Noble Intentions: Season Three (2 page)

The man started walking toward the
cab.

Jack stuck his leg inside the open
vehicle and said, “Scoot over.”

“What? I thought you were going to
get your own?”

“Change of plans,” Jack said as he
lowered himself into the back seat, forcing Hannah to slide over. He slammed
the door shut and looked over his right shoulder.

“What are you looking at?” Hannah
asked. She turned in her seat.

“You don’t have a crazy
ex-boyfriend who might have been expecting you, do you?”

Hannah laughed. “No.”

Jack didn’t figure the man to have
anything to do with Hannah, but he knew it was best to know for sure.

The man hadn’t broke stride and was
now within twenty feet of the cab.

“Go,” Jack said.

“What do you want me to do?” the
driver said. “We got to wait for our turn.”

The man stopped ten feet from the
cab. Jack looked over his other shoulder and saw that a black sedan had stopped
in the middle of the road. The guy in the suit hopped inside.

“That’ll be too late,” Jack said.
“Go. Now.”

The driver grabbed the shifter like
he was reaching for the pull handle on a slot machine. He licked his lips,
wrapped his fingers around the knobby end and dropped the transmission into first
gear. The vehicle made an audible click and gave a slight jerk as it passed
through neutral. The driver eased away from the curb, nosed into the next lane,
aided by the fact that the sedan behind them was blocking it.

“Faster,” Jack said.

“What is your problem?” the driver
said, glaring at Jack in the rear view mirror.

Jack leaned forward and placed his
right forearm on the shoulder of the passenger’s seat. “Put your foot on the
gas or I’m going to kick your ass out of the cab and do it myself.”

“Fine,” the driver shouted. He
jammed the gas pedal to the floor, sending Jack lurching backward into his
seat. He managed to tuck his left elbow in, away from Hannah. Still, his
shoulder collided with hers, and she let out a painful squeal.

“Dammit,” she said.

“Sorry.” Jack stared into the rear
view mirror, eyes locked on the driver who seemed too scared to look back at
Jack. Perhaps the guy preferred to concentrate his efforts on the road. Jack
figured it was the latter considering the man was doing roughly seventy miles
per hour in an area designated for thirty.

“You want to tell me what that was
all about?” Hannah said.

“No.” Jack shifted in his seat,
repositioned himself so that he could check behind the cab. He spotted the
black sedan about ten car lengths behind.

The driver started to ease up on
the gas.

“Don’t slow down,” Jack said.

“Why not?” the driver said.

“You see that black car back
there?”

The driver’s eyes shifted from the
road to the rear view mirror. His gaze fell upon Jack, then traveled past him.
“Yeah, I see it.”

“I don’t know who that is, but
they’re either looking for you or for me. I don’t know what kind of man you
are, but I can tell you this for sure. If they are after me, you want nothing
to do with them. Got it? So you better do what I say when I say it. Pick up
your speed. Get us as far ahead as you can, then when we are in an area you are
very familiar with, I want you to get off the highway and start weaving your
way through the city. Avoid traffic at all cost.”

“This is London. How am I supposed
to avoid traffic?”

“I don’t care how you do it, man.
Figure it out or we all might be dead.”

“How about I stop and get out and
offer you up to them.”

“Are you really that stupid?”

The driver locked eyes with Jack.
The taxi picked up speed, distanced itself from the black sedan. Not for long,
Jack figured. But as long as the other car stayed that far behind, the cab
driver should be able to lose them if he knew the city well. If not, then all
Jack could hope for was that the men would be unarmed.

“Who are you?” Hannah asked him.

Jack shrugged, told her, “It’s
complicated.”

“How so? Seems like a pretty simple
question to me.”

“Look, Hannah, I don’t know if those
guys got a good look at you or not. If they did, then the less you know about
me the better.”

“Why?”

“Because.” Jack paused, searching
for the right words. “You need plausible deniability on your side in the event
someone asks you questions about me.”

Hannah narrowed her eyes, shook her
head, looked away. Jack caught a glimpse of the anger in her eyes reflected in
the window.

He returned his attention to the
vehicle tailing them. The car had closed the gap and now paced them from two
car lengths.

“Pick it up,” Jack said.

“I can’t go any faster. One more
ticket and I’ll have my licensed revoked.”

“That car catches up to us and you
might have your life revoked.”

This garnered a frightened reaction
from Hannah, but Jack ignored it.

The vehicle tailing them jerked to
the left and sped up. Jack cursed under his breath. Hannah slumped down in her
seat until her head was below the window. Fear or street smarts? Within seconds
the two cars were side by side. The other vehicle’s windows were tinted. Jack
couldn’t tell how many people were inside the car. He knew there were at least
two, so he planned for a third.

Jack reached inside his coat. There
was no gun there, though. Not even a holster. He couldn’t travel with a weapon.
In years past, he’d have had someone meet him at the airport who would have
provided him with a pistol at the very least. In some cases he was able to
leave from a government installation, which allowed him to travel with a weapon
hidden in the false bottom of a bag or suitcase. This time he’d have to wait
until one of Dottie’s people met him. He had no idea when that would occur. Certainly
not in time to deal with the men following him.

For a few minutes it felt as if the
two cars were standing still. Then, the black sedan pulled away and exited the
highway.

“You can sit up,” Jack told Hannah.
“They’re gone.”

“Can you tell me who they were?”

“No.”

“If my life’s in danger I’d like to
know who it might be. Why can’t you tell me?”

“Because I don’t know.”

Hannah righted herself in her seat
and said, “You can get off at the next exit.”

“Stop a few blocks short of her
building,” Jack added.

Five minutes later the driver
pulled the cab to the curb. Hannah jumped out. Jack pulled out his wallet,
handed the driver three ten pound notes, exited the cab.

“What are you doing?” Hannah asked.

“Walking you home.”

She crossed her arms, arched her
back. “I’m starting to think I would have been better off letting creepy Kyle
drive me home.”

So that was his name.

“I’m thinking the same,” Jack said.
“But he didn’t, I did. And I need to make sure you get home OK.”

She studied him for a moment. “My
building has a doorman. He’s bigger than you. Try to come in and I’ll have him
kick your ass.”

Jack smiled. He liked the girl’s
attitude. “Sounds good to me.”

Jack didn’t have the layout of
London committed to memory, but he knew they were in close proximity to Buckingham
Palace and Hyde Park. The only reason he knew this was because he saw a sign
saying so before they exited the highway.

“This looks like an expensive
area,” he said.

“It is.”

“How’s a college girl afford to
live in a place like this?”

She smiled. “Well, for one, I live
in a tiny little apartment. It’s like a master bedroom converted into an
apartment. One room has everything. And the family I work for pays for it.”

“Who do you work for?”

She turned her head slightly and
looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

“OK, question withdrawn,” Jack
said. “I know where you live, though. I could just follow you.”

She stopped, turned toward Jack,
grabbed his arm. “That’s not funny, Jack. Seriously, don’t you even think about
following me or popping in on the family I work for when I’m there.”

Jack raised his hands in mock
defense. “Don’t worry. The moment you step into your building is the last time
you’ll ever see me.”

“Is it?”

Jack nodded. “It is.”

She pointed and said, “That’s it
right there.”

“Where’s the doorman?”

“I lied.” She smiled. “Going to
walk me the rest of the way?”

“I think you got it.”

She extended her hand. “Bye, Jack.”

He watched her climb up a set of
concrete stairs stained by years of exposure. She pulled out her keys, entered
the building without looking back. Jack lingered for several minutes. The air
was mild and the breeze light. He scanned the street and surrounding houses,
ensuring that no one was watching him or Hannah’s building. He’d provided the
world with enough collateral damage and didn’t want to add Hannah to that list.

After half an hour, he decided it
was OK to leave. He pulled out his cell phone, turned on the GPS, punched his
hotel’s name into the search field. He was staying at the Plaza, other side of
Westminster Bridge. A fancy place, but his choices had been limited. The
distance to the hotel was less than two miles. Jack decided to walk.

The man Hannah knew as Jack Noble
lingered outside her building for close to thirty minutes. What were his
intentions? She didn’t think he meant her harm. He’d seemed overly protective
in the taxi line, in the car, and after they got out. But the sight of him out
there freaked her out a bit. Although he seemed to be watching the street and
other buildings, not hers.

She considered calling for
assistance. After all, her employer had some muscle behind her, and she had
always said that if Hannah found herself in a bind, just call.

Hannah didn’t call, though.

Jack had been nice enough on the
plane, and he had a face that seemed familiar to her. She didn’t know him, but
he made her feel at ease. Not an easy thing to do around
always anxious
Hannah
. She laughed at her description of herself. Her father had always
said she had a high motor. But she knew there was something else. Feelings that
she repressed. Thoughts she hid from others. Always calm on the outside with a
fake smile plastered on her face.

Jack began to walk away. Hannah
moved to the other side of the room where she had a better viewing angle of the
street. He’d been standing in plain view for all that time. Surely he knew it,
too. There was nothing to stop him from walking half a block and waiting for
her to leave her apartment.

So she was back to calling for
assistance. Then his words came back to her.

Plausible deniability.

Forget everything about him, she
told herself. That’s what he wanted. That’s what she would do. Calling would
have the opposite effect. It would indicate that she did know something about
him, and the look in his eyes when he said those words let her know that was
not what she wanted.

Perhaps if she were older she would
have treated the situation differently. But she wasn’t, and she didn’t.

The thoughts of Jack faded away and
Hannah turned her attention to the stack of mail on the triangular wooden table
next to the white door stained and chipped from decades of neglect.

The envelope on top was from her
college. She slid her finger under the flap at the corner and opened it. The
glue held, the envelope tore. She spread the opening, pulled out a letter
printed on heavy stock ivory colored paper. It was folded in thirds, smelled
like tree bark. She shook the letter open, read the contents to herself.

The letter did not contain the news
she had hoped for.

Hannah fell back against the door.
A few tiny chips of dried white paint fell to the floor like springtime
flurries. Her eyes watered. She brought her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob.

This can’t be happening
.

Hannah brought her arm up and
stared at the letter. The black lettering looked wet and raised. A handsome
message despite the bad news it contained. Once again, she read the words that
shattered her dream. The message had not changed. She’d lost her scholarship,
partly due to lack of funding, and also due to her lack of attendance. She’d
had no trouble acing her subjects, despite the classes she missed. The only
reason she was not in attendance was because her employer needed her around a
bit more than usual last semester. And while the scholarship helped, so did the
funds her boss paid her. Without both, she could not afford college in London.

She slammed her free hand into the
door. More paint chips fell and gathered together on the ground. A pile of snow
that would never melt. She wiped the tears from her eyes, cleared her throat.
“Enough feeling sorry for yourself,” she said. “Nothing happens for those who
stand idly by, watching life race past.”

Hannah decided that she’d go see
Ms. Carslisle and ask if she could take on extra duties. Being a nanny to Mia
was nearly a full time job, but there were other things she could do in the
house. Ms. Carlisle had taken a liking to Hannah. That had been obvious from
the beginning. The woman had mentioned a few times that she’d like Hannah to be
around more. What would be the harm in asking? Besides, without the scholarship
money, she couldn’t afford school this semester. She’d have the extra time
available. Extra work would allow her to save more.

Tired, partially defeated, but
hopeful, Hannah retired to her single bed in the far corner of the room. She
pulled back the pale blue down comforter and crawled onto the mattress where an
intoxicating sleep overcame her.