Centaur Rivalry (Touched Series Book 3) (15 page)

Jessica capped it
and tucked the little tube behind her back.  “Gross.  Go inside and get your own.”

“Oh, come on.  My lips are going to start bleeding.”

Jessica didn’t relent, “Go get your own.”

“
Fine.”  Daniel looked irritated as he walked back into the little convenience store.  A few seconds later he walked back out and straight into Jessica.  “They’re out.  I’ll just use yours.”

Jessica
made a face and begrudgingly held out the little tube to Daniel.  He shook his head at her, “No.  That
would
be gross.”  Daniel put a hand on both sides of her face and pulled her lips to his.  I didn’t mean to watch, but I couldn’t believe Daniel was kissing a Centauride.  That broke every single rule I’d learned since I first learned about Centaurs.

I wasn’t the only one staring as Gage, Bianca, Drake, Brent and
Katherine stood in shock, mouths hanging open – no one flinched.  After what felt like an eternity, Daniel let go of Jessica and smacked his lips, “Much better, thanks.”  He climbed in the back seat of the truck as if nothing had happened.

Gage and Bianca looked at each other over the roof of the car.
  Gage shrugged his shoulders and got in the driver’s side.  Bianca looked at me and smirked while she climbed into the front passenger side.  Jessica stood leaning against the car – she was beyond stunned.  Katherine stood by the driver’s side door of her truck looking at her friend, trying to hide her smile with her fist.

I took my place in the back
seat of the truck with Drake and asked Bianca, “
What was that?
”

“
I don’t know, but it should make for an interesting ride to Omaha.  I’ll keep you posted.
”

(Jessica Baker, En Route to Omaha, Nebraska)

What a jerk.  My body molded to the door.  I didn’t care how cold the window felt, I needed as much distance between Daniel and me as I could find.  His thoughts were loud, nearly too loud to tune out – nearly.

Gage followed a decent distance behind
Katherine’s truck.  Thank goodness I wasn’t in her truck.  If I were riding with Katherine, she’d be giving me a seriously hard time for what Daniel had just done.  My eyes closed as the cool from the window helped diminish the burning in my cheeks.  I used every bit of willpower I had to block all the errant thoughts flying inside the truck.

Daniel chatted with Gage like they were old pals.  Who would have guessed that either of them knew anything about landscaping or that they could have talked about it for nearly an hour without a break. 
Better yet, who knew anyone could talk about landscaping that long?  I didn’t have my iPod.  Strange to miss an inanimate object, but I had over a thousand songs on it, and I knew every one of them – every single word.  It would be so much easier to tune the others out if I could pipe music directly to my brain.

“Shit.”  Gage’s deep voice uttered to no one in particular.

Something about the sound of his voice made me open my eyes and face forward.  It looked like a huge car accident in front of us.  Police cars were stretched along the side of the road with their blue lights flashing.  One, two, three . . . eleven, twelve.  Twelve police cars?

There were two cars in between our truck and
Katherine’s truck.  “Gage, you have to catch up to them.”

“Relax, Jessica.  If I speed up now, it’ll look suspicious.  I’m sure it
’s just a DUI checkpoint or something.”

“Checkpoint?  Not an accident?”

“Uh, no.  The sign said mandatory state police safety inspection.  This isn’t normal then?”

OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD, we’resoscrewed, we’resoscrewed, we’resoscrewed.  It couldn’t be.  There’s no way Roscoe could have set up anything like this. 
Could he?  He couldn’t shut down an interstate to find me.  He wasn’t that powerful.  That would take influence over humans, coordination, resources – no way could this be his doing.  My heart was beating out of control.  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried to relax my shoulders.

Daniel’s hand slid onto my knee as his voice sounded concerned, “Hey, does this happen often?”

Why was he touching me?  I stared at his hand, wordlessly letting him know he had crossed the line, again.  “Oh, yeah, sure.  We don’t have enough criminals up this way so the cops shut down interstates all the time just for fun.”

Katherine
’s truck rolled to a stop as a tall Centaur dressed as a highway patrolman leaned into her window.  Katherine’s truck stood seven feet, two inches, I knew because we’d tried to park it in a low parking garage in Rapid City that only had seven feet of clearance.  The man leaning into her truck was tall, his hat cresting the top of the cab.  He had to have been outside for quite a while because the exposed skin on his face and neck were bright red.

I reached out to see if any
other Centaurs were near.  One in a state patrol car on my right, another in a deputy sheriff’s car in front, a couple humans, and another Centaur doing a vehicle inspection on a commercial bus that had been pulled to the side of the road.  My attention went back to the very tall, beet-faced highway patrolman standing only inches from Katherine.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a short, angry-looking sheriff and my heart skidded to a stop – it was Willie.

I ducked my head down
; worried he’d see me watching him.  Willie worked for my brother.  He was a Council enforcer, and he had been along the night Roscoe and his boys went after Drake and Cami.  He began walking toward the passenger side of Katherine’s truck.  It felt like it was happening in slow motion.  I wanted to scream, to tell Gage to do a u-turn, to take a quick turn and make a break for it.  Was it me, or the Lost Herd, they were after?  Or both?

My words came out disconnected, absent the emotions sailing through me,
“They’re looking for us.  See that short sheriff walking toward the passenger side of Katherine’s truck?  That’s Willie.  He’s my brother Roscoe’s second.”

Gage and Daniel’s face registered surprise.  Bianca turned around
; she must have realized at the same time.  “It’s okay.  Katherine is with them, they won’t know Cami or Brent are from the Lost Herd.  If Katherine gets too far ahead of us to cloak you, here’s our story:  we’ll tell them you and I were roommates in college and I popped in for a surprise visit.  We’re on our way to, to . . . where can we tell them we’re going to that isn’t Omaha?”

“
Mitchell.”

“Okay, we’re going to
Mitchell to. . . what can we do there?”

“
See the Corn Palace.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, it’s a big deal.  The whole thing is made out of corn.”

Willie was motioning for
Katherine to pull over to the side of the road.  That’s it.  We’re all done for.  They’ll take Cami, Drake and Brent away, and Katherine – they’ll find out what she is.  I started screaming thoughts towards Cami but she refused to answer.  Why was she tuning me out?  We had to make a run for it.  If both trucks went in opposite directions – one of us might have a chance.

“
Cami!  Cami!!  Tell Katherine to get you all as far away as possible
.”  No response.  She was blocking me.  “Bianca, tell Cami they need to make a run for it before Willie calls Roscoe or the other enforcers.  Tell her!”  We watched the tall Centaur who had been talking to Katherine shake his head at Willie.  What was he saying?  My mind was going fast, too fast to try to pry into the Centaur’s thoughts.  Willie shouted something at the tall Centaur while he gestured that he wanted Katherine’s truck to move to the right lane for a more detailed vehicle inspection.

It was like watching a car accident.  I could see what was about to happen, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it. 
“
Don’t pull over, don’t pull over, don’t pull over
,” my silent warning for Katherine kept replaying in my mind.

The tall Centaur shouted something over the top of
Katherine’s truck and waved her forward.  Relief filled me.  They were let through.  Whoever the Centaur was in the State Police uniform had just overridden Willie.  No doubt there’d be hell to pay for him later, but for right now, Katherine and the others were safe.  Maybe it would be okay after all.

The two cars in between our truck and theirs
both got routed to the right for a detailed vehicle inspection and it was our turn.  I could barely see the taillights of Katherine’s truck up ahead of us.  I was sure she’d be waiting for us at the next exit.

The tall Centaur leaned in Gage’s window.  “License, registration, and proof of insurance, please.”

Gage handed his license and rental car agreement through the window.  The tall Centaur said, “South Carolina, eh?  Whatcha doin up this way?”

“Honeymoon.  My wife is up visiting her college roommate.”

“Not the best time a year for a visit.”

“We don’t see snow that often.”

“Yeah, you can take some of it back whicha.”

Willie walked in front of the truck crossing to the driver’s side
where the tall Centaur stood.  I tried to keep my eyes down, but I saw him through the windshield the same time he saw me.  Willie shouted angrily, “Jessica!!”  In an instant he was leaning in through Gage’s window.  “Are you okay?  Roscoe’s worried sick!  You didn’t come home last night.”

I’d never been much of an actress, “Hi, Willie.  Everything’s fine.  Bianca came up to see me for a few days.  I told
Roscoe I had a friend in town.”

Willie looked at the other three in the truck.  “No.  He’s got the boys on every interstate today
– looking for you.  Go on and step out of the truck; I’ll take you home.”

Bianca interrupted, “Oh, no.  We flew all this way.”  She turned around in her seat, “I knew we shouldn’t have stayed up all night playing cards!”  She turned her attention back to Willie, “I am so sorry
, sir.  I was just so excited to see Jessica, and she told me there was a corn palace in Mitchell.  Well, we don’t have anything like that back home!  Can you imagine?  A whole palace made out of nothing but corn?  I thought she was pulling my leg, but we looked it up on-line and I told her we had to go.”

Willie looked at Bianca, “Sorry, miss.  She’s an unbetrothed Centauride.  She knows better.  If she wanted to go to Mitchell, her family would have arranged a proper escort.”  That was a slam on Daniel seated right next to me
, and it was enough of one that he sat up straighter and scowled wordlessly at Willie.

The tall Centaur looked at the stream of cars behind us.  He looked at Gage and said, “Mr. Richardson, go ahead and pull over to the right.  They can work it out over there, we’ve got to get some of these cars through.”

Bianca’s voice sounded offended.  “My husband and I are more than capable of providing escort.  If I didn’t know better, I would think you were insulting us.  Now, if you want to follow us to Mitchell, you are more than welcome to come with us, but I’ve had about enough of all this.  Gage, let’s go.”  She sat back in her seat and faced forward as if her statement alone would make the car go forward.

Willie and the tall Centaur exchanged a look with each other.  Centaurides were revered
, and since neither had yet been chosen, they wouldn’t want anyone to say they had been disrespectful to a Centauride.  The tall Centaur looked at Willie and offered, “If you want me to go with them, Willie, I’ll be happy to escort them.”

Confusion was all over Willie’s face.  “Fine.  Don’t let them out of your si
ght.  Call Roscoe and let him know we found her.  I’ll do a few more inspections then shut this down.”

The tall Centaur who had been doing the inspections took a couple steps away from our truck, then turned back to Willie. 
“What about the others?”

“The Lost Herd isn’t going to be on the interstate.  They’ve been hiding for generations
.  You think any of them are dumb enough to drive through a checkpoint.  Go on.  I’ll shut this down and send the boys home.  You get your car and stay with Jessica.”

I was paying attention to see if there was even a moment’s hesitation.  No one in the car smiled, giggled, sighed or even changed their breathing.  The Centaur dressed as a state trooper
turned toward Gage, “Go ahead, I’ll get my squad and be right behind you.”

Gage drove about fifty feet, then looked toward
Bianca, “Where are they?”

“Two miles up on the right.  They’re waiting on the shoulder for us.”

“One Centaur shouldn’t be an issue.  What’ll we do with him?”  Gage looked in his rearview.  I didn’t need to turn around and look; I knew he was behind us.

Bianca answered Gage, but directed her question to me.  “I don’t know.  He’s an enforcer
, right?”

I knew most of the enforcers, at least the ones who worked for Roscoe.  “I’m not sure.  I don’t know him.  Most of the enforcers stop by my bar from time to time
– I’ve never seen him before.”

Bianca
smiled, “Cami says Katherine’s got an idea.  Pass their truck and pull off on the next exit.  Find a parking lot that’s a little secluded if you can.”

The minutes tick
ed away slowly.  I didn’t want anyone to put themselves in jeopardy over me.  No doubt Willie had already talked to Roscoe.  How had Roscoe set up checkpoints all over the place?  I knew a few of his enforcers had jobs as small town cops, but there was no way they should have been able to block all the interstates.  Maybe he could have pulled it off closer to home, but we were hours away.  Maybe someone above Roscoe had ordered it, and Roscoe just had his men there looking for me, too.

Gage’s foot eased off the accelerator as he steered the truck onto the exit.  I wasn’t familiar with this area of the state
, so I was pleased to see a truck stop from the top of the exit with an enormous parking lot.  Gage put his turn signal on and our “state” escort did as well.  I glanced further back and saw Katherine’s truck right behind him.

At the very back of the lot was a truck pulling a U-haul trailer.  No other cars were in sight. Gage pulled into a parking spot, but left the truck running.  The Centaur in the police car pulled up beside him
, rolled his window down and asked, “Is there a problem?”

“No, no problem.  We’re just meeting a couple friends who wanted to see the corn palace as well.”  Alarm didn’t register with the Centaur, he picked up his phone and seemed to be checking messages. 
Katherine’s truck had parked on the other side of the police car.  Cami, Drake and Brent stayed inside while Katherine leaped out of the truck and walked over in between Gage and the Centaur.

She wore her best smile, “Well, hi.  You look familiar!  Weren’t you just a
t the vehicle inspection area?”

“Uh, yeah.  New assignment.  Do you need assistance
, ma’am?”