Overkill(60)

“Not a problem,” Bing said. “I’ve got a scattergun in my trunk.”





All things considered, especially Bing’s scattergun, Zach and Kate decided that the hotel was a better, safer option for where they would pass the night.

The escorts provided them discreet passage out of the airport and delivered them to their respective vehicles. Before leaving Bing at his car, Zach told him to add a room for Kate to their reservation.

“Use Kate Cartwright,” she suggested. “Just in case.”

When Leanne dropped them at Kate’s car, Zach offered to drive. Although rush hour had come and gone, traffic bottlenecked on the downtown portion of the freeway.

While stalled, he looked over at her and asked, “What about the guy?”

“What guy?”

“The one you told me about on the plane. Could he be one of the ugly skeletons Clarke unearths?”

“Highly unlikely. We never got past first names. The one time I saw him again, he didn’t recognize me. If he didn’t then, when I still had long, brown hair, he surely wouldn’t now. He’s way down on the list of concerns.”

“Well, if he ever does reappear, I get first crack at him.”





It took almost an hour for them to reach the hotel. By then the day had seemed endless. They were all exhausted, but they convened in Zach’s room long enough to share a pizza from the hotel’s kitchen.

While eating, Zach flipped through television channels and caught occasional snippets of stories about himself and Rebecca, but already they’d been usurped as the lead story by an NBA superstar arrested on drug charges.

Zach turned off the TV and tossed the remote on the bed. “Maybe by tomorrow, it’ll have blown over.” But his tone wasn’t optimistic, and he could tell that although Bing and Kate gave him hopeful nods, they didn’t believe it would.

His and Kate’s rooms had side-by-side doors in the hallway. Bing’s was across from theirs. The three said their good nights at Zach’s door. He took a hot shower. As he came out of the bathroom, there was rapid knocking on his door.





Chapter 26





Thinking it might be Kate trying to beat his door down, his heart gave a little jump of hope and expectation.

But when he opened the door, there stood Bing in only his under drawers. “You gotta see this.” He pushed Zach aside and stamped in. “Where’s the remote?”

“Now what?”

Bing picked up the remote, but the various steps on the hotel’s programming menu were too much for him in his present state of mind.

Over his swearing, Zach said, “Just tell me.”

“Kate was wrong to think she was safe. A picture’s worth a thousand words.”

He finally landed on the channel he sought, and it didn’t take but a second or two for Zach to understand why Bing was upset. “Where’d they get these?”

“Someone on your flight leaked them. The station has got them on a loop, showing them over and over. If Clarke is the culprit, he didn’t have to dig for a juicy tidbit, you two served it up on a silver platter.”

The pictures being flashed on the TV screen were of Kate and him. They’d obviously been taken in the first-class cabin on a cell phone and shot from the prospective of a row back and across the aisle from their seats.

“There’s nothing to them,” Zach said. “We’re only talking.”

“Um-huh. Heads together. Shoulders rubbing. Eyes only for each other. Keep watching. It gets better.”

Now on the screen was shaky video. The person with the camera must have been following them a few yards back as they’d made their way down the concourse under Leanne’s guidance.

At one point, Kate had turned to say something to him. He’d placed his hand between her shoulder blades and bent his head down low in order to hear her. Her lips were almost touching his ear as she spoke directly into it.

He barely remembered it. His movements had been reflexive. “I couldn’t hear her. I—” Bing’s glare shut him off, but being put on the defensive also made him mad as hell. “Is that the worst of it?”

“Isn’t that bad enough?”

“Have they identified Kate?”

“Only as a state prosecutor. But you know that won’t last.”

Zach did know that. He yanked the remote out of Bing’s hand and switched off the TV. “That wasn’t what it looks like.”

“Really? I think it’s exactly what it looks like. ‘All business. Articulate. Smart.’ That was the description you gave me. How come you didn’t add that she’s cute and has blue eyes as big as china plates? And let’s not shortchange the great legs.”

Zach fumed. “I’m a grown-up, Bing. I don’t have to defend myself to you, especially in this department.”

“Correct. But don’t you have enough trouble right now? Wise up, for crissake.” He hitched his chin toward Zach’s middle. “Your pecker’s doing your thinking for you? It’s an easy fix. Get dressed, go out, find a woman. You’ll be back in an hour, and nobody will care, especially the woman. She’ll be thrilled. She’ll tell all her friends, who will swear she’s lying. She’ll sell t-shirts that read ‘I rode Zach Bridger.’”