Page 45 of Midnight Rainbow

She nodded, wondering how he’d known her name and recognized her. His grip tightened on her arm. “Would you please come with me,” he said, and though his voice remained polite, it was an order, not a question.

Alarm skittered through her, jerking her out of her misery. She smiled at the man and swung the backpack by its straps, catching him on the side of the head with it and sending him staggering. From the solid ‘thunk’ it made, she knew Grant’s boots had hit him.

“Grant!” she screamed, her voice slicing through the bustle of thousands of people. “Grant!”

The man caught himself and lunged for her. Jane began running back in the direction she’d come from, dodging around people. Up ahead she saw Grant coming through the crowd like a running back, shoving people out of his path. The man caught up with her, catching her arm; then Grant was there. People were screaming and scattering, and the airport guards were running toward them. Grant sent the man sprawling, then grabbed Jane’s arm and ran for the nearest exit, ducking past the milling crowds and ignoring the shouts to stop.

“What the hell’s going on?” he roared, jerking her out into the bright Texas sunlight. The humid heat settled over them.

“I don’t know! That man just came up to me and asked if my name was Jane Greer; then he caught my arm and told me to come with him, so I hit him in the head with the backpack and started screaming.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” he muttered, flagging a cab and putting her in it, then crawling in beside her.

“Where to, folks?” the cab driver asked.

“Downtown.”

“Any particular place downtown?”

“I’ll tell you where to stop.”

The driver shrugged. As they pulled away from the curb there seemed to be a lot of people spilling out of the terminal, but Jane didn’t look back. She was still shaking. “It can’t be Turego again, can it?”

Grant shrugged. “It’s possible, if he has enough money. I’m going to make a phone call.”

She’d thought she was safe, that they were both safe. After the two peaceful days spent in Mexico, the sudden fear seemed that much sharper and more acrid. She couldn’t stop trembling.

They didn’t go all the way into Dallas. Grant instructed the driver to drop them at a shopping mall. “Why a shopping mall?” Jane asked, looking around.

“There are telephones here, and it’s safer than standing in a phone booth on the side of a street.” He put his arm around her and hugged her briefly to him. “Don’t look so worried, honey.”

They went inside and found a bank of pay telephones, but it was a busy day and all the lines were in use. They waited while a teenager argued extensively with her mother about how late she could stay out that night, but at last she hung up and stormed away, evidently having lost the argument. Grant stepped in and commandeered the telephone before anyone else could reach it. Standing close by him, Jane watched as he dropped in the coins, punched in a number, then dropped in more coins. He leaned casually against the fieldstone nook that housed the telephone, listening to the rings on the other end.

“Sullivan,” he finally drawled when the phone was answered. “She was nearly grabbed in DFW.” He listened a moment; then his eyes flicked to Jane. “Okay, I got it. We’ll be there. By the way, that was a dumb move. She could’ve killed the guy.” He hung up, and his lips twitched.

“Well?” Jane demanded.

“You just belted an agent.”

“An agent? You mean, one of your friend’s men?”

“Yeah. We’re taking a little detour. You’re going to be debriefed. It was left up to some other people to pick you up, and they decided to pick you up after we’d parted company, since I’m no longer in the business and this doesn’t officially concern me. Sabin will pin their ears back.”

“Sabin? Is he your friend?”

He was smiling down at her. “He’s the one.” He stroked her cheekbone very gently with the backs of his fingers. “And that’s a name you’re going to forget, honey. Why don’t you call your parents and let them know that you won’t be in tonight? It’ll be tomorrow; you can call them again when we know something definite.”

“Are you going, too?”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” He grinned a little wolfishly, already anticipating Kell’s reaction to Jane.

“But where are we going?”

“Virginia, but don’t tell your parents that. Just tell them that you missed your flight.”

She reached for the phone, then stopped. “Your friend must be pretty important.”

“He’s got some power,” Grant understated.

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