Someone Like Her(14)

 “Jesus, I’ve died and gone straight to hell,” he muttered.

 “And your punishment is a pissy woman and her evil cat?”

 His lips twitched, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Don’t forget beautiful. A beautiful, off-limits pissy woman and her devil cat.”

 She could live with that. The he thought her beautiful part, anyway, but she was going to have to do something about the off-limits part of the equation, and she knew exactly where that one came from. Her brother was going to get a piece of her mind for putting his nose in her love life. When she got up the nerve to face him, that is.

 They turned into the Bluebird Motel’s parking lot, and there was her Mustang, just where she’d left it. Maria breathed a sigh of relief. No one had messed with Sally.

 “Follow me,” Jake said once they got her and Mouse moved to Sally. He’d even buckled her in as if she wasn’t capable of doing it herself. His fussing over her was kind of cute, actually. She started to ask him where they were going, but he was already walking back to the Challenger.

 About three miles down the road, he turned into a fast-food chicken place, rolled down his window, and pointed at a parking place before getting in line for the drive-thru. Maria backed her car into the slot to wait for him. She glanced at her watch. No wonder she was hungry; it was going on three.

 After he paid and was given three paper sacks, he pulled out and motioned for her to follow him again. Mouse had quieted down when she’d turned off the car, but as soon as she started it, he let her know his opinion in no uncertain terms.

 “I’m sorry, sweetie,” she told him. “He stopped for food, so I’m sure we’re almost there, and I promise we’re not going to the vet.” Mouse apparently didn’t believe her.

 Jake headed back in the direction of her apartment but then turned left a few blocks before it. They’d travelled about three miles when her phone rang. It was so unexpected that she shrieked and Mouse, obviously believing all the noise signified the end of the world, went into hyper-super-duper-I-can-be-louder-than-you mode.

 Maria grabbed the cell off the passenger seat and looked at the ID. Jake. “What?”

 “What the hell’s going on? Why are you yelling and why does your cat sound like he’s dying?”

 She considered tossing the phone out the window. “I’m yelling because I feel like it, and my cat thinks he is dying. What do you want?”

 “I wasn’t sure if you still had your phone or if it was in your purse.”

 Couldn’t he have waited until they got to wherever they were going to ask her that? “I left it on the seat of my car when . . .” she trailed off, not wanting to talk about going to Fortunada’s house.

 “Okay,” he said, his voice turning softer, kinder. “I’m going to pull over in a few minutes, and I want you to park in front of me. We won’t be stopped for long. I just want to make sure no one’s following us.”

 “Where’re we going, Jake?”

 “Almost there,” he said and hung up.

 Why the mystery? And how did he know about this place? They were driving down a residential, tree-lined street, not a hotel or motel in sight. It was an older neighborhood but nicely maintained, the homes far apart and set well back from the road. When he pulled to the side of the road, she obediently stopped in front of him. She looked in her rearview mirror to see him doing the same as he watched the road behind them. Without doubt, he knew how to keep her safe and, right now, that was all that mattered.

 Her phone rang again and, thinking it was Jake, she almost pushed the icon before she saw it was Logan. Crap. She stared at the ID until the ringing stopped, then checked her messages. Five from her brother, each one more demanding than the last. Double crap. If she didn’t call him back by five, he was headed her way, he’d said on the last one.

 Jake waited ten minutes and, apparently satisfied they weren’t being followed, headed out again. He made a right turn, and halfway down the block, turned onto a long driveway and nosed up to the two-car garage, its door opening. He had a remote control for it? Was this his little hideaway where he brought women? All the way to Tallahassee? That didn’t make sense, but nothing else did either.

 It didn’t escape her notice that it was only a few miles from her apartment. Her brother claimed the hair on the back of his neck stood up when something wasn’t right, and for the first time, she understood what he meant. She smelled something rotten, and there wasn’t a dead fish in sight.