“Yeah, leave her alone, you pervert,” Jed added.
Daniel stared at Cleo. “Tell them,” he said to her.
She didn’t say a word.
When it became apparent that she had no intention of speaking, Daniel let out a sigh, looking more annoyed than concerned. Chad lifted his arm. Cleo’s first thought was that he had a knife. But it wasn’t a knife-it was a bottle.
Before she could shout a warning, Chad brought it down against Daniel’s skull.
Cleo screamed, glass shattered, brown liquid exploded. Daniel sank to his knees, hitting the floor hard, his eyes rolling back in his head.
“Come on!” Chad motioned for her to hurry. “Let’s get outta here!”
Daniel was struggling to stay conscious, blood dripping from his scalp, running down his face. “Don’t do it, Cleo,” he mumbled. “I’ll have the kid’s ass for assaulting an officer.”
On one hand, she was relieved that he was able to speak, on the other, she was afraid he would carry out his threat.
“He didn’t know you were a cop,” she argued. No one could look less like a cop than Daniel Sinclair.
“I can do anything I want.”
“He’s a cop?” Chad asked.
Cleo could see Chad struggling to change gears.
“Yes,” Cleo said.
“Oh, shit.”
“You’d better go.” She didn’t want to drag them into her mess. They’d only been trying to protect her. “I’ll be fine. Get out of here.”
They scrambled away, the door swinging shut behind them.
Daniel crawled to the nearest wall, turned and sat down, leaning his back and head against the tiles. He wasn’t bleeding as badly as she’d thought, some of the blood was obviously cola.
She poked around his head, separating his hair until she found a bump. In the middle of the bump was a small gash.
She wet a paper towel and dabbed it on the wound. When it seemed the bleeding had stopped, Daniel rose unsteadily to his feet. He stood there a moment, then reached for Cleo, putting one arm around her for support. His body was rock hard and as hot as a furnace.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said.
Cleo let him lead the way through a maze of trucks until they came to the black car she’d seen him in that morning.
While the air was by no means fresh, the hot breeze, with its fuel and exhaust fumes, seemed to revive him a little. He let go of her and rounded the car, moving fairly well. Before getting inside, he unbuttoned his shirt and peeled it off, then used the bundled fabric to dry his chest, neck and face, his muscles rippling. He was a sight to behold, and didn’t even know it.
He looked across the top of the car at Cleo, squinting his eyes against a sun that was getting low in the sky. It would be dark soon. It was a good five hours to Egypt. Plenty of time to figure something out, plenty of time to get away if she decided to.
“I’ll drive,” she said. It was a way to let him win without losing face. “You’re not in any shape to be behind the wheel.” She held out her hand, expecting him to give her the keys.
He ignored her hand, circled the car, and opened the passenger door. One hand on the hood, one on the open door, he said, “I’m not giving you the keys until I’m belted in my seat.”
Chapter Eight
Pull off at the next exit,” Daniel said after they’d been driving for an hour. Cleo assumed he had to use the restroom, but after she exited, he told her to turn here and turn there until they were in front of a hotel called The Towers. She checked the clock on the dash. 9:00 p.m. “What are we doing?” If they kept going, they could be in Egypt by one o’clock.
“I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m sticky, and my head hurts like hell.”
A hotel? With Sinclair? Christ, could this get any worse? She knew one thing-she had to ditch him before he found out about the money. He harbored enough hostility toward her to toss her in jail. Under normal conditions, she would have flat-out refused to stay in a hotel with him, but stopping might buy her the time she needed.
She guided the car up the smooth drive and pulled to a stop in front of a set of automatic double doors.
“Go in and get the room.” He reached into his back pocket, pulled out a billfold, and opened it. His badge was there in plain sight as he rummaged in the wallet for cash. “One room. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Then swing through the gift shop and get me a shirt and a toothbrush.”
Yeah, she’d swing through the gift shop and out the back door.
She was sliding from the car when he caught her by the arm. “Oh, and Cleo? Don’t try running out a back door or anything. If you do, I’ll catch you and toss your ass in jail.”
He meant it.
The back door probably hadn’t been a good idea anyway, she thought as she made her way to the reception desk. It wouldn’t have given her much time. No, she needed to get away that night, while he was asleep. That way she could put some distance between them before he woke up and found her gone. Maybe she could even make it to St. Louis. She would leave his car at the airport and be on a plane before he woke up.
She ended up getting a room with two queen beds. As she was signing in she remembered that she hadn’t given Chad the hundred dollars she’d promised him.
Damn.
At the gift shop she picked up two toothbrushes, toothpaste, a small can of deodorant, a disposable razor, and the perfect shirt. Across the front, in black letters, it read: My Kids Went to the Ozarks and All They Got Me Was This Stupid T-shirt.
“Room four-forty-three,” she told Daniel, sliding behind the wheel, dropping the bag of purchases on his lap, and handing him the white plastic card with the magnetic strip.
“The money,” he said, palm up, fingers wiggling.
At first she thought he meant
She leaned against the wall and watched as Daniel inserted the plastic card in the slot, got the green light, and opened the door for her to enter.
She inhaled.
The room was so clean. So wonderfully clean. And cool. So blissfully cool.
Maybe this hadn’t been such a bad idea after all.
She dropped her bag on the bed. The room smelled like potpourri instead of BO. And the colors-not a speck of orange, or even anything remotely close to orange. It was all deep greens and purples.
She kicked off her sandals and sank her toes into the plush green carpet. Then she pulled two pillows from under the spread, plopped them against the headboard, threw herself on the bed, and picked up the remote control.
She flicked on the TV and began channel surfing.
“Just out of curiosity.” Daniel crossed the room, reached behind her, and, before she could stop him, pulled the elastic band from her hair.
“Oh, my God,” he muttered.
Cleo had been staring deliberately at the TV, but his horrified comment got her attention. He stood over her, his mouth hanging open. As she watched, the surprise on his face slowly bloomed into open-mouthed delight.
“What?” Her hair couldn’t look
