Nowhere Safe by Nancy Bush Page B

stop and eventually winding her way back to the mall. If they traced the phone, it wouldn’t be connected to her.
    Now, she held Mr. Blue’s truck onto the road and tried not to pay attention to the internal clock that was always ticking inside her head. Before the event that had nearly killed her, she hadn’t really noticed the passage of time. She hadn’t cared. But since her recovery, time had been like a partner in her mission. She sensed she was heading toward a final showdown and it was sooner than she might like.
    Lucky wasn’t her real name, but it was the one she went by these days. Her name was Ani, if anyone cared, and they didn’t, except maybe for that detective she’d been attracted to—more attracted to than she wanted to remember—and he would only care because he would use it as a way to find her.
    And then, her sister might care, too—maybe—but Lucky had to stay far, far away from her as well.
    The last time she’d seen her was when she’d been lashed to the pyre, feeling the scorching flames burning nearer . . . and nearer....
    The memory scratched across her mind and the tight scars on her back felt even tighter. Easing her shoulders like she always did, she tried to loosen the skin but the damage was too deep. To this day, she felt an abiding fear of fire. She was lucky to be alive.
    Lucky.
    Mr. Blue only knew her by Lucky. She never said who she really was and he didn’t ask. She was his guest, his ward, his friend, but only for the time being. They both knew, or maybe just she did, that their time together was destined to be brief. As she knew her time in this world was destined to be brief. She sensed it like she sensed many other inexplicable things, and her ability was what had earned her Mr. Blue’s protection.
    That and the fact that he liked her. Like a daughter. And she, who’d been used by her “father” every way in creation, felt the same way about Mr. Blue being her surrogate father. They liked each other and that was more than either of them could say about anyone else on the planet.
    She hadn’t told Mr. Blue that she was a fugitive, that the long arm of the law was after her, had almost reached her a time or two. He didn’t ask questions on things he didn’t want to know about. The less information the better, in this case. Occasionally, he requested that she go and get things for him as he rarely left his ramshackle house near the natural hot springs on his private property.
    That was Lucky’s job, too. To shoo trespassers from the hot springs, which were believed to be a rejuvenating treatment, a natural spa. Once in a while some enterprising asshole and his girlfriend would hike onto Mr. Blue’s property and avail themselves of the hot springs and Lucky would deal with them while Mr. Blue stayed in the shadows. Yes, she was a fugitive, but a number of years had passed and her face wasn’t as well known as it had been. With that inner sense that rarely did her wrong, she knew that she wasn’t at the top of the Winslow County sheriff ’s hit list any longer. Other law enforcement agencies weren’t paying that much attention, either, especially with the murder rate and increase in property crimes, hate crimes, personal crimes, and every other kind of crime. She got her information from Mr. Blue, who, though a loner and hermit by all accounts, had a satellite dish and Wi-Fi stick that allowed him to access the Internet and God knew what else. He was a study in contradictions. A guy who knew a hell of a lot about a hell of a lot. Lucky considered him the first true friend she’d ever really had.
    Now she turned off 26 to the long, rutted access road that wound to Mr. Blue’s house and the hot springs beyond. She bumped along, mentally crossing her fingers that the old truck would make it. To date, it hadn’t failed her, but vehicle maintenance did not seem to be Blue’s priority.
    When she reached the house, she parked on one side where several rusting