California Schemin' (22 page)

“You fell in love with me for doing the right
thing? How ironic.”

“Why ironic?”

I lifted my shoulders and let them drop. No
point in trying to protect myself now.

“I usually do the wrong thing,” I said.

“When?”

“Huh?” I was looking out the window again.
Where are they
?

“When have you ever done the wrong thing?” He
was staring me down, daring me to tell him what I’d done.

“For one, I should never have slept with you
that first time.”

“Why the hell not?”

“I was drunk. Jim had just dumped me the day
before. I should have said no. I should have waited.”

“You regret that night?”

“Regret? No. I don’t regret it, but it wasn’t
the right thing to do. I put both our hearts in jeopardy. There’s
plenty to worry about without having regrets about the good stuff.
What I’m sorry for is getting you dragged into this mess.”

There was movement outside. Wendy and Paris
slid between the limos heading for the Jeep. I started to turn away
and almost missed Guy following the girls.

“Shit.”

“Quiet, he’ll hear you.” Beau was close
behind me, looking over my shoulder. “We’ll stay here until he goes
back in the house. I doubt he’s going with them.”

We waited. I shifted from foot to foot,
getting more anxious by the moment.

“Stop,” Beau said in my ear. “We are not
going back into the house. If push comes to shove, and they come
after us through the basement, I’ll block their progress, and you
run. Go through the woods and hide. Try to find a house with a
phone and call Fogel. He can come rescue me.”

“I’m not leaving you.” I said the words, but
I knew they were foolish. One of us had to go for help, and Beau
had a cast on his leg.

“Yes, you will. It’s our only chance.” We
said the last together, and Beau smiled.

“I knew we’d get on the same wave length
sooner or later,” he said.

Wallace’s henchman appeared between the limos
and headed for the stairs to the second level of the house. We
waited until we heard the Jeep roar to life and saw it backing down
the drive alongside the limos. I trotted to the outer door and held
it while Beau hobbled through.

Paris was driving the Jeep. She backed it
right up to the building, and I pushed Beau toward it. Wendy was in
the passenger seat with the dogs on her lap. I wondered what she
had told her dad to make him believe she was taking her dogs to the
movies.

“I’m locking this door. Go.” I couldn’t get
the key in the lock, my hands were shaking so much. I took a couple
of deep breaths and inserted the key. I was turning the key when
Beau shouted. I looked up to see Wallace’s henchman coming down the
stairs two at a time.

“Shit.” I abandoned the key and ran for the
car. Paris was grinding the gears, trying to get the thing into
first when I dove into the back seat, landing on Beau’s bad leg. I
heard his sharp inhale as I pushed myself off him. The Jeep was
stuttering forward. We were barely moving, and the slime bag was
coming around the back of the nearest limo.

“Move!” I swung myself around the roll bar
into the driver’s seat, Paris scrambling into the seat with
Wendy.

The Jeep stalled. I hadn’t gotten my foot on
the clutch fast enough as Paris vacated the driver’s seat.

“Bree!” Wendy and Beau were yelling, and
Paris was making squeaking noises. I could see our nemesis in the
rear mirror grabbing onto the rear roll bar. I jammed my foot on
the clutch pedal, turned the key and rammed the gearshift into
first. There was a leg coming over the back reflected in the rear
view mirror. I hit the accelerator, double-clutched the thing into
second and pulled out of the drive going as fast as I could. I
couldn’t see Guy in the mirror, so I took a quick look behind
me.

“Damn.”

He was standing in the back holding onto the
roll cage.

I slammed on the brakes, sending Guy forward
against the black bar. Shouting carried up the drive from the
house, and I glanced back to see figures emerging from between the
limos. I forced the jeep into first gear again and burned rubber.
The evil henchman fell backward but managed to grab the tail of the
Jeep and hang on. I accelerated through second and into third gear
before I risked another look back.

Beau was pulling himself over the back of his
seat as Guy tumbled over the tailgate into the little cargo area. I
accelerated around a curve, sending both men flailing for something
to hang onto. Paris and Wendy were clutching each other and hanging
onto the dogs, trying to get the seatbelt fastened around both of
them so all weren’t thrown out onto the road.

A silver Sentra appeared around a curve
coming toward us, causing me to slow down. No sense getting another
vehicle involved in our debacle. I heard a grunt from the back, but
I didn’t dare turn around to see who was getting walloped on.

A flash of pink caught my eye as the Sentra
passed, and a pair of startled blues eyes took us in as we
passed.

“Madison!” I stomped on the brakes and
glanced around in time to see her spin the rear of the Sentra
around and screech to a stop behind us. She was out of the car and
pulling a gun from her hip before my thought processes kicked in.
Beau was under Guy, blocking blows with his forearms. They were
jammed into the little cargo space, and there wasn’t enough room
for either of them to get a good hit on the other.

Madison came up behind the Jeep. Her hair was
short now and spiked straight up. “This one?” she mouthed at me. I
nodded, and she placed the barrel of the handgun up against his
head. Guy froze and shifted his eyes in her direction. His hands
dropped to his thighs, and I scanned for a weapon, but he appeared
to be unarmed. Guess he didn’t feel the need to pack while we were
just hanging around the house.

Madison reached out and pulled a gun out from
the small of his back, hidden by his sweatshirt. She felt around
his ankles and pulled a knife from his boot on one side and a tiny
handgun from the other. So much for my powers of observation.

“Why didn’t you just shoot me?” Beau asked.
“Wouldn’t that have been a lot easier?”

“I only use weapons as a last resort.
Hand-to-hand is much more …” Guy paused, “personal.”

I had the feeling the word he really wanted
was “satisfying,” but I kept that thought to myself.

“And I had orders not to shoot anyone,” he
added as Madison cuffed his hands behind his back and hauled him
out of the Jeep. He was pretty agile, but even so he ended up on
his ass in the dirt. He got to his feet without saying anything,
which surprised me.

“Are you all okay?” I asked Beau and the two
girls. Paris and Wendy nodded. Wendy was trying to unfasten the
seatbelt, and I thought she wanted nothing more than to get out of
that Jeep and never get in again. I hit the release button for her,
and the girls sprang apart and tumbled out onto the road.

“I’m fine.” Beau climbed back over the back
of the seat and propped his leg up. “But I think I’d better get
this leg re-casted. Does she know she looks like a pink
hedgehog?”

His lip was bleeding, and he had a bruise on
his cheek and another on his forehead. His cast was in worse
shape.

“She thinks she’s a shape-shifting alien. I
don’t think looking like a hedgehog is going to faze her. Oh, hey,
that sounds like a pun. Get it? Shape-shifting, phasing?”

“There’s something wrong with you.” Beau shot
me a disgusted look. “Seriously wrong.”

While Madison locked Guy in the back of her
car, I got out and stood on the road. My heart was racing, and I
leaned against the Jeep, which wasn’t all that easy as there was
more empty space than there was metal. I leaned into the back seat,
giving Beau the once over.

“We’d better get you to the hospital,” I
said. “You’re a mess. Are you sure you’re all right?” I dabbed at
the blood on the corner of his mouth.

“That hurts.” Beau jerked his head away from
my touch. “Nothing irreparable, but I’d rather not have to fight
off any more bad guys for you.”

Madison appeared at the side of the car,
speaking into her cell phone. She flipped it closed and looked at
Beau. “You should get out of here. Take him to the hospital in
Grass Valley. I’ll deal with this guy.”

“Be careful, you’re outnumbered if they show
up from the cabin.”

“I’ve got back-up coming, and Hambecker is in
their camp, although to be truthful, I’m not really sure whose side
he’s on. We’ve been saying he’s FBI, but I don’t rightly know who
he’s with. The intel is he’s an agent of some sort, but he doesn’t
show up on the rosters in any of the regular agencies.”

“MIB,” I said, but I didn’t really believe
it.

“MIB?” she asked.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen
Men in
Black
. It’s a classic.”

“Oh. Yeah. I’ve seen it. Wasn’t thinking
about movies, so when you said MIB it threw me for a loop. I doubt
it’s space aliens.” She barked out a short laugh. “But a secret
agency? I’d believe that.”

The sound of screaming engines came to us
from up the road. We looked at each other for a moment.

“Go,” Madison said. “Get out of here
now.”

I turned to the girls still huddled together
on the road.

“Paris! Wendy!”

They turned to look at me, eyes wide. I hoped
I had never looked that vulnerable.

“Get in the Jeep. Drive Beau to the hospital.
Stay there until I get there. OK?”

“Are you nuts?” Madison asked. “You’re going,
too.”

“It’s me they’re after. If I don’t go, these
three have a better chance of making it to the hospital, and I’m
not leaving you here alone.”

I turned back to the girls who were standing
with their mouths hanging open.

“Now!” I hadn’t meant to shout, but damn it,
they needed to move.

They moved. The Jeep was roaring out of sight
when two snowmobiles and a four-wheeler zoomed into sight along the
dirt road. I should have remembered the snowmobiles could run
without snow. Madison had angled her car across the road so they
couldn’t easily pursue the Jeep, and we stood on either side of it.
They would have to go through us to catch the Jeep, but I didn’t
think they’d try. It was me Wallace really wanted. They could have
me packed up and out of there before Beau alerted the sheriff’s
department.

Hambecker and Moose were riding the
four-wheeler, and I couldn’t see faces under the helmets riding the
ski machines. I doubted I would recognize them; there were a bunch
of people at the cabin I hadn’t been introduced to. Hambecker
headed straight for me, but I held my ground. Giving Beau time to
get to the hospital was my highest priority.

The ATV skidded to a halt in front of me, and
the two men were off it and on me in a heartbeat. Moose produced a
set of metal cuffs and secured my hands together in front of my
body while Hambecker held me. The other two guys were at a standoff
with Madison as she was armed. One of them had produced a handgun
but looked hesitant to use it. Madison, on the other hand, was
planted gun in hand, feet wide, arms straight out, aiming at the
thug. She had never looked less like a shape shifter than she did
right now. She’d transformed into a pink-haired Olivia Benson, and
I’d been standing right there.

My guess was that if shots were fired,
Madison would hit her target, and the rent-a-thug would miss. He
must have thought that, too, because he was looking at his partner
with panic on his face.

“Bree.” Hambecker’s voice was quiet in my
ear. “If I let you escape, it’ll blow my cover. So sit tight, OK? I
promise to keep you safe.”

He handed me over to Moose and headed toward
the others. I glanced at the four-wheeler and wondered if it was
possible to drive it with my hands cuffed together. It took me
about two seconds to figure out that I’d crash if I tried, so I
switched my gaze to the rental car. I’d driven a car handcuffed
before. That was do-able. Not the safest way to go, but definitely
do-able.

Moose’s attention was on Hambecker, and his
grasp on me was relaxed. He didn’t expect me to break away. I
didn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone’s cover. He and Moose could
rot in hell as far as I was concerned. I stepped away from Moose.
He took a step toward Hambecker, who was talking quietly to
Madison. Madison hadn’t even twitched. She stood exactly as she had
from the beginning, her sights on the guy with the gun.

“Madison, you’re my hero,” I said, but not
loud enough to distract her.

I took another step away from Moose toward
the car. He didn’t notice. I turned and walked to the driver’s side
door. I looked around. I could have been invisible for all the
attention I was getting. Good.

Guy was still in the back seat, hands cuffed
behind his back. Madison must have engaged the child locks on the
rear doors, or he would have been long gone. Should I take him with
me or turn him loose? If I turned him loose, it might tip the
scales away from Madison; if I took him with me there was a chance
he could foul me up in some way.

I opened the driver’s door and popped the
lock. I was beyond caring. Madison was a Fed. She could handle
herself, and Hambecker wouldn’t let any real harm come to her. I
hoped. I opened the back door and dragged Guy out of the car.

“What are you doing? I don’t want out of the
car. I might get shot.”

“Saving myself. You’re on your own. Good
luck.” I pushed him away from the car, slammed the passenger door,
and slid into the driver’s seat, hitting the locks before he could
get back in. The car was standard. That made things a lot more
interesting. Good thing I’d kicked the bad guy out. I was going to
need to concentrate.

I shoved in the clutch and started the car.
With my right hand on the stick shift my left hand couldn’t reach
the steering wheel. Great. I put the car in reverse, let out the
clutch, and gingerly backed around, careful not to take Madison out
with the rear of the car.