Edge of the Heat 5 (28 page)

He didn’t stop for her, just veered across the street, barely looking both ways. Sara followed at a walk, suddenly aware that she was quite scared. Not scared because Jerry’s friends were dangerous to her, but nervous because of what she’d gotten him involved in. If they didn’t hate her now, they were going to hate her soon.

In the parking lot, next to a small blue sedan, Jerry hugged Emma tight, picking her up off her feet. Craig stood by, a companionable hand on Jerry’s back. His eyes narrowed in suspicion when he saw her.
Oh great, here we go,
she thought
.

Jerry broke free from Emma and hugged Craig, forcing him to take a step backwards with his exuberance. Emma smiled at both of them and couldn’t seem to stop touching Jerry. “I was so worried about you Jerry,” she was saying. “When we couldn’t find you I even had nightmares that you were dead. It was so scary.”

Sara was almost to their small reunion now. She dragged her feet, slowing herself and feeling like another person. Why had she agreed to this? Jerry should have come alone.

Emma turned to Sara and smiled, a cautious, half-smile. “Sara! Oh wow, what happened to your arm? And your clothes?” She turned to Jerry. “What has been going on? Why all the cloak and dagger stuff? Why didn’t you call me all week?” Craig folded his arms over his chest, set his legs wide, and stared at Sara, eyebrows raised. To Sara, he looked ready to arrest her.

Jerry put a hand on Emma’s forearm and Craig’s upper arm. “Look, it’s a crazy story and I can’t tell it to you anyway. Not right now. But we need your help. We need two things from you or we’re both dead. Like literally dead.”

Craig’s face instantly turned from speculative to murderous, his gaze drilling into Sara. “What has she gotten you into Jerry? You
can
tell me. I can help you. You don’t have to go down with her.”

Sara took a step back under the force of Craig’s glare.
This is not going well
.

“No, I can’t tell you. It’s best you don’t know any of it, not for our safety, but for yours.” Jerry looked nervously from Craig to Sara, finally sensing Craig’s intent. “She’s not a criminal Craig, and she didn’t get me involved in anything on purpose, but I am involved now, and there’s nothing I can do about it. We can’t tell you what’s going on because it could put you in a lot of danger to know. But we have a plan. There are some very bad men who are after Sara and me. And we’re going to expose them, and then it will be OK. And no one will be in danger anymore. But that’s why we need your help. We can’t do this without your help.”

Craig turned the force of his gaze on Jerry. His voice came out low, but forceful, like he was trying not to yell. “Jerry, I’m a goddamned FBI agent. You can tell me everything! I can protect you. You telling me what is going on is not going to put me in danger.”

Jerry’s face looked miserable. And indecisive. Sara took another step back and left it up to him to tell or not to tell. What Jerry didn’t know was that his FBI friend might not believe her story even if he did tell. If Craig had ever seen the APB that Thorpe had put out on her when she first abandoned the agency, he might place her face and believe the story on it instead.

Instead, Jerry turned to Emma. “Emma, I’m so sorry. But you guys have got to help us. We have no one else to go to. Please, I swear that we are doing this the best way possible - the
only
way possible.”

“You don’t know that!” Craig thundered, and Sara saw people in the park look their way.

Emma turned to Craig. “Let’s just hear them out, OK. Let’s just hear what they need.”

***

E
mma calmed Craig down from a dangerous mad to just steaming and the four of them retreated to a park bench to talk. Sara stood a few feet off, determined not to let Craig within grabbing distance. While Jerry was talking, Craig stared at her with angry, mistrusting eyes. He studied her, marked her. Sara had begun to doubt that he would do anything they asked. In her mind, she was already examining other options.

“Here’s the biggest thing we need,” Jerry explained. “A video feed forced over as many live feeds as possible. We don’t know when we’ll need it, but we need it splashed all over every TV, cable, and Internet station as possible. We can give about 12 hours notice I think. Can you do it?”

Craig grunted, and finally shifted his eyes off of Sara. “No, I can’t do it. I wouldn’t have a clue how to. I don’t think Hawk could either. But if it’s possible, Lionel could do it. I’d have to ask him if he would though.” He considered for a second. “That’s a big deal though. I could easily get fired for arranging something like that. Maybe jail time.”

Jerry nodded. “I know. Me and Sara will swear we set it up. All you have to do is tell us how it’s done. Maybe we could even set it up ourselves if Lionel could somehow tell us how to do it.” He looked at Sara and she nodded.

“It’s called signal hijacking and it will get you up to 10 years in prison,” Craig said.

Jerry looked at Sara again. She nodded again.
Better than 10 minutes in Thorpe’s custody.

Craig sat back, brows knitted together. His face had lost some of that angry look and Sara relaxed a little. “I wish you could just tell me what was going on.”

“Me too, man, me too,” Jerry said. “We also need money. Do you have any cash?”

Emma nodded. “I’ll be right back.” Craig pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed Jerry everything in it, without bothering to count it.

Emma jogged back, her purse in her hand. “Here.” Jerry counted the money quickly. It looked like they had close to $300. He shoved it in his pocket. That was good for now. It wouldn’t buy them assault rifles or an open cargo truck, but it would get them some food and a couple more nights in the motel. But Sara said she could get money. He trusted her fully.

Jerry looked at Sara. “That’s it, right?”

Sara shook her head. She need to ask for one more favor. “Emma,” she said, walking closer, taking a chance now that Craig’s anger seemed to have softened a bit. She still wasn’t going to get within grabbing distance though. The last thing she needed was to be handcuffed by a pissed-off FBI agent. “I need you to do something for me. It doesn’t have anything to do with what Jerry and I are wrestling with, but there’s a scared teenage mom who really needs help. I promised to help her, and then I disappeared.” Sara dropped her eyes, sick at the thought of Jessica and Zoey back out on the streets. Her hotel room had been unpaid for 2 days now.

Emma watched her curiously, waiting for her to finish. “I told her I was going to help get her and a friend of hers, plus their two babies out of Las Vegas. She thinks my name is Brook. I had put her up in a hotel room but while Jerry and I were -” Sara glanced at Jerry. He was watching her as curiously as Emma was. “While Jerry and I were walking 150 miles across the desert to get back here, her hotel room went unpaid. I’m sure they threw her out. I doubt she had anywhere to go. Her baby is only 4 months old.” Sara heard desperation creep into her voice. She took a deep breath.

Emma looked from her to Jerry. “You walked 150 miles across the desert? Is that where you’ve been?”

Sara nodded. “Yes. I wish we could tell you more, but we really can’t.”

Sara saw Emma’s eyes light with determination. “What is the girl’s name and what does she look like?”

Sara blew out a shaky breath. Thank goodness. Emma would take care of Jessica and Zoey. Sara described them and gave Emma the name and number of the lawyer in Idaho. “If you could get them a ride on the train or put them on a plane I would really appreciate it. I’ll pay you back if I can.”

Emma shook her head. “Don’t worry about it for another second. We’ll find them, won’t we Craig?” Craig looked bewildered at this turn of events. He nodded half-heartedly.

“Thank you so much,” Sara said.

Emma nodded. Sara saw the determination in her face deepen. “How can we contact you to tell you about the signal pirating thing?” Silently, Sara blessed her. Emma was all in. And that meant Craig was probably helping whether he wanted to or not.

S
ara pulled Jerry down the sidewalk, urging him to walk faster. She threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure Craig and Emma weren’t following them. When they got back into their motel room Sara breathed a sigh of relief.

She smiled at Jerry. “Emma is really a sweetie. No wonder you guys are such good friends.”

Jerry’s face broke into a wide grin, like it always did when he talked about Emma. “Yeah, Emma’s good people. Don’t worry, she’ll find that teenage mom and take good care of her.” Jerry’s face crumpled a little. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

“About Jessica? I don’t know, I just didn’t think of it I guess,” Sara said.

Jerry took her hand. Sara was suddenly aware of how close they were standing, and how filthy and grimy she still was.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing, what you are doing for her,” Jerry said softly.

“Thanks.” She smiled back at Jerry. “We could take those showers now.”

“That sounds like a great idea.” Jerry’s voice lowered and Sara saw flat desire flare in his eyes.
Oh boy
. He reached over his head and stripped off his shirt, revealing a finely-muscled chest and abdomen that Sara’s fingers itched to touch. Sara swallowed hard, feeling her own desire build in response.
Oh Lord
, she thought.
I’m in so much trouble
.

“I-I just have a phone call I
have
to make first,” she said, forcing her eyes to look somewhere-anywhere else but his body.
Smooth
, she thought, chastising herself for her weakness, for the tremor in her voice.

“OK. If you give me your clothes I’ll throw them in the washing machine down the hall.”

My clothes? You want my clothes?
Sara’s thoughts grew frantic. She had promised herself that she would make the most of what little time they had together. In her mind that meant a replay of those glorious moments they had stolen in the desert, where he had loved her like no one had ever loved her before. But now, alone in a motel room with him, reasonably safe for the moment, she felt anxious and shy. Almost like she was doing something wrong.

“OK.” She took the phone and ran into the bathroom, not looking at him. She stripped her pants and shirt off and threw them out the door. She took off her bra and after a moments hesitation threw it out too. That just left her underwear. She rolled them down her legs and looked at them. Was she really going to give Jerry the underwear she has spent the last 6 days wearing? She eyed the garbage, wanting to just throw them away. But then she’d have to put her jeans back on with no underwear. Sara sighed, folded her underwear up as small as she could get them, and dropped them on top of the pathetic pile of clothes just outside the door.

“I’ll be back in a second,” Jerry called. She heard the door open and close.

Sara wrapped a towel around her and sat on the cold, closed toilet lid. She looked up the number to the lawyer in Southern Idaho that was managing the trust she’d created for Jessica, and called him. She explained that she needed $50,000 of her money transferred into a new trust here in Las Vegas, immediately accessible by a name she made up on the spot. She then explained that Emma Hill would be contacting him to make arrangements to get Jessica to Idaho soon, and that she would re-fund the 50K as soon as she could. She didn’t dare transfer any money from her Brook accounts or her Sara accounts. Thorpe was likely watching them. If she made it out of this alive, she’d send the money. If she didn’t, at least Jessica and her friend had $200,000 to get them started. She’d send one last message to Emma before they confronted Carruthers and ask her to contact the lawyer if she wasn’t able to.

That done, she dropped the towel and climbed into the shower. Steaming hot water sliced the dust and grime off of her. The last week sloughed up and swirled down the drain. She started to feel tired and imagined what sliding between clean sheets in a real bed would feel like.

Sara felt a change in the temperature of the room, even from the other side of the shower curtain. Someone had opened the door. “Hey, can I come in?” Jerry’s voice. “Sure,” she squeaked, feeling like a different person. She was facing the faucet and didn’t see him, but could tell he was entering the shower behind her. Her eyes opened in shock at the same time as her body tightened  and tensed in anticipation. Anticipation of what, she wasn’t sure.

Sara felt like running.
What should she do? What was he going to do? Was he naked?

Of course he’s naked
, her mind chastised her.
Snap out of it
.
Regular people take showers together all the time
.

Sara heard the little shampoo bottle being squeezed, and suddenly Jerry’s hands were in her hair, lifting it and massaging her scalp. “Is this OK?” he asked. “Sure,” she squeaked again. She melted inside just a little bit.
He was washing her hair
.

The suds worked their way down her shoulders and slipped down her body. His strong hands combed through her hair and then settled on her shoulders, rubbing them. “You’re tense,” he said. “Did I surprise you?”

“Yeah, a little,” she said. “I didn’t know you were going to come in here.”

“I’m sorry. Do you want me to leave?”

“No,” she said, too quickly. “Ah, no. It’s OK. I guess I’m just nervous, you know? I’ve never ...” she trailed off.

“I know. You’ve never had a boyfriend. This is all new to you.”

“Yeah,” she breathed. “But I like it.” She bit her lip, startled by her boldness.

He was standing so far away from her. She could be bold again. She pulled on his arm, urging him closer, and at the same time she backed up into him. Something speared her backside. Sara uttered a small shriek and jumped forward, almost losing her footing in the slippery tub.
He was hard! Like steel!
Sara felt her face heat up in an instant.

Jerry chuckled indulgently, like he thought she was adorable. “Uh, sorry about that. It’s just, well, from back here the view is
amazing
.”