Free Bond, Stephanie - Body Movers 06.5 by 6 1.2 Body Parts Page B

seem… familiar.”
    She couldn’t resist toying with him. “How so?”
    His gaze swept over her with the leisurely pace of a lover. “Maybe we should change the subject.”
    He looked back to the road and her mind clicked with the possibilities and fallout of telling Jack the truth about their
    “past.” Would it send her hurtling back?
    “Jack,” she said carefully, “what would you think if I told you that we do know each other… in another life.”
    He laughed. “No offense, I don’t believe in all that reincarnation jazz.”
    “I’m not talking about reincarnation, I’m talking about a parallel life. And you and I do know each other in that life—
    intimately.”
    He snorted. “Sorry, I don’t buy it.”
    Carlotta turned sideways in her seat. “What if I could prove it?”
    “How?”
    “I know things about you.”
    “Like?”
    “Like that you’re from Alabama.”
    He scoffed. “You can tell that from my accent.”
    “And when you’re not on the job, you prefer jeans, black T-shirts, and western boots.”
    “Also not a stretch.”
    She wet her lips. “I knew your partner, Maria, in the place where I came from. She’s beautiful, tall and willowy, with a mane of light brown hair.” She had been jealous of the woman’s interaction with Jack.
    He blinked, then scoffed. “You could’ve seen her picture on the news.”
    “I didn’t—I only arrived here today. In fact, I’m relieved to hear she’s alive. She was killed in the place where I’m from, by her ex-husband.”
    He looked angry. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”
    “It was terrible… he drowned her in her bathtub. His last name was Garza.”
    Jack looked alarmed. “This isn’t funny anymore. I don’t know where you got personal details of Maria’s life, but—”
    “Is he stalking her here, too? He’s a dangerous man, Jack. You have to stop him from hurting her—”
    “That’s enough,” he cut in. “I’m starting to think you’re the dangerous one.”
    “I’m not dangerous,” she said calmly. “I’m from another place where our lives are taking different paths than the way things are here. In the other place, Tracey and I aren’t best friends—Hannah and I are.”
    “The tattooed waitress?”
    “Yes. She and I work for Coop, moving bodies.”
    “In this ‘other place,’ you and that Goth chick work for the morgue?” His disbelief was clear.
    “Actually, Coop isn’t the M.E.—he lost his job because of his drinking. He contracts to move bodies for the morgue, and he hired us to help him.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “And the fugitive you’re after isn’t the bank robber we stopped today, it’s my father.”
    His eyebrow shot up. “Your father, huh?”
    “Yeah… in the other place, he skipped bail on a white collar charge and was a fugitive for over ten years.”
    “Was?”
    “Right. You caught him, um… yesterday.”
    Now he looked amused, as if she were a small child. “Good for me.”
    She swallowed hard. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but it’s true. You and I and everyone else are living another life in the place where I came from.”
    He pursed his mouth. “And how did you get here?”
    “In my car.”
    “You drove across the space-time continuum?”
    A flush worked its way up her neck. “Not exactly. My car hasn’t run in years. This morning I climbed into it and fell asleep, and when I climbed out… I was here.”
    He nodded solemnly. “I hate when that happens.”
    She turned back around in her seat. “Forget it. I wouldn’t believe me either.”
    They drove in silence for a few moments. Carlotta stared out the window, looking for differences in this place, but the sky was the same color of blue, the grass just as green, the cars just as noisy. They entered the upscale community of Martinique Estates where Peter—and she—lived. The guard at the security gate called her Mrs. Ashford and waved them through.
    “So where do I live?” Jack asked.
    She looked