Second Chances(93)

"That's total crap, on so many levels," she said, kissing him again. "How many hours, weeks, heck years did you struggle to remember things that just seemed a bit out of reach. That would be torture for anyone, but for someone of your intelligence? No, blissful ignorance doesn't sound right. Pure hell is more like it."

He nodded, knowing he couldn't fool her. "Sometimes." He released her and took a few careful steps with his hand on the car for support, then let his hand drop from the car and took a few more.

"See, you'll be running marathons in no time."

He smiled and looked back at her.

"I don't know about that. I never ran them before. Besides," he said, rubbing his right leg. "I don't think I would be up for that kind of punishment."

"He had it set wrong, didn't he?"

Jason shrugged and refused to look her in the eye.

"Such a son of a bitch."

Jason nodded.

"So I walk with a limp. There are worse things. Besides, some women think a man with a cane is sexy."

Julie laughed and walked over to him, hugging him tightly again.

"You've always been sexy to me."

"Thank you. Really, Julie, I don't have the words."

"I wasn't about to abandon you, Jason. I love you, always have."

She could see he wanted to say something, perhaps to speak of memories that were only partially there, but the words just wouldn't come.

"Anyway, you keep exercising those legs. I need to change these license plates to the real ones."

Julie walked to the trunk and popped it open. She grabbed a small toolbox and pulled back the mat in the trunk and removed two Massachusetts license plates. She knelt down and began to remove the back plate, as Jason continued to slowly circle the car. She had managed to remove the back plate by the time Jason had reached the front again.

"You had two different plates on the car?" He asked, laughing and shaking his head.

She stood and walked around to the front, holding the plate she had just removed. She held the plate in her hand next to the one still attached to the front of the car. They were both Rhode Island plates. The numbers and letters on the plates were similar but not matching.

"I figured that someone would report losing two plates, but might not notice if only one were missing. I tried to get them to match as close as I could, not that I thought anyone was going to pay that close attention. But I figured why risk it. When I was planning part of this caper, I was thinking I might use this car to get you from Ocean View. I figured there would be witnesses and it would help if people argued over the license plate details."

"Smart thinking."

"I don't know about that. I realized it made no sense to take this car. I was going to be identified as the one who took you anyway. Might as well use my normal car and then switch it out for this. If we got lucky and no one saw us switch cars then these plates were pointless, if however we were seen or picked up on the parking lot camera then these plates might throw them off a bit. They will be looking for these fake plates, not the real ones."

"And this car can't be traced back to you?"

"Nope. Paid for in cash and registered to Mrs. Rebecca J. Young."

"Who?"

"Me, or at least that is what my new documents say."

"And who am I?"

"Why Mr. Young of course."

"So," he said with a smile. "This has all been an elaborate marriage trap?"

She dropped the license plate, then hugged and kissed him.

"You know it. Did it work?"

He held her face in his hands, looking deeply into her eyes.

"You know how I feel, don't you? I wanted to marry you so long ago. The timing, the circumstances..."

"I know, Jason."

"Do you?"

She smiled. "Do you really need to ask? The years I spent...staying with work, doing...what I needed to do. The last few years I spent researching how to get us free. Do you think I would do that if I wasn't sure of how you felt?"

He answered her with another kiss, long and deep.

"I can't tell you how much I have missed you. Have missed that," Julie said when they ended their embrace.

"Perhaps we should test just how much of my strength I have gotten back."

She blushed and shook her head.

"What? We have years to catch up on, don't we?"

"Later. We still need to put some more distance between us and Cameron. Let me finish with these plates and then we need to get goi..."

She stopped talking. She waited a minute and then the noise came again, a series of five beeps from inside the car. She left Jason and walked around to the front door. The noise came again and she realized it was from her purse. She reached in and pulled her purse out then unzipped it. The sound was coming from the cigar box they had taken with them from Ocean View. She looked from the box to Jason and back as the beeping came again. She opened the box and her eyes went wide. Inside was an old yellow Motorola cellphone."