In Seconds
- Автор: Новак Бренда
- Серия: Bulletproof #2
- Год: 2011
- Язык: французский
- Жанр: Остросюжетные любовные романы
Электронная книга - «In Seconds». Краткое содержание книги:
Laurel Hodges has changed her identity twice. She's been on the run for the past four years, trying to outdistance the gang members who blame her for the death of one of their own. She's finally found peace and stability in the small town of Pineview, Montana. But just when Laurel thinks she and her children are safe...the nightmare starts all over again.
The Crew, a ruthless prison gang with ties to Laurel's brother, will never forget and they'll never forgive. And now that they've finally tracked her down, they'll stop at nothing.
Sheriff Myles King, who happens to live next door with his thirteen-year-old daughter, appoints himself Laurel's personal guardian. His growing attraction to her could change his life—Myles is beginning to picture marriage and family. But it could also end his life. If he can't save her, everything he's built, everything he wants, could be destroyed. In seconds...
“What phone did you use?”
How was he still functioning? She’d never met anyone whose body could take such abuse. She’d bet he hadn’t been lucid since he left New York. “A pay phone. There are several in town.” She preferred to leave it at that, but her guilty conscience dragged out the detail she’d been hoping to ignore. “And…once, just once, I used the phone at the Golden Griddle.”
“What?”
She repeated it, louder, and he scowled. “What’s the Golden Griddle?”
“A restaurant in town. They serve breakfast.”
“Shit.”
“You’re not going to get mad, are you? Because that would be ironic. As a matter of fact, I think that would be about as ironic as anything I’ve ever heard, considering what you’ve done to yourself since we broke up.”
He gave her a look that warned her away from the subject but didn’t respond to that statement. Instead, he asked, “Why that phone?”
“Because it seemed safe. My friend Leah works there. She asked me to help get her car into the shop, but when I showed up to follow her over, she wasn’t quite ready. So I sat in the back while she cleaned. The kids were with a woman who’s become a surrogate grandmother to them, the restaurant was closed and the phone was right there. I liked the privacy, the chance to say something that couldn’t be overheard by Jake and Mia or people on the street. This is such a small town.”
He blew out a sigh and leaned against the counter. “Who’d you call?”
She was embarrassed to admit this. If he’d been Virgil, she couldn’t have brought herself to tell him. Because she’d called the one person she shouldn’t even want to talk to—someone she often claimed she didn’t want to talk to. “My mother.”
When he didn’t say anything, she added, “But if The Crew traces the call, it won’t matter. It’s a restaurant.”
He shook his head. “Babe, a restaurant in Pineview, Montana. Population one thousand or less. If Ink comes here, you don’t think he’ll be able to find you?”
Of course he would. So where were all the justifications she’d used the day she’d called? “As far as he’d know, I was just passing through.”
“Not if you made calls from that restaurant over a period of time.”
“I didn’t! I called only once.”
He stared through the window, at her backyard. Maybe he was noticing Myles’s yard, too, and how they adjoined each other without so much as a fence to separate them. “Actually, I’m betting even the location of the pay phones would be traceable. If you called from this area code in December and then again in…I don’t know…May, that would make anyone believe you’ve settled down.”
She’d thought of that. But she’d been so lonely, so unwilling to lose everything from her past, that she’d convinced herself the chances of The Crew finding out about those calls were too slim to worry about.
“And what did you say to your mother? What does she know?”
“Not much. Anyway, she wouldn’t sell us out. Not again.”
His eyes jerked back to her. “Bullshit.”
“When Virgil went to prison, she was choosing between her brother, who’d been trying to help her, and her son. She feels terrible about what happened.”
“As if that could make up for destroying Virgil’s life! And, to a certain extent, yours.” He sipped his coffee. “You’ve forgiven her?”
Not completely, but she was too busy playing devil’s advocate to explain. “What good would it do to hold a grudge? It’d just isolate me further. People make mistakes, right?”
He lowered his voice. “And they tend to make the same ones over and over.”
There was no point in arguing with that. He was the perfect example.
“So what do we do?”
“Will this grandma figure you mentioned be willing to watch Jake and Mia for a few hours?”
She rubbed her eyes. “What day is it?” She’d lost track of time.
“Friday.”
“She should be. She doesn’t have to work.”
“Give her a call and see. Then we’ll head to a neighboring town and use a pay phone to reach Ellen.”
“Why do we need to go a neighboring town? The entire state has the same area code.”
“In case they can trace the phone, farther would be better. Anything that extends their search parameters will help.”
“And what do we say to my mother once we reach her?”
Straightening, he poured the rest of his coffee down the drain. “We ask if anyone’s contacted her looking for you, and hope to hell she tells the truth.”
14
Rex wasn’t sure he could do this. He’d just spent two weeks in self-imposed exile from the rest of the world, lying in the empty bathtub of a cheap motel room in Los Angeles, so he’d be close to the toilet, sweating and shaking and feeling like he was going to die. He knew going off drugs with no one else around was a dangerous way to detox. He could’ve had a grand mal seizure or some other serious complication. But he couldn’t afford a clinic, and there was no way to taper off OxyContin. Not on his own. One high only led to the next. And he didn’t want to burden anyone. As far as he was concerned, he’d gotten himself into this mess; he needed to get himself out.
“You’re ill. You should see a doctor.” Laurel, or Vivian, as everyone else around here knew her, sat in the passenger seat. She’d been silent for the duration of the drive, all thirty minutes of it, but she’d been studying him. He could tell she’d wanted to say something almost since they left.
“I’m fine.” He’d insisted on driving, but he wasn’t anywhere close to fine. He’d been crazy to show his face in Pineview. He wouldn’t have if he’d felt he had any other choice. Besides, by the time he made the decision to come here, he’d been starting to feel better for periods of time. He’d been able to come out of the bathroom and lie on the bed to watch TV. At that point, he’d believed the determination that’d kept him clean for ten days would enable him to soldier on.
But OxyContin still had a strong hold on him. His hands trembled, bouts of nausea threatened to bring up what little he’d forced himself to eat for breakfast and his craving for the euphoria he remembered so well overwhelmed him when he least expected it. There were moments when he felt certain he’d go mad if he didn’t find a source.
He should’ve kept himself sequestered until he’d recovered—or at least maintained a safe distance from Laurel. Facing her and all the feelings she dredged up compounded the difficulty of what he was going through, made it even more hellish. The regret, the guilt, the longing—they all worked as triggers. They were the very emotions he’d hoped to escape by taking OxyContin in the first place.
But someone had to come to Pineview to protect her, and he knew it couldn’t be Virgil. Virgil had a family now. Peyton was just about to give birth to their second child. So Virgil needed to stay in New York, run his business and take care of those he loved. Rex had already screwed up so badly, he didn’t have anything left to save. Except Laurel. Whether they were together now or not, she’d been the best thing in his life to date.
“You want me to drive?” she asked for the third time.
“No.” Perspiration caused his T-shirt to stick to him despite the air-conditioning blowing from the vents. He hoped she wouldn’t notice. He had enough other things to worry about. Like the cramping in his stomach. It felt as if someone was tearing his organs out with an ice pick, but stopping wouldn’t ease the pain. Nothing would. It was just there, and he didn’t know how long it would last. Going to a hospital wouldn’t help. All they could do was monitor him. And he refused to be put out of commission now, especially when there was no remedy except determination and time.