Past Sins. Debra Webb

handbag and retrieved the carefully folded shopping bag.

      The owner made a choking sound that might have been a laugh. “You want me to fill your Neiman Marcus bag with guns?”

      “Do you have a problem with that?”

      All signs of amusement disappeared. “How do I know you have cash?”

      She took the wad of cash she had in the right pocket of her jeans and smacked it onto the counter. “I need ammo for my 9mm Beretta. Binoculars, a hunting knife and maybe a .32 for backup. Oh, and I’ll need some metal handcuffs if you have them.”

      He nodded, still a little uncomfortable with the transaction. “Need any night vision?”

      Her spirits lifted. Definitely. “How much?”

      “Three more on top of what’s on the counter and I’ll set you up with everything you’ve asked for.”

      Left-pocket contents as well as what was in her handbag joined the twenties on the counter. “That’s as good as it gets.” She’d just dropped nearly four grand on his battered counter. He’d have to be happy with that.

      All signs of uneasiness were gone now, replaced by greed and hunger. He reached for the cash as well as her shopping bag. “Three minutes is all I’ll need.”

      She held on to the bag a moment before letting it go. “Three minutes is all you’ll have if you try to fuck with me.” The tone was all Sheara…one she hadn’t used in a very long time.

      The owner nodded and rushed to the back of his shop, the Neiman Marcus bag in hand.

      Olivia moved to the door and checked on Jeffrey. No one appeared to have approached the SUV.

      Once they were out of this town she would breathe a lot easier.

      In less time than he’d proposed, the shop owner returned from his pilgrimage to the back of the store. He’d hardly made a sound, but she’d heard him. Her old instincts weren’t gone for good.

      “Everything you asked for.” Careful to support the bottom of the bag, he settled it onto the counter. “You should take your stuff and go. Now.”

      She approached the counter. “As soon as I’ve inspected everything.”

      The muscles of his throat worked as he struggled to swallow. “Suit yourself.”

      The .32 was brand-new. Plenty of ammo. Binoculars, good ones. The handcuffs jingled as she picked them up. “Keys?”

      He nodded. “In the bag. Seriously, lady, you gotta get outta here.”

      “In a minute.” She dropped the cuffs into the sack and reached for the coup de grâce, the night vision. Military. Seriously illegal but the best on the market.

      “Excellent.” She hefted the bag into her arms.

      Neither of them spoke as she exited the shop. No “come again” or “thanks for shopping with us” followed her out the door. But she hadn’t expected either.

      She hit the remote unlock button and deposited her purchases on the floorboard behind the driver’s seat.

      “I was beginning to get worried.” Jeffrey looked relieved that she’d returned to the vehicle. One glance at the guys still hanging out on the sidewalk a little farther up the block had him urging her to hurry. “Olivia, I think you should get in now so we can get out of here.”

      She closed the back door and climbed into the driver’s seat. “I’m in. I did a little shopping while I was in there.”

      Too engrossed in what might happen next, Jeffrey didn’t comment on the idea that she’d shopped in such a place. He depressed the lock button and heaved a relieved breath. “I feel immensely better now.”

      It appeared he might have spoken too soon. As she started the engine two of the men from up the block pushed off the wall they’d been supporting and headed her way.

      “Olivia, where’s that pepper spray you carry?” Jeffrey braced one hand against the dash and reached toward her purse with the other.

      She grabbed his hand before it reached its destination. “Let’s just get out of here.” After a quick glance in the rearview mirror, she shifted into Reverse and floored the accelerator.

      The Explorer lunged backward. She didn’t slow down until she’d reached the end of the block. She shifted into drive with a jerk and executed a U-turn in the middle of the street. Her foot slammed back onto the accelerator and they headed away from the jerks who had stopped chasing them and now stared after the Explorer.

      It would have been difficult to say whether the guys simply wanted to have a good laugh by scaring them or if they’d intended more. No point hanging around to see. Her money was on the former. It was the perfect setup. Let the pawnshop owner sell the goods, then steal them back. He could sell the same items over and over. Who was going to report him? Certainly not those, like her, desperate enough to buy weapons illegally.

      “That was…” Jeffrey twisted around in his seat, the safety belt restricting his movements, to verify that they weren’t being followed. “Amazing. I’ve never seen anyone back up that far—at that speed—without crashing!” He craned his head to the right and then to the left as if she’d given him whiplash while accomplishing the feat he’d just witnessed with such admiration. “I’ll never again doubt your ability to get out of a sticky situation.”

      “I only knew I had to get out of there.”

      Yet another lie. She’d had extensive training in just that sort of maneuver in her former life.

      Jeffrey chuckled. “I guess we’re just lucky you had the presence of mind to think of it, much less do it.”

      She made a noncommittal sound. Luck had nothing to do with their survival thus far, but she would take all the good fortune fate decided to toss her way.

      “At least we can breathe easy now,” he said as they took an exit to the freeway. “We’re out of the woods.”

      He just didn’t know. They were far from out of the woods. The real trouble hadn’t even started yet.