going.'
He blinked. 'You're kidding. Right?'
She began to fold and unfold her hands. 'No, I'm serious. What can they do if you leave? Nothing,' she said, answering her
own question. 'Frankly, you don't need to be involved. You said it yourself. They want me, not you. Besides, you called Noah,
and he's FBI. I'm sure he's alerted the local team, and they're most certainly on their way. When you get to a phone, you can
call him again, and tell him exactly where I'm headed.'
'I've got an opportunity to get Monk, and you think I'm gonna…' He was so angry he was sputtering. He shook his head.
'Let me get this straight. You really believe I'll drop you off in the middle of nowhere and take off?'
'Wasn't that your plan?'
'Hell, no,' he argued. 'I was going to find a safe place for you to hide until I got back, someplace Monk would never find you.'
'In other words, you'll drop me off in the middle of nowhere and take off.' She didn't give him time to think about it.
'You're not dropping me off anywhere, unless you plan to go back to Aspen.'
'You're nuts, you know that? You're just plain nuts.'
'I gather that's a no?'
He didn't respond to her sarcasm.
She brushed her hair away from her face with her fingers and laid her hands on top of her head. 'I wish we could get out of
this car. I need a quiet place to think.'
'You can't think in a car?'
She knew he wouldn't understand. When she was in her cubicle at work, she felt the same way she felt when she was doing yoga. She'd perfected the technique of clearing her mind and then slowly entering data one clue at a time while her hands
worked the keyboard. No, he couldn't possibly understand, and she couldn't explain.
'So who looks like you?'
'I'm sorry. What did you ask?'
'Back at the store,' he said. 'Chrystal said the woman looked like you. So I've gotta ask if you happen to have any crazy
relatives trying to kill you.'
'No. There's only my aunt Carrie and her husband, Tony. No other relatives.'
'Parents dead?'
She turned in her seat and stared at his profile when she answered. 'I don't know who my father was. I don't think the woman who had me knew who he was either,' she said.
She watched him closely to see if she had shocked him. His expression didn't change.
'She died in a car crash quite a few years ago. There isn't anyone else.'
'Chrystal said-'
'I heard what she said, John Paul. Do you know how many women her description fits?'
He glanced at her and asked, 'So is it real?'
'Excuse me?'
'Your hair. Is it real?'
She blinked. 'Are you asking me if I wear a wig?'
'No, I'm asking about the color. Are you a real blonde, or did you get that from a bottle?'
'Why do you care about the color of my hair?'
'I don't care,' he said, growing irritated now. 'But the woman looked like you, so I gotta wonder if you-'
'No, I don't color my hair.'
He was surprised and didn't hide his reaction. 'Yeah? What about your eyes?'
'What about them?'
'Colored contacts?'
She shook her head. 'No.'
'No kidding.'
'Are you deliberately trying to be a jerk?'
'Look, I'm just trying to put it together, okay? Kenny said the woman was beautiful. A real knockout.'
'And?' she pressed.
He shrugged. 'Have you looked at yourself lately? You've got to know…'
'Know what?' she pressed when he didn't continue.
He frowned at her. 'Hell, woman. You're pretty, damn it.'
It was the most hostile, backhanded compliment she'd ever received, and the odd thing was, it didn't upset her. For the first time ever, she didn't feel the need to launch into her favorite lecture about how appearances weren't the least bit important.
She forced herself to consider the problem at hand. 'The data isn't sufficient to form a conclusion.'
'Jeez, you sound like a computer. A lot of things aren't adding up.'
She agreed with a nod. Her stomach was hurting. She felt as though she had a hot coal lodged in her esophagus. She picked
up her backpack, found her antacid, a bottle of water, and two energy bars. She opened the bottle, popped the pills, and swallowed. Then she handed the bottle to John Paul and opened one of the energy bars for him.
'Thanks,' he said after he took a long swallow of the water. He took a bite of the bar and washed it down with another gulp.
'It tastes like cardboard.'
'You're welcome.'
His smile lasted for half a second, but she still saw it and reacted. She surprised herself. She couldn't stand the man an hour
ago, but now she didn't think he was so awful. He had a beautiful profile… and was sexy as hell. No reason for her to
pretend she didn't notice, even though she wasn't going to do anything about it.
He was also protective. The way he tried to boss her around in the store when she went running to the back office. He acted… worried. Worried about her safety.
Nice, she thought. He wasn't such a cold duck after all.
'It's gonna rain,' he remarked.
'Rain will slow us down.'
'It's still coming. The sun's going to be setting soon,' he said. 'I'm going to plant the watch about a mile or two from here. Then we'll go on for as long as we can.'
He parked the car and picked up the watch. 'What'd you do with that gun we took?'
'It's in the sack on the floor.'
'Get it out and keep it on your lap. Have you done any target practice?'
'No.'
He gave her a disgruntled sigh. 'Keep the safety on.' He got the gun for her. 'I won't be long.'
He disappeared before she could tell him to be careful. A fine drizzle began to fall, covering the windshield. It seemed an hour
had passed before he came sprinting down the hill toward the car. When he opened the door, a blast of cold air filled the interior.
The second he turned the motor on, she flipped on the heater. 'Where did you leave the watch?'
'I hooked it to a tree branch by a crossroad to the west. If he's tracking us now, I'm hoping he'll think we took the other road.'
