Assignment: Marriage

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He sized her up with a flinty-eyed stare. “That’s about it. Now, tell me what you want for breakfast.”

She wanted to say, “Go to hell!” but she had the feeling that he’d go across the street, fill his own stomach and to heck with hers.

“Coffee and…toast.”

“That’s all?”

“Orange juice.”

Tuck shrugged. “You got it. Lock the door behind me, and stay away from the window.” Out he went.

Obediently, though angry enough to spit, Nicole threw the dead bolt and hooked the chain. “Jerk,” she mumbled, taking up her suitcase and heading for the bathroom.

They were on the road again by ten. To Nicole’s intense annoyance, Hannigan had made her stay in the motel unitlocked in, and away from the window, of course—while he saw to the car’s repair. Fortunately the problem was easy to fix, though to be honest Nicole wasn’t interested enough in what it had been to ask. Her mood was growing blacker by the hour, and what really bugged her was that Officer Hannigan didn’t even seem to notice. Was she invisible, or what?

The miles of central Nevada sped past, miles in which Tuck said not a word. Finally, Nicole could take no more.

“Are you always this nice?” she asked in an acid tone.

“What?” His eyes left the road to send her a frowning look.

“I said, are you always this nice?”

He looked at the road again. “I’m not here to entertain or amuse you.”

She put on a exaggeratedly surprised expression. “No kidding! Boy, you sure could have fooled me.”

“What do you want?”

“What do I want? Well, let me see. I want this car going in the opposite direction. I want to be at my desk instead of heading north. I want…”

“I didn’t put you in this situation.”

“Neither did I, dammit! Not intentionally,” she added, so frustrated and furious she marveled that steam wasn’t rolling out of her ears. “Why did they pick you for this job?”

“Meaning, you’d rather have someone else? How do you know? Maybe I’m the nicest guy on the force.”

“Oh, please.”

Tuck shook his head, plainly displaying disgust. “I’m not going to argue with you. Save your gripes for someone else.”

“If I ever see anything else suspicious, rest assured that the police won’t hear about it,” she said with distinct bitterness.

“Wonderful attitude,” Tuck muttered.

“Well, how would you like to be banished from your own home?”

“If it brought down two killers, I’d like it just fine.”

She sent him a dirty look. “You probably would.”

“Look, hasn’t it occurred to you that this little trip could be saving your life? Harper probably told you something like that, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” she said sullenly. Remembering how the dark Lincoln had slowed down as it drove past her car that night, she shivered. The police were right and she was wrong, but why did they have to stick her with a coldhearted, hardnosed, inconsiderate jerk like Tuck Hannigan?

A side glance caught his granite profile, irritating her all over again. She wanted to ruffle his feathers. Under that inch-thick layer of cop skin had to be a human being.

“Wasn’t your name in the papers a while back?” she asked.

Tuck heaved a sigh; she had finally remembered. “Yeah, it was. But I don’t want to talk about it, so just drop it.”

“You really enjoy giving orders, don’t you?” Her mouth twisted. “And I really hate taking them.”

“So I’ve noticed.” He sent her a hard look. “But you will take them. When I say move, you move. When I say stop, you stop. And I don’t care if there are people around or not. There’s a reason behind every order I give you, and I’m not going to waste time explaining every word I say.”

“Oh, really? Telling me to drop a subject of conversation is important to this…this fiasco?”

“No, but my life isn’t open for discussion.”

“I suppose mine is, though.”

“If it pertains to this job, yes. Otherwise, no.”

Nicole folded her arms and stared broodingly out the side window. This was high country, with vast stretches of barren, sage-covered land. Because there was nothing else to do, Nicole reached for the atlas she’d seen lying on the back seat, flipped the pages to the one of Nevada and began coordinating their location with the map. The mountains she could see coming up were the White Pine Mountains. Behind them were the Monitor Range, the Toquima Range and the Shoshones. It looked to her like they were only about forty miles out of Ely. That was good, because she needed to find a rest room.

Laying the atlas on the seat between them, she said her piece. “I need to stop at the first gas station or restaurant we come to.”

He shot her an annoyed look. “Already?”

“Would you like a detailed explanation?” she asked with saccharine sweetness. “Or may I keep the personal aspects of my life private?”

“Keep any damned thing you want private. Do you hear me asking questions about your personal ‘aspects’?”

“Well, thank you very much, Mr. Congeniality,” she. said with heavy sarcasm.

“You’re not the greatest traveling companion, either, lady.”

Anger rose in Nicole like steam billowing from a vat of boiling water. What she wouldn’t like to tell this overbearing jerk! Clamping her lips shut to stop herself, she turned her face to the side window.

Tuck’s stomach was tight with resentment. Joe had pulled a fast one on him. She’s a nice woman. You’ll like her. Yeah, right. If Nicole Currie was nice, he was the tooth fairy. So far on this trip she’d wallowed in self-pity, bitten his head off several times, and argued against every one of his instructions. “Orders,” she called them. Why, oh, why, had he fallen for that “cushy job” line of Crawford’s? Right now he could be peacefully driving along by himself, going somewhere to be alone and think his own problems through. Instead he had this…this emotional female on his hands.

He had put on his dark sunglasses for driving, and out of the corner of his eye he took a look at his passenger. Without that resentful expression on her face she would be prettier than average. He liked her short hairstyle, which was unusual as he normally preferred long hair on women. But the cut fit Nicole’s features. Like himself, she had put on a clean top with last night’s jeans. Today she was wearing a sleeveless red knit shirt with a V-neck. There was a delicate gold chain around her creamy throat and small gold earrings in her ears. She had put on makeup, too. Not a lot, he would swear, just a little blusher and some lipstick. Also, she must have used a few dabs of that same perfume he’d noticed last night, because the scent was faintly in the air.

His gaze returned to the road and stayed there. She might be pretty and she might smell good, but they were not going to be friends. Acquaintances, eventually, probably, but he wasn’t looking for a female friend, particularly in this situation.

“There’s a truck stop ahead,” Nicole stated.

“I see it.”

Tuck studied the traffic around the truck stop and his heart skipped a beat. The white sports car that had passed him last night was at a gas pump. He scanned the area for its driver and decided the person must be inside the building.

Wheeling into the truck stop, he parked next to the restaurant. Leaving the engine idling, he turned in the seat. “I’m going in to check things out. You wait here.”

Nicole’s eyes widened. “But I need…”

“I said, wait here. If everything’s all right, you can go in.”

She drew an exasperated breath, which Tuck didn’t hear as he was already out of the car and heading for the building.

At the counter there was a line of people—two men and three women—waiting to pay for their purchases. Tuck hung back and looked them over, as one by one they paid for gas or miscellaneous items and walked out.

A long-legged blonde wearing white shorts and a tight yellow T-shirt got into the sports car, gunned the engine and took off.

Tuck went outside and back to his car. “Okay, you can get out now,” he said, sliding behind the wheel.

“Thank you very much,” Nicole said waspishly, opening her door and hurrying into the building.

Lighting a cigarette, Tuck rolled down his window and thought about that sports car. Its driver being a woman meant nothing. In fact, it would be pretty smart of Lowicki to send a woman to tail him and Nicole, but that would mean that Lowicki. had somehow learned of the department’s plans to protect Nicole outside of Nevada, which only a handful of cops were supposed to know.

Seeing that car twice was probably only coincidence, Tuck thought, though the scowl on his face wouldn’t quite go away. Tossing his cigarette out the window, he grabbed the atlas to study the Nevada map. The logical route north from Ely was Highway 93, which was his planned route. But what was best, to take 93 or to cut west on 50 and then take another road north? His scowl deepened. At this rate they’d never get out of Nevada, let alone reach northern Idaho.

Nicole came out and hopped into the car. She had a paper bag with her. Tuck looked at it questioningly.

His expression rubbed her wrong. “It’s just some snacks,” she said defensively.

“So what did we really stop for?” he asked coldly. “The rest room or snacks?”

“Both,” she snapped, although buying some chips and soft drinks hadn’t occurred to her until she’d come out of the rest room.

It wasn’t until they were several miles out of Ely that she noticed the Highway 50 sign. Frowning, she checked the map and asked, “Why are going west again? Highway 93 goes directly north.”

“Just playing it safe,” Tuck said.

“Wait a minute. We’re zigzagging the state. I thought we’d stay on 95 and you changed directions at Tonopah. Now you’re doing it again. Has something happened I’m not aware of to make you waste so much time?”

“In a hurry to get to Idaho?”

“No, I’m not in a hurry,” she said sharply. “But I have a right to know what’s going on.”

Tuck heaved a long-suffering sigh. He didn’t want to frighten her, but naturally she’d be curious about his time-consuming route.

“All right, I’ll tell you what’s going on. I’ve seen the same car twice, once last night before reaching Tonopah and today it was parked at the truck stop, getting gas.”

Nicole gaped at him. “Are you saying that someone is following us?”

“The possibility is extremely remote. I just don’t want to take any chances. We’re going to cut north on 278.”

Nicole looked at the map and located 278. “That road connects with Interstate 80. What are you going to do after that, go east or west?”

“If everything looks okay, I’ll probably go east and pick up 225 north at Elko, which will take us through the Duck Valley Indian Reservation into Idaho.”

Studying the north-south dimension data on the Nevada and Idaho maps, she sighed. “When we reach the reservation, we’ll only be halfway to Coeur d’Alene.”

“About that, yes.”

“And we still have hundreds of miles to travel in Nevada.”

“Yes. But barring further mechanical problems, we’ll still reach Coeur d’Alene sometime tonight.”

“The middle of the night,” Nicole said gloomily.

Tuck didn’t answer because he was again feeling sympathy for Nicole’s plight. There were alternatives to making this long drive, and he should have thought of them when discussing the trip with Captain Crawford. For one thing, they could have chartered a private plane and already be in Coeur d’Alene. Why hadn’t Joe thought of that? Why hadn’t he?

Then again, Joe Crawford didn’t miss much. He probably had considered every possibility and decided driving was their best course. At least Nicole was out of Vegas, which was undoubtedly Joe’s primary concern.

Nicole tried to resign herself to the torturous journey. What else could she do, get out and walk? Sighing, she opened the sack and pulled out two cans of soda. “Would you like one?”

Blinking in surprise at her even tone of voice, Tuck nodded. “Yes, thanks.”