My eyebrows shot up. "You want them to follow us there?"
Was this guy insane?
"I want them to go to Wagon Mound," Val replied. "That's south of here. We're headed west. That should give us a couple hours head start on them." He let out a little snort as he looked back down at what he was doing. "These guys may be council guards, but they ain't that smart."
I wasn't so sure of that. They seemed to find me easily enough.
"Ajag is worried that someone might have tagged him and that's how they are finding him so easily."
Val shook his head. "If someone tagged you, it's not these guys. They've been following your cell phone."
I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or freaked out.
"Speaking of which..." Rad walked over to his bike and searched around in his saddlebag. He came back a moment later with a small bag. He pulled out a piece of paper before handing me the small bag. "I picked up a bunch of disposable cell phones."
I took the bag and opened it up. My jaw dropped when I saw that it was full of cell phones, not just one. I glanced up to meet Rad's golden eyes. "Why so many?"
"There are five cell phones in there." He handed me the paper. "This is a list of phone numbers to the ones I have. Once you use one phone number, move on to the next one. Never call the same number twice. Never use the same cell phone twice."
"Only use them if there is an emergency," Val added. "And don't call any other number except the ones Rad gave you. We'll be with you the entire way so if you need to stop you don't need to use the cell phone. Just flash your lights at us."
Rad patted my shoulder before giving it a gentle squeeze. "We can pick up more cell phones if we need them."
I narrowed my eyes at the two men, looking between them. "I feel like you've done this before."
Rad chuckled. "Once or twice."
Again, I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or freaked out.
Chapter Thirteen
~ Radalf ~
I knew stopping wasn't a good idea, but I still couldn't prevent the sigh of relief that left my mouth when Ajag pulled off the road and stopped in front of a small roadside cafe.
We'd been driving for hours, passing through three states. We'd left New Mexico, crossed the bottom corner of Colorado, and now we were somewhere in Utah. We still had a couple of states to get through before we reached the ranch.
It was taking us a little longer to make up miles because we were avoiding the main highways. I knew eventually we'd have to hit the highway, but I wanted to stay on the side roads as much as possible.
Still, I was glad we were stopping for a bit and taking a break. My ass hurt, my hands hurt, and if I didn't have a full facemask helmet, I'm sure my face would hurt, too.
I parked my bike next to Ajag's jeep, turned off the engine, and then pulled my helmet off. After swinging my leg over the bike, I set the helmet on the seat and then shook out my legs and rubbed my sore butt.
When Ajag opened his door and climbed out, I walked over to him. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah." He gestured to the backseat with his hand. "Sy needs to use the restroom and he's hungry. I figured we could grab something he could eat in the car once he's used the bathroom."
"Why don't we just park around back and we can eat here?" Val asked as he walked up to us. "If there's any problem, we can just go out the back and get on the road again. Besides, I think we could all use a break."
I was all for that.
"You grab Sy and take him inside," I directed. "I'll park the Jeep around back."
"I'll move the bikes," Val said as he walked away.
Ajag went around the car and unbuckled Sy before lifting him out of the car. I waited until he grabbed his hand and walked inside the small cafe before hopping in the Jeep and driving it around to the back of the building.
As soon as I parked, I climbed out and hurried through the back entrance of the cafe. I stopped for a moment, scanning the interior, not just for Ajag and Sy, but to make sure no one else was in the place that I needed to be wary of.
