Hold Me (18 page)

She held her breath. They drew even with the crane. There was a horrible stretch when she was sure they wouldn’t make it. Then, at the last minute, she swerved around the crane and missed the house by inches.

“Holy shit.” Luc’s voice sounded reverential and just a little weak.

Behind them there was the sound of horns, of squealing brakes, of crashing metal.

“Are we alive? Are we still alive?” Katie asked. She tried to control the trembling of her hands on the steering wheel.

Luc leaned out the window to look behind them. “That crash must have been the guys chasing us. I don’t see them and the crane’s stopped now. Nobody’s getting through.”

“Thank God. Oh, thank God.”

Luc turned to face forward. “You can say that again, sweetheart. Talk about stupid luck.”

“You said you were sure we’d get away.”

“I lied.”

For a few minutes the only sounds in the car were the whine of Kato’s engine and their own heavy breathing.

“Did you get Frankie? When you shot at him back in the Museum?” Katie asked. There wasn’t any traffic now, the way clear.

“I think so.”

“Do you think he’s dead?”

“I doubt it.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

“I wonder who was kidnapped,” Katie said, voicing the question that had been haunting her since they’d overheard Frankie’s conversation back at the Museum. “Who’s being taken to Atlantic City?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that myself,” Luc admitted. “Whoever she is, she’s in some serious trouble.”

“We have to help her.”

“I’ll help her after you’re safe.”

Katie started to protest, but just sighed when she saw the firm set of his jaw.

“I wish I knew who she was,” she said instead.

“It sounded like somebody was at your apartment. Or close to it.”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“One of your neighbors? Checking up on things?”

“I wouldn’t think so.” She tried to picture her neighbors in her mind.

“Whoever she is, she has to look enough like you to fool Frankie’s guys. They had to have a description.”

“I’m not sure…” Her voice trailed off as a sudden, horrifying thought struck her. Her stomach pitched and dropped. “Oh, no. Please God, no.”

Her mother.

“What?”

“It could have been…” She pulled her purse up from the floor and tried to rummage through it one-handed, digging frantically for her cell phone. “It might…please don’t tell me…”

“Jesus! Don’t tell you what? Would you just drive? And don’t use that thing.” Luc handed her the small cell phone she’d used earlier. “If you have to call someone, use this one.”

Katie grabbed the phone and, eyes flickering from it to the road, punched in her parents’ phone number. No answer. She tried her mother’s cell. No answer. There were other explanations, of course. Of course there were. But she knew. She just knew.

She gave the phone back to Luc, hand shaking.

“Katie.” His voice was a low growl. “Talk to me.”

“I think they have my mother.”

“Your mother?”

“You know how I told you the other morning that I wasn’t sure she’d completely bought my story about the retreat? She was depressed and antsy. And she’s so stubborn. She said she didn’t think I sounded right, and… She doesn’t normally check up on us. She always says that we’re all adults and are entitled to live our own lives without her interference.” Katie knew she was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to stop. “She told me once that she never wanted to be like her own mother, that she wanted us to have our privacy. She never wanted any of us to think we couldn’t trust her—”

“Katie.”

“—but we look a lot alike. Mom and me. Well, she’s prettier, but we’re the same height and we have the same build and her hair’s red like mine. Most of the other kids took after my father, but not me. Mom put her stamp on me—”

“Katie,” Luc said again. He put his hand over hers on the steering wheel. She realized she had a death-grip on the wheel, that her knuckles were clenched and white.

“Darren always says that I’m a chip off the old McCreary, which Mom hates because she hates being called ‘old’ anything. Anyway, she has a key to my apartment.” She swallowed. “She doesn’t sneak and or spy on me, but if she thought something was wrong, if she didn’t believe the story I told her and stewed about it for a couple of days and decided to go see for herself…if she was worried about me, she might have gone to the apartment. She might have gone, Luc. And it would have been so easy to mistake her for me…” Katie ran out of breath and she just panted for a moment.

Luc didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Maybe,” he finally agreed. “Maybe.”

Katie’s heart pounded. She clenched the steering wheel even tighter under his warm grip. For once she wanted him to argue, to tell her that she was an idiot, that her idea was stupid.

“Luc, my mother! What are we going to do?”

He sighed and squeezed her hand before he released it.

“We’ll figure out something.”

They switched drivers again, this time the old fashioned way—by pulling over to the side of the road. Then they drove on without speaking for quite some time. Luc seemed to know where he was going and eventually farm and country turned to suburban sprawl, the two-lane road to a busy highway.

Katie thought about her mother. Maybe she wasn’t the person being taken to Atlantic City. Maybe it was somebody else.

Maybe.

She shifted her gaze to the scenery flashing by the window. The day had turned hot, almost stiflingly so. Kato’s air conditioning worked, but the compressor was as old as the rest of him, so it didn’t keep the car what you could call cool. She rolled down her window and lifted her face to the warm, humid breeze.

She didn’t want to believe that it was her mother, but if somebody who looked like her had been in her apartment, who else could it be? Had they realized yet who her mom was? Had they hurt her yet?

Katie swallowed and instinctively looked to Luc for reassurance. His face was drawn into harsh lines, the scar slashing tightly white across his cheek. He met her eyes when he sensed her watching him, and his own were dark and deep under his brows.

“It will be okay,” Katie whispered, compelled for some reason she couldn’t explain to be the one who comforted.

He turned away without speaking. They were both quiet while the wind whistled and Kato hummed along the road and Spot snored in the backseat loudly enough to be heard over both.

“I have to stop for a minute,” Luc said.

“Stop? Why?”

“I have to make a phone call, and I don’t want to risk using the cell phone.” He smiled, a small shadow of his normal grin, as he turned the car into the parking lot of a convenience store, drawing to a stop under the shade of a scrubby tree. “Besides, I need to get some aspirin.”

Katie realized that her own head was pounding. “Better make that enough for two,” she told him.

Luc nodded. “Do you need to, uh, use the facilities?”

Katie couldn’t quite control a blush. “No, I’m good.”

“Then why don’t you wait here? I’ll leave the car running.”

“Okay.”

“Maybe if you close the windows the air conditioner will work better.”

She laughed a little. “Trust me on this one. The only thing that will make the air conditioner work better is if I get another car.”

He smiled again, got out and opened the back door. Spot let him run his hands over her, even let him push aside fur to look at the wound Katie had found earlier. When she finally pulled away, Luc let her go.

“Looks like someone shot at her and creased the back of her head. Must have had a silencer,” he added. “Since we, uh, you didn’t hear a gunshot. It knocked her out.”

“And they didn’t make sure they’d killed her?” Katie wondered. “Not that I wanted them to,” she put in hastily.

Luc shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they thought she was dead. I’m just glad they were sloppy.” He slammed the door shut, then leaned in the open window. Spot tried to lap his face, but Luc ignored her and stared at Katie with a fixed intensity.

“I’m going to find the woman who’s been taken to Atlantic City, Katie.”

She saw the resolve in his face and smiled. “I know.”

He hesitated, then nodded and, after a quick pat for Spot, strode off in the direction of a bank of pay phones.

Katie watched him go, his long legs eating up the ground, his old cargo pants riding low on his hips. On the other side of the parking lot, he leaned against the side of one of the phone boxes, balancing the receiver between his chin and shoulder as he dialed. A few minutes later he was talking. He seemed angry, his hand moving in the air as he spoke.

She wished she knew what he had in mind. She wished she knew how to help him. They’d have to talk about it so she could convince him to let her be involved in whatever he did. Then she could tell him she was sorry she’d upset him last night. Maybe he’d tell her that it was all right.

Luc hung up the phone and, as if he knew she was watching him, turned and held up one finger before striding into the store. Presumably for the aspirin.

Katie sighed and rested her head back on the seat, trying to ignore how Spot nuzzled her hair.

She hated the fact that Frankie was after her. That her mother was very likely in danger. That she had been thrown into a terrifying situation and didn’t know which way to turn. She even hated the heartache and pain she could see coming not too far down the road when Luc walked away from her. She hated all of that and more. But she didn’t regret last night. She wasn’t sorry about Luc.

What was killing her was the sneaking suspicion that he had a different opinion on the matter.

She closed her eyes.

This was a fine mess she’d gotten herself into, wasn’t it? A fine state of affairs.

She was still sitting like that when Spot woofed in greeting. She looked up and straightened as Luc walked up to the car. He was holding a surprisingly large paper bag in one hand and a couple of bottles of water in the other.

“Whatcha got?” she asked, striving for a casual tone.

“Supplies.” He handed her the bottles of water through the open window, then put the bag on the driver’s seat. He drew out a large plastic cup, took one of the bottles back from Katie, and poured most of the water into it. She held out a hand, expecting him to give it to her, but instead he opened the rear car door and offered the cup to Spot, who slurped at it with mad enthusiasm. Katie sighed and opened another bottle for herself.

After Spot had finished drinking, Luc used the rest of the water and a paper towel to clean the back of her head before smearing on what looked like antibiotic ointment. Finally, he pulled a container of aspirin out of the bag, then stored everything except it and the last unopened bottle of water behind the driver’s seat. Spot snuffled at the bag with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, which meant there probably wasn’t any food, darn it. Katie was starving.

Luc closed the door on Spot and slid into the car, then struggled with the childproof cap on the aspirin.

“How is she?” Katie asked, breaking the silence.

“Seems okay. The wound isn’t very deep. She probably has a headache, though.”

“She should join the club.” She watched him wrestle with the cap until she couldn’t stand it anymore, then took the bottle away from him. Efficiently, she dealt with the cap, the safety seal, and the cotton stuffed in the top before dumping out two tablets for herself and handing it back.

Luc glared at her before he dumped four of the aspirin into his hand and tossed them into his mouth, chasing them down with a drink of water.

“Who did you call? It was David, right?” she asked.

“No.”

His answer caught her by surprise just as she was swallowing her own aspirin, and she coughed and sputtered until he started to whack her on the back.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she choked, afraid he was going to send her sailing right through the windshield. She coughed a little more, eyes watering, and finally got the aspirin down. “You didn’t call David?”

“Didn’t I just say that?” He put Kato into gear and backed out of the parking spot.

“Well, yes, but why not?”

Luc turned the Nova onto the highway. “You were right. Somebody had to tell Frankie where we were.”

Katie gaped at him. “You think it was David?”

“No. Maybe. Hell, I don’t know.” Luc rubbed a hand through his hair. “I’ve just been wondering, that’s all. About how they found my house. And how they knew what section of the house we’d be in. And how they got through the alarm system, although any half-rate break-in guy probably could have cracked it.”

“Well, it was the leak, right? The mole at the Bureau. Whatever you call someone like that. What are you trying to say, anyway?”

Luc glanced at her. “Look, maybe it was the mole. Or maybe they just lucked out and found you through me.” He hesitated. “Or maybe it was David.”

She stared at him. “You really think he’s the mole?”

His mouth was grim. “All I’m saying is that we can’t risk letting David know where we are, and we can’t tell him that Frankie Silvano’s guys probably have your mother. We can’t be sure word won’t get back to the wrong people.” He glanced at her, then away. “We really are on our own now.”

Katie watched the highway unfold in front of them as she listened to Spot snore in the backseat. She looked over at Luc again. “But won’t David wonder where we are? He said he was going to call today.”

“Yeah.” Luc’s eyes were focused on the road. He guided Kato through the traffic, his face set. “He’ll try to find us when he can’t get us on the phone. I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen when he sees the Museum. After you and your mother are both safe, I’ll get in touch with him. Then he and I will talk.” There was stark promise in the words.

Katie tried to listen to what he wasn’t saying. “If David told Frankie where we are, what else has he told him?”

“Shit.” Luc ran a hand up the side of his face and then around to massage the back of his neck before gripping the wheel. “Frankly, I’m so goddamn tired I don’t even know what to think anymore. I can’t think. David Allen pulled me off the streets and took me into his home when nobody in their right mind would have even given me a second look. He taught me how to be a human being instead of some kind of an animal. He’s a good man, Katie. The best.”

You don’t trust him, she thought, and it’s killing you.

“I’m sure there’s an explanation. There’s got to be,” he continued. Katie knew he was talking as much to convince himself as her.

But what had David Allen been doing for the past couple of days, she wondered. How could they know for sure?

Without saying anything, she edged across the seat and leaned against Luc. He tensed, but didn’t move her away. She put her head on his shoulder and slid her arm around his waist. She didn’t really know what she was doing, she just wanted to let him know she was there. But she found that the warmth and scent of his body comforted her as well.

Luc relaxed a little. Almost hesitantly he took one of his hands off the steering wheel, put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer.

Katie sighed. She might not have him forever. He might push her out of his life at any moment. After the way she’d called him Bruce last night, he might think the only thing she felt for him was a leftover, childish crush. He might never see who she really was.

But right now he needed her just as much as she needed him. Right now she was important to him. Right now she could hold him.

That had to count for something.

Luc thought something inside of him shifted when she touched him. She felt good up against him; his arm felt good around her. He let himself briefly savor the sensation of her body next to his, her head on his shoulder, the softness of her breasts pressed to his side, the way her hair smelled like his shampoo. He breathed deeply, letting her nearness ease him on some deep level. It was too bloody hot in the car to hold her this way, but he wasn’t going to let her go.

The traitor had to be someone else. David more than likely didn’t have anything to do with it. Hell, David had been almost like a father to him, for all that he was only seven or eight years older. He trusted him.

But the little voice of suspicion just kept whispering.

His arm tightened around Katie. Nobody else had known where they were.

Luc shook his head slightly. No, he was being stupid to even suspect David.

He was pulled out of his reverie by a strange, low, grumbling noise. After a moment he realized the source was Katie’s stomach, and he glanced down at her with more than a little amusement. She looked embarrassed. She looked adorable. He wanted to kiss her, to touch her again. To say the hell with whatever she thought of him, and lose himself in her body for just a little while. To say the hell with the consequences.

“Sorry,” she moved away slightly and cleared her throat. “You, um, didn’t happen to pick up any baked goods when you were in that store, did you?”

He grinned. It was good to smile. “We’re going to stop in a few minutes. You’ll be fine.”

“Easy for you to say,” she muttered, but her head found his shoulder again. Her wild red curls brushed his chin.

His smile broadened for an instant, then he sobered as he turned his attention back to the road, absently stroking Katie’s upper arm, her soft skin. Frankie Silvano was undoubtedly still alive, and if he was, he’d be on their trail again soon. Katie had to be kept safe. She wasn’t going to suffer any more because of him. That was non-negotiable. And if her mother had been kidnapped, well, he’d rescue her. He’d fix things. He’d make things right.

She thought he was Bruce.

Yeah, he would right all of the wrongs he’d done to her, just like some kind of a fucking superhero. And then he’d do her the biggest favor of all and disappear.