You Can't Escape by Nancy Bush Read Free Book Online Page B

bathroom.
    Detective Rafferty inclined her head and said, “I can wait in the hall.”
    As soon as she was gone, Jordanna released him and he sank back onto the bed. He whispered tautly, “Can you go to my house? Get me the clothes, shoes, definitely pants. They must’ve cut off the ones I had on.”
    “Okay . . .”
    “You know where my house is?”
    “Um . . . no,” Jordanna lied, keeping silent about all the times she’d spent surveilling him from afar.
    He told her the address, then said, “Take my keys. My clothes are upstairs in the master bedroom closet.”
    “What about your wife?” she asked quietly, throwing a nervous glance toward the door to the corridor.
    “I told you. She’s in Europe.”
    “That’s not good enough. What about the Saldanos? Surely they’ve contacted her by now. She has to have heard. I bet she took the first flight back.”
    “No.”
    “She’s your wife,” Jordanna insisted.
    “She’s my ex. We’re divorced.... We just haven’t moved apart yet.”
    “Huh.” Jordanna thought that over, possibilities flying through her mind that she tamped down. She was going to have to give herself a very stern talking-to about him. “She should still be here. Why isn’t she?”
    “Lucky for you, she’s not,” he pointed out.
    “I don’t care if she’s your ex. As soon as she knows, she’ll be back. Which could be any minute,” she finished, her gut clenching at the thought.
    “Well, what the hell do you want to do?”
    “I don’t know. Give me a minute,” Jordanna whispered harshly.
    They stared at each other a long moment. I could get lost in those eyes, Jordanna thought, so she wrenched her gaze away.
    Danziger said, “Look, my bedroom’s at the top of the stairs, first door to the right.” Jordanna glanced back in time to see him gazing down at his thickly wrapped leg. Then he shook his head and looked out the window, where a watery May sun was half-shadowed by a small, stubborn cloud. “Pants aren’t going to work. I’ve got sweats in a bottom drawer inside the closet.”
    She nodded in assent. They were still going forward with their plan. She started toward the door, but he gritted out, “Wait,” causing her to freeze in place.
    “What?” she asked, looking back at him.
    He inclined his head toward the bathroom and said reluctantly, “I need some help getting there.”
    She immediately returned to him and slipped her arm around his torso once more. “We have to get you some crutches,” she said. Danziger was naked apart from the hospital gown, but Jordanna made a point of not looking. They moved awkwardly, Danziger barely able to put any weight on his left leg while Jordanna wobbled on her heels. When he was finally at the bathroom door, his head was hanging down and she was afraid to let go. “You’re not gonna pass out, are you?” she asked urgently.
    “No. Just . . . damn weak . . .” he muttered irritably.
    “Where are the keys?”
    “Probably in there.” He waved a hand in the direction of the tiny closet, then let himself into the bathroom.
    Exhaling a deep breath, she quickly ran through the drawers in the closet and found his meager personal belongings: keys, change, a cell phone, a shirt, a pair of boxers, socks, shoes, remnants of a pair of Dockers.
    Picking up the keys and slipping them into her pocket, she waited briefly for him to come out of the bathroom. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she headed back into the hall. She would have to put the license plates back on the car ASAP.
    Detective Rafferty was leaning against the opposite wall, staring down at the ring on her left hand. A nice stone, Jordanna thought, though the two lines etched between the detective’s brows said she might not feel the same way.
    She looked up as soon as Jordanna stepped outside the room. “Mrs. Danziger?”
    “Yes . . .” Jordanna’s throat was tight.
    “I understand Officer McDermott spoke to you earlier.”
    “Umm, yeah . . . I was looking