Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,64
nightshirt, the awkwardness of their situation highlighted by the morning sun. “Cade, let’s get ready and head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast and give Beth some privacy.”
He tossed Gavin onto the bed. “It’ll take me two minutes to shower.”
“And Gavin had a bath after his swim last night. It won’t take me more than ten minutes to shower and dress.”
“Then I’ll catch a few more winks of sleep.” Beth buried her face in her pillow and pulled the covers over her head.
Jenna busied herself with dressing Gavin and packing up their things—again. When Cade stepped out of the bathroom, she handed Gavin over to him. “Why don’t you go downstairs and get us a table. I’ll join you in ten minutes.”
Jenna zipped through her shower and pulled on a pair of jeans and a black turtleneck. She ran wet fingers through her dry hair to fluff it up, and then peered out of the bathroom door.
A muffled sob came from the depths of the covers on Beth’s bed. Jenna crossed the room and patted her shoulder. “I’m sorry about Jeff.”
Beth yanked the covers off her head, and her eyes glowed with anger. “He’s going to pay—whoever was responsible.”
“I’m sure he or they will once Prospero finds out who ambushed you.”
“Prospero...Cade has a lot more faith in the organization than I do. He’s in the field and is removed from the petty politics. It’s like any other government agency, and just like any other government agency, it has its bad eggs, its slackers, its power hungry, its traitors.”
“Then I guess you just have to put your faith in the men and women in the field. They’ll get justice for Jeff.”
“You have a lot of faith in Cade, don’t you?” Beth had scrunched up the pillow behind her back and scooted to a sitting position.
“Of course I do. He has saved me and Gavin again and again these past few days.”
“That’s good. You’re lucky you found someone like that.”
Her eyes misted over again, and Jenna patted her hand. “Prospero Team Three will avenge Jeff’s death.”
Jenna left Beth so she could get ready on her own, and she joined Cade and Gavin at breakfast, already digging into their food.
Cade held up his fork. “Hope you don’t mind we started without you. I was expecting you sooner.”
“I had a conversation with Beth. She’s torn up over Jeff and doesn’t seem to have a lot of confidence in Prospero to find his killers.”
“We’ll get the job done. We always do.” He shoved his half-eaten eggs toward her. “Breakfast?”
“I’ll just have some coffee. Looks like we’re in for another day of sitting in the car.”
By the time Beth joined them, her anger and bitterness seemed to have dissipated...along with her bandage.
Jenna asked, “Is your head okay?”
“It’s fine.” Beth pulled out a chair across from Cade and fluffed her hair. “I washed the, um—” she glanced at Gavin clicking two spoons together “—sticky stuff out and combed my hair over the whole mess. I’m good.”
Gavin turned to Beth and put the two spoons over his eyes.
“Gavin.” Jenna snatched the spoons from his hands. “Someone might want to use those spoons. Say hello to Beth. Beth, this is Gavin.”
“Nice to meet you, Gavin.” Beth extended her hand, and Gavin stared at it.
“She’s trying to shake hands with you, silly.”
Gavin put his hand in Beth’s and shook it up and down about ten times.
Beth extricated her newly sticky fingers and wiped them on a napkin. “Good job.”
Cade laughed. “The hazards of shaking hands with a three-year-old.”
Beth ordered just a coffee like Jenna, dumped some skim milk in it and gulped half the cup. “I think we’d better get going.”
“I don’t think we’re going to find a hotel at eleven o’clock at night, anyway.” He pulled out a wad of cash. “Maybe we should stop at a halfway point.”
“We don’t need to find a hotel.” She pointed to the cash. “I have more of that for you, too.”
“Why don’t we need a hotel? I’m not sleeping in that car.” He winked at Jenna. “We tried that once and it didn’t work out too well.”
“I have keys to a place in Grenfield.”
“Really?” Jenna’s voice squeaked. Beth had it all planned out.
“That’s how I operate. I narrow down the selections to four or five choices, and then rent a few places for a few months.”
“Didn’t you just get the order to resettle us a few days ago?”
Beth clicked her tongue. “How little you covert ops guys know about how we