Chapter Thirteen
Nathan
I wasn't surprised to get out of the shower and find Bree gone. Just like I wasn't surprised to look in the mirror and see that my efforts hadn't changed much. I still looked like me and that was a bad thing. No wonder Bree had bolted when she did.
I got dressed, making sure to add more layers to change my shape, adding a little pudge on my stomach with a crumpled-up t-shirt. It would be easy to swipe a baseball hat from the motel lost and found. My disguise would help me make it out of town, but I had no idea where to go from there.
Or how I'd get there.
My heart froze as I thought about where Bree had gone. If she was smart, she'd find another hotel and hole up until someone from Topeka could come and get her. Maybe that older waitress with the mischievous eyes. But if Bree had headed for her car, there was no doubt in my mind the men after me would soon be tailing her.
I hoped once they saw she was heading out alone and not circling back to get me, those armed men would leave her alone. Maybe the smartest move Bree had ever made was ditching me.
I moved around the motel room, shoving my few belongings in a plastic bag. It was impossible not to hope that every car I heard was Bree coming back for me. I had only known her a few days but, in that time, I had come to depend on her support. She listened to me, she wanted to help, and, most of all, she believed that I was a good person.
Or maybe she'd finally gotten smart about that, too.
Bree deserved someone a thousand times better than me. Someone not broken, with pieces of his memory missing. Someone who could take care of her, really concentrate on loving her, instead of leading her on a wild goose chase with dangerous obstacles everywhere.
I opened the shoebox and took out the bricks of cocaine. I couldn't very well travel around with them and expect to stay out of trouble. It just doubled my resolve that Bree should get as far away from me as possible. Then I pulled a chair over to the vent on the wall, unscrewed the cover, and shoved the cocaine as far back as I could. I was a disaster, and she deserved a knight in shining armor.
Even the thought of Bree with someone else revived a spark of determination in me. I wanted her, her bright smiles and easy laugh, and the way that she called me out on anything that sounded like bullshit. Why hadn't Bree just laid into me? Why had she left without saying a word?
Because I had frightened her into a state of shock. I thought about her pale face, her eyes too wide and unfocused. I had done that to her. No, those gunmen had done that to her. And it was time I found a way to make them pay.
I grabbed up my bag, hooked the Do Not Disturb sign on the motel door, and made my way to the motel office. The clerk barely batted an eyelash when I asked where the lost and found was or when I reappeared wearing a hat that read Catch Something with Hooker's Reels.
My hand was on the front door but I couldn't help myself. "Hey, did you see my girl in here earlier?"
The clerk gave a lazy nod. "She was checking out the dairy farm brochure. Told her the ice cream there is great."
"Is it?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Not much else to do around here."
"She say anything else?" I asked.
The clerk gave me a little smirk. "What, are you the jealous kind? Not that I blame you; that girl is a looker."
I took a step toward the desk, and the clerk held up both hands.
"Nah, man, she didn't say anything else," he said.
"We're keeping the room for a few more nights," I said. "Don't bother with turn-down service."
The clerk gave me a weak salute and went back to leaning on the counter. I headed outside and hoped the rest of the motel staff was as lazy as he was. I didn't want anyone finding the bricks of cocaine that I had hidden in our motel room vent.
The rolls of cash I had divided up and hidden on my person, and the gun rode heavy in my belt. I felt it every step I took and couldn't decide if it was a comfort. It was a toss-up what was worse: knowing I had needed a gun at some point in the last few days or not being able to remember why.
I wanted to curse Bree for taking off and leaving me on foot, but as I walked down the sidewalk toward town, all I could do was worry about her. It didn't matter that I was stuck in some town where the only people who knew me wanted to take me somewhere at gunpoint. I just wanted to know that Bree was safe.
I scanned every vehicle that passed for her little economy car. Would she head back to Topeka or go home? Bree had said something about not being welcome there, something with her sister, so I hadn't even asked where she was from.
My heart sank. I was never going to see her again. Bree had made the right move, getting away from me, but I still felt attached. I wondered if I could call the diner and ask if she had checked in with the older waitress. Would they think I was a crazy stalker? Or would they assume that I had done something to her and was trying to cover my tracks?
It would be hard to make anyone believe that Bree was the only person in the world I truly cared about. I hardly believed it myself, but I couldn't deny it. In the span of a few short days, Bree had worked her way into my life so that I couldn't imagine it without her.
I turned toward the rougher part of town, away from the cafes and the bank. I needed to find a ride right away, and there was no way I could head to the bus station. I knew those men were still looking for me.
Every thread of common sense in my head told me to turn around, but I couldn't stop myself. I wanted to head straight back to that diner in Topeka. I would wait there until Bree showed up.
I stopped in the middle of a crosswalk and a blue sedan honked at me. I retreated to the curb I had just jumped off and clenched my fists.
I couldn't go after Bree. I had to let her go.
If those men were still after me, and I knew they were, then I couldn't endanger Bree any more than I already had.
Besides, Bree wasn't the help I needed now. Now I needed someone who could tell me where drugs like that would come from. I needed to find someone who could help me connect myself with El Paso, the girl in the photograph, and the fat rolls of cash.
I knew my buddies at the base could help. I flew with some genius-level men, and they would know how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I'd been embarrassed before, when I couldn't remember where I'd been. But now that armed men had tried to grab me, I was sure my SEAL team would be ready to back me. I might have done something wrong, but we didn't let anyone mess with each other.
For a few seconds, I felt the weight lift. I wouldn't face this alone, and Bree would be safe. Then it all came crashing down.
I couldn't hitch a ride. No one was stopping where I was. And I couldn't move to the other part of town because I was sure those men were still looking for me.
And I couldn't ask anyone in my squadron to risk their career for me. By now, I was officially AWOL, and to even speak to me would yank a fellow pilot off the roster.
I'd been walking in circles.
The only thing I could think to do was head back toward the bank. I had to see if Bree's car was still there. If it was, then I knew she'd made it out of town without being seen. If it was gone, then my heart was gripped in panic.
Those men had seen us heading to her car. They were well-dressed, organized, and there had been no hint of their intention until the guns were already pulled. There was no doubt in my mind they were professionals. That meant they had clocked Bree's car, and they would be watching it.
I slipped through the alley and ducked beside the bullet-riddled wall. There was no one suspicious around, but I took my time edging around to where Bree's car had been parked.
It was gone.
So were the men who had been watching it. I didn't see anyone out of place, but there was a pile of hand-rolled cigarettes next to a dark tire track. Someone had been waiting in a car at an angle that would have given them the perfect view of Bree's car. I looked down at the dirt and grime of the alley and saw both the tread marks from her car and the other headed in the same direction: out of town, toward Topeka.
I started to run. It didn't matter that people noticed me. The men would assume I was in the trunk of Bree's car or hidden under a blanket in the backseat. They weren't watching for me here anymore.
I tore down the street and headed for the sun-faded flags I had seen on the edge of town. There was a car dealership there.
As I ran, I did a quick calculation in my head of how much money I had in those heavy rolls. Now it didn't matter how I'd gotten that money or where it had come from. I needed a car, and I needed it fast.
I had to get to Bree before those men did.