“I’m serious, Kevin.”
“Yeah, boss, I know. I will stay in the car, I promise. I’ll get behind the wheel in case we need to adios our asses fast.”
Jules seemed to believe him. “Thank you.”
“FYI,” Sam said, glancing over at Jules, “if we’re in take-down mode, I’m it.”
But Jules shook his head. “I don’t think we’re there yet,” he said.
“Mmm,” Sam said, “I beg to differ. We know there’re at least two hired guns, and probably more than that at hand, considering the roster of photos Lindsey sent.”
“I think we can both agree that the first thing we do when we arrive is to send you out on a quick sneak-and-peek,” Jules said.
“Absolutely,” Sam confirmed.
“I also feel pretty certain that Harper needs Mick alive.”
Sam glanced over at him.
“We didn’t hear a gunshot,” Jules pointed out. “Before the line went dead.”
“Lotta reasons why I wouldn’t fire a weapon inmyfront yard at this time of night,” Sam commented.
“Yeah,” Jules agreed, “but they also didn’t kill him when he went to pick up his car.”
“Maybe there were too many witnesses.”
“Okay, yeah, that’s possible, but... I’ve been thinking about that hospital bed that’s still in the middle of the library.”
Sam laughed a little. “Of course you have,” he said as they pulled through the gate.
He’d plugged the address of the Palm Desert house into his phone’s GPS and he headed down toward the main strip, banging a right to head south and east, pushing the little vehicle well over the speed limit on the bigger road.
“Okay,” Kevin said from the backseat, where he turned to look out the rear window. “Iwasright. Yikes, Emily’s gonna be ma-ad.”
“Yup,” Sam confirmed. “Better mad than dead.”
Emily couldn’t believe it—and then, absolutely, yes she could—as, instead of following the rental car, Rod turned left onto the main road, driving in the opposite direction.
“No!” she said, turning to look out the back window at the other car’s fading red taillights. “No! God damn it!”
This was why Rod had made her get into the backseat—he had childproof locks for both the doors and the windows back here, in case she was crazy enough to try to jump out.
It was possible that she was.
But even if she wasn’t, she was a gullible idiot. “Pull over! Right now!”
Rod looked at her in the rearview. “I’m not doing that.”
“This is kidnapping!”
He glanced at her again. “The good news is you’ll be alive to press charges, whereas?—”
“Stop this fucking car right now!” she shouted.
“No, I will fucking not!” he shot back. “Because you are the target, and your showing up at that house will get my good friends killed and Iwill not let you do that!” He’d shouted that last bit back at her at a frightening loud volume, and she could tell from his face in the rearview that he realized he’d scared her.
“Emily,” he said now, way more quietly, so much so that she nearly had to lean in to listen. “The most important thing you can do right here and right now—to help Mick—is to trust Jules and Sam. To give them the space to do what they’ve trained extensively to do. Come on, tell me honestly what you thinkyoucan do that they can’t—the former FBI agent and the former Navy SEAL?”
