“Myles Borden!” Kenzie screeched, yanking at Myles’s feet as he slid off the hood of the car. Kenzie stood with her hands on her hips next to the open car door and glared at him. He just walked around her and slid into the driver’s seat, his laughter only fueling her irritation. She had no choice but to hurry to the other side of the car and jump in. “What if I had really hit you?” she demanded as he drove them back in the direction of the gas station.
“Well, you didn’t.”
Being forced to physically restrain herself from hitting him made the next words shoot out of her mouth. “But I could have! You’re a jerk for letting me think I had hurt you.”
His head tilted to the left and he rumbled, “Forget about it.”
“I will not! How could you be so mean to me?”
“I didn’t mean to be make you so upset.”
“But you’re all that I have right now!” She couldn’t refrain from the exclamations as they exploded from somewhere near the pit of her stomach. “What would happen if I didn’t have you? What would I do?” The fear making her voice shake shamed her to the core, and she hated the truth it revealed. Without him she was lost.
“So now this is all about you?”
“What?”
His lips twitched and it seemed to take him some effort to force them back into a straight line. “Well, it’s just that every statement you just made was about you.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is, too,” he said.
She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. The man was incorrigible.
“Don’t worry. I’m really okay, so you won’t be alone yet or anything.” His lips quirked and he rubbed his left knee. With the other hand he patted his right leg. “I didn’t even reopen the scratch on my leg.”
“And now it’s a scratch? You mean that little cut that’s been either profusely bleeding or making you lose consciousness for the last…I don’t know how many days!” How dare he belittle such an important thing!
Suddenly, the rough pads of his fingers lay gently on her wrist, massaging the skin right above her pulse. She wanted to yank her arm away. To leave him feeling as deserted as she had. To give him a void that he couldn’t fill.
To leave her arm just out of reach of his for eternity.
Her initial instinct won out, and she pulled away, squinting at him under pinched brows. Her forehead ached from the force of pulling her eyebrows together so tightly, but he deserved to know that acting this way would not be tolerated.
“Kenzie, I’m okay. Don’t worry.” He gestured to his right leg. “The leg feels good. The knee isn’t going to fall off. We’re both fine. The cops are none the wiser.”
“How can you say that? They were chasing you. And in two minutes backup would have been chasing you, too.” Myles snorted, but she forged ahead. “Don’t you see? Your shenanigans put us in serious trouble.”
“My shenanigans? My shenanigans? Whoa, back that bus up. When did this all turn into my fault?”
“It’s always been your fault!”
“Since when? I think if this is anyone’s fault, it’s most likely yours.”
She wanted to blame him, to thrust the blame for this entire horrible situation on someone else. The truth hurt, and she fought with her heart over accepting it.
Finally, her shoulders drooped and she said, “You’re right.”
“I am?” The surprise clear in his voice, Myles nearly swerved the car into a curb.
“Yes.” She couldn’t offer him anything else just yet. Accepting that the danger they faced was her fault took some getting used to. Attempting to change the topic of conversation, she asked, “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to ditch the car in the alley by the gas station.”
“Why? Won’t we have to walk back to the motel?”
“Yep. No two ways about that. That cop made this car, and it won’t be long before they figure out it was you and me in it. We’ve got to get rid of the car.”
“But the cruiser was chasing you.”
“Yes, but the cop definitely saw this car, and even the least adept cop won’t miss the scratch on the bumper that matched the kiss you gave that barrier in the parking lot.”
“You saw that?” Heat rose in her neck and cheeks and she refused to look at him.
Myles chuckled. “Couldn’t miss it. It’s no big deal, but we’ve got to get rid of the car, and we need to do it close to the place where we were originally spotted. Whether they’ve made us out as who we really are remains to be seen. But the fact is that the cops will be looking for me and for this car. So we’ll ditch the car, and then we’ll have to wait until night to make our way back to the motel.”
Pulling into the alley adjacent to the station, Myles slipped the keys out of the ignition and pushed them into the pocket of his jeans. Using the hem of his T-shirt, he rubbed off the steering wheel, window crank and radio dials. “Do your door handle, too.” She followed suit, and soon the inside of the car was devoid of any distinguishable prints. He jerked his head toward his door and said, “Let’s go.”
Kenzie slid from the car and hurried to catch up with Myles’s long strides, leading deeper into the alley. About halfway down the next street, Myles slipped between two six-foot metal Dumpsters. He pushed the one farther from the car about a foot from the cement wall and proceeded to wedge himself into the tight spot.
“You coming?”
“Yes,” she mumbled, slipping into place beside him. The harsh texture of the cement wall on her back contrasted with the gentle-as-a-breeze brush of his knuckles across the back of her hand. Her stomach fluttered madly, and her head quickly followed suit. Disgusted with her immediate reaction to the gentlest touch from Myles, she blew wayward strands of hair off her cheeks with jagged puffs. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck.
She eyed the setting sun appreciatively. Soon the darkness would bring cooler temperatures, and the humidity would be less oppressive. And with any luck, the rotting refuse in the garbage bins would reek less.
A girl could dream.
Suddenly Myles’s voice broke into her daydream of trash that smelled of roses. “Aren’t you going to ask me about the phone call?”
“Oh, my—” she squeaked. “I forgot! What happened? Did someone pick up the phone? What did they say?”
“Easy there, Lois Lane. You’re not on deadline for your story, are you?”
“Just tell me what happened,” she begged.
“A man answered the phone. He had a thick, gravelly—”
“What?”
“Sshhh.” If there had been room to maneuver, Myles would have put his finger to his lips. Instead he whispered, “Someone’s coming.”
Kenzie breathed heavily beside him, tension evident in every jagged inhale. A crow squawked at the far end of the alley. The sun slipped behind the mountains, sending shadows away for the night.
Crunch.
A heavy foot fell on the loose gravel at the narrow mouth of the passageway near their abandoned car. Kenzie grabbed Myles’s hand and squeezed his fingers until he had no feeling there, but she remained silent, save her shaky breathing.
“Davis!” a man’s voice hollered. “Get over here! I think I found the car.”
A second set of footfalls joined the first, these lighter, more graceful. A woman’s voice joined the man’s. “Looks like you’re right. See that gash on the front bumper? It matches the mark on the barrier in the gas station. You really think it was Myles Parsons?”
“The man we were chasing matches the description of Parsons perfectly. I can’t believe our luck to pull alongside an escaped convict and then give chase. I don’t think I would have recognized him if he hadn’t taken off running.”
Myles cringed. But it was too late to take back the chase now. He’d done what he thought he needed to to protect Kenzie.
“Too bad he got away,” the woman mocked.
The sound of tape ripping off of metal reached Myles in his hiding place. They were looking for fingerprints.
“Do you think the governor’s granddaughter is still with him? And what are they doing in Evergreen? Shouldn’t Parsons be in Canada by now? Why would he stick around here?” Davis said.
“Maybe he’s stashing the girl’s body in the woods…” Kenzie gasped loudly at the same moment that a bird screeched and Myles offered up a silent prayer of thanksgiving for crazy birds “…and came into town for supplies or to meet up with an accomplice, which accounts for the one driving the car while I chased Parsons on foot.”
“Well, we better call the U.S. Marshals on this. They’re after Parsons and will never forgive us if we don’t call them in right away.” The heavier steps walked away, while the lighter footfalls circled the car several times. Finally, the woman seemed to follow her partner.
“How long do we have to stay here?” Kenzie breathed.
“A while longer,” Myles answered equally as soft.
Kenzie sighed and rested her head on the green cotton covering his shoulder, her hand still holding his, much more gently than before. It was almost dark enough to make a dash for it. But he couldn’t risk it with police so near. They would wait here as long as they needed.
Kenzie couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips as she snuggled close to Myles. The stars above reminded her of the twinkling lights from her high school prom so many years before. Tonight there were no starched tuxedo shirts, but the cotton of Myles’s secondhand shirt was soft as a baby’s skin. Crammed between a trash Dumpster and a rough wall definitely was not the Radisson, and there would be no swaying to love songs, but the solid muscular shoulder under her cheek was the most perfect feeling in the world.
His breath ruffled the hair on top of her head, and she leaned into him just a little closer. For a moment a breeze lifted Myles’s scent to her nose, and she relished his musky aroma and the relief from the odor of rotting garbage.
Clouds danced in front of the moon, pitching the alley into almost complete darkness. The two police officers seemed set on inspecting every inch around the car, and their voices still carried, if somewhat indistinguishable.
“See anything?” the man asked.
“No. It’s getting too dark, and the batteries in my flashlight died.”
“I’ve got some extras in the trunk. Be right back.”
Both cops moved farther away, and Myles breathed, “Get ready. When the next cloud covers the moon. Stay light on your feet. Hold my hand, and don’t let go. Whatever happens, we stick together.”
Kenzie squeezed his hand in response and watched a lone cloud float toward the white orb. And then it was covered, and Myles tugged on her hand, pulling her toward the far end of the Dumpster and the open alley.
Scraping along the cement, her back arched away from the pain, and she shuffled as silently as possible. They broke into the open air, free of the oppressive odor that made her eyes water and exposed for the entire world to see. Myles’s feet hit silently on the ground as he ran in front of her, his left hand holding her right one in a vise grip.
She strained for any sound near their abandoned car, but all was silent except for the echoing of her canvas shoes hitting the gravel with each step. The sound exploded in her head, bouncing from ear to ear, certainly alerting the cops to their presence.
But Myles kept running, and no noise came from the other end of the alley. A stitch in her side tried to stop her, but Kenzie kept flying after Myles’s silhouette, his hand holding hers a calming force. Heart beating double time, she saw the end of the alley. Fifty feet to go…twenty-five.
“Hey! Who’s there?” A single light beam flashed across Myles’s back, but he never stopped running. In four seconds they were around the corner, running at top speed down a smooth sidewalk. The change in surface was both strange and welcome.
Heavy steps fell in the gravel, just around the corner behind them.
“In here.” Myles heaved, yanking Kenzie into a doorway to a run-down motel. He tore open the door and said, “Got a bathroom for the lady?” His head jerked in her direction.
The girl behind the counter couldn’t have been much out of high school. She popped a large bubble of gum and mumbled, “It’s for paying customers.”
Myles dug a twenty of out his pocket and tossed it at the girl, who pointed down the dingy hallway. The flickering light halfway down the hall exposed the peeling wallpaper and matted carpet.
When they were out of earshot, Kenzie whispered, “You don’t really expect me to use this bathroom, do you?”
Myles didn’t bother to answer her, he just pushed her past the door marked “Women” and followed her into the tiny room, closing and locking the door behind them both. Apparently the answer to her question was negative.
The bathroom was as disgusting as she had expected, given the state of the rest of the building. Rust stains littered the linoleum floor next to the base of the toilet. Cracks in the wall at the baseboards looked like the perfect place for mice and other unspeakable creatures to sneak in and out of. A tiny speck of white on the sink next to the faucet showed what color the entire counter had once been. It likely hadn’t been that color in years. Even more likely, it hadn’t seen a sponge in almost as long.
A small brown cockroach crawled up from the drain, causing Kenzie to shriek. “Can we get out of here?” she whined, nodding toward the creepy bug. Myles followed her line of vision and cringed.
“I’m on it,” he said, and followed with quick action. He slammed the lid down on the toilet seat and quickly stood on it. Lifting the tiny window above the tank with one hand, he reached out with the other. “Come on.” He pulled her to his side and then quickly swept her up into his arms, like she weighed nothing.
Suddenly the door handle jiggled.
Then again, this time with some force. A hip or a shoulder crashed into the decaying wood. Any minute the police would be in the tiny room with them, but all she could think about was the curve of Myles’s lips and the deep blue of his eyes.
On the run from the police and in the most disgusting bathroom she had ever seen, this was the wrong place and the worst time. But in the split second that Myles held her to his chest, she knew that she could not pass up this opportunity. By sleeping in the car, by protecting her, caring for her, he had more than earned a repeat of that toe-curling kiss he’d given her for her birthday. Had it really only been two days before?
Who cared that this wasn’t the perfect time or place? It would have to do. And when she focused on the blue of his eyes, the crook of his nose, and the pink of his lips, the rest of the room disappeared. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she leaned in until she was just inches from his lips. “Thank you.”
“For what?” His voice was hoarse and loaded with emotion. He bumped the brim of her cap up higher, out of his way.
The door handle jiggled violently again, and a body slammed once more into the door, accompanied by a loud grunt.
“For everything.” She smiled, cutting the distance between their lips in half. “For kidnapping me. For saving me. For protecting me. For being so honor—”
Her words cut off as he pressed his lips against hers, crushing her to his chest with his arms. His lips were gentle and tender in contrast to the strength of his embrace. And she couldn’t help but smile at the way her heart pounded against his, as if dueling for the title of most affected.
He pulled back after a moment, then leaned in once more for a swift, more urgent connection. He gently ripped his lips from hers, a rakish grin spread from ear to ear. “You pick the worst, least romantic time and place to kiss me? What kind of woman are you?”
She could hear the teasing in his voice, but it didn’t stop the flush of embarrassment that worked its way up her neck. Nana would be scandalized by her actions. Perhaps that’s why Nana did not need to know about this particular event.
“Just a moment please!” Myles called to the growing disturbance on the other side of the door.
Kenzie cleared her throat. “I—I couldn’t help myself.”
Myles roared with laughter. Well, she was sure he would have if he weren’t trying to keep his voice low. It came out as a hoarse chortle instead, but was no less appealing. “Nice excuse. Keep it up, and we might be in big trouble if we’re both using it.” He gave her another peck on the lips, then slipped her feet through the open window. “No more time now.” His eyes darted to the rotting door. “Stay against the building and walk to your left. I’m right behind you.”
She did as he said, slipping down the wall and holding herself flat against the back wall. Her eyes darted around the side street, but she saw no police cars, no police officers, no one.
Myles’s feet stuck through the window, and in one fluid motion, he swung from the window frame and dropped to his feet beside her. He winced when he hit the ground, but made no further comment. When he grabbed her hand, she asked, “Your knee or the scratch?”
He chuckled. “Both.”
Then he tugged her hand and led her down the street. At the corner, he stuck his head around the building, looking for signs of their pursuers. Nothing gave him cause for concern, as he pulled her onto the street, and they walked quickly—but not fast enough to draw undue attention—toward their motel. Myles steered them out of the beams from the street-lights above.
Two blocks later he let go of her hand. “I forgot. You’re still in disguise.” He smiled at her, but it wasn’t enough to fill the sense of loss from losing his touch.
The blocks zoomed by. Several dark-colored cars passed them, but seemed completely oblivious to their existence. And in short order they were back at the Jewel.
“I’ll pay for another night,” Kenzie said. She slipped into the front office, passed two bills to the clerk, mumbled something about keeping the same room in the deepest voice she could muster. Pulling her hat a little lower over her eyes, she headed back to room number three.
Inside the room Myles lay sprawled out on the bed on top of the muted brown bedspread. “I think I was more tired than I realized,” he mumbled. “But I have something for you.” Rolling to his side, he pulled something gray out of the back waistband of his jeans and tossed it to her.
She caught the newspaper and smiled. “We’ve been chased by police twice, and you still managed to get me a newspaper?”
“What can I say? You asked for it. I got it.” His lips quirked as he closed his eyes again.
Kenzie sat down at the little table and immediately began shuffling through The Oregonian. The state’s major newspaper might not be reporting about the everyday happenings in Evergreen, but it would certainly report on the governor. And maybe the governor’s granddaughter.
Nothing on page one. Or two. And then on page three—the state news page—the headline: PRISON EDUCATION REFORM EXPANDS.
Just two years after being passed, the Oregon State Prison Education Reform Bill moves onto its next stage this month, more than a year ahead of schedule. The Oregon State Penitentiary and Shutter Creek Correctional Institution are both scheduled to begin GED preparation courses for inmates.
These courses will be modeled after the program at the Evergreen complex, which succeeded in passing more than two hundred inmates through the program in the past two years. The original program boasted a GED exam pass rate of nearly sixty-five percent, due in part to the lavish budget.
As stipulated in the reform bill, after two hundred inmates complete the GED preparation program, the program will be adopted at other state prisons.
Gubernatorial candidate and Circuit Court Judge Claudia Suarez supports the program, but continues to be outspoken regarding the amount of money being spent. “Education is an important part of prisoner rehabilitation,” says Suarez. “I take that very seriously. But educational dollars are being spent on prisoners that should be spent in our elementary and high schools.”
Governor Mackenzie Thorn could not be reached for comment. According to a spokesperson, he is grieving the kidnapping of his still-missing granddaughter, with whom he shares a name. Ms. Thorn was kidnapped five days ago by a prison inmate after she completed her day of teaching the GED preparation courses at the complex at Evergreen.
Myles snorted and flopped to his side. His eyes opened slowly, and he rubbed them with one large hand. “How long have I been out?”
“Just a few minutes.”
“Anything interesting in the paper?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
Myles scooted to a seated position, leaning against the headboard. “What’s up? More reward money for your safe return? Money for my capture?”
“No, nothing like that. It’s just an article about the prison education reform. It talks about the lavish budget for prison education, but we didn’t have a big budget. I mean, I had to make homemade posters. You remember them—on the walls of my classroom?”
“That is strange.” Myles stood up and read the article over her shoulder. “Where’s all that money going, if it’s not going to the teacher or the classroom?”
“There shouldn’t be much overhead to the program. Just books and supplies and my salary. We meet at the prison—no cost there. The inmates walked to class—at no cost. No air-conditioning in the summer—no cost.”
Myles rolled his shoulders and wrinkled his forehead. “I think this might tie in with my phone call today.”
How could she forget about the phone call that started their crazy day? “What happened?”
Myles plopped back on the bed. “A guy on the other end of the line picked up and immediately asked if she was dead.”
“‘She’ being me?” Kenzie couldn’t contain the violent shudder of her entire body.
“I assume so. He never spoke your name. I didn’t want to lie, but I couldn’t exactly tell the truth, either. I just told him, ‘not yet.’ And he said, ‘You know, it’s your job to make sure that Parsons’—being me of course—‘does his job. We can’t disappoint Macky, now, can we?’”
Kenzie’s neck snapped up from looking at the newspaper so fast that it cracked. “What did you say?”
“He said we don’t want to disappoint Mac.”
“No, you said ‘Macky.’ Then you said, ‘Mac.’ Which did he say?”
Myles furrowed his brow even deeper. “The first.”
“Only one person calls my grandfather ‘Macky.’”