Secrets 02 - Kill Me Again, page 20
"I saw that. Shoulder wound. He'll be fine."
They were near the Expedition now, swallowed up by the darkness. She heard Freddy barking in a way she'd never heard him bark before. He'd squeezed his huge body as far through the partially open window as he could and was fighting to get farther. No one back by the barn could see them. The shots were coming less frequently as Aaron pulled her to her feet.
"We don't have to keep running now," she rasped, breathless. "I mean, assuming the good guys won back there. We don't have to keep hiding."
"I do." He met her eyes. "You stay. You'll be fine. But I...can't."
She blinked up at him, glancing quickly toward Bryan and his men. Even in the darkness, she could tell that some of the cops were cuffing suspects and tending the wounded, while others provided protection by aiming into the bushes where Skinner's remaining men were still hiding and laying down covering fire.
She drew a deep breath, knowing she had to decide fast. But when she tried to think of reasons to go and reasons not to, she could only remember one thing. The look in his eyes when Tommy had held that gun to her head. It had told her all she needed to know. She trusted him.
Amazing, that. She hadn't trusted a man in more than sixteen years. She'd even had her doubts about Bryan.
But she trusted this man--this man whose name she didn't even know. She trusted him completely.
"I'm going with you," she said.
He nodded once. "Then let's go."
Adam drove the SUV about a half mile, while Olivia leaned over the back of her seat, hugging her dog around the neck and trying to calm him. He'd done a number on the interior of the car door.
He drove to where he spotted the big black Lincoln Navigator parked on the side of the road. And then he pulled over.
"Why are we stopping?" she asked.
The woman was as tense as a bowstring. And no wonder, having just escaped what had probably been her first shootout. It hadn't been his. He knew it hadn't. It hadn't felt all that shocking or even terribly unusual. He'd known exactly what to do, found himself able to name the weapons being fired by make, model and caliber, been able to spot the shooters by looking for muzzle flashes in the darkness. More than that, it had felt familiar to him. He'd been comfortable and confident. He'd felt at ease. Hell, he'd felt at home.
"Why are we stopping, Aaron?" she asked again, then bit her lip, as if wishing she were anywhere but here. Maybe she was finally starting to get that he was no sensitive reclusive novelist.
"The police saw this vehicle," he said. "They'll have the plate number. They'll set up roadblocks, put the word out, and we'll be stopped before we get ten miles. So we're taking the Navigator."
She frowned. "The one Tommy was driving?"
He nodded.
"But won't that just give him another reason to come after me?"
"You think he needs another reason? Besides, at this point he's either dead or in custody, so who the hell cares?" He opened the door and got out, hurrying around to the rear to open the liftgate. "Come on, Freddy."
Freddy got out, but he was agitated, pacing and sniffing, scanning the trees all around them. Adam glanced over at the passenger door, gratified to see it opening. Freddy ran over as Olivia started to get out, but when she tried to stand, her knees buckled. She gripped the dog's neck as she sank toward the ground.
Adam lunged forward, grabbing her underneath her arms, hefting her upward again as Freddy danced nervously, so close Adam was almost tripping over him. Olivia leaned against his chest, her arms twisting around his neck. He felt her shaking.
"It's okay. We're all right. And Tommy is going to do some serious time for this. They caught him holding a gun to the head of an innocent woman. He fired his weapon at police officers. His guns can't be legal. And he crossed state lines with them so he could do all of that. You don't have to worry about him anymore, Liv. Not for a long, long time, anyway--if ever."
She nodded stiffly. Then she lifted her chin, tipping her head up to look at him. "What about Sammy? He was shot. I saw him on the ground, and he was bleeding."
"Yeah, and I told you, it looked like a shoulder wound. He's going to be fine."
"I have to be sure."
He nodded. "Let's get out of here first." Shifting her to his side, he kept one arm around her shoulders, steadying her and walking as fast as he dared to the Lincoln. He opened the passenger door and helped her in. "Buckle up."
"You think they left the keys?"
He nodded. "I don't think it, I know it. Just like I knew it would be unlocked."
"How?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Suppose the guy with the keys in his pocket gets shot? Suppose they have to make a fast escape? What are they gonna do? No, guys like these don't take those kinds of chances. Trust me, there's a key." He closed her door, went to the rear and opened the hatch. Freddy was standing a few yards away now, having found a good tree for his purposes, apparently feeling his owner was safe for the moment. That was reassuring.
"Hurry it up, Fred. We've got to move."
The dog responded as if he knew exactly what Adam had said and came loping over. Adam patted the floor of the cargo hold and said, "Come on, Freddy. Get in."
The dog looked at him, his head slowly tilting to one side.
"Freddy, up!" Olivia said, her voice deep, even if trembling.
Freddy instantly put his front feet up onto the car.
Bending, Adam cupped his hands, slid them under one of the dog's hind feet and lifted. Freddy pushed off with his help and, after a slip or two, managed to get inside. Adam was stunned all over again by how damned big the dog was. "You're a monster, you know that?" He patted the dog on the head. "Lie down now. Everything's fine."
Freddy began sniffing his new digs as Adam closed the hatch and moved to the driver's side, running his hand under the edge of the wheel wells as he went and finding a magnetic key holder under the front fender.
He pulled it out, snapped it open and took out the key. "Told you," he said, leaning in to show her his prize. "We'll go in a minute. I just need to hide the Expedition before we go."
"We don't have time to--"
"If the cops find it abandoned, they'll know we took something else. And how hard will it be to figure out that the only other vehicle around would have been whatever Tommy and his boys arrived in? And how fast do you think Tommy will tell them the make, model and plate number?"
"You're right. I'm glad you thought of that."
He nodded at her, then smiled a little. "Okay, wait right here."
He quickly drove the Expedition as deeply into the woods as he could get it before his way was blocked by densely growing trees. Then he ran back to the Lincoln, hearing sirens as he got in.
"Duck," he said, as he cupped the back of her head and pushed her forward. He bent low beside her. "Freddy, lie down!" he called, using the same firm tone she did when giving commands.
He heard the dog move, knew he had obeyed, and waited. Within seconds a parade of emergency vehicles screamed past, bathing them in strobes of red and blue, and stabbing at their ears with their sirens. Police cars. Lots of them. Ambulances, too.
"They'll have roadblocks set up before we know it," he said, sitting up as soon as the din passed them by. "We need to move, and we need to be smart about it." He put the vehicle into gear and drove. "Look around, see if you can find a road map."
He could manage without one, but the hunt gave her something to do. And he knew she was practically holding her breath, just as he was, as they navigated their way out of the mountains. She found a map, opened it and directed him toward the nearest highway, skipping from one back road to another. They didn't encounter anyone along the way, because they avoided the roads that connected the mess they'd left behind to the local cops.
When they finally hit the highway, he headed south, and she looked over at him. "Philly, then?" she asked.
He nodded.
"Yeah. I'll relax once we get out of Vermont. A little bit, anyway."
"How far before you think we're in the clear?"
"I don't know, but we should be safe, so long as we're quick." He looked more thoroughly around the vehicle and pointed. "This thing has a GPS."
"I think it's pretty standard in high-end cars these days," she said.
"What was the address we found inside the watch, again?"
She frowned as she tried to remember, then shook her head. "You have the paper?"
"Yeah." He dug into a pocket and found it, handed it to her. She inputted the information and watched the screen for a second or two, then nodded. "It's only seven hours and twenty minutes from here. We'll be there by morning."
"Then settle in and relax, hon. We're on our way."
She sighed, leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes, then sitting up straight again. "I can't relax. Not until I get some things off my chest. But first I have to ask--why are you still running?"
He lowered his head briefly. "I still don't know who I am, what I did. I need to find that out before...anything else."
"I can accept that." She lifted her chin and stared straight ahead, not meeting his eyes. "I checked my messages while you were in the shower."
He felt his eyebrows rise. "And?"
"There was one from Bryan."
He had a good idea what was coming next, so he spoke before she could. "He found out who I am, didn't he?"
"No. But he found out who you aren't. He said he knew for sure that you aren't Aaron Westhaven. He said the serial number from the plate in your head belongs to a man who was killed in Desert Storm. He thought they misread one of the digits or something, but he's having trouble finding out more, because the FBI has taken over the case."
He looked at her slowly. "The FBI."
She nodded. "And if you aren't Aaron, then I can only think of one reason why a stranger would show up in town looking for me."
He blinked, but it wasn't anything he hadn't considered himself. "You thought I was working for Tommy Skinner."
She nodded. "I had to consider the possibility."
"It would explain my...unusual skill set."
"Yes, it would. But Tommy didn't know you."
"No. He didn't recognize me, that's true. But he claimed he wasn't out to get you, that it was someone on those disks."
She nodded. "The senator?"
"Or someone else who's wealthy and powerful, but maybe not famous enough for us to recognize the name. Or maybe someone we haven't gotten to yet. Someone who hired me to do his dirty work."
Sighing, she said, "I don't believe it. I don't believe you were sent to Shadow Falls to hurt me. I just don't. I know you."
He felt sick to his stomach with guilt, because he did believe it.
"But I did consider it at first," she went on. "So I told Bryan about the meeting. I thought...I thought he would arrest Tommy and take you back to Shadow Falls, and maybe I could finally figure out the truth." She didn't look at him as she lowered her head, bit her bottom lip. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He nodded as he took everything in. Then he said, "I wasn't entirely honest with you, either."
"You weren't?"
"No. I, um...I didn't trust you any more than you trusted me, Liv. I told you the meeting was set for midnight, but it wasn't. Skinner wasn't early, he was right on time. I set it for eleven-thirty, then told you twelve. It was almost automatic, but partly, I wasn't sure you wouldn't do just what you did, or even try to go without me and handle the whole thing yourself."
She sighed, and it sounded like a sigh of relief. He looked her way, and she did look easier. "I guess we've both messed up a little bit. And it nearly got us killed."
He nodded.
"There's nothing else," she said. "I've got no more secrets from you."
"That's good to know."
She said nothing, waiting, he knew, for him to reciprocate in kind. But he couldn't. The dreams, the snippets of memory, his belief that he was some kind of a hit man...those were things he still couldn't bring himself to tell her. She believed in him. She wanted to believe in him. And he found himself in a quandary, because he wanted her to believe in him, too. It mattered to him what she thought of him.
She was asking him to open up, to tell her everything. But he had to hold back, just for a little bit longer. Just until he was sure.
Something had changed in him, back there at that abandoned old farm. When Skinner had been holding her, hurting her, pressing that gun to her head, when he'd thought she might not leave that starlit midnight meadow alive, something inside him had altered irreversibly, he thought. Every thought, every instinct, every skill, every molecule, in him had joined in one goal, and one goal only. To keep her alive. To protect her. To save her.
He hadn't spoken a word, and minutes had ticked past. Finally she nudged him. "Is there anything you haven't told me?"
He nodded.
"Are you going to?"
"Yes. Yes, I am. But for now, just the one thing. I think my name is Adam, because I had a dream, and in the dream, a man was calling me by that name."
"Does it feel like your name?" she asked.
"Yeah. It does."
"Adam. That's nice."
"Thanks." He drove, saying no more.
"Was there anything else to the dream? Any other revelations?"
"No."
She tipped her head to one side, and when he glanced at her, she looked worried. She said, "You know what I find fascinating, Adam?"
"No, what?"
"That we've only known each other for a short time, but I can already tell when you're lying."
She drew a deep breath, sighed and reached down beside her seat. A moment later she apparently found what she sought, because her seat reclined slowly, and she leaned back, closing her eyes.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly. "After all that--?"
She opened her eyes. "I'm...I'm relieved." Then she sat up a little. "Tommy's going to be locked up. He can't hurt me anymore. I faced him down, and I won. And maybe someone is still after me, or maybe Tommy will try to hurt me from behind bars, and maybe my secrets will be revealed to the whole world. But I feel like I can face anything now. I'm going to be okay." She smiled. "I've got my life back. You gave me my life back. Thank you for that...Adam."
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. Adam kept driving. The FBI was looking for him. He'd evaded the police. He had a steel plate in his head that belonged to a dead man. And he didn't know who the hell he was--or what. Only that he was accustomed to violence, to evasion, to deception, to weaponry, to combat, to escape--and to killing.
He was scared to death of what he would find when he got to that address in Philadelphia. There would be no more hiding the truth from her--or from himself--then.
She felt the car come to a stop, the cessation of movement making its way through her sleepy brain and into her consciousness. Then the sound of the motor died, too, giving way to a silence broken only by a soft whine from Freddy.
She opened her eyes, picked up her head and turned toward Aaron--no, Adam. She had to get used to that. "Are we there?"
"No. I found a pet-friendly motel. I can't drive any farther without a few hours' sleep."
She nodded, surprised that she had fallen asleep, with all that had happened. And she'd obviously slept for a while, too. Beyond him, the sky was growing pale with the approach of dawn. "What time is it? Where are we?"
"We only have a couple of hours to go. I just thought--we don't know. The Feds might be watching the place, if they have the address, too."
"Then wouldn't it be better to arrive in the dark?"
"We'd never spot them in the dark. They have the advantage if they're surveilling the place, waiting for us to show. So we go by in the daylight, surveil it ourselves a little, see if it's being watched before we go inside."
She narrowed her eyes on him. "You say that with a lot of confidence."
He glanced at her quickly. "Yeah. I've told you. I trust my instincts," he said. "They haven't led us wrong so far."
"Oh. I was wondering if it might be because you've remembered something more."
"It's not."
She nodded, but she still looked at him hard, as if she could see the truth seeping from his pores. It made him want to avert his face.
"Do you, though? Remember more?"
"No." A dream wasn't exactly a memory, was it? So he wasn't really lying to her. Just leaving out some things. "I'll book us a room. We'll keep paying cash."
"We've got plenty," she said.
He nodded and reached for his door handle. But her hand on his shoulder stopped him, made him turn back to face her again.
"I'm putting a lot of trust in you...Adam."
"I know." He held her eyes for a long moment. "And I know what a huge thing that is for you, to trust a man. I don't take it lightly."
She nodded. "Get two rooms," she told him. "But only if they have an adjoining door."
He guessed her trust in him only went so far. She must have no interest in any further sex with him now that she knew he wasn't her favorite writer. He lost a little bit of respect for her, knowing that. Wasn't he the same guy he'd been before she knew? Hadn't he just saved her life, gotten her out of a hellish situation without a scratch on her smooth, copper-kissed skin?
He got out of the car and went inside, feeling insulted and a little bit pissed off. But he made the request she'd asked him to, and returned with two room keys, marked 3 and 4. He slapped them onto the dash and drove to the parking spot in front of Room 3.
"You're tired," she said.
Like she cared. "Yeah, I'm tired." Did that sound a little sarcastic? A little snippy?
She frowned at him, but when he didn't even return her gaze, she shrugged as if in helplessness, grabbed a key off the dash and opened her door. Then she went to the back and opened Freddy's. "Come on, boy. You poor thing, cooped up in there all this time. Come on, baby. Come on."
Freddy rose, stretched and stepped down from the rear. He looked around, and so did Olivia. But there was nothing to see but the blacktopped parking lot and the sidewalk that ran in front of the rooms. Every other room had a tree growing in front of it from a circular hole in the otherwise unbroken pavement. There were flowers surrounding each tree. Pansies and petunias in thick, lush bunches, so thick you couldn't see the ground beneath them, their purples and yellows soothing somehow.
