Part 5 (1/2)
”Six. Wait. Are you shopping for me?”
My answer is to point to the bathroom sign in the corner. ”Go clean up. We'll pay for your supplies when we leave.”
”What if they think we're stealing them?”
”We'll risk it.” I turn her in the direction she needs to go, my hands on her shoulders as I lean in close, wis.h.i.+ng like h.e.l.l she didn't still smell so d.a.m.n good. ”Five of the fifteen minutes I'm willing to spend in here are gone. Go now. I'll be right here waiting on you.”
Fortunately, she doesn't argue, and I watch her until she disappears into the small hallway beneath the sign. Scanning the store, I flag down a store employee, a redheaded kid not more than seventeen who quickly joins me.
”Yes, sir, can I help you?”
”Long story short, my wife and I missed a flight and the airline lost our luggage. I have to make it to Austin in two hours or they're giving away our tickets on another flight. Can I give you a hundred bucks to gather some supplies for me while we freshen up and use the bathrooms?”
The kid's eyes light up and he pulls a small pad and pen out of his pocket, and I write down a list for him. ”Have it all at a register in ten minutes and there's an extra fifty in it for you.”
”Yes, sir. Absolutely.”
He rushes away and I do another quick scan of the visible areas of the store before following Gia's trail and entering the women's bathroom. Rounding the corner of a short hallway, I find her alone at one of two sinks, was.h.i.+ng her hand, with three open stalls to her left.
She whirls around to face me, her hand dripping water and blood to the floor. ”You scared the c.r.a.p out of me. What are you doing in here?” She grabs paper towels to dry her hand. ”Is something wrong?”
”Just making sure you're safe,” I say, moving to inspect the rest of the room.
”You can't keep coming into the ladies' room,” she insists, following me into the last of the three stalls, this one the larger, wheelchair-ready handicapped s.p.a.ce, where I give her my back and unzip my pants.
”Are you-Chad!”
I glance at her over my shoulder. ”It's called seizing the moment, sweetheart. Go finish playing doctor so I don't have to.”
She makes a sound of frustration, her heels clicking as she departs, my lips curving with the silent admission that I enjoy the h.e.l.l out of aggravating this woman. Finis.h.i.+ng my business, I join her at the sink, where she's struggling to get the bandage wrapped around her palm. I wash my hands, then grab her hand and take over and our eyes lock and collide, the air instantly thick with a huge dose of l.u.s.t-filled distrust.
”You're going to get caught in here,” she warns softly, as if she can't quite find her voice.
”It's a Walmart in Texas,” I tell her. ”They're happy if you manage to show up with pants on.”
She laughs despite an effort to stop herself. ”I suppose so. I'm just nervous about getting attention we don't need.”
”We're fine.” I fit some tape over the bandage on her hand and dump the supplies back inside the basket sitting on the counter.
”Right,” she agrees. ”I know we are.”
She doesn't sound convinced, and I can't seem to quell my need to convince her otherwise. ”Don't let my getting captured fool you. It took him years to find me. I'm good at what I do. He won't find me again. That means he won't find you.”
”Until you're done with me,” she murmurs, cutting her gaze away from me, and for the first time since that bedroom in East Austin, fear radiates off her. I tell myself to let it go, that she could be working me over, but I can't seem to care.
I slip a finger under her chin and force her gaze to mine. ”No matter what your intentions were when this started tonight, if you help me, really help me, I'll make sure you stay protected.”
”I don't work for him, and I don't know why I'm even saying that again. I know I can't convince you.”
”I told you. Help me. I'll help you. Okay?”
”Yes. Okay.” She's not convinced, and the truth is, neither am I. I stayed away from people until Meg, Amy included, for a reason. People die when they're near me, but I'm not telling Gia that, and I let my hand fall away, settling both on my hips.
She hugs herself and for several beats we simply stare at each other, until she wets her lips, and I try not to look at her mouth, or think about kissing her, but I fail. I think about it. In vivid, I-want-to-f.u.c.k-her detail.
”This is what you do?” she asks. ”How you live? Always looking over your shoulder? Is that how I have to live?”
”What I do is exactly what you said earlier. I, like others in the organization I work for, find what no one else can find.”
”For a price.”
”Yes. For a price. We also hide things so no one else can find them.”
”Sheridan hired you to find the cylinder for him.”
”Yes.”
”And did you?”
”Whether I did or didn't isn't what's relevant. Clearly I didn't give it to him.”
”But he thinks you found it.”
”Yes. And that's exactly why we need to get moving. He'll have a reward out for finding us. A big one.” I motion to the bathroom stalls. ”You'd better go 'seize the moment' yourself. We aren't stopping again anytime soon.”
”Okay. But you have to leave.”
”I'm staying. Shut the door.”
”No.” She shakes her head. ”No. I'm not doing that. You have to go. Please. I'll hurry.”
It's the pink flush of embarra.s.sment in her cheeks that makes me concede. ”Two minutes or I'm coming back inside.” I don't waste any of the precious time ticking on the clock hanging around, quickly rounding the corner and exiting the bathroom and the hallway beyond it. Doing another quick scan of my surroundings, I'm satisfied we are not in imminent danger. I lean against the wall, and check my phone for any missed calls I might not have heard, frustrated to find no record of Jared responding to my attempts to contact him.
My mind replays the short message I'd left him when I hadn't thought that I'd survive another hour, let alone the two weeks I'd managed to stay in hiding before I'd been captured. I'd been attacked before I could mention Meg, and that could have been a lethal mistake for him and my sister. Gia appears in front of me and I need answers. I take the basket from her and drop it to the ground, my hands closing on her shoulders. ”What do you know about my sister?”
”What? Nothing. I know nothing.”
”You know nothing about Amy?” I press. ”Nothing at all.”
”Amy?” She looks stunned, her voice taking on a rasp. ”Her name is Amy?”
”What do you know about my sister?” I demand, tension coiling in every part of my body.
”Nothing. I mean, I heard something. Maybe.”
My fingers flex into her arms. ”What? What did you hear?”