have a tail. Maybe you find that more entertaining than I do.”
“A laugh a minute.” But she looked in the side mirror as she said it. Then turned to glare at him again. “Mind you, I’ve had a tail for the past week, so I’m probably used to it by now. I’m guessing big, bad Rambo types eat tails for breakfast or some such deeply boring—I mean, deeply manly—thing.”
That sarcastic tone of hers could strip paint off a boat, and normally, Isaac liked it. Just then it dug at him. But he refused to give her the satisfaction of snapping at her—and besides, in fairness, he still had her restrained at the wrists and ankles.
Isaac took them on a long, lazy drive instead. It probably would have been scenic, had the sun been up. And romantic, even, had he been with a woman who didn’t pretend to hate him. If he hadn’t carried her out of an inn earlier, bound and gagged. And if whoever was chasing her wasn’t staying tight on them the whole time.
He imagined suggesting that this was romantic to Caradine, and imagining her response to that kept him fully entertained while he drove around in circles that never dislodged the car behind them. He looped around, and when he got to Route 1 for the second time, he called in again.
This time, he spoke to Oz, who could do almost anything from behind his computer, and usually did. At dizzying speed.
“I have some company out here,” he told Oz, who slept about as little as he did. “Find me a defensible safe house somewhere with minimal access so I can control whatever comes.”
“On it,” Oz replied.
And within a few minutes the navigation system of the SUV updated and led them north, deeper inland, toward one of the houses in their wide network. Some Isaac owned outright or had permission to use. Others were . . . available in one way or another.
Especially if they were put back the way they were found when Alaska Force was finished with them.
Beside him, Caradine had gone silent, which couldn’t possibly be a good thing when one of her foremost weapons was her mouth. But silent or not, she was safe, so Isaac couldn’t worry about it.
Their tail kept dropping out of sight but always returned—usually right about when Isaac was tempted to imagine that he’d either lost them or they’d disappeared because they were locals being idiots, not actual pursuers.
Finally, Isaac reached a dirt road that was the turnoff to the safe house Oz had found for them. As Isaac pulled off, he checked his mobile and saw more detailed instructions on the screen.
He followed them to the letter, bumping down a small hill through thick woods. At the bottom of the hill, the woods opened up onto water. Some or other “long pond,” according to the navigation system, which looked more to him like a large lake.
The dirt road turned into a narrow bridge that led to a house, set out in the water on a tiny island. The house took up most of the space on the island, save for some trees, rocks, and a yard. But it was exactly what he’d requested. There was only one road in or out and otherwise, dark water all around. Isaac sped up as he went over the bridge, driving them quickly to the house. He pulled the SUV around to the side, then got out.
The summer night was a wild, deep dark around him, broken up by the sound of water lapping against the shore. And as he stood there, the cry of a loon.
He found the key where Oz said it would be. He unlocked the side door and eased his way inside to sweep the house. He found nothing but a shut-up summer cottage, furniture draped in sheets and filled with the musty smell of forlorn, forgotten places. As expected. When he’d satisfied himself that no surprises lurked inside, he texted Oz that he was in. Then he returned to the SUV to find Caradine standing there, having gotten her ankles but not her hands untied.
“Inside,” he ordered her. “Do not turn on any lights.”
She gave him a glare he didn’t need any light to see, but she did as he’d asked, taking her bag with her in the hands still bound before her. Isaac grabbed his own cache of weapons from the back of the SUV, then followed her in.
Inside, he locked the side door behind