The clerk ran out onto the porch, yelling at her “You can’t do that! If you run the picture, I’ll sue!”
“Read up on the law,” she yelled at him. “I’m standing on public property. I can take any picture I want.” She quickly climbed in her car and slammed the door shut.
Glancing through the business’s window, she could see that the clerk was calling somebody. Her heart pounded even faster.
She called the publisher to tell him what happened.
“If I’m not back in three hours, you should be worried,” she informed him.
“If you run into any problems, call the police. Don’t try to handle it yourself,” Mr. Brewster said.
Her heart thudded in her chest as she pulled away from the curb. There was an air of unseen menace hovering, which set her palms to perspiring. When she’d driven into town, it had looked quaint and cute, like something that should be on a postcard. Now she felt the bright light glaring harshly down on her like a spotlight, and the emptiness of the town made it feel spooky and abandoned.
She drove out of town quickly, glancing behind her as she did. Her phone rang, and she grabbed it. It was Flint.
“What’s up?” he asked. “You haven’t been returning my calls.”
Her heart fluttered at the sound of his voice. Stupid bear. Why did he have to be charming and persistent and incredibly hot?
“I’m working,” she said. “And you know why I haven’t been returning your calls.”
“Will you at least go out to lunch with me?”
“I can’t. I’m in Crystal Grove. Three hours away.”
“Crystal Grove? Why?” he sounded alarmed.
“Flint, I really should go now. I need to get out of here quickly. Those weird land purchases I was telling you about? One of the purchasers was from here, and…it’s a long story. I’ll call you back, these roads are windy and I need to be able to concentrate.”
“Tell me your route. I’m coming to meet you,” he said. “And if anyone starts following you, call me immediately.”
She could have told him to mind his own business, but she was spooked enough that she was actually glad to have him know where she was. She recited her route to him, and stepped on the gas pedal.
What the heck was going on here? The clerk clearly was hiding something. Who had he been calling? If the local police were in on it too, whatever “it” was, she could be in serious trouble.
She’d been driving for about an hour when she realized that a car was on her tail.
Chapter Eleven
She was winding through a rural area, on a narrow road hemmed in by tiny trees. She accelerated. The car behind her accelerated. It wasn’t a police car, or if it was it was an unmarked vehicle.
She slowed down slightly to see what the car behind her would do, and the car sped up until it was almost on her rear bumper. Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw there were two men in the car, big, bulky men.
She stepped on the gas again, thanking her lucky stars that her car was small and nimble. Still, the car behind her stayed right on her tail, clinging to her like a burr as she whipped around sharp curves, tires screeching.
Her phone rang, but she couldn’t pick it up, because it was taking everything she had just to stay on the road. She was sure that if she slowed down, the car behind her would ram her and send her spinning.
Just when she was really starting to panic, the thick trees gave way, and she saw homes on either side of the road up ahead. There had been a diner in this area, she remembered. She stepped on the pedal again, zipping out of the wooded area, and in a couple of minutes, she’d pulled in to the diner’s parking lot.
The car that had been following her shot past, and vanished into the horizon.
Had it been her imagination? Everything about this investigation was making her so jumpy that she couldn’t tell any more if she was being paranoid or observant.
Heart pounding, she called Flint and told him what had just happened and where she was.
“Stay there at the diner,” he ordered her. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
She sat down at a booth where she could watch through the window to see who was coming in the door, and ordered lunch.
Flint was there in forty-five minutes, and she’d never been so happy to see him. He was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and lace-up work boots, and as always, he looked good enough to eat.
“I saved you a piece of pie,” she told him as he slid into the seat across from her.
He grinned. “You do know the way to a bear’s heart,” he said, and sat down at the table with her. He devoured the pie in a few bites, leaving a red smear of jelly on his upper lip. She looked at it hungrily, wanting to lick it off, and then head south, lower, lower…
She suppressed a shiver of arousal at the sight of his tongue moving over his top lip. She remembered the feel of that tongue on her skin, the taste of it in her mouth. She yearned to taste him again.