“More like hoped.” She crawled over his body, her firm ass stuck in the air, as she dug into her bag on the floor. Sure enough, a box of premium condoms appeared in her hand. “See.”
“When you told me you picked up the essentials, I should have known.”
She grinned, and tossed her now brown hair over her shoulder. “So what do you say, Neil? Want me to chase away the dreams?”
Gwen sat back on her bent knees, her body bare for him to touch, to taste.
He reached for her. “Dreams are overrated.”
They drove to the next one-horse town and ate at a dive. Gwen hadn’t stopped smiling at him since they left the motel. For the first time in a long time, he felt like smiling back. She had a unique way of chasing away the darkness. If he turned his mind to his dream, his nightmare, he’d fall into the black abyss again. He didn’t want that.
It didn’t take a shrink to tell him his brain was working through the trauma of his past. Things he’d brushed away long ago and forced himself not to think about. He’d blamed himself for not calling the shot when he had a choice. Boomer, Robb, and Linden were dead because of it. And now Billy. And Gwen’s neighbors.
“You’re calling the detective this morning, right?” Gwen placed a dainty bite of eggs into her mouth.
He glanced at his watch. Still too early in California. “I am.”
“Will that pinpoint our location?”
“I don’t see the need for Dean to trace our location, but you can’t be too careful. The conversation will be short.”
Gwen swallowed her food. “So long as Blake knows we’re safe. He’ll worry otherwise.”
They would all worry. Neil knew he asked a lot of them when he told them to do nothing for three days. It would have killed him to wait. In three days you can disappear into Mexico, Canada…or fly out of the continent altogether. He needed a week to get them where they were going…to keep Gwen safe. Then Neil could set his trap. Give Rick enough time to join him.
Right before he’d left, Neil sent a message to Rick telling him he’d have complete radio silence and that there had been a change of plans. If Rick moved on to the Smokey Mountains without him, he’d have to double back.
All of which would give Neil a little more time with Gwen alone.
After they’d made love a second time, he’d fallen into a restful sleep. He’d considered two safety zones for Gwen. One more indestructible than the other. Getting her to stay there without him…that would be the trick.
“I’ll need you to make a phone call to Karen in the morning.”
Gwen questioned him with a look.
Neil looked behind him. The morning crowd at the restaurant stayed close to the front door, giving them some privacy.
“You’ll call. Just to assure her you’re OK. Tell her where we’re at.”
“I’ll what?”
“You’ll tell her we’re close to the Canadian border.”
Gwen set her fork down. “We’re nowhere close to the border.”
“If our guy is listening…which I think he will be, that will buy us time.”
She sipped her tea. “Time for what, Neil? What do you have planned?”
Trap the motherfucker and get him before he gets us. But Neil couldn’t exactly tell Gwen that.
“Setting a trap.”
“Isn’t that hard out here like this? Shouldn’t we find a place to stay?”
Neil shoveled a pancake in his mouth.
Gwen tilted her head to the side. “You already have a place in mind.”
He nodded.
“Would this place have a bed and a hot shower free of wildlife?”
What a trooper Gwen turned out to be. “I think I can arrange that…eventually.”
“Brilliant.” She started to pick at her food again. “The bed last night was surprisingly comfortable.”
“Food always tastes better when you’re starved.” Like the buttermilk pancakes he was putting away.
Gwen watched him bite into his food. She sucked in her lower lip and hummed. “Much better.”
Her seductive stare took hold of his body.
“You’re insatiable.”
“Been called worse.”
Was it getting hot in here? “Put that thought away, Gwendolyn. We need to put some miles between us and this dive today.”
She lifted her glass of ice water to her forehead and placed the two together. “We need to stop…eventually.”
He should probably be putting a filter over his actions with this woman, but he couldn’t bring himself to.
Twenty minutes later, he turned on the prepaid cell phone and made the one call he would from it.
Dean picked up on the second ring. “Neil?”
“We’re OK. Safe.”
“You should have stayed here. We could have—”
“You can’t protect us from this one, Dean. Your force isn’t big enough. This guy is smart. Military, if I had to guess. Let Blake know Gwen’s safe.” He smiled at her over the hood of the car.
“Can I talk to her?”
“No time. You’ll hear from one of us in twenty-four hours. Then we’re silent for three days.”
“Jesus, Neil. Tarzana PD is asking questions. I can only hold them off for so long.”
Questions? What kind of questions? He didn’t have time to ask.
“Twenty-four hours, Dean. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” He hung up and tucked the phone under the wheel of the car. Cell phone towers could pinpoint the call within a few miles. Hopefully Dean didn’t look for a day or two.