5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
“ A re you sure this is a good idea?”
Elio looked across the table at Rissa, momentarily distracted from her question by the surrealness of her beauty.
She had pinned up her hair for their dinner out, and it glowed in the dim radiance of the lanterns lighting the outdoor seating of the resort restaurant. The evening dress she ordered was simple, elegant, and immensely sexy; that seemed to be her go-to style, a fact he loved. It was a dark ruby, off-shoulder gown, long and lightly flowing but semitransparent with a deep slit that came almost to the top of her thigh. Long curlicue earrings dangled from her ears and her engagement ring kept catching his eye as it glittered on her finger.
When he thought back to all that had happened over the past weeks, he could hardly believe he wasn’t dreaming—that he was really sitting here across from the woman of his dreams. Neither of them was particularly relaxed—not as they had been this morning on the deck and when swimming together in the placid lake. But they were here, and they were together.
“If you don’t want to do it, we won’t,” he said in response to her question.
Rissa bit her lip, looking down at her plate before meeting his eyes again.
“No, you’re right. It’s the only lead we have,” she said, shaking her head so that her earrings danced. “We’ve got to follow it up.”
“Okay, then,” Elio said. “We’ll reserve the taxi to take us—where?”
“Um, another touristy spot nearby, I guess,” Rissa said. “I’ll look something up.”
“And you’re sure we can request the specific car number your friend sent you?”
“We can request it,” Rissa said. “We might not get it. But it’s worth a try, right?”
“Like you said,” Elio echoed, “It’s the only lead we have. Otherwise, we’re just on vacation.”
“Which isn’t all bad,” Rissa said, her blue gaze catching his and holding it. “I haven’t had a real vacation since I started medical school.”
“It’s been a while for me too,” Elio admitted. “And I have to say, I’ve never enjoyed a day more than I enjoyed this one with you.”
Rissa’s red lips parted in pleasant surprise at his words, and Elio found himself flushing slightly and glancing away in embarrassment. It was true, though. For the space of a day, he had nearly forgotten everything: The family he came from, the mess he was in, the disparity between everything this beautiful doctor had to lose and the path he was dragging her down.
It was all flooding back to him now, but he couldn’t seem to stop holding on to her. If he let go of her now, he knew it would be forever.
The two had concocted their plan while lying in the sun on the deck of their little cabin, drinking wine and scheming as if their entire futures—and possibly their lives—did not depend upon it. Rissa’s friend Reagan somehow dug up the number of the resort taxi that had been videoed leaving the concert. Elio and Rissa decided that they would attempt to reserve the same taxi for a short trip the next morning and then question the driver about whether he or she remembered who they had ferried to the concert.
It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but other than laying low, there was little else they could do. Elio felt nervous and fidgety, partly because of how perfect and peaceful this day had been. There was no way it could last. Someone was going to recognize him, or the police were finally going to follow up on the same lead they were chasing, or . . .
He suddenly jerked his head to the right, ducking slightly, as a couple walked up onto the patio and toward the restaurant entrance.
“What is it?” Rissa asked softly as she followed his line of sight.
Elio didn’t answer right away. He felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him. At the same time, he wasn’t sure he believed his own eyes.
What had first caught his attention was the woman’s red hair—vivid and natural, allowed to flow freely down her back. What had held it was the sequins. The woman wore a midnight blue dress covered in tiny sparkling disks.
Miranda Villa. It could only be her.
What the fuck? Why is she here? How is she here?
Elio’s mind was spinning so wildly that he didn’t even register Rissa’s continued questions until she reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling his attention back to her.
“What did you see?” she demanded.
“Someone who knows who I am. We need to go,” he said quietly, surprised by the steadiness of his voice. With his eyes still glued to the entrance where Miranda and the man to whose arm she had been clinging had disappeared, he stood up, pulling Rissa with him. They wove their way between the tables to the edge of the patio and down into the darkness beyond.
He glanced back at the restaurant, but the couple were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they opted to eat inside. It seemed they had not spotted Elio and Rissa, which should have allowed him to relax slightly. But his brain was clanging with alarm bells.
Miranda didn’t just know who Elio was. She knew his entire family. And she was a wild card, always going off the deep end about something or other. The fact that she was here , right now, was bizarre enough to seem . . .
Rissa yanked on his hand, and he looked down at her in surprise, realizing that he had once again been oblivious to her speaking to him.
“Did they see us?” she asked again. “Who was it? Are they going to cause us trouble?”
“Enough trouble that I think we should leave,” Elio said, his breathing returning to normal though his mind continued to race. “We should leave now.”
“Leave the resort?” Rissa asked, and he nodded, starting toward their cabin. His hand was still locked around Rissa’s, and after a moment, she tugged on it again.
“Slow down,” she murmured. “You’re going to draw attention.”
She was right. Elio halted, forcing himself to take a deep breath. Then he continued at a slightly slower pace. Rissa leaned into his arm, her cheek against his bicep. He glanced down in surprise, belatedly grasping that she was doing it to preserve their cover. They were a romantic couple on a walk along the lake after all.
He released her hand to put his arm around her, folding her close to his side. Although he had intended it simply for show, he was suddenly deeply glad to have her to hold onto.
“We’ll get our things from the cabin,” he said in a low voice, “and then we’ll leave. I’ll explain on the way.”
If Miranda was here, it would only be a matter of time before she spotted them. Or maybe she already knew they were here.
Elio didn’t want to ponder the dark thought that was like a black hole amid his other swirling thoughts. But he couldn’t dismiss it. Something about her presence here seemed like too much of a coincidence.
Was it possible that Miranda Villa was connected to the reason he and Rissa were here? Was terrorism something that he wouldn’t put past her?
Their cabin was just ahead, and Elio was so lost in thought that he almost missed the flicker of movement on the deck. Just in time, he looked up and stopped in his tracks, feeling Rissa tense against his side.
“Is that someone on the deck?” she whispered.
There was no need to answer. Whoever had been lying in wait for them had seen their hesitation and suddenly sprang into action. Two dark figures dashed down the stairs toward them while two more suddenly appeared at the railing of the cabin next to theirs and, putting their hands atop it, leaped over, landing in a crouch on the ground beneath.
“Run!” Elio cried, grabbing Rissa’s hand and spinning around, pulling her back up the beach at a diagonal angle toward the road. Their attackers would try to push them toward the lake, his racing brain told him. They had to get past them before they had the chance. Their only hope of escape was to reach a car and make a getaway.
Rissa grabbed a handful of her dress and pulled it up around her knees, running beside him at full speed effortlessly. As if they were flying, the two of them streaked across the sand and between two other cabins, reaching the little road that ran the entire length of the resort from one cabin to the next. No vehicles were allowed on this road, meaning they were going to have to make for the parking lots behind the front office where all the vacationers’ cars were parked.
Elio was breathing too hard to say any of this aloud, but it seemed Rissa’s thought process echoed his own. Without any words exchanged, they turned together, running along the service road hand in hand. Footsteps pounded behind them, and a hand suddenly locked onto Elio’s shoulder, yanking him around and nearly knocking him off balance.
Rissa yelped, stumbling as his hand was wrenched out of hers, and he acted on instinct, pulling back his arm and throwing a vicious uppercut toward his attacker’s throat. He caught the man—who was dressed all in black with a black ski mask over his face—in the sternum, knocking him on his ass. Elio quickly delivered a solid kick to his head to keep him down.
Glancing up, he saw that the three other pursuers were farther back but making good progress.
We’re not going to make it, he thought.
At that moment, Rissa called out his name and he turned to see her pointing. The main office was a few hundred yards ahead, and a Jeep had just pulled up in front of it. A man stepped out of the driver’s door, leaving the vehicle idling as he headed for the office. A new check-in, picking up his keys and parking number.
“Hurry!” Elio exclaimed, but Rissa was already dashing toward the running vehicle. He barely caught up to her, circling to the driver’s door as she flung open the passenger side door. A woman screamed, long and loud and shrill, and Rissa stumbled backward.
Elio opened the driver’s side door and climbed into the car. Still screaming, the woman in the passenger’s seat took one look at him and tumbled out the other side. A second later, Rissa took her place, and Elio hit the accelerator before she had even slammed the door, screaming the vehicle in a circle and making for the road.