The Hunted

“She sounds nice,” Erin remarked.

“As long as you don’t get on the wrong side of her.”

Relieved, Erin let go of the tension. It would come back, she knew, but for now she could allow herself to feel safe. “Isn’t your office number programmed on your phone?”

“Of course. But would you have trusted it?”

“Good point.” He was outthinking her paranoia. Interesting guy. Then, slowly, she let her eyelids droop closed. It was a relief to go to sleep.

Jerrod almost woke her, remembering the doctor’s warnings about sleep, but the hotel was only another twenty minutes away, if that. He figured he could give her that much time safely.

Spunky woman, he thought, wheeling through thinning traffic. Striking. Black hair and bright blue eyes. Arresting. A fair-skinned Irish beauty, with a compact but tempting figure.

But her loveliness wasn’t what had struck him most. It was her attitude that had captivated him. Sassy, sardonic, sarcastic—and very, very sharp. Even with a concussion, all of that showed through. She didn’t like being told “No,” and she didn’t care if people knew that.

But she was also a mystery. Jerrod Westlake was no fool, and he knew she was keeping something to herself, something that had put her at greater risk than testifying at that ridiculous fraud trial. He could sense it in the almost slippery way she edged around some things, in the way she chose her words. She didn’t believe her apartment had been ransacked because she’d testified, nor did she believe she had been fired because of it.

Nor did he. She was on to something much bigger, and he wanted to know what it was.

But first he had to make her as safe as he could.

The thunderstorm had followed him from Austin. Or maybe this was a new one building. Either way, lightning jumped across the sky, cloud to cloud, a beautiful thing. He waited for the thunder, but if it reached him, it was deadened by the car. Another fork of lightning wrapped the clouds like a spiderweb. Still no rain. It wouldn’t be long.

He had chosen to go south, the least likely direction for anyone to look for him because it took him farther from Austin. He was pretty sure they didn’t have a tail, but he took some side streets to make sure before returning to the highway, and finally picking a hotel. Embassy Suites. Two rooms, which would give her a bedroom and him a front room with a sofa bed if he wanted it. Only one door.

He parked, rather than pulling up under the porte cochere. He would not allow them to be separated, even in public.

Coming around to her side of the car, he woke her gently by calling her name quietly. When her blue eyes flashed open, he saw the momentary confusion. Then he saw the return of awareness. It was almost as if something inside her closed the shutters.

“We’re at the hotel,” he told her. “I’ll get our bags, then we’ll go in.”

She wasn’t ready to talk yet, or even nod. He did catch her wince as she moved her head.

“When we get inside, take one of those pain pills.”

“I just might succumb,” she admitted.

He pulled their bags—hers newly packed, his always there in case of emergency—out of the trunk, then helped her out of the car.

“You don’t seem as wobbly.”

“No,” she agreed. “I think I’m off the carousel.”

“That’s good news.”

Inside the lobby, he checked them in, using his own credit card. He didn’t want Erin’s name on anything, at least until he found out what was going on. Check-in was easy and fast, and ten minutes later they were in their suite.

Erin collapsed in an armchair near the door, but despite her apparent physical weakness, those blue eyes of hers suggested she was regaining her full mental faculties, and along with them, a rising curiosity. Reporters weren’t much different from FBI agents. Questions were always turning in the backs of their minds. It was just a matter of who broke the ice and asked first.

“There’s a bedroom back here,” he said, throwing the door open and carrying her suitcase to one of two double beds. “And a bath. It’s all yours. I’ll stay in the front room.”

“Near the door?”

“Near the door. Guard dog on duty.” He came back out and shed his suit coat, draping it from a hook in the back of the small closet.

“My white knight,” she remarked, sounding a tad sarcastic.

He didn’t mind. He wanted her spunky as hell. “That’s me,” he agreed. Unbuttoning his cuffs, he rolled up the sleeves of his blue oxford shirt. “Hungry?”

“Not yet.”

“Stomach?”

“Unsettled.”

Her eyes followed him, and for some reason she reminded him of a cat watching a caged bird. On alert again. Returning to the strength and determination that had carried her this far.

He decided to let her watch him, and say nothing for now. He kept his belt holster and gun on, along with his badge, and went to the phone to call room service. “I can get you something later, but I haven’t eaten since this morning, and I wouldn’t want to become too weak to hold up my lance.”

One corner of her mouth curled upward in a smile. “Do they have French onion soup?”

He opened the loose-leaf binder by the phone, flipped to room service and scanned the menu. “One bowl coming up.”

“Thanks.”

He saw her pull the pill bottle from her vest pocket and went to get her a glass of water from the sink. As he handed it to her, he asked, “Do you always wear those safari vests?”

“Have you ever tried to carry a purse while taking notes on the fly, or even photos?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“I didn’t think so.” She downed one pain pill and drained the water glass before setting it on the end table. “A photographer friend gave this to me after I’d bitched about my purse for the thousandth time. I never leave home without it.”

He brought her another glass of water, then sat on the couch facing her. “I can see it’s handy.”

“Oh, yeah. It would be even handier if I kept to some kind of organization. I tend to drop everything in one or two pockets, though.” She pointed. “Phone, keys, gum, pens.” Another pocket. “Pads, tape recorder, wallet.”

“And the others?”

“Empty.”

“Kleenex?”

“Oh, yeah.” She patted a hip pocket. “Tissues are in there with the notepads. Easy to reach.”

“And now pills.”

She popped the bottle into a separate pocket. “They get their own space.” Then she touched a zippered pocket on the other side. “I forgot. Makeup. Lipstick. I don’t usually wear it, but sometimes…” She shrugged. “You do what you gotta do.”