Danger Zone (30 page)

“Bullshit!” Quinn roared behind her. Then he was in front of her again. “What the hell happened?
Something
happened in the last five minutes and I want to know why you’re running away.”

Anger blindsided Ellie. Fury, frustration and desolation hit her so hard she wanted to be sick. “Me!” she shouted. “It’s me, okay! You think you know me, but you don’t. And you don’t want to really know me, Quinn. I’m not who you think I am.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Quit talking in riddles and just tell me the problem.”

An engine roared thirty yards away at the end of the street lining the stages. A big 4x4 with tinted windows raced down the road. Ellie stepped between a large trash bin and a trailer, grabbed Quinn’s shirt and pulled him next to her before the massive truck hit him. “Slow down, jerk!” she yelled after the disappearing Ford. Some idiot always drove too fast between the stages.

Quinn didn’t seem to care about the close call. He dipped his head and kissed her. Ellie couldn’t help but melt into him. A last kiss, a last touch. She was such an idiot to think she could make something work with him. “Don’t tell me we don’t have something special,” he said against her lips. “I can taste it.” He dove in for more, but Ellie backed away.

“No. Just because we set the sheets on the fire doesn’t mean anything.” She started moving again, taking longer strides, trying her damnedest to get away from him.

Quinn kept up with her. “I’m not leaving until you tell me, Elle.”

“Fine!” She spun around and faced him. “I’m a liar. You don’t know me and if you did, you wouldn’t want to be with me.” There. In a nutshell. All the truth he ever wanted and some he didn’t.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Telling him could mean the end of her career. If he told Trace and she told the director and he told Mark…her whole life could disappear in an instant. Her stomach roiled at the idea, but she got in his face anyway. After everything he’d done for her, she’d owed him the truth. “I’m an ‘illiterate idiot.’ A ‘moron who can’t read.’ Is that simple enough to understand? I can’t read a menu or an invitation to a wedding or a script. I
can’t read.
So be a good boy and go back to your brother and discuss your company. We’re done.”

Quinn stood completely still as Ellie stalked toward the parking structure. The words he’d said to Mac came back at him with crystal clarity. All the little things that had happened in the past two weeks added up and finally made sense. At any meal, Ellie only ordered from specials or from a suggestion he made. He’d read her the note from her next-door neighbor. He’d opened and read the wedding invitation from her coworker. She didn’t own a computer.

Ellie was illiterate. The knowledge staggered him.

His phone rang as he ran after her. “Elle, wait,” he called. Quickly, he checked the screen and recognized Mills’s number. Shit. Bad, bad timing. He took the call as he continued after Ellie. “Now’s not a good time.”

“Hank never made his flight. Thought you might want to know,” Mills said.

From bad to worse. “Thanks. I’ll get back to you.”

He had to run to catch Ellie at the parking structure stairs. “Elle, wait.” But she wouldn’t stop. Wouldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt, and that hurt more than anything. She didn’t trust him. He caught her at the top of the fourth level. They were both panting. “Dammit, wait!” Quinn wrapped his fingers around her arm for the second time and stopped her. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You don’t seriously believe you and I have a future together, do you?” Her words ripped him apart. “Look how hard you’ve worked for a life of your own. Look how much I’ve had to lie and cheat. See a difference anywhere, Quinn? See how we don’t really mesh? Look…” She exhaled a deep breath. “I’m not a bad person. But I’m not the person for you.”

She headed toward her car, once again leaving him cold.

No way. He strode after her. “You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you? You know me so well…exactly how I feel and what I think about everything, huh?”

Her green eyes filled with tears. “I know you deserve someone…smarter, more educated,” she whispered.

“So all of a sudden because you can’t read, you’re not smart? Your mind is like a fucking computer. You remember everything.” That was how she did it, he realized. How she got by. She remembered everything she ever heard. “You’re one of the smartest people I know and you’ve got more common sense than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“That’ll get me real far when it comes to cracking open a book, won’t it,” she shot back.

“How the hell did this happen? How could your parents
let it
happen?”

“It’s easy when you barely talk.” She adjusted the pack over her shoulder. “I told you they checked out after Phil died.”

Quinn’s heart twisted. That her parents could leave her so emotionally stranded made him ache inside. The way she stared up at him, daring him to ask another question, daring him to care. “How could they do that to you?”

“I’m dyslexic.” She threw her shoulders back and stood taller. “I figured it out in high school. By then I was going to graduate and I had the stunt thing ready to fall into.” She swiped at a tear rolling down her cheek. “Happy now? Why don’t you just leave me alone and set your sights on another California blonde. I hear there’s thousands of us.”

He took a step forward, crowded her. “I don’t want another California blonde. I want
you.
I love
you.
”

“Right. For your last night in town. Look, it’s not hard to find an easy screw, Quinn. I’m sure there are plenty of women willing to keep your bed warm on your last night.”

Quinn swallowed back the hurt. “Who the hell are you? The Ellie Morgan I know doesn’t intentionally hurt anyone. The woman I met two weeks ago is compassionate, optimistic, funny and full of life.”

“Like I said, you don’t know me.”

“Bullshit.” He knew she was loyal to a fault and conscientious as hell. A perfectionist if he’d ever seen one and a woman who cared so deeply, she rearranged her life to accommodate those she loved. “I know you love me.”

Her eyes filled with tears and she didn’t answer him. A lifetime of moments passed as they watched each other.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love me.” Quinn felt as if his entire future hinged on her reply.

Two tears streaked down her cheek as she gazed at him. She swallowed and took a ragged breath. “I don’t love you,” she whispered.

Too bad she was horrible at hiding her feelings.

He stared at her and clenched his jaw. “I guess we’ve proved one thing.” He let her wait. “You
are
a liar. Just not a good one.” Color blazed in her cheeks as she turned and started for her car, Quinn on her heels. “So you’re just going to run away? Is that your usual way of handling tough situations? Just run home and hide in your apartment?”

Spinning on her heel, Ellie shoved him away. “Fuck you. You don’t own me. And I don’t owe you anything. If you’re worried about Ashley’s car, I’ll give you the money if that’ll get you off my back.”

Quinn heard an engine rev behind him. “I couldn’t care less about the money, Elle. Don’t you get it? I love you.”

Tires squealed and Ellie’s eyes widened as she looked over his shoulder. “Watch out!” She tackled him and they both flew over the hood of a car as a black truck whizzed by and nearly plowed them over. Before either of them caught their breath, the truck stopped and red brake lights flashed. Then white lights flashed. “He’s coming back,” Ellie shouted. She yanked him off the hood and pulled him back as the truck smashed into the car where he’d been a moment ago.

“Get to the stairs,” Ellie called. But even as they tried to get back to the stairs, the truck smashed into the cars, shoving them back, blocking their escape and starting a symphony of car alarms that deafened. “My car,” Ellie shouted, pointing in the other direction. They ran and scrambled into her Mustang while the huge Ford tried to dislodge its bumper from a similar truck.

Ellie gunned out of her spot, tires screaming, and raced down three levels toward the exit. Her control over the car was as tight as any driver Quinn knew. “Buckle up tight, then call 911,” she said, wiping her eyes and checking her rearview mirror. “I don’t think he’s going to let us drive out of here quietly.” She reached the exit and made a hard right.

Quinn heard tires squeal behind them and turned. The truck was in hot pursuit, bearing down on them fast. He pulled out his cell phone and punched three numbers. An automated recording answered. “I don’t believe this. A fucking recording,” he seethed. He tried again. Still nothing. The Mustang took a hit from behind.

“That asshole just hit me,” Ellie shouted, her disbelief palpable. “He hit me!” Next there was a pop and the outside mirror shattered. “Oh my God. What was that?” Realization dawned on her face. “He’s shooting at us!” Her hands tightened on the wheel as Quinn’s heart pounded furiously in his chest. A new focus settled in her eyes as she adjusted in her seat. “It’s him, isn’t it?” she said. Her sudden calm scared him.

Actually, calm was probably a good thing at the moment. It beat hysteria.

“I’d have to say so,” Quinn agreed. Surprisingly, with Ellie at the wheel, Quinn wasn’t as panicked as he should’ve been.

“He is so messing with the wrong person on the wrong day.” Ellie wove through a half dozen cars before Quinn caught his breath. He hung on for everything he was worth. “C’mon, asshole. Come and get me,” Ellie muttered. Los Angeles whizzed by in a blur of color and car horns. Still the truck kept up with them.

“How would you feel about taking the wheel?” Ellie asked, glancing at him.

“Huh?” A wave of fear gripped Quinn by his intestines and strangled tight. After the desert incident he hadn’t planned on driving for a good long time. “You want me to drive?”

“Slide underneath me and take the wheel. I have an idea. Just keep your foot on the gas when I let go,” she told him.

She was doing her best to keep them alive and he refused to do anything less than the same. He slid his legs under her as she leaned forward and gave him room. He got his foot under hers on the gas before she shimmied over to the passenger side. The power of the car pulsed through his legs. “When I tell you, let him get closer, okay?”

“You want him closer?” Maybe she had lost her mind. More pops rent the air as more bullets hit the body of the car.

“Yes, but wait until I tell you when.” She reached in the back for her heavy bag and pulled out weights, stacking them next to her on the seat as she kept an eye out the back window. Car horns blared all around them as they sped through the city, running lights and signs and dodging cars and people. After finishing with her first project, she leaned over him and released a latch at the corner of the window and the roof.

“Want to share your plan with me?”

“Sure.” She did the same to the latch on her side too. “When I give the word, let him get close enough so that when we release the top of the convertible, it’ll fly off and land on his windshield. By the time it blows off and he gets visibility, I’ll be in place to pound him with the weights. Hopefully, I can smash the windshield and kill his view.”

“See!” Quinn said. “That’s smart! Don’t tell me you’re not smart.”

A smile curved her lips as she kneeled in the passenger seat facing the back. “When I say ‘go,’ hit this button.” She showed him the metal button labeled Top Control under the dash and got into place. “Let him get a little closer.”

Quinn eased up on the gas just a fraction.

“A little closer…” She waited, her eyes narrowed. “Now!” she shouted.

Quinn hit the button. Ellie gave the roof a hard shove and it disengaged from the windshield. Air caught it and snapped it back before it whipped off the car, flying at the truck like a gigantic tan bat with wings. Ellie already had weights in her hands and as soon as the cover flew off the truck’s windshield she threw a fastball with a five-pound weight that would’ve made Roger Clemens proud. The weight bounced off the glass with only a crack in its wake. But Ellie didn’t stop. After every throw, she loaded up and heaved another one.

Another pop sounded and their windshield grew a hole.

“Get down, Elle,” Quinn yelled. “It’s not working!”

“One more,” she said, crawling toward the back seat. She kneeled and lifted a twenty-pounder over her head and tossed it. The tinted glass—already pockmarked with her other throws—shattered into a million lines and the truck swerved awkwardly. He bounced off a city bus and with his chassis jacked up high on the wheels, he never had a chance to recover the balance. The truck flipped and rolled, still chasing them even as it crashed.

Finally, it stopped, belly-up, and Quinn stopped too. At this angle they saw the driver’s side of the four-door cab. Not to mention the destruction they’d left behind. Crashed cars and fender benders littered the road. The bus had overcompensated after the contact and hopped the curb, taking down a meter, and dozens of people slowly began crowding the streets.

They surveyed the mess then looked at each other.

“Stay or go?” Ellie asked. “If we go, we may never find out who it is.”

Quinn wasn’t about to leave at this point, but he refused to put Ellie at more risk. Sirens sounded in the distance. “The police should be here any minute. I just want to get a little closer. You stay here.” He got out of the car.

She scrambled over the car frame and blocked him. “No way. I won’t let you go alone. If you want to get closer, we do it together.”

“No,” Quinn said adamantly. “This guy is nuts. I just want to make sure he’s not going to hurt anyone else.”

“Right.” Her eyes widened. “Wait.” She popped her dented trunk and emerged with a baseball bat. “I’ll go that way to keep people back. And if I see him…” She lifted her weapon. “He’ll be in a world of hurt.” She looked off to the side. “Hey!” Ellie started toward pedestrians getting too close to the truck. “Keep away from there,” she yelled. The wail of sirens got louder.

“Stay back,” Quinn echoed, gesturing for people to keep clear of the scene. But they weren’t listening or didn’t understand the danger because they kept creeping in.