White Lies (24 page)

           
 
She shrank away from him, her eyes going
blank. Somehow, during the long months she had spent with him, she had come to
believe he loved her, though he had never said the words. He'd been so
possessive, so tender and passionate. But now his memory had returned, and he
couldn't have made it plainer that his absorption with her had ended. He didn't
need her any longer, and he certainly wasn't going to renew his offer of
marriage. It was over, and they weren't even going to part friends. The worst
had happened; she had lied to him, kept his identity from him, and he would
never forgive her for it. He thought she had done it just because the government
had been willing to support her for as long as the charade had lasted.

           
 
He released her suddenly, as if he couldn't
stand to touch her any longer, and she staggered back. Catching her balance,
she turned toward the ladder.

           
 
"Open the door," she said dully.

           
 
He clenched his fists, not ready to break off
the argument. He didn't have all the answers he wanted, not by a long shot. But
her movement recalled the need for urgency; he had to get her out of there
before Piggot found them. The last thing he wanted was for Jay to be caught in
the middle of a firefight.

           
 
"I'll go first," he said, and
shouldered past her. He signaled the door open and climbed the ladder, the
pistol ready in his hand. As soon as his head was above ground he looked
cautiously in all directions, then climbed out and knelt on one knee by the
hole to help Jay out. "All right, come on." She didn't look at him as
she crawled out, nor did she accept the hand he extended. He closed the
trapdoor, then replaced the bale of hay over it. She started to just walk out
of the shed, but he grabbed her and held her back. "Watch it!" he
said in a furious whisper. "We go back the same way we came. Stay in the
shadows." He led the way, and Jay followed him without a word. He still
wouldn't allow a light on in the cabin, so Jay stumbled to the bedroom and
gathered a few clothes in the dark. He came into the bedroom as she took off
his shirt to put on her own clothes, and after a moment of frozen
embarrassment, she awkwardly turned her back while she struggled with her bra.
Her hands were clumsy, and in the dark she couldn't manage to straighten the
straps. Despairing of getting it on, she finally dropped it on the bed and
simply pulled her sweater over her head.

           
 
Lucas watched her. Her pale breasts had
gleamed in the fault light coming through the window, and in spite of his
anger, his sense of betrayal and the need for haste, he wanted to go to her and
pull her against him. Only a few hours before he had held her breasts in his
hands and pushed them up to his avid mouth. He had made love to her until the
building anticipation had bordered on agony, and they had writhed together on
that bed. She had told him she loved him, over and over, and now she turned her
back as if she had to hide her body from him. It hit him hard, shook him. There
was more to it than she'd told him, more than the mercenary motives he'd thrown
at her. He needed to know what it was, but he didn't have time. Damn it. If
only she didn't look so beaten and remote, as if she had withdrawn inside
herself. He had to fight the urge to take her in his arms and kiss that look
away. Hell, what did it matter why she had done it?

           
 
Maybe money had been the reason at first, but
he was damned certain it wasn't the reason now, or at least not all of it. Even
if it had been, he thought ruthlessly, he wouldn't let her go. He'd get this
settled between them as soon as he'd taken care of Piggot, but right now the
most important thing was to make certain Jay was safe.

           
 
"Hurry," he urged roughly.

           
 
She sat down on the edge of the bed and jerked
her boots off, quickly put on a pair of thick socks and put the boots on again.
Then she got her purse and shearling jacket and said, "I'm ready." He
didn't see the need for her to get anything else, as they would come back to
the cabin and pack after he'd taken care of Piggot, and he was pleased that she
didn't insist on wasting time. Jay was a good partner, even though she was out
of her depth.

           
 
He had to find a safe place to leave her. He
doubted that Black Bull, the closest town, had a motel, but he didn't have the
time to go any farther than that. He drove the Jeep at breakneck speed across
the meadow, especially considering that he didn't dare risk turning on the
headlights. But he had taken the possibility that he might have to do this into
consideration and had walked the meadow over and over, mentally tracing the
route he would take, estimating his fastest safe speed, noting all the rocks
and ruts in his path. He edged so close to the tree line that branches scraped
the side of the Jeep.

           
 
"I can't see," Jay said, her voice
strained.

           
 
"I can." He couldn't see much, but
it was enough. He had good night vision. She held on to the door as they jolted
across a hump, rattling her teeth. He'd have to turn on the headlights when
they went down the mountainside, she thought; the track was only wide enough
for the Jeep, with a steep drop on one side and vertical mountain on the other.
Even in daylight she hardly dared to breathe until they had safely negotiated
it. But when they made the turn that took them onto the track, he kept both
hands on the wheel. The darkness in front of them was absolute.

           
 
Jay closed her eyes. Her own heartbeat was
thundering in her ears so loudly that she couldn't hear anything else. There
was nothing she could do. He had decided not to turn on the lights, to risk the
drive in the dark, and nothing she could say would change his mind. His arrogant
confidence in his own ability was both maddening and awesome; she would rather
have walked down the mountain in ten feet of snow than risked this hair-raising
drive, but he had simply decided to do it, and now he was.

           
 
She couldn't estimate how long the drive took.
It seemed like hours, and finally her nerves couldn't bear the tension, and
numbness settled in. She even opened her eyes. It didn't matter. If they went
over the side, they would go whether her eyes were open or closed.

           
 
But then they were down and bumping across the
second meadow. Suddenly he slammed on the brakes, swearing viciously. Jay saw
what he saw: a set of headlights playing along the edge of the meadow in front
of them. They were still safely out of range of the light, but she knew as well
as he did what it meant. Piggot's men were drawing close, closing the net to
wait for Piggot's arrival. Lucas put the Jeep in reverse and backed the way he
had come, keeping the Jeep at the tree line. When he reached the rear edge of
the meadow he turned, taking the Jeep up the north edge. They were off the
track now, and the snow tires dug in deep, spewing snow back behind them.

           
 
"Are we going around this way?"

           
 
"No. We won't be able to make it. The
snow's too deep." He pulled the Jeep under some trees and got out.
"Stay here," he ordered, and disappeared back toward the track.

           
 
Jay swiveled in her seat, straining her eyes
to see what he was doing. She could barely make out his form, black against the
snow; an instant later he was out of sight.

           
 
He was back in less than two minutes. He
vaulted into the Jeep and slammed the door, then rolled the window down.
"Listen," he hissed.

           
 
"What did you do?"

           
 
"I wiped out our tracks. There was only
one vehicle. If it goes past us, we'll get back on the track and make it to the
highway yet."

           
 
They listened. The sound of the other motor
came plainly through the night air. The vehicle was moving slowly, the engine
toiling in low gear as it cautiously made its way up the slick, snowy, unfamiliar
track. The headlights stabbed the darkness, coming almost straight toward them.

           
 
"Don't worry," Lucas breathed.
"They can't see us from the track. If they just don't notice where we
turned and if they keep on going, we'll be okay." Two ifs. Two big ifs.
Jay's nails were digging into her palms. The headlights were close enough that
their reflected light illuminated the interior of the Jeep, and for the first
time she noticed that Lucas had on his thick shearling jacket, but no shirt.
The odd detail struck her, and she wondered if she might be edging toward
hysteria.

           
 
"Keep going," he said under his
breath. "Keep going." For a moment it seemed as if the other vehicle
slowed, and the lights seemed to be coming over the slight rise straight toward
them. Then they turned, and the noise of the engine slowly moved away.

           
 
She let out her breath. Lucas started the
engine, knowing the sound wouldn't be heard over that of the other motor. He
put the Jeep in gear and turned it around, praying they were hidden well enough
that the red glow of the brake lights wouldn't reveal their position. But at
least they were behind the other vehicle now. If he had to, he could make a run
for the road. As rough as the track was, the chance that they would be hit by
gunfire from a pursuing vehicle was small.

           
 
The Jeep lurched through the snow, and then
they were on the track again. No other headlights disturbed the darkness, and
they could just catch glimpses of light playing through the trees as the other
vehicle moved slowly up the treacherous mountainside track.

           
 
Jay sat silently, even when they reached the
road and Lucas finally turned on the headlights. She was numb again.

           
 
They reached Black Bull at two in the morning.
The local populace of one hundred and thirty-three souls were all in bed. There
wasn't even an all-night convenience store, and the one gas station closed at
ten at night, according to the sign in the window. A county sheriffs car was
parked at the side of the gas station.

           
 
Lucas stopped the Jeep. "Can you drive
this well enough to get out of here?" he asked brusquely.

           
 
She looked at the gearshift, but not at him.
"Yes."

           
 
"Then drive until you hit the next town
big enough to have a motel. Stop there and call Frank. He'll arrange for you to
be picked up. Do you have his number?" So this was it. It was over.
"No."

           
 
"Give me a pen. I'll write it down for
you."

           
 
Jay fumbled in her purse and found a pen, but
she didn't have even a scrap of paper for him to write the number on. Finally
he grasped her hand and turned it palm up, then wrote the number on her palm.

           
 
"Where are you going?" she asked,
her voice strained but even.

           
 
"I'm taking that county car right there
and radioing Veasey. Then we're going to catch Piggot and end this once and for
all."

           
 
She stared out the windshield, her hand
clenched tightly as if to keep the number from fading off her palm. "Be
careful," she managed to say, the admonishment trite but heartfelt. She
wondered if Frank would even tell her the outcome, if she would ever know what
happened to Lucas.

           
 
"He ambushed me once. It won't happen
again." Lucas got out of the Jeep and strode over to the county car. It
was locked, but that wasn't much of a deterrent. He had the door open in less
than ten seconds. He looked at the Jeep, staring at Jay through the windshield.
Her face was ghostly white. He wanted nothing more than to jerk her into his
arms and kiss her so hard that they both forgot about this mess, but if he
kissed her now, he might not be able to stop, and he had to take care of
Piggot. It was just that he wanted her so badly, wanted to use the bond of the
flesh to make certain she knew she was his. A sense of incompletion gnawed at
him because they hadn't thrashed out the situation between them, but it would
have to wait. Maybe it was better this way. In a few hours he wouldn't have to
worry about Piggot any longer, and his temper would have cooled. He would be
able to think clearly and not react as if she'd betrayed him. He didn't
understand her reasons yet, but underneath everything, he knew she loved him.