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Chapter Eighteen
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Vee drove us out of town, the gun wedged between her slender thighs, one hand resting on the butt, ready to shoot me if I did anything wrong.
I was relieved to be leaving the town behind. I’d already been there at least twelve hours longer than I had intended, and in my job it wasn’t a good idea to hang around in the same place for too long. As much as I tried to stay incognito, there were a few people who knew exactly who I was and what I did, and those particular types of people always had ways of getting information if they wanted it. I was a professional, but that didn’t mean things always went the right way for me. And when they went wrong, they went spectacularly wrong.
I spotted something ahead and slid down in my seat. “Keep driving, Vee. Don’t change your speed.”
The cops were parked in an emergency lane up ahead. I didn’t know if they were looking out for us—but I suspected they must be. Unless the deputy was completely bent, like Vee had suspected, he would have radioed us in right away and the police would be watching out for us. In fact, I was sure he had to have called us in. He wouldn’t get away with open firing in a busy street without having a really good reason for doing so. Chasing suspected murderers was probably as good an excuse as any.
“Oh, shit.” Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel, her knuckles whitening. I saw the tension grip her shoulders and her teeth nipped at her lower lip.
I slid farther down in the seat.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, staring straight ahead.
I made sure the top of my head was below window level, though it was ridiculously cramped and the position put extra pressure on the wound in my thigh, making me grit my teeth and my eyes water.
“They’re looking for a man and a woman in a Ford car. If they can’t see me, you’re just a lone woman in a truck. Lean to the side slightly, and hold the steering wheel lower down so they won’t catch sight of your tattoos.”
“Shit!” she swore again, but did as I told her, angling her arm and shoulder so it couldn’t be seen from the outside. The result was that she sat slightly lower in the seat, but from the outside she just would have looked a little shorter than she was.
The bag with the gun was also on the floor with me, so I slid my hand inside to grip the butt of a pistol to use should we be stopped. It wasn’t in my usual job description to shoot innocent cops, but if it meant keeping us out of prison and alive, I’d do whatever I needed.
But I felt Vee tap me with something, and I had enough room to glance toward her. She had tapped me with the muzzle of the gun she’d had gripped between her thighs.
“Don’t try anything,” she warned me.
“I was getting the gun in case of the cops, not because I was going to turn it on you.” Her constant suspicion was starting to grate on me, but I guessed I couldn’t blame her. “I’m not going to hurt you, Vee.”
“Shut up, and let me concentrate.”
I figured we were about to drive right by the waiting cop car. I braced myself, waiting for the siren to come on, the lights flashing, and the decision whether to stop and fight, or start to lead the chase, would need to be made.
But we drove past without being alerted to anything being wrong.
Vee let out an audible breath. “I think we’re okay. They barely glanced at me. The police probably think we’re headed in the opposite direction anyway, and they’ve just been put there as a precaution.”
Even so, I gave it another minute before straightening out of my cramped position and settling myself back in the seat. I was starting to feel like I couldn’t remember a time when a part of my body didn’t hurt. I would have liked to keep hold of one of the guns, but I didn’t think the woman driving the car was going to let me get away with that.
A buzzing sounded from somewhere around Vee.
“Ah, now what?” she said, tilting her hip up and sliding her hand down her perfectly shaped rear end. I knew I shouldn’t be focusing on that part of what was happening, but the image of her naked fingers slipping across her bare ass pierced my brain.
She pulled out the cell from her back pocket and flashed the screen at me. “It’s them again. The ones who have Nickie.”
I knew she wouldn’t want me to comment on it, but I noted how her hands were shaking.
“Pull over and then put it on speaker,” I said. I didn’t want her to mention me. As far as they were aware, I didn’t even exist. I was the one advantage we would have in getting her sister back—that and the fact Vee wasn’t going to take any prisoners.
Her eyes flicked to me, and she nodded, swinging onto the side of the verge. Luckily, the road was quiet and we didn’t upset any other drivers with our sudden stop.
Vee held out the phone and hit the button to answer. Her lips were thinned, her skin appearing a shade lighter than her usual caramel complexion. This was stressing her out, far more than she’d ever been dealing with me.
A male voice spoke. “I hope you’re on your way.”
“I would be if I knew where I was supposed to be going.”
