01 Untouchable - Untouchable (23 page)

I got a hold of Bev, and
she said the news of the shooting at school was already on
television. I told her I was fine, but Mom wasn’t crazy after all.
She agreed that she would get Kimmy and they would meet me where I
asked. “Whatever you do, Bev, don’t go home.”

Ten minutes later they
released bus riders. Another ten minutes passed and they release
drivers and riders. Walkers would have to wait for family to pick
them up.

I waited with Evan at the gym doors,
knowing that my world was changing and I could do nothing to stop
it.

Ryan pulled up first with
Jewels behind him. She got out and hopped into the backseat of his
car, leaving the passenger’s door open. I had my hand on the crash
bar, when Evan leaned forward pulling me against him, his face
nuzzling into my hair next to my ear.

“
You can tell them whatever
you need to about yourself, but nothing about me. I’m going to take
you somewhere safe, but they can’t have any information or even
suspicions. Do you understand?”

I nodded, but a deep kind
of fear was now pulsing through my body. I would be leaving soon
with someone who didn’t exist. I kept remembering his words that
day at his home, ‘you’re supposed to runaway with me.’ Had this
been part of the plan all along? There would be witnesses that knew
I had done exactly that. I looked back into his face, the face that
I hungered for, the face that made my heart find new rhythms, the
last face I knew I would see before my life ended.

He pulled slightly away to
look into my eyes as he repeated, “Absolutely nothing.” His lips
softly found their way to my temple for a brief moment, “I’ll see
you at five o’clock.”

I was too numb to respond
as I tucked my hair under the cap and ran out to the waiting
vehicle. We pulled away and I looked back just in time to see him
close the door to Jewels’ little Kia and take off.

I had barely snapped my
seat belt in place when Ryan demanded to know what was going on.
Jewels was talking over him, asking why anyone would try to shoot
me. Ryan was cutting her off and asking if Evan had anything to do
with this. The questions were coming at me so rapidly they were
like a chorus of confusion. But, the first thing out of my mouth,
silenced them both, “I’m not who you think I am.” The only noise
that remained was the steady drone of Ryan’s engine.

CHAPTER TEN

“
My name isn’t Annalisa
McKinnis and I’m not from Alabama. I’m Annalisa Winslett
from…”

“
Winslett? Like the Palm
Beach Winsletts?”

“
Yeah, I guess you and I
are from the same town,” I said barely louder than the sound of the
car.

Jewels kept talking, but
Ryan just looked too stunned for words. I turned to her, “My family
has a lot of money. My sister and I were sent here too keep us
safe, somewhere where no one was supposed to know who we
were.”

“
Keep you safe from who?”
She asked looking more confused than when I began.

“
Someone wants me dead.”
The words were so familiar to me now I didn’t even flinch when I
uttered them.

“
Dead? But wouldn’t you be
worth more if they like kidnapped you or something?”

“
Not when it’s someone in
my own family.” I turned my face to the window, waiting for the
sting in my eyes to subside.

I felt Ryan’s warm hand
slip into my own and grip it firmly. “So is Evan your bodyguard or
something?”

“
He couldn’t be,” Jewels
inserted. “He’s only been here a week.”

Ryan ignored her, “Is he?”

The thought was almost
enough to cause me to laugh. Wow! Bodyguard had a whole new meaning
to me at that moment. My body was what he needed to earn his
million dollars, it’s just the living part of me would be
missing.

“
No, he’s just a
friend.”

Ryan shot me a disturbed
look.

“
But, he put himself in the
way of a bullet a little while ago to keep me safe.” I finished,
hoping this would be enough for him.

“
Yeah, I guess you’re
right. He seems really intent on helping you. I just hope it’s not
for the money.” He kept glancing back at my arm.

I knew what he was
thinking; if Evan had discovered how much money I was worth, then
he might be using me. He was so close to being right in the worst
way.

“
No,” I tried to squelch
his fear. “He—he’s really trying to help.” I swallowed, wondering
how convincing that sounded.

He squeezed my hand tighter
and then pulled into the theater parking lot. “This is the only
place I can think of where you aren’t out where someone can see
you. We’re a block away from the diner and we’ve got almost two
hours to kill,” Ryan stated and then reconsidered his poor choice
of words. “Sorry.”

“
It’s okay. I need some
quiet time.”

“
What do you guys wanna
see?” Jewels asked it as if this were any other trip to the
movies.

He gave a weird chuckle as
he turned to look at her, “Whatever is playing right
now.”

When we walked inside and
looked at the movie schedules, one movie had started only five
minutes ago and the next closest had a thirty minute wait. “Great,”
Ryan mumbled as he bought our tickets. “It’s a freaking love
story.”

I sat in the dark theater
trying to sort out my jumbled emotions, feelings and fears. It was
so surreal to be watching the couple on screen as they displayed
their need for each other; bedroom shadows, twisted sheets,
glimpses of bare skin and the words ‘I love you,’ being uttered.
Everyone wants to find that one person that God planned for them
before the foundation of time. Everyone wants to be someone’s
treasured possession. I wondered how the person I was hopelessly
drawn to could be that second half of myself if his heart was
untouchable.

I looked at Ryan’s face as
the sounds of the two lovers increased on screen. He was so far
beyond the stage of discomfort that he almost looked to be in pain.
Jewels was drawn in with rapt attention, her lips slightly moving
as if she could feel the lover’s kiss on her own mouth. Then the
pace of the movie changed and they were trying to save each other
from the tragic fate that I knew was coming. A gunshot on screen
made me jump so hard that I shook the row of chairs. Ryan
immediately grasped for my hand. It was over. She was lying there
lifeless as he cried over her. She had sacrificed herself to save
him. The theater lights came up.

“
Well!” Ryan stated, his
voice thick with sarcasm and repulse, “I guess I did a real good
job getting your mind off your troubles.”

I wanted to tell him it was
okay. I wanted to let him know not to beat himself up over the luck
of the draw on the movie, but I couldn’t speak. The vision was just
too fresh. All I could do was to squeeze his hand and hope that he
knew I didn’t blame him for the choice.

It was 4:40 when we left
for the diner. I had been in the dark theater and felt so safe, but
now sitting in the diner, windows on three sides, I felt like a
target in one of those carnival arcades. What made it worse was
that my friends were here with me and apparently whoever this new
killer was, he didn’t care about who got hurt in the process. My
heart jumped to a faster beat as I saw a little white Kia pull into
the lot.

There was something about
him when he got out of her car. He had on his stonewash jeans, but
other than that he was different. The tennis shoes were gone,
replaced with an expensive pair of what appeared to be Italian
leather, a white dress shirt half buttoned, over a white cotton
tank replaced his tee-shirt. He was wearing his Maui Jim sunglasses
and his hair looked as if it had been gelled and then his fingers
run through it. I now noticed the lighter, more golden tips in his
dark brown hair instead of before when it had been worn
dry.

He looked like some kind of
guy right off the movie screen; he looked like a hit man—the kind
that made women want to throw themselves in front of him. I’d seen
guys dress this way plenty of times, but they were the social elite
that I was used to. They were men with money. That was when it
struck me that he made a fortune doing his job, and I was his next
paycheck.

“
Is that Evan?
” Jewels said in a
funny pitch.

I guess I wasn’t seeing
things. He actually looked that good. I wanted to tell her no, he
was no longer Evan; the man who had come to get me was Micah, but
that name was taboo.

When he came into the
restaurant, every female head (and a few of the male ones) turned
to look at him. My legs were suddenly jelly as I could see that his
eyes were focused on me as he approached the table.

“
I’ve got a problem,” was
all he said as he seated himself beside me, but now looking at
Ryan.

“
I figured that when I
first met you.” Ryan thrust a barb into Evan’s ego.

He ignored the remark and
continued, “My Z isn’t ready from the shop across the street. I
need a car…”

Jewels started to speak (I
think at that moment she’d have offered him anything she possessed,
her car being the least of it).

He continued, “A fast
car.”

He reached down and pulled
out his wallet, then removed a small stack of one-hundred dollar
bills. “Can I pay you to let me use your Trans Am? I’ll give you
the keys to my Z. It’ll be ready on Wednesday.”

Ryan seemed to be assessing
the new and improved Evan in front of him. I could tell he didn’t
like him any better than the old version. “I don’t want your
money.” He reached into his pocket and produced the keys to his
car, but did not hand them to him, but to me. “I’ll let Leese use
my car, but I get a few minutes
alone
to speak with her. You and
Jewels wait outside.”

He looked extremely tense
at this request, but he reluctantly handed Ryan the keys to the Z
as he asked Jewels to follow him outside. She was more than happy
to comply.

Ryan kept looking at me,
but he waited until they were out the door before he spoke. “You’ve
got to tell me what’s going on. I’m not stupid, Leese, something
here isn’t right. If he’s eighteen then I’m forty-five.”

“
Ryan, I told you,
he’s…”

“
Yeah, yeah, I know what
you told me, but it’s what you aren’t telling me that’s scaring the
hell out of me.”

“
I’ll be okay.” That was
the most pitifully weak line I think I’d ever used.

“
Promise me something. Just
because he looks like—like that,” he pointed out the window. “Don’t
let him talk you into sleeping with him.”

“
Ryan!
” I said a little too loudly.
“I’m not that kind of girl.”

“
I know
you aren’t, but he
is
that kind of guy—I’m telling you, I can see it
written all over him. And, well, I don’t really care about the car,
I just want you to be safe, but I’m okay if, when this is all
over,
you
bring
it back.”

“
I’ll find a way to get your
car back to you.”

“
Then you have to promise
me one more thing if you take my car.” He was smiling broadly at
this point so I was a little concerned as to what the one thing
might be. “You bring back the car and I get one date. You get to
drive and show me what you’ve got—three-sixty or
whatever.”

My lips had begun to
tremble because I knew I wasn’t going to ever make it back once I
left. “I’ve got someone who wants me dead—I don’t know
if…”

“
Stop, right there. We’re
not going with dismal possibilities; I’m counting on you being a
survivor. So is it a date?”

I swallowed, but the lump
remained. “Yeah, it’s a date.”

We got up and went outside.
I gave Evan the keys because he needed to open the trunk. He moved
a long, wide, hard gray case from the Kia that appeared to be
heavy, two duffle bags and a smaller case. I knew that case and I
knew what was in it. I really felt like I could pass out. My knees
started to buckle and Ryan was the one to catch me.

“
Whoa, Leese, you’re gonna
be okay. Keep it together.”

Evan quickly opened the car
door and Ryan passed me off to him. I felt Evan’s arm around my
back as his other came up underneath me, scooping me off the ground
and placing me gently in the bucket seat. He slammed the trunk and
went around to the driver’s door, firing up the Trans Am. Jewels
came to my open door and gave me a teary good-bye, and then Ryan
was kneeling beside me.

“
Remember your promise,” he
said softly. He pulled me into his arms and held on tightly. I
heard Evan give the engine a little more gas to signal he wanted
Ryan to turn loose of me. We were letting go of each other, when
suddenly Ryan’s face was right there next to mine. I saw it coming
and I was barely quick enough to avoid the kiss he intended to put
on my lips, but missed, getting it just off to the right. I could
see Evan’s reaction through the corner of my eye and I knew it was
time to go.