02 Unforgivable - Untouchable (22 page)

My head went back against the seat as my heart continued to pound in my chest, “I never, ever should have agreed to let you help me,” I choked. I could feel the emotions wadded up in my throat, but nothing was rising to my eyes. If Micah didn’t show up with his pistols strapped to his sides, it wouldn’t matter because he would beat Ryan to death, and I know I couldn’t stop him.

“
Don’t worry about me,” he said, his hand reaching over and squeezing mine.

“
He’s just going to follow us to wherever we go and—”

“
Only if he’s a freaking psychic! He can’t follow us this time; we don’t have a flight plan.”

“
Will you be in trouble for that?”

“
The FAA wants every trip to have a flight plan, but for small aircraft it’s only strongly recommended. They can’t pull my license or anything for not doing it.”

My heart was beginning to slow from its fast pace and air was returning to my lungs. Running away from Micah I had known all along wasn’t going to be easy, but I never expected him to find me so quickly.

Chapter Ten

Micah studied the property records on his laptop. He found Harvey Pinchon’s information at Heaven’s Landing. He knew exactly which house he would be going to when they landed in a few moments. He turned off the computer and closed the lid.

Gwen gave him a sympathetic look as they descended onto the mountaintop airstrip.

He hated that look. He didn’t want sympathy. In fact, he didn’t want her along at all, but he’d made himself bring her so it would be easier to get information at the airport, and so when he found them, she could talk him out of killing Ryan.

They landed and taxied toward the hangers where a group of men were standing.

Micah wasted no time in concocting a believable story. “Hello,” he said as he and Gwen disembarked. “Harvey sent us up here to check on some friends staying at his place.”

“
You just missed them,” one man quickly offered. “They flew out of here about fifteen minutes ago.”

“
Do you know where they were headed?” Gwen asked.

“
No,” another man answered, “but they were in a hell-fire hurry, said it was a matter of life or death. The guy wasn’t even going to do his preflight check, but we talked him into it.”

“
He didn’t even fuel up,” the first man added. “He only had about a third of a tank so he won’t go more than a couple hundred miles before he has to refuel. And,” he added, pointing to the big black truck, “He left Harvey’s truck sitting here with the keys in the ignition.”

“
I’ll take the truck back up to Harvey’s,” Micah said smoothly.

No one was going to argue with someone his size, nor with a cop, as they watched the two of them get in Harvey’s truck.

Micah had the information from the computer memorized, so it was no problem for him to pull into the right driveway.

“
I’m going inside,” he simply told Gwen.

“
That’s breaking and entering, Micah, I don’t think—”

“
Then stay outside,” he growled back. “See if there is a garage door opener in the—”

Gwen already had it in hand. She had found it in the seat when she climbed in, but hadn’t shown it until now. She hit the button and the door went up.

Micah smiled at the open door inside the garage leading into the house, “You don’t have to come inside.”

Gwen didn’t say anything as she followed.

The house wasn’t messy, but it was obvious they left in a rush. Micah inspected each room; pausing the longest as he looked at the unmade bed. He went into the master bath and then left the room and headed to the kitchen. He pulled out the kitchen garbage can and took off the lid and began pulling out empty Wal-Mart bags. Eventually he found the bag he was looking for as he removed a receipt and put it in his pocket. A little further down, below a couple more bags he stopped and stared for a long moment.

Gwen started to walk toward him when he spewed out an obscenity and slammed his fist through the kitchen wall.

“
Micah!”

Three more powerful punches to the wall and she was struggling to get a grip on his arms. “Stop. Quit being an idiot! You’re going to hit a stud in a minute and break your hand!”

“
Damn it, Gwen—Damn it all to hell,” he didn’t sound furious at the moment, only defeated. “Do you have,” he tried to say, but his voice caught on the words. He took a choppy breath and tried again, “Do you have an extra hair tie or a rubber band?”

Gwen reached up and pulled the hair band from her short pony tail and handed it to Micah.

He reached into the trash and removed a big lock of shimmering brown hair about eighteen inches long. He wrapped the end of the hair carefully and tightly with the band and then shook it as the intermixed black hairs fell away. He smoothed the hair between his fingers until it was straight and then slowly lifted it to his face and inhaled deeply, “It smells just the way it did the morning she left me.”

Gwen had no words to comfort him, as she rubbed her hand softly on the back of his broad shoulder.

He coiled the hair and placed it carefully into his shirt pocket and then reached back into the trash and pulled out several bottles of hair color and their boxes, “I believe my wife is a blonde now, with highlights.” He grabbed a half-filled bottle of red. “And the asshole is now a redhead.”

He looked around the house for a few more minutes and then walked outside. He had the sales receipt in hand and was dialing the store’s phone number, “Yes, can you tell me where you’re located if I’m coming from Heaven’s Landing? And is April working this morning? Thank you.” He closed the phone and opened the door to the truck as he started to get in.

“
Micah, you can’t just take this truck. We’ve got to call a cab.”

“
Can’t a police officer commandeer a vehicle?”

“
Yes, I can, but—”

“
Good, then you drive,” he said, handing her the keys.

Within fifteen minutes they were approaching the customer service desk as Gwen showed them the receipt pointing to the name of the cashier on the paper, “Hello, I’m police chief Gavarreen and this is detective—”

“
Michaelson,” Micah said, reaching out and shaking the manager’s hand. “We need to speak to April regarding a missing person that came through her line a few days ago.”

“
Oh—oh sure, I’ll go get her.” The slight-built man hurried off to relieve her from her register. It didn’t take long for the twenty-something, gum chewing, curly haired cashier to greet her visitors.

“
Hi, ya’ll. My manager said you needed to see me about someone that I rang up a couple days ago, but there are a lot of folks that come through—”

“
You might remember this couple,” Micah interrupted, showing her a picture of Leese and watching her reaction as she earnestly studied her face. Then he handed her one of Ryan.

“
Those two! Oh, Lord, yes. Who could forget those blue-eyes? He was a real card, half crazy, I think. I thought there was something wrong about them.”

“
Why?” Gwen asked.

“
The girl, she was real quiet, but he was talkative enough for the both of them. He said they got married the day before—I mean the diamond on her hand didn’t look like nothing he could afford, but she never denied it, never said a word. And then he got kinda nasty-talkin’, sayin’ she lost her voice from screamin’ on their weddin’ night. I couldn’t believe he said that.”

Micah inhaled and his muscle mass seemed to double in size.

“
Anyway,” she continued, apparently enjoying the fact that she had something to tell, “she hauled off and slugged him in the arm, hard, too. It was no love tap, honey.”

Micah smiled slightly, losing a little of the anger.

“
But when he started to pay, she spoke up and said she had it, and then pulled out brand-new hundred dollar bills.”

“
Was that all?” Gwen pressed.

“
Did they mention anything about where they were headed after here?” Micah added.

“
No, I don’t recall, but he did say they flew in from California, if that helps.”

“
Thank you for—” Gwen started to say.

“
So did he like kidnap her? I knew that boy wasn’t right in the head.”

“
We’ll be in touch if we need anything else,” Gwen dodged.

The flight back to Louisiana was quiet for the first hour.

“
Micah, I’m sorry, but I think you need to seriously consider what Mom told you last night.”

“
I’m not divorcing her, Gwen.”

“
It’s not a divorce, it’s an annulment.”

“
I don’t care what it’s called, I—”

“
You worked too hard to risk your fortune on—”

“
She has more money than me,” he said raising an eyebrow at his sister.

“
Maybe she does and maybe she could care less about your millions, but you also thought she was going to be a faithful—”

“
Shut up, Gwen. It isn’t right. I still don’t believe she left me for Ryan. He may have been helping her, but he
isn’t
the reason. You heard the cashier about how Leese was acting in the store.”

“
Micah, wake up! Didn’t you notice something a little odd in that house? If she wasn’t after Ryan then—”

“
Don’t say it. Of course I noticed the—the bed.”

“
They left in a hurry and they didn’t take time to make the bed—there was only one bed that was—”

“
Stop it! I’m not an idiot, Gwen.”

“
You’ve been denying what happened since she left. It’s time to see the truth. She left with Ryan
on her own
. I’m sorry, I thought she was the real deal too, but in the end she’s just a rich, spoiled, eighteen year old girl who didn’t realize she already had the greatest guy on the planet.”

Micah cut his eyes at her. They didn’t speak to each other again.

As the plane approached the runway in New Orleans, Micah pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial, “Hey Bill, I need some legal work. It’s not too late for an annulment, is it? No, I’m afraid it didn’t work out, she—she ran away with another guy a couple days later. Yeah, but not as shocked as me. I’ll stop by your office tomorrow.”

They walked off the plane as Micah thanked his sister for helping him. His cell phone went off again and a strange look came across his face as he looked at the caller’s identity.

“
Who is it?” Gwen asked, worried it might be the person she just convinced him to get an annulment from.

But it only took one name to realize she would have preferred that it was Leese.

“
D’Angelo,” he said, answering the phone and walking away.

Chapter Eleven

After we fueled in Murfreesboro, it was a three hour run for Colorado Springs.

“
That’s about our maximum range,” Ryan commented as we left the Tennessee runway. “We’ll be pretty close to empty by the time we get there.”

“
So you say you know some people out there, but you never said how.”

“
I lived there when I was younger. My dad was an instructor at the Academy for about three years before he went back to flying combat missions.”

“
Wow, that’s pretty impressive. You’re mom doesn’t look that old, was your dad—”

“
A little—ten years; he would have turned fifty one next month, he was forty seven when he was killed.”

I watched his brow furrow and I knew it was time to change the subject, “So you were living with your sister in Pensacola? I never met her, how old is she?”

“
Dianna is twenty-two. Her husband, Clyde—”

“
Clyde?” I was trying not to giggle, but it sounded funny.

“
Yeah, I know and what’s even funnier is that’s his nickname. Did you ever see the movie ‘Every Which Way But Loose’ with Clint Eastwood?”

My smile got a little broader, “No, I’m afraid I never watched any of his movies.”

“
You’re kidding, right? You’ve never seen a Clint Eastwood film?” He was genuinely surprised.

“
I’m not a big movie buff, but go on and tell me what the connection is between them.” I was getting the feeling from the expression on Ryan’s face that it was going to be funny, however it ended.

“
Eastwood’s character in the movie is a boxer named Philo Beddow who travels with an orangutan named Clyde.”