Nowhere to Run

Seth drove toward Gumption on back roads, careful to avoid what little late evening traffic there was on a week night. His adult passenger had scooted down in her seat and was hiding her face with her raised hand. Therefore, as he pulled up to the pizza parlor, he chose a parking place as far away from the rest of the cars as possible.

“Here we are. How’s this?” he asked, taking care to keep his tone light and easygoing.

“Fine. It doesn’t look crowded at all.”

“That’s because this is early in the week. Friday and Saturday nights are much busier. Some places around here don’t even stay open in the evenings except on those two days.”

“Wow. That’s amazing. Back home the restaurants are busy all the time.”

Seth circled the truck to open her door for her. “And where would that be?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Alaska,” Marie quipped. “Fairbanks.”

Patty’s eyes widened. “Mama…”

She smiled. “I know, I know, honey. It’s not true. It was just a joke, okay?”

Seth didn’t think the child looked convinced, but he let the moment pass. Sooner or later, one of them would slip and reveal the truth. Until that happened, he couldn’t let down his guard for an instant. His heart told him that Marie and her little girl were innocent of any wrongdoing, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He’d been careless in the past, and it had cost him dearly. This time, he was determined to root out the truth before he permitted “Mrs. Smith” to leave Serenity.

Marie had decided that it would be best to remain inside the restaurant to eat, rather than take their meal to the city park, as Seth had suggested earlier. She was hungry and the pizza smelled delicious, but she was so nervous that she could hardly choke it down.

Worse, Seth and Patty were chatting away and seemed to be becoming fast friends. The child’s trusting nature was very worrisome, especially where that enigmatic man was concerned. On the surface, he seemed perfectly normal, yet there was something about him that made Marie’s nerves tingle with unexplained warning.

She had tried repeatedly to pray for the Lord’s guidance and had found it impossible to keep her mind from wandering with unanswered questions and baffling suspicions. Had she been so traumatized that she was unable to trust even the most casual acquaintance? Or was God warning her to stay alert despite a seemingly innocent situation?

Either alternative was possible, she finally decided. And until her car was repaired and she was free to continue her flight, there wasn’t a thing she could do about it except cope as best she knew how.

“You’re not eating much,” Seth remarked with a smile.

“I’m not all that hungry, I guess.”

“Well, Patty and I are,” he replied. “We’re saving our crusts for Babe. See?”

“I’m sure she’ll enjoy them,” Marie said, glancing at her daughter with a wistful smile. “We probably should be getting back to the motel. Patty’s up way past her usual bedtime.”

Seth stifled a yawn. “Yeah. So am I. But then, I get up at dawn and work hard all day, so I need my beauty sleep.”

“Where do you live?” Marie asked. “In Serenity?”

“Sort of. I have a place out in the country, near Heart. It used to be a bustling town, even after Serenity was named the county seat back in the 1800s. Later, as people got cars and began to move around more easily, the heart of Heart kind of withered and died.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Times change. Places change. It’s just the way things are.” He paused and Marie noticed how seriously he was looking at her before he added, “Take you and Patty, for instance. I get the idea that you’re not going back to wherever you came from.”

“Really? Why would you think that?”

“Mainly because you have so much stuff crammed into your car. It looks more like you’re making a permanent move than taking a simple vacation.”

“Maybe.” She stared at her half-eaten slice of pizza rather than look at him and take the chance he could read her thoughts. “I haven’t decided.”

“What made you head this way?” Seth asked quietly.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed sensible.”

“Yes. Especially if you’re running away from someone or something down south.”

Her head snapped up, her gaze locking with his. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Well, if it’s not that, then why are you so afraid of being seen? And why did you practically beg me to hide your car while it’s in the garage?”

“I did no such thing.”

His grin was lopsided and his eyes bored into hers as if he was positive he was right and was gloating about it.

“Don’t look so smug,” she added. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“No, I don’t. But I’d like to. If I’m going to stash your car for you, don’t you think you owe me an explanation for why it needs to be kept out of sight?”

“Absolutely not.”

Seth’s eyebrows arched. “Okay. But if I had some idea of why you were in such a hurry to leave town, I might be more inclined to hurry the repairs.”

“Are you threatening me?”

With a nonchalant shake of his head he shrugged off her question. “Not in the least. I already told you it might take a few days to get the parts. Remember?”

“Yes, but now that I think about it, you didn’t say you’d install them right away. Promise me you will.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m asking you to. And because there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is there?”

“Of course not. We at Serenity Repair are always prompt and efficient. You can ask anybody.”

“I’d rather ask you. Will you do the work in a timely manner, or are you going to stall?”

“Now, why would I do that?” he asked, sobering and staring back at her as if he had suddenly discovered she had three heads or something equally as bizarre.

Marie’s lips were pressed into a thin line. “I can see no reason why you should,” she answered. “I’m not looking for romance or a meal ticket, so if you’re trying to court me, you can forget it.”

When he chuckled, she was taken aback.

“Court you? Lady, that’s the last thing on my mind.”

“Then why take us out to eat? And why all the questions?”

“Maybe I’m just trying to be friendly.”

She huffed in self-derision. “In that case, I apologize for misjudging you. I’m not used to men paying me this much attention for no reason. Just so you understand, a pizza and a little repair work on my car won’t get you anywhere with me.”

Seth laughed again, this time more loudly and with evident glee.

“I hardly think it’s that funny,” Marie insisted, scowling across the table at him.

He managed to get control of his high humor and reduce his laughter to a wide grin before he said, “Forgive me. If you knew what I’ve been thinking you’d probably be laughing, too.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“Nope,” Seth said, still smiling. “You’ll just have to trust me the way you want me to trust you. I have no amorous intentions. I promise.”

She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not, considering the fact that he was practically insisting he didn’t find her attractive.

Well, that was what she had wanted, wasn’t it? And since she’d had the opportunity to state her views implicitly, there was no way he could misconstrue her reasons for agreeing to let him treat her to supper.

Still, there was something odd about the man, a hidden part of his psyche she’d only glimpsed in an occasional unguarded instant that came and went in a flash. Whatever that ominous-feeling insight was, it was too brief for her to interpret.

Seth’s constant probing of her background was nevertheless unsettling. Granted, he might be no more than an interested bystander, yet he asked questions like a professional inquisitor, never missing the opportunity to slip in another query and never taking his eyes off her face when she answered. It was almost as if he knew more than he was letting on.

Her breath caught. There was no way this man could be in cahoots with the people who were pursuing her, was there? Of course not. He might be nosey, but he wasn’t a dangerous criminal the way those other men were. No one could possibly have known she’d break down in Serenity and end up stopping at that very garage for assistance.

She shivered as more of the truth settled in her befuddled brain. If someone had sabotaged her car, as Seth surmised, they had known she would have car trouble. It was only by the grace of God, literally, that she had made it as far as Serenity and had managed to find temporary sanctuary.

Peering at Seth from beneath the brim of her cap, she studied him carefully. There was a hard edge to his personality, an undefined cautiousness, a strength that lay behind those smoky blue eyes no matter how wide his smile was or how casual his conversation might be.

Was she imagining things because she was so tense? she wondered. Or was the good Lord enabling her to glimpse reality in order to know how best to proceed?

She had trusted Roy once, and look where that had gotten her. She’d be twice the fool if she placed her future in the hands of a stranger like Seth. Then again, he did seem to care what happened to her, or he wouldn’t have taken it upon himself to keep her car where it couldn’t be seen in passing.

The fact that he had done that, before she had asked, was the biggest puzzle of all. It was as if he had been on his guard all along.

That was why she had felt such an immediate affinity for him, she concluded, shocked by the turn her thoughts had taken.

Her eyes widened and she stared across the table. Of course. It was suddenly all too clear. Seth had empathized with her plight because he, too, was deathly afraid of someone or something.

FOUR

Roy’s head was spinning and his whole body throbbed from the beating he’d received. Drifting in and out of consciousness, he thought of Marie and his darling daughter. He must hold out long enough to allow them sufficient time to get away. If he was going to die—and he was pretty sure that he was—he wanted his death to be for a good cause.

He wished he’d given Marie some of the stolen ransom so she’d have had traveling money. But it was too late now. He would probably never see Patty again. That was his punishment for trying to double-cross his three partners in crime, for hiding the whole ransom and trying to make them believe he’d never collected it. How was he to know they’d had a cohort on the inside who knew the truth? If he had it to do over again…

Someone yanked his hair to raise his head. Through swollen eyes, Roy peered at Frank, the largest of his captors, while Earl stood back out of the fray, nervously cleaning his thick eyeglasses.

“You might as well spill it,” Frank said. “Al’s already closing in on your girlfriend and her brat. If you don’t want this same thing to happen to them, you’d better tell us what you and she did with our money.”

The portent of the beefy man’s words hit Roy in the gut like a sucker punch. It had never occurred to him that his former partners would think he actually had passed the ransom to Marie. His silence had not protected her, as he’d hoped; it had made her a target!

The only thing to do was confess, he reasoned. Even if they killed him as a result, at least it would call the wolves off his little girl and Marie.

Through split, bleeding lips he managed to croak, “I—I…”

His response apparently wasn’t fast or lucid enough to suit his abuser. Frank’s meaty hand smacked him on the temple. His head snapped back and he doubled over. Blackness encroached. Flashes of colored light obscured his already blurry vision.

Roy stayed conscious long enough to hear Frank begin to laugh while Earl’s squealing voice berated him for being so rough.

Then, picturing his darling little girl, Roy smiled, let go and sank into the peace of oblivion.

Seth was disappointed that his questioning of Marie had been so unproductive. He’d thought about trying again as he drove her back to the motel but had decided to back off and let the woman relax in the hope that that tactic would loosen her tongue. He had plenty of time. As long as her car was broken down, she wasn’t going to leave town before he was ready for her to go.

Marie entered her motel room, turned and blocked the door with her body, shielding her little girl and making it clear she did not intend to invite Seth in. “Thanks for the pizza,” she said flatly as she doubled the front sides of her lightweight, navy blue jacket across her body and held them in place like a shield.

“My pleasure.”

“About my car…”

“I told you I’d fix it and I will. Whoever dumped sawdust in your gas tank didn’t intend for you to get very far, you know. You’re lucky you made it to the station.”

He saw her shiver and grow pale. “I know. I’m so glad I didn’t stall along the highway.”

Nodding, Seth agreed. “Exactly. There are some pretty isolated stretches between here and the major cities like Little Rock or Memphis. You’d have been much more vulnerable if you’d broken down way out there.”

He watched as his statement sank in. Clearly, she was afraid. And given the circumstances of sabotage to her vehicle, that reaction made sense. What remained a mystery was why she was so frightened and what had driven her from her home in the first place.

“Well, good night,” Seth said, politely touching the brim of his cap. “Stop by the garage tomorrow afternoon. I should be able to give you an idea of the time frame for repairs by then.”

The look on her face was unreadable as she shut the door. Seth knew she was desperate to be on her way, and he didn’t intend to keep her in Serenity one minute more than necessary. But he wasn’t going to let her leave until he made sure that she wasn’t a plant sent there to unmask him.

Yes, his appearance had changed. And, yes, he had made a secure place for himself in the little town in the past three years. But that didn’t mean that his enemies had given up searching for him. It only meant that they had not yet found his trail.

Leaving the motel, he drove straight to his farmstead. As he pulled into the darkened yard, he carefully scanned the shadows before getting out of the truck. While he’d been at supper with the woman and child, he’d left his short-barreled .38 locked in the glove compartment instead of carrying it, as was his usual practice. Now, he stuck it into his belt.

No matter how much time passed, Seth was never totally at ease. Hunted men who got careless were the ones who died. There had been some dark days in his past when he’d almost wished for the solace of death, but his Christian faith had kept him from giving up. Rather than alienating him from God, as was sometimes the case during difficult times, his trials had brought him closer to the Almighty than ever before, and for that he was thankful. The way Seth saw it, if the Lord wasn’t ready to call him home, there must be a good reason.

He climbed out of the truck. Babe followed and ran her usual pattern of wide circles around the yard, sniffing and checking the territory. Seth had gotten her for a companion rather than a watchdog, but as it had turned out, she was both. If Babe indicated that the place was secure, that was good enough for him.

Slapping his leg and calling to her, he entered the house and flipped on the lights. It was late and he was tired, but he had some work to do on the computer before he’d be able to sleep.

It had been a long time since he’d checked in with his old acquaintances at Corp. Inc.—for very good reason. However, since he needed inside information on the woman calling herself Marie Smith and their database was the best place he knew of to get it, he’d make a one-time exception. As long as he routed his access through a couple of anonymizer sites and kept his query time short so no one had time to actively trace him, Seth didn’t see much threat to himself—or to her.

He brewed a cup of coffee and carried it from the large farm kitchen to the computer desk in his bedroom. His fingers hovered over the keyboard. Contact with those involved in his former life, even via false identities, held a risk, yes, but if that was the only way to find out what Marie was hiding, he’d have to chance it.

First, though, he’d try a search of common, open databases and see what those turned up. Smith was too generic to be useful but Parnell, the name he’d found on the car’s registration, might lead to some answers.

With Babe curled up at his feet, Seth checked the telephone listings for Louisiana and quickly located a Marie Parnell in Baton Rouge.

“Got her!” he said aloud, causing the dog to open one eye and blink up at him. Seth chuckled. “Sorry, girl. Didn’t mean to disturb you. This is turning out to be a lot easier than I’d thought.”

From there he checked local Louisiana newspapers online and found nothing of note. He did, however, see that crime was at its usual level and that law enforcement seemed to be struggling. In other words, everything was normal and other men like him were probably working undercover to do what the regular officials could not openly condone.

That conclusion brought his thoughts back to his former colleagues at Corp. Inc. They had access to a covert information network second to none. If there was anything about Marie Parnell that he should know, it would be found on that well-guarded database.

Seth cracked his knuckles, took a deep breath and started hiding his tracks through one site after another, eventually coming to the point where he could enter Corp. Inc.’s system through a “backdoor” by using the access code he’d been given before he’d gone into hiding.

It still worked! He was in. Seth’s eyes widened as the information about Marie appeared below her photograph. Not only was she tied to the disappearance of a known criminal named Roy Jenkins, but also she was suspected of having been involved in a kidnapping that had occurred several months before. The ransom had been paid and the victim released, but the perpetrators were still at large.

Seth sighed and sat back. “Well, well, Mrs. Smith,” he said softly. “What have you been up to?”

Marie hadn’t expected to sleep well that night and her expectations unfortunately had been fulfilled. Patty, on the other hand, slept like the carefree child she was and awoke full of energy and enthusiasm.

Choosing the most nondescript outfits she could put together, Marie dressed herself and Patty, added their jackets against the morning chill and went to the motel office.

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