Chapter 9
CARA
Iwas tearing down my tripod when Nick joined me.
“Success?” he asked.
“It went better than I’d hoped,” I answered, and gave him a quick summary of the change in direction my project had taken.
He smiled as he listened while we carried everything to the car. “I’m glad it went so well. And I’m sorry I didn’t bring this up earlier, but are you okay with the route change? Have you scoped out some different locations for shoots on the southern route?”
I frowned. “I’m working on it. But you’re sure the northern route is going to be affected by a snowstorm?”
“Sorry,” Nick said, “but the forecasters put the possibility of a major event at thirty percent. If they’re right, we risk losing days. You might not even get home for Christmas.”
Thirty percent bad news sounded like seventy percent good news to me, but I understood his concern.
He pointed to the public bathrooms building. “You need a pit stop before we get back on the road?”
“Yes. You?”
He shook his head. “Took care of everything while I was cleaning up and changing.”
Now that he mentioned it, he was wearing a different shirt. I felt a little bad about being so caught up in the excitement of my photo shoot, I hadn’t noticed. In my defense, he was wearing another black shirt, although this one had a vee neck and a slight pattern in the weave.
“Why did you need to clean up? What was this errand you had to run?”
He grinned. “You’ll see.” He shooed me toward the restrooms.
A few minutes later, I arrived back at the car to find him in the driver’s seat. I slid into the passenger seat and buckled my seat belt. “This doesn’t mean you get to pick the music yet.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I just need to test her.”
By her, I assumed he meant my car. Before I could ask for clarification, he hit the fob and the car started. And purred.
“The engine knock is gone.” I looked at him. “Did you do that?”
“I told you I’m handy,” he said. “Mason and I guessed spark plugs when we heard it. Turns out we were right. Now let’s see how much of a difference it makes to performance.”
I stared straight ahead and ignored the innuendo because I was pretty sure it was only in my own head. Within a few minutes, it was obvious the Fit was driving like a whole new car. “Thanks for doing that. You saved me hundreds of dollars in repairs.”
“Not unless your mechanic is fleecing you,” he said. “If you need the number of one you can trust, let me know and I’ll hook you up when we get home.”
“I guess I do need that. My ex inherited his family car dealerships and he used to take it into his mechanics for me.”
“Hmm.”
I was learning that Nick’s “hmms” carried a lot of meaning. “What are you thinking?”
“Just wondering...” He shrugged. “It’s not my business, but in my experience, car dealers drive their own stock a lot, and of course they get everything wholesale. I would’ve thought your ex would’ve set you up with something newer.”
“We didn’t have that kind of relationship. I mean, I never wanted him to think I was taking advantage of him.”
“Hmm.”
I glared at him.
He took the hint. “Were those his words or yours?”
I scowled, not because I was annoyed at Nick, but because he was right. “He was definitely the one to introduce the concept to the relationship.”
“Hence his reputation as a dirtbag.”
“Mason filled you in?” I smiled because I couldn’t be mad at my friend for having strong opinions about the man who had dumped me.
“On some of it,” Nick admitted. “I did some internet searching to fill in more details.” He glanced at me. “I hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable. Hazard of my profession.”
I waited for him to say more about his work, but he didn’t, so after a minute, I said, “No problem. I researched you, too. Impressive military record, by the way. At least, the parts available for public consumption.”
He sped up and blended into traffic on the highway, then patted my car’s dashboard. “She has a lot more pep now, so you’ll be safer when you have to pull out into traffic.”
He sounded like someone’s dad, but I didn’t mention it because he wasn’t my dad and there was no need to point out our age difference yet again.
I also didn’t mention that he’d changed the subject when I’d touched on the topic of his professional life.
I chewed my lip and pondered whether his secrecy should concern me.
“You okay?” he asked. “I didn’t mean to upset you by bringing up your ex.”
“Technically, I brought him up. And I’m fine talking about him. And not talking about him or thinking about him, finally.” As I said the words, I knew they were true.
“Finally. You want to talk about that? I’m a good listener.” He was using the trick parents employ by bringing up a serious topic while driving so we didn’t have to make uncomfortable eye contact.
Although I was on to the technique, it still worked.
I leaned back in my seat and stared out the windshield, then spoke.
“We were together for seven years. I was a sophomore in college when we started dating, and he had just graduated and was taking MBA classes and starting to take over for his dad at the family business. I moved into his apartment after I graduated. I was earning my MFA. And then he proceeded to complain about how much time I spent studying and working to pay my share of the bills. Which wouldn’t have been so difficult if we’d lived down to my means instead of up to his. ”
“Wait.” Nick furrowed his brow. “Are you saying you were splitting the bills fifty-fifty, even though he was working at a lucrative family job and you were still a student?” He used the same incredulous tone Gabi and Summer had when they’d found out about the financial arrangement.
He pressed his lips together like he was stopping himself from saying more.
“What?” I asked. “You can say what you’re thinking.”
“Sorry, Cara, but I don’t like this frigging guy. I’m sure I’m being unfair, but—”
“It’s okay, he’s an asshole. Even if I didn’t realize it when he kicked me out in July with a week’s notice to vacate the premises.”
“I don’t understand. He kicked you out of your own home?”
“After four years of living there.” I slid down in my seat. “It was my own stupid fault. I never made him put my name on the lease.”
“Even so, you should have had—”
“Tenancy rights. I know. Gabi’s a lawyer and was ready to sue him for me. But I didn’t want to stay there with a man who no longer loved me, and I couldn’t afford the place on my own. It made sense that I should leave. And I actually love my new apartment. It has great light.”
He smiled. “Always important for an artist.”
“And I like my roommate, and I love her cat.”
“So, all’s well that ends well?”
“Pretty much.” I didn’t tell him the rest, about all the times Riley had asked me over to the apartment, my former home, and I’d jumped at every chance. That went beyond stupid and into idiotic territory.
“You’re not stupid, by the way,” Nick said quietly, and for a minute I worried he’d read my mind.
“You were in your early twenties when you moved in with him. You made some mistakes. We all do at that age. Some of us make worse decisions than others. What’s important is that we learn from them and don’t make them again. ”
“So, we mature and evolve and become more perfect beings.”
“Nah.” He glanced sideways at me. “We find new mistakes to make.”
He held my gaze for a beat. I wondered if he was considering making me one of his new mistakes because I sure as hell was thinking about making him one of mine. But he glanced in the rearview mirror and tightened his jaw.
His full attention was on the road. “Cara, I need you to check your seatbelt for me.” His quiet but commanding tone made me do so without hesitation.
I tugged on the belt. “It’s fine.”
“Good. Now I need you to relax and trust me.” He smoothly changed lanes and took the right exit off the highway.
“This isn’t—”
“Can you trust me?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.” I did my best to remain relaxed while he increased our speed.
He was glancing at the map displayed on his phone mounted to the dashboard.
He made a few hairpin turns without braking.
I sucked in anxious breaths, but quickly calmed myself.
We were on nearly deserted roads and other than squealing tires, my car seemed to be handling it well.
Nick’s face was calm and unreadable, but his hands gripped the steering wheel, telling me he was driving this way for a reason that had nothing to do with testing the car repair.
Minutes later, we went around a sharp bend and coasted to the side of the road. He parked beside tall scrub grass and turned off the car. Before I could ask what was happening, he asked me, “Do you know anyone who drives a silver Audi RS?”
I shook my head.
“Okay.” He reached across me and opened my glove box. He pulled out a pistol—or maybe it wasn’t a pistol, but it was a handgun—and a magazine.
“I didn’t know you’d brought—"
“I’m sorry. I should have told you. But right now, I need you to listen carefully.”
I gasped as he racked the magazine into the gun and checked it.
“I expect the Audi to catch up to us any minute. The driver will either be smart and keep going, or he’ll park behind us. Assuming the second scenario, I’m going to approach the vehicle.”
“That sounds bad. Maybe we should call the cops.”
He squeezed my hand. “Cara, I’m in law enforcement.”
“Oh. Right.” I nodded. There was more to this situation, but I couldn’t figure it out while my heart pounded and my brain spun out.
Was someone after us? Did this have something to do with his job?
And how stupid was I to get into a car with a near stranger regardless of how highly Mason spoke of him?
The Audi came around the curve behind us and slowed down. So, we were going with the second scenario.
“Take out your phone,” Nick said. “Good. If anything goes sideways, dial 911. Now, as soon as I’m out of the car, slide over here into the driver’s seat, put on the seatbelt, and start the car.
Stay down, and if anyone other than me approaches the car, you get the hell out of here first, and then dial 911. ”
“But—”
“Say you understand, Cara.”
I swallowed down the huge, hard lump in my throat. “I understand.”
The Audi had parked several feet behind us but no one had gotten out.
Nick slid out of my car and kept his weapon obscured behind him as he approached the suspicious vehicle.
I did as he’d instructed, and observed what I could with the driver’s side mirror.
The other driver rolled down his window and Nick leaned in, his weapon still obscured but ready in his hand.
Seconds later, he slid the gun inside his coat, then reached in through the other car’s window.
A minute later, he stood up straight and stalked back to my car.
Relief flooded through me and I rolled down the window as he approached. “What is it?”
“You need to come with me.”
He sounded so much like I cop, I almost asked if I was under arrest.
“Why?” I trusted him, but I was a big fan of the phrase “trust but verify”.
He held up a wallet and opened it to show me the driver’s license.
It was like we’d conjured the guy out of thin air. “Oh shit,” I said.
Nick nodded. “Shit, indeed.”