Читать книгу Proof of Innocence - Lenora Worth - Страница 11

TWO

She was running in circles. Every tree hulked like a giant monster waiting to grab her. Every snap of a branch caused her to whirl in a dizzy spin of fear and slap at some unseen assailant. Earlier, unable to sleep, she’d heard someone outside her room—and she’d seen a man dressed in dark clothing and carrying a gun. Erin hadn’t stayed around to see if he’d come to call on her. She was used to mysterious assailants trying to kill her. Going out the back and over the balcony, she’d taken the first path into the dense woods, thinking she could circle back and hide somewhere in the small town and then board a bus out. Somehow.

Now it was dark and she was soaked with sweat and the bugs were trying to finish her off. The short dark auburn wig she wore seemed to be shrinking on her head. It pressed into her skull like a wet mesh helmet and had her whole head itching with a fire that burned all the way down her backbone. The few possessions she managed to carry around bounced together in the deep pocket of the old jeans she’d been wearing for days now. She had a little cash left and she had her research notebook. She sure didn’t want to lose that since it had all her memories and all of her questions and, maybe, a few answers. Erin had to get somewhere safe before morning. Another hotel with a front and back entry, so she wouldn’t be cornered, more attempts to search online for information and clues, news articles and tips.

This was her life now, a never-ending nightmare of always looking over her shoulder with an ingrained fear that might not ever leave her. She was pretty sure she’d finally outrun her pursuer, so she planned to hike out of the woods.

Searching for any sign of the lights toward the town, she shifted in the gray moonlight and slid behind a big tree. What was that sound? Was someone running toward her again?

Footsteps echoed out over the woods and the swish of bushes being shoved aside followed. Someone was still after her.

Holding her breath, Erin closed her eyes and prayed for guidance. She would survive this. She’d heard the news reports regarding the vast array of corruption charges being brought up against Congressman Jeffries. Now he’d been indicted for some of his crimes. But surprise—he’d fled like the coward he was. At least she wouldn’t have to be the one to prove he was corrupt. But she still had to prove she hadn’t killed Michael. She knew the truth and she intended to tell that truth once she...once she what?

Turned herself in and tried to reason with the police?

Or maybe gave a long statement over the airwaves and screamed to the world that she was on the right side of the law?

Or maybe she could call her powerful father and hope that the scandal of having a fugitive daughter hadn’t ruined his position in the Senate or severed his strong ties with the Washington elite. But she’d been careful about not having contact with her father so she couldn’t start now. He’d have to report hearing from her. Knowing that being involved in such a scandal could indeed ruin her father’s career right along with any thoughts she had of her life going back to normal, Erin didn’t know where to turn next.

She dropped her head and stood there, defeated and exhausted. When she heard pounding footsteps coming toward her, she knew she had no choice. She had to run as fast as she could.

But a thought occurred to her. In the cover of darkness, she could at least try to stop the gunman in his tracks before she took off. She’d trip him up and try to hit him over the head, maybe use some of the self-defense maneuvers her father had his security team teach her. That had worked when the congressman’s aide Leon Ridge had tried to kill her the night of the murder. Maybe she could find the strength to fight off this latest assailant.

Erin crouched behind a huge live oak’s aged trunk, a broken limb her only means of protection. She waited, holding her breath, her mind whirling with the vision of her hitting her stalker over the head, tripping him with one foot while she hit at him with all her might. Then she’d run. As fast as she could.

But when she turned to put her foot out, a dog’s woof caused her to stumble. Right into two waiting hands.

Erin started fighting, kicking and screaming as she tried to gain a foothold.

The dog started barking but stood back in a frenzied dance.

And the man holding her did something that surprised her and caused her whole world to tilt.

He shouted “Heel” at the big dog, and then he called her by her name. “Erin? Erin? It’s me. It’s Chase.”

Erin stopped fighting, her fists relaxing against his solid chest, her gaze halting on the face she remembered so well. Her voice cracked and she blinked to clear her head. “Chase?”

“It’s okay,” he said on a whisper. “You’re safe now, understand? You’re with me now and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Chase.” She said his name on the wings of a prayer and thanked God for sending her a hero. Chase Zachary. A hero who had once been the love of her life, her high school sweetheart.

A man who’d also been after her for over five months.

Should she try to run from him, too?

She hadn’t asked for this and she wasn’t prepared for what seeing Chase now could mean, but for a few brief seconds, she was so very glad to see him again. “Chase? Is it really you?”

“Yes.” His fingers gentled on her skin. “Relax, okay?”

Then he pulled her into his arms and held her close while she cried. Somewhere in the back of her frayed mind, she heard the big dog woof again. But this time the sound only reinforced how relieved she felt. Relieved and safe—unless he planned to take her into custody.

“Where are you taking me?”

Erin couldn’t quite wrap her brain around Chase finding her in these lonely, isolated woods. But when she glanced ahead at the dog leading them through the overgrown bramble and tangled vines, she understood. He’d had a little help from a friend. She could try to run again, but the dog would track her down. A weight of fatigue pulled at her like a heavy, stifling blanket. The enormity of Chase finding her caught up with her until panic set in. She had to run. These people would kill her and Chase, too.

Did she really want to go back out there alone? No. So she asked again, “Chase, where are we going?”

“Away from this place,” he said, his words just above a growl.

Earlier when she’d explained someone had been after her, Chase had quickly checked the woods before moving on, and then he’d made sure he and the dog guarded her at all times. They’d zigzagged back and forth, the dog stopping here and there to sniff the wind and the ground, but never alerting. Chase hadn’t made any small talk. He was intent on doing his job—which she figured now meant keeping her alive until he could get her under lock and key. Maybe the gunman who’d stalked her was gone. But she knew others would keep coming.

She thanked God the dog had led Chase to her at a time when she’d been out of options. But that joy was short-lived. “You tracked me.”

He nodded, his hand still on her arm. But then he stopped and tugged something out from under his shirt and shoved it at her. “I believe this belongs to you.”

Erin took the soft white-tinged bundle, but it was hard to see what it was in the dark. The material glistened in the moonlight and she let out a gasp. “My elephant scarf. How did you—”

“You dropped it the last time we talked.”

Erin swallowed back the emotional agony that scraped across her frazzled nerve endings. Their chance meeting so many months ago had stayed with her all this time. They’d had a brief argument that night just hours before Michael had died. Chase had made a sarcastic remark about seeing her at a White House dinner with Michael. He’d accused her of never being able to stand up to her formidable daddy. And he had been right. She was such a coward, she’d been afraid to tell anyone what had happened later that same night—the night she’d watched the congressman shoot Michael.

She’d been afraid to contact her father, afraid the congressman would make good on his threats to kill her father or ruin his career. And she’d been afraid to reach out to the one man who could have possibly helped her. The man now guiding her out of the dark woods.

And yet Chase had kept her scarf. “You’ve had this all this time?”

“Yep. I asked your father if I could hold on to it—to help track you.”

Chase had gone to her father? Of course they’d have to cooperate with each other regarding her whereabouts. She wondered how many times the authorities had questioned the senator. She could never be sure of her father’s true motives, but she loved him dearly and since her mother had died, Erin had tried to be the good daughter everyone expected her to be. She wanted to believe the senator would tell the truth no matter what. He’d taught her that much at least. Erin had managed to stay away from her father while on the run, so he wouldn’t be forced to lie on her behalf. But she missed him so much.

“Is he okay?” she asked, tears hot in her eyes. She’d heard her father had been injured in an attack a few weeks ago, and she’d managed to sneak into a DC hospital to check on him but only long enough to make sure he wasn’t seriously hurt. He never knew she was there. But she wasn’t ready to admit that to Chase.

“Your father is fine,” he answered. “He’s concerned about you, of course.”

Chase obviously didn’t want to discuss the man who’d come between them when they were so young and full of idealistic love. But then, Chase wasn’t one to discuss his feelings with anybody.

“I’m sure he’s concerned,” she replied, wishing she could explain everything to Chase right now. “And the Eagleton Foundation? Any word on that?”

“Kind of in a holding pattern from what we’ve heard. We questioned everyone who works for the foundation. No one knew anything about your whereabouts.” He gave her a quick glance. “They’re all concerned about you.”

She’d probably be voted out as CEO of the Eagleton Foundation. If that hadn’t already happened.

“I couldn’t contact anyone. It would have put them in danger, too.”

He didn’t respond to that, but he shot her a cautious glance and guided her over a tree root.

Holding on to the scarf like a lifeline, Erin loved the softness it brought back into her life. Knowing Chase had carried her scarf all these months gave her renewed hope. But the memories the exquisite piece of her past life brought out made her want to weep. She was no longer that girl and she was no longer a part of Washington’s elite society either. The nation’s capital was a very unforgiving place.

But she had her memories, good and bad. “My dad gave me this scarf for my birthday a few years ago. You know how I love animals.”

Chase glanced over at her. “Yep. I remember you going on a safari...one summer.”

The summer after they’d broken up.

Erin wrapped the delicate cream material stamped with blue elephants around her neck. “Chase, are you taking me back to DC?”

“No.”

Thinking he’d never been a man of words, she tried again. “Where are we going?”

“Where were you before?”

And so like him to answer a question with a question.

“In a hotel up on the highway.” They wound around a curve in the path. “I’ve tried to stay in cheap hotels to save cash. I’ve worked odd jobs to keep me going.”

Which he had to have known. He’d found her, hadn’t he? Was he testing her for the truth?

If so, he didn’t let on. “Then we won’t be going back to any of those places. They’ll be looking for you at every cheap motel in the area.”

They finally emerged from the woods and she saw a white SUV with official trim work and the words Capitol K-9 Unit stamped in dark letters on its sides. In bright red underneath, it stated Caution. Police Dog. Chase and the dog he’d called Valor stopped, both of them shielding her while the man did a visual of the area and the dog lifted his nose for any air scents.

“He’s beautiful,” she said after Chase used his key fob to open the high-tech vehicle. He helped her into the passenger’s seat, where what looked like an assault rifle was mounted inside the console between the seats. Valor jumped into a clean metal compartment right behind the two front seats, his doleful dark eyes washing over Erin with a certain curiosity that belied his training.

She automatically held her knuckles to his brown nose and allowed him to get to know her. “Hey there, Valor. Thank you so much for finding me.”

Valor whimpered a reply and did a little dance to show he understood. Chase patted the dog’s head and made sure he had some water. Then he closed the side door and got into the SUV.

“He’s a hard worker,” he said while he buckled up and checked the area again. Once he appeared satisfied that no one was lurking in the woods, he let out a sigh. “Erin, are you okay? Really?”

Did he actually care how she felt? “I am now.”

He nodded and she could almost feel his gaze hot on her skin. She’d thought about his green eyes a lot when she’d been trudging through lush hills full of birch and hickory trees and old mushrooming oaks. Her heart lifted, but a solid dread brought it back down to earth. Would Chase understand her predicament?

He watched the shadows around the vehicle and then glanced over at her. “Then tell me what’s going on.”

She was so glad to be able to talk to someone she needed to trust that she pulled off the offending wig and tugged at the fake eyeglasses. Her now chin-length hair tumbled out in damp dark tufts of mixed brown and blond highlights. “Someone was chasing me. Again.”

“We’ve established that,” he said, his gaze moving over her hair. “I need to know the whole story, starting with the night you went missing.”

Erin tried to detangle her curls. “You might not believe the whole story.”

“Try me.”

She wanted to tell him everything so he could help her piece it all together. “Can we find someplace else to discuss this? I’ve been hiding out so long and I hate these woods.” She glanced out the window. “I have a mortal fear that someone is always watching me.”

He cranked the big SUV. “Okay, but... I’m about to make a call to Captain McCord and... I need to know one thing first and what I tell him will depend entirely on your answer to my question.”

“What do you need to know, Chase?” she asked, already understanding. Already seeing reluctance in his doubtful, hopeful gaze.

He held on to the steering wheel with both hands, but his gaze held hers. “Did you murder Michael Jeffries?”

Erin understood he had to ask, but her heart hurt at hearing that question coming from his lips. “No,” she said. “No, Chase. I didn’t murder Michael. But I know who did.”

Then she went on before he could say anything. “And before you make that call, I need to know if I can trust you.” She slanted her head and stared him down. “Do you believe me?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I told you—you’re safe now.”

“Okay,” she said, her shoulders feeling as if a great weight had been shoved off them. “Make the call.”

He heaved a breath then took out his cell and asked to speak to Captain Gavin McCord. Erin listened and held her breath while Chase gave the captain his location.

His next words startled her. “I have Erin Eagleton with me and I hope to be able to...bring her in soon.” Chase listened and then replied, “Yes, sir. I understand. It’s late and she’s exhausted. I plan on stopping for the night to throw anyone off our trail.”

Erin lifted her chin and pivoted on the seat. Had he tricked her? Would he turn her over to the DC authorities and just walk away?

She’d get out of this car and take off again if he planned to do that.

But when Chase ended the call, he turned to her. “Okay, I bought us some time, but Captain McCord is probably calling General Margaret Meyer right now to read her in on this. Meantime, I’m going to find us a safe place to stay tonight so we can talk. Just you and me.”

Just you and me.

His stoic, matter-of-fact words held a hint of intimacy that only reminded her of their time together.

As if to cover that, he said, “I need to hear the whole story from you before things get chaotic.”

Erin put a hand on his arm. “Thank you.”

He didn’t say anything, but she saw the way he glanced down at her finger curled against his arm. The heat between them radiated like a warm wind that rivaled the humid summer night. She moved her hand away and he put the vehicle in Reverse and took the bumpy dirt path to the main road. Soon they were speeding away into the night.

Since she didn’t have to watch over her shoulder at every turn, Erin relaxed for the first time in a long while. Chase was here. But so many questions remained between them. Maybe Chase would help her sort out all of this before Congressman Jeffries found her and silenced her forever.

“Rest,” he said. “We’ll figure this out, I promise.”

Erin leaned her head against the car door, his words echoing in her head as she drifted into the first peaceful sleep she’d had in months.