and energy vortexes and the Indian ruins and had planned on making this detour when she’d first started out.
But now she was wiped out. Perhaps the wisest thing to do would be to forget the coffee, find the nearest motel, check in and sleep for a good twelve hours. She needed to rest. More than that, she needed the sanctuary of a motel room in order to forget her problems. And they were considerable.
The need for coffee won out. She stretched, then grimaced as she heard all the little cricks and pops of her protesting body when she moved. Determined to get some coffee and hit the road again, Jen stepped out of the car and went into the store.
CUTE BUTT.
That was Cody’s first thought as he pulled into the convenience store parking lot. He eased the van to a stop on the far side of the parking lot, needing the little bit of a walk to stretch his legs and get some air.
The petite blonde had caught his eye the minute she’d walked into the store. He observed her through the glass, enjoying the view as she headed straight for the coffee.
Cute butt, he thought again. And a great car. The candy-apple-red Mustang sat in the parking lot, directly in front of the convenience store, the backseat piled high with boxes, blankets and what looked like a small table. He imagined that the trunk was crammed just as tightly.
She was moving. On the road.
He thought about talking to her, then realized he probably looked like the devil himself. After a long, lost weekend, he had a certain griminess about him, and certainly from the way his eyes were stinging and sensitive, they had to be bloodshot.
Hardly the best first impression to make on a lady.
And she was a lady. He’d registered that fact right away. The way she carried herself, the way she wore her clothing, even though she was dressed in jeans and a light pink sweater. He’d seen the slender gold bracelet flash on her arm in the early morning autumn sun.
For just an instant Cody wondered what a woman like that was doing alone on the road. Didn’t she have family to take care of her? A friend to drive with? The open road could be tough. Even dangerous. It wasn’t wise for a woman to travel alone, and she looked about as substantial as a cream puff.
Aw, so he looked like hell. He could at least go in, get that cup of coffee and wish that cutie a fine morning.
He smiled at that thought and reached for the door handle to the van. Cody was just about to step outside when a man, late twenties or very early thirties, dressed in ripped jeans, a black T-shirt and a jean jacket and boots, caught his eye. Long, stringy, dirty hair. Rounding the corner from behind the convenience store. He looked tired. Fed up.
And he was carrying a sawed-off shotgun.
JEN HAD JUST ADDED AN EXTRA packet of sugar to her coffee. Baby coffee, her friends in Chicago would have teased. She always liked to add a lot of milk, otherwise it tended to upset her stomach. She was sensitive to caffeine, so she knew that even with the small amount of coffee in the cup she’d get enough of a buzz to drive a little farther and find a room. Then finally she could crash.
She knew she must be really wiped because she was starting to have doubts about the wisdom of this entire trip. When she’d started out from Chicago, she’d been so confident that she was doing the right thing. But it got awfully lonely out on the road, and she’d had plenty of time since leaving home to question what she was doing.
She approached the counter, coffee in hand, eyeing the display of doughnuts nearby and wondering if she should go for broke and get one.
“Oh, go for it.”
She glanced up and smiled at the young man behind the counter. He had sandy brown hair, clear blue eyes and his face was sprinkled with freckles. Those eyes were amused as he gazed at her. He wore a faded gray sweatshirt and equally worn jeans.
She recognized a fellow optimist when she saw one. Still, he did seem awfully young to be in charge of the store.
“You’re the only one here?”
He seemed affronted, but in a kidding way. “Hey, Charlie couldn’t make it, so he asked me to cover for him.”
Well, that explained it. Jen couldn’t help smiling back at him. “How much are the dough—”
The front door exploded inward, and a man with long, greasy black hair yelled, “Get down, both of you! On the floor!”
And the nightmare began.
CODY HAD WATCHED AS THE MAN entered the convenience store. If there had ever been a sign from God for him to stop drinking, this was it. More than anything he wished he had a clearer head.
A girl with a gold bracelet and a kid behind a counter who looked as if he was barely out of high school—two people as good as dead unless he got in there and did something. He didn’t think scum like that would let either of them live, because then they’d be able to identify him.
Weighing his options, trying to come up with a plan to get everyone out alive, Cody stealthily moved across the parking lot.
“THE MONEY! HURRY UP!”
The cashier’s voice was shaking so badly, he could barely get the words out. “I can’t open the register, I can’t just—”
For one awful moment Jen thought the man was going to shoot the boy right where he stood.
“Ring up a bogus sale, asshole, before I blow your head off!”
Jen lay facedown on the floor. She’d dropped her coffee, flung it in a reflex reaction, and it had spilled all over the floor several feet away. She tried to breathe, tried to think, to remain calm. But it was so hard. Her heart was thundering in her chest; she could hear her blood pounding sickeningly in her ears. For a long, still moment, the longest moment, almost out of time, she had the strongest intuition she and this boy were going to die.
Right here. Right now.
Life over. Finished.
“Whoa, wait a minute.”
Everything within her stilled as the robber turned his attention toward her.
“Sit up and take off that bracelet. And keep those hands where I can see them.”
She sat up as slowly as she dared, hoping perhaps the young clerk could press a silent alarm button or something while he wasn’t being watched. But he didn’t have a chance. This man had done this sort of thing before, his dark eyes feverish as his glance darted back and forth between them.
He was drunk or high or both. And that was bad for the two of them, making this man all the more unpredictable.
“Take it off!”
She did.
“Throw it here.”
The oddest memory, considering her circumstances, surfaced. Her high school graduation and her father handing her the small, beautifully wrapped package. The happiness on his handsome face when she’d opened his present and he’d seen her joy.
She tossed the robber
