Last Chance To Run (17 page)

Angel didn’t want her to go, but neither did she want Trish to miss her bus.

“I hope you two keep seeing each other. I really like you and my brother is the best. We’re a lot alike you know.”  Trish grinned and winked.

His sister clearly didn’t want to leave yet.

Angel decided to sit back and see what else Trish would tell her about Zane. Smiling at Trish, Angel said, “I’ll admit you two can’t deny being brother and sister.”

“Well, yeah, that too, but he’s restless like me,” Trish noted.

“Really?
What do you mean?”

Trish warmed to the new topic. “He can’t stay still for long. He’s always planning something and sometimes he flies without a load, without saying where he goes. I guess just to be flying. I think he just gets bored without the adrenaline rush of flying fighter jets, but he’s always off doing stuff and won’t talk about his work. I call him the mystery man.”

Now they were getting somewhere.

Angel leaned forward but before she could ask what Trish meant there was a knock at the door. Trish rocketed up from her chair. She rushed to the door and swung it wide open with no consideration for who stood on the other side.

Angel jumped from the couch, ready to fight for herself and for Trish if a threat came through the door, but that didn’t happen.

Two arms decorated in bangles and rings wrapped around Trish’s back, then a head of spiked blond hair appeared over her shoulder when this new person hugged Trish.

Turning to Angel, Trish announced, “This is my friend, Heidi and Heidi, this is my friend, Angel.”

“Nice to meet you.”
  Angel walked over to shake hands.

“Same here.
Wow, you’re even taller than Trish. I’m living in the land of giants.”

An understandable observation from someone who only reached Angel’s shoulder.

Trish’s uninhibited grin radiated happiness. Angel swallowed a lump of jealousy over the noticeably close friendship.

No brother, no sister, no girlfriends, no man in Angel’s life. Why couldn’t she have
one
person in her life
who
cared for her?

Was she destined to spend her life alone?

Heidi told Trish, “Ready to go home?”

“Sure thing.”
Trish turned to Angel. “Tell Zane I had to go, but I’ll see him later.”  She gave Angel a big hug and whispered, “Thanks. I owe you.” 

“What for?”

“Not lecturing me about drinking and helping me clean up the floor, which means you don’t plan to tell Zane.”

The unrestrained hug warmed Angel’s heart. She didn’t want to lecture Trish, but she would like to help the young woman. “I won’t say a word, but take care of
yourself
.”

Trish nodded then snatched up her purse from the kitchen, and waved as she left in a flurry of chattering as Heidi closed the door behind them.

Leaving Zane
and
Trish would be hard, but never seeing either one again was going to hurt. Once she went into a witness protection program, no way could she have contact with either.

She smacked her head.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I cannot believe I didn’t ask her about the damn boat curtains. Next time I need to keep my nose stuck in my own business,” she complained to the empty room. Shaking her head, she dropped onto the dark green leather chair, wishing she really lived here and had Trish as a friend.

Trish would probably say, “Just do it,
Sug
. Take care of that small problem and hang around.”

Angel had stretched the truth with that adjective.

A
small
problem would be if no one showed up in a week to pay the rent on her tiny house back in Raleigh. Playing keep-away with Mason and his goons ranked up with a nightmare-level crisis. 

What few worldly possessions she owned would soon be set on the street, including a used racing bike and her acceptance notice to compete in the Tamarind Triathlon.

All the hard work she’d invested to compete in the high-profile event was wiped away.

Angel glanced at the door. Should she duck out the back and head for the marina to search for the coins?

After all it took to get back here without being seen?

At least she hoped she hadn’t been seen.

Patience
, she reminded herself.

With no idea where Zane had gone, or when he’d return, she pondered Trish’s comment about Zane being a mystery man. Trish might have said more if Heidi hadn’t shown up. 

Zane might be a mystery to his sister, but he’d been nothing short of a lifesaver since Angel had met him. As if it hadn’t been enough to rescue her the night she’d escaped, he’d shown up in the abandoned gas station out of thin air after someone had taken a shot at her.

Questionable timing?
Yes, but she’d been damned glad to see him.

The man chiseled at the barriers she’d built around her emotions. His first kiss had surprised her, but now that she’d tasted Zane Black’s kisses, she wanted more. She licked her lips, savoring the memory of his taste.

Years of debilitating setbacks had hardened her soul. She knew better than to trust a man with her life, but trusting one with her heart? Now that was a real stretch.

Dreams are for other women.
Her throat tightened. She didn’t have a future and not a chance of one with him. Nice guys didn’t want a convicted criminal for a girlfriend.

Nothing could change the past.

Angel never indulged in self-pity, but her eyes burned with tears she refused to let fall.

She was falling in love with Zane.

Stupid, stupid,
stupid!

Must be your lot in life to want only what you can’t have.

Of all the things she’d lost in her life, losing him would be the hardest.

Chapter 25

Zane dialed Ben’s lab number as he whipped his truck around the marina parking lot to head for the exit.

After ten rings he hung up and dialed the cell Ben carried for work.

“This is Ben.”

“Hey, buddy, it’s Zane. Where are you?”

“I’m at the hospital. Kerry went into labor. I just stepped out to call her parents.”

Zane was torn between being thrilled for Ben and disheartened he couldn’t ask his friend to run the prints.
“Don’t let me keep you.”

“The doctor says it’s going to be a while, so I’m good.”

What kind of friend didn’t go to be with his buddy for the birth of his first baby?
Shit.
Ben might not want anyone there now anyhow, but Zane had to go once the baby was born. “Congrats, man. I’ll pick up some bubbly so we can toast when Little Ben pops out.”

“Kerry will kick your ass if you bring in Champagne and she can’t have any yet. So what’s up, Zane? You called for a reason.”

“It’ll wait.”

“Don’t tell me you finally got prints?” Ben razzed.

“Yeah.
I’ve got some data to run, too.”

“You don’t sound thrilled. Why do I get the impression something’s not right?” Ben asked, no longer in teasing mode.

“You could say things have gotten ... involved,” Zane said.

“I don’t like the direction this is going. Why don’t you turn this over to somebody else? You’ve got a lot on the line, which reminds me. I have news.”

“What?” Mac came by to see me on his way out of town.”  Mac was Dan
MacPherson
, the SAC or Special Agent in Charge of the DEA task force that used the information Zane uncovered. “He wants to talk to you. The stuff you’ve been handing us is great, and I think
they’re wanting
to do something permanent or maybe bring you in to work more closely with a team.”

“
No way.
I’m not flying a desk for anything. Not even part of the time.”  Zane hated bureaucracy. Yeah, he knew how to work the politics, had done it for years in the Air Force, but that was the one part of flying fighter jets he’d been glad to give up.
Besides.
The informant gig he had was too sweet to let go.

“Hold your
fuckin
’ horses, Luke Skywalker. You don’t know what
they’re
gonna
offer.” 

Zane’s response came out as an irritated growl. He couldn’t stay in one spot long enough to organize his own package tracking system. He just held everything in his brain. No way could he play their game.

Besides, he’d take a pay cut he couldn’t afford.

Desk jockey was out.

Ben’s heavy, weary sigh came through loud and clear on the phone. “Listen, I’m guessing you’re holding back about this woman because you two are
doin
’ the mattress dance.”

“I’m
– ”

Ben bulldozed right over him. “If you blow your cover –
and this gig
– because of her, I’m
gonna
kick your butt into next year.”

Zane couldn’t argue that point with Ben. He was supposed to be helping
catch
criminals. If he was caught hiding one, he’d face more than watching a reputation and a business crash and burn. 

Still, he couldn’t stop trying until he knew for sure. That’s why he trusted no one but Ben to check out the prints. Even Vance didn’t need to know because it would put him in a tight spot, and that wasn’t fair to their friend who played the third musketeer alongside him and Ben in his small cadre of buddies.

One thing Zane had learned from flying. He had to go with his gut. He could no more turn his back on Angel at this point than he could his sister.

Angel needed him. She was too stubborn to accept his help willingly.
Tough.
She was getting it anyhow.

“It’s complicated, Ben. I have to find out this woman’s background.”

Ben made a noisy sound of blowing out air. “I finished taking apart that chopped-up silver band you brought me. It did have a tracking device inside.”

“Agency model?”

“No.
Latest technology.
Expensive stuff from the private sector, which does
not
make this better.
What if she
is
a criminal?”

“Then I’ll deal with it,” Zane stated emphatically.

“You may be getting in over your head on this one, bud,” Ben warned.

“It is what it is.” 

“Oh, man, this does not sound good, but you aren’t listening so I’ll shut up now. Drop off everything you’ve got. I’ll run it through as soon as I get back to the lab, but I’m telling you I won’t sugarcoat it.”

“Thanks, Ben.”

“And another thing.
If the people who tagged her come after her, you
damn well better call me, hotshot. You’re not bullet proof. I’ll have your back.”

Zane wouldn’t even answer that. No way would he bring Ben anywhere near this. “Give my love to Kerry.”

Zane thumbed the button to end the call, but heard Ben mutter something profane that questioned the position of Zane’s head relative to his ass.

Two more turns until he reached his apartment.

Streetlights flickered on along the highway in the dusty, early-evening glow as the sun was swallowed by the western tree line. Three hours had passed since Angel had vanished.

Sick disappointment settled in his chest.

She hadn’t been at the airport or the boat. He couldn’t think of anywhere else she might go.

With Ben and his wife in the delivery room, Zane wouldn’t get a rundown on the fingerprints for at least another day or two.

By the time he found out who she was it could very well be a moot point.

Angel would be long gone, maybe permanently.

His stomach churned at the idea that someone was trying to kill her. He forced his thoughts away from the idea that they might succeed.

She’d been a frustrating puzzle from the minute he’d met her – a multi-layered, three-dimensional puzzle with dangerous, razor-sharp pieces missing.

Where had she been kept against her will, and why?

All he knew was she had the talent of an elite athlete and had lost a scholarship for some unknown reason. Everything came back to that one word – unknown.

He wanted to shake some sense into her, make her understand how much she needed his help. The thugs he’d met in Jacksonville had been dressed in two-thousand-dollar tailored suits.

Against an organized and financially robust lethal group, how did she expect to protect herself, much less him, too?

He couldn’t recall when a woman had put him first in her life. Certainly not Sylvia, the dazzling jewel he’d fallen for in Texas. She’d been anything but what she’d presented. Truly a woman who planned for her future by covering all bases, Sylvia had still been engaged while dating him.

Just when Sylvia had convinced Zane she loved him, he’d discovered
she had a clueless fiancé who couldn’t wait to marry the lying bitch.

Good thing Ben had still lived in Houston then. Observing Sylvia with objective eyes had given Ben cause to run a very revealing background check.

All
Sylvia’d
really sought was the material wealth Zane’s family name and eventual inheritance would offer. Basically a businesswoman, Sylvia had been shopping her engagement deal to see if she could improve the return on her investment. Since then, Zane had given few women more than casual interest. Others had proved to be just as materialistically driven.

Except for Angel.

For someone who desperately needed assistance just to stay alive, she’d refused his every offer until she’d been forced to take his help.

Trusting few people in his life, he understood Angel’s reluctance to share her private problems, but she wouldn’t survive on her own for long. Not without a lot of luck and a chunk of money. Neither of which appeared readily available to her. What would it take to convince her she could depend on him?

He might never find out.

She was gone, maybe forever. Out of sight, out of mind?

Whoever came up with that saying had never met
Angel.
Auburn hair and mile-long legs remained emblazoned as a header to all his thoughts.

As he made the last corner into his apartment complex, images of Angel clicked past his mind’s eye in slow motion. Wide-eyed and terrified in his airplane, then sleeping curled up on his patio.

Dancing her fingers through the wind as she’d ridden beside him in the truck.
Shampooed and showered, draped in a single towel next to his laundry. Zane smiled, remembering the look on her face when he’d found her.

Then there was the one vision he’d never forget – her half-covered in his shirt and sleeping in his bed.

Her hazel eyes flashed with fire when he annoyed her, but they were pure whiskey – warm and intoxicating – when he kissed her.

He shook his head at his wandering thoughts. What was he going to do? He couldn’t keep walking this damned fence between right and wrong. Indecision was ripping his insides apart.

Go back to the basics. Stick with what you know
.      

Ben was right. If Zane did corral Angel again, he should turn her over to the authorities. They had more time to deal with an uncooperative
female in trouble.

Right?

He parked the truck and sat there, watching the halogen parking lot lamps begin to brighten.

Who was he kidding? He snorted at his lack of honesty.

Even if he didn’t have concerns over their ability to shield her, would he really hand her over to a bunch of strangers? No way. If he found her, he knew what he’d do – drag her into his arms and kiss her senseless. There’d never been a woman he’d been driven to have in the way he desired Angel.

Correction.
If he got her in his hands again, he’d do a hell of a lot more than kiss her.