Bounty Hunter Ransom. Kara Lennox

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СКАЧАТЬ it as far as she could, then check into the motel and write eighteen hours a day until the thing was done, ordering out Chinese food or pizza for every meal.

      The motel was only a couple of blocks from campus, near a busy intersection. She requested a room facing Eighth Street, the main drag, where her door would be very visible to anyone passing by. This might even be kind of fun, she thought as she slid her credit card to the multipierced young woman at the front desk. She could turn the air-conditioning up, swim in the tacky little pool out back, watch trashy movies or noodle around with equations.

      Maybe if she distracted herself enough, she wouldn’t worry so much about Patti and Sara.

      With her maroon duffel bag in one hand and her key in the other, Aubrey coaxed the lock and opened the door. The room was stuffy, but she’d soon remedy that. She switched on the light, turned toward the window unit, then froze.

      There was a man sitting on her bed.

      She inhaled to scream until it registered that the man was Beau. He lounged against the pillows as if he had a perfect right to be there.

      “What—how—what—”

      “You’re usually a bit more articulate, Aubrey.”

      Instead of trying to push one of the dozen questions she had for him out of her mouth, she folded her arms and stared until the silence became uncomfortable.

      “I drove past your house again and saw you throw a duffel in the back of your Jeep,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll admit it, I was curious. Were you spooked? Had you found out where Patti was? I was worried, so I followed you here. If you’re trying to keep yourself safe, you’re not doing a very good job. Any kid with a credit card could break into these rooms.”

      “How did you know which room I would be in?”

      “I was standing right behind you at the front desk. You never even knew I was there, so I thought I would teach you a lesson.”

      “You’ve made your point,” she said, dropping her duffel and sinking into the room’s only chair. She should be furious at his high-handedness—except he was right.

      “Anyone could have followed you. Don’t you ever check your rearview mirror? I practically tailgated you the whole way over.”

      Jeez. How unobservant could she be?

      “You were right, I got spooked,” she said, defeated. Arguing with Beau would get her nowhere. “Patti got a phone call from some creep. Apparently she owes him some money.” She clenched her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. “But there’s no reason anyone would be after me. I figured once I was away from the house, I’d be fine.”

      “So what did the caller say?” Beau prodded her.

      “He said he was coming after her to get his money, and Patti would know what would happen if she disappointed him. Something like that.”

      “How much money does she owe this guy?” he asked.

      “I don’t know, but it must be more than I could come up with easily, or she would have asked me for it.”

      “What about her father? Or her brother? They’ve both got plenty of money.”

      “I doubt she would ask, and even if she did, I doubt either one of them would lift a finger to help. She’s hardly spoken to Uncle Wayne or David for years.”

      “But if she believes her life is in danger…”

      Aubrey looked pensive. “I should check with them, I guess. She had a will drawn up recently at Uncle Wayne’s firm, though that doesn’t mean she dealt with her father or brother directly.”

      Beau sat up, abandoning his lounging-tiger pose. “Let’s get back to the phone call. Did the guy threaten you or Patti?”

      “Not in so many words. That’s the same thing Lyle asked.”

      “So you already called the cops. That was going to be my next suggestion.”

      “For all the good it did. Lyle’s the one who advised me to get out of the house for a while until all this blows over. He said he’d try to track down the caller.”

      “They always say that. I’ll lay you odds he never traces the call.”

      “What have you got against Lyle, anyway?”

      “He’s a lousy cop, that’s all. The business that Gavin got caught in—”

      “Don’t talk about Gavin to me.”

      “Lyle was in it up to his eyeballs,” Beau continued, glossing over her sudden anger. “But no one could prove it.” And then the jerk had gotten a promotion. Life wasn’t fair.

      Aubrey got up and paced. Beau caught a whiff of her fragrance, perfume, or maybe just shampoo or lotion. Whatever it was, he liked it—way too much. He’d thought Aubrey Schuyler was long out of his system. But seeing her again had reawakened cravings that really weren’t useful at the moment. In fact, they’d never been useful, except to distract him from sleep on lonely nights.

      “If some guy was threatening Patti, why didn’t she call the cops?” he asked, following Aubrey with his eyes. She moved nice. He liked the play of muscles beneath her snug denim shorts, and the way he could see her shoulder blades whenever she lifted her mass of curls off her neck.

      “She doesn’t want the police involved, and I don’t blame her. After all her arrests and whatnot, she has no reason to feel good about cops. Anyway, social services keeps a close watch on her, and she’s worried they’ll take her baby away from her.”

      “Maybe they should.”

      “No,” Aubrey said fiercely. “Patti doesn’t deserve that. She’s grown up a lot since you last knew her. She’s off drugs, working and paying her bills. She’s trying really hard to be a good mother, and she loves Sara. It’s just that her past is catching up with her.”

      “A past is a pretty hard thing to escape,” Beau said. Then he sighed, hating what he was about to say. “You want me to try to track down that phone call for you?”

      “Lyle said—”

      “Lyle might or might not get around to it. Besides, he has to follow certain rules, protecting privacy and all that. I don’t.”

      “You can do that? Trace a call?”

      “Not me, but Lori Bettencourt. Her father was one of the founders of First Strike.”

      “Glenn Bettencourt? The one who was killed last year?”

      “Yeah. Lori’s father didn’t want her anywhere near the agency, but now that he’s gone, she’s there every day, begging for scraps. Ace—he’s the guy in charge now—got her started skip-tracing. She was a quick study, and pretty soon she was on the payroll. She already had a background in computers, but now she can rival any hacker out there. She’ll find out who made that call.”

      “Let’s make it happen, then.”

      “One СКАЧАТЬ