Guarding the Truth

by Becca Jameson

  “Madeline.” How many times was he going to repeat that name? It was a stab to her heart each time he uttered it and confirmed her worst fears. He was faking. He didn’t care for her one ounce. He was only doing a job. The humiliation threatened to bring tears to her eyes. Moisture pooled behind her lids, and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of crying in front of him.

  Madeline grabbed for a bag under the bed and stuffed a few belongings into it with no regard for what went and what stayed behind. Did it matter? Did anything matter anymore?

  In the back of her mind she rationalized there was a killer out there. She’d just been shot at. Somehow her fear concerning that particular threat was currently overshadowed by her anger. Seemingly detached from her body, her hands kept cramming items into the duffle bag.

  She glanced up to find Parker staring at her. “Aren’t you gone yet?” Looking down, she saw one shoe, a mangled lace bra, a brown sock, and a scrunchy that must have fallen on the floor at some point.

  “Madeline, I know you’re pissed as hell right now. And you have every right to be. I don’t blame you one bit. But the fact remains that I’m trained to protect you and was hired to do so. We have to get out of here as quickly as possible and find someplace to hide until help can arrive. Do you understand?”

  He continued without waiting for a response. “Leave the bag. We’ll buy new things whenever we get where we’re going. We can’t afford the hindrance. Nothing matters as much as your life…our lives.” He reached tentatively for her hand. “Trust me. Please. I may be an ass, but I know what I’m doing. Your father wouldn’t have hired me if he didn’t have the utmost confidence in my abilities.”

  She hated him with every cell in her body. But he has a point. At least let him get you someplace safe…and then kill him.

  Madeline wiped her eyes with her fingers, tentatively reached for his hand, and allowed him to lead her, as low on their bellies as possible, toward the door and the uncertainty of what lay beyond.

  * * *

  Parker’s adrenaline pumped. In his line of business, this was show time.

  He was extremely concerned about the look of distrust on Madeline’s face, but it would have to be dealt with later. First he had to get the two of them to a safe place, and then…he had no idea what then.

  She was probably in shock, explaining the haphazard launching of items into a duffle bag. In one instant a man tried to kill her and she found out her boyfriend was a lie. Would he ever be able to convince her his feelings for her were real?

  “Okay, on three I’m going to open the front door and we’re going to edge over to my apartment. I’ll lead and make sure the coast is clear. You follow right behind me. Are you ready? One—”

  “Why would we do that? How is your place safer than mine, asshole.” Oh, she was hot under the collar all right, glaring at him with evil eyes.

  “Because,” he tried to remain patient, “we need some things from my room before we head out.”

  “Oh, sure. It’s fine and dandy to head over to your room to grab some things, but we’ll just leave all my possessions behind.” They leaned against the wall next to the door, presumably waiting for the count of three, or three hundred if he had to stop and explain every damn thing to her along the way.

  Parker felt like she’d slapped him in the face. He took a deep breath to fortify himself against this latest onslaught and responded. “Madeline, I’m not talking about clothes and shoes. We need weapons and money. Lots of both.”

  “You have guns and cash…next door? Why the hell do you have all that?” She couldn’t think straight.

  “On three. Ready?” When she didn’t interrupt again, he continued, “One, two, three.”

  Parker quietly opened the front door a few inches, enough to peer out into the corridor. Assessing that the hall was empty, he squeezed out, looked both ways again, and then grabbed Madeline’s hand to pull her along behind him. More like her forearm. She was reluctant to hold hands with his asshole self.

  Extracting a key from his front pocket, Parker eased the short distance to his front door. He soundlessly let them in and sat Madeline down on an inside wall, as protected as possible. She was becoming rather pliable and complacent. Definitely in some level of shock. He felt hollow in the pit of his stomach for his part in this charade.

  Parker made all haste dashing into his room, grabbing a duffle from under his bed, and returning to take Madeline by the hand again. “Let’s go.”

  “That’s it? We just got here. I thought you were going to get…stuff?”

  “I did.” He held up the bag. “I was ready, always am.”

  Parker had no clue where Jones was at the moment. He sincerely hoped the man had backed off enough for the two of them to escape undetected. The killer would not have left the area entirely because he would need to make sure he’d been successful. It dawned on Parker that at this point Jones had no idea if he’d hit his target or not.

  He was banking solely on the fact that Jones could not remain standing in the same spot holding a gun. Surely someone had called the cops.

  “Wait.” What now? “Shouldn’t we call the police or something? Wait on them to arrive?”

  “No, baby,” she winced at his term of endearment, “we should not wait on the cops to arrive. I’m sure someone already called. And by the time they got here, we would both be dead. Besides, I don’t trust cops. Not when my life is at stake. And definitely not with yours. Let’s go.”

  Not waiting for a response, Parker pulled Madeline out the door and down the stairs, not letting his guard down for a second. At the bottom of the stairs, he pulled the outside door open a few inches, decided the coast was clear, and exited the building, towing Madeline along. Adrenaline pumped through him, heightening his awareness, making his feet move faster than Madeline could keep up.

  People were everywhere, coming out of the various units to see what the loud noise was. He could hear them mumbling amongst themselves.

  “Did you hear gunshots?” one man asked another.

  “I don’t know. Something. Fireworks?” was the response.

  “Whose place was it? I saw glass everywhere between the buildings,” a girl was saying to no one in particular.

  “I have no idea. Maybe they weren’t home,” responded a woman nearby.

  Parker didn’t have time to dawdle. The people were a diversion he was glad for. Jones would not likely show his face in this crowd. So, with Madeline pressed into his side, Parker proceeded directly across the lawn in the direction of campus.

  “Just keep moving,” he mumbled in her ear. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves right now.”

  She was shivering against him with her eyes wide open.

  “Where are we going? Where’s your car? Why didn’t we take my car keys? God, how are we going to get out of this?” Desperate questions fired one after the other in rapid succession in the lowest voice she was capable of at the moment.

  “Relax. I have a plan.” He didn’t want to waste time explaining himself, and he needed to pay attention to their surroundings to keep their asses alive. He let his gaze dart all around them, a constant survey of their surroundings.

  “Sure, relax. I’m so relaxed right now, I’m practically comatose,” Madeline replied with incredible sarcasm, nearly spitting in his ear. The only thing keeping her from going completely into shock and endangering them both was the intense anger, hatred even, she felt toward him. And, sad as that fact was, he would use every ounce of it to keep her from getting murdered today.

  Parker responded, “I have another car in the campus parking garage. We need to get to it, okay?”

  “You have a second car hidden in the garage? Why?”

  Parker realized she was not fully understanding this situation. She’d had a fleeting comprehension that her father had paid a man to watch her, but it had yet to sink in that Parker was not some post-graduate coed keeping an eye on her.

  He was a sharpshooter.
Trained to save and protect lives. He’d spent years training and then another several years protecting important high-profile individuals, even government officials.

  The fact that he’d been trailing a young girl on a college campus for several weeks had only to do with money, originally. For the right price, anyone could be paid to do anything, and Dr. Donald E. Cooper had money. This was not the sort of work Parker was accustomed to. But when Reynolds called him and practically begged him to take the case, Parker had no idea he would to fall in love with the victim. And dude, you’re definitely in love with her.

  At the point he’d consented, the only information Parker had was that a wealthy man wanted his naïve daughter followed to ensure her safety. Who was he to say no? Easy job, right? What could go wrong?

  Parker pulled a confused, reluctant Madeline Cooper all the way to the parking garage. Her body continued to shake beneath his touch, her spine rigid. Staying as close to the buildings as possible along the way, he kept a peeled eye on every moving object in range. Where could Jones be? He had to be close by, but if luck was with them, he would be watching the apartment from somewhere to verify the kill.

  It seemed to take forever, a distance not more than a half mile that stretched in length due to his heightened senses. Finally, they entered a side door and climbed the dark stairs to the third floor of the garage, where Parker quickly led Madeline to a nondescript blue four-door sedan, reached underneath the front right bumper to retrieve a key, and deposited a very shaky woman into the front passenger side. Parker ran to the other side of the car and started the ignition.

  “Madeline, lie down on the seat. Keep your head down as low as possible.”

  She stared at him in horror. “No. What do you want me to do? Put my head in your lap?”

  “Baby—”

  “And stop calling me baby. I’m not your…anything.” She was shouting again, not that he blamed her. Her face was beet red.

  “All right…Madeline, put your head down anywhere you want,” he began again in a constricted, calm voice, “but do it right now before you get shot and I have to clean your brains off the inside of my clean car.” He tried to maintain a soothing voice, but the end may have gone up a smidge in pitch. He gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles hurt.

  Madeline finally relented and leaned over in the seat with her head next to his thigh, not in his lap. She had to squish considerably toward the door to fit, but good God, she managed to avoid touching him any more than necessary.

  Parker took off, rounded the various levels of the parking structure in a slow spiral, and pulled out onto the street, eyes roaming the area in search of anything out of the ordinary. Seeing nothing that would hinder their escape, he turned left and headed west.

  Parker was certain he held his breath for most of the first several miles before he felt confident they were at least relatively safe for the time being, and then he exhaled long and loud.

  “Are we safe?” Madeline tried to lift her head from its position beside him, and he gently placed his right hand on her silky hair to still her.

  She may be angrier than a hornet, but she’s still touching me with the top of her head, creating a comfortable warmth on my thigh, and I’m not willing to end the sweet torture yet.

  “Wait…a few more minutes, just to be sure.” Thankfully, she relaxed into the seat again and waited.

  Parker was acutely aware he hadn’t removed his hand from its serene location on the side of Madeline’s face and ear. But as long as she didn’t complain, he had every intention of keeping it there. She was calming him, helping slow his heart rate from its racing pace. He brushed her hair back from her face and caressed her cheek and neck with idle fingers as he continued to drive west.

  He didn’t have a plan yet for where they were going, but he would figure it out soon. As soon as his mind slowed down enough to think. What’s with you, Parker? You’ve handled situations far more intense and dangerous than this before and not been nearly as shook up. Are you losing your touch? Or was it possible his feelings for the woman in the seat next to him were clouding his ability to remain calm under duress?

  When Parker resumed some semblance of composure, about a half an hour later, he glanced down at the beautiful dark-haired figure beside him still being soothed by his loving caress and found her sound asleep. Good. She needed the nap. The stress wiped her out. He continued driving for several hours in solitude, a plan forming in his mind as they went.

  Chapter Nine

  “Where are we?” Madeline lifted her groggy head away from the seat to peer out the windshield and then at the man next to her. The enemy, she remembered, and stiffened. She seemed to have a lot of enemies these days. Some were good guys, and some were bad guys, but enemies were enemies, weren’t they?

  Suddenly wide awake, she was pissed. How dare he? Perhaps she should be just as angry with her father as she was Parker. After all, he was the mastermind behind all this, seemingly having hired Parker to keep an eye on her.

  Nevertheless, her father surely hadn’t asked Parker to date her, fucking sleep with her. The bastard. She stared at his profile, seething. She tried to calm herself. Deep breaths.

  It was light out, so she couldn’t have been sleeping too long. In fact, the sun was high in the sky. It must have been around noon. Madeline’s stomach rumbled. Her mouth was parched.

  “Just coming up on North Platte. Are you hungry? We can stop and get something to eat. I could use something. And you probably need a restroom too.”

  Madeline said nothing. She just turned her head from Parker and stared out the passenger window. Why did he need to mention that? Now she was hungry, thirsty, and holding her legs together.

  “Did you…did you care…never mind…” She couldn’t make the words come out. She didn’t want the answers.

  “Madeline,” Parker began in a deep sexy timber, “I swear I didn’t plan this. And yes, as hard as it may be for you to believe, I do care about you, deeply. I would never hurt you intentionally.”

  Madeline was nowhere near ready to forgive, but at least he sounded sincere in his declaration of…whatever. What would he accomplish by lying?

  Silence resumed. Madeline wasn’t ready to say anything else to Parker, and he seemed to have said what he needed to, so they just sat there for about thirty miles. She gritted her teeth against the need to pee, but was not about to speak to him again.

  “There’s a superstore up ahead. How about if we stop there? We can use the bathrooms and grab some necessities and food. One-stop shopping.” He chuckled, but his attempt to lighten the mood was weak.

  Silence from her side of the car. She was being a brat, acting like a teenager, but she didn’t care.

  Parker pulled the car into a spot near the entrance and turned to Madeline. “Look, you can stay pissed as long as you want. That’s fine. I deserve it. But please, please be careful. I haven’t seen any indication we were followed, but we can’t be too cautious. I want you to stay with me at all times. Got it?”

  She didn’t respond verbally, but removed her seatbelt and climbed out of the car, hoping her lack of response would be interpreted as a yes.

  As they entered the superstore, Madeline could see it was crowded. It was about twelve thirty. The store was overflowing with moms shopping with toddlers and older folks wandering through the aisles like they did this on a regular basis for entertainment. Maybe they do, Madeline. How would you know?

  She was familiar with the concept of a superstore, of course, but in all her twenty-four years, she found herself ashamed to realize she’d never been in one. Her father would not have shopped there for anything. Heck, he wouldn’t have even sent his servants there for something.

  Madeline stood in the entrance like a kid in a candy store. She tried not to reflect the feeling on her face and ruin the good angry façade she’d decided to maintain for the duration of their time together, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from widening in shock at the sheer size of t
he warehouse-type shopping structure and the variety of things going on. Holy cow. Everything under the sun was available in this monstrous shopping center.

  “Are you coming? We’re blocking the entrance.” Parker attempted to pull Madeline farther into the circus-like emporium. Did everyone in the world shop here? No one besides Madeline seemed to find the place, so…so…overwhelming.

  As they headed for what she hoped were the restrooms, Madeline trailed close behind Parker who would not let go of her hand. The pressure was reassuring. As much as she was loath to admit, she wanted him to touch her, wanted his strength to seep into her.

  Her head bobbed from side to side as they walked behind the rows of cashiers. People getting their nails done, an eye center, a hairdresser, a bank, even a portrait studio. And that was only the front of the building. A hamburger joint and a photo center sat on both ends. Was there anything this super center did not have? No wonder the place was doing so well and so many patrons visited.

  “Here’s the restroom. I’ll wait for you here when I come out, okay? Madeline?”

  “Yeah, fine…” She was still looking all around at what seemed like two hundred check-out aisles, but she reluctantly strolled through the door marked women, and the loud noises of the super store abruptly cut off as the door shut behind her. Her shoulders relaxed a bit in the silence.

  Get a grip, Madeline. You’re acting like a fool. You must be the only person in the entire world who hasn’t been to a discount store.

  Madeline relieved her aching bladder and washed her hands while staring at her frazzled appearance in the mirror. She had nothing with her, not even a purse, so she had to make do with smoothing her unruly long hair down with her hands. She braced herself for the onslaught of noise and returned through the door that had temporarily blocked out the universe.

  Parker waited outside the bathroom, his hands on a cart. “Ready.”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” As difficult as it was to stand next to this ingrate, Madeline bit her bottom lip and proceeded.