Tell Me No Spies (19 page)

My tirade was muffled
by Hellhound’s shoulder as he knelt on the swaying floor of the
truck beside my seat and pulled me into a hug. “Shh, darlin’, it’s
gonna be okay. He really cares about ya, I know he does.”

I pulled away. “No,
you don’t get it. I don’t want that from him, or from anybody. It’s
a relief to know I don’t have to deal with it. But he didn’t have
to pull that shit on me. He could’ve just told me the truth. I
would’ve done whatever they needed anyway. I can’t believe he
didn’t trust me enough to know that.”

Hellhound sat back on
his heels, frowning. “Yeah, I can see where that’d hurt. He tranked
me, for fucksakes. What the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know. Do you
think he’s got something else going on that we don’t know
about?”

“Hell, yeah. That’s
gotta be it.”

We eyed each other
uneasily for a few moments. “Are we just bullshitting ourselves?” I
asked finally.

He blew out a long
breath. “I dunno, darlin’. D’ya think he really woulda shot
ya?”

“I don’t know. I don’t
know him at all anymore. Shit, who am I kidding? I never knew
him.”

“I do. ‘Least I
thought I did.”

“Do you think he would
have shot me tonight?”

Arnie rocked to his
feet without meeting my eyes and reseated himself on the bench in
the sleeper. “Tell me what’s goin’ on with Jim an’ Nichele.”

I made fists in my
hair and tugged. “I warned Nichele that James was bad news, but she
wouldn’t listen. She took him home, and he hacked her laptop and
stole her clients’ money.” I paused as a new thought occurred to
me. “Shit, my money, too.”

I sighed. “Now he’s
forcing her into a money-laundering scheme. He beat her and
threatened to kill her if she told. He’s making it look like she’s
the one doing it all, so it’s her ass on the line either way.”

“
Fuck!
That
asshole! I knew things were gonna get ugly as soon as he showed up.
Fucker’s just like the ol’ man. Waste a’ fuckin’ skin. I kept
hopin’ somebody’d slit his fuckin’ throat while he was in
jail.”

“Arnie… he’s your
brother.”

His clenched fist
jerked as though he would punch the cabinet next to him, but he
controlled the motion. Even in the dim glow from the dashboard, I
could see his shoulders bunched with suppressed anger.

“No, he ain’t,” he
said quietly, and the edge in his gravelly voice made me shiver. “I
only got one brother. An’ he just knocked me out an’ handcuffed
me.”

I stared at Arnie
helplessly, getting angrier at Kane by the minute. He’d had orders
to screw me over, literally, and I could probably forgive him for
that if he let me live. He’d only been doing his job. But betraying
Arnie was above and beyond the call of duty.

“We need a plan,”
Arnie said, his voice controlled.

Dave spoke for the
first time since putting the truck in motion. “Got one.”

Hellhound and I both
stared at him in the dim light. I’d been so absorbed in our
conversation I’d forgotten Dave was listening, and I did a quick
mental review to make sure I hadn’t said anything he shouldn’t have
heard.

I shook my head and
tried to focus. God, I was so tired, I couldn’t even remember what
had been said. I’d have to ask Hellhound later. Not for the first
time, I wished I had his photographic memory.

“What’s your plan?”
Hellhound inquired sarcastically. “Ya wanna cram in a few more
criminal offenses tonight while you’re on a roll?”

“Got your sorry a…
butt out of there, didn’t I?” Dave retorted.

“Guys!” I shot a
warning glare at Hellhound, and he slouched back on the bench, arms
crossed. “What’s your plan, Dave?” I asked.

For the first time, I
registered our surroundings. Total blackness around us, with the
highway unrolling ahead and fading away at the limit of the
headlights. “And where the hell are we?” I added.

“TransCanada Highway,
westbound. Plan is, we get some rest. Can’t keep running on empty,
something’s gotta give. I’ll pull in at the truck stop. Good place
to blend in.”

“But, Dave, we have to
figure out a plan.”

“Yeah, we will. First
we sleep. I’ve been driving since seven this morning. Way past my
legal limit.” He flicked a glance toward Hellhound. “Think we all
need to cool down anyway.”

I opened my mouth to
argue, but Hellhound spoke first. “He’s right, darlin’. Sorry,
Dave, I was outta line.”

“No problem.”

The lights of the
truck stop glowed ahead, and I suddenly realized what a bad idea
this was.

“Shit!”

Dave jerked in his
seat. “What?”

“Go north here!”

Dave swerved onto the
exit ramp, braking and downshifting in a flurry of motion.
Hellhound braced himself in the rocking sleeper, arms jammed
against the cabinets. “What the hell?”

“Yeah, what the hel…
sorry, heck?” Dave echoed as the lights receded behind us.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean
to panic everybody, but it just occurred to me. They’ll be watching
the truck stops.”

Dave shot me a
skeptical glance. “You sure? Out in the middle of nowhere?”

“I wouldn’t want to
chance it. By now, Kane’ll have run Dave’s Trucking through the
system, pulled your plates, your phone numbers, your address, and
what you ate for dinner last night. He’ll have given your plate
number and a description of the truck to the city police and the
RCMP, and they’ll all be watching for us. I can’t believe we even
got out of Calgary without hitting a roadblock.”

Dave’s eyes were wide
in the dashboard lights. “You mean he really is a cop?”

“Fuck, yeah, he’s
really a cop,” Hellhound growled. “What part of ‘He’s a cop’ didn’t
ya get?”

“But… No way,” Dave
argued. “Cops can’t get away with stuff like that. That’s like…
police brutality or something. He didn’t even show you a
badge.”

Neither Hellhound nor
I responded to that, and Dave peered over at me. “What are we going
to do now?”

I groaned and sank my
head into my hands as another thought hit me. “I have no idea. We
used up our margin of safety getting out of the city when we should
have been hiding
in
the city. Because now we can’t go back.
We’ll get caught for sure. Every cop will be on the alert.”

In the disheartened
silence that ensued, I leaned my aching body back in the seat and
pummelled my forehead gently with the heel of my hand. God, I was
too tired to function…

“Dave’s right.”
Hellhound’s vote of confidence made both Dave and me throw a
surprised glance back at him. “We all need sleep. An’ there ain’t
any point in tryin’ to get back into the city tonight. Time to lie
low an’ let things settle down a bit.” He turned to Dave. “Just get
off the highway on one a’ these back roads an’ park somewhere.
We’ll figure somethin’ out in the mornin’.”

“…’Kay. You got
somewhere in mind?”

Leather creaked in the
darkness as Hellhound shrugged. “No fuckin’ idea. Just pick
somethin’.”

Some zigzags on the
back roads brought us to an overgrown crossing off a gravel road.
An embankment on one side and a few acres of scrubby trees on the
other provided a bit of concealment. Dave pulled onto the crossing
and shut down the engine. We all sat in silence for a few minutes,
our eyes adjusting to the darkness.

A faint glow of
moonlight provided enough illumination for me to identify the
shapes of the truck seats and my companions. Finally, Dave spoke.
“Aydan, you can have the bed. We’ll take the seats.”

Hellhound muttered
agreement and stood.

“No, Dave, you’d
better take the bed,” I disagreed. “If your back hurts as much as I
think it does, you’ll need to stretch out. We don’t want to take a
chance on you not being able to drive.”

“It’s fine,” he
countered.

I took a different
tack. “Okay.” I stood up and stretched before moving uncertainly
into the sleeper alcove. “Dave, sorry, I’m disoriented here in the
dark. Can you point me to the bathroom?”

“Yeah, hold on.” He
started to rise and let out a gasp of pain as he froze half-erect,
bracing himself on the steering wheel and the back of the seat. He
was straightening by slow degrees, hissing through his teeth, when
Hellhound and I each took an arm and steered him to the bed. As we
got him settled, he spoke through clenched teeth. “Must’ve twisted
it again getting in and out at the hotel. Really starting to
stiffen up now. Might be a better idea to stay in the seat.”

“I doubt it. Hang on.”
I fumbled in my waist pouch and extracted my tiny LED
flashlight.

“Lights are on the
switch over there,” Dave said.

“Never mind, I don’t
want to turn them on,” I said. “Here, hold this.” I handed the
flashlight to Arnie, and he trained the spot of light on my hands
while I fished out my pill container. I shook a couple of
ibuprofens into my palm and handed them to Dave.

He swallowed them
gratefully, and I surveyed his face in the feeble illumination,
feeling responsible. “Would massage help? I’m no pro, but I could
rub it for you and see if it eases the stiffness.”

Hellhound snorted
laughter in the darkness. “Usually things get stiffer when ya start
rubbin’.”

“Wise-ass. What do you
think, Dave?”

“I dunno.” He eased
himself over onto his stomach with a grunt. “I’ll try anything
right about now.”

“Tell me if I hurt
you. I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

He groaned as I
started to gently knead his back, and I snatched my hands away.
“Did I hurt you?”

“No. That’s great.” He
let out another ecstatic groan as I resumed working the
muscles.

“Jeez, Dave, ya need
to be alone for a while?” Hellhound made his way to the passenger
door. “I gotta take a leak an’ stretch my legs. Don’t do anythin’ I
wouldn’t do.”

I laughed. “Carte
blanche. Sweet.”

He chuckled and swung
out of the cab.

For a while, I worked
in a silence punctuated only by Dave’s blissful moans. Eventually
he spoke, muffled by the pillow. “Are you and Arnie, um…?”

“Friends.”

Silence.

“You seem pretty…
friendly.”

“Friends with
benefits.”

“Oh.”

About the time my
arthritic thumbs began to complain in earnest, Dave heaved a huge
sigh. “Thanks. That feels a lot better.”

“Good.” I rose slowly,
straightening out some kinks of my own after spending so long
contorted over the narrow berth. “I’m going to go outside for a
bit, too.”

I lowered myself down
from the passenger door and bit back a cry when I turned and bumped
into Hellhound in the darkness. His arms closed around me. “Ya get
Dave tuned up?”

“I hope so. He was in
rough shape.”

“I’m in rough shape,
too. I could use some rubbin’.”

“No doubt.” I snuggled
closer in the chilly night air. “So could I.”

“That could be
arranged.” His hands drifted down my back.

“Sorry, your
opportunity to indulge in the audience fantasy has passed. And it’s
too damn cold outside.” I kissed him and pulled away. “I’ve been
cooped up in that truck for days. I’m just going to walk for a few
minutes. And if I don’t sleep soon, I’m going to puke.”

“I’ll walk with
ya.”

We meandered down the
middle of the deserted road, his arm around my shoulders, listening
to the country night noises and the crunch of our own
footsteps.

Out of earshot of the
truck, he spoke. “We gotta have a talk.”

“Uh-oh. Any time a guy
says we have to have a talk, it’s nothing but bad news.”

“I ain’t kiddin’
around. I need the whole story, Aydan.”

I blew out a long
breath. “You know I can’t do that.”

“I know. But ya can
tell me more than when Dave was listenin’.” He stopped and turned,
tilting my face up to study me in the moonlight. “How long have ya
been an agent?”

“I’m not. I never
was.”

He sighed. “Darlin’,
ya been workin’ with Kane for seven months. Ya got a license to
carry a concealed weapon, an’ I know ya know how to use it. An’
back at the hotel, Kane said you’d gone rogue an’ he had orders to
shoot ya. I ain’t stupid.”

“Arnie, I know you’re
not stupid. But I’m not an agent. I’m just an asset. You remember
that thing I was carrying back in the summer?”

He nodded, and his
hand closed on mine. “Thought we were both gonna bite the big one
that time. So that’s what ya been doin’? Usin’ that thing? Workin’
with Kane?”

“Yeah.”

“Must be pretty
high-level, considerin’ they brought in Special Forces choppers to
pull ya out this summer.”

“Yeah.”

“So if you’re that
important, why’d they decide they wanna kill ya?”

I hung my head. “I
ran. They got the wrong idea.”

“Why’d ya run? Ya
found out Kane killed your husband, an’ ya figured you were
next?”

“No. I…” I squeezed my
eyes shut and tried to force my sluggish brain to work. “They’re
going to kill me anyway. As soon as they find a way to replace me.
I thought Kane was going to shoot me this summer…”

“What?” Arnie seized
me by the shoulders. “What the hell? That can’t be right, darlin’,
he wouldn’t…” His voice trailed off as his hands tightened. “Would
he?”

“Yeah.” The word came
out as a long sigh. “Yeah, he would. Orders. That’s how dangerous I
am when I’m using the… thing. If they think I’ve gone rogue, I’m
toast.”

He let go and took a
slow step back, peering at me in the darkness. “But… ya
wouldn’t…”

“No, I wouldn’t betray
them. But they’re all spies. They don’t believe that. And in a way,
they’re right. If I get captured… Well, you know. Everybody breaks
under torture, sooner or later. I’m no hero. It wouldn’t take
long.”

I dropped my head,
feeling a hundred years old. “But that’s not why I ran. It’s
because… I think they’ve been manipulating me since I was four.
Killing whoever got in the way.” My voice shook, and I shut up,
swallowing hard.