Chapter 15
When they stopped at a rest stop to eat lunch bought at a grocery store earlier, Allison changed her undergarments in the restroom. She couldn’t help noticing her sister had gone quiet.
No complaints. Or gushing about how overjoyed she was to marry Paul. Or how she missed air conditioning in cars.
Too quiet.
They parked their bikes together, and as Keith and Debbie walked Comet, Diana, Allison, Sam and Rafe sat on the bench at a picnic table.
Rafe was quiet as he unwrapped his turkey sub sandwich. He took a long pull of water. Fascinated, she watched his strong throat muscles work. As he backhanded his mouth, his level gaze caught hers.
“We need to talk. About how you don’t listen, Allison. You should have let Sam and me check things out back there before you took off without us.”
Appetite gone, she set down her sandwich. “I saved that girl’s life.”
“You did, but you take too many chances. I told you the rules when we set out.”
“Rafe’s right. Tried to tell you to wait, but you hung up on me. You need to slow down, Allison,” Sam added.
Terrific. She’d saved a life and they were criticizing her?
Then Diana started on her. “Ally, you should have done as Rafael and Sam said. They know what they are talking about.”
All the patience she normally had for Di and all her composure suddenly flew out the window. Allison lost it.
“Shish kebabs on a sidecar, Di, leave me alone! Stop telling me what to do and how to do my job. I’m a trauma NP. You think they can do any better than me?
“You think these guys, just because they are men, know more about injuries and treatment? Maybe they should have saved you all those years ago. Maybe they could have done it faster and better!”
Damn. She didn’t mean to bring that up, but Di pushed her to the limit. The light died in her sister’s face, and Rafe drew in a breath while Sam studied his sub sandwich as if it were fascinating.
Tears glistened in Diana’s eyes. She shook her head. “All I meant was, they’re responsible for this group. They know the dangers of stopping like you did and trying to be a Good Samaritan. And yet you go riding off, without a care, without caring about what happens to us or the consequences.”
A knot formed in her stomach. Di was right. She glanced at Rafe and his usual blank expression.
“You’re right, Di. I’m sorry. I’m being a drip. I should...”
“You don’t know what dangers are on the road, Ally. You always rush into everything without thinking. There are people out there who could kill you.”
The last sentence Diana uttered in a ghostly whisper. For the first time she noted the paleness of her sister’s face, the way her hands shook. This wasn’t about her.
Any guilt vanished in a heartbeat. Something else was going on here. “Di, what is it? What’s spooking you? Did you see something?”
A glance sideways at Rafe, who kept giving Diana a speculative look. A head shake.
“I’m tired. I want to get back on the road and to Mom and Dad’s cabin,” Diana mumbled.
She crumpled up her half-eaten sandwich and headed for the trash can. Allison looked at Rafe and Sam.
“Thanks a lot. Now look at what you’ve done.”
As she scurried after her sister, she overheard Rafe say, “What we’ve done? How is this our fault?”
* * *
Rafe couldn’t shake the feeling they were being followed. Maybe it was the usual paranoia he felt on a job, but this was vacation, or so he thought. Yet his instinct kept niggling him.
Allison wasn’t the only one concerned about Diana’s mysterious warning.
There are people out there who could kill you.
The convo with Diana hadn’t gone well. He’d mentioned to her that he knew a federal agent, Jase, who could use her help in penetrating the thick security around Hector Hernandez. Diana could provide a valuable service the same way her sister had done last year.
She’d refused, so he’d backed off, but silently vowed to approach her later with the same request.
Right now his biggest concern was getting all of them there safely. No matter how illogical it seemed, he sensed someone following them. So he’d skipped the planned stops the others on the run would make and used his GPS to plan a new route.
Rafe used the facilities and washed his hands, studying the other faces in the men’s room. Nothing unusual. No one paid him any attention.
Grabbing a cold soda from a vending machine, he sat at a picnic table watching people come and go. He’d given them thirty minutes here, knowing everyone needed a break after the traffic accident on the interstate.
The bright blue sky, with a few white clouds scudding by, and the warm sunshine made a near perfect day for riding.
More than a few motorcycles parked at the rest stop.
Rafe took a long pull of his drink. A concrete walkway snaked around the pavilion to the tall oaks with Spanish moss dripping from the outstretched branches.
He wandered over to Allison, who was holding court with another group of bikers examining her wheels. They seemed more interested in the motorcycle than her, so he relaxed and hung back.
“Custom job.” One man squatted down. “Where’d you get her?”
“Guy online wanted to sell because he was getting older and couldn’t go on the road anymore. Bought her in North Carolina after I finished a job. Call her Phoenix.” Allison patted her bike. “She rose out of the ashes of that North Carolina job.”
Intrigued, he drew closer.
“What job? Why? You get fired?” he asked.
“Nah. They wanted me to stay, but the doctor I worked with in the ER was such a dickwad that I said the only way I’d stay was with a ten-thousand-dollar bonus. So I put up with him for another three months and got the rest of the money I’d been saving to buy her, and customize her.
“She’s got T-Man heads and cams, chain drive conversion for better torque, Mustang seat...”
As she rattled off the specs for her customized bike, a few of the other men looked impressed. They began asking questions about her bike—where did she get it customized, how long did it take?
Rafe waited until the bikers left and Allison joined her sister at another pavilion.
He watched them a few minutes. Allison and Diana seemed to have made up.
Well, at least they were talking. Good to see Ally relaxed at last, the glow restored to her cheeks, the spark returned to her pretty brown eyes.
He didn’t want to be smitten with her, but he acknowledged his feelings. Ally made the other women drifting in and out of his life seem like paper lanterns. She was a bonfire, burning fiercely, unafraid to show the world what she was.
Though he knew she could hold her own, he harbored a deep need to protect her from harm. He didn’t like the ominous warning on her bathroom mirror.
Two bags of pretzels in hand, Sam ambled over. Rafe nodded thanks and tore off the wrapping. He ate without really tasting it, his gaze roving around the rest stop.
“You’re as nervous as a June bug ready to be jumped by a duck. What gives?” Sam asked.
“A feeling. Someone’s following us. You get it?”
Sam paused in eating. “Other bikers here, maybe not as law abiding, but nothing sinister. The ones around Allison seemed legit.”
Glad Sam was keeping an eye on Allison as well, Rafe took another bite of his pretzel and swallowed. “They were asking about her bike. It’s not them. I don’t know who, but my gut says someone is tailing us.”
“Why do you think we’re being followed?”
He told him about the warning on Ally’s mirror at the hotel and how only Ally’s possessions had been vandalized.
“You could be right. This run also brings together bikers from all walks of life, some of them not walking such a straight line. Could be someone in Allison’s past with a jealous streak.”
“Maybe.” Rafe set down the bag. “But I get a feeling this is something more. Hope we don’t get any more surprises on this trip.”
Sam polished off his snack in a few bites. Like Rafe, he learned to eat quickly when given the chance for a break. “Supposed to be for charity. Always amazes me how something with good intentions can go south in zero to ninety.”
Busy watching a group of bikers emerge from the wooded area behind the rest stop, Rafe didn’t reply.
“Maybe we should get on the road,” Sam mused.
The bikers who walked toward them all had a ragged air, but as one passed, he recognized the insignia on the back of the jeans jacket.
“Ex-military,” he murmured, jumping up. “Keep an eye on Allison.”
Rafe caught up to the bikers just as they climbed onto their motorcycles. He nodded to the eldest, who bore a Vietnam War vets patch on his worn denim jacket with an American flag patch.
“Thank you for your service,” he said quietly.
The man’s worn, grizzled face brightened. “You serve?”
“Not military. Government service, though.” Rafe hesitated a moment and then told him, “FBI. My uncle Jose served, though. Desert Storm.”
“War is hell, and some hells are worse than others. I’m Aldie Carlton, from Pensacola.” The vet sat back on his leather seat.
“Rafe Rodriguez, Miami.”
“You doing the Teddy Bear Run?”
“Yeah.” Rafe scratched the stubble on his chin. “Need a favor from you, sir. See that pretty woman there at the picnic table? The one in leather? She came off a bad experience on the road.”
The vet squinted. “Someone try to hurt her?”
Instantly Rafe liked the man’s protective growl. “Not sure yet. An extra set of eyes on the road would come in handy.”
“Want us to ride in front or back?”
Rafe thought quickly. “Front. You can take off now, and we’ll follow soon. And let me know if you see anything suspicious, either biker or cages,” he said, using the slang term for vehicles.
They exchanged cell phone numbers.
Aldie started his bike. “Be happy to protect your old lady.”
“She’s not...”
His words were drowned out in a choke of exhaust and noise as the bikers backed up and roared off. Amused, Rafe rubbed his neck again.
Allison, his old lady.
Not a chance.
Even if it were his little fantasy...
* * *