The haze of dusk had transitioned into night with stars blinking to life, giving just enough light for Rogue to find his way back to where he’d hidden the truck.
Shouts sounded behind them, and the cracks of rifle fire continued.
As they neared the truck hidden in the underbrush, Keira called out, “I’ll drive. You two cover.” She yanked open the driver’s door, slid behind the wheel and started the engine.
Jade jumped into the back seat, lowered the window and aimed her gun back toward the men crashing through the woods.
Rogue took shotgun in the passenger seat, lowered the window and half-hung out with his rifle, firing toward the shouts.
Keira shifted into gear and punched the accelerator, sending the truck bumping out onto the country road without turning on her headlights or pumping the brakes.
The men following on foot emerged onto the road, shadowy figures firing at them as Keira drove west, away from Bandera.
Balancing precariously out the window, Rogue returned fire. He ducked back in as they approached a curve in the road ahead.
Three sets of headlights flashed on the road behind.
Keira floored the accelerator, skidded around the curve and increased their speed when the road straightened.
Rogue sank back into his seat and rested his rifle across his knees. He brought up the map on his cell phone and provided the navigation to get them out of the area.
As soon as they’d put enough distance and farm roads between them and Kaufman’s mercenaries, Rogue asked, “Are we going back to where we were last night?”
Keira shook her head. “I know of another place we can go for tonight.”
Rogue turned to Jade in the back seat. “Do you still have your cell phone on you?”
Jade nodded and pulled it out of her pocket.
Keira rolled down the windows. “Toss it.”
“I can’t,” Jade said, her brow furrowing.
“You have to,” Keira insisted. “Viktor probably found you by tracking your cell phone.”
“But it’s all I have of my sister,” she said.
“How so?” Rogue asked.
“They’re holding her hostage. Every two weeks, they send me proof of life. She’s only okay as long as I do what they tell me.” Jade brought up a photograph on the screen and passed the phone forward.
Rogue studied the photo of a girl with jet black hair down to her shoulders, petite and pretty like Jade. She was thin with dark circles under her eyes. A date and time stamp had been added to the bottom of the picture, indicating it had been taken two weeks ago.
“I don’t think they’re feeding her enough,” Jade said. “She looks tired and hungry.”
Keira met Jade’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Jade, you have to let it go, or we won’t live through the night to start our search for Lily. Toss the phone.”
Jade stared down at the photo of the teenage girl. “She’s all I have left. I can’t lose her.”
“And you won’t,” Keira said. “But lose the damned phone, or we won’t have the opportunity to save Lily.”
Jade stared down at her sister’s image once more and then tossed the phone out the window.
Keira drove for the next hour, zigzagging on county roads and going deeper into the Hill Country.
When Rogue was beginning to think she’d lost her way, she turned onto a dirt road and drove between overhanging live oak trees, up a steep hill and down into a valley, where a cabin sat tucked into a stand of trees. It was dark, alone and isolated enough that, maybe, Kaufman’s tactical team wouldn’t find them there.
Keira parked behind the cabin and turned off the engine.
