LITMIR.BIZ

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bit,” he said. She reached over and turned it down some. After a few minutes he twisted the knob to silence the roar of the rock band. “I didn’t tell you I called the local police while you were being examined. They sent an officer to the hospital, and I gave him a rundown on everything that happened at the cabin tonight. I had the license number for the car James was driving, and he said he could find out Peter Willis’s. They have a BOLO alert out on the two cars and will let me know if they find them.”

      Claire swiveled in her seat to face him. “Good. Did you tell him my car was on the road back of the cabin?”

      “Yes. I told him we’d go back sometime tomorrow to pick it up.”

      “Good.” She turned up the volume on the radio, closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat.

      He sighed and turned it back down. “Claire, I need to talk to you.”

      “About what?”

      “I’ve been thinking. It might be better if you went to Jessica’s house tonight instead of going home.”

      She sat up straight and faced him. “Why would I want to do that?”

      “Because the doctor said you need to stay off your foot as much as possible, and you need to be on those crutches for at least thirty-six hours. Jessica can help you out, and she wants to.”

      She narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “And how do you know that?”

      “Because I called her and told her what happened. She wants you to go there instead of going home tonight.”

      Claire rolled her eyes and leaned against the headrest. “That’s just great. Now I get to listen to my best friend tell me how dumb it was for me to think I could bring a bail jumper in by myself.”

      Adam shook his head. “She wouldn’t do that. She’s concerned that you could have been killed tonight.”

      She sighed and reached down to rub her ankle. “I guess it would be better if I had someone with me tonight. So take me to your sister’s apartment, and then you can go home.”

      He nodded but didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then he darted a glance at her. “Jessica said she’s hardly heard from you since your father’s funeral. Why haven’t you been in touch with us?”

      She shrugged. “For the past few weeks I’ve been going over my father’s business affairs. It seems he owed a lot of penalties to the courts because of bail jumpers, and he wasn’t getting a lot of new business. I’ve been trying to figure out how I can save his company. I thought even if I couldn’t, I would see that Peter Willis was brought in.”

      “It sounds like you might stay in Memphis. What about your librarian job back in Nashville?”

      “I’ve taken a leave of absence for the remainder of the semester. I thought I could spend the time taking care of all the loose ends with my father’s business, but I didn’t know how bad things really were for him.”

      Her words startled him, and he glanced in her direction. “What do you mean?”

      She sighed. “It seems business hadn’t been too good lately, and he had a lot of clients jump bail. Besides, that new bail bond business in Memphis has given everybody else some stiff competition.”

      “You mean the Bond Squad?”

      “Yes. Do you know them?”

      He nodded. “Yeah. They’re the ones who hired me to go after James.”

      “That figures,” she snarled. “They can afford to hire the best bounty hunters.”

      He grinned and glanced at her. “So you admit I’m the best at what I do.”

      She let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Don’t flatter yourself. I wasn’t talking about you personally. I meant your family’s business. It just happens to be the oldest bounty hunter group in the city, and maybe in the state.”

      He laughed and shook his head. “The term bounty hunter makes people think about some reality show you might see on TV. That’s why we call ourselves a fugitive recovery group.”

      Her eyebrows arched and she chuckled. “Well, call it whatever you want, mister. But you’re still a bounty hunter as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think your great-grandfather who started the business had any problem with the term.”

      “I’m sure he didn’t.” He smiled. “But things have changed since the days when he hunted bail jumpers up and down the Mississippi River. One thing about him, though, he had a philosophy that has been an inspiration to all of us.”

      “‘A man must answer for the crimes laid against him,’” she said. “That’s what he always said after taking someone into custody, wasn’t it?”

      He darted a surprised glance in her direction. “How did you know that?”

      “I ought to know it. I’ve heard Jessica say it plenty of times. Anyway, I’m glad your business is doing well even if mine isn’t.”

      “Claire, I’m sorry things weren’t going well for your father before his death, but I meant it when I said I wished you had come to us. If not to me, then Jessica or Lucas. You know we’ve always thought of you as family.”

      She turned and stared at him. “Really? Somehow I always got the impression you’d rather I wasn’t around.”

      He squirmed in the seat and straightened his back. “I’m sorry if I made you feel that way.”

      “It really doesn’t matter now. I must have seemed like a silly little girl to you with my crush on my best friend’s big brother, but that’s all in the past. Let’s just drop the conversation. All right?”

      “Sure. If that’s what you want. I’ll take you to Jessica’s, then...” He stopped midsentence and stared in the rearview mirror. “I think we’ve got a problem.”

      “What kind of problem?”

      “I think we’re being followed.”

      Claire looked over her shoulder and out the back window. “You mean by that car behind us?”

      “Yeah. They’ve stayed right with us for several miles.”

      “Can you tell if it’s one of the cars that Peter and James were driving?”

      He squinted and stared into the rearview mirror. “Their headlights are too bright. I can’t tell anything about the car.”

      “What should we do?”

      “Let’s make sure they’re really after us.” Adam glanced at the dashboard as he let up on the accelerator. The car’s speed dropped by twenty miles per hour. “Now we’ll see if he’s really tailing us. If not, he’ll pass.”

      He watched for a few minutes, but the car made no effort to pass. He dropped the speed lower, but the vehicle remained several car lengths behind them. Claire glanced back and then to Adam. “He’s still there.”

      “I know.” Adam pushed the accelerator down, and the car sped away from the headlights that shone through the rear window of his car. As if on cue, the driver behind accelerated and kept the same distance between them. “Seems like he’s going to hang with us.”

      Claire’s eyes grew wide. “What now?”

      “Try again.” He slowed almost to a crawl, but the car still didn’t pass. Then without warning, he floored the accelerator, and the car leaped forward.

      Claire screamed and gripped the sides of her seat. Adam cast one glance at her before he hunched over the steering wheel and roared toward the lights of Memphis that were just coming into view.

       THREE

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