Page 78 of Kiss Across the Universe
“I’m fine,” Alannah assured her. “Thanks to Kit.”
“I just happened to be in the right place at almost the right time,” Kit said. “I stopped by with a leg of bison and found she was missing. Tracked her to the hotel where Iron Grey was keeping her. I suppose until he could arrange to transport her to a ship heading to the Middle East or wherever the destination of choice is for these a-hats these days.” He plopped the soup spoon into the empty bowl with a sigh of satisfaction.
Maryann immediately got to her feet, picked up the bowl and took it back to the kitchen side of the room.
Joe scratched under his chin. “You snatched her back, went running, but holed your gas tank and went on, on foot?”
“Iron Grey followed us,” Kit said. “I had to shake him off. Heading into the hills was the obvious choice. The guy isnota woodsman.”
“Most white folk ain’t,” Joe said easily. “Most tribe folk ain’t either, not anymore.” He laughed at his own joke and slapped Kit on the shoulder. “Excepting you.”
“This Iron Grey seems a bit…persistent,” Maryann said, placing a very loaded plate of roast beef and fixings in front of Kit, She held out a knife and fork toward him. “I don’t know much about human traffickers but it seems to me they would want to avoid trouble. As soon as someone seemed like too much effort to pick up, I would think they would lose interest very quickly and move on. But he chased you halfway to Banff.”
Maryann was far too perceptive.
“He knew a bit about me,” Alannah said carefully. “Our house is out of the way, but he knew I was there. So he’d done his homework. Maybe he spotted me in Canmore and made enquiries. Maybe he didn’t want to lose all that work.”
“Or maybe he thought someone like you would sell at a high enough price to make a bit of effort worth it,” Joe said.
Alannah could feel herself blushing. The heat travelled down her throat.
“Joe, stop flustering her with your heavy handed jocularity,” Maryann said.
Kit just grinned and ate another piece of Yorkshire pudding dripping with gravy. “I ran into Becky Redstone at the hotel. She helped me get to Iron Grey. I asked her to phone a few friends of mine, and ask them to watch out for the guy, get a line on who he was and where he came from.”
“Don’t you have friends in the RCMP?” Joe asked. “Why not ask them? Let them take over and protect Alannah. Why take it on yourself?”
Kit didn’t blink. “There wasn’t time. I sprung Alannah, and we had to run as Iron Grey was on our tails. Then the truck ran out of gas. So we hoofed it.” He shrugged.
Joe didn’t look convinced.
“Why would the RCMP do a better job than Kit, Joe?” Maryann said. “He’s ex JTF2—”
“Aunt Mary,” Kit snapped.
She looked uncertain and bit her lip. “Sorry,” she said softly and sat back.
Alannah stared at her. What was JTF2?
“Anyway, you got her out,” Joe said, his tone jolly. “Now what?”
“Iron Grey headed back to Canmore once he lost us. His real name—or the name he was using at the hotel, at least—was Gore Mixon. His passport was Armenian. As far as the hotel staff could determine, it was genuine, although they’d never seen an Armenian passport before, so they had no real way of telling.”
He rubbed his hair, glancing at the notes on the pad beside his plate. “Mixon was spotted the day after we ran, hanging around the Save-On.”
Alannah jumped. “That’s my grocery store.”
“Likely where he first spotted you,” Kit said. “He was trying to reacquire you.”
She shuddered.
“My friends kept an eye out for him, but no one saw him again after that first day. They also watched the road up to your house, but nothing moved on it, not for the three days they’ve been watching. They think Mixon has left town. He didn’t pay his hotel bill, but his room was cleaned out. The Mustang he was using was a rental and that was turned into the Calgary airport yesterday.”
“He gave up,” Maryann said, sounding relieved.
“Sounds like it’s safe for you to go home, Alannah,” Joe added.
She nodded, trying to look pleased.
