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They continued down the road, and she knew if she twisted in her seat, the motel—and the man she loved—would no longer be in sight.
“I forgot my manners. You’re welcome to sit up front if that would make you more comfortable. I can pull over.”
The thought of sitting next to a stranger made her skin crawl. “I’m comfortable here.” She managed a polite tone, the same one she’d practiced in her head a thousand times since learning she had to give this statement.
She searched for the first landmark after the hotel but didn’t see it yet. The agent didn’t make small talk, and she was relieved even as it put her on alert.
Her fingers found the necklace, and she worried the pendant between her thumb and forefinger.
Miles passed, and she checked a landmark off her list.
“Nice necklace.” Agent Corbin glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “Sentimental?”
“A friend gave it to me. On the ranch.” She turned it over once more, the metal warm from her own hands. “For good luck.”
Saying it out loud struck her harder than she expected. Knowing they would all be there for her after this ordeal replaced a bit of the fear coiled inside her.
She watched the landmarks roll past the window, counting them the way Wyatt taught her. They should hit the exit for the state fairgrounds soon. The water tower with the faded blue letters would be visible soon too.
She tracked every rise in the road and every gap in the trees that might reveal it.
Neither the fairgrounds exit nor the water tower ever appeared.
Corbin took a turn she didn’t recognize onto a narrower road flanked by trees.
Her stomach dropped straight through the floor of the car.
Don’t react. Keep your face even. He’s watching.
She forced her expression to stay neutral and her breathing to remain slow, every ounce of Wyatt’s coaching he’d drilled into her snapped into place like armor.
Her fingers crept across the seat, inching toward the door. How quickly could she open it and leap out? How fast were they going? She might be killed at this speed, and if she did live, she couldn’t run fast enough or far enough to get away before he turned around and came back for her.
“How much longer?” She kept her voice light and casual, hopefully betraying nothing.
“Not far now.” His gaze found her in the mirror again, and he studied her a beat too long.
She let her hand drift nonchalantly back to the pendant and casually looked out the window. She wouldn’t give him a single indication she knew he wasn’t taking the route to the FBI office.
Her heart hammered so hard that he had to hear it too.
She squeezed the necklace, once, hard, and let it go.
Don’t hesitate. Trust that we’re already coming for you.
She gripped that instruction like a lifeline, repeating it silently over and over while the trees outside thickened and the road narrowed further.
Corbin slowed the vehicle at a pull-off ahead, and her pulse spiked so hard black spots danced at the edges of her vision.
A man stood waiting there, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed as if he had all the time in the world.
Her stomach lurched.
She knew the set of those shoulders before she ever saw his face.
She recognized it in the marrow of her bones, in the same primal part of her that screamed to look over her shoulder for two and a half months.
Oh god. Lance.
