back to business.” She moved away from Nick haughtily.
He hit the key to speed dial Grace, shaking his head at Rachel.
“Nick, is that you? Speak up, boy. You’re the only caller who can get through to me without an ID.”
“It is I, Nick the novelist, checking in with my favorite Marshall. How’s Timmy and Lassie?”
“Oh, you’re a real crackup. All hell is breaking loose around the country. I want to know where you are and what you had to do with it?”
“Huh?” He waited for Grace’s reaction.
“We have a dead senator in a Denver love pad with his mistress, and a sniper team nearby who apparently came to blows and killed each other in a fit of angst over God knows what. The real kicker is the senator and this sniper team were connected by the same closed down clandestine operation your name popped up in. Care to comment?”
“In what way? What…you think I caused some senator to screw himself to death, and talked two sniper guys into a duel, all while I’m hiding out with Rachel, Jean, and Deke the dog? Wow, you really do have a high opinion of my abilities, Grace.”
Rachel was in a full blown, hands-over-mouth, convulsions of laughter, with Nick making quieting gestures at her with his hand. She moved further away from him.
“Okay, that does sound stupid when you put it like that,” Grace admitted. “We hadn’t heard from you for weeks and…well, we were worried you were connected with Denver.”
“We’re laying low, Grace, sorting things out. Are we still on for the drives?”
“Yes. They’re willing to meet your demands and let you extract the drives any way you can. We’re to cover for you unless the op gets turned into a wild-west show, in which case we disown your ass.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Frumpy. Talk to you soon.” Nick ended the call as Rachel moved in close again.
“Denver caused some waves, huh?”
“Yep, but we surfed right over them like Banzai Jack. I love it when a plan comes together.”
* * * *
Rachel knocked on the door, and Nick let her in. He was dressed in khaki shorts and a strapped t-shirt. Rachel moved into his arms, the thin pink cotton pullover nightgown doing nothing to insulate the feel of her body against his. She held him tightly, her cheek resting against his shoulder.
“Good Lord, woman, you smell good,” he whispered.
“It’s called Scent of Arousal. Like it?”
“More than I can say.” He forced her toward the bed. “It smells just as wondrous as it did last night.”
“Last night?… Oh, don’t Nick, Jean’s up. I told her I was waking you for breakfast. I thought you’d be comatose after, well, you know?”
“Our extended interlude?”
“Yes.” She laughed, feeling Nick
’s attention right through her clothes. “You look like you’ve been up for hours. I’m glad Jean went to bed early yesterday.”
“Me too.” He guided Rachel over to his notebook computer set up on the desk with his satellite uplink attached. “Fletcher Exports definitely ranks up there with Tanus. I can understand why they want to get their hands on the flash drives. I did some hacking around and found some interesting new hires on their payroll sheets. We may not be flying blind when we get to Sarasota.”
She looked over the pictures Nick had on the screen and gasped. She pointed to a husky, clean shaven man with dark hair. “That’s the guy I saw with Tanus, when they finished torturing Rick. He’s working for Fletcher now?”
“Yep. He’s among the hired-muscle I think would be waiting for us in Florida,” Nick answered, nuzzling her neck. “I guess it explains how Fletcher Exports all of a sudden knows the drives are in Florida. I’m surprised Tanus didn’t whack this Javier Martine before he had a chance to switch sides.”
Rachel moaned, her hands dropping to her sides, as she jutted back against him. Suddenly she spun around, grabbing his hands. “Nick, I want that Javier guy.”
“To play with or just do yourself?” he asked curiously.
“I…I don’t think I could torture him.”
“Good. One step at a time, Nikita. I believe you’ve earned it. Let’s see what part our Javier plays in Sarasota before you carry out the death sentence.” He pulled her right hand up to his lips, while he ran his fingertips up and down her arm until she shuddered.
“Huuuuummmmm…don’t do that. You know it drives me nuts,” Rachel complained, but moved into him instead of pulling away.
Nick lifted her up and into him, his hands supporting her bottom. Her legs wrapped around his hips and their open mouths met in tense anticipation. She groaned, feeling him poke into her through the flimsy nightgown. She reached down and tore it upwards toward her waist. She unfastened Nick’s shorts, never parting from his lips. A knock on the door startled them both as Nick had been on the verge of impaling Rachel.
Cold Blooded Page 19
