looked down at her lap. Her hands curled around the handle of the black automatic pistol. Her fingers were visibly trembling. She willed herself to stop but couldn’t. Detached, she observed this strange quaking in her hands. Was she in shock? Her breath caught in her lungs and came in shallow little gasps. She forced herself to sigh. Exhale. Inhale. Get a grip!
This was a belated reaction to having her life threatened. When they were escaping from the motel, she hadn’t acknowledged her fear, didn’t allow herself to imagine that she could’ve been shot or killed. The reality sank in. My God, she could be dead right now. Like Eddy. Cold in his coffin. Dead like all the other Verones. The tremors marched up her arm, and she shivered.
“Are you cold?” Payne asked.
“A little scared.” Defensively, she added, “Just a little.”
“I never would’ve guessed. You handled yourself like a pro.”
“A professional agent or a criminal? Do I remind you of someone who regularly engages in gun battles? Who goes for high-speed chases in stolen Corvettes?” She hadn’t intended to snap at him, but she welcomed the outburst of anger that stifled her fear. “I am a Verone, you know.”
“As if I could forget.”
The tone of his voice cooled by several degrees, and she could feel him pulling away from her. Good! She didn’t need Payne Magnuson, no matter what his mission. “I’ll always be a Verone.”
“I meant to compliment you,” he said. “When those guys were coming after us, you were smart and quick.”
That wasn’t how she felt right now. She wanted to scream hysterically at the top of her lungs and give vent to the unbearable tension building inside her. Her nerves stretched tight as the head of a snare drum. Her pulse beat a sharp rat-a-tat-tat. She was nervous for her own safety and terrified for Josh. “I need to go to the airport.”
“Not possible.”
“Do I need to remind you that I’m the one with a gun in my hand?”
“There’s no way you can catch a flight from O’Hare without someone noticing,” he said. “We’re being pursued by two different factions. Your grandfather’s men. And a group of FBI agents who have convinced the Bureau that I’m the renegade. They’ll want to bring you in for questioning.”
“But I haven’t done anything,” she protested.
“Life ain’t fair.”
Implacably, he continued to drive along the southern route leading to nowhere. His hand on the wheel was steady. No tremors there. Payne was accustomed to danger. With his dark eyes trained on the road, he drove at a sane, responsible speed. His calm manner reassured her. Payne seemed like a man who could handle any crisis. He radiated a masculine aura of capability.
Eden ordered her lungs to exhale again, slowly. Her panic had begun to wane. Studying Payne soothed her. His features were sharply chiseled and his deep-set eyes held a lifetime of unspoken expression. She could see a strong resemblance to her son. Not a bad thing. She wouldn’t mind if Josh grew up to look like his father with broad shoulders and strong wrists.
Eden wished she could simply ride along and admire the scenery, but she had important things to do. “I have to get back to Denver.”
“How?”
“Airport,” she repeated, exasperated by his unwillingness to comprehend. “O’Hare.”
“I told you before. The FBI is looking for you. That means you can’t take any form of public transportation. With the current level of airport security and surveillance, you wouldn’t make it to the ticket counter before somebody picked you up.” He glanced toward her. “The best way to get across country is to drive.”
“It’ll take forever,” she said. There wasn’t that much time. Her grandfather would track down the friends Josh was staying with. The Verones would grab her son before she could rescue him. “Isn’t there a faster way? Maybe I could charter a plane.”
He shook his head. “Surveillance, again.”
How could she keep Josh safe? She had to find a way. “I need to be in Denver.”
“What’s the big rush, anyway? Your job? A boyfriend?”
There was no way to convince him of the urgency of her situation without inventing a stinky bouquet of lies. She had to tell him the truth.
At least, mostly the truth. She wouldn’t reveal to Payne that he was the father of her son. Instead of saying that Josh was almost twelve, she’d subtract a year from his age. Payne would never guess the truth.
She stared at Payne’s handsome profile and said, “The reason I need to hurry back to Denver is that…I have a son.”
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