A Drive-By Wedding Page 10

  Allyn brushed a lock of imaginary hair out of his face, ran the back of one finger lightly over the shock of short-cropped hair over his ear and sighed. She’d rather looked forward to the discussion they might have—on any subject at all. Looked forward, perhaps, to provoking him into kissing her again.

  And again.

  But at least talking wrapped in the closeness of the deepening twilight would have been good.

  She moved forward between the seats, repositioned Sasha, sleeping soundly strapped into his car seat so he couldn’t slide out, and used a blanket to prop him so his head was not angled too uncomfortably on his neck. Brushed his baby fine blond hair from his peaceful face. Funny how different and yet the same it felt to want to smooth both Jeth’s and Sasha’s faces. Strange how basic the urge in both instances, and yet how additionally, achingly complicated in Jeth’s. As though she already realized how, like any maternal creature, she would eventually be forced to release Sasha to make his own way in the world regardless of how badly she wanted to protect him always, but releasing Jeth was a different matter altogether.

  As though letting go of Sasha would only break off a little piece of her heart, whereas letting go of Jeth would break that sturdy thing irrevocably in two.

  Crazy, perhaps, to sense those things—especially about Jeth—after four days of barely knowing him at all.

  “When it happens, you’ll know, just like that.” In her mind’s ear her mother’s voice whispered, fingers snapped. “Brannigan women are like that about their men. But it doesn’t mean knowing will be easy, Lyn, because he might be too pigheaded to realize anything, so be careful not to tell him too soon….”

  Allyn sank into the driver’s seat and stared into the half light at the back of the van where Jeth slept. Tell him what, Ma? she wondered. I don’t really know anything except that there’s something about him, something I want, something…. She shook her head at the mental image of her mother. There’s something I want from him, maybe with him, but that’s all I even know myself.

  Her mother smiled the gentle mother’s smile Allyn knew so well and caressed the cheek of Allyn’s shadow self. Wait, my darling. You’ll know. You already know. Just wait…

  For what? Allyn wondered. For what?

  Frustrated, she broke off the mental conversation. Her mother was a wonderful person but not terribly helpful when it came to things she said Allyn would have to experience for herself in order to fully understand them.

  Rolling her eyes and blowing a silent raspberry at herself, Allyn switched her attention away from introspection. Too much of a good thing, and all that rot, had a tendency to leave a woman casting about in her druthers for a place to beach. And merely beaching her life on some man’s shore was not precisely what she had in mind when she considered having a family of her own.

  Determinedly she cupped hands around her eyes to block intrusive light, peered between them through the open window into the parking lot, intent on making up stories about someone else’s life rather than wishing on her own.

  The night was thick with shadows cast by trees and floodlights. Toying idly with the keys Jeth had left in one of the front cup holders, she mulled over the plan she had pondered off and on all day.

  Like most good plans, it was simple and direct—and probably wouldn’t rank high on Jeth’s list of approved options for them. It would, however, circumvent a problem they were bound to come across shortly if Allyn didn’t show up to meet her family. And the fact of the matter was, her mother and her mother’s sisters being the strongly independent and unconventional people they were, there was precedence for what Allyn was thinking. And it would be good for Sasha, who needed time to play, and it would stand Becky on her ear—

  Headlights swept the van and halted impolitely to loiter on the windshield, startling her from reverie. She squinted against the glare, wishing the inconsiderate turkey behind the whiteness would turn it off.

  Hoping whoever would take a hint, she flashed the van’s headlights at the other vehicle. The headlights arced slightly to the side so they were no longer directly in her eyes, but remained on; a spotlight swept the van and surrounding area. Sudden fear curdled in Allyn’s stomach. Someone was checking them out.

  She canted a quick glance at Jeth and Sasha, decided against giving in to paranoia and waking Jeth. Probably nothing to worry about. Police, or maybe the big rig weight enforcement people or whatever they were called making a routine patrol through the rest stop to make sure everything was in order.

  If that’s who it is, why are they checking you out? the voice of her brain’s devil’s advocate wondered.

  “Shut up,” she mouthed at it. “Just shut up.”

  Naturally it didn’t.

  Behind the glaring light a figure alighted from the vehicle, approached the van. Hyperalert, but torn as to possible actions, Allyn retrieved the keys from the cup holder, slid the ignition key as silently as possible into the switch. Maybe whoever wasn’t really approaching the van, at all. Maybe he, she or it was merely interested in something out of view behind the van. Better, in that case, if she didn’t speak first, raise suspicion where there was none. Better she should act the role of yawning wife and mother whose family was simply getting a little rest before proceeding with their journey.

  Best, maybe, if she were herself and bold, if she rolled up the windows and set out on a preemptive strike, stepped out of the van as if on her way to the restroom and met the possible intruder halfway, kept whoever away from the van, away from Sasha, away from Jeth.

  Yeah. She drew a deep breath, twisted the keys in the ignition and rolled up the front windows. That’s what she would do. Lock up the van and distract the would-be interlopers away from her family.

  Just like the idiotic killdeers that built nests smack in the middle of Becky’s back lawn then ran tumbling and dragging a wing whenever someone mowed, trying to draw off the tractor to keep it away from the nest.

  Sucking up instinct rather than courage, Allyn eased the door open, stepped out and directly into the light. She shaded her eyes and squinted at the figure silhouetted by the glare. “Can I help you…officer, is it?”

  The silhouette stepped forward, became a more solid gray shape in what appeared to be a uniform. “Pennsylvania State Troopers, ma’am. Got a report there was a disturbance back in here. Wonder if you’d heard or seen anything.”

  Allyn shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. We’ve been here for a while, but I haven’t noticed anything.”

  The trooper nodded. “Thank you, sorry to bother you, ma’am, but we’ve got to check these reports out. Probably a crank call. We get them sometimes. We’ll take a swing through the rest of the park, just in case. You have a good night now.”

  “You, too,” Allyn said, and waited for the trooper to return to his vehicle, turn off the spotlight and back away before, heart pounding with relief, she turned and got into the van. Then she waited for her knees to stop shaking and the state police car to finish its circuit of the lot and leave. Switched on the engine, put it in gear and maneuvered them out of the rest area and onto the highway where she picked up the road that would take them to Ohio, where she intended to pick up good old familiar I-75 and head south toward Kentucky.

  Chapter 8

  When Jeth woke, it was to the feel of sunshine burning his face and heat sticking his shirt to his back.

  The van was in motion.

  He rocked blearily erect, bracing a hand against the rear window when the speeding vehicle bumped over a pothole, blinked trying to bring memory and surroundings into focus.

  Both escaped him momentarily.

  Panic settled in for an instant. He wasn’t supposed to forget things so important. For him to lose time and place could mean lives. His, Sasha’s…

  Allyn’s.

  With the thought of her came a flood of fire through his blood, an elusive taste on the back of his tongue, a distinct and painful tension in his loins. He grunted and shifted to ease the discomfort
, looked forward to find its source. Found Allyn in the driver’s seat, Sasha still sacked out in his car seat, and memory returned—or at least the part of it that didn’t need him to remember where they were now or how they’d gotten here.

  He doubted there was any memory of that “how” to restore. Especially when Allyn glanced over her shoulder and saw him, smiled a little too brightly at him and began to chatter.

  “Hey, how are you, good morning. I’ve got coffee. Did you sleep well?”

  Jeth eased his way past the sleeping Sasha, sank into the passenger seat and cut right to the chase. “Where are we?” he asked darkly. “And why are you driving? I told you I didn’t want anyone who drives the way you did in Balto driving this van. Too much chance of catching a cop’s eye. Not to mention that I know where we’re going and you don’t.”

  Allyn sank him and his high horse with a glance. “I would if you weren’t so secretive about everything ‘for my own good,”’ she responded tartly. “And we already caught a cop’s eye last night, and I do know where we’re going. We’re getting you out of close encounters of the sort you never imagined when you car jacked me, and we’re almost there, so shut up, drink your coffee and follow my lead.”

  “Touchy this morning, are we?” Jeth asked dryly. Then her comment about last night sank in. “What do you mean, we caught a cop’s eye? Where was I?”

  “Asleep.”

  “You didn’t wake me?”

  She looked at him.

  His mouth twisted wryly. “Yeah, okay, that was a duh. So, tell me.”

  Allyn shrugged. “Not much to tell. Pennsylvania trooper responded to a call saying there was a disturbance in our neck of that car park, wondered if we’d noticed anything. I said no, he left, end of story.”

  “Allyn,” Jeth said quietly, just her name, but it was an order all the same. A question.

  A demand.

  He traced the tip of one finger up her arm and softened demand to request. “Trust me,” he suggested gently. “Tell me.”

  She loosed a huff of humorless laughter. “The way you trust me?” She shook her head, showed him the goose bumps, the fizzle of sensation the tip of his finger had raised on her arm. “I know you well enough to want to sleep with you,” she said, “I don’t know you well enough to trust you.”

  Jeth flinched. The truth stung the way truth has a habit of doing. He wanted her badly, more with each passing hour, but he’d forgotten how little they knew of each other. How little he’d told her despite her vested interest in the outcome. But it wasn’t because he didn’t trust her; it was because he needed to protect her more than trusting her allowed for.

  He swallowed, withdrew his hand. “It’s not that I don’t trust you—” he began.

  “That’s good to know,” Allyn said with asperity. “Because I trust me, and so can you.”

  Jeth regarded her, rankled. “Do you ever stop?”

  “Not until I know what I’m doing.”

  The grin arrived before he could catch it. “Does that mean you don’t know what you’re doing right now?”

  She leveled him a glance, returned her attention to the road. “I’ve been more sure of what I’m doing at other times in my life, yes.”

  “That’s hardly comforting under the circumstances.”

  “You don’t know what the circumstances are.”

  Jeth snorted. “Since I created them, I’m fairly certain I know exactly what they are.”

  “Yes, well, hmm.” Allyn grimaced. “That was then. This is now.”

  Aggravation warred with amusement. “Come on, Lynnie, spit it out. What is it I need to know?”

  “First that you don’t get to call me Lynnie. Second that, um, that cop last night? Well, um…” She hesitated, made a face, plunged on. “It’d be my guess there wasn’t any disturbance call at the car park and that he found exactly what he was looking for.”

  Jeth straightened, on guard. “What do you mean?”

  Allyn stuck her tongue in her cheek, moistened her mouth. “I think….” Another pause. “No, I’m pretty sure that when I pulled out on the highway he followed us for a way.”

  “How long a way?”

  “Oh, um…” The shrug was in her face. “Not too far. A few miles, maybe.”

  Jeth relaxed.

  Too soon.

  “Then I think an unmarked picked us up and followed us to the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, where another car pulled out of one of those emergency-vehicle-only thingies and has been on us ever since.”

  The expletive was sharp and succinct. “Judas Priest, woman.” Jeth viewed her, horrified. “What the hell do you mean? We’re being followed, and you didn’t wake me? How the hell would you know?”

  “I’m not stupid?” Allyn suggested, irritated. “I’ve watched you for the last couple of days and have some idea what I’m looking for? The same gray car’s been with us all night and it never gets closer to us, but if I speed up it does, too, so it’s pretty much always the exact same distance away?”

  “Tell me again about the cop,” Jeth said grimly.

  Allyn hunched her shoulders. “He had a spotlight. He put it on the van. I got out and gave him a good look at me. He went away. Only not too far, apparently.”

  “What else?”

  “Nothing.”

  A fudge if ever Jeth had heard one. “But you decided we had to get out of there, that you had to drive all night and bring us where for why?”

  Allyn looked at him. “It was the only practical thing to do,” she assured him in a rush. “We couldn’t keep wandering aimlessly. We needed a direction. I think that cop has something to do with my family looking for me. I thought of a direction.”

  “Oh, geez.” Jeth groaned. “Tell me you didn’t.”

  Allyn braked and turned off the highway onto a side road that ran between two fenced and hilly bluegrass pastures. Aimed the van at an open weathered gate with a sign that read Welcome to Camp Cloverdale.

  “What? And lie?” she asked, all astonished innocence.

  Jeth made a sound somewhere between disbelief and mock despair. “Yes, lie to me.” What ironic demon had wished her on him four days ago and who was it who was being kidnapped now?

  “That would be wrong.” She was positive, self-righteous—and full of the devil. He was hip deep in the manure she shoveled and sinking fast. “It would set a bad example for Sasha.”

  Jeth glanced at their charge, sent Allyn a scathing look. “He’s asleep.”

  “There’s always subliminal suggestion,” Allyn pointed out—and ducked, laughing, when Jeth feigned a move in her direction. “Uh-uh, not while I’m driving.” She pointed at a long, low-slung building with a sign on it that proclaimed it was the home of the camp office, dining hall, recreation room and store. “Why don’t you wake Sasha and tell him we’re here.”

  Here was the family camp she’d told Jeth she had been headed for the morning he’d so unceremoniously interrupted her plans.

  Allyn parked the van outside the office, whisked her purse from between the seats, collected Sasha, winked at Jeth and hurried inside. He might be tempted to hot-wire the van and make his escape if she left Sasha behind, but she was fairly certain he wouldn’t go anywhere without the baby.

  She didn’t want him going anywhere without her.

  She was also pretty darn sure he was about ready to wring her neck, which made it a good thing that the first people she ran into inside the building were her half-sister, Rachel, and several of her younger cousins. Rachel spotted her first.

  “Allyn!” she shrieked, and flung herself across the room to nearly knock her big sister off her feet, hugging her around the waist. “You got here! We were worried. Daddy sent out the highway patrol an’ called the feds an’ made an APB an’ everything else he could think of even though Mama said she was sure you were fine and would turn up even—eventu’lly, an’ Becky said you were in trouble, then she changed her mind an’ said you were having the time of your life.” She looked at Al
lyn. “What does that mean, ‘having the time of your life’? And were you? And whose little boy do you have and where did you get him from ’n’ what’s his name?”

  Laughing, Allyn hugged her sister with her free arm while in her other arm Sasha played strange but curious, hiding his face in her neck but at the same time peeking out to see what interesting things were going on. “Well, his name’s Sasha, and I guess he’s mine since I sort of married his father a couple days ago.”

  “You got married?” asked her six-year-old cousin Libby, her aunt Helen’s only child and, like her Army colonel mother, a born interrogator and meddler to her core. “Who to? Why didn’t you invite us? I don’t think your mother will like that. What are you doing getting married? I thought you were going to work with dolphins and whales and do something almost as interesting as my mom. Where did you get married at? When? Where is he? Does he know anything useful about karate that my mom won’t teach me yet? Is that your wedding ring? Can I hold Sasha? He doesn’t look like you.”

  “No, he doesn’t, does he,” Allyn agreed dryly. “And you’ll have to ask Sasha if you can hold him. He just woke up and—”

  “I know, I know,” Libby said, disgusted. “He doesn’t know us. Come on, Rach, let’s see if we can get him to come to us.” She held out her hands. “Come on, Sasha,” she wheedled.

  “Come here, baby,” Rachel crooned, opening her arms and offering Sasha the bright orange woven plastic lanyard she’d just finished. “Come meet Aunt Rachel. I’ll show you all your new cousins an’ stuff.”

  “I’ll give you a vanilla wafer,” Libby offered, digging a somewhat the worse for wear cookie out of her shorts pocket and upping the ante.

  “I’ll take him, Allyn.” The oldest of Allyn’s cousins, sixteen-year-old Ryan, reached out and tucked his hands under Sasha’s arms, hefted the toddler away from Allyn. Sasha whimpered and scrabbled wildly at his temporary mother for a moment, but Ryan and his fourteen-year-old sister, Kate, were old hands at charming new cousins. While Ryan bounced Sasha, Kate plucked the vanilla wafer out of Libby’s hand and gave it to him.