Exception to the Rule Page 21

  “Boots,” he said, hearing it again. A silly grin hit his face. “Do you always name them?”

  “Of course.” She gave him a blink, taken aback. “It’s half the fun, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know. All my assets came with their own code names, which were…well, boring.”

  “Try it,” she advised. “You like words. You should be able to come up with some good ones.”

  Absurdly, it pleased him that she thought so. She grinned, a glimpse of the inner Kimmer gleaming out, and then she closed the door.

  They took the dirt road at a snail’s pace, sparing Rio—and the old car—the bumps and washboarding. Kimmer rummaged around behind her seat, snaking her arm back to produce an apple. “If you’re up to chewing,” she said. “Doesn’t look to me like they messed with your face too much.”

  “I’m pretty good with a fetal curl.” Rio took the apple, but as he lifted it to his mouth for a big healthy bite, he got a glimpse of movement through the trees—a pickup truck, a big double-cab Ford.

  Kimmer muttered something short and vicious under her breath, removing her foot from the accelerator so the Taurus coasted to a stop.

  Rio set the apple aside.

  Neither said anything.

  The truck came to a stop only a yard or so away, angling to block the road from edge to edge. Kimmer scowled at it as Rio observed, “Don’t come much bigger than that.”

  “Not your average goonboy vehicle,” she said. “I have a feeling this is an old friend who didn’t learn his lesson the first time around.”

  All four truck doors opened; four men descended from the truck.

  “He brought his pals,” Rio observed. The midday hour suddenly seemed late, edging toward the early dark with exaggerated speed. We already used our moments.

  “The bubbaboys.” Kimmer rolled her eyes. Leo had suggested the camp to the BGs, and now he’d come here to find her. “This should only take a few minutes.”

  She said it as though she expected to handle the situation by herself, but as she exited the car, Rio mustered up the dregs of his energy and slid out the passenger side, standing with slow care. Walking around the back of the wagon loosened him up again, and he stood slightly behind Kimmer as one of the men stepped forward. They looked familiar, and Rio suddenly recognized them as three of the troublemakers from the picnic, while the ringleader, Leo, was the same man who’d been interested in Kimmer.

  A whole little reunion. Jonesy, Bob, Matt and Leo. Only Shaun was missing—possibly wise enough to stay out of it.

  Kimmer faced them with a relaxed, balanced posture that should have tipped them off—Be smart. Run away—“I thought we had this conversation, Leo.”

  “I don’t remember finishing it.” Leo wore a garage cap pulled down over his forehead, and jabbed his hands defiantly into the pockets of his fleece-lined denim coat.

  “I don’t suppose you would. But I’ve got the stun gun with me, if you care to have another try.” She looked at the other men. “I’ve also still got the .38, and you can see my friendly Ruger is right at hand. There are a couple of other options—maybe you want to reassess the effectiveness of my little war club? I made it myself, you know.” But she didn’t move one way or the other; she gave them a moment to let their hands creep toward this pocket and that, telltale signs of their own weapons.

  “Yeah, you’re all decked out. Loaded for bear. Too bad we’re not bears.” Leo glanced back at his buddies as they laughed in appreciation of his wit, pleased with himself.

  Kimmer gestured impatience. “Thing is, I’m in a hurry. So if you’ve got something to say, say it and move the truck. Otherwise, how about you just move the truck?”

  “You were in a hurry to leave here the first time, too.” Leo’s nostril’s flared slightly and his lips compressed; the humor was gone.

  Leave here? When? Hadn’t the accent been an act? Rio snatched a look at Kimmer, but she was stone cold. All the warmth he’d felt not so long ago, gone into hiding.

  His reaction hadn’t gone unnoticed. Leo snorted a short, harsh laugh. “Has she been whipping on you, too?”

  Rio stiffened. It hadn’t been more than a sideswipe at Rio himself—no, it was a crack at Kimmer. Suddenly Rio had no patience for the moment—not with Carolyne waiting, not with the phone call for backup yet to make. He drew himself up, took a step forward, forgot about his bruises and his back and the sporadically wobbly nature of his knees.

  Kimmer sent a cool glance his way, indigo eyes deep and impenetrable. And Leo, his voice filled with extraordinary spite, said, “I’ll bet she never mentioned she grew up the next town over, good-for-nothing little high-school dropout, her daddy a drunk and her mother a wishy-washy little thing who died just to get away. I bet she never mentioned she was promised to me.”

  Rio wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Kimmer grew even colder. Even more remote. He held his breath, fighting the impulse to end this ugly confrontation in the beautiful fall woods with golden light all around them, leaves settling to the ground, squirrels rustling around to hide and bury walnuts and acorns.

  But Kimmer didn’t need his help. She even relaxed slightly, though Leo was a fool if he took it for a good sign. “Yeah, yeah. I grew up here in a cruel, squalid little family and then I left. It wasn’t my promise. Get over it.”

  Leo couldn’t. “And does your friend here know what you were like back then, Kimmer Reed? How you looked? How eager your family was to trade you off?”

  Silence fell over them; the bubbaboys, as Kimmer had so aptly named them, shifted uneasily, impatiently. Leo might have forgotten about Kimmer’s whirlwind fighting style, but they evidently had not; they wanted revenge, not chatter. And while Rio clenched the fist that would still clench, he knew…

  This was Kimmer’s moment. Hers to face and hers to handle.

  Astonishingly, after that long silence, she laughed. “That’s pretty sad, Leo.” She glanced at Rio. “I wore bad boys’ hand-me-downs and ugly things that didn’t fit. I was pathetic. I had scary hair—really scary hair. I had a birthmark on my face.” She shrugged, and she met his eyes with a gaze that lingered just long enough to send a message he hadn’t expected. It’s all right. It’s truly all right. “With all of that, you’d think he’d be glad I left.”

  Rio couldn’t help but grin. Not a big one, but one that included her. And she took it, and suddenly he didn’t feel like they were two people standing there, but a team.

  Leo frowned; he’d lost his emotional advantage and didn’t understand it. “All of that, and you still thought you were too good for us. It’s time you learned you weren’t. You aren’t.”

  “I didn’t deserve you,” she corrected him. “Any of you. But you taught me a lot of things, and I find those lessons very useful these days.”

  Rio’s grin faded; he winced inside to think of what lessons a young girl could possibly learn from her family to prepare her for her role in high-stakes undercover operations. She should have been learning about support and sticking together and unconditional love.

  Kimmer glanced back at him, and this time it was something of a warning. She’d seen a change in these men that he hadn’t. He scrutinized them, found only the same impatience he’d noted before—and then realized it. Leo had faltered slightly; he watched Kimmer with a slight frown instead of impending domination. And the bubbaboys had seen it, too. They were about to demote Leo and take over the action. Time to throw a few punches, to regain face and walk away on top. Foolishness. And a total waste of precious time.

  But it was still Kimmer’s show. She stood hipshot, one hand resting where her belt cinched around the tight curve of her hip. Only the dip of motion away from the .38, though Rio didn’t think she’d go for it. These were fools, not criminals. Kimmer cocked her head slightly at Leo. “For instance, it was hiding from you and brother Buddy that started me off on my night-ops skills. And all those close encounters—you never got more than a hand on me, did you? No one touches me now.
Not unless I say so. Those sorry goonboys at Angelina’s learned that one well enough, didn’t they?”

  Leo startled; so did Bob just behind him. The others were so busy mentally assuming command and initiative that they didn’t pay attention to Kimmer’s actual words, and Rio softly moved forward another step. Leo gave Kimmer a careful, assessing look. “That shooting at the B&B—that was you? What the hell are you into?”

  “Who the hell cares?” snapped Jonesy, and shoved past Leo to grab Kimmer by one arm, his expression full of premature triumph. “Now, what was so hard about this?” He turned to Kimmer with something of a leer and said, “Now you’ll learn a little respe—”

  Kimmer shifted, a twist of quick, precise movement. Jonesy hit the ground with a hollow thump, driving the air from his lungs. When Kimmer straightened she had her foot at his throat and his arm yanked high at a bad angle, the wrist and elbow torqued to the breaking point. Rio didn’t wait for his buddies to react—he flung Leo up against the truck, planting his foot in a high kick to nail Bob right below his breastbone. Bob doubled over to gag up his lunch while Rio staggered back against the Taurus and wrapped his hand around the door handle for a crutch, his back flickering in and out of spasm.

  Matt backed off, hands raised in instant surrender. “Dammit, Leo, I knew we should have just drawn on them to start!”

  Rio nodded at Kimmer, who maintained her grip on Jonesy’s arm and yet had the .38 aimed steadily at Matt’s oblivious head. “You’re lucky you didn’t, I’d say.”

  Matt paled and backed up a step.

  Kimmer smiled her tight little dangerous smile. “You know, I’m in a hurry. I’m trying to save the world here, and you’re messing with me.” She turned her attention back to Leo, who’d regained his balance but still stood back against the truck. “A dozen years ago doesn’t matter now. Now matters. And I’m not part of your now. Unless—” she gave him a considering look “—unless you want to help.”

  Leo’s inadequate jaw went slack, but only until he found a few startled words. “What the hell—?”

  Kimmer grinned. She had him right where she wanted him. She had herself right where she wanted to be—free from her worst fears, free from the ever present worry that her past would come back to slap her in the face. And so it had, but she wasn’t that person anymore. That past had no hold on who she was now. She’d faced it, and here she still was. And there was Rio beside her, backing her, showing her new ways to be. So she grinned at Leo and said, “Yeah, you. I need some backup here—I don’t think my people will get here in time. I need someone I can count on. It’s a terrorist thing, more or less. We’ve got our differences, but I remember you as being a patriot, Leo.”

  More like someone who saluted the flag just so everyone could see him do it, but nonetheless, it might work. And did, for Leo didn’t even think before his response popped out. “Damn right!”

  “I’m after some people who took someone important.” She glanced at Rio, found him trying to pretend he wasn’t leaning on the Taurus. She didn’t even want to think about what that lightning-quick maneuver at her side had cost him. His worry for Carolyne had settled into his eyes, drawing expressive eyebrows closer together. “Something crucial to our country. I know where they’re going, and I’m headed to stop them. I need backup…from someone who can handle it.”

  Rio made a noise in his throat, a surprised protest. At what, she wasn’t certain. She kept her attention on the men, satisfied to see she’d caught Leo’s attention. The bubbaboys were less certain, even as she slowly released the man in her grip, stepped back and lowered her gun. “Not backup so much as someone to carry an important message if these guys get past me. We’re talking about a couple of hours, and you get to come back and tell your buddies all about it.”

  Jonesy had staggered to his feet, rubbing his arm; it didn’t seem to work quite right. “Leo, she’s crazy. You’re crazy if you’re listening to her!”

  Kimmer smiled. Thank you, Jonesy. If anything would push Leo over the hump of decision, that would do it. And then he’d quit thinking about his revenge, and start looking at this new opportunity to make himself feel big, and she and Rio could leave, dammit.

  Right on cue, Leo pushed himself away from the truck to stand straighter. “And you might just be walking home, because for all the puny things Kimmer Reed ever was, a liar wasn’t none of them.” His expression grew more sour. “She always told me to go right to hell.”

  Bob still had a pained hunch to his walk as he moved up beside Leo. “So you want us to stake out a spot and make sure these guys don’t get past?”

  “Stake out, yes. And I’ve got a license-plate number for you. But what I need is for you to call a number I can give you, and let them know if the car goes by.” She looked back to Leo, locking gazes with his washed-out blue eyes. “But that’s it. These men are ruthless. They’re international mercenaries. If you step in, you’ll threaten them and they’ll kill the woman who has the information we need.” She pointed to her head. “In here. So if she dies, we fail. That means I need to go in alone.” Total bull, as she’d love to have a dozen Hunter associates in on Carolyne’s rescue. But this particular conversation was about saving face for Leo. She gave him a shrug. “It’s one way to put one over on me, Leo. I can’t leave you behind in the past if I owe you my life—and Carolyne’s.”

  He grinned at her. It wasn’t pleasant. “No, you damn well can’t.”

  Bob squinted suspiciously. “If you’re setting us up—”

  “As if,” Kimmer said, and gestured at Rio. “Or do you really think I did this? Or that it’s a coincidence I hit town about the same time as Rio and his cousin? She’s the one in trouble. The country’s security depends on getting her back.” Laying it on thick, she was. But then, these guys probably watched Walker, Texas Ranger and were used to it.

  Rio made the slightest of noises—a catch of breath, a suppressed grunt of pain—and Kimmer let her impatience show. “Look—help us, or don’t. But at the least, move that truck so we can get on with it!”

  “Be nice.” Leo scowled back at her. “Do you want our help or not?”

  Pride. Swallow. Hard. “Yes,” she said. “I really do.”

  Bob and Leo exchanged glances. Leo said, “We’re in. These other two can come along or walk home—up to them.” He gave the two in question a smirk. “You’ll be damn sorry when the whole town hears you walked away.”

  Jonesy gave a little grunt. “We’re coming. Anyway, we can pick up a six-pack if things get boring.”

  Kimmer sighed with relief. She didn’t know if they’d follow through or not, but as long as they moved the truck out of the way, she wasn’t going to worry about it. Because when it came right down to it, she didn’t intend to fail. She didn’t intend to need their backup. “Got a pen? Paper?”

  While Leo rummaged in his glove box; the others took the opportunity to climb back into the truck. Kimmer moved closer to Rio, offering him a wordless expression of concern; he shook his head slightly and she closed her mouth on further questions as Leo backed out of the truck with a pen and a crumpled, unopened envelope labeled Final Bill, holding them out to her in triumph.

  “This,” she said, scribbling, “is the plate number. It’s a dark green Grand Am. And this is the number to call if it goes past you. I need you to stake out the exit of that rest stop just south of Erie. If they leave it, call.”

  Leo said promptly, “I’ll call right now,” and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, looking as if he thought he’d pulled one over on her. “Just to check your story.”

  “A phone!” Kimmer said in delight. “Call, call, call!”

  Not the reaction he’d expected. He punched the number in and Kimmer waited impatiently for Owen to pick up the phone. Leo swaggered a little in voice and body when he said, “I’m calling about Kimmer Reed. I want to know if she’s working undercover—if it’s a terrorist type thing.”

  Owen would certainly say no such thing. Kimmer raised her
voice. “Go, Owen! It’s Disneyland!” And dammit, now they’d have to assign a new code word.

  Moments later, Leo’s eyes widened with surprise. Kimmer took it to mean Owen was laying it on thick. She held her hand out, impatient and couldn’t help but bounce up and down a couple of times, raising an eyebrow at Rio when he smiled. Slowly, Leo handed the phone over, eyeing her somewhat warily.

  “Owen?” Kimmer demanded.

  Owen said, “I gather our hopes for your cover were optimistic, and this is an old friend of yours?”

  Not stupid, her Owen.

  “Essentially. Look, how fast can you get backup just south of Erie?”

  “Not a secure line,” he reminded her.

  “Not a secure situation,” she shot back.

  He sighed; it was his only acknowledgment of just how difficult this assignment had become. No need to tell him that, either—she wouldn’t be calling under these conditions given any other choice. “Summarize.”

  “Goonboys have Carolyne. We plan to intercept just south of Erie. The rest station. Rio’s…compromised. I need backup—these particular goonboys are big-time.” She cleared her throat. “I also need a little cleanup. And I’ve got some hard copy—it’s something you’ll want if things go bad.”

  Owen hesitated; she heard the faint clack of his keyboard. He muttered something under his breath, a startling breach of his impassive facade. “Four and a half hours. I can get you three bodies, but it’ll be four and half hours.”

  “Neither chopper is available?” Kimmer asked in disbelief. “We could be three bodies by then.” Leo started, straightening, and she looked over at him to mouth “No” with the firmest scowl possible. He’d gotten into the idea of being the patriotic hero, all right. Maybe a little too much.

  “One’s out, one’s out of commission—just happened. If the situation’s that bad, Chimera, don’t forget your primary objective.”

  He’d called her by her code name for a reason. The “suck it up and do what’s right even if it’s hard” reason. Kimmer spun on her heel, stalking over to the edge of the woods to turn her back on them all. Leo didn’t even try to stop her. “Listen, Owen, you’re the one who sent me down here. You’re the one who wanted me to get all touchy-feely, to ‘come out of hiding.’ Well, it worked. And this isn’t someone I can just write off. Not like that.”