Flirtation (8 page)

“That’s hardly—” Sarah’s comment was cut short by a look from Ian.

“Okay. They’re at her place now, brushing for prints, and we’ll do the same here, though it doesn’t look like anyone was here. We’ll go with your gut for now. Though whatever she’s involved in, it’s gone way beyond theft,” Ian concluded.

“Agreed.” EJ paused for a moment, then added, “How’d they know we were here?”

“Huh?” Ian said.

“The shooters. How’d they know where we were?”

“A bug maybe. A neighborhood snitch. Could be anything,” Ian said, shrugging.

“Could be a leak,” EJ said, blowing out a breath.

Ian’s eyes widened. “You think someone at the station told them you were here?”

“I called in for backup, for someone to come to the house, then this happens. It’s not impossible.”

“Shit,” Ian said.

“Yeah.”

“That would put a whole new spin on things—who could have their hands in something that reached that far?” Ian asked.

The question settled between them, and EJ rubbed his hands over his face, shaking his head.

“I have to get in there. See how’s she’s doing.” He looked Ian in the eye. “You know I can’t bring her in if there’s a chance someone on the inside set this up.”

“So what are you going to do?” Ian asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll be in touch.”

“This won’t go down well. She’s involved, even if she’s not guilty—with one of our men down, there isn’t going to be much patience waiting for her to tell what she knows, even if it’s not much. They’ll want to know why she hasn’t been brought in.”

“Tell them I’m on it.” EJ met Ian’s doubtful glance solidly before turning and walking back into the house.

C
HARLOTTE QUICKLY WENT
to Ronny’s bedroom, looking for something less obvious to wear, and found his clothes thrown around, and his one beat-up suitcase gone. He’d taken off, apparently. The thought provided her some small bit of relief—she’d been afraid he might have met with a much worse fate. A piece of white paper was on the bed, and she moved toward it, slowly, and then read the brief message scrawled out in Ronny’s rough handwriting.

Charlotte stared at the note, her voice thin.

“Oh, Ronny, what have you done?”

She grabbed the note as she heard the screen door in the front hallway squeak open and shut. EJ. She had no time to find clothes, she had to go. She had to find her brother before he did another stupid thing.

Quickly, she pushed up the window by the headboard of the bed and swung her legs over the sill, unconcerned at this point what further damage happened to the dress. She was done in on that score anyway. Kicking her shoes off, she slid to the damp ground, heard EJ calling her name somewhere inside the apartment, and took off at a run.

She knew the backlots well enough to find her way to the next neighborhood, and looked around frantically for a taxi. She couldn’t trust EJ—he had a job to do, but that job meant she could be spending the rest of the night in a police station ratting out her brother instead of looking for him, and she wanted to find him before the cops did. Or before whatever nasty people who were after them did.

Luck was on her side. She didn’t see EJ behind her, and a taxi pulled up at the curb. She got in, but wasn’t sure where to tell the driver to go. It hit her then: Rascal’s. It was a dive on the edge of town where Ronny and his friends hung out. She’d only been there once or twice, and she didn’t really know anyone, and doubted they’d remember her. But they might know where Ronny is.

She directed the driver, and sat back, chewing on her thumb as they drove to the outer edges of the city, where there were fewer people and darker streets, but she barely noticed. Spotting a twenty-four-hour convenience store, she asked the driver to stop and ran in, purchasing a pair of cheap scissors before moving on.

While she thought about her plan, and how she might contact Ronny, she ruthlessly cut the French lace she wore off at the knee, going as evenly as she could so she’d look a little more casual and avoid drawing any attention to the bloodstain on the hem. Smoothing her hair, she handed the driver her credit card and hoped she had enough money on it to pay for the fare, and exhaled in relief when he handed it back to her without a problem.

The cab drove away, leaving her standing in the dusty parking lot with the sounds of tree frogs and other night creatures humming behind her and the booming sound of rock music and raucous laughter thrumming from the bar.

Straightening her back, she took a deep breath and headed for the door. She wasn’t in any danger. It was just a bar, which meant there were waitstaff, bartenders and cooks—no one was going to hurt her here. The most she might have to endure would be some comments or leers, and she could deal with that.

EJ
RACED BACK OUT
to the sidewalk, looking around sharply, and didn’t see a thing. Sarah was gone, and Ian was on his cell phone in the front seat of his car. EJ slid in beside him, covering his mouth with his palm for a second, and then looked at Ian, who clicked off his phone and met EJ’s glance.

“I lost her.”

“What? How could you lose her? She was right there in the window.”

“She must have bolted through the back when I came in, or while we were dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s out here.” He slammed the heel of his hand into the dash. “Shit. I can’t believe we let this happen.”

“Want to put out an APB?”

EJ considered. “No. It’s still possible whoever’s after her and her brother could be clued into the police communications. She’s in enough danger already. At least if we don’t know where she is, maybe no one else does, either.”

“True. But to disappear that quickly she had to have some help. She caught a bus, took a cab, or hitched, but someone, somewhere, knows where she was going, so it won’t be hard to find out. Let’s head back to the lab.”

“Shouldn’t you get home to Sage?”

“She’ll call me if something happens.”

EJ nodded curtly, pissed at himself, at Charlotte, and hoping desperately that they found her before anyone else did.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“I’
VE GOT HER
.”

Ian slapped the desk, his exclamation pulling EJ away from his own inquiries as Ian slammed down the phone, smiling like the cat who got the cream.

“Well, whether she’s guilty or not, she’s not very slick. Took General taxi and paid with her credit card about an hour ago. They dropped her at a place called Rascal’s. Here’s the address. You know it?”

EJ nodded. “I’ve been past it. A real dive on the outskirts.” His gaze darkened as he grabbed his jacket. Thankfully he kept a change of clothes at the office and wouldn’t have to go to the roadhouse in his expensive suit. He’d have trouble before he made it through the door that way. But in jeans, sweatshirt and Norfolk Tide baseball cap, he should fit right in. He hoped.

“What the hell did she go there for?” he wondered out loud.

“Either she’s meeting up with someone, or she’s looking for someone. Or trying to disappear.”

“Could be she knows where her brother is after all.”

“Want backup?”

EJ shook his head, feeling a lethal mix of emotions that he couldn’t quite sort through, but he pushed them down, becoming cool and focused. He shoved his nine-millimeter in his belt under his jacket.

“No. I’ll get her.”

“It could be she didn’t make a mistake. Maybe she wants to be found.”

“A trap?”

“Could be. You should have backup.”

“No, it’ll scare her off. I want to make a quiet approach, see what’s going on, not go in there with sirens blaring. And it could be it was a stupid mistake.”

“Dangerous assumption.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“H
OOO-DOGGIE
!
Come over here, sweet thang, and sit on papa’s lap for a lil’ while.”

A chorus of laughter went up as Charlotte made her way through the bar, telling herself the comments were not aimed at her. She kept her eyes on the bar and made her way to it, sitting as quickly as she could and signaling the bartender—she thought she remembered his name was Frank, but she wasn’t sure.

The smoke in the place choked her, and she counted the bottles lined up on the back of the bar, striving to look careless and unperturbed as one large, smelly man took the seat next to her. She held
her breath again, and closed her eyes in relief when he ignored her and turned to the guy next to him.

She wasn’t so lucky the second time. Someone swaggered up, and wasn’t about to be ignored, tapping her on the shoulder. She set her jaw and turned, her eyes widening when she took in the very threatening countenance of the man who towered over her as she faced him from her position on the stool. He didn’t look like a barfly, and he definitely wasn’t anyone she’d seen before. He was…handsome, for one thing. He wasn’t smoking, and he smiled, just a little.

“Ms. Gerard?”

He knew her name. She recoiled, looking around her, wondering what was going on. Was he a cop? Or one of the men who wrecked her apartment and shot at her? The man leaned in, planting his hands on the bar on either side of her. His breath was minty, not alcoholic. A bad guy wouldn’t have clean breath, would he?

“Ms. Gerard?”

“Yes. How do you know my name?”

“We know someone in common.”

She grasped his forearm with her hand, no longer afraid. “Ronny? My brother? Do you know where he is?”

The man’s eyes narrowed to slits. “No. Actually, we were looking for you. Your computer didn’t offer up the information we needed, so we decided to come directly to the source.”

“You! You wrecked my home!”

He slanted a smile. “Not personally, no. Why don’t you come with me? I have someone who’d like to talk with you.”

She crossed her arms resolutely over her chest. “I’m not going anywhere with you. And I don’t believe you—you must know what happened to Ronny.”

He removed one hand from the bar to push his jacket back, just far enough to show her he had a gun inside there. She felt light-headed and closed her eyes. What had she gotten herself into? She slid from the stool, the strange man’s hand like a vise around her arm, and walked slowly behind him.

In a last-ditch attempt, she mouthed the word
help
to anyone whose eye she could catch, and was gratified to see someone—maybe the man who had catcalled her when she entered the bar—stand up, eye the man ahead of her suspiciously and step forward with a few of his very large friends.

“Hey, mister. Seems like maybe the lady doesn’t feel like leaving with you tonight.” The big man laughed, looking down at her with a leer. She ground her teeth and smiled at him, unsure whether she was leaping from the pan into the fire, but was willing to take her chances.

The man who held her stopped, took a deep breath and turned, facing the large men with as much of a good ol’ boy smile as he could muster.

“Now, sir,” he said, dragging Charlotte up hard
against him so she could feel the butt of the gun through his jacket. “This here is my wife, and I’m set to take her home. What would you think if you found your woman, dressed like this, in the middle of the night, in this kind of place? Doesn’t a man have a right to come get her?”

The big man pinched his chin and thought. Charlotte started to speak up, but her captor twisted her wrist painfully and her words just came out on a groan. Her plan was failing, she could see by the look in the redneck guy’s eyes. This wasn’t a liberal guy—he’d surely think a man had a perfect right to drag “his woman” from the bar. No sooner had she thought it and the passel of men backed off, muttering things about not interfering in private matters between a man and a woman.

“Nice try, sweetheart.”

The tall man pulled her forward again, and she resisted, but stopped when he shot her a deadly look. They walked through the door, and through the parking lot. She started to shake with fear.

Suddenly the man’s grip on her wrist loosened, and he fell backward with a grunt. As her kidnapper crumpled to the dirt, she looked up and stared into cold, angry green eyes.

EJ
BENT TO THE GROUND
, patting the unconscious man down, taking his gun and his wallet, before returning his attention to Charlotte. Without a word,
he took her by the shoulders, pushing her toward his car, and she gasped, moving like a marionette being pushed and dragged from place to place.

But EJ wasn’t feeling too gentle at the moment, his anger and the fear he’d felt when he saw her being dragged out into the parking lot consuming him. Whoever the guy was, he was carrying some serious firepower, and EJ didn’t want to think of what could have happened to her. He was surprised when she whirled on him.

“Stop pushing me! What right do you have—” He cut her off, slapping his hand over her mouth to quiet her, and actually putting her in the seat of his car, arrest style, hand on head. She glared up at him, rebounding, and he leaned in close.

“Should I cuff you, princess? Because I’m more than willing.”

She backed off and settled in with a resentful look, and he went around to his own side, satisfied that she wasn’t going to take off on him again. If she did, he’d catch her before she got too far, and this time he would cuff her.

Pulling away from the parking lot in a spray of dust and gravel, they drove down the highway toward the city, silent until he pulled over, comfortable with the distance between them and the roadhouse, unsure of his next move. He knew Ian expected him back, but this wasn’t about Ian. What happened next depended on Charlotte.

Putting the car in Park, he turned and pinned Charlotte with his stare, hardening his heart to her desperate eyes, the pulse he saw hammering frantically in her throat.

“You said you weren’t guilty of anything, Charlotte—so why did you take off?”

“I knew you were going to bring me in, and that would have been time lost in finding Ronny.”

“That bar was one of his hangouts?”

She nodded, looking down at her hands, where her fingers played with the ragged ends of the shortened dressed. Her voice was subdued when she spoke.

“I should have known. I should have seen it, his cards have indicated some trouble, but I never thought of something like this. I could have helped him.”

She thought she was responsible for what trouble her brother was in? EJ sat back in disbelief, processing the information, but realizing it was consistent with what he knew about her so far. It sounded like she’d do just about anything for Ronny, including putting herself in the path of danger.

“Who was the guy dragging you out?”

“I don’t know. He said we had a mutual friend, and he was bringing me to meet him.”

“He has your brother?”

“He said no—they wanted me.”

EJ sighed, leaning forward, turning her toward him and planting his large hands on her shoulders, shaking her lightly.

“What’s happened to your brother is not your fault, Charlotte. In fact, it’s starting to look to me like it could be quite the opposite. I know you think you can see things in the cards, but there’s no way you could have seen something like this coming. Ronny is obviously involved with some very dangerous people, and it looks like he’s involved you, too.”

“You don’t understand.” She spat the words, pulling away from him, unsure what to think about anything. “He’s my brother. I know he’s had a hard time. I should have paid more attention, I should have—”

“This has gotten really serious, darlin’. It’s bigger than you and your brother. A cop was shot, and the people who are standing at his bedside are going to want to know why. You’re the only one who we know is connected right now—” he held his hand up to stem her objection “—I said connected, not guilty. But they’ll want someone’s head. And I would rather it not be yours.”

She blinked, looking at him warily. “You don’t think I’m guilty?”

EJ was quiet for several moments, sifting through his confusing thoughts, his anger subsiding. He listened to his gut, which had served him well so far.

“No, I don’t think you are guilty. But I think your brother is in this up to his neck, and I’m going to find out why. There are apparently some very bad people after him—why they came out shooting tonight, I have no idea. A message, I guess.”

“Or maybe they were trying to keep us from finding something.”

“Like what?”

She shrugged, but he realized she could be right. The entire episode could have been a distraction, to keep them out of the house. Perhaps whoever had trashed Charlotte’s home hadn’t had a chance to look through Ronny’s place, and had been trying to keep them out. But by shooting a cop, they had made the house inaccessible to everyone—unless there was a dirty cop on their payroll. Things just weren’t adding up.

“We need to go back to the house.” Charlotte’s voice was resolute.

“No, that’s not an option. The cops have been all over it—if there’s something to find, they’ll find it. I’ve got to report the incident at the roadhouse, and get this ID to Sarah and Ian. Then we have to find someplace to stay, to lay low until we know something about what’s going on.”

“Where?”

“I have some ideas.”

Without another word, he pulled back out onto the pitch-dark highway, and drove east.

C
HARLOTTE WASN’T SURE
where she was when she woke up, but it smelled nice. And it was warm. And solid. She snuggled in closer, feeling safe and…Wait.

The feeling of her world being tipped seriously
out of balance returned, and she sat up sharply in the bed, looking around the strange room. Listening to the chirping sounds of creatures outside the screened windows, she could swear she heard ocean surf. It was all peaceful, but unfamiliar.

Then, looking down, she saw the source of the warm comfort she’d awakened to. EJ.

Her hand flew to her chest, only to find it stalled halfway—he’d
cuffed
her, the other link attached to his own wrist. She knew without feeling that she was naked—she wasn’t wearing the silky lace gown any longer.

Reflexively, she pulled the sheet up around her with her other hand, and then looked down at the man sleeping beside her; EJ was still fully clothed and sleeping on top of the covers. The events of the previous hours came rushing back, and she sighed, her body sinking back into the lush pillows. She guessed after what had happened between them the previous evening, being naked with the man wasn’t a big deal. And she almost couldn’t blame him for handcuffing her. Almost.

“Are you okay?” EJ’s hushed whisper drifted softly through the darkness, though he hadn’t moved a muscle. She turned her head and saw he still lay in the same position with his eyes shut. She wondered if she’d imagined him speaking, but then he turned his head to her, just looking across the pillows in the darkness.

“I’m naked.” The bald statement escaped before
she could think, and she looked away. “And I’m in handcuffs.”

“I didn’t think you’d be comfortable sleeping in the dress. It was getting pretty ratty. And you were completely passed out by the time we got here. But I didn’t want to take any chances on you waking up and taking off again.”

“I wouldn’t have.”

“Sure you wouldn’t.” His voice conveyed his doubt. “But this way I could get some peaceful shut-eye, too.”

Not too peaceful, she thought, spotting the shadow of his gun on the nightstand.

“Thanks, I guess. I can’t believe I was sleeping so soundly I didn’t even realize you’d undressed me.” She blew out a breath, looking back in his direction. “Where is ‘here’?”

“My sister’s summer house. We’re about two hours up the shore, in Assateague.”

“In Maryland?”

“Yeah. It was the only place I could think of to disappear for a while on short notice.”

“I still don’t understand why we need to disappear. Did you hear anything about that officer? Is he okay?”

“I checked in a few hours ago, and he was critical but stable. He hasn’t regained consciousness yet, but they’re hoping for the best.”

“Does he have a family?”

“He’s not married, but he does have a family. Parents, siblings.”

“Who was the man who tried to grab me? Do you know?”

“They’re running his license. We’ll know soon.”