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promise of sex combined with mystery overrode a great deal of common sense.
    “Guard those bags,” she ordered with enough suggestion to have him glancing down at her bag in wonder. She’d never met a man yet who didn’t love sexy lingerie. He didn’t need to know that the most important things the bag actually contained were the rest of the cash Soderbaum had given her and another clip for the Beretta. She definitely didn’t want to lose those. She had no idea what she might have to buy or who she might have to bribe before this was over. The shooting part she’d just as soon not think about.
    Taking a quick look around, she left Jeffrey with the bags and herded up behind the half dozen other people in the rental car line. The agent on duty didn’t waste time. He moved through the customers quickly enough to impress even Olivia.
    When it was her turn, she asked, “What kind of SUV do you have available?”
    “Do you have a reservation?”
    Olivia shook her head. “I’m hoping that won’t be a problem.”
    Studying his computer monitor, he clicked a few keys. “Hmm.” He rubbed his chin. “I have an Explorer. Will that work?”
    “Perfect.”
    She gave him the driver’s license and credit card for Jill Smart. She signed the paperwork and he instructed her on which shuttle to take to pick up the SUV.
    A few minutes later she had the keys to the blue Explorer. Jeffrey commented on the size of the vehicle as they loaded their luggage into the cargo area, then even offered to drive. She knew her luck with his ready cooperation was about to run out.
    “I’ll drive. I have to make one more stop before we’re on our way.”
    “Breakfast? I’m thinking we’ll both need our energy.” He glanced at his watch. “Stopping for breakfast would give me a chance to check my e-mail for yesterday’s lab results.”
    9:00 a.m. She could eat. Funny, she hadn’t thought about food until he brought it up. Maybe falling back into her old persona wasn’t going to be as difficult as she’d first thought. Her focus had gotten a little keener in the last hour or so.
    To keep him happy she cruised through a drive-through and took care of both their needs. Even if she had no appetite, she knew she should eat. He was a bit disappointed since he’d had a sit-down breakfast in mind, but her decision hadn’t kept him from pulling out his BlackBerry and checking his cyber inbox.
    She took the long way to her next stop in hopes of avoiding more questions, but she should have known that wouldn’t work.
    East L.A. wasn’t exactly Brentwood, and no matter what neighborhood she drove through to reach her final destination or Jeffrey’s preoccupation with remote-accessing his files, there was no way to hide the fact that they’d entered a whole different world. One where Doctors Olivia Mills and Jeffrey Scott did not belong.
    “Good heavens, Olivia, where are we going now? I thought we were bound for a weekend in the mountains. Please tell me,” he said, his voice teasing, “that you’re only drawing out the foreplay.”
    “This won’t take long, Jeffrey, I promise.”
    He didn’t look totally convinced but he didn’t put up an argument.
    Though it had been years since Olivia had carried a weapon the way most women would a stick of lip gloss, she wasn’t oblivious to the world around her. At times she’d driven through neighborhoods just like this to get a better grasp on where a patient had come from. Just because most of her patients were somewhat affluent now didn’t mean they always had been. A few had clawed their way up from the gutter.
    To better understand their way of reasoning, she’d wanted to make herself fully aware of the environment in which they’d grown up. So she wasn’t entirely lost on this side of the city. Certainly she watched the news and read the newspaper; there wasn’t any real question as to where she would find what she needed. The only question was whether she would survive the