***
THE morning passed by in a blur of tense silence and road stripes as mile after mile of back roads rolled by. They drove in a meandering path west as the sun rose. Tyler’s cell phone rang off and on, but his terse, one-sided conversations made little sense. But she understood that they were meeting someone in Houston for an exchange. If Tyler intended to pass her off to someone else for safekeeping, she’d leave him in the dust.
Del didn’t start the argument because he was strung really tight. He looked in the rearview mirror constantly. The police scanner tucked under his dash sputtered off and on, and he jumped to attention every time it did. She realized that he expected someone to be following them from New Orleans.
They hit the outskirts of Houston just before lunch. The morning rush had dissipated, but they still slogged through some heavy traffic. He stopped behind a gas station/mini-mart a few miles off the highway and told her to use the bathroom if she needed to. She did, keeping her head low around their cameras. On her way out, she longingly eyed the water bottles, but she was almost flat broke. And she’d be damned if she’d ask Tyler for anything more. He was already extending himself to help her. She refused to be a leech. When they got to L.A., she’d access the emergency fund she’d stashed in her garden.
Emerging from the little service station as traffic lazed by in the muggy air, Del came to a complete stop when she saw Tyler talking to a beautiful Asian woman with sleek curls brushing the top of her ass and a dress that wasn’t much longer.
The woman spoke in animated hand gestures and a wink. Tyler grinned. An immediate stab of jealousy knifed her in the heart. Del took a deep breath. Tyler wasn’t her man. He’d kissed her. So what? Apparently, he had a mad crush on his boss, Alyssa. Ex-boss. Whatever. Del knew that Tyler’s heart wasn’t hers, and that was for the best. Once this was behind them, they’d figure out some custodial arrangement beneficial to all and go their mostly separate ways. Tyler had always had a healthy sex drive and liked a lot of variety. Obviously, nothing had changed.
He caught sight of her and motioned her over. Swallowing the anger she didn’t want to feel, she made her way to the duo.
“Del, this is May. Remember Tara, back in Lafayette, married to one of the Edgington brothers?”
“The redhead who isn’t pregnant, right?”
“Yet. Logan is taking a land-based assignment in a few months. He’ll fix that quickly, I’m sure. Anyway, he has a friend named Xander who sent May to help—”
“Seriously?” She grabbed his arm. “Excuse us,” she said, dragging Tyler away from the beauty with the kohl-rimmed eyes.
“The fewer people who know what’s going on the better,” she pointed out. “I don’t know Logan, much less his friend. And who is this woman? We’re trusting her because she’s a friend’s friend’s . . . girlfriend?”
He frowned, then wrapped an arm around her waist, the gesture meant to comfort. “I get it, but we don’t have more appealing options. I’d trust Logan with my life. Xander is solid. This woman hasn’t been told anything except to exchange cars with us. Carlson’s goons will have gotten the license plate number to my truck from the security cameras at the airport in New Orleans. They’ll be tracking a black truck with Louisiana plates and giving law enforcement my plate number. I guarantee you, if we’d stayed in the truck longer, we would have been pulled over on some bullshit charge and detained until Carlson could reach us. Since you bought a plane ticket, he knows your destination, angel. If you think he isn’t watching I-10 like a hawk, you’re deluding yourself. Now get in the car.”
Del closed her mouth. Of course Carlson would have law enforcement on his side. For all she knew, he’d put out an APB on her. Did that make Tyler guilty of aiding and abetting? Was some crooked, small-town cop waiting just around the next bend for Tyler’s big truck to appear so they could pull it over? She realized now that she’d only crossed the country unaccosted because Carlson hadn’t known her destination, and he hadn’t realized she’d be driving her neighbor’s car. The kind widow had gone for a month to visit her daughter who lived overseas and wouldn’t miss the little Honda for weeks.
But with her stunt this morning, Del realized that she’d killed their element of surprise and put them both in danger.
“Sorry. I didn’t . . . think it all the way through.”
“You’re not used to thinking like this. Don’t beat yourself up, angel. Get in the car, and let’s go.”
She nodded, then thanked May as she walked toward the sleek, gray Lexus sedan. She pulled the doors open, marveling at the new-car smell of the leather seats. Everything was pristine. The car probably cost more than she’d made last year. It was love at first sight.
Especially when she spotted the small cooler of water bottles sitting on the floorboard of the passenger’s side. She grabbed one gratefully as Tyler climbed in and pulled away. He watched May drive off with his truck in the rearview mirror.
“You’re giving her your truck?”
“The truck isn’t important.”
“You own it, right? It’s worth a lot of money and—”
“It’s not worth your life.”
Del’s heart flipped. He was so damn loyal. How could she not melt a little?
“May is taking it to a nearby garage, where it will stay out of sight. If everything goes well, I’ll collect the truck later.”
Del heard the note of finality in his voice. It was better if she stopped arguing. She didn’t cede control of anything easily, but Tyler had a plan he’d apparently thought out pretty well. She’d been running for days on caffeine and adrenaline.
As they left Houston, they grabbed a fast-food lunch and headed toward San Antonio. The gentle rolling hills and greenery turned peaceful. The traffic tapered off to damn near nothing. The purr of the engine and the motion of the car lulled her to sleep.
She woke hours later to the sun setting. Her neck was stiff, and the landscape had given way to pure, flat desert. “Where are we?”
“About halfway between San Antonio and El Paso.”
“Sorry I conked out on you.”