Hit and Run: A Thrilling Novel of Romantic Suspense (Callahan Security series Book 3)

by Lori Matthews

  There were murmurs of assent from the others. “It’s the wig that does it, I think,” said Dottie. Elenore beamed. “Okay, girls. Does everyone remember what to do?”

  There was a chorus of “yeses” and a few thumbs-up. Dani mentally crossed her fingers that this would work. There was no other way off the ship without passing security, or at least none that she could use. And she wasn’t about to find Gage to ask him for help. He’d made himself damn clear on how he felt about Dani. Her heart kicked viciously. She swallowed the tears that had instantly blocked her throat. She wasn’t going to think about it or him. Gage was the past, and it was done.

  “Lead the way, ladies. And in case I don’t get a chance to tell you later, thanks for the help.”

  The women moved en masse down the hallway to the elevator. One arrived in record time, and they all piled on. Dottie leaned over and whispered in Dani’s ear. “You’re going to be alright. You’re a survivor. Remember that.” Then she winked.

  Dani swallowed hard again. Before this trip, she couldn’t remember the last time tears had run down her face. Now she seemed to be crying every day. She needed to knock it off because tears would ruin Ann’s incredible makeup job, not to mention she’d look like she was straight from a horror film.

  The doors opened, and they merged with the throng of people heading toward the exit. The girls shuffled around so Dani was in the middle of them, protected on all sides. She had to grin. Protected by the granny brigade. Whatever worked.

  They moved slowly down the hall to the wide staircase. As they started down, there was a commotion. Dani glanced to see what the holdup was. Her heart started thumping in her chest, and she rubbed her palms on her muumuu. She did not want to get caught. Not when she was so close to freedom. She craned her neck to see over the crowd and saw Gage being escorted upstairs, flanked by three security guards. She bit her lip and quickly looked down.

  Sweat started running between her shoulder blades. She wiped her palms again. She tilted her head so she could see him out of the corner of her eye. Gage passed by her not two feet away and didn’t give her a second glance. Her heart pounded against her ribcage. It was on the tip of her tongue to call his name, but what good would it do? Then they would both be caught. No, she needed to go so she could finish the program and see Carly. She needed to know Carly was okay.

  Gage would figure a way out. He always seemed to think of something. With her help. Ridiculous. He’d gotten this far without her. He didn’t need her help now.

  She looked up again after Gage was long gone. She and the “girls” were almost at the door. She caught a glimpse of the pier and tried not to think about being close to the water again once she was out.

  Jeremy was there, but his smile wasn’t so big. He must have seen the whole Gage thing and now was freaking out. He had to be wondering if he was going to get caught, too. She felt badly for him. He was really going to wish he’d been assigned another cruise.

  Jeremy turned to Dottie. “Your card and your passport please.”

  Dottie slowly pulled her passport out of her purse and handed it to Jeremy. “Here you go,” she said loudly.

  “Um, I need the little card with the number on it as well. It lets us know you’re off the ship.”

  Dottie frowned. “I don’t remember a little card. Do you know about the card, Ann?” She was practically yelling at this point. Ann had her hearing aid in, but the ladies thought it would be better if they pretended they couldn’t hear.

  “I have mine, dear. Where did you put yours?” Ann yelled back.

  Dottie shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Did you put it in your bag?” yelled Elenore.

  Dottie looked down at her wheelie bag. “Maybe I put it in my bag.” When she started to lean over to unzip it, Elenore grabbed her arm, making it appear as if Dottie was unstable.

  Jeremy looked at the other crew member with panic on his face. The line behind the ladies was growing, and there was a rumble of dissatisfaction building. “Um, ladies, maybe you can step to the side so you don’t block the doorway.” Jeremy gestured to his left to try to move Dottie.

  Dottie completely ignored him and unzipped her bag. Underwear immediately started falling out. Very large, colorful underwear. One pair was white with pink lips all over it. The underwear plopped on the floor directly in front of the door. “Well, now look what you made me do!” she scolded Jeremy. She rooted around in the bag while still leaning on Elenore.

  “What am I looking for again?” she yelled at Ann.

  “The fob thing with the number on it.”

  Dottie nodded and rooted around some more. The crowd was getting more restless. When Ann nudged one of their gang she started to complain loudly about the holdup.

  The one next to Dani yelled out, “Are we going to be stuck here much longer? I’m going to miss my bus to the airport.” There were calls of agreement from the crowd. A young man and his partner came out of nowhere and tried to push past the girls, causing them all to sway to one side. Dottie almost toppled over for real this time.

  Jeremy was in full panic mode. “Okay, ladies. That’s okay. Why don’t you just close the bag. We can check you out using your passport.” He bent down to help Dottie put her underwear back in her bag, but he stopped short. It was obvious he didn’t want to touch it.

  This was Dani’s cue. She clamped her jaw shut. Don’t look at the water. She moved around Ann and helped Dottie to put it all back in the bag and then zipped it up. Dottie took her passport back from Jeremy and latched onto Dani’s arm for balance, and they walked down the gangplank together. Dani’s heartrate was stratospheric, but no one stopped them. No one even noticed her. It was awesome! Ann was right. There were benefits to being ignored.

  “That was wonderful. You were incredible, Dottie,” Dani whispered.

  “Ah, shucks, doll. Thanks. It was marvelous fun. I haven’t enjoyed myself like that since I lifted Mike Pritchard’s wallet at the Christmas party.”

  Dottie gave Dani a wink. “He deserved it. He complains about the snacks every year but won’t donate to the party fund. He said he is an atheist, so he doesn’t have to. Ann and I helped him make a small donation. That’s all. He never noticed. Thought he lost more at poker than he realized.” She winked again. “Sometimes life is fun.”

  Dani grinned. Sometimes life was fun. She looked up and saw three Asian men with lots of tattoos moving past them toward the very end of the pier by the water. They went and stood next to some crew members from the ship.

  And sometimes life wasn’t. The smile was long gone off her face. She wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Those men were probably looking for her, and she did not want to tempt fate by hanging around.

  They quickly made their way over to one of the customs’ tents that were set up in a long row along the side of the pier. They had to cross through the tents to get out onto the rest of the pier.

  “Oh my God. Your face!” Ann said while blinking furiously.

  “What? What’s wrong with it?” Dani asked.

  “She means the make-up, doll,” Dottie said. “How are you going to go through customs looking like one of us? You sure don’t match your passport picture now.”

  Ann moaned, “We didn’t think about that part.”

  Dani raised a hand to touch her face and promptly dropped it. If she had the time and the materials she was pretty sure she could fake a decent passport but she had neither. There was only two people ahead of her in line.

  “You could take everything off. Then you’d match the picture,” Ann offered.

  “Yes,” Dottie agreed. “I’m sure they would only hold you in customs for a few hours or maybe a few days. That wouldn’t be suspicious at all.”

  Ann glared at Dottie and smacked her gently on the arm. “You’re not helping.”

  Dottie chortled. “No. Probably not.” She sighed. “I’m sorry Dani. I’m all out of ideas.”

  Dani looked at both women and then loo
ked at the man waiting at the table in front of her. It was her turn. “I guess I’ll just have to tell the truth.”

  “Passport,” the customs officer said, lifting his hand as Dani approached. He was older, probably in his fifties with silver hair and kindly brown eyes. His name tag read B. Walsh.

  “Here you go.” Dani handed over her passport. She smiled and took off her sunglasses.

  Officer Walsh took it and opened it to the picture page. He glanced at the photo and then did a double take. He looked at the photo and then held the passport up next to Dani’s face. His kindly brown eyes turned piercing. A small frisson of fear snaked down her spine.

  “You don’t look like your photo at all. Are you sure this is yours? Do you have other ID?”

  Dani fished her wallet out from her jeans underneath her muumuu. The customs officer’s eyebrow went up and then immediately dropped into a frown when he saw her driver’s license photo.

  “You’re going—”

  “I can explain,” Dani said in a rush. She said a silent prayer and launched into her story. “You see there was this guy onboard and he wouldn’t leave me alone.” It was the truth. Gage wouldn’t leave her alone. At least until she’d taken off on him.

  “I didn’t want to get him in trouble because he seemed really nice. So, I didn’t report him to security, but I wanted to avoid him today. He wanted to take me around, show me the sites and I just didn’t have the heart to be mean.” Yeah, right. Liar liar, pants on fire.

  “The ladies”—she pointed behind her and the officer looked over her head. Dottie, Ann, and the rest of the ladies all waved—“took me in and helped me with my disguise. Ann’s a former theatrical make-up artist and the others lent me clothing and a wig.” She reached up and moved the wig so the officer could see a bit of her real hair.

  “I swear officer I really am just trying to avoid this guy.” Dani blinked and tried to look as small and defenseless as possible.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Problem, Bruce?” Another officer came to stand beside the first. His name tag read T. O’Reilly.

  “This young lady is giving me some song and dance about trying to ditch some guy by dressing as,” he glanced at the ‘girls’ again, “an older lady. Apparently, the ladies over there helped her.”

  “I see.” Officer O’Reilly looked over at Dottie and the rest of the ladies. They all waved at him. He gave Dani a once over. His pale blue eyes were like chips of ice. “I think you should make them all step out of line while we look into this.”

  Shit. This was bad. She’d been doing her best to not look at the men at the end of the pier, afraid her anxiety would show on her face. The last thing she needed was to get into some long battle with Canadian customs. Who knew what would happen? She’d never see Carly at this rate.

  She looked up at Officer Walsh and silently pleaded with him. He studied her, his face impassive. Then he glanced at his watch and back over her head. He turned to his computer and typed something. Officer O’Reilly stood beside him, reading over his shoulder. Time ticked so slowly. Sweat trickled down Dani’s back and front. Her backpack was hurting her chest.

  Officer Walsh turned back to face Dani. He studied her once again. Then he grabbed his stamp and stamped her passport. He handed it back to her. “Welcome to Canada.”

  “I… I— Thanks,” she stammered as she took her passport and then stepped out around the table and through to the pier. He’d let her go. OMG! She was free. Finally something had gone right. She stood directly next to the exit to wait for Dottie and the ‘girls.’

  “Why’d you let her go?” she heard O’Reilly ask. “You should have questioned her. She could be smuggling something.”

  “Yes. She could. And the same could be said for everyone on this cruise ship from Alaska. But her record is clear. It’s not against the law to wear a wig and some make up. It’s coming up to break time. As soon as I’m done here, I’m going to Tim Horton’s and getting a nice cup of coffee and then going back to sit at my desk and spend the rest of the day doing paperwork.”

  She heard the thunk of the stamp. “Now, if you want to question the rest of the ladies that were with her, be my guest. However, think about how long that will take you, how much paperwork that will generate and how much chatter you will have to listen to from those ladies and ask yourself if it’s worth it to you.”

  There was a long pause. Dani held her breath. She heard O’Reilly’s voice. “You know, Tim Horton’s sounds good.”

  Just then Dottie walked through the back of the tent with a big grin on her face. “Yes!”

  Dani reached out and hugged her. It was so spontaneous she didn’t even have time to think about what she was doing. Dottie hugged her back. Dani needed to get herself back under control but she would savor this small moment of joy.

  The rest of the ladies trickled out of the tent.

  Dani turned her back to the ship and the water. In front of her was a long white multi-story building shaped like a ship. It had a series of what looked like garage doors about thirty feet apart, and they were all open. The inside appeared to be some sort of museum. “Where is the bus to the airport?”

  Dottie pointed toward the street.

  Dani nodded. “Okay, that’s where I’m going. What about you?”

  “I’m taking a tour of the city with the girls. Our flight isn’t until tonight.” She turned around and waved toward the girls. They hurried along the pier and caught up to Dani and Dottie.

  Ann burst out, “That was fun!” There were murmurs of agreement from the others as well.

  Dani smiled. “I don’t know how to thank you ladies.”

  “It was our pleasure,” Ann said. Then she turned. “Do you mind if we go to the bathroom before we find our bus, girls?” She pointed inside the building. “I want to make sure I don’t have to hop off the bus in search of a bathroom later.”

  “Sounds like a smart idea,” Dottie agreed. “Off we go.” The ladies headed across the pier and inside the building.”

  “Wait,” Dani said, “What about your wig and your muumuu?”

  Elenore looked torn.

  “I gave you my address last night. Mail them to me,” Dottie yelled and waved. Elenore nodded, and the two of them picked up speed, catching up with the others.

  Dani looked around. A wave of loneliness crashed over her unexpectedly. She used to prefer to be alone. Well, except for Carly. Her mind flicked to a picture of Gage, and she swallowed hard again. She’d just have to get used to being alone again. He’d made his choice, and so had she.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Keeping her head turned toward the building, Dani walked in the direction Dottie had pointed. There was a turn in the dock ahead blocking her view of the street. She took a quick peek back over her shoulder and saw two men lounging on this side of the customs tents across from the gangplank. They had to be Gage’s brothers. They were just as he described them earlier.

  A kaleidoscope of butterflies took flight in her stomach as she adjusted her sunglasses. She was glad she was still disguised. She had no interest in meeting up and explaining herself to Gage’s brothers, but guilt cramped her belly. She wanted them to know he was inside with ship security so they could help him.

  She wandered over and stood next to one of the open doorways of the building, right by the turn in the pier. Forget him. Get on the bus. He had been clear where he stood. It didn’t matter how she felt about him. She knew exactly how he felt about her. He’d called her a harlot. That hurt like she’d been stung by a thousand wasps at once. She’d been called all kinds of things, but nothing had left her ever feeling so stunned and in pain. She owed him nothing.

  She should just keep walking. Round the turn and forget everything. She watched Gage’s brothers. They were worried. Logan was on the phone and Mitch was looking up and down the pier. Logan put his phone in his pocket and shook his head.

  Dani’s lip stung when she bit down, undecided. She should email them or call th
em or something to let them know Gage was stopped by security. Indecision gripped her insides. She shouldn’t care, but she did. Gage’s brothers weren’t the only ones who were worried. He should have been out by now.

  She grabbed the phone Gage had given her out of the pocket of the muumuu and sent off a text to Janet.

  Tell Logan and Mitch that Gage was taken by ship’s security. They need to track him down onboard.

  She didn’t want direct contact with the guys because then they would have her number and she didn’t want to ditch this phone without another one to replace it.

  She leaned on the doorway with her back. People moved in every direction in front of her. Many going in and out of the building, but the majority of the crowd was heading toward the street. She saw Dottie and the “girls” in line for the restroom.

  Her phone dinged, signaling she’d gotten a text.

  Where are you? Are you still on the ship? I thought you all were leaving together.

  Dani’s fingers flew across the small screen. No. Change of plans. Tell Logan and Mitch they need to look for their brother. He’s still on the ship. She bit her lip while she waited for a response. Finally her screen lit up.

  Where are you? How do you know what’s going on with Gage if you’re not with him?

  Dani let out a groan of frustration.

  On the pier. Just tell them!

  Dani waited. Logan looked down at his phone. Thank God. Janet had sent the text.

  She searched for the tattooed men. The three of them were still at the “bow” end of the pier. One of them seemed to be talking on a cell phone. Then they started to move. They were walking back down the pier toward the gangplank. Toward Gage’s brothers.

  “No,” she mumbled. Logan and Mitch didn’t seem to be paying attention. They were looking at the ship.

  “Turn around,” she begged under her breath. Her heart hammered in her chest. Why weren’t they turning around? Mitch and Logan had to know they were in trouble. The Asian men were walking directly toward them.