Nailed (Marked For Love #1) (15 page)

When she answered, I pulled the card from my pocket and shoved it in her face. "Look legit to you?"

"I guess." She shrugged and took it from me, motioning for me to come in. "Did you hear Tan left Kaylee?"

"Yeah, she's sleeping with his sister."

Her face twisted into something between a laugh and a grimace, and we got a case of the giggles together. "Poor guy." She glanced at my hand still holding the card. "So where'd you get that?"

"I ran into some FBI agents at the Speedie-Mart."

"Are they looking for your friend, John?" she asked, smirking.

I smirked back. "Unfortunately,
no
. They were looking for Jeanette!"

"Porter?" She leaned forward, eyes wide.

"Porter," I said, nodding.

"No freakin' way!"

"Yes freakin' way! I need you to go tell her while I sneak up to Wynn's, 'cause the last thing I need is for the Fed's to get a whiff of 'eau de thug'."

She giggled and bounced on the couch some, like I'd just asked her to go skinny dipping with me. "What are you gonna do?"

"I dunno," I said, twisting the door knob. "We'll figure it out. You know what? Just...Just bring her to Wynn's."

The last thing any of us needed was more attention, especially Federal attention. For that matter, I couldn't imagine what poor Jeanette had done to warrant Federal attention either. I should have asked, but then, that would have been admitting I knew her. Which they probably already knew.

I took the stairs two at a time, hoping like hell Ross and Montgomery weren't skulking around behind the sign, waiting to see where I'd go.  

I never even knocked, hoping if they were watching, they'd think I lived here.

John was sitting on the couch, dressed in a pair of pajama bottoms with red polka dots, fondling, er, cleaning his gun.

"That's very attractive, Johnny." I closed the door behind me, doing my best not to out and out laugh. Despite the gun, the scars and washboard abs, he looked, in a word, ridiculous. "Get dressed."

"You sure are awful bossy." He leaned forward and gently set the gun on the coffee table.

"Wynn, get out here. We've got trouble—" I directed my attention back to John, "—now get dressed before our company arrives."

With a scowl, John disappeared into the bathroom as Wynn joined me. The front door opened and Tara and Jeanette joined us.

"Say hello to Jeanette Porter, Wynn." I waved a hand in her direction.

"I'm going back downstairs to stay with the kids," Tara said.

Jeanette hesitated at the doorstep, and once again I found myself wondering what in the hell some FBI agents wanted with someone like her. "Tara said you wanted to see me."

John rejoined us, the expression on his face closed and wary, his stance firm.

"Did you call them, John?" I asked, letting the anger that had been simmering boil over.

"Call who?" Wynn took a seat, confusion on his face.

"What's this about?" Jeanette tightened the tie holding her robe closed and edged closer to me.

"Get that mean-ass look off your face, John," I ordered, pointing to the couch, "and sit your ass down. You're scaring her."

He took the spot he'd been sitting in earlier, right in front of his gun.

"
You're
scaring
me
," Wynn countered.

"Guess who I ran into at the Speedie-Mart? Guess who they were looking for?" I gave John a pointed look, knowing good and well he'd called them for no reason that I could think of except to cause trouble.

"Honey," Wynn said, "I have no idea who you're talking about."

"The FBI."                                    

"Oh my God," Jeanette muttered, leaning into me. "The kids."

I wrapped an arm around her waist. I felt for her. I felt a kinship with her, remembering my own fear when Wynn had first showed up. "They're parked across the road, so you can't run. Not tonight."

"Why the hell did you call them, John?" Wynn was white-knuckling the chair's arms. "You know I don't need this shit right now. What the fuck were you thinking?"

"I think the better question is, why do they want her?" John leveled his narrow-eyed gaze on her.

"What does it matter? Does Jeanette look like a stone-cold killer to you? Or maybe a drug dealer? Does she look like someone who needs to be picked up by the Feds? And what happens to her kids if she's arrested, you cold-hearted piece of shit?" I tightened my grip on Jeanette, wanting nothing more than to walk over and kick the hell out of him.

"John, how could you be so stupid? So
fucking
stupid! You're not even supposed to be here, and you call your feebie friends!"

"Friends?!" A shot full of adrenaline raced through me, narrowing my vision and leaving me weak-kneed.

"John here used to be a fed." Wynn hooked a thumb in his brother's direction, then made a shushing motion. "Very hush, hush stuff. You know, the kind they deny. And not for very long. I'm sure you can guess why."

Jeanette was now crying, softly. "I did what I thought—"

"I don't even want to know." Wynn held up a hand to stop her from talking. "The less we know the better."

"He's right," I said. We gave each other a look of understanding and agreement. "We have to get her out of here."

"You have to turn her over to the Feds." John glared at me, but it didn't work.

I wasn't buying it. "You're an asshole, and now you're going to help us get her out of here."

"No."

"Yes. You. Are!" I matched him evil look for evil look.

"Yes, you are," Wynn said calmly. Calm enough to even make me shiver, and he was the last person I'd ever be scared of. "Now start talking."

"She's wanted in—"

"John! The facts!"

He glared at me for a few heartbeats before answering. "Okay, fine, I called, but she's—"

"And you made fun of me for having a whacked out code." Wynn muttered a few more choice cuss words under his breath. "What's their next move?"

"They'll probably come at daybreak," he said, leaning into the cushions in obvious defeat. "Nothing heavy-duty. Just the two of them before she's up and gone for the day."

I would have laughed if the matter hadn't been so serious. If I hadn't been so tired and angry. "So we've got all night to get her and the kids out of here."

John corrected me with a slight shake of his head. "You do."

"
We
do," I corrected, crossing my arms over my chest. "You're gonna take your gun, tuck it into the back of your pants, walk her down to her apartment and stand guard while she packs. Jeanette, do you have money?"

She nodded and wiped the tears from her face. "I've got a stash, yeah."

I was nowhere near done with big brother. "John, how much do you have?"

"I'm not giving her any money."

"The hell you're not," Wynn said. "I know for a fact you always carry a couple grand on you. Now cough it up."

"Give me one good reason why I should."

Jesus, he was gonna give me an ulcer! "Because if you don't, I'm going to march my happy ass across the street and tell those FBI agents you're a hitman and you've been stalking me."

With an angry look at all three of us, John got up and disappeared. I could hear him rummaging around in Wynn's bedroom.

"I've got a couple grand stashed away too," Wynn said, standing up.

"I don't know—" Jeanette started.

I interrupted her. "You don't have any choice."

"They've already seen you," Wynn said, nodding in my direction, "so you need to stay put until dark. Tara can take Jeanette in her car and I can take the kids in mine. We can meet up in Alpine and then Tara can ride back with me."

John returned and threw two rubber banded stacks of what appeared to be hundred dollar bills on the coffee table. "Happy now."

"Very, you fucking scrooge."

Wynn eased to his feet, smoothing his jeans down his legs, and picked up the money. "And if you ever do anything like this again, I'll take you out and kill you myself. Understand me, big brother?"

I spent two very tense hours pacing my apartment and waiting on Tara and Wynn's return. I'd left John on his own, figuring he was sleeping the sleep of the righteous or something asinine like that. Finally, the door knob turned and I ran for it, throwing my arms around Wynn's neck. "Did everything go okay?"

"Everything went fine. They'll be long gone before the agents realize what happened, but we have another problem," he said smoothing my hair off my face.

"What now?"

Shivering at the early-morning chill he'd brought in with him, I turned and crossed to the couch, curling my feet up underneath me.

"The Feds know who you are. It probably won't be long before they figure out your identity is fake, and I don't doubt they're going to know you helped Jeanette."

I sank deeper into the couch as if I could ward off this latest catastrophe. "Oh my God, Wynn, what do we do?"

"We get you out of here. Back to Dallas. I really do have a place there and we get you a new identity."

"I have identities," I said, brightening. At least I could do something. I have two."

"Good. Get packing. I'll wake up John. I want to be gone in an hour."

"Are they still out there?" I asked, referring to the agents that were parked across the road earlier.

"They're gone—for now." His eyebrows rose sharply. "How fast can you pack?"

"Fifteen minutes, but what about Tara?"

"We can't take Tara with us, honey," he sighed.

"I know, but can I at least say good-bye?"

He nodded, as if he understood that I needed to say good-bye to
someone
. I needed to feel like someone might miss me when I was gone.

Once he'd left, I loaded a sleepy, angry Clyde into his carrier and locked him up tight, then set about gathering up photographs, which I
was
taking with me, clothes, cash and the fake identities I'd squirreled away in the sheetrock of my bedroom closet. I looked at the gaping three inch hole I'd left, knowing that if the Feds found it, the game was up.

Oh well, I'd be long gone before that happened.

Wynn came and got my bags. I turned out all the lights and grabbed the handle on the cat carrier, ready to head out after I stopped at Tony and Tara's. Tony was sleepy, but he caught on quick. He knew I was in trouble and leaving. Tara was wide awake and waiting for me when I knocked a few minutes later.

"Wynn told me on the way back." She swung the door open and let me in the darkened apartment. Only the light from the bathroom in the hall illuminated the room. "The Feds."

"Huh?" I sat the carrier down.

"I left the lights off in case they came back."

This was all my fault. If I hadn't wanted to help Jeanette, I wouldn't be running again, but there was no way was I going to let her get picked up. I didn't care why the Feds wanted her, I'd do it again.

My throat thick with tears, I set Clyde down and hugged her. In my three years on the run, she was the closest I'd come to having a friend. And even though she'd driven me nuts plenty of times with her sexual antics and a multitude of boyfriends, I'd still admired her free spirit.

She shoved something in my jeans pocket. "Email me, okay. When you get settled somewhere."

"Maybe you can come visit," I said even though we both knew it would probably never happen. I swiped at my own face and picked up the cat carrier, thankful Clyde was being so quiet. "Take care of yourself."

"You too. And don't forget to write!"

Chapter Twenty-Four

John left ahead of them, riding point and keeping an eye out for the Feds. Wynn was still mad, and unsure if he'd ever forgive his brother for the shit he'd just pulled. His brother's uncharacteristic lack of common sense had left him reeling.

What the hell had he been thinking?

Wynn loaded up the last of Julie's bags and slammed the trunk, then helped her get Clyde settled in the back seat. "Get in back with him, stay low until we get out of town. I don't want anyone knowing you're back there."

With a nod, she pushed the carrier over and slid in. Wynn closed the door behind her and circled around to the driver's side, worried at how quiet she'd been. Taking her to his place in Dallas was the latest in a list of bad ideas and once his dad found out how terribly wrong things had gone, there'd be hell to pay, but he'd worry about that later.

He backed out of his spot, pulled into the street and headed through town for Alpine. "We should be in Dallas by late morning," he whispered.

He eased past streets still asleep, closed stores, the occasional pickup truck, already regretting his decision to take Julie away from what had to have been a security blanket for her. What had been her only security since leaving Scottsdale three years before.

"I'm scared," came a tiny voice from the back seat. It didn't even sound like the same Julie.

Guilt dug at him. It'd take her a while to get her bearings back.

"Everything's going to be fine," he said as much to reassure her as himself. He'd said that same thing to her more times in the last couple weeks than he could count. "Just fine."

"I'm holding you to that," she said with a sniffle.

***

They stopped in Alpine so Julie could climb in the front seat while John went in the store for some Cokes.

"Why don't you go to Midland and catch a plane home," Wynn suggested.

"Can't." John blew on his coffee, glancing at where Julie sat, the windows up, her fingers wrapped around her soda.

"You need to leave before this gets anymore fucked up than it is."

John shook his head. "Mom and Dad know where I've been. If I go home, they'll want a report, and you know I can't lie." John could dissimilate maybe but lie, never. He got busted every time.

"And besides, Mom already knows I'm here with you."

Even better yet. No wonder he hadn't heard from her since the furniture arrived.

"What does Mom know?"

"Just that I'm here."

"That's fabulous John, thanks. Anything else you'd like to do to fuck up my life?" Wynn dug his keys out of his pocket, ready to get back on the road and away from his brother, before he did something stupid, like hit him.