Frankie plopped into her seat on the train, closest to the window. Oz insisted on being on the aisle so she could protect Frankie from anything that came their way, but Frankie was pretty sure she liked the option of stretching her legs out further in front of her.
No sooner had the train started moving and Frankie was able to take a deep breath again after the fear and excitement of the last few hours, then Oz’s phone rang. She yanked it from her pocket and looked at the screen frowning.
“Must be a wrong number. No one knows about this phone.” It was clear she wasn’t really talking to Frankie.
“What if it’s the Caller.” Frankie kept her voice low but couldn’t keep the slightly screechy worry from slipping in.
Oz accepted the call and held it to her ear. She didn’t say anything. Frankie could hear someone talking on the other end. From Oz’s suddenly rigid posture and deeply furrowed brow, it was easy to connect the dots. InvestBioX was reaching out again.
“How did you get this number?” Oz demanded.
A passenger behind them hissed an aggressive “shhhh.”
Oz stood and glared at the man behind them before moving up the aisle toward the open space in front of the lavatory. Frankie had no interest in being left out this time. She stood quickly and followed Oz. Before she could catch up, Oz stepped into the lavatory and closed and locked the door. What the hell?
Frankie tried not to make a scene by banging on the bathroom door, demanding to be let in. She wanted to and allowed herself thirty seconds to picture going full superhero and breaking down the door with her otherworldly strength. Back in reality, she leaned against the luggage rack, arms crossed, and tried not to huff and sigh so loudly the entire train could hear her.
Seconds dragged, minutes crawled. She couldn’t hear words, only Oz’s indistinct side of the conversation. Questions flew through her head so fast she barely registered one before another elbowed it out of the way. They all vied for top billing on her worry list and got more wild and extreme the longer Oz stayed holed up in the bathroom. What did InvestBioX want? Was Oz considering their offer? How did they know how to contact Oz? Was this all one big setup?
“Excuse me, are you in line?” An impossibly tall, slim man tapped Frankie on the shoulder.
“Try the next car. She’s been in there for ages.” Frankie made a gagging motion and pointed at the bathroom door.
The man’s eyes grew wide and he scurried back the way he’d come. Apparently, the idea of visiting a bathroom after someone trying to hit a toilet bowl on a moving train was enough to calm his bladder. Hopefully, his quick retreat would discourage anyone else looking to relieve the call of nature.
Just as Frankie was considering testing whether she actually did have some super strength lying dormant in her muscles and kicking the door once or twice, Oz emerged. “What the hell?” Frankie punched Oz in the shoulder, harder than she intended.
Oz didn’t flinch. She motioned Frankie back to their seats. Once they were settled again, she leaned close and whispered, “Your friends got in touch again.”
“Oh, you don’t say? Why else would you be hiding in the bathroom if you weren’t talking to them?” Frankie knew she sounded salty. She didn’t like being shut out when it was her life on the line.
“How do you know I wasn’t talking to my secret girlfriend and didn’t want you to know about her?” Oz looked too amused to be taken seriously.
“Easy. You have good taste in women.” Frankie moved her hand in front of her own face down to her lower torso. “So if you had a girlfriend, there’s no way that recliner would have been at your house.”
“What do you have against that chair?”
Frankie put her hand over her heart. “Nothing now that it’s dead. Now tell me what InvestBioX said this time.”
Oz sighed and scrubbed her face. “First, I locked myself in the bathroom to keep them from knowing you were next to me and to try to disguise the train noise. Even in the bathroom it’s hard to hide the sound of the rails, but I didn’t need a conductor demanding tickets or noisy neighbors in the background.”
Suspicion crept into Frankie’s thoughts unbidden. She didn’t like the feeling of turmoil threatening her gut. Oz had been her Hail Mary, her last option. What if she betrayed her? “Why didn’t you want me to hear what they said to you?”
Oz’s eyes softened and she covered Frankie’s hand with her own. “That’s not what I said. I wanted them to think I was alone. If they don’t believe I’m considering their offer, we can’t get any information from them. I needed them to think I snuck off to talk behind your back.”
“You did sneak off to talk behind my back.” She wasn’t letting Oz off the hook yet, but the churning in her stomach lessened at Oz’s explanation.
“You chased me all the way. I hardly snuck, but that’s not the important part.” Oz lowered her voice. “They upped the ante to try to get me to buy in. They implied there’s a lucrative job waiting for me at InvestBioX after we get your situation squared away.”
Frankie sputtered, unable to spit out her rage, frustration, fear, and a sentence simultaneously. “My situation? You mean me being killed or ending up in prison for the rest of my life?” If she had daggers to shoot from her eyes, they’d all be aimed squarely at Oz’s chest.
Oz squeezed Frankie’s hand, still protectively encased by Oz’s. “Hey, I’m on your side. I’m only reporting what they offered.”
Frankie pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know. I’m sorry. So let me see if I understand what you’re saying. InvestBioX first offered you three times what I did to turn me in? Now they’re sweetening the deal by offering you a job kneecapping senior citizens, punting puppies, and framing people for murder?”
“We didn’t get into a scope of work, but I assume those things are in the job description somewhere.” Oz grinned cheekily. “I know you have to be worried about the money they’re offering me. I can’t make you trust me, but I’d take a lot more bounties if I only wanted to get rich. No matter what happens, I’m not going to sell you out to InvestBioX.”
Frankie wanted to believe her. She was desperate to believe her, but she couldn’t get all the way there. “You’re an idiot for turning down that much money.”
“Not if accepting it meant you rot in jail or a coffin.” Oz pulled her hands into her lap and picked at a nonexistent hangnail.
“Sweet talker.” Frankie turned to the window and watched the landscape fly past as they barreled down the track.
“Not my best material but you get the idea.” Oz rested her head on the seat back and closed her eyes. When she opened them she leaned close to Frankie, a concerned look on her face. “What I want to know is how they had my number. I wonder how much they paid the guy I bought them from to sell us out? I thought I’d been careful enough. Damnit. I’ll get a new one when we’re off the train, but we need to be even more careful. If you see anything even remotely out of place, you let me know.”
Frankie nodded. “Right, up the paranoia to unhealthy levels. Not sure how much higher I can push it to be honest, but I’m a striver.”
Oz looked amused. “I’m glad you’re keeping your sense of humor.”
“Is that what that was? Better than flop sweats and panicked screaming.” Frankie worked at relaxing her shoulders which were up around her earlobes.
“We should keep the panicked screaming to a minimum. You are a wanted fugitive from justice after all.”
Frankie tried to remember the date. “I was supposed to be in court today, wasn’t I? Now I’m really at your mercy. You can bring me in anytime and I’ll go back to jail or you could accept a huge payout to turn on me.” What a sobering thought.
Oz scowled disapprovingly. “I’m not going to betray you, Frankie. I’ll keep proving it. Until then, I guess you have to trust me.”
Despite the pressure and uncertainty, Frankie laughed. “I showed up on your doorstep and begged you to save me, not to mention sharing a lot of information and running from the bad guys. I do trust you.” She waited for Oz to make eye contact. Hopefully, Oz believed her. “You said we can use InvestBioX or whoever is reaching out to you. How?”
Oz shifted in her seat. She looked uncomfortable. “I’ve been thinking about the evidence we found and your theory on InvestBioX’s malfeasance. I’m not sure how to get around the chain of custody issue with the papers, and shady stock trading doesn’t prove they framed you for murder.”
Frankie had always pictured marching into a police station, thrusting open the door with such force it banged against the wall, and presenting dramatic evidence against InvestBioX clearing her name. Was Oz saying that was impossible? “What are you suggesting?”
“We need a confession. It’s the way to get you off the hook and if we leak it to the right people, maybe it will also tank their stock?” Oz went back to picking at her cuticles.
Frankie felt her brows raise and her eyes widen. “How the hell do you plan on getting them to confess?”
Oz shrugged. “I’m still working on that. In the meantime, what do you need to do your short shrift, sale, thing?”
Frankie tried not to roll her eyes. She couldn’t tell if Oz was being purposely obtuse to give her something else to think about, or if she really was clueless. Frankie hoped it was the former. “The Wi-Fi on this train isn’t good enough for me to do the trading I need. I’ll have to be somewhere with a good signal for a computer and cell phone. You’ll have to make sure I have plenty of time to work.” Frankie paused. “I guess you’ll have to get me a computer too since everything I own now is in that backpack.
“I can do that. As soon as we’re off the train, let’s find you some internet and a place to trade.” Oz nodded like that item had been checked off the to-do list.
Frankie watched as Oz slowly gave in to exhaustion and fell asleep. Maybe she should have felt more concern or vulnerability with her bodyguard asleep, but instead she was taken by Oz’s rugged good looks. She really hoped Oz was as honorable as she insisted she was. Despite her warnings, rules, and best efforts, Frankie was beginning to care for Oz. Before she could stop it, an image of Oz naked in her bed flashed through Frankie’s mind. Annoyance quickly flared which Frankie had come to realize was usually a sign that she needed to pay more attention. What was it about Oz that was setting her defensive systems to high alert? Frankie studied Oz’s profile, worry free in slumber. She was smoking hot for one. Kind, compassionate, brave, and noble.
Frankie groaned. Here she was mooning over a woman she’d hired to keep her alive. No one was flawless. Hell, she probably put soy sauce in her cereal or knocked ice cream cones out of the hands of children. Frankie let out a frustrated sigh. Who was she kidding? She was going to enjoy Oz and her company for as long as they were together. She’d told Oz there was no flirting or falling in love. She hadn’t made a rule about window shopping. Surely there was no danger in that.