Forbidden Touch (17 page)

Mitch quickly paid the woman with shaking hands. She looked at him a little funny but didn't say anything except to have a nice day.

They walked as quickly as they could back to the vehicle. Mitch got in on the driver's side. If his features began to change back, he wouldn't be able to drive for long before someone identified him as one of America's Most Wanted.

She wouldn't be able to drive either, because to do that she would have to be invisible. Vehicles didn't drive themselves. Someone really needed to invent a car that could. It would make her life a hell of a lot easier, she thought.

He was breathing hard, and she stared at him. He still looked like the strange guy. She flipped the sun visor down and looked in the lighted mirror. She was still the red head with pale skin, but she hadn't been in the camera back at the store. The screen had shown her to be slightly tanned with long, dark brown hair. A look she'd had for over three centuries. How could the camera see them as anything but what they looked like on the surface?

Mitch was near hyperventilation, and when she touched his arm he jumped. "Calm down. Look in the rearview mirror. You are fine. I guess cameras see more than meets the eye."

He did as she said and looked in the mirror. She was right, he was still in disguise. He slowed his breathing, then took a big breath and let it out slowly. "That scared the hell out of me. What if we do change back before we get there? If anyone recognizes me, we are caught; well, I will be."

She shook her head, but he couldn't see it. She had already made herself invisible. The very tip of the big yellow ball of fire had peaked over a hill only seconds before. "I don't know. Just obey the traffic laws, and the next gas station you come to stop and fill up. We should have done that back there but I didn't think about it until now. The windows on this vehicle are tinted pretty dark. I don't think anyone would recognize you just driving by."

Mitch looked down at the fuel gage. He had a quarter tank of gas, but she was right, they needed to fill up as soon as possible in case the spell wore off. Mitch Foley wouldn't be able to get out and pump gas, but Mitch Foley in disguise could. He looked up just in time to see another exit sign. He took it and went straight for the Exxon just off of the exit ramp.

He parked by a pump and looked over to the empty seat. "How do I look?"

There was a giggle, and then Ciera spoke. "You look fine, now go pump gas."

He got out. It was a pre-pay pump unless you had a credit card to stick in the slot. He did, but using it was out of the question. He felt paranoid as he walked in the store. There were two people in front of him. The lady directly in front of him looked back at him and smiled, and then she turned back around.

He breathed in deep and slow, forcing his feet not to turn and run back out the door. I am fine, he told his brain. The woman moved up to the counter and told the pimpled-faced teenager behind the register that she needed forty dollars on pump number four. She laid the two twenties down, then turned and smiled at him again before walking out the door.

He shook his head as he moved up. He laid three twenties on the counter. "I need sixty on pump five, and if it doesn't hold all of it, you can have what it don't take. I don't have time to come back in."

The kid's face lit up. "No shit? Thanks, mister,"

"Don't thank me. I haven't pumped my gas yet, kid," he said as he jogged out the door.

When he got back to the Tahoe, he realized that the woman who wanted forty on pump four, was parked just on the other side of his pump. She was a very pretty lady, not a match on Ciera, but she cleaned up well and looked fit. She seemed to be having trouble with her pump, but he ignored it. He promised himself that he would do two good deeds tomorrow, if there was a tomorrow for him.

He flipped the gas lid open and unscrewed the cap, then slid the nozzle in place, flipped the lever on the pump and hit the button for regular unleaded gas. He squeezed the trigger and began pumping. The woman was still having trouble getting hers to start, and he wondered briefly why women didn't have to learn how to work a gas pump when taking their driving test.

He turned his back to her, but it was only a few seconds before he heard her voice behind him. "Excuse me."
Shit!
He turned around to face her and she smiled that award winning smile again. "Um, I think my pump is broken. Would you care to look at it to see if I'm doing something wrong? I usually don't have to pump my own gas." Well isn't that obvious, he thought. "I broke up with my boyfriend last night, and so I guess I will have to learn to do a lot of things on my own." She looked up at him through thick eyelashes. Any other time in the past, he would have been all over that signal she was obviously sending him, but at the moment it didn't do anything except irritate him.

He walked to her side of the pump and flipped the lever up. He motioned with his hand at the three buttons. "Pick the one you want and push it. It should work now."

She touched his arm, and he stopped and looked at her. "Thank you so much, Mr ...?"

Mitch heard his nozzle click off, and he pulled his arm away from her hand. "You're welcome." He walked back to his pump and squeezed the trigger a few more times to get all he could get. He was betting the guy in the store was watching and swearing at him to stop. The guy did end up getting $4.06 out of the deal.

"Are you from around here?" the woman asked, and Mitch jumped as he slid the nozzle back in its cubby hole.

His heart was in his throat. Had he not been obvious enough in letting her know that he wasn't interested? He was guessing if she knew that he was wanted for twenty murders, whether he was guilty or not, she would have already squealed her tires out of there. "No, I'm only passing through." He opened his door and she moved closer.

"Well, I could give you my number for when you come back through here."

"Honey, who are you talking to?" Ciera's voice came from the back seat. She was right, the windows were tinted so dark that you couldn't see in the vehicle. Not that she could have been seen anyway.

He looked back to the woman who had gone as still as a rock. The look on her face was almost comical. "I'm coming, honey. There was a lady having trouble with her gas pump. She was only thanking me for showing her how to use it." The woman glanced at Mitch's left hand on the door of his Tahoe. He knew what she was seeing, or rather not seeing, no wedding band. For once in his life he wished he had one there. He shrugged. "I don't wear it. It could cause me to get my finger ripped off in the line of work I do."

She nodded slowly and swallowed hard. "Of course," She turned and almost fell over the concrete step the pump was sitting on. It took everything he had in him not to bust out laughing.

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Chapter
27

Ciera was laughing when Mitch shut his door.

He growled as he looked at the empty seat, then smiled. "Shut up."

"I guess there is one woman who finds you attractive," she said, and stifled another giggle.

He rolled his eyes at her. "And you don't?"

"Like I told you earlier, I like the old you better," she said as he put the SUV in drive and opened his Red Bull. She had opened his box of food so he wouldn't have any trouble eating and driving. She had opened six of the little ketchup packets, and emptied them all in a neat little pile in the corner of the box for his hash rounds. He could definitely get used to her being around.

He watched in mock amazement as a hash round was dipped, and then raised up to his mouth. He shook his head and laughed softly as he took the bite.

"I'll feed you, you drive; eggs are next," she said.

Mitch pulled back onto the interstate, reached the speed limit and set the cruise control. If they got pulled over, he would be in a world of deep shit.

He drove and ate the food that was offered to him, while she talked more about her life as a vampire. He was completely fascinated by it all, and he thought about bringing up the subject of changing him again. He didn't for two reasons: one being that it was daylight and she couldn't do it now even if she wanted to. They would both fry. And the other reason was because he didn't want to fight with her if she said no. They were having a good time just talking to each other; he didn't want to ruin a good thing. Furthermore, he didn't know how long the transition would take, or if it would hurt. 

They spent almost the whole day laughing and talking as he drove across New Mexico and into Arizona. It was no longer weird for him not to be able to see her beside him as they talked. He told her about his mother and about his nonexistent father with ease. He hadn't realized just how much he wanted to talk about all of it. Who would have thought that vampires could be therapists?

They didn't have to look at a map. Ciera
was
the map. They were just outside of Winslow, AZ, and neither of them had been paying any attention to their surroundings. They had been too caught up in conversation to notice the police cruiser on the Tahoe's bumper, until they heard the siren go off. Mitch quickly looked in his rearview mirror as Ciera looked out the back glass. Blue lights were streaming across the top of a state trooper's patrol car.

"Shit!" Ciera said, but the stream of profanities coming from Mitch's mouth was too much to follow. "Pull over," she said.

He shot her a disbelieving look. "If I pull over, I'm going to prison. This is a vehicle that belongs to a dead woman, her son is wanted for twenty murders, and I just so happen to have her son's wallet in my back pocket. How would you like me to explain that to the cop, Ciera?"

She huffed. "Just pull over and let me take care of it."

He shook his head, but slowed down and pulled the vehicle over on the shoulder of the road. He put it in park and started to reach for his wallet, but her hand fell on his.

"Leave it there. You won't need it," she said.

He just stared at the blank space where he knew she was. "It is standard protocol for you to give the police officer your driver's license, registration and proof of insurance when they stop you."

"Just sit there and don't say anything, Mitch. I will handle it."

"You aren't going to kill him are you?" he asked as he felt her move the top part of her body onto his lap.

"Not if I don't have to," she said, and laughed when his jaw fell.

"That's comforting to know," he said, then his window began to go down.

He glanced in his side mirror as the trooper stepped out of his cruiser. He had his hand on his weapon. It was still in its holster, but he could tell it was unsnapped and ready to be drawn if needed.

His heart was beating hard, and he could have sworn the damn thing was in his throat as the cop approached his vehicle.

Ciera spoke when the officer was only a few feet from the door, and it froze him in his tracks. Guess he wasn't expecting a woman's voice to come out of the vehicle. He was more than likely expecting to see Detective Mitch Foley behind the wheel, but he wasn't seeing that either. There was a blond-headed guy sitting behind the wheel that didn't match the description of the man's picture they had on the flyers. "What seems to be the problem, Officer? I know we weren't speeding."

Her hypnotic voice had him inching closer to the open window. He could hear her, but he couldn't see her, and something was telling his brain that he had to see her. And if there was a way his wife wouldn't find out, he wanted to see all of her. He peered into the cab of the Tahoe, but still he couldn't see her. "This vehicle is stolen," he said to the voice, paying no attention to the blond guy behind the wheel.

Mitch thought the Trooper looked to be in some type of daze.

Ciera laughed and moved a little closer to the officer's face. She looked deep in his eyes and said, "You have the wrong vehicle. You were so excited that you caught Mitch Foley, that you got the letters and numbers all mixed up on the license plate. You have already looked at the driver's license of the driver, and they belong to Kyle Douglas. You never heard a woman's voice in the vehicle, and you really need to get something to drink. You are sooo thirsty. Tell the man behind the wheel that you were mistaken, and that he is free to go. Oh, and you be sure to tell dispatch that you got the letters and numbers mixed up. We don't want to have this same mistake happen again up the road now, do we?"