“Nice.” Kenna hit the button and watched it calculate the route they should take. “Zeyla, call ahead and tell Preston we might be coming in with some company.”
She didn’t want to let all the bad guys in this part of Colorado know where they were staying, but the security at Preston’sranch was top-notch. And it was where she wanted to be right now rather than out here, exposed in the car.
Even with all its safeguards and security measures, she still felt vulnerable in a vehicle on the street traveling at high speed.
Jax turned the next corner sharply and hit the brakes. Two kids on bikes at a crosswalk wobbled and almost fell but made it across to the other side. He hit the gas and set off.
The first SUV rounded the corner behind them, and the front passenger’s window eased down.
“Zeyla, do you see a gun out the window?” In Kenna’s condition, she couldn’t twist around far enough to look, and the angle at her side mirror was terrible.
“We might need to duck our heads in a second,” Zeyla said. “Unless you guys want me to lean out the window and shoot him before he shoots us first.”
Maizie shimmied down in her seat. Kenna couldn’t get that low without sitting on the floor, and even that would be incredibly difficult if she didn’t ease the chair all the way back.
Kenna said, “Isn’t the police station up ahead?”
“The sheriff, yeah.” Jax nodded, taking them around another corner.
All of them leaned to the side, swaying with the movement of the vehicle. A second later, a gunshot exploded from the car behind them. She heard it hit the back quarter panel of the car. A dull thud that meant the bullet embedded itself in the armor plating.
“If we make a lot of noise,” Jax said, “maybe they’ll come out and chase these guys down for us.”
Maizie said, “Assuming they’re not in on it.” She looked scared, because who wouldn’t be right now? But she also seemed to be keeping a lid on the abject terror that probably wanted to rise up in her and send her into a spiral.
Kenna wasn’t doing as good of a job keeping a lid on the fear. She wanted to reach for Jax but dared not distract him while he was driving. So instead, she kept her grip on the door handle and closed her eyes for a second. Long enough to pray silently that God would protect them through this and keep the baby safe. That justice would be found for Shawn Terrance, and that the company that had destroyed his life—and the lives of many others—wouldn’t be allowed to continue terrorizing people.
“Hang on.” Jax hit the gas, and they sped up.
Kenna spotted a semitruck approaching the intersection in front of them from the left and guessed what her husband was about to do. But she didn’t like the idea of it even one bit. She prayed again for their safety and hung on while Jax performed his maneuver.
He managed to get them past the front end of the semi, then he hit the brakes and pulled up the emergency brake, using the wheel to make a sharp turn to the left and get them on the far side of the semi as fast as possible. As the vehicle turned hard in that direction, the abrupt change shoved Kenna into the door.
The driver of the semi laid on the horn, but Jax put the emergency brake down and hit the gas.
From the back seat, Zeyla said, “Take another turn or two, and we can lose them.”
Jax scanned the road in front of them, and she saw when he did the slow-down signal for the school zone. He took a right turn behind the row of stores on Main Street, taking them into a sort of alley.
“What about the dumpster?” Kenna suggested.
“Too big.”
She assumed that meant the car was too big to be disguised by the huge trash can on the side of the building. They reached the gap between a chicken restaurant and a clothing store. Astreet led between the two into the neighborhood where the school was located.
Jax turned the corner again, just not as fast as before. Kenna took the opportunity to watch for the SUVs and saw one pass the end of the alley, while another pulled in. She wasn’t sure if they saw her Mercedes disappear around the corner.
“I think we still have one behind us.” She shifted in the seat, and the car speakers instructed them to continue straight for two hundred yards.
Jax complied, probably for lack of another idea of where to go in this open parking lot. The second the SUV behind them turned the corner, they would be able to see this vehicle. Their pursuers would alert the others, and in minutes, all three SUVs would be back behind them.
The voice from the speakers said, “Proceed into the car wash.”
Jax bumped the curb into the car wash entry and sped around the corner. Within seconds, they were in the darkened interior of the car wash, staring at a very surprised employee. The pimply faced teen wearing a company ball cap and a polo shirt stared at them, then promptly waved at the selections beside him.
Jax shook his head, whipped the wheel to the right, and bumped them out of the lane. He drove down the aisle through the car wash while the cleaner mops remained stationary. The side of the car brushed against one, and metal scraped metal.
Kenna winced. It didn’t sound good, but this vehicle could withstand a whole lot more.
