Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,41
births were no longer a stigma, really, even in his own social class. Hell, half the births these days were out of wedlock. No one really cared. This Ellis girl was so smart and so pretty and had even worked for the NSA. A patriot. It would work. He could make it work. Could even generate a lot of favorable press. Photos of the candidate hugging his newfound granddaughter … it would tug at a lot of heartstrings.
But … Bard was no dummy. He’d start asking questions and eventually he’d find out what Court had done. Bard would never forgive him, ever.
Court sighed as he studied Hope Ellis’s photograph.
As soon as Resnick found her, she’d be gone, and no one the wiser.
Pity.
Sacramento
“Here,” Hope said abruptly, sitting up straight. “Turn right.”
Luke slowed and turned right, into what looked like a field of weeds. On his GPS, the turnoff was in twenty yards but he trusted Hope, braked, and turned right.
Straight into, yup, a field of weeds.
The SUV was armored and sound-proofed but on any other vehicle, the sound of weeds and tree branches brushing against the undercarriage and against the doors would have been loud. They dipped into a ditch briefly and then — Hope was right. He steered the vehicle straight onto an access road that was overgrown with vegetation but that once had been asphalted.
Hope had closed the laptop and was leaning forward, not looking at her cell and not looking at the GPS monitor on the dashboard, just looking straight ahead.
The road under the vehicle became smoother. They were where they were supposed to be.
They passed a section dense with willows and oak that dimmed the sun overhead, then the road curved and there it was.
HAPPY TRAILS TRAILER PARK. The painted words were on a curved section of wood high overhead held up at either end by sturdy poles, surrounded by unkempt grassland and broken sections of fencing. The only intact thing in view was the sign itself.
Happy Trails was anything but happy. At first, Luke thought that it was a deserted trailer park but looking closer, there were a few signs of life. Not many. Mostly it was cars up on wheel blocks, sofas on dry lawns with springs showing, overflowing dumpsters, burned grass on the tiny lots.
A rat ran across the road, furtive as a thief.
He opened the driver’s side window and took in the smells. Dust and burnt rubber, the scent of linden trees with a faint overlay of sewage.
Someone shouted and got a shout in return. A dog barked in the distance. A car started up, wheezing and rattling. Definitely not an ASI or Black Inc vehicle. But nothing living moved where it could be seen. Just dirt and stone and desolation.
“Stop the car,” Hope said and to his alarm, she didn’t even wait. She unbuckled the seat belt, opened the door and hopped out just as he braked to a stop. Good thing the brakes were in perfect order.
“Hey!” Luke said as she walked fast down the center of the lane. He tried to keep alarm out of his voice as he scrambled to catch up with her. Goddammit! He was her bodyguard so she had to keep her body close to him so he could fucking guard it!
Luke tugged at her elbow to slow her down. It didn’t work. He was stronger than she was. Taller, bigger. In shape. A highly trained warrior. But he couldn’t get her to slow down without hurting her so he merely lengthened his stride and kept up.
Hope looked like a bomb had gone off inside her head. Her eyes were lit up, like green headlights, huge and mesmerizing. The dusty lane led to a small intersection, where other dusty paths led off. There was a small circle where the paths met and she skidded to a stop, her sneakers lifting a little cloud of dust.
She looked up at Luke, a frown between her delicate eyebrows. “I know this place, Luke. How do I know it? Am I crazy?”
“Maybe déjà vu? You’ve been here before? Or somewhere similar?”
“No. That I know of, I’ve never been in a trailer park in my life. I’ve never been in a place as run down as this before, either. And I’ve never been to California.”
He shrugged, wondering if the stress of her life being threatened was warping her mind. Stress did major damage to people. One soldier in an FOB had been carried off screaming that the Taliban were aliens.