Page 18 of Hotter than Wildfire

Ellen didn’t know these two men. But she did know that at least one of them had helped a friend survive violence and build a new life. She wasn’t endangering them. Both of them looked perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.

And…and she’d kept this lonely secret so long. It had shattered her life. Something in her longed to let it out, as if telling them could somehow lift this dark cloud of evil hanging over her, blighting her life.

She pulled in a deep breath and told them a secret she’d nearly died to keep.

“The company’s name is Bearclaw. My former boss’s name is Gerald Montez.”

The air in the room changed, like an electrical charge had been run through it. The two men looked at each other.

It was just a glance, the merest flicker of the eyes, but it touched off a wildfire of panic inside her.

She was used to masking her feelings, so they probably wouldn’t realize that inside she’d just gone into red alert, panic pulsing in her head like the deep siren in submarine movies when a torpedo was heading its way.

Oh God!

They knew Gerald. They knew Bearclaw.

They were probably friends. They were certainly in the same business, probably did business together. Might even have an interest in covering up Gerald’s crimes

In a flash, Ellen realized that she’d been insane to seek protection from men who were exactly like Gerald. A year on the run, and she’d just placed herself in the enemy’s hands.

She could barely breathe, as if a giant hand had squeezed her rib cage. She had to will herself to think straight.

Whether she lived or died depended on her actions in the next minute.

“Here,” she said smoothly, opening her backpack. “I have photos on my cellphone, I can show you—" She stopped, frowning. Not too much, don’t overdo it, just look faintly puzzled. “That’s strange…”

Look up and to the left, trying to remember something. Cool, casual.

“My cellphone isn’t here…Oh!” Eyes wide, remembering. Stand up, moving slowly, even though her body was screaming for escape. “Oh my gosh! It must have dropped out of my purse downstairs when I checked the street number. I’ll be right back.”

Move briskly, don’t run.

She didn’t even give them a chance to react. In a second, she was out into the reception area. She beamed a dazzling smile at the receptionist. “Forgot something,” she trilled. “Be right back!”

In the hallway, the elevator was just closing its doors. She’d kept herself in shape, doing calesthenics in her run-down apartment every day, and a good thing, too, because she ran and caught the door by a hair, punching the ground floor button so hard it was a miracle she didn’t punch her way through the metal.

It took forever. Finally, the doors dinged and she flew out through the huge glass street doors, blinking in the bright sunlight. And again, the goddess of runaway women was with her, because a cab swerved to the curb and let out a passenger.

She must have looked like a wild woman. The taxi driver threw her a startled look when she flung herself into the back seat and panted out the address of the small hotel where she’d booked for the night. “Double the fare if you can get me there in ten minutes!”

The taxi driver was young, and looked like a college student. “Yes, ma’am!” he grinned and stood on the accelerator. There was a squeal of tires and she was pressed against the back of the seat. Good. As long as the driver didn’t get them killed on the way, the faster she got to her room, the better.

Could they track her down? She thought it over. She hadn’t called the Bird in Flight number from her cellphone but from a payphone at the Greyhound station. The hotel she’d found was only a block from there, though. Would they be able to track her down?

Probably. These guys would have enormous resources at their disposal, including manpower.

And she hadn’t even had a chance to sleep yet. She’d just washed up a bit before going to RBK. So now she’d have to leave, fast, and go…

Her mind pulled a blank.

Go where?

She’d plan that when she got to the hotel. Right now her entire being was panic bolted on top of exhaustion.

God, she was tired. The whole weight of the past three days, of the past year, was settling on her shoulders like a concrete mantle. She was usually pretty good as making snap decisions, but none that made any sense to her were coming at the moment.

Run. Again. But to where?