Hanging up, Cree headed inside to check on Kennedy. “Hey, you packed?” he asked while walking back into the cabin.
Glancing around, she grabbed her phone and the charger, tossing it in the bag.
“All packed.” Tossing the backpack to Cree, she watched him head outside to pack the saddle bag. She took one more look around. In the bathroom, she found her ruined work clothes on the floor. Scooping them up, she carried them outside and tossed them in the trashcan. She wouldn’t need them where she was going.
Chapter Seven
With the passport in hand, Cree and Kennedy had thanked Roughstock and headed out. Six hours later, they hit Sioux Falls and stopped for gas. Kennedy ran inside to take a piss and grab any last-minute snacks she wanted while he filled the tank. His goal was to make Rochester before the weather hit. That was another four hours, if she could make it that long.
Leaning against the bike, he shoved the gas nozzle into the tank and took out his phone. He wanted to check in with Alice back in Hill City. Something in his gut told him to make the call. After his time up at the Stronghold Table, he wasn’t ignoring that feeling.
“Ann’s” came the familiar feminine voice.
“Alice, it’s Cree.”
“Cree, thank God you called.
The tone of her voice had his gut knotting up. “What’s happened?”
“Not an hour after you left, two men came in looking for Kennedy. When they left, we caught them digging in the trash cans. They found her bloody clothes.”
“Fuck.” Shoving off the bike, he looked around the parking lot.
“I called the sheriff, and he detained them for a good while before he escorted them out of town.”
Clicking off the gas pump, he closed the cap as he listened. It was not what he wanted to hear. Something had changed for them. “Thanks, Alice, and thanks for everything.”
“I hope you two come back to see us.”
“Count on it.” Cree hung up and put his phone away. Looking up, he saw Kennedy walking out the store staring at her phone.
“Hey, when did you turn your phone back on?” he asked, curious about it.
Kennedy was caught off-guard at the question. “I charged it at the cabin for about ten minutes. It came back on about the time you asked if I was ready. This is the first time I’ve looked at it since tossing it in the backpack.” She didn’t know why she felt the need to explain herself. It was the way he looked at her, it made her nervous.
“Can your boss track your phone?”
Kennedy stopped eating the candy bar and almost choked on it. Her boss had purchased the phone. “It was part of my signing contract.” She quickly opened the Find My iPhone app and saw her boss’s location and the locations of two other phones.
Cree saw the second she realized it wasn’t her credit card being tracked but the phone. It makes sense. They didn’t track her down in Hill City until today because her phone had been dead.
He knew if the men hunting her left an hour, maybe an hour and a half, after them, they would be closing in. A car didn’t have to make as many gas stops, which gave their pursuers a leg up.
Kennedy handed him the phone, looking as if she might throw up. Cree cursed as he looked at the screen. They had been tracking them since the cabin. Turning off the phone, he pulled the SIM card out and tossed it and the phone in two different trash cans. Without knowing the exact whereabouts of the two men, Cree needed a new plan, a new direction off the straight path to Montreal.
He looked at Kennedy, taking in her complexion and her hair in two braids, and he had an idea. It was a crazy plan, but it just might be the one they needed. Taking his phone back out, he made another call. His eyes stayed on Kennedy as the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey, cousin, it’s Cree. I need a place to lay low.”
“Just you?” his cousin asked him.
“Me and my woman.”
“We have an empty house you can use. When should I expect you?”
“We’re in Sioux Falls heading that way. Probably late tonight. If that changes, I’ll call.”
