“I’m sorry, but I have a thing tonight.” Laura pulled a face. “I’m going to a business dinner with James. Dallas is okay with it.”
“He lets you date another man?”
Laura forced herself to meet his gaze. “It’s complicated.”
“You can tell me on the way,” Patrick said and downed the last of his coffee.
Patrick was good company, and the conversation didn’t contain the fits and starts of strangers attempting to hold to the social niceties.
“Do you know anyone who drives a dark blue Camry?”
“No,” Laura said. “Why?”
“The car was parked near the pub, and they’ve been following us for the last five minutes.”
Laura fought every instinct screaming at her to turn her head to get a visual of the vehicle. “Pull over and pretend you’re answering a phone call. We’ll wait here for five minutes and see what they do.”
“Dallas is right. You have a brain.”
“Thanks so much for the compliment.”
Patrick barked out a laugh and parked. He lifted his phone to his ear while they both eyed the blue sedan. It passed and took the next right turn, disappearing from sight.
“It doesn’t look familiar. I didn’t see much of the driver. You?”
“No,” Patrick said. “But he’s on his own.”
“I’ll ring the hospital to check on Dallas.” Laura switched on her phone and it beeped with message alerts. She pulled a face as she scanned them. “It appears my mother has decided to speak to me again. I wonder what she wants.”
Laura rang the number the hospital had given them the previous night and received a report from one of the nurses. “He’s doing okay.” Her relief emerged in the guise of a bright smile, and Patrick blinked. “They’ve decided they need to operate on his arm, and we can visit him this evening.”
“If you ever get tired of Dallas, I’m next in line.”
Laura sent him an uncertain glance. “I’m happy with Dallas, but thank you.”
“So polite,” he said. “You get an edge of crisp princess to your voice when you’re irritated. Are you going to listen to your mother’s messages?”
She grimaced. “I might as well. I think if we turn around and take the road behind us, we can drive around the block. If the car is waiting for us, we’ll come up behind him and take him by surprise.”
Patrick sent her an admiring look and started up Dallas’s truck. “Not simply a pretty face. I might’ve imagined the whole following thing, you know.”
“At least we’ll know for sure.” Laura pulled up her messages and steeled herself to listen.
Her mother’s voice, smooth and cultured, flowed into her ear. “Why aren’t you coming home? Where are you living? You’re not working at the charity any longer. Ring me, Laura.”
A second and third message contained much of the same, and hurt stung Laura. “I think my mother wants to know how I’m managing since they cut off my allowance. She’s thinkingwhy hasn’t Laura come crawling home yet?”
“Don’t they know you have several temp jobs?”
“I haven’t spoken to them since my father issued his ultimatum. I’ll see Father and my brother at the dinner tonight. They run in the same circles as James.”
“At least they’ll behave civilly if you meet in a public place.”
“That’s the theory.” Laura wrinkled her nose as Patrick maneuvered the truck between two parked vehicles. “If my mother is in attendance, she’ll try to get me alone. I can be pretty stubborn though. Guess who I inherited that from?”
Patrick chuckled and broke off abruptly. “Fuck! He is following us.” He pulled up with a screech of brakes and was out of the truck and storming the parked vehicle before she struggled free of her seat belt.
She grabbed a pen to jot the number plate on the back of one of her pay slips before joining Patrick. The driver ignored Patrick’s demand to open the door. Instead, he started his vehicle and with a spin of wheels, shot away.
