The Law of Motion (Law Series) (86 page)

             
“Carmen too?” He asked skeptically.

             
I huffed a laugh, they hated each other. “No she sent another sentiment that I won’t repeat.”

             
“Let me guess, she told you to smack me upside the head?” He joked, sure of himself.

             
I shook my head, “Nope, a knee to the groin.”

             
His smile faded, “I hate her,” he swore.

             
“Hunt…” I reprimanded. “She’s my cousin.”

             
“She hates me too, why do I get the ‘be cool’ lecture and she never does?”

             
“Because you know what gets under her skin and you do it on purpose,” I accused.

             
“I prefer the term ‘reality checks’,” he corrected. “She isn’t as hot as she thinks she is.”

             
They
loathed
each other for as long as I could remember, but I wasn’t quite sure what sparked it. It could have been that Hunter was a huge joker and didn’t really take anyone seriously. It could have been that Carmen used to be one of the most self-obsessed women you could ever meet. Or that Hunt had a tendency to call her any other variation of her name but her actual name and she hates that. Or that Carm had a habit of sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. I could speculate forever but since I wasn’t there it wouldn’t matter.

             
There wasn’t a person on this Earth that was friends with
everyone
they met. I just happened to care about two of them, but as long as they didn’t kill each other it was fine with me.

             
When we started to switch over to the 70 west I realized that we had been driving for over
three
hours. “Why are we heading towards Pennsylvania? Are you kidnapping me?” I demanded, mostly itching to know where we were going because my patience was in overdrive.

             
He just grinned, “Yep. So be a good hostage or I’ll tie you up.”

             
His forehead creased for a fraction of a second, probably wondering if his joke was too much.

             
“You
wish
,” I grinned letting him off the hook. “What am I going to do with you?”

             
“Who knows?” He mused laughing to himself and checking his watch.

             
We shot the breeze for a while longer reminiscing about the old days until he checked his watch for a fifth time. “Are we running late?” I wondered.

             
“A little,” he admitted.  “But don’t worry; I’ll make up the time.”

             
Another hour or so of driving later Adrian called; I didn’t hesitate to pick it up. “Hey Sweetie, is everything ok?”

             
“Yeah, Kristen is just trying to find the invoices you asked her to fax off.” He assured.

             
I had forgotten all about them, “Oh, um, crap. They’re in my filing cabinet, but I have the key with me. Do you think you ca
n
”

             
“I’m sure Doc can manage a filing cabinet,” my guy chuckled.

             
“Tell Chance I can take a few sticks of TNT to it.” Macon offered in the background, joking.

             
“He better not,” I threatened.

             
“We found them, Honeyface,” Adrian informed with a grin still in his voice.

             
“Good.”

             
“How’s your day going? Are you having fun?”

             
“Not really, we’ve been in the car this whole time.” I muttered cutting my eyes to an amused Hunter.

             
Adrian was so quiet I had to check and see if he was still there. “You there?”

             
“I’m here, just went into another room,” He answered. “You haven’t made it yet? Where are you guys going?”

             
“I don’t know yet. We’re somewhere in Pennsylvania right now.” I covered the phone for a second to turn to Hunt, “Where are we right now, Babes? Where are we going?”

             
“Washington,” He answered keeping his eyes on the road. “and you will know when we get there.”             

             
I rolled my eyes returning to my phone call, “So he said we’re in Washington, Pennsylvania right now, but he still won’t tell me where we’re going. He’s abducting and torturing me with the power of surprise.” I teased flicking him in the side of his neck when he said something smart under his breath.

             
Adrian took a deep breath, “So let me get this straight. You’ve been driving for over four hours. Leaving the
state
, with no idea where you’re going and the one person that knows isn’t telling you?”

             
“That sounds about right.” I giggled trying to make light of things because Adrian’s tone sounded annoyed to say the least.

             
He sighed, “Honeyface…let me talk to Hunter for a sec.”

             
“Um…” I hesitated. I wasn’t sure what he would say; probably tell him to bring me back or something.

             
“Honeyface…” Adrian called again, “can you put him on?”

             
“Are you going to be sweet?” I negotiated, still unsure.

             
His voice was flat as he answered, “As sweet as you are.”

             
That could honestly go either way because Adrian always called me sweet, but he and I both knew I had a very mean side when I was pissed. “Phone’s for you.” I muttered passing it over to him.

             
Hunter looked at it with a raised eyebrow but took it when I shoved it closer. “ This is Hunter.”

             
I turned down the music and tried to hear at least the
tone
that Adrian was using but I got no luck so I was forced to just base it on Hunt’s reaction.

             
“I can’t tell you where she’s going…”

             
He still had that unfazed grin in his words, “Well the whole purpose is for it to be secret and since she’s in the car with me telling you know would kinda ruin the surprise…”

             
“We’ll probably be back tomorrow…”

             
Tomorrow?
He didn’t say anything about this being an overnight thing. Well I was definitely surprised.

             
Adrian obviously didn’t like that, “we’ll be back first thing in the morning; I don’t think that’s crazy at all… If I tell you can I trust you not to tell her… well you can’t seem to not give her what she wants…” He rolled his eyes pulling out his cell phone, “What’s the number… I’m texting you right now…I’m going to put Alyssa back on now…” He passed me over the phone, “Here.”

             
“Baby?” I picked back up watching Hunter type furiously with one hand.

             
He let out a breath and his mood changed, “Okay Honeyface, Dario and I have to meet that fashion designer in an hour so we better hit the road. We want to get there early to scope the place out.”

             
“My fiancé spending the day backstage with models strutting around in their underwear really makes a girl feel insecure.” I sighed feigning bleakness.

             
He wasn’t fooled, “Size zeros aren’t my thing, Honeyface.”

             
“Still I’m going to need a little
reassurance
the next time I see you.” I teased.

             
“For as
long
as you need, Honeyface.” He crooned making my stomach knot in anticipation. Then Dario called his name in the background. “Gotta go Sweetness, I’ll call you later.

             
I hung up the phone and looked to my best friend, who was
still
typing. “Hunt, what are you doing?”

             
“The short of it, explaining to Adrian where I’m taking you.” He answered, stopping to switch lanes.

             
I shook my head, “Here.” I offered steadying the wheel so that he could finish his last bit of characters and send off              .

             
“Adrian is going to know before I do.” I frowned looking out the window.

             
“Well either I tell him, or he hunts us down and we can’t have that now can we?” He rolled his eyes wryly.

             
It had stopped raining hours ago, but it was also getting late into the afternoon. “How much longer do we have?”

             
“A while.” He answered cryptically.

             
“Fine,” I gave up unbuckling my belt and tilting the seat back, “wake me up when we get there.”

             
“Will do, Babes.” He promised increasing his speed after looking at his watch again.

              I woke up to a pinch of my hipbone and Hunter on the phone. “We’re looking at an ETA of four minutes. What’s your location…Two clicks away.” He hung up the phone and looked over at me. “Wake up, Babes, we’re close.”

             
I looked around outside the windows, the sky was orange and that made the nothing around us that more obvious. There were no houses, restaurants, anything; just fields of green and in certain spots not even that, just barren dirt. “Hunter…”

             
“It’ll make sense soon, just trust me.” He winked speeding up. We were the only car on the road now, and if I were to guess we were somewhere between Ohio and Indiana.

             
I shook my head, he had
really
lost it, “Hunt there isn’t anythin
g
”

             
“There’s our ride right there.” He smiled getting off of the main highway and onto a less paved road. I could see tail lights about a mile or so up ahead and what looked like a cargo van. He picked up his phone and dialed again, “Yeah, I’m right behind you.”

             
The van slowed down and for a second we passed it, until Hunter pulled over and screeched on brakes throwing up dust and rocks around us. Once we stopped we reversed up to the van. “Hunter what are you doing?”

             
“You haven’t figured it out yet, Babes? Come on…” He scoffed looking behind him as we traveled backwards.

             
Then it hit me, “You…?”

             
“Yeah.” He laughed opening the door and getting out greeting the man that had been driving. “How long we got?” He asked shaking hands with the driver.

             
“About as long as it takes to fix this flat.” The man smiled looking down at a perfectly fine tire. “I’ll wait a few minutes before I call it in, but dispatch won’t take more than an hour to send someone.”

             
“That gives us time to fake a blowout.” Hunter guessed.

             
I was speechless as him and the driver lead me around to the back of the van and the guy took a large ring of keys from his belt and started unlocking it. “Hunter… this is…”

             
“Highly illegal…career threateningly dangerous…” He guessed with his patented wicked grin and then shrugged, “I know.”

             
The doors to the prisoner transport swung open and there he was. “Victor.” I breathed with a smile on my face. He was still handcuffed by the hands and feet to the bench inside but that damn sure didn’t stop me from climbing in there to put my arms around me.

             
He couldn’t help his smile either, “Hello Miss Alyssa, it’s been a while.”

             
Instinctually he tried to return the embrace but his hands barely moved, I looked pointedly at Hunter. “Let him out man.” Hunter ordered the guy, but the prison guard shifted nervously.

             
“You didn’t say anything about removing his restraints… if he escapes it on my head.”

             
Hunter slapped a hand on his shoulder, “Ah come on David. He isn’t going to escape are you big guy? From what I hear he’s been a model prisoner in Leavenworth.”

             
David tossed me the keys and I fumbled to find the right ones, but it didn’t take me long. When he was free I tossed them back gratefully. “Thank you.”

             
He didn’t say anything but Hunter’s easygoing attitude calmed him a bit, “Good, she’s happy, we’re happy, now let’s go see about faking that blow out before we call it in shall we?”