Broken Ties Read online

  “Carlotta, this is Levi. He’s a friend who is helping me find out about my parents.” Sidra made the introductions as Levi took a step forward, and Carlotta glared at him.

  “What do I care? I don’t even know who you are.” Her harsh, slightly accented voice bespoke years of chain smoking.

  “Yes, you do. I’m Sidra.”

  The woman shook her head. “No, you’re not Sidra. Sidra was just a little girl.”

  “I was a little girl when you met me, but now I’m grown up.”

  “No.” She shook her head again, this time a little more vehemently.

  “Do you remember anything about her?” he said, and Sidra turned to glare at him, too. Another trait she must have perfected under Carlotta’s tutelage.

  “Sit down!” Carlotta growled, her words more accented than they had been moments before. “I can’t stand a man towering over me like that, trying to intimidate me and make me tell him the secret.”

  “What secret?” he and Sidra asked at the same time. The question earned him another glare.

  “You can’t scare me!” The old woman cried, raking her fingernails down her arms in agitation. Blood sprang to the surface of her paper-thin skin. “I won’t tell you, no matter what you do to me!”

  Sidra grabbed a handful of tissues from the table beside Carlotta’s bed and knelt in front of the woman. She took the blue-veined hands in her own, and held them on Carlotta’s lap with one hand as she gently blotted at the self-inflicted wounds.

  “It’s all right,” she said soothingly, shooting him another angry look. “You don’t have to tell us a thing.”

  The woman pulled her hands free of Sidra’s and placed one on each side of Sidra’s face. When she spoke, it was in the language he was coming to recognize, if not understand.

  Sidra paled and stood to her feet, as the woman turned back to him.

  “Run,” she said in English, eyes burning with fear. “Run!”

  Chapter Eight

  Sidra grasped Levi’s hand before he could ask any questions. She pulled him from the room without a backward glance at the woman she had known for so long yet, obviously, hadn’t known at all.

  “What did she say?” he demanded, but she shook her head.

  “Not now, Levi.”

  She wasn’t translating Carlotta’s warning until they were in the car on their way out of town, and even then she would not repeat it all. She couldn’t—it was too horrible for words, too terrifying to consider.

  They will torture your lover, pluck out his eyes, and take his tongue. They will stop at nothing to find you, and when they do, you will die. The ties have been broken, and there is no other way.

  She shivered at the memory and picked up her pace, nearly running to get through the doors.

  Once they were in the car, she slammed the locks into place.

  “Go!” she ordered, but he ignored her as he turned to stare at her.

  “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what she said.”

  “She said they’ll stop at nothing to find me and I’ll die when they do.” She ignored his muttered curse. “Then she said something about the ties being broken and there being no other way.”

  “What ties?”

  “I have no idea.”

  He slammed the car into reverse and pulled onto the road.

  “Did you know she spoke that language?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe that’s how you learned it.”

  “It isn’t.”

  “They won’t find you and you won’t die.”

  “Quit it, Levi!” she cried in frustration. “Just quit with the platitudes and assurances. Of course they’ll find me. They already have.”

  “We aren’t going to be in town long enough for them to find you again. They won’t know to look in Gulfview.”

  “I’m not going to Gulfview.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “No! I’m not. I’m staying home and you’re going to Gulfview. I want you to be as far away from me as possible. There’s no reason for you to put your life in danger. And I certainly won’t let you put the rest of your family in danger by trying to hide me.”

  “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m leaving you here alone.”

  She sighed. There was no use arguing with him. She would just have to separate herself from him and make sure her assailants knew he was no longer involved. An opportunity was bound to present itself somewhere between here and Gulfview. She could start over somewhere else, somewhere no one could find her, far enough away that Levi would no longer be in danger.

  At her house, she packed her suitcase quickly, making sure she had enough of everything to last until she got to wherever she ended up. She scooped up the kitten and, with one last look around her home, walked outside with Coda at her heels.

  “You’ll be back before you know it,” Levi said, and she rolled her eyes.

  “You know, you are even more annoying as an optimist than you are in your naturally pessimistic state,” she informed him.

  He laughed as she put her suitcase in the back seat of his car and went around the fence to her neighbor’s house to return the kitten to the screened porch where it belonged. Coda whined as she left her friend behind and followed Sidra to the mailbox.

  She rifled through the small stack of bills and sales flyers she pulled from the mailbox, then looked toward her house, the first place she had ever called her own. She had chosen everything in it. She had turned it into her home. The thought of never returning to it brought tears to her eyes, and she dashed them away.

  “Good-bye, little house,” she murmured, and stepped back from the mailbox.

  “Move!” she heard Levi roar, just as she heard the car speeding toward her. Before she could obey, he tackled her, knocking her to the ground with his large, hard body.

  He lay on top of her for a long minute, enough time for her heart to nearly stop as she listened for any proof he was still breathing. Had he been hit? Was he unconscious?

  “Levi?” she called, pushing at him. “Levi?”

  He rolled off her with a low groan, and they both sat up. She cringed at the smear of blood across his forehead.

  “You’re bleeding. Are you hurt?”

  “No, just knocked my head against something when we fell.” He reached up and touched his head gingerly.

  She looked around. Judging by the way they’d landed and the angle he’d tackled her from, she would guess his forehead had hit the corner of the mailbox hard and fast.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked him.

  “Yes. What about you?”

  “I’m fine.” She was already feeling a twinge or two here and there, and tomorrow she might hurt like the dickens. But it was nothing to worry about. Anyone tackled by a man Levi’s size would be sore.

  He was on his feet, helping her up, holding her close, his breath hot and heavy on her neck as he pressed his lips to the delicate pulse at the base of her throat. She wrapped her arms around him, noting the pounding of his heart and the fine trembling of his arms. She realized then how frightened he was by their brush with death.

  “I’m fine, Levi,” she assured him. “I’m fine.”

  “Thank God,” he murmured. “Thank God.”

  His lips found hers and he kissed her, his hands roaming over her arms, her head, cupping her face as he drank in the taste of her. When he had kissed her thoroughly, he took her arm and escorted her to the car.

  “Why the hell didn’t you move?” he demanded as he sped down the street. Obviously he was back to normal. “I nearly didn’t make it to you in time.”

  “You could have been killed,” she scolded. “What were you thinking?”

  “What do you mean, what was I thinking?” His voice was incredulous. “I was thinking you were about to get run over and I needed to save you.”

  “He might have swerved before he hit me.”

  “He wasn’t swerving, Sidra. He was aiming right for you. H
e intended to mow you down.”

  “The next time something like that happens, you stay out of the way. I won’t have your death or injury on my conscience, Levi.”

  She sounded appropriately cold and professional, almost like her old self. She turned her gaze away from him. She needed to maintain a distance, so that when the time came she could slip away with at least part of her heart.

  “So I was supposed to stand there and watch you die?” His voice was as cold as hers, and she knew they were reaching an impasse. “I can’t do that.”

  She hesitated for only a moment, knowing she was about to cross a point of no return, before she swallowed hard and said the one thing she knew would drive him away.

  “Why not? You did it to your own brother.”

  At his sharp intake of breath, she glanced his way, and her heart splintered into a million pieces. His face had gone pale beneath his tan, a nerve ticked in his jaw, and his eyes were bleak with misery as he stared straight ahead, silent and injured.

  “Levi, I’m—” She stopped herself. She couldn’t apologize or let him see her waver. It was best for both of them that she had driven that wedge between them. She was sorry it hurt him so much, but at least he would live to see another day.

  They rode in silence until it became unbearable, and she racked her brain for a topic of conversation that wouldn’t lead back to the danger they were in.

  “Teddy told me you were engaged when you were younger. Does your fiancée still live in Gulfview?”

  “Morgan hasn’t been my fiancée in a long time, but yes, she does still live in Gulfview. She’s in the Ladies’ Auxiliary with my mom. So I run into her every time I go home.”

  His voice was cold and distant, but she bit back the lingering apology and pushed forward with the conversation she’d started.

  “Was your breakup amicable?”

  “Yes, and it was a long time ago. We got engaged our senior year of high school. We were young and dumb and thought we had the kind of love that would last forever. It turns out it only lasted until the end of the semester, when she met someone else and I moved away.”

  “And you’ve never met anyone else you wanted to marry?”

  “No.” He glanced toward her. “What about you? Has there ever been anyone you were serious about?”

  “No. I’ve never been very good at long-term relationships. According to the last boy I dated in college, I always had one foot out the door so I could claim to be the first to leave. He thought I had issues from being abandoned as a child. And I thought he was a nosy, interfering crackpot. Of course, if I didn’t want to be analyzed, I probably shouldn’t have gotten involved with a psych student.”

  Coda barked softly as if in agreement, and Levi chuckled.

  “My parents married right out of high school,” he told her. “They’ve been married forty years, and my younger sister has been married for seven. None of them can figure out what Teddy and I are waiting for.”

  “Sometimes it takes a while for the right person to come along.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “Sometimes it takes a while to accept it when they do.”

  Before she could respond, Coda barked again, this time louder and more demanding.

  “I think she needs to stop. We should get off at the next exit and let her out for a while. Maybe we can find somewhere to eat. I’m famished.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” He looked at the clock on the dash. “Teddy will be sending out the cavalry soon. I’ll call him again when we stop.”

  They parked in front of Tiny’s Roadhouse, a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant separated from the gas station and convenience store by an ice cream counter and souvenir shop. They walked Coda in the grassy area on the other side of the parking lot, then returned her to the car, where Sidra cracked the windows so the crisp, cool air could blow through.

  She followed Levi inside, and as they walked past the displays of chintzy souvenirs and postcards, Sidra stopped and picked up a small silver spoon. An alligator was engraved in the bowl and a palm tree formed the top of the handle, and she smiled.

  “I had one of these,” she said softly. “I remember carrying it in my bag from house to house.”

  “Where did it come from?”

  She had a vague recollection of a woman holding the spoon out to her and promising her in a soft, soothing voice that everything was going to turn out fine.

  “I don’t know. Probably a place just like this.” There was no use sharing something that might be a memory and might be nothing more than her imagination. She placed the spoon back on the shelf. “I guess we’d better eat and hit the road.”

  “Will you order for me?” she asked, once the waitress had placed their drinks on the table and gone away to give them time to look over the menu. “I’ll have a cheeseburger.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “The restroom.”

  He looked around, and she stood up.

  “You don’t have to keep me safe in the restroom, Levi. I’ve been using it on my own for a while now.”

  “Where is it?” he demanded, his eyes narrowing.

  “I saw one by the souvenirs.”

  When it was obvious he was considering following her out and waiting for her, she sighed in exasperation.

  “I am going to the restroom, and you are going to stay here and order our food. It will take way too much time for you to follow me, when it’s just right on the other side of the door.”

  “Fine.” He grabbed her by the hand before she left. “Straight there and straight back, and keep your eyes open, Sidra. I don’t think anyone followed us, but it’s always possible.”

  Her nerves were on edge as she hurried past the bathroom and out the front door of the convenience store. She had to act fast if she intended to leave him behind. She searched the parking lot, dismissing a young couple getting into a car decorated with shaving cream and crepe paper, as well as the white-haired grandparents buckling two small children into their car seats. Her eyes fell on a woman alone, dressed in a charcoal gray pantsuit and black heels. A small, compact purse was clutched to her side, and she walked with a quick, determined gait that told Sidra she wouldn’t abide any nonsense but would sympathize with another woman put in a difficult position by a man.

  If life had taught her nothing else, it was how to pick the person who would be in her corner and make the best of the situation by befriending them. She grabbed her bag and raised her hand in greeting.

  “Excuse me, miss!” she called, grimacing when the woman turned around. “My boss and I were on our way to Tallahassee, but he’s in the Roadhouse, drunk as a skunk, and I can’t get him out of there. I’d take the car and leave him, but he won’t give me the keys.”

  The woman looked uninterested for a moment, and Sidra pushed on.

  “I have to give a huge presentation tomorrow morning at Frasier and Sons. We were supposed to be at the hotel in Orlando long before dark so I could go over my PowerPoint presentation and speech tonight.” Her eyes darted around. “The only hotel I see here is shoddy, to say the least, and I just don’t feel comfortable staying there. Especially with him.”

  She added a small shudder that softened the woman’s face with sympathy. Seeing her opening, she pressed on.

  “If we’re not there in time to give the presentation, he’ll blame me, and I can’t afford to lose my job.”

  The woman frowned for a second, but in the end, her face softened and she smiled.

  “I’m only going halfway there, but I can give you a ride that far.”

  Chapter Nine

  She climbed into the passenger’s seat and the woman backed out of the space. They were pulling out of the parking lot when she looked in the rearview mirror and saw Levi barreling through the roadhouse doors.

  “I think your boss just realized you left him.” The woman said as a conspiratorial smile spread across her face. “I’m Jess, by the way.”

  An hour later, Jess exited the i
nterstate and pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall.

  “Good luck with the presentation, Sidra,” she chirped as Sidra opened the door.

  “Thank you so much, Jess. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

  Headlights illuminated the inside of the car, and Jess looked in the rearview mirror.

  “You know, your boss drives pretty good for a drunk guy,” she said with a grin.

  Sidra’s stomach dropped.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s been on our tail since we got on the highway.”

  Sidra tried to cover her fear with a sheepish smile.

  “I’m sorry I lied to you. I was afraid you wouldn’t buy how much I wanted to get rid of him if I just said it outright.”

  Jess grinned and dismissed Sidra’s apology with a wave of her hand.

  “No problem. I enjoyed the company, and the thrill of trying to lose him. It kept my mind occupied.”

  Sidra glanced around them as she stepped out of the car. Levi’s dark blue SUV was nowhere in sight. The lights shining on them belonged to a silver luxury car incongruously parked in front of a darkened cash advance store and a pizza parlor.

  “Are you sure you saw him?”

  “Of course, he’s parked right behind us.” Worry creased her smooth brow. “Isn’t he?”

  Sidra felt herself pale as she stared at the tinted windows of the silver car. She was tempted to get back in Jess’s car and demand the woman drive, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t risk Jess getting hurt in whatever was about to happen.

  “Oh, yes, there he is,” she lied, her voice shakier than she would have liked. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “Will you be okay with him?” Jess asked, as if sensing her nervousness.

  “Sure. We’re nearly there now. I’ll just insist we drive the rest of the way. Thanks again.” She shut the car door, praying the woman would pull away, even while she hoped she wouldn’t.

  Fighting the desire to run as fast and as far as she could she turned away from the unfamiliar car and walked sedately down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.