Unauthorized Return (Unauthorized Series Book 4) (3 page)

Aria watched the slimy, sweaty man in front of her lick the end of the pen and write down another figure. Her hands clenched and released in her lap. She had no paper clips to bend, no paper to fold, nothing to mutilate. And this guy was getting on her very last nerve. He looked down her shirt with every other word, but still was trying to screw her out of thousands of dollars.

Fed up, she stood and pulled the bundle of hundred dollar bills out of her pocket, dropping them on the desk where they made a small
thunk
sound. “I’m done messing around with you. I want the car I picked out, with the paperwork done in exactly ten minutes. I don’t want any extras or upgrades. I want the dealer plates for an extra week like we discussed. Do it now or I’m out.”

Aria heard the snarl in her voice and knew she risked this guy pushing back and her walking out with nothing, but she didn’t care. She’d had enough.

He looked at her, his eyes burning, but she smoldered back, not giving him an inch. Finally he dropped his eyes like she knew he would. The money on the desk meant more to him than his dignity. That was fine with her.

“OK Barbie, I just need two minutes,” he squeaked and rushed out of the room.

Aria blew her hair out of her eyes and flopped back in the chair, wincing at the name. It was her sergeant’s idea of a joke the last time she’d gone undercover. Barbie Amor. He called it her stripper name - but it was the only fake ID she had, and if the cleanup crew had done their job nobody should have a record of her using that name before. Only the people who had worked with her on that case would know it. That wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing.

As her trail of thoughts ran out, awareness of Coleton Savoy's expression as he had last looked at her crept back into her mind. The look on his face had been nothing like the look on the salesman’s face. The salesman was all slobber and holler, only able to see the sexual aspects of any woman in front of him. Coleton had a different quality to him. Something she didn’t think she had ever encountered before. He had looked at her like he might look at fine wine or great art - like he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Like he was so appreciative it was almost worshipful. She shook her head at these thoughts. Maybe he was just a thirty year old virgin or something. Inexperienced. But then she shook her head again. With that face? And that body? There was no way. Women probably threw themselves at him every day. Granted, she hadn’t seen much of his body, but she could tell his stomach was flat, his shoulders were broad, and his ass was exquisite. Her cheeks heated at that last reflection. When had she looked at his ass? And why? She hadn’t noticed a man’s ass in two years. Since the only man in her life had betrayed her in the worst way possible.

Her car salesman rushed back in, his white shirt showing large dark patches under his arms. She jettisoned her thoughts, plastered an expectant smile on her face and waited to see what he’d done. He stopped in front of her and beamed, then held out the keys to her seven year old Hyundai. “She’s all yours. We even filled the tank.”

Aria smiled at him, paid him, and thanked him, then hurried out of there. An afterthought made her turn to ask one final question. His answer was in the affirmative but she could tell by his greasy smile it would cost her. She peeled off six more crisp hundred dollar bills and held them gingerly out to him, not wanting to touch him again if she didn’t have to. He took the money just as gingerly but asked for her keys.

“I can’t just drive it wherever you want to store it?” she asked, not wanting to think about this guy driving her car.

He shook his head. “The manager will never allow that. What if we need to move it?”

She stared at him for a long time. “I’ll be writing down my mileage before I go. If it’s got more than one extra mile on it when I come to pick it up I’m holding you personally responsible.”

“I’ll remember that,” he said, innuendo clear in his voice and body language. She barely kept herself from snarling at him. What a jerk.

“I have some things to transfer,” she said, turning quickly and retreating out of his office. As much as she would have liked to teach him a lesson, she couldn’t afford to let this guy get to her. Because if he touched her or said one inappropriate thing to her, she was going to unload on him, and then the purchase of the car would have been wasted. She needed to continue to fly under the radar and that meant
not
having the cops called on her for assault.

She hurried out the main door and jogged down the steps, relieved to see Coleton in the car, still with her cap pulled low over his face. He was unrecognizable that way until she got close. She slipped in beside him and handed him what was left of the money.

“Hold this. I’ve got to transfer some of my stuff from this car into the new car,” she said as she reversed into the lot then drove to the new car.

He grunted and took the money, shoving it in his pocket, then spoke with urgency, like she was forgetting something. “But what are you going to do with this car? Park it somewhere?”

She grunted her displeasure. He didn’t think very much of her yet. “Taken care of,” she said gruffly

Aria drove through a row of shiny cars waiting for their forever home and pulled to the very end, parking diagonally next to the new car, a slightly beat-up, forest-green Hyundai sedan. In other words, an invisible-mobile. She hopped out of the driver’s seat, rummaged around in the back, and emerged with a backpack she always kept packed with toiletries and a change of clothes. She tossed it and her flashlight and emergency kit into the other car, then motioned to Coleton that he should switch cars. Their eyes met for a moment as he climbed lightly out of her car and she felt a shiver go down her spine at the contact. She bit her lip - hard, denying that it meant a goddamn thing.

Once he was safely inside the new car Aria got back in her Acura and drove it swiftly to the very far corner of the lot and parked it in between two other cars, then she jogged back to where Coleton was waiting for her. The car salesman stood there, watching her run, a distant look in his eyes. She handed him her keys, keeping her distaste in check, and feeling Coleton’s gaze on her back. Then she jumped into the new car and wrestled it out of the parking lot at its top speed, which felt woefully inadequate to her.

Aria found a highway entrance and headed north. They couldn’t go too far out of town, but she thought they would be safest just over the border into Tetam County. Coleton was openly watching her as she drove and she felt her face heat under the scrutiny.

“What?” she finally demanded.

“Did you sell your car?”

“No, they are just storing it for me, not that it’s any of your business.”

Coleton nodded and Aria chanced a quick glance at him. His jaw clenched hard and she noted it, wondering when she had turned into such a bitch.

“Smart,” was all he ended up saying as he finally turned his gaze toward the window. “Where are we going to stay?”

“We’ll rent an apartment.”

He turned to her again, quickly. “Really? Where?”

“Tetam County,” she answered, refusing to apologize. If he knew this area, he knew what that meant. She could almost feel the air in the car get thick. He had money and standards. That much was obvious. The only question was, how much of it came from his father’s criminal activity? And how much was he going to complain about where she was going to make him stay?

But he didn’t say anything. Aria drove another twenty minutes before taking an exit and driving down the pothole-lined country road. Within two minutes she was at her destination. She pulled in front of the 2-story, older, dingy apartment building with the kids playing hopscotch in the parking lot and the residents sitting in lawn chairs in front of their doors like the cement walk was a porch. She smiled. She had actually grown up in Tetam county in an apartment building much like this for the first nine years of her life. She felt right at home here.

From where she had parked she could read the phone number off the sign, right over the top of the words UNITS AVAILABLE. She pulled out her cell and dialed it quickly. A bored sounding man answered and she asked her one and only non-negotiable question.

“Do you have anything available today on the first floor?”

“Nope sweetheart, but I got two on the second floor.”

“Thanks.” She pushed the end call button and threw the car into gear.

Coleton was looking out the window but swung his head towards her. “No good?”

“Nope. Nothing on the first floor.”

“And we have to have first floor because …?”

“In case we have to run for it. We don’t want to have to jump to the ground.”

He nodded, his face grim. “I thought that might be it.”

Silence fell over them as she drove eight more miles to the only other apartment building in the area. If this one didn’t have what they needed she was stuck driving back to Westwood Harbor. But she had faith she would find a good place. Coleton wasn’t complaining yet either. That was a good sign.

She pulled into the parking lot of the next place, which looked identical to the first, and parked directly in front of the sign. She dialed the number again and got a woman this time, with a bit more spunk in her greeting.

“’Lo?”

Aria asked her question and held her breath.

“Course now, sweetheart, we got a one-bedroom. When you wanna come look at it?”

“Now. I’m in the parking lot.”

“Course you are. It’s 5B. I’ll meet you in front.”

“Stay here,” Aria admonished Coleton and waited a beat, figuring the complaints would start now. But he just nodded and watched the children play on the sidewalk. Aria poked him in the arm and held out her hand to him. He looked at it blankly for a moment until she helped him. “Money,” she prompted. Understanding crossed his face and he dug the bills out of his pocket and put them in her hand.

She climbed out of the car, quickly shoving the currency in her pocket, then hurried over to wait in front of 5B. The sound of a baby crying made her look around but she didn’t see it. In one of the apartments probably.

Within two minutes a woman appeared from around the building and approached her with a hip-rolling walk that made Aria feel like smiling. But she didn’t. The woman was older than Aria - at least forty, maybe closer to fifty, but she was keeping age at bay. She wore a white, button-down shirt, tied at the waist over a pair of denim Daisy Dukes. From the neck down, she looked like a caricature of a country woman from the 70s, but when Aria looked at her face, she saw pure punk rock. The woman had a hoop nose ring and stunning, short purple hair that was styled to stand straight off her head like she’d been electrocuted. Aria knew she would have liked her once upon a time. These days she didn’t seem to like anyone.

“Howdy, I’m Minnie,” the woman said, holding out her hand. Aria bit the inside of her lip to keep her mouth from dropping open. Howdy
and
Minnie? It was too much.

Aria shook the woman’s hand and was surprised at the firmness of her grip. Then in a second it was over and Minnie had the door unlocked. “Fully-furnished - fridge works, stove works, A/C works, but there’s no dishwasher,” Minnie monologued as Aria’s eyes adjusted to the sudden gloom. Dark shapes greeted her. Couch, coffee table, TV. So it was furnished, that was good. Aria walked to the kitchen and peeked in. Tiny, like a mobile home kitchen. That was fine. She crossed the tiny living room swiftly and headed down the hallway. Minnie kept talking, but Aria only half listened. She didn’t care if nothing worked. This was the safest place for them and she wanted it. She poked her head into the one bathroom and one bedroom and declared it perfect, then turned to face Minnie. “I’ll take it, if I can get into it right now.”

Minnie smiled. “Great! Security deposit is one month’s rent. You got that, honey?”

Aria bristled for a moment but then realized Minnie didn’t have her name. Besides, honey and sweetheart from Minnie were light-years different than honey or sweetheart from sleazy salesman guy.

“I have the cash.”

Minnie beamed like Aria was her own child performing a complicated stunt for an audience. “Well aren’t you prepared. Let’s get you all squared away.”

Minnie led Aria out the door to a small office out behind the building. Aria almost threw a thumbs-up in the general direction of the car for Coleton’s benefit, but kept herself reeled in at the last minute. He was her charge, not her buddy. He needed to just do as he was told and not worry about the details.

Coleton watched Aria round the corner with the woman. It looked like they would be staying here. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Was this place really any safer than anywhere else? Could he really ever be safe from his father? He’d gone all the way across the country and his father had still found him. In New York City no less. A city of eight million people and his father had managed to find him as easily as falling off a park bench. So why was this going to be different?

He watched the old folks near the building sitting in their chairs and the children running back and forth, none of them paying him any attention, until suddenly Aria was back.

She opened the door behind him and snatched out her backpack. “I got the keys,” she said, slamming the door and crossing half the parking lot before he had a chance to react.

“Good,” he grunted under his breath and followed her. They pushed inside the dim apartment and he took a moment to let his eyes adjust before making any snap judgments. Besides, it didn’t matter what the place looked like. He was waiting out a sentence. Like jail. Or waiting for his destiny. Like judgment day. There wasn’t supposed to be anything good or pleasurable in this place. It was his purgatory. He just wished he could figure out what in the hell his crime had been. Not that it mattered. Life was hard and then you died and he’d finally figured that out. Finally let go of his dreams of love and satisfaction and creativity and justice and joy. Of
more
. That must be why his mind was no longer filled with reams of poetry like air in his lungs - the way it used to be.

Even as Coleton thought these thoughts his mind was already tugging at him.
But the poems have come back.

Coleton walked idly to the other side of the room, acting like he was inspecting it, when really his mind clamored wildly. Had they come back? Did two lines mean a return to his optimistic self? His happy self? Because he had been happy. Ever since he had left his aunt’s house and lived on his own he definitely had been happy. He could see now that those years had been like a gift, something he never thought he’d be allowed. A normal life. A reality removed from his father’s. But that had all changed when he’d gone into his father’s house and taken the files that would allow the police to prosecute the old man. When he’d agreed to testify against his blood. And why had he done that? To protect a woman that didn’t even want him. That had never wanted him. But that didn’t matter. It still had been the right thing to do, and he would do it again. Even if he knew what would happen if he did.

Aria interrupted his stealthy thoughts by clearing her throat. He turned to her. Her face was set, expectant, challenging. She was waiting for something from him. But he didn’t know what.

He looked around for real this time. The place was small. Tiny. A miniature hallway led to the only room. He looked inside and grimaced at the small bed.

Coleton turned to Aria. “Looks great. I’ll take the couch.”

Aria stared at him. Apparently that wasn’t what she was expecting. She looked at the couch then back at him. “Your feet will hang off the end.”

“I’ll live,” he grunted, then sat down on it.
What now?

“I’ll take the couch,” Aria said, her voice forceful.

Coleton cracked a tired smile. “Your badge gives you the right to tell me where I can sleep?”

Aria opened and closed her mouth several times, then snorted in his direction and left the room. A wider smile spread over Coleton’s face. Was she flustered? He never would have thought. From some other unit the sound of a baby crying filtered in to him. Poor thing. It sounded like it was in pain.

Aria came back out to the living room and spoke without looking at Coleton. “We need to head to the store. Get some sheets and pillowcases and some food.”

Coleton nodded and stood. That was probably one more reason she wanted to be way out here outside of the city limits. Less chance someone would recognize either of them.

“So tell me something,” he said as they walked out of the apartment and Aria locked the door behind them. When she didn’t respond he pushed on anyway. “Why a tiny apartment out in the middle of nowhere?”

Aria nodded and gave him a knowing look, like she had him all figured out. “Where were you planning on staying before your car blew up?”

The question surprised Coleton and he took a moment to answer. “I don’t know. The Paris West maybe.”

He watched Aria closely as they reached the car and climbed inside. She nodded her head in that knowing way again. “The fanciest hotel in town. Don’t you think they would have looked for you there?”

Coleton didn’t respond for a moment, but then he got it. “This is the last place they’ll look for me?”

She winked at him as she maneuvered the car onto the road. Coleton felt his groin twitch again.
Calm the fuck down
, he snarled at himself internally.
This woman is off limits. Everything is off limits for now. Don’t you know you’re probably going to die in the next week or two? You have to be on your toes!

Aria spoke and Coleton tried to pay attention. “Exactly. Even if they couldn’t find you in a hotel and decided to check apartments, they wouldn’t check some cheap hole in the wall like this. They know you have money. They expect you to stay somewhere nice.”

“Maybe, but what about you? Is this standard police procedure? Because my dad still has dozens of cops on his payroll, I'm sure. Won’t one of them tip him off?”

She shook her head and her blonde hair bounced around her shoulders. “Nope. No one knows where I was taking you. We didn’t have a tail. And this place is definitely not on anyone’s radar.”

Coleton fell silent and thought about Aria’s words. “Smart,” he finally said, grudgingly. She was smart. And if he had to be holed up with a cop for the next couple of weeks, he was glad it was her. The thought of her actually having to protect him physically made his stomach turn - he was sure she was good at what she did but putting a woman in danger was not something he ever wanted to do - but just using her intellect and her knowledge to outsmart his dad’s cronies didn’t bother him. In fact it excited him slightly.

He would love to see his dad bested by a woman. His dad was old-fashioned and did not have a lot of respect for women, often treating his mother and his sisters like dirt, and that was one of the things he hated about his father. If he got out of this alive, and that was a big
if
, and if he ever spoke to his father again, he would make sure to rub that fact in his father’s face. He could see the conversation in his mind.
A woman outran you and out thought you, Dad. Maybe it’s time to give up, hang up your title, admit you just don’t have it anymore.

Within moments, Aria parked in front of the only store in the area. One-third animal feed store, one-third grocery, and one-third house-wares. Coleton was glad his car had blown up early in the day because he bet this place didn’t stay open past five. They hurried inside and Aria got a cart then steered it towards the frozen foods section. When she got there, she began indiscriminately sweeping packages of TV dinners into the cart.

She turned to him as he watched in horrified understanding of what she was doing. “When does court start again?” she asked

“Next Tuesday,” he muttered, his eyes on the packages in her hands.

“So a week's worth of meals for two people, three meals a day …”

Coleton grabbed one of the rock-hard packages and read the ingredients.
No way was he eating this.
“Look, I’ll cook. You don’t have to get these. Let me shop.”

She turned to him, an appraising look in her eye. “You cook?”

“I get by,” he admitted, shoving TV dinners back in the freezer. It had been years since he’d cooked for more than one though.

Aria stood back and let him put all the dinners back in the freezer. He lined them up neatly so no one ever would have known they’d been out.

“What’s your favorite food?” he asked her gruffly, wanting to know but not wanting her to know how much he wanted to know.

She didn’t answer for a moment and he stopped arranging to glance at her. He couldn’t read her face.

Finally she answered. “Lasagna.”

“Good one. Second favorite?”

“Macaroni and cheese.”

He laughed and looked more closely at her. Her lips twitched but she didn’t drop her intense stare.

“Third?”

“Spaghetti,” they said together and this time she laughed and smiled for real. She looked surprised and dropped the smile immediately, but he couldn’t help but notice the flush it brought to her cheeks. It made her look more beautiful than ever. Coleton snapped his head back around to the freezer and stuck his face inside it. What in the hell was wrong with him?