Her Temporary Bodyguard

(Part 10) Chapter Nine

The car shifted. The motion was just sharp enough to startle her out of the light sleep she'd succumbed to. Tara squinted at the sudden onslaught of bright streetlights, so different from the dark highway dotted with head- and tail-lights. With a frown, she realized that Logan had pulled off the Interstate.

"What are you doing?" She asked, sitting up and automatically reaching to tidy her hair. Fortunately the wig hadn't shifted much, requiring only the slightest of adjustments.

"Finding us food and a place to stay for the night," Logan replied, sparing her a quick glance. "Is drive-thru okay with you?"

"Yeah, whatever, but are you sure it's safe? To stop, I mean. If you're tired, I can drive for a while and you can take a nap in the back or something." She didn't mean to babble but a very real fear had caught hold of her and she couldn't shake it. After landing in Albuquerque, Logan had bought them tickets on the next flight out and they'd ended up in Portland. Tara had followed him without question to the rental car lot and couldn't help but notice how often Logan had looked in the rear view mirror as they'd headed for Seattle. Somewhere in the two hour flight to Salt Lake City, it had finally sunk in. She was going to die. If Logan couldn't keep her one step ahead of the men that Balboni was sending after her, if they somehow slipped up and walked right into their hands, Tara was as good as dead. The truth of it had settled itself into her heart with an icy poison that was slowly spreading through her, numbing her with a terror more pure than she'd ever experienced.

"We're in Idaho Falls, it's really late, and I think we've travelled enough today to throw them off our trail," Logan told her in his calm, soothing voice. Tara wanted to object, but her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. How could he be sure? For all they knew, the men were in that car right behind them. Tara watched the silver sedan in the side-view mirror until it turned away. She exhaled heavily, only realizing then that she'd been holding her breath. Logan didn't seem to notice her momentary anxiety as he turned into a brightly-lit fast-food restaurant.

"What do you want?" Logan asked her, idling behind the pick-up at the ordering window as he stared at the colourful menu board.

"Two cheeseburgers, extra pickles, large fries and a real Coke," she said without thinking of anything other than the loud grumbling that her stomach had taken up. Logan turned to look at her, cocking an eyebrow in surprise.

"I don't like that diet crap," she said lamely.

"Neither do I," Logan said as he pulled forward to place their orders. When he said exactly what she'd asked for and followed it with a nearly identical one for himself, Tara found herself staring at him. When he hadn't chastised her for pigging out, she had half-assumed that he would just adjust her order when placing it. He hadn't done that either. Her grandmother certainly would have. Benny, too. Tara shook her head. When was she ever going to get out from under the weight that those two people had put on her? She glanced out the window at the darkened streets and wondered if she would even be given the chance to make her life her own again.

When the paper sack of food was passed to them through the window, Logan pulled the latest rental car around to the parking lot and found a spot in the middle, under a lamp post and parked. As Tara took the first bite of her second burger, her grandmother's voice started that old echo inside of her head. Desperate to distract herself before she went seriously crazy, she turned to look at Logan.

"Why did you come looking for me?" She asked. He seemed surprised by her question, but swallowed and turned to look at her before answering.

"Jason asked me to." He said it so simply, as if he hadn't thought that he'd had any choice in the matter. Tara frowned at him.