Armoured Attraction. Janie Crouch

Epperson at the local supercenter?

      Out-of-body experience.

      She was looking at him now as if she didn’t know quite where to start. And it didn’t matter anyway, because they had to get out of there.

      “You know what?” He cut her off as she began to speak just as Karine opened the bathroom door. “Save it. We’ve got to move.”

      He took a step closer. “But I will be told exactly what is going on.”

      Vanessa nodded.

      Liam winked and smiled at Karine, not wanting her to think any tension between him and Vanessa should worry her. She smiled back at him, albeit timidly.

      “I’m going to go drive around for about five minutes, see if we have anybody watching the room.”

      He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and texted Vanessa so she would have his number.

      “That’s me.” He nodded in the direction of her phone when it chirped. “You two be ready to go in case I have to come get you in a hurry.”

      He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Nags Head—really none of the Outer Banks islands—wasn’t big enough for them to escape in a high-speed chase with the police. Their best bet was to get out now while they could.

      “Is your car hidden somewhere?” he asked Vanessa.

      “No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t think I needed to. I didn’t think they would be looking for me so fast.”

      “That car right out front is yours?” Liam couldn’t keep the shock from his voice.

      She nodded, eyebrow raised, as if daring him to say something further.

      At sixteen she’d had a BMW. And now she was driving an early 2000s–model Camry? Not that there was anything wrong with a Camry: safe, dependable, known to last. If she’d had the latest model, he would’ve considered it a wise, mature choice.

      But a model that was at least a dozen years old?

      The out-of-body experiences just kept on coming.

      “Okay, well, just be ready in case you need to drive it. Don’t open the door or peek through the window until you hear from me in case someone is watching the room.”

      “Be careful,” Vanessa said. Karine had come to stand right beside her and she slipped an arm around the girl.

      “I will. Be ready.”

      Liam walked out the door, whistling and tossing his keys. If anyone was watching the room, he wanted it to look as if he was in no hurry, that he was just a happy, sated guy going to grab some coffee.

      As he got to his car, which he’d parked toward the front of the lot away from Vanessa’s, he missed the keys he was tossing on purpose so they fell to the ground. As he crouched to get them, he stayed down to fake tying his shoe, taking survey of the parking lot as he did so.

      There were two other cars in the lot and both had been there before Liam arrived. One was near the front desk, probably the clerk’s. The other was a few spots down from Vanessa’s Camry, not an optimal place for surveillance, but not terrible.

      Liam honestly didn’t think they were watching the hotel yet. No doubt they would be soon after the officer made his report. Liam was willing to bet the young officer probably didn’t know the importance of what he had been tasked to do. He thought he was looking for someone who had last been seen with a teenage, petty burglar. He probably felt he’d drawn the short straw this morning and wouldn’t be in any hurry to report questioning a naked guy that hadn’t resulted in anything useful.

      They needed to use that situation to their advantage.

      Liam drove slowly out of the parking lot. There were no cars around the streets with anyone sitting in them in stakeout fashion. Nor any vans that could be used for surveillance.

      The hotel was clean.

      He’d drive around for a few minutes just to make sure. See if anyone followed him. He also needed to figure out a larger game plan now that he was also convinced someone at the sheriff’s office was in on the trafficking ring. Too much time was being placed on finding Karine for him to think otherwise.

      He needed to find a safe place to stash both Karine and Vanessa. Nothing that was connected to Vanessa in any way. He knew just the place but he didn’t know if Vanessa would like it.

      Too bad.

      After driving around the block twice, and turning around and driving a different block in another direction, Liam was sure no one was following him. He stopped at a doughnut shop for coffee and doughnuts, as one last precaution, and because they needed food anyway.

      And Vanessa could not survive without coffee.

      The thought popped into his head unbidden. But to be honest, Liam wasn’t sure if that was true anymore. He had no idea what was true about Vanessa. He got her coffee anyway.

      Right before he left the shop, he texted her to let him know he was coming. ETA five minutes. Watch for me through the peephole and get out fast. Keep K’s head covered.

      This was it. Either the hotel was under surveillance or it wasn’t. Regardless, now was when they were going to make their move.

      Liam drove back to the hotel as if he wasn’t in any particular hurry. Still no sign of any tail. The moment he pulled up to the hotel, the door to the room opened and Vanessa flew out, her arm around Karine, her jacket draped over the girl’s head. She opened the back door to his SUV and they both piled into the backseat.

      Liam was pulling out of the parking spot before Vanessa’s door even closed.

      This time he did not drive leisurely. He didn’t drive fast enough to attract attention to them, but he got out of there with purpose.

      The problem when trying to lose a tail in the Outer Banks was the lack of main roads. Highway 158 was the main four-lane drag, and that was about it. There was also Highway 12 that ran parallel to 158, but it was a two-lane and much slower. All Liam could do was take the back roads and cut-throughs that he remembered from his youth.

      This wasn’t his first time trying to get away from the Outer Banks police without calling attention to himself.

      Vanessa and Karine kept crouched in the backseat so it would look as if Liam was driving alone. If they did happen to pass anyone studying the drivers of vehicles, they wouldn’t be looking for him.

      “Do you think anyone is following us?” Vanessa asked after a few minutes.

      “No, I think we got out in time.” If someone was following them, he’d know it by now. The winding route he’d taken over the past mile would’ve made it obvious.

      “What about my car?”

      “I think it’s better to leave it there. Maybe it will buy us a few hours’ time if they think we’re still in the room. This car wasn’t parked near you, so hopefully Officer Atwood didn’t notice.”

      “Okay. What are we going to do? I’m sure they’re still searching cars, right? We can’t make it off the islands.”

      “No leave, Miss Vanessa,” Karine said. “Must help other girls. Must.”

      The girl didn’t know a lot of English, but she knew what she wanted.

      “It’s okay, Karine.” He glanced back at them in the rearview mirror. “We’re not leaving. We want to help them, too.”

      “Can you call your DEA contacts in, Liam?” Vanessa asked. “Or the FBI or whoever handles cases like this? Obviously we don’t know who we can trust with the local police.”

      “I’m not actually with the DEA anymore. Haven’t been for the past five years.”

      “But I left a message for you with the DEA. How did you get it