Weeee, the fifth chapter is here. I hope you like it. And thank you so much for your encouraging feedback, I really appreciate it.
Spoilers: If you hadn't read the books, you wouldn't be here, but you won't be spoiled either way, I blame it all on the gin
Rating: PG13 for language, it's adult language
Disclaimer: I made the whole thing up, I own none of JE's characters.
Out Of my Mind
Chapter 5
I woke up when a ray of sunshine tickled my nose and I panicked when I realized the radio wasn't blasting by way of my alarm clock so I must have overslept.
But then I remembered I was on vacation, in New York, visiting my friend Jessica who lives in a…typical low budget motel room with burgundy peeling wallpaper?
I sat up straight and looked around when it came back to me. Trenton, Vinnie, Ranger and Joe Morelli.
Holy Ted!
I was still in the motel room I fell asleep in last night.
Now ordinarily, that was to be expected, of course, but I had been convinced I'd wake up being me again.
After leaving the diner, Joe had driven us back to the apartment complex, and I had feared I'd have to go back into the doomed apartment, but Joe just asked me to point him to my parked car.
I had gotten out, aware that he had noticed my New York plates and almost certain he was committing the number to memory that instant, fished out my bag from the back seat and sat back down next to him.
Along with my authorization to capture, I had handed him my gun permit, although he hadn't mentioned it. He raised an eyebrow at this, but then nodded.
It only took about 20 minutes to get back to my motel, unlike me, he knew the way.
Joe had smiled when I had pointed out my unit.
"Guess 13 isn't all that lucky for you, huh?"
I liked what the smile did to his face, it lit it up.
"Guess not." Was all I could manage in return.
He had stopped the car but didn't kill the engine and I had figured I was off the hook for the time being.
He had told me to get some rest and that he would be by in the morning.
For half the night, I lay in bed awake, going through all my emotions.
Sometimes giggling uncontrollably, sometimes sobbing in horror, sometimes dreamy eyed and sighing. At any rate, it was too tumultuous to fall asleep.
And yet, at some point I must have dozed off since it was now bright sunshine outside and the sheets were tangled around me.
The radio clock on the nightstand told me it was 8:25, and the flow of traffic on the nearby highway sounded like it, too.
I freed myself from the mess I had made of the bed linens and stumbled over to the bathroom.
Early in the morning, I'm not the most coordinated person.
I had never gotten around to CVS the night before, but the motel provided soap and tiny shampoo bottles, so my essential needs were met when I stood under the shower until my brain was put in gear.
Still, I made a mental note to hit a drug store later that day, I didn't want to be caught with my pants down and hairy legs.
Then it occurred to me that I could be forced to lower my pants in prison as well, but I reasoned it wouldn't hurt if my legs were shaved on that occasion as well.
20 minutes later, I had just put the finishing touches on my make-up, a knock on the door made me jump.
Technically, I knew who it was since no one else knew where I was staying, but that did nothing to calm me down.
I was going to ask who it was, really, but then I forgot and just opened the door, like I would at home.
Sure enough, there was Joe Morelli. He looked freshly showered and shaved and good enough to eat. He was holding a bag and a tray with Dunkin' Donuts cups and I nearly drooled.
A look of mild surprise flashed across his face as he stepped in.
"Don't you ever check before you open the door?"
"I knew who it was." Sometimes, I amaze myself with my deadpan comments. I thought I had sounded really bounty hunter-y and wise.
I don't know if it impressed Joe, he just shrugged and placed his load on the small table.
"Brought you some coffee."
Maybe I was just exhausted or overwhelmed or whatever, but at that moment, I could have hugged him out of gratitude, I could have sworn bringing me coffee was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. I managed to keep my outburst in check and kept it to a smiled "Thank you."
Holding on to the coffee cup had the added advantage of giving my fidgeting hands something to do. I was too nervous to eat, but I was betting the bag contained Boston Cream donuts.
I was about to ask about the bag, when Joe took the seat across from me and unfolded a manila enveloped he had had in the back pocket of his jeans.
"I need to see your gun again. We got the preliminary ballistic and autopsy reports and I have to check if your gun is a caliber match."
"Am I a suspect?" I almost squeaked, unable to control my voice. A moment ago, I had tried to imagine Joe in my bed, now the image of me in handcuffs wouldn't go away, and not in a kinky sex kind of way.
Joe frowned.
"Not really, but then again, I need to rule you out. I still don't know what you were doing there, why you called me and who you are, but so far I can't find anything wrong with what you did or said either."
If he was trying to calm me down, it wasn't working. I was trying to concentrate on the sexy tone of his voice rather than on what he was saying and it was almost working.
"And I believe this is for you." He took a small piece of paper out of the envelope and handed it over. It took a minute for me to realize what I was looking at.
'Receipt of Body', it read. Right! Me, bounty hunter. Joe, cop. Body receipt to collect share of bounty. Joe had taken the time to bring me the body receipt for Steve Moreno. Weird.
"Here's what we're going to do," he tried again, putting his cup down on the table between us.
"We're going to enjoy our breakfast and meanwhile, you're going to share your entire day with me, starting in Steve's parking lot and how you got there."
He got up and took my utility belt of the night stand where I had dropped it the night before, took out the gun and examined it. Since my gun had never been fired, I wasn't too nervous at that part. Up until then, I hadn't even known the victim had been shot.
"Then I'm going to take you to your car and you're free to go."
I liked his plan. It involved being back on the road to safety in a matter of hours.
Unfortunately, Joe was bound to change his plan if I didn't choose my words carefully.
Somehow, I didn't think "I was going to stake out fictional landmarks and characters from a book I love" wouldn't sound too convincing. Then again, if I was going to make up a background for Lindsay Taylor, I could talk myself into a dead end.
Instead of replying one way or the other, I just nodded.
He asked me some of the same questions we had gone over the night before. Had I known the victim, had I touched him, had I seen anyone leaving the apartment and such. I felt safe, since I didn't have to make anything up and had nothing to hide. Joe seemed to like that my answers matched what I had said before, but I may have imagined that. Sometimes he had to repeat a question because I had been lost in his voice and his moving mouth.
While he was talking and scribbling and gesturing, he took time outs to eat his donuts, which turned out to be Boston creams. The task of swallowing solids seemed too hard to accomplished, so I had declined my share of the pastries.
I still thought it was the nicest thing for him to bring breakfast and I was trying to figure out how much to read into it, when he got up, stuffed the empty donut bag into his empty cup and threw everything into the waste basket.
I took that as my cue, and I was glad I had been able to shower and get ready beforehand, it would have been too much to ask to be naked in the next room.
We drove back in silence and I was trying to come up with a safe topic, around the corner from our destination, when Joe cursed under his breath.
I followed his line of sight and discovered a black, shiny new Explorer parked next to my Beetle, dwarfing it.
Lindsay Taylor would have no frame of reference what the car meant, but Sandra Cline could only come up with one explanation. It looked like RangeMan had discovered the crime scene.
Or had they discovered my car?
The thought of having Ranger and his merry men out there looking for me made butterflies take off in my stomach. Granted, I couldn't come up with a reason they would be looking for me, or my car for that matter, but I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my giddiness.
Joe pulled on the other side of my car and handed me his card. I made a vow right then and there that I was going to have it bronzed, but I managed to remain neutral.
"If anything comes to mind, I want you to call me. If anyone" and he glanced to his left, through my car at the Explorer, "approaches you regarding this, I want to know about it. I don't have to remind you that you shouldn't talk to anyone about this, do I?"
I gave him a look that I hope asked who he thought he was talking to and said "No."
Then I shouldered my purse, which really didn't go with my cargo pants, combat boots and low-neck shirt but had to be brought out of necessity when I had been too flustered to get my utility belt on in front of Joe, and grabbed the door handle.
"Be careful." Joe advised as he put a hand on my forearm and our eyes caught.
"I'll try." I croaked out and left the car.
I had barely slammed the door shut when he took off, leaving me standing looking like the dork I felt like.
For lack of a better thing to do, I unlocked the Beetle's passenger door and threw in my bag.
I tried to watch the Explorer out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn't really trained in looking without looking and besides, all its windows were tinted dark. One wouldn't know if one was being watched back.
Sure enough, as I had walked around my car and reached for the door handle, I heard the Explorer's door open and someone step out.
"Ms Taylor?"
It was Ranger. Shit! My heart rate hadn't returned to normal after being close to Joe for hours, now I was sure to have a stroke.
"Just Lin." I managed to say, sounding quite normal to my own ears, as I turned around and smiled, determined not to meet his eyes.
Ranger shut the SUV's door and closed the short distance between us.
My black cat, Riley, had a similar way of crossing a room. All predator.
"Lin, then." He stated, emotionless, as he came to a stop about two feet from me.
Why had Joe left in such a hurry? Were they working together or had I interpreted the cursing correctly and Joe had been not at all happy to see Ranger's car?
I realized I was getting all flustered before Ranger had even started talking, just by driving myself crazy, and I willed my thoughts to go blank and count to 10.
Deciding a good offense was the best defense, I squared my shoulders and looked up at Ranger, carefully avoiding his eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Good, a neutral question. It didn't imply that I thought he was there for me, it didn't imply that there was anything going on inside the house, it could have been a question anywhere.
I wished I had taken the time to put on my belt, the weight of the semi-automatic against my thigh would have surely boosted my ego.
"I came looking for you." Ranger stated, studying me.
I had had a shower and my first coffee, I was as ready as I was going to get. Two can play this game, I decided.
"You found me. How can I help you?"
Somewhere in my head, a fangirl screamed, wicked proud of me.
I hoped my outfit helped me look at least half as cool as I was hoping to pull off.
