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She swallowed hard. Lifted her hand. Gave the camera the finger.
And with that act of empty defiance, she pulled the camera down and shoved it into the kitchen garbage, with the tinfoil and the coffee grounds. The garbage was ripe and nasty after three days of neglect.
And now? She stepped out onto the porch with her suitcase and ran her eye up and down the street. Would she be shot or abducted? Or simply followed? She tried to memorize every make and color of car in sight as she hauled her suitcase down the stairs. Her legs shook beneath her.
No one appeared to follow once she turned onto the big street, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. It meant she’d been fooled. She’d been fooled before. She tried Josh again, then Carrie. Still nothing.
She was unnerved, shaking, on the verge of tears as she drove. She wanted to call Nick, but he would just go bananas on her, and at this point, there was nothing he could do. She might as well proceed with her day’s agenda. Ditch that damned rental before it bled her dry.
She called a cab as soon as she started in on the paperwork at the rental place, and told it to meet her at a nearby intersection that was a couple of blocks the wrong way down a one-way street. She hoped that was a crafty enough evasion technique to fool seasoned mobsters, as she puffed down the sidewalk, dragging her suitcase behind her.
She finally managed to breathe once she’d slid into the back of the cab and slumped down out of sight in the seat. She dragged out her phone again and pulled up Josh’s number.
Wonder of wonders. It was ringing. “Hello? Becca?”
“Josh! You scared me to death! Where the hell have you been?”
“Oh, well…” His voice trailed off. “I, um, I met someone.”
His evasiveness in the face of her own stark fear made her furious. “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? Where the hell are you?”
“I’m at my new apartment,” Josh said cheerfully. “I’m moving in with Nadia.”
“Nadia? Who the hell is Nadia?” Her voice cracked.
“Calm down, Becca. Nadia’s wonderful. I met her a couple days ago, and we’ve been together twenty-four-seven ever since, and now she’s invited me to move in with her. Todd can have my room in the HellHole, since he’s been sleeping on the downstairs couch for three months anyhow, and I’ll move in here and help Nadia with the rent on this place. I can work extra shifts at the Electronics Barn to cover—”
“Moving in with her? You just met this girlwhen?”
She was being a hysterical harpy, which never worked with Josh, but she couldn’t stop herself. She was too freaked out, too scared.
“Night before yesterday. But you’ve got to understand, Becca. She’s amazing. She’s sweet, and smart, and she’s so amazingly beautiful, I just can’t believe that she—hey! Stop that, Nadia. No, it is true! No, really, stop…that tickles…oh, shit…”
The voices on the other end of the line degenerated into a goofy, giggling scuffle, and Becca waited, teeth clenched, for them to sort it out and get themselves under control. “Becca?” Josh’s voice came back, raw with laughter. “You still there?”
“Yes. I am,” she said grimly.
“It’s weird. I just turned on my phone for one second to call the pastry place to send us some cupcakes, and the same second, boom, you call me. You must be, like, psychic.”
“No, just desperate,” she snapped. “Look, Josh, I’ve been calling all morning. I’ve been out of my mind, because Carrie—”
“Don’t worry,” Josh coaxed her. “Everything’s great. I’ve never been so great in my life. Oh, hey. That’s a great idea—hold on a sec—” There was a murmur and Josh came back on. “Nadia says, why don’t you just come over? Come have brunch with us or lunch or whatever! See for yourself how special she is. She really wants to meet you. I told her how you basically raised me and Carrie, and she said that when her mom died, she and her little sister in Moldova were just like—”
“Joshie, I can’t,” she said. “I’m in trouble, and I need to—”
“Sure you can! Tell me all about it here. I’ll text you the address. Come over. I’m turning off my phone. I really want you to come. OK?”
“Josh, please, I—”
Click.The connection broke. Becca stared at the phone in dismay. She tried the number again. Sure enough, he really had turned off his phone. She could have shrieked in frustration.
She already disliked this seductress Nadia. Whoever the hell she was, she had to come out of the woodwork right now, at the worst possible time, and turn Josh’s brain to mush.
Which was kind of unfair, considering her own whirlwind romance, and the distinctly mush-like state of her own silly brain.
Still. God help them all. She tried Carrie’s number. Still off. She wished she’d mentioned that to Josh before he turned his phone off.
Her phone chirped. Message. She checked it.
