Leslie was naked, underneath Lincoln, in the broad daylight. She was thankful for the fogged windows. If someone saw them, well, they’d get an eyeful, that’s what they used to say back home, an eyeful.

Being with Lincoln was what she’d hoped it would be, and more. As he was the one who slept on her in these few stolen moments, she thought about his hard body claiming hers at dawn. No other man felt the way he did. No other man would. That made her a bit sad; what if she had to leave him?

She didn’t want this little bubble of safety to end. It was perfect. But she knew it had to. They were free at this moment, and when they made love she could forget everything, but now she remembered. They were running for their lives.

“Lincoln,” She whispered his name. It was enough to wake him. He opened his eyes, and they were filled with an almost surprised look. Surprised she was there?  Surprised at where they both were, the back of a truck hidden in a cluster of trees off a remote country rest stop? It was enough to make anyone a bit confused as they woke up

He lifted his body weight off her and then lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her so perfectly. It had her wanting him again. Her need for him shocked her. She always let the man’s, or more accurately, the client’s, desire take the lead. With Lincoln, she felt lust, want, an urgent need to be with him again. He interrupted her realizations with a concerned question.

“Did I crush you?” Lincoln’s surprise at their situation turned to worry; the size difference between them certainly made crushing her beneath him a possibility.

“Only in the best possible way. I actually don’t want to move, but the sun is up. Daddy always said daylight’s a wasting.”

“He’s right about that. You know that southern accent’s gonna let loose now that you can be Leslie.”

“I expect.” Leslie gave him her best southern belle eye bat, and he kissed her lashes. She knew him as a gruff man of action, but right now, he was about as tender as a man could be. It was beautiful, but the way he looked at her also scared her. She could easily crush his soul, like she did Daddy’s, without meaning to. That was the other side of love: hurt. The amount of pain loving her caused the people who ventured to do so made her want to run away from this. But not yet. Probably soon, though. She let him rain kisses on her cheeks.

“We better get moving,” he said, and he slowly climbed up and out of the truck and the two of them found their clothes.

After they were both settled in, Leslie’s job as navigator resumed. So did the questions she’d forgotten about at night. She actually couldn’t stop asking them, and Lincoln was not too pleased with giving a million answers.

“We need a place to shower, and I have to go to the bathroom. That’s the hygiene situation, but more than that I have to call the lawyer. Can I call the lawyer?”

“Hygiene? Don’t you like my man smell? I love the way you smell.”

She couldn’t resist sliding over and sniffing his neck. She buried her nose in the now-rather-rough stubble of his neck. She thought only men got carried away with thoughts of sex; it was damned distracting.

“You smell pretty good. But I still have to use a powder room. Brush my teeth?  And the lawyer?”  She’d keep firing questions at him until he wore down.

“We’ve been on the road around ten hours total. Where we’re headed, we’ll have showers and maybe even a bed.” Lincoln kept his eyes on the road.

“How much longer?” She was getting very impatient.

“Okay, we’ll stop at a small town in about 30 minutes. Can you wait that long?”

“I can. But just barely.”

They’d peeled off 95-north to 395-north and she could tell they were headed to a town called Alturus. It was the only town for hundreds of miles, so it had to be where he meant. She’d assumed they were eventually headed for Montana and the land Lincoln had talked about. She wasn’t sure, though. And this was the craziest route a person could take from Las Vegas to Montana. She supposed that was the point.

“I hear Alturus is lovely this time of year” He gave her a dangerous look, and she settled in with the map and plotted how to contact the lawyer.

She wasn’t dumb enough to call Petra. Petra was probably furious. Petra had given her a chance at a new life, a way to fund her very urgent needs for her dad and a way to get out of stripping, and she’d blown it to bits, or stabbed it to bits to be more accurate.

The only other person who knew she’d killed Franco was Lorenz. He’d helped them get out of the hotel but she had no idea what he’d told his brother Dom, or his scary-ass daddy, Antonio. What did Petra think? She and Lincoln could very well have ruined Petra’s business, at least in Vegas; for that reason, Petra was not on her list of people to call for help. She’d burned her boss with this. The only one she could really trust was Lincoln. That didn’t alter the fact that she was going to have to contact the lawyer, no matter what Lincoln said because Daddy’s health and safety were the whole reason she’d become Marilyn for money.

Alturus was so small more people could stay in The Diamond Hotel on a slow night than lived in the entire town. It was the kind of town Leslie recognized, though. The kind of town she grew up in. The kind of town that would notice her hair and Lincoln’s size the minute they got out of the now-very-dusty truck.

“We’re not going to be able to eat at a restaurant here,” Lincoln explained as they drove down the main drag.

“Ya think? How about a grocery store, though?”

“That’s the plan.”

“I can see we’ll both stick out like a sore thumb here.”

“Yep, here.” Lincoln grabbed a John Deer ball cap from his glove box. She also saw a weapon in there but didn’t ask about it. She was going to make sure he taught her how to use it, though, as soon as they had a moment to breathe if they ever did.

She put on the hat and shoved her blonde hair into it. Maybe she should buy some hair dye in the grocery store along with the food.

“Okay, so we have two choices in Alturus baby, let’s weigh the options. There’s the Four Corners Market, the main drag, mom, and pop, or a little down the road the Holiday Quality Foods, a small chain, emphasis on small. Which one?” Lincoln asked her. It felt like he was quizzing her.

“How do you know so much about shopping in Alturus?”

“You know me by now, right? I prepare. Part of the job.” He said it with a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. She felt like there was a joke she wasn’t getting.

“Okay, well based on the fact that we will stick out on Main Street let’s keep going a bit and turn left on 12th for the Holiday Quality Food experience.”

“Bingo. Right choice.”

She watched as the tiny main drag of Alturus got smaller in the rearview mirror. There weren’t many cars, maybe one or two. It seemed like they’d lost their tail, and this town was as safe as any. 

Her legs were stiff as they got out of the car. They’d both grabbed cash from the stash they’d been traveling with and headed in. At the very least, she knew not to pay with plastic.

“I’m going to use the lady’s room first.”

“I’ll be in the meat aisle. Join me immediately after.”

“Yes, sir.” They bathroom was tiny but tidy, and in a few seconds with a little water she’d decided she was as fresh as she could be. It was a revelation to splash water on her face. She looked at the bleached hair that she’d crammed under the hat; she hoped that with the t-shirt and jeans, she was somewhat inconspicuous. Her roots were coming in dark, though; it was time to change up this hair.

She found a tiny aisle of cosmetics and stocked up on a few items, and then the hair color. Hmmm?

“What the hell took you so long?” She about jumped a foot when Lincoln growled in her ear.

“Shit!” She rarely swore, but he’d startled her. She grabbed a box of hair dye and ignored his mood. “What color?”

“What?” His look of anger switched to total confusion.

“Miss Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Natural Radiant Auburn or Miss Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Natural Light Carmel Brown?” She held the two boxes up at him and shook them.

“Natural Radiant Auburn. Now let’s go.” She put one box down and he nearly lifted her off her feet as he hustled her to the checkout.

“Where’s the groceries?”

“I shopped and paid in the space of time it took you to freshen up.”

“Really? Good job.” She wasn’t going to let him rattle her. Who knew when they’d get a chance to shop again?

“Did you buy chocolate?”

“No, that’s not a necessity.” He directed her to a checkout lane. There were only four, and only one with a clerk. She grabbed several candy bars and added to her stash of hair dye a People Magazine and a few other things she’d forgotten to grab when they’d packed her stuff in the duplex.

“You check out. I’m going to bring the car around.”

“Yes, sir.” And for some reason, she popped up on her tip toes and planted a kiss on his mouth. He tried to keep scowling, but she knew he couldn’t.

“What’s that for?”

“Because watching you shop is hot.”

He made some sort of grunting noise and helped her put her stuff on the conveyor belt.

“I’ll be right there.” He pointed to the pickup lane out in front of the store.

“See you in a minute.”  She watched as the automatic doors opened to allow his hulking frame to pass through. Watching him caused a brief memory of the back seat to flash into her mind and she blushed. She could still blush. That made her happy.

The clerk bagged her groceries and she headed to those same automatic doors. That’s when a screech of tires and a confusing mix of vehicles and people converged on the parking lot.

Lincoln’s truck was supposed to be right there, but it was nowhere in sight. Instead, a dark sedan circled the lot and headed to where she was supposed to meet him. It was still off in the distance but it was so out of place in the small town she knew they were looking for her and Lincoln. It was a tail. It had to be.

What should she do? Go back in the store? Run between the parking lot and try to hide? Where was Lincoln? She scanned the lot and didn’t see his truck. The dark sedan was slowly rolling toward the store. She tried to stay hidden under her ball cap; she held the two bags of groceries up. It was hardly a disguise.

Then, from the street, an SUV pulled up right in front of the store. Was this another tail? Had someone caught up with them along with whoever was in that other car, now getting closer and closer? She noticed some sort of official logo on the side.

The front passenger window rolled down and the driver leaned over and popped open the door.

“You better get in here with me honey, real fast but real casual. You get it?”

“But who…” The sedan was feet away.

“It’s them or me. With me at least, you’ll live to see Edith Piaf again.”

That was it. He knew the name of her bird; someone had to have told him, and only Retta and Lincoln knew that.

“Oh honey, thanks for pulling up the car.” She got in and tried to make it look as natural as she could. She slammed the door shut and they drove off.

She looked behind her and two goons in suits got out of the sedan and headed into the store. They were the two from before, and it seemed like, for now, they hadn’t thought twice about her, or this SUV.

She looked back at the man behind the wheel. He was handsome as hell, and where Lincoln was all bulging muscle this guy was longer but, she could see, in fantastic shape. He had a full head of wavy brown hair, and now that she had a second, she realized he was in a uniform of some kind.

“Uh, where are we going? Who are you? Are you the police?” She had a million questions, but for the time being was just glad the other guys were fading in the background as they searched the store she and Lincoln had just left.

“Well, let’s start with the last two. I’m Ranger Truman McCall. Not a policeman, but a National Park Ranger.”

“What? McCall?”

“I’m one of Lincoln’s brothers.”

“One of?”

“Yep, we’re kind of spread out.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Yeah, Lincoln said you’d need a little push to get in my truck. Glad to see you have a healthy skepticism of strangers.”

“I’m sorry; I’m totally confused right now. How did you know to come get me? Where’s Lincoln? Also, where are you taking me?” The tiny town of Alturus faded into the background, and Leslie hoped the men who were chasing them didn’t know which way to go.

“Well, Lincoln let me know you were headed into town. I’m a park ranger here at the Modoc National Forest. Lincoln has major OCD issues when it comes to security and suspected someone would be waiting for you the minute you went anywhere. He was right. I was supposed to just have you all follow me to the camp site, but he’s doing a little work to divert your friends back there.”

“What? Without me?”

“Don’t worry. He’s just going to slow them down, maybe plant a false trail? Who knows, Lincoln’s smart about that stuff. Don’t worry.”

“So where are we going, Ranger McCall?”

“We’ve got several small campsites here at Modoc. We’re headed to the one that’s currently vacant and off-limits to the public because of recent bear sightings. You’ll be safe, and all alone at the Willow Creek Campground.”

“Thank you. And thank you for coming to my rescue.”

“You’re welcome. Anyone with a bird named Edith Piaf is a friend of mine. I have a bird named Coco. I can totally relate.”

Leslie laughed and they drove away from Alturus and into the heart of Modoc National Forest. Hopefully, the woods and terrain would give them a little time to breathe.

Truman McCall, who knew?  Leslie wondered what else about Lincoln would be a surprise. She decided a complete interrogation was in order.

“So you’re the younger brother?”

“Yep. We didn’t really grow up together. Lincoln took care of making sure I had a more stable upbringing than he did. I was with one of our uncles. A couple of us were.”

“A couple of you? Just how many McCall brothers are there?”

“Well, mom had six sons. And we’re all half-brothers, mom knew one thing for sure, that she was the mama. You get my drift?” There wasn’t any embarrassment or darkness with Truman McCall, just an honest and open demeanor, so much so that Leslie had a hard time believing that Lincoln and Truman were brothers.

“So the president thing?”

“Yep, mom did that across the board. Pierce, Roosevelt, Lincoln, me and Carter. And then there’s. Too much to remember?”

“Hail to the chiefs I tell ya. And I’ve gotten more information from you in five minutes than I got from Lincoln since I met him!”

“Yep, exactly. Now ask me as much as you want, we’ve got a good 45 minutes.”

And Leslie got a crash course with Truman on the lives of the presidents. By the time they were at the campground, she felt like she’d made a new friend. The first one since she’d met Retta.