Zoe shivered as a chill crawled up her spine and the small hairs on her neck lifted. Her eyes darted about nervously. Maybe it was just that these agents were taking her to the FSA headquarters in Denver. She’d spent most of her life avoiding cops and most other authority figures. Walking into the FSA of her own free will didn’t sit well with her.
The car pulled up next to a hangar at the Sedona airport, and the agent who was driving turned to them.
“Stay here. I’ll go make sure the plane is ready to take off.” Both agents got out of the car. One stood a few yards away while the other one continued on into the hangar.
“What are you going to do when this is all over?” Shannon asked.
“Go back to my life, I guess. Finish school, so I can get a job as a CPA. What about you?”
“I haven’t really thought about it.” Shannon shrugged. “I doubt I could get my old job back. Besides, I think I’m ready to get out of Tucson.”
“Where would you go?” Zoe asked. She wasn’t really interested, but the conversation was taking her mind off the situation.
“Maybe California.” Shannon snuggled Sam closer to her and smoothed his blond hair back.
“Is that where his father lives?”
“He’s in the Marines. Stationed at Pendleton.” Shannon shook her head. “But I don’t know that he would want us close by. Besides, I’ll have another child to take care of soon.”
“Yeah. Still it would be nice for Sam to know his father.”
“Yes, that would be nice. I suppose I should have made more of an effort to tell Chase about him. But at the time I didn’t think he wanted to be saddled with a wife and child.”
“But isn’t that his decision to make?”
“You’re right. It is his decision to make. I’ll just have to tell him about Sam and see what happens.”
Zoe’s situation seemed easy in comparison to Shannon’s. All she had to do was get through this and get back to what passed for a life. She wasn’t eager to return to thieving, though. This had scared her. Black Joe had always told her that there would come a time when she should stop. He said that she’d know when the time came, and if she didn’t stop then, she’d probably end up in jail or worse. She figured the time had definitely come, although she had no idea what she’d do to get through school for another six months.
“What’s taking them so long?” Zoe wondered aloud.
“I wish they’d hurry too. I’ll feel better when we get to the FSA.”
“I’m going to go see what’s holding them up.” Zoe opened the car door.
“But they said to stay here.”
Zoe laughed. “I’ve never been that good at following orders.”
The agent who’d been standing close to the car was gone. Probably to check on the one who’d gone into the hangar. Halfway across the tarmac, she heard a shot. Damn! Zoe ran the rest of the way, stopping just inside the hangar, and ducking behind a stack of oil drums. She stayed crouched down, while her eyes adjusted from the bright sun outside to the darkness inside, and heard several more shots. After a few minutes, she cautiously peeked around the barrels. One of the agents lay on the floor, a bright red stain spreading over his starched, white shirt, his gun still in his hand. The door of the small plane was open, and she could see the pilot slumped forward in his seat.
Zoe scanned the hangar for the other agent, and found his lifeless body in the doorway to a small, glass-enclosed office. She ran over and saw another man sitting at the desk, his head lying in a pool of blood on the desktop. Then she heard footsteps. She slipped inside the office and crouched behind a filing cabinet. The footsteps continued past the office, and soon she heard the car peeling out. She edged out of the office and over to the hangar door. The car they had arrived in was gone, and her stomach soured as she realized they’d taken Shannon and Sam.
Zoe stood in the doorway wishing she’d gotten Shelby’s cell phone number. The hangar was totally quiet, and she had the feeling that she was alone. Her mind sorted through the situation. She couldn’t go back to Phoenix. The FSA would be looking for her as well as the people from The Center. Since she’d cut back on her theft jobs, she’d lost a lot of the contacts she used to have. There was only one safe place to go. She left the hangar, walked across the tarmac and through the gate. Fifteen minutes on the narrow road that serviced the hangar brought her to the main airport building. She went inside, looked at the monitor displaying departing flights, and then went to the America West counter and bought a ticket for Phoenix. From there she could go anywhere.
Mac jerked around when the first shot glanced off the car. “So much for them not shooting at us.”
Either they knew that Shannon and Sam weren’t in the car, or they didn’t care if they killed them. Neither made any sense, but Shelby didn’t have time to think about it right now.
She gunned the car and shot away from the SUV. The shooter was using a handgun, and his shots were going wild. A couple shots ricocheted off the trunk of the car, and she was wishing they’d had time to install the bulletproof windows.
Shelby came out of a set of curves, and there was nothing but straight road ahead of them. She knew they’d try to gain speed and come up alongside her. She only had two choices. Turn around and force them to follow her back to town, where she could possibly lose them. But she’d be putting a lot of innocent people in harm’s way. The other choice was to just deal with them in the desert. Shelby brought up a mental picture of the map she’d studied. There was a dirt road a few miles ahead. And about fifteen miles down that road was a ravine.
Her foot was pressed to the floor, and she glanced at the speedometer. At a hundred and ten, the spot she wanted would be coming up fast. Mac looked back at the SUV and then over to Shelby. His eyes were wide with apprehension, but at least he tried to smile. Although it might have been a grimace.
Shelby saw the turn-off she wanted up ahead. Waiting until the last possible moment, she slammed on the brakes, jerked the steering wheel to the right, and headed down a bumpy dirt road. Shelby watched in her rearview mirror as the SUV sped past the turn-off and then slammed on the brakes. In a couple of minutes the SUV appeared in her rearview again. All she’d gained were a few more yards of distance.
“I suppose you have a plan in mind?” Mac lifted his eyebrows at her.
“I always have a plan.” That was a lie. A lot of times, it was just by the seat of her pants. But Mac looked a little nervous, and she thought it might help if he thought she had a plan. And she did, somewhat.
After a few miles, Shelby let the SUV gain on her until it was practically kissing her bumper. She wanted their attention on her, not on what was ahead in the road. Which was a lot of nothing. She was kicking up a lot of dust, which helped. And the road was so bumpy they weren’t even trying to get off a shot.
Mac watched the SUV for a few minutes and then turned back around. He stared out the front windshield, a look of stark terror spreading across his face.
Shelby sped toward the edge of a steep, wide ravine, ignoring the urge to slow down. At the last possible moment, she slammed on the brakes, pulled the steering wheel to the left, and prayed. The crunch of the car slamming into a boulder was echoed by the loud pop of the airbags inflating. She heard a hissing sound and pushed the deflating airbag down. Steam was pouring from the radiator.
“So, does this count as an unintentional accident?” Mac asked.
“No, not at all.”
“Right.” Mac looked around us. “I don’t see the SUV anywhere.”
Shelby hadn’t expected to see the SUV. She got out of the car and walked over to the edge of the ravine. The SUV was a crumpled, smoldering heap at the bottom. It was unlikely that they had survived, and she certainly wasn’t going down there to make sure.
Shelby turned and walked back to the car. The dummies were still lifting their arms and turning their heads repetitively. Mac looked at her, reached over, and flipped the switch that turned them off.
“What now?”
She took stock of their situation. They were probably about forty miles from Sedona. There didn’t appear to be anything within sight other than rocks, desert, and the occasional cactus. From the bashed-in front end of the car, it was clear that they were without transportation. She pulled out her cell phone. No service available.
Crap.
“We’ve got about ten hours of daylight left.” Shelby opened the trunk of the car to check out the supplies Mel had given them. “I figure we can make it back to the main road. Hopefully, we’ll run into someone, or at least reach a place where my cell phone will work.”
“Nice day for a walk.” Mac grinned. She was relieved at his positive attitude.
“Let’s see what we can take with us.”
Shelby peered into the trunk of the car with Mac leaning over her shoulder. Evidently, Mel wanted them to be prepared for any eventuality. There were blankets, bottles of water, pouches of dehydrated food, flashlights, and a couple of backpacks. She handed Mac one of the backpacks, and they started loading as much as they thought they could carry without slowing them down.
Mac hoisted his full pack onto his back. “The shooting doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know,” Shelby said, putting her arms through the straps of her own pack. “I still don’t think The Center would take a chance on killing Shannon or Sam. Somehow they knew we only had dummies in the car.”
“I don’t think they got close enough to be able to tell they were dummies,” Mac said.
“Let’s just hope Ethan was able to get them out.”
By early afternoon, they’d made about ten miles. Shelby thought they were doing pretty good until the rain started. The rain itself wasn’t much of a problem.
Given the heat of the desert, it was a welcome relief. It was the accompanying lightning that was worrisome. Other than some rocks, Mac and she were the tallest things in the immediate vicinity, and their backpacks had metal frames. Human lightning rods.
“That lightning’s getting kind of close,” Mac yelled over the steady thrumming of the rain. I think we should head back to the caves we passed.”
“This will blow over soon,” she yelled back at him.
Mac looked up at the sky and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
Shelby looked up. The sky was dark as far as she could see. She counted the seconds between the lightning bolts and resulting thunder. Crap. It was close and moving toward them.
“Shelby, come on.” Mac grabbed her hand and tugged.
She knew he was right. They needed to take cover quickly. But a cave was pretty much the last place she wanted to be.
She swallowed her fear and trotted after him. They reached the rock outcropping in less than half an hour. The lightning had moved closer, and the ensuing thunder seemed to almost shake the ground. Mac headed toward a small opening in the rocks but Shelby hung back, searching for a larger cave, or at least a larger opening. She finally spotted one and ran toward it, ducking just inside the opening. Mac crouched inside the smaller cave about thirty feet away from her.
He waved his arm in a motion that she took to mean he wanted her to run over and join him. That wasn’t going to happen. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled something, but between the rain and the incessant thunder, she couldn’t hear him. Finally, he gave up the communication efforts, grabbed his backpack, and dashed through the rain to join her.
“The other cave is better.” Mac rubbed rain out of his eyes.
“This one is bigger.”
“The other one has a smaller opening, so less rain gets inside.” Mac walked inside the cave and looked around. “Hey, someone’s been here. There’s a pile of firewood.”
“Lucky us.” Shelby watched the sky, but there was no sign of the storm moving on.
“Come back here and get out of the rain.”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you claustrophobic?”
“No, not at all.”
“You are claustrophobic!” Mac chuckled, earning him a glare.
“I just said I wasn’t.”
“No, you said, ‘No, not at all.’ When you say that, it’s a definite yes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You mean you aren’t even aware you do that?” Mac was laughing, and if she hadn’t been so terrified, she might have smacked him. But that would have meant going further into the cave.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She opened her backpack and took out a tarp and some twine. In a few minutes she’d attached the tarp to the rocks surrounding the cave opening, providing a little more shelter from the rain and a place they could build a fire.
“Bring some firewood over here.”
“What about a match?” Mac dumped an armful of wood at her feet.
“You mean you can’t start a fire without a match?” Shelby shook her head in mock disdain. “What’s the world coming to? Didn’t you belong to one of those organizations where they take young males out into the wilderness and teach them to survive?”
“Like your Boy Scouts?” Mac laughed. “Sure, we had something like that in Australia.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely. When I was eight, my dad took me out in the bush and left me with the aborigines.” Mac dropped more firewood on the pile and grinned at her.
“Maybe after we get the fire started, you can tell me all about it.”
“Maybe,” Mac said cheerfully, as he stacked logs into a perfect pyramid. “First, we need to light this.”
Shelby dug out a box of matches and a small can of sterno Mel had included in their supplies. She tossed the matches to Mac and poured some of the sterno fuel over the logs he’d arranged.
Mac struck a match and tossed it onto the stack. The wood caught with a whoosh, and then settled into a respectable flame. “We make a pretty good team.”
Shelby wasn’t going to comment on that. “We’re still wet. And it’s going to get cold soon.” There were still a few hours until sunset, but the clouds didn’t show any sign of breaking up, and the air had cooled considerably. They were both totally drenched. “Did you bring any extra clothes?”
“A shirt.” Mac shrugged.
She’d brought a shirt and a clean pair of panties. A throwback to her mom telling her to always wear clean underwear. At least the shirt would help.
“Did you happen to stuff a blanket in that pack?” She pulled a wool blanket out of her pack and shook it out.
“Of course.” Mac pulled a blanket out of his pack. “We should probably get out of the wet clothes and hang them up to dry by the fire.”
“At least by the time this blows through, we’ll have dry clothes to put on.” Shelby shimmied out of her shorts, toed off her shoes, and pulled her wet socks off.
“You really aren’t going to come any further into the cave?”
Shelby looked up at Mac and realized she was still standing in the opening. The fire was warm, but she could still feel the cool air blowing in. “I’m staying close to the fire.” She shrugged.
“Right. Even though the rain is still blowing in under your makeshift awning.”
She turned her back to him, hastily removed her wet tee shirt and bra and pulled on a loose cotton shirt. Her cold fingers fumbled with the buttons, as she listened to the rustle of his clothing being removed. When she turned around, his shorts and boxers were lying on a rock near the fire. A cautious glance revealed that he’d wrapped the blanket around his waist. She was relieved and disappointed at the same time.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed about having claustrophobia.” Mac moved closer and sat down by the fire.
“I’m not. I don’t.”
“Really?”
“I’ve had to be in close places plenty of times. Crawling through air ducts, under houses, in car trunks.”
“So, is it just caves?”
Shelby sighed and gave up the pretense. “Not really. I didn’t like the other places either. But it was part of the job, so I just got through it.”
“I’m impressed.” Mac took her hand and tugged her down to sit beside him. She was a little further into the cave, but it seemed all right. “Most people can’t just force themselves to endure a phobic situation.”
“I don’t let anything get in my way. In the way of the job, I mean.”
Mac chuckled. “Oh, I think you had it right the first time. I don’t think you let anything get in your way, ever.”
“Does that bother you?”
“It fascinates me. Makes me wonder how you came to be so determined.”
Shelby shrugged and pulled the blanket closer over her legs. “Aren’t our parents to blame for everything?”
“That’s a popular theory,” Mac agreed. “What were your parents like?”
“Like night and day. They were total opposites.” Mac quirked an eyebrow in question. “My mother is a society matron. She’s never worked a day in her life outside of charity functions.”
“And your father was a con artist. Interesting marriage partners. How did they meet?”
“I have no idea. I always figured Dad was running a scam or something.”
“And ended up marrying her?”
“Who knows?” She shrugged. “What about your childhood ?”
“Mine? It was so terribly normal, I was forced to seek excitement in psychiatry.” Mac kept a perfectly straight face, but his eyes twinkled with amusement. “Only way to experience anything even slightly abnormal.” He shook his head when she chuckled. “I swear it’s true. Mum stayed home and baked cookies, while Dad went to work everyday and coached my soccer team on the weekends.”
“Poor little boy.” Shelby patted his arm. “Forever scarred by a normal, happy childhood.”
“I take it yours wasn’t normal since you were working scams with your father.”
“That was only during vacations. I lived with Mom most of the time. It was all about dance lessons and being a lady and having the right friends and doing the right things. So, when I stayed with my Dad, it was kind of a relief.
“So, you liked it better being with him?”
“Oh, I thought it was a lark. I didn’t have to be the perfect little lady. I got to play a lot of different parts for Dad. And he wasn’t really big on rules like bedtimes and curfews and eating sensible meals.”
“And your mother never knew?”
Shelby chuckled. “Hardly.” She stood and moved under the awning she’d put up. “It isn’t showing any sign of letting up. We might be stuck here all night.”
“It’s already after five. Even if it clears up soon, we wouldn ’t have time to make it to the main road before dark.”
“Might as well do something about food then.” She rummaged through her pack and came up with several pouches of dehydrated food and a large bottle of water. “Did you get a pot or anything?”
“Of course. Mel outfitted us very well.” Mac moved over to his pack and pulled out a small metal pot, a couple of plastic bowls, and some plastic forks and spoons. “I have no idea what this is, but it was next to the pot so I grabbed it.” He held up three metal rods.
“Perfect.” She took the rods from him, opened them up into a tripod arrangement and placed them over the fire. A chain dangled from the top with a hook on the end to hold the pot. After Mac poured water into the pot, he attached it to the chain and then threw more wood onto the fire.
“Beef stew. Beef stroganoff. Beef tips in tomato sauce. What’s your pleasure?”
“I doubt there’s any difference in them.”
“Good point.” She emptied a packet into each of the bowls and sat down to watch the water boil.
“This will make it better.” Mac reached into his pack and waved a bottle in the air.
“Brandy?”
“Mel thought of everything. No cups though.” Mac shrugged and took a swig from the bottle. “Oh, sorry, I should have offered it to you first.”
“No reason to stand on ceremony.” She took the bottle and drank a healthy swallow. It burned all the way down, creating a warm glow in her stomach. She checked the water. It still hadn’t boiled.
“Don’t keep looking at the pot. It’ll never boil.”
Shelby laughed. “There’s nothing else to do.” Except look at his chest, which she was trying to avoid.
“Here.” He passed her the brandy. “This will take your mind off it.”
“It’ll take my mind off everything.” She shrugged and lifted the bottle to her lips again. Was one mindless evening so bad? It was beginning to sound like a pretty good idea. She handed the bottle back, and he took a swig.
“See, it worked.”
“What?” She was distracted by the play of muscle across his tanned chest.
“The water’s boiling.” Mac used his shirt to hold the pot and pour water into the two bowls. He then stirred the contents.
“Looks appetizing.” Shelby picked up a pouch and read the directions. “Says to let it sit for ten minutes. Maybe it’ll look better then.”
“I doubt it. I think, in theory, people eat this stuff because they’re so hungry it doesn’t matter what it looks like. Or tastes like.”
They shared another round of the brandy while they waited. Shelby stirred the stuff in her bowl. “Did I get the beef stew?”
“What’s it taste like?”
She tentatively tasted the gelatinous mixture and shrugged. “Hard to say, but definitely not beef stew.” She spooned some up and offered it to him.
“Definitely the beef stew. See it’s got bits of tomato in it. Mine’s all cream colored. Must be the stroganoff.” He offered her a taste.
“They taste alike.”
“Like soggy cardboard,” he agreed. They both ate a few spoonfuls then set the bowls aside. “I say we stick with the brandy.”
“We’ll feel like crap tomorrow.” She took another swig of brandy. “And we have a long hike.”
“It’ll give us something to bitch about.” He leaned over to take the bottle and gently kissed her lips.
Shelby’s lips parted but no words came out. His tongue snaked out to lick her lower lip, and she felt something inside her quiver.
“You taste good.”
“You like soggy cardboard?”
“I was referring to the brandy. And your lips.” He kissed her again, and she was expecting something harder, stronger. But his lips just grazed hers. Somehow that made her want more, and she leaned into him, her hand flattening against his chest. He nipped playfully at the corners of her mouth and then held the brandy bottle up for her. She took a sip, and some brandy dribbled down onto her chest and ran between her breasts. His head dipped, and he lapped up the brandy, pushing the shirt off her shoulder.
Her hand seemed to move to his neck of its own accord, and her brandy-fogged brain refused to remove it, so she pulled him closer. For some reason she couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth. She leaned closer and planted her lips on his with a bit more force than he’d used. He didn’t object and returned the kiss full force.
Part of her mind was telling her that this probably wasn’t such a good idea. But her body promptly told her mind to shut up and enjoy the moment. Mac continued to kiss her, softly, then deeply. His lips trailed down her neck then back to her mouth until she could hardly breathe. He unbuttoned her shirt and slowly drew it off, tossing it over a rock. His eyes burned a trail from her breasts to her bikini panties, down her legs and back up to her eyes.
“God, you’re beautiful. You should walk around naked all the time.” He pushed her back until she was leaning on her elbows.
Her mind was asserting itself again. She knew exactly where this was going, and while her body was clamoring for it, her head was arguing against it. Mac dribbled some brandy into her belly button and licked it up. He then tugged her panties off her hips with his teeth.
Her mind finally shut up.