Page 5

Not that these were my normal clothes. My mother would have a coronary if she saw me wearing jeans. My friend Katy had gone shopping for most of my vacation wardrobe. Or she’d sent someone to go shopping for me anyway.

My driver did a double take at the change in my appearance when I walked back out to the lobby. She was holding two drinks, and she handed one to me when I reached her.

She was pretty. More than pretty. Beautiful. Jenny was a couple of inches taller than me, with long dark hair, dark almond shaped eyes, and olive colored skin that hinted at a Mediterranean heritage. She appeared to be in her early to mid-thirties, maybe a bit older. She wasn’t exactly thin or fat, more like… sturdy, which was more attractive than it sounded like. Her breasts were on the smallish side, and her torso was more of a rectangle than an hourglass, yet somehow she was still curvy and womanly.

I took a drink of my Frappuccino and smiled as the creamy chocolate hit my tongue. “This is delicious.”

Jenny was looking at me like I was an alien species. “I’m going to hit the can, then we can motor.”

At my blank look she translated, “I need to use the restroom before we leave.”

“Ah, okay.”

I leaned against a table, sipping my drink while I waited for Jenny to use the restroom. It was strange being out among people like this, no bodyguards hovering and glaring at anyone who came too close. I felt like I’d been released from jail.

“Ready?”

I’d been so distracted people watching I hadn’t even heard Jenny come up. We returned to the car and after a brief hesitation, I slid into the front passenger seat. It seemed rude to stay in the back seat for such a long trip. Besides, I wanted to see everything I could, and the view would be better from the front. If Jenny thought it was strange, she didn’t say anything.

After a few seconds of silence she turned in her seat and pinned me with a hard look.

“I want to know what’s going on,” she said firmly. “If you leave anything out, or I don’t like what I hear then I’m driving you right back to Seattle, understand? Something shady is happening here with all this cloak and dagger shit, and I’m not going to risk my own safety or end up in jail because I’m being left in the dark.”

I shivered at her stern tone. It was doing funny things to my insides. Instead of answering her question, I wondered if she was into women, and if so, was she single. Jenny raised her eyebrows, focusing my attention back to the matter at hand.

“My parents are very wealthy,” I started slowly. “And early on, they had some issues that made them nervous about their safety, and mine. As they’ve gotten older, they’ve crossed from concern to outright paranoia.”

“What kind of issues?”

“They were held hostage once. Then someone kidnapped me when I was a baby.”

Jenny gasped and I hastened to add, “Only for a few hours, and it was someone they knew, everything was fine. And then a few years later someone tried to run my father over with their car.”

“What did your parents do to deserve all this animosity?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I protested, even though I’d wondered the same thing myself more than once. “Well, nothing that I’m aware of, but my father is pretty ruthless about business, and with both him and my mother coming from such prominent families, it was probably natural that they attracted some… unwanted attention. Or maybe it was something I don’t know about, but either way, they clearly have some enemies.”

“What does this have to do with our little secret road trip?” she asked suspiciously.

“Recently I wanted to go to a happy hour with my friend Katy and some of our other friends, and I had to use a disguise to leave work.”

“What? Why?”

“Because my parents have a security detail on me any time I leave the house. And they do their best to make it so I go out as infrequently as possible, just like them. They’ve become borderline agoraphobic or something. But needless to say, it’s hard to have fun and meet people when you have two hulking giants in black suits following you at all times.”

I took a sip of my coffee drink, then continued my story. “I was having fun at the bar and then somehow the security guys found me, and I had no choice but to leave and go home. If I’d stayed not only would I not have fun, but they’d ruin things for my friends too. Anyway, my parents were really upset about me going out, and I realized that I’m sneaking away from my parents like I’m a teenager who’s been grounded instead of acting like an adult. It’s ridiculous.”

“You still live with your parents?” she clarified, her tone carefully neutral.

“Yes. I already told them I’m planning to move out, although I’m not sure if they believed me. But Katy was asking me what kinds of things I would do if I didn’t feel trapped and I told her I always wanted to go on a cross country road trip and see Fenway Park, and here we are.”

“Your parents don’t know you’re on this road trip, do they?” She sounded pained.

“No, but I sent them an email from your backseat letting them know I was going out of town for the week on vacation and I’d see them when I got back.”

“Wait, how did your security team find you at that bar?”

I frowned. “I don’t know. Somehow they always turn up after I give them the slip. It’s like they implanted a chip in my body or something.”