Izzie was cooperating, and that was shocking the hell out of him. Allen shot his companion a look. She’d washed her hair during her shower. He wondered how she’d managed it with the cast and splint. Izzie’s hair had a lot of natural curl in it; the curls were his favorite.
They gave her face a pixie appearance. Told people exactly what her personality was, in a way that fit her perfectly. With people other than him, she was engaging and funny and fiercely loving and protective. With him she was snappish and a little cranky. He hadn’t figured out why yet, but Nikkie Jean had told him once that Izzie had had a rough road with a few physicians before.
She’d reluctantly admitted that one of those physicians had been Logan.
He hadn’t had any idea that Logan had been making Izzie’s life a nightmare for several months. Nikkie Jean implied it had been serious.
He’d been too busy as temporary chief of medicine before Rafe had been hired, and his path hadn’t crossed Logan’s that often back then. Not like it had before.
He should have made a point of checking on Logan after the Lannings’ deaths. Maybe he would have been able to see.
Logan apparently hadn’t handled the grief very well. Hell, Allen didn’t know who could. His eyes landed on the air splint. It now rested on the small counter.
She should be wearing it.
He held it out to her with a pointed look. “You ok? Bruises? Broken arm? You came damned close to a torn scapholunate ligament.”
“I’m good. I really don’t want to take anything right now. Nothing more than ibuprofen. Not with us on the lam here. Acetaminophen really knocks me out, even without the codeine. What if I have to drive this getaway vehicle? I need at least one hand free. Plus, I got an elastic bandage, if needed. And…a cast and splint would get too much attention. We’re trying to be incognito, remember?”
He was starting to see what she and Nikkie Jean had in common—constant sass and snark. While it was hilarious from Nikkie Jean, it had an entirely different effect on Allen.
It made him want to scoop her up and kiss the snark away.
“No kidding. You were a zombie yesterday. For a while there, I was certain you’d start drooling down your shirt while I watched.” He knew exactly what pain management plan they were working. She was at least an hour behind on taking the next one. He respected her wishes to be clearer headed. There was no perfect answer. “If you start hurting, let me know. We’ll stop for the day, find a place where you can relax a little.”
“I’m good. No matter what. Finding a place to hide for a day or so probably is a good idea. We need to prepare a bit better than what we have. I want out of these clothes. They’re Nikkie Jean’s and way too small. I’m not changing out of them until we wash these.”
He hadn’t noticed the T-shirt and jeans she’d slipped into being too tight, but he had known they were more form fitting than he’d seen on her before.
Allen hadn’t minded. He was used to seeing her in nurses’ scrubs. He liked these tighter things a lot better.
Under her habitual baggy scrubs, Nurse Izzie was very nicely shaped.
“Where exactly are we headed?” she asked after a few minutes. She’d found a state map in the glove box and had unfolded it over the large dash in front of her. The van had a slight built-in desk area.
“There’s a campground in Kerrville, about two hundred miles away. Four hours or so. I figured we’d stop there first. It’s not quite as far as I was hoping to make it, but with this approaching weather, I think we need to find a place and park for a while. Do the planning that you want.”
She tracked the destination with one finger. “It’s not too far away. The exit is coming up.”
He normally used GPS on his phone, but he’d left that phone in Rafe’s office desk.
Allen had taken the SIM card out of the phone and stored it in a freezer bag—with the battery disconnected. Nikkie Jean had done the same with Izzie’s. Anyone looking for those phones wouldn’t be able to find them. “Does this phone have GPS?”
“I’m sure it does. Many prepaid smartphones do, now, I think.” She shot him a smirk. “What’s the matter? Don’t believe I can read a map? We don’t need GPS.”
“I’m sure you can do whatever your heart is set on, Nurse Izadora. It’s part of your Superwoman powers.”
“Funny.” She was quiet for a long while. “The exit is coming up in about ten minutes.”
“Thanks.” He had no idea what they were going to do when they made it to the campground. Boil water in the pouring rain? Not likely.
Take a real shower in the campground bathhouse? Most likely. They’d have to wrap her cast in a trash bag and tape it well first. He’d grabbed a roll of duct tape for that very reason.
He pulled into the small campground about five hours later and was surprised to see a small gas station right in the middle of it. “Well, that’s convenient.”
“Hey, it’s a convenience store. Why wouldn’t it be convenient?”
Apparently, his road companion had a fondness for word play and snark. At least she’d stopped looking at him like he truly was an evil abductor. Or a practiced seducer of innocent nurses everywhere.
“I’ll park at the pump, then go inside to see if they have a site available.” That was something they were going to have to be aware of. A lot of campgrounds required reservations. There were RVs everywhere, and only a few open sites, from what he could see.
In the smaller Class B RV, they could camp in store parking lots if the stores would allow it. But he hoped not.
Allen was a man of creature comforts, after all. He didn’t want Izzie to have to rough it in the physical condition she was in.
“I’ll fill up the tank. You get us a spot.”
Allen hesitated. He didn’t want her out of the van. It didn’t seem safe to him. She couldn’t stay in it the entire time they were on the run. That wasn’t feasible and would be damned suspicious if they stayed anywhere more than a day or two.
“Keep the cast dry. Stay by the van. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Go.”
“Do I need to give you the stranger-danger talk?”
“Go, Dad. I can fill up the van by myself. Why don’t you ever let me do anything? I’m sixteen. I’m not a kid anymore.” She shot him a rebellious pout.
Sounding exactly like a bratty kid.
He had to give Izzie her due. The woman had some serious acting ability. “You’re good. Really good.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. I gave Jake absolute fits as a teenager; then he shoved me into a teen theater group. I’ll channel my inner brat for a while. I bought a few other costumes. Just in case. So, Dad, go.” She whispered next to him. “I can take care of myself. You’ll stand out more if you hover. I got this, Jacobson. Go.”
Yeah, but that didn’t matter to him. Not when Allen wanted to take care of her instead. He just shook his head at her and walked away.
The woman grew more fascinating by the hour.
And more maddening.
They were in luck. There was one campsite left, and it was located near the back of the extremely small campground. It wasn’t the greatest stopping point. Mostly for travelers moving through the area, rather than vacationers. Allen was ok with that.
There was a laundry facility. After he got the van hooked up to the utilities and the top raised a bit for ventilation, he’d carry over the clothing she’d bought and throw it in the washing machines. Kill any possible cooties she would be afraid of.
He strongly suspected little Nurse Izzie was a bit of a germaphobe. Even if she wouldn’t admit it.
He’d seen the new packages of socks and underwear—and the two bags of disinfectant wipes, and bleach spray and hand sanitizer. There were also a handful of notebooks that she’d put in the cabinet she’d vocally claimed as hers. He was under strict orders to stay out of those notebooks. Under pain of death.
She’d tossed him one notebook of his own and told him to be satisfied; that was all he was getting from her. The sassy expression had almost had him grabbing her and kissing her right there.
Allen wanted to know what she was going to write in those notebooks. Far more than he wanted to know what was in those journals of Henedy’s he hadn’t read yet. Those journals were in the bag he’d grabbed out of his trunk at the Lannings’. He should have passed them on to Marshall, but he’d totally forgotten.
She practically squealed with joy when he told her about the laundry room.
Laundry.
He’d had women react less passionately over fourteen-carat diamonds than Izzie acted over laundry.
At first, he had intended to do the laundry himself and keep her inside. The woman needed to rest. Not do laundry.
Allen kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t worth arguing with his “son” tonight. They’d asked him who would be on the site tonight. He’d written down one adult and one child after a moment’s hesitation. It would be seriously difficult to trace them if he rotated Izzie’s age and gender every time they traveled to a new location. He’d grabbed a prepaid credit card at the store that morning, and had had her activate it using one of the disposable phones, under Barry Lanning’s name.
Maybe slightly illegal, but Allen wasn’t going to take any chances with her.
That number could be kept on file at campgrounds when needed for bookings. The rest of the time, he was going to pay everything in cash. It was the best he could do. He’d bought three other prepaid cards at a gas station halfway to their destination. He’d registered one in Linda’s name, one in Logan’s, and one in Jess’s. Tactical maneuvers like this weren’t exactly Allen’s forte. If he got caught, he’d talk to Elliot Marshall.
The risk was worth it.
“Let’s go. I’ll do all the heavy lifting.”
Laundry baskets weren’t all that heavy, but with her wrists injured, he wasn’t going to be stupid about it.
“We’ll toss them in the washing machine, then head back to the van and get it set up the rest of the way. Extend the slides. See how it actually works. I’ve never stayed in an RV before. Not a Class B van. We’ve always vacationed in hotels. Usually the Barratt chain.”
“Me, either. No one I knew could ever afford even one of those canvas ones that popped out. When Jake took me and Annie and Josey—Annie’s sister—camping, we did it the real way. With a tent.”
“We’re two highly intelligent beings. We should be able to figure it out.”
“I’m sure.” She shot him a grin. “I’m sure there’s an instruction manual here somewhere if we can’t. I’m a fast reader.”
He reached out and pulled the ball cap down over her eyes a bit more. His own reflection looked back at him from the mirrored glasses. “Pull your jacket over the plaster cast a bit better. Don’t meet anyone’s eyes.”
“It’s not like anyone’s going to be around. It’s two in the afternoon on a weekday in October.”
He waved one hand around. Almost all of the three dozen sites were filled. “Keep your mouth shut, or you’ll get grounded for sure, young man.”
Anyone looking closely would see a very feminine young woman, with delicate features and a fit body.
Most people didn’t look that closely at others. Not in his experience.
They were going to use that to their advantage.
“I have to take the little plastic tags off all the clothes first. I put the laundry soap in that cabinet under the bed. We’ll need something to cover the laundry basket once the clothes are dry. The rain is really brutal today.”
Within three hours, all of the laundry she’d purchased had been run through the wash—twice, at her insistence—and then dried. Also twice.
He stopped her from setting the dryer a third time—to kill any bugs, she said—by reminding her that people were starting to mill around. That just increased their chances of being discovered.
She nodded reluctantly.
“All right. Back to the tin can, then.” She was hesitant to be alone with him in such a tiny space. It was going to get dark sooner than she was probably ready for.
That meant climbing into bed with him again.
She was a hell of a lot more aware today. Yesterday, she had barely noticed him in the bed at all.
He suspected tonight would be a bit different.
Allen’s gut tightened at the thought.
He grabbed the basket full of unfolded laundry. She’d wanted it nice and neat—but as he’d reminded her, that wasn’t exactly something a teenage boy would care about. Especially one in a cast.
She could fold all she wanted once she returned to the van. Or he would let her order him around with it for a while. Give her a chance to be the boss in even this one thing.
He understood how the loss of control could impact someone. It had him so many times before.
All these people—mostly couples from what he could see—were making him antsy. There wasn’t a real teenager anywhere to be seen.
That would make her stand out more than he’d intended.
Still. They were leaving first thing in the morning.
He’d keep her under wraps until then.