“That was close.” Kenna gasped. “Helicopters just seem like spinning death traps.”
Jax hurtled them around the corner in a spray of gravel that nearly sent them down an embankment. He corrected out of the skid. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’re doing better than I could.”
“Wanna take an advanced driving course to refresh your skills?”
“Not really.” She grinned. “Maybe it’s super sexist or something, but I prefer it when you drive.”
“Works for me.” He pressed down on the gas, and they sped up again.
The SUV nearly went over the same edge they almost had, but the driver obviously had similar skills to Jax.
“Come on, Preston.” She watched the rearview, giving her a limited scope of what was happening behind her. There were more gunmen in that SUV, but they didn’t fire. Maybe they knew her car had armor plating, so there was no point in firing at it and achieving nothing. Along with run-flat tires, the kind usually found in cars in war zones—the ones driven by the warlord. Theyweren’t perfectly safe in this car, but it was as close as they could get.
The chopper swung into view in the air above the road, rapidly approaching the back of the SUV. They sprayed the vehicle with bullets again, security guys on either side of the helicopter’s open doors—or windows. She couldn’t see from this distance.
The rear window shattered, and the car swerved.
“Keep going,” she urged Jax. “Don’t slow down.”
The SUV careened to the side and hit a tree.
One guy stumbled out, lifted his gun, and fired at the helicopter. It dipped in the air. Kenna gasped again.Please don’t let them shoot down the helicopter.She watched it regain altitude, expecting a fireball but not seeing one before her eyes started to burn, and she had to blink.
“We’re good,” Preston said through the phone app.
Kenna started to let go of the tension she’d been holding.
“We aren’t!” Maizie’s voice came through loudly. “We have a vehicle behind us now!”
Preston said, “On our way.”
The chopper banked and swung north, and she thanked God for paid security staff. And friends like Preston, who offered secret ranches. How these guys had found them, she didn’t know. Probably some kind of tracker, or computer virus.
Jax eased off the gas pedal, turning the next corner much slower. Thanks to a satellite internet connection, she saw on the dash screen that they weren’t far from the highway. Pretty soon, they’d be safe on the blacktop. Or as safe as they could be, she supposed.
For now.
The chopper flew over the treetops toward where the two women were in the RV, making their own way to the rendezvous.Kenna pressed her lips together and prayed for them in her mind, while Jax navigated to the highway.
About a quarter mile from the end of the dirt track, where it met the blacktop, her phone rang.
“It’s Ryson.” She put it on speaker. “You’ve got me and Jax.”
“Hey, guys.”
Jax said, “Everything okay?”
“I paid a visit to the Feathers family. Mom, name is Crystal, Ellayna, and her brother, Abe. They aren’t at home.”
Kenna frowned. “As in, she’s at work, Ellayna is at school, and Abe is at daycare?” It was early in the day still, but it was possible they got where they were going for the day soon after they woke.
“No signs of a break-in. So, there’s that.” Ryson didn’t sound happy with the lack of results on this search. “But I talked to the neighbor, and she said there was a van outside the house a few nights ago. She only saw that, though. Not that they got into it. But she hasn’t seen them since. Doesn’t know why they wouldn’t be home lately.”
“Maybe they went to stay with someone?” Crystal Feathers might have a boyfriend or someone she took the kids to see. Like her mother or the kids’ other grandma.
“The neighbor told me about Abe’s dad. I’m going to pay him a visit now. I just wanted to keep you updated.”
