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“In an empty house? That’s been sitting empty since the fall? You’ll have to do better than that.”
He turned to leave, and the first man shouted, “Wait. You said you wouldn’t leave us if we answered some questions.”
“Who sent you here?” Gideon asked. Although he already knew. These guys had to be from the Russians Jerry Trotter had cheated.
When he got no answer, Gideon stepped into the office. He set the guns and knives on the counter, wiped them all down with the pillowcase, shoved the cash into his pocket, then tossed the pillowcase into a corner. Then he opened the door and walked out. Tugged it closed behind him. One of the men groaned, and the other one yelled. Gideon couldn’t hear the words and didn’t stop to focus on them.
Moving through the snow as quickly as he could, Gideon returned to their room. He rapped on the door and said quietly, “It’s me.”
Alex threw open the door, her eyes huge, her expression terrified.
As soon as he was in the room, she threw herself into his arms. “Thank God. I heard the gunshot. I was afraid they’d shot you.”
He tightened his arms around her and bent to press a kiss to her hair. Held her against him until his heart stopped hammering in his chest. “I fired the shot,” he finally said. “To scare them. Grazed one of them. He’ll survive.”
He eased away from Alex and recounted what had happened. “They’re not going anywhere, but we can’t leave them there,” he finally said. “Did you pack everything? Make sure we didn’t leave anything behind?”
She nodded. “The suitcases are packed and ready to go. I put the rest of the food and the water in the bag with the trash to make it easier to carry. And I put five hundred dollars in the dresser drawer.”
Gideon raised his eyebrow. “That’s generous.”
“This motel saved our asses,” she retorted. “The least we can do is leave them with some money.” She sighed. “They’re probably going to need it to repair the damage those guys will do to their office, trying to escape.”
“They won’t have time to do much damage. As soon as we’re out of here, I’ll call the Boughton police department. They’ll haul them away.”
She studied him for a long moment. “Jerry hired you to kill me, but what made him think you were a hitman? Because you said you were? Anyone who took even a few minutes to assess you wouldn’t believe that.” She jerked her head toward the office. “Jerry would have killed them. Or walked away and forgotten about them. No way would you do that. You couldn’t leave two men tied up to die a slow, agonizing death.” She touched his arm. Let her fingers linger for a long moment. “Let’s go.”
She grabbed her hat and her gloves. Wrapped her fingers around the handle of her suitcase, as if she hadn’t just given him a huge gift. “I think we can do this in one trip, don’t you? We’ve consumed most of the food and water.”
“Yeah,” he said after a moment, when the impulse to pull her into his arms had passed. “Once we’re on the interstate, I’ll call the police. We’ll stop at the next decent-sized town to get more water and food.” He stopped resisting the impulse and pulled her close. Held her tightly for a moment, then dropped a kiss onto her forehead and let her go.
He took his suitcase, briefcase and the trash and leftover food. She had her suitcase and her purse. They stepped out the door, re-locked it, and began trudging through the snow toward the barn.
As they passed the office, he heard the two men shouting for help. Ignoring them, Gideon opened the barn door. They loaded everything into Alex’s Subaru, then she slid into the driver’s seat.
Gideon watched her for a moment. He’d assumed he would drive, since he’d taken evasive and tactical driving classes, but they didn’t have time to argue now about who would drive. He got into the passenger side.
She started the car, turned it around on the hard dirt of the barn, and drove slowly down the ramp. Before she reached the bottom, Gideon said, “Hold on. I need to re-attach the lock. Secure the door.”
It took only moments to fasten the lock. As soon as Gideon was back in the car, she let the Subaru bump down the snow-packed ramp until it was level. Once in the snow, she followed the faint tracks remaining from when they’d driven in.
“Good thinking, keeping it to a single track,” he said gruffly. Nodding at the nondescript sedan at the end of the motel, he said, “The police will assume the tracks are from the Russians in the office.”
She sucked in a breath. “They’re Russians?”
“I’m no linguistics expert, but their accent sounded Russian.”
She drove slowly and didn’t get stuck. Once they were on the road, she took a deep breath. Let her shoulders relax.
“You want me to drive?” he asked carefully.
“Once we’re out of town,” she said. The streets had been plowed, and there was no one on the road at two a.m. “You need to call the police first.”
“I’ll wait until we’re far away from the motel.”
Alex drove carefully, sticking to the speed limit. As they left town, he spotted the place where he’d gone into the ditch. The car had basically landed on its side -- he was lucky he hadn’t been hurt.
When the repair guy called, he’d pay with his credit card. Then he’d get in touch with Mel Melbourne, the owner of Blackhawk Security. Ask her to arrange for his car to be picked up.
