Garden of Dreams (16 page)

“Can we rent boats across the lake?” he asked impatiently.

“No, it's all TVA-owned right now. No commercial enterprises, at least, until they can figure some way out of their promises. You can put your boat in the water over there, but you can't rent one.”

JD jerked the steering wheel hard and swept around one of the road's more treacherous curves without slowing. Nina thanked the reliable Camry's road-hugging qualities.

“How do we get to the nearest marina then? Besides the one back in town.”

“You've lost your mind, haven't you? You've taken me grocery shopping like any normal human being, then as soon as you get your hands on my car keys, you turn into a raving lunatic.”

He gave her a frustrated glance that should have curled her toenails. His whisker-stubbled jaw and long hair gave him the look of one of those unforgivably menacing men women loved watching at the movies, men any sane woman would avoid in real life. She hated those movies.

“The Mercedes is following us,” he replied curtly. “I really don't think you want to take them home with us. Where can we rent a boat?”

She still didn't see the connection, but she didn't want her neck wrung either. She nodded at an upcoming intersection.

‘Turn left up there. That road takes you down the commercial side of the lake. There's a resort with boat rentals a few miles down the road. Why don't we want a Mercedes following us?”

He ignored the question and made a hard left. Accelerating, he drove over a hill at a rate that left Nina's heart in her throat and her head on the ceiling. She checked behind them. Maybe they'd lost the Mercedes and JD would calm down.

“I thought you said this place doesn't have resorts?”

He sounded almost normal again, and Nina regarded him cautiously. “If you're thinking in terms of luxury hotels, forget it. Boat rentals, miniature golf, maybe a pool and restaurant, and some campgrounds. That's luxury here.”

The road was too flat, winding, and tree-lined for a good view behind them. Not until the Mercedes topped the small rise did she know if it still followed. From JD's grunt of disgust, she gathered he saw it, too. Now he was making her nervous.

“Maybe the owner of the Mercedes just wants a scenic view of the lake,” she said uneasily, watching for the road signs to the marina. She knew they were there, but she never had occasion to rent boats. This was unfamiliar turf.

“Then he'll get one,” JD responded without humor. “At least he's not running us off the road this time. Doesn't want to damage his pretty fenders, I imagine.”

Really alarmed now, Nina tried to read his expression. His mouth was set in a grim line that didn't bode well for someone. “What do you mean, ‘this time'?”

“I recall what happened with the van. It was kind of hazy there for a while, but I remember it now. That clown deliberately smashed into the truck. He could have killed Jackie. There wasn't any oncoming traffic at the time, was there?”

“He was speeding,” she protested. “He was probably drunk and misjudged the distance. Why would anyone deliberately run into you?”

“That's what I want to know.” Seeing the directional road sign without Nina's help, JD jerked the wheels in a hard right down the narrow lane toward the marina.

“There's a word for people like you,” Nina complained as he kept the Toyota at an unconscionable speed. “Nobody out here knows you. Even if that van driver decided you'd make good roadkill, that doesn't mean he knows who you are. Who are you hiding from anyway, the Mafia?”

“Something like that.” With practiced skill, JD steered the Camry into the parking lot, slammed into a space, turned off the engine, and hopped out. “Hurry up. With luck, they won't know how to drive a boat.”

“And you do?” Nina asked sarcastically. “What about the groceries?”

He gave her a look of irritation, opened the hatchback, and picked up a sack. “This is gonna look like one hell of a picnic lunch.”

Nina briefly considered asking for her keys back, but JD's long legs had already carried him halfway across the parking lot.

Grabbing the other sack of groceries, Nina raced after him, glancing over her shoulder. The Mercedes was nowhere in sight.

JD was laughing and acting perfectly normal when she entered the cabin. The man behind the rental counter gave her a swift look and grinned. She didn't want to know what they'd been saying about her, so she wandered on through to the boat dock.

JD sauntered out a little while later, swinging her tote bag and the keys in one hand, carrying the paper sack already dripping ice cream in the other.

She dropped her sack of groceries behind the seat of the boat JD climbed into. She'd lived on the lakes all her life, but she could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she'd been out in a boat. She tried to figure out how she could gracefully descend into the rocking, bouncing, narrow little front seat without making an idiot of herself.

Looking up from the boat equivalent of a dashboard, JD noticed her hesitation, and stood up, offering his hand. “Come on. It won't get away from you.”

“I don't understand any of this,” she warned as she reluctantly took his hand and climbed down. She wasn't much used to having men around, certainly not strong ones.

As she settled in the seat, he turned his attention back to the boat, throwing off the rope tying them to the deck. “Do you know how to drive this thing?” she asked warily.

“It's a machine. I'll figure it out.”

Before Nina could make a hasty exit, JD had the engine roaring. Nina grabbed the side of the boat with one hand, her hat with the other, and closed her eyes against the wind.

Assured they wouldn't instantly sink or smash into any of the other boats bobbing in the marina, she peeked out from beneath one eyelid. They'd already hit open water. The sun glancing off the rippling waves nearly blinded her.

“I think you owe me a good explanation,” she demanded, reaching for the sunglasses in her purse.

“Haven't you ever been out in a boat before?”

JD looked as if he were having the time of his life. The wind blew his thick dark hair straight back, and his teeth gleamed white against his tanned skin as he accelerated and the boat responded. He sent her a laughing glance when she didn't immediately answer.

“Aunt Hattie was sixty years old when I was born,” Nina replied, irked. “Do you think we went for regular Sunday boat outings?”

That slapped the grin off his face. Slowing down, he steered past the buoys and headed north. “You've lived with your aunt all your life? What about your parents?”

“Great-aunt. She let my mother live in a house she owned farther down the road. Hattie had retired from teaching by then, and she used to baby-sit me.” Nina didn't know why she was telling him this. She had ten thousand questions of her own. Still holding her hat on, she glanced back at the marina parking lot, but she wasn't wearing the right glasses and couldn't see if the Mercedes had arrived.

“Your parents could have taken you to the lake on weekends,” he argued.

“My mother and stepfather went their separate ways when I was nine. Hattie filled the gap. If anyone took me out before then, I don't remember. Why are we running from a Mercedes?” Maybe she would push him overboard if he didn't answer this time.

He hesitated, before offering the reply she sought. “I'm trying to avoid some unsavory characters. It would be just like them to show up in a Mercedes. I don't want them knowing where you live.”

“So we're going home in a boat and leaving my car at the marina?” Nina asked incredulously.

“Looks that way. Do you think I could persuade Sheriff Hoyt to go back and pick it up?” He flashed her the crooked grin that turned her insides into flapjacks.

“I think you're crazy. I don't have a landing dock. I want my car in the driveway where it belongs. You can't keep a rental boat forever. The Mercedes probably went right on. And why are these unsavory characters after you? Does this have something to do with Jackie's mother?”

Ignoring all the more pertinent demands, he zeroed in on the last one. “Nothing to do with Jackie. I have something the bad guys want. I didn't think they'd follow me all the way out here, though. I can't figure out how they found me in the first place. I didn't even tell Uncle Harry.”

Nina stared. “I assume that means you didn't expect your creditors to go to such lengths to get back whatever it is you bought from them?” she asked. She understood bad debt and repossession. The furniture company had taken back practically everything her mother owned.

“They might think of themselves as creditors,” JD admitted, concentrating on their direction, “but I've made every payment on time. I can pay them the balance as soon as this program is canned and on the market. It's not the money they want. It's the software.”

When had she tripped into the rabbit hole and met the Mad Hatter? Holding her hat, she watched the shoreline for landmarks. “Why do they want the program?”

“They'd have a damned difficult time marketing the program as theirs. I'd sue their pants off. I suspect they have some means of using it for money-laundering. If they put their experts on it, a loop could be added that might make their bank accounts undetectable. I can't imagine they're that smart, but someone must be.”

The intensity of his reply indicated he really believed it. Nina still thought him a paranoid delusional. But she saw the Madrid marina ahead and breathed a sigh of relief. “We could just stop there and walk up to the house,” she pointed out.

“You want to carry dripping ice cream half a mile?” JD slowed even more, scanning the shore. “Besides, I don't want anyone seeing the boat. If we're lucky, the jerks in the Mercedes will think we're on a little outing and will wait in the parking lot for our return. If we're not lucky, they can spot us at the marina too easily. If I can find a cove and cover up the boat, they'll spend the rest of the day looking.”

“I quit reading Nancy Drew when I was nine,” Nina informed him. “You can't hide a blamed boat.”

Seeing something ahead, JD grinned. “Watch me. I was tops in my camouflage class.”

With that scarcely reassuring news, he steered the boat toward the cypress-tree-littered shore.

Nina wondered if now was the time to remind him that this lake was created by damming a river and backing water up over acres of farmland. The original trees still lay directly below the water's surface.

JD grimaced as he heard an underwater branch scrape the bottom. He'd known the danger of these shallow waters. Losing the boat didn't much concern him, although he suspected the sprite beside him would have a fit if she knew that. Hell, she'd croak if they lost the damned groceries. Her priorities just didn't match his. Give him expediency over caution any day.

Easing the boat over the snag, he breathed a sigh of relief as it pulled free without ripping out the hull. The old beaver dam ahead would provide the cover he needed.

Easing into the narrow channel, JD cast a quick glance over the water. Because it was a weekday, the number of boats visible was minimal. He didn't see any suspicious craft slowing down or coming within easy range. On computers, he could make this cloak-and-dagger stuff amusing. He didn't find this even vaguely funny. Especially since now Nina and Jackie were in danger.

JD roped the boat to a dead cypress stump, knotted it securely, then glanced at the swampy water between the boat and the bank. “How's your water moccasin population?”

“Small,” Nina replied with what he took as a resigned sigh. “I can wade to shore. I just don't like any of this.”

“I've got news for you,” JD replied as he climbed into the murky water, “neither do I. Give me the groceries. I'll set them on the bank first.” He found some solid ground on which to deposit the paper sacks, then waded back to lift Nina out of the rocking boat. She weighed scarcely nothing, and despite her vehement protests, JD simply carried her to shore.

“I'm perfectly capable of walking,” she said indignantly as he deposited her beside the sacks.

JD managed a halfhearted grin. “Yeah, but let me get what jollies I can here. I'll cover up the boat. You go on and see what the boy is up to.”

“Up to his ears in hot dogs, probably. I showed him how to boil them on the stove. Can't I help you cover the boat?”

“Not unless you're carrying a hatchet in that purse. Go on, I'll be right with you.” JD watched as she filled her arms with sacks and trudged up the embankment toward the house. She'd felt awful damned good in his arms. He'd even kind of liked her protests that she could do it herself. He'd look for her independence and spunk when he got back to California.

If he got back to California. It was beginning to look as if someone wanted him dead, and DiFrancesco was the first villain who came to mind.

Using his pocketknife to saw small cypress branches, JD considered the possibilities. Before he'd left, he'd had the R&D department lead DiFrancesco by the nose, letting him play the latest Monster House, work his way through the reading program for the Literacy Foundation, and scan long scripts of the new game JD had created. DiFrancesco had understood little to none of it, so JD had thought himself safe at the time.