“So does the Secret Service,” Reid said in a dry tone. “Let’s put your theory to the test. If I’d set up the double tail, the second car would have pulled to the shoulder on the interstate and will be waiting to pick us up when we return. Back out and use the entrance to get us out of here.”
Nell started the car, shot it into Reverse, then drove out the same way they’d come in. Turning left, she headed back toward the interstate. Three cars were waiting in a line to make a turn onto the highway. Other than that, there was no traffic, and no one had followed them out of the restaurant. “We’re clear.”
When she put on her signal to turn onto the interstate ramp, Reid said, “Keep going. You have a GPS system in the car, right?”
She glanced at him as she reached for the button to activate it. “What’s the plan?”
“My guess is that the second tail is waiting for us near the entrance ramp, and your autograph hound won’t panic until she picks up her drive-through order and notices that our car is gone. Her first call will be to the second tail. Keep your eye on the restaurant in your rearview mirror, while I find us a back-road route to Albany.”
“Albany?” It was her turn to feel surprised.
Reid’s fingers were busy on the console. “Just as soon as we’re sure no one is following us, we’re going to use an hour of the forty-four or so we have left to pay a visit to Deanna Lewis.”
“She’s still in a coma.”
He pushed a button. “True. But I’d like to see her in person and talk to the staff. If we’d stayed on the interstate, we would have had to drive around Albany. This way our tail or tails won’t know about our visit. Any sign of the gray car yet?”
She checked the rearview mirror. “No. And the three cars exiting from the toll area all headed in the direction of the restaurant. We’re still clear.”
“Turn left at that intersection ahead.”
Once she made the turn, Reid pulled out his cell. “Keep your eye out. I’m going to text gray car’s license plate to Duncan.” After a moment, he continued, “Can you describe the woman who asked you for the autograph?”
“Sure.” After glancing in the rearview mirror again, Nell pictured in her mind the woman who’d come up to her in the café. “Long dark hair pulled back from her face with a gold clip. Not pretty, but very attractive. Early to mid-fifties, but she takes some care to look younger. Makeup, manicure and expensive clothes. She was wearing a silk shirt, gold necklace and earrings. And a ring on her left hand with some kind of insignia. Maybe a coat of arms.”
She felt Reid glance up from his cell phone to look at her for a moment.
“Do you look at everyone you meet that closely?”
“I suppose,” she said. “I never know when I might need those details for a character I’m writing.”
“Did you notice anything else?”
“She spoke with a slight accent. British perhaps.”
For the next fifteen minutes, there was silence in the car except for the low throbbing beat of the Beatles retrospective on the radio. With the road stretching out before her like an endless ribbon, Nell found her mind arrowing back to those few world-stopping moments in the parking lot when Reid had grasped her hand to pull her out of the car.
Earlier, when they’d made that pinkie wish, she’d nearly convinced herself that he hadn’t shared that hot explosion of desire that she’d experienced. But during that space of time when she’d been anticipating the kiss she’d fantasized about for years, she hadn’t been mistaken about his response. His intention. She couldn’t have felt what she had if he had felt nothing. She’d taken enough chemistry in school to know the basics. Two substances had to interact for combustion to take place.
Just thinking about what might have happened if he’d kissed her triggered flames that licked along her nerve endings.
Breathe. She could barely feel her fingers on the steering wheel.
Focus. After checking the mirror again, Nell allowed herself a sideways glance at Reid. He was texting back and forth with Duncan. Doing what needed to be done. And what she needed to do was drive to Albany. But sooner or later, they were going to have to talk about what was going on between them and what they were going to do about it.
Just the thought of “doing something” was enough to release the floodgates again. She felt the torrid liquid heat flowing through her system, enough to make her shiver.
“You okay?” Reid asked.
It’s all good, she told herself. “I’m fine,” she said.
On second thought, perhaps it was best that they didn’t talk about what was happening between them at all and just get to the doing it part. At any rate, now wasn’t the time or the place. There were much better settings.
Once more, she checked the mirror. No sign of a gray car or any other vehicle. A glance at the GPS screen on her console told her that they were still ten miles from the outskirts of Albany. With nothing but a constantly unrolling ribbon of road in front of her, Nell increased the pressure on the gas pedal and thought of where at the castle she and Reid might have their “talk.” Or not.
In the little fantasy she wrote about Reid all those years ago and buried in the metal box, the setting she’d chosen was in the gardens. She had to avoid the stone arch. Because the fantasies she’d spun about him had nothing to do with happy-ever-afters and everything to do with slow, teasing arousal and hot, unbridled chemistry.
Or at least, that’s what she’d known about those things at eighteen. The gardens had always been her favorite on the castle grounds. There was one particular spot that had been her secret place—one she’d escaped to when she wanted to get away from her sisters and even Aunt Vi. She’d even plotted out the first draft of It’s All Good there.
Little wonder her favorite place had come to mind when she’d written down her most secret and sexy narrative. There’d be moonlight, of course. A full moon over the lake and lots of stars. And the heady scent of flowers, some of which had been planted by Eleanor herself.
With the image fully delineated in her mind, she risked a quick glance at Reid. In her current reality, he was fully dressed in his Secret Service suit, all neat and tidy except for the loosened tie. He wouldn’t need all those clothes in the garden. Not any of them, if her story line went according to plan.
She pictured taking his shirt off, exposing that tanned skin an inch at a time. The moonlight would play over it as she ran her hand over his shoulders, testing the smooth, firm flesh and the hard muscle beneath. Then she’d draw the shirt slowly down his arms until it hung from his wrists, trapping them. Yes, that would be good, she thought. He wouldn’t be able to touch her as she began to explore his flesh with her mouth.
Nell? That would be the only word he’d say. The same way he’d said it when he had first seen her in Piper’s apartment. It would have the same question in the tone. And this time she’d have the answer.
“Nell, are you all right?”
She tensed her fingers on the wheel and jerked herself back to her current reality. Then she slammed on the brakes to avoid running the red light ahead of her. “I’m fine.”
“You seemed to be a thousand miles away.”
Less than fifty, if she was judging the distance to the castle gardens correctly. “Just thinking.”
“Here’s more to think about. Duncan had some luck running the plates. The gray car is registered to a Gwendolen Campbell. And she spells it the same way one of Eleanor Campbell’s older sisters did.” Reid filled her in on the family lineage Cam had told him about that morning.
“What