01 Untouchable - Untouchable (24 page)

“
Bye, Ryan,” I silently
mouthed as he closed the door and we backed out of the
lot.

He pointed the car toward
one-ten, his fist gripping the wheel as if it was trying to get
away. “What did he make you promise?” He asked, trying to reign in
his temper.

“
It doesn’t matter,” I
mumbled, watching the town of Pensacola evaporate to a
memory.

“
It does matter, promises
matter. You’re the one person who I thought would agree with that.”
It sounded as if the temper was cooling.

“
He asked me not to sleep
with you and…”

he laughed before I could
finish. “And you promised him you wouldn’t.” It should have been a
question, but he didn’t phrase it as if it was one.

“
I told him I wasn’t that
kind of girl.”

This was greeted by a long
moment of silence. When he spoke again, all the temper was absent
and his voice was soft, “I know that. I can’t believe he
didn’t.”

“
Good-grief, Evan,” I
blurted, “Did you notice how many heads you turned in that little
diner?” He seemed surprised, but I had trouble believing the
honesty of it. “Is this how you look all the time? I mean, I
thought you were a hunk before, but…”

He smiled slowly. “Before,
I was trying to look like an eighteen-year-old boy.”

“
Well you certainly don’t
look like one now! I don’t know what Matt’s gonna say when he sees
you, but I’m sure it’ll get a similar reaction.”

“
You aren’t going to see
him,” he spoke those words incredibly low, but he might have just
as well screamed them at me for the volume at which my brain
amplified them.

“
What?” You said to have
them wait at the motel? You said...”

“
We can’t chance it. You’re
right, Matt may decide that you can’t leave with me and that would
be very bad.”

“
NO! YOU TAKE ME THERE! I
WANT TO SAY GOODBYE—I WANT TO…” I was yelling at the top of my
lungs. My hands balled into fists punching at his shoulder, trying
to hit his side, but he kept protecting it with his arm.

I didn’t notice that he had
pulled off to the side of the road until I felt both of his hands
on me. The steel grip holding my shoulders, refusing to let me get
a good swing. He was shaking me and saying something that I refused
to hear.

“
I’ve got to say goodbye to
Kimmy!” I finally sobbed out. “Please, I’ll go with you and you can
kill me tonight if you want, but I—I have to say
goodbye.”

“
Leese, I’m sorry, I really
am. Whoever this is doesn’t care who gets in the way.”

His words were starting to prick at my
consciousness.

“
Just a goodbye; it’s all I
want.”

“
Listen to me, please. If
we go there and they decide you can’t leave with me, what will
happen? Tell me, Leese.”

“
I—I guess we’d stay at—at
the motel until…”

“
Don’t you think whoever is
after you knows that? If you’re there, they’re in danger—all of
them. Do you understand now why we can’t take that chance? I was
afraid to leave them without protection. I called the police and
told them what was going on. I know the police are at the motel
right now. It’s their only chance to stay safe until this person
figures out you’re no longer around.”

The steel grip softened as
what he said registered. He pulled me against him and I let the
pain and anguish flow out of me. There would be no chance to tell
them goodbye, and I knew I’d never see my little sister
again.

“
Is that why you almost
collapsed at the car? Do you really think,” he whispered, stroking
my hair as I began to calm, “that I’m planning to kill you
tonight?”

I pulled away and kept my
face down, trying to wipe away the tears. “’When I saw your gun
case, I… You have what you wanted. All you had to do was to get me
to leave with you. I’m here and everyone knows I left with you
willingly.”

He tipped my chin upward, “Leese, you
hired me, too.”

“
I know, but…” My eyes went
to the cell phone in his shirt pocket. I put my hand on it and he
clasped his hand over mine and slowly took it away from the phone.
“Tell me what you’ve learned. I know you called
someone.”

He slumped back in his
seat, his hand going up to grip his temples and then gliding back
into his hair. “We need to get back on the road. We can talk on the
way.”

“
I guess it doesn’t matter,
but where are we going?”

“
Louisiana,” he said and
then turned the car back onto the asphalt.

“
New Orleans?” I was
asking, but I was pretty sure of the answer.

“
We could have, but I
decided some place quieter would be better.” He changed the
direction of the conversation. “You need to call Bev and tell her
you’re with me and that you’re safe. I told the police to check
their house. This kind of rogue isn’t afraid to blow one
up.”

“
Rogue?” I asked

“
He isn’t your normal hit
man. He’s the kind of guy that’s messy, but it doesn’t matter to
him. He isn’t paid to do a job by instructions; he’s paid to simply
get the job done.”

“
Why would someone pay you
to set this up so carefully and then turn around and pay someone
else to ruin everything?”

I’d seen that look on his
face before; he didn’t want to tell me.

“
Please,” was my single word
request for him to go ahead and say it.

“
Because it’s two different
people paying.”

“
So you’re telling me that
your contract is still good and his is good. It’s just a matter of
who kills me first?”

I could see that he swallowed before
answering, “Yes.”

“
And you’re also saying this
guy probably wasn’t hired by my—by Robert?”

“
He definitely wasn’t hired
by the same person who is paying me. When my contact heard about
the shooting, he called to find out from his contact if the plans
had been cancelled, and that person said definitely
not.”

“
But maybe this is some
freak coincidence. Maybe this person just happened to pick our
school and…”

“
No, Leese. I already
checked it out. In the circles I run in, word spreads.”

“
Don’t stop. Tell me, Evan.
Who is the other person?”

“
I don’t know who, but I do
know it’s a woman—and she wants you dead quickly.”

I didn’t know many adult
females besides teachers and a few of Mom’s friends. None of this
was making sense any more. Things had become clear for a while when
Evan found the information about Robert, but who was this new
threat? A gentle touch on my arm shook me from my
thoughts.

“
Call Bev and tell her
you’re okay.”

As hard as it had been for
me to accept the fact that I wouldn’t get the chance to say
goodbye, it was even harder to convince Bev and Matt of the same
thing. After nearly twenty minutes on the phone, I finally said
they were just going to have to trust that I knew what I was doing.
They put Kimmy on the phone and it felt like my heart was
crumbling. I had to stay strong, no sobbing, no weeping, just be
positive, even cheerful.

“
Hey brat,” I teased. “Are
you enjoying the motel?”

“
If they’ll let me go
swim!” she said with that tone that told me she was going to pitch
a fit pretty soon.

“
Well, I’m sure they’ll let
you eventually—if you’re good,” I added.

“
I’ll try,” was her candid
response. “When you get here, Leese, will you bring my
swimsuit?”

“
I—I won’t be able to make
it. I’ve got to go on a short trip so I may not see you for a
while.”

“
During school?” she asked
incredulously.

“
Yeah, what luck, huh?” I
was trying to keep our last moments together light and
happy.

“
Can I come?” she
pleaded.

“
Not this
time, squirt—this is business.” There was a long pause as she must
have considered what business I might possibly be doing. She knew
her father was away all the time on business, but never Mom or me.
“But I love you. And,
please
be good for Bev and Matt.”

“
Okay,” she relented and
then she told me that she loved me too and the line went
dead.

I knew I had to make one
more call. I dialed my mother’s cell phone. This time she answered
quickly. The first thing I said was, “Mom, I’m okay.”

She was really upset. She
was saying she wanted us home right now.

“
Mom, you always said I had
a good head on my shoulders. I need you to believe that right
now.”

“
I do believe that, Honey,
but…”

“
Mom, I’m not coming home.”
She started babbling right away, but I had to stop her, she had to
focus on what I was saying. “Please, Mom, trust me. I’ll get this
figured out; then no one will do this to our family
again.”

She was still upset, but
within a few minutes she began to accept that I might actually know
what I was doing. That was the great thing about my mother; she had
faith in me.

“
Dad wants to talk to you,
Honey, hold on.”

I didn’t know if I was that
good of an actress. I didn’t know if the words would come and if
they did, could I make them sound genuine?

“
Leese, what’s going
on?”

I felt as if I could now
discern the fakeness in his voice and it infuriated me. “I—I’m
okay, Dad.”

“
Where are you and who’s
with you?”

I wondered how he would
respond to a tidbit of information. “It’s okay, I’m with a good
friend from school.”

He paused for a millisecond, “The boy
you like?”

“
Yeah, but it’s okay, he’s
really trustworthy. He’ll keep me safe until this blows
over.”

“
Call us when you can. We
trust you, Leese.”

It was as if I could hear
the tinge of excitement in his words, ‘Yes, go with him. It’s
exactly what I wanted you to do.’

“
I’ll try. I—I love you.” I
couldn’t quite get those words out without a small stumble. I
closed the phone.

Evan reached over and
rubbed my arm gently, “You did good. Do you think you could get a
little sleep?”

“
I’m exhausted but, no, I’m
too keyed up.”

“
Close your eyes and
try.”

It made me wonder if he
didn’t want me to see where we were going. I leaned the seat back
slightly, opened my purse and pulled out my iPod, put in my ear
buds and closed my eyes. Every fiber within me began to relax as
the sounds that had been holding my life together lately began to
course through me. His fingers stroked along my arm gently as the
rhythm of the engine lulled me into sleep.

I woke a few hours later as
I felt the car slow and pull off the main highway. It was dark now.
I sat up straighter and was surprised to see we were pulling into a
super Wal-Mart. “What are we doing here?” I yawned before I could
stop myself.

“
You don’t have any other
clothes and we need to get fuel. I know this isn’t exactly high
fashion, but it’ll do for now.”

“
Yeah, that sounds good,
these gym clothes kinda stink,” I said, lifting the tee-shirt to
give it a sniff.

We walked around as I
picked up several tops, a few pairs of jeans, a couple skirts, a
pair of black flats, sandals, flip flops, and then I turned the
buggy down the lingerie aisle and watched his face for a hint of
discomfort; all he did was look at me and give a slow smile. I
grabbed a couple packs of cotton, low-rise string bikinis and then
two extra bras. I gave a disappointed sigh as I moved toward the
night-clothes.

“
What’s wrong?” he asked,
slightly amused that I didn’t shake him by dragging him through the
‘unmentionables’ aisle.

I looked at him and rolled my eyes,
“I’d kill right now for a Victoria’s Secret.”

The smile got bigger. “You
like Victoria’s Secret?”

“
They just fit better,
that’s all. That and they have a bigger selection.”

I picked out something to
sleep in and then headed for cosmetics. The only time I actually
managed to embarrass him was when I went down the feminine aisle.
Within two seconds he vanished.

I started pushing our cart
toward check out when he mentioned I’d need to get a
swimsuit.

“
Why?”

“
Well, you
still have nearly five weeks left, and I have a
big
pool.”

If I hadn’t asked for a
kiss as my last request, I would have planted one on him right then
and there. If ever there were a little glimmer of heaven in the
pits of my despair, it was hearing that he had a pool. I grabbed
two bathing suits, and, beaming a big smile, headed back toward
check-out.

“
You realize,” I said,
pulling the visa out of my purse, “I’m actually spending your
money.”