Blurred Boundaries (21 page)

Clive reached for the rack just as Teddy Craig had. She swung again and caught him in the neck. Steve tried to follow up, but she just kept swinging wildly with the pole while backing away. He managed to avoid getting struck, but he didn’t dare get any closer, either.

“You idiots! Just grab her already.” Teddy Craig demanded, but she noticed that he didn’t bother to approach her himself. She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the balcony doors. She could probably make it. No idea what she’d do next, but it was her only option at this point.

“She’s dangerous,” Steve complained.

“And crazy,” Clive added. Tam glared at him.
Pot and kettles, asshole.

“She’s just a little girl. Would you grab her already?” Tam raised an eyebrow at Teddy Craig’s insult.

“Yeah, well this little girl’s gonna tell everybody that they can find their missing copper in your bedroom.” She smirked at Teddy Craig “Can’t wait to hear how you explain this.”

Clive and Steve turned their attention to Teddy Craig “She’s got a point, boss,” Steve said. “You promised me this operation wouldn’t send me back to jail.”

Teddy Craig gestured toward Tam. “Speak freely in front of the company why don’t you?” He turned an arrogantly hostile look on her. “She’s not going to tell anybody.”

Without warning, Teddy Craig lunged at her. He snagged her around the waist and dragged her toward the balcony doors. She struggled to keep her footing on the soft carpeting, but her heels continued to throw her off balance. She did manage to hold onto the rack, however.

“Open the door.”

“It’s cold out there,” Clive pointed out, even while Steve jumped to do Teddy Craig’s bidding.

“No!” Tam screamed as Teddy Craig shoved her out on the balcony. He made one last attempt to grab the rack, but she stomped on his foot with her heel. He howled in pain and fell away from her. Finally, the stilettos were good for something.

Steve gave her a final shove outside. She slid on a thin layer of ice before catching her balance. She dropped the rack and lunged for the door just as Steve pulled it closed and flipped the lock.

“Open this door!” She demanded, pounding her fists against the glass. “Right now.”

The three guys spared her a look, and then huddled up. Their voices were faint, but she could hear them if she stopped pounding.

“We can’t leave her out there all night, boss,” Clive protested.

“He’s right. You can’t,” Tam added to the conversation. Teddy Craig just shot a glare her way before ignoring her completely.

“Call in the other guys and clean up this mess.” Teddy Craig smirked at Tam. “We’ll let her go once it’s gone. She has nothing on us. Without any evidence, who’ll believe her wild rantings?”

Tam frowned. Wild rantings? Too bad for him those rantings were backed up by video. She leaned over the railing and looked at the ground. Except, it was stuck out here in the cold with her. Pissed, Tam looked around the balcony for something that would break the glass. Nothing, including the rack, appeared to be up to the task. She was trapped and completely at Teddy Craig’s mercy.

Evan checked the GPS on his phone one last time before turning down the hidden driveway he’d almost missed in the darkness. He was almost to Tam. After what seemed like an insanely long trek, Teddy Craig’s gigantic mansion came into view. Against his will, Evan had to admit he was impressed with the sheer size of the thing. His next thought was that he hoped Tam wasn’t one to be fooled by size alone. He had a great house in Pacific Palisades, but it was nowhere near as large as Teddy Craig’s.

Evan looked around the empty space surrounding the mansion. Of course, there wasn’t this kind of room available in Pacific Palisades, either. He glanced at his phone again. Tam must be on this side of the house. Another thing in his favor was that she’d called him for a ride away from Teddy Craig. Maybe things were starting to go his way after all.

He eased the Escalade to a stop near the front door. He started to get out, but noticed that Tam’s signal was farther along the right side of the house. No reason not to follow the driveway around there.

As soon as he’d reached the side of the mansion, he spotted Tam on a second floor balcony waving her arms. With a frown, he stopped almost underneath her and climbed from the SUV.

“Aren’t you cold out here?” Evan asked, noting that she didn’t have on a jacket. Just the black halter cocktail dress she’d worn to the dance. His concern was almost forgotten when something landed with a muted clank on the ground beside him.

“Put that in the car,” Tam whispered down to him.

Evan looked at the pole lying at his feet and planted his hands on his hips. “Am I about to become an unwitting accomplice in some crazy high school prank?”

“Put it in the car!” she insisted. He shook his head and started to comply when he saw her swing a leg over the balcony railing. All his amusement faded to fear when he thought of her falling.

“What are you doing?” he shouted up, hoping to stop her. She swung the other leg over and froze while staring inside the room. From his angle, he couldn’t see what she was looking at, but whatever it was made her hastily slide down the railing bars as far as she could.

Tam was still dangling a good ten feet off the ground and while those stilettos she wearing looked great, they probably wouldn’t help her have the most graceful of landings. Evan scrambled into position below her just as she let go. He stumbled a bit when the brunt of her weight hit him, but he managed to catch her.

When he let her slide the rest of the way to the ground, she turned to face him, and her arms ended up around his neck in an embrace he’d waited so long to have. The shocked expression on her face was priceless, and she just stared at him for a long a moment. He was more than willing to give her that time because it meant she remained nestled in his arms.

“You caught me?”

Evan smiled, anticipating a little hero worship. “Yeah. I did.”

She frowned. “You dope. What if I had injured you? Schenecki would be so pissed at me.”

Evan chuckled. Tam never ceased to surprise him. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘thanks.’”

Tam’s mouth snapped shut while she considered. She took a breath and he could feel the tension leave her body. “Thanks.”

Before he could show her how magnanimous he could be, someone shouted from above them, “Tamara!” They looked up to see Teddy Craig leaning over the railing. As usual, he was flanked by his two flunkies. “You’re not going anywhere with my towel rack, Tamara.”

Tam stepped out of Evan’s embrace and glared up at the men. She stunned him when she lifted both hands to give Teddy Craig a double one fingered salute. She looked back at Evan.

“I’m driving.”

Feeling it was not in his best interest to argue, he tossed her the keys. She snagged them from mid-air and he grabbed the towel rack. Apparently, that thing was leaving with them. He ignored the men’s orders for them to stop where they were and shoved the pole in the back of the SUV before climbing in the passenger’s seat. He was still closing the door when Tam slammed the Escalade in reverse and backed out the main driveway.

Evan studied her angry face. “You didn’t like the tour, I take it,” he risked commenting.

Instead of answering right off, she pulled her phone from what he was learning was her favorite storage area when she didn’t have pockets and handed it to him.

“The video is hopefully still running. Email it to me. To you. To Vivian. And Trey. Also upload a copy to my cloud.”

Evan got busy doing as she’d asked. He started to play the video back to see what had gotten her so angry. He’d only gotten as far as a large hole in a wall when she said, “Email it first. Watch it later. I’m not risking Teddy Craig getting his hands on the original and destroying it.”

Evan felt his own anger surfacing. “He didn’t hurt you did he?”

She looked at him. “He hurt my parents. That’s infinitely worse.”

After visiting her parents’ graves with her, Evan completely understood where she was coming from. He sent the files off.

Tam checked the rear view and sped up. “Teddy Craig is the copper thief.”

Evan’s eyebrows shot up and he looked at her. “That’s why the video is going to Trey. Also known as ‘Sheriff Harkins.’”

Tam nodded. “Nobody can ever say you’re just a pretty face.”

Evan’s smiled at the compliment and went fishing for more. “Yeah, but the face is pretty.” She shot him an amused look then took a curve a little faster than he’d have liked. His bloating ego took a blow when he had to grab for the hand rail above the door to keep from toppling into her lap. “In a rush, are we?”

“They’re behind us. I’m not about to lead them to Vivian’s house. She keeps it unlisted for a reason.”

Evan turned in his seat to stare out the back window. He’d noticed the headlights earlier, but being a city boy, he hadn’t thought much about it. Sure enough, there was a car dangerously close to their bumper.

Tam sped up a bit more. The car did, too. Soon, both vehicles were careening down back gravel roads at a speed that defied sanity. She wheeled the Escalade in and out of hairpin turns like a pro.

“Can you tell what he’s driving?” She asked Evan. He turned and did his best to identify the vehicle.

“Why do we care?”

“Can he follow me off road?”

Evan chuckled and checked behind them again. “This is totally going in a script someday, isn’t it?”

“Everything does.”

Evan kept checking out the car behind them. “I can’t tell for sure, but the headlights look pretty low to the ground.”

“I’ve got an idea.”

Tam sped toward a fork in the road. She shot down the left fork then slammed on the brakes. The car behind swerved sharply to the left to avoid hitting them or the massive row of trees on the right. Without missing a beat, Tam slammed the Escalade in reverse and backed up the way they’d come. The tactic gave Evan a great view of Teddy Craig’s car.

“Umm, is that a Bugatti Veyron?” Evan asked astounded.

“A what?”

“Only the fastest car in the world.” Evan whirled in his seat to get another look. “What is wrong with him? That thing belongs in a showroom.” Evan felt positively sick over the damage the gravel must be inflicting on the Bugatti’s paint job.

“Okay.” The way she drew out the word told him that she had no appreciation for the vehicle riding their tail. “Can it go off road or not?”

“No. Definitely not. It’s less than five inches off the ground. There’s no way…whoa!” Evan said when she abruptly turned left taking them off the cracked pavement. The force of the turn pressed him against the door.

“Ugh. He’s such a chauvinist,” Tam snorted. “He saw I was driving and didn’t think I’d dare to go off road.”

“Not a mistake he’ll make again, I’m sure.” Evan held on to the hand rail for dear life as they bounced over unseen ruts and God only knew what else.

“He’s a pretty slow learner.” Tam remarked. She slowed and checked the rear view. Evan looked behind them, too. No more headlights. Tam wheeled the Escalade around. Parked beneath some trees then cut the lights.

“Why are we stopping?” Evan asked. They’d pretty much lost Teddy Craig so he didn’t understand why they didn’t just keep going.

“He’s going to know exactly where we’re going if we continue on this road. I want him ahead of us so we can double back. Also, we don’t have enough gas to let them chase us for much longer. We’ll never make it back to Vivian’s.”

Evan smirked at her. “I’m not a slow learner.” He climbed from the SUV and headed to the back. She climbed out after him.

“What are you doing? Get back in the car,” Tam’s voice held an urgent note.

He showed her the gas can he’d stowed in the back. Her expression couldn’t be more pleased if he’d showered her with dozens of roses.

“I could kiss you right now.” She was grinning from ear to ear when she looked at him. Even in the glow from the SUV’s interior light, she was gorgeous.

He wasn’t completely thinking when he said, “Why don’t you, then?”

Several expressions flitted over her face as she digested his words. He was so tempted to take them back. Afraid that he’d tipped his hand long before she was ready. But he decided to stand firm. Maybe it was time for him to make things clear. He probably could’ve picked a better location than some random forest, but
que sera
.

Tam stared at him for another moment. She subtly shook her head as if she didn’t quite believe what his intentions were. She grabbed his arm and stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. He wasn’t going to let her off that easily. He turned his head in time to catch her lips with his.

Stunned, she tried to back away, but he wouldn’t let her. He caught her around the waist and pulled her close.

“That was kind of a pathetic kiss. I think you should try again.”

“Evan, I…”

Bright headlights swept over them as a reminder of why they were standing in the middle of nowhere on a cold night in the first place.

A car door closed and a figure climbed from the low slung car. “You can’t hide from me, Tamara. Even if you didn’t have the interior lights lit up like a dumbass, I’d still find you.”

Tam looked at the SUV and muttered a couple curses under her breath. “Rookie mistake.” She slammed the back door closed and squeezed Evan’s arm. “Get back in the truck.”

“And leave you out here alone? Uh. No.” Evan stood firm beside her as Teddy Craig continued to advance on them. He was just a shadowy figure in the bright headlights of his car, but something was in his hand.

“I just got the strangest call from Trey. Seems he received a video. From you. What the hell did you do?”

“You scam is over. By morning, everybody is going to know about what you’ve done.”

“You’ve been living in La La land for too long. The boys are already fixing the damage and moving the copper to a safe place. It’ll never be found. That video of yours will look as fake as one of those shows you work on.”

Tam snorted. “Do what you want, Teddy Craig. Who do you think Trey is going to side with? You, who gave him daily wedgies for years? Or me who drove him to Target to replace all the underwear you tore so his parents wouldn’t find out?”

“Oh. Did I forget to mention? You’re not going to be found, either. Not since pretty boy here stormed onto my property, mad as hell and forced you into that SUV. I haven’t seen you since. Maybe a murder-suicide is in order. Isn’t that what ya’ll do in California? Everybody knows you Hollywood types are looney toons.”

“Get in the truck,” Tam told Evan again. This time, he didn’t hesitate. Both he and Tam scrambled for the front seats when they heard a shotgun ratchet from Teddy Craig’s direction.

Tam slammed the SUV in gear and tore through the brush back toward the road. A shotgun blast echoed behind them. A few metallic clanks echoed through the SUV as some pellets hit the rear door and bumper of their vehicle. Good thing he’d gotten the full coverage on the rental.

He looked at Tam. She stared intently at the road they were careening down. Other than taking a curve a little too wide, he couldn’t tell that she was affected at all by having Teddy Craig shoot at them.

They were no more than a mile away when the Bugatti appeared in the rear view. It was gaining on them. Tam checked the mirror with a clenched jaw.