Page 17 of Soulmates
“We need to get to the car,” he says.
It’s at least twenty feet away, but we’re both pretty fast. We should be able to make it. “Let’s go.”
A steady barrage of bullets pepper our feet, but neither of us gets hit. Using the driver’s door as a shield, I scan the space.
A flash of movement catches my eye, from the direction of the stairs. I wait, watching between cars for whoever to give themselves away. There. In the light. Auburn hair. Broad shoulders.
Connor.
He runs up the stairs, moving fast, but not vampire fast. For a second, surprise keeps me still. For only a second.
“Get in and lock the doors.” I toss David my keys and take off running. Connor’s scent hits me at the row of cars closest to the stairwell. By the time I plant my foot on the first metal riser, I’m almost delirious with it. The hair.The build. The scent. How canit be Connor?
Connor is dead.
Chapter Six
MY RUN UP the stairs is a waste of time. No Connor. No gun. Once I’m out of sight of the Escalade, I worry the gunman might have circled back around. Thinking of David, I run down the stairs even faster.
On the floor of the garage, Connor’s whisky-and-smoke scent hits me so hard, I stumble. He must have waited behind the cars at the foot of the stairs. He can’t be alive. I saw his body, still and cold and gray. My shoulder achesfrom the gunshot, but the wound is closing over. Mostly I’m angry that there’s blood on my Mickey Mouse shirt. No, wait. Mostly I’m enraged by the appearance of my former lover.
Who shouldn’t be shooting at me, even if he is alive.
“And when did he grow a goddamn beard?”
David’s silhouette is visible in the driver’s seat of the SUV. I get in the passenger side, figuring he can drive while Ipull myselftogether. He might not know his way around, but I don’t know where we’re going, so we’re even.
He eases the big vehicle up the exit ramp. “Which waydo I turn?”
“Take a right and head for the 101.” I’ve got half an idea. Maybe. “We’ll go north to Thousand Oaks and stop at the first hotel we pass with vampire-ready rooms.” It might be smarter not to stay in a place with a vamp room, because that’s the first place anyone would look for us. But it doesn’t feel right to leave David guarding my carcass all day long. At least in a vamp room, I can lock the door.
At the end of the block, the light is red. “Change of plans,” I say. “Pull it into the Walgreens lot right here and get ready to move your stuff.”
For once, he doesn’t argue, doesn’t debate. In fact, his ongoing silence is starting to make me nervous. I give him a look, but his eyes are on the road. This last round of pyrotechnics seems to have shaken the spunk out of his sassy bravado. His fingers tap a staccato rhythm on the steering wheel, and his change of mood makes me unhappier than it probably should. Can’t be helped. I’ll deal with him after I find us a different set of wheels.
David turns into the parking lot. “If you’re worried about lube, I’ve got more than we’ll ever need.”
Somehow I doubt his silence meant he was planning sexcapades.“Didja ever hotwire a car?” I ask. His smile broadens, and he shakes his head.
“See if you can accidentally tap that CRV right there.” I point to a red Honda parked in one of the darker patches in the lot.
David slows the Escalade to a crawl, turning the wheel just enough to kiss the CRVs bumper. No alarm. I scan the lot. No one’s around. “Do it again, a little harder.”
He does, harder but not hard enough to leave a mark. Still no alarm. I check my cell phone for messages, then stick it in the glove box, open the door, and hop out. “Okay, park where your headlights won’t shine on me.”
This whole thing is brazen as shit, and we’ve probably got even odds of being caught. My heart’s jumping in my throat. Most human cops I can handle, but every so often, they send a vampire out. If I get busted by another vamp, no way I’ll be able to talk my way free.
I run my hand underneath the running board on the driver’s side, looking for an “emergency” spare key in a magnetized box. I check both wheel wells on the driver side, too. No luck. David’s standing by the rear end of my SUV, waiting for my signal. Another car pulls in the lot. I duck under the flare of headlights and freeze.
Shit.
The other driver parks and jogs into the store. I move my search to the passenger’s side. If there’s no key, I’ll break the window to get in, but that’s a lot more obvious. I start with the rear wheel well because it’s closest. No key. Then the running board. Still none. The front wheel. Nope.
Disgusted, I head back to the driver’s side door.
“What are you doing?” David calls.
“Hang tight.” I reach down one more time, and there it is. A small metal box stuck underneath the car. I pry it free and break it open to retrieve the key.
