I drew in a breath and released it slowly. "No."
"Then we'll question them."
"How? The minute they have any idea we're on to them, they'll fuck off."
His sudden grin was fierce. "I've been a soldier and a cop several times over in my long lifetime. Trust me when I say I know a little about dealing with tails."
"Then deal away."
I grabbed the other half of my sandwich and bolted it down. I had a feeling I was going to need the sustenance.
He flicked on the left-hand blinker and turned, keeping his speed even and giving our tail no reason to suspect we were aware of them. After several minutes of cruising, he turned right.
"Okay," he said, as I brushed the crumbs off my shirt and lap. "We're going to do another left up ahead. It's a through-road, but when I traveled down here yesterday they were doing road work and there was only one passing lane. They'll make us stop."
"What if there's no traffic and we're just waved through?"
"Then we think of something else." He gave me a smile, his bright eyes alight with anticipation. "I must warn you, I do like a good chase. It makes me hungry."
And the look in his eyes suggested he didn't mean food. "I've satisfied your hunger enough for one day," I said, voice dry. "You'll just have to find someone else, or wait until tomorrow."
He laughed again and swung left onto a street. Up ahead was the promised road work, and a little man in an orange vest was leaning casually against a stop sign. Lucian slowed, his gaze flicking to the rearview mirror. "Okay, we've struck the jackpot. There's another car stopping behind them. You ready?"
I licked my lips, clenched my fingers around the door handle, and nodded. The car came to a stop. He pulled on the handbrake, slid the gear into neutral, then said, "Go."
He was out his door before I even had mine open, but the men in the car were faster still. They were out and running in an instant, going separate ways, forcing us to do the same.
The guy on my side was thin and angular, with legs as long as a giraffe's but possessing none of their ungainly gait. He was over the front fence of the nearest house with an impossibly high leap and quickly disappeared from sight. I leapt, grabbed the top of the fence, and hauled my ass over it—far less elegant, but effective nonetheless.