Second Chances(38)

"Oh for Christ's sake!" She reached into her purse. Her hand brushed her gun and for the briefest of moments a sick little fantasy played through her mind. It was the sound of the heavy motor rumbling the vehicle forward that drew her attention away from the gun and may have saved Oliver's life. In her current state, Linda might well have acted on her desire, however insanely foolish it was. Her conversation with Kassar had rattled her, and the one she was going to have to have with him terrified her even more. She looked at the source of the noise and saw the bus up the street begin to move in her direction, a cloud of black smoke trailing it.

"The bus, they got on the bus," she mumbled to herself. She hadn't seen it happen, but she was certain she was right. Where else could they be? She hadn't been away from the table long. The bus seemed like the only answer. She tried to look in the windows as it sped up and lumbered past. The sun reflecting off the dirty windows made it near impossible to see anything, but she was certain she saw Paige looking back at her from one of the windows.

"Shit," she said to herself as the bus continued on down the road. She looked at the license plate, but the thing was dirty and the only thing she was certain of was that there was a number three in it. Kassar was going to kill her. Perhaps literally.

Oliver made another noise, still nothing too vocal or coherent, but it drew her attention back to the man. She pushed the gun aside and grabbed some cash. She tossed it at Oliver, who jumped back until he realized what it was that she was throwing at him. He tried to catch the money, but failed. He picked up the two bills that had landed on his side of the railing, but the third had landed on the opposite side. At no time did even consider asking the crazed woman to pick it up for him. For a moment he thought she was going to do it anyway, but soon realized she was scooping up the pieces of her shattered phone. He waited until she started moving away before climbing over the railing himself and snagging the last bill. He counted the money and realized it wasn't enough to cover the entire bill, but it was close enough as far as he was concerned.

He climbed back over the railing, offering a weak smile to the restaurant patrons around him. He looked back, watched the crazy woman get into a parked car and pull out into the middle of traffic. Tires squealed and horns honked, but she managed not to crash and moments later she was gone.

"Too bad no one hit her," Oliver mumbled to himself. He walked over to the tray he'd set down by the table. He grabbed the fresh vodka tonic and downed it before retreating into the safety of the restaurant. The hell with the tray of food, let the busboy clean it up.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN



They were able to witness the entire scene from their vantage point by the pharmacy window. Neither of them knew exactly what was being said between the waiter and Linda, but they got the gist of the exchange. Paige gasped when Linda pulled into traffic, cringing a little as she witnessed the narrow misses. Nathan found he wasn't surprised at all.

"She's following the bus," she said. "Isn't she?"

"I think so."

It was true. Linda had believed that they had gotten on the bus and was following it. Would she try and get it to pull over? Would she try to get on and search it? Was that possible? Was that rational? What exactly was going on? What had they gotten into? Those were not the actions of someone who had just been ditched by an old friend. He didn't know who the heck acted like that, but he was now very glad they hadn't gotten on that bus.

"Nathan?"

He shook his head, too many questions and not nearly enough answers swirling around in his mind.

"Nathan?"

He looked away from the window and turned his attention to Paige. She was visibly shaken and that was completely understandable. So was he. It wasn't often that...that what? What exactly had just happened and what exactly had they just escaped from? That is what it had felt like, an escape. Both of them believed that to be true.

"Why did we just do that?" Page asked. "I...I mean, I think we did the right thing. I don't know why I think that, but I do."

The question echoed in his head and he answered as best as he could.

"I don't know." And that was the truth, he didn't know everything or maybe even much of anything. However, he understood Paige's question.

"Why?" she asked again.

Nathan held up a finger, asking for a moment. He glanced out the window again, all quiet now, and then motioned for her to wait there. He turned and walked over to the checkout counter. An older man, who was desperately clinging to the belief that he wasn't bald by the way of a four strand comb-over, stood behind the counter by the cash register. He'd been watching the couple since they had arrived. He had been trying to figure them out, standing there huddled together whispering to each other. Had they been a younger couple, he'd have guessed they were there to buy condoms but were too embarrassed to complete the transaction. But they definitely weren't kids so he didn't have a clue what they were doing, but as long as they weren't stealing anything or trying to rob him, he really didn't care. One thing he was certain of though. They were tourist and he hated tourist.