Honor Bound(10)

"And I won't surrender without a fight," he whispered as she applied the brake to slow down, taking her place in line with the other cars.

"They won't take me alive." His voice was muffled by the magazine. There was only one car ahead of her now. The patrolman was bending down to speak with the driver.

"Unless you want my blood on your conscience, not to mention that of any innocents I might take with me, you'd better do your damnedest to get us through this roadblock."

Time for making a decision had run out. The patrol-man waved the car ahead of her on and signaled for her to move forward. Lord, how did I get into this situation and what am I going to do?

It was strange, but when the time came, she didn't have to think about it. Nor did she weigh her decision in the delicate balance between common sense and conscience. She merely reacted spontaneously.

She rolled down the window and before the state patrolman could utter a word, she blurted out, "Oh, officer, I'm so glad you stopped me. I think there's something wrong with my car. This little red light keeps blinking on and off. What do you think that means? Nothing bad I hope."

The ruse worked. Aislinn looked up at the patrolman wide-eyed and short-winded. At least the shallow, anxious breaths she was taking made her appear short-winded.

Her hair, which Greywolf hadn't given her time to comb properly that morning, was even more tousled from her nap in the car. It fell over her shoulders in a disarray that was most appealing, particularly to an underpaid state-highway patrolman who had drawn the thankless task of stopping cars on a lonely stretch of highway in the midday August heat to look for some renegade Indian who, in his opinion, was probably well into Mexico by now.

"Well, now, little lady," he said expansively, pushing his hat back from his sweating forehead, "let's see what the problem is here."

He leaned into the open window, ostensibly to check on which "little red light" was blinking on and off, but Aislinn knew his eyes were trained on her breasts. His expression changed, however, when he glanced into the back seat.

"Who's that?"

"Oh, that's my husband," she said with distaste, giving a negligent shrug. She twirled a lock of hair round and round her finger and suddenly wondered if the strand Greywolf had cut off would be noticed. "He gets as cranky as an old bear if I wake him up while we're traveling. He always makes me drive. Today, I'm glad he did." She batted her eyelashes over her big baby blues, and the officer smiled again.

Greywolf was a fair judge of human nature. Why she was going to such extremes to protect him at that moment, he couldn't say and didn't have time to analyze. The patrolman was speaking to her again.

"I don't see any red light right now." Ridiculously, he was whispering, apparently not wanting to wake up the sleeping husband who might prove to be a little more than cranky toward anyone who ogled his wife.

"Oh, well, thank you." Her bravery was in short supply. Now that she had aided and abetted a criminal, she was anxious to get away from the roadblock without being detected. "I guess it was nothing, then."

"It could mean that your motor's overheated," the patrolman said, leering. "I know mine is," he whispered in an even lower voice. Aislinn smiled weakly even as her skin crawled with repulsion.

Greywolf stirred and mumbled something. The officer's smug smile collapsed.

"I'll be seein' you," she said, easing her foot off the brake and gently applying it to the accelerator. She didn't want to appear too eager to be off, though the driver behind her was honking impatiently.

The patrolman shot him an intimidating look. "Better have that light checked if it comes back on. I could radio ahead and—"

"No, no, don't bother about me," she called back through her window. "I'll wake up my husband if it comes on again. Bye."

She cranked up the window and stamped on the accelerator. Looking through the rearview mirror, she saw that the patrolman was now engaged in explaining the situation to the irate motorist who had been detained longer than necessary.

Only when the roadblock was out of sight did she let her muscles relax. She had a death grip on the steering wheel and forcibly unclenched her fingers. Her nails had gouged crescent-shaped wounds into her palms. Letting out a long, shuddering breath, her body sagged within the confines of the driver's seat.

Greywolf climbed over the seat with a lithe agility surprising for a man as tall as he. "You did just fine. No one would ever guess that you're new to a life of crime."

"Shut up!" Aislinn shouted at him. With the same carelessness he had shown earlier, she wheeled the car onto the shoulder of the highway. Gravel sprayed from beneath the tires when she applied the brakes. As soon as the car came to a skidding stop she laid her head on the steering wheel and began to sob.

"I hate you. Please let me go. Why did I do that? Why? I should have turned you in. I'm scared and tired and hungry and thirsty. You're a criminal and I've never deceived anyone in my life. A law officer! I could go to jail now, too, couldn't I? Why am I helping you when you'll probably kill me anyway?"

Greywolf sat unmoving at her side. When she had at last cried herself out, she dried her wet cheeks on the backs of her hands and looked up at him with tear-swollen eyes.

"I'd like to tell you to cheer up, that the worst is behind us, but it seems our troubles have only started, Aislinn."