Monroe, Marla - The Edge of Night [The Protectors 3](Siren Publishing Classic) (23 page)

As soon as they stopped at the service station again, Amanda tapped Morgan on the shoulder. He turned sideways on the bike to look at her.

“What if it’s Guy’s girlfriend? I mean the real one.”

“Why would she be following you? What possible motive would she have?” Morgan asked.

“I don’t know, but I can’t imagine another woman looking for me. I didn’t have any close friends who would look for me. Guy kept me pretty isolated back then. I know why now, but before it was to protect me from the media. He didn’t want them to bother me.”

“Maybe that’s it,” Morgan said.

“What?”

“Maybe it’s a reporter wanting to use you to do an exposé of him.”

“Wouldn’t that work in my favor?” Amanda began to get a little excited.

“Not really. Guy still has the money to win custody of the baby if it came down to it,” Morgan reminded her.

“If it is some reporter, what are we going to do? We can’t hurt her.”

“Right now, we stay as far away as we can get until she makes her move. No matter what, don’t speak to anyone, no matter how nice they act, especially in the bathroom. If she’s a reporter, she’ll probably try to catch you in there.” Morgan leaned in and kissed her on the nose.

“I won’t. I don’t want anything to get out in the news in case Guy uses it to find me or sue me for my baby,” Amanda said.

“Good girl.”

Tyler pulled up about that time.

“Okay. The car probably belongs to a short blonde-haired woman of about thirty-five with a dark green pantsuit on. She was hovering around the door when I went back in pretending to go to the bathroom. When I came back out, she was sitting in her car looking a little distracted. She didn’t look my way, but had the car on.”

“She didn’t follow you over here,” Amanda pointed out.

“She can see us from here and will probably pull out when we do,” Tyler said.

“Okay. Let me call the twins and let them know what we’ve noticed.” Morgan pulled off his phone and punched in the twins’ number.

“Hey, think we’ve spotted her. She’s the one in a red Mustang with blonde hair. She’s just sitting across the street with her motor running. I figure when we pull out, she’ll be right behind us.” Morgan listened to the other end of the conversation and nodded. “Yeah, I agree.”

He listened a few more seconds, then hung up. “Let’s go. Tyler, fiddle with your bike a second after we leave, then catch up with us. Just see if she follows or waits on you,” Morgan said.

Tyler nodded and waved them on for show. Amanda turned around and waved at Tyler, then grabbed hold of Morgan’s waist and held on as they pulled out. She wanted to turn and see if the red sports car followed, but knew better than to look interested.

“Morgan, can you see in your side mirrors if she’s following or not?”

“Can’t tell. There are several other cars behind us right now. Tyler will catch up and let me know,” Morgan called back to her.

Amanda waited for what seemed like forever before Tyler pulled up next to them. He nodded at Morgan, then hung back to ride behind them.

“Yep, she’s following us,” Morgan said.

“Well, that’s something, I guess. At least we know for sure,” Amanda said.

“Problem is, what are we going to do about it?” Morgan asked.

Chapter Eighteen

Morgan mulled over the knowledge that they had a blonde in a red Ford Mustang following them. What did she want? Why was she helping the others, if she was? Who was she? There were an infinite number of possibilities. Finding the right one would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Their only recourse was to ask the lady herself, but he wanted Amanda away from her for that. He’d have to talk to the twins about the best approach to the problem.

They rode for another three hours before Amanda called out to him, “Morgan, I’m sorry, but I need to use the bathroom again.”

He could tell she’d waited until she couldn’t wait any longer. He signaled to Tyler they would be taking the next exit. They pulled up into a nice-looking service station that belonged to a chain. The restrooms were inside, which was an added bonus.

Morgan waited while Amanda slid off the back of the bike before he threw his leg over and stepped down. Tyler pulled in beside them. He pulled off his helmet, and shook his hair, then ran an arm across his forehead to wipe the sweat from his brow.

“More water,” was all he said as he climbed off his bike.

“Amanda, go with Tyler. I want to call the twins and watch that red car across the street,” Morgan told her.

Amanda twisted in Tyler’s grip to get a look, but Morgan shook his head at her. She frowned, but turned back around and followed Tyler inside the station.

Morgan dialed the twins and got Jethro.

“Who’s driving?” Morgan asked.

“Justin right now, why?”

“Just making sure I wasn’t talking to the driver. Didn’t you know it’s not safe to talk and drive at the same time?” Morgan teased.

“Stop fucking around. What do you have?” Jethro asked.

“Red Ford Mustang with the blonde female is following us, no doubt.”

“Figured as much. Haven’t seen either of the other cars or the truck. Did notice an SUV that is following us, but it stopped about a mile back. Haven’t seen it again. If we do, I’ll get suspicious again,” Jethro said.

“I want to find out what the woman wants with Amanda, but I want to do it without Amanda being around. What are your thoughts?”

“Good call. I agree. She’s not really a threat with the three of us. Tyler can guard Amanda when we approach her. A three-prong attack should hem her in so she can’t slip past us.”

Morgan nodded. He agreed with that. “We’ll stay at the agreed-on hotel. We can order in, and the three of us go out to pick it up.”

“She’ll either follow or stick around close to where Amanda is. We spring our trap,” Jethro finished.

“We should make it to the hotel by six thirty. You already made the reservations, right?” Morgan asked.

“Right, one room in my name, the other in Justin’s name. You use my name. We’ll use Justin’s name.”

“I’m going to call Dodge next. If there’s anything definite, I’ll call you back.” Morgan ended the call and dialed Dodge’s number next.

“Yeah,” Dodge answered on the second ring.

“Got anything?” Morgan asked, praying his friend had come through for them.

“Actually, yes, I do, but we can’t do anything about it till you get here. I’m going to need some information from your lady friend to put it all together.”

“So I can tell her everything is going to be okay, right?”

“Well, I don’t know how okay it’s going to be, but I can get Guy off her back. It will mean some blackmail and a stiff backbone,” Dodge hedged.

“Hell, man. You always were a damn closed-mouthed son of a bitch,” Morgan griped.

“Yeah, well, I have my reasons. Now hurry up and get here. Sitting on this is taking some work.” Dodge hung up, leaving Morgan staring at his phone.

Fuck.

About that time, Tyler and Amanda walked out of the convenience store with bottles of water. He smiled and held out his hand for one of them. Amanda handed one to him, then opened hers and began to drink from it.

“What is the plan?” she asked.

“We keep going to the hotel. We’ll check in using Jethro’s name, and they’ll check in using Justin’s name,” Morgan said.

“What about her?” she asked, nodding her head slightly toward where the red car was parked down the road.

“We’ll talk about that once we get to the hotel. Good news is that Dodge has something that should get Guy off your back. Don’t know what it is yet. Have to wait till we get there. He’s closed-mouthed about it right now,” Morgan told them.

“’Bout damn time he got it together,” Tyler said.

“Let’s get back on the road. I don’t like sitting around in case those assholes show up.” Morgan climbed back onto the bike and cranked it up.

Tyler waited until Amanda had gotten on behind Morgan before climbing onto his own bike. Morgan nodded his head at Tyler, then pulled out into the street, heading for the on-ramp to get back on the interstate. They had another four or so hours of hard riding left. He hoped Amanda wouldn’t need to stop again before they got there. He wanted to confront the woman in the red car before it started to get dark.

They pulled into the hotel parking lot at six forty-five. Morgan had Amanda climb on behind Tyler and wait around back while he claimed their room. Then he drove around and located the room. It just happened it was two doors down from where Tyler had parked the bike. When he would have moved it closer, Morgan shook his head and told him to leave it there.

About the time they all three made it to the door of room 135, the red sports car careened round the corner and squealed to a stop behind their bikes.

Morgan swiped the card and pushed Amanda into the room, yelling for her to lock the door. Tyler took a step forward and waited for Morgan to decide what to do.

“What do you want, lady?” Morgan finally asked when the woman didn’t immediately say anything.

“Is that Amanda Hardwick?” she asked in a strangled voice.

“Who wants to know and why?” he asked.

“Doesn’t matter. If that’s her, there are two guys looking for her. They aren’t nice guys either,” she said.

“Why don’t you get out of the car and come up here, and let’s talk?” Tyler said.

“I don’t trust you.”

“Lady, we don’t trust you, either. Talking out in the open isn’t a good idea, though. Why don’t we meet you somewhere public that we can talk?” Morgan suggested.

She seemed to mull it over for a few minutes, then nodded her head. “Fine. I’ll meet you at that diner we passed coming into town.”

“Give us an hour to settle in,” Morgan said, hoping the twins would be there by then.

“I’ll see you there.” She made a U-turn and drove away.

“I don’t like it, Morgan,” Tyler said.

“Neither do I.”

Morgan knocked on the door. “Amanda, let us in, baby. It’s okay now.”

The door cracked. Then she opened it all the way and took a step back. She didn’t look at either one of them, but stepped back toward the bathroom.

“What is it, Amanda?” Morgan asked, staring at her.

“You’re going to meet with her, but you’re going to leave me here.” She fisted her hands on her hips. “This is about me. I should have some say-so in all of it.”

“Amanda, it’s not safe for you to go. We don’t know if she’s working with Guy’s goons or not. I just don’t want to risk it, baby.” Morgan walked over and cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand. He bent down and kissed her.

“You’re not going by yourself either,” she said.

“No, I’m going to take Jethro and Justin with me. Tyler will stay behind with you in case this is a setup to get us away from you.”

“I’ll keep you safe, Amanda. You don’t have to worry about that,” Tyler assured her.

“I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about all of you getting hurt because of me.”