Hiding Out At The Circle C

'I checked.'

'Why?'

They stared at each other for a long moment before Zach relented.

'I'm an ex-cop,' Zach said with an apologetic shrug. 'Bad habit.'

At the clear concern in Zach's gaze, Cam closed his eyes. But all he saw was the image of Haley in the barn, clearly terrified, also clearly willing to lie to cover that fact. Not again. Please, God, not another liar. 'What did you find out?'

Slowly, Zach put his hat back on, slid his thumbs into his back pockets and studied the sky. 'She did come from South America. But no Haley from Los Angeles to here. She must have paid cash and used a different name.'

'You haven't even passed the bar, and already you're acting like a lawyer.' Cam sighed. Dammit. 'Okay, you're not going to let it alone, so let's hear it.'

'Either she wanted someone to think she stayed in L.A., or she's not who she says.' Zach looked at him. 'I could have dug further, but it didn't feel right. Do you want me to?'

'No.' That wasn't what he wanted. What he did want no longer surprised him. He wanted Haley to tell him the truth herself, wanted her to take away this terrible wariness and suspicion. He'd been down this road before and couldn't face it again.

'What do you suppose is going on?'

'I don't know.' Cam rubbed his chest, not understanding the ache that had settled there. Why did he care?

'You've been there, done that,' Zach warned. 'Another woman who can't be honest.'

'Which is your kind way of saying she's a liar.'

Zach raised a brow. 'Are we talking about Haley or Lorraine?'

'I'm not in the mood for this, Zach.'

Zach lifted his bands in a gesture of surrender.

'I can't explain it, but she's all right,' Cam insisted. 'I just know.' He hoped.

'Which leaves only one thing.'

They looked at each other.

'She's running,' Zach said.

'Yeah.' But from what?

* * *

Haley ran directly into Cam's den, closed and locked the door and lifted her shirt. There against her hip, attached to her jeans, was the pager, vibrating with a chilly evilness.

With shaking hands, she lifted it, pressed the button to get her message. Again from an unknown number in South America. Fear sucked the oxygen right out of her lungs at the printed words.

'Haley, I'll find you.'

Suddenly the pager went off yet again, this time from Alda.

'Haley, where are you? Who's done this to us?' The typed words continued across the screen. 'Lloyd's dead. He died in the explosion. That's what the police said, and now they're looking for you. Bob's missing. Haley, where are you?'

Haley stared at the pager as a possible betrayal whipped the heels of her fear. Everyone gone or missing except Alda. Was it possible? It had been Alda who insisted that the team and EVS not go public with their discovery. Haley had always believed Lloyd and EVS would sell it to the U.S. government so that the USGS could continue the study. But Lloyd had agreed with Alda to wait, to keep the public ignorant, until after the final test. Those tests had never taken place.

And now they were looking for her. Haley could only hope they wouldn't find her-at least not until the real killer made a mistake and showed himself.

Chapter 3

Haley kept busy for the rest of the day because she had to. If she didn't, the humiliation of the barn scene would kill her. And if that didn't, then the horror of what she'd learned would.

Lloyd dead. Only three of them left now, assuming Bob was indeed still alive. The pain in her gut made her decide not to think about it.

It seemed all her life there had been things from her past she'd needed to avoid thinking about. Losing her father before she'd known him. Being shunned by a high-society mother who couldn't handle the burden of raising a 'special' child. Being responsible for the deaths of too many people to count, when all she'd ever wanted was to make the world a safer place.

She needed to forget, just for a little while, or she'd self-destruct. Besides, she'd been bred to work, and without it, she felt useless.

The big house was lovely but, as she quickly discovered, clean only on the surface. She found someone's stiff, dirty socks under a cushion on the couch, a stack of long-forgotten mail behind a potted plant in desperate need of water, and a half-eaten tortilla, crisp with age, in a far corner of the patio. She cleaned it all, and shocked herself by how much she actually enjoyed doing it.

But even with the peace and solitude, there was the knowledge that all this was temporary. Soon, she'd have to come up with a better plan. Such as how to get help without getting herself extradited to South America.

Even sooner, she'd have to figure out what she could manage for dinner; but one worry at a time. She took a stack of rugs outside to shake out the dirt, and spotted the wooden-raid fence in the side yard. She decided to throw the rugs over it so she could shake the dust loose with her broom.

Laying out the rugs with great concentration allowed room for no other thoughts to intrude. Not the raw grief from seeing the bodies of two of her team members scattered in their own blood, not the bitter disappointment of the destruction of her earth-movement system, and certainly not the fact that she owed her existence at this moment to a big, fat lie.

The rugs took up the entire length of the fence. She couldn't see the other side, but she'd stopped jumping at every little noise. No one knew where she was or they would have come for her by now. Momentarily sidetracked by the wide, open sky and vast expanse of land around her, Haley took a deep breath of fresh and blessedly cool air. Something settled inside her.

She hadn't been back in the States for so long, she almost didn't recognize the content feeling for what it was. And she didn't realize she wasn't alone until she glanced up and saw the huge bovine head-as wide as her body and nearly half as long-hanging over the fence like one of her rugs, its face inches from her own.

With a muffled scream, she stepped back and tripped over her broom to land gracelessly on her bottom in the dust.

'Moooooo,' the cow offered, gazing at her with a curious-but-blank stare.

Rich male laughter rang out and Haley closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Why, of all the people living in this house, did it have to be him to witness her second most embarrassing moment of the day?

She opened her eyes to find Cameron squatted in front of her, proffering a hand. Childish as it was, she couldn't resist, and before he could so much as blink-or make the comment she could see he was itching to make-she'd grabbed his hand and pulled him down into the dirt beside her.

Haley didn't know what she expected-anger, indignation, bafflement? Anything but more laughter. On his butt, there in the dirt, Cam tipped his hat back and roared.

She waited, simmering, until he subsided. When he did, she pushed to her feet, brushed the dust off her jeans and shot him a look that would have withered anyone else.

He just grinned. 'What a hot temper you've got, Haley Williams. And a hell of a right arm, too.'

She turned from him and nearly stumbled again. The cow still stared at her from less than a foot away. Haley's startled curse earned her another laugh from Cameron.