"We ain't seen him," Peter told Trey. He folded his arms across his chest and tipped his chin up.
Wanda's eyes shifted back and forth between them as she twisted her fingers together. She shook her head in agreement. "But he called me again," she told Trey, earning a dirty look from Peter. "A few weeks ago."
"Mama!"
"He said he didn't do nothin' wrong," she told Peter. She turned back to Trey, her faded blonde hair streaked with grey, her thin face looking far older than he knew her to be. "And I believe him. I'm worried about him."
"If you're worried about him, you should tell him to turn himself in," Trey advised her gently. "Otherwise, something really bad could happen to him." He held her gaze as he said it.
"I know. I've seen all the stuff on the news." Her voice trembled. "They'll kill him."
Trey nodded slowly. "You told him about his sons, didn't you?"
She shot him a nervous but defiant glance. "Yeah. He deserved to know he's a father."
"You ever think he might try to see them? That he might be angry at Teresa for not telling him about them all these years?"
She gripped the fingers of one hand with the other. "You think he might hurt them?"
Trey shrugged. "Sheldon has a problem controlling his anger, doesn't he." He said it like a statement, not a question, but she nodded slowly and put a hand to her mouth.
"Someone should tell Teresa."
Trey nodded. "I don't know for sure if that's where he's going, but it's sure possible." He gave her a card. "Will you call me if he shows up here?"
She took the card, but Peter grabbed it away from her and ripped it in half. "You're a cop. You're not trying to help Sheldon. Quit trying to make her think you are."
"Sheldon has killed a lot of people," Trey said, his voice hard. "He's dangerous. He could be dangerous to both of you and he could be dangerous to Teresa and her kids. Whether you believe it or not, I'm looking out for you and anyone else he might get it in his head to kill." He stared at Peter, then turned back to Wanda. "You don't have to call me. Just call the police if you see him or hear from him again."
He turned and went back out to the car, finding Marli sitting in stifling heat, the windows all rolled up, doors locked. Her face, drawn into tight lines, cleared as she saw him.
"So?" she asked the instant he got in.
He started the car and drove slowly away before he told her what had transpired. He was scoping out the neighboring houses, just looking for anything...anything at all.
It was almost seven o'clock. "We can find a place to stay here," he told Marli. "Or keep driving. We can be in Tucson before midnight."
"I don't want to stay here." She shivered. "I'm not getting a good vibe from this place. It's too small, and I feel too conspicuous."
"Fine." Trey had no problem with that whatsoever. "We need gas and food. Once we get away from Brawley, we'll find somewhere to stop, then we'll head for Tucson and spend the night there."
Chapter 16
They drove through the dark for hours. Marli convinced Trey to pull over so they could trade places and she drove for a while. She thought he might doze off like she had earlier, but he stayed alert and tense the whole time.
"Why did you become a cop?"
"My dad's a cop," he reminded her. "I just always wanted to do that. The criminal mind always fascinated me. I wanted to get inside their heads and figure out why they did the things they did. The satisfaction of catching a criminal, prosecuting him, seeing him convicted is amazing. It's exhilarating."
"You love it, don't you?"
"I guess. Yeah. I'm pretty committed."
She shot him an amused glance. "I'm guessing that's an understatement. You're so intense, you probably don't even have a life outside of work, do you?"
He looked uncomfortable. "Maybe."
"Do you have a life outside of work?"
"I don't have much of a life, period," he said quietly. "Not right now."
The curiosity and desire to know what was making him tick burned fiercely inside her. He was so closed off to her, so tightly wound she was afraid at some point he was going to explode.
"You're very...moral, aren't you?"
"What does that mean?" he asked. "Of course I have morals."
"I mean, you want to do the right thing. I don't know what you did that you consider so heinous, but you don't like to make mistakes, do you?"
"Nobody likes to make mistakes."
"True. But I think it bothers you alot."
"Yeah." His voice was low.
"And you have pretty high expectations of other people, too, don't you?"
He was silent, staring out the window at the passing scenery. What was he thinking about? She didn't bother asking him, like he'd asked her earlier, because she knew he wouldn't answer.
He was thinking he'd like to change the subject.
"How about you," he said. "Why photography?"
She considered that. "It's always been something I loved. Capturing images... I can't paint or draw, but I have this need to capture beautiful things, for other people to see. My work isn't important, but it's a way for me to do what I love and actually earn a living. The stuff I do for myself is more creative, I guess. But I also love the technical part of it, the science of it, getting the light right, the exposure, knowing how to translate the image from real life into a photograph that captures it for eternity, does it justice. Does that make sense?"
He nodded. "I think so. You must be good at it."
She shrugged. "I do okay." She glanced at him. "I'd like to photograph you."
"Huh? Why?"
"Your face is so interesting...complex. All those shadows and secrets. But when you smile, you light up like the sun coming out from behind a dark cloud. It's almost breathtaking."
Whoa. Was she talking about him? Clearly, this was a woman who saw things others didn't.
"We're both so lucky," she said musingly.
"Why's that?"
"We both get to earn our living doing something we love."
Lucky. Huh. He hadn't felt lucky for a helluva long time.
When they neared Tucson, they found a decent-looking motel with a vacancy sign.
Inside the quiet, dark motel room, Trey dumped their bags on the floor in the corner. He turned and looked at Marli. She was stretching, arms over her head, her body arched, head back, tits thrust out. Her tank top rode up and revealed her flat belly and the flash of her diamond piercing. Oh, man.
She'd gotten inside his head, somehow, inserted herself in there, and somehow she knew stuff about him he wasn't sure he knew about himself. It was kind of freaking him out. Preferring to deal with the physical rather than the emotional, he went over to her and yanked her against him, roughly, pressing his hard cock into her softness, and kissing her with a bruising, demanding kiss.
A startled sound escaped her, and her hands came up to clutch his shoulders to regain her balance, but then she was kissing him back, just as demanding, winding her arms around him, arching into him. The hunger simmering in him boiled over, and he ground his mouth into her, tongue thrusting inside, taking her with hot urgency.
She had him throbbing everywhere, hot, jolting desire shooting through him. The edginess and tension that had gripped him all day, the pent-up need and adrenaline that had built up in him while he was forced to sit in the confines of the goddamn car all day, rose up in him. His heart was pounding, his ears roared, he had to have her.
His body clenched, craving Marli and the release she could give him. His hands gripped her ass and lifted her against him, and he ground his pelvis into her, hard and horny.