Page 37 of Wanted
Dani’s face drained of color. She covered her face with her hands, and her body began to shake. Reno wrapped his arm around her. “Did he say why he did it?”
George cleared his throat. “Well, I think there were several factors, the money being a prime one, but jealousy was right up there, too. He wanted Danielle Carver’s job… thought she hadn’t worked hard enough for it… that he was the better programmer. You know, all the I’m-the-victim stuff.”
Reno’s teeth ground together. “He’s never going to get near her again. You hear me?Never.”
“I don’t think he’ll have a chance. With the evidence we’ve got against him, he’s going to be put away for a long, long time.”
“Good.” Reno took a deep breath. “And Danielle?”
“The charges are being dropped. The lawyers are working on it now.”
“Thanks, Georgie. I owe you.”
“You don’t owe me anything. Just treat her right. She deserves it.”
Reno looked down at Dani, but her face was buried against his chest. He kissed the top of her shiny head. “Yes, she does.”
He hung up the phone and tossed it on the nightstand. He hooked his finger under her chin and lifted it. Her face was still white, but the shaking had stopped.
“It’s over, baby. It’s finally over.”
Dani’s thoughts whirled as she looked him. She understood the words he was saying, but she was afraid to get her hopes up. They’d been dashed too many times. “Does this mean that I’m a free woman again?” she asked hesitantly.
“Free as a bird. You can do what you want to do, go wherever you want to go without…”
Without looking over her shoulder for him.
Her breaths went short. “No more cheap motels? No more run-down diners?”
“And no more strip joints.”
She let out a whoop of joy and threw her arms around him. She’d never thought this would ever happen. She’d thought that she’d be running for the rest of her life. To have everything fall into place so perfectly stunned her. She had her life back.
Only… her life wasn’t there for her to go back to anymore.
Reality crashed her back to earth, and the landing was hard.
“Hey.” He hooked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “What’s wrong?”
“What am I supposed to do now?” she asked. She dug her fingers into the muscles of his back. She’d never thought about what would happen if she ever did manage to clear her name.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t have a place to live. I don’t have a job. I don’t even have a car,” she said in a near panic.
He pulled her down to the bed so they were lying face to face. “First of all, I happen to know of a company who just lost a computer programmer. Quad would certainly be glad to have you back. Your manager believed in your innocence the entire time, and now, he probably feels pretty guilty about trusting Pfizer. He’ll hire you back so fast, it will make your head spin.”
She wasn’t so sure. Did she even want to go back there?
“Secondly, you might not have a car, but I do.” His smile was sheepish. “There’s a red Corvette that’s been sitting in my garage for about four months.”
Dani blinked and pushed herself up onto an elbow. “My car?You bought my car?”
“I was only about a day behind you when you sold it at that used-car lot. The guy gave me a sweet deal that I couldn’t pass up. It’s a hot car and, besides, it had something that no other car in the world has.”
“What was that?” she asked, poking him in the shoulder.
“It smelled like you.” He caught her hand and kissed her wrist. “I could smell your perfume when I took the test drive.”
