Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,60
from side to side. “Looks like you’d already checked out of this place.”
Cade tucked Gavin under the covers of one of the double beds. “We took our stuff in case we had to leave from the warehouse. Is it okay if Gavin falls asleep without brushing his teeth again?”
“I brushed them before we left.” She dug into the plastic bag from the drugstore and put a bottle of alcohol, a roll of bandages and a pair of scissors on the table. “I’m going to get a washcloth from the bathroom.”
“I’ll go down to the car and bring our bags back up.”
After Cade left the room, Jenna engaged the chain. Then she grabbed two washcloths from the stack on the glass shelf above the sink. She soaked one with warm water and returned to Beth, sitting at the table gazing at Gavin.
“Must be hard on him, huh?”
Jenna shrugged. She was done piling the guilt on Cade. She wasn’t going to lay into him again with one of his coworkers. “It’s true what the experts say. Kids are amazingly resilient. Gavin’s life is in turmoil right now, but he has two loving parents, and he just discovered he had a daddy. Now, sit still.”
With tentative fingers, Jenna brushed Beth’s dark hair to the side. Clotted blood flowered out from a deep gash. “Ouch. What did they hit you with?”
“I have no idea. All I know is it hurt like hell.”
Jenna dabbed the wet washcloth around the wound to clean off the blood. “You might need stitches.”
When she’d cleaned the cut, Jenna drenched the second washcloth with alcohol. “Sorry, this is going to sting.”
“All for the greater good.” Beth squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw.
By the time Cade returned to the room with the bags, Jenna had cleaned and bandaged Beth’s head. “She has a bad cut and some swelling, but she seems fine.”
Beth waved her away. “I’m okay. Thanks for your help.”
Cade dropped the bags in the corner of the room, dipped into the minibar and emerged with a couple of bottles of booze in one hand and some mixers in the other. “Straight or with a splash of juice or soda water?”
“Is there bourbon among one of those lovely little bottles?”
He pinched one bottle by the neck and held it up. “Only the finest.”
“I’ll take one of those—straight.”
Cade reached for a glass, but Beth stopped him. “I mean straight from the bottle. Hand it over.”
He set the bottle on the table in front of her with a click. “What happened in there?”
Beth unscrewed the lid and tipped half the contents down her throat. She wrinkled her nose and cleared her throat. “God, I needed that.”
“Start from the beginning. Where were you going to settle us?”
“A midsize town up in Oregon—big enough to get lost in, small enough to keep track of your neighbors and coworkers. I’ve found that’s the ideal situation.”
Jenna pulled out the chair across from Beth and sat down. She could be an analyst for Prospero because that’s exactly the program she’d followed when hopping from place to place. “You had everything ready for us?”
“We had ID—social security cards, birth certificates and we were ready to prepare drivers’ licenses once we took your pictures. We even had a variety of disguises for you in case you wanted to use them going forward.”
“All that was gone when we got there.” Cade ran a hand through his hair and clenched the back of his neck.
“They took it.”
“Who’s they, Beth?”
“Jeff and I were setting everything up, waiting for you. Jeff didn’t have his weapon drawn because he was just expecting you.”
Cade crossed his arms and wedged a shoulder against the window. “You should always expect the worst.”
Beth took a small sip of the bourbon and continued. “We’d left the door to the office open for you. I had my back to the door and the next thing I knew, a couple of people in black ski masks burst in. They shot Jeff. I turned toward the warehouse and that’s when they clobbered me.”
“What do you think they hit you with?” Cade drew his brows together. “I didn’t see any weapon on the floor.”
“All I know is that it was hard.” She ran her fingers along her bandage. “I didn’t even see them come at me.”
Jenna squeezed Beth’s hand. “You were lucky they didn’t shoot you, too.”
“That’s what’s puzzling me.” Cade scratched the stubble on his chin. “Why didn’t they just shoot you, too, and be done with it? And why