Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,50

SUV continued down the street. Then Nate immediately reversed and pursued the vehicle.

The driver knew immediately and pushed on the gas.

“Shit,” Nate mumbled. The SUV was too far ahead for them to see the plates. It ran a stop sign, then turned right. Nate pursued.

“Oh shit!” Nate said again. “Tag team. Hold on.”

Lucy looked in the mirror. A second SUV, identical to the first, was right on their tail. It sped up and started to pass them on the left, crossing into oncoming traffic.

The windows were tinted and Lucy couldn’t see the driver.

Suddenly the SUV intentionally swerved and clipped Nate’s bumper. Nate anticipated it and compensated, controlling the spinout and avoiding a serious accident. By the time he turned and was facing in the right direction, both SUVs were gone.

Nate pounded his fist on the steering wheel and sped in the direction they’d disappeared, but as they looked up and down streets they didn’t see them.

Nate drove back to the sheriff’s station and skidded to a stop out front. He was heated, and Lucy didn’t think she’d be able to calm him down. Fortunately, they got back to the security office without too much trouble and the guard in charge of the cameras knew what he was doing. He quickly located Nate and Lucy leaving the building thirty minutes earlier. “Here you go,” he said, and let Nate take over.

It was a wide-angle lens that distorted the front parking lot, but they could see the entire area. They watched themselves leave the front of the building and turn left, to where Nate parked their car. They turned north out of the parking lot. From the south an SUV came into view and followed.

Nate rewound. They couldn’t see the SUV when it was parked—it was just out of the camera’s vision. But as soon as Nate turned onto the street, the SUV pursued, clearly waiting for them.

“Are there any cameras showing that side of the street?” Nate asked.

“No, sir, not ours.”

Across the street was an apartment complex set far back from the road, and to the south was a county maintenance facility on the other side of open space. It was most likely that the driver parked in front of the grass, which would minimize the chances they could get a clear visual of either the license plate or driver.

They thanked the guard for his time, then went across to the apartment office. It didn’t have any security cameras except on its own parking lot and, according to the manager, half the time those didn’t work. He hadn’t seen the SUV on the street, but he wasn’t looking.

A dead end.

“Why?” Lucy asked. “They only ran us off the road when we spotted them.”

“They want to know what we’re doing,” he said. “Track the investigation. Find out who we’re talking to. That was an experienced tail. Two cars, tinted windows, knew exactly how to maneuver. I should have been sharper.”

“We were in a residential neighborhood near a school,” she said. “They’ll show up again; we’ll be prepared.”

“Next time we come up here, we need a second car—either we split up or we get backup. I’m going to find out who those bastards are, and we’re going to take them down.”

Chapter Twelve

THREE YEARS AGO

Javier Olivera could fix anything, and in the three months Ricky had been living with him Ricky had learned more about cars, plumbing, and electricity than he’d known his entire life. Today, they were working on a truck. If Javier could get it running, he’d get a thousand pesos. Ricky thought that was a lot of money, but Javier laughed and said it was about fifty bucks in America.

“But here, it’ll go far.”

Javier spoke English, but never around other people. Ricky had learned that Mrs. Young was his cousin. They had the same grandfather. They were both born in Texas, but Javier came to Mexico to take care of his grandmother when he left the military—he’d been in the Army for six years out of high school—and never returned to the States.

“It’s a simple life. A good life. I don’t need a lot.”

Ricky thought there was a lot more than that to why Javier never returned to the States, but he never asked. He was just grateful that Javier hadn’t sent him back when he discovered Ricky in his truck.

Javier lived in a small village north of Ciudad Victoria. He often went to the city to work and sometimes took Ricky with him. Once, he told Ricky, “When you want