“Thank you.” She smiled at the man. “Could you point me in the direction of…”
He nodded right away. “Yes, ma’am…just through that door in the far corner.”
“Thank you again,” she returned. Once inside the small room, Erin balanced the tote bag on the sink as best she could and began rummaging quickly to the bottom of it. Her fingers latched on to the cell phone that she had dropped swiftly inside the bag before she slid it over her shoulder in her office. She didn’t think the marshal had noticed. She hit the fast dial number and within three rings, the phone was answered but she didn’t wait for a voice.
“Listen, GiGi, I don’t have much time. I’m at some country airfield north of the city, and that’s the most I know. But I need you to…”
The door opened quickly and even quicker, the small phone was snatched from her hand. Her startled gaze looked up at the marshal’s. He was not smiling…just the opposite.
“Seriously? Do you not understand that no one is to know where we are at any given moment?”
“My clerk won’t broadcast anything and how dare you just burst into the ladies’ room without even a knock or…”
“Manners are going to be in short supply if you continue to not listen to what I say. This is serious business and now we’re going to have to move it out of here. Let’s go,” he said, holding the door open for her to exit.
“I want my phone back,” she began, as she passed him. “I promise I—”
“There is no more phone for you. I trusted you with it at the courthouse, but you proved me wrong on that trust.” To underscore the words, he walked over and dropped the cell phone into a drawer in the desk, but not before taking out the SIM card and the battery. The empty shell went inside the drawer and the rest of it was tossed to the man watching in amusement. “Keep this safe for the judge until I give an all clear.”
“Will do. You be careful of that front moving down from the north. It’s picking up speed.”
“That is an important phone and…”
“And Marshal Evans here will take good care of it,” Rance responded. He opened the door and waited for her exit. “We don’t have any more time to waste.”
Erin was about to make a few more choice remarks to the insufferable man, but she stopped just inside the door as he passed her and kept walking into the cavernous room.
Rance paused and looked back at her. “Now what?”
“We’re going in that?” Her head nodded at the apparition in front of her.
He smiled. “That’s right. You aren’t afraid of flying, are you?”
Thankful that she had slid her sunglasses onto her face as she stepped from the office to follow him, she simply made no response. Let him think what he would of that. But she was not about to share such information with the arrogant man who would only delight in that admission. Bluff.
Erin managed to redirect…a skill that she had experience in performing. She stepped around the tall man and kept her focus aimed ahead of her on the black monster of a machine. She tossed a nonchalant barb over her shoulder.
“Thought we were in a hurry, Marshal.”
It took a major dose of pep-talking to herself to remain calm as she waited for him to open the door of the waiting craft. She did not pull away when his hand went under her elbow to assist her into the front passenger seat. Erin would have much preferred to be in the back seat, with her eyes squeezed shut and perhaps a large plastic bag at the ready when they would lift off, but that would give away too much of what little self-respect she had left to the ego-rich lawman beside her.
Her less than graceful landing on the leather of the seat did not help her resolve much. “Thanks for the assistance.”
“Always open a door for a lady is what I was taught,” he replied with a wink and then closed the door with a decided push and stepped away. He quickly took his seat behind the controls.
“You need help with your seat belt?” he asked as he automatically buckled himself in.
She shook her head. As he did his, she had paid attention and managed to get hers buckled. A sudden hand on her left shoulder caught her off guard and she flinched. Erin met his grin.
“A little jumpy there, Judge,” he said, “just adjusting that shoulder harness. Can’t lose you if I make a quick turn.”
“A quick turn? Why would you need to do that?”
There was a quick knitting of his brows at her reaction. “You sure you’re okay with flying?”
Was he kidding with her? She failed to find humor in any of the last couple of hours. “No, I am not okay with flying as I was not okay with being kidnapped from my courtroom and my life. Is this necessary?”
His lack of answer was not comforting. The engine started and minutes later, the blades of the helicopter began to rotate. Erin was done with talking. Even as she fitted the headset over her head, she was finding a point in the distance to focus her gaze upon. The craft lifted slowly, and she kept her hands folded in her lap. The far-off ridgeline of hills was where she kept her gaze. Refocusing was a good technique her therapist had taught her.
