A crack of gunfire rang out behind them. Kendra didn’t bother to look at the rearview mirror as the back window was still mostly covered in snow. Instead, she focused on keeping the SUV from sliding too much as she navigated the vehicle toward the road.
Another crack of gunfire rang out. Thankfully, she didn’t hear any metallic pings indicating they’d been hit. The road was just a few yards ahead. Once they reached the road, she pulled on the steering wheel, making a hard left, then punched the gas again to put as much distance between them and the shooter behind them as possible.
A long silence hung between them. Kendra cranked the heat, hoping the warmth would melt the snow from the rest of the windows.
“How did you know someone was outside the cabin?” Dom asked, breaking the silence.
“Smoky woke me.” Using the rearview mirror, she eyed her K9 stretched out in the back seat. Smoky was taking advantage of the extra space. Kendra would rather have the dog safely tucked into the crate area, but that would have to wait until later. No way was she stopping anytime soon. “Smoky growled at something she heard outside. I thought at first it was an animal, but then I saw a man moving between the trees. That’s when I came to find you.”
“Smoky is amazing, but I don’t understand how we were found.” Dominic rubbed the back of his neck. “We didn’t rent the cabin through legal channels. We used our phones and the internet, but rerouting the server should have worked.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” She hit both defrost buttons to help melt the remaining snow clinging to the front and rear windows. “I’m just glad Smoky alerted me in time so we could get away.”
“Yeah.” Dom frowned. “Kendra, this isn’t good. If the guys tracking us have some sort of computer guru on their payroll, then we’ll have to go completely off-grid. And that means not using any phones or computer access.”
She glanced at him, then eyed the rearview mirror. Seeing nothing on the road behind them, she tried to relax. “If that’s our only option, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“I don’t want to give up on searching for the truth.” Dom’s expression was grim. “How are we going to figure out who’s after us if we call off the investigation?”
She understood his concern. “We can leave the investigating to my family. My sister-in-law Raine and my brother-in-law Griff can do the legwork.”
“Then they’ll be in danger.” Dom shook his head. “I don’t like it. Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job of rerouting the server.”
Since she had no idea exactly how he’d accomplished that feat, despite watching him in action, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want her family in danger, either, especially since there were several pregnant women on the ranch. But at the same time, she hated to admit they might be in over their heads. “As cops or, in Raine’s case, a former cop, they understand and accept the risk of danger.”
“I still don’t like it,” he repeated. “I have another way I can try to hide our electronic trail. It’s more complicated than the method I used before. But first, we need a place with internet access.”
She sighed and let it go. For now. It was only a matter of time before she was forced to call on her siblings for help. The way she’d promised her oldest brother, Chase. Yet that didn’t mean she was going to wake them up at this hour. She grimaced and tapped the clock on the dashboard. “It’s only quarter past four in the morning. Too early for any of the breakfast cafés or coffee shops to be open.”
“Maybe we should head back to Greybull.” Dom shifted in his seat to grab the computer. “I can try to find another rental property.”
“Hold off on that for now.” She glanced at the rearview mirror to make sure there were still no cars behind them. “Did you learn anything new before you fell asleep?”
“I was able to find the last three charter flights that landed in the hangar where Stuart Ramsey worked, all a week before he left his job in Jackson.” Dominic rubbed his neck again. “I can’t believe I fell asleep. I only intended to rest my eyes as the screen kept getting blurry. I’m still getting used to my new contact lenses. I thought they were the problem. Turns out, I was exhausted. Sleeping bent over like that has given me a serious crick in my neck.”
“New contact lenses?” she echoed.
“Yeah, glasses are a pain. They fog up in the cold.” He waved a hand. “Never mind. The important part is that I was able to track down the charter flights.”
She nodded. “You’re thinking one of those charter flights is the guy who paid Stuart to sabotage your dad’s plane?”
“I figured it couldn’t hurt to look into them as potential suspects.” He sighed. “I didn’t get a chance to dig into their backgrounds, though.”
“It’s a place to start.” She was impressed he’d thought of it. Taking several turns, Kendra wound her way through town, backtracking often enough to hopefully avoid being seen by the gunman. As they wasted time, she debated staying in Cody or heading to Greybull. In her humble opinion, there were more motel and rental options available to them in Cody.
And the city was slightly closer to the ranch than Greybull.
The minutes ticked by with excruciating slowness. A glance at the fuel gauge had her turning at the next intersection.
“We should get some gas, then find a breakfast café.” She drove down the brightly lit and Christmasy-decorated main thoroughfare. “Maybe one of them will be open at five or five thirty.”
“Okay with me.” Dom shifted the computer so he could dig in the front pocket of his jeans. “I have cash for gas.”
“I do too. But we’ll need some for breakfast too.” She pulled into the next gas station, then parked alongside the building when she realized it wasn’t open yet either. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to kill the lights but left the engine running. It was too cold to keep the car shut down for long. “Okay, tell me about those charter flights that landed in the hangar where Stuart Ramsey worked.”
“They’re all men ranging in age from mid-thirties to early sixties.” He opened the laptop and turned the screen so she could see. “In age order, their names are Timothy Platt age thirty-five, Lamar Mortenson age forty-nine, and Ian Bartoli age sixty-two.”
“None of those names sounds at all familiar.” Not that Kendra had necessarily expected to recognize the guy who’d hired Stuart Ramsey to kill Dom’s father and her parents. “I would lean toward one of the older guys.”
