At the last second, Keira jerked the steering wheel to the left, slammed her foot onto the accelerator and shot past the other vehicle and out from behind the building. Once on the street, she aimed for the highway heading west.
Rogue swiveled in his seat to look behind them.
Keira glanced in the rearview mirror.
The big SUV popped out from behind the diner and raced after them.
Once out on the open highway, Keira increased their speed, taking the rental over one hundred miles per hour, putting distance between them and the bigger, heavier vehicle tailing them.
Heading west into the setting sun, they entered the winding roads of the Hill Country. As Keira navigated the twists and turns, they lost sight of the SUV behind them. Light faded as the sun dipped behind the hills.
On a straight stretch, headlights appeared behind them, moving fast and closing the distance.
Keira swung off the main highway onto a paved side road, handling the vehicle like a racecar driver, taking each turn with skill and confidence.
Rogue glanced back. “I don’t see any headlights. Think we lost them?”
“No.” She rounded another sharp bend in the road, slammed on the brakes and whipped the vehicle into reverse, backing onto a narrow dirt road shrouded by overhanging mesquite trees and lined by giant prickly pear cactuses. When they were far enough off the road with enough underbrush blocking their view of it, she parked, removed her foot from the brake, shut off the engine and killed the lights. She took her gun from her shoulder holster and held it at the ready.
Rogue dropped the magazine out of his Glock and slid a full one in.
A moment later, headlights shone through the gaps between the pads of a cactus clump. The vehicle passed quickly, disappearing around another bend in the curvy road.
Silence stretched between Rogue and Keira. They remained in place, barely moving or breathing.
The adrenaline rush that had kept Keira’s body humming, slowly drained.
A minute passed. Then two.
Keira started the engine.
Rogue touched her arm. “Do you think they’ll come back?”
She shook her head. “This road is very curvy and doesn’t dead-end. There’s no reason for them to turn around. They should follow it all the way until it exits onto another highway. We’re going the opposite direction.”
Pulling out of their hiding place, she drove out onto the paved road and headed back in the direction from which they’d come. A few miles later, she slowed and took a farm-to-market road also heading east.
“Do you have an idea where we’re heading?” Rogue asked.
She nodded, her fingers so tight on the steering wheel they turned white. “I know these roads well enough.”
“I take it you’ve been here before.”
She nodded. “As Onyx, we scout the areas in which we might work, look for places we can hide and store that knowledge for later use.”
“Where do you store that knowledge?” Rogue asked.
Keira’s lip curled as she released one hand from the steering wheel and tapped a finger to her temple. “Best data collection device I have.” Her lips curled in a smile. “And I have a password-protected spreadsheet I update whenever I’m in an area. Since I knew I was going toward Austin, I reviewed our options. I know of several safe locations in the Hill Country.”
Rogue glanced back at the road behind them, getting darker by the minute. “Maybe we shouldn’t go to one now.”
“Maybe,” she said, her brow dipping low.
So far, the other SUV hadn’t followed them.
He turned to her. “You said you ditched your burner phone.”
She nodded. “After we talked last night.”
