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Good news—probably as good as they were going to get today. "Stay put. I'll be there as soon as I can. We're going to bring you to Fort Worth."
"But I thought hiding separately was the safest plan."
Tamara glanced up at Isaac. She really hated it when someone else was right, but she couldn't deny it in this case. "It was until your dad found me."
"Shit."
"Don't curse." It came out automatically, almost in her sister Amelia's voice.
"That's what you're worried about right now?" Essie's voice cracked over a stressed laugh.
"No. You know it's not." But the control freak in her demanded something not be out of whack, and if that meant enforcing her sister's rules on proper language then so be it. "I love you Essie."
"You too, Aunt T."
"Tell Albert to be on the lookout for us. You two stay safe and stay inside. Don't open up the doors for anyone. I'll be there tonight."
They said their goodbyes and Tamara hung up. She gathered up the guts of her purse that had spilled all over the floor until she could get her heart under control. Now that she was off the phone with Essie and free to freak out, her body was good and drunk on the speeding-pulse-shot-of-adrenaline cocktail.
"That didn't sound good," Isaac said, bending down to help her clean up.
"It's not. Essie thinks she spotted one of Jarrod's men."
Something dark and dangerous passed over his face, deepening the fine lines and hardening his jaw. "How soon can you leave?"
She dropped her favorite tube of Maraschino Red lipstick into her purse and stood up, nerves as steely as they were going to get until she had Essie safe. "Right now. My go-bag with the money in it is in my office."
"I'll tell the team the schedule just got moved up. We can't wait for the jet to get here. Meet me in the garage. We leave in five." He cupped her chin and tilted her face up. "Don't worry. We'll get Essie."
God she hoped he was right. "Tell the team to hurry and to pack for bear."
He grinned and brushed a quick kiss across her lips. "That's my girl."
She wasn't, but as she watched him sprint back into the briefing room part of her wished she could be.
* * *
Isaac
Twelve hours of driving time separated the Devil’s Dip Gym and Hamilton, Colorado. Isaac was betting they could do it in ten. That meant instead of being comfortable in his truck, he was cramped inside a midnight blue Camaro with Fort Worth in the rearview and Amarillo out in the distance. Tamara sat in the passenger seat, her back ramrod straight and her hands clasped tight enough in her lap to make every knuckle in her fingers turn white. She'd been like that since they'd pulled out of the Devil's Dip Gym, and it was starting to make him twitchy.
"It's gonna be a long drive," he said, zipping around a family minivan with more dents than a back country road. "You might want to give your fingers a break."
She slowly turned her head to face him, her face set in a do-not-fuck-with-me expression. "Are you telling me to relax?"
"I guess so," he said, keeping his voice neutral enough to really tick her off.
"That's about the most ineffective way of getting me to do that."
"I don't know." He shrugged, loving the incensed spark in her blue eyes. "You're thinking about something other than what will happen if we don't get to Essie in time."
"That's your genius plan?" Her eyes narrowed until they were little more than slits. "Piss me off enough that I stop thinking about everything that could go wrong?"
"Pretty much."
She turned away from him with a huff, but her hands lay flat and relaxed in her lap. "Your plan sucks."
Texas passed in a brown and blue flash as the miles flew by. Country music filled the car with stories of good times, bad love, and everything in between. By the time they were headed toward New Mexico, the tension had mellowed into a comfortable silence, punctuated by music that grew ever scratchier as the highway went on. Time to use the mood to his advantage and do a little digging for information.
