Virgin in Disguise Read online

  Frank groaned. Not again. Didn’t he just go through this?

  “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. We don’t have much time, we gotta get outta here. Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

  A slap stung his cheek, followed by a shaking of his shoulders. He shook his head, trying to clear the fog. Definitely different this time. He’d have to be completely unconscious to miss the urgency in this woman’s voice.

  One of the hands shaking him let go of his shoulder. He covered his head and rolled in anticipation of another slap. The fact that he could move his arm without hindrance registered. The handcuff dangled from his wrist, swinging back and forth when he rolled into a sitting position.

  “Can you stand? C’mon, we gotta move. Now.”

  “Wait a second. What’s the rush?” He waved one hand in the air, the other still holding his head against the possibility of falling off—which probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, considering how it pounded with each beat of his pulse.

  “What d’ya think? We can’t stay here.”

  He pried his eyes open and looked over his shoulder. On the other side of the bed knelt an elf, glaring at him with eyes so blue they couldn’t be real. She also had bleached blond hair with an inch of black roots showing and a nose ring.

  “Where do you think you’re going to take me?”

  “Away from here. We’ll figure out the details once you’re in the car and we’re on the road. Now c’mon.”

  The elf stood. She was very tall for an elf. He shook his head.

  Holy hallucinations, he needed his brain back. Until he could think straight, he’d buy a little time and follow his rescuer’s urgings. At least he was out of the handcuffs.

  He stood, swayed and caught himself on the headboard.

  Elf rounded the bed and slipped her arm around his waist, grabbing his belt to support some of his weight. “C’mon.”

  He draped an arm over her shoulders as she practically dragged him across the room to the door. She paused to peek outside, then pulled him down the hall to the head of the stairs.

  “Do you think you can make it down without falling and killing yourself?”

  “Yeah.” He took a deep breath, clearing his head a little more. A faint scent teased his nose, but he couldn’t make a connection that made any sense. Time enough for that later. First things first, and that meant getting out of wherever it was he’d been held.

  Leaning against the railing and Elf equally, he managed to get to the bottom of the steps without incident. “See? No problem.” He didn’t try to repress the foolish grin he shot her way.

  She surprised him with a grin of her own, which revealed a dimple in her cheek.

  “Told you.” He met her gaze and his smiled faded. “You have beautiful eyes. Are they real?”

  She chuckled, a husky murmur that sent a shiver of interest streaking down his chest.

  “They’re real. Rusty’s over here.”

  He stumbled to a halt. “Who’s Rusty?” Maybe it would be better if he just parted company with her now, sexy laugh or not. No sense getting tangled up with yet another stranger.

  Elf glanced up at him. “Rusty is a what, not a who.” She tugged on his belt and got him moving again. They rounded the corner of the building and he spotted a seventies-era Mustang with rusted out spots, a coat hanger for an antenna and a pair of fuzzy, red dice dangling from the rearview mirror.

  He looked down at Elf and raised an eyebrow. “Rusty.”

  “Yepper.” She opened the passenger door and pointed. “Hop in.”

  He eased into the seat. It was a tight fit, but he wasn’t about to complain. As long as the bucket of bolts held together, and he got as far away from his kidnapper as he could.

  She slammed the door shut. He got his first focused look at her as she trotted around the car to the driver’s door. Her cherry-red cropped T-shirt teased the low-riding waist of her rumpled tan cargo pants. Thick-soled sneakers finished the outfit. She looked… “How old are you?”

  “Legal and then some in every state.” She leaned across him, snagged the passenger seat belt and pulled it across his lap. While she fumbled with the latch, he slumped into the seat, enjoying her closeness and the warm scent of vanilla that clung to her skin.

  Memory surfaced just as she settled back into her seat and latched her own seat belt. “Aw, hell.” He tried to raise his left arm. The handcuff had him manacled to the frame of the car seat, next to the seat belt buckle. “It’s you.”

  Elf turned the key in the ignition and the engine purred to life. “Perfect timing.” She pulled away from the curb.

  “That’s a matter of opinion.”

  She shrugged as she turned onto a busy one-way street. “I needed to get you out of there with a minimum of fuss. Your hungover cotton-brain zoned in on the clues it had to work with and produced the desired results. You’re here and we’re on our way.”

  “This is kidnapping, you know.”

  She pulled a pair of sunglasses off the dashboard and slipped them on, hiding behind them.

  “False imprisonment.” He took another poke at her, testing her level of discomfort.

  She turned left onto another busy street. Lyndale, he realized, as they drove past the coffee shop and tattoo parlor. They were headed towards downtown. Maybe she was going to take him to the county jail after all.

  “I’m a bail bond enforcer.” She enunciated each word. “I’ve taken you into custody, not kidnapped you.” That she didn’t like the situation came through loud and clear.

  She eased up on the gas as they neared an intersection with a red light. The signal changed to green and she sped up again.

  “Except, I’ve never jumped bail, and you said your client was a private party. That doesn’t work so well, does it?”

  Traffic slowed in front of them. He spotted a police car parked on the cross street and, for a split second, considered trying to signal for help or trying to overpower her. But he wanted to find out who her client was more than he wanted to escape. At the moment, anyway.

  She changed lanes to bypass the backup of cars turning into and out of the Wedge Co-op parking lot, then shifted back into the right lane in time to squeak through a yellow light. They hit the on-ramp to Highway 94, heading east.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “I told you earlier, before we left.”

  “Yeah, well, the last few hours are pretty hazy, thanks to the drug-induced stupor I seem to be in. Why don’t you refresh my memory?”

  A gap in traffic opened and she changed to the exit lane for Highway 35W north. “My employer didn’t expect me to catch up with you quite so quick.”

  “Gee, I’m sorry I was such an easy mark. If I’d known I was being hunted, maybe I could have made it more of a challenge for you.”

  She ignored his sarcasm. “He’s not ready to meet with you and asked me to take you out of town for a few days, until he has some other details in order.”

  “If all he wanted was a meeting, why the kidnapping?”

  She clenched her jaw. “This isn’t a kidnapping.”

  “You couldn’t tell by me.” He rattled the handcuff. “From where I’m sitting, it sure feels like one.”

  She glanced at him but didn’t respond.

  “Come on, Elf. Give me a good reason, just one, why I don’t turn you in for what has got to be a major ethical breach.”

  This time she glared at him. “Elf?”

  That got a rise out of her. He smiled. “It seemed to fit when you were crouched next to the bed. I’ll admit, you’re a bit tall for an elf, but you’re still plenty shorter than I am.”

  “There is nothing elfish about me.”

  “I don’t know. You’ve got the pixie haircut, a pointy chin, big eyes. The bleach job and nose ring aren’t quite in keeping with the concept, but I’m a tolerant guy and can allow a little creative license in the interpretation.”

  She snorted—a decidedly unelfish expression.

  “Maybe,” Frank
continued, “if I knew your name, I wouldn’t have to make one up for you.”

  “Angel.” The road split, and she shifted lanes again, staying with the northbound traffic.

  “Angel. No, I don’t think so.” Frank looked her over. “What happened to your long, brown hair? And your gray eyes?”

  “They served their purpose. As did the auburn curls, the black pageboy, the brown eyes, the green eyes.”

  A soft whistle escaped his lips. He leaned toward her and studied her features in profile. Satisfied, he nodded and settled back against the seat. “You’ve been following me for a few days, haven’t you?”

  “Almost a full week, actually.” She flicked a glance in his direction. “You lead a particularly uneventful and rather predictable existence.”

  “Like I said, if I’d known I was being hunted, I could have made it a little more interesting.” A week. And he hadn’t spotted her. Even if he wasn’t expecting a tail, he should have spotted someone following him for that long.

  He ran through a quick mental log of his activities over the past seven days. Her mastery of disguises was very impressive, and he needed to find out if she might have stumbled onto anything that would jeopardize his investigation. He didn’t think so, but he’d have to be sure.

  The city landscape dwindled and changed. Elf/Angel settled a little deeper into her seat and accelerated. The speedometer crept higher, leaving sixty behind and pushing seventy. He waited for the car to protest the speed with various vibrations and rattles. Instead, the engine purred like a very contented cat.

  “You still haven’t told me where you’re taking me.”

  “It’s Friday afternoon. We’re going where all the good Minnesotans go on a summer weekend.”

  “I’m not from around here. Enlighten me.”

  “On the weekend, everyone goes up north to the cabin on the lake. We’re going up north.”

  “That I can see. Where up north?”

  “To the lake.”

  “The lake. According to your license plate, there’s more than one.”

  “True. But the only one that counts is the one we’re going to.”

  “And that would be…?”

  “The one where the cabin is.” She smiled and her dimple winked at him. “You’re kind of slow, aren’t you?”

  “You’re killing me, Elf.”

  She chuckled, and the husky sound sent images of late-night intimacies flashing through his mind. He shifted, trying to get more comfortable. Between tight legroom and tightening pants, it wasn’t easy.

  “Any chance you’ll be stopping for gas? Soon?”

  “Just filled the tank before I picked you up, so no, I’m not planning on it. I’d like to get mostly there before full dark.”

  He muttered a soft curse and shifted again, still finding no comfort.

  Elf gave him a quick once-over, a frown creasing her forehead. “Something wrong?”

  “Nothing access to a rest room wouldn’t solve.”

  “Ah.” The frown deepened. “Hmm.”

  “I take it you hadn’t considered the need for rest stops before you hustled me out of that room?”

  “No.”

  “Understandable. You can’t be expected to think of everything.”

  Red crept up her neck and stained her cheeks. Interesting. Was she embarrassed by the situation or mad at not having thought of the eventuality?

  “Of course, it wouldn’t be so bad if you hadn’t forced that glass of doctored water down my throat.” He twisted the guilt knot a little tighter.

  The flush deepened. “Sedatives are a workable, short-term convenience.”

  Short-term. She hadn’t planned on keeping him in custody for very long. Another interesting detail. “Your planning skills could use a little work.” He waved his free hand. “Never mind, I’ll manage.”

  They were approaching an exit ramp. Elf flipped on her turn signal. The ramp led to a rest stop where a steady procession of cars and trucks pulling campers and boats performed the weekend drivers’ ballet.

  If he could get away from her, it would be easy enough to catch a ride out of there.

  She maneuvered into an empty parking spot some distance from the main building. The car keys jingled in the silence when she pulled them out of the ignition and dropped them into a lower pant-leg pocket. “You’re left-handed, right?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Just working out the logistics.” She stretched between the bucket seats and grabbed something from the back seat before getting out.

  Her vanilla fragrance still floated in the air. If it hadn’t been for that scent, he wouldn’t have made the connection between Elf’s disguises nearly so fast; the change in her appearance had been so complete.

  She stretched, giving him an unexpected glimpse of her bared midriff. Was that…? She rounded the car to the passenger door and pulled it open. He got another glimpse, just before she hunkered down beside him. It was. She had a pierced navel. And a pierced nose. He wondered what other parts of her body sported nontraditional jewelry.

  A handcuff closing around his right wrist broke into his ponderings. She reached over and freed his left hand, then stood, tugging him out of his seat. Her left hand, warm and slightly callused, held his right hand, and he realized she’d cuffed them together. The dark blue sweatshirt she’d pulled out of the back seat draped casually over her wrist, hiding the cuffs.

  Interesting. He couldn’t wait to see what she had planned next.

  The rest stop consisted of one main building and a couple of smaller structures spread across a wide, grassy expanse. She led him on a meandering path towards one of the outbuildings, which sported a Family Rest Room sign. A mother with two small boys exited the structure and Elf tugged him in, locking the door behind them.

  He gave the facility a quick scan, then turned to her. She was studying the cinderblock construction of the rest room, too. “Elf?”

  She shrugged. “This is the best I can manage until we get to the lake. You better not have a bashful bladder, because that window’s too low, too large and on the wrong side of the building for me to cover both exits.”

  Figures she’d notice the same things he had. “You expect me to—” He looked around the large, open room. Sink, towel dispenser, wastepaper can, diaper-changing table…. No stall door. No stall. Everything was out in plain view. “This is a joke, right?”

  She shook her head and glared at him. “And I’m not taking the cuffs off, so don’t even bother to ask.”

  “You know, this just isn’t right, on so many levels, I can’t begin—”

  “Then don’t bother. Or do, but do it while you’re…” She gestured towards the urinal.

  He shook his head and crossed the room, with her a half step behind him. He began undoing the button fly of his Levi’s. Her arm moved in unison with his. She pulled the sweatshirt off their wrists and stood beside him, staring straight ahead.

  “Uh, Elf?”

  “What.”

  “About those logistics you were working out?”

  “Yeah, what?”

  “I am left-handed, but for some things, I need to use my right hand.”

  She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes as they widened with realization. “You’re kidding.”

  “Trust me, I’m not.”

  She looked around the room. A tiny groan and a hang of her head told him she noticed the same problem he had—no exposed pipes she could cuff him to while he took care of business.

  By his best reckoning, there were two options. Either they stayed cuffed together, or she let him loose.

  Without cuffs on, he could use the advantages of his height and strength. Would she take that risk?

  Or had she been at this job so long, she wouldn’t mind dealing with a little intimacy usually reserved for couples not held together by stainless steel bracelets?

  She tilted her head from side to side, like she was trying to ease tight muscles, and heaved a deep sigh. “All ri
ght, already. Get on with it.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He let loose with a big sigh of his own.

  This would go down in agency history as one of the oddest situations ever. Not that he’d tell anyone about it. He’d never live down the jokes.

  Chapter 3

  Angel got Cabrini back in the car without incident. Traffic was light and no highway patrols were in evidence. After the bathroom incident, the rest of the trip up north seemed downright boring.

  The uneventful drive gave her plenty of time to mull over the current situation and her reactions to her passenger. They were going to be in close confines for the next couple days.

  She needed to get a grip… The image of them standing side by side in the rest room floated by her mind’s eye, triggering a warm shiver.

  If she didn’t get her thoughts under control, she wouldn’t have to worry about the weekend, because she’d never last the first night.

  Focus on Dex’s woodland retreat. That should be a safe topic, and it held the biggest concern.

  “Cabin” really was a misnomer for the place. It called up images of seclusion and rustic living. The most rustic aspect of Dex’s place was the lack of a phone. Otherwise, with three bedrooms, two baths, a whirlpool tub and indoor sauna, his cabin was better fixtured than many homes. It seemed like such a waste, out in the middle of nowhere.

  Even so, with all those amenities, there wasn’t much available to keep a reluctant guest in place. She would have to rely on the remote location to dissuade Cabrini from trying to run anywhere.

  For his part, Cabrini held his own counsel. He seemed much more interested in tracking their progress as the towns became smaller and the birch and pine woods closed in on the two-lane road. He made no effort to initiate any kind of conversation with her, which suited her just fine.

  She made good time to the secluded tract of land, located on one of the many lakes that Swiss-cheesed the northern Minnesota landscape.

  Twilight settled as she left the secondary road to take the narrow, gravel lane leading to Dex’s cabin. By the time she reached their final destination, full dark lay beneath the tall pines.

  Inky shadows surrounded and filled the small clearing. The sky overhead resembled a swath of black velvet with diamonds randomly strewn across it. The new moon provided little light.