Escaping the Past Page 31

  She stepped out of the bathroom and glanced around. Spotting the officer at the bar, talking with the bartender, she quickly skirted the room and went back out the front door. As she was about to step off the porch, she heard someone yell, “Hey!”

  Not sure, and not caring, if it was the officer who yelled, she ran into the shadows of the porch and stood very still, watching his dark uniform as he crossed the parking lot. The only sound that she heard was her heart beating in her ears. She did not hear the man as he crept up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, speaking low in her ear. But she saw the officer as he heard the noise.

  In desperation, she turned to the man in the shadows and pulled his head down to hers. She used his large body to shield her smaller one. When he hesitated, she grew desperate and wrapped her leg around him, deepening the kiss. She fought the flutter in her belly that she felt at having a strange man’s hands on her and did her best to act like a lover hiding in the shadows with her beau.

  When she heard the patrol car finally drive away, she could feel the tears that threatened to fall from beneath her lashes. It was more than she could bear. How long would she jump at shadows? How long before she could feel safe being alone? The man almost broke her down when he asked if there was anything he could do to help.

  Rather than let him see her cry, she ran back to her car and got behind the wheel. She asked the navigational system in her rental car to find the nearest motel. She backed out of the parking space and toward the motel, stopping at the dingy registration office. She almost forgot her new name, Olivia Gale, when she signed the registry.

  She carried one bag up the stairs to her room and dumped it onto the bed. She pulled the wig slowly from her hair and let her blonde locks fall over her shoulders, using her fingertips to massage her scalp. Then she traded her green contacts for brown ones. When all that was done, she climbed between the sheets and asked God to please give her one day where there was no fear. And to let tomorrow be that day.