She kept her eyes firmly on the road. “Thanks. We’re good. Promise.”
“Good.” Luke turned toward her. “So, whatisthe deal with the two of you anyway?”
Before she could come up with a witty response, the Camry two cars ahead of them slammed on its brakes. What was that idiot doing? Instead of changing lanes or turning, the car came to a complete stop.
The domino effect was unavoidable. The car directly in front of Tessa crashed into the back of the vehicle that had inexplicably decided to turn a busy road into a parking lot. Tessa spun the wheel and squeezed onto the shoulder a half second before the truckbehind her barreled past where she’d been and straight into the car that had been in front of her. It rolled up onto the trunk, shattered the back glass, and pushed both cars forward another twenty feet before coming to a stop in the middle of two lanes of traffic.
The air filled with the cacophony of screeching brakes and crumpled metal as the vehicles in the lanes behind the accident swerved and spun in an attempt to avoid the heap of twisted automobiles now blocking the road.
There was nothing she could do but wait it out. When silence finally descended, Tessa had to pry her hands from the steering wheel. “You okay?” Tessa turned to Luke, whose only readable emotion was fury, before turning around to look behind her. “Where’s Faith?”
Luke’s phone rang, and he answered with the speaker on. “We’re okay. Where are you?”
Faith’s voice came through. “Fifty yards back. Mass of cars between us. I’m fine. I’ll call it in. I love you. Stay sharp.”
The first faint whine of a siren filtered through the morning air. Followed by another. Tessa scanned the chaos. “I want to check on the people in the cars, but—”
“But you think this might have been directed at you?” Luke finished her thought.
“Yeah. Does that make me sound conceited?”
“Nope. Makes you sound smart.”
She looked at each face that moved around the vehicles, trying to memorize them. “Whoever is behind the threats, they wouldn’t be the ones in the car.”
“No, but they’d be nearby.”
“Shooting me would be rather obvious, don’t you think?”
“I do. Doesn’t mean I think you should hop out and make yourself a target.”
“Agreed. But I’ll have to get out eventually.”
Luke grunted. “Where’s your vest?”
“In the back.”
Luke unbuckled and clambered over the seats. “You are freakishly organized, Special Agent Reed.”
She knew he was trying to lighten the mood, and she appreciated the attempt. But...
“Hey.” Luke passed Tessa’s vest to her. “I get it. I know what it’s like to have a target on your back.”
“I know you do.”
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“Sure.”
He slid across the back seats toward the door. “Focus on what you can control.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
“You.”
Tessa adjusted her seat back so she could maneuver. “And how does that help me?”
“You do what you know to do. Trust us to do what we know to do.”
