Diesel (The Mavericks Book 13) by Dale Mayer (read books for money .txt) 📕

“Do you have a number for him?”

She nodded and gave it to him.

He quickly typed the number into his phone and called it.

When it rang continuously, she stared at it in surprise. But then a familiar voice came through the phone. “Hello.”

She snatched the cell from Diesel’s hand. “Dad?”

“Eva,” her father shouted.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“What are you calling for?”

And then she realized he had no clue. “I just wanted to hear your voice,” she said, catching Diesel’s look, as he shook his head.

“Well, I’m always happy to hear from you,” he said. “Normally you don’t sound this worried. Are you coming to visit soon?”

“You know what? I think I will,” she said. “I don’t exactly have a date just yet.”

“That’s fine. It’s good to hear from you,” he said.

“How is the fishing?” she asked, tears coming to her eyes. She wiped them back, trying to keep her voice clear, as the tears clogged her throat.

“It’s perfect,” he said. “The best decision I ever made was to move out here permanently. You should come and fish a bit.”

“I think when I come that I’ll stay for a few days.”

“In that case, something’s going on in your world,” he said worriedly.

“No,” she said, “I just realized I’m in need of a break.”

“Great,” he said, sounding relieved. “Let me know as soon as you can, and I’ll set up some of the best fishing spots, and we can go out.”

And she smiled because she knew that, for her dad, these days really meant spending all his time on the lake fishing. But that was okay too. “You got any new friends?”

“Maybe,” he said, with a cheeky tone. “What about you?”

She smiled, looked at Diesel, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “No, still single, Dad.”

“You can’t work all the time,” he said gently. “There’s more to life than that.”

“I know,” she said, “but I’ve lost an awful lot in life too.”

“And you can’t have your mother’s death be what drives you.”

She heard the grief in his voice. “If I’d done that,” she said, “I would have gone into gun reform.”

“I know you love her, but don’t let this mark your entire world.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice?” she said. “Anyway I just wanted you to know that I love you.”

“And I love you too,” he said.

After ending the call, she gave the phone back to Diesel and whispered, “Thank you.”

He nodded. “What happened to your mom?”

She winced. “A break-in. He entered and shot my mom in the kitchen to get some food,” she said. “I was seven, upstairs, hiding in my room.”

“Oh, my God,” Marge said, beside her.

She nodded. “It’s one of the reasons why the kidnapping was particularly difficult for me,” she said. “I never really realized how much your history wraps around your psyche and hits you where it counts.”

“Always,” Diesel said. “But you seem to have worked through it.”

“I don’t know about that,” she said softly. “As my father said, I’ve let it dominate a lot of my life. Took me a long time to stand being locked up—as I was in my closet, while it was going on.”

“And, of course, you heard it all,” he murmured.

She smiled weakly, nodded, and said, “Yes. I wanted to go into law enforcement for a long time and then realized that I really only wanted to put them in jail. I learned that the killer was high on drugs, and he was on drugs because his family had been decimated by disease. He couldn’t handle the grief. That’s when I decided that there was no point in treating the symptom. I needed to work on the cure.”

He looked at her in surprise.

She smiled. “I know. Kind of an ideological way to go through life, but it worked for me. I found that scientific lab work was actually where my heart belongs, and so I’ve been really enjoying it,” she said, “until now.”

“Let’s keep it that way.”

“You’re safe now,” Jerricho said.

“Do you think so?” she said. “Or will we still be looking over our shoulders?”

Both men stayed silent at that.

She nodded. “Any chance of food?” she murmured. “We haven’t eaten in a long time.”

Jerricho nodded. “As soon as we can. We’ll find a safe house first.”

“Where?”

“That’s the question,” Diesel said. Just then his phone buzzed. He looked at the screen and said, “Now I have an address.” He held it out for Jerricho, who said, “Pop that in the GPS, will you?” And, once in the GPS, they took a look and said, “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Jerricho quickly changed lanes, turned around corners, and headed in the right direction for their safe house.

She sat back. “Ten minutes? I can handle that.” She looked over at Marge, smiled, patted her hand, and said, “Smile, we’re almost safe.”

She nodded. “Maybe, but it’s only an almost,” she said.

“We’re not locked up anymore.”

Marge whispered, “Exactly.”

Eva caught Diesel looking at Marge, curled up in the corner of the seat, her head against the seat back.

“I’d just like to be on US or Australian soil,” she said, with a yawn.

“Food, a shower, and a good night’s sleep,” Eva said, “and everything looks different.”

Marge smiled at her. “It’ll look different, but it’ll still look Chinese.”

She laughed at that. “Well, that’s fair, since we are still in China.” She looked over at Diesel. “Thank you, by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile.

“Is this what you really do for a living?” she asked, fascinated.

“Right now, yes.”

She nodded and said, “It’s just amazing.”

“What?”

“That we’re even alive,” she said. “It’s just hard to believe, at this point, that I was locked up in that small room, and now I’m here. It’s like a dream. Or maybe more like waking up from a nightmare.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that you’ll be locked up in a hotel room next,” he said cheerfully.

She groaned. “Seriously?”

“Until we can get you back home again.”

“At least it’s progress.” She stayed quiet, until they went through a series of turns at multiple corners, and she realized