Anthology: Bad Boys To Go Part 19

"Your office window?"

"Yeah. "

Adam pulled down a window and yelled to a group of spectators, "What happened?"

"Place burned down in the night. "

"Was anyone hurt?" Gretchen asked through numb lips.

"Anybody inside?" Adam asked his informant.

"Don't think so. "

"Thanks." He pulled up the window. "Let's get out of here. "

She did. The muscles of her legs ached from the strain of not being able to follow her first impulse and gun it out of there. But that, of course, would only bring unwanted attention their way. So she headed away from the destruction at a normal speed.

Adam grabbed his gun and glanced everywhere. "I don't think we're being followed," he said, but she knew it was too early to tell.

"Well," she said on a shuddering sigh, "I now believe that killers are after you. "

"Gretchen, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but right now killers aren't just after me. They're after both of us. "

"Right." She wasn't stupid, she'd figured that out for herself, but hearing him say the words was not helping. "So, now what?"

"Now, you drop me at a car rental lot and go stay with someone you can trust. Stay out of sight for a few days. "

Her fingers began drumming the wheel to the same beat as the fury slamming through her blood. "Hide? You expect me to hide? People I don't even know used me to get to you, trashed my business, did G.o.d knows what to my home, and you want me to hide? I don't think so. "

"Hey, I know how you feel. But I don't want to be responsible for you getting hurt. Pull into this plaza and over by that mailbox for a second. "

She did as he asked, sliding her car in next to a delivery van that was unloading sodas into a corner store. She edged far enough forward that her vehicle would be all but invisible from the road.

From his pocket, Adam pulled a handful of hotel flyers of the kind that were stocked in lobbies and bus stations everywhere. It almost seemed to her that he was playing "eenie, meenie, meinie, mo" with them, flipping through brochures of big hotels on the Las Vegas strip.

He made his choice and pulled a large brown envelope out of his backpack. He had a black pen in an inside pocket, and she watched him address the envelope to himself in care of the Las Vegas hotel.

"I don't suppose you have stamps?" he asked her.

"Not on me. "

He dug around in his backpack some more, but came out, not with stamps as she'd half expected, but a baseball cap, which he pulled low over his eyes. He got out of the car, disappeared into the corner store.

She grabbed her cell phone and punched in Fisk's number. She'd tell her client she'd made a mistake and the man she'd followed wasn't Adam Stone. It was too little too late, but she felt she had to try.

She wasn't all that surprised to hear a recorded message telling her that the number was no longer in service. No doubt if she tracked down the real Mr. Fisk, he'd have no idea who she was and his voice would be completely different than the man who'd hired her. And duped her.

The phone was tucked back in her bag when Adam emerged from the store sticking stamps to the envelope, which he then pushed through the slot in the mailbox.

He got back into the car and turned to her.

"Adam? What are you doing?"

He was staring at her, focusing on her mouth. The intensity of his gaze caused her breath to hitch.

"What I've wanted to do since I saw you at the airport," he said, and brought his lips slowly to hers.

He gave her plenty of time to evade, she'd give him that, but the surprising thing was she didn't want to escape his kiss. In fact, she met him halfway.

Perhaps it was acc.u.mulated adrenaline from fear, not enough sleep, and seeing her personal and business s.p.a.ces invaded and destroyed, but there was a lot of pent-up tension in her body and it seemed to explode at once into desire.

She supposed, if they were on the run from death, it was only natural to celebrate life in the most fundamental way. That must have been why she met his hungry kiss with a fierceness that surprised her.

She felt his hands plunge into her hair, tugging lightly so her head tipped back. Her lips opened on a sigh and his tongue plunged inside, hot and demanding.

Chapter Four.

Oh, that man could kiss. His tongue thrust deep into her mouth, stroking, inciting, and somehow soothing her. After all, she reasoned dimly, it was hard to take anything very seriously when you were necking in a parking lot with a man you'd known less than twenty-four hours.

She wound her arms around him and rubbed up against him, needing his solidness and warmth.

With a groan, he pulled away.

"Keep that warm for me," he said with a crooked grin. "I'll be back. "

And almost before she'd got her tongue back in her own mouth, he was out of the car and walking away, his backpack slung over one shoulder, his briefcase in the other hand.

She blinked, stunned, as he kept walking, not looking back. He was headed toward a side road. What on earth was he planning to do? The man was crazy and about as conspicuous as a gorgeous guy on the side of a road could be. With his ball cap and fancy briefcase he begged a second glance. She should let him go.

She should simply let him go.

She backed up out of her parking spot and followed him.

She used the electric b.u.t.ton to roll down the pa.s.senger side window as she drew abreast of him. "Hey. You forgot your luggage. "

"I'll be back for it," he said through barely parted lips, staring straight ahead. "Get out of here. "

"You won't be back for it if you're dead. "

"Quit making a spectacle of both of us and I might survive. "

A car honked behind her and then roared around. The driver gave her the finger. "Las Vegas is the other way. "

He kept walking.

"You're going to need a car to get there. "

"I'll rent one. "

"I'm not leaving. "

It took another quarter mile, and she was flipped the bird a couple more times, before Adam turned to her with a glare of pure loathing and she knew she'd won. She pulled over ahead of him and he got in.

"Are you completely insane?" he yelled.

"No. I'm mad. And when I get mad I don't hide. It's not my nature. "

She wasn't the only one. He was so angry, waves of heat were coming off him. "They'll kill you if they find you. "

Yeah, Yeah. If she'd been afraid of danger she would have chosen a different line of work. Besidesa "I liked that kiss so much I'm hanging around for more. "

The way his teeth were grinding together she didn't think kissing was his top priority right now.

She sighed. "I did call in. Right after you got off the plane. Mr. Fisk told me to call again when you checked in to your hotel, but I wanted to wait until I could re-port that I'd seen you with your supposed lady friend." She knew she'd put him in great danger, but she didn't know how much. She recalled Mr. Fisk saying during the cell conversation, "Airport?" and she could hear herself responding, "Yes, San Francisco airport. "

"They didn't even know which city you were in until I called, did they?"

He remained silent and still for a moment, then shook his head.

"I'm sorry. "

"You didn't know. "

"At least let me drive you to Las Vegas. I might as well get right out of town. It's probably safer. "

He laughed mirthlessly. "Not with me. "

She s.h.i.+vered, realizing how very much she wanted to be with him, on the run or any other way. His kiss had only confirmed the astonis.h.i.+ng s.e.xual chemistry they had together. Somehow, she'd known it from the first moment their gazes had connected.

"We'll get on 1-5 and be in Las Vegas in about ten hours," she promised, looking for a place to turn around.

"If your buddy Fisk is who I think he is, he'll have figured out I'm trying to get to the FBI. "

She almost slammed on the brakes. "Well, we have an FBI office right here in town. "

"We'd never get there alive. It's the first place they'll think we're going. I know a guy in Las Vegas. We'll go there. "

It occurred to her there was a lot he wasn't telling her, and if she was going along with him, risking her life right alongside his, she'd be changing that soon. But right now, she was too busy driving and keeping an eye out for any vehicles that might be too interested in her.

Adam pulled out sungla.s.ses from his pack, then slumped down in the pa.s.senger seat.

"Pa.s.s me the scarf and gla.s.ses you'll find in my glove compartment," she said.

He did, pulling out the two items she'd requested as well as her road atlas, which he tossed into his lap.

He held the wheel steady while she tied the scarf over her hair in a fifties movie star way and slipped on the dark gla.s.ses.

There was silence as she maneuvered her way out of town. She switched on the radio news and soon heard a report about her building fire. Fortunately, it had happened early enough that no one was in the building at the time. Although it was too early for the fire report, an electrical fire was suspected. The word arson was never mentioned.

"I bet your computer mysteriously got fried in the fire," Adam said when the news segued into the weather forecast.

"They burned down a whole building to get rid of an e-mail? Isn't that a little extreme?"

"E-mail, notes, phone numbers. They figured you'd come home and they'd get everything else. "

She s.h.i.+vered at his matter-of-fact tone.

Midmorning on a Sat.u.r.day, the traffic wasn't too bad. Adam glanced into his side mirror almost as often as she checked the rearview mirror, but if there was a tail, they'd yet to spot it.

After flipping through her road atlas, he said, "Take 1-580 east anda just keep heading east for a while. "

"But we can get to Las Vegas much fastera""

"They'll look for us on the main highway. We head for small towns and two-lane roads n.o.body would ever think we'd take. "

"But if we head east, we'll never get to Las Vegas tonight. "

"No point getting there before the mail. "

"We'll have to spend the night. "

"Yeah." And there was a whole lot of nighttime activity packed into a single yeah. She s.h.i.+vered, wondering why this virtual stranger appealed to her so much. Well, okay, he was gorgeous and s.e.xy and a whiff of danger clung to him. Her ideal man.

And so she drove east. They drove through Yosemite. She opened her window to suck in the clean, cool air and gaze at the ponderosa pines and big, s.h.a.ggy cedars. In late autumn, there were few other travelers and no one was following them. A couple of Stellar's jays swooped by, no doubt hoping they'd stop for a picnic and share.

"Sorry, guys," she said quietly, not wanting to wake Adam, who snoozed gently in the pa.s.senger seat.

Her soft words must have been enough to wake him anyway, for he started up and glanced around as though for an ambush of crazed Texan killers.

"I have to admit, it seems unlikely that killers would look for us here. Because it is crazy. " Her voice rose on the last words, but she didn't care. This whole thing was insane. Her shoulders ached from driving and her companion had snoozed for the last two hours.

"Hey, we can split up anytime. "

"Not before I see the a.s.sholes who burned my office and invaded my home in jail. "

"Then keep driving. "

"Why don't we while away the hours with you telling me exactly what is going on?"

There was a long silence, as though he were debating with himself. Finally he said, "I guess I owe you that. "