There! There she was. Linda had just appeared upon the patio. He saw her looking at the empty table. She was much too far away for him to see her facial expression, but he was certain it was one of barely controlled rage. No one liked being ditched, but Nathan was certain that she was more upset then the average person would have been.
He watched her as closely as the distance and his vantage point allowed. She turned and talked to the people at the table near theirs. One person at the table was gesturing, obviously relaying the story of their escape over the patio railing. She leaned in on the guy, who pulled back from her. Even from here, Nathan could tell Linda was not making any new friends. A moment later the man pointed down the street in the opposite direction from where they were. Nathan silently thanked the man, perhaps he too had an uneasy feeling about Linda and was intentionally misdirecting her or maybe he just didn't like having his personal space invaded and was giving bad info as payback. Either way, he was grateful for the assistance with their escape.
Escape? Yes, that was exactly how Nathan thought of it. They had escaped Linda. He didn't know just what her intentions had been, but they had escaped them for the moment. Unfortunately the other guest at the man's table either didn't sense anything wrong with Linda or value his sense of personal space and was pointing in the direction he and Paige had actually fled.
Nathan had the impulse to jump back away from the window, an urge to hide, certain that Linda would be able to spot him at the window as easy as if he were standing in an open field. He watched as she began to look up the street and the urge continued to grow until it was almost irresistible. He likely would have jumped back in the next few seconds if it hadn't been for the bus.
A city bus pulled to a stop in front of the pharmacy, blocking his view of the patio. He felt Paige give a gentle tug on his hand and knew exactly what she was thinking. He wanted to get out of here and he was certain that Paige did as well. He didn't know why she felt the same, perhaps his own paranoia was infectious. For a moment he was tempted to do exactly what she was thinking and run out to the bus. He backed from the window and even took a step towards the exit, but he stopped himself. Paige looked at him, a question in her eyes. Truthfully a dozen questions, but she said nothing. She just stood there looking at Nathan, waiting for him to decide. If they wanted to catch the bus they would have to move now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"I'm telling you they went that way, Mike," the woman argued with her husband. "They jumped the railing, stood there for a minute and then went that way."
The man began to argue, but Linda tuned his words out. She trusted the woman more, not out of some misguided sense of sisterhood, but she was just so certain. And there was the small fact that, unlike the man, her chair faced the street and she would have been in the better position to observe where the two had fled.
"Where did they go after that?" Linda asked, cutting the man off mid-argument.
The woman shrugged. "I don't know. I saw them head up the street, but after that no clue."
Wonderful, thanks for nothing you stupid bitch!
Linda jumped the railing herself, startling the couple she had been talking with. She scanned the sidewalk on either side of the street. The streets weren't crowded, but there was enough foot traffic that she forced herself to look slowly as not to overlook anyone. They were nowhere in sight.
"Shit!"
"Excuse me," a male voice from behind said.
Linda reached into her purse, grabbing her cell phone. Screw protocol.
"Excuse me, Miss," came the voice again.
Linda swiped her finger across the screen, waking the device up and began to punch in her security code.
"Miss, excuse me."
The hand on her arm startled her and she dropped her phone. It slammed into the pavement shattering the shiny screen even as the grip on her arm began to turn her towards the voice. She swung a little off balance and when she brought her foot down it wasn't on the sidewalk, but on the phone. The sound of crunching plastic nearly made her heart stop. She felt dizzy, not from spinning around, but at the thought of having to face Kassar's anger. She was briefly filled with fear, but that quickly turned to rage.
"What? What the hell do you want?" she demanded.
Her words were like a physical slap. The man released her, stumbled back a step or two and pulled his hand back against his chest, as if trying to avoid the bite of a wild animal. Oliver looked at her, eyes wide and lower lip trembling.
"Well?"
He made a sound, a barely audible squeak of incoherence. He glanced back at the table and Linda saw the tray set up next to the table with the three meals upon it.