Point of Attraction (28 page)

They moved along the long winding road,
their speed now and then rising then slowing. Georgie noticed April
kept looking into the rear view mirror, the side mirror, then back
into the rear view mirror. Just as Georgie turned to see what April
was so concerned with, April stepped on the gas and Georgie was
thrust back against the seat. All Georgie caught was a quick peek
at the front end of a dark vehicle making its way around the bend
behind them. A long wide turnout came up, and April pulled the car
off the road.

The Durango, Georgie thought. This was
enough! She pushed the door open and was half out when April,
already out of the car, shoved her back in and slammed the door.
She put her weight against it, keeping Georgie in.

“April! Let me out, goddamn
it!”

“What is going on?” Cassie asked,
unsnapping her seat belt.

April stood in the drizzle, leaning on
the door, arms crossed, looking at the road behind them, waiting.
Georgie tried to look out the back window as she slid across the
seat to get out on the other side and saw the dark SUV sitting
there just at the tip of the bend.

“April!” both Georgie and Cassie
shouted. At that same moment they heard the gunning rev of an
engine and the squeal of tires on the damp payment. The massive
vehicle roared toward them. April leapt over the short hood of the
BMW as the dark Durango sped by, almost sideswiping them, and would
have struck April if not for her fast action.

Cassie screamed, but April was quick on
her feet. Georgie froze, seeing April reach behind and beneath her
jacket at the waist to draw out a gun. But she never
fired.

“Dammit!” April swore as the Durango
rounded the far curve and disappeared.

Georgie and Cassie bolted from the car.
Cassie wrapped her arms around April. The tall willowy April leaned
into Cassie’s embrace as she shoved the gun back into the waist
holster. “I’m fine,” she told Cassie.

Georgie stared after the dark SUV,
blinking as raindrops landed on her lashes and cheeks.

Chapter twenty-three

Georgie and Cassie tugged at April to
get her out of the rain that was now turning into the predicted
downpour and back into the car. But even as they coaxed and
prodded, the tall quiet woman kept her eyes fixed on the winding
road that had swallowed up the Durango. As Georgie looked into
April’s eyes, she saw a glint of something she had seen only a few
times; once in Nicks eyes when Blake Hartz, a high school senior,
had her pinned to the lockers, pressing himself to her. Her angry
fists were hardly a deterrent. Nick came around the corner of the
hall, yanked Blake off, threw him to the far wall, slamming him
into the lockers there. The week’s suspension didn’t bother Nick.
His parents and her dad made certain Blake got the same amount of
suspension time.

Okay. But I’m telling you.
She’s a kick-ass my kind’a gal
. This time,
Nick’s words were more difficult to shove aside as she and Cassie
urged April into the passenger seat. Cassie hurried to the driver
side and got behind the wheel.

“Well, I guess one question’s been
answered,” Cassie said, easing the car onto the road. “It wasn’t
Shyness doing this.”

“I should have been faster!” April
burst out. “Dammit!”

Georgie could hear the voices, words,
but wasn‘t really listening. All she could think of was, now her
friends had been pulled into this madness. “I am so sorry to drag
you guys into this,” she said, “God, what have I done?”

“Both of you, stop!” Cassie ordered.
“Damn, I can’t see past this down pour.” Cassie pulled off to the
roadside.

“Nick should never have called you,”
Georgie said, hand over her mouth, letting herself jostle with the
abrupt stop, then covered her eyes. “God what have I done? He
should never have called you.”

“Just stop,” Cassie said, then reached
over and squeezed April’s hand. Cassie then looked back to Georgie.
“And you, back there. Listen to me. I would have hammered Nick if
he hadn’t called me. So just stop, the both of you.”

Cassie reached below the dash and
pushed a button on the car phone. “What’s M&M’s
number?”

Georgie dropped back into the soft
seat. Mason’s card with his number was on the kitchen table. She
meant to put his number into her cell, but Nick coming in from the
outside, asking about Mason leaving, had erased that promised
intention.

“Tell me you have it,” Cassie
said.

“He gave me his card,” Georgie said,
“but it’s sitting on the kitchen table. God, I am so
stupid!”

Cassie gave her a glance through the
rearview mirror. “When you get through taking all the blame for
something you have no control of, you can keep an eye out for that
Durango. It was a Durango, right?” she asked April, while reaching
over to give her soul mate’s hand another squeeze.

April nodded. “Tinted windows. I
couldn’t see who was driving and I’m sure there was no plate...
front or back. It’s long gone by now. I can’t believe how slow I
was. Dammit!”

What was it Nick said?
Georgie tried to remember. “
You know why I
didn’t get anything off the plates? There were no plates,
nothing
.” Well, whoever was doing all this
was definitely lethal and... bolder; no longer hiding in the dark
of night.

“April,” Cassie was saying, her voice
carrying that gentle bedside manner she was known for. “Cut
yourself a break here. Okay?”

Georgie loosened her safety belt and
leaned forward to touch April’s shoulder. “Are you
okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” April said with a return
pat. “But I’ll tell you right now, and we won’t take no for an
answer; if Nick doesn’t come home tonight, we’re spending the
night, or you’re coming home with us. One or the other.”

Georgie ground her teeth. “No.” She
would not have those close to her in danger. But isn’t that what
just happened?

“She doesn’t listen worth a damn, does
she?” April asked, while sucking in air then let it gush out as she
rolled her head on the seat headrest.

“She’s never listened to Nick or me,”
Cassie said, steering the car back onto the road. The cloud burst
had past and the rain was all but gone.

“Don’t you understand?” Georgie asked.
How could she make them see? “Someone killed Jeffrey because of me;
because he somehow got in the way. I will not have anyone
else...”

“This is insane,” Cassie said. “Stop
and absorb this. You, Georgina Gainsworth, are not responsible for
the actions of some nutso.”

A nutso
, Georgie thought. Where does a nutso come from? What sets
them off? She’d seen many movies and read so many books about
stalkers, obsessive personalities, and in each case something big
or insignificantly small sets all things in motion. She wanted to
melt into the car seat, become invisible, redo the last five days
of her life and undo whatever had been the cause of all this... if
she only knew what that was.

Other than muted traffic sounds, the
drive was easy and quiet until April looked back at her between the
seats and said, “Georgie. Since you won’t take the gun I offered,
you might keep that slugger bat of yours handy.”

“I never realized you actually carried
a gun,” Georgie said, and though the picture was still hard to
form, the idea of April being in special forces was... an
interesting scenario to play with. She wanted to ask, but figured
if April wanted her to know, she would have told her long before
now, but then again, maybe not.

“I don’t normally carry one, but I
thought the situation being what it is, it might be a good idea to
bring backup”

“I don’t like you carrying that thing,”
Cassie said.

“And that’s why I didn’t
tell you I was bringing it,” April said, pressing her head back
against the headrest. “Makes life so much easier
and
quiet when I don’t
tell you things you don’t want to hear.”

“Are you telling me to shut
up?”

“I would never dream of telling you
that,” April said softly. “I’m asking that you drop the subject.
That’s all.”

Georgie caught Cassie’s look in the
rearview mirror. “I think she was telling me to shut
up.”

“Is it going to work?” was all Georgie
would venture to ask, and made sure she held back any show of the
tiny bit of humor she found in the moment.

A loud over-done growl erupted from
Cassie as she slapped the steering wheel. “I just hate it when you
two gang up on me. Really I do.”

“Then don’t make us gang up on you,”
April murmured, eyes closed while she put a fingertip at her lips
to shush Cassie.

Georgie had to admit her mood was
lifting hearing her friends’ banter, and seeing Cassie frown
benignly at April.

“Hummp,” Cassie murmured.

By the time they neared Georgie’s
street the rain had stopped completely. After Cassie made the turn
she pulled to the side of the road and stopped.

“You sure you don’t want to grab a
quick lunch somewhere?”

Georgie shook her head. “Nick’s
breakfast is still with me.”

“Okay.” Cassie steered back onto the
street and drove on until they came to the mouth of her driveway;
made the turn and went up the slope.

Mason’s black 4Runner sat in front of
her house. Every nerve in Georgie’s body screamed for her to jump
from the car and run to him, feel his nearness, nestle in the
safety of his arms, and taste his lips once more. But it was she
that built the fence, and she had to honor it.

“Guess you won’t have to call him,”
Cassie said, and turned off the ignition.

“Can you behave?” April asked of
Cassie.

Georgie saw the impish glint brighten
Cassie’s eyes, and decided to get out of the car and talk to Mason
first. No telling what would come out of Cassie’s mouth in the mood
she was in.

By the time Georgie unlatched her
safety belt and opened her door, Mason was out of his car and
leaning against it.

“How long have you been waiting?”
Georgie asked him.

“Just a couple of minutes, but I’m glad
I waited,” he said. He wasn’t quite smiling, but there was a hint
of one, and Georgie was warmed by the small flame. Perhaps her own
doubts had not destroyed a friendship.

“You didn’t actually think I was inside
and didn’t want to come out?”

“I have to confess, the thought did
cross my mind,” he said, and this time it was more than a hint of a
smile. “But I nixed it. It isn’t something you’d do.”

Georgie didn’t reach for his hand, but
took a pinch of his jacket sleeve to guide him to the garage as she
flicked the remote door opener. “A sainted one, I’m not,” she said,
“But I’d like to think it’s something I wouldn’t do.”

“
Your hair’s all
wet.”

“
Yeah, I know. Come on
in,” Georgie said, pulling at the damp strands. “We have lots to
tell you.”

“Okay, guys,” she called to
Cassie and April, and motioned them to come in. They had been
subtly busying themselves with some
thing
on the hood of the BMW. As the
wide door raised up into the rafters, Georgie saw Mason take notice
Nick’s motorcycle was gone. He offered her only a quick glance, but
said nothing and she grasped his arm.

“Before he left, Nick called Cassie,”
she murmured. “He didn’t leave until they got here. That’s the only
reason I didn’t call you.” She unlocked the kitchen entry to let
them in then activated the garage door. With a soft rattle, it
began its slide down.

Mason’s brow furrowed.

“What?” she asked.

He looked to Cassie, April and the door
clanking into place. “Where’s Daisy? Isn’t she with
you?”

“What?”

“I’ve been here a while and she never
came to the gate.”

Georgie had been so elated to see him,
she gave no thought to Daisy not greeting her at the fence, and she
literally shoved her way into the house. “Daisy! Max!” She couldn’t
get the laundry room door opened fast enough. “Daisy!
Max!”

Mason grabbed her arm and pulled her
away from the outside door. She found herself being placed in
April’s firm grasp.

“Damn!” Mason’s voice came through, and
Georgie fought her way free.

Near the patio, lay Daisy. Max was
sitting beside the Schnauzer, looked up at them, then down, but did
not move from Daisy’s side.

“Daisy!” Georgie screamed, running to
her.

Mason had been kneeling, but quickly
stood to stop her. “She’s not dead, George. She’s breathing.
Cassie.”

“I’m on it,” Cassie said, rushing past
them. “April, get my bag. It’s in the back of the car.” She dropped
to the grass and began touching, probing. She opened Daisy’s
mouth.