Manhunt (6 page)

“Ummm... Hill! Yes, that’s her name. Dr. Hill!”

“All right, I’ll call Dr. Hill and ask her to meet me here. When you arrive, the front desk will know I’m waiting for you and they’ll take you straight back. I’ll have a room ready.”

Christian went to the key rack by the front door. He eyed the keys to Michael’s Mustang. It was by far the fastest car he had access to, but would most certainly give them away. Scowling, he grabbed the keys to Sophie’s coupe and once again headed for the bathroom.

Sophie hadn’t moved a muscle, and looked deathly pale. When he helped her stand, the water in the bowl was tinted pink. He’d seen a lot of blood in his days, but somehow this pink water made him more ill than he had ever been. Clenching his eyes shut, he turned away from the toilet, picked up his wife and carried her to the car.

As soon as he pulled out of the parking lot, he saw an unmarked car start following him. Jesus, they’re watching the house. Well, I hope they are caught up on their high speed chase certification. Christian gunned the gas, and sure enough, the lights and sirens started going behind him. Nothing short of a brigade of little old ladies with walkers crossing the street would make him stop, and even that was questionable. They were just going to have to follow him all the way to the hospital if they wanted him so badly.

And they did. He pulled up in front of the entrance to the emergency room and, not even bothering to turn off the ignition, ran around to open the passenger door. Luckily, someone was waiting with a wheelchair for her. The cops ran up and started to yell at him but stopped in their tracks when they realized what was going on.

“This is my wife, Sophie Jefferson,” Christian told the orderly. “She’s pregnant and bleeding. Dr. Brennan is waiting for us.”

“Yes, sir,” the orderly replied. “He asked me to wait here for you. Dr. Hill is on her way.”

Christian nodded and allowed the orderly to push Sophie into the building, but he stayed hot on his heels. Sophie was moaning and holding her stomach as they helped her get on the hospital bed, tears falling down her face.

Dr. Brennan appeared in the room before she could even lay back. “Please, Aaron. You’ve got to help her.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Sophie said through gritted teeth. “Save our baby.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to save you both, Soph. I need you to try and relax.”

The next few hours were a blur to Christian. People coming in and out, taking blood, checking her IV, taking her for tests. At one point, Christian realized he had no idea where the cops who had followed him had gone. Honestly, he couldn’t care less, and put it out of his mind. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Sophie was wheeled back into the room, Dr. Brennan holding her hand. They were both smiling, despite looking as exhausted as he felt. He took that as a good sign and sighed heavily.

“They’re both all right. Sophie’s fine and she isn’t miscarrying. The baby’s fine.”

Dr. Hill spoke then, and Christian felt badly for not noticing she had entered behind them. “I’m keeping her overnight for observation, just to be safe. But she’s on total bed rest once she gets home, all right? No. More. Stress. Understood?”

Christian nodded. He knew he couldn’t have prevented the stress she endured tonight, but he sure as hell would make sure that shit didn’t happen again.

After they got Sophie settled in a room for the night and she dozed off, Christian headed downstairs to move Sophie’s car before it got towed. The first thing he’d noticed was that the doors were shut and the engine was no longer running. He hoped that didn’t mean that it had run out of gas. There were two pieces of paper on his car, one under each windshield wiper. The first was a blank piece of copy paper, with “Do Not Tow” written in black permanent marker. A sloppy signature was scrawled at the bottom which he couldn’t make out, but below the signature, it read “Badge #427 H.P.D.” The other was a smaller yellow piece of paper under the driver’s side windshield wiper. It was a warning for speeding. He had to laugh. Were they serious? Still, he supposed they could have been jerks about the whole situation and weren’t, so for that he could only be grateful. He went to throw the paper on the floor of the passenger side as he sat down behind the wheel when a handwritten note on the back caught his eye.

Sorry to hear about your wife. Hope she and the baby are okay.

Christian was beyond shocked. Not only had they not arrested him for reckless driving, which he knew they would have been well within their rights to do, but the cops genuinely seemed concerned and even went so far as to ensure his car wasn’t towed away.

It went against everything he’d ever learned about law enforcement. In his mind, they were the bad guys, the crooked cops drunk on power and sometimes more, who got sadistic enjoyment from making his teenage years—and Michael’s, for that matter—miserable. Their unwanted attention didn’t deter him; it only made him more cunning. He’d learned how to operate under the radar, and laughed at how they could never catch him red-handed. The small criminal empire he’d created wasn’t the first choice for him. He wanted to be an honest businessman one day, but grand theft auto was the only door which opened to him. He’d learned to take the opportunities as they came.

He shook his head, upset with himself for the brief bout of self-pity. Pretty soon he was going to start belting out “Hard Knock Life” or crying over Oliver Twist. He scolded himself as he turned the key, relieved when the car started right up. He had much more important things to focus on than the injustices of his youth.

When he returned to Sophie’s room, she was asleep and a nurse was checking her IV. With a sigh of relief, Christian allowed his thoughts to drift to Michael and Nikki. He wondered where they were, if they were okay. He worried how Nikki was healing, and if she’d regained her memories yet. But mostly, he worried about when they got caught. And they would eventually be caught, it was inevitable. He was almost glad the investigators had turned their sights on him. Maybe it would keep them off the trail, at least for a little while.

Still, he and Wes, his attorney, needed to have a serious conversation in the very near future, one he wasn’t looking forward to.

Chapter 7

Michael drove all through the night while Nikki slept. He pulled over around 7:30 AM to stop at a fast food restaurant for a coffee and restroom break. He pushed Nikki’s hair back from her face and nudged her shoulder gently to wake her up. She winced in pain as she tried to stretch.

“Come on, Sunshine. We’ll splurge for egg sandwiches.”

Nikki opened one eye skeptically. “With sausage?”

Michael laughed, glad she was starting to remember what foods she liked.

“Of course!”

He got out and went around to help her out of the car. They were either going to have to find a place to stay, or perhaps he would see if Nikki felt up to driving while he slept. Either way, they both needed to stretch out their legs for a little while. When Nikki got out of the restroom after freshening up a bit, Michael was already sitting at a table nearby with sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches, coffee and juice.

“How are you feeling?” Michael asked, concern marring his features.

“Well, I’d like to say I’ve felt worse, but I honestly don’t know if that’s true.”

Michael chuckled in spite of himself. At least she was able to joke about it. She sat down gingerly and stretched her legs out under the table before unwrapping her sandwich and taking a bite, humming with pleasure. Michael smiled and went back to eating his sandwich. They shared a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“How did you sleep?” Michael asked.

“More nightmares, flashes of things that don’t seem to piece together or make sense,” Nikki replied with a noncommittal shrug.

“Why don’t you tell me about them? Perhaps they were more memories coming to the surface.”

Nikki shook her head vehemently. “No, thank you.” Michael’s brow furrowed as he tried to read between the lines. “Like I said, nightmare,” was her only reply. Nikki took a long drink of her juice before deftly changing the subject. “Are you going to tell me why we are on this little road trip?”

“You’ve always wanted to go to Disney World?” It came out more like a question, one begging her to let it drop at that, but she didn’t fall for it.

“At least answer me this—are we running towards something, or away from something?” She took another bite out of her sandwich, seeming much calmer than he would have expected with a question like that.

He gave her the only honest answer he could. “Both, I suppose.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble or something?”

“Or something.” Michael’s irritation was starting to show through, he was sure. He wished she would just trust him and leave it at that. No such luck.

Nikki tossed the rest of her sandwich on the table angrily. “All right, then, answer me this. If I decide I want to hop on the next bus back to Hershey, are you going to stop me?”

“Yes,” he replied through clenched teeth. “Now leave it alone and eat your breakfast.”

“Are you nuts?! Are you sure you aren’t the one with the messed up brain? It was one thing to ask me to follow you at the hospital. But now you’ve—” Nikki lowered her voice to a hissing whisper, “—forced me to change my appearance, refused to answer any of my questions about where we’re going or why, and have just informed me that I am for all intents and purposes being held against my will. Now why on Earth would I agree to all that?”

Michael’s eyes darted around the dining area, looking for any sign their conversation was overheard. Satisfied that it had at least remained private, he looked back at Nikki, her eyes full of fire and fury, trying to figure out the best way to ensure her compliance. Michael got up from his seat, and scooted into the chair next to her. He took her left hand and held it up to his heart.

“Do you feel that, Nikki?” She nodded silently. “It beats for you. Everything I have ever done, I have done for you. I have made mistakes. Many terrible, terrible mistakes. But I can’t live without you for one more day. I’m sorry I can’t answer your questions, but please, trust in me. Trust in my love for you.”

Nikki gasped at the declaration, pulling her hand away to touch her fingers to her lips. Michael struggled to hide the hurt behind an emotionless mask. She tried to reach out to him a moment later, but he dodged her efforts as he got out of his seat and held his hand out to help her up.

“Time to go.”

All things considered, Michael decided against asking Nikki to drive. Twenty more miles and they would be in North Carolina. He decided to push forward at least that far. Not wanting to risk Nikki trying to escape at a rest stop, he had no choice but to look for yet another cheap motel. He hated doing it—Nikki deserved so much better—but they’d already used over $400 out of the $2,000 Christian had given him.

About 45 miles later, they were settled inside another ma-and-pa motel, The Sleep Inn, which Michael considered the stupidest name for a motel he’d ever heard. On the outside, it appeared to be much nicer than the last one, with little window boxes filled with pansies and brass lamppost door knockers. A pleasantly plump woman named Sally with an apron over her floral mu-mu and flour in her hair came out from another door, presumably her apartment, to greet them and let them know there were free breakfast pastries and coffee included, and that checkout wasn’t until noon, thus the name.

Thankfully, Nikki was polite and engaged in pleasant conversation with Sally while they were checking in without giving off any warning signs, but Michael was on edge nonetheless. Nicole may not have had her memories, but her temper and personality were fully intact. Once she set her mind to something, she rarely gave up.

The inside of the motel room was similar to the one before, with the exception of being considerably cleaner. Not a dead frog to be found. The coin-operated vibrating bed was still there, as were the generic landscape prints, although the television had free local channels this time.

Once again, Michael let Nikki clean up first. His mind wandered while he unpacked, picturing her in the shower, almost hoping for another spider to rear its ugly head. He imagined the scene from last night, only this time she fell into his arms, grateful her hero had rescued her. When she emerged half an hour later dressed and dry, he was irrationally disappointed and struggled to refocus as he dressed her wounds.

As he worked in silence, he was struck by the change the last 24 hours had brought. When the back of his hand brushed against her breasts as he gently wrapped the tape around her ribs, he couldn’t stop his body’s reaction. The contact felt so much more intimate than it had the night before, and when she involuntarily shivered, it affected him even more so. Michael reminded himself over and over in his mind that he was a doctor, his duty was to tend to her with the clinical detachment he’d had no trouble honing in the emergency room. He wasn’t very successful, however, and had to shift out of her line of vision, avoiding eye contact as he did. When he was certain he was out of sight, he quickly adjusted himself, huffing in annoyance at his own weakness.