I Know Lucy (The Fugitive Series) (24 page)

“It’s over now,” I whispered. “You don’t have to live that way anymore.”

She didn’t respond to my confident statement, just went really quiet, maybe trying to believe me. Well, she could. I wouldn’t let her do this to herself. I’d look after her. It was an easy promise to make.

I forced Dani out for a decent meal before leaving her. She insisted on drive-through and we found a secluded patch of forest to eat in. Sitting on the hood of my car, we munched on our burgers and fries, not saying much. My mind was consumed with ending this for her.

I needed one more nugget of truth though and I was worried she wouldn’t give it to me.

After we’d loudly slurped our chocolate shakes and laughed at each other, I drove her home, nervous as hell.

“See you at the pool tomorrow?”

“You bet.” I tugged on her shirt, pulling her in for a kiss.

Her cheeks were flaming as she reached for the door handle.

“Dani, wait.”

She spun back to face me, her expression open. I hated that I was about to close it. Somehow I knew the answer to this question already. It was going to piss me off, but I had to try.

“What’s your name? Your real name.”

Her expression closed down and she shook her head. “I can’t tell you that.”

“You know you can trust me with anything.”

The way she looked away told me she couldn’t. I wanted to grab her face and convince her she was wrong.

“I don’t trust anyone with my name, Zach. Not even you.”

It hurt. I knew it would.

I didn’t say anything as she leaned across and gave me a brief kiss before sliding from the car and walking down the street. She eventually crossed the road, heading towards her little alleyway and that dung hole of an apartment she called home. Driving away from her was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I couldn’t shake the fear that she’d freak out in the night and that kiss was the last one I’d ever get.

At least I knew where she lived now. If she didn’t show at the pool tomorrow, I could drive straight here and make sure she hadn’t split…even though I promised her I wouldn’t do that.

I was such an idiot to agree to that.

I drove home slowly, soaking in the ups and downs of my day. I felt spent. I knew who Dani was now, but I didn’t. I knew her reasoning, but there was so much more to it. So many secrets. Could I handle them all? I felt emotionally beat up having listened to what she’d already told me. I needed her to have a better life. I wanted her to be able to walk a living truth, every day…no more secrets.

Mom and Dad were engrossed in a movie when I got home. I said a quick hi then headed up to my room. Flicking on the light, I spotted my phone straight away and out of habit, reached to check the screen. There were two missed calls from Elliot and one WTF message that made me swear.

Damn it! I’d totally forgotten about Halo 2! I never should have agreed to it. He was gonna kill me for bailing on him.

I winced, knowing I should call him at that moment and apologize, but I really didn’t want to. I was spent and having to deal with his anger while spinning some bullshit about what I’d really been doing was going to be a bigger effort than I could deal with. I placed my phone down, trying to ignore the guilt rounding over me.

“Just deal with it tomorrow,” I muttered, glaring at the phone.

Closing my eyes, I let out a disgusted sigh and reached for the phone.

It buzzed in my hand, making me jerk.

Looking at the screen, I breathed a quick sigh of relief before answering.

“Hey, Uncle Al.”

“What’s up, little bro. Just checking in. You doin’ okay after yesterday?”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Yeah I am.”

Uncle Alex scoffed. “You know if you hadn’t cleared your throat, I probably would have believed you.”

“What? I had a tickle!”

“Liar.”

I had to yield to my grin. It slowly spread across my face. “I spoke to her.”

Shit! I didn’t mean to say that!

I pressed my lips together, knowing I’d just jumped onto a very dangerous path. Uncle Alex would delve, that’s what he did. He figured stuff out…maybe that was a good thing.

I closed my eyes against the unbidden thought. A thought that was growing rapidly within me.

He could help.

“What’d she say?” Uncle Alex was surprised, I could tell by the way his voice tipped.

“Um.” I winced. “I kind of promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone.” My voice rose at the end of the sentence, making it completely obvious that I wanted to tell him. I let out a sigh. It wouldn’t hurt, would it? I mean if anyone could help, Uncle Alex could. He was a legend and justice was his main purpose for living. He might be able to work out who this killer cop was. Together we might be able to save others.

Justice.

The word was a sweet smelling strawberry in my head. I wanted it for Dani. If we could find this cop and bring him down, then she wouldn’t need to run anymore, right? I held my breath then let out a sigh. “Can we keep this between us?”

“You know we can. Whatever you say is off the record. You have my word.”

I licked my bottom lip, hesitating before I plunged in.

I shouldn’t be doing this, I had promised Dani.

But I had to. Logical argument said so.

“Her parents were murdered by a dirty cop. She saw it and has been on the run ever since.”

Uncle Alex whistled. “Man, that’s huge. Does she know who did it?”

“She’s pretty edgy about the whole thing. I think she’s still scared he might come after her. But it happened like five years ago. Do you think he still would?”

“If he knows she’s a witness he might.” Uncle Alex clucked. “So she’s been living under the radar for five years. I’m guessing the conning was a way to earn some cash.”

“Yeah, it’s kept her alive so far. I don’t think she’s telling me everything though. She didn’t mention her brother once. It’s like she’s trying to hide him from me. Do you think he’s controlling her somehow, like in the background…or someone else is forcing her? She was pretty nervous telling me this stuff. Nervous and guilty.”

“Was she conning you?”

“She wanted to.” I smiled. “But she couldn’t bring herself to do it.”

“And you’re sure she’s not just saying that?”

It was a good question, one I’d been trying to fob off all day. I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’ve got to believe she was telling me the truth. You didn’t see her face, those eyes. She doesn’t want to run anymore. She wants out and I want to give it to her.”

“And how are you planning on doing that?”

I tipped my head back. “I have no freaking idea.”

Uncle Alex was quiet for a minute. I let him think, not knowing how to fill the space anyway. My fingers gripped the phone as I waited. “You know maybe we can end this. Maybe we can find this guy and expose him. What’s her real name?”

“She won’t tell me. She’s petrified of the guy.”

“Something must have happened since her parents’ murder to make her so scared. Did you see her brother or anyone matching the lunatic description?”

“Nah, it looks like she lives alone, but like I said…what if someone’s controlling her, like out of sight. I didn’t check the rest of the building.”

“What building?”

“She lives in an abandoned apartment on the outskirts of town. It looks like an old hostel or something, you know with the kitchenettes and the communal bathroom down the hall.”

“Abandoned? Creepy.”

“Totally creepy.” I sighed. “Do you think someone else might be living there with her… like in another room?”

“Possibly.” Uncle Alex cleared his throat. “Although would she have spilled the beans and even had you there if she was afraid someone lived down the hall?”

“Good point.” I scratched my head, feeling tired and edgy.

“You need to find out more. Anything about her past is useful. The more information the better.”

“I’ll try, but I don’t want to push her. She’s a serious flight risk at the moment.”

“Okay, well I’ll start quietly looking into things from this end. Find out where she used to live and I’ll see if I can hunt down murder cases from five years ago. Maybe something will pop.”

“Be careful. She’s convinced that anyone who finds out who she really is will be in danger.”

“I’ll watch my back. Hey, don’t worry bro, we’ll end this for her. Justice always prevails.”

He hung up after saying the line he so wants to believe.

But I know justice doesn’t always prevail. Plenty of innocents pay a high price for other people’s crimes. Dani was case in point. But not anymore. She would have her justice.

One day Dani would be free and maybe then she’d tell me her real name.

Chapter 28

May 2014

Much to my relief, Dani was at the pool the next morning. She’d already started laps by the time I got there. I dove into the pool and captured her ankle.

Her body jerked, splashing in the water and kicking me off her.

“Sorry! It’s me!”

What a dumbass move. I winced as her steely gaze wracked over me.

“You scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” I grimaced.

With a little grin, she pushed a wave of water at me. While I was coughing and spluttering, she lunged towards me, dunking my head under the water. I wrapped my hands around her hips and pulled her down with me before we bobbed to the top and laughed. I gripped the edge of the pool, while pulling her towards me with my free hand. The air between us sizzled as our laughter died away. I pressed her between me and the wall, kissing her mouth with a heated passion I was now allowed to show.

It felt good.

My body responded immediately and if I’d been allowed to, I would have stripped off her bathing suit and explored every inch of her.

She jerked away from me when she felt my arousal. Her lips quirked to the side and her right eyebrow shot north. My cheeks felt like they were on fire as I sheepishly chuckled. “I’m not the only hottie in this pool, you know.”

Her sweet laughter echoed in the cavernous space.

“Come on, let’s start laps before we both get in trouble.” She winked and ducked under my arm. Pushing off the wall, she got into her lane, her sleek body carving through the water with its usual grace.

We raced the last few laps. I won and pulled her from the water, wrapping my arm around her as we headed for the towels. It felt so natural and easy between us now. It would have been easy to forget that my weekend ever happened.

But it jumped forward in my brain as I watched her wrap the towel around her body. Her blue eyes caught me, making me realize I wanted to do this every day for the rest of my life. She trusted me. I could tell by the open look in her eyes, her carefree grin. Yesterday had released some kind of coil within her and she looked happy. I didn’t want to damage that.

I scrubbed the towel over my face, hiding my guilt at letting Uncle Alex in.

Maybe I shouldn’t have done it.

But it was too late now. I had.

And if I was going to help him do his job, I had to get on with it.

I flung my arm over her shoulder and walked her to the changing rooms. “So, where’d you grow up?”

She flinched. “Zach, you promised you wouldn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, which is why I’m asking you in a place that no one else is in. There’s no way I’d raise this around our friends. I’m just curious about you. I want to know you.” I stopped and turned her towards me. “And there’s no hurry to do that, but I’m gonna ask you questions, Dani. I can’t help it. Just tell me what you want to.”

She hesitated, her carefree smile disappearing. “Okay.” She finally sighed. “Sorry, it just felt like you were probing for more on my parents, that’s all.”

I shrugged, trying to work out how to get around that one. “I want to know more about it, yeah, but I know you don’t want to tell me. Just, whatever you wanna give is great.”

I pushed an innocent smile over my lips and she finally relented with a sigh. “L.A. I grew up in L.A.”

“Nice. I spent my first eight years in Sacramento and then we moved here when I was thirteen.”

“Nice.” She bobbed her head with a grin.

“So what part of L.A.?”

Her head tipped and she shot me a droll look.

“Too far?”

She snickered, her smile looking adorable as she shook her head.

I couldn’t stop myself from kissing those lips, I pulled her towards me, my tongue skirting into her mouth until it was ripped out by Elliot’s shout. “Hey Zach!”

He stood on the opposite side of the pool, feet apart, hands in his pockets… he looked pissed. Damn it, I should have called him last night.

“I’m gonna go shower.” Dani slipped out of my arms as I turned to face my irate friend.