Renee yanked the key out of the lock and flung the car door open. She leaped into the Explorer and jerked the door shut, but before she could lock it, Leandro yanked it back open. She lunged over the console, heading for the passenger door. But Leandro clamped his meat hook of a hand onto her leg, his fingers digging in like claws. She kicked wildly, her foot smacking him in the chest. He made one of those Batman-like oof noises, and she knew she’d knocked the wind out of him. But not enough wind, she realized, when he grabbed her by the waistband of her jeans and hauled her backward.
Renee clung ferociously to the steering wheel. “Let me go!”
“Not this time,” Leandro said. He peeled her fingers away from the wheel and dragged her out of the car. “You and me got a score to settle.”
Renee twisted left and right, kicking and screaming. She knocked an elbow into his ribs and stomped on his toes. Nothing. It was like whacking an elephant with a flyswatter. He dragged her backward, his arm clamped around her chest. She twisted and fought, clawing at his arm and screaming, knowing the instant he got her into his car she wouldn’t stand a chance of getting out.
And then he let her go.
Suddenly and unexpectedly free, Renee spun around to discover that Leandro hadn’t released her out of the goodness of his heart. An arm was wrapped around his neck. An arm that belonged to a certain police officer who was no longer sleeping like a baby.
The look of shock on Leandro’s face quickly gave way to an ugly snarl. He slammed an elbow into John’s ribs. John sucked in a sharp breath of pain and fell away, leaving Leandro free to wheel around and land a solid blow to his face with his doubled-up fist. John recoiled, then countered with a right hook that smashed Leandro’s nose, spun him around, and sent him face-first into the dirt. When he hit the ground with a howl of pain and a string of four-letter words, Renee decided she’d seen enough of round one. It was time she headed out.
She leaped into the Explorer, knocking her shoes into the passenger seat, thanking her lucky stars that she’d had the foresight to hang on to the car keys. She clicked the door locks, then started the engine. She glanced back to see that John had leaped on top of Leandro, his knee between his shoulders and his hand clamped around the back of his neck, shoving his already mangled nose even deeper into the dirt. Leandro squirmed beneath him like a squashed bug. It was a beautiful sight, and under normal circumstances she’d have paid dearly to have a ringside seat. Unfortunately, she had more pressing things to attend to, like getting the hell out of there.
She backed the car around in a semicircle, ignoring her conscience, which was screaming at the top of its imaginary lungs. It was reminding her that the only reason John had come to her rescue was because he undoubtedly believed Leandro was her abusive boyfriend. He was trying to protect her, and she was thanking him by stealing his car.
No. Not stealing. Borrowing.
She hit the accelerator and sped down the dark, forest-lined road, intending to put as many miles between her and that cabin as she possibly could. Sooner or later the insane bounty hunter and the enraged cop would stop beating each other senseless and compare notes, and the minute they did, they’d stop going after each other and start coming after her.
Even though John had managed to maneuver himself into a superior position, he wasn’t at all sure he had King Kong under control. The guy was rumbling beneath him like a volcano ready to blow.
“Let me up, you bastard!”
John felt a little dizzy from the blow the guy had given him to his face, but finally he managed to catch a good, solid breath and inched his knee farther up the guy’s back.
“Police officer!” he shouted. “And you’re staying down!”
The guy went still beneath him. “A cop? You’re a cop?”
John felt a flush of satisfaction. A certain abusive boyfriend hadn’t counted on the law showing up, now, had he?
“You’re a cop, and you let her get away?”
John froze. Let her get away?
“I’m a bounty hunter, you idiot! She’s worth a bundle, and you went and screwed it up!”
The guy’s words were a little muffled, since he was still eating dirt, but John could have sworn he said he was a bounty hunter. If he was telling the truth, that meant… Oh, God.
“Alice is a bail jumper?”
“Alice, my ass. Her name is Renee Esterhaus. She’s wanted for armed robbery. And I’d be taking her back to Tolosa right now if not for you!”
Armed robbery? That pretty little blonde with those big blue eyes? John was paralyzed with disbelief. He’d seen a lot of non sequiturs as a cop, but that topped them all. “No way.”
“She got caught with the loot and the weapon, and the convenience-store clerk—who, by the way, she shot and wounded—nailed her in a lineup.”
“She shot somebody?”
“Flesh wound. But she didn’t think twice about pulling the trigger.”
John rose just enough to yank the guy’s wallet out of his hip pocket. He flipped it open. Max Leandro. Bail Enforcement Officer.
“There,” Leandro said. “Satisfied? Now, will you get the fuck off me?”
John got up. Leandro scrambled to his feet, his hand hovering over his bleeding nose. He yanked his wallet out of John’s hand and shoved it back into his hip pocket.
“Nice piece of police work, ace. While you were busy beating the hell out of me, she took off with your car.”
John whipped his head around. His car was nowhere in sight. He stared down the road, unable to believe what had just happened. He’d gone after Leandro, thinking he was her boyfriend, trying to protect her, for God’s sake, and while he was busy playing dueling credentials with a two-bit bounty hunter, Alice—Renee—had made off with his car.
His shock gave way to anger, which rapidly transformed into a burning desire to get his hands on the woman who hadn’t uttered a truthful word since the moment she walked into that diner. The woman who’d robbed a convenience store, shot a clerk, skipped bail, then baited a cop and a thousand-pound gorilla into beating each other senseless.
And made the cop look like a fool.
“Stay here.” John shot into the cabin and grabbed his weapon and his wallet, cussing a little when he realized Renee had made off with his phone.
He ran back to Leandro. “Give me your keys.”
“My keys? I’m not giving you—”
“I’m going after my car. Where are your keys?”
“No way. If you take her in, I lose the bounty.”
“You can have her. As long as I get my car back.”
Leandro just glared at him.
“Give me your keys! Now!”
Leandro reluctantly slapped the keys into John’s hand. John raced toward the car with Leandro hurrying along behind him. As John slid into the driver’s seat, a sharp, acrid smell hit his nose. He spun around and glanced into the back seat. It looked like the inside of a garbage incinerator. “Holy shit.”
“She’s a lunatic.” Leandro slammed the passenger door, then hunched down in the seat, grabbing a wad of napkins from the floorboard and pressing it to his bleeding nose. “A fucking lunatic.”
All at once it dawned on John what must have happened. “She torched your car?”
“Shut up,” Leandro muttered. “Just shut up.”
Then John realized this was the smoking vehicle he’d seen pulling into Harley’s place. So that was how Renee had gotten away from Leandro. Good God—was there anything she wouldn’t do?
John started the car, stomped on the accelerator, and headed down the dirt road, the headlights slashing through the night. He went as fast as he dared on the winding road, wheeling the car left and right through the dense forest, searching the road ahead for the red glare of tail lights. She couldn’t have gotten more than a three-minute head start, but he saw nothing but blackness ahead.
“Shit,” Leandro said. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. We should have caught up to her by now.”
“Step on it, will you?”
“You want me to wrap this heap around a tree?”
“I want you to get my bail jumper!”
“I’m going as fast as I can!”
Leandro made a scoffing noise, then swapped one blood-drenched napkin for another. “So tell me,” he said, a mocking tone creeping into his voice. “She obviously didn’t let on who she really was, so what did she do to get you to take her away from that diner? Make you an offer you couldn’t refuse?” When John didn’t respond, Leandro’s face twisted into a speculative sneer. “The old in-and-out, I bet. Was that it?”
John fumed silently, feeling every bit as gullible as Leandro was making him out to be. She wouldn’t be the first woman who’d offered him her body to stay out of jail. But it was the first time he’d taken the bait.
“Not that I can blame you for taking her up on it,” Leandro went on. “I mean, that’s one hot little body she’s got, right?” He seemed to ponder that for a moment. “You know, I don’t get chicks jumping bail very often. I bet most of them would do just about anything to keep from going to jail.”
John imagined the revolting acts a guy like Leandro might expect in return for such a favor, and his hands tightened against the steering wheel.
“Come to think of it, she’s just the kind of woman I’d like to get my hands on. Blonde hair, blue eyes, nice little ass…and how about those lips?” Leandro gave a low whistle. “I knew a girl once who had lips like that. I swear, she could suck the cap right off a beer bottle. By the time she got through with you, you felt like you’d been hit by a Mack truck. Yeah, it might be worth giving up the money just to see those pretty little lips of hers wrapped around my—”
John slammed on the brakes. Leandro lurched forward, almost going through the windshield and doing his nose in once and for all. When the car ground to a halt, the equal and opposite reaction sent him whiplashing back against the headrest. In the next instant, John took a fistful of his grimy shirt and yanked him halfway over the console. The very thought of Leandro getting within leering distance of Renee made his blood boil.
“If you so much as lay a hand on her, I swear to God I’ll arrest you for rape. You got that?”
Leandro’s face eased into a cocky smile. “Yeah, Officer. I’ve got it. It’s okay for cops to do the nasty with pretty little fugitives, but bounty hunters gotta be hands-off. Is that right?”
“I didn’t know she was a fugitive. And I didn’t do anything with her! And you’re not going to, either!”
Leandro rolled his eyes with disgust. “Shit! Can’t a guy think out loud? Do you really think I’d trade that kind of money to get laid only once?”
John pushed Leandro away with disgust, only it wasn’t just Leandro he was disgusted with. What was the matter with him? Why in the world did he give a damn about Renee Esterhaus? She wasn’t a victim, and it was about time he got that through his head, no matter how sweet and innocent she looked. She was an armed robber who hadn’t thought twice about putting a bullet in a store clerk. And she was a car thief. A criminal, plain and simple. If she hadn’t been robbing convenience stores, she wouldn’t be on the run, and Leandro wouldn’t be fantasizing about grabbing a little recreation on the side. It was her own fault she was in this mess, and it was time she paid the consequences.
John stomped on the accelerator again, and a few minutes later they emerged from the dense woods, reaching the two-lane highway a mile or two down the road from Harley’s place. The road was deserted, with no sign of Renee. And John had no idea which way she might have gone.
They were at a dead end. If he kept searching, he could flounder around the countryside going one direction while she’d taken off the other way. He would have much preferred to find her himself so he could take his car back rather than going through all the administrative crap of reporting and reclaiming a stolen vehicle, but it didn’t look as if that was going to happen.
“Damn,” John muttered. “She could be anywhere by now. Do you have any idea where she was heading when you grabbed her?”
“New Orleans.”
“Then she’s probably heading there now. I’m going to call the local cops, then the highway patrol. With a description of my car, they’ll pick her up.”
“Oh, that’s a great plan, ace. You get your car back, but I lose the bounty because the cops grabbed her instead of me.”
“Those are the breaks, buddy.”
“This is your fault. We’d already have her in custody if you hadn’t jacked around getting out of the woods.”
“I was doing fifty on a gravel road!”
“Well, she must have been doing sixty, because I don’t see her anywhere. How about you, ace? Do you see her anywhere?” Leandro snorted. “Guess you didn’t bother to show up that day at the academy when they covered vehicular pursuit.”
A hundred nasty retorts flooded John’s mind, and he bit his tongue to keep from lashing out. Why waste time bickering with this guy, when Renee was his real target? Hell, it was probably a good thing he hadn’t caught up to her. If he’d gotten exiled to the backwoods of Texas for punching out a paper towel dispenser, he could only imagine what Daniels would do to him if he went for the throat of a certain conniving little fugitive.
Leandro looked down at the blood-soaked napkins he held, and when the blood kept coming, he flipped on the dome light and pulled down the mirror on the sun visor. A look of horror spread over his rearranged face, and he let out an agonized groan.
“You son of a bitch! You broke my nose!”
John really didn’t see the big deal. What was a crooked nose when it had to live on a face like that? “It’ll heal.”
“Heal? How? Half my face is on the other half of my face!”
John had no patience with Leandro’s whining. Not when he could feel his own face swelling to massive proportions.
“I’m gonna press charges,” Leandro went on. “Police brutality. When a jury sees how you’ve disfigured me, you’ll be history!”
John had news for Leandro. Mother Nature had beaten him to the disfiguring thing.
“There’s a hospital in Winslow,” Leandro said. “Take me there.”
“Oh, for God’s sake—”
“I’ll see a doctor. You call the cops.”
John drew a long breath and let it out slowly, wondering how in the hell this had happened. Somehow, in the span of only a few hours, he’d gone from the promise of having hot sex with a beautiful woman to trading insults with the ugliest man on earth. With a sigh of disgusted resignation, he put the car in gear, turned onto the two-lane highway, and headed west toward Winslow.
Renee brought John’s Explorer to a halt in a McDonald’s parking lot at the corner of Fourth and Taylor in Winslow, her heart still beating like crazy. All the way out of that forest, she’d expected to see headlights in her rearview mirror, but since she hadn’t, she could only assume that John and Leandro had no idea which way she’d gone.
The car idled softly. She took a deep, cleansing breath, extricated her clenched hands from the steering wheel, and dropped them to her lap. It looked as if she’d bought herself a little time, but now what?
Priority number one was to ditch John’s car. If he couldn’t find her, she was sure his next step would be to call the local cops and report his car stolen. But she had to have some kind of plan before she could give up this car, somewhere to go or some other means of transportation to put as many miles between herself and this town as she could.
What she wanted to do was go back to that motel Leandro had grabbed her from, get her belongings, then wait there until tomorrow morning so she could get her car. But if Leandro figured out she’d headed back there, she’d be a sitting duck again.
Maybe she should go to the bus station. The money she’d taken from John would probably buy her a ticket to New Orleans. She had no means to disguise herself, though, and John would probably check with the bus station. He could have the highway patrol grab her before the bus hit the Louisiana border.
She decided the worst thing she could do was get on the freeway and head for New Orleans. She’d be way too easy to spot. She squeezed her eyes closed, fighting tears. How in the world had she gotten herself into this mess? She was tired and hungry and scared to death, and she just couldn’t think.
Then the aroma of burgers and fries wafted through the car.
Food.
Her mouth instantly watered, and it didn’t take long for the food-deprived part of her brain to convince the self-preservation part that she should do the rest of her thinking in the drive-through line. She put the car in gear and came up behind a red minivan crammed to capacity with a group of teenagers.
After a moment the line advanced, and the minivan moved to the speaker where the driver placed an order. Renee inched the Explorer forward and waited. Two other cars pulled into the line behind her.
She thought about her friend Paula, who was probably the only person on the planet who actually believed she was innocent, and all at once she felt so alone she wanted to cry.
On impulse, she grabbed John’s phone from her pocket and dialed Paula’s number. It rang once, twice. When the line finally clicked and she heard her friend’s voice, Renee closed her eyes with relief.
“Paula. It’s me.”
Paula gasped. “Renee! My God! Where are you? Still at that motel? Is your car fixed?”
“No. The most awful thing happened. A bounty hunter tried to bring me back to Tolosa. A big, ugly monster—”
Paula gasped. “He found you?”
Renee froze. “Huh?”
“A big bald guy, tattoos, looks like a pro wrestler?”
“Yeah…?”
“He was here. He came to my apartment looking for you.”
“How did he know to talk to you?”
“I don’t know. I think he came poking around our apartment building. Somebody must have told him we were friends.”
“And you told him I was at that motel?”
“No! Of course not! I have no idea how he found you!”
“Did you tell anyone where I was?”
Paula paused. “Well, only Tom—”
“Tom? You told Tom?”
“He didn’t tell the guy where you were! I swear! He’d never do anything to hurt you!”
Renee wanted to scream. Ever since Paula had first laid eyes on Tom, she’d been blinded by his blond, surfer-boy good looks and failed to notice that he went through women like most men went through a six-pack. She had also failed to notice that he hadn’t bothered to repay the two thousand dollars she’d loaned him when he’d been out of a job last summer.
In contrast to Tom, Paula was cute but ordinary looking, with dark hair, a pixie face, and about fifteen extra pounds she couldn’t seem to get rid of, one of those girls who people always said had a nice personality because physically she was a little lacking. She really did have a nice personality, though, and about a thousand other fabulous qualities, and any decent guy would be lucky to have her. But she didn’t believe that about herself and always got stuck with guys who were losers. Tom just happened to be a very good-looking loser, and a very smooth liar. And sooner or later he was going to break her heart.
“Tom likes you,” Paula went on. “He doesn’t understand why you don’t like him. I don’t understand why you don’t like him.”
“Because he cheats on you, Paula! Get a clue, will you?”
“Tom says that has to be some kind of misunderstanding, that maybe you were mistaken—”
“Mistaken about the parade of women I’ve seen going in and out of his apartment at all hours of the night? I’m mistaken about that? I swear to God—”
Renee took a deep breath. Good Lord. This was hardly the time or place to discuss Paula’s love life.
“I’m sorry, Paula. Really. I’ve got no right to go on at you like that.”
“It’s okay, sweetie. You’re under a little pressure. That’s all. Tom didn’t tell that guy where you were. Trust me on that, will you?”
Renee sighed heavily. Maybe Paula was right. Maybe Leandro just had a sixth sense or something, like some kind of bloodhound from hell.
“So how did you get away from him?” Paula asked.
Renee squeezed her eyes closed at the memory of her foray into arson. “Never mind. I managed to ditch him, though, and now I’m driving this cop’s car—”
“You’re driving a police car?”
“No. His own car. He doesn’t know I borrowed it, so I’ve got to ditch it in a hurry, just in case he—”
“Hold on a minute. Tell me more about this cop.”
Renee sighed. He’s drop-dead gorgeous and one hell of a kisser. And if he gets his hands on me again, I’m a dead woman.
“I’ll tell you about him later. But right now…right now I just wanted to…” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I guess I just wanted to hear a friendly voice.”
“So where are you going now? Still to New—” Paula stopped suddenly. “No—don’t tell me. Somebody could have my phone bugged.” She gasped. “Maybe that’s how that guy found out where you were. You called me from that motel, you know.”
Renee hadn’t even considered that. “Do you think that’s how he found me? Oh, God—could someone trace this call?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’d better go. Call me again when you think it’s safe, will you? Let me know you’re all right?”
“Yeah. Okay. I will.”
Paula hung up. Renee laid down the phone, and her eyes filled with tears again. Even if she got to New Orleans without anyone knowing, even if she assumed a new identity, even if she got a job, met a nice man, got married, and put together some semblance of a life, it would still be a lie.
And she’d still be a fugitive.
A hollow, empty feeling that had nothing to do with hunger settled in the pit of her stomach. It had been so damned hard to finally accept herself as a decent person, after being told by her alcoholic mother her entire childhood that she was a worthless human being. She’d lived up to that assessment for so much of her life that turning herself around had been a struggle unlike any other.
But slowly, over time, she’d built a life in Tolosa, a life she never thought she’d have when she was growing up, a solid, respectable life with a good job, good friends, a decent place to live, and the ability to look people in the eye and not be afraid of what they saw when they looked back at her.
And now it was over.
Paula Merani set the phone back down on the table and rested her head against the back of the sofa. She had no idea what was going on with Renee, only that it sounded bad, and she sounded upset. She felt so helpless sitting here, unable to do anything to make things right.
“That was Renee, wasn’t it?”
Paula spun around to see Tom standing at the doorway, his hand on the doorframe above his head. He wore nothing but a pair of ragged Levi’s slung low on his hips. He was tall and lean, with fluid muscles, green eyes, and flaxen hair that glinted like gold. Even if nuclear war had been declared, Paula would have stopped to stare.
“Oh, Tom, Renee had a run-in with that awful man! The one who was here last night.”
“The bounty hunter?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how he found her, but he did. Somehow she managed to get away from him, but I’m not sure what’s happening now.” She sighed. “If only there were some way to know who really committed that robbery, she could come home again.”
“I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”
“You do believe she’s innocent, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. But the evidence is pretty strong against her.”
Paula knew what he meant. If Renee went to trial, she probably didn’t stand a chance. But Paula didn’t want to hear that. She wanted to ignore the truth and believe that somehow everything was going to work out.
“Where is she now?” Tom asked. “Still at that motel?”
“No. But I don’t know what’s happening. All I know is that she sounded really upset.”
Tom brushed a strand of dark hair away from her cheek, then pulled her over to lay her head against his shoulder. She had to pinch herself every day to believe that a man like Tom was interested in her. In high school she’d always been the girl who’d been everybody’s best buddy and nobody’s girlfriend, and guys like Tom had never given her a second look.
Paula didn’t know why Renee didn’t like him, aside from her misconception about the other women she thought he was seeing. He was nothing like his cousin, Steve, but she didn’t think Renee had ever believed that.
Nine months ago, Tom and Steve had moved into an apartment down the hall from Renee. Until a few months before that, they’d played in a band together. They’d finally realized that the local clubs in Tolosa, Texas, were about as far as their act was likely to go, and they’d broken up. Tom had gotten a job and headed for junior college, but Steve had stayed around the club scene, getting DJ gigs and gambling away most of his paycheck.
Then Renee had a party and invited them both. At least half a dozen women in the room that night had their eyes on Tom, but Paula was the one he’d invited back to his apartment. He’d played his guitar for her, singing dumb love songs with that incredible tenor voice of his. If she hadn’t already fallen for him, that would have cinched it.
Renee and Steve had started to date about that time, too. They broke up within a few months, but Paula’s relationship with Tom only grew stronger. For a long time she waited for the ax to fall, for Tom to wise up and realize he was dating a woman who was ordinary when he could have one who was extraordinary. But he hadn’t. And now, several months later, she was finally starting to take his word that he really did love her.
Tom had aspirations for something better, even if Steve didn’t. Why couldn’t Renee see that? Sure, Tom had had a few months of unemployment when she’d helped him out financially, but since he was in college and working toward something better, she’d done it gladly. He’d pay her back someday. After all, they were in love with each other, weren’t they?
“Tom?”
“Yes?”
“Have you thought any more about moving in here? If you give up your apartment, you’ll save hundreds every month. I know it’s hard for you to make the rent ever since Steve moved out.”
“No. I know it would be cheaper to give up my apartment, but I just can’t do that.” He shook his head. “Damn. I hate owing you money. I’m just—I’m just having a hard time getting back on my feet again. That’s all.”
“It’s okay. I know you’ll pay me back when you can.”
“I have this feeling that I might be coming into some money pretty soon. And when I do—”
“I told you not to worry about it. I’ll help you as long as you need me to.”
Tom wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, kissing her hair, then hugging her tightly. “Paula?”
“Yes?”
“Do you love me?”
She pulled away and stared at him. “What kind of a silly question is that? Of course I love you!”
“Renee doesn’t like me. I’m afraid someday you’re going to listen to her.”
“She just doesn’t know you like I do. That’s all.”
“But you don’t know everything about me. You might not love me if you did.”
“There isn’t anything you could do that would change the way I feel about you.”
“I know you think that now, but…” Tom let out a nervous breath. “There’s something I really ought to tell you.”
In spite of all his professions of love, Paula had a feeling of foreboding. This was it. She was sure of it. This was the part where he was going to say, It’s been fun, but now it’s over. You didn’t really think it would be forever, did you?
“Tom,” she said. “Tell me the truth. Please. You’re not seeing another woman, are you?”
“Of course not!” He took her face in his hands and fixed his gaze on hers. “Renee is wrong about me. I swear she is. There’s nobody but you, Paula. Nobody.”
“Then what is it?” Paula said.
He stared at her a long time, those green eyes exuding more power over her than a hypnotist’s pendulum.
“Never mind,” he said finally. “It’s not important.”
He kissed her, a sweet, tender kiss that soon evolved into something much deeper and more intimate. She slid her arms around his neck as he pressed her down to the sofa. She was astonished that in all these months the thrill of his touch had never faded.
Yes, he’d borrowed an awful lot of money from her, but he’d promised to pay it all back. Renee kept saying he was taking advantage of her, but Paula knew that wasn’t his intent at all. If she ever thought it was, it was simply her own insecurity showing. Tom would never do anything to hurt her.
Never.
When John pulled into the parking lot of the Winslow Medical Center, he wondered how the tiny building had the nerve to call itself a hospital. A facility like this one generally specialized in treating cases of the flu and sprained ankles. Fortunately for Leandro, a broken nose might be just the kind of challenging case they were looking for.
Leandro approached the reception window. The receptionist looked up, undoubtedly expecting to see a runny-nosed kid with a cold, or maybe a middle-aged guy with a beer belly and chest pain. She did not expect a bald, six-foot-five, hard-as-steel monster with a face that could make the devil himself run screaming into the night.
Leandro slid the window open, leaned in, and said something to the woman, and by the way her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, he’d probably told her about some form of bodily damage he intended to inflict on her if he was forced to plant his butt in a waiting-room chair.
She turned and yelled at somebody in the back room. A fortyish Hispanic woman emerged. She had the world-weary look of one of those seasoned health-care professionals who could eat lunch over a severed leg and still want dessert. But when her gaze panned up to Leandro’s face, even she looked a little woozy.
As Leandro was escorted into an exam room, John flashed his badge and asked the receptionist if he could use the phone. He started to call the local cops, then had a thought. It was a long shot, but there just might be a way to locate Renee without having to mess with law enforcement.
He dialed his own phone number.
The phone rang once. Twice. Then three times. This was a crapshoot, of course. Surely Renee wouldn’t be dumb enough to—
“Hello?”
He couldn’t believe it. She’d actually picked up the phone? Shaking off his surprise, he assumed the nastiest cop voice he could muster and went straight for her throat.
“Now get this straight, sweetheart,” he said. “I’ve already reported my car stolen. Every cop in the area will have his eyes wide open and his weapon drawn, and seeing as how you’re already a fugitive, they might not think twice about using them. Ever seen a pissed-off cop, Renee? I mean, really pissed? It’s not a pretty sight. Especially out here in the middle of nowhere, where funding is slim and they don’t have body cams to record every move they make. I mean, who’s to say you weren’t resisting arrest? Are you following me, Renee?”
He paused for a reaction. He could hear her breathing hard, like a teenager in a horror flick right before the knife falls.
“I already ditched your car,” she said finally, her voice choked. “I swear.”
“You’re a liar, Renee.”
“No! Really! I’m not driving your car! I’ll even tell you where I left it. You can go there yourself. It’s about a mile down the highway from that diner we were at, on the side of the road, the opposite way from Winslow. That’s where I left it, with the keys behind the left front tire. I’m not there anymore. I’m…somewhere else.”
“I’m not buying this.”
“And seeing as how I didn’t have your car for more than twenty or thirty minutes, and seeing as how I gave it right back, surely you won’t—”
“It’s grand theft auto. Add that to your armed-robbery charge—”
“No! I just borrowed it!”
“Borrowed?”
“Yes! You practically gave me the keys!”
“Gave you…?” John paced back and forth as far as the phone cord would allow, gesturing wildly. “I didn’t give you anything!”
“Well, you didn’t exactly give them to me, but they were lying right there on the counter in plain sight, weren’t they?”
“So that gives you the right to steal my car?”
“Borrow your car,” she explained. “Borrow.”
Astonished by her convoluted logic, John wanted to beat his head against the wall. “Tell me where you are, Renee. Right now. Tell me where you are, or I’ll have every cop, sheriff, sharpshooter, bloodhound, and SWAT team within a hundred miles breathing down your neck. Do you understand?”
All at once John heard a muffled crackle, followed by a loud, scratchy female voice.
“Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?”
John heard a gasp, and then Renee was gone.
He pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at it in dumb disbelief. Had he just heard what he thought he’d heard? A fast-food drive-through window? What kind of car-stealing fugitive stopped for a Big Mac?
John slammed down the receiver, thinking fast. In the time that had elapsed since Renee had grabbed his car, she couldn’t have made it to any other town besides Winslow. And in a dinky little town like this, how many McDonald’s restaurants could there be? Surely not more than one. If he called the local guys right then, chances were they could pick her up before she could say “Supersize it.” As he grabbed the phone again, though, something caught his eye across the street, maybe half a block down from the hospital.
Golden arches.