Page 61 of Sizzling
“I’ll send some of The Judgment. They’re closer. Description of the car?”
“Blue Buick Encore, I believe. Briar?”
“Yeah, Buick Encore, 2019. Full of boxes in the back seat.”
“Got it,” the guy replied. “Are you headed here?”
Another pause.
“No. We are headed to Madison.”
He let out a sigh. “Okay, if you think that’s, uh, safe.”
“It is,” Storm said with a hardness in his tone that hadn’t been there before.
“I’ll handle this. You get her north.”
“Thanks,” Storm replied and ended the call.
The only sound in the car was our breathing for several minutes. I stayed over Dovie as I racked my brain for who could have been shooting at us. Who would have tracked my car? Wired it? I didn’t want to think this was about me, but all the clues pointed to me. Not Storm.
“We are in the clear. No one is following us. You can sit up.”
I straightened, then patted Dovie’s back, but she only scooted over to bury her face in my arm.
“Who is she, Briar?”
I glanced down at her as she lifted her eyes to look at me. “It’s okay,” I assured her. Then looked up at Storm in the rearview mirror. “She was me. Except she was younger. She wasn’t old enough to run, and I couldn’t leave her there to live the hell I had until she was old enough to get away.”
Storm’s eyes hardened as he stared back out at the road. “Roger?”
“Yes,” I replied. “First time I went to kill him, I found her instead. I didn’t get him that time, but I got her free.”
Storm didn’t say anything for several minutes.
We rode in silence. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have my purse. We had nothing but Storm right now. I didn’t even have my money. Everything had been in that car. I’d let this happen. Let my guard down.
“How long has she been with you?” he asked.
“Four years.”
His eyes locked with me in the rearview mirror.
“Her mother is Netta. You met her. She can’t live with that woman. Even if Roger is dead.”
When he said nothing, I tightened my arm around her. “I won’t get the law involved. If you try, we will find a way to run.”
His eyes swung back up to meet mine. “When do I get the law involved in anything, Briar?”
True. He had a point.
“Will we get our things? My car?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah.”
Relief washed over me. “Now, you know I’m not hiding Roger. Can we go once we have it?”
“Someone is after you. That gunshot wasn’t meant for me. No one knew where I was. They were following you. I’d been so locked on you that I missed the fact that I wasn’t the only one following you.”
