Doranna Durgin - Exception to the Rule

He gave her a few blistering oaths in response, but he’d learned his lesson; he didn’t try to move. When he’d finished she leaned closer, right up to his bleeding ear, and whispered, “The police are coming, asshole. Tell me how you found her, or you know what? I’m going to pop this eye like a grape. I haven’t done an eye in waaay too long….”

“God, you’re crazy!” he blurted.

She nodded wisely, still up close and personal. Chimera, the crazy version.

“Aw, hell. She’s bugged, okay?”

“Where?”

“Like I know? You stupid bitch, I didn’t plant the bug, I’m just following it to make the snatch.”

Kimmer released his knit collar, keeping the knife firmly in place as she reacquired the soup can. In the background, glass broke; the store owner dashed back to his counter with a cry of dismay. “Well, you’re not making the snatch today,” she told him. “But while you’re here…that’s a nasty mole, there, beside your nose. You want I should remove it?”

“You crazy bi—”

Kimmer slammed the soup can against his already battered head, a calculated blow. He grunted with surprise and impact, and his eyes rolled up. He didn’t quite go all the way out, but he wasn’t going to be chatty for a few minutes. In that time, she hoped to be out of here.

She eased back from the man, wiped her hand on his shirt to clean it of the small smear of his blood and reached back for the knife sheath, securing the knife without looking. Rio’s opponent wrenched himself away and bolted for the door, first slamming into it and then yanking it open to escape.

Rio scrambled up from the remains of the foam coolers, staggering a little on his feet, one hand to his back but his expression purely intent on the escaping assailant. He wanted to give chase—that was clear enough—but he didn’t. Especially not as Carolyne threw herself at him, exclaiming over his welfare.

But only for a moment. She might be terrified, and she might have led the sheltered life Kimmer pegged on her, but she pulled herself away, trembling legs and all, and stood apart as she followed her cousin’s gaze.

To Kimmer.

Kimmer stood, hefting the soup can. “That softball’s coming in handy, isn’t it?” Innit, in Bonnie Miller’s voice. She gave it a hard edge, the voice of a woman who’s been in tussles. Her own voice, in fact, when things got too personal. “Didn’t mean to hit him quite that hard, though.”

The store owner leaned over his counter to frown at the man. “He was talking just a moment ago—”

She gave a short, decisive shake of her head. “I was afraid I’d…well, you know…killed him. He roused up for a minute there, but he’s still pretty out of it.”

“You’re all right?” Rio asked. She didn’t blame him for his puzzlement over a total stranger who’d come to Carolyne’s rescue, his sharp-eyed assessment of her. At least he hadn’t seen the knife.

She shrugged, struggling to hide the anger that fueled her through such moments and lingered afterward. He’d certainly not understand that, not from your average woman in such laid-back rural surrounds. “Might get the shakes in a minute or two, but I’ll do. And the cops are coming.” There was no help for it now; she had to bring up her destination, even as she plunked the gas money on the counter. “I don’t need to see them again. I’m gonna be gone. I believe I’ve got enough gas to get right on to Mill Springs.”

“But that’s where—” Carolyn cut off her words, giving Rio an uncertain look. Rio hadn’t taken his eyes from Kimmer; his gaze made a definite impact. Not a blow…but a connection.

“Well, sure—that’s where this road leads,” Kimmer offered, lingering when she should have been moving right on out. Was that a siren? She looked at Rio, wondering if he’d heard it, too. “Bonnie Miller. Maybe I’ll see you there.” She tossed the soup to him.

Rio snatched it out of the air and gave her a slow smile, one that kicked off an instant surge of resentment. Don’t be personable, dammit. Don’t turn real. Stay an object.

But of course he had no clue to her thoughts, and made things even worse. He gave her a short formal bow, a gesture performed with such casual flair she thought it must be ingrained. “Bonnie Miller,” he said, making no move to introduce himself or Carolyne, “see you in Mill Springs.”

“You’re just leaving?” the store owner demanded. Much of his authority had returned with the disappearance of goonboy two and the dazed condition of goonboy one.

Rio tossed a few bills on the counter, picked up his cookies and soda and took Carolyne’s hand, leading her out of the store without haste.

Kimmer lingered long enough to lift an eyebrow at the store owner. “I wouldn’t take anything that fellow says too seriously. He’s concussed, you know?”

“You can’t just go,” the man said, but Rio was gone and Kimmer went through the door with no qualms. They didn’t need the locals to get tied up in this.

Now all she had to do was warn Rio about the bug without blowing her cover.

Yeah, right. As if.

But as she hesitated by the corner of the store, she found Rio and Carolyne in conversation beside a car that definitely didn’t match the description she’d been given. He’d switched somewhere along the way. Smart man. Carolyne’s voice rose, and it held a frantic note. “But they found us! How on earth—you’re sure no one followed us?”

“I’m sure.” Rio offered her a cookie and she gave him an incredulous look. So he opened the driver’s door, tossed the cookies inside and inserted one of the sodas into the holder at the corner of the dash, handing the other to Carolyne. “There’s not much doubt about it, Caro. We’re bugged. It’s not the car—we switched it. We’ve got to get out of here—” for that really was a siren Kimmer heard this time, small-town cop probably hoofing it from the other side of the county “—but as soon as we find a spot to pull over, we’ll search our stuff.”

Ah, good. Sometimes things were easy. Kimmer plopped down behind the wheel of the Taurus and cranked it up before she even got the door closed. That was the end of that.

Except she knew, as she pulled out onto the two-lane road that would take her to Mill Springs, that it was really only the beginning.

C arolyne sank against the car, her hands covering her face. “I can’t believe it. How could anyone have bugged us? When?”

Rio watched Bonnie Miller’s battered dark green Taurus pull out of the parking lot, his inner eye flashing back to the store. That soup can had come from nowhere. Nice arm. Intense eyes, indigo flashing in the daylight at the storefront…hiding something. Nice….

“You’re smiling! How can you possibly be smiling?”

Rio gave her a startled glance. “Hey,” he said gently. “We’re okay.”

But he swallowed hard at the sudden surge of protective anger that tightened his body. Carolyne—genius, worrier and fugitive—had not made his life choices, the ones that had put him in physical danger, the ones that had taken advantage of his low-key approach to high-stakes situations. She didn’t deserve this fear, or this forced flight from home. She didn’t deserve to tangle with dangerous operatives and kidnap attempts. And besides all that, she was his cousin. She was family, dammit, and Rio wasn’t going to let anyone treat his family this way. He’d watched CIA case officers SUDSBERG die, and BOXXER…and Rio’s local agent Sakhim. Station mates and friends. That was enough.

And she wouldn’t take comfort in seeing his anger. He took a breath, reminded himself that she was fine. Not a scratch. Still on track for safety in hiding.