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“Listen to the purr of that engine, sugar. People down here drive older cars but they keep them in top shape. It wouldn’t do them any good to try and evacuate for a hurricane and not be able to get their cars started. And we’re taking this particular truck because the owner is obviously busy checking his traps for the day. Trappers don’t usually come in until the afternoon, so it should give us plenty of time to get a head start.”
“Oh,” Rachel said.
“Now tell me why we’re going to Dallas when the copy of the list is in Chicago.”
Rachel bristled a little at the demand, but kept her mouth shut. She’d never been one for taking orders. “I work at a large interior design firm in Chicago. Worked,” she clarified. It had broken her heart to give up the job she’d fought so hard for. Sacrificed for. “Dad called me on my cell at the office that last day. I was busy with client meetings, so I didn’t give him as much time as I should have. As I wish now I had. He was excited and told me everything was going to work out just fine, and that Uncle Angelo would take care of me if anything went wrong. Dad was scheduled to meet with Agent Culver like I told you, and then give his deposition. I wished him luck, told him I loved him and hung up. I didn’t give it another thought until I was told he was missing.”
Rachel’s voice cracked on a sob, but she pulled herself together. She hated to show any weakness. Especially in front of a stranger. Valentines did not cry. Her father always told her their enemies would constantly look for vulnerabilities, chinks in their armor. So she’d stood dry eyed next to her father at the funerals of her mother and sister, though she’d been dying on the inside. If she could hold it together then, she could sure as hell hold it together in front of Shane Quincy.
Rachel took a few minutes to gather her composure and was thankful Shane stayed silent. The rain had picked up and was coming down in blinding sheets, but Shane handled the truck smoothly, focused on the road ahead. She hadn’t seen him lose that focus in any of the situations that had been thrown at them so far.
She spoke softer as she continued. “Just as I was packing my things away for the day a FedEx package landed on my desk. Someone at the front desk had signed for it and sent it up. Since it was sent to me at work I figured it was work related and shoved it into my briefcase. I didn’t give it another thought until I unlocked the front door of my apartment.”
“Let me guess,” Shane said. “Someone had searched your apartment.”
“Searched is too kind a word for what they did. They violated every inch of every space. Drawers were upended and furniture had been slashed to ribbons. My desktop was smashed to pieces on the floor and my laptop was gone. I took one look at the mess, turned around and got out of there.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t run into the person responsible.”
“Believe me, I know. I found out later that night on the news that my doorman’s body had been found in the alley with multiple gunshot wounds.”
“What did you do?”
“I took a taxi to the South Side and stayed in a dirt-cheap motel until the next morning. I didn’t sleep a wink that night and jumped at every sound. When I opened the package that had been sent to me, I knew I held the power to destroy a lot of people’s lives. I think my father knew he probably wouldn’t live to see all the wrongs made right, so it’s up to me now.”
“That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone you love,” Shane said skeptically.
“My father was a good man,” Rachel insisted vehemently. “He’d want me to do the right thing.”
“So why are you in Louisiana instead of testifying before a grand jury, and how do you know that your father told Angelo he gave you a copy of the list?”
This guy was a hard nut to crack. It was a good thing Rachel wasn’t looking for sympathy, because she felt sure he didn’t possess the emotion. Her voice frosted over and was hard as ice when she continued.
“Because the police discovered a message when they found my doorman’s body in the alley. Angelo’s men had carved a warning into the poor man’s chest, demanding that I turn over the list or I’d be next. A news camera got it on film, and I saw the whole thing with the rest of the world on the ten o’clock news. The next morning I borrowed a car from the lot of the motel I was staying at and drove back to Chicago.”
“When you say borrowed, I take it you mean stole.”
“Are you going to let me finish the story or not?”
“By all means,” he said.
“I was at my bank just as they were opening, and I told the clerk I needed to put some things in my safety-deposit box. My father made sure I was prepared in case something like this happened, so I removed a duffle bag from the box similar to the one you carry. It was full of cash and IDs, an extra set of clothes and a couple of wigs. I made a copy of the papers and put the originals in the safety-deposit box. I changed clothes and hair in the restroom and walked out the front door without anyone noticing.”
“I can put two and two together and assume you sent the copies of the papers you made to someone in Dallas. But that still doesn’t answer my question. How are you supposed to turn this evidence over to the FBI if you’re running away?”
Rachel looked at Shane and wondered not for the first time if she was getting more with him than she’d bargained for. She was out of people she could trust. The list had been short to begin with, but now most of them were dead, and she didn’t want to involve her two closest friends in anything that could get them hurt. Trusting a stranger might be her best shot at survival. Or Shane Quincy could be working for her Uncle Angelo and kill her for the large price that had been put on her head. Her instincts were failing her, and for the first time she wondered if she could even trust herself.
* * *
Shane noticed the sudden fear in her eyes but stayed silent, quietly driving the stolen truck along rutted and muddy paths. They’d be in Texas before they hit a highway that wouldn’t jar teeth or spew mud onto passing cars.
“You’re not going to get rid of me so easy now,” Shane said. “Whoever’s after you could have burned down my house and they destroyed my business. I’m in this for the long haul, so you might as well stay on for the ride.”
The quick show of fear she’d displayed disappeared. Shane felt her cool stare and the calculating gaze of her weighing the odds of putting her safety in his hands. He kept his grip relaxed over the steering wheel and waited for her to make up her mind.
“Fine, but I prefer to treat this as a business relationship.”
His curse was short and obscene, but she wasn’t rattled.
