Jumping at Shadows (23 page)

The chill in the Explorer increased as the blood drained from T.J.’s face. He had been married to a cop for seven years, and he hadn’t missed the message in that brief look the Captain had given him. Eric was armed and potentially dangerous, and at the moment he was no different than any number of fugitives they had hunted in the past. And just like every one of them, they were reduced to hoping it ended peacefully and praying it was without bloodshed. T.J. swallowed hard as the seatbelt clicked into place, his own prayers already echoing the unspoken words around them.

The whine of the engine dropped as the captain put the Explorer in gear, and then they slowly pulled from the curb.

T
HE
Highlander hesitated when Eric turned the key, then rumbled quietly to life a second before he switched on the defroster. It would take a little time for the Harrisons, a stocky businessman and his wife, to break their way out of the closet he had left them in. The closet didn’t lock, but the chair shoved under the doorknob and the heavy hall table he had pulled in front of it would slow them down. At least they hadn’t argued when he had demanded the keys to the SUV. He hadn’t asked permission to take the heavy down coat either.

His fingers drummed on the leather of the steering wheel as the seconds ticked to minutes, and he watched the ice begin to crack as it melted on the windshield.

“
Y
OU
know we may have to arrest him?”

T.J. swallowed but didn’t turn away from the window as he scanned the passing houses, squinting into the shadows between each one, looking for any sign of movement in the yards surrounding them.

“I know you don’t want to press charges, but if he pulls that gun on anyone else….”

“I know,” T.J. answered tightly. “Let’s just find him first, okay?”

E
RIC
saw it the instant he put the Highlander into gear, just before he took his foot off the brake to ease out of the driveway. The black and white patrol car was crawling toward him from the left. No lights were flashing, and there were no sudden movements from the officers inside to give any indication he was pegged, but the exhaust had to be noticeable. Still, the ice crusting the side window had to have made him appear as blurry as the officers in the patrol car. At least, he had to hope so. Eric reached for the gun where it lay on the passenger seat beside him, letting his tingling fingers flex on the grip as he watched the squad car inch closer and closer.

It didn’t stop or even slow down any further from its incessant crawling along the road, and Eric watched the reflective “Police” on the driver’s side door slide past him before it turned the corner to continue down the side road he had so recently come up. He saw the driver’s head turn inside the car, but whether his face was too blurred to be recognized or he was merely discounted because they were expecting him on foot, he didn’t know. Either way, the patrol car continued on, and within moments it had vanished between the houses lining either side of the street. Eric smiled grimly. They were more likely to find T.J. than they were to find him, and he had little doubt that his former husband was out there. A slash of pain tore at his heart as he pictured his former lover’s face, but he squashed it mercilessly under the reminder of his betrayal.

A long, slow breath bled from his lungs. Then, removing his hand from the grip of the gun, he eased his foot on the brake.

“
W
HAT
?
” T.J. whipped his head to the captain, staring hard at his stony profile, from the unblinking eyes staring through the windshield to the compressed lips under the heavy mustache.

“The visiting in-laws were trying to go home, only they didn’t know their flight had been canceled. They have been trying to get out of the city ever since. They’re probably still at the airport now, or trying to find some other way out of this town.”

Oh God
, T.J. moaned silently. It made sense, perfect sense, if only Eric would listen to it. Eric
had
to listen to it, if only they could find him.

“You should learn to shade your window a little more often too.
Shit!
”

T.J. jerked sharply to face the road as the captain turned the wheel sharply. They had reached the main road that led to the highway, and the police-issue SUV had just begun its turn to move to the next block over, to scope the next road of the neighborhood for a lone man on foot. The Toyota Highlander barely swerved as it flew past their front bumper, moving far too fast for road conditions like these, sending the Explorer sliding as the captain fought the wheel. The Explorer ground against the curb before stuttering to a halt.

“
Where the hell did he get wheels?
” the captain bit out dangerously, taking only a moment to be sure of exactly what he saw before stepping on the gas as he turned the Explorer around. “Hang on!”

Expert handling of the steering wheel steadied the Explorer on the road, though the snow tires spun before gaining traction. The Highlander had a lead, but not much of one. Capt. Carroll grabbed the radio with one hand as he steered with the other.

“Attention all units! We have a confirmed sighting heading north on South 10th, approaching Highway 23. Gold-toned Highlander SUV. Expect him to turn east into the business district. Respond with caution, and watch your asses on these fucking roads!”

He slammed the radio back into place. “I won’t mention the fact that his fucking license is suspended and he has no business driving, let alone driving a stolen vehicle.”

T.J. didn’t look away from the SUV in front of them, but his jaw tightened at the coldness of the captain’s words. Eric was already at risk of jail time from the last time he had given chase to phantoms, with charges of assault only adding to the reckless endangerment he faced. But this—
this
—was undoubtedly more than even his captain had a chance of smoothing over.
If
he was even willing to try….

As long as he’s alive
, T.J. vowed silently.
Everything else we will deal with, just as long as he gets out of this alive.

“
F
UCK
!” Eric gritted out, his gaze switching back and forth between the road and the mirror, watching the Explorer giving chase behind him. Oh, he recognized it, all right, had even driven it—or one like it—himself a few times, so he knew damn good and well what it could do on ice. Capt. Carroll was experienced, too, and Eric had little doubt it was the captain himself coming up behind him. He didn’t have to guess to figure out it was T.J. he had with him.

Eric gritted his teeth as he prepared to turn the Highlander onto the highway. Capt. Carroll had no idea that he was riding with one of Victor Kroger’s own employees, but Eric had no illusions about who his captain would believe if he stopped to talk now. Not when Eric himself had given him too many reasons to question his abilities and mindset recently. But he wanted to believe that T.J. wouldn’t do anything unless the captain had him cornered—though that was just another thing he had to add to his long list of hopes. And the captain wouldn’t do it unless T.J. gave him a reason. At least that much he was sure of. The captain would understand when this all blew up out in the open. He just had to get to Victor first, and he knew he couldn’t do that with the police-issue Explorer riding hot on his bumper.

The snow tires that the official vehicles were equipped with were top of the line, so any hope that it might lose control on the ice was weak at best. Losing it wasn’t going to be easy, but it was his only chance to buy time, and risky or not, it was his only option. A bitter line formed as his lips pressed together, and hoping for the best, he pressed the accelerator.

“
T
HAT
’
S
a damn SUV, not a fucking tank!” the captain growled as the Highlander pulled ahead. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel, though he knew better than to force an iron grip. “And those aren’t fucking snow tires he’s driving on!”

T.J. had no answer, but his heart nearly froze when he saw the back tires slip on the icy pavement in front of him. Eric was good—he had to be to work crime in this city—but there was still only so much he could do in an unfamiliar vehicle under these circumstances. The point was emphasized when the tires slipped again.

“Let him go.” The plea was quiet and toneless, and the lack of expression was only a testament to how scared T.J. was. “If he keeps driving like that, he’s going to crash. Please, just let him go before he gets himself killed.”

The mustache twitched over the grim set of his mouth, but the captain’s words were careful and even.

“You know I can’t do that. He’s armed, he may be dangerous, and he’s driving a stolen vehicle. Running makes him a fugitive. Until or unless the situation is deemed too dangerous for pursuit, I can’t—”

“And you don’t think these roads make the situation too dangerous?” T.J. snapped at him. “It’s fucking ice out here, and you just said yourself he’s not driving on snow tires! If you don’t let him go, he’s going to crash! And if that happens, he could—” The words cut off, but it wasn’t so much the darkening of the captain’s expression that stopped him as it was the chilling reality of what he was saying. Letting out his breath in a heart-heavy puff, T.J. ran his hand through his hair as he forced his voice down. “Captain, please, let him go. We’ll search for him later. No one’s been hurt yet—”

“We don’t know that,” Capt. Carroll broke in flatly. He met T.J.’s sudden, sharp look before turning back to the road. “We don’t know the status of the owner of that Highlander he’s driving.”

T.J. opened his mouth to blast the captain’s assumption, but the sudden stiffening of the captain’s position shot his eyes back to the road. His blood turned to ice in his veins.

“
Oh God…
.”

“
F
UCK
!” Eric hissed, pulling the steering wheel left as the rear end began to slide, then moving it right as the vehicle began fishtailing the other way. Ice wasn’t a new experience for him, and he had enough years of teenage daredeviling and command-issued training under his belt that he had learned to negotiate it with expert skill, but the mass of the SUV threw off his normal reactions. He was nearing the exit to the highway, and although the Highlander was still slipping dangerously, he knew if he could make the turn, the more heavily traveled roads would be treated, and the coating of salt would make the driving conditions safer. Taking the ramp would be tricky, but it could be done.

Then the left front tire hit an inexplicable smear of clear pavement through the coating of ice.

“
H
E
’
S
GOING
to fucking crash!
”

The captain’s words echoed sharply around them as T.J. stared in sickened horror. The gold-toned Highlander veered wildly, threatening to overturn as it skittered to the shoulder, then slid rear-end-first over the drop on the other side of the exit ramp. The Explorer began its own slide across the ice-crusted road as the captain negotiated the brakes, but T.J. watched in frozen agony as the Highlander vanished from sight.

The crunch of metal echoing from the roadside was brutally clear even before the Explorer stopped moving.

Chapter Fifteen

E
RIC
hissed at the throb of his shoulder as he shoved the brittle wooden door closed behind him. The ragged sound was loud inside the small abandoned building, with the cold emptiness of the hollow shell making it echo off the walls that suddenly surrounded him. He had been here several times before, although only once had he set foot in this particular room at the back of the building. It had been a liquor store at one time, a seedy bar at another, and a porn outlet for a brief time, with a selection of videos and toys that catered to tastes a little darker than what he and T.J. were into. But it had had a special section dedicated to gay men, and enough rumors floating around about it to pique their curiosity. Once was enough, though, especially when they had seen what went on in this particular room of the shop, and the meat market masquerading as a gay bar hadn’t been much better. Only as a liquor store did the place garner second and subsequent visits from them.

It had been called Mac’s then, and the beer had been cheap when the place had sold alcohol, with a wider selection of brands than could be found at the nearest convenience store. The inventory of liquor had been even more wild and varied, and they had emptied their wallets for the hard stuff more than once when the timing was right. A bottle of Hard Fuck Whiskey had been too much to resist that particular Saturday night when they had first spotted it on the shelves. They were already a little drunk, and already horny as hell when they had walked through the door, and the black label featuring a muscled and leather-clad bear buried completely between the thighs of his screaming, rock-hard, and equally muscled male partner had them both reaching for the smooth black bottle. They had paid the clerk in cash without a single blink or blush, and three-quarters of the bottle later, they were reenacting the name in the privacy of their own home—with as much whiskey on their bodies as in their bloodstreams. Eric had been particularly sore when they had woken up on the floor the next morning, though T.J. had also sported rug burns on various parts of his sticky and alcohol-streaked body. And though the hangover alone had been enough for them to swear they would never indulge again, they had nevertheless kept at least one bottle in the house until the store had gone out of business and the porn outlet took its place.