Royal Opposites (15 page)

“What’s next? Where do we go from here?”

The sheriff pondered his boots for a long time then flipped up the brim of his hat. “Well we–” A loud rifle shot rang out cutting him off. The next one took the man’s hat clean off his head.

Tom grabbed Joan and pulled her to the ground. He covered her body with his the best he could. Coolidge crouched next to them, his gun out and at the ready. Another bullet kicked up dust mere feet from where Tom kept her shielded.

“Get to the vehicles.” Sheriff Barley barked. He had his gun out and was scanning the flat land. He stopped and aimed at what appeared to be an old shack a couple thousand feet back from the road. “On my signal. Ready?”

He focused on Joan and Tom. They shifted positions to be ready to run. Barley and Coolidge kept low to the ground, but aimed for the shack.

“Go!” The man barked a hair before firing at the small building. Tom dragged Joan to her feet and dashed for the SUV. He pulled her to a crouch by the rear wheel. She stared at him with large, frightened eyes. Tom wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

Bullets were pinging against the metal of the SUV while others kept pelting the dirt around the lawmen. Tom watched Barley lay flat on the ground and reach for his back pocket. He pulled out a clip and reloaded his gun.

Even over the din of everything happening around them, Tom heard him shout, “Last one. I’ll cover you.”

Coolidge nodded and reloaded his own weapon. Using a silent signal, the sheriff began firing while Coolidge ran toward the SUV. He was still a few steps away when he caught a bullet. The impact of the little piece of metal spun the man around. He staggered a bit then lost his footing. The deputy tumbled over the edge of the canyon Tom and Joan had gone over the night before.

“No!”

The scream echoed his own sentiments so closely Tom thought he’d spoken aloud. He felt Joan lunge toward the edge and did everything he could to hold her back. The sheriff stood up to get to safety. Before he could take the first step, a bullet caught him, too. He sprawled face down in the dirt.

Silence rang out, deadly and unwelcome. They were on their own again. If they didn’t get moving, the shooters, who had to be the guards, would kill them where they stood. Just like the sheriff and his deputy. Tom had to get Joan out of there.

Keeping an arm around her, he opened the back door. “Get in.” “What? No. We have to help them—”

“There’s nothing we can do for them now, Joan. Get in.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I know that if we don’t get out of here, we’re going to be next. Is that what you want?” Tom stared at her. He saw the war between helping the lawmen and saving herself play out in her eyes. “They’ll kill us, Joan. We have to go.” Tom hated putting more pressure on her, but he needed her to move. There would be plenty of time to reason with her later. First, they had to make sure they lived that long.

With a nod, she climbed in the SUV. “Stay down.” He didn’t wait for her confirming nod before closing the door and pulling open the front one.

There was no way he’d be able to stay below the windows, and climb over the computer and other law enforcement gear which separated him from the driver’s seat. Remembering the part of his childhood he’d actually gotten to misspend, he turned the key in the ignition and sent up a prayer of thanks when the engine sprang to life. Without thinking any further than he had to, Tom pressed the brake with one hand while putting the vehicle in gear with the other.

“Stay down,” he yelled toward the backseat.

“Are you crazy? You can’t see to steer.”

Tom glanced at Joan through the seats then smashed the accelerator to the floor. He peeked up over the dashboard the best he could, but bullets whizzed by and pinged off the vehicle’s metal.

They didn’t shatter the glass, but left nasty looking holes he’d hate to see in himself or Joan.

While he tried to estimate their way down the road, he noted Joan moving around an awful lot behind him. “What are you doing?”

He risked a glance behind him and was shocked to see her rolling the window down on the side of the shooters. What in the world?

She ignored his question. They bounced off the shoulder of the road reminding him of his task. He was more than cognizant of the sharp drop off to the right so when he peeked out the windshield again, he wasn’t surprised to find he’d overcompensated. He corrected their path. With a bump, they were back on the pavement. He wanted to see what Joan was up to, but she leaned through the seats and rolled the driver’s window down a bit. She flung a black thing over the glass then rolled it up.

“What’s that?”

“Bulletproof vest. They were in the back.” She gave him a grin then crawled through the seats before he could stop her.

Contorted like a pretzel the way he was, he couldn’t stop her when she settled in the driver’s seat. She kicked his hand away and stomped on the gas. The SUV shot forward along the highway. A couple more bullets pinged against the vehicle but the sound came from the back. They must be leaving the shooters behind.

When Tom started to crawl up into the passenger seat, Joan pressed her hand to the top of his head. “Stay down until we’re sure we’ve outrun them.”

“And let you risk your life alone? Forget it.” Tom climbed up on the seat and checked behind them. Nobody appeared to be following and they hadn’t heard any bullets hit the SUV in a few miles. Still, Joan zipped along the road. Tom checked the backseat and noted she’d put another vest in that window, too. Smart lady.

Or extremely stupid. What had she been thinking, risking her life like that?

He opened his mouth to reprimand her, but the tears streaking her face brought him up short. Her hands gripped the steering wheel with tight fists. He twisted the best he could in his seat and reached over to squeeze her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Joan, we’re okay.” Unless they weren’t. Had she been shot and was concealing it from him?

“No, it’s not okay. It’s not okay at all, Tom.” She swiped away the tears and glanced at him. The look in her eyes told him she wasn’t crying out of fear. The woman was ticked off. Even if he hadn’t seen it, her tone told him everything he needed to know. His instincts for self-‐-preservation kicked in. He removed his hand from her shoulder.

“But it will be. We will—”

“You just don’t get it, do you? We left two men dead in the dirt back there. It will never be fine for them again. Never.” She wiped away more tears.

“What choice did we have? We barely got away ourselves.

Or would you prefer we joined them?” He didn’t understand her anger. He, for one, was thoroughly glad to still be alive and bullet free. “We didn’t even try.” Her voice softened and Tom took it to be a good sign. That her anger had burned itself out. He gave her knee a comforting pat. The look she gave him made him wish he hadn’t bothered. He sighed and settled back in the seat. There was nothing he could say. Even if there was, he could tell she was in no mood to hear it.

Chapter Fourteen

Joan had to get herself together. She couldn’t believe she broke down like that in front of Tom. She was tougher than that.

She’d had to be to survive her bank trying to bankrupt her.

Granted, she’d just found out what they’d done; but nonetheless, she’d still had to figure out how to live and pay them, too. A part of her was glad they had to go to all this trouble to try to get the stupid video back. With any luck, they would go bankrupt in the process. The rest of her was sad the sheriff and his deputy had been caught in the crossfire. Thinking about their deaths was starting to make all of her pretty ticked off. With the anger, the desire to see them get their comeuppance grew to near unmanageable proportions.

She risked a glance at Tom. This situation didn’t even begin to compare to all the nasty cashiers she’d had to face down over the years. In those cases, if presenting the store’s coupon policy didn’t straighten things out, a call to their corporate office would. This time she had a much bigger ace in the hole. Or a king, rather. Given that he’d been sucked in this mess along with her, she didn’t think it would be too difficult to get Tom to go along with her. That was why she sped through the nearest town once she spotted a sign pointing the way to the local train station. On the way, she noted its location then drove to a hidden road a bit farther beyond.

“Why are we stopping?” Tom swiveled to look at her. She could see in his eyes that he felt he needed to walk on eggshells with her. She needed to apologize. “We can’t go back and help them, Joan.”

His gentle, caring tone served to ratchet her guilt up a notch higher. “Your man will be in Dallas waiting for us, right?”

He frowned at what had to be quite an abrupt change in subject for him. “Yes. He should be there by now and probably worried out of his skull.”

Joan nodded. “There’s a train station back there.”

A slow smile pulled at Tom’s lips. It would seem they were back on the same wavelength.

“Then what are we sitting here for?” Tom scrambled out of the truck. Joan paused to dig through the sheriff’s bag. She’d seen him put her camera inside along with their meager belongings.

“Catch.”

Tom turned just in time to snag his wallet out of the air. She found her camera and checked the memory card. Both were the way she’d left them. Not that Joan’d expected anything else. Barley hadn’t had a chance to touch them again after he’d confiscated them. She found their wad of cash tucked in an evidence bag. Joan freed it from the plastic and hopped out of the truck. Tom met her on the driver’s side. For the first time, they both got a look at the side of the SUV. It was filled with bullet holes. Joan felt herself tremble when she thought about how close they’d come to joining Barley and Coolidge back there in the dirt. Tom put an arm around her. He’d been right about their need to flee. This time, Joan didn’t push him away.

She took a deep, calming breath. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t seem to be all that eager to break the contact. She hoped it wasn’t obvious how much she, too, needed the comfort of his touch at the moment. Either way, he linked his fingers through hers when they set off toward the train station.

The small building had quite a few people hanging around.

There were families with small children, men and women in business suits, and some young guys in ripped jeans and t-‐-shirts.

Joan spotted the way one of the young mothers eyed the guys in the jeans and felt subconscious at her dirty appearance. Tom had dust all over him, too, but somehow, he made it look charming.

Was there any state the man could be in where she wouldn’t want to jump his bones?

Joan glanced at her dirty fingernails. Fat chance, sweetheart.

Had there ever been a more mismatched couple than a crown prince and coupon queen? She didn’t like where her thoughts were headed, so she shut them down. A pay phone caught her eye giving her a much needed distraction. She stepped in front of Tom, halting him in his tracks.

“Here.” Joan pressed the wad of cash into his hands. “You get our tickets. I’m going to make a call.” His eyes jerked in the direction of the phone telling her he’d spotted it, too. Her instincts told her he’d been thinking the same thing. If she’d still been mad at him, she wouldn’t have been able to keep it up after that. He wasn’t as unaffected by the sheriff’s death as she’d thought.

“Don’t be too long.” Joan’s breath hitched when she got the feeling he was going to kiss her. She had to admit, if they were a couple, it would be the most natural thing in the world right now.

Except, he’d been saddled with her against his will. There was no way he was feeling anything except the stress of the past few days.

She got herself under control and gave him a smile. She didn’t trust her voice in the least right this minute.

She took a couple deep breaths and forced herself to focus on her goal. She wouldn’t look back. Joan wasn’t sure how she managed it, but made her way to the pay phone. The gravity of what she was about to do hit her as soon as she picked up the receiver. Calling someone out to pick up the bodies of the sheriff and his deputy was hard enough. No sooner had she touched the phone than she realized she had no idea where to send help. She didn’t know the area. She wasn’t even sure what town they were in. How was she going to call 9-‐-1-‐-1 with what little bit she did know and get them to take her seriously?

She hung up the phone in frustration. She had to do something. Joan sighed and swept her eyes around the train station. Her gaze fell on the familiar sight of a coupon rack near the entrance. How many times had she gotten good deals from these touristy little treats? She couldn’t believe how many people ignored them and the money they could save just by picking up a few of the brochures. But that was neither here nor there.

Joan scanned the rack and selected a brochure which appeared promising. She opened it up and smiled. It folded out into a large map of the area. It took her a moment, but she figured out where they were and traced their escape route back to where she figured the sheriff was. Once she got some folks looking in the right vicinity, she had no doubt the two law men would be found.

She refused to give her name to the 9-‐-1-‐-1 operator and hung up. Joan had no misconceptions that they wouldn’t be able to find her if they sent someone looking. Her best hope was that Tom had gotten them on a train which would soon depart.

Joan joined him at a ticket kiosk. She raised an eyebrow at the number of tickets he had in his hands. Yet another was printing.

“Whatcha doin’?” She asked. He turned to her with the grin of a little boy who’d just opened his first Christmas present of the day. He added the ticket to his stash and waved his credit card at her. “There are five routes that run out of here. I’ve purchased tickets for all of them to the end of the line.” He tapped another set of tickets in his pocket. “These are to Dallas, purchased with cash.

A couple minutes before the run of tickets purchased on the credit card.”

Joan couldn’t help but smile at him. He looked so proud of his 007 maneuver that she didn’t want to rain on his parade by reminding him of their need to conserve resources. But he wasn’t finished. A train rumbled into the station so he had to lean close to tell her the rest.